2021: Fond farewells and obits

Film director Michael Apted:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/michael-apted-obit-1.5866818

No one has mentioned the great Cloris Leachman!? A true comedic treasure.

Cloris Leachman, yes, and Sharon Kay Penman.

Cicely Tyson, after a good, long run:

https://apnews.com/article/cicely-tyson-9a513c3b75e9cb3e6fc1327088cfd06b

SF writer Kathleen Ann Goonan. Winner of the Campbell award for In War Times.

https://locusmag.com/2021/01/kathleen-ann-goonan-1952-2021/

Hal Holbrook has passed at age 95. Best known for his portrayal of Mark Twain.

I just now heard the Phil Spector died last month.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/arts/music/phil-spector-dead.html

Christopher Plummer today:

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/christopher-plummer-dead-sound-of-music-12349...

>7 mstrust: the Pacino film biopic was strange and well done

Farewell Lawrence Ferlinghetti:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/lawrence-ferlinghetti-beat-poet-dies-1.592...

Yaphet Kotto:

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/yaphet-kotto-dead-dies-alien-bond-villain-123...

Artist and illustrator Victor Ambrus:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/10/victor-ambrus-obituary

George Segal, the actor
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/george-segal-dead-wheres-poppa-owl-pussyc...

Fun with Dick and Jane is probably my favorite movie of his, tho Ive seen others and liked them..

Jessica Walter, fine old gal:

https://deadline.com/2021/03/jessica-walter-dead-actress-arrested-development-12...

Larry McMurtry:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/books/larry-mcmurtry-dead.html

Interview with Larry McMurtry:

https://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/05/larry-mcmurtry-brokeback-mountain-last...

Beverly Cleary

A few days ago, Adam Zagajewski, poet.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/books/adam-zagajewski-dead.html

>16 CliffBurns:, and I still haven't read Lonesome Dove, but I mean to.

>18 cindydavid4:, over 100 if I'm not mistaken, a big deal was made of her centennial.

LONESOME DOVE is brilliant, so is LAST PICTURE SHOW and HORSEMAN, PASS BY. (The latter was adapted into the movie "Hud", with Paul Newman, one of his best roles.)

>20 Cecrow: I have Lonesome Dove and Comanche Moon on the TBR. They were on offer a few months ago.

Arthur Kopit, playwright.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/theater/arthur-kopit-dead.html

Cult film director Monte Hellman:

https://variety.com/2021/film/obituaries-people-news/monte-hellman-dead-dies-dir...

Michael Collins, Apollo astronaut:

https://twitter.com/playingwithdust/status/1387647562010742785

Actress Olympia Dukakis
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/01/entertainment/olympia-dukakis-death/index.html

amazing actress; saw her in Moon Struck and Steel Magnolias, always wished I could have seen her on Broadway heard she was fabulous. She lived a long good live. may her name be a blessing

A fine old character actor, Norman Lloyd:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-57084522

Charles Grodin--always liked the guy:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/charles-grodin-dies-1.6031219

Ned Beatty:

https://www.tmz.com/2021/06/13/ned-beatty-dead-dies-actor-network-superman-deliv...

Loved the guy.

>30 CliffBurns:, "Network" is a movie I've long wished to see but never come across anywhere. I'm tempted to watch all the Youtube clips but always resist so I don't spoil it. Watched Ned Beatty's speech though; what a zinger when placed next to his Superman bits.

You can probably rent and stream it from YouTube for a couple of bucks. I think it's over-rated myself, Paddy Chayefsky at his most preachy and bombastic. Holden and Dunaway are good, Beatrice Straight in a fine role but Finch (who won a posthumous Oscar) is too over the top.

Just my view.

Film director Richard Donner:

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/richard-donner-dead-dies-superman-the-goonies...

Doesn't seem much in the news about this but Steven Weinberg, Nobel prize winning physicist and one of the architects of the Standard Model.

Frenchy Cannoli. Quite the character:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/frenchy-cannoli-dead.html

Jackie Mason, Didn't realize his father, grand and great grandfathers were all Rabbis, his brothers too. He never told his parents that he turned away from it to be a comedian (tho not sure I buy they didn't know) He was amazing, loved him back in the day when Id sit on the couch with my parents watching these amazing comedians on tv. Lived a very long life, may his memory be a blessing

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/arts/jackie-mason-93-dies-turned-kvetching-in...

British actress Una Stubbs. Great career from 'Til Death Us Do Part' to Sherlock.

Singer Nanci Griffith, 'Love at the Five and Dime' and others. Always loved her duets with people like John Prine and Townes van Zandt. Sad day for music.

>38 justifiedsinner: Agreed. Such a strong pure voice. I play her duet with Arlo Guthrie in my head: Tecumseh Valley.

Ok this really hurts. Was just listening to one of her CDs... discovered her music while listening to KrcL Radio Free Zion, in Salt lake city in the mid 80s and just fell in love ( this station also turned me on to Dave Bromberg, Steve Goodman, John Prine and others) She had a sweet voice but her lyrics were so on point, so powerful Love in the Five and Dime, Light beyond the woods, Trouble in these fields, From a Distance.... Her songs made me smile, cry and sigh. So damn young. May her name be for a memory, rest in peace.

Wow, Charlie Watts:

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/charlie-watts-rolling-stones-drummer-dead-di...

Awww. My favorite Stone.

