RIP

[PlatinumPearl]

Tony Hsieh in 2013. He led Zappos, the online shoe retailer, for two decades.

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

[PlatinumPearl]

David Prowse called Darth Vader "the ultimate screen villain of all time."

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

[PlatinumPearl]

James D. Wolfensohn who Led the World Bank for 10 Years, Dies at 86 on November 25, 2020.

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

[Gemme]

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.

[Kätzchen]

[GeorgiaMa'am]

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.

[Gemme]

Oscar and Emmy winning actress Cloris Leachman passed away today.

[~ocean]

Originally Posted by Gemme

Oscar and Emmy winning actress Cloris Leachman passed away today.

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.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

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.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am

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.

[Gemme]

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.