***The Official 2019 Celebrity Death Pool Thread***

[86\*/98]

Jessica Simpson.

 

[JackRoss]

artie lange


bam margera

Artie stay living for no reason.

Bam gon die

That's my choice

 

[JackRoss]

Jessica Simpson.

We have a new comer

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Keith Flint, Lead Singer of The Prodigy, Dies at 49



By DANICA KIRKA / AP
Updated: March 4, 2019 9:10 AM ET
(LONDON) — Keith Flint, lead singer of influential British dance-electronic band The Prodigy, was found dead Monday at his home near London, the band said. He was 49.

Prodigy co-founder Liam Howlett said in an Instagram post that Flint killed himself over the weekend.

“I’m shell shocked … confused and heart broken,” he wrote.

Police confirmed that the body of a 49-year-old man had been found at a home in Brook Hill, northeast of London. They said the death was being treated as non-suspicious and a file would be sent to the coroner — standard practice in cases of violent or unexplained deaths.

Flint was the stage persona of the band, whose 1990s hits “Firestarter” and “Breathe” were an incendiary fusion of techno, breakbeat and acid house music.

The Prodigy sold 30 million records, helping to take rave music from an insular community of party-goers to an international audience. They had seven No. 1 albums in Britain, most recently with “No Tourists” in 2018.

Flint was renowned for his manic stage energy and distinctive look: black eyeliner and hair spiked into two horns.

“A true pioneer, innovator and legend,” the band said in a statement confirming his death. “He will be forever missed.”

Born Keith Charles Flint on Sept. 17, 1969 in east London, he moved to east of the city to Braintree, Essex as a child, where he met Howlett at a nightclub.

Formed in the early 1990s, The Prodigy was known as much for its overt anti-establishment stance as for its music. The band members were vocal critics of the U.K.’s Criminal Justice And Public Order Act 1994, which banned the raves popularized in the late-1980s during the so-called Second Summer of Love.

Electronic duo the Chemical Brothers tweeted that Flint “as an amazing front man, a true original and he will be missed.”

Grime musician Dizzee Rascal said he had opened for The Prodigy in 2009, “and he was one of the nicest people I’ve met and always was every time I met him, the whole band were. When it comes to stage few people can carry a show like him I’m proud to say I’ve seen it for myself.”

Prodigy was my shyt, man.

Spoiler

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Dude, those are good ass picks too.

Something's been goin' on with her. She just passed out on her stage last year and this dude is suicidal as hell.

Man, Wendy's been struggling lately too.

This might have been a real good pick

Wendy Williams Hospitalized Following Alleged Relapse
Sources told Daily Mail, Williams “was in a bad way and disappeared from the studio… she was found and was drunk…”

By

Jasmine Washington
on

March 27, 2019

(Photo credit: YouTube/TheWendyWilliamsShow)
New reports allege talk show host Wendy Williams was relapsed on alcohol and hospitalized Monday after her husband’s alleged mistress gave birth to a child last week.

The Daily Mail received a statement from studio sources claiming to be connected to The Wendy Williams Show. The online media outlet said Williams checked herself out of a New York sober living home on Monday. Her sobriety coach, who was with her 24 hours a day, reportedly informed those close to Williams of her departure.

According to the source, Williams, who has previously struggled with alcohol and substance abuse, “was in a bad way and disappeared from the studio… she was found and was drunk, she was taken to the hospital.”

The Daily Mail also claims Williams was given IV fluids containing vitamins and minerals to correct nutritional deficiencies or chemical imbalances.

Despite her reported hospitalization, she was present for Tuesday’s taping of her daytime talk show.

A source told PageSix, “Wendy is not in a good way, everyone is so concerned for her. The sad thing is that she’s been working so hard to stay sober and she’s been so honest in her struggles with all her fans, and this just tipped her over the edge.”

The source added, “But the fact she still came to the set just shows how strong she’s trying to be.”

The talk show host’s reported relapse and hospitalization came days after Sharina Hudson, the alleged longtime mistress of Williams’ husband Kevin Hunter, gave birth in Pennsylvania last week.

Page Six and Daily Mail previously reported on the possibility of Hunter, 46, being involved in a long-term affair with Hudson. He has yet to publicly address the infidelity rumors or if he fathered Hudson’s newborn.

Earlier this month, Williams announced that she is living in a sober house. “You know I’ve had a struggle with cocaine in the past. I never went to a place to get treatment … there are people in your family, it might be you … I want you to know more of the story,” she told her Wendy Williams Show audience.

She also addressed rumors about the state of her marriage.

“I want to shout-out to my husband. I’m still wearing my ring. Believe me you, when you’ve been with somebody for 28 years, married for 25 years— we know each other. He’s my best friend, he’s my lover – I know what you’ve been seeing, but hunty, let me show you who I fell in love with and who he fell in love with.”


In addition, she launched her very own national hotline earlier this month to assist in the ongoing drug and substance abuse epidemic.

