Celebrity death that bummed you out the most...

[classicman]

A letter from the (Now past) Managing Editor of Onward State:

Earlier this evening, Onward State reported that Joe Paterno had passed away. However, the mountain of evidence stacked opposite that report is too much to ignore. At this time, I would like to issue a retraction of our earlier tweets.

I never, in a million years, would have thought that Onward State would be cited by the national media, and today, I sincerely wish it never had been. To all those who read and passed along our reports, I sincerely apologize for misleading you. To the Penn State community and to the Paterno family most of all, I could not be more sorry for the emotional anguish I am sure we caused. There are no excuses for what we did. We all make mistakes, but it’s impossible to brush off one of this magnitude. Right now, we deserve all of the criticism headed our way.

In this day and age, getting it first often conflicts with getting it right, but our intention was never to fall into that chasm. All I can do now is promise that in the future, we will exercise caution, restraint, and humility.

I can only hope and pray that the outstanding work our writers and photographers do on a day-to-day basis is not overshadowed by the events of tonight. I understand that our reputation is in serious question, but I hope you will continue to stand by us as we do everything in our power to make amends.

To begin that process, I will be stepping down from my post as Managing Editor, effective immediately. I take full responsibility for the events that transpired tonight, and for the black mark upon the organization that I have caused.

I ask not for your forgiveness, but for your understanding. I am so very, very, sorry, and we at Onward State continue to pray for Coach Paterno.

Sincerely,

Devon Edwards

[classicman]

And now he has ...

ABC News
BREAKING: "It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today.
His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled," Paterno's family said in a statement.

RIP JoePa.

[glatt]

Just learned that Ralph McQuarrie died. As a Star Wars fan, I've known of this guy for 30+ years. Pretty much everything you can picture from the original trilogy was invented by him. George Lucas would say to him that he wanted a bad guy with a mask and a cape, and he would draw Darth Vader. The sets, the costumes, the ships. All of it was built to designs that he came up with.

If you go back and look at his art, you can see how his concepts evolved with feedback from Lucas.

Some of the first McQuarrie concept sketches of Vader:

[wolf]

I have several books of McQuarrie illustrations for Star Wars. Darn. I'll have to try to find them.

[Griff]

Good night to Earl Scruggs.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/28/showbi...ss_mostpopular

[wolf]

They're all bummin' me ... none of them are on my list.

[Lamplighter]

Cheney: 20 months with a bum heart, then no heart at all, and he still makes it back.

[Griff]

That should settle any questions of the dark side of the force being stronger.

[Gravdigr]

Mike Wallace, The Grand Inquisitor, has died.

Shit.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Along with Ferdinand Porsche, Marshall of the Marshall stacks, and Thomas Kinkaid.

[Sundae]

Shawnee has already marked his death, but I wanted to give his passing more gravitas.
Maurice Sendak has died.

Best known for Where the Wild Things Are, although he was a prolific author.
But if you are only known for one book, at least let it be the most perfect children's book ever.
Or at least in the top five. My top five. I'm sure he stayed at night worrying about that.

The book is almost poetry in its sparse prose.
It holds such appeal to children everywhere. And lasting appeal to those who never grew up.

Maurice Sendak you made an impact on my life with your talent.
Thank you so much.

[infinite monkey]

Sundae, he did an interview with Colbert. He was brilliant.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-col...e-sendak-pt--1

There's a part 2.

[glatt]

Tom Davis, writer for SNL, sidekick of Al Franken, died yesterday.

Tom Davis, ‘SNL’ writer and comedy partner of Al Franken, dies at 59
By T. Rees Shapiro, Published: July 19

Tom Davis, the longtime stand-up comedy partner of Al Franken and a writer who created many of the most memorable sketches on “Saturday Night Live,” including the alien “Coneheads,” which he dreamed up while on LSD, died July 19 at his home in Hudson, N.Y. He was 59.

He had a metastatic tonsil cancer, said his wife, Mimi Raleigh.

Mr. Davis and Franken began writing jokes together as teenagers at the private Blake School in Minneapolis, making mock announcements over the public address system, including a satirical Ku Klux Klan march called “Superpatrioticanticatholicsegregatious.”

They joined “Saturday Night Live” before its debut season in 1975 and shared a single apprentice writer's salary of $350 a week, where they collaborated on sketches culled from politics, pop culture, and the bizarre.

Mr. Davis said he spent a small fortune throughout his lifetime on marijuana, hashish, cocaine, LSD and heroin, and enjoyed the substances with his friends Timothy Leary, John Belushi and Jerry Garcia.

The idea for the “Coneheads” came after a drug-fueled vacation to Easter Island with Dan Aykroyd, where Mr. Davis hallucinated that his own forehead had grown 10 inches.

Mr. Davis created the recurring Steve Martin character “Theodoric of York,” a medieval barber who dispatched sage advice on medicine and the law.

In one skit, Theodoric is called upon to rule judgment against a criminal, John the Tanner, who was accused of adultery.

“You were found guilty of theft and your right arm was cut off,” Theodoric says. “You were found guilty of lying and your tongue was cut out. Now, hmm, adultery.”

One of Mr. Davis’s best-known sketches was the scene in which culinary doyenne Julia Child tries to remain calm after she cuts the “dickens out of my finger.” She bleeds profusely all over her holiday chicken and shrieks, before passing out, “Save the liver! Save the liver!”
...

also

The two were largely inseparable and worked in tandem for much of their comedy careers. Franken even named his daughter in his best friend's honor, Thomasin Davis Franken.

[wolf]

He's movin' on up to a dee-luxe apartment in the sky ...

[Gravdigr]

For those that didn't get Wolf's reference, Sherman Hemsley, of tv's "The Jeffersons" has died at the age of 74.

Never married, no children.