R.I.P.
R.I.P. Jeremy Bulloch, Actor Who Played Boba Fett in Original Star Wars Trilogy Dead at 75
Jeremy Bulloch, the English actor who famously portrayed Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy, has died at the age of 75. As ComicBook notes, Bulloch’s passing was confirmed by Daniel logan, who played a young Boba Fett in the Star Wars: Attack of the Clones prequel. According to TMZ, Bulloch passed away from health complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Bulloch was born in Leicester, UK in 1945 and began acting at just 13 years old. His early career included small parts in low-budget films like Summer Holiday and Spare the Rod, as well as recurring roles in two Doctor Who serials (1965’s The Space Museum and 1973’s The Time Warrior). In the early 1980s, he co-starred in a BBC series based on Robin Hood called Robin of Sherwood. He also appeared in three James Bond films: 197...
R.I.P. Harold Budd, Legendary Ambient Composer Dead at 84
Harold Budd, the legendary avant-garde ambient composer, has died at 84. His frequent collaborator Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins confirmed the news on Facebook, writing, “It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Harold Budd. Rest in peace, poet of the piano.” Born in Los Angeles in 1936, Budd quickly took to music at a young age. He played the drums growing up and, once enrolled at Los Angeles City College, signed up for a music theory course in harmony. Budd briefly stepped away to enlist in the army, where he met Albert Ayler, the avant-garde saxophonist and his eventual bandmate for a short spell. Once back, Budd studied under composer Gerald Strang at San Fernando Valley State College and was deeply moved by a lecture John Cage delivered while attending the school, g...
R.I.P. Hugh Keays-Byrne, Mad Max’s Toecutter and Immortan Joe Dead at 73
Hugh Keays-Byrne, the Anglo-Australian actor best known for his roles in the Mad Max film franchise, has died at 73. The news was announced by his friend, the filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith, in a Facebook post. No cause of death was given. Via IMDB, Keays-Byrne was born in Kashmir, India, the son of British citizens. As a child he moved with his parents to England, and in his twenties he performed with the legendary Royal Shakespeare Company. As The Independent reported, he arrived in Australia on a 1973 RSC tour and soon booked his first movie role in the Australian cult biker film Stone. His scene-stealing turn as Toad attracted the attention of George Miller, then plotting a kind of biker movie of his own. In 1979, Keays-Byrne starred as the axe-wielding villain Toe...
R.I.P. Bruce Swedien, Grammy-Winning Engineer of Michael Jackson Albums Dead at 86
Bruce Swedien, the sensitive ear behind classic Michael Jackson albums, has died at 86. According to a Facebook post from his daughter Roberta Swedien, he “passed away peacefully last night.” Via Swedien’s official website, he was born in Minneapolis in 1934. In 1944 his father gifted him a disc recording machine… Please click the link below to read the full article. R.I.P. Bruce Swedien, Grammy-Winning Engineer of Michael Jackson Albums Dead at 86 Wren Graves You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share o...
R.I.P. Ken Spears, Scooby-Doo Co-Creator Dead at 82
Ken Spears, the cartoon producer and writer who co-created Scooby-Doo, has died at the age of 82. His son, Kevin Spears, confirmed the news to Variety, saying his father passed on Friday, November 6th from complications related to Lewy body dementia. Spears’ death comes just over two months following that of his longtime collaborator, Joe Ruby. Spears initially befriended the son of William Hanna while living in his Los Angeles hometown. That led to a sound editing job at Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1959, where he met and befriended Ruby. The two became writing partners, co-creating Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969. They also came up with other classic Hanna-Barbera series Dynomutt, Do Wonder and Jabberjaw. Their success continued outside of Hanna-Barbera, as well, including workin...
R.I.P. Billy Joe Shaver, Pioneering Outlaw Country Songwriter Dead at 81
Outlaw country legend Billy Joe Shaver died Wednesday in Waco, Texas, after suffering a stroke. His friend Connie Nelson confirmed the news to Rolling Stone. He was 81 years old. Though not as well known for his own recordings, Shaver was a pioneer of the outlaw country movement thanks to his hard-lived songwriting. He penned 10 of the 11 songs on Honky Tonk Heroes, Waylon Jennings’ 1973 album seen as perhaps the seminal effort in the genre. Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Patty Loveless, and Bob Dylan all recorded his work, while Willie Nelson once dubbed him “the greatest living songwriter.” The Texas native had plenty of inspiration to draw on, from cutting off two of his fingers in a sawmill accident at the age of 21, to run-ins with the law, to years of personal t...
