Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Assheton Gorton
Film production designer -- via the Hollywood Reporter. A pretty amazing talent, to judge by his range -- he started off as art director on "The Knack" and "Blow-Up" -- not too shabby. The ensuing list is impressive: Richard Lester's end-of-the-world farce "The Bed Sitting Room," "The Magic Christian," George Englund's bizarre hippie Western "Zachariah," "Get Carter," "The French Lieutenant's Woman," "Legend," the ill-fated "Revolution," "For the Boys," "Rob Roy," "Shadow of the Vampire." Not all good -- but each was wildly different from the rest, and each had excellent production design. An underappreciated artist.
Debo Mitford
Duchess and estate entrepreneur; writer, farmer -- via the New York Times. AKA Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford, AKA Deborah Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. One of the extraordinary, strange, and sometimes brilliant Mitford clan of England.
Skip E. Lowe
Talk-show host and former child actor -- via the Hollywood Reporter. AKA Sammy Labella. An indefatigable character of Hollywood. Here's an excellent portrait of him by Mark Evanier.
Christopher Hogwood
Conductor; founder of the Academy of Ancient Music; harpsichordist, writer, and musicologist -- via the BBC. Really one of my favorite conductors of the past century. An absolute whiz at Baroque music, he played a huge role in the surge of appreciation of it over the past 40 years. Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Purcell, Mozart, and much more. And the Haydn symphonies! Just perfect. Fine musicianship combined with a breadth of context and depth of understanding.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
James Kupferschmidt
Founder of the Milwaukee Beer Museum and local historian -- via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Hilda Oates
Actress -- via the Cuban News Agency. Sweet lord, she was in "Patakin! quiere decir 'fabula,'" the 1985 Cuban film that is indeed the only Spanish-language Socialist musical comedy ever made. That I know of.
Weekly reader: 'Too Young to Die, Too Old to Care'
Leonard Cohen's going to take up smoking again, now that he's 80. From this premise, an excellent meditation on the end of life and how one might look at it and at death. A lovely piece in the New York Times by Jason Karlawish.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Audrey Long
Actress -- via the Hollywood Reporter. Hey, you remember Audrey Long! She was in "Tall in the Saddle" with John Wayne in 1944, in Anthony Mann's brilliant "Desperate" in 1947, and Robert Wise's first film noir, "Born to Kill," with Lawrence Tierney!
WEEKLY READER: Our roundup of stories on death, dying, mourning, and more
The bones of Richard III, as they were found in August of 2012. |
529 years after his death, the coroner’s report on Richard III is in – via Agata Blaszczak-Boxe at CBS News
Physician
Ezekiel Emanuel believes medical advances have “extended the dying process,”
plans to refuse medical care at age 75 – interview with Ezra Klein of Vox
Journalist Carol Rosenberg writes about the
discomfort of being assigned to Tweet at a funeral – on Poynter.org
DEATH
On KevinMD, James C. Salwitz reports on what
happens when you don’t make end-of-life decisions
Tricycle editor Helen Tworkov interviews Andrew
Holechek on his new book, “Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual
Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition”
In
Japan, karoshi – death from overwork – sparks a movement to lighten employees’
burdens – via Rowan Wolfe at Cyrano’s Journal Today
A
symposium on art and mortality – from Australian National University
MOURNING
A
mother’s orgiveness for a child’s murderer – from Robert Mann at
Something Like the Truth
“Museum
explores Victorian mourning customs” – via Bob Page at the Times Herald
Digital
mourning and online grief – from Carl Hoover of the Waco Tribune
FUNERALS
Mortician
Bob Dyer wins Embalmer of the Year . . . via Newsvine
12
of the worst things ever said at a funeral – via Caleb Wilde at Confessions
of a Funeral director
Funeral
potatoes: the recipe – from Barbara Schieving at Barbra Bakes (Editor’s
note: It is fairly common to share such recipes in the Midwest, where
post-funeral potlucks often take place in the church basement!)
Via Carol Hopkins at the Oakland Press – library
donates kids’ books to local funeral homes
Pastor Timothy Raymond on “The
Funeral that Was Almost a Fist Fight” in Credo Magazine
Five
Myths about Funeral Directors – from Confessions of a Funeral Director
(guest poster Pastor Dieter Reda)
Nightmare:
Funeral home loses baby’s body – from Fox Cleveland
Disabled
mortuary student not allowed to park her hearse at her apartment complex –
via Rob Hayes at KABC-TV
Sheldon Patinkin
Improvisational comedian, director, teacher, and writer -- via the Chicago Tribune. One of the great figures in the Chicago theater scene, and an excellent chronicler of the subject ("Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater" and "No Legs, No Jokes, No Chance," a history of the American musical.
Linda Griffiths
Actor and playwright -- via the CBC. Best know for her one-woman show "Maggie and Pierre."
Linda Griffiths - 7 - Maggie and Pierre from Theatre Museum Canada on Vimeo.
Linda Griffiths - 7 - Maggie and Pierre from Theatre Museum Canada on Vimeo.
George Sluizer
Filmmaker -- via the Deccan Chronicle. Best known for making the original 1988 Dutch version of "The Vanishing" and its 1993 American remake.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Polly Bergen
Actress, singer, writer, and cosmetics entrepreneur -- via the New York Times. AKA Nellie Paulina Burgin. She was busy on stage, in TV and on film. She played the wife in the original "Cape Fear"; she won an Emmy for portraying Helen Morgan; she did solid work in the Herman Wouk WWII saga "Winds of War" and its sequel; she played the female lead in a number of Martin and Lewis films; she wound up being a big hit in a revival of Sondheim's "Follies."
Friday, September 19, 2014
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