Lucky Dube died at 43

Lucky Dube was born in Ermelo, then in the Eastern Transvaal, near the house now Mpumalanga, on 3 August 1964. His parents separated before his birth and he was raised by his mother, Sarah, who named him because she considered his birth fortunate after a number of failed pregnancies. [6] Along with his two siblings, Thandi and Patrick, Dube spent much of his childhood with his grandmother, while his mother relocated to work. In a 1999 interview he described his grandmother as "his greatest love" who "multiplied many things to bring up this responsible individual that I am today."As a child Dube worked as a gardener but, realizing that he wasn't earning enough to feed his family, he began to attend school. There he joined a choir and, with some friends, formed his first musical ensemble, called The Skyway Band.[8] While at school he discovered the Rastafari movement. At the age of 18 Dube joined his cousin's band, The Love Brothers, playing Zulu pop music known as mbaqanga. The band signed with Teal Record Company, under Richard Siluma (Teal was later incorporated into Gallo Record Company). Though Dube was still at school, the band recorded material in Johannesburg during his school holidays. The resultant album was released under the name Lucky Dube and the Supersoul. The second album was released soon afterwards, and this time Dube wrote some of the lyrics in addition to singing. Around this time he also began to learn English.





His desire to learn about the rest of the world and South Africa's controversial history had him immediately immersed in the world of literature. It was here that he became acquainted with the Rastafarian religion, discovering it in an Encyclopedia. He also read about the music which is synonymous with Rastafarianism - REGGAE. His interest grew the more he read and found out, and soon he was working and earning enough money to buy Peter Tosh albums (which were the only Reggae albums available in South Africa at the time). Whilst he was at school he founded his first band - THE SKYWAY BAND - and raised enough money to buy his first guitar from a stage play he produced. His talents soon came to the attention of Richard Siluma, who was a distant relative and a record producer, and it was clearly evident to Richard that Lucky had a huge talent and a wonderful potential as a mbaqanga singer.


In 1979 Lucky launched his career as a mbaqanga singer and along with future slave members Thutukani Cele and Chris Dlamini recorded an album in 1982 as a member of the band THE LOVE BROTHERS entitled MBAQANGA. In the next 3 years Lucky went on to release his debut solo album entitled LENGANE NGEYETHA which spawned his first hit single and went gold. His next album KUKUWE also went gold. He subsequently released another two Zulu traditional albums.


On the release of his fifth Mbaqanga album, Dave Segal (who became Dube's sound engineer) encouraged him to drop the "Supersoul" element of the name. All subsequent albums were recorded as Lucky Dube. At this time Dube began to note fans were responding positively to some reggae songs he played during live concerts. Drawing inspiration from Jimmy Cliff [9] and Peter Tosh,[7] he felt the socio-political messages associated with Jamaican reggae were relevant to a South African audience in an institutionally racist society. [9]During 1985 and without the knowledge of his record company, Teal Records, Lucky and Richard went into the studio and recorded "Rastas Never Die" - the first ever reggae album to be recorded in South Africa. The record sold poorly - around 4000 units - in comparison to the 30000 units his mbaqanga records would sell. Keen to suppress anti-apartheid activism, the apartheid regime banned the album in 1985. [10] However, he was not discouraged and continued to perform the reggae tracks live and wrote and produced a second reggae album. Think About The Children (1985). It achieved platinum sales status and established Dube as a popular reggae artist in South Africa, in addition to attracting attention outside his homeland.[8]





Because of the political situation and censorship in the government controlled media it did not reach the airwaves and was banned immediately. The album gained awareness but did not sell well. Record company executives demanded a return back to traditional Zulu pop music.


Dube continued to release commercially successful albums. In 1989 he won four OKTV Awards for Prisoner, won another for Captured Live the following year and yet another two for House Of Exile the year after.[11] His 1993 album, Victims sold over one million copies worldwide.[2] In 1995 he earned a worldwide recording contract with Motown. His album Trinity was the first release on Tabu Records after Motown's acquisition of the label.[11]In 1996 he released a compilation album, Serious Reggae Business, which led to him being named the "Best Selling African Recording Artist" at the World Music Awards and the "International Artist Of The Year" at the Ghana Music Awards. His next three albums each won South African Music Awards.[11] His most recent album, Respect, earned a European release through a deal with Warner Music. [2] Dube toured internationally, sharing stages with artists such as Sinéad O'Connor, Peter Gabriel and Sting. [9] He appeared at the 1991 Reggae Sunsplash (uniquely that year, was invited back on stage for a 25 minute long encore) and the 2005 Live 8 event in Johannesburg. [9]In addition to performing music Dube was a sometime actor, appearing in the feature films Voice In The Dark, Getting Lucky and Lucky Strikes Back. [12]





Lucky established himself as a truely international artist, and got rave reviews at every show.





