/ Stars that died in 2023

Friday, July 2, 2010

Manute Bol, Sudanese basketball player and activist, kidney failure and Stevens–Johnson syndrome has died he was , 47

Manute Bol was a Sudanese-born basketball player and activist has died he was , 47. Until the debut of Gheorghe Mureşan, Bol was the tallest player ever to appear in the National Basketball Association. Bol is believed to have been born on October 16, 1962 in either Turalie or Gogrial, Sudan. He was the son of a Dinka tribal chief, who gave him the name "Manute," which means "special blessing."

Bol played basketball for many teams over his career. He played for two colleges and four NBA teams. He was known as a specialist player; his shot blocking skills were considered among the best in the league during his tenure, but other aspects of his game were considered fairly weak. One statistical oddity highlights Bol's unique skill set: he is the only player in NBA history to have more blocked shots than points scored.

(October 16, 1962 – June 19, 2010[1])


Bol came from a family of extraordinarily tall men and women: "My mother was 6 feet 10, my father 6 feet 8 and my sister is 6 feet 8," he said. "And my great-grandfather was even taller — 7 feet 10."[2]

As a boy, Bol had tended his family’s cattle. According to a tale he was often asked to repeat in interviews, he once killed a lion with a spear while he was working as a cowherd.


Bol started playing basketball in 1978 and played in Sudan for several years with teams in Wau and Khartoum. A coach from Fairleigh Dickinson University saw Bol play basketball in Khartoum and convinced him to come to the United States.[3] Bol was drafted by the San Diego Clippers in the 5th round of the 1983 NBA Draft, but the league ruled that Bol had not been eligible for the draft and declared the pick invalid.[4] He was then invited to Cleveland by Cleveland State University head basketball coach Kevin Mackey. While in Cleveland, he attended English language classes for several months at ELS Language Centers on the Case Western Reserve University campus. Bol never played for Cleveland State because its basketball program was placed on probation for two years as the result of providing improper financial assistance to Bol and two other African basketball players.[5] Bol lacked a strong command of written English, which reduced his chances of being eligible to play Division I basketball. He enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, a Division II basketball school, and played college basketball there during the 1984-1985 season.

In 1985 Bol was drafted in the second round by the Washington Bullets. He played in the NBA for ten years, from 1985–1995, spending parts of four seasons with the Bullets, parts of three with the Golden State Warriors, parts of four with the Philadelphia 76ers and part of one season with the Miami Heat. In 1987, the Washington Bullets drafted the 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) point guard Muggsy Bogues, pairing the tallest and shortest players in the league on the court for one season.

Washington Bullets

Bol's first tenure with the Bullets lasted for three seasons from 1985 to 1988. In his rookie season (1985-1986) Bol appeared in 80 games and recorded a career-high 5.0 blocks per game. His total of 397 blocks set the NBA rookie record.

Golden State Warriors

Bol's first tenure with the Golden State Warriors lasted for two seasons from 1988 to 1990. It was his first season in Golden State that Bol first attempted to shoot three pointers with regularity. In that season, he shot a career-high 91 three pointers and made 20 of them. At this time he may have helped to popularize the expression "my bad", although a 2005 suggestion that he coined the phrase has been discounted.[6][7]


Philadelphia 76ers

Bol's first tenure with the Philadelphia 76ers lasted for three seasons from 1990 to 1993. Although he played in a career-high 82 games in his first season in with the 76ers, it was also in Philadelphia that Bol's production as a player began to decline (in terms of both games played and per game statistics). After playing in all 82 games in 1990-1991, he played in 71 games the next season, and in 58 (a career low at the time) games the following season. During Bol's last season in Philadelphia, Bol enjoyed a memorable night while playing against former teammate Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns. Bol hit 6 of 12 three-pointers all in the second half, albeit in a losing effort, against the Suns.[8] Fans have been known to yell out "shoot" as soon as Bol touches the ball when he is far from the basket.[9]

Miami Heat

Bol played in eight games in the 1993-1994 season with the Miami Heat. The Heat were the only team for whom Bol played that did not feature him in its starting lineup. He scored only a two-point field goal with the team and blocked 6 shots in 61 total minutes.

Washington Bullets (2nd stint)

Bol's second stint with the Bullets lasted only two games during the 1993-1994 season. Thereafter he was signed not to play in games, but instead to help with the development of 7 ft 7 teammate Gheorghe Muresan.

