Phil Shanahan, Irish hurler died he was 84

Phil Shanahan was an Irish hurler who played as a midfielder for the Tipperary and Dublin senior teams died he was 84.
Shanahan made his first appearance for the Tipperary team during the 1946 championship and became a regular member of the team over the next decade. During that time he won three All-Ireland winners' medals, three Munster winners' medals and three National League winners' medals. In 1955 and 1956 Shanahan played with the Dublin senior team, however, he returned to Tipperary before his retirement from the inter-county scene after the 1957 championship.^[1]
At club level Shanahan is a county championship winners' medalist with the Toomevara club in Tipperary. He also played with the Young Irelands club in Dublin.

(January 1928 – 7 February 2012)

Playing career

Club

Shanahan showed early promise making his debut at senior level with Toomevara in the 1945 championship, while still only seventeen years of age. The club were back in the senior ranks for the first time since 1938, when they failed to field a team in the first round of the senior championship.
In 1946 Shanahan won his first divisional medal when Toomevara defeated Roscrea in the north final, their first such victory since 1931.
A move to Dublin in 1950 saw him join the Young Irelands club, however, he enjoyed little success with the Dublin club before moving back to Tipperary in the late fifties.
Shanahan played in seven consecutive North Tipperary finals from 1957 to 1963, winning four in 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1962. He captained the team in 1958. There were also three county final appearances, with defeats in 1958 and 1961, and a great victory over Thurles Sarsfields in 1960, a victory that prevented the Thurles club winning six in-a-row.
Shanahan eventually retired from club hurling in 1966 after a career of twenty years.

Inter-county

Shanahan made his inter-county debut with the Tipperary minor hurling team in 1946. In the Munster final against Cork he collected a mis-hit seventy-yard free near the end of the game to score the winning goal and win the match by just a single point. Galway were well-beaten in the All-Ireland semi-final but the final was lost to Dublin in the infamous Billy O'Brien goalmouth incident. In the last few minutes the Dublin forwards succeeded in getting the ball over the goal line for a goal, which was only awarded after a three-minute consultation between the referee M. J. Flaherty and the umpires. Both umpires claimed that the goalie, Billy O'Brien, had been fouled before the goal was scored but the referee didn’t see the foul and allowed the goal. Dublin won by 1-6 to 0-7.
Shanahan's first entry into the senior ranks was when he was selected at midfield for Tipperary's 1948-49 National League campaign. Tipperary qualified for the final against Cork and won by 3-5 to 3-3. It was their first victory in the competition since 1928. Shanahan enjoyed further success later that year when Tipp defeated Limerick by 1-16 to 2-10 to take the Munster title. He subsequently lined out in his first All-Ireland final at senior level. Surprisingly, Laois were the opponents on that occasion, however, the result was expected. Tipp opened the floodgates with a Paddy Kenny goal before Jimmy Kennedy added two more goals in the second-half. At the full-time whistle Tipp were the victors by 3-11 to 0-3 and Shanahan had captured a coveted All-Ireland winners' medal. He finished off the year by winning his first Oireachtas title.
In spite of a move to Dublin 1950, Shanahan added a second National League winners' medal to his collection before further provincial glory followed. A 2-17 to 3-11 defeat of Cork gave him a second consecutive Munster medal and an easy passage into another All-Ireland final. Kilkenny provided the opposition on that occasion in a close but uninteresting game. At the final whistle Tipp emerged the victors by 1-9 to 1-8 giving Shanahan a second All-Ireland medal.
In 1951 Shanhan captured a third successive Munster title following a 2-11 to 2-9 defeat of arch-rivals Cork. This victory resulted in Tipp being installed as the favourites for a third consecutive All-Ireland title. Wexford, however, stood in Tipp's way after making a long-awaited breakthrough in Leinster. Nicky Rackard had been Wexford's star goal-poacher throughout the year, however, his artistry was beaten by Tony Reddin in the Tipperary goal-mouth. Séamus Bannon, Tim Ryan and Paddy Kenny got the goals in the second quarter that did the damage, however, Tipp forged ahead to win by 7-7 to 3-9.
For the next two years Tipperary were defeated by Cork in the Munster championship. It wasn't the end of his playing days, however, as he captured a third National League title in 1952.
Since Shanahan was now based in Dublin, he decided to line out for the Dubs in 1954. His two seasons at midfield resulted in Dublin being beaten by Wexford in the 1954 Leinster final and by Kilkenny in the 1955 Leinster semi-final.
In 1956 Shanahan lined out with Tipperary once again. He won a fourth National League medal as a non-playing substitute in 1957, however, Tipperary lost out to in the semi-final of the provincial championship. He retired from inter-county hurling following a tour to the United States at the end of the year.