On October 18, 2007, Lucky Dube was killed in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville shortly after dropping two of his seven children off at their uncle's house. Dube was driving his Chrysler 300C which the assailants were apparently after. Police reports suggest he was shot dead by carjackers. Five men have been arrested in connection with the murder[13]. He is survived by his wife, Zanele, and his seven children.





"It signifies yet again how much criminals disregard human life. I learned about Lucky in 1998, and have been hooked every since. Words cannot explain the pains i bear in my heart when I hear of a great music superstat that has been gun down and we loose our legacy of music. The man was not doing anything bad, just being a good dad!





Discography


MbaqangaLengane Ngeyethu (1981)





Kudala Ngikuncenga (1982)









Kukuwe (1983)







Abathakathi (1984)







Ngikwethembe Na?







(1985) Umadakeni (1987)









AfrikaansHelp My Krap (1986)


ReggaeRastas Never Die (1984)


Think About The Children (1985)







Slave (1987)




Together As One (1988)







Prisoner (1989)







Captured Live (1990)







House of Exile (1991)







Victims (1993)







Trinity (1995)


Serious Reggae Business (1996)


Tax man (1997)



The Way It Is (1999)


The Rough Guide To Lucky Dube (compilation) (2001)


Soul Taker (2001)




The Other Side (2003)


Respect (2007)


CompilationThe Best of Lucky Dube (2008)

Elizabeth Spriggs died at 78

The British Shakespearean actress Elizabeth Spriggs diedat the age 78. Her theatre career, which lasted more than four decades, included thirteen years at the Royal Shakespeare, roles in several popular British TV series and even a part in a Harry Potter movie.

Spriggs joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962 at the time when Peter Hall was establishing the theatre as a permanent company. Spriggs became an associate artist with the RSC and one of the company’s most accomplished performers. Spriggs also appeared in the BBC’s television productions of “Julius Caesar” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

Spriggs later performed with the National Theatre and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1975 as best supporting or featured actress in a play for “London Assurance.” She stopped performing live theatre when a bad hip prevented her from standing on stage for long periods of time.

Spriggs appeared in many television shows but she is probably best known for the role of Nan in the ITV series “Shine On Harvey Moon.” Spriggs also appeared in several movies including Emma Thompson’s adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” and “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”

was a versatile actress on stage and screen, and became familiar to television viewers in the role of Nan in Shine On Harvey Moon.

In the 1960s she brilliantly justified Peter Hall's new policy of turning the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-on-Avon from a seasonal set-up with a new star-led cast every season into a permanent company.


Joining it aged 36 as an unknown but soundly-trained character actress, she stayed for 14 years to become one of its most accomplished, reliable and mature leading players.

Elizabeth Spriggs went on to star at the National Theatre as well as on television. She was the kind of serious-minded, though never solemn, performer for whom the play was the thing; she never asked herself whether it suited her career.

Acting for Elizabeth Spriggs could be a painful experience: "You have to be open to new ideas. It's a little like an open wound, never healing ... It's vital to be constantly stretched ... I hated most of my disciplining, but it taught me more than technique."

From the age of 11 she had nursed hopes of acting at Stratford-on-Avon, and from the day she did so 25 years later for Hall's newly-formed Royal Shakespeare Company she never ceased to celebrate her luck.

At that time she was nearing middle age. She was not beautiful, and she could not hope for glamorous roles. But she was mature, intelligent, experienced and patient; and she developed over the years into one of the RSC's most valued assets who, now and then, brought real distinction to her acting.

Her Gertrude, for example, to David Warner's Hamlet was rated by one experienced critic as "among the best in living memory". Her Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, her Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor and her Maria in Twelfth Night also won high praise.

But the performance which stuck longest in most playgoers' memories came with the whip and riding breeches she sported opposite Donald Sinden in London Assurance. As Lady Gay Spanker in Dion Boucicault's 19th-century comedy in the Restoration style, she addressed her friends and relations as if they were quadrupeds; her acting was a triumph of high comedy.