Philadelphia 76ers (2nd stint)

Bol's second stint with the 76ers lasted for four games near the end of the 1993-1994 season. There, he helped to mentor 7 ft 6 in teammate Shawn Bradley. In only 49 minutes, he played more aggressively than he did earlier in the season with Miami and Washington. He scored 6 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and blocked 9 shots.

Golden State Warriors (2nd stint)

Bol's final NBA stop was with the 1994-1995 Warriors. Bol, who wore a No 1 Jersey, (he had worn No 10 with the Bullets and earlier stint with the Warriors and No 11 with the Sixers) made the season opening roster and played in what would be his five final NBA games. (It is known that Bol chose the # 1 jersey to establish himself as the most dominant rebounder and shot-blocker in the NBA). On a memorable night in the middle of November, Bol finally made his home debut, coming off of the bench to play 29 minutes against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He intimidated and blocked his usual shots and grabbed his usual rebounds. That night, however, served as a "blast from the past" as Bol was back to shooting three-pointers like he did in the late 1980s. In that game, Bol connected on all three of the three pointers that he took (each was shot several steps beyond the three point line). The crowd, in disbelief, cheered louder and louder with each shot he took. Seven nights later in Charlotte, on a game that was nationally televised by TNT, Bol was in the starting line-up again. By this time, two weeks into the season, Bol's career seemed to be rejuvenated under head coach Don Nelson in Golden State—he was again a defensive force, making threes, and contributing as a starter to create match-up problems. However, after playing in only ten minutes against the Hornets on November 22, 1994, Bol suffered what proved to be a career-ending injury, and never played in the NBA again. Before he left his final game, he recorded a block and two points, and also managed to unload a three point attempt in the limited minutes.

Shot blocking

With his great height and very long limbs, Bol was one of the league's most imposing defensive presences, blocking shots at an unprecedented rate.[10] Along with setting the rookie shot blocking record in 1985-86, over the course of his career Bol tied for the NBA record for the most blocked shots in one half (eleven) and in one quarter (eight, twice).[11] In a game against the Orlando Magic, he blocked four consecutive shots within a single possession.[12]

However, Bol's other basketball skills were very limited, and his rail-thin physique made it difficult for him to establish position against the league's physical centers and power forwards. The sight of the tall, gangly Bol spotting up for a three-pointer during blow-outs became a fan favorite. Off the court, he established a reputation as a practical joker; Charles Barkley, a frequent victim of his pranks, attested to Bol's sense of humor. Bol also developed a close friendship with teammate Chris Mullin.

Career accomplishments

Over the course of his career, Bol averaged 2.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 3.3 blocks per game while only playing an average of 18.7 minutes per game. Bol finished his career with totals of 1,599 points, 2,647 rebounds, and 2,086 blocks, having appeared in 624 games over 10 seasons.[13] As of 2010, Manute Bol remains:

  • First in career blocks per 48 minutes (8.6), almost 50% beyond second-place Mark Eaton (5.8).[14]
  • Second in career blocks-per-game average (3.34).[15]
  • Fourteenth in total blocked shots (2,086).[16]
  • The only player in NBA history to block more shots than points scored, blocking 2,086 shots and scoring 1,599 points.[16]

After the end of his NBA career, Bol played 22 games for the Florida Beach Dogs of the Continental Basketball Association during the 1995-1996 season. In 1996, the Portland (Maine) Mountain Cats of the United States Basketball League announced that he would be playing with the team, and included him in the game program, but he never actually appeared in uniform. He then played professionally in Italy and Qatar before rheumatism forced him to retire permanently.

