Deaths (Obituaries)

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      in Theater

      Robert Macbeth, Founder of Harlem’s New Lafayette Theater, Dies at 89

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      He created a vibrant space for actors and playwrights that became a seedbed for the emerging Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s.Robert Macbeth, a rising Black actor in the New York theater scene, was sitting in a Greenwich Village bar in September 1963, getting a drink before going onstage for an Off Broadway improv show. The evening news played in the background.“I happened to look up and there was a flash, and the flash was about the four little girls getting killed in Birmingham,” he said in a 1967 interview, recalling the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. “And there I was, sitting in a Village bar, with a Scotch in my hand.”He went onstage that night, and, rather than following the show’s loose routine, he began shouting, walking up and down the aisles, getting in the faces of the mostly white crowd.“I must have scared the audience half to death,” he recalled in the interview. But rather than absorb his message, they seemed to take it as entertainment: “They loved it, but that wasn’t the idea.”Mr. Macbeth, distraught over his inability to convey his anger and sadness, stopped acting after that night in 1963 and, in his words, went into “exile” from the stage. He worked in a bookstore, taught acting classes and tried to process the violent changes rippling through Black America in the 1960s.Slowly, an idea took form: Black actors and playwrights could never be fully effective in white-dominated spaces. They needed their own. So, in 1967, he gathered together a troupe of more than 30 actors and artists to open the New Lafayette Theater in Harlem.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Jimmy Van Eaton, Purveyor of the Sun Records Beat, Dies at 86

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      His drumming lent spontaneity and imagination to the unfettered sound of seminal rock ’n’ roll records by Jerry Lee Lewis and others.Jimmy Van Eaton, who played drums on epoch-defining hits, including Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” and lent spontaneity and imagination to the unfettered sound of the influential Memphis label Sun Records, died on Feb. 9 at his home in Tuscumbia, Ala. He was 86.His daughter Terri Van Eaton Downing said the cause was complications of kidney disease.Mr. Van Eaton’s impeccably deployed accents and fills were heard not just on Mr. Lewis’s recordings but also on popular singles by Charlie Rich (“Lonely Weekends”), Johnny Cash (“Guess Things Happen That Way”) and others. He toured with Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty and, as the de facto house drummer at Sun, played on “Raunchy,” the bluesy instrumental by the saxophonist Bill Justis that reached the Top 10 in 1957.Mr. Van Eaton in an undated photo. What he played with Jerry Lee Lewis, he said, was “a shuffle with a backbeat” and not a straight 4/4 beat.Country Music Hall of Fame and MuseumMr. Van Eaton, who was sometimes billed as J.M., was a full-time musician only briefly, from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, and performed sporadically after that before settling into a career as a financial adviser. His influence, though, was abiding and deep — especially his momentous work with Mr. Lewis, which had an impact comparable to that of other groundbreaking rock ’n’ roll drummers like Earl Palmer and Hal Blaine.“A lot of people try to copy” the sound of those Jerry Lee Lewis records, Mr. Van Eaton was quoted as saying in “Good Rockin’ Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll,” by Colin Escott and Martin Hawkins. But, he added, they can’t do it because what he played was “a shuffle with a backbeat” and not a straight 4/4 beat.“I never could play that straight country shuffle,” Mr. Van Eaton continued. “Maybe for eight or 16 bars, but after that I start falling off the stool. I’ve got to concentrate, and when you concentrate, you lose the feeling.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      Ewen MacIntosh, Comedian on British Sitcom ‘The Office,’ Dies at 50

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      Mr. MacIntosh was known for his role as Keith Bishop, a dry, blunt accountant on the original version of “The Office.”Ewen MacIntosh, a British actor and comedian known for his dry portrayal of Keith Bishop, a lackluster accountant in the acclaimed British sitcom, “The Office,” has died. He was 50.He died on Monday, his management company, Just Right Management, said, but it did not give a cause of death. The company said in a social media post that Mr. MacIntosh received support from a care home before he died.Mr. MacIntosh had parts in several comedic series, including the British sitcom “Miranda” and the sketch series “Little Britain.” But it was “The Office” that would be his most famous role, as a socially inept accountant working at a boring branch of a paper company.Created by the comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the mockumentary series began airing in 2001 and focused on the horrors and trivial lives of office workers. It included two series and a Christmas special, and its comedic approach was praised by critics and audiences alike.The show later inspired an Emmy-winning American counterpart that ran for nine seasons and also attracted an avid audience.Referring to Mr. MacIntosh as “Big Keith,” one of his nicknames on “The Office,” Mr. Gervais called him “an absolute original” in a social media post Wednesday.This is a developing story. More

