The Rest In Peace and Remembrance Thread

[Scott Reppert]

Margaret Whiting, Pop Singer Mentored By Johnny Mercer, Dies At 86

By Don Heckman, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Margaret Whiting, a pop singer for television, film, cabaret and Broadway whose recordings of such standards as "That Old Black Magic" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" sold millions of copies in the 1940s and '50s, has died. She was 86.

Whiting died Monday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., said Jordan Strohl, administrator for the retirement home. The cause was not given.

Blessed with a distinctive voice and a warm, insightful singing style, Whiting had a career that stretched over seven decades. She recorded for the first time while she was still in her teens and was still performing as a cabaret artist in her 70s and 80s.

Her duet with Johnny Mercer on "Baby It's Cold Outside" continues to be heard every holiday season. And as recently as 2009, her 1947 recording of "Time After Time" was heard in the film "Julie & Julia."

Whiting was born July 22, 1924, in Detroit. Her father, Richard "Dick" Whiting, was a songwriter. Her mother, Eleanor Youngblood Whiting, managed singers such as Sophie Tucker. Her aunt, Margaret Youngblood, was a vaudeville artist.

Raised in New York City, where her father wrote for musicals, and in Los Angeles, where he was active in films, Whiting was surrounded by entertainment-world icons. Judy Garland was a childhood friend. And on any given night she heard new songs from the likes of Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Harold Arlen.

One of the most important of those show business friends was Mercer, who began partnering with Richard Whiting in the '30s, writing, among other songs, "Hooray for Hollywood" and "Too Marvelous for Words." After starting to sing, with Mercer's encouragement, as a child, Whiting began working with him when she was 7. When her father died in 1938, Mercer — already her mentor — also took on the role of surrogate father.

Whiting often mentioned the advice Mercer had given her when she announced her youthful ambitions to become a singer.

"One night when I was about 7 or 8," she told The Times, "my mother asked him to listen to me perform. When I finished singing, he called me over and said, 'I've got two words of advice for you: Grow up.' Then he said I should try and find a style that was uniquely my own."

It was advice that Whiting took to heart. Barely out of her mid-teens when Mercer and two partners formed Capitol Records in 1942, she became one of the new label's first signings. Her wartime recordings, her performances at USO concerts and her appealing, girl-I-left-behind charm established her as a favorite of young men in the armed forces.

Her first hit song, Mercer and Arlen's "That Old Black Magic," was recorded with the Freddie Slack Orchestra a week after Whiting's 18th birthday. A year later, she recorded her late father's "My Ideal," written in 1930. A string of her hits — "It Might as Well Be Spring," "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Guilty" among them — followed, resulting in more than a dozen records that sold more than a million copies each.

But what was to become one of Whiting's signature songs, "Moonlight In Vermont," with the Billy Butterfield Orchestra, almost wasn't recorded, because, she said, "I've never been to Vermont." Nonetheless, in Whiting's hands, the song — with its unusual six-bar phrases and lack of rhymes — became a hit and an American songbook classic.

In the late 1940s, her maturing musical skills and expanding interests led Whiting into different stylistic genres. "Far Away Places," "Now Is the Hour" and "A Tree in the Meadow" continued her string of mainstream hits. But she also produced a series of duets with country singer Jimmy Wakely, with "Slippin' Around" crossing over into the wider pop audience.

Her successes — more than 700 songs recorded and a dozen gold records — reflected a natural ability, enhanced by her relationship with Mercer, to find material best suited to her interpretive style.

"I like to dramatize songs — to tell stories," she told the Chicago Tribune in 1985. "I look for a terrific lyric and a wonderful melody, the kind you hear once or twice and your ears go up."

Whiting stayed with Capitol until the mid-1950s, when she and her sister, Barbara, starred in the CBS TV comedy "Those Whiting Girls." Her recordings for Dot (in 1957) and Verve (1960) were largely eclipsed by the arrival of rock 'n' roll. But her last big hit, "The Wheel of Hurt," was released in 1966, after she returned to her old home at Capitol.

Her lifelong dedication to Mercer, who died in 1976, peaked when Whiting became the head of the Johnny Mercer Foundation in 1994. In 1997 she starred in "Dream," a Broadway revue based on Mercer's music.

