US boxer Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter dies

Actor Bob Hoskins has sadly passed away at the age of 71. I will always remember him from 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' which is one of my all time favorites. RIP to a really great talent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/movies/bob-hoskins-british-actor-dies-at-71.html

Actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. died today at age 95.

Three of us had him on our lists.

He had a small part (as the husband of blind Audrey Hepburn) in one of my favorite movies from the '60s - "Wait Until Dark".

I'll always remember him from (sing along old timers) "77 Sunset Strip (snap snap)." Use to watch it all the time.

You just had a thing for Kookie Byrnes, Tis .

Remember Clay Cole from his Clay Cole TV show. He also was a singer if I remember right. He made a movie with Dion. Dion is still performing will see him in June at the Becan theather.

Wayne Henderson, a trombonist and composer who was a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders, which played straight-ahead bebop beginning in the 1950s and then morphed into leading performers of jazz-funk, died on April 5 in Culver City, Calif. He was 74.

His wife, Cathy, said the cause was heart failure triggered by diabetes.

The Jazz Crusaders, who shortened their name to the Crusaders in 1971, placed 19 albums on the Billboard Top 200, eight of them in the Top 50. Their funky, danceable renditions of songs by the Beatles, Carole King and others extended their reach beyond jazz fans. So did original songs by Mr. Henderson, like “Keep That Same Old Feeling.” At their height the Crusaders opened for the Rolling Stones.

“We are the fathers of jazz-funk-fusion, and I am a funkster at heart,” Mr. Henderson said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times in 1995. “We took pop tunes like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘So Far Away’ and did them melodically with a groove, so people could dance if they wanted.”

That groove — subtle, almost mesmerizing repetitions of a theme — was the essential characteristic of the Crusaders’ music. Its influence can be heard today in acid jazz, house music and hip-hop.

Mr. Henderson was born on Sept. 24, 1939, in Houston, where he and three high school friends formed a group called the Swingsters in 1952. The others were Wilton Felder, a tenor saxophonist; Joe Sample, a keyboardist; and Stix Hooper, a drummer...

Singer Jerry Vale died today at the age of 83.

In addition to a career spanning more than a half-century, he also appeared (briefly) as himself in GoodFellas.

R.I.P.


Signor V.

Gordon Willis, the legendary cinematographer who created the now-classic visual style of 'The Godfather', 'Manhattan', and many other influential films of the 1970s, has passed away at age 82.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni57199024/

Willis was, indeed, legendary. One of the most amazing films he photographed was Woody Allen's Zelig. In an age before CGI effects, Willis's work on that film was simply astounding.


Signor V.

It also seems like the first thing I do when I hear someone died is to check my entry list to see if I had them on it.

You too, huh??