RIP Tony Hsieh
 

Tony Hsieh, the technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist who built Zappos into a $1 billion internet shoes and clothing powerhouse, died on Friday. He was 46.

The cause was injuries suffered in a house fire on Nov. 18 in New London, Conn., according to Megan Fazio, a spokeswoman for the Downtown Project in Las Vegas, a revitalization effort which Mr. Hsieh oversaw.



Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/28/o...imes&smtyp=cur

RIP David Prowse
 

David Prowse, the champion English weightlifter and bodybuilder who supplied his 6-foot-7 frame — but not the voice or the deep breathing — to portray Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, died early Saturday morning following a short illness. He was 85.



Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne..._medium=social

RIP James D. Wolfensohn
 

James D. Wolfensohn, who escaped a financially pinched Australian childhood to become a top Wall Street deal maker and a two-term president of the World Bank, died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 86.

He was a force on Wall Street before taking the reins of the bank in 1995, then proceeded to shake it up. He did the same at both Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.



Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/25/b...sohn-dead.html

Squiggy has left the building
 

These guys used to crack me up.

Celebrity tributes are in for Laverne & Shirley star David Lander who died on Friday at age 73, including from Michael McKean who played “Lenny” to David’s “Squiggy” on the classic television show.

The actor’s wife Kathy Lander told TMZ that David died at 6:30 p.m. at Los Angeles’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center due to complications from multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that damages the brain and spinal cord. Kathy and David’s daughter Natalie, and her husband, were by his side at the time of his death.

David played Andrew “Squiggy” Squiggman on the sitcom that aired from 1976 to 1983, with pal Lenny Kosnowski, played by Michael McKean. The tough-talking truck drivers lived upstairs from the show’s namesake characters Laverne DeFazio (played by Penny Marshall, who later became a successful director) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams), best friends and former factory workers.

On Saturday, McKean of Better Call Saul and Batman, posted a vintage photo of the pair standing back-to-back. The men created the legendary characters while attending college at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., and together joined the cast of Laverne & Shirley, a spin-off of Happy Days, as writers before moving into acting roles.

According to People, David, who played in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Scary Movie, was diagnosed with MS in 1984, but only announced his illness in his 1999 book Fall Down Laughing: How Squiggy Caught Multiple Sclerosis and Didn't Tell Nobody. He was also very involved with MS advocacy.

The Twiter hashtag #RIPSquiggy took off while celebs shared memories. Comedian Kathy Griffin and Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormck left heartbreak emojis under McKean’s post while director Kevin Smith tweeted, “This funny man made my childhood happier with his work on “Laverne & Shirley” and his guest appearance on @TheSimpsons as himself still makes me laugh today (“Hello, Laverne...”). Rest In Peace David, and thank you: There’s a little Lenny & Squiggy in the DNA of Jay & Silent Bob.”

“So sorry Michael,” wrote retired NBA star Rex Chapman.

Saverio Guerra, who played “Mocha Joe” on Curb Your Enthusiasm, said he took inspiration from Lander, whose character’s enthusiastic greeting — “Hello! — was his calling card. “So sad to hear of David's passing,” he tweeted. “When I was on the show Becker, I had little tributes to the actors I spent my youth watching on sitcoms. The leather jacket I wore was my nod to [Henry Winkler’s “Fonzi” character from Happy Days] and some of my character’s entrances were my little tribute to Lenny and Squiggy.”

He added, “So thank you David. You’ll never know how much those ‘Hellos’ meant to me.”

Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the film franchise tweeted, “Awful news. He will be sorely missed. I'll never forget how I nearly injured myself laughing when I first saw you guys in The Credibility Gap. Then came Lenny & Squiggy & the laughs just kept coming. I'll always be grateful for that.”

McKean’s Better Call Saul co-star Rhea Seahorn left multiple heart emojis on his post while Rob Reiner recalled, “David and I met when we were both 19. He and Michael KcKean auditioned for Lenny and Sguiggy by just improvising in front of Garry Marshall at a party at Penny and my house. He was brilliant then and forever after. He will be missed.” “Hello!” — was a mainstay on Laverne & Shirley.

RIP Charley Pride
 

British author John Le Carre has died at the age of 89. Le Carre was the author of spy thrillers such as _Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy_, _The Spy Who Came in from the Cold_, and _The Constant Gardener_. Le Carre's former career in MI-5 and MI-6, the civilian and army branches of British intelligence, contributed to his novels' realism.

RIP Ambrose Dlamini
 

Ambrose Dlamini, 52, who tested positive for COVID-19 four weeks ago, died in neighboring South Africa where he was hospitalized, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku announced on Sunday. Formerly known as Swaziland, the Kingdom of Eswatini, which is Africa's last absolute monarchy, has reported over 6,700 coronavirus cases and 127 deaths among its population of 1.2 million people.

John Le Carré, whose real name was David Cornwell ...Dec 12/20 at age 89

British "Spy" ( Espionage ) writer .....maybe the best.

