Andy Whitfield passed away

 Andy Whitfield, who played the title role in the hit cable series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," has died at age 39, according to representatives and family. Whitfield died Sunday in Sydney, Australia, 18 months after he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, manager Sam Maydew told the Associated Press. He was diagnosed more than a year ago and they couldn't make a second season without him, they made a prequel series and then had to replace him for season 2. He was truly a genuine talented smart and handsome man. He will be missed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/11/andy-whitfield-dead-sparta-non-hodgkin-lymphoma_n_957777.html?ref=mostpopular
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-lJ2I9pKq7CXnlTQxoEEbeu2nhcnaFEzszz-0INQaUThNzFymieBTdFwv2nN9jKgaHmikZkC6WOIrYktU3mXORXThFfnVdX2Nopo7p_tW6Qdc76zHhuf1N9qd4WwYVMixX4/s1600/AndyWhitfield75.jpg

My Mom mistakes Sir Ian Mckellan for Anthony Quinn

I was out on the town Sunday night and my mom was sick and drowsy and wanted to sleep. She has the TV on and saw a movie and saw it had Anthony Quinn. She loved Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek was the first movie she ever saw here in the United States. It just so happened that she was watching the Lord of the Rings on TV--namely Return of the King. Basically she thought, in her dazed state, that Sir Ian McKellan as Gandalf the White was Anthony Quinn. And on top of that, I get a text from my dad, trying to confirm a bet between him and my mother that the movie was part of the Harry Potter franchise. Now, when I mention my dad's mistake, he has to make me feel guilty for knowing 'frivolous movie trivia' and he has more important things to focus on.

Andrew Koening (Boner from Growing Pains) Passed Away

Andrew Koening played Mike's best friend Boner on "Growing Pains" in the 80's. Andrew, who was 41, disappeared on Feb 16 and committed suicide. Walter Koenig (Mr. Chekov in the original Star Trek series) is his father. "My son took his own life," his father, Walter Koenig, said in an emotional news conference in the park. "We think he's probably in a very depressed state," he said. Multiple reports said the actor had cleaned out his Los Angeles apartment before coming to Vancouver.

Source:
People.com

Brittany Murphy passes away today

On December 20, 2009, Murphy was rushed to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering a full cardiac arrest and pronounced dead. Reports of her death were confirmed by the Los Angeles County Coroner's office and a spokesperson at the hospital.

Roy Disney passes away

Roy Disney has passed away, so sad, he died of cancer at age 79. He was nice and did the best he could, being the brother of Walt Disney and not actually be his brother. When I was little, and I knew Walt was dead and found out about Roy, I thought it was great, there was some one in the family in the company, protecting his brother's vision. But then I thought it wasn't, that he wasn't but in the end, it was true, confirmed by other animators, writers and directors in dvd's.

Rest In Peace Michael: I apologize and refrain

I am going to refrain from calling him Jacko and will just call him Michael Jackson. John Stewart made me realize that there should be some respect for the deceased, even though whatever I might had thought of him. I feel like I've been coerced by all these loving fanatics and the music his week into feeling sorry for him. I was born in 82 and grew up in the hey-day of his career and saw the slow decline of his pigmation, his nose, and his sanity. And his last attempt at fame, with that music video with Marlon Brando was laughable. But now he should rest in peace. A friend mentioned yesterday and made me realize he had only one job his whole life since he was eight and had a lot of money and probably his sanity stayed at age 8 or 14. It is debatable but I say that if you are going to honor anyone deceased, you talk about everything, the good and bad, because that is true to who they were.

Jacko steals Farrah's thunder

This afternoon I hear the tragic news that Farrah Fawcett (62) has died and then when cooking dinner that Michael Jackson is in a coma--that TMZ has confirmed he was dead and then slowly... ABC confirmed it, MSNBC, the Associated Press and then finally Fox News. Geraldo Rivera was even claiming his last interview with him IS the last interview Jacko would ever give and that he is a vampire. I am singing 'ding dong the king of pop is dead,' all little boys rejoice, you won't have to fear him anymore. But don't forget Farrah people. One is an Angel and one is... you know where. As for Ed Mcmahon (age 88), I didn't know he was dead.

Tribute: Andy Hallett

It is so sad. I am a big fan.