R.I.P. Jerry Jeff Walker, “Mr. Bojangles” Outlaw Country Singer Dead at 78
Jerry Jeff Walker, the outlaw country songwriter best known for penning “Mr. Bojangles”, has died following a long battle with throat cancer. He was 78 years old. Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby on March 16th, 1942 in Oneonta, New York. He played guitar in a few local bands before becoming a full-time traveling musician after graduating from high school. On his way south, Walker spent some time in New York City, where, inspired by Greenwich Village’s folk scene, he ended up recording two albums with a group dubbed Circus Maximus. His journey took him to places like the Florida Keys and New Orleans, and it was in the latter Louisiana city that he officially took up his stage name of Jerry Jeff Walker. It was also a chance encounter in the Big Easy’s drunk tank that would eventually insp...
R.I.P. Spencer Davis, “Gimme Some Lovin” Rocker Dies at 81
Spencer Davis, founding member and namesake of the UK rock band The Spencer Davis Group, has died at the age of 81. His agent, Bob Birk, confirmed to the BBC that Davis passed away in a California hospital on October 19th after suffering heart failure while being treated for pneumonia. Davis formed The Spencer Davis Group — originally called The Rhythm & Blues Quartet — after he saw brothers Steve and Muff Winwood performing at a local pub. He asked them to join a band with him, and eventually brought in drummer Pete York to complete the lineup. Though bearing his name, Davis wasn’t the singer of the group, as might be expected. Instead, it was a teenaged Steve Winwood providing vocals on The Spencer Davis Group’s biggest hits, such as “I’m a Man”, “Gimme Some Lovin”, and “Keep on...
R.I.P. Johnny Nash, “I Can See Clearly Now” Singer Dead at 80
Johnny Nash, the American reggae and pop artist behind the hit song “I Can See Clearly Now”, has died at the age of 80. His son confirmed to CBS Los Angeles that Nash passed away at his home in Houston on Tuesday, but did not disclose a cause of death. Born in Houston in 1940, Nash was introduced to music early on in his life. As a child, he sang in the choir at Progressive New Hope Baptist Church, and later as a teenager, covered R&B hits on Matinee, a variety show that aired on local station KPRC-TV. At only 17 years old, Nash signed with ABC-Paramount and released his debut single, “A Teenager Sings the Blues”. His first official chart hit, however, came with his 1958 cover of Doris Day’s “A Very Special Love”. His 1965 single, “Let’s Move and Groove Together”, also saw success...
R.I.P. Roy Head, 1960s Rocker Famous for “Treat Her Right” Dead at 79
Roy Head, the 1960s rocker best known for the smash hit “Treat Her Right”, has died at 79. According to the Montgomery County Police Recorder, the cause was heart attack “Treat Her Right” was a sensation upon its release in 1965, reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100, while boasting sales that would have made it number one at just about any other time — except that The Beatles had recently released “Yesterday”. The song has been a pop culture mainstay ever since, appearing over the opening credits of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and popping up in the 1991 film The Commitments. Head was born in Three Rivers, TX, on January 9th, 1941. His father was a sharecropper, and his love of music came from listening to Black sharecroppers singing in the field...
R.I.P. Ron Cobb, Designer of Back to the Future DeLorean and Alien Ship Dead at 83
Ron Cobb, the legendary production designer who created the DeLorean in Back to the Future and the ship Nostromo in Alien, has died at 83. According to his wife, and via The Hollywood Reporter, he passed away on his birthday from complications caused by Lewy body dementia. Born in 1937, Cobb began his career at the age of 17 as an inbetweener on Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. In the 1960s he became a prolific and beloved counter culture cartoonist, addressing racial privilege, income inequality, the moon landing, and the Vietnam war. His work was syndicated in more than 80 newspapers across the United States, Australia, and Europe. In 1972, he gave an interview to a student newspaper, saying, “I’m fascinated with man in stress situations, I’m fascinated with man at a cr...
R.I.P. Pamela Hutchinson, The Emotions Singer Dies at 61
Pamela Hutchinson, a member of the famed R&B trio The Emotions, died Friday (September 18th) at the age of 61. A post on The Emotions’ Facebook page confirmed the news on Sunday. “In loving memory, we are saddened to announce the passing of our sister, Pamela Rose Hutchinson,” read the posting. “Pam succumbed to health challenges that she’d been battling for several years. Now our beautiful sister will sing amongst the angels in heaven in perfect peace.” Hutchinson’s sisters Wanda, Jeanette, and Sheila began performing gospel music as the Hutchinson Sunbeams in the early ’60s. By the end of the decade, though, they’d pivoted to making soul and disco music as The Emotions, releasing their Isaac Hayes/David Porter-produced debut in 1969. The Chicago-based girl group found relative fame i...
