R.I.P. The thread of death....celebrity or otherwise

[Holman]

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (whose retirement made room for Pope Francis) died today in Vatican City. He was 95.

[Rumpy]

Didn't realize he was still at the Vatican. I would have thought they would have him live his remaining days in a papal vacation home.

[Holman]

Didn't realize he was still at the Vatican. I would have thought they would have him live his remaining days in a papal vacation home.

I'm sure his apartments in the Vatican were luxurious and well-staffed. (Vatican City covers more than 100 acres, so he probably was in a vacation home.)

[Daehawk]

Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters dies at 74

Anita was the second oldest of the four sisters, who rose to fame with hits in the 1970’s and 80’s including “I’m So Excited.”

I remember them exclusively in the 1980s.

[hepcat]

Ah man, Jeremiah Green, the drummer and a founding member of the insanely great Modest Mouse, has died. Cancer. Goddamn cancer. RIP to one of the greats.

[Unagi]

Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters dies at 74

Anita was the second oldest of the four sisters, who rose to fame with hits in the 1970’s and 80’s including “I’m So Excited.”

I remember them exclusively in the 1980s.

[Jeff V]

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (whose retirement made room for Pope Francis) died today in Vatican City. He was 95.

I guess he set a precedent by retiring, which talking heads stated might become the norm going forward.

[Jeff V]

Modest Mouse drummer Jeremiah Green

Sad news indeed. He announced stage 4 cancer on Xmas and was dead before New Years. And I really like that band.

[Isgrimnur]

Ken Block

Ken Block, the rally racer most famous for co-founding Hoonigan Industries and starring in the wildly popular Gymkhana series of stunt driving videos, was killed in a snowmobile crash on Monday, January 2nd, according to a statement posted to Instagram. He was 55 years old.

[Daehawk]

Well there goes all their money making. Dude was fun to watch in those videos but dont know of him outside those. RIP

[Kraken]

Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dead at 90.

Mr. Cunningham, a physicist and a former Marine pilot, joined with Capt. Walter M. Schirra Jr. of the Navy and Maj. Donn F. Eisele of the Air Force on a virtually flawless 11-day mission in October 1968. They completed 163 orbits of the Earth (four and a half million miles) in a reconstructed space capsule with many safety modifications and became the first NASA astronauts to appear on television from space.

The flight — the first manned Apollo mission — buoyed an America shocked by the capsule fire that took the lives of Virgil I. Grissom, Roger B. Chaffee and Edward H. White II as they rehearsed for an envisioned Apollo 1 mission at Cape Kennedy, Fla., in January 1967.
...
Apollo 7 — which blasted off on Oct. 11, 1968, following unmanned Apollo flights in the wake of the disastrous fire — passed its maneuverability and reliability tests. The capsule rendezvoused with an orbiting stage of the Saturn 1-B rocket that had sent it into space, indicating that it would have no trouble docking with a lunar module that would carry two astronauts from the capsule to the moon and back. The Apollo 7 astronauts, who comprised NASA’s first three-man crew, also successfully tested an engine in the rear of their capsule designed to put the spacecraft into and out of lunar orbit on a future mission.

And for the first time, astronauts carried a camera providing TV images. They demonstrated how they could float in their weightless environment in what became known as “The Wally, Walt and Donn Show,” and they put together a hand-lettered sign that said, “Hello From the Lovely Apollo Room, High Atop Everything.”

There was a problem, though: Captain Schirra had a heavy head cold, Major Eisele had a lesser cold and Mr. Cunningham, as he would later recall, felt “a little blah.” NASA feared that the colds could result in the bursting of eardrums as the astronauts returned to Earth.

They were, in fact, just fine when they splashed down some 325 miles south of Bermuda, less than a mile off target. Their mission was so successful that Apollo 8 orbited the moon, another important prelude to the moon landing in July 1969.

But Apollo 7 had its blemishes. It would be remembered for Captain Schirra’s disputes with NASA controllers in Houston. Speaking on an open microphone monitored by the press, he protested the agency’s ambitious schedule for TV transmissions, which he felt took valuable time away from the astronauts’ work. He also insisted that the astronauts dispense with the rule requiring pressurized helmets on re-entry, fearing that this could damage their eardrums in light of their colds. He got his way.

Captain Schirra, who flew in the Mercury and Gemini programs, had told NASA he planned to retire after Apollo 7. That mission proved to be not just the first but also the last for both Mr. Cunningham and Major Eisele.

