RIP Robin Gibb
I couldn't be a fan of Donna Summer after the way she treated the gay community, which had been her biggest following. Read- http://www.donna-tribute.com/articles/80/advocate2.htm

Donna RIP
 

I had the honor of briefly working with Donna, her sweet husband Bruce and his writing partner Nathan.

Sweet lady will surly be missed. It's been a bad year of losing some great artists.

RIP.......
 

Wow cancer claims 2 more.... crap

Donna Summer and Robin Gibb.... very talented artists that so many of us danced to.....and maybe did a lil bit of fooling around to.......

Their incredible songs! RIP

Eugene Polley
 

Inventor of the remote control dies:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...6pLid%3D163177

Children's author Ellen Levine dies at age 73
 

Dick Beals, voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer and Gumby
 

Richard "Dick" Beals (March 16, 1927 - May 29, 2012) was an American voice actor. He performed many voices in his career, which spanned the period from the early 1950s into the 21st century. He specialized primarily in doing the voices of young boys.

As the result of a glandular condition, Beals stood 4 feet 6 inches tall, weighed less than 70 pounds and possessed a voice that hadn't changed since grade school.

Perhaps his most recognizable characterization was the voice of the stop-motion animation figure called "Speedy Alka-Seltzer", featured in TV ads for more than 50 years.

In 1953, Beals was hired to do the voice for his first cartoon character. This was Ralph Phillips, a Walter Mitty type boy in From A to Z-Z-Z-Z by Warner Brothers. The cartoon was nominated for an Academy Award. He originated the voice of the title character in the late 1950s in "The Gumby Show."

Beals continued doing voices for Warner Brothers cartoons, often as un-credited secondary characters. When Hanna-Barbera started with the Flintstones, and then The Jetsons, Beals did many of the kid's voices on those shows, sometimes performing several different minor characters on the same show. One of his recurring roles was as Mr. Spacely's son Arthur on The Jetsons.

From 1960 to 1964, Beals played the voice of Davey Hansen, as well as other child voices, on Davey and Goliath.

Beals provided voices for both the characters "Yank" and "Dan" of the "American Eagles" troupe in the mid-1960s cartoon series Roger Ramjet. In 1967, Beals was the singing voice of child actor Bobby Riha as Jack in the NBC-TV special Jack and the Beanstalk starring Gene Kelly. He was the voice of Buzz Conroy, the boy scientist on Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles, and Richie Rich's mischievous cousin, Reggie Van Dough on Richie Rich. Beals was also the voice of Birdboy on Birdman and the Galaxy Trio.

During the late 1980s, Beals provided the voices for various characters on Garfield and Friends with the most major character he voiced being Jon's cruel nephew Rosco.

From 1989-1993 he played Nicholas Adamsworth on the Focus on the Family radio drama Adventures in Odyssey.

In 1996, Beals provided the voice of the Pinocchio puppet in the horror film Pinocchio's Revenge.

Later in life, he was a motivational speaker who turned to his 1992 autobiography to inspire audiences. He called his book "Think Big."

Former NBA player Orlando Woolridge dead at 52
 

Orlando Woolridge, the rugged forward who carved out a reputation over 13 NBA seasons as a scoring specialist and one of the original alley-oop artists, died late Thursday while under hospice care for a chronic heart condition.

The 6-foot-9 Woolridge was the sixth overall pick by the Chicago Bulls in 1981 after starring at Notre Dame in college and Mansfield High School in Louisiana.

Known for his high-flying dunks and ability to throw down lob passes in the open court, Woolridge played for the Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Denver, Milwaukee and Detroit, and also coached the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. He averaged 16.0 points in just over 28 minutes per game, quickly emerging as an offensive spark plug no matter if he was in the starting lineup or coming off the bench.

He participated in one of the greatest slam dunk contests of all time in 1985, competing against Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Julius Erving, among others, and he averaged 22.9 points per game for the Bulls in 1984-85, the last player to lead Chicago in scoring before Jordan took over.

One of Woolridge's defining moments came as a senior at Notre Dame in 1981, when he hit a buzzer-beating jumper to beat Ralph Sampson and No. 1 Virginia on national television, ending the mighty Cavaliers' 28-game winning streak. Woolridge averaged 10.6 points in 109 games at Notre Dame, helping the Fighting Irish reach the NCAA Tournament in each of his four seasons, including the Final Four as a freshman in 1978.

Richard Dawson 1932-2012
 

Richard Dawson was an English-born American actor, comedian, game show panelist and host in America. He died yesterday from complications of esophageal cancer.

He was best known for his role as Corporal Peter Newkirk on Hogan's Heroes, being the original host of the Family Feud game show from 1976–1985 and 1994–1995, and for being a regular panelist on the 1970s version of Match Game on CBS from 1973 to 1978. He was a regular on Laugh In, the New Dick Van Dyke Show, and I've Got A Secret.