EBONY has reached out for a comment from Williams’ team; we have not yet received a response.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Hate I gotta post this

Nipsey Hussle Fatally Shot in Los Angeles (UPDATE)

ByAlex Galbraith
Mar 31, 2019

Photography by Prince Williams/Wireimage

UPDATED 04/1/19 6:58 p.m. ET: A "huge" manhunt to find the person who killed Nipsey Hussle is underway, Los Angeles police spokeswoman Lizeth Lomeli confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. The Los Angeles County Media Examiner's office says an autopsy was completed and Nipsey's official cause of death has been ruled a homicide. The L.A. County Coroner’s Office confirmed that the rapper died of gunshot wounds to the torso and head.

UPDATED 3:15 p.m. ET: An anonymous law enforcement source tells the New York Daily News that LAPD homicide detectives are pursuing a suspect known personally by Nipsey Hussle. The 33-year-old artist was fatally shot on Sunday.

The NYDN reports Nipsey's murder may end up classified as gang-related “because Hussle had a prior gang affiliation, the source said, but it doesn’t appear the hit stemmed from a ‘rival gang’ as much as a personal ‘deal gone wrong.’”

The article says the suspect is “in [the LAPD’s] sights” but was not in custody as of Monday morning.

See original story below.

Nipsey Hussle was fatally shot today outside of his Marathon clothing store in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, NBC News reports. Hussle was standing outside of his store with a crowd of people when an unknown person opened fire, killing Hussle and wounding two others. Police say that they are looking for a black male in his 20s and that the shooting appears to be gang-related. The Victory Lap rapper was 33 years old.

BREAKING: Rapper Nipsey Hussle has been pronounced dead at the hospital after being shot outside his clothing company in south Los Angeles, multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the incident tell @NBCNews. Rapper Nipsey Hussle killed in shooting outside his L.A. store - @anblanx

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 1, 2019
Throughout his career, Hussle was praised for his rapping ability as well as his business savvy. While his obvious connection to West Coast cruising music and his laid-back delivery were more than enough to keep critics and Best Coasters alike happy, Hussle really shined in his ability to think up creative new ways to make money. The rapper famously released a mixtape with the hefty price tag of $100 a copy, earning him headlines, shout-outs from industry titans and the attention of his eventual partner Lauren London.

Hussle used his business acumen and the proceeds from his rap career to launch his successful clothing store. He recently purchased the plaza where his flagship store sits with an eye toward revitalizing the neighborhood he grew up in. Hussle had hoped to tear the plaza down and replace it with a new apartment building that boasted retail —his own store, among the options— on the ground floor. The project was meant to coincide with a new light rail connection between Crenshaw and LAX.

Hussle's reach extended well beyond his own neighborhood. In the wake of Hussle's passing, it became clear how many corners of the rap community he had touched, as many of his contemporaries took to social media to mourn the loss of the rapper.

REST IN PEACE NIPSEY HUSSLE

— Vince Staples (@vincestaples) April 1, 2019
Rest in Heavenly Power, @NipseyHussle

— 9th Wonder (@9thwonder) April 1, 2019
MY HEART GOES OUT TO NIP N HIS FAM MAN , THIS MAN WAS ON THE RIGHT PATH AND DOING BETTER IN LIFE , N nikkaS DO THIS EVIL shyt, THIS GAME IS SO SHADY ITS DISGUSTING, RIP TO ONE OF THE ONLY REAL ONES LEFT @NipseyHussle SLEEP IN PEACE KING

— LORD FLACKO JODYE II (@asvpxrocky) April 1, 2019
RIP Nipsey Hussle, a true Los Angeles legend

— adam22 (@adam22) April 1, 2019
He's survived by his two children and London, with whom he just had a child with in 2016.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

John Havlicek

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

R.I.P. John Singleton

1968-2019

The Legacy of John Singleton

Bykhal


resident old | @khal

Apr 29, 2019

Image via Getty/Anthony Barboza
While I grew up a huge fan of movies and television, it was rare that I felt I could actually make either. Coming from Trenton, New Jersey, the closest I saw my town get to the mainstream was the video for Poor Righteous Teachers' "Rock Dis Funky Joint." Being black in America, especially as '80s babies, we seldom witnessed realistic on-screen depictions of the areas we were from. But in 1991, John Singleton released his debut feature film, Boyz n the Hood. At the time, many outside of South Central Los Angeles had only heard about that area through N.W.A lyrics; being able to see Tre, Ricky, and Doughboy navigate those streets and come to grips with their realities? It was breathtaking. Having that film be nominated for two Academy Awards—including Best Director, making Singleton the youngest and first African-American to receive that nomination—was beautiful.

Hearing that John Singleton had passed away at the age of 51, after recently suffering a stroke, was downright scary. He'd earned OG status in the hood for films like Boyz n the Hood and the BET staple Baby Boy, but it's amazing to think that he only had nine feature films to his credit. Maybe you only need nine when your first trilogy—Boyz, Poetic Justice, and Higher Learning—is so ingrained in the minds of those of us who grew up in the '90s, trying to navigate a rapidly changing world. From gang violence in the inner city to relationship issues to race relations on college campuses, moviegoers were served heavy doses of harsh reality when purchasing tickets to a John Singleton film and were honestly better for it. The three movies, which he also wrote, dealt with gang warfare, the treatment of women, school shootings, and more. For many, these films were the best way to serve those lessons.