“I never figured out why Schirra had such a burr under his saddle,” Gene Kranz, one of the flight directors for Apollo 7, wrote in his memoir, “Failure Is Not an Option” (2000). “Perhaps he just could not deal with the irritation of having something so piddling as a cold invade the trip of a lifetime. In any case, the careers of the two younger astronauts suffered. Neither Cunningham nor Eisele flew in space again.”
...
Soon after Apollo 7, Mr. Cunningham was named director of what became known as the Skylab program, which developed America’s first space station. The astronaut Pete Conrad succeeded him in 1970. Mr. Cunningham resigned from NASA the next year after failing to get an assignment to fly in Skylab’s forthcoming missions.

There's more at the link about how Cunningham got screwed over by Schirra's impertinence.

[dbt1949]

He came and visited us at my place of work in 1976. Seemed like a nice guy. RIP

[A nonny mouse]

Adam Rich of Eight is Enough, has died.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/entertai ... index.html
No cause of death as of yet, but still way too young.

I remember watching it all the time as a kid ( we are nearly the same age).

R. I. P.

[Daehawk]

Well fuck. Another from my childhood gone. I loved that show when I was a kid. Adam was only 1 year older than me. Shame. RIP man. Folks from the 1970s part of my life keep falling away like leaves in the fall.

[dbt1949]

It always amazes me that people younger than me are dying before me. I haven't done much to keep in shape and most people do.
Life really is a crap shoot.

[telcta]

It does feel that way sometimes. George Burns smoked cigars every day and lived to 100.

[AjD]

RIP Nicholas Bradford (Adam Rich). He was exactly my age.

Hard to believe in 2023 just how famous he was when I was ten-years old, at least at my elementary school. Nearly forgotten today, except amongst us early GenX'ers. But in 1978, every kid I knew watched Eight is Enough. And we all talked about the latest episodes at recess.

So very sad, obviously. 54 is too young. But - this is the perfect chance to tell my Adam Rich story!

It's 1983. I'm 15. I'm standing on the sidewalk, behind my midwestern suburban Nowheresville high school. It's lunch break. Me with a group of friends. All skinny white kids with scraggly long hair, jean jackets, concert jerseys. Mine was probably AC/DC, Flick of the Switch tour (I wore it like a uniform). Picture a gang of Eddies from Stranger Things.

We had just smoked a joint in the parking lot. Now we're leaning against the wall near the auditorium entrance, nursing Marlboro Lights while the high kicks in. Suddenly a pack of girls comes barrelling down the walk, giggling, shouting, and moving with furious purpose. "Open the door! Open it! Open it! Open it!!" Umm. What the hell is going on? "He's here! He's here! Get out of the way!" Then they disappear into the building.

I step into the hallway, and see countless screaming students careening past. ALL GIRLS. Jocks, brains, zeros, and too-cool-for-school cheerleader types, who I've never seen lose their composure like this. "He went that way! Let's get him girls! He's in the auditorium!" Then a group of male teachers runs by ("Stop girls! It's too dangerous!"), followed at last by the school principal, huffing and puffing while carrying this big wooden paddle. (Our principal was a gruff old-school disciplinarian, notorious for roaming the halls with this big wooden paddle. It had the school mascot painted on it in burgundy.)

Then, walking casually through the insanity was Jimmy. Biggest high-on I knew. Visine-stained eyes, shit eating grin, just taking it all in. I ask, "What's going on?" He replies, "Haven't you heard? Adam Rich is somewhere in the building. RIGHT NOW. He's in town visiting that new transfer student from California. No idea why he came here, but the teachers have lost control of all the girls."

Nothing like this had ever happened in my little Nowheresville town. Someone famous was here! In our own school! The teachers were helpless! All authority was breaking down! What could we do? Well, we sat down in the hallway, stoned as F, and watched the pandemonium. Occasionally, a new group of girls would run by, heading a different direction ("He went that way!", "He's in the lunch room now!"), followed by more out-of-shape instructors and para-professionals. It was like the finale of the Matt Dillon movie Over The Edge meets a demented Benny Hill sketch.

Twenty minutes later, it all came crashing to a halt when the principal bellowed over the PA system (more exasperated than I'd ever heard him): "Ladies and gentlemen, NICHOLAS BRADFORD HAS LEFT THE BUILDING."

Followed by a loud pop, which I believe was the sound of a mic drop.

