Results tagged “obituary”

William Safire, the former Nixon speechwriter and Pultizer Prize-winning NY Times columnist, died at 79 today. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. The Times notes, "There may be many sides in a genteel debate, but in the Safire world of politics and journalism it was simpler: there was his own unambiguous wit and wisdom on one hand and, on the other, the blubber of fools he called 'nattering nabobs of negativism' and 'hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.'" Safire, a college dropout, also called Hillary Clinton a "congenital liar." You can read his columns here.

Actor Patrick Swayze, who had been battling pancreatic cancer, died today in Los Angeles; he was 57. His family issued a statement, "Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months." Variety writes, "Trained as a dancer, the half-Apache actor started out in teen heartthrob roles and segued into romantic leads, while also appearing onstage and weathering injuries and accidents. Swayze was raised in Houston, Texas, and his mother was a choreographer and ballet school owner. He trained with the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey Ballet Schools in New York, starting his career dancing for Disney on Parade." Swayze appeared in a number of films, such as The Outsiders and Red Dawn, but his breakout role was in Dirty Dancing, and stole hearts when he co-starred with Demi Moore in the blockbuster paranormal romance Ghost. Earlier this year, Swayze admitted he was afraid of his illness to Barbara Walters and said, "I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking. Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it." After the jump, the Saturday Night Live skit featuring Swayze with Hans & Franz.

Author and journalist Dominick Dunne, who wrote covered high society crime trials and wrote novels about high society crime, died at age 83 in Manhattan. His son Griffin Dunne said the cause was bladder cancer. Dunne was a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, which notes he "famously covered the trials of O. J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, Michael Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, and Phil Spector, as well as the impeachment of President Bill Clinton... His first article for the magazine appeared in March 1984—an account of the trial of the man who murdered his daughter Dominique. Throughout his life, Dunne was a vocal advocate for victims’ rights." Vanity Fair has an archive of Dunne's articles and profiles; for instance, writing about meeting Claus von Bulow, Dunne observes, "On that May Sunday of the seventh week of his second trial, the Danish society figure was dressed in tight blue jeans and a black leather jacket."

       

Senator Edward Kennedy, scion of the one of America's most famous political families, passed away at home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts late last night. He was 77. His family said, "We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever... He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him." (Full statement from the family after the jump.)

Don Hewitt, the CBS news producer who created 60 Minutes and worked with Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, passed away at age 86, due to pancreatic cancer. CBS News calls him the "father of modern television news" and points out he "played an integral role in all of CBS News' coverage of major news events from the late 1940s through the 1960s, putting him in the middle of some of history's biggest events, including one of politics’ seminal moments: the first televised presidential debate in 1960" between Nixon and Kennedy. In its obituary, the NY Times writes, "Hewitt also claimed credit for creating, at least in part, such innovations as putting headsets on newsmakers at events like political conventions so they might be interviewed by remote; displaying type, such as a subject’s name, on screen...and even the word 'anchorman,' which referred, he said, not to the anchor of a ship but the final runner on a four-person relay team — the person who, in effect, would carry the news home, and receive the most attention in the process."

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a scion of the Kennedy clan and founder of the Special Olympics, passed away at age 88 at hospital in Cape Cod, Massachusetts early this morning. While she was famous for being sister to John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Edward Kennedy and mother to Maria Shriver (and mother-in-law to Arnold Schwarzenegger), Shriver was notable in her own right, for "transforming America's view of the mentally disabled from institutionalized patients to friends, neighbors and athletes. Her efforts were inspired in part by the struggles of her mentally disabled sister, Rosemary." The NY Times notes that a 1993 U.S. News and World Report article said, compared with her brothers' storied public service accomplishments, "the changes wrought by Eunice Shriver may well be seen as the most consequential." The Special Olympics, which she founded in 1968, now gives 3 million people around the world a chance to participate in competitions between the every-two-years Special Olympics World Games—the NYC Special Olympics' fall invitational is next month—and tributes are pouring in at the Special Olympics website.

Like every other American raised in the Reagan era and versed in such quotable phrases as "Drinking and driving don't mix, that's why I ride a bike," we were saddened to learn of John Hughes's untimely death yesterday. But now we're also angry, because today's Times obituary fails to make any mention of Hughes's funniest movie, and one of the best comedies of the '80s: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Here's just a taste of comedy gold—anyone recognize that actor playing Owen?

