I was rooting for him, but pancreatic cancer is pretty much a death sentence. It's amazing he made it as long as he did.

All I know about his illness was that his gaunt face has been plastered over the tabloids at the checkout lines for several months. I'll be glad when those are gone.

I'm not glad that he's gone though. Poor guy. Fuck cancer.

I thought putting him on my death list was a certain way to ensure his survivial. I have never got one right yet..... well, until now :cry:

Keith Floyd :(
I'll raise a glass.

BTW Mon, that's what I thought about John Mortimer :mecry: indeed.

I remember seeing Patrick Swayze mowing the lawn of his summer house in a Speedo - He was always friendly with a "Hello!" and a wave. Even in a Speedo. RIP Patrick.

Seriously, Queen? You used to live next to him?

keith floyd too? Our radio station is calling it "The Summer of Death" because so many major celebs are kicking the bucket -and they don't even know about the British ones :lol:

pics or it never happened........ :yum:

sadly, in all of QOTR's Swayze pics he's no longer wearing the speedo...
:bolt:

I was a pretty big Swayze fan for a guy. "Road House" is one of my guilty pleasures since I get to watch both him and Sam Elliott be badasses.

Swayze always seemed to be a really likeable guy, pretty down to Earth, realistic about his gifts and fortunes in the business. He and his wife were an amazing couple as far as I could tell. There's something to this dancing with the Mrs thing, I think.

Hands down, my favorite film of his was "To Wong Foo". By all accounts, it was a part he wanted badly, and probably not just because he got to wear dresses. As with most serious actors, he wanted to be something on screen besides beefcake, and as Miss Vida Boheme, he most certainly was. Stunning performance, not only by him but by Snipes and Leguizamo as well.

Rest well, Patrick. You'll be missed.

A twofer of 60's classics today. Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary, and Henry Gibson from Laugh In, both 72, both victims of cancer.

The local Pagan community also lost another member last night, Marge, a talented artist and potter, who finally succumbed to inflammatory breast cancer. Her condition was diagnosed by my friends (both old HS girlfriends, actually) Liz and Brenda who were visiting at the Pagan festival a few years ago. They're both nurses, Brenda an oncology nurse, and when Marge found out, she asked them to examine her. They nailed the diagnosis, but her survival was much longer than normal.

Been a damned bad week mortality wise.

So sorry Pat. This year has been horrible for so many. It seems as though too many good people are having terrible things happen to them.

Mary Travers from Peter, Paul & Mary passed away. I've been listening to her sing all my life. And I met her once at a Democratic fund raiser in NY a long time ago. Very nice and very intimidating.
Like an Amazon Queen but so kind. Rest in peace.

Did you hear Sir Bobby Robson went earlier this year? I didn't post here because he didn't mean anything to me personally, but I forgot you might not have heard. He was 76. It's all my Dad's generation starting to go now - very sad.

Yes, thanks, I think someone did post it here, I thought it was you! I do have the BBC news as one of my home page tabs, so I do keep reasonably up-to-date, although occasionally something slips through the net if I have a busy day or the BBC chooses not to report something....

THAT was a great movie...I forgot that he was in it. Those guys did such a fantastic job.

Our boat dock was next to his, so we had to walk down a little dirt path along the side of his yard to get there. Sorry no pics - Thought it might be a little rude to snap pics of my celeb neighbors. (Have some of Tommy Lee & Heather Locklear on their boat somewhere - will have to dig them up.)

And agreed on Too Wong Foo - terrific perfomances all around.

I can't let this one go by without adding my .02.

Mary Travers was not just a fine singer and socially conscious person. She was an icon for an entire generation of young women, women who had dreams and consciences of their own. Look at any pictures from the late to mid 60's and you will see hoardes of young ladies with streaming hair and formidable bangs, especially those who were doing the college campus coffee shop thing.

Mary stood out like a peppercorn on a glacier on any stage. Her voice was powerful and distinctive, yet never overbearing. Her obvious joy as she performed was infectious and stimulating. She may have gotten third billing, but for me, she was always first and foremost in that trio.

Our generation had Mary Travers. This generation has Kanye West. What a fucking pity.