Singleton's legacy wasn't just in educating America on its hard truths, though; he helped shape what black film was during the 1990s. Building on the foundation that vets like Spike Lee laid during the '80s, Singleton offered a blueprint of how to excel as a filmmaker during an era when more black creatives were being given chances to bring black stories to light. Singleton also upped the ante; while it didn't deliver monetarily, his 1997 film Rosewood, based on the 1923 Rosewood massacre in Florida (which saw a white lynch mob murder black people and destroy their town), was a critical success, with Roger Ebert himself calling it a "gripping, important story." That film would mark Singleton's grittiest work, but part of that was because the asks were getting bigger, with his 2000s films playing more heavily to action (including the second film in the Fast & Furious franchise, along with a Shaft reboot), although one of the films he's more fondly remembered for, 2001's Baby Boy, dropped in the middle of that output.

One of his most intriguing pieces, Baby Boy was an examination of young black men who stay young black men in the inner city. The images of a grown Tyrese in the womb, crying out, might have been too on the nose, but the story Singleton wove around the actor's character Jody (a role that was famously written for 2Pac) put on full display the problems within the black community that contribute to a vicious cycle with far-reaching consequences. The film, a weekend viewing staple for many, showed that a decade after the Oscar nomination, Singleton was still here, bringing a vital eye to the stories in our communities.

Singleton was also unafraid to put talent that might be new to the audience in his projects. Boyz n the Hood was the first film of Ice Cube's illustrious acting career, in a role that was written specifically for him, and was also the first place many saw the talents of Cuba Gooding Jr. Morris Chestnut, and Nia Long. Poetic Justice was Janet Jackson's first feature film, and while viewers had seen 2Pac on-screen before, they'd never seen this tender, more romantic side of him. Everyone from the Academy Award-winning Regina King (Poetic Justice, Higher Learning) to Michael Rapaport (Higher Learning) to André 3000 (Four Brothers) to Taraji P. Henson (Baby Boy) got to sink their teeth into the vivid tales Singleton created, delivering memorable performances in these features that no one like the director was bringing to the cinema.

As of late, Singleton had been spending more time developing and directing television shows. His TV directing gigs didn’t start until he worked on an episode of Empire in 2015. That led to directing an episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson, which was right up his alley, showcasing not only the way Simpson's home was staged for a visit from the jurors but a legendary showdown between Christopher Darden and Johnnie Cochran during the trial of the century. This led to him developing series, from the short-lived Rebel on BET to the FX's acclaimed series Snowfall, a chronicle of the crack epidemic in Los Angeles in the '80s.

While he may have been picking better projects and doing less in the industry, Singleton definitely kept his ear to the street. During a visit to ComplexCon in 2017, he showed love to the Academy Award-winning Moonlight, as well as Donald Glover's Atlanta, both of which feel like they were taking the baton that he passed off years ago and running in new, exciting directions. "We need to keep on kicking up dust and not make our fight against our persecution a fad," he said at the time, and those words should be ringing loudly in the ears of anyone who deems themselves a creative or an activist.

Singleton shouldn't just be remembered as the guy who made Baby Boy, or as the first black director to get an Oscar nomination. Nor should his legacy start and stop with putting hella rappers in films. It can't be reduced to one particular film or movement, either. Singleton's legacy should, ultimately, show creatives from all walks of life that their truths are important and that bringing those truths to life is what the mediums of television and films were made for. Hopefully, today's dreamers can examine the moves Singleton made in the industry and use his legacy as the blueprint for speaking their truths on-screen.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

#RIP Peggy Lipton

Who would've thunk Quincy would've outlived her?

Actress Peggy Lipton, star of 'The Mod Squad' and 'Twin Peaks,' dies at age 72

By Josh Rottenberg
May 11, 2019 | 6:10 PM

Peggy Lipton, right, with her daughter Rashida Jones at the premiere of the film "I Love You, Man" in Los Angeles in 2009. (Matt Sayles / AP)

Actress and former model Peggy Lipton, who rose to stardom in the late 1960s on the counterculture police series “The Mod Squad” and later starred on TV’s “Twin Peaks,” has died.

Her death from cancer was announced Saturday by Kidada and Rashida Jones, her daughters from a marriage to famed music producer Quincy Jones.

“She made her journey peacefully with her daughters and nieces by her side,” Lipton’s daughters said in a statement to The Times. “We feel so lucky for every moment we spent with her.”

Born in New York on Aug. 30, 1946, Lipton began modeling at age 15 and quickly found herself in demand. At age 19, she made her television debut on the sitcom “The John Forsythe Show,” going on to make appearances on such series as “Bewitched,” “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and “The Virginian.”

The waifish, blond Lipton had just turned 21 when she rocketed to fame in 1968 as the street-smart flower child Julie Barnes, one of a trio of Los Angeles undercover “hippie cops” on the ABC crime series “The Mod Squad.”

One of pop culture’s first efforts to reckon seriously with the counterculture — and one of the first TV shows to feature an interracial cast — the series, which costarred Michael Cole and Clarence Williams III, dealt with issues such as domestic violence, abortion, police brutality, the Vietnam War and drugs. Over five seasons, the series earned Lipton, one of the “it” girls of her time, four Emmy nominations and a 1971 Golden Globe award for best actress in a TV drama.