TMZ is reporting that writer and director John Hughes has died at age 59 while in town. The website says he was taking a morning walk during a trip to visit family. Hughes is best known as the writer and director who defined the teen genre and led to the "Brat Pack" phenomenon throughout the 1980s, creating films such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and Some Kind of Wonderful. Hughes had a background in comedy, getting his start at National Lampoon and continuing to write screenplays for contemporary comedies up until last year's . A majority of the teen films that Hughes shaped a generation with took place in the greater Chicago area in which he grew up, but several of his screenplays were set in Gotham, including Home Alone 2, Maid in Mahattan, and the remake of Miracle on 34th Street. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Nancy, two sons, John and James, and four grandchildren.

Budd Schulberg, screenwriter for On the Waterfront, died yesterday of natural causes at his home Westhampton Beach, Long Island. He was 95. Besides writing the Academy Award-winning script for On the Waterfront, Schulberg also wrote short stories, novels (including What Makes Sammy Run?) and biographies. The son of Paramount Studios production chief B. P. Schulberg, he was born in New York but grew up in Hollywood in the 1920s. He joined the Communist Party in 1934, later explaining to the Times, "It didn’t take a genius to tell you that something was vitally wrong with the country." But he bristled at party pressure to make his writing more doctrinaire and, after six years, quit. In 1951 he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and like On the Waterfront director Elia Kazan, he publicly named other Hollywood figures as Communists, including screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. and director Herbert Biberman. Both were blacklisted and imprisoned, and many in Hollywood denounced Schulberg. But in On the Waterfront, Schulberg seemed to justify his testimony with the following lines for the character of Father Barry: "Testifying for what is right against what is wrong. What’s ratting to them is telling the truth for you."

The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, a materialistic multimillionaire evangelist better known as Ike, died Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 74. He had been residing there since 2007 following a stroke, but he spent most of his life in New York City, where, in 1969, he paid $600,000 for the massive old Loew’s 175th Street theater and made it his headquarters, calling it the Palace Cathedral. For the past several years, the ornate Washington Heights theater has also been used for rock concerts, featuring such acts as Arcade Fire and Sonic Youth. But the Christ Community United Church continues to worship at the theater, albeit without Reverend's Ike's famous "Blessing of the Cadillacs," nor his exhortations to his flock to "close your eyes and see green. Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool." We expect to see plenty of swim trunks and inflatable armbands stuffed with dollar bills at the next United Palace concert.

Merce Cunningham, the influential American choreographer, died at age 90 yesterday. The NY Times' Alastair Macaulay writes Cunningham "was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater...Mr. Cunningham ranks with Isadora Duncan, Serge Diaghilev, Martha Graham and George Balanchine in making people rethink the essence of dance and choreography, posing a series of 'But' and 'What if?' questions over a career of nearly seven decades." And the Washington Post notes "he created a body of work that looks like none other -- plotless, spacious and often leisurely paced works, characterized by the clarity, calm and coolness of the dancing" with "an elegant and rigorous dance technique based on ballet's pulled-up stretchiness, the weightedness he absorbed from Martha Graham, with whom he danced before striking out on his own, and his own ways of twisting, folding and releasing the body." His bio on his dance company's website says besides being hailed as the "greatest living choreographer," "earlier in his career he was also one of the greatest American dancers" and "before he was a modern dancer, Merce was a hoofer." Cunningham also collaborated with his life partner, John Cage, until Cage's death in 1992.

Frank McCourt, the NYC public school teacher turned bestselling author of Angela's Ashes, a memoir about his harsh childhood, died at age 78 today in Manhattan. He had been ill with meningitis and his cause of death was metastatic melanoma.

Walter Cronkite, known as the "most trusted man in America" as CBS News anchor, died at age 92 last night. The NY Times' obituary states, "From 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives." His son told the Times that the cause of death was complications from dementia, while the AP reports, "Cronkite’s longtime chief of staff, Marlene Adler, said Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. at his Manhattan home surrounded by family. She said the cause of death was cerebral vascular disease."