This generation has a lot more than just Kanye West. Every generation has its heroes and its dickheads :P

Of Course, it's Michael Jackson's death is one...

but for most Filipinos, like me, it is the death of our very first former lady President Corazon Cojuanco - Aquino that really bummed not only me, not only the whole archipelago of the Philippines but also the world who recognized her because of being the first woman president of our beloved country...

it's so sad we've lost a hero like her and her beloved husband, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino.:(:(:(

Hello Bagbee and :welcome:

Breakfast TV was on yesterday morning as I was making my tea. I had my back to it. They cut to a clip from The News Huddlines.

ARGH! I thought, not Roy Hudd! Not another one gone too young.
Luckily by the time I turned round, there he was on the sofa (in the studio I mean) all balding and chubby and definitely alive.

He was promoting his autobiography.
June Whitfield's is out too.

Good on both of 'em.
Get them out while they still can :)

RIP Stephen Gately - died yesterday at the age of 33. Cause yet unknown.
He was a member of the Irish boyband Boyzone. I can't say I was a fan of the band per se (ballads and sitting on stools not being my thing) but I acknowledged he had a talent. From the band he went on to work that was more my thing, for example Joseph, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a Dr Who audio play.

What I admired more was the way he handled his personal life. Irish and in a boy band he still came out, and in fact in Boyzone's last video (for Better, although I had to look that up) a gay couple was included in the lovey-dovey soft focus shots. Not being dismissive - soft focus & lovey-dovey are boyband standards, a male couple is groundbreaking - Boyzone were nominated for a Stonewall Award for this reason (a LGBT charity and pressure group). Gately committed to Andrew Cowles in Las Vegas in 2003 and married in 2006.

Worth mentioning for the connection. Matt Lucas's ex Kevin McGee (32) hanged himself. It's only a connection, as I knew little about him - he was on the production side of showbiz - but it meant Matt Lucas had to pull out of Prick Up Your Ears (a play currently running in the Wesy End about Joe Orton) which I was kinda hoping to see. For those who don't know, Joe Orton was a playwrite who was bludgeoned to death by his lover Kenneth Halliwell and immediately committed suicide by overdose. Some of the same issues of one partner becoming far more successful and famous than the other appear to be a factor in both cases, so it obviously wasn't reasonable to expect Lucas to continue in the role. I can't mourn him myself, but the violent death of a young man is bound to affect people who knew him.

I never heard of the band or the guy, but I did see the obit.

Anna Nicole Smith

*sniff*

I'll miss Bozo the clown too Henry. ;)

Charlie Chaplin?

I was just thinking the other day when I was little and had a Poky Little Puppy Golden Book with a 45 (that's a small record, for you kiddies) of Soupy reading the book.

RIP Soupy!

White Fang is sitting Shivah and won't be available for pie throwing for the next week.

One of the funniest videos I've ever seen was from the Soupy Sales show. He used to have this bit where he would here a knock at the door, answer it and then talk to someone off camera.
One time, he went to answer the door and just started laughing histerically and looking really embarassed. It turned out that the crew had set him up and it was a beautiful, NAKED lady on the other side of the door, dancing and shaking her breast at him. And it was filmed! The sketch was released on a bloopers video, unedited.
Funny stuff!

link????

1:48

That's sad. Soupy Sales was one of the great ones.

...a little weak in the name choosing department tho, IMO.

RIP, Soupy.

RIP Soupy.

I remember him and Gene London more than I do Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers.

Soupy was more like the cool uncle that didn't have any parenting skills. While everyone else would talk to you in a cheerful baby voice, Soupy would be the kind of guy who would show you card tricks and talk about Jazz.

Soupy was awesome. Funny, funny guy.

I remember getting very misty when Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion among many, many others, passed away in February, 1989.

Oddly enough, most other celeb deaths rank either "Oh. Too bad." or "Good riddance to bad rubbish." with me...

-MMM-

RIP Edward Woodward. Star of many things, but probably most well known his role in The Wicker Man.

He's a household name in the Uk. One of those names that's been around forever (for my generation)... probably at least in someway because it's a fun name is fun to say.

Died yesterday aged 79.

I always thought of him as the Equalizer, even thought I didn't ever really watch that. Starnge. He also always reminded me of Michael Caine.