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      in Music

      Damo Suzuki, Singer Who Ignited the Experimental Band Can, Dies at 74

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      His free-spirited music ignored genre boundaries. “If you’re a creative person,” he once said, “it’s important to break rules.”Damo Suzuki, a Japanese vocalist best known for his role with the revered and influential German experimental rock group Can during its most crucial period, died on Feb. 9 at his home in Cologne, Germany. He was 74.His death was announced by Can’s label, Spoon Records. No cause was given, but Mr. Suzuki had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2014. Initially given a 10 percent chance of recovery, he endured more than 40 surgeries in the ensuing decade.Mr. Suzuki was a free spirit who left Japan as a teenager for a nomadic life in Europe. His music ignored genre boundaries, and his singing often sounded like shamanic incantations in an invented language.“If you’re a creative person,” he said in a 2013 interview with The Japan Times, “it’s important to break rules. If you’re in the middle of the system, you can’t create much. But if you’re on the outside, you can just avoid it, start from zero and make your own stuff with no influence at all.”With Can, his enigmatic, sometimes indecipherable utterances wove through free-flowing grooves. His vocals could be as lilting as a lullaby — the Can guitarist Michael Karoli once called him a “loud whisperer” — or as startling as a shriek. In performance, while his bandmates concentrated on their instruments, Mr. Suzuki shimmied around the stage like a psychedelic imp, often barefoot and shirtless, his face hidden by an undulating mane of long black hair.Mr. Suzuki in front of his fellow members of the German band Can in Hamburg in 1971. From left: Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli, Uli Gerlach (the band’s tour manager) and Holger Czukay.Jacques Breuer/Picture-Alliance — Deutsche Presse-Agentur, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Founder of the New Christy Minstrels Randy Sparks Dies at 90

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      With a keen eye for young talent, he helped boost the careers of Steve Martin, John Denver, Kenny Rogers and many other performers.Randy Sparks, a creative impresario whose musical ensemble, the New Christy Minstrels, helped to jump-start the folk revival of the early 1960s and launched the careers of performers like John Denver, Steve Martin and Kenny Rogers, died on Sunday at an assisted-living facility in San Diego. He was 90.His son Kevin confirmed the death. Mr. Sparks had been living on his 168-acre ranch in Jenny Lind, Calif., northeast of San Francisco, until a few days before his death.Mr. Sparks in Los Angeles in 2006. He was well known as a singer, songwriter and actor in Southern California when he formed the New Christy Minstrels.Sherry Rayn Barnett/ Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty ImagesBefore Beatlemania and the British invasion revolutionized American popular music, folk music dominated the airwaves — and perhaps no group was more ubiquitous than the New Christy Minstrels. They were a nearly constant presence on television and sold an estimated two million albums in their first three years.Mr. Sparks was already well known as a singer, songwriter and actor in Southern California when he drew together nine other musicians in 1961 to form the group, which took its name from a popular stage show in the 1840s led by Edwin P. Christy. Mr. Sparks was quick to note that his group otherwise shared nothing with its namesake, a white group that had promoted the music of Stephen Foster in blackface.His group was a hit from the start; its debut album, “Presenting the New Christy Minstrels” (1962), won the Grammy Award for best performance by a chorus and stayed on the Billboard chart for two years.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, the Diva of ‘Diva,’ Dies at 75

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      A soprano who rose from South Philadelphia to the opera houses of Europe, she was memorably seen and heard in a 1981 film considered a paragon of cinematic style.Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, a South Philadelphia-bred soprano who sang in the opera houses of Europe and gained even more fame for playing the title role in the style-soaked 1981 French thriller “Diva,” died on Feb. 2 at her home in Lexington, Ky. She was 75.Her daughter and only immediate survivor, Sheena M. Fernandez, said the cause was cancer.Trained at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and later at the Juilliard School in New York City, Ms. Fernandez made her mark in the 1970s as Bess in the Houston Grand Opera’s international traveling production of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” The tour took her to Europe, where she caught the eye of Rolf Liebermann, the impresario known for reviving the Paris Opera. He offered her a two-year contract.It was in a 1980 performance as Musetta in “La Bohème” alongside Plácido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa that she caught the attention of the French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, who was looking for a figure radiant enough to serve as the diva at the heart of his forthcoming film.“Diva” was considered a high-water mark in the movement known as the cinéma du look, a high-sheen school of French film often centered on stylish, disaffected youth in the France of the 1980s and ’90s. A film with all the saturated color and gloss of a 1980s music video, it was an art-house hit that became a cult favorite for the initiated.The story revolves around a young opera fan named Jules (played by Frédéric Andréi) who grows so infatuated with an American opera star named Cynthia Hawkins that he surreptitiously tapes one of her performances — despite her well-known decree that none of her work be recorded, since it would capture only a part of the power and immediacy of her grandeur.Ms. Fernandez in “Diva” with Frédéric Andréi, who played an infatuated fan.Rialto PicturesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      Brian McConnachie, Humor Writer ‘From Another Planet,’ Dies at 81