       

Graffiti legend Iz the Wiz (real name Michael Martin) died at age 50 on June 17th, and has finally received an obituary from the Paper of Record. The artist tagged subway cars in the 1970s and 80s with his signature in "fat capital letters spray-painted on a door, below a window, across an entire car or even along the full length of a train." Throughout his career as a graffiti artist, he got his tag on every line in the subway system more times than any other, which means if you didn't ride in a car with his name, you probably saw one in a movie. He even did a two-car homage to John Lennon after he was killed in 1980, and was one of the first to work on the Phun Phactory building (now 5 Pointz).

Television icon and '70s sex symbol Farrah Fawcett passed away today in a hospital in Santa Monica, California. According to Newsday, the anal cancer she had been suffering from since 2005 had recently spread to her liver. A documentary TV program about her rounds of treatments for the disease, "A Wing and a Prayer," aired last month, and her death comes just days after actor Ryan O'Neal revealed plans to marry Fawcett. Aaron Spelling, who cast her in "Charlie's Angels," wrote in his memoir, "We were looking for a California beach girl type and Farrah was perfect for that. She was drop-dead gorgeous and the living image of the beautiful blonde in tennis shorts or a bathing suit." Recalling her work on the series, Fawcett once said, "When the show was number three, I figured it was our acting. When it got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra." And Robert Greenwald, the producer who cast her in her most respected TV role, in "The Burning Bed," says Fawcett "went places that a beautiful star like her had not gone and that will have a lasting mark."

The AP reports that legendary Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon passed away shortly after midnight this morning at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members. The entertainer, a Marine who served in WWII and Korea, was 86. Though his publicist declined to divulge the exact cause of death, it's known that McMahon suffered from multiple illnesses, including bone cancer, and sustained a neck injury caused by a 2007 fall. Recent years had been financially difficult for McMahon, whose Beverly Hills home was nearly foreclosed upon last year after he defaulted on a $4.8 million loan. But he didn't seem bitter while explaining his problems to Larry King (video), and still had fond memories of his 30-plus years on The Tonight Show. Other co-hosting gigs during his long career included Star Search, TV Bloopers And Practical Jokes, and, who could forget, Alf's Hit Talk Show.

Chuck Daly, the mastermind behind the NBA's "Bad Boys" teams in Detroit, died today at 78 in Juniper, FL. Daly had been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer just back in February. Once called "The Prince of Pessimism," he arrived in town with heavy fanfare when he was hired to coach the Nets in 1992. But he will most be remembered for leading Isiah Thomas and the Pistons throughout the eighties, a team that may have been overshadowed throughout most of the decade by the Lakers and Celtics, but enjoyed their moment in the sun with consecutive championships in '89 and '90. Daly also won a gold medal in 1992, coaching the Dream Team, USA basketball's collection of some of its greatest stars, brought together to reestablish international dominance to the American sport. Willis Reed, the Nets' GM who hired him, said of Daly, "He brought us instant credibility. We needed someone like that, a great coach who had won. I thoroughly enjoyed having him coach the team and being there with him. He was a class act." Known for his stylish silk suits, Daly once said, "Tailoring covers your sins.”

Earlier today, family members said actor and comedian Dom DeLuise had passed away. The cause was not disclosed, but his agent said the 75-year-old actor "had high blood pressure, he had diabetes, he had lots of things," though he seemed fine a few weeks ago. DeLuise was born in Brooklyn and attended the High School for Performing Arts (he went to Tufts for college) and performed on Broadway and Off-Broadway before appearing in movies. He became beloved to many for his roles in Mel Brooks films ( as hosted an episode of the Muppet Show (see it here, parts one, two, and three).

Beloved actress Bea Arthur has died of complications brought on by cancer in her Los Angeles home at the age of 86. She is remembered most for her Emmy award-winning roles as Dorothy on the 1980s sitcom and Maude on the Norman Lear sitcom of the same name set in Tuckahoe a decade before. Arthur, born Bernice Frankel in NYC in 1922, had a long stage career on and off-Broadway (including a Tony in 1966) before her late success on the small screen. Arthur will also fondly be remembered as a regular at Friars Club Roasts throughout the last decade—first serving as the punchline of a series of jokes and then delivering some of her own dirty zingers at Pamela Anderson's send-up in 2005. Just last year Arthur was inducted into the TV Hall of Fame. She is survived by two sons and two granddaughters.