Coaching career

With his playing days over Shanahan turned his attention to training and coaching. His training career began with Portlaoise, where he helped the club to five championship football titles between 1966 and 1971. He attained a coaching certificate in hurling in 1977. When he retired from Esso in 1982 he trained and coached Killenaule to win three South Tipperary intermediate championships in hurling in 1983, 1985 and 1986.

Personal life

Born in Toomevara, County Tipperary, Shanahan initially worked on the family farm. In 1950 he moved to Dublin where he found work with the Johnston Mooney and O'Brien bakery. After six years here he moved to Clonmel where he worked with Esso.
Shanahan married Joan Power in 1958 and the couple had three sons, Phil, David and Brian.
In his final years Shanahan's health deteriorated and he underwent open-heart surgery in 2008. He died on 7 February 2012.^[2]

Honours

Team

Toomevara

• Tipperary Senior Club Hurling Championship (1): 1960
• North Tipperary Senior Club Hurling Championship (5): 1946, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962

Tipperary

• All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship (3): 1949, 1950, 1951
• Munster Senior Hurling Championship (3): 1949, 1950, 1951
• National Hurling League (3): 1948-49, 1949-50, 1951-52
• Oireachtas Tournament (1): 1949
• Thomond Feis (2): 1949, 1951
• Munster Minor Hurling Championship (1): 1946

Munster

• Railway Cup (4): 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953

Individual

Awards

• Sports Star of the Week: 1952
• North Tipperary Hurling Team of the Millennium: 2000
• Tipperary Hall of Fame Award: 2004

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Harry Keough, American soccer player and coach died he was 84

Harry Joseph Keough was an American soccer defender who played on the United States national team in their 1–0 upset of England at the 1950 FIFA World Cup died he was 84. He spent most of his club career in his native St. Louis, winning a national junior championship, two National Challenge Cup and seven National Amateur Cup titles. He coached the Saint Louis University men's soccer team to five NCAA Men's Soccer Championships. The Keough Award, named after him and his son Ty Keough, is presented each year to the outstanding St. Louis-based male and female professional or college soccer player.

(November 15, 1927 – February 7, 2012)

Playing

Club career

Keough was born to Patrick John and Elizabeth (née Costley) Keough, and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, attending Cleveland High School.^[1] As a youth he played several sports, including track, swimming, and fast-pitch softball, particularly excelling at soccer. His soccer career began in 1945 as a member of the "St. Louis Schumachers", who won the 1946 National Junior Challenge Cup.^[2] In 1946, he joined the U.S. Navy. He was assigned to a naval base in San Francisco, California where he played for the "San Francisco Barbarians", which had dominated west coast soccer in the first half of the 20th century. Keough was eventually sent to San Diego as part of a destroyer crew. After his discharge from the Navy, Keough returned to St. Louis.^{[citation needed]}
In 1948, he played for Paul Schulte Motors. The next year the team came under the sponsorship of McMahon Pontiac and which played in the lower division St. Louis Municipal League. He was with McMahon when selected for the U.S. national team as it entered qualification for the 1950 World Cup. When he returned home from the cup, Keough rejoined his team, now known as the St. Louis Raiders of the first division St. Louis Major League. The Raiders won both the league and National Amateur Cup championships in 1952, giving Keough his first “double”. Following the 1952 season, Tom Kutis took over sponsorship of the team, renaming it St. Louis Kutis S.C. The team continued its winning ways under its new name, winning the 1953 and 1954 league titles, and went to the 1954 National Challenge Cup final where it fell to New York Americans of the American Soccer League. The St. Louis Major League had folded in 1954 and Kutis continued to play both as an independent team and as a member of various lower division city leagues over the next decade. Despite this turbulence, it continued to dominate both the city and national soccer scene. Kutis would win the National Amateur Cup each year from 1956 to 1961. In 1957, it won the National Challenge Cup, giving Keough another double.