Her role and later marriage to Jones, who is black, put Lipton at the center of the passions of a restive America dealing with racism and a post-World War II generation who were breaking free from their parents. The “Mod Squad’s” edgy music and hip slang marked a significant shift from “Gunsmoke” and “Leave It To Beaver.” But while the show turned the mini-skirt-and-bellbottoms-clad Lipton into a fashion icon, she found the spotlight uncomfortable.

“I never saw myself as trend-setting,” Lipton told The Times in 1993. “We were always working. Fame really drove me into my house. I was very paranoid. I didn’t like going out. I had no idea how to be comfortable with the press. I was very young. It was really hard for me.”

Lipton parlayed her role on “The Mod Squad” into a singing career, enjoying chart success with her cover versions of “Stoney End” and “Lu” by Laura Nyro and “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” by Donovan.

Clarence Williams III, Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton in "The Mod Squad" (ABC)
In 1974, Lipton married Jones and, with the exception of a 1979 “Mod Squad” reunion TV movie, stepped away from her career to focus on raising a family. The pair’s daughters, Kidada and Rashida, would both become actors, the latter gaining fame on the comedy series “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.”

After Lipton and Jones divorced in 1989, Lipton decided to return to acting, landing the role of Norma Jennings on the cult TV series “Twin Peaks.”

“It was very scary,” Lipton told The Times in 1993. “I had a push-pull thing inside me that I wanted to do it…. I had become so insulated in my world as a mother, that I didn’t know how to pick up the phone and call anybody to put myself out there.”

She and Clarence Williams III made cameo appearances in a 1999 big-screen version of "The Mod Squad" that starred Claire Danes, Omar Epps and Giovanni Ribisi. In her 2005 memoir “Breathing Out,” Lipton wrote of her struggles with fame and the racism she and Jones faced as an interracial couple and revealed that she had been diagnosed with and treated for colon cancer the previous year.

In recent years, Lipton continued to appear in occasional supporting roles in films such as “When in Rome” and “A Dog’s Purpose.”

“We can’t put all of our feelings into words right now, but we will say: Peggy was and will always be our beacon of light, both in this world and beyond,” her daughters said in a statement Saturday. “She will always be a part of us.”

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

R.I.P. to my man Silver King.

I can't believe he was only 51. I used to watch him in WCW when I was a shorty.

Silver King, wrestler who co-starred in ‘Nacho Libre’, dies in ring

By Associated Press
May 12, 2019 | 1:05 PM

In this image made from video taken on May 11, Silver King, right, talks to the camera with fan Mark van der Enden at the Roundhouse in London. (Associated Press)

A well-known Mexican wrestler who co-starred in the comedy “Nacho Libre” has died of a suspected heart attack after collapsing on stage in London.

Cesar Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez Barron, the lucha libre star known as Silver King, performed Saturday night at The Roundhouse. The north London venue said Sunday on Twitter that he died during the event and more information about the circumstances are being pursued.

The 51-year-old Gonzalez appeared as a champion wrestler and comic villain in the 2006 movie “Nacho Libre”, which starred Jack Black as a monk who wants to be a masked luchador. Lucha libre is a popular form of wrestling in Mexico that features colorful masks, elaborate costumes and acrobatic techniques.

Lucha Libre World, which promoted the Roundhouse event, said in a statement the star “suffered what we believe was a cardiac arrest while performing in the show and sadly passed away.”

Attendee Roberto Carrera Maldonado told the BBC the wrestler's condition initially appeared “staged” as part of the fight, before efforts were made to revive him.

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“All of us were really shocked. It wasn't clear what was happening,” Maldonado said. “I had the impression they didn't know what to do.”

The London Ambulance Service said medics arrived five minutes after they were called to the Roundhouse on Saturday, but the patient was pronounced dead at the scene.

Silver King competed in World Championship Wrestling between 1997 and 2000.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Doris Day

Doris Day dies; legendary actress and singer was 97

By Valerie J. Nelson
May 13, 2019 | 6:00 PM


Legendary actress and singer Doris Day has died at 97.

Doris Day arrived in Hollywood in the late 1940s already a celebrity, a big-band singer on her way to becoming a movie star. She had early success in light musicals, but as they fell out of fashion she modernized herself in a way that probably confused mid-20th century America: With a bubbly screen presence and a blinding smile, Day was the rare movie heroine who held a great job while having the requisite romance.

Women wanted to be her and men wanted to marry someone like her. The equation proved to be box office gold.

Day died of pneumonia Monday at her Carmel Valley, Calif., home. She was 97.

She had been “in excellent physical health for her age” until recently, the Doris Day Animal Foundation said in an emailed statement.

In the early 1970s, Day walked away from Hollywood, spending most of the ensuing decades in her beloved Carmel, where she was an outspoken animal rights activist.




Doris Day dies: Reactions as Hollywood icon remembered as ‘glorious and inimitable’ »
On screen, she effectively traded barbs with leading men and marched into the workplace in such lighthearted movies as “Pillow Talk” (1959) and “Lover Come Back” (1961), two of the three films she made with Rock Hudson. She received her only Academy Award nomination for “Pillow Talk.”

