In Memory Of ...

[Lonewolf]

Richard Belzer
August 4, 1944 – February 19, 2023

Richard Jay Belzer (August 4, 1944 – February 19, 2023) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, and author. He is best known for his role as BPD Detective, NYPD Detective/Sergeant, and DA Investigator John Munch, whom he has portrayed as a regular cast member on the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as in guest appearances on several other series. He portrayed the character for 23 years, from 1993 until retiring in 2016.

After a period of declining health, Belzer died at his home in France on February 19, 2023, at the age of 78.

source: wikipedia

[ghost2509]

Leiji Matsumoto, creator of 'Space Battleship Yamato,' dies

AP
yahoo.com
MARI YAMAGUCHI
February 19, 2023

Leiji Matsumoto, the anime creator known for ”Space Battleship Yamato” and other classics using a fantastical style and antiwar themes, has died at age 85.

His manga works “Galaxy Express 999” and “Space Pirate Captain Herlock” were adapted into television anime series in the 1970s and became huge hits in and outside Japan.

Matsumoto, whose real name was Akira Matsumoto, died of acute heart failure in a Tokyo hospital on Feb. 13, his office, Studio Leijisha, said Monday.

Born in the southwestern city of Kurume, Matsumoto started drawing at age 6, and rose to fame with “Otoko Oidon,” a manga series telling the story of a poor man from southern Japan who lives in a boarding house in Tokyo and struggles to balance work and studying.

Many of his manga were in the "battlefield comics" genre with more than 150 stories depicting tragedy of war.

His antiwar theme comes from his father, an elite army pilot who returned from Southeast Asia and taught his son that war should never be fought.

In his interview with Japan’s NHK television in 2018, Matsumoto recalled seeing his father apologize to the mothers of his subordinates for not being able to bring them back alive. His father also told Matsumoto that one had to be a demon to not think an enemy has a family.

“War destroys your future,” Matsumoto said in the interview, noting that many talented youths who might have contributed to “the civilization of mankind” were killed during war.

“I was told by my father that any life is born in order to live, not to die,” Matsumoto said. “I think we should not be wasting time fighting on the Earth.”

Matsumoto received several cultural and arts awards from the Japanese government, and the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France.

Matsumoto’s daughter Makiko Matsumoto, who heads the studio, said in a statement released on Twitter: “Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto set out on a journey to the sea of stars. I think he lived a happy life, thinking about continuing to draw stories as a manga artist.”

Dickie Davis

Legendary World of Sport presenter Dickie Davies has passed away at the age of 94, former colleague Jim Rosenthal has confirmed.

Davies was best known for his time presenting the hit ITV sports show for 17 years up until it came to an end in 1985.

As well as covering boxing, darts and snooker, the broadcast icon also covered the 1988 Seoul Olympics with ITV before leaving to join Eurosport.

After suffering a stroke in 1995, Davies recovered and went on to front his own show, Dickie Davies' Sporting Heroes.

Fellow ex-World of Sport presenter Rosenthal shared the sad news of Davies' passing on Twitter, writing on Sunday night: 'With huge sadness we announce Dickie Davies passed away this morning. So proud of his 20 years of World of Sport, 3 Olympic Games and a brilliant career on the telly. He is survived by a loving wife, two adoring sons, four grandkids and two beloved dogs.

Full article here

http://dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-11769775/Former-World-Sport-presenter-Dickie-Davies-dies-age-94.html

'

[pelham456]

dickie davies!

You Tube

You Tube

[LiCeK]

On the first anniversary of the outbreak of war, let us honor all those who were brutally murdered, raped, tortured or sacrificed their lives fighting for the freedom of their country - free Ukraine

For the murdered children, women, mothers, sisters, grandmothers, grandparents, brothers, fathers, sons..... Those known and those unknown..... for the guilty and the innocent.... For all






Slava Ukraini !!

[SynchroDub]

Ciao Maurizio.......

Legendary Italian Journalist, Maurizio Costanzo Dies at Age 84



An icon of journalism and television, Maurizio Costanzo, died in Rome on Friday at age 84. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tweeted that “Costanzo was able to narrate difficult years with courage and professionalism.” She goes on to thank him for bringing culture, charm and kindness into the homes of Italians.

Maurizio Costanzo was born in Rome in 1938 and started his journalism career at the age of 18. His first job was with the Roman newspaper Paese Sera, and in 1979 he became the founding editor of the briefly lived tabloid, L'Occhio.