Bob Guskind, whose passion for his Brooklyn neighborhood turned into the popular Gowanus Lounge blog, passed away yesterday. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn reports that the site was non-operational yesterday—"Readers and fellow bloggers were concerned that their phone calls, and texts were not being returned"—and his death was confirmed by an official from the ME's office (his body was apparently found in his Prospect Heights apartment). Guskind, who was also, until recently, the Brooklyn editor of Curbed, will be missed by many who followed his interest in Brooklyn development issues. Miss Heather has a lovely video of Guskind from this past weekend. Our condolences to his family and friends—and we will miss him, too. Update: The Brooklyn Paper has an account, which is, at turns, sensational and harsh, speculating about Guskind's death.

Horton Foote, the author of over sixty plays and considered by many to be "the American Chekhov," died yesterday in Hartford, CT. He was 92. The courteous, industrious playwright was living in Hartford while adapting his nine-play Orphans’ Home Cycle for a forthcoming production at the Signature Theater here in New York, according to the Times obit. In addition to his plays, many of which chronicled the lives of residents in a small, fictitious Texas town, Foote also wrote the screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies. Nine of his plays were produced on Broadway, most recently the mordant comedy Dividing the Estate. Speaking to the Times in 1986, Foote shared his personal philosophy: "I believe very deeply in the human spirit and I have a sense of awe about it because I don’t know how people carry on. I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them, to kill them, to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains a dignity. They face life and they don’t ask quarters." Foote's lifelong friend Harper Lee once said the playwright "looked like God, only cleanshaven."

       

As a coda to our report on the recent death of beloved vegetable peeler salesman Joe Ades, we've put together a photo tribute to this unforgettable New York character. The city is a little less distinct with his passing. For more, peruse this Flickr group dedicated to Joe.

[UPDATE] On Saturday February 7th there will be a public memorial for Joe Ades in Union Square; details here.

Eartha Kitt, a sultry presence whether singing, dancing or acting, died in New York at age 81. She had been suffering from colon cancer. Known for her hit "Santa Baby" and as Catwoman on the TV series Batman, Kitt was called "the most exciting woman alive" by Orson Welles (see her discuss how Welles bit her onstage in his excitement). She was also controversial after denouncing the Vietnam War—at a White House luncheon given by Lady Bird Johnson (allegedly making the First Lady cry). The NY Times obituary notes how Kitt influenced many, including Diana Ross, and that critics loved mentioning her feline qualities (the purr of her voice, the slink of her walk—see her perform "C'est Si Bon.") As a child, she was sent to Harlem to live with an aunt: "Though she was given piano and dance lessons, a pattern of abuse developed there as well: Ms. Kitt would be beaten, run away and return. By her early teenage years she was working in a factory and sleeping in subways and on the roofs of unlocked buildings."

Harold Pinter, the influential British playwright whose works earned him a Nobel Prize in 2005, died in London at age 78. He had been suffering from cancer of the esophagus since 2002. The NY Times writes his "gifts for finding the ominous in the everyday and the noise within silence made him the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation." His most famous plays include The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, The Servant and Betrayal, and the Times of London explained his work "introduced a new word to the English language – Pinteresque – to convey an atmospheric silence." (More about Pinteresque, the adjective, here.) Kenneth Tynan once wrote, "Mr. Pinter is a superb manipulator of language, which he sees not as a bridge that brings people together but as a barrier that keeps them apart. Ideas and emotions, in the larger sense, are not his province; he plays with words, and he plays on our nerves, and it is thus that he grips us."

Widely-respected critic Clive Barnes lost his battle with cancer yesterday at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. He was 81.

Clay Felker, founder of New York magazine – a publication he once described as a guide to “how the power game is played, and who are the winners” – died this morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 82 and had been battling cancer of the throat and mouth.

George Carlin, a native of Morningside Heights, died of heart failure yesterday in California. He was 71. The iconoclastic comedian was famously arrested (pictured) after doing his “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine during a 1972 performance in Milwaukee (you can see video of a 1978 performance after the jump). When the words were later aired on WBAI, the ensuing lawsuit went all the way to the Supreme Court, who ruled in 1978 that the government could sanction broadcasters for offensive language. The counterculture comedian told the AP earlier this year: “So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of.”

There's a very notable NY Times obituary today: "Tony Schwartz, a self-taught, sought-after and highly reclusive media consultant who helped create what is generally considered to be the most famous political ad to appear on television, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan."

The Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack whose films include Tootsie, Out of Africa, The Way We Were and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, died this afternoon in his Los Angeles home. The cause was cancer.