Deaths (Obituaries)

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in Television

      Ruth Buzzi, Purse-Wielding Gladys of ‘Laugh-In,’ Is Dead at 88

      by

      Ruth Buzzi, whose wary spinster wielding a vicious pocketbook to fend off male advances both real and imagined was among the most memorable characters on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” the TV comedy grab bag of a show of the psychedelic era, died on Thursday at her ranch near Fort Worth. She was 88.Her agent, Michael Eisenstadt, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, which was diagnosed 10 years ago.With an elastic, expressive face and a gift, both vocal and physical, for caricature, Ms. Buzzi had a long performing career. She played myriad roles onstage in summer stock; appeared on Broadway once, with a tripartite credit (as the Good Fairy/Woman With Hat/Receptionist) in the 1966 musical “Sweet Charity”; performed in TV variety shows; showed up as a guest star in a host of sitcoms; and had minor parts in movies, including “Freaky Friday,” the 1976 identity-swap comedy, and “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again,” a loopy 1979 Disney western.Nothing in her career, however, had the enduring appeal of her determinedly unappealing “Laugh-In” character Gladys Ormphby, a combination schoolmarm, delicate codgerette and battle-ax clad in a drab brown cardigan, long skirt, saggy stockings and a hairnet with a knot in the middle of her forehead.Gladys’s regular appearances on the show — an NBC prime-time fixture from 1968 to 1973 — were generally in skits involving Tyrone, the quintessential dirty old man (Arte Johnson), who would get a little too close, breathe a little too heavily and make a little too suggestive a comment, provoking Gladys to wallop him with her purse.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

    • 150 Shares149 Views

      in Music

      Stan Love, Athlete and Father of Heat’s Kevin Love, Dies at 76

      by

      A former N.B.A. player and the father of the All-Star Kevin Love, he was also the brother of the pop group’s Mike Love and a caretaker for its troubled leader, Brian Wilson.Stan Love, a former professional basketball player who was the brother of the singer Mike Love of the Beach Boys and a onetime bodyguard and caretaker of the band’s brilliant but troubled leader, Brian Wilson, has died at 76.His death was announced on Sunday on Instagram by his son Kevin Love, the five-time N.B.A. All-Star who plays for the Miami Heat. He did not say when his father died or specify the cause or location, although he did say that Mr. Love died after a long illness and that his longtime wish was to die at home. He was known to live in Lake Oswego, Ore.Stan Love, a 6-foot-9 forward who had been a star player for the University of Oregon, was selected ninth overall in the 1971 National Basketball Association draft by the Baltimore Bullets, the predecessors of the Washington Wizards. He averaged 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds a game with modest playing time over four seasons with the Bullets and the Los Angeles Lakers of the N.B.A. and the San Antonio Spurs, then of the American Basketball Association.Mr. Love, then with the Los Angeles Lakers, being guarded by Steve Mix of the Philadelphia 76ers in a game in Philadelphia in 1975.Rusty Kennedy/Associated PressAs his basketball career ended, Mr. Love became Brian Wilson’s caretaker in the 1970s and ’80s, during a turbulent period for Mr. Wilson, his cousin, whose innovative songwriting and flair for sophisticated harmonies were complicated by drug use and mental illness.Mr. Love said he toured with the Beach Boys for roughly five years. He described that period to The Portland Tribune in 2019 as chaotic.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

    • 150 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      Ted Kotcheff, Director Who Brought Rambo to the Screen, Dies at 94

      by

      His films, including “First Blood” and “Weekend at Bernie’s,” covered a range of genres. He was later an executive producer of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”Ted Kotcheff, a shape-shifting Canadian director whose films introduced audiences to characters including the troubled Vietnam War hero John Rambo, a dead body named Bernie and the young hustler Duddy Kravitz, died on April 10 in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, where he had lived for more than a decade. He was 94.His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his son Thomas Kotcheff.“My filmography is a gumbo,” Mr. Kotcheff wrote in his memoir, “Director’s Cut: My Life in Film” (2017, with Josh Young). “Not being pigeonholed as the guy who makes one style of film has allowed me to traverse every genre.”“My filmography is a gumbo,” Mr. Kotcheff wrote in his memoir, published in 2017.ECW PressMr. Kotcheff was directing television dramas in Britain when he met the novelist Mordecai Richler, a fellow Canadian, in the 1950s. They became friends and ended up sharing an apartment in London, where Mr. Richler wrote “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” (1959), a novel about an amoral Jewish wheeler-dealer in Montreal who will do whatever he can to rise from poverty to wealth. Mr. Kotcheff vowed to Mr. Richler that one day he would direct a movie version of it.And he did. The film, starring Richard Dreyfuss, was made 15 years later.Richard Dreyfuss in the title role of Mr. Kotcheff’s “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” (1974). One critic praised the film’s “abundance of visual and narrative detail.” Paramount, via Getty ImagesVincent Canby, reviewing “Duddy Kravitz” for The New York Times, praised its “abundance of visual and narrative detail,” which he speculated grew out of the “close collaboration between Mr. Richler and Mr. Kotcheff.”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

