February 2007

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Voice of Ernie the Keebler elf dead at 81

Voice actor Walker Edmiston died of complications from cancer on Thursday, February 15, in his Woodland Hills, California home. He was born Feb. 6, 1926, in St. Louis and moved to L.A. in 1947. Edmiston hosted a children's show on local television during the 1950s and 60s, and gained further success during the 1970s voicing numerous characters in Sid and Marty Krofft shows like H.R. Pufnstuf and Bugaloos. His vocal talents were also showcased in commercials, most famously as the voice of advertising icon Ernie the Keebler elf. Keebler, the second-largest cookie and cracker manufacturer in the country, was purchased by Kelloggs in March 2001. Edmiston also acted in television programs including episodes of Batman, Green Acres, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Dallas, and The Dukes of Hazzard, and was the voice of Balok on the original Star Trek series. Edmiston was 81.

Sources: Associated Press, kelloggs.com, IMDB.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 28, 2007 1:13 PM | Comments (0)

 

Creator of the president's daily intelligence briefing dead at 83

CIA official Richard Lehman died Feb. 17 at Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association Hospice House in New Hampshire. Lehman is recognized as one of the fifty people who formed the Central Intelligence Agency. He worked for the agency from 1949 to 1982 and received two Distinguished Intelligence Medals, the agency's highest honor. Lehman created the President's Intelligence Checklist (nicknamed "pickle" because of the acronym PICL) in June 1961 after then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed that President John F. Kennedy had been blindsided after missing pieces of intelligence. The checklist was later renamed the President's Daily Brief. Later, Lehman became a CIA transition liaison for new presidents, until 1979, when he became chairman of the National Intelligence Council for two years. After retiring from the CIA, Lehman advised George H. W. Bush's administration during their transition in 1988. Bush Sr. had briefly been Director of Central Intelligence in the mid-Seventies. Following the transition, Lehman helped start a consulting business of retired intelligence officers. He was 83.

Sources: Yahoo! News, whitehouse.gov, cia.gov

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 27, 2007 5:29 PM | Comments (1)

 

Inventor of electronically enhanced tap dancing dead at 74

Dancer and choreographer Alfred Desio died Wednesday, February 14, of complications of bladder cancer at Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles. Desio grew up performing and studying acting, dancing, and singing in high school. He was an original cast member of the Broadway hit "West Side Story," and also had roles in "Fiddler On the Roof" and "Man of La Mancha." During the 1970s, he focused on producing tap performances and teaching at a number of universities. In the 1980s, Desio invented Tap-Tronics, a concept that allows tap dancers to make their own music by embedding microphones in their shoes, the sounds then relayed to transmitters, receivers, or synthesizers. Electronic tap was featured in the 1989 movie Tap, starring Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr., and Savion Glover. Later, Desio helped his wife run the Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers dance company. Helen Peppard of Daily Variety: "Desio, a Broadway vet, is probably the most inventive tapper in the business... One of Desio's most appealing attributes is the pleasure he seems to get from his dancing... Everyone feels a little better about things after sharing one of his performances." Desio was 74.

Sources: tapdance.org, Associated Press, usc.edu

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 26, 2007 6:33 AM | Comments (0)

 

Oscar-winning songwriter of "Mona Lisa" dead at 92

Ray Evans died late Thursday, February 15, of heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital. Lyricist Evans collaborated with melody writer Jay Livingston for more than six decades, earning seven Academy Award nominations and winning three—in 1948 for "Buttons and Bows" in the film The Paleface, in 1950 for "Mona Lisa" in the movie Captain Carey, USA, and in 1956 for "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from The Man Who Knew Too Much. The duo wrote songs for dozens of movies and two Broadway musicals, as well as the theme songs for Bonanza and Mister Ed, and the Christmas standard "Silver Bells." Evans changed the title of his most-beloved creation from "Prima Donna" to "Mona Lisa" on the advice of his art-loving wife, Wyn. Jay Livingston died in 2001 at age 86. Ray Evans was 92.