National and Olympic teams

In 1949, Keough was called into the national team for the 1949 NAFC Championship, to be held in Mexico. This was the second time the NAFC had held a regional championship, but this one served as the qualification tournament for the World Cup as well. Keough gained his first cap with the national team in its 1-1 tie with Cuba on September 14, 1949. The U.S. finished second out of the three teams, giving it a spot in the cup for the first time since 1937. At the World Cup, Keough served as team capatin for the game against Spain "because he spoke Spanish." He also made appearances for the U.S. team in the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics, as well as the qualifying matches for the 1954 FIFA World Cup and 1958 FIFA World Cups. His last game with the national team was a 3-2 World Cup qualification loss to Canada on July 6, 1957.^[3]

Coaching

Upon his retirement as a player, he became coach of Florissant Valley Community College. In 1967, St. Louis University hired him away from Florissant. In his first year with the Billikens, Keough took his team to an NCAA co-championship. He then took his team to four additional championships during his tenure (1969, 1970, 1972, and 1973). When he retired from coaching in 1982, he had compiled a 213-50-23 record with SLU.

Recognition

Keough was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame in 1972,^[4] the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1976 (along with his 1950 U.S. teammates), the St. Louis University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995,^[5] and the NSCAA Hall of Fame in 1996. In January 2004, Keough and the four other living members of the 1950 World Cup Team (Walter Bahr, Frank Borghi, Gino Pariani and John Souza) were recognized as Honorary All-Americans by the NSCAA at its annual convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1994, the book "The Game of Their Lives", was published, covering the 1950 U.S. World Cup Team's 1 - 0 victory in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, versus the highly favored English team, and in 2005 the movie was released (on DVD under the name "Miracle Match"). Keough was named as one of the 50 Greatest Athletes of the Century (for Missouri) by Sports Illustrated. On September 30, 2009, Keough was named to SLU's Half-Century Team, and on November 18, 2009, Keough was inducted into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame as a member of its inaugural class.

Personal

During his playing career, Keough worked for the U.S. Postal Service. Keough's son Ty Keough was also a professional soccer player who played for the U.S. team and was a sports commentator for soccer broadcasts. His father Patrick appeared on the famous TV program The $64,000 Question in the mid-1950s where he won an automobile for answering questions about baseball.^[6] Keough suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his later life.^[7] Harry Keough died on February 7, 2012.^[8]

Documentary

Keough was featured in the 2009 soccer documentary A Time for Champions discussing the U.S. upset victory over England in the 1950 World Cup and his coaching career at St. Louis University.
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Florence Holway, American advocate for rape victims died she was , 96

Florence Robie Reed Holway  was a woman who was raped and sodomized at the age of 75 by John LaForest on March 31, 1991, in her Alton, New Hampshire home died she was , 96. Her subsequent fight for justice ultimately resulted in changes to that state's rape laws and is the subject of a 2003 HBO documentary entitled Rape in a Small Town: The Florence Holway Story, which chronicles her ordeal.

(June 2, 1915 – February 7, 2012)

Activism

Following the assault, Holway incorrectly believed that her attacker, John LaForest, would automatically receive a lengthy sentence, but was shocked to learn that, without her consent, he was instead offered a plea bargain which would result in his receiving a 12-year sentence. The enraged Holway, who firmly maintained that rape is not about sex, but rather violence, started a petition drive and alerted the media to her plight.
Due to her efforts, stronger sentences against sex offenders went into effect in 1993: First-time offenders in New Hampshire are now sentenced to 15–20 years instead of 7.5–15 years, second-time offenders are sentenced to 20–40 years, and third-time offenders are sentenced to life without parole. In addition, New Hampshire now has a sex offender registry; prosecutors cannot offer plea bargains without the victim's knowledge.

Parole hearing

In 2003, Holway testified at LaForest's parole hearing, speaking to him directly and, as shown in the documentary, questioning the sincerity of his remorse. Although his parole was initially denied, he was eventually set free. He was arrested again after just two months for harassing a woman at his workplace.

Personal life

Holway was married at 28 and had five children, four boys and one girl. An accomplished artist, she enjoyed oil and watercolor painting. Her art was inspired by her children and their daily activities.

Quote

Speaking about her attack: "I lost two things that night – my teeth and peace of mind."