And in the last decade, Whiting, still active and buoyant, told Mercer stories and sang his songs for entranced audiences across the country in "I Remember Johnny."

Evaluating her own performances at the time, she told The Times, "I started out as a person who was musical, singing songs the way I was told they should be sung. Now, I am singing as a woman who has been through the ultimate experience of living."

Whiting married four times. Her first husband was Hubbell Robinson, a CBS TV executive. Her second husband, Lou Busch, used the name Joe "Fingers" Carr in his persona as a ragtime pianist, and was the father of Whiting's daughter, Deborah, who survives her. In 1958, Whiting married John Richard Moore, a founder of Panavision. She married her last husband, gay porn star Jack Wrangler in 1994, after years of living together. Wrangler died in 2009.

[David Paleg]

Actor John Dye, who had role on 'Touched by an Angel' TV series, dead at 47
By Associated Press
1:25 a.m. CST, January 14, 2011


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Actor John Dye, whose career included the role of Andrew, the angel of death, in the long-running television series "Touched by an Angel," was found dead at his San Francisco home, a medical examiner's spokesman said Thursday.

Medical examiner's investigator Charles Cecil said the 47-year-old Dye, a native of Amory, Miss., was found dead Monday.

The cause of death has not been determined, Cecil said, but relatives said Dye suffered apparent heart failure.

WREG-TV in Memphis reported that Dye's father, Jim Dye, said his actor son "was very giving, had a lot of causes that he supported real well, Make a Wish Foundation, AIDS research."

The Cleveland Daily Banner reported Thursday that while living in the community as a youngster, Dye was involved in a children's theater group and in the 1990s helped re-establish it.

As news of Dye's death began to spread Thursday afternoon, his "Touched by an Angel" co-star Valerie Bertinelli posted a message to him on her Twitter account: "Dear, sweet John Dye, rest in peace."

A University of Memphis theater major, Dye's early work included the martial-arts movie "The Best of the Best" and small roles on "Murder, She Wrote" and other television shows. He landed the part of the Angel of Death on "Touched by an Angel" in 1994 and appeared in all nine seasons of the CBS series.

A spokeswoman for E.E. Pickle Funeral Home in Amory said funeral arrangements were incomplete.

[David Paleg]

Oscar-nominated British actress Susannah York dies
Jan 16, 7:00 AM (ET)
By GREGORY KATZ

LONDON (AP) - British actress Susannah York, one of the leading stars of British and Hollywood films in the late 1960s and early 1970s, has died in London at the age of 72.

York died of cancer Saturday at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

Her son, the actor Orlando Wells, said York was an incredibly brave woman who did not complain about her illness and a "truly wonderful mother." He said she went into the hospital on Jan. 6 after experiencing shoulder pain.

York had a long, distinguished career on film, television and on stage, but she is best remembered for her early roles, when she had an immediate impact that started with her 1963 role as Albert Finney's love interest in the memorable period piece romp "Tom Jones."

With its tongue-in-cheek sensuality and gentle sendup of the British aristocracy, the film is remembered as an early landmark in '60s cinema, and York's unmistakable presence added to its appeal. Her long blond hair, stunning blue eyes and quick-witted repartee brought her a string of excellent roles.

York was nominated for an Oscar for the 1969 classic "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and also starred in "A Man for All Seasons" and other classic films from that era.

She acted with major stars like Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, George C. Scott and many others, stirring some controversy with her daring portrayal of a lesbian in the 1968 drama "The Killing of Sister George."

In 1972 York won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. Her film work tailed off as London's "Swinging Sixties" era faded into cultural history, but she did play Superman's mother in several of the films.

She moved on to television and stage work, earning a number of accolades and awards throughout her long career. She made appearances in several successful TV shows including "The Love Boat" in the U.S. and "Holby City" in Britain.

Her stage work continued for much of her career and included several one-woman shows.

Wells said his mother was incredibly versatile throughout her working life.
"There was the glamorous Hollywood aspect - she has worked with everyone from John Huston to Sydney Pollack - as well as the big commercial films like Superman," he said.

