Barbara Bel Geddes, who created the role of Maggie in the Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and later gained fame as Miss Ellie in the Dallas TV series, has died at the age of 82. Bel Geddes also appeared in such films as I Remember Mama, Vertigo, and The Five Pennies.
Any score updates?
The gentle Giant Matthew McGrory has died. He was 32 years young.
68 points for me. I believe it was a unique pick.
Gene Mauch, who won three National League Manager of the Year awards but was dogged by his 1964 Phillies’ late-season collapse and two missed 1980’s opportunities for his Angels to win the American League Championship Series, died at the age of 79. Mauch won 1901 games as a manager after playing nine big-league seasons as a light-hitting utility infielder. He was one of the pioneers of the double switch, a strategic move in which a pitcher (typically) and another player are removed, with the new “position player” batting in the spot vacated by the pitcher (who is due to come up early when his team next hits) so that the reliever can be buried in the batting order.
Parking garage tycoon/frequent candidate for public office/all-around zanyAbe Hirschfeld is dead at 85.
Philip Klass, an electrical engineer who became known for his Aviation Week & Space Technology writing on avionics (a term he is credited with coining), has died at the age of 85. The skeptical Klass was celebrated (and decried by “believers”) for his insistence that all UFO sightings could be explained logically as observations of celestial bodies, artificial satellites, or other known phenomena.
Klass helped found the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), an organization which numbered Robert Baker among its fellows. Baker, who chaired the University of Kentucky psychology department, was also noted for debunking reports of ghosts. He was fond of saying that “there are no haunted places, only haunted people.” He passed away Monday at the age of 84.
Judith Rossner, the novelist whose Looking for Mr. Goodbar was made into a film that starred Diane Keaton, has died at the age of 70.
Alexander Gomelsky, who coached the Soviet Union to four Olympic medals (including the 1988 gold) in men’s basketball, has died at the age of 77. Gomelsky also led the USSR to two world championships and seven European crowns. He built the team that knocked off the USA in the still-disputed 1972 Olympic final, but was not on the sideline in Munich – the KGB feared Gomelsky, a Jew, was a risk to defect to Israel during the Games.
It was a few days ago, and seeing nobody’s mentioned him I guess nobody had him, but one of New Zealand’s greatest prime ministers David Lange has died of diabetes aged 63.
Robert Moog, whose name became synonymous with the synthesizer after he produced the first examples of the electronic instrument that were accessible to musicians, has died at the age of 71. Moog, who began his musical engineering career by manufacturing theremins while he was an undergrad at Columbia University, saw his synthesizers embraced by the Beatles; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Herbie Hancock; and numerous other performers.
It bugged me that the AP printed that, because if you’ve known even one big Star Trek geek (and I’ve known many), you probably know that Kirk never said “Beam me up, Scotty.” It’s a ‘play it again Sam.’
Which exemplifies why, although I’m a big Star Trek Fan, I’ll never be a “Trekker” geek. Sure, Captain Kirk never uttered that precise phrase. But he said something like it a gazillion times throughout the series. “Beam me up, Scotty” is simply a useful short-hand phrase.
Not that anyone had him, but influential civil rights leader Rev. Leon Lowry died this weekend. He taught Martin Luther King at Morehouse College. He will be greatly missed in the Tampa area.
Brock Peters, who played accused rapist Tom Robinson in the film of To Kill a Mockingbird, has died at the age of 78. Peters also appeared in such movies as Porgy and Bess and The L-Shaped Room, as well as spending time on the stage portraying characters ranging from the title Moor of Shakespeare’s Othello to boxer Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope.
RL Burnside, bluesman, died today. He was 79.
"A sharecropper early in life, Mr. Burnside wasn’t recorded until his 40s, and didn’t become a professional musician until 1991, when he was signed by Fat Possum. Popular with younger acts like the Beastie Boys and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Mr. Burnside remained, as Johnson once said, “incorruptible because he just doesn’t care.’’”
Just heard Rehnquist died – no link yet, though.
20 points for me for Chief Justice Rehnquist.
I know that Fats Domino was rescued the other day, but I wonder if it will turn out that any celebrities died in the hurricane.
We need an updated DP standings list.