Over the course of his career, he worked as a television and radio host, most notably for the Bontà Loro show on Italy’s national public broadcasting company, RAI. Here are some highlights of his legendary career as a journalist and television personality:

Costanzo has conducted over 43 thousand interviews during this television career. He has previously stated he’s encountered every shade of humanity: geniuses, scoundrels, comedians, politicians, heroes and a “disproportionate number of imbeciles”.

The biggest regret of his career is not having interviewed a Pope. “I was succeeding with Wojtyla, then he fell ill. It would have been the crowning glory of his career,” Costanzo said.

He is known for standing up against the mafia. In 1993, he survived a car bombing which made him double down his efforts against the mafia.

After his work with Bonatà Loro, he moved to Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset network where he hosted The Maurizio Costanzo Show. This would become Italy’s longest running talk show.

Costanzo also was the screenwriter for many films, author of books, and co-writer on famous songs. The song “Se Telefonando” became a hit for singer Mina in 1966.

He wrote and directed one film, Melodrammore in 1977.

Maurizio’s funeral will be held at the Chiesa degli Artisti in Piazza del Popolo on Monday, February 27th.

[Pacy]

Ricou Browning
February 16, 1930 - February 27, 2023

Ricou Browning, the Gill-Man in ‘Creature From the Black Lagoon,’ Dies at 93
He spent a lot of time in the water during his career, also working on 'Flipper,' 'Sea Hunt,' 'Thunderball' and 'Caddyshack.'

Ricou Browning, who took to the water as the menacing Gill-Man in Creature From the Black Lagoon and as the creative force behind the original Flipper movie and TV show, has died. He was 93.

Browning died Monday of natural causes at his home in Southwest Ranches, Florida, his daughter Kim Browning told The Hollywood Reporter. “He had a fabulous career in the film industry, providing wonderful entertainment for past and future generations,” she said.

The Florida native also served as a stuntman on Richard Fleischer’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), doubled for Jerry Lewis in Don’t Give Up the Ship (1959) and “played all the bad guys in [TV’s] Sea Hunt,” he said in a 2013 interview.

Plus, Browning directed the harpoon-filled fight in Thunderball (1965), another underwater scene in Never Say Never Again (1983) and the hilarious Jaws-inspired candy bar-in-the-pool sequence in Caddyshack (1980).

Browning, who said he could routinely hold his breath for four minutes at a time, played the Gill-Man in the underwater scenes in Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), the Universal Pictures 3D classic that starred Julie Adams as the girlfriend of a researcher (Richard Carlson) on a scientific expedition to the Amazon.

Browning noted that his costume “was cumbersome at first. When I first put it on, it seemed awkward and clumsy,” he said. “But once I got into the movie, I forgot I had it on. I became the creature.”

With Gill-Man joining the Universal monster Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man and The Mummy, Browning returned for the sequels Revenge of the Creature (1955), also in 3D, and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

Browning said he came up the idea for Flipper after he and Newt Perry, who had worked as Johnny Weissmuller’s stand-in on Tarzan films, captured fresh-water dolphins in the Amazon during a trip to South America.

“We brought them back to [a Florida state park in] Silver Springs,” Browning recalled. “I became their parent, apparently, and took care of them. One day, when I came home, the kids were watching Lassie on TV, and it just dawned on me: ‘Why not do a film about a boy and a dolphin?'”

Browning and his brother-in-law Jack Cowden wrote the story for what would become MGM’s Flipper (1963), starring Chuck Connors and, as his son, Luke Halpin, who both take care of an injured dolphin (real name: Mitzi). Halpin then returned for Flipper’s New Adventure (1964) and for the NBC adaptation that ran for three seasons, from 1964-67.

Browning also directed 37 episodes of the Florida Keys-set Flipper and was in charge of underwater operations on the show.

Browning was born on Feb. 16, 1930, in Fort Pierce, Florida. He attended Florida State University and worked for Perry as a performer in water shows at Weeki Wachee Springs, a Florida tourist attraction, and in underwater newsreels. He also was on the U.S. Air Force swim team.

Browning was charged with showing the area of Wakulla Springs, Florida, to location scouts from Universal who were seeking filming locations for Creature From the Black Lagoon. He also did some swim moves for them, and that led to his Gill-Man gig. (Ben Chapman played the beast on land in the first movie.)

“The lips of the suit sat about a half-inch from my lips, and I put the air hose in my mouth to breathe,” he said in a 2019 interview. “I would hold my breath and go do the scene, and I’d have other safety people with other air hoses to give me air if I needed it. We had a signal. If I went totally limp, it meant I needed it. It worked out well, and we didn’t have any problems.”