“Her persona hit a cultural mother lode, tapping into what the average postwar woman was about,” Drew Casper, a USC film professor, told The Times. She “was way ahead of her time, a feminist before there was feminism.”

From 1948 to 1968, Day appeared in 39 films, most often as the wholesome girl next door. At age 46, she made her last film, “With Six You Get Eggroll.”

Day’s body of work shows “how much of an icon she was, how much she became in her own way the female equivalent of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood,” Times film critic Kenneth Turan once wrote.

She was such a natural that when director Michael Curtiz caught her taking acting lessons while making her first movie, “Romance on the High Seas” (1948), he told her to stop, she recounted in “Doris Day: Her Own Story,” her 1976 as-told-to autobiography by A.E. Hotchner.

Day “was an Actors Studio all by herself,” Hudson said in her autobiography. “Her sense of timing, her instincts — I just kept my eyes open and copied her.”

She was at her best in films that allowed her sultry voice and “wonderful way with a song” to carry some of the dramatic weight, Turan wrote, including “Calamity Jane” (1953) and “Young Man With a Horn” (1950), in which she played a band singer opposite Kirk Douglas’ trumpet player.

Doris Day: A guileless natural on screen and record, and a mystery even to her devotees »
Day also became one of the most popular singers of her generation. Next to Frank Sinatra, Day was “the best in the business on selling a lyric,” band leader Les Brown said in her autobiography.

Her rendition of “Sentimental Journey,” recorded with Brown and his Band of Renown in 1945, brought her a flood of letters from servicemen at the end of World War II. More than 50 years later, her version of the song made it into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Songs she sang were nominated for Academy Awards half a dozen times. Two won: “Secret Love” from “Calamity Jane,” a musical that was her favorite film; and “Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” from “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 movie that cast her against type as a neurotic American mother abroad. “Que Será, Será” was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, in 2012.

The “Secret Love” album sold well and made producers realize the potential for cross-promotion between movies and music, said Casper, who has screened Day’s movies in his USC classes because her talent and message “signified the very best of postwar culture.”

Yet her insistence on making mostly sunny, upbeat films earned the rancor of some feminists in the 1960s, who thought Day’s roles glorified an ideal woman who never really existed.

In a 1976 essay in Ms. magazine, film critic Molly Haskell presented an early revisionist’s view of Day’s career. She argued that Day was a proto-feminist who challenged “in her working-woman roles, the limited destiny of women to marry, live happily ever after and never be heard from again.”

In romantic comedies, her characters often had a career; she played an interior decorator in “Pillow Talk” and an advertising executive in “Lover Come Back.” Yet there was no arguing that the luminous blond entertainer — eternally perky and often dressed to the nines — set men aquiver.

“She conveyed a unique blend of innocent sexiness … that was not so much the woman next door as the woman you wished lived next door,” Times critic Charles Champlin wrote in 1988.

Doris Day’s screen-style legacy for working women was all about what to wear — not bare »
Novelist John Updike disclosed his deep-rooted crush on Day in a 1976 New Yorker essay: “Singing or acting, she manages to produce, in her face or in her voice, an ‘effect,’ a skip or tremor, a feathery edge that touches us.”

Movie exhibitors placed Day in their annual poll of top box-office stars 10 times during the 1950s and ’60s. Four times she held the top spot.

Her costars included leading men of her era — Sinatra in “Young at Heart” (1954), Clark Gable in “Teacher’s Pet” (1958) and Jimmy Stewart in “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” a thriller considered one of her finer films.

Of the hundreds of songs Day recorded, the lilting ballad “Que Será, Será” became her trademark. Day initially dismissed it as a nursery rhyme but adopted its refrain — “whatever will be, will be” — as her philosophy for dealing with a turbulent personal life at odds with her clean-cut screen presence.

“I’ve had a perfectly rotten life,” she told Hotchner.

Married four times, Day was beaten by her first husband, trombonist Al Jorden, while she was pregnant . She was divorced by 21; he later died by suicide. Her second husband, saxophonist George Weidler, abandoned her within months and said he did not want to be known as Mr. Doris Day.

When husband No. 3, Marty Melcher, the manager and architect of her career, died in 1968 after 17 years of marriage, she learned that he “had secretly contrived” to wipe out her fortune, Day told The Times in 1976.

He had lost $20 million of her earnings, possibly through bad investments, and left her $500,000 in debt. He also committed her to star in a television series without telling her.

“Just about the best thing Marty did for my mother was to die when he did,” her son, Terry Melcher, said in her autobiography.

She sued Melcher’s business partner, lawyer Jerome Rosenthal, for fraud and malpractice and was awarded almost $23 million in 1974. She settled for $6 million rather than drag out the case on appeal.

Although she had sworn off marriage, Day married Barry Comden, a restaurant manager, in 1976. When they divorced in 1981, he claimed she preferred the company of dogs.

Despite hating the idea of doing TV, in 1968 Day was on the set at CBS for “The Doris Day Show” within six weeks of Melcher’s death, determined to earn back her fortune and enough money to sue Rosenthal.