Dawson parodied his TV persona in 1987 by co-starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action film The Running Man, in which he portrayed the evil, egotistical game-show host Damon Killian. (I swear this movie was the prototype for The Hunger Games trilogy.)

Pedro Borbon
 

CINCINNATI (AP) Pedro Borbon, who pitched 10 years for the Cincinnati Reds and helped the Big Red Machine win back-to-back World Series titles, died of cancer on Monday. He was 65.

Borbon was a key member of the bullpen on Cincinnati's 1975-76 championship teams, winning 13 games during those two seasons. He also pitched for the Angels, Giants and Cardinals. In 2010, he became the third reliever to be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame.

Borbon appeared in more games than any other NL pitcher from 1970-78. He holds the club record with 531 career appearances. Borbon pitched in 20 playoff games during his career with a 2.55 ERA.

Borbon became part of baseball lore in 1995 when, at age 48, he decided to return to the game as a replacement player during Major League Baseball's labor dispute.

Platters Founder Herb Reed Dies at 83
 

Herb Reed, the last surviving original member of 1950s vocal group the Platters who sang on hits like "Only You" and "The Great Pretender," has died. He was 83.

Reed sang bass on the group's four No. 1 hits, including "The Great Pretender," ''My Prayer," ''Twilight Time" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."

The Platters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. Their recordings are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The group's popularity reached across racial lines and genres, "achieving success in a crooning, middle-of-the-road style that put a soulful coat of uptown polish on pop-oriented, harmony-rich material," according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's website.

Reed was the only member of the group to appear on all of their nearly 400 recordings. He continued touring, performing up to 200 shows per year, until last year, often performing with younger singers under the name Herb Reed and the Platters or Herb Reed's Platters.

Ray Bradbury, beloved science fiction author, dies
 

Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and other beloved science fiction novels, died Tuesday night at the age of 91.

Bradbury sold eight million copies of his books in 36 languages, according to The New York Times' obit.

He attributed his success as a writer to never having gone to college--instead, he read and wrote voraciously. "When I graduated from high school in 1938, I began going to the library three nights a week," he said in an interview with The Paris Review. "I did this every week for almost ten years and finally, in 1947, around the time I got married, I figured I was done. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty-seven. I discovered that the library is the real school."

His best known book, Fahrenheit 451, was a dystopian tale set in the future about a society where books were banned and firefighters spent all day burning them. "Bradbury's novel anticipated iPods, interactive television, electronic surveillance and live, sensational media events, including televised police pursuits," the Associated Press writes.

RIP, re was one of my favorites! "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes".

Bob Welch, Formerly of Fleetwood Mac, Commits Suicide
 

Bob Welch, a singer-guitarist who left Fleetwood Mac for a successful solo career with such 1970s hits as "Ebony Eyes" and "Sentimental Lady," was found dead in his Nashville home of an apparent suicide on Thursday. He was 65.

The Los Angeles-born son of a movie producer, Welch joined Fleetwood Mac in 1971 and performed on several albums and tours until leaving in 1974. He was replaced by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

As a solo artist, Welch garnered huge success in 1977 with a revamped version of "Sentimental Lady," which he first recorded with Fleetwood Mac, with new backing vocals by the group's Christine McVie and Buckingham, and the hit singles "Ebony Eyes" and "Hot Love, Cold World."

Frank Cady - Sam Drucker from Green Acres
 

Feel like my childhood has been flashing before my eyes the last few weeks.


Frank Cady (September 8, 1915 – June 8, 2012) was an American actor best known for his recurring and popular role as storekeeper Sam Drucker in three American television series during the 1960s — Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Elinor Ostrom dies, Nobel-winning economist
 

(Reuters) - Elinor Ostrom, a professor at Indiana University who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for economics, died Tuesday from cancer, the university said. She was 78.

Ostrom received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for research on the ways that people organize themselves to manage resources. She shared the prize with University of California economist Oliver Williamson.

Yvette Wilson, Moesha Actress, Dies
 

Comedian Yvette Wilson, who had been battling stage 4 cervical cancer and kidney disease, died Thursday, reports NewsOne.com and other news outlets. She was 48.

Wilson was best known as Andell Wilkerson on UPN's Moesha and its spinoff, The Parkers. In addition, she appeared in the movies House Party 2, House Party 3 and Friday.

According to NewsOne, Wilson went to California's San Jose State University and became a regular on Russell Simmon's Def Comedy Jam.. Her big break came in 1993, on the short-lived ABC sitcom Thea, which, like the later Moesha, also starred Brandy Norwood.

A nice obit for a member of our community, Dillon62, and someone a number of us loved dearly in real time:

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/...lvia-colon-49/