In 2024, we've experienced the loss of several luminaries in the world of entertainment. These beloved figures—actors, comedians, musicians, singers, and coaches—have touched our lives with their talent, passion, and dedication. They've left an indelible mark on our hearts and shaped the world of entertainment in ways that will continue to inspire and influence generations to come.
Among the incredible actors who bid farewell this year, we mourn the loss of a true chameleon who effortlessly.
Michael "CoCo" Polakovs was a professional circus clown for nearly 80 years. He has entertained tens of millions as CoCo the Clown with circuses around the world. Additionally, Michael was a member of Greenhill Masonic Lodge 521Polakovs was the son of the late Nicolai and Valentina Novikoff Polakovs. . Feb. 23, 1923 - Dec. 6, 2009
Michael leaves behind Hazel Fannin Polakovs, his loving wife of 49 years; six children, Graham Ahrhart of Sarasota, Patty Dale Dalton her husband, Perry, of Ashland, Byron Laird of Pippa Pass, Ky., Bruce Laird of Ashland, Michelle Polakovs of Catlettsburg and David Polakovs of San Francisco; five grandchildren, Mike Ahrhart, Melody Dalton Hogsten, Christopher Dalton, Stephanie Laird Maynard and Amanda Laird; five great-grandchildren, Emma Dalton, Kayla Dalton, Kayla Rice, Cole Maynard and Alex Ahrhart; and a sister, Olga Kerr of Norfolk, England. He was preceded in death by three sisters and one brother.
He was a member of the Anoa'i wrestling family and frequently worked as a part of a tag team – variously named The Island Boyz, the Samoan Gangstas, and 3-Minute Warning – with his cousin Matt Anoa'i. During Fatu's first stint with WWE, he was known as Jamal and Matt was billed as Rosey. In late 2005, Fatu returned to WWE. Repackaged under the ring name "Umaga", Fatu went undefeated for many months on WWE's Raw brand throughout much of 2006, before suffering his first defeat under the Umaga name in January of 2007. Known by his many nicknames, including "The Samoan Bulldozer" and "The Samoan Savage", Fatu died on December 4, 2009, as a result of a heart attack.
Articles posted by Sports Illustrated, the New York Daily News, and The Washington Post during the weekend of August 30, 2007, named Fatu as one of a number of superstars to have purchased pharmaceuticals from an online pharmacy, a violation of the WWE "Talent Wellness" program. Fatu specifically was said to have received somatropin, a growth hormone, between July and December 2006, after the "No drugs from online sources" rule was instituted. Fatu violated this rule again in 2009. Due to his unwillingness to seek rehabilitation, Fatu was released from his WWE contract.[51][52]
Fatu was born in San Francisco,California, a member of the famous Anoa'i wrestling family. His mother, Vera, was the sister of Afa and Sika of the Wild Samoans, and his later Umaga gimmick would be compared to their "wildness".[7] His two older brothers, Sam (better known as Tonga Kid and Tama) and Solofa Jr. (better known as Rikishi), are also professional wrestlers who have achieved success of their own.[5]Dwayne Johnson, known in wrestling as The Rock, is his cousin.
On April 27, 2008, Fatu's mother Vera died after a seven-year battle with cancer.[53]
A few days prior to December 4, 2009, returning home to Spring, Texas, Fatu had just completed a wrestling tour with Hulk Hogan in Australia.
On December 4, 2009, Fatu was hospitalized after his wife found him not breathing with blood coming out of his nose a few hours after he had fallen asleep the night before while watching television. He was rushed to a local hospital in Houston, Texas and was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit.[54] It was reported that Fatu had suffered a heart attack.
Fatu was pronounced dead around 6:00 PM EST after suffering a second heart attack.[5][55][56]
"Big Bill" Lister died he was 86. Lester was an American honky tonk country music singer. Born Weldon E. Lister, he was nicknamed "Radio's Tallest Singing Cowboy," standing over 6-foot-7 without his cowboy boots and hat.[1][2]
(January 5, 1923 – December 1, 2009)
For several years in the 1950s, he sang with Hank Williams, Sr., as a member of Williams' "Drifting Cowboys Band," after Williams had fired most of the original members of the band. Lister is best known for his ties to Williams' song "There's a Tear in My Beer." Lister recorded the song in the 1950s, after being given a demo recording by Williams. Years later, after his wife found the old demo recording in their attic, he gave the recording to Williams' son, Hank Williams, Jr. Junior went on to record an overdubbed version of the song in 1988, in which (late) father and son sang together, some 40 years apart. That recording won a Grammy Award and a Country Music Association (CMA) Award in 1990.[1]
Other Lister recordings included "RC Cola and a Moon Pie," recorded for Capitol Records in 1961.[2]
Lister, who toured as one of Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys and was dubbed "Radio's Tallest Singing Cowboy," died he was 86.