Oh he was always The Equalizer to me as well, and didn't watch it either! But for the Merkins he's probably better known for the cult classic.

I brought home a male friend (who I had snogged) and he was terrified by my Dad.
Why?
Combination of my Dad not saying much, and what he did saw was in a gruff East London accent, and he looked like the Equaliser.

He did in some lights actually.
The rest was because he was terribly shy.
But it was quite good fun when the word was passed around that my Dad was some sort of East End hard man.

And no, I never watched it either. To me, Woodward was always Neil Howie. I have the Director's Cut DVD. I may have to watch it again tonight.

I've never seen the 1973 version of the wicker man. I've added it to my netflix queue.

You're in for a treat... That butchered piece of crap... is terrible. (The new one, I mean.)

That's what happens when Modern Cinema has to take from the past, because there are no new ideas - They rape classics.

Nicholas Cage is one of my favourite actors, and that's the only saving grace of this movie; I still refuse, however, to watch it... because I hate when American cinema rapes British classics just because they're all out of ideas.*

(* Not that it's just American Cinema that's out of ideas, of course... Most Modern Cinema is suffering from a terrible lack of unique, new ideas.)

--

EDIT: Keeping the thread on-track, I'd have to say that the deaths that have, this year, bummed me out, are...

(In no order.) Michael Jackson, Keith Floyd, Patrick Swayze. < All men who, with extraordinary talent, died before their times.

Keith was my all-time-favourite Chef / T.V Chef. Has been for a very long time. He had a very troubled life, at times, which is probably what drove him to alcoholism, but he kept it in check, I think, in a decent manner. He was a very extrovert T.V personality, and paved the way for all the cooking shows that we, today, enjoy so much... I loved his excessive use of incredibly expensive ingredients, too. Throwing a fistful of saffron into something that was also loaded with rare truffles... That's Floyd!

Michael was an incredible man. I'm not one of those crazy, I'd-sell-all-I-own-to-see-him fans, just someone who can appreciate a decent person, with a decent message, who wants nothing more than love, to love, to be loved, to spread the word of love, etc... Not for profit, not for "a place in heaven" (he wasn't religious,) but just... out of decency. That is so rare, it's almost completely extinct, now that he's gone.

Patrick, well... Not the best actor, but... He just had "that face." Anyone who's a fan, should know what I mean. One of the most emotive faces I've ever observed in an actor, and, for that, he was truly gifted... If you don't know what I mean, just watch "Ghost." I mean, come on... that's just brilliant acting, right there.

They all bum me out, though; Deaths. Not just celebrity, but, of course, the celebrities are the ones we build "connections" with, through their chosen medium. It's like losing a distant friend, someone you may've shared many years with, good times, and bad...

This is a depressing thread!

Hey. I resemble that remark. Officer Howie was a truly great character. :D

The original version of Wickerman is pretty well known among American Pagans ... most other Americans, not so much. I don't think enough people hereabouts were aware enough of it to qualify as a "cult," frankly.

Actually, I've noticed with a lot of recent remakes, the kids these days, don't understand that they're getting a recycled crap version of something that was really good and special. And totally not in need of being remade. Or reimagined. Or whatever they're calling plagiarism these days.

artistic license :rolleyes:

Mike Penner/Christine Daniels apparently commits suicide

The day Mike Penner left the Los Angeles Times made the news. The longtime sportswriter wrote the article himself, a personal essay explaining that he was taking some time off and, upon his return, he would be known from then on as Christine Daniels.

Penner's public acknowledgment in April 2007 that he was transgender and would soon live as a woman shocked the world of sports journalism and turned his new identity, Daniels, into an instant celebrity. Daniels gave speeches, was profiled in Sports Illustrated, collected honors for courage from transgender groups and wrote a blog for the Times titled "Woman In Progress."

Except that the transition didn't last. In mid-October 2008, after a lengthy leave of absence, Penner, 51, returned to the sports pages and the Times newsroom as a man.

And just as suddenly, Penner's story, heralded in its early days as a triumphant example of transgender progress, has instead become a cautionary tale of the lesser-known phenomenon: transgender regret.