Wells said his mother also had a passion for writing.

"She wrote two children's books, which is great for her grandchildren and something we will pass on to them," said Wells.

York was born in London and studied at the storied Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which has tutored many of Britain's top actors throughout the years.

York had two children - son Orlando and daughter Sasha - with her husband, Michael Wells, before they divorced. She is survived by her children and several grandchildren.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Playwright Romulus Linney dies at 80
Jan 16, 10:49 AM (ET)

NEW YORK (AP) - A playwright whose work ranged from stories set in Appalachia to the Nuremberg trials has died in New York. Romulus Linney was 80.

Linney's wife Laura Callanan said the playwright died Saturday at his home in Germantown, N.Y., north of Poughkeepsie (poh-KIHP'-see). The cause was lung cancer.

Linney, father of actress Laura Linney, wrote more than 30 plays. Among them were works about historical figures like the poet Lord Byron and adaptations of stories like Charles Dickens'"A Christmas Carol."

He had one play on Broadway, with most of his work appearing off-Broadway and in regional theater.

Callanan said he had been working on a novel at the time of his death, and had completed the libretto for an opera.

Linney's first two marriages ended in divorce. He is also survived by another daughter, Susan Linney.

[amayo]

This sucks---


DON KIRSHNER DIES

Don Kirshner, a songwriter and producer known in the music industry as “The Man With The Golden Ear,” has died. He was 77 and the cause was heart failure, according to a statement.

One of Kirshner’s first steps in the music business was discovering singer Bobby Darin in the 1950s. The duo eventually went their separate ways but Kirshner was hooked on the thrill of the music business.

“I can hear a kid hit a note and I know whether he has it or not,” Kirshner once told Time magazine.

He, along with musician Al Nevins, then founded a songwriting factory, Aldon Music in the legendary Brill Building in New York City. Writers and performers such as Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann all churned out songs for Aldon Music.

In 1965 Kirshner was charged with putting together the music for “The Monkees” television show. “The Monkees” was conceived of as an answer to The Beatles’ “A Hard Days Night” and the show would run for two years. The members of the Monkees eventually wrote, produced and performed their own music.

After parting ways with The Monkees, Kirshner put together a cartoon band with the characters from the comic book “Archie.” The group would have a number one hit with “Sugar, Sugar.”

In 1973 he created and eventually hosted his own weekly live music show Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.

Kirshner was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2007. He is survived by his wife of 50 years Sheila and his children Ricky and Daryn.

[Scott Reppert]

I thank Don Kirshner for enabling The Monkees to get to the point where they could ditch him and still survive and for introducing me to Roy Wood's Wizzard on that Saturday night early in 1974. Aside from that...

[amayo]

"Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" was something I grew up on, and it enabled me to see, and hear bands I would otherwise have missed as I was growing up.

Not to mentin Paul Schaeffer did a killer Kirshner impression on SNL in the 70's!

[jag]

Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru who inspired television viewers to trim down, eat well and pump iron for decades before diet and exercise became a national obsession, died Sunday. He was 96.

LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast, his longtime agent Rick Hersh said.

LaLanne ate healthy and exercised every day of his life up until the end, Hersh said.

"I have not only lost my husband and a great American icon, but the best friend and most loving partner anyone could ever hope for," Elaine LaLanne, LaLanne's wife of 51 years and a frequent partner in his television appearances, said in a written statement.

He maintained a youthful physique and joked in 2006 that "I can't afford to die. It would wreck my image."

Former "Price is Right" host Bob Barker credited LaLanne's encouragement with helping him to start exercising often.

"He never lost enthusiasm for life and physical fitness," the 87-year-old Barker told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I saw him in about 2007 and he still looked remarkably good. He still looked like the same enthusiastic guy that he always was."

LaLanne (pronounced lah-LAYN') credited a sudden interest in fitness with transforming his life as a teen, and he worked tirelessly over the next eight decades to transform others' lives, too.

"The only way you can hurt the body is not use it," LaLanne said. "Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it's never too late."

His workout show was a television staple from the 1950s to the '70s. LaLanne and his dog Happy encouraged kids to wake their mothers and drag them in front of the television set. He developed exercises that used no special equipment, just a chair and a towel.