After five years, Day refused to renew the sitcom. In 1981, she moved to Carmel, the Monterey Bay community she fell for while making the 1956 film “Julie,” and devoted much of her life to animal welfare.

Doris Day’s hotel in Carmel is one of the pet-friendliest around »
In 1971, she had helped found Actors and Others for Animals, which rescues stray and mistreated animals. She also pushed for animal rights through the Doris Day Animal Foundation and the Washington-based Doris Day Animal League.

She released “My Heart” in 2011, an album of old recordings that was her first in 17 years, with proceeds earmarked for her foundation. With her son, she also was part-owner of the Cypress Inn, a Carmel hotel that welcomes pets.

In 1985, the Christian Broadcasting Network approached Day about hosting a talk show called “Doris Day’s Best Friends” that would feature celebrity guests and animals. It aired for two years.

Hudson was a natural first guest, Day later said, because he loved dogs as much as she did. Yet when he came to Carmel in mid-July for filming and a news conference, Day and the press corps were shocked by his gaunt appearance.

Sick with AIDS, Hudson had yet to reveal his condition to Day or the public, but reporters immediately realized he was gravely ill. He would later reluctantly admit that he had AIDS, becoming one of the first major celebrities to acknowledge having the disease.

Doris Day helped introduce America to AIDS with empathy and love for Rock Hudson »
Despite needing rest, Hudson insisted on taping the show, which aired days after he died in October 1985. Day, her voice choked with emotion, taped an introduction that recalled how Hudson always told her, “The best time I’ve ever had was making comedies with you.” She said she felt the same way.

In a rare Hollywood appearance, Day reluctantly returned in 1989 to accept the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.

When she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2004, she said fear of flying kept her from the White House festivities. Although she said she was “thrilled” to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Los Angeles Film Critics in 2012, Day once again stayed away.

Doris Kappelhoff was born in Cincinnati and named for her mother’s favorite silent-screen star, Doris Kenyon. Day was known to prevaricate about her age, but Ohio birth records confirm that she was born April 3, 1922.

Her father was a music teacher who left his wife for the mother of Doris’ best friend when Day was 11. Her mother moved Day and her older brother to suburban Evanston, Ohio, and worked in a bakery.

At 12, Day and a partner won a $500 dance contest. But on the eve of moving to California in 1937, Day badly injured her leg when a train struck the car she was in.

Her dancing career was over. But when she sang along with radio tunes during her lengthy hospital stay, her mother realized Day had a remarkable voice and arranged for singing lessons.

Soon Day — who couldn’t read music — had an unpaid weekly singing gig on a local radio show. When Barney Rapp, a popular Cincinnati band leader, heard her rendition of “Day After Day,” he hired the teenager to perform at his nightclub.

“Kappelhoff” was too unwieldy a surname, Rapp told her. He suggested “Day” for the song that she was making her own. Soon she was touring with big bands led by Bob Crosby, Fred Waring and Brown.

For a decade, starting in 1948, Day had 30 top-20 singles, including “Love Somebody” and “A Guy Is a Guy,” which both claimed the No. 1 spot. She recorded almost 30 albums.

I honestly believed every word of what I sang or spoke, and people respond to that.


One of the last of the studio-contract stars, Day began making the big-band musicals that Warner Bros. churned out.

Never comfortable performing live, she took to recording and acting for the camera “like a duck to water,” she once recalled.

In 1951’s “Storm Warning,” Day appeared with Ronald Reagan. Day dated the future president and said he was the only man she knew who loved to dance.

At 28, she bought her first house, in Toluca Lake, and for the first time lived full time with her son from her first marriage; he was 8. Even after her son was an adult producing hit records for the Byrds, the Beach Boys and the Mamas and the Papas, Day expressed guilt over allowing her mother to raise him while she built her career.

At Burbank City Hall on her 29th birthday in 1951, she married Melcher, who was her agent. At first, her son adored Melcher, who adopted Terry but treated him harshly as he grew up. After Day saw Marty Melcher hit her son in the 1960s, the marriage was never the same. By the time Melcher died, their relationship was platonic.

Her son stepped in to help manage his mother’s career and other projects. He died of cancer at 62 in 2004.

When asked why she thought audiences had embraced her, Day once recalled, “I honestly believed every word of what I sang or spoke, and people respond to that.”

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Tim Conway

Tim Conway, Star of The Carol Burnett Show, Dies at 85



The beloved actor is best known for characters like the Oldest Man and Mr. Tudball

By
Natalie Stone

and Michele Corriston
May 14, 2019 12:09 PM
Tim Conway has died at the age of 85.

He passed away at 8:45 a.m. in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday, his rep Howard Bragman confirms to PEOPLE.

Prior to his death, he suffered complications from Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) and had no signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Conway is survived by his wife of 35 years, his stepdaughter, his six children and two granddaughters. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family would like donations to be made to The Lou Ruvo Brain Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The beloved actor is best known for his work on The Carol Burnett Show, winning viewers over with characters like the Oldest Man and Mr. Tudball, whose accent he has said was inspired by his Romanian mother. He was known to ad-lib his sketches — even surprising his scene partners — and won a Golden Globe Award for the series in 1976, along with Emmys in 1973, 1977 and 1978.

