The RIP Thread

just echo what others have written about Sean Hughes - too young to die

RIP

 

Gord Downie - of The Tragically Hip, a brilliant musician and frontman of a great band. Never big outside Canada, but for those who enjoy the likes of REM perhaps, well worth a listen.

 

When Gord's condition became known, the band decided to do a cross-Canada tour - a farewell for Downie but also for the Tragically Hip. I didn't see them when they played here in my London (Ontario) in August last year (tickets were hard to come by) but that final concert Nines referred to above was televised live nationally here

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with his emotional tribute to Gord Downie...

 

Rosemary Leach, actress - here in The Charmer

 

benson is dead

Robert Guillaume, Emmy-winning for 'Soap' actor, dies at 89 11/18

'Highly offensive' FB post on Ardern

please log in to view this image

© Getty ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images) Robert Guillaume, who rose from squalid beginnings in St. Louis slums to become a star in stage musicals and win Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the sharp-tongued butler in the TV sitcoms "Soap" and "Benson," has died at age 89.
Guillaume died at home Tuesday in Los Angeles, according to his widow, Donna Brown Guillaume. He had been battling prostate cancer, she told The Associated Press.
Among Guillaume's achievements was playing Nathan Detroit in the first all-black version of "Guys and Dolls," earning a Tony nomination in 1977. He became the first African-American to sing the title role of "Phantom of the Opera," appearing with an all-white cast in Los Angeles.
While playing in "Guys and Dolls, he was asked to test for the role of an acerbic butler of a governor's mansion in "Soap," a primetime TV sitcom that satirized soap operas.
"The minute I saw the script, I knew I had a live one," he recalled in 2001. "Every role was written against type, especially Benson, who wasn't subservient to anyone. To me, Benson was the revenge for all those stereotyped guys who looked like Benson in the '40s and '50s (movies) and had to keep their mouths shut."
The character became so popular that ABC was persuaded to launch a spinoff, simply called "Benson," which lasted from 1979 to 1986. The series made Guillaume wealthy and famous, but he regretted that Benson's wit had to be toned down to make him more appealing as the lead star.
The career of Robert Guillaume almost ended in January 1999 at Walt Disney Studio. He was appearing in the TV series "Sports Night" as Isaac Jaffee, executive producer of a sports highlight show. Returning to his dressing room after a meal away from the studio, he suddenly collapsed.
"I fell on the floor, and I couldn't get up," he told an interviewer in 2001. "I kept floundering about on the floor and I didn't know why I couldn't do it. I didn't know it was it was caused by my left side being weaker than the other."
Fortunately, St. Joseph Hospital was directly across from the studio. The 71-year-old actor was taken there and treated for a stroke— the result of a blood clot that blocked circulation of blood to the brain. They are fatal in 15 percent of the cases.

please log in to view this image

© (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File) In this Sept. 10, 1979 file photo, Robert Guillaume, center, accepts his Emmy Award for best supporting actor in a comedy-variety or music series for his role in "Soap" from Tim Conway, right, and Loni Anderson at the…
Guillaume's stroke was minor, causing relatively slight damage and little effect on his speech. After six weeks in the hospital, he underwent a therapy of walks and sessions in the gym. He returned to the second season of "Sports Talk," and it was written into the script that Isaac Jaffee was recovering from a stroke. Because of slim ratings, the second season proved to be the last for the much-praised show.
Guillaume resumed his career and traveled as a new spokesman for the American Stroke Association. He also made appearance for the American Heart Association.
"I'm a bastard, a Catholic, the son of a prostitute, and a product of the poorest slums of St. Louis."
This was the opening of "Guillaume: A Life," his 2002 autobiography in which he laid bare his troubled life. He was born fatherless on Nov. 30, 1927, in St. Louis, one of four children. His mother named him Robert Peter Williams; when he became a performer he adopted Guillaume, a French version of Williams, believing the change would give him distinction.
His early years were spent in a back-alley apartment without plumbing or electricity; an outhouse was shared with two dozen people. His alcoholic mother hated him because of his dark skin, and his grandmother rescued him, taught him to read and enrolled him in a Catholic school.
Seeking but denied his mother's love and scorned by nuns and students because of his dark skin, the boy became a rebel, and that carried into his adult life. He was expelled from school and then the Army, though he was granted an honorable discharge. He fathered a daughter and abandoned the child and her mother. He did the same to his first wife and two sons and to another woman and a daughter.
He worked in a department store, the post office and as St. Louis's first black streetcar motorman. Seeking something better, he enrolled at St. Louis University, excelling in philosophy and Shakespeare, and then at Washington University (St. Louis) where a music professor trained the young man's superb tenor singing voice.
After serving as an apprentice at theaters in Aspen, Colo., and Cleveland, the newly named Guillaume toured with Broadway shows "Finian's Rainbow," ''Golden Boy," ''Porgy and Bess" and "Purlie," and began appearing on sitcoms such as "The Jeffersons" and "Sanford and Son." Then came "Soap" and "Benson." His period of greatest success was marred by tragedy when his 33-year-old son Jacques died of AIDS.
Guillaume's first stable relationship came when he married TV producer Donna Brown in the mid-1980s and fathered a daughter, Rachel. At last he was able to shrug off the bitterness he had felt throughout his life.
"To assuage bitterness requires more than human effort," he wrote at the end of his autobiography. "Relief comes from a source we cannot see but can only feel. I am content to call that source love."

 

Fats Domino, gone.

Loved his voice growing up.

 

Me too.

RIP Fats.

 

Did he find his drill eventually and where was it

 

New Orleans musician Fats Domino has died aged 89. According to WWL-TV, the musician died surrounded by his family and friends, with confirmation coming from the family on Wednesday morning. Fats is known as a pianist and singer-songwriter, with some of his most recognisable songs including Blueberry Hill and Walkin’ To New Orleans. The singer sold more than 65 million records, with his million-selling debut single The Fat Man being credited by some as the first ever rock and roll record. Domino was one of the biggest rock and roll stars in the 1950s, and became a huge influence to artists like Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney. John Lennon also covered Domino’s track Ain’t That A Shame on his 1975 album Rock ‘n’ Roll, which was a tribute to other musicians. Domino was also one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1986, where he was inducted by Billy Joel.

 

Ain’t that a shame!

 

Another of the founding fathers of rock and roll gone to join the big band in the sky. RIP...

 

Apparently Jules Holland is bricking it as someone has suggested that he might be asked to organize it.

 

...just carrying the casket oughta do it...

 

Fats Domino, truly one of the greats.

 

I must confess that up until yesterday I thought he was one of those less healthy pizzas.

 

My father passed away today after a fairly long battle against Parkinson’s; he was 81. RIP Dad.

 

Condolences Ubes, look after yourself and the family.

 

Sorry to hear that pal - thoughts with you and your family