He died in San Antonio after a brief illness. His family said Lister was performing nightly for crowds of 300-plus on a cruise from Galveston to the Caribbean until just a few months ago.
Jack Rose, a renowned Philadelphia-based acoustic guitarist, has died of a heart attack at 38, the Philadelphia Daily News reports.
Rose was born in Virginia in 1971. His professional musical career began in the Richmond noise band Pelt, which formed in 1993. But Rose is best known for his solo work, which he began recording in the early 2000s, releasing numerous EPs and LPs on a number of different labels, most frequently VHF.
Rose, who also went by the moniker Dr. Ragtime, reached new levels of exposure in 2004, recording a Peel Session on BBC Radio 1, appearing on a limited compilation by Devendra Banhart called 'Golden Apples In The Sun,' and being named among The Wire's 50 Records of the Year with the release 'Raag Manifestos.' The following year, he released 'Kensington Blues,' which also received high marks from publications including Pitchfork and Dusted.
Rose was considered instrumental in bringing ragtime into the modern era and transforming it into something that was both referential and original. But as a self-taught player proficient on the guitar, including the 6-string, 12-string and lap steel, he brought a wide range of influences to his music.
Explaining his process in a 2007 interview, Rose said his favorite music was "anything that's pre 1942; Cajun, Country, Blues, Jazz all that stuff... that's my favorite kind of music." Rose also pointed to later musicians, such as John Fahey and Robbie Basho, as influences.
Touring extensively in the U.S. and Europe, Rose released live albums such as 'Jack Rose,' as well as his recorded work, which he preferred to put out on vinyl. Recently, he reunited with Pelt members for the album 'Dr. Ragtime and His Friends' and teamed up with Three Lobed Recordings for two critically acclaimed albums, 2008's 'I Do Play Rock and Roll' and 2009's 'The Black Dirt Sessions.'
In a video compilation tribute, Arthur Magazine writes that "everyone should know about Jack and his music. His style is like no other."
Liam was regarded as the group's most powerful vocalist.[4]Bob Dylan regarded him as greatest ballad singer ever,[1][5][3][6] whilst Gay Byrne described him as one of the “most famous four Irishmen in the world”.[2] He was a central figure during the 1960s folk revival.[3]
As a child he was known as William or Willie.He displayed an artistic disposition at an early age, while growing up in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary. Born there he was in 1935 as one of eleven children of Robert Joseph Clancy and Joanna McGrath.[2] The first song he learned was "The Croppy Boy".[4] He received a Christian Brothers education before taking a job as an insurance man in Dublin.[2] Whilst there he also took night classes at the National College of Art and Design.[2]
However, while still in his teens, Liam explored writing and painting, though he was particularly drawn to the theatre. In his early performing days, he began to call himself Liam rather than William or Willie. Before he was twenty years old, Liam had founded the local dramatic society now called "Brewery Lane Theatre and Arts Centre", and had produced, directed, set-directed, and starred in John Millington Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. Liam also performed at the renowned Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.[7] He encountered Diane Hamilton Guggenheim when she came to his hometown to visit his mother, and set off on a tour of Ireland alongside her.[2][3] During her 1955 trip to Keady, Clancy encountered Tommy Makem for the first time.[2] He would later pursue Guggenheim to the United States.[3]
Clancy began singing with his brothers at fund-raising events for the Cherry Lane Theatre and the Guthrie benefits. The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, began recording on Paddy Clancy's Tradition label in the late 1950s. Liam Clancy played guitar in addition to singing and also recorded several solo albums. They recorded their seminal The Rising of the Moon album in 1959, giving live performances in the American cities of Boston, Chicago and New York.[2] A record-breaking[citation needed] sixteen minute long performance on American TV's The Ed Sullivan Show on 17 March 1961 launched the group into stardom.[2][3] They were supposed to only play two songs but the main act cancelled at short notice.[8] There were international tours, which included performances at Carnegie Hall] (a sell-out in 1962)[8] and the Royal Albert Hall.[3] Their trademark attire was Aran geansa×these were sent across the water by Mrs Clancy for her boys to wear against the unforgiving American climate.[3] The quartet recorded numerous albums for Columbia Records and enjoyed great success during the 1960s folk revival. Liam was a close friend of Bob Dylan when they both were going out with two sisters in New York. He performed live for United States PresidentJohn F. Kennedy.[9] Liam Clancy was the last surviving member of the original Clancy Brothers; Tom Clancy died on November 7, 1990, Patrick Clancy died on November 11, 1998 and Tommy Makem died on August 1, 2007. Liam said of his status as last known survivor,