Andy Hallett, who starred as Lorne ("the Host") on the TV series Angel, died of heart failure last night at age 33, according to his longtime agent and friend Pat Brady. After a five-year battle with heart disease, Hallett died on March 29, 2009 at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, with his father Dave Hallett by his side.

The Voice is Silenced

68 year-old Don LaFontaine, most famous for saying "In a world...." in his deep voiceover voice has passed away. LaFontaine was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California with a blood clot in his lungs and was reported as being in critical condition the following Tuesday. LaFontaine died September 1, 2008 following complications from pneumothorax. He recently did a Gieco commercial and was on the Jay Leno Tonight Show lapooning voted out American Idols. He also appeared in two eps of "Family Guy" satiring himself. While working on the 1964 western Gunfighters of Casa Grande, LaFontaine had to fill in for an unavailable voice actor to finish a client’s presentation. Not long after, the client bought the spots, and LaFontaine’s career as a voice actor had been sealed. Prior and into the 1970s, LaFontaine developed his signature style of a strong narrative approach, and heavy melodramatic coloration of his voice work.

Issac Hayes and Bernie Mac RIP

In just a few weeks in the beginning of this month, my birthday month no less, two legends surprisingly pass away. Bernie Mac died at age 50 complications of pneumonia unrelated to sarcoidosis he suffered from and had gone in remission in 2005. I respect Bernie Mac very much, I loved his show. Bernie was younger than my father and his daughter is older than me! Issac Hayes, died at 65 yesterday but the reasons are still unknown. He was found dead on the floor by his wife. They were both working on the movie Soul Men. "This isn't like Dark Knight, where Heath Ledger died while editing was in its infancy," Malcolm Lee says. "Most of our editing is done. We'll go back and see if there is anything we can do better. But (Mac) left us with an indelible performance. I think I got him at the top of his game."

KCRA: Issac Hayes died
BBC: Issac Hayes died
cbs2Chicago: Bernie Mac
USA Today

George Carlin Day

I love George Carlin, he was a great man, actor, and comedian. I first discovered him when he had that FOX sitcom. Today, this Saturday, I tuned in on Bravo in the morning and they were showing the Actor's Studio with George Carlin. I never sat down and watched it before, he was a very smart and linguistic man. And of course, at night NBC showed the first ever Saturday Night Live, in which he hosted. And as you may or may not know, NBC and Bravo are both owned by GE.

Heath Ledger

I am almost crying. I used to cry when I was kid but that has been stifled. I am not the type of guy to be so distraught over a celebrity or actor dying, but this is special to me. Also, it isn't that he is in one of my favorite movies, Brokeback Mountain, I really didn't expect this happening. Brad Renfro recently passed away, for still unknown reasons, I didn't even post something on that. I am not discrediting Brad Renfro, but Ledger's passing is quite frankly a shock and large surprise. I always expected Heath to have a large filmography and keep on acting like Clint Eastwood, Robert Renford, etc. And my prayers go to Michelle Williams, his very young daughter, his parents, and all of his love ones and fans. This is really tragedy, because he had so much potential and it was shame he couldn't see himself on the big screen as the Joker, which he is getting a lot of buzz around.

Tribute: Luciano Pavarotti

October 12, 1935 – September 6, 2007

My own experience on Luciano Pavarotti is that my dad loves his music. As a kid, he played his music constantly in the car. In middle school, I had an assignment to make a cover for my favorite band but I didn't really have a particular favorite artist at the time. So I made one of Pavarotti. I was saddened to hear that he had passed.

Tribute: Tom Tryon

January 14, 1926 – September 4, 1991
Tom Tryon, sometimes listed as Thomas Tyron, was an actor famous for the title role of Disney's "Texas John Slaughter" TV series. He is deeply closeted, his long time companion died of AIDS in 1987 and had a romantic relationship with actor Clive Clerk.

He was inspired by the novel Rosemary's Baby and wrote The Other. That started his writing career, a majority of his novellas became TV series and movies.

He starred in "I Married a Monster from Outer Space." Here is a clip. He and Gloria Talbott (above) reprised their roles in the Sci-Fi channel remake in 1998. I don't know how this is possible if he died in 1991. I saw the remake but don't remember him.