Sources: Yahoo! News, IMDB.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 23, 2007 4:20 PM | Comments (0)

 

Archie and Li'l Jinx artist dead at 85

Comics artist Joe Edwards died Feb. 8 at his home after years of treatment for heart problems. Edwards was born in Manhatten and learned to draw at the Hastings Animation School and the Rome Academy of Art. He illustrated training manuals while serving in the Army during World War II and, while in Italy, he drew animated cartoons warning of minefields around Naples. Following his service, Edwards worked for Demby Studios, Dell Comics, and Timely Comices, then went to work for MLJ Comics, the precursor to Archie Comics. He worked on the December 1941 debut of Archie, Jughead, Betty, and the rest of the gang in issue #22 of Pep Comics. Edwards also worked on Super Duck, Squoimy the Woim, Captain Sprocket, and in 1947 created Li'l Jinx, a troublesome scamp whose stories were based on Edwards' experiences with his three children. Li'l Jinx stories could be found in the back pages of Pep Comics, and she briefly had her own title from 1956-57, but the comic was discontinued in the late 1970s. Edwards was also a member of the Berndt Toast Gang, the nickname for the Long Island chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. He was 85.

Sources: ArchieComics.com, Associated Press, Don Markstein's Toonopedia, berndttoastgang.com/

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 22, 2007 3:01 PM | Comments (0)

 

Gay rights activist since the 1950s dead at 75

Barbara Gittings died after a lengthy fight with breast cancer on Sunday, February 18. Gittings was born on July 31, 1932, in Vienna, Austria, where her father was a diplomat. She returned to the U.S. with her family in the 1940s. Gittings helped organize the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, an early lesbian rights organization, in the 1950s and edited the group's publication from 1963 to 1966. Gittings met Kay Lahusen at a 1961 Daughters of Bilitis picnic and they soon became partners for life. In 1965, she helped organize gay-rights demonstrations at the White House, the Pentagon, and Independence Hall. Gittings was a major force in the campaign that led the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 to drop homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. She was a charter member of the Boards of Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, founded in 1973, and the Gay Rights National Lobby, a forerunner of the Human Rights Campaign founded in 1976. During her life, Gittings has also served as head of the American Library Association's Gay Task Force until 1986, and in 2003 received a lifetime membership, the organization's highest honor. Gittings was 75.

Sources: glbtq.com, Associated Press, queertheory.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 21, 2007 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

 

Co-inventor of the remote control dead at 93

Robert Adler, co-inventor of the remote control, died Thursday, February 15, of heart failure at a Boise nursing home. Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 and specialized in military communications equipment during World War II. He also developed sensitive amplifiers for ultra high frequency signals used by the U.S. Air Force for long-range missile detection. Zenith credits Adler and fellow engineer Eugene Polley for inventing the remote control. Polley created a wireless remote introduced in 1955 called the Flashmatic, and Adler added high-frequency sound to make the device more efficient the following year. Adler was named the company's associate director in November 1952, vice president in 1959, and vice president and director of research in 1963. In 1982, Adler retired, but continued to serve as a technical consultant. Adler and Polley received an Emmy in 1997 for inventing the remote control. Adler also pioneered research in surface acoustic waves in color television sets and touch screens. His most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, was submitted on February 1. Adler was 93.

Sources: Zenith.com, Associated Press

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 20, 2007 6:19 AM | Comments (0)

 

Matte painter for Mary Poppins and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea dead at 93

Visual effects pioneer Peter Ellenshaw died Monday, February 12, of natural causes at his Santa Barbara home, according to The Walt Disney Co. Ellenshaw was born in England in 1913 and served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. 1947, Walt Disney hand-picked Ellenshaw to paint mattes for the feature film Treasure Island (1950). Ellenshaw created mattes for 34 motion pictures including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Love Bug. Ellenshaw was nominated for four Academy Awards and won for the matte paintings used in Mary Poppins. Ellenshaw retired from Disney in 1979, following his work on The Black Hole, but returned to paint several mattes for 1990's Dick Tracy. Roy E. Disney on Ellenshaw.com: "Peter was a Disney legend in every sense of the word and played a vital role in the creation of many of the Studio's greatest live-action films from the very beginning. He was a brilliant and innovative visual effects pioneer who was able to consistently please my Uncle Walt, and push the boundaries of the medium to fantastic new heights." Ellenshaw was 93.