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Patricia Stephens Due, American civil rights activist, died from cancer she was 72

 Patricia Stephens Due ^[1][2] was one of the leading African-American civil rights activists in the United States, especially in her home state of Florida died from cancer she was 72. Along with her sister Priscilla and others trained in nonviolent protest by CORE, Due spent 49 days in one of the nation's first jail-in, refusing to pay a fine for sitting in a Woolworth's "White only" lunch counter in Tallahassee, Florida in 1960.^[3] Her eyes were damaged by tear gas used by police on students marching to protest such arrests, and she wore dark glasses for the rest of her life. She served in many leadership roles in CORE and the NAACP, fighting against segregated stores, buses, theaters, schools, restaurants, and hotels, protesting unjust laws, and leading one of the most dangerous voter registration efforts in the country in northern Florida in the 1960s.^[4]
With her daughter, Tananarive, Due wrote Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights, documenting the struggle she participated in, initially as a student at Florida A&M University, and later working for civil rights organizations and Florida communities, sometimes in partnership with her husband, civil rights attorney John D. Due, Jr.

(December 9, 1939 – February 7, 2012)

Biography

Patricia Stephens was born on December 9, 1939 in Quincy, Florida to Lottie Mae (née Powell) and Horace Walter Stephens. She was the second of three children. In 1963, she married Florida A&M University (FAMU) law student John D. Due, Jr., who went on to become a prominent civil rights attorney.^[5] The couple had three daughters.^[4]
Due's university studies were repeatedly interrupted by protests and arrests that sometimes got her suspended, as well as speaking and fund-raising tours. Though she entered Florida A&M University in 1957, she did not receive her degree until 1967.^[1]

Civil rights activism

Due and her sister Priscilla started fighting segregation when Due was 13 by insisting on being served at the "white only" window of their local Dairy Queen, instead of the "colored" window.^[1]

During the summer of 1959, the sisters attended a nonviolent resistance workshop organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). On February 20, 1960, eleven FAMU students, including Patricia and Priscilla, were arrested for ordering food at a "white only" Woolworth lunch counter. On March 12, dozens of FAMU and Florida State University students who participated in sit-ins at McCrory’s and Woolworth’s were arrested. A thousand students began marching from the FAMU campus toward downtown Tallahassee, but were stopped by Police officers with teargas. At the head of the march, Due was teargassed right in the face, and suffered permanent eye damage.^{[citation needed]}
Due and the other sit-in participants were tried and found guilty on March 17, 1960. Eight refused to pay the $300 fine, deciding instead to go to jail. Eight students served 49 days at the Leon County Jail: FAMU students Patricia and Priscilla Stephens, John Broxton, Barbara Broxton and William Larkins, and three other students—Clement Carney, Angelina Nance, and 16-year-old high school student Henry Marion Steele (son of activist pastor Rev. C.K. Steele).^{[citation needed]}
The "jail-in" gained nationwide attention, and the students received a supportive telegram from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Due sent a letter to baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson, who published it in a column he wrote. Robinson later sent the jailed students diaries so they could write down their experiences. After the jail-in, Due and the others traveled the country in speaking tours to publicize the civil rights movement. She met with such luminaries as Eleanor Roosevelt and author James Baldwin, and would be jailed on numerous occasions as a leader in the movement.^[4]

Death

Patricia Stephens Due died in 2012, aged 72, following a battle with cancer.^[where?]

Bibliography

• Freedom in the Family: a Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights with Tananarive Due (Ballantine, 2003)

Honors

Due received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Outstanding Leadership, the Gandhi Award for Outstanding Work in Human Relations, and the Florida Freedom Award from the NAACP. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Florida A&M University.^[6]
In 2008, the National Hook-Up of Black Women Inc. honored Due at its national convention.^[7]

Legacy

• In February 2010, Florida A&M University (FAMU) students gathered on campus to re-enact the sit-ins, jail-in, and protest march that had occurred 50 years previously in Tallahassee.^[8]

• The John Due and Patricia Stephens Due Freedom Endowed Scholarship provides $1000 annually to a FAMU student who plans to use the legacy of the civil rights movement to do his or her part to make a better nation.^[9]

• Patricia Due was honored by Tallahassee Mayor John R. Marks, who issued a proclamation declaring May 11, 2011 as Patricia Stephens Due Day.