Bol was very active in charitable causes throughout his career. In fact, he said he spent much of the money he made during a 10-year NBA career supporting various causes related to his war-ravaged nation of birth, Sudan.[17] He frequently visited Sudanese refugee camps, where he was treated like royalty. In 2001 Bol was offered a post as minister of sport by the Sudanese government. Bol, who was Christian, refused because one of the pre-conditions was converting to Islam.[18] Later Bol was hindered from leaving the country by the Sudanese government, who accused him of supporting the Dinka-led Christian rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Army. The Sudanese government refused to grant him an exit visa unless he came back with more money. Assistance by supporters in the United States, including Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, raised money to provide Bol with plane tickets to Cairo, Egypt. After 6 months of negotiations with U.S. consulate officials regarding refugee status, Bol and his family were finally able to leave Egypt and return to the United States.[18]

Bol established the Ring True Foundation in order to continue fund-raising for Sudanese refugees. He gave most of his earnings (an estimated $3.5 million) to their cause. In 2002, Fox TV agreed to broadcast the telephone number of his Ring True Foundation in exchange for Bol's agreement to appear on their Celebrity Boxing show. After the referee goaded, "If you guys don't box, you won't get paid," he scored a third-round victory over former football player William "The Refrigerator" Perry.

In the fall of 2002, Bol signed a one-day contract with the Indianapolis Ice of the Central Hockey League. Even though he couldn't skate, the publicity generated by his single game appearance helped to raise money to assist children in Sudan.[19] Bol once suited up as a horse jockey for similar reasons.


Bol was involved in the April 2006 Sudan Freedom Walk, a three-week march from the United Nations building in New York to the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.. The event was organized by Simon Deng, a former Sudanese swimming champion (currently a lifeguard at Coney Island) who was a longtime friend of Bol. Deng, who was a slave for three years from the age of nine, is from another tribe in Southern Sudan. His Sudan Freedom Walk is especially aimed at finding a solution to the genocide in Darfur (western Sudan), but it also seeks to raise awareness of the modern day slavery and human rights abuses throughout Sudan. Bol spoke in New York at the start of the Walk, and in Philadelphia at a rally organized by former hunger striker Nathan Kleinman.

During his time in Egypt, Bol ran a basketball school in Cairo. One of his pupils was a fellow Sudanese refugee; Chicago Bulls player Luol Deng, the son of a former Sudanese cabinet minister. Deng later moved to the United States to further his basketball career, continuing a close relationship with Bol.

Life after basketball

After a political dispute in Sudan, in 2002 Bol was admitted to the United States as a religious refugee, and resided in West Hartford, Connecticut.[20] In July 2004, Bol was seriously injured in a car accident, breaking his neck when he was ejected from the taxi he was riding in hit a guardrail and overturned.[21] When Bol recovered from these injuries he moved to Olathe, Kansas.[20]


Bol was also the "Brand Ambassador" for Ethiopian Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines Journeys.

Death

On June 19, 2010, Bol died from acute kidney failure and complications from Stevens–Johnson syndrome at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia.[22] [20]

After his death, tributes to Bol's basketball career and charitable works came from around the United States and the world.[23][24][25][26][27][28]

His former teams, and the NBA, issued statements in recognition of his impact on the sport of basketball and on his native Sudan.[29][30][31]

A salute to Bol took place on the floor of the Unites States Senate just a few days after his death.[32]

Funeral Service and Tribute

The memorial service for Manute Bol was held on Tuesday, June 29, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The body of Mr. Bol lay in an eight-foot-long, specially built casket.[33]

Bol was given tributes by United States Senator Sam Brownback from Kansas, Former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, Sudan's Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Akec Khoc Acieu and Bol's Uncle, Mr. Bol Bol Choi, Vice President of the National Basketball Association Rory Sparrow.[34]

Sparrow rembered Bol as 'Also a giant off the court' and should remembered for humanitarian work and his basketball career.[35]

Senator Brownback recalled that “He literally gave his life for his people. He went over (to Sudan), he was sick. He stayed longer than he should have. He probably contracted this ailment that took his life while in Sudan, and he didn’t have to do that. He was an NBA basketball player. He could have stayed here and had an easy life. I’ve never seen anybody use his celebrity status more nor give his life more completely to a group of people than Manute Bol did. It makes me look at efforts that I do as not enough.

Dr. Akec K.A. Khoc, Ambassador of Sudan to the U.S said that "Manute had a very great heart for his country and people. He did everything to support anybody in need of shoes, blankets, health service, food, and people who were struggling. He went to see them and to encourage them to continue their struggle for their rights, for their freedoms. Manute embodied everything we can think of in Sudan. Reconciling warring groups between the north and south, in Darfur he was working for reconciliation between Darfur and the south and between Darfur and the rest of Sudan. So Manute was a voice for hope."