Although she went on to do admirable work with the National Theatre Company when Peter Hall took over as artistic director from Laurence Olivier, it was her work with the RSC which took her to the top of her profession.

Elizabeth Spriggs was born on September 18 1929 at Buxton, Derbyshire, and was educated there and in Coventry before training for the stage at the Royal School of Music. She taught speech and drama at Coventry Technical College and privately.

This was a career path, however, that brought her no fulfilment: "I felt as if I was dying inside. The desire to act was like a weight within me, and I knew if I didn't do anything it would destroy me." In 1953 she got the opportunity to join the Bristol Old Vic, and after several seasons she moved to the Birmingham Rep, where her roles included Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra and Madame Ranevsky in The Cherry Orchard (1958).

In 1962 she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the following Aldwych season she played Mrs Vixen in The Beggar's Opera, Mother in The Representative by Rolf Hochhuth, Ida Mortemarte in Roger Vitrac's Victor and Rossignol in Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade.

At Stratford-on-Avon in 1965 her roles included Courtezan in The Comedy of Errors, Phrynia in Timon of Athens and a blowsy Gertrude to David Warner's Hamlet – considered by JC Trewin to be "among the best in living memory, a shallow woman terrified by the pressure of events she could not comprehend".

At the Aldwych she played Chairman Maudsley in David Mercer's one-acter, The Governor's Lady; Locksmith's Wife in The Government Inspector by Gogol; and Gertrude again in Hamlet, which she repeated at Stratford-on-Avon in 1966.

She also appeared at Stratford as Mistress Quickly in Henry IV Parts I and II; as the hostess in Henry V; the Widow in All's Well That Ends Well; a Witch in Macbeth; and as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet to Estelle Kohler's Juliet. In the last two of these she toured to Helsinki, Leningrad and Moscow before playing at the Aldwych in 1968.

Back at Stratford that year she played Portia in Julius Caesar, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor and – at the Aldwych in 1969 – Claire in A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee. Repeating her Mistress Ford at Stratford, she also played Livia in Middleton's Women Beware Women, Paulina in The Winter's Tale and Maria in Twelfth Night. Her 1970 triumph as Lady Gay Spanker in London Assurance was also seen on Broadway in 1974.

Other roles for the RSC included Lady Britomart in Shaw's Major Barbara; a warmly sympathetic Emilia to Brewster Mason's Othello (Stratford 1971); the Duchess of York in Richard II for the Theatregoround touring company; and a sunny, complacent and busy Beatrice to Derek Godfrey's Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, rediscovering, as one critic put it, "a capacity for love she had long since laid aside".

Among notable performances at the National Theatre were Madam Arcati, Noël Coward's tweedy, suburban and eccentric medium in Blithe Spirit (1976), and the tarty tobacconist with a heart of gold who seduces young men and corrects the shortcomings of others in Tom Stoppard's version of Odon von Horvath's Tales From the Vienna Woods.

At the National she was also the indomitable Lady Would-Be in Volpone, and the frightful Lady Fidget in Wycherley's Country Wife. As the stoical wife of Michael Gough's dying trades unionist in Arnold Wesker's Love Letters on Blue Paper (Cottesloe, 1978) she won the West End Managers' prize for the best supporting actress of the London season.

Among her numerous television credits were Shine on Harvey Moon, in which she played Harvey's mother, Nan; the title role of Hannah in Victorian Scandals; Dilecta in the Balzac serial Prometheus; Maud Lowther in Wings of a Dove; Frade in The Dybbuk; and Calpurnia in Julius Caesar. She also appeared in the ever-popular Midsomer Murders (she was a murder victim in the very first episode). She was Connie Fox in the serial Fox, the wife in We, The Accused, and she had the title role in The Kindness of Mrs Radcliffe. In Strangers and Brothers she played Lady Muriel Royce and the Mistress in Those Glory, Glory Days.

She also played The Witch in Simon and the Witch, and appeared in Gentleman and Players, Watching, Boon and Survival of the Fittest. She was in Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, The Old Devils, Heartbeat and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes.

Elizabeth Spriggs appeared as the formidable Aunt Agatha in Jeeves and Wooster and had parts in several Alan Bennett plays, including Bognor, Intensive Care and Our Winnie. She was a staple of costume drama, featuring in adaptations of both Our Mutual Friend and Martin Chuzzlewit (in the latter she excelled as the gin-sodden midwife Sairey Gamp) as well as the BBC's version of Middlemarch.