He also founded a chain of fitness studios that bore his name and in recent years touted the value of raw fruit and vegetables as he helped market a machine called Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer.

When he turned 43 in 1957, he performed more than 1,000 push-ups in 23 minutes on the "You Asked For It" television show. At 60, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco — handcuffed, shackled and towing a boat. Ten years later, he performed a similar feat in Long Beach harbor.

"I never think of my age, never," LaLanne said in 1990. "I could be 20 or 100. I never think about it, I'm just me. Look at Bob Hope, George Burns. They're more productive than they've ever been in their whole lives right now."

Fellow bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger credited LaLanne with taking exercise out of the gymnasium and into living rooms.

"He laid the groundwork for others to have exercise programs, and now it has bloomed from that black and white program into a very colorful enterprise," Schwarzenegger said in 1990.

In 1936 in his native Oakland, LaLanne opened a health studio that included weight-training for women and athletes. Those were revolutionary notions at the time, because of the theory that weight training made an athlete slow and "muscle bound" and made a woman look masculine.

"You have to understand that it was absolutely forbidden in those days for athletes to use weights," he once said. "It just wasn't done. We had athletes who used to sneak into the studio to work out.

"It was the same with women. Back then, women weren't supposed to use weights. I guess I was a pioneer," LaLanne said.

The son of poor French immigrants, he was born in 1914 and grew up to become a sugar addict, he said.

The turning point occurred one night when he heard a lecture by pioneering nutritionist Paul Bragg, who advocated the benefits of brown rice, whole wheat and a vegetarian diet.

"He got me so enthused," LaLanne said. "After the lecture I went to his dressing room and spent an hour and a half with him. He said, 'Jack, you're a walking garbage can.'"

Soon after, LaLanne constructed a makeshift gym in his back yard. "I had all these firemen and police working out there and I kind of used them as guinea pigs," he said.

He said his own daily routine usually consisted of two hours of weightlifting and an hour in the swimming pool.

"It's a lifestyle, it's something you do the rest of your life," LaLanne said. "How long are you going to keep breathing? How long do you keep eating? You just do it."

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Dan and Jon, and a daughter, Yvonne

[Bob Campbell]

To show what great condition he's in, LaLanne will serve as his own pallbearer at the funeral.

[David Paleg]

From push-ups to pushing up daisies.

[Dave Allen]

You do all those situps and drink all that juice and what do you get? Still fucking dead. Give me grease and my sittin on my ass anytime!

[jag]

I appreciate your humor, dave, but NINETY-SIX GOOD years!

I once heard it said that the point is not adding years to one's life, but rather, adding life to one's years (in fact, I think it was LaLanne who said it). To that end, Jack was wildly successful. No complex gadgetry. No gimmicky gyms. No high-fashion clothing. No bizarre diets. Just a willingness to eat well and to get up and move.

[Scott Reppert]

Louvin Brother Charlie Passes Away At 83

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Charlie Louvin, half of the Louvin Brothers whose harmonies inspired fellow country and pop singers for decades, has died due to complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 83.

Brett Steele, his manager, said the country music hall of fame singer died at his home in Wartrace, Tenn., early Wednesday.

Louvin was diagnosed with cancer last year and underwent surgery, but continued to schedule performances and even put out an album. He was one of several stars invited to a welcome home performance of the Grand Ole Opry last year after floods damaged the Opry house.

According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the unique sound of Charlie and his brother, Ira, was highly influential in the history of the genre. The hall inducted them in 2001.

Among their hits were "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby," which was No. 1 in 1965; "When I Stop Dreaming"; "Hoping That You're Hoping"; and "You're Running Wild."

The brothers decided to disband their duo in 1963. Two years later, Ira died in a Missouri car accident. Charlie later recalled that differences in personality and Ira's drinking created friction between them, but said they probably would have reunited if Ira had lived.

Charlie Louvin recorded regularly after his brother died. His album "The Longest Train" was released in 1996. His biggest solo hits were "See the Big Man Cry" in 1965 and "I Don't Love You Anymore" in 1964.