Sources: ellenshaw.com, Associated Press

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 19, 2007 6:24 AM | Comments (0)

 

Rosa Parks' lawyer dead at 84

Charles Langford, former Alabama state senator and civil rights activist, died Sunday, February 11, in his sleep. Langford passed the Alabama State Bar exam in 1953 and opened an office in Montgomery. In 1955, he represented Rosa Parks after she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her arrest prompted the Montgomery bus boycott led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. which led to desegregation on public transportation. Langford represented Arlam Carr Jr. in a 1964 suit that desegregated Montgomery's public schools. Langford was elected to the Alabama House in 1976 and the Senate in 1982, where he served five terms before retiring in 2002. In 1993, he represented black legislators in a lawsuit that ended the flying of the Confederate battle flag on the state Capitol dome. Langford was 84.

International Herald Tribune, Associated Press

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 16, 2007 6:36 AM | Comments (0)

 

Academy Award-nominated costume designer dead at 72

Donfeld, a four-time Oscar nominee for costume design, died on Saturday, February 3. Born Donald Lee Feld in Los Angeles on July 3, 1934, Donfeld attended Chouinard Art Institute, then designed album covers for Capitol Records at age 19. In the late 1950s, Donfeld (who changed his name due to chronic misspellings) created costumes for Academy Award show production numbers. His designs were soon worn by Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Natalie Wood, and Jack Nicholson, among others. For over thirty years he designed costumes for such movies as State Fair; Days of Wine and Roses; Viva Las Vegas; They Shoot Horses, Don't They?; Diamonds are Forever; The China Syndrome; and Prizzi's Honor. Donfeld was nominated for an Emmy in 1978 for his work on the television show Wonder Women. He was 72.

Sources: IMDB, Associated Press

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 15, 2007 2:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Native American filmmaker dead at 65

Phil Lucas, a Choctaw who spent most of his adult life telling the stories of American Indians, died Sunday, February 4, of complications following heart surgery. Lucas received a visual-communications degree from Western Washington University and spent the next four decades writing, producing, and directing more than 100 films, television series, and documentaries. His body of work included the 1980 PBS series "Images of Indians," the early 1990s film "The Broken Chain" starring Pierce Brosnan, and the 1994 television documentary series, "The Native Americans," for which he won an Emmy. He also consulted on television shows such "Northern Exposure" and "MacGyver." Since 1999, Lucas had been a teacher at Bellevue Community College and ran its annual American Indian Film Festival. The BCC tenure committee voted just recently to recommend Lucas to the board of trustees for tenure. Hanay Geiogamah, a professor of theater and American Indian studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "He is definitely one of the pioneering creative forces in American Indian life. He probably is our foremost film documentarian." Lucas was 65.

Sources: IMDB, Associated Press, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 14, 2007 3:23 PM | Comments (0)

 

First Hispanic elected to the Minnesota House dead at 86

Labor activist Frank Rodriguez died Friday, February 9, at United Hospital after suffering a heart attack. Rodriguez was born in Sheridan, Wyoming, and moved with his parents to St. Paul, Minnesota, when he was two years old. Rodriguez graduated from Humboldt High School in 1940 and worked construction before becoming recording secretary and then secretary-treasurer of Construction and General Laborers Local 132. He was active in the union for over 30 years, devoting time to assisting members with pension, health, and welfare problems, and was considered a patriarch of his West Side neighborhood. He was a member of the state DFL Central Committee, the Minnesota Press Council, the Union Advocate newspaper, the West Side Health Clinic's board of directors, the St. Paul Public Housing Agency board of commissioners, and the Neighborhood House Association board. In a special election held in June 1979, Rodriguez was elected to the Minnesota House, defeating a five-term Independent-Republican incumbant. The election of the first Hispanic to the Minnesota House prompted accusations of voting irregularities, but none were found. Rodriguez was 86.

