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