They influenced harmony acts from the Everly Brothers onward. Emmylou Harris had a hit with their "If I Could Only Win Your Love" in 1975. The Notting Hillbillies recorded the Louvins' "Weapon of Prayer" in 1990.

Interest in his music resurged as Louvin reached his 80s. In 2007, his first studio album in years, "Charlie Louvin," boasting appearances from artists like George Jones and Elvis Costello, was nominated for a Grammy as best traditional folk album.

A year later, his "Steps To Heaven" was nominated as best Southern, country or bluegrass gospel album. It was one of two albums he put out in 2008; the other was "Charlie Louvin Sings Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs."

Louvin said in a 1979 Associated Press interview that he and his brother, reunited, would have become country music superstars.

"If we were together today, we could be the hottest group. That's where the music is — the Louvin Brothers sound. Everybody is trying the Louvin sound."

He recalled in a 2007 AP interview that Ira "was extremely hard to get along with when he drank, and he drank too often." But he said his brother was phenomenally talented as a songwriter, taking ideas proposed by Charlie and turning them into finished songs.

"My job was to listen to people ... and if they said something that caught your ear that would make a good title ... I would write it down and I'd give it to Ira."

A complete song, Louvin recalled, would "come to him like, God, like he was reading it off of another piece of paper. ... He was nice enough to put my name on the songs also."

The duo had become members of the Grand Ole Opry in 1955, and Charlie Louvin remained an Opry performer for more than 50 years.

During one stretch of touring in 1955, Elvis Presley was the brothers' opening act. That second billing didn't last long, he recalled in 2007.

"It didn't take a month until they dropped the name 'Presley' and nearly the backdrop of the entire stage was ELVIS. He got big quick, very quick, but he was a good kid."

He laughed when he said he was "kinda like the people in the audience — I didn't know what he's doing. ... My brother said he's the only man he'd ever seen that could wear his clothes on out from the inside with all his shaking."

Charlie Louvin was born Charles Loudermilk in Henager, Ala., in 1927. He and Ira, born in 1924, worked in the fields on the family farm and began singing together as teenagers, developing the harmony that would become their trademark.

"I can remember my brother and I singing together when I was five and he was eight years old," Louvin told The Associated Press. "He already knew how, and he was teaching me."

They worked on radio stations in Knoxville, Tenn., and Memphis, Tenn., in the 1940s, and signed their first record deal with Apollo in 1947.

Charlie Louvin said in 1992, "I hear the Louvin Brothers are more famous in Japan than they were in the United States."

[jag]

Gladys Horton Dies At 66: Motown Marvelette Lead Singer

Gladys Horton, who was a teenager when she led the Marvelettes in the Motown hit "Please Mr. Postman," has died at the age of 66.

Horton died on Wednesday in a nursing home in the Los Angeles area where she had stayed after suffering a stroke last year, her son, Vaughn Thornton, said in a statement on Thursday.

"My mother died peacefully," Thornton said. "She fought as long as she could."

Horton, who was raised by foster parents in the Detroit suburb of Inkster, formed a singing group with friends while in high school.

That group, originally called "The Casinyets" short for "can't sing yet," caught the attention of Berry Gordy's Motown studio and changed their name to the Marvelettes.

"Please Mr. Postman," featuring the 17-year-old Horton's bluesy lead vocals became Motown's first No. 1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 when it was released in 1961.

Horton was also the lead singer on a string of later hits, including "Beechwood 4-5789" (1962) and "Too Many Fish in the Sea" (1964).

She was replaced by Wanda Young as lead singer in the group in 1965 and left the Marvelettes in 1967.

Horton had been living in California since the early 1970s

[jag]

Comedian Charlie Callas dies at 86

Comedian Charlie Callas has died at the age of 86.

The veteran funnyman, who worked with Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, passed away on Thursday at a care centre in Las Vegas, according to Lvrj.com. No further details were available as WENN went to press.

Callas served in the U.S. army during World War II and later worked as a drummer before turning to stand-up comedy.

He became well-known for his TV appearances, including regular slots on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, before he was eventually banned by the host for shoving him in an attempt to generate laughs.