Sources: Associated Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 13, 2007 6:40 AM | Comments (0)

 

Berry Gordy's first hire at Motown Records dead at 79

Motown bandleader and a three-time Grammy winner Joe Hunter died on Friday, February 2. Hunter was the first person hired by Motown Records owner Berry Gordy. Hunter was the record label's first bandleader and backed up acts such as Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Jackie Wilson, and Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, on piano in the late 1950s. Hunter was the first member of the Funk Brothers, who played back-up on a multitude of Motown recordings. Hunter played piano on Martha and the Vandellas' "Heat Wave" and "Come and Get These Memories," and Marvin Gaye's "Pride and Joy." Times grew more difficult when Motown Records left Detroit in 1972. When Philadelphia musician/historian Allan Slutsky set out to find all the Funk Brothers in the 1980s, he found Hunter playing for tips at the Troy Marriott. Slutsky chronicled their saga in the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown. The soundtrack earned the Funk Brothers two Grammy Awards in 2003, followed by a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. Hunter had just returned to Detroit on Sunday, January 28, from a European tour with fellow Funk Brother Jack Ashford. Bruce Resnikoff, president of Universal Music Enterprises, the division of Universal Music which oversees the Motown catalog, issued a statement: "Joe Hunter's piano and stellar leadership helped birth the 'Motown Sound.' You can't miss Joe's piano on those great early hits. The first of the Funk Brothers, his terrific riffs and easy-going musicianship will live forever." Hunter was 79.

Sources: Associated Press, Detroit News

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 12, 2007 6:30 AM | Comments (0)

 

Pearl Harbor hero dead at 84

Veteran August "Augie" Giusti died Wednesday, January 31 at White Plains Hospital Center. Giusti was raised in Tuckahoe and Eastchester, New York, and was only 18 when he was assigned to the battleship USS West Virginia as a Navy trumpeter. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Giusti was in a small boat helping injured people get to a hospital ship. A Japanese fighter pilot flew so close Giusti could see his face. Giusti in December 2006: "All he had to do is fire another burst and I wouldn't be here. But he didn't... It was just a terrible, terrible day. I've tried not to think about it my whole life, but I do think about it. It's something that just doesn't leave you." Following his tour of duty, he became a salesman at Pleasantville Ford for 50 years, retiring in 2003. Giusti was 84.

Sources: Boston.com, Associated Press, AOL News

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 9, 2007 7:54 AM | Comments (0)

 

Prolific Danish chair designer dead at 92

Danish furniture designer Hans J. Wegner died Jan. 26 at his home in Copenhagen, Denmark. Wegner trained as a cabinet-maker before attending the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts, graduating in 1938. Wegner lectured at the school from 1946 to 1953. In 1938, he joined the architectural practice owned by Arne Jacobsen and Erik Moller as a furniture designer. In 1943, he set up his own office in Gentofte. In 1949, Wegner achieved success with his Round Chair (shown above), which were used 11 years later in a televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Wegner was named Royal Designer of Industry in 1959 by the Royal Society of Arts in London. During his lifetime, he designed over 500 chairs for some of the best Danish furniture producers, including PP Furniture, Johannes Hansen, Carl Handen & Son, Fritz Hansen, and Getama, among others. Hans J. Wegner was 92.

Sources: scandinaviandesign.com, Associated Press, hans_wegner.kolmorgen.com, danish-design.com, Wikipedia

UPDATE: Slate honors Hans J. Wegner here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 8, 2007 6:11 AM | Comments (0)

 

Star Trek's Abraham Lincoln dead at 88

Veteran character actor Lee Bergere died Wednesday, January 31 at the Colonial Poplin Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility in Fremont, New Hampshire. Bergere had a 60-year career with roles in more than 200 television shows including The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bonanza, McHale's Navy, Hogan's Heroes, Maude, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest. His most famous role was playing Abraham Lincoln in a 1969 episode of the original Star Trek in which Captain Kirk enlists the former president to battle Genghis Khan in a display of "good versus evil" for an alien race that has the Enterprise held captive. A World War II veteran, Bergere also acted on stage, most notably in numerous productions of Man of La Mancha, playing various roles. He was 88.