At a 2013 event promoting his memoir, What’s So Funny? My Hilarious Life, Burnett, now 86, painted her collaborator as an on-set prankster.

“Tim’s goal in life was to destroy [costar] Harvey Korman,” she told the crowd, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Harvey wet his pants,” Conway bragged.

It’s an anecdote he also recalled in a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“Harvey never saw what I was going to do until he was actually doing the sketch,” he said. “As a matter of fact in the dentist sketch you can actually see Harvey wet his pants from laughing.”

Tim Conway
Silver Screen Collection/Getty
Before making his mark in Hollywood, Conway studied TV and radio at Bowling State University and enlisted in the Army, where is goofiness already shone through. In the L.A. Times interview, he remembered misplacing his rifle before a 4 a.m. drill.

“I looked in the garbage and there was this long neon tube,” he remembered. “So I took that. As the lieutenant came around the corner. I said, ‘Halt.’ I am pointing this bulb at him and he said ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘It’s a light bulb and if you come any closer, I’ll turn it on.’ He had very little sense of humor. I spent an extra two weeks [in the service] painting rocks in Seattle.”

After his military service, he worked at a local station in Cleveland.

“I had no professional training. I had a sense of humor and had been in front of a microphone,” Conway said of his show business beginnings on an episode of The Interviews: An Oral History of Television in 2004.

Rodrigo Vaz/FilmMagic
He appeared as a guest star on The Carol Burnett Show for eight seasons before becoming a regular in 1975.

“They used to do 33 shows a year on Burnett,” he told the L.A. Times. “She said why don’t you just be a regular on the show? I said I will tell you what. I will do 32 shows and leave one week open at the end, so I can guest on somebody’s show. I always guested on her show, but I did have the right to go somewhere else. My job on every show was to break everybody up.”

His own sitcom, The Tim Conway Show, had lasted one season in 1970. His variety show of the same name aired from 1980-81.

Conway also starred on McHale’s Navy, voiced Barnacle Boy on Spongebob Squarepants and even made a special appearance on the second season of 30 Rock, for which he received an Emmy.

Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway on McHale's Navy
ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty
Conway’s death comes after his daughter Kelly and wife Charlene had been fighting over his care.

Kelly filed court documents asking to be appointed conservator of her father in order to be in charge of his medical treatments in in August 2018. She alleged that Charlene was “planning to move him out of the excellent skilled nursing facility he is currently at” and place him into a lesser quality home. She claimed her father could not “properly provide for his personal needs for physical health, food, and clothing” and is “almost entirely unresponsive.”

Days later, Kelly sought a temporary restraining order to stop the move. But in March, Charlene was appointed conservator of her husband.

Before his wedding to Charlene in 1984, Conway was married to Mary Anne Dalton from 1961-78. Together they share seven children: sons Jaime, Tim Jr., Pat, Corey and Shawn and daughter Jackie and Kelly.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

I.M. Pei

IM Pei: celebrated architect behind Louvre pyramid dead at 102
Pei, whose portfolio included the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was one of the most prolific architects of the 20th century

Reuters

Thu 16 May 2019 18.44 EDT Last modified on Thu 16 May 2019 20.02 EDT






Architect IM Pei poses with the architectural model of the Louvre Pyramid in Paris on 27 September 1985. Photograph: Pascal George/AFP/Getty Images
IM Pei, whose modern designs and high-profile projects made him one of the best-known and most prolific architects of the 20th century, has died. He was 102.

A spokesman at Pei’s New York architecture firm confirmed his death to the Associated Press.

Pei, whose portfolio included a controversial renovation of Paris’ Louvre Museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, died overnight, his son Chien Chung Pei told the New York Times.

Ieoh Ming Pei, the son of a prominent banker in China, left his homeland in 1935, moving to the US and studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. After teaching and working for the US government, he went to work for a New York developer in 1948 and started his own firm in 1955.

The museums, municipal buildings, hotels, schools and other structures that Pei built around the world showed precision geometry and an abstract quality with a reverence for light. They were composed of stone, steel and glass and, as with the Louvre, Pei often worked glass pyramids into his projects.

The Pei master
Read more
The Louvre, parts of which date to the 12th century, proved to be Pei’s most controversial work, starting with the fact that he was not French. After being chosen for the job by the then president, François Mitterrand, amid much secrecy, Pei began by making a four-month study of the museum and French history.

He created a futuristic 70ft-tall steel-framed, glass-walled pyramid as a grand entrance for the museum with three smaller pyramids nearby. It was a striking contrast to the existing Louvre structures in classic French style and was reviled by many French.

A French newspaper described Pei’s pyramids as “an annex to Disneyland” while an environmental group said they belonged in a desert.

Pei said the Louvre was undoubtedly the most difficult job of his career. When it opened in 1993 he said he had wanted to create a modern space that did not detract from the traditional part of the museum.

“Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something,” he said in a New York Times interview in 2008. “There is a certain concern for history but it’s not very deep. I understand that time has changed, we have evolved. But I don’t want to forget the beginning. A lasting architecture has to have roots.”

Other notable Pei projects include the John F Kennedy Library in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Dallas City Hall.

When Pei won the international Pritzker architecture prize in 1983, he used the $100,000 award to start a program for aspiring Chinese architects to study in the US.

