Bob May was a cherished actor, stuntman, and an unforgettable part of television history, died he was 69

 Bob May, a cherished actor, stuntman, and an unforgettable part of t

elevision history, left a lasting mark on the entertainment industry. Born in New York City on September 4, 1939, he was the grandson of vaudeville comedian Chic Johnson and inherited a love for show business at a young age, appearing in the Hellzapoppin comedy review at just two years old.Best remembered for his role as The Robot in the iconic TV series Lost in Space, May appeared in all 83 episodes donning a prop costume created by Bob Stewart. The robot's voice was dubbed by Dick Tufeld, who also served as the series' narrator. May enjoyed the role, calling the suit his "home away from home," and amusing his co-stars with his cigarette smoke emanating from the costume during breaks.

Apart from Lost in Space, May appeared in several films alongside Jerry Lewis, such as The Nutty Professor. His talents extended beyond acting; he performed in various TV series like The Time Tunnel, McHale's Navy, and The Red Skelton Show. Moreover, he worked as a stuntman in numerous TV shows and movies in the 1950s and 1960s, like Cheyenne, Hawaiian Eye, Palm Springs Weekend, and The Roaring Twenties.

As a beloved figure in the world of science fiction, May was a familiar face at autograph conventions throughout the Los Angeles area and across the United States, eagerly sought out by devoted fans of the Lost in Space series.

Sadly, May's home in the San Fernando Valley was destroyed in the devastating California wildfires of November 2008, although he and his wife were fortunate to escape unharmed. On January 18, 2009, Bob May passed away at age 69 due to congestive heart failure. He left behind a legacy as a talented actor, stuntman, and an unforgettable part of popular culture.Born in New York City,.
For years, May was a regular at autograph conventions in the Los Angeles area and around the country, sought after by fans of the show.
May's home in an upscale mobile home park in the San Fernando Valley was destroyed in the November 2008 California wildfires that hit the Los Angeles area, though he and his wife were able to escape without injury.
May died at age 69 on January 18, 2009 at a hospital in Lancaster, California of congestive heart failure. He was survived by his wife, Judith, two children and four grandchildren.

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Ricardo Montalban dies at age 88

Actor Ricardo Montalban, best known as the mysterious Mr. Roarke on the popular television series ''Fantasy Island,'' died on Wednesday at the age of 88, a Los Angeles city official said. Mexican-born Montalban had a long...";
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino KCSG was a Mexican television, theatre, and film actor. He had a career spanning decades and multiple notable roles. During the late 1970s, he was the spokesperson in automobile advertisements for the Chrysler Cordoba (in which he famously extols the "Corinthian leather" used for its interior). From 1977 to 1984 he starred as Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island. He also played the villainous Khan Noonien Singh in both the 1967 "Space Seed" episode of the first season of the original Star Trek series, and the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He won an Emmy Award in 1978, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993. Up until his 80s, he continued to perform, often providing voices for animated films and commercials.

(November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009)

Montalbán was born in Mexico City, the son of Ricarda Merino and Jenaro Montalbán, a store manager.[1] He had a brother, actor Carlos Montalbán, and a sister, Carmen.[2] He was a practicing Roman Catholic and once had said that his religion was the "most important thing" in his life.[3] He remained a Mexican citizen by choice, having never applied for American citizenship.
He married Georgiana Young, an actress, in 1944; they had four children. She was half-sister of the actresses Sally Blane, Polly Ann Young, and Loretta Young, who nicknamed her "Georgie". After 63 years of marriage, Georgiana Young de Montalbán died on November 13, 2007, at the age of 84.
Montalbán died on January 14, 2009 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 88.