(I never did see Adam Rich that day. But it was the talk of the school!)

[Daehawk]

Lol. I could see it all clearly through your prose. Fun day.

[Isgrimnur]

RIP Art McNally

[Jeff V]

It always amazes me that people younger than me are dying before me. I haven't done much to keep in shape and most people do.
Life really is a crap shoot.

Speaking of, David Bowie would have been 76 today. Still the hardest celebrity death for me.

[Blackhawk]

Adam Rich of Eight is Enough, has died.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/entertai ... index.html
No cause of death as of yet, but still way too young.

I remember watching it all the time as a kid ( we are nearly the same age).

R. I. P.

Ouch. I was four when Eight is Enough started, and eight when it ended, so I don't remember much of anything about it. But I do remember that as a four and five year old, I had to watch every episode, and it was always, "It's time to watch Nicholas!"

[RM2]

Jeff Beck

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/je ... 91ff7517f1

[JCC]

Jeff Beck

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/je ... 91ff7517f1

Damn. That sucks.

[Jaymann]

NOOOOOOOO! Jeff Beck was one of my true idols growing up. Always original, always at the top of his game. RIP.

Strangely I had a premonition of this. Bummer.

[RM2]

Hurts me too, I have played guitar since I was 9 years old and always thought Jeff Beck was absolutely one of the greats. A true guitar hero of mine

[Jeff V]

He was one of the greats, and from a time where there was a lot of greats (Jimmy Page just clicked his odometer yesterday).

[McNutt]

I've always known Jeff Beck was one of the greats, but I am completely unfamiliar with his work. I need to remedy that.

[Daehawk]

I am only familiar with him from 1985s Rod Stewart with Jeff Beck - People Get Ready.

[Smoove_B]

[Jaymann]

I've always known Jeff Beck was one of the greats, but I am completely unfamiliar with his work. I need to remedy that.

If you've heard the Yardbirds you've heard Jeff Beck. Clapton and Page got the hype, but Beck is right there, and you can pick out his guitar on many songs.

[Kraken]

[AjD]

Jeff Beck doing the Beatles masterpiece.

[RM2]

Not too many people play opera on electric guitar, absolutely magnificent in my opinion

[Max Peck]

Lisa Marie Presley dies at 54 after hospitalization

Lisa Marie Presley — the only child of Elvis Presley — died Thursday after being hospitalized earlier that day, her mother said in a statement. The singer was 54.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement Thursday evening. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”

The announcement came just hours after Priscilla Presley had confirmed that Lisa Marie Presley was rushed to the hospital earlier Thursday.

Los Angeles County paramedics were dispatched to a Calabasas home at 10:37 a.m. following a report of a woman in full cardiac arrest, according to Craig Little, a spokesperson for the county’s fire department. Property records indicate Presley was a resident at that address.

Paramedics arrived about six minutes later, Little said. A subsequent statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said paramedics performed CPR and “determined the patient had signs of life” before taking her to a hospital in nearby West Hills immediately.

[Daehawk]

Well thats out of the blue and one I didn't expect to see before me really. RIP. She was just a year older than me.

[em2nought]

Guess it's time to get the will ready. Thanks science!

[Jeff V]

I'm certain I saw Jeff Beck play as a guest performer once -- I want to say it was with Todd Rundgren/Utopia, and while such things might have been a one-off not worthy of note (and it seems logical they could have performed at some point), I can't find any particular mention of it. This would have been sometime in the mid-late 80's.

[Max Peck]

Robbie Knievel, daredevil son of Evel Knievel, dead at 60

Robbie Knievel, an American stunt performer who set records with daredevil motorcycle jumps following the tire tracks of his thrill-seeking father — including at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1989 and a Grand Canyon chasm a decade later — has died in Nevada, his brother said. He was 60.

Robbie Knievel died early Friday at a hospice in Reno after battling pancreatic cancer, Kelly Knievel said.

[AWS260]

Gina Lollobrigida, "the most beautiful woman in the world."

[Daehawk]

I dont know her but RIP.

But Robbie Knievel? Damnit. Ive seen him jump since I was a kid and he was a kid. I loved his dad's exploits. 60 is damn young....thats a horrible cancer. Its about time they did something about it. I hear way too much death from it.

EDIT: Ok I looked her up. I agree she was a beautiful lady. She has that classic Italian look. She reminds me of Sophia Loren. Strange I never heard of her.