Sudan Sunrise founder, Reverend Canon Tom Prichard, says Bol's work to reconcile former enemies lives on."Manute's legacy and vision of education and reconciliation, his determination to grow grassroots reconciliation - whether that reconciliation is expressed in a country that divides or holds together, wherever the boundary lines are drawn. Manute stood for grassroots reconciliation,"[36]

Reverend Pritchard went on to say "There’s no question Manute gave his life for his country.”[37][38]

Manute Bol's family patriarch, Bol Bol Chol, praised his nephew's efforts to bring about reconciliation between Muslims and Christians in Sudan - including Darfurians, who, he said, killed as many as 250 of Bol's relatives. "This man is not an ordinary man. I believe this man is a messenger like others messengers who were sent into this world - to do something in this world. He has accomplished most of his mission, and so God took him and left the rest of the work to be done by others,"[39]

A number of members of Bol's immediate family, including his sons, were at the service.

Manute Bol's remains will be flown to Sudan where they will be interred near his grandfather in a family cemetery.[40]


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Character actor Vince O’Brien, of Haworth died he was ,91

Vince O’Brien of Haworth, a character actor whose long career included memorable turns as a debauched businessman in the Broadway musical comedy “Promises, Promises” and an earnest hotel doctor in Woody Allen’s film classic, “Annie Hall,” died Saturday. He was 91.
O'Brien was perhaps most recognizable as the Shell Answer Man, in television and print ads for the petroleum company.

The cause was heart failure, said his son Liam.

Mr. O’Brien was adept at playing authority figures, a consequence of his balding, mature appearance.

“I’ve seen pictures of him as a young man,” his son said, “and he always had that older look.”

He had recurring television roles as a judge on “Law and Order” in the ’90s and the soap operas “Ryan’s Hope” in the ’70s and “The Edge of Night” in the ’60s, and as a sheriff in the cult soap “Dark Shadows,” also in the ’60s.

He was perhaps most recognizable, however, as the Shell Answer Man, in television and print ads for the petroleum company.

Mr. O’Brien said in a 1969 interview with The Record that landing the Shell gig “was so much like hitting the state lottery that I didn’t even worry.” He was appearing at the time in “Promises, Promises,” which was based on Billy Wilder’s 1960 movie, “The Apartment.” Mr. O’Brien was Mr. Eichelberger, one of four executives who used a colleague’s apartment for trysts.

Eight years later, Mr. O’Brien landed in “Annie Hall.” He was in the scene when Woody Allen’s neurotic New Yorker Alvy Singer, in Los Angeles to present at an awards show, was holed up in his hotel room, complaining of stomach distress.

“Why don’t you just try to get a little bit of this down; it’s just plain chicken,” Mr. O’Brien’s sympathetic doctor, proffering a room service plate, tells Singer while girlfriend Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) finishes a call in which the awards show producers agree to find a replacement presenter.

Singer’s stomach “problems” suddenly disappear. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with you, actually, as far as I can tell,” the doctor tells his hypochondriac patient. “You have no fever, no symptoms of anything serious. You haven’t been eating pork or shellfish … ”

The second of nine children, Vincent O’Brien was reared in New Britain, Conn. He served in the Army during World War II and received a drama degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1949. He came to New York in 1950, the same year he married his wife, Kate, whom he met at college.

Mr. O’Brien immediately began getting stage and TV work. He appeared in 23 live dramas on CBS’ “Studio One” and received equal billing with Walter Matthau on one show.

In 1953, the O’Briens moved to a 19th century farmhouse in Haworth with their two small children. Their family would grow to 10 children.

“His career was as a New York actor from Day One,” Liam O’Brien said. “He was a working actor — the only job he ever had.”

Mr. O’Brien’s stage credits also include the Broadway play “Advise and Consent” in 1960-61 and productions at the North Jersey Playhouse in Fort Lee, the Playhouse on the Mall in Paramus and the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn. He starred in a Haworth Summer Shakespeare Festival production of the monodrama “Clarence Darrow,” and played Willy Loman in a 1988 production of “Death of a Salesman” at Siena College in upstate New York.

His final film roles were in “Six Degrees of Separation” and “Quiz Show” in the early ’90s. His last stage work was eight years ago in his favorite musical, “The Fantasticks,” at the Ivoryton Playhouse in Connecticut. A quarter-century earlier, he directed a benefit presentation of “The Fantasticks” at his home parish, Sacred Heart R.C. Church.