    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in Music

      Andy Bey, Jazz Singer Renowned for His Vocal Range, Dies at 85

      by

      An admirer of Nat King Cole, he began as a child performer and as part of a family trio before emerging as a master of the American Songbook.Andy Bey, a jazz singer, pianist and composer whose silky, rich bass-baritone and four-octave vocal range placed him among the greatest interpreters of the American Songbook since Nat King Cole, his role model, died on Saturday in Englewood, N.J. He was 85.His nephew, Darius de Haas, confirmed the death, at a retirement home.Mr. Bey’s life in jazz spanned over 60 years, from his early days as a child prodigy singing in Newark and at the Apollo Theater in Manhattan, to a late-career run of albums and lengthy tours that kept him active well into his eighth decade.The sheer reach of his voice, and his expert control over it, could astound audiences. Not only could he climb from a deep baritone to a crisp tenor, but he could also do it while jumping ahead of the beat, or slowing to a crawl behind it, giving even well-worn songs his personal stamp.At a typical show, he might start out singing and playing piano, alongside a bass and drums, then switch between them, sometimes singing without piano, sometimes playing the piano alone.Mr. Bey performed as part of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem in August 2015. He was rediscovered late in his career. Jack Vartoogian/Getty ImagesEven long into his 70s, Mr. Bey had a commanding, compelling voice, projecting from his baby face beneath his signature porkpie hat, a look that made him seem younger than his 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

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Television

      Jiggly Caliente, ‘RuPaul Drag Race’ Star and Judge, Dies at 44

      by

      Fans knew Ms. Caliente for her sense of humor, vigorous dance skills and interactions with fellow cast members on the popular drag television show.Jiggly Caliente, the fiercely humorous “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star and a judge of the show’s Philippines spinoff, who also had a recurring role as a shopkeeper on the television series “Pose,” died on Sunday. She was 44.Her death was confirmed on Instagram by her family. The post did not cite a cause or say where she died.The death came days after her family said that Ms. Caliente had recently had a health setback. The family said that she was hospitalized because of a severe infection and had surgery in which she lost most of her right leg.Ms. Caliente rose to prominence as a contestant in the fourth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in which she was eliminated in the seventh episode in 2012. She appeared in the sixth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” in 2021 and was eliminated in the second episode.“Thank you so much for showing every chubby little brown girl in the world that there is always a girl to look up to,” she told RuPaul after her elimination in 2021. “This doesn’t break me. This doesn’t end me. This is not the last of me.”Fans knew Ms. Caliente for her humor, her vigorous dance skills and splits, and her interactions with fellow cast members.In one episode, she called out a competitor, Lashauwn Beyond, for not knowing how to apply her makeup nicely. Ms. Beyond replied, “This is not ‘RuPaul’s Best Friend Race,’” a line that became a catchphrase in the show.Jiggly Caliente at “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” in 2021.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.Created by the entertainer RuPaul Charles in 2009, the show follows a group of national and international drag performers who compete each season in weekly challenges and lip sync battles to take the top cash prize and crown.Ms. Caliente (Bianca Castro-Arabejo, offstage) was born on Nov. 29, 1980, in San Pedro, Philippines, and moved to the United States in 1991 with her mother and brother.When she began performing as a drag queen, she named herself after Jigglypuff, the pink spherical character from the popular “Pokémon” franchise.In 2016, Ms. Caliente came out as a transgender woman. In an Instagram post on Trans Day of Visibility that year, she wrote, “Our trans Brothers and sisters are very much a part of our struggle for equality.”Her popularity on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” led to her becoming a judge on the show’s Philippines version beginning in 2022.In addition to those appearances, Ms. Caliente had a recurring role as a clothing shopkeeper, Veronica Ferocity, on the FX series “Pose,” which followed a group of young and older gay, transgender and drag performer friends in New York City in the 1980s.Information on survivors was not immediately available. More