Sources: Yahoo! News, startrek.com, imdb.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 7, 2007 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

 

I Love Lucy writer dead at 87

Television pioneer Bob Carroll Jr. died January 27 in Los Angeles. Carroll was born Aug. 12, 1919, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and his family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, when he was three. A few years after winning a script-writing contest for a radio program as a teenager, Carroll moved to Los Angeles and became an usher for CBS radio affiliate KNX. He then moved to the mailroom and on to the writing staff. In the 1940s, Carroll began working with Madelyn Pugh Davis, whom he would collaborate with over the next 60 years. The pair were writing for Steve Allen's radio show when they heard Lucille Ball was looking for writers for her show, My Favorite Husband. CBS and Ball liked Carroll and Davis' spec script and were hired. The show moved to television in 1953 and was renamed I Love Lucy. Ball's real-life husband, singer and bandleader Desi Arnaz, was added to the cast at this point. Carroll and Davis worked on every subsequent Lucille Ball show, including The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy. Other Carroll writing credits include the movie Yours, Mine and Ours and stints with the television series The Paul Lynde Show, Alice, and The Mothers-in-Law. Carroll was 87.

Sources: Houston Chronicle, Associated Press, IMDB

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 6, 2007 6:22 AM | Comments (0)

 

First Vietnam War conscientious objector dead at 73

Dale E. Noyd died in Seattle of complications of emphysema on Thursday, January 11. He was born in Wenatchee on May 1, 1933, and was the only member of the 1955 Reserve Officers Training Corps class at Washington State University to be offered a regular, as opposed to a reserve, commission. Noyd was an Air Force captain and fighter pilot for 11 years who was given a medal for successfully landing a badly damaged nuclear-armed F-100 fighter at an English airfield. In 1966, following graduate work in psychology at the University of Michigan, he asked to be allowed to resign or be classified as a conscientious objector in opposition to the Vietnam War. The ACLU represented him in a federal courtroom in Denver in 1967. In December of that year, the Supreme Court refused his case, claiming the military had jurisdiction. Noyd was court-martialed for disobeying orders to train a pilot bound for Vietnam. He was sentenced March 9, 1968, to a year in prison, given a dishonorable discharge, and stripped of his pension and benefits. Noyd was 73.

Sources: Associated Press, Seattle Times, New York Times

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 5, 2007 6:44 AM | Comments (1)

 

Chicago Bears record holder dead at 90

Ken Kavanaugh, football player, coach, scout, and WW II bomber pilot, died of complications from pneumonia Thursday morning in Sarasota, Florida. Kavanaugh was born in 1916 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attended Louisiana State University, where he was voted the Southeastern Conference's most valuable player in 1939. He played eight seasons with the Chicago Bears, interrupted by three years of service as a pilot during World War II. Kavanaugh flew thirty missions over Germany earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters. He holds or shares four Bears records: most career touchdown receptions (50), most single-season touchdown receptions (13), most yards per reception in a career (22.4) and most yards per reception in a season (25.6). He was also selected as a member of the Bears' all-time team. His playing career ended in 1950, and in 1955 Kavanaugh began a 45-year tenure with the New York Giants organization, where he worked as an assistant coach and scout until his retirement in 1999. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1963. Kavanaugh was 99.

Sources: Associated Press, nbc5.com, giants.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 2, 2007 6:19 AM | Comments (0)

 

Social Distortion bassist dead at 43

Brent Liles, the bassist for the punk rock group Social Distortion for two years, was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer while riding a bicycle on January 18 in Placentia, California. Liles joined Social D in 1981, the year they released their first single, Mainliner/Playpen, on the Posh Boy label. In 1982, the band appeared in the documentary Another State of Mind, with L.A.'s Youth Brigade and D.C.'s Minor Threat, that chronicled their first cross-country tour. In 1983, the band released Mommy's Little Monster (13th Floor). Turmoil in the band prompted Liles and drummer Derek O'Brien to walk out in the middle of a New Year's Eve 1983 show. Liles and O'Brien played together in the late '80s and early '90s with the O.C. band Agent Orange. Liles was 43.

Sources: punknews.org, Associated Press, LATimes.com, socialdistortion.com

Posted by Corey Anderson at February 1, 2007 6:38 AM | Comments (0)

 

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