Liam O’Brien said his father was “a complicated guy in some ways.”

“He was a Catholic of great faith and had certain things that were conservative and Old World about him, but he had a very global view — he was pro-Civil rights, anti-racism,” Liam O’Brien said.O'Brien was perhaps most recognizable as the Shell Answer Man, in television and print ads for the petroleum company.

Mr. O’Brien was predeceased by five of his children — Miriam, Molly, Austin, Mercedes and Tony. In addition to his wife of 60 years, he is survived by daughter Mary O’Brien of Closter and sons Vincent of Warwick, N.Y., Conal of Manhattan, Liam of Deerfield, Mass., and Dominic of Closter; five grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and a brother, Charles O’Brien, of Florida

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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Trent Acid, American professional wrestler has died he was , 29

Michael Verdi was an American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Trent Acid. Verdi had worked as a tag team wrestler for most of his career, primarily as part of The Backseat Boyz with Johnny Kashmere, in several independent promotions in America, including Combat Zone Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Unplugged, and Ring of Honor. However, Acid had also worked a singles career with several promotions, including Juggalo Championship Wrestling.

(November 12, 1980 – June 18, 2010)

Acid debuted in Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) in 1999 and competed mostly in singles matches. At the first Cage of Death, he teamed with White Lotus to face the Kashmerinoes (Johnny Kashmere and Robbie Mireno). Acid wrestled many matches against Kashmere before teaming up with him to form The Backseat Boyz. The Backseat Boyz won the CZW Tag Team Championship. While part of this team, Acid still wrestled in the singles division and won the CZW World Junior Heavyweight Championship three times, competing against the likes of Ruckus and Justice Pain for the title. He also became the second Best of the Best winner by defeating Jody Fleisch in the final match at Best of the Best 2. In September 2003, Acid won the vacant CZW Iron Man Championship by defeating Nick Gage and Jimmy Rave in a three way match.

Around this time, Acid along with Johnny Kashmere joined the Hi-V stable and feuded with Zandig and his ultraviolent team. This feud came to an end at Cage of Death V in the Cage of Death match. However, before competing in the Cage of Death match, Acid first had to defend his Iron Man Championship against Jimmy Rave. The match went to a time limit draw with each man scoring one fall, but the match was ordered to restart and Rave won the title. Acid went on to the Cage of Death but was eliminated and his team eventually lost. The Hi-V broke up after this and The Backseat Boyz soon left CZW. Acid returned to CZW later in 2004 and feuded with Teddy Hart and Messiah. He left again shortly after.

On June 14, 2008, Acid made his return to CZW when he faced World Champion Nick Gage in a non-title match. At 'An Eye for an Eye' on April 11, 2009, Acid made his full time return to CZW. It was the main event of the evening as Sami Callihan and Jon Moxley took on Brain Damage and Drake Younger.

Acid joined Ring of Honor (ROH) in 2002, when he and Johnny Kashmere defeated Homicide and Steve Corino in an interpromotional match between ROH and CZW at the first Glory By Honor. The Backseat Boyz would go on to work for ROH permanently. They continued wrestling together and competed in many scramble matches against the likes of The SAT, The Carnage Crew and Special K. However, Acid is perhaps best known from ROH for his feud with Homicide. After this feud, The Backseat Boyz won the ROH Tag Team Championship by defeating Special K in the final round of a gauntlet match for the vacant title.[4] This made The Backseat Boyz the first team to win both the CZW and ROH Tag Team Championships. Acid and Kashmere lost the title to Special K at the next show.[4] Later, Kashmere left ROH and Acid would continue as a singles wrestler. At ROH's Reborn: Completion, Acid fought with Jimmy Rave but he lost after Rave hit the Rave Clash on him. At Testing The Limit, he challenged Samoa Joe for the ROH World Championship, but did not win. He was also part of the Scramble Cage Melee main event in the scramble cage. Acid had his last ROH match at Final Battle 2004 against Jimmy Jacobs. After losing this match, he quit ROH.