Montalbán stated that when he first arrived in Hollywood, studios wanted to change his name to Ricky Martin.[5] He has frequently portrayed Asian characters - mostly of Japanese background (as in Sayonara and the Hawaii Five-O episode "Samurai"). His first leading role was the 1949 film Border Incident, with actor George Murphy. During the 1950s and 1960s he was one of only a few actively working Hispanic actors.
Many of his early roles were in Westerns in which he played character parts, usually as an "Indian" or as a "Latin Lover". In 1950, he was cast against type, playing a Cape Cod police officer in the film Mystery Street. In 1957, he played Nakamura in the Oscar-winning film Sayonara.
From 1957 to 1959 he starred in the Broadway musical Jamaica, singing several light-hearted calypso numbers opposite Lena Horne.
In 1975, he was chosen as the television spokesman for the new Chrysler Cordoba. The car became a successful model, and over the following several years, was heavily advertised; his mellifluous delivery of a line praising its "soft Corinthian leather" upholstery, often misquoted as "rich Corinthian leather", became famous and was much parodied, and Montalbán subsequently became a favorite subject of impersonators. Eugene Levy, for example, frequently impersonated him on SCTV. In 1986, he was featured in a magazine advertisement for the new Chrysler New Yorker.
Montalbán's best-known television role was that of Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island, which he played from 1978 until 1984. For a while, the series was one of the most popular on television, and his character as well as that of his sidekick, Tattoo (played by Hervé Villechaize), became pop icons. Another well known role was that of Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which was a reprisal of his role in the 1967 episode of Star Trek entitled "Space Seed". There were some questions initially as to whether Montalbán had prosthetic muscles applied to his chest during filming of Star Trek II to make him appear more muscular, on account of his being over 60 years old at the time. Montalbán and others associated with the production of Star Trek II have disputed this, most notably Leonard Nimoy in his book I Am Spock, citing the fact that he was always physically active and worked out regularly, and those really were his muscles. The theory that those chest muscles were Montalban's own is furthered by an episode of the Biography series about him, in which both William Shatner and Montalban's son say Ricardo worked out strenuously to achieve that look. Film clips and shots throughout the episode bolster these claims, as they evidence a man in fine physical shape even into the 1970s.
Montalbán appeared in many diverse films including The Naked Gun as well as two films from both the Planet of the Apes and Spy Kids series. In addition, he appeared in various musicals, such as 1966's The Singing Nun, also starring Debbie Reynolds. Over the course of his long career, he played lead roles or guest starred in dozens of television series. Since 1993, Montalbán had to use a wheelchair after a long-unresolved spinal injury from the 1951 film Across the Wide Missouri recurred. In filming though, Montalban was reportedly thrown off a horse, knocked out, and walked on by another horse, leaving him with a spinal injury that troubled him for the rest of his life and grew more painful as he aged. In 1993, he underwent surgery, but it only made the pain worse. Montalban continued to work, usually delivering his lines from a wheelchair.





Fantasy Island

Patrick McGoohan died he was 80

Patrick McGoohan, the creator and star of cult classic The Prisoner, has died aged 80, it was confirmed today.
He died yesterday after a short illness, his son-in-law film producer Cleve Landsberg said.
McGoohan played the title character Number Six in the surreal 1960s show filmed in Portmeirion in Wales.

He also won two Emmy Awards for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama Columbo.

Patrick McGoohan at his Los Angeles home in April last year
In more recent years he appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film Braveheart.
McGoohan was a stage actor before landing TV and film roles.
In 1955 he landed a five-year Rank contract and in the early 1960s McGoohan starred in All Night Long, an attempt at re-staging Shakespeare's Othello in the context of a fashionable London jazz party.
The Danger Man star scripted and directed several episodes of The Prisoner in addition to serving as executive producer and starring as the lead.
The cult show tells the story of a man who finds himself trapped in a mysterious and surreal place known as The Village, with no memory of how he arrived.
As he frantically explores his environment, he discovers that its inhabitants are identified by number instead of by name and have no memory of a prior existence or outside civilisation.
Not knowing who to trust, Number Six is driven by the desperate need to discover the truth behind The Village, which is controlled by the sinister and charismatic Number Two.

Tony Martin died he was 96,

When Tony Martin's wife, dancer Cyd Charisse, died six months ago, he was bereft. They had a blessed marriage - the kind where if one of them was away even for a few days, he or she would call the other to eagerly relate everything that had happened. After 65 years together, Martin suddenly found himself alone in their spacious Los Angeles condo, staring at photos of his gorgeous wife.

Aware of the need for a change, he phoned his agent, Scott Stander, and said he wanted to work. That made sense except for a few details: Martin was 95 years old and his profession was singing to audiences. Sinatra was forgetting lyrics in his 60s, and Elvis' voice was shot in his 30s.