Browning said he filmed his scenes in wintertime, and it was pretty cold. “The crew felt sorry for me, so somebody said, ‘How would you like a shot of brandy?’ I said, ‘Sure,'” he recalled. “Another part of the crew [also] gave me a shot of brandy. Pretty soon they were dealing with a drunk creature.”

While filming Revenge of the Creature in St. Augustine, Florida, he said a turtle bit off one foot of his costume and swam away with it. “It was the last pair of feet that I had on the shoot, so the prop men and the other stunt divers had to chase that turtle down and get the thing out of his mouth,” he said.

After the Creature films, Browning appeared on a 1958 episode of the Lloyd Bridges-starring Sea Hunt, and producer Ivan Tors hired him to supervise the underwater photography on that syndicated adventure series as well as on CBS’ The Aquanauts.

(Tors also supplied Thunderball with divers and diving equipment and produced the Flipper films and TV show. In the ’60s, he named Browning president of his North Miami-based Ivan Tors Studio.)

Browning directed the features Salty (1973) — about a sea lion — and Mr. No Legs (1978); served as a technical adviser on Mike Nichols’ Day of the Dolphin (1973); and helmed episodes of the Dennis Weaver-starring CBS series Gentle Ben, about a bear.

In 1968, he was elected to lead the new Florida Motion Picture and Television Producers Association, and Film Florida awarded him its first Florida Legends Award in 2006.

Survivors include his four children, Ricou Browning Jr. (a marine coordinator, actor and stuntman like his dad), Renee, Kelly and Kim; 10 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. His wife, Fran, died in March 2020.

What was it like growing up in the Browning household? “Every time he got an idea for a movie, he would bring the animals home,” Renee said. “We had a sea lion that sat at the dinner table. … We had otters, a baby black bear and a female peacock that would sit on our shoulder and drink iced tea out of our glass. All the kids in the neighborhood wanted to come over our house, because it was like a zoo.”

Source: hollywoodreporter.com

[ghost2509]

Tom Sizemore, star of 'Saving Private Ryan,' 'Heat,' dies at 61 after brain aneurysm
The talented yet troubled actor, whose credits also included "Natural Born Killers" and "Black Hawk Down," had been hospitalized in a coma for two weeks.


Yahoo Entertainment
Raechal Shewfelt
March 3, 2023

Tom Sizemore, who often played tough guy roles in a career dating back to the '80s and who, in real life, struggled with addiction and a string of legal issues, died Friday, almost two weeks after suffering a brain aneurysm, as the result of a stroke. He had been hospitalized in critical condition and remained in a coma and in intensive care since then. He was 61.

His manager, Charles Lago, told Yahoo Entertainment that Sizemore "passed away peacefully in his sleep at St Joseph’s Hospital Burbank. His brother Paul and twin boys Jayden and Jagger were at his side."

"I am deeply saddened by the loss of my big brother Tom," Paul Sizemore said in a statement to Yahoo Entertainment. "He was larger than life. He has influenced my life more than anyone I know. He was talented, loving, giving and could keep you entertained endlessly with his wit and storytelling ability. I am devastated he is gone and will miss him always."

Sizemore's ex-wife, actress Maevee Quinlin, offered "my heartfelt condolences to the entire Sizemore family. ... Most especially, my thoughts and prayers go out to Tom’s two sons, Jayden and Jagger. May God hold you both in the palm of his hand, give you strength and bless you all the days of your lives."

The news comes four days after Lago told Yahoo that Sizemore's medical team had informed the family "there is no further hope and have recommended end of life decision."

"We are asking for privacy for his family during this difficult time and they wish to thank everyone for the hundreds of messages of support, and prayers that have been received," Lago said. "This has been a difficult time for them."

There will be a private cremation service for the family with a larger celebration of life event planned in a few weeks.

Sizemore is best known for action movies and crime dramas, including Saving Private Ryan, where he played Sgt. Horvath, as well as Black Hawk Down, Passenger 57, Heat, True Romance, Natural Born Killers, Devil in a Blue Dress, The Relic and Strange Days. On TV, he played a recurring role on the third season of China Beach that aired in 1989 and 1990; co-starred in the 2017 Twin Peaks revival; and headlined the 1999 TV movie Witness Protection, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination.

The Detroit native said he fell in love with movies as a kid when his mother, a movie buff, began taking him and his siblings to the triple feature the local theater showed on Saturdays. His mind was blown when he first saw The Wizard of Oz on a TV channel for classic movies.