Acid joined Pro Wrestling Unplugged at its inception in 2004, eventually feuding with Homicide, 2 Cold Scorpio, and Devon Moore over the PWU World Heavyweight Title. In 2005, Trent feuded with his old friend and new rival, Hellter Skelter. The feud lasted a few months, starting with Hellter claiming that Trent turned his back on their friendship and made him the evil person he is today. After months of feuding, Acid defeated Skelter in a "Philadelphia Street Fight" match on August 20, 2005. The feud continued in 2007, with Hellter wanting a rematch, and recording disturbing promos on PWU Surge TV, calling out Acid and claiming he would "carve [Acid's] flesh". Finally on November 23, 2007, Acid accepted the rematch and lost to Skelter, who had outside help from Sunny.

Acid made his return to PWU, following knee surgery, on March 16, 2008, at the event Haunted, wrestling Television Champion ZBarr to a time-limit draw. Since the departure of Tod Gordon, and subsequent handoff of sole ownership to tag-team partner Johnny Kashmere, Acid has been named co-owner of the company.


Acid debuted in Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW) in 2007 under the gimmick of an arrogant priest.[3] Acid, the self-proclaimed "Savior of JCW", cut a promo against the Juggalo fanbase, the company, and Insane Clown Posse (real-life owners of JCW) in the first episode of SlamTV!.[3] He continued to badmouth the company in the following weeks while having confrontations with several heroes.[3] On the fourth episode, Acid won a 10 Man Battle Royal to become the number one contender for Corporal Robinson's JCW Heavyweight Championship.[3] In their first match, Acid temporarily blinded Robinson with holy water, causing the referee to end the match.[3] Two weeks later at West Side Wars, Acid pinned Robinson after using Robinson's championship belt as a weapon, becoming the new JCW Heavyweight Champion.[3] Corporal Robinson received his rematch at East Side Wars in a Steel Cage match and regained the championship.[5] At Bloodymania, Acid and The Young Alter Boys lost a Six Man Tag Team match against the team of Insane Clown Posse and Sabu.[5]

Acid returned to JCW at Bloodymania III, where he teamed with the Alter Boys (Tim, Tom, Terry, and Todd).[6] The group lost to the Juggalo World Order (Corporal Robinson, Scott Hall, Shaggy 2 Dope, Violent J, and Sid Vicious) in the main event.[6]

Acid also worked for the new promotion Pro Wrestling Syndicate where he has had matches with Alex Shelley, Human Tornado, Danny Doring, Justin Credible and Sabu. On May 29, 2009, Acid won a four-way match to win the PWS Heavyweight Championship.[2]

On April 2, 2010 Verdi was arrested for possession of heroin. This charge combined with other previous charges, which included possession of drug paraphernalia and public intoxication. On May 12 he was sentenced to a maximum of 23 months of confinement, in addition to court mandated rehab, after reaching a plea deal. He had another trial set for July 13.[7][8]

On June 18, 2010 at approximately 9:00 AM, Verdi was found dead aged 29 at his home by his mother.[9][8] Verdi's first championship tag team partner Billy Reil posted a tribute to Verdi on the Declaration of Independents later that week.[8] At an ROH show in Buffalo, New York that night, ROH held a ten-bell salute to honor Verdi.[10] At CZW Tournament of Death show on June 26 in Townsend, Delaware, CZW honored him with a ten bell salute before the show. On June 28, it was announced that a tribute show, Acid-Fest: A Tribute to Trent Acid will be taking place at The Arena in Philadelphia on July 10. The show will feature several of Verdi's friends within professional wrestling along with some of his students from PWU, with the proceeds going to the Trent Acid Memorial Fund to help his family with his funeral costs.[11]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments



  • Hardway Wrestling
    • HW Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Johnny Kashmere[citation needed]
  • National Championship Wrestling
    • NCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Johnny Kashmere[18]
  • New Midwest Wrestling
  • Phoenix Championship Wrestling
    • PCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Johnny Kashmere
  • Pro Wrestling Syndicate
    • PWS Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[2]
  • Pro Wrestling Unplugged
    • PWU Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[2]
  • United States Xtreme Wrestling
    • UXW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[19]
    • UXW Xtreme Championship (1 time)[20]
    • UXW United States Championship (1 time)[21]
    • UXW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mike Tobin[22]
  • Urban Wrestling Alliance
    • UWA Light Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
    • UWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Billy Reil
  • Other titles
    • GWA Lightweight Championship (1 time)

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Ursula Thiess, German artist and actress (Bengal Brigade)has died she was 86