But Martin still has the sound - "an unusually rich timbre synonymous with virility," in the words of one music critic - that made him one of the great singer-actors of the first half of the 20th century. He made hits of "To Each His Own," "I Get Ideas," "I Hear a Rhapsody," "La Vie en Rose" and "There's No Tomorrow" (based on "O Sole Mio," which also was the basis for Presley's "It's Now or Never").

These songs form the heart of the nightclub act he'll perform this weekend in San Francisco. A piano player comes regularly to his house to help him rehearse.
"I wouldn't perform unless I could remember well. This is my business," he says.
In the midst of our phone conversation, he started crooning "You stepped out of a dream. You are too wonderful to be what you seem." He first sang it to Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner in the 1941 "Ziegfeld Girl."

A gerontologist should make a study of what keeps him going. Everybody wants what he has at his age. Martin attributes his stamina to doing calisthenics almost every day. It must be working. Stander says that Martin's couch is quite low and that he himself has trouble getting out of it, but "Tony bounds right up." He lives alone and dresses without assistance. For a photo shoot the other day, he put on a well-tailored tweed suit.

Charisse was the cook at their house. Martin admits to being hopeless at it. The evenings when his housekeeper doesn't prepare a meal, he orders out. "French, Italian, Chinese - it all depends what I feel like," he says. "I have a good appetite." Martin still drives and will sometimes meet his friends at a restaurant for dinner.
He's also an ardent San Francisco Giants fan who used to drag his wife to windy and cold Candlestick Park. Martin now follows the games religiously on TV.
"As you get older, what you hold on to as long as you can is your independence, and Tony has his," says Stander, who has known him for years. "He makes his own decisions. He has a housekeeper and people that keep an eye on him, but he is very self sufficient."

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Cornelia Wallace died she was 69 years old

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Former Alabama first lady Cornelia Wallace, who threw herself over Gov. George C. Wallace when he was shot in a 1972 assassination attempt, has died in Sebring, Fla. She was 69.

Wallace's cousin, Melissa Boyen, said the former first lady died Thursday from cancer.

Cornelia Wallace was the niece of two-term Gov. James E. "Big Jim" Folsom. The dark-haired beauty, known simply as "C'nelia," married George Wallace on Jan. 4, 1971 — just days before he began his second term as governor. It was the second marriage for both.

The union marked a merger between Alabama's two most famous political families and surprised some because George Wallace had defeated Jim Folsom in the 1962 race for governor and the relationship between the two governors had been strained since then.

Cornelia Wallace was a socially active first lady known for her lively personality. But for many, the most lasting memory of her occurred on May 15, 1972.

She was accompanying her husband on the Democratic campaign trial for president when Arthur Bremer shot him four times at a campaign rally in Laurel, Md. A news camera captured photos of Cornelia Wallace throwing herself over her husband's body to shield him as he lay bleeding in a shopping center parking lot.

"She's etched in Alabamians' memory because of the tragedy of that," said Joe Turnham, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.

William Stewart, a longtime political scientist at the University of Alabama, said he remains impressed by her bravery during the shooting and her loyalty to her husband during his long recovery from the wounds that left his legs paralyzed.

"I don't know if he would have made it without her," Stewart said. "She was totally devoted to him. It was beautiful to see."

Edward D. Cartier Dies At 94

Edward D. Cartier, 94, who illustrated classic science fiction, fantasy, mystery and pulp fiction by such authors as Isaac Asimov, L. Ron Hubbard, and Walter B. Gibson of The Shadow fame, died Dec. 25 at his home in Ramsey, N.J.
"He was one of the very last illustrators from the golden age of science fiction," said Mr. Cartier's son Dean. "He did over 800 illustrations for The Shadow and was still signing autographs . . . one for a fan just last week. He was sharp to the very end of his life."
Mr. Cartier is considered the definitive illustrator of The Shadow and Unknown magazines, and illustrated extensively for publications including Astounding Science Fiction, Doc Savage, Other Worlds, and Red Dragon Comics.
He was a friend of Hubbard's in the heyday of Hubbard's career, and for the last 20 years was a judge for the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest. Mr. Cartier was also the art director for the Mosstype Corp. for more than 25 years.
A 1936 graduate of the Pratt Institute in New York, Mr. Cartier had his sights on becoming a Western artist but landed a job illustrating The Shadow magazine.
Though his name was Edward Daniel Cartier, fans of The Shadow would "write to Ed D., which became Edd, and my dad liked it. . . . It became his pen name," his son said.
Mr. Cartier served as an infantryman and heavy-machine gunner for a tank battalion in France and Germany during World War II.
He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and again when his hospital train was blown apart. He received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
Mr. Cartier's wife of 65 years, Georgina, died in May. In addition to his son Dean, he is survived by a second son, Kenn.