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      A contributor to National Lampoon, “Saturday Night Live” and “SCTV,” he had a patrician presence that belied a whimsical and sometimes anarchic wit.Brian McConnachie, who brought absurdist humor to three comedy touchstones of the 1970s and ’80s — National Lampoon magazine and the NBC television series “Saturday Night Live” and “SCTV Network” — died in hospice care on Jan. 5 in Venice, Fla. He was 81.The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, his wife, Ann (Crilly) McConnachie, said.Mr. McConnachie — who stood 6-foot-5 and often dressed in a bow tie, suit and saddle shoes — had an elegant, patrician presence that set him apart from the wilder, more disheveled writers (most of them men) who often surrounded him.“Look, if you told me that he had been a welcomed member of the Algonquin Round Table, and he was there with James Thurber, I’d get that,” Alan Zweibel, an original “S.N.L.” writer who worked with Mr. McConnachie, said in a phone interview. “The rest of us were hooligans.”Yet even if he appeared to be more of a grown-up than other writers in the Lampoon and “S.N.L.” orbits, Mr. McConnachie’s laid-back, whimsical style — with some anarchic, disturbed twists — fit in well with the other writers’ contributions.“If the story of the National Lampoon were a script by Rod Serling,” Rick Meyerowitz, a leading illustrator there, wrote in “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead” (2010), his history of the magazine, “the main character would have been Brian McConnachie, a man who his colleagues were convinced was from another planet.”In addition to writing for National Lampoon, Mr. McConnachie appeared in its “1964 High School Yearbook Parody,” among other places.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Henry Fambrough, Last of the Original Spinners, Dies at 85

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      He was a mainstay of the group that was known for hits like “Could It Be I’m Falling Love,” from its inception in 1954 until his retirement last year.Henry Fambrough, the last surviving original member of the hit-making R&B vocal group the Spinners, died on Wednesday at his home in Herndon, Va. He was 85.His death was announced by a spokeswoman for the group, Tanisha Jackson. She did not specify a cause.Mr. Fambrough died less than a year after he announced his retirement, and just a few months after the Spinners’ classic 1970s lineup of Mr. Fambrough, Billy Henderson, Pervis Jackson, Bobbie Smith, Philippé Wynne and John Edwards was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.That same year, the group donated 375 of its performance outfits to the Motown Museum in Detroit. Touring Motown’s Studio A that day, Mr. Fambrough told reporters that he “used to dream about this place” before the Spinners began recording there in the 1960s — and that he sometimes had to convince his wife that he was going to the studio when he left the house in the middle of the night.The Spinners in an undated photo, from left: Bobby Smith, Billy Henderson, Pervis Jackson, Mr. Fambrough and Philippé Wynne.Echoes/Redferns via Getty ImagesOriginally known as the Domingoes, the Spinners were formed in 1954 in Ferndale, Mich., a northern suburb of Detroit. The group joined the Motown roster a decade later but had only one big hit for the label, “It’s a Shame,” which was co-written and produced by Stevie Wonder and peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970.They hit their artistic and commercial stride after they signed with Atlantic Records in 1972 and began working with the producer Thom Bell. The ensuing string of hits began with the Top 10 singles “I’ll Be Around” and “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love” and included “Then Came You,” a collaboration with Dionne Warwick that reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1974. Their last hit was a medley of “Cupid” and “I’ve Loved You for a Long Time” in 1980.The Spinners were nominated for six Grammy Awards, though they never won. They were inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015.Mr. Smith and Mr. Wynne handled most of the group’s lead vocals, but Mr. Fambrough took or shared the spotlight on a few songs, notably “Ghetto Child,” a No. 4 R&B hit in 1973.Henry Lee Fambrough was born in Detroit on May 10, 1938. His survivors include his wife of 52 years, Norma Fambrough; a daughter, Heather Williams; and a sister, Martha.Like many other groups of their era who no longer have any original members, the Spinners have continued touring. After Mr. Fambrough announced his retirement in April 2023, he said in a statement: “The Spinners are still here and still singing for our people who want to hear us. And that’s not going to change. We’ll still be there for them.”The New York Times contributed reporting. More