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Janice E. Voss, American astronaut, died from breast cancer she was 55

Janice Elaine Voss ( was an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. She flew in space five times, jointly holding the record for American women.^[2] Voss died on February 6, 2012, from breast cancer.<sup>[3][4]

(October 8, 1956 – February 6, 2012)</sup>

Education

Voss graduated from Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, in 1972.^[5] She
earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Purdue University while working on a co-op at the Johnson Space Center. She earned an S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1977. After studying space physics at Rice University from 1977 to 1978, she went on to earn a doctorate in aeronautics/astronautics from MIT in 1987.

Career

Voss was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1990 and flew as a mission specialist on missions STS-57 (1993), STS-63 (1995), STS-83 (1997), STS-94 (1997) and STS-99 (2000).^[6][7] All of her flights included another female astronaut as well.^[8]
During her career as an astronaut, she participated in the first Shuttle rendezvous with the Mir space station on STS-63: it flew around the station, testing communications and inflight manoeuvres for later missions, but did not actually dock. As an STS-99 crew member on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, she and her fellow crew members worked continuously in shifts to produce what was at the time the most accurate digital topographical map of the Earth.^[3]
From October 2004 to November 2007, she was Science Director for NASA's Kepler Space Observatory, an Earth-orbiting satellite designed to find Earth-like extrasolar planets in nearby solar systems. It was launched in March 2009 and was still operational at the time of her death at age 55 from breast cancer.
At the Astronaut Office Station Branch, she served as the Payloads Lead. She also worked for Orbital Sciences Corporation in flight operations support.^[6]

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Antoni Tàpies, Spanish painter died he was 88

Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tàpies (Catalan: [ənˈtɔni ˈtapi.əs]; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Spanish painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation.

Life

The son of Josep Tàpies i Mestre and Maria Puig i Guerra, Antoni Tàpies Puig was born in Barcelona on December 13, 1923. His father was a lawyer and Catalan nationalist who served briefly with the Republican government. At 17, Tàpies suffered a near-fatal heart attack caused by tuberculosis. He spent two years as a convalescent in the mountains, reading widely and pursuing an interest in art that had already expressed itself when he was in his early teens.^[1]
Tàpies studied at the German School of Barcelona. After studying law for 3 years, he devoted himself from 1943 onwards only to his painting. He lived mainly in Barcelona and was represented by the Galerie Lelong in Paris and the Pace Gallery in New York. Tàpies died in early February 2012.^[2] He was 88.^[3]

Work

Tàpies was perhaps the best-known Catalan artist to emerge in the period since the Second World War. He first came into contact with contemporary art as a teenager through the magazine D’Ací i D’Allà, published in Barcelona, and during the Spanish Civil War (1936–9), while he was still at school, he taught himself to draw and paint.^[4] On a French government scholarship in the early 1950s he lived in Paris, to which he often returned. Both in Europe and beyond, the highly influential French critic and curator Michel Tapié enthusiastically promoted the work of Antoni Tàpies.
In 1948, Tàpies helped co-found the first Post-War Movement in Spain known as Dau al Set which was connected to the Surrealist and Dadaist Movements. The main leader and founder of Dau al Set was the poet Joan Brossa. The movement also had a publication of the same name, Dau al Set. Tàpies started as a surrealist painter, his early works were influenced by Paul Klee and Joan Miró; but soon become an informal artist, working in a style known as pintura matèrica, in which non artistic materials are incorporated into the paintings. In 1953 he began working in mixed media; this is considered his most original contribution to art. One of the first to create serious art in this way, he added clay and marble dust to his paint and used waste paper, string, and rags (Grey and Green Painting, Tate Gallery, London, 1957).

Mural at the Catalan Pavilion at the Seville Expo '92

Tàpies' international reputation was well established by the end of the 1950s. From the late 1950s to early 1960s, Tàpies worked with Enrique Tábara, Antonio Saura, Manolo Millares and many other Spanish Informalist artists. In 1966 he was arrested at a clandestine assembly at the University of Barcelona; his work of the early 1970s is marked by symbols of Catalan identity (which was anathema to Franco).^[5] In 1974 he made a series of lithographs called Assassins and displayed them in the Galerie Maeght in Paris, in honour of regime critic Salvador Puig Antich's memory. From about 1970 (influenced by Pop art) he began incorporating more substantial objects into his paintings, such as parts of furniture. Tàpies's ideas have had worldwide influence on art, especially in the realms of painting, sculpture, etchings and lithography. Examples of his work are found in numerous major international collections. His work is associated with both Tachisme and Abstract Expressionism.
The paintings produced by Tàpies, later in the 1970s and in the 1980s, reveal his application of this aesthetic of meditative emptiness, for example in spray-painted canvases with linear elements suggestive of Oriental calligraphy, in mixed-media paintings that extended the vocabulary of Art informel, and in his oblique allusions to imagery within a fundamentally abstract idiom, as in Imprint of a Basket on Cloth (1980).^[6] Among the artists' work linked in style to that of Tàpies is that of the American painter Julian Schnabel as both have been connected to the art term "Matter".^[7]

Graphic work

Alongside his production of pictures and objects, from 1947 onward Tàpies was active in the field of graphic work. He produced a large number of collector’s books and dossiers in close association with poets and writers such as Alberti, Bonnefoy, Du Bouchet, Brodsky, Brossa, Daive, Dupin, Foix, Frémon, Gimferrer, Guillén, Jabès, Mestres Quadreny, Mitscherlich, Paz, Saramago, Takiguchi, Ullán, Valente and Zambrano.

Essays

Tàpies has written essays which have been collected in a series of publications, some translated into different languages: La pràctica de l’art (1970), L’art contra l’estètica, (1974), Memòria personal (1978), La realitat com a art (1982), Per un art modern i progressista (1985), Valor de l’art (1993) and L’art i els seus llocs (1999).^[8]

Exhibitions

In 1950, Tàpies' first solo show was held at the Galeries Laietanes, Barcelona, and he was included in the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.^[9] In 1953 he had his first shows in the United States, at the Marshall Field Art Gallery in Chicago and the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York.^[10] His first retrospective exhibitions were presented at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, in 1973 and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, in 1977.^[11] Later he was the subject of retrospective exhibitions at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 1994, kestnergesellschaft in Hannover in 1998, and at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in 2000.

Legacy

In 1984, Tàpies created the Tàpies Foundation, dedicated to the study of modern art. In 1990 it opened a museum and library in the premises of a former publishing house in Barcelona. Its holdings include nearly 2,000 examples of his work.^[12]

Recognition

Tàpies was awarded in 1958 the First Prize for painting at the Pittsburgh International, and the UNESCO and David E. Bright Prizes at the Venice Biennale.^[13] He received the Rubens Prize of Siegen, Germany, in 1972.^[14] On 9 April 2010, he was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos I with the hereditary title of Marqués de Tàpies^[15] (English: Marquess of Tàpies). In the Academic Sphere, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Rovira i Virgili University in 1994. Furthermore, he designed Rovira i Virgili University’s logo, which is characterized by the letter “a”, symbol of universal’s knowledge principle.

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Peter Breck, American actor (The Big Valley) died he was 82

Joseph Peter Breck  was an American character actor of stage, television, and film died he was 82. The rugged, dark-haired Breck played the gambler and gunfighter John H. "Doc" Holliday on the ABC/Warner Brothers television series Maverick but is best known for his role as Victoria Barkley's (Barbara Stanwyck) hot-tempered, middle son Nick in the popular 1960s ABC western, The Big Valley.

(March 13, 1929 – February 6, 2012)

Career

Early career

After United States Navy service on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42), Breck studied drama at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. He made his debut in a film produced by Bert Freed that was eventually released under the title The Beatniks. As well as performing in live theatre, Breck had several guest-starring roles on a number of popular series, such as Sea Hunt, several episodes of Wagon Train, Have Gun – Will Travel, Perry Mason, and Gunsmoke. In 1956, he and David Janssen appeared in John Bromfield's syndicated series Sheriff of Cochise in the episode entitled "The Turkey Farmers". He appeared in another syndicated series too in the episode "The Deserter" of the American Civil War drama Gray Ghost, with Tod Andrews in the title role.
When Robert Mitchum saw Breck in George Bernard Shaw's play The Man of Destiny in Washington, D.C., he offered Breck a role as a rival driver in Thunder Road (1958). Mitchum helped Breck to relocate to Los Angeles, California. As Breck then did not have his own car, Mitchum lent him his own Jaguar.^[1] Mitchum introduced Breck to Dick Powell who contracted him to Four Star Productions where Breck appeared in the CBS western anthology series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater. He also appeared with fellow guest star Diane Brewster in the 1958 episode "The Lady Gambler" of the ABC western series, Tombstone Territory, starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. That same year, Breck appeared in an episode of the syndicated Highway Patrol, starring Broderick Crawford. He was cast too in an episode of NBC's The Restless Gun, starring John Payne.
From January 1959 to May 1960, Breck starred as Clay Culhane, the gunfighter-turned-lawyer in the ABC western Black Saddle, with secondary roles for Russell Johnson, Anna-Lisa, J. Pat O'Malley, and Walter Burke. Unlike in The Big Valley in which Breck played an easily-angered rancher, he is low-key, restrained, and considerate as the lawyer Culhane.
Breck was later a contract star with Warner Brothers, where he appeared as Doc Holliday on Maverick, a part that had been played twice earlier in the series by Gerald Mohr and by Adam West on ABC's Lawman. Breck appeared in several other ABC/WB series of the time, such as Cheyenne, 77 Sunset Strip, The Roaring Twenties (as trumpet player Joe Peabody in the episode "Big Town Blues"), and The Gallant Men. He was cast as a young Theodore Roosevelt in the 1961 episode "The Yankee Tornado" of the ABC/WB western series, Bronco, starring Ty Hardin. "The Yankee Tornado" features Will Hutchins of the ABC/WB western series Sugarfoot in a crossover appearance.
Breck's first starring role in a film was Lad, A Dog in 1962.^[2] The next year, he played the leading roles in both Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor and the science fiction horror film The Crawling Hand. Between 1963-1965 Breck made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the roles of defendant William Sherwood in the 1964 episode, "The Case of the Antic Angel," and defendant Peter Warren in the 1965 episode, "The Case of the Gambling Lady." During this time, he also appeared on episodes of such television series as Mr. Novak, The Outer Limits, Bonanza, and The Virginian.

The Big Valley

From 1965 to 1969, Breck starred in The Big Valley, having portrayed Nick Barkley, ramrod of the Barkley ranch and son to Barbara Stanwyck's character, Victoria Barkley. The second of four children, Nick was hotheaded, short-tempered, and very fast with a gun. Always spoiling for a fight and frequently wearing leather gloves, Breck's character took the slightest offense to the Barkley name personally and quickly made his displeasure known, as often with his fists as with his vociferous shouts. Often this proved to be a mistake and only through the calming influence of his mother and cooler-headed siblings, Jarrod (Richard Long), half-brother Heath (Lee Majors), sister Audra (Linda Evans) and Eugene (Charles Briles; written out after season 1 when he was drafted into the Army), would a difficult situation be rectified. Having been a Barbara Stanwyck admirer since the 1940s, when he was teenager, Breck developed an on- and off-screen chemistry with her, practicing longer lines and even being a ranch foreman on the set. After the show was canceled, he stayed close to her until her death.

After The Big Valley

In 1969, Breck was cast in an episode of The Donald O'Connor Show. Most of his roles in the 1970s and 1980s were television guest-starring performances on such series as Alias Smith and Jones, Mission: Impossible, McMillan & Wife, S.W.A.T., The Six Million Dollar Man (again with Lee Majors), The Incredible Hulk, and The Dukes of Hazzard, as well as roles as himself on Fantasy Island, and The Fall Guy which also starred former television "brother" Lee Majors.
In the mid-1980s, Breck moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with his wife Diane and their son, Christoper. He was asked by a casting director to teach a weekly class to young actors on film technique. That one-a-week class became a full-time acting school - The Breck Academy - which he operated for ten years. In 1990, Breck appeared in the Canadian cult film Terminal City Ricochet.
On January 20, 1990, while teaching at the drama school, Breck was notified of Barbara Stanwyck's death. She requested no funeral nor memorial.
In the 1993 movie The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter, Breck played Sheriff Hatch.
In 1996, he appeared in an episode of the new version of The Outer Limits.
Breck pro­vided the voice of Farmer Brown in "Crit­ters", a 1998 episode of The New Batman Adventures.^[3]
His last television performance was on an episode of John Doe in 2002. Prior to his death, most of his film performances have been in undistributed films that are shown only at film festivals.

Death

In June 2010, Breck's wife Diane announced on his website that the actor had been suffering from dementia and could no longer sign autographs for fans, although she said that he still read and enjoyed their letters. Despite this diagnosis, she said he was still physically healthy and did not require medication.^[4]
Thereafter, Diane Breck reported that her husband was hospitalized on January 10, 2012. On February 6, 2012, Peter Breck died from his illness at the age of eighty-two.^[5]
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