Ron Asheton died he was 60

Ron Asheton died he was 60. [1] Ron was an American guitarist and co-songwriter with Iggy Pop for the rock band The Stooges.

(July 17, 1948 – c. January 1, 2009)

He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Asheton was on the Stooges first two albums, and later appeared as bassist for their third, Raw Power, when he was replaced in both instrument and songwriting prominence by The Stooges' new guitar player, James Williamson. With the Stooges reformed, however, he once again appeared as the band's guitarist.
Apart from The Stooges, Asheton also played in the bands The New Order (not the UK band of the same name), Destroy All Monsters, New Race, and more recently with Mike Watt, J. Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.), Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Mark Arm of Mudhoney among others (as The Wylde Ratttz), on the soundtrack for the Todd Haynes film Velvet Goldmine, which starred Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Asheton also acted, appearing with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre star Gunnar Hansen in Mosquito which came out in 1995 as well as in two other films, Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo and Legion of the Night. In later life, Asheton enjoyed attending St James' Park to watch his beloved Newcastle United FC play.
Asheton already had five years practicing the accordion behind him when he began playing guitar while he was ten.

He is ranked as number 29 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Asheton was found dead in his Ann Arbor, Mich. home of a reported heart attack on January 6th, 2009, having died several days earlier. more

Pat" Hingle died he was 84

Pat" Hingle died he was 84. Martin Patterson "Pat" Hingle was an American actor.

(July 19, 1924 – January 3, 2009)

Hingle was born Martin Patterson Hingle in Denver, Colorado, the son of Marvin Louise (née Patterson), a schoolteacher and musician, and Clarence Martin Hingle, a building contractor.[1] Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas. He served on the destroyer USS Marshall during World War II. He returned to the University of Texas after the war and earned a degree in radio broadcasting.


In 1960, he had been offered the title role in Elmer Gantry, but could not do it due to a near fatal accident; caught in an elevator in his West End Avenue apartment building that had stalled between the second and third floors, he crawled out, trying to reach the second floor corridor, lost his balance and fell 54 feet down the shaft, fracturing his skull, wrist, hip and most of the ribs on his left side, breaking his left leg in three places and losing the little finger on his left hand. He lay near death for two weeks and his recovery took more than a year.

Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) with Judge Adam Fenton (Hingle) in Hang 'Em High (1968).
Hingle is traditionally known for playing judges, police officers, and other authority figures. One of his notable roles is the father of the character played by Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass (1961). While he is probably best known in recent times for playing Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 film Batman and its three sequels, Hingle has a long list of television and movie credits to his name, going back to 1948. Among them are Hang 'Em High (1968), Sudden Impact (1983), Road To Redemption (2001), When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979), Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (1986), The Grifters (1990), Citizen Cohn (1992), Muppets from Space, and Shaft (2000). Along with Michael Gough, who played Alfred Pennyworth, he is one of only two actors to appear in four Batman films.

Hingle originated the role of Gooper in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof . He also starred as Victor Franz in the premiere production of The Price by Arthur Miller .In the 1997 revival of the musical 1776, Hingle played Benjamin Franklin, with Brent Spiner as John Adams. In 2002, he was a regular cast member of ABC's series The Court. He also played Horace in 1995's The Quick and the Dead.
Recently, he appeared in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, as the original owner of Dennit Racing.