Even though he formally retired from his firm in 1990, Pei was still taking on projects in his late 80s, such as museums in Luxembourg, Qatar and his ancestral home of Suzhou.

Pei, a slight man who wore round, owl-ish glasses, became a US citizen in 1955. He was married to Eileen Loo from 1942 until her death in 2014. They had four children, two of whom became architects.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Ashley Massaro

WWE Superstars and Legends remember Ashley Massaro

Shortly after news broke of Ashley Massaro’s tragic death, WWE Superstars, Legends and friends joined the WWE Universe in sharing their memories, thoughts and prayers.

I can’t even begin to explain how devastated I am to hear about @ashleymassaro11 - legit one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known. When we fall into a dark place it can seem like it will never change but if you are there PLEASE keep hope & reach out for help.

— Torrie Wilson (@Torrie11) May 17, 2019
I have no words. Ashley was my tag partner at Wrestlemania. My sometimes road wife. We did countless photo shoots and press days together. It seems like yesterday Ashley was a major part of my life and then our worlds changed and now she is gone. Im heartbroken for her family. WWE on Twitter pic.twitter.com/olaTWKD9JS

— MariaKanellisBennett (@MariaLKanellis) May 17, 2019
My heart is saddened to hear about the passing of @ashleymassaro11 ! So strong but yet so young Heaven received an Angel - prayers to Ash’s family - RIP

— Dana Brooke WWE (@DanaBrookeWWE) May 17, 2019
This is just awful news - Ashley Massaro is gone. She was only 39. She lived in the same town as me...I loved seeing her around. She was always so nice...and now she’s gone. #RIPAshleyMassaro pic.twitter.com/wOUY4gsTQo

— Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) May 17, 2019
Ashley Massaro Thank you for the memories.

— Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) May 17, 2019
Too young to be gone, you will be missed sweet friend! RIP @ashleymassaro11 pic.twitter.com/E0f8k0jl5X

— Vickie Guerrero (@VickieGuerrero) May 17, 2019
RIP Ashley :/ pic.twitter.com/5OFaBi7g5u

— Mike Rome (Austin R) (@MikeRomeWWE) May 17, 2019
My thoughts and prayers go out to Ashley Massaro and her family. WWE on Twitter

— Nattie (@NatbyNature) May 17, 2019
Very sad to hear @ashleymassaro11 has passed. Extremely nice person, always smiling. #RIP

— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) May 17, 2019
Rest In Peace Ashley Massaro. Thoughts are with her family and loved ones.

— Ligero (@Ligero1) May 17, 2019
RIP Ash

— Thea Trinidad Budgen (@Zelina_VegaWWE) May 17, 2019
RIP Ashley Massaro

— Zack Ryder (@ZackRyder) May 17, 2019
I'm so sad to hear of Ashley Massaro's passing. She was part of original ZhanHu on Survivor China. My condolences to her family. Martin Holmes on Twitter

— Peih-Gee Law (@PEIHGEE) May 17, 2019
ASHLEY MASSARO GOD BLESS YOU FOREVER

— The Iron Sheik (@the_ironsheik) May 17, 2019
Sad day
This post is horrible@ashleymassaro11 I pray for strength for your family pic.twitter.com/iDHl52G9fK

— Tommy Dreamer (@THETOMMYDREAMER) May 17, 2019
WWE remembers the career of the late Ashley Massaro.

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Published on May 16, 2019
WWE.com Staff

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Melvin Edmonds

Melvin Edmonds, After 7 singer, dead at 65

By Chloe Melas, CNN

Updated 7:57 PM ET, Mon May 20, 2019

Melvin Edmonds performs with After 7 at the New Regal Theater in Chicago in 1989.
(CNN)R&B singer Melvin Edmonds, a member of the group After 7 and brother of superstar Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, has died, his former bandmate told CNN.

He was 65.
Edmunds died Saturday, according to a statement from After 7 co-founder Keith Mitchell posted on the group's Facebook page and confirmed by CNN. The cause of death has not been revealed.
After 7 rose to fame in the 1990s with hits like "Can't Stop," "Ready or Not" and "Heat of the Moment." The group was founded in 1987 by Melvin Edmonds, his brother Kevon Edmonds and Mitchell.
"Melvin was, without any doubt, the 'Soul' of After 7," the Facebook post read in part. "His ability to 'signaturize' a vocal melody in Rhythm and Blues music produced a vocal sound that can never be erased or duplicated. ... Melvin's love for audiences and fans everywhere who supported our music is what drove him on stage and in life. He is and will be missed by my family, fans, and friends."
Melvin Edmonds grew up in Indianapolis and was one of six brothers, among them is 11-time Grammy winner Kenneth "Babyface" Edmunds.



The group signed with Virgin Records in 1988 and its self-titled album was certified platinum. In 2015, Melvin Edmond's son Jason Edmonds joined the group.
Melvin Edmonds battled health issues in recent years, including a stroke in 2011. He was able to rejoin the group in 2016 in time for its comeback album, "Timeless." It featured hits such as "Runnin' Out," "I Want You" and "Let Me Know."
He is survived by his four children, Melvin, Chris, Jason and Courtney.