He died in 1991 of stomach cancer at age 65. He quit acting and the article above suggests he didn't want to follow in Rock Hudson's path. In fact, he was disillusioned by acting and went into writing which he did to the end of his days. It must have not been easy seeing the people he loved die and keeping a secret.

Tribute to Howard Ashman

Howard Ashman was the composer of the wonderful music for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. He unfortuantely died after he got the oscar for TLM and didn't get to see Beauty be released. He wrote the music for the play based on an old movie called Little Shop of Horrors, Frank Oz made a film out of that. And films to plays to films hasn't ended: The Producers and upcoming Hairspray.

Here he is showing much passion along with Jodi Benson (Ariel) as the songs where a part of him and many in the doc admit that it has hard to find someone could beat Howard's demos. Howard is behind a lot of the nuances in the film. Certain ways the voice would sound in the song would be his input. The only smart thing Katzenberg did was have a second recording session to catch those nuances.

Pat Carroll who did the voice for Urusla admits she 'stole' how Ashman said 'Isn't it' as 'Innit?' for Ursula and other such.

Howard was quite a looker.

Also interesting to mention, Howard rewrote some scenes for the duo for the movie. One scene he wrote was where Sebastian makes a turning point and decides to go on Ariel's side to help her. Everyone felt he did it of the sudden so the scene was designed for it. It is the scene where she holds him in her hands and he ;ppls at her face of dispair and realizes that she 'will be miserable.' Another was at the end where instead of just a silent scene where Triton makes Ariel a human, he wrote where he says, "How much I will miss her."

They didn't go out and say Howard was gay or what was the cause of his death but they did put 'partner of Howard Ashman' under Bill Lauch. He accepted some awards in Howard's behalf. But I'm happy they atleast put 'partner'. If you're wondering, Bill died of AIDS in the early 90's.

In watching the movie again, I notice not only many Broadway-ness of the movie but also some gay innuendo. That is not a bad thing and I'm not saying the movie has sublimial messages, it just feels knowable by me, maybe something only gay people or people in the know would get.

Howard once said how honored he was he could write music for Disney and how his legacy will live on and it does every night as Jodi sings to her children 'the mermaid song.' You will be remembered very fondly by me.

River Phoenix

I don't know if to call this tribute or not, I am just writing. In 1993, when River Phoenix (born 1970) died of a drug (speedball) induced heart failure, my father gave me an article about his death. I used the article as a report at school. The teacher, I think was touched about my use of such a serious topic. I was 11 and felt he didn't do a wrong thing. Just a reality when abusing drugs, not that it was a 'lifestyle' to whirlwind but I did feel his life has cut short. I have seen a few of his movies and he was a talented actor. He was regarded a sex symbol which much like Brad Pitt he hated but more than Brad, he would go out of his way to not look like one.

He has been compared to James Dean, River started acting in 1985 and never completed the movie Dark Blood and his mother was sued because of loss of expenses which I find unjust. Since his death, many songs have been written either about him or in his honor and many books and movies have been dedicated to him. When I became 23, I didn't realize that was the age he was, he is actually an August baby just like me but I have already lived longer than him since I will be 24 in August. When I saw My Own Private Idaho, I can't help but cry. He was such a marvelous actor and beautiful man. Of course, I know if I knew him, my opinion might be different because we never know.

Smile down from heaven please.

Tribute to the Departed: Gemini

Gemini Tyler
November 29, 1997 - May 20, 2006

Gemini was a unique looking dog, friendly to all. She was the daughter of my best friend dog Nala who passed away five years ago. Gemini was my Neice Melinda's dog and also loyal friend to my sister Sylvia. Gemini was always happy among people and always wagging her curly tail. She was nine years old, she passed away from a seizure, she had a quiet death. She will be dearly missed, many tears were shed by many of the family. Gemini was buried next to her mother's grave in the Conde backyard. Gemini had four litters, first with two puppies, second with one, third with six and last with five. Gemini loved to sleep and follow people around.

Gemini was her own free spirit. She wanted to be independent and she very much was. She wasn't above protecting the ones she love. She was very lethal with her teeth as well. She loved to play like she was biting someone and loved to have her tummy rubbed. May she rest in much needed peace.