He died at his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, of leukemia on January 3, 2009, having been diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006.[2][3]

Jett Travolta died he was 16

Jett, born on April 13, 1992, was the only son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston. Early in childhood Jett suffered from Kawasaki disease that caused seizures at random times. January 3, 2009

Maria de Jesus died she was 115

LISBON, Portugal (Jan. 2) - A Portuguese woman who lived to see five of her great-great grandchildren born and was believed to have been the world's oldest person died on Friday at the age of 115, officials said.
Maria de Jesus died in an ambulance near the central Portuguese town of Tomar, town council officials said.
She had been listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest person. That title now falls to an American, 114-year-old Gertrude Baines, who lives in a Los Angeles nursing home.
Born Sept. 10, 1893, de Jesus was widowed at 57, outlived three of her six children, had 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
On Friday, she ate breakfast normally, but then was taken to hospital because of a swelling, her daughter Maria Madalena told state news agency Lusa, without elaborating.
De Jesus was 115 years and 114 days old.
"I regret the death of this lady, she really was the sweetest person," town councilor Ivo Santos said in Tomar, central Portugal, 135 kilometers (84 miles) north of Lisbon.
There are now only 82 women and nine men verified as being 110 or older, according to gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Bobby Fischer "Chestmaster " died he was 64,

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American-born chess Grandmaster, and the eleventh World Chess Champion.

As a teenager, Fischer became famous as a chess prodigy. In 1972, he became the first, and so far the only, American to win the official World Chess Championship (though Wilhelm Steinitz, the first official world champion, became an American citizen while he was champion) defeating defending champion Boris Spassky, of the Soviet Union, in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland. The match was widely publicized as a Cold War battle. He is often referred to as one of the greatest chess players of all time.

In 1975, Fischer failed to defend his title when he could not come to agreement with the international chess federation FIDE over the conditions for the match. He became more reclusive and played no more competitive chess until 1992, when he had a rematch with Spassky, in which he won again. The competition was held in Yugoslavia, which was then under a strict United Nations embargo. This led to a conflict with the US government, and he never returned to his native country.

(March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008)

Bobby Fischer was born at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on March 9, 1943. His mother, Regina Wender, was a naturalized American citizen of Polish Jewish descent, born in Switzerland but raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She later became a teacher, a registered nurse, and a physician. Fischer's birth certificate listed Wender's husband, Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a German biophysicist, as Fischer's father. The couple married in 1933 in Moscow, USSR, where Wender was studying medicine at the First Moscow Medical Institute. They divorced in 1945 when Bobby was two years old, and he grew up with his mother and older sister, Joan. In 1948, the family moved to Mobile, Arizona, where Regina taught in an elementary school. The following year they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Regina worked as an elementary school teacher and nurse.
A 2002 article by Peter Nicholas and Clea Benson of The Philadelphia Inquirer suggests that Paul Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist, may have been Fischer's biological father. The article quotes an FBI report that states that Regina Fischer returned to the United States in 1939, while Hans-Gerhardt Fischer never entered the United States, having been refused admission by US immigration officials because of alleged Communist sympathies. Regina and Nemenyi had an affair in 1942, and he made monthly child support payments to Regina. Nemenyi died in March, 1952.
In May 1949, the six-year-old Fischer learned how to play chess along with his sister in instructions found in a chess set that was bought at a candy store below their Brooklyn apartment. He saw his first chess book a month later. For over a year he played chess on his own. At age seven, he began to play chess seriously, joining the Brooklyn Chess Club and receiving instruction from its president, Carmine Nigro. He later joined the Manhattan Chess Club, one of the strongest in the world, in June, 1955. Other important early influences were provided by Master and chess journalist Hermann Helms and Grandmaster Arnold Denker. Denker served as a mentor to young Bobby, often taking him to watch professional hockey games at Madison Square Garden, to cheer the New York Rangers. Denker wrote that Bobby enjoyed those treats and never forgot them; the two became lifelong friends. When Fischer was thirteen, his mother asked the Master John W. Collins to be his chess tutor. Collins had coached several top players, including future grandmasters Robert Byrne and William Lombardy. Fischer spent much time at Collins' house, and some have described Collins as a father figure for Fischer. The Hawthorne Chess Club was the name for the group which Collins coached. Fischer also was involved with the Log Cabin Chess Club. Another mentor and friend during those years was the broadcaster and author Dick Schaap, who often took Fischer to basketball games of the New York Knicks.
Bobby Fischer attended Erasmus Hall High School at the same time as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. The student council of Erasmus Hall awarded him a gold medal for his chess achievements. Fischer dropped out of Erasmus in 1959 at age 16, the minimum age for doing so, saying that school had little more to offer him.
When Fischer was 16, his mother moved out of their apartment to pursue medical training. Her friend Joan Rodker, who had met Regina when the two were "idealistic communists" living in Moscow in the 1930s, believes that Fischer resented his mother for being mostly absent as a mother, a communist activist and an admirer of the Soviet Union, and that this led to his hatred for the Soviet Union. In letters to Rodker, Fischer's mother states her desire to pursue her own "obsession" of training in medicine and writes that her son would have to live in their Brooklyn apartment without her: "It sounds terrible to leave a 16-year-old to his own devices, but he is probably happier that way."