Me too--a friend of mine sent me this anecdote, showing that ol' Charlie may have seemed affable and accommodating on the outside, but he was made of steel. I think this is excerpted from his NYTimes obit:

There was one time, however, when Mr. Watts famously chafed at being treated like a hired hand rather than an equal member of the group. In 1984, Mr. Jagger and Mr. Richards went out for a night of drinking in Amsterdam. When they returned to their hotel around 5 a.m., Mr. Jagger called Mr. Watts, waking him up, and asked, “Where’s my drummer?” Twenty minutes later, Mr. Watts showed up at Mr. Jagger’s room, coldly furious, but shaved and elegantly dressed in a Savile Row suit and tie.
“Never call me your drummer again,” he told Mr. Jagger, before grabbing him by the lapel and delivering a right hook. Mr. Richards said he narrowly saved Mr. Jagger from falling out a window into an Amsterdam canal.

That story just makes me like him more.

>45 cindydavid4:, she sounds fascinating, will have to google. These darn paywalls.

>46 Cecrow: oh oops, sorry. Google will have it for sure!

oops sorry, well worth searching for, if only for her photo fronting her band!!

Stephen B. Oates, Civil War historian

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/books/stephen-b-oates-civil-war-historian-die...

Actor Ed Asner, 91

John-Paul Belmondo:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-11811293

>51 CliffBurns: When I first saw À Bout de Souffle I spent several months hanging out with a Gauloise dangling from my mouth hoping Jean Seberg would pass by.

>52 justifiedsinner: Chortling en Francaise. 🇫🇷

This won't mean much to most of you, but a long time local newspaper columnist just printed probably the hardest column of his life. Not everyone liked him, he was at times controversial, but I can't imagine anyone thinking ill of him after reading this. I know I am heart broken for him. may her memory be for a blessin

By EJ Montini

In lieu of putting together anything formal related to her death

Ah, that's lovely, that is.

>54 cindydavid4: It IS lovely, but I find it very unfair to those still living. Funerals are for the living. So her wishes for simplicity and "in lieu of" would be great for HER, if she were the widow. But are they what the widower needs?

We had this conversation after my MIL passed with her dear friend Mary. My MIL did not want a service. I know several people esp from her work who wanted one. My husband wanted to respect his moms wishes. My friend ended up making a lovely memorial for her. So i get what you are saying. Given what I know of Montini, and given the love that is put into the letter, it sounds like he approved it as much as he did her wishes in marriage. I do not find this unfair. I would hope that my husband follows my directions after my death, which is in my living will, as I will respect his. Obviously no one would ever know if he did or not. But I don't think anyone can question him if he did.

Also, I love his suggestion that people send notes to their family, to express their love, before its too late.

Comedian Norm Macdonald:

https://deadline.com/2021/09/norm-macdonald-dead-obituary-comedian-saturday-nigh...

Roger Michell, film maker:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58675644

Comedian and social commentator, Mort Sahl:

https://deadline.com/2021/10/mort-sahl-dies-groundbreaking-contrarian-comedian-w...

Dean Stockwell, dead at 85. Unforgettable in a small but essential role in "Blue Velvet":

https://variety.com/2021/film/actors/dean-stockwell-dead-dies-quantum-leap-actor...

For me, his most unforgettable role was Compulsion. He really seemed like he'd murdered that kid.

Robert Bly
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/books/robert-bly-dead.html

I learned of so many poets through his great translations and anthologies. Rest in peace.

A giant of American music: Stephen Sondheim

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/theater/stephen-sondheim-dead.html

Director Lina Wertmueller
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/wertmueller-1st-woman-nominated-d...

Michael Nesmith. Perhaps the main reason for a manufactured, puppet rock group's becoming something more than that. The tall serious one with the cap. His mother invented Tippex/

Sorry to see that one today. He was a great songwriter and is credited with inventing Southern rock and the music video show, which led to MTV. The Beatles were fans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/10/arts/music/michael-nesmith-dead.html

A Nesmith song, "Sweet Young Thing": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agl_6B68N6A

Not exactly a snob author, but Anne Rice.

>68 jldarden: Never actually read anything by her.

Author Bell Hooks

>69 iansales: The one I read was over-heated, desperately so. You've missed nothing. I seem to remember that she replied to online criticsm with entertaining tirades.

>69 iansales:, I liked Interview, for the narrator's voice. I didn't read the sequels when I learned he wasn't retained.

Italian-British architect Richard Rogers
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/richard-rogers-paris-pompidou-ce...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/18/arts/design/richard-rogers-dead.html

Joan Didion:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/books/joan-didion-dead.html

Edward O. Wilson:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/edwards-wilson-ants-obituary-1.6298747

Andrew Vachss. Damnit.

http://www.vachss.com/index.php

Golden Girl Betty White
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/entertainment/betty-white-100/index.html

Ben McFall, ‘the Heart of the Strand,’ Is Dead at 73
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/30/books/ben-mcfall-dead.html?searchResultPositi...

Literary lights lost in 2021:

https://lithub.com/notable-literary-deaths-in-2021/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_...

Legendary Ronnie Spector:
https://www.ronniespector.com/

Sidney Poitier "Hollywood's first black movie star", way back on January 6, just heard about it: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/entertainment/sidney-poitier-death/index.html

Meatloaf:

https://ew.com/music/meat-loaf-dead-celebrity-tributes-cher-boy-george/?utm_camp...