RIP ~ K.C.Jones 12x NBA Champion ~ Hall of Fame Legend ~ NBA Coach died @88 yrs. old from Alzheimers . KC was living in a assisted living facility in Conn.

LOS ANGELES -- Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93.

ESPN Tommy Lasorda

Banking Heir Benjamin de Rothschild Dies at 57
 

https://twt-thumbs.washtimes.com/med...4ed40ad8387c46
Benjamin de Rothschild, who oversaw the banking empire started by his father in 1953, has died. He was 57.

The Edmond de Rothschild Group, the company he was chairman of, said that de Rothschild died of a heart attack Friday afternoon at his home in Pregny, Switzerland.



Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...57/ar-BB1cOFqD

RIP Mr. Aaron
 

Baseball legend Hank Aaron has passed away at the age of 86. He played with the Braves for over 20 years. He held the MLB home run record for 33 years, with 755 career home runs. He lived in Atlanta for many years, and was very proactive in helping his local community. You will be missed, Mr. Aaron.

RIP Mira Furlan
 

RIP
 

RIP Larry King. Age 87 from covid-19. Hospitalized a few days ago succumed to the virus today.

Mr King kept us up to date on the world happenings and did many outstanding interviews with people in the know. RIP Larry, you will be missed.

RIP
 

Jimmy Rodgers 87 did of kidney disease complicated by covid-19.
Jimmy sent out hits that we all enjoyed and will be fondly remembered by those who enjoyed his music. RIP Jimmy.

~
 

RIP Cloris , I always liked her style of acting :) I just read it and the fact she was 94 surprised me ~ I always thought she was much younger. Cloris looked good for her age ~ God Bless.

Actor Cicely Tyson has passed away at the age of 96. Ms. Tyson started her career as a model, but beginning in the 70s she won some starring roles. She won two Emmys for her role in "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman". She also had an Oscar nomination and won a Tony. Ms. Tyson had a memoir published just this week - "Just As I Am". You can hear Cicely Tyson talk about her career and marriage to Miles Davis on an NPR All Things Considered segment which just aired on January 24, 2021 at this link.

NPR's All Things Considered Weekend decided to release more of the interview with Cicely Tyson that was made last week. You can hear a few more minutes of the interview at this link.

Grammy-nominated electronic artist Sophie dead at 34 after 'terrible accident'

The electronic music community was shaken Saturday morning by the news that Sophie, a trailblazing experimental pop artist and producer who’d worked with Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Camila Cabello, Charli XCX, Vince Staples, Kim Petras, and many others, had died in a “terrible accident.”

According to statements by the Sophie’s record label, Transgressive, and publicist, Ludovica Ludinatrice, Sophie was in Athens, Greece, and “climbed up to watch the full moon” and then “slipped and fell,” dying at 4 a.m. local time. A police spokesperson confirmed to the Associated Press that Sophie fell from the balcony of an apartment and that no foul play was suspected in the artist’s death. The visionary British musician — who made history as one of the three first openly transgender women to be nominated for a Grammy, and according to Pitchfork preferred not to use gendered or nonbinary pronouns — was 34 years old.

Sophie Xeon was born Sept. 17, 1986 in Glasgow, Scotland, and started in a band named Motherland before going solo in 2013, soon garnering buzz on SoundCloud and acclaim from critics for the singles “Nothing More to Say” and “Bipp”/"Elle”; the latter placed No. 17 on Pitchfork’s year-end list and No. 1 on XLR8’s list. Sophie’s major professional breakthrough came in 2015, with the placement of the track “Lemonade” in a McDonald's commercial, the launch of a fruitful artistic partnership with Charli XCX, and high-profile production work on Madonna’s Rebel Heart single “Bitch I’m Madonna.” In November of that year, Sophie also released the official debut album Product.

Sophie spent the next couple years focusing on production, writing, and remix work for other artists, but returned in 2017 with the anthem “It's Okay to Cry”; the video for that track was the first to feature the previously reclusive and largely anonymous artist’s face, and served as Sophie’s well-received coming-out statement as a member of the trans community. Sophie’s full-length sophomore effort, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides, later earned a nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.

Sophie was heralded for a signature surrealist, warp-speed sound that bridged the mainstream and the underground, incorporating elements of Japanese and Korean pop, Eurodisco, U.K. garage, ‘90s house and hip-hop, and Y2K pop. Sophie often eschewed samples, instead using Elektron Monomachine and Ableton technology to build instrumentals from waveforms that mimicked the unorthodox found sounds of metal, water, and plastic. “Sophie was a pioneer of a new sound, one of the most influential artists in the last decade. Not only for ingenious production and creativity but also for the message and visibility that was achieved. An icon of liberation,” the artist’s publicist's statement read.