Ursula Thiess was a German film actress who had a brief Hollywood career in the 1950's

(May 15, 1924 – June 19, 2010)

Thiess began her career on the stage in her native Germany and by dubbing female voices in American films as Ursula Schmidt. After she married Georg Otto Thiess, she became Ursula Thiess and was featured in many German magazines, including several cover photos, as well as the cover of Life magazine, 1954, as an upcoming model, and she was dubbed the "most beautiful woman in the world." She left postwar Germany at the urging of Howard Hughes and signed up with RKO. She co-starred with Robert Stack in The Iron Glove (1952), Rock Hudson in Bengal Brigade (1954), Glenn Ford in The Americano (1955), and Robert Mitchum in Bandido (1956).


Ursula was born in 1924 to Wilhelmine Lange and Hans Schmitd. At age 17, for refusing to join the Hitler Youth, she was drafted into service working as farm labor. After that, she returned to do acting on stage, where she met and married her first husband, German film producer Georg Otto Thiess. They had two children, Manuela and Michael. That marriage dissolved in 1947, and in 1948, she began a modeling career in Berlin. Her unusual beauty, caught the eye of howard Hughes, who made her a contract offer to join RKO Studios.

She met and eventually married Robert Taylor in 1954 and virtually abandoned her film career to become a mother and housewife. The Taylors had two children Terry and Tessa. They moved with Ursula's two children from her previous marriage, to their 114 acre ranch in Brentwood, California, in 1956, and lived there until Taylor'sl death from cancer in 1969. Ursula's two children, Manuela and Michael, had many adjustment problems adapting to their new life, and were often in trouble with the police, causing the family to suffer bad publicity as a result. Her son, Michael , who had served a year in a German prison for attempting to poison his natural father, died shortly before Robert Taylor's death, in 1969 of drug overdose. Ursula discovered him dead when she stopped by his motel to drop him off some medication.

After Taylor's death, she was obliged to sell their ranch. She moved to Bel Air, and in 1975, she married film distributor Marshal Schacker, and they stayed married until his death from cancer in 1987.

Ursula was known to be an excellent home decorator, gourmet cook, shadow box maker, and UCLA Children's Hospital volunteer. As the wife to Robert Taylor, she gave up her acting career to become a full-time mother and homemaker, though she generally accompanied her husband on film locations, often with her two younger children by Taylor. She was also known to go hunting a fishing with Taylor, who was a passionate sportsman.


Ursula Thiess wrote her autobiography, ...But I Have Promises to Keep: My Life Before, With and After Robert Taylor.

Thiess passed away of natural causes in an assisted living care facility in Burbank on June 19, 2010, at the age of 86. She was survived by three of her four children, Manuela, Terry, and Tessa.


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Joe Deal, a Landscape Photographer of Disquieting Images, Dies at 62

Joe Deal, a photographer who broke with the romantic tradition of Ansel Adams to document, with scientific detachment, a Western landscape reshaped by human hands, died Friday in Providence, R.I. He was 62.

The cause was bladder cancer, his daughter, Meredith Ivy Deal, said.

Mr. Deal emerged as a leading figure in the new wave of American photographers when 18 of his black and white photographs were included in the enormously influential exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.” The exhibition, which William Jenkins organized at the George Eastman House in Rochester in 1975, is now regarded by historians as a turning point in American photography.

As director of exhibitions at Eastman House, Mr. Deal played an important role in formulating and designing the exhibition and in producing its catalog.

Like his fellow exhibitors Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore and Bernd and Hilla Becher, Mr. Deal rejected the sweeping romanticism of Adams and Edward Weston in favor of a jaundiced, dry-eyed inspection of the modern American landscape and its degradation at the hands of developers, corporations and suburban colonizers. It was an approach that Mr. Jenkins called “anthropological rather than critical, scientific rather than artistic.”

Instead of pristine vistas, viewers were presented with tract houses, industrial sites, motels, warehouses and highway projects. In a deadpan, uninflected style, Mr. Deal showed mundane, newly built homes in the arid landscape around Albuquerque and Boulder City, Nev.

“In making these photographs I attempted to make a series of images in which one image is equal in weight or appearance to another,” he wrote in an artist’s statement for the exhibition catalog. Believing that “the most extraordinary images might be the most prosaic,” he deliberately kept formal decisions to a minimum, preferