Patrick Swayze died he was 57

Patrick Wayne Swayze^[1] died he was 57. Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best-known for his roles as romantic leading men in the films Dirty Dancing and Ghost and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was listed by People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991.

(August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009)

Diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in January 2008, Swayze told Barbara Walters a year later that he was "kicking it".^[2] However, he died from the disease on September 14, 2009.^[3][4] His last role was the lead in an A&E TV series, The Beast, which premiered on January 15, 2009. Due to a prolonged decline in health, Swayze was unable to promote the series, and on June 15, 2009, Entertainment Tonight reported that the show had been canceled.^[5]

Patrick Swayze was born on August 18, 1952 in Houston, Texas, the eldest child of Patsy Yvonne Helen (née Karnes; b. 1927), a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jessie Wayne Swayze (1925-1982), an engineering draftsman.^[6][7] He had two younger brothers, actor Don (born 1958) and Sean Kyle (born 1962), and two sisters, Vicky Lynn (1949-1994) and Bambi, who were adopted into the family.^[8] His surname originated with an English immigrant ancestor named "Swasey".^[7]

Until the age of 20, Swayze lived in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston, where he attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic School, Oak Forest Elementary School,^[9] Black Middle School,^[9][10] and Waltrip High School.^[9] During this time, he also pursued multiple artistic and athletic skills, such as ice skating, classical ballet, and acting in school plays. He studied gymnastics at nearby San Jacinto College for two years.

In 1972, he moved to New York City to complete his formal dance training at the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey ballet schools.

Swayze's first professional appearance was as a dancer for Disney on Parade. He starred as a replacement for Danny Zuko in the long-running Broadway production of Grease^[11] before his debut film role as "Ace" in Skatetown, U.S.A.. He appeared as Pvt. Sturgis in the M*A*S*H episode "Blood Brothers"^[12] and had a brief stint in 1982 on a short lived TV series The Renegades^[13] playing a gang leader named Bandit. Swayze became known to the film industry after appearing in The Outsiders as the older brother of C. Thomas Howell and Rob Lowe. Swayze, Howell, and Howell's friend Darren Dalton reunited in Red Dawn the next year, and Lowe and Swayze reunited in Youngblood, where he was considered a member of the Brat Pack.^[14] His first major success was in the 1985 television miniseries North and South, which was set during the American Civil War.^[15]

Swayze's breakthrough role came with his performance as dance instructor Johnny Castle in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, alongside his Red Dawn costar, Jennifer Grey. Dirty Dancing was a low-budget project that was intended to be shown in theaters for one weekend only and then go straight to video, but it became a surprise hit and achieved massive international success. It was the first film to sell one million copies on video, and as of 2007, has earned over US$300 million worldwide and spawned several alternate versions, ranging from a television series to stage productions to a computer game. Swayze received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the role and also sang one of the songs on the soundtrack, "She's Like the Wind," which he had originally cowritten with Stacy Widelitz for the film Grandview, U.S.A. The song became a top ten hit and has been covered by other artists, such as David Hasselhoff, and in 2006 was converted into a hip-hop version by Lumidee, who took it to the top of the charts in Germany.^[16]

After Dirty Dancing, Swayze found himself heavily typecast as beefcake and appeared in several flops, of which Road House was the most successful. His biggest hit came in 1990, when he starred in Ghost, with Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg.^[17] This role had considerable cultural impact, and modern hip-hop lyrics routinely used the phrase "I'm Swayze" (meaning "I'm ghost," which is in turn slang for "I'm leaving") in reference to that film. In 1991, he starred alongside Youngblood castmate Keanu Reeves in another major action hit, Point Break, and was also chosen by People magazine as that year's "Sexiest Man Alive."

Swayze was seriously injured in 1996 while filming HBO's Letters from a Killer near Ione, California, when he fell from a horse and hit a tree. Both of his legs were broken and he suffered four detached tendons in his shoulder. Filming was suspended for two months, but the film aired in 1999. Swayze recovered from his injuries, but he had trouble resuming his career until 2000, when he costarred in Waking Up in Reno, with Billy Bob Thornton and Charlize Theron, and in Forever Lulu, with Melanie Griffith.

In 2001, he appeared in Donnie Darko, where he played a motivational speaker and closet pedophile, and in 2004, he played Allan Quatermain in King Solomon's Mines. He also had a cameo appearance in the Dirty Dancing prequel, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights as an unnamed dance instructor.

Swayze made his West End theatre debut in the musical Guys and Dolls as Nathan Detroit on July 27, 2006,^[18][19][20] alongside Neil Jerzak, and remained in the role until November 25, 2006. His previous appearances on the Broadway stage had included productions of Goodtime Charley (1975)^[21] and Chicago (2003).^[22]

In 2007, Swayze starred in the film Christmas in Wonderland. Swayze played an aging rock star in Powder Blue, costarring his younger brother Don in their first film together. Swayze starred in the A&E FBI drama The Beast,^[23] filmed in Chicago, as FBI Agent Charles Barker.^[24]

Swayze was married to Lisa Niemi from June 12, 1975 until his death. The couple first met in 1970 when Swayze was 18 years old. Niemi, 14 years old at the time, was taking dance lessons from Swayze's mother. Swayze and Niemi had no children.^[25]

As a reaction to his 57 year old father's death from a heart attack in 1982, Swayze began to drink heavily.^[26] His sister Vicky committed suicide by overdose in 1994,^[26] leading him to seek treatment for alcoholism. After initial recovery, he temporarily withdrew from show business, retreating to his ranches in California and Las Vegas, New Mexico, to breed Arabian horses. His best-known horse was Tammen, a chestnut Arabian stallion.

Swayze, a licensed pilot with an instrument rating, made the news on June 1, 2000, while flying with his dogs in his twin-engine Cessna from Van Nuys, California to Las Vegas, New Mexico. His plane developed a pressurization problem over northern Arizona, causing Swayze to make a precautionary landing on a dirt road in a housing complex in Prescott Valley. The plane's right wing struck a light pole that he hadn't seen from the air, but Swayze was unharmed. He locked up the cockpit, left it parked in the subdivision, and obtained a ride (with his dogs) from a passing vehicle, allegedly in order to telephone the authorities. According to the police report, witnesses said that Swayze appeared to be extremely intoxicated and asked for help to remove evidence (including an open bottle of wine and a 30-pack of beer) from the crash site.^[27] He made himself unavailable to police for several hours. It was later determined that the alcohol in question was not in the cabin but stored in external storage compartments inaccessible in flight and that the alleged "intoxication" was due to the effects of hypoxia and carbon monoxide during descent.

He followed several spiritual traditions. Brought up a Roman Catholic, he also studied the Bahá'í Faith, Buddhism, and Scientology.^[28]

Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late January 2008, and underwent chemotherapy and other treatments at the Stanford University Medical Center. On March 5, 2008, a Reuters article reported that Swayze "has a very limited amount of disease, and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far".^[29] Swayze's doctor confirmed that the actor was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but insisted he was not as close to death as reports suggest. Specifically, Swayze was diagnosed with a type of pancreatic tumor called intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm.

In early May 2008, it was widely reported in a number of tabloids that Swayze had undergone surgery to remove part of his stomach after the spread of the cancer and that he had rewritten his will, transferring his property to his wife.^[30][31] In a statement made on May 28, Swayze said that he continued to respond well to treatment at Stanford University Medical Center. In late May 2008, he was seen at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game, his first public appearance since his diagnosis.^[32] In 2008 Swayze was treated with Cyberknife radiotherapy cancer treatment.^[33]

In late July 2008, six months after reportedly being given just weeks to live by medical experts, Swayze was seen in Los Angeles LAX airport, appearing healthy. When asked about his condition, he told reporters "I'm cooking. I'm a miracle dude. I don't know why".^[34]

Swayze appeared on the ABC, NBC, and CBS simulcast of Stand Up to Cancer in September 2008, to appeal to the general public for donations for the initiative. Swayze said to a standing ovation "I dream that the word 'cure' will no longer be followed by the words 'it's impossible'. Together, we can make a world where cancer no longer means living with fear, without hope, or worse".^[35]

After the show ended, Swayze lingered onstage and talked to other cancer patients; executive producer Laura Ziskin said, "He said a beautiful thing: 'I'm just an individual living with cancer'. That's how he wants to be thought of. He's in a fight, but he's a fighter".^[35][36]

In late 2008, Swayze denied claims made by tabloids that the cancer had spread to his liver.^[37] However, in his interview with Barbara Walters, which aired in January 2009, Swayze admitted that he had a "tiny little mass" in his liver. On January 9, 2009, Swayze was hospitalized with pneumonia. The pneumonia was said to be a complication of chemotherapy treatments for Swayze's cancer.^[38] On January 16, he was released from the hospital to rest at home with his wife.^[39] On April 19, 2009, doctors informed Swayze that the cancer had again metastasized to his liver.^[40]

Swayze opined that his chain smoking probably "had something to do with" the development of his disease. Photos taken of a gaunt Swayze in the months before his death showed him continuing to smoke.^[41][42]

Swayze died "with family at his side" on September 14, 2009, at age 57, twenty months after being diagnosed.^[43][44][45]

Jim" Carroll died he was 60

James Dennis "Jim" Carroll died he was 60. Carroll was an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries, which was made into the 1995 film of the same name with Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll.

(August 1, 1949 - September 11, 2009)

Carroll is of Irish descent and attended Roman Catholic grammar schools from 1955 to 1963. In fall 1963, he entered public school, but was soon awarded a scholarship to the elite Trinity School (New York) (a private school). He entered Trinity High School in 1964.

Apart from being interested in writing, Carroll was an all-star basketball player throughout his grade school and high school career. He entered the "Biddy League" at age 13 and participated in the National High School All Star Game in 1966. During this time, Carroll was living a double life as a heroin addict who prostituted himself to afford his habit. By age 13, Carroll was using heroin, but was also writing poems and attending poetry workshops at St. Mark's Poetry Project.

Carroll attracted the attention of the local literati, and published his first book, Organic Trains, at age 17. Several of his poems have been published in such magazines as Paris Review and Poetry. In 1970, his second collection of poems, 4 Ups and 1 Down was published, and he started working for Andy Warhol. At first, he was writing film dialogue and inventing character names; later on, Carroll worked as the co-manager of Warhol's Theater. Carroll's first publication by a mainstream publisher (Grossman Publishers), the poetry collection Living At The Movies, was published in 1973.^[1]

In 1978, Carroll authored The Basketball Diaries, an autobiographical book concerning his life as a teenager in New York City's hard drug culture. Diaries is an edited collection of the diaries he kept between the ages of twelve and sixteen, detailing his sexual experiences, high school basketball career, and his addiction to heroin, which began when he was 13.

Also in 1978, Carroll formed The Jim Carroll Band, a New Wave/punk rock group, with encouragement from Patti Smith. The band was formerly called Amsterdam, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The musicians were Steve Linsley (bass), Wayne Woods (drums), Brian Linsley and Terrell Winn (guitars). They released a single "People Who Died", from their 1980 debut album, Catholic Boy; the album featured contributions from Allen Lanier and Bobby Keys. The song appeared in the 1982 blockbuster film E.T., as well as 2004's Dawn of the Dead, and was covered by John Cale on his Antártida soundtrack. Later albums were Dry Dreams (1982) and I Write Your Name (1983), both with contributions from Lenny Kaye and Paul Sanchez. Carroll has also collaborated with musicians Lou Reed, Blue Öyster Cult, Boz Scaggs, Ray Manzarek of The Doors, Pearl Jam, and Rancid.

In the mid-1980s, Carroll returned to writing full time and began to appear regularly on the spoken word circuit. Since 1991, Carroll has performed readings from his unfinished first novel, tentatively titled The Petting Zoo.

Carroll, 60, died of a heart attack at his Manhattan home on September 11th, 2009.^[2]

Armand "Army" Archerd died he was 87

Armand "Army" Archerd ^[1] died he was 87. Archerd was a columnist for Variety for over fifty years before retiring his "Just for Variety" column in September 2005. In November 2005, Archerd began blogging for Variety and was working on a memoir when he died.

(January 13, 1922 – September 8, 2009)

Archerd was born in The Bronx, New York, and graduated from UCLA in 1941. He was hired by Variety to replace columnist Sheilah Graham (former girlfriend of F. Scott Fitzgerald) in 1953. His "Just for Variety" column appeared on page two of Daily Variety and swiftly became popular in Hollywood. Archerd broke countless exclusive stories, reporting from film sets, announcing pending deals, giving news of star-related hospitalizations, marriages, and births. In 1984, he was given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, in front of Mann's Chinese Theater, where he had emceed dozens of movie premieres.

One of his most significant scoops was in his July 23, 1985, column, when he printed that Rock Hudson, despite denials from the actor's publicists and managers, was undergoing treatment for AIDS.

Archerd was Jewish^[1] and a strong proponent of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Holocaust awareness. He was married to Selma Archerd, a former actress; they lived in Westwood, California.

Archerd died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from of a rare form of mesothelioma, "thought to be the result of his exposure to asbestos in the Navy during WWII."^[1]

Larry Simon Gelbart died he was 81

Larry Simon Gelbart^{[1] died he was 81 . Gelbart was an American comedy writer and dramatist.}

(February 25, 1928 – September 11, 2009)

^{Gelbart was born in Chicago to Jewish immigrants Harry Gelbart ("a barber since his half of a childhood in Latvia")[2] and Frieda Sturner, who hailed from Dombrowa, Poland.}

^{Gelbart began as a writer at the age of sixteen for Danny Thomas' radio show during the 1940s and also wrote for Jack Paar and Bob Hope. In the 1950s, he worked in television for Sid Caesar on Caesar's Hour, along with writers Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Carl Reiner. In 1972, Gelbart was one of the main forces behind the creation of the television series M*A*S*H, writing and producing many episodes until leaving after the fourth season. M*A*S*H earned Gelbart an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and went on to considerable commercial and critical success.}

^{Gelbart in 1982 co-wrote the screenplay for Tootsie. He also wrote the screenplays for Oh, God!, which starred George Burns, Blame It on Rio with Michael Caine and Demi Moore and the 2000 film, Bedazzled with Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser.}

^{Gelbart wrote the long-running Broadway musical farce A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Burt Shevelove and Stephen Sondheim in 1962 and he collaborated with Shevelove on the screenplay for The Wrong Box (1966), a British comedy film.}

^{His Broadway credits include the musical City of Angels, which won him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and an Edgar Award, and the Iran-contra satire Mastergate, as well as Sly Fox. In the early 1960s, he uttered the now-classic line, "If Hitler is alive, I hope he's out of town with a musical." TV credits include cable TV-movie Barbarians at the Gate.}

^{In 1997, Gelbart published his memoir, Laughing Matters: On Writing M*A*S*H, Tootsie, Oh, God! and a Few Other Funny Things.[2]}

^{Gelbart was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post, and also was a regular participant on the alt.tv.mash Usenet newsgroup as "Elsig".}

^{Gelbart, who was diagnosed with cancer in June and died at his Beverly Hills home on Sept. 11, 2009. His wife of 53 years, Pat Gelbart, told that after being married for so long, "we finished each other's..." She declined to specify the type of cancer he had. [3] [1]}

World's oldest person dies at 115

Ms Baines was believed to have been the oldest African-American voter

The oldest person in the world has died in Los Angeles at the age of 115 of suspected heart failure.

Gertrude Baines, born 6 April 1894, had held the title since January, when a Portuguese woman, Maria de Jesus, died, also at the age of 115.

Ms Baines's doctor said she had attributed her long life to a healthy lifestyle and her religious beliefs.

The title of world's oldest person now passes to a 114-year-old Japanese woman, Kama Chinen.

Officials at the Western Convalescent Hospital, where Ms Baines had lived for several years, said she had died at 0725 local time (1425GMT).

"She told me that she owes her longevity to the Lord, that she never did drink, she never did smoke and she never did fool around," the AFP news agency quoted Dr Charles Witt as saying.

He said two days before her death she had been "in excellent shape".

"She was mentally alert. She smiled frequently," he said.

Ms Baines, whose father was once a slave, was believed to be the oldest ever African-American voter when she cast her ballot for US President Barack Obama in November 2008.

She said she was voting for him "because he's for the coloured people".

She celebrated her 115th birthday in April and received a letter of congratulations from Mr Obama.

Fred Mills, Grammy nominated trumpeter, died he was 74

MONROE, Ga. - -- University of Georgia music professor Fred Mills, a Grammy nominee who made numerous records as a trumpeter with the Canadian Brass quintet and performed with numerous orchestras, has died after a highway accident.

University officials say Mr. Mills, 74, died from injuries he received while in a wreck in Walton County between Atlanta and Athens as he returned home from a trip performing overseas. He was driving from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to his home in Athens, university officials said.


He joined the university's faculty in 1996. Besides teaching trumpet, he coached a graduate brass quintet, The Bulldog Brass Society.

As a trumpeter, the Canada native performed across the globe.

In 1961, he was a founding member of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York. He also was principal trumpet for the New York City Opera, and played with the National Art Centre Orchestra in Canada and the New York City Ballet Orchestra.

A member of the Canadian Brass for 24 years, Mr. Mills recorded more than 40 albums for RCA, Sony, Philips and BMG. Mills was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992.

A statement on the Canadian Brass Web site calls Mr. Mills a "Canadian treasure who changed the world's musical perspective."

"Fred lofted the piccolo trumpet into an indispensable role in the brass quintet, brought a new level of musical quality to the brass quintet repertoire through his arrangements, many of which are now considered absolute standard repertoire, and spent over fifty years helping establish the trumpet as a beautiful, lyrical voice amongst solo orchestral instruments," the statement reads.

Mr. Mills was born in Guelph, Canada, and attended the Julliard School of Music, where he got his first job offer even before he graduated.

UGA officials called Mr. Mills an "inspiration to all who knew him."