    • 138 Shares149 Views

      in Music

      David Thomas, Leader of the Band Pere Ubu, Dies at 71

      by

      David Thomas, the singer and songwriter who led Pere Ubu and other bands that stretched the parameters of punk and art-rock, died on Wednesday in Brighton and Hove, England. He was 71.Mr. Thomas had suffered from kidney disease, but the announcement of his death, on Pere Ubu’s Facebook and Instagram sites, did not specify a cause, citing only “a long illness.” He lived in Brighton and Hove, but the announcement did not say if he died at home.Through five decades of recordings and performances, Mr. Thomas maintained an audacious, unpredictable, ornery and ambitious spirit. He perpetually defied and upended structures and expectations, and he reveled in dissonance and unsprung sounds.In the mid-1970s, at the dawn of punk rock, Pere Ubu described itself as “avant-garage.” And as punk developed its own constraints and conventions, Mr. Thomas purposefully warped or ignored them. When late-’70s punk bands sported T-shirts, leather and ripped jeans, he performed in a suit and tie. And while much of his music stayed grounded in rock, he also delved into chamber music, cabaret, electronics and improvisation.Mr. Thomas in performance in 1979. Big-boned and overweight, he wielded his bulk proudly onstage. David Corio/Redferns, via Getty ImagesHis voice was always distinctive: a liquid, androgynous tenor that he pushed to its limits and beyond — crooning, chanting, whooping, muttering, barking, burbling, yelling. His lyrics could be apocalyptic, free-associative, mocking, euphoric, cryptic or startlingly direct. Onstage, gesticulating vehemently, he veered between endearing and irascible.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

    • 163 Shares189 Views

      in Music

      Jed the Fish Dead: KROQ DJ Who Pioneered New Wave Radio Was 69

      by

      With his off-kilter sensibility and deep musical grounding, he brought attention to New Wave and alternative artists at the groundbreaking station KROQ.Jed Gould, the influential Los Angeles disc jockey known as Jed the Fish, who used his off-kilter sensibility and deep musical knowledge to shine a light on artists like the Cure, Depeche Mode and the Offspring at the groundbreaking New Wave and alternative rock station KROQ-FM in the 1980s and ’90s, died on April 14 at his home in Pasadena, Calif. He was 69.The cause was an aggressive form of small-cell lung cancer, Rudy Koerner, a close friend, said. Mr. Gould was never a cigarette smoker, he added, and before he was diagnosed last month, he had thought his recent violent coughing fits were related to the Los Angeles wildfires.For decades, Mr. Gould served as a trusted musical savant — and drive-time friend — to young Angelenos, particularly members of Generation X. He also influenced future broadcasting stars.In a social media post after Mr. Gould’s death, Jimmy Kimmel, who worked on the morning show at KROQ early in his career, described him as “a legend.” On his podcast, Mr. Kimmel’s old sidekick on “The Man Show,” Adam Carolla, a former host of the relationship show “Loveline” on KROQ, called Mr. Gould “an icon.”With his boyish energy, free-ranging musical tastes and maniacal cackle, Mr. Gould helped lead a radio revolution at the maverick KROQ, based in Pasadena, starting in the late 1970s.At a time when FM rock stations were dominated by hyper-produced corporate juggernauts like Styx and Foreigner, KROQ became a sensation for its “Roq of the ’80s” format, which shimmered with fresh sounds from New Wave bands like Talking Heads and Devo, synth-pop groups like the Human League and Spandau Ballet, and local heroes like X and the Go-Go’s.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

    • 150 Shares149 Views

      in Music

      David Briggs, a Music Force in Alabama and Nashville, Dies at 82

      by

      A first-call keyboardist, he worked with Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton, helped make Muscle Shoals a recording hub, and had a key role in redefining the sound of country.David Briggs, a keyboardist and studio operator who played a pivotal role in establishing Muscle Shoals, Ala., as a recording hub in the 1960s before helping to revitalize mainstream country music, died on Tuesday in Nashville. He was 82.His brother, John, said his death, in a hospice facility, was caused by complications of renal cancer.Mr. Briggs contributed to not just one but two major developments in popular music. As a member of the original rhythm section at Fame Recording Studios, he helped put the northern Alabama hamlet of Muscle Shoals on the musical map. He played on landmark R&B recordings like Arthur Alexander’s “You Better Move On” (1962), Jimmy Hughes’s “Steal Away” (1964) and the Tams’ “What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)” (1963), all of which were Top 40 pop singles as well as R&B hits.The rhythm section at Fame, whose members also included Norbert Putnam on bass and Jerry Carrigan on drums, honed a down-home sound that, with its languid blend of country and soul, stood apart from the R&B coming out of Motown or Stax at the time. “You Better Move On” attracted the attention of the Rolling Stones, who released their version of the song in 1964. (The Beatles had previously performed Mr. Alexander’s “Soldier of Love” on the BBC.)Mr. Briggs’s other defining moment came when he, Mr. Putnam and Mr. Carrigan moved to Nashville in late 1964 and began infusing country recordings with the understated, groove-rich variant of the Nashville Sound that became known as “countrypolitan.”“We brought along a more blues and pop-rock thing than what Nashville was doing at the time,” Mr. Putnam said in an interview.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