Her feature film credits included Peter Hall's Work Is A Four-Letter World, An Unsuitable Job For a Woman, The Cold Room, Sakharov, Parker and Yellow Pages. In 1995 she appeared as Mrs Jennings in Emma Thompson's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and in 2001 was the Fat Lady in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Elizabeth Spriggs met her third husband, Murray Manson, in 1972 when he was working as a minicab driver and she was starring at the Albery in London Assurance. He survives her with the daughter of her first marriage.

Larry Harmon dies at 83

Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83. Best known as the longtime owner of the name and likeness of "Bozo the Clown". Although Harmon credited himself as the character's creator and original portrayer, Capitol Records producer Alan Livingston created Bozo in 1946 for a popular series of children's storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book sets, the first of their kind; and Pinto Colvig portrayed the character on the recordings, radio and first television series "Bozo's Circus" (1949) on KTTV-Channel 11 (CBS) Los Angeles, California in 1949. Harmon, one of several actors hired by Livingston and Capitol Records to portray Bozo at promotional appearances, formed a business partnership and bought the licensing rights (excluding the record-readers) to the character when Livingston briefly left Capitol in 1956. In 1959, Jayark Films Corporation distributed a series of Harmon-produced limited-animation cartoons (with Harmon as the voice of Bozo) to television stations, along with the rights for each to hire its own live Bozo host. In 1965, Harmon became the sole owner of the licensing rights after buying out his business partners. In 1971, Larry Harmon Pictures Corporation took over Capitol Records' "Bozo the Clown" copyright. In 2001, the last Bozo television series ended a 40-year-run on Superstation WGN-Channel 9 Chicago, Illinois.

He also created an aborted television pilot in the 1950s called "General Universe", in which he was going to use the life size, stationary model of the robot "Gort", from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). He then went on to create the studio bound, 50s television show called "Commander Comet", which flourished for 2 and a half seasons. He used the "Gort" prop for this show as well. He made some additions to the "Gort" suit & called it "Rotar", who was the ever faithful companion to "Commander Comet".

Children: son, Jeff Harmon, and daughters Lori Harmon, Marci Breth-Carabet and Leslie Breth.

Became interested in theater while studying at the University of Southern California.

Caught up in a minor controversy when the International Clown Hall of Fame took down his 1990 Lifetime of Laughter Achievement Award plaque honoring him as the creator and original Bozo, and formally endorsed Alan Livingston in 1998 as creator and inducted Pinto Colvig in 2004 as the first Bozo. Harmon, who was one of several actors playing Bozo at promotional appearances in the early 1950s and later acquired all rights to the character, denied ever misrepresenting Bozo's history.

Larry Haines died at 89

This 1986 file photo, originally supplied by NBC, shows Larry Haines in a posed studio shot promoting his starring role on NBC's "Search for Tomorrow" television soap opera.


Haines died died July 17, 2008 at a Delray Beach, Fla. hospital. He was 89.



Larry Haines, a two-time Daytime Emmy winner for his 35-year role on the soap opera "Search for Tomorrow,".

The actor played Stu Bergman on "Search for Tomorrow" for almost the show's entire run from 1951 to 1986, missing only the first two months.

Stu was the neighbor and best friend of Joanne Gardner Barron, later Joanne Tourneur, the character at the center of most of the show's plot lines over the years. She was played by Mary Stuart for the entire 35 years.

The soap opera, which was first on CBS, later on NBC, was the longest-running daytime drama in television when its last episode aired in December 1986.


Haines credited the longtime appeal of the show to "basically believable characters that people kind of took to."

He won Daytime Emmys for his role in 1976 and 1981 and in 1985 was given an award for his longevity on the series.

He also appeared for shorter periods on "Another World" and "Loving."

He was generally billed as A. Larry Haines in his Broadway appearances. He was twice nominated for Tonys, for "Promises, Promises," the 1968 musical version of the film "The Apartment," and "Generation," a 1965 play starring Henry Fonda.

He also was in the 1962 Broadway comedy "A Thousand Clowns," as the brother of free-spirited Jason Robards; in "Twigs," a 1971 program of four one-act plays starring Sada Thompson; and in the 1978 "Tribute," which starred Jack Lemmon.

He appeared as a card player in the 1968 film version of "The Odd Couple," and made guest appearances on the TV series "Maude" and "Kojak," among others.

He was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Aug. 3, 1918. Early in his career, he was an actor on radio series, including the popular horror series "Inner Sanctum," which opened with the sound of a creaking door.

He was preceded in death by his first wife, Gertrude Haines; his second wife, Jean Pearlman Haines; and his daughter, Debora.

Greg Burson died at 59

Greg Burson died on July 22, 2008 at the age of 59. The cause of death is being given as complications due to diabetes and arteriosclerosis but obviously, drinking had a lot to do with it.


Greg Burson was given the responsibility of voicing Bugs in 1995's Carrotblanca, a well-received 8-minute Looney Tunes cartoon originally shown in cinemas alongside The Amazing Panda Adventure (US) and The Pebble and the Penguin (non-US); it has since been released on video packaged with older Looney Tunes cartoons and was even included in the special edition DVD release of Casablanca, of which it is both a parody and an homage. Burson next voiced Bugs in the 1996 short From Hare to Eternity; the film is notable for being dedicated to the memory of the then-just deceased Friz Freleng, and for being the final Looney Tunes cartoon that Chuck Jones directed. Greg Burson also provided Bugs' voice in The Bugs and Daffy Show, which ran on Cartoon Network from 1996 to 1999.

He also voiced Yogi Bear and many other characters in Hanna-Barbera-related shows.


[edit] Legal Issues
Greg Burson was later arrested by detectives after barricading himself inside his Los Angeles home for six hours. He screamed a stream of nonsensical words at cops who were alerted to his home after two women rang them claiming he was holding his roommate against her will. Armed Special Weapons And Tactics teams joined the stand-off which eventually ended when a seemingly inebriated Greg Burson surrendered following hours of negotiations. Cops later discovered a collection of guns in his home. One officer says "He was so drunk we couldn't tell if he was trying to do one of his voices or was just slurring his words." Officer Rudy Villarreal has confirmed all three women involved in the incident lived with Burson. Neither women were harmed in this incident


CREDITS
Film Appearances
Voices of Nemo's father, Flap, Bullwinkle, Boris, and Dudley, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Hemdale Releasing, 1990
Voice of moving man, Tom and Jerry: The Movie (animated), Miramax,1993
Voice of Mr. DNA, Jurassic Park (also known as JP), MCA/Universal, 1993
Voices of Buggs Bunny, Pepe Le Pew as Louie, and Foghorn Leghorn as radiodispatcher, Carrotblanca (animated), Warner Bros., 1995
Voices of Bugs Bunny, From Hare to Eternity (animated), Warner Bros., 1996
Voice of the animated Mr. Quincy Magoo, Mr. Magoo, Buena Vista, 1997
Voice, Bugs Bunny's Funky Monkeys (animated), 1997
Also voices of Huckeberry Hound, Peter Perfect, and Snagglepuss, Cartoon Survivor; voices of Elmer and Foghorn for the film Space Jam; and voices of Bugs Bunny as Jim Hawkins and Pepe Le Pew as Squire Trelawney, Treasure Island: A Looney Tunes Movie.
Television Appearances
Series
Voice of Elmer Fudd, a recurring role, Tiny Toon Adventures (animated; also known as Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures), 1990-1991
Voice of Bugs Bunny, The Bugs n' Daffy Show (animated), The WB, 1996
Also voice of George Wilson, The All-New Dennis the Menace, CBS; voice of Professor Edwin I. Relevant, Channel Umptee--3, The WB; and voices of Yogi and Boo-Boo, Yogi & Co. (animated). Episodic
Voice of Mad Dog, "Shadow of the Bat: Parts 1 & 2," Batman: The Animated Series, Fox, 1993
Voices of Corbin and Sanderson, "Race against Danger," The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (animated), Cartoon Network and syndicated, 1996
Voice of Quick Draw McGraw, "Jack and the Clenches," Samurai Jack(animated), Cartoon Network, 2000
Also voices of judge and first otter, "SqOtters," an episode of The Angry Beavers (animated); voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fuddfor various episodes of Animaniacs (animated); voice of Barry the Baboon, Catdog (animated); voice of Attila, Mother Goose and Grimm(animated), CBS; voices of Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Pepe Le Pew, and Cupid for various episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures (animated; also known as Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures); voice, Tomand Jerry Kids Show (animated), Fox; voices of Huckleberry Hound, QuickDraw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Yogi Bear, Wake, Rattle & Roll (animated), syndicated; and voice of Yogi Bear, Yo! Yogi (animated), NBC.
Specials
Voice, Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration, TNT, 1989
Voice of Porky, It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special, 1992
Voices of Yogi Bear, squirrel baby, and squirrel boy, A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith (animated), Cartoon Network, 1999
Other
Voice of Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights (animated movie;also known as Arabian Nights and Scooby Doo's Arabian Nights),syndicated, 1994
Also provided voices for the animated programs Droopy Master Detective; Fantastic Max; Garfield and Friends; Smurfs; SuperFriends; Taz-Mania; and 2 Stupid Dogs.
Television Work
Additional voices, I Yabba-Dabba Do! (animated movie), ABC, 1993
Additional voices for Jonny Quest (animated) and The Twisted Adventures of Felix the Cat (animated; also known as The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat), CBS.
RECORDINGS
Video Games
Voice, Star Wars: Episode I--The Gungan Frontier, Lucas Learning,1999
Voices of Boss Nass, guard door, first injured soldier, Jabba's porter, and shop owner, Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace, LucasArts Entertainment, 1999
Voices of Sergeant Blast, Rufus Ruffcut, Peter Perfect, and Red Max, Wacky Races, Infogrames, 2000
Voices of Boss Nass and Peck, Star Wars: Episode I--Jedi Power Battles, LucasArts Entertainment, 2000

Pervis Jackson, 70, American R&B bass singer of The Spinners

Iam very sad to inform that Pervis Jackson (far right in the picture) has died of cancer at age 70 at
Pervis Jackson is an American R&B singer, noted as the bass singer for The Spinners , and is one of the group's original members. He is perhaps best known for his line of "12:45" from the group's Billboard Top 10 smash, "They Just Can't Stop It (Games People Play)". As of 2008, Jackson was still singing with The Spinners. 08-18-2008 Pervis Jackson, a member of "The Spinners," died from cancer at Sinai Grace hospital this morning.


Throughout the years, they have acquired twelve (12) gold records with their hits climbing to the top of both Pop and R&B charts and they are one of the few groups who can boast of four (4) lead singers. Members include, Frank Washington, Bobbie Smith, Henry Fambrough. Pervis Jackson and Harold "Spike" Bonhart.

Gene Upshaw died he was 63

Gene Upshaw, the Hall of Fame guard who during a quarter century as union head helped get NFL players free agency and the riches that came with it, has died. He was 63.

Upshaw died Wednesday night at his home near California's Lake Tahoe of pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed only last Sunday, the NFL Players Association said Thursday. His wife, Terri, and sons Eugene Jr., Justin and Daniel were by his side.

Frequently listed as one of the most powerful men in U.S. sports, Upshaw was drafted in the first round by Oakland in 1967 out of Texas A&I -- hardly a football factory. He was an NAIA All-American at center, tackle and end, but was switched to left guard by the Raiders.

That's where he stayed through a magnificent career that included 10 conference championship games as well as the Super Bowl victories.

His playing career was summed up Thursday by his close friend Art Shell, who played next to him on Oakland's offensive line, and in 1989 became the first black coach of the modern era when he took over the Raiders.

"Gene was a true pioneer as one of the few African-American leaders of a major union," Shell said. "He was the equal of owners in negotiations and made the league a better place for all players. Playing alongside of Gene was an honor and a privilege. He was a pillar of strength and leadership for our great Raider teams."

Highlights of Gene Upshaw's numerous contributions to pro football for four-plus decades:


• Executive director of NFLPA since June 1983

• Took part in all negotiations leading up to CBA in 1977, '82 and '93 (and extensions in '96, '98, '02 and '06)

• Raiders' first pick in 1967 draft (17th overall; '67 was first combined AFL-NFL draft)

• Played 15 seasons with Raiders (1967-81)

• 7-time Pro Bowl selection

• 5-time First Team All-Pro

• Won 2 Super Bowls

• Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987

• Started 207 straight regular-season games from 1967 to '81

• Played 307 preseason, regular season, and postseason games

• Only player ever to start on championship teams in both the AFL and NFL

• NAIA All-America honors at Texas A&I
Though the news devastated Upshaw, he was wide