"One of the finest performers and teachers of his generation, he was at the same time a warm and generous colleague and a dear friend." said Dale Monson, director of the music school. "We have already begun hearing from friends around the world expressing their support and condolences. We will miss him greatly."

Frank Batten, Weather Channel founder, dies at 82

Frank Batten Sr., who built a communications empire that spanned newspapers and cable television and created The Weather Channel, died he was 82.

Batten, the retired chairman of privately held Landmark Communications and a former chairman of the board of the Associated Press, died in Norfolk after a prolonged illness, Landmark Vice Chairman Richard F. Barry III said.

A visionary executive who earned a reputation for spotting media trends, Batten was at the forefront of development of cable television in the 1960s.

He developed The Weather Channel in the 1980s while other media leaders scoffed at the idea that people would watch programming devoted solely to weather. In 2008, Landmark sold the channel to NBC Universal and two private equity firms for $3.5 billion.

The company had put its other businesses up for sale but suspended those plans amid the faltering economic conditions.

With a fortune estimated at $2.3 billion, Batten ranked 190th on Forbes magazine's 2008 list of the 400 richest Americans.

"I think that most accomplishments in organizations are officially the result of teamwork rather than a brilliant performance by one person," Batten said in a 2005 Associated Press oral history interview.

"Accomplishing teamwork is another matter," he added. "That's not easy, I think. And again it gets down to creating an environment in which people work successfully in teams, and are recognized for it."

He served as AP board chairman from 1982-87.

"Frank was both an inspirational and innovative leader, who was a willing mentor to many," said AP President and CEO Tom Curley. "He played a pivotal role in helping AP transition to a modern organization for a more competitive, global era of news-gathering."

Retired AP president and chief executive officer Louis D. Boccardi said Batten "came into AP's life at a critical time and started us on the road to modernize our systems, our management, and indeed our thinking while keeping true to our journalistic heritage."

Batten's uncle, Samuel L. Slover, had sowed the seeds of Norfolk-based Landmark in the early 1900s by acquiring a succession of local newspapers.

Slover helped raise Batten after Batten's father died when he was 1. Batten began his career as a reporter and advertising salesman for the Norfolk newspapers.

In 1954, the 27-year-old Batten was appointed publisher of the now-defunct Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch and The Virginian-Pilot. The company consisted of the two newspapers and a radio and TV station.

In the late 1950s, when Norfolk closed its schools rather than integrate them, Batten and other community leaders ran a full-page newspaper advertisement urging city officials to reopen them. Virginian-Pilot editor Lenoir Chambers won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960 for a series of editorials on the situation.

Slover died in 1959, and in 1964 Batten launched TeleCable and expanded in North Carolina and West Virginia with the first of 20 cable television systems in 15 states. TeleCable was sold to Tele-Communications Inc. in 1995 for $1 billion.

Meanwhile, Norfolk Newspapers Inc. became Landmark Communications Inc. in 1967, and Batten became chairman. He turned over that position to his son, Frank Batten Jr., in 1998.

Landmark now owns three metro daily newspapers — The Virginian-Pilot, the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., and The Roanoke Times — plus more than 50 smaller community papers, free newspapers and specialty classified publications. It also owns television stations KLAS-TV in Las Vegas and NewsChannel 5 Network in Nashville, both CBS affiliates.

But Batten was always especially proud of The Weather Channel, launched in 1982.

"It was Landmark's first national venture, with all the complexities of marketing and distribution a national enterprise must consider," he said. "The staff prevailed over a chorus from skeptics in the press and trade to build one of the most loyal consumer audiences in television."

In 2009, Batten received the Virginia Press Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Over the years, Batten donated more than $223 million to schools and other educational organizations. They included a 2007 gift of $100 million to his alma mater, the University of Virginia, to establish the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and a $60 million gift in 1999 to the university's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

Batten had cancer that required removal of his larynx in 1979. The surgery forced him to learn a new way of speaking that left his voice gravelly, but it didn't keep him from working and speaking in public.

Sandra Mims Rowe, editor of The Oregonian who worked on The Virginian-Pilot, Landmark's flagship newspaper, from 1970 to 1993, recalled the first Landmark annual meeting after the surgery. Rowe said Batten began the meeting as always, by introducing every executive without notes, and didn't miss a name or title.

"Everyone cheered but some of us wept," Rowe said. "It took a long time to go through 80 people, and you knew he was doing it to show us he was OK and to really give us confidence. It was the most courageous, generous and inspirational thing I ever saw."

Batten earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in 1950 and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University two years later. He served in the Merchant Marine during World War II and later as a Navy reserve officer.

In addition to Frank Jr., Batten is survived by his wife, Jane, and two daughters.