Callas famously voiced dragon Elliot in the 1977 Disney film "Pete's Dragon," and starred in Robert Wagner's 1970s detective TV show "Switch." He also regularly opened for Frank Sinatra at the singer's Las Vegas shows.

He was married to Eve Velac and has two children.

[Scott Reppert]

Charlie Callas. This, again, is a tragic loss.

I don't know the correct way to type "vrrrt, vrrrt, vrrrt" but there is my best attempt...

[unchoopfan]

Tony DiPardo
KC Chiefs bandleader, "Mr. Music of Kansas City," dead at 98

Bandleader Tony DiPardo, a boisterous showman who for almost 45 years was the most visible Kansas City Chiefs booster in town, died this morning at Lee's Summit Hospital. He was 98.

DiPardo, was a trumpeter and swing-era veteran who became a successful conductor of hotel and society bands here beginning in the 1940s. He later formed a booking agency through which he hired musicians — many of them skilled jazz players — for a wide variety of engagements and fielded numerous bands simultaneously under the DiPardo name.

The man who often called himself “Mr. Music of Kansas City” was known as a tireless promoter and a shrewd businessman who built a reputation as one of the city’s most ubiquitous bandleaders.

DiPardo began providing live music for Chiefs games in 1963, when the team played at old Municipal Stadium and games were not well attended. He became a visual symbol at home games, often donning a war bonnet and riding Warpath, the Chiefs’ mascot, around the stadium.

“Sometimes he could be too much of a fan,” said former Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson. “I remember being in the huddle and I was trying to call a play and he’d start up that ‘Charge!’ cheer with his trumpet. I used to tell Hank Stram, ‘Hey, can you get Tony to do that charge thing when the other team’s in the huddle?’ Do it when John Hadl’s trying to call a play.”

DiPardo stepped aside in 1983, when the organization decided to take the music in a different direction. But the team brought DiPardo back in 1989, the year his daughter, Patti DiPardo, became the band director.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/27/26 ... z1CQx8hJTa

[David Paleg]

David Frye, 77; comedian famous for impressions of Nixon, other politicians
New York Times / January 29, 2011

David Frye, whose wicked send-ups of political figures like Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey, and, above all, Richard M. Nixon, made him one of the most popular comedians in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died Monday in Las Vegas, where he lived. He was 77.

The cause was cardiopulmonary arrest, a spokeswoman for the Clark County coroner’s office in Nevada said.

In the early 1960s Mr. Frye was a struggling impressionist working the clubs of Greenwich Village, relying on a fairly standard repertoire of Hollywood actors. Then he slipped Robert F. Kennedy into his act, basing his impression on a girlfriend’s comment that Kennedy sounded like Bugs Bunny.

Audiences loved it, and Mr. Frye began adding other politicians, capturing not just their vocal peculiarities but also their body language and facial expressions. His LBJ, with a lugubrious hound-dog face and a Texas twang rich in slushy “s’’ sounds, became a trademark, as did his bouncy Hubert Humphrey.

But it was Nixon who made his comedic career. Shoulders hunched, deep-set eyes glowering, Mr. Frye captured the insecure, neurotic Nixon perfectly. “I am the President’’ — his blustery tagline and the title of a comedy album he recorded for Elektra in 1969 — seemed to get at the essence of a powerful politician in desperate need of validation.

“I do Nixon not by copying his real actions but by feeling his attitude, which is that he cannot believe that he really is president,’’ Mr. Frye told Esquire magazine in 1971. Nixon also played the starring role in Mr. Frye’s later albums “Radio Free Nixon’’ (1971), “Richard Nixon Superstar’’ (1971), and the Watergate satire “Richard Nixon: A Fantasy’’ (1973).

Mr. Frye added a panoply of political and cultural figures to his act. His William F. Buckley Jr., all darting tongue and wildly searching eyes, was stellar, but he also worked up dead-on impressions of George Wallace, Nelson Rockefeller, David Susskind, Billy Graham, Howard Cosell, and a long list of film actors.

It was Nixon, however, who kept Mr. Frye a regular on top television variety shows and at the big Las Vegas casinos, perhaps because he was one of few politicians with a truly Shakespearean richness of character. In one skit Mr. Frye even had the president smoking marijuana and reporting, in hushed tones, “I see spacious skies and fruited plains and amber waves of grain.’’