"When we saw a movie called Beckett, with Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton, I guess I was probably 11 or 12, and … I didn't understand the movie so much as I got that the relationship between Burton and O’Toole was special, and I got into the drama of that," he told Decider in May 2022. "And then a few years later, when I was 14, I saw Taxi Driver. And that was the first time I remember wanting to know who the actor was, who the person was playing this part. I was so taken with the Travis Bickle character (played by Robert De Niro) that I wanted to know, 'Who's the guy doing this?' And I got obsessed with it. I saw that movie every week for, like, two months when it was playing in the theater. I saw it 11 weeks in a row. That's when I first started thinking, 'Whatever that is they're doing up there, I want to be part of it. I want to do that.' And I started to figure out how to become an actor, and I started doing some investigating, and my mother helped me."

Sizemore began his own career with small roles in Born on the Fourth of July and Point Break and spent the '90s mostly in action movies, although he did something different with the romance Heart and Souls in 1993, in which he played one of Robert Downey Jr.'s guardian angels.

His on-screen work was dwarfed, however, by the drama in his personal life, which included drugs and arrests, which he wrote about in his 2013 memoir, By Some Miracle I Made It Out of There. He said that, for a time, alcohol helped him cope with his success, but it soon wasn't enough.

"People could tell if you were drunk, so then I was like, 'Hey, look, let me find a drug where I feel comfortable in my own skin,'" he told the AP while promoting it. "But I did. I found a drug and it was called cocaine. I did it for a while. Then I found an even better drug and it was called heroin."

He later found crystal meth.

After working with De Niro, his childhood idol, on Heat, De Niro confronted Sizemore about his drug use and took him to rehab himself. His sobriety was only temporary, though, and he faced more than one arrest over the years on charges of drug possession and more legal woes for violating his probation.

Sizemore was also accused of domestic abuse, including against Quinlin, whom he was married to from 1996 to 1999. In 2003, he was convicted of physically abusing his former girlfriend Heidi Fleiss.

In 2005, he found himself the subject of a sex tape, which he called "the maraschino cherry on the banana split of bad luck I've been having."

Sizemore's career status suffered, and he starred in a VH1 reality show, Shooting Sizemore, about his attempted comeback in 2006. That was followed by turns a few years later in the network's Celebrity Rehab and Sober House, alongside Fleiss and other minor celebrities.

In 2017, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Sizemore had been removed from a film set in 2003 for allegedly molesting an 11-year-old girl, who then filed a civil lawsuit against the actor. While he expressed sympathy for his accuser, Sizemore denied touching her inappropriately, and the lawsuit was dismissed in 2020.

Career-wise, Sizemore's later work was similar to his earlier projects, although not as high-profile. According to IMDb, he still had many in the works, including a dozen in post-production. Among them were an episode of Cobra Kai; horror movie Book of Nightmares, with Michael Madsen and Bai Ling; and action thriller The Legend of Johnny Jones, in which he was going to costar alongside Danny Trejo and Kevin Sorbo.

Lago told Yahoo that over the past few years Sizemore "was getting his life back to a great place. He loved his sons and his family." He called Sizemore "one of the most sincere, kind and generous human beings I have had the pleasure of knowing" and said the actor's "courage and determination through adversity was always an inspiration to me."

Sizemore is survived by his twin sons, Jayden and Jagger, 17, from his relationship with Janelle McIntire. Lago told Yahoo that "the twins are devastated by the loss of their father and will release a statement at a later time."

[ghost2509]

Gary Rossington, Founding Lynyrd Skynyrd Guitarist, Dies at 71


SPIN
yahoo.com
March 5, 2023

Gary Rossington, the guitarist for legendary Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died at the age of 71. The band posted a statement confirming Rossington’s death on its verified Facebook account, though it did not specify a cause of death. Rossington was the last surviving original Lynyrd Skynyrd member and had been active in the band up until his death.

“It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today,” the statement said. “Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does. Please keep Dale, Mary, Annie and the entire Rossington family in your prayers and respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.”

Born on Dec. 4, 1951, Rossington formed the band with Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Larry Junstrom, and Bob Burns in his native Jacksonville, Fla. Originally called My Backyard, the band changed its name to Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969 as a reference to their physical education teacher, Leonard Skinner, and to a character in the 1963 song “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.”

Skynyrd’s 1973 debut, Pronounced Len-‘nerd ‘Skin-‘nerd, featured future classic rock staples such as “Simple Man” and “Free Bird” and set the band on a trajectory that has to date included 14 total studio albums, 60 million units sold, and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

Rossington played lead and rhythm guitar in helping in shaping Skynyrd’s southern boogie sound. In particular, his playing on “Simple Man,” “Tuesday’s Gone,” and the slide guitar on “Free Bird,” became signature moments in rock. He also co-wrote iconic Skynyrd songs such as “Sweet Home Alabama” and “What’s Your Name.”

He was one of 20 survivors of the Oct. 20, 1977 plane crash in Mississippi where Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmates Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, and three others died. Rossington emerged with severe injuries that required several steel rods to be implanted in his body.

When bassist Larry Junstrom died in 2019, Rossington became the last surviving original member and also the longest serving. That title now goes to Johnny Van Zant, who took over vocals for his late brother Ronnie in 1987 when the group re-banded after a break. In that down time, Rossington had formed the Rossington Collins Band with Allen Collins.

Rossington overcame a number of heart-related health battles in recent years, including a quintuple bypass in 2003 and heart attack in 2015. In the summer of 2021, he also underwent an emergency heart procedure, leading to several postponed dates on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour.

Intended to be Skynyrd’s final jaunt, the tour eventually morphed into a 50th anniversary celebration, for which Rossington was advertised as being able to make select appearances. The band has dates scheduled as soon as March 12, plus a summer tour with ZZ Top, but though there’s no word yet if they will be postponed or canceled. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last album, Last of a Dyin’ Breed, was released in 2012.

[ghost2509]

David Lindley, Multi-Instrumentalist Who Shaped the Sound of Soft Rock, Dead at 78
Lindley collaborated with the likes of Jackson Browne, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Toto, Rod Stewart, and Joe Walsh

Rolling Stone
Larisha Paul
Mar. 3, 2023

Notable session musician David Lindley, a multi-instrumentalist known for his prolific work and collaborations throughout the Seventies and Eighties, has died at age 78, Rolling Stone confirmed. No cause of death was given.

An active musician since the Sixties, Lindley was a popular session musician whose skillset when it came to playing string instruments like the fiddle and guitar made him a must-have collaborator for artists like Jackson Browne, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Toto, Rod Stewart, and Joe Walsh.

“The loss of David Lindley is a huge one,” singer Jason Isbell wrote on Twitter. “Without his influence my music would sound completely different. I was genuinely obsessed with his playing from the first time I heard it. The man was a giant.”

Graham Nash also took to social media to pay tribute to Lindley on Friday. “One of the most talented musicians there has ever been,” Nash wrote. “David could play pretty much any instrument you put in front of him with incredible versatility and expression.”

Lindley could often be found in the studio working alongside other members of The Section, a crew of session musicians who shaped the sound of soft rock in the 1970s. “They were some of the most creative musicians around,” David Crosby, who hired Lindley in 1975, told Rolling Stone back in 2013. “You never had to tell them what to play. You sang them a song and got the fuck out of the way.”

“I’d listen to a song and see what worked. The song is the center of everything. If the song was about a friend of Jackson’s who died, you play something appropriate for that,” Lindley told Rolling Stone in 2010. “You don’t play a Chuck berry solo in the middle of ‘Song for Adam.’ A Chuck Berry solo is a great thing, but not that for that moment.”

Lindley stood out among the other session musicians, not only because of his impish demeanor, but also because of his raw talent. Known as one of the legendary rock and roll sidemen of his era, the musician played in Browne’s band for most of the Eighties, making a name for himself beyond the studio. In return, Browne produced Lindley’s 1983 album El Rayo-X.

When remembering his time with Browne, Lindley shared a story of one of there first meetings with Rolling Stone: “Jackson was playing there and I borrowed a fiddle and sat in with him. That was the beginning of it. He liked the way it worked. Then I went to England and played with Terry Reid. Jackson came to London after the first album came out and we did some gigs there. A friend of mine had a club in Cambridge. We played the club and it was fun. Then it was, ‘Let’s do a band thing!’ I thought, ‘That’ll be fun.’

Lindley and Browne would reunitie for a stretch of live shows: First in 2006, then again in 2010. “Why had I not thought of this before? Take him where he doesn’t speak the language and he will HAVE TO leave the gig and come with you to the restaurant, or to the club,” Browne shared in a statement in 2010, remembering his time with the musician in Spain. “This was an unexpected strategy breakthrough in a pursuit that for a legion of friends, disciples and admirers has become known as ‘stalking the wild Lindley.'”

Lindley also played with James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt as well as in his own bands, including Kaleidoscope and the Eighties band El Rayo-X. He toured with Hani Naser and Wally Ingram, and performed on over 50 records, including his own solo releases and appearances on albums from Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Warren Zevon, Jimmy Barnes, and more.