"It's unfortunate and it's relatively uncommon but certainly not unheard of," says Denise Leclair, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education, a Waltham, Mass.-based transgender advocacy group. "The simplest way to think about it is being trans is something that never goes away. ... There's just a fairly constant social pressure to just go back. You don't have to be a genius to understand that society doesn't really accept this."

Penner, a 24-year veteran of the newspaper, did not respond to calls and e-mails for comment and has not written about his decision to resume life as a man. The blog and bylines as Christine Daniels have been removed from the newspaper's website.

Though there's no data available on how many transgender people abandon their new gender, psychologist Ron Lawrence of the Community Counseling Center in Las Vegas says about 5% of his transgender patients revert. Leclair echoes that estimate.

Adhering to a code

Transgender advocates say the case of Penner, who never had sex-change surgery, reflects the success of a system in which American sex-change surgeons, adhering to their own code of conduct, won't operate until the patient has had a year of intense psychotherapy while living publicly in the new gender.

"We're required (by doctors) to go through all this stuff for a reason, even though there are a lot of trans people who bristle at being told what they can and can't do," says Donna Rose, a male-to-female postoperative transsexual in Rochester, N.Y. "The thing that people have to understand is that even though Mike decided to retransition, that doesn't mean he's not trans. It's not like you go all of a sudden, 'Uh, I'm better.' Going back doesn't automatically clear the conundrum that causes you to get there in the first place."

Rose reversed course on her own transition at first because her then-wife became so distraught and co-workers were insensitive. Six months later, she went through with it and ended the marriage.

Transitioning carries with it the prospect of losing jobs, friends and family, as well as mockery from strangers who find the gender change visibly jarring, Rose and others attest. "You become a very visible minority," Leclair says. "The average male-to-female transsexual is taller, has bigger hands and feet, has more facial hair than most women. There are a lot of physical attributes that are hard to hide in a society that doesn't like you."

Religion sometimes comes into play. Joseph Cluse of Newport News, Va., lived his life as Joanna for 30 years after having the surgery in the 1970s. Yet Cluse, who was married twice and raised one husband's children, became religious in recent years and decided that God wanted him to resume his life as a man. Cluse, 54, stopped taking hormones and had breast implants removed.

Cases such as Penner and Cluse raise questions about the causes of transgenderism. Paul McHugh, director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, is a leading proponent of the notion that the cause is not biological, that transgender people have chosen this path.

He halted the university hospital's practice of performing gender reassignment surgeries in the late 1970s because, he says, a study indicated that postoperative transsexuals were no happier than they were before the operation. "You can live any way you want, but don't come to us and ask us to give medical resources to this proposal of yours, because we think it's a social construct and not a condition of nature," McHugh says.

"No one has demonstrated any physical mechanism or physical problem that causes this. The burden of proof is on them to prove that."

Debating the cause

Such comments are anathema to the transgender advocates, who insist the decades-old study McHugh cites was debunked. Like most transsexuals, Daniels told Sports Illustrated in 2007 that her urges to be female began as a child, and she wrote in the Times that same year: "We are born with this. We fight it as long as we can, and in the end it wins."

Claire Winter, a transsexual from Seattle who mentored Penner and spoke to him late last year, doubts the sportswriter's reversal will further confuse the general public about transsexualism.

"I think people are so bloody confused, I don't know if this has a significant effect," Winter says. "But maybe this will help people to understand that this is a very complex, highly difficult situation. This indicates the fundamental problem of trying to shove people into either end of the gender pole. It serves to point out the fact that it isn't as simple as flipping a coin.

"I would say give (Penner) some time," Winter says. "We have to wait for him to let us know when he figures it out."

Um... "commits suicide?"

Apparently

Ah, sorry--that information wasn't actually mentioned in the article from USA Today. Hope he didn't leave any kids behind. :(

I believe that info was in the AP story that I saw first, but it was a little skimpy on details. The USA Today was meatier.

900 foot Jesus has called Oral Roberts home. Guess the fundraising effort didn't work out so well?

Guess he couldn't heal himself.:bolt:

That is generally considered to be spiritual masturbation.

'Spode was first in, but everybody was thinking it the moment they heard. Now for Leno and Letterman to tell the joke... by winking.;)

Brittany Murphy dies in LA at age 32
So sad for one so young.

Don't know why but this one saddens me. Never heard any bad press on this kid.