Mr. Frye was born as David Shapiro in Brooklyn. At the University of Miami, he was already doing mime impressions in campus productions. Soon he discovered he had an ear for distinctive Hollywood voices like Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant and began doing vocal impressions as well.

After serving with an Army Special Services unit in France, he returned to New York and developed his act at small clubs while working as a salesman for his father’s office-cleaning business. At the Village Gate, where he was filling in for a regular in early 1966, talent scouts saw his Bobby Kennedy imitation and booked him on “The Merv Griffin Show.’’ Soon he was appearing on “The Leslie Uggams Show,’’ “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,’’ and “The Tonight Show.’’

Nixon’s departure from the scene took most of the air out of his career. With the president’s resignation in August 1974, Mr. Frye lost the best friend an impressionist ever had. He continued to add impressions to his act: Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin, among others. But he never enjoyed anything approaching the fame that the Johnson and Nixon years had given him.

[jag]

5-Oscar winner, composer John Barry, dies at 77

LONDON — Composer John Barry, who won five Oscars for his film work but was best known for his contributions to a dozen James Bond movies, has died. He was 77.

Barry died in New York on Sunday, his family said.

The English-born composer won two Oscars, for the score and the song, for "Born Free" in 1966, and he earned single statuettes for "The Lion in Winter" (1968), "Out of Africa" (1985) and "Dances with Wolves" (1990).

He was also nominated for his scores for "Mary, Queen of Scots" in 1971 and "Chaplin" in 1992.

His association with Agent 007 began controversially with "Dr. No" in 1962, although his contribution was not credited. He wrote music for a dozen Bond films in all.

Monty Norman, who was credited as the composer for "Dr. No," sued The Sunday Times in 2001 for reporting that Barry had been called in to help after Norman's inspiration faltered. Norman won the case, collecting 30,000 pounds ($48,000).

Barry, who was not sued, had testified that he was paid 250 pounds to work on the music but had agreed that Norman would get the credit, which was his contractual right.

Barry subsequently wrote music for "Goldfinger," "From Russia with Love," "Thunderball," "You Only Live Twice," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," "Diamonds are Forever," "The Man with the Golden Gun," "Moonraker," "Octopussy," "A View to a Kill" and "The Living Daylights."

Born in York, England as John Barry Prendergast, he trained as a pianist and then took up the trumpet. He founded a jazz group, the John Barry Seven, in 1957.

The group teamed with singer Adam Faith, scoring hits with "What Do You Want?" and "Poor Me," and Barry moved into film work when Faith was tapped to star in "Beat Girl" (titled "Living for Kicks" in the United States).

"The James Bond movies came because we were successful in the pop music world, with a couple of big instrumental hits. They thought I knew how to write instrumental hit music," Barry said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1991.

Barry was divorced three times. He is survived by his wife Laurie, his four children and five grandchildren. A private funeral was planned, the family said.

[unchoopfan]

Doc Williams
Country music legend, Wheeling Jamboree star dead at 96
http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=view ... ryid=93536

Doc and Chickie Williams were 2009 inductees into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame: http://www.wvmusichalloffame.com/DocChickie.html

[David Paleg]

'Last Tango in Paris' star Maria Schneider dies
Feb 3, 11:13 AM (ET)
By JENNY BARCHFIELD

PARIS (AP) - Maria Schneider, the French actress who was Marlon Brando's young co-star in the steamy 1972 film "Last Tango in Paris," has died, her talent agency said. She was 58.

A representative of the Act 1 agency said Schneider died in Paris on Thursday "following a long illness," but declined to provide details.

Schneider was 19 when she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci's racy "Last Tango in Paris." In it, she played a young Parisian woman who takes up with a middle-aged American businessman, played by Brando.

Throughout her career, Schneider appeared in more than two dozen films, most of them French. The last movie she appeared in, "The Key," by director Guillaume Nicloux, came out in 2007.

The Act 1 representative said she was not aware of funeral plans. She asked not to be named in accordance with her agency's policy.