“There was always a pecking order, especially when you’re working with family. But they all died off, and I got to the top of the pecking order, with nobody looking over my shoulder. There’s a great sense of freedom about that”.[2]
After The Clancy Brothers split, Liam had a solo career in Canada.[3] He made television performances in Calgary, Alberta.[2] He had a hit with "The Dutchman" and presented his own television show there, also appearing on the CBC concert series Summer Evening in 1976.[10] In 197, he was booked to play a festival in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, where Tommy Makem was also playing.[2] The two played a set together and formed Makem and Clancy, performing in numerous concerts and recording several albums as a duo, until 1988.[2] The whole ensemble also got back together in the 1980s for a reunion tour.[3][2] After the death of Tom Clancy in 1990, Liam came together with Paddy and Bobby Clancy and nephew Robbie O'Connell.[2] He also performed alongside his Fayreweather Band and the Phil Coulter Orchestra.[2]
In later life, Liam maintained a solo career, whilst also engaging in other pursuits. He lived in County Waterford at this stage.[3] He had a recording studio in Ring, County Waterford.[2]
In 2001, Liam Clancy published an autobiographical novel, entitled The Mountain of the Women. In early 2004 he created what many critics[who?] consider his greatest musical contribution since the dissolution of the original Clancy Brothers.[citation needed] He was in No Direction Home, the 2004 Bob Dylan documentary directed by Martin Scorsese.[2]
In 2006, Clancy was profiled in a two-hour documentary titled The Legend of Liam Clancy produced by Anna Rodgers and John Murray with Crossing the Line Films, and screened on the Irish channel RTÉ. In February 2007, this documentary won the award for best series at the Irish Film and Television Awards in Dublin. In 2008 Liam performed in a filmed concert titled Liam Clancy and Friends, Live at The Bitter End which featured the last filmed performance of his friend Odetta, as well as songs from Tom Paxton, Shane MacGowan, Gemma Hayes, Eric Bibb, and Fionn Regan as well as members of Danú.
Liam was an ardent proponent of political views and often outspoken on matters of social injustice right up until his death.[11] He criticised both Gulf Wars and the grim, harsh economic climate which gripped Ireland during his last months alive.[4] He told The Irish Times in September 2009 that he was on his “last legs”.[12] He had already given his final performance, at the National Concert Hall the previous May, during which he recited the Dylan Thomas poem "And death shall have no dominion".[12] He was unable to perform a full-length show on the final night of a two-night sold-out run but put in a 40-minute appearance nonetheless.[13] His manager described it as “a very profound moment. He expressed his fear of dying, but he did it with great dignity”.[12]
Liam Clancy died from interstitial lung disease on 4 December 2009, in Bon Secours Hospital in Cork, Ireland. Bobby Clancy died of the the same disease seven years previously [5] and is buried in the new cemetery in Ring, where he spent the last number of years of his life. Liam Clancy was survived by his wife, Kim, and four children, Eben, Siobhán, Fiona and Donal.[3][5] His son Eban was in the process of coming over from the United Kingdom and he had had a chat with his son Donal who was in the middle of a tour of California.[13] The other three sat beside him as he died.[3] Liam had intended to give another interview at the time but succumbed to the disase before this was possible.[13]
The leader of Fine Gael, Enda Kenny, mourned the loss of a "brilliant musician".[5]Minister for Arts, Sport and TourismMartin Cullen said, "Liam Clancy was a nationally and internationally renowned folk singer and was an example of an absolutely dedicated artistic craftsman. This generous and life-giving person enriched all of our lives with memorable songs and was part of the fabric of Ireland’s proud traditional music culture".[14] Alan Gilsenan described the death as the "end of an era".[5] The American city of Boston was said to be in shock at the news as his influence there is "inescapable".[15]Christy Moore, on a prescheduled appearance on The Late Late Show aired live on the night of Liam's death, said, "I would have been listening to Radio Luxembourg and rock 'n' roll as a young fellow and then I got to hear of the Clancy brothers, when I was 16 I came to Dublin to hear them in a concert. It was about 1962, I think it was the Olympia, it was the most exciting concert I had ever attended. It was Irish, it was rock 'n' roll, it was funky and it was even sexy".[16][17]
Clancy's lunchtime funeral at St Mary's Church in Dungarvan on 7 December was attended by hundreds of mourners, including both the Aide de Comp of the Taoiseach and President of Ireland, Minister Cullen and various musicians and artists.[18] He was later buried in Ring.[18]
Eric Woolfson died he was 64. Woolfson was a Scottish lead singer, songwriter and lyricist, executive producer, pianist, and co-founder of The Alan Parsons Project. He wrote 2 songs that hit the British Singles Chart, with these songs spending a total of 4 weeks on the chart.[2]
After splitting up with Alan Parsons during the recording of Freudiana, Woolfson pursued musical theatre. His works have mainly been performed in Germany and Austria, but have also been heard in Korea and Japan.