Fischer's first real triumph was winning the United States Junior Chess Championship in July 1956. He scored 8.5/10 at Philadelphia to become the youngest-ever junior champion at age 13, a record that stands to this day. In the 1956 U.S. Open Chess Championship at Oklahoma City, Fischer scored 8.5/12 to tie for 4-8th places, with Arthur Bisguier winning. He then played in the first Canadian Open Chess Championship at Montreal 1956, scoring 7/10 to tie for 8-12th places, with Larry Evans winning. Fischer's famous game from the 3rd Rosenwald Trophy tournament at New York 1956, against Donald Byrne, who later became an International Master, was called "The Game of the Century" by Hans Kmoch. At the age of 13, he was awarded the US title of National Master, then the youngest ever.
In 1957, Fischer played a two-game match against former World Champion Max Euwe at New York, losing 0.5-1.5. He then successfully defended his US Junior title, scoring 8.5/9 at San Francisco. Next, he won the U.S. Open Chess Championship at Cleveland on tie-breaking points over Arthur Bisguier, scoring 10/12. Fischer defeated the young Filipino Master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso by 6-2 in a match in New York. He next won the New Jersey Open Championship. From these triumphs, Fischer was given entry into the invitational U.S. Chess Championship at New York. He won, with 10.5/13, becoming in January 1958, at age 14, the youngest US champion ever (this record still stands).

In his later years, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the Philippines, and Japan. During this time he made increasingly anti-American and anti-Semitic statements. During the 2004–2005 time period, after his U.S. passport was revoked, he was detained by Japanese authorities for nine months under threat of extradition. After Iceland granted him citizenship, the Japanese authorities released him to that country, where he lived until his death in 2008.



Fischer was suffering from degenerative renal failure. This had been a problem for some years, but became acute in October 2007, when Fischer was admitted to a Reykjavík Landspítali hospital for stationary treatment. He stayed there for about seven weeks, being released in a somewhat improved condition in the middle of November. He returned home gravely ill in December apparently rejecting any further Western medicine.
Fischer stayed in an apartment in the same building as his closest friend and spokesman, Garðar Sverrisson, whose wife Kristín Þórarinsdóttir happens to be a nurse and looked after the terminally ill patient. Garðar's two children, especially his son, were very close to Fischer. They were his only close friends and contacts during the last two years of his life.
Fischer did not believe in prolonging life at any cost – such as by the use of large amounts of pain killers or permanent dependence on a dialysis machine. When he was released from the hospital his doctors gave him a few months to live. His wife Miyoko Watai flew in from Japan to spend the Christmas season with him. She returned on January 10, 2008, just before Fischer's death, and so had to make another trip almost immediately after.
In the middle of January his condition deteriorated and he was returned to the hospital, where elevated levels of serum creatinine were found in his blood. He died on January 17, 2008, at home in his apartment in Reykjavík. Like his great predecessors Howard Staunton and Wilhelm Steinitz, he died at the age of . Magnús Skúlason, who stayed with Fischer until he died, said that his last words were, "Nothing soothes pain like the touch of a person." more

Ann Savage died she was 87

Ann Savage died she was 87. Savage was a motion picture actress for over sixty years. She is mainly remembered as the cigarette-puffing femme fatale in Detour (1945) and other Hollywood B-movies and film noirs of the 1940s. Savage and Detour co-star Tom Neal made four movies (Klondike Kate, Two Man Submarine, Unwritten Code, and Detour) and one television show (Gangbusters) together.