Mary Wilson, Motown Legend and Co-Founder of the Supremes, Dies at 76
 

Mary Wilson, Motown Legend and Co-Founder of the Supremes, Dies at 76

Ms. Wilson, with the original members Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, was part of one of the biggest musical acts of the 1960s.

https://betabeatradio.files.wordpres...ary-wilson.jpg

By Derrick Bryson Taylor
Feb. 9, 2021, 3:02 a.m. ET, New York Times

Mary Wilson, a founding member of the Supremes, the trailblazing group from the 1960s that spun up 12 No. 1 singles on the musical charts and was key to Motown’s legendary sound, died on Monday at her home in Henderson, Nev. She was 76.

Ms. Wilson’s death was confirmed by her publicist, Jay Schwartz. No cause of death was given.

From 1964 to 1965, the Supremes, whose original members included Florence Ballard and Diana Ross as the lead singer, released hit songs such as “Where Did Our Love Go?” “Baby Love,” “Come See About Me” and “Stop! In the Name of Love.”’

The New York Times and other publications will post a full obit sometime today.

RIP Chick Corea 79 yrs. old amazing jazz musician, died of a rare cancer today.

Rest in Hell Forever.
You know who you are!

Yeayyyyyy

I'll bet I know who this was. Initials R.L.?

May he never rest. Let's dance!

Would love to do the crip walk all over his grave.

That was terrible. You know, hate the guy if you want. Hate his politics, that's fine. But he had loved ones mourning his loss. His death mattered to someone.

I thought we were better than that.

What’s terrible is someone who made a fortune with his divisive style of mockery and grievance while denigrating Democrats, environmentalists, “feminazis,” lesbians, and anyone who didn't support conservative-leaning white men.

I’d have a pic-nic at his grave site with loud-ass music if I could get away with it without being arrested.

Terrible, indeed.

rush limbaugh doesn't deserve to have his name capitolized on my book. he deff, didn't deserve the medal of freedom that trump decorated him with, he spewed hatred, in all cultures, he looked down on ethenticity, his manner was not entertaining like some would like for us to believe.I hated everything he stood for. The only solice I have is that in heaven he will learn and see a life he could have stood for and his shame will be his pennance.

r.l. was a precursor to Trump. He primed American society for years before Trump came along with Hatred and Lies. He played down to the very lowest of the low, and he made a fortune doing it. 45 gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. If you really want a quick list of the vitriol he spouted, check out his Wikipedia page. I don't really want to speak ill of the dead (at least not specifically), so I won't list it all here, but the man needed to be shut up long ago, in whatever manner.

He caused a lot more pain and suffering than any of those he left behind will ever know, and it continues to carry on through the generations.

I never said I agreed with him. I'm actually neutral.

Let's say someone who seems much respected on this board were to pass-Rachel Maddow, for instance, whom I happen to loathe. If I were to say I would dance on her grave or call her the devil incarnate, I would be raked over the coals.

What's the difference?

Is a RIP thread really the place for this?

I'd say it's an unequal comparison. Rachel Maddow doesn't have the influence or longevity or the supporters that r.l. did. I can't imagine that r.l. was "much respected" by anyone whose opinion I would value - and if I found out that anyone I cared about did respect r.l., I would have to seriously reconsider my relationship with that person.

But I will say that I think you're the grown-up here, Gráinne. I don't feel good about myself for hating r.l.; I hold grudges for a long time, even after death, and I realize they only hurt me at that point.

Possibly not, possibly so. The nature of appropriate posts for any thread is at least tangentially related to that thread, but you're probably right, as these kinds of posts were not the intention of the OP. But I felt like I had been called out, and so I responded. I really kind of hope it ends soon, maybe with a "let's agree to disagree", or I would think it should probably be moved to its own thread.

As long as he's dead and stays dead, i don't care where I celebrate.

Some deaths occasion an enormous outpouring of grief; some are cause for celebration.

Personally I don't care as long as he stays very very dead.

If you know of a better place I could cheer, please let me know.

Maybe I should have put this in the "What Made You Smile, Today" thread.

[QUOTE=Gráinne;1281261]That was terrible. You know, hate the guy if you want. Hate his politics, that's fine. But he had loved ones mourning his loss. His death mattered to someone.

This is the same man who during the 1980s celebrated the death of people from AIDS on the air.

He is no loss to humanity. If his 4th wife mourns him, well she married him.

Wow you only feel "neutral" about someone as hateful and despicable as Rush Limbaugh but you loathe Rachel Maddow? That is truly, truly unreal. Limbaugh spent time on his radio show celebrating the deaths of AIDS victims, among many, many other truly despicable acts. It was called "AIDS Update" where he read out the names of gay people who had died and celebrated with horns and bells.

I personally don't want to dance on his grave but I am very, very relieved that such a hateful person is gone. I am also very happy that he never had any offspring.

The best response I have seen to his death was from an Instagram account called "Liberal Scum" that raised $400,000 for Planned Parenthood in Limbaugh's honor.

It’s ok—essential, even—to speak the truth about people who caused great harm.

Even after their death.

via -Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, MSNBC Daily Columnist