He started composing music in his early teens. He moved to London where he found work as a session pianist, at the age of 18. The record producer for the Rolling Stones, Andrew Oldham, signed him up as a songwriter. During the following years, Woolfson wrote songs for such artists as Marianne Faithfull, Frank Ifield, Joe Dassin, The Tremeloes, Marmalade, Dave Berry, and Peter Noone. His songs were recorded by over 100 artists both in Europe and America. During the '60s he worked with two then-unknown writers, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
In 1971, with the assistance of Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme and Graham Gouldman (who later became 10cc), a single was produced under the name of Eric Elder ("San Tokay" b/w "Sunflower") and issued on UK Philips 6006 081 and US Philips 40699. Woolfson then produced a single by Graham Gouldman ("Nowhere To Go" b/w "Growing Older") which was issued in 1972 on UK CBS 7739.
In the early '70s, Eric turned his hand to management and was instantly successful. His first two signings were Carl Douglas (whose record Kung Fu Fighting was one of the biggest selling hits of all time) and engineer/record producer Alan Parsons.
Eric and Alan formed a new kind of collaboration that would allow Parsons' engineering skills to be used to the fullest extent while allowing Woolfson to exploit his talents as a songwriter and lyricist. The Alan Parsons Project was born, the name originally being intended as a working title for their collaborative project. From 1976 to 1987, Woolfson and Parsons collaborated on the conception and lyrics for all ten albums by The Alan Parsons Project, which have achieved world-wide sales in excess of 40 million.
On every Project album, Woolfson would sing a guide vocal track for each song, which the album's eventual lead vocalists would use as a reference. Some of these tracks can be heard on the new remastered editions of various Project albums released in 2007. Woolfson himself was the actual singer on many of the Project's biggest hits, such as "Time", "Don't Answer Me" and the band's signature tune "Eye in the Sky", which spent several weeks in the Top 3 of Billboard's Hot 100 in 1982.
Freudiana was originally meant to be the eleventh album by The Alan Parsons Project, but Woolfson was keen to explore the possibility of realising the project as a musical. While recording the album, Brian Brolly was introduced to Woolfson and promised to steer the album in this new direction. Brolly was previously a partner with Andrew Lloyd Webber, and together they created such musicals as Cats. With some help from Brolly, Woolfson was able to turn Freudiana into a stage musical.
Before the Freudiana stage production opened in 1990 in Vienna, a double-length studio album was released. The musical had a successful run, and it was planned that the show would open in other cities. However, plans were put on hold when a lawsuit broke out between Brolly and Woolfson, each fighting for control of the project. In the end, Brolly won.
The studio disc (the "white" album) was quite difficult to obtain for a while. There was also a double-length German-language cast disc (the "black" album) which is currently out of print.
Woolfson was eager to write for musical theatre. He explained his career switch during an interview in 2004:
"I eventually developed The Alan Parsons Project as a vehicle but then I realised that there was more to it than that and that Andrew Lloyd Webber was right and that the stage musical was a fulfilling media for a writer like myself. I got into stage musicals in the mid-eighties." His musicals are mainly performed in Germany. This was for two reasons: The Alan Parsons Project was well known in Germany, and at that time the arts were very well funded there." [3]
His first musical premiered in Vienna in 1990: Freudiana, about Sigmund Freud. The success of this first work led to Woolfson’s second musical Gaudi (concerning the Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi) (1995), which ran for over five years in several German productions. Gambler, Woolfson’s third musical also premiered in Germany in 1996 and had a first run of over 500 performances. Gambler has had five productions in Korea, one of which also toured Japan in 2002 (the first time a Korean language production had been staged in this way). A fourth musical Edgar Allan Poe, based on the life of the author, was given a demonstration production at Abbey Road studios, London in 2003.[4]
Dancing with Shadows (based on the anti-war play Forest Fire by the Korean playwright Cham Bum-Suk and with a book by Ariel Dorfman) was premiered in July 2007 in Korea.[5]
Eric Woolfson Woolfson died of cancer on December 2, 2009. His passing was announced by the following message posted on his official Facebook page: "We are very sad to have to tell you that Eric Woolfson passed away in the early hours of this morning after a long and brave battle with cancer. He very much enjoyed seeing all your kind comments and posts on this Facebook page and his family wanted to thank you for your appreciation of his work." [6]
Richard Todd90 was an Irish-born British stage and film actor and soldier.