(born February 19, 1921 in Columbia, South Carolina as Bernice Maxine Lyon, died December 25, 2008)

Savage temporarily left the entertainment business in the early 1950s though she made occasional appearances on television and worked for industrial and inspirational film producers during the 1950s - 70s. In the 1980s, Ann returned to theatrical motion pictures in the 1986 film Fire with Fire and made a guest appearance on the television show Saved By The Bell. She also made live appearances at film festivals, especially for screenings of Detour.

When it became public domain, Detour was often run on syndicated television and several versions were released on VHS home video. This exposure, combined with her film festival appearances, earned Savage the respect of several generations of independent film directors and actors. Director Wim Wenders called her work in Detour "at least 15 years ahead of its time". The London Guardian termed Ann "a Garbo for our times". Savage most recently earned rave reviews in all media for her performance as Canadian director Guy Maddin's mother in his most acclaimed film My Winnipeg (2008).

Savage was married three times, the third time to her former, long-time manager turned financial manager, Bert D'Armand, in 1942 or 1945, depending on the source. He died suddenly in 1969. Savage died in her sleep on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008, from complications following a series of strokes. She is buried next to D'Armand at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in Los Angeles, California.
In 2005, Savage was elevated to the status of, "icon and legend," by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. more

Claiborne Pell Creator of Pell Died he was 90

Claiborne de Borda Pell was a former United States Senator from Rhode Island, serving six terms from 1961 to 1997, and was best known as the sponsor of the Pell Grant, which provides financial aid funding to U.S. college students.[ A Democrat, he was that state's longest serving senator.

(November 22, 1918–January 1, 2009)

Claiborne de Borda Pell was born in New York City, the son of former United States Representative Herbert Claiborne Pell, Jr.. He was the great-great-grandson of former Congressman John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne, great-great-grandnephew of former Senator and Vice President of the United States George Mifflin Dallas and great-great-great-grandnephew of former Senator and Representative William Charles Cole Claiborne and of former Congressman Nathaniel Herbert Claiborne. He was also a direct descendant of mathematician John Pell. Pell was one of the heirs to what started out as the Lorillard tobacco fortune, although the family has been out of the Lorillard firm for generations.Pell attended St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island, then received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Princeton University in 1940, and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1946. While in Princeton, he was a member of Colonial Club.Pell was married to the former Nuala O'Donnell, a descendant of the Hartford family and, as such, one of the heirs to the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company fortune.In his later years, Pell suffered from Parkinson's Disease.

Claiborne Pell, the quirky blueblood who represented blue-collar Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate for 36 years and was the force behind a grant program that has helped tens of millions of Americans attend college, died Thursday after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 90.
Pell, a Democrat, died at his Newport home just after midnight, according to his former assistant, Jan Demers

Pell was first elected to the Senate in 1960. The skinny son of a New York congressman, Pell spoke with an aristocratic tone but was an unabashed liberal who spent his political career championing causes to help the less fortunate.
He disclosed he had Parkinson's in 1995 and left office in January 1997 after his sixth term.
Members of Rhode Island's all-Democratic congressional delegation lauded Pell's legacy.
"Senator Pell was a remarkable statesman and legislator who worked tirelessly to promote peace and expand opportunity through education," Sen. Jack Reed said in a written statement.
"We will all miss him deeply, and long benefit from the works of his farseeing soul," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said. And Rep. Jim Langevin called Pell a "gentleman and champion for those who needed their voices heard."
When asked his greatest achievement, Pell always was quick to answer, "Pell Grants."