(11 June 1919 – 3 December 2009)
Richard Todd was born as Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Ireland.[1] His father, Andrew William Palethorpe Todd, was an Irish physician and an international Irish rugby player who gained three caps for his country. Richard spent a few of his childhood years in India, where his father, a British officer, served as an army physician.
Later his family relocated to West Devon and Todd attended Shrewsbury School. Upon leaving school, Todd trained for a potential military career at Sandhurst before inaugurating his acting training at the Italia Conti Academy.
On 6 June 1944, as a captain, he participated in the British Airborne Operation Tonga during the D-Day landings.[2] Todd was among the first British officers to land in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord. His battalion were reinforcements that parachuted in after glider forces had landed and completed the main assault against Pegasus Bridge near Caen.[2] He later met up with MajorJohn Howard on Pegasus Bridge and helped repel several German counter attacks.[3]
As an actor, Todd would later play Howard in the 1962 film The Longest Day.
After the war, Todd returned to repertory theatre in the UK. A film contract with Associated British followed in 1948. He had appeared in the Dundee Repertory stage version of The Hasty Heart, playing the role of Yank and was subsequently chosen to appear in the 1948 London stage version of the play, this time in the leading role of Cpl. Lachlan McLachlan. This led to his being cast in that role in the Warner Bros. film adaptation of the play, which was filmed in England. Todd was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role in 1949.[4]
In 1953, he appeared in a BBC Television adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights, as Heathcliff. Nigel Kneale, responsible for the adaptation, said the production came about purely because Todd had turned up at the BBC and told them that he would like to play Heathcliff for them. Kneale had to write the script in only a week as the broadcast was rushed into production.[7]
In the 1970s, he gained new fans when he appeared as the reader for Radio Four's Morning Story. In the 1980s his distinctive voice was heard as narrator of the series Wings Over The World, a show about the history of aviation shown on Arts & Entertainment television. He appears before the camera in the episode about the Lancaster bomber. Todd continued to act on television, including roles in Virtual Murder, Silent Witness, and in the Doctor Who story Kinda in 1982.
His active acting career extended into his eighties. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1993.[8]
Both Todd's marriages ended in divorce. His first was to actress Catherine Grant-Bogle, whom he met in Dundee Repertory and was married to from 1949 until 1970; they had a son Peter (1952-2005) and a daughter Fiona. He was married to model Virginia Mailer from 1970 until 1992; they had two sons, Andrew and Seumas (1977-1997).[9] In retirement, Todd lived in the village of Little Ponton and later in Little Humby, 8 miles from Grantham.
Two of Todd's four children committed suicide. In 1997, Seumus Palethorpe-Todd shot himself in the head in the family home in Lincolnshire. An inquest heard the suicide might have been a depressive reaction to the drug he was taking for severe acne. On 21 September 2005, Peter killed himself with a shotgun in East Malling, Kent, following marital difficulties.[10]
His sons' suicides affected Todd profoundly; he admitted to visiting their adjoining graves regularly. He told the Daily Mail, that dealing with those tragedies was like his experience of war, "You don't consciously set out to do something gallant. You just do it because that is what you are there for."
Todd, who had been suffering from cancer,[11] died in his sleep at his Little Humby home on 3 December 2009.[12] He is survived by his daughter and one of his three sons.[13]
Michael leaves behind Hazel Fannin Polakovs, his loving wife of 49 years; six children, Graham Ahrhart of Sarasota, Patty Dale Dalton her husband, Perry, of Ashland, Byron Laird of Pippa Pass, Ky., Bruce Laird of Ashland, Michelle Polakovs of Catlettsburg and David Polakovs of San Francisco; five grandchildren, Mike Ahrhart, Melody Dalton Hogsten, Christopher Dalton, Stephanie Laird Maynard and Amanda Laird; five great-grandchildren, Emma Dalton, Kayla Dalton, Kayla Rice, Cole Maynard and Alex Ahrhart; and a sister, Olga Kerr of Norfolk, England.