He sponsored legislation creating the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants, which passed in 1972 and provided direct aid to college students. The awards were renamed "Pell Grants" in 1980. By the time Pell retired, they had aided more than 54 million low- and middle-income Americans.
"He believed strongly that a good education could open infinite doors of opportunity, and he has transformed the lives of millions of young people who have been able to go to college because of the grant that rightly bears his name," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Thomas Hughes, Pell's chief of staff from 1975 until his retirement, said Pell believed financial aid should be given directly to students rather than distributed by colleges and universities.
"He always had this view that the federal government should help young people be able to have an education beyond high school," Hughes said.
Quiet, thoughtful and polite to a fault, Pell seemed out of place in an era of in-your-face, made-for-television politicians. A multimillionaire, he often wore old, ill-fitting suits and sometimes jogged in a tweed coat.
Though criticized by some for his fascination with UFOs and extra sensory perception, he was best remembered for his devotion to education, maritime and foreign affairs issues.
Pell also shared a strong interest in the arts, and was chief Senate sponsor of a 1965 law establishing the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Pell was well-liked among peers from both political parties, who respected his non-confrontational style. "I believe in letting the other fellow have my way" was a favorite refrain Pell used to refer to his negotiating skills.
Born in 1918, Pell came from a political family and was a descendant of early New York landowners who lived among the old-money families in Newport. Five family members served in the House or Senate, including great-great-granduncle George M. Dallas, who was a senator from Pennsylvania in the 1830s and vice president under President James K. Polk in the 1840s. His father, Herbert Claiborne Pell, was a one-term representative from New York.
Pell graduated from Princeton in 1940, and served in the Coast Guard during World War II. He remained in the Coast Guard Reserve until retiring as a captain in 1978.
He participated in the 1945 San Francisco conference that drafted the United Nations charter and was a staunch defender of the institution throughout his life.
He served in the foreign service for seven years, holding diplomatic posts in Czechoslovakia and Italy, then returned to Rhode Island in the 1950s. He was elected to the Senate in 1960 after defeating two former governors in the Democratic primary.
Despite his peculiarities, he became the most formidable political force in Rhode Island. In his six statewide elections, he received an average 64 percent of the votes.
"I attribute (my popularity) to one reason, and that is I have never critically mentioned my adversary," Pell would say.
The late Republican Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island once said Pell's popularity was due to the state's overwhelmingly Democratic leanings and Pell's honesty and integrity. Voters embraced Pell's quirkiness and, to a certain extent, his distance from common people.
A story from Pell's 1972 Senate campaign was a favorite in Rhode Island and was told often to illustrate his isolation from the average Joe.
Pell was campaigning in Providence when it began raining. Pell, who had a formal evening engagement, had forgotten his galoshes. An aide was dispatched and returned with a pair.
In his very formal manner of speech, Pell asked the aide, "To whom am I indebted for these fine rubbers?"
"I got them at Thom McAn, senator," the aide answered, referring to the budget shoe store chain.
"Well, do tell Mr. McAn that I am much obliged to him," Pell said.
A dove who vigorously opposed the Vietnam War, Pell in 1987 became chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He was considered a weak chairman, and he lost the job to Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina when Republicans gained a majority in 1994.
Pell considered retiring in 1990, but was persuaded by party leaders to run. He easily defeated then-U.S. Rep. Claudine Schneider despite making a monumental gaffe during a televised debate in which he was asked to identify a piece of recent legislation he had sponsored to help Rhode Islanders.
"I couldn't give you a specific answer," Pell said. "My memory's not as good as it should be."
Pell was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in December 1994 and disclosed the condition the following spring. He insisted the disease had nothing to do with his retirement.
"There is a natural time for all life's adventures to come to an end and this period of 36 years would seem to me about the right time for my service in the Senate to end," he said in September 1995.
When attending a July 2006 ceremony in his honor in Newport, Pell did not talk, letting his wife, Nuala, speak on his behalf.
He and his wife, who married in 1944, had four children. Their daughter Julia died of lung cancer in 2006 at age 52.

Paul Hoffman died he was , 49, an Author And Former Reporter at Post - New York ...

Paul Hoffman, an author and former newspaper reporter, died Monday of injuries suffered in a fire in his Greenwich Village apartment on Saturday.
He was 49 years old.
Mr. Hoffman worked for The New York Post from 1962 to 1969, covering courts and politics and serving as the newspaper's Albany correspondent. He went on to write several nonfiction books.
Before working for The Post, Mr. Hoffman was employed by the City News Bureau in Chicago from 1958 to 1960, United Press International in Detroit from 1960 to 1961, and Stars and Stripes in New York City in 1962.
He is survived by his parents, William and Miriam Hoffman of Chicago, and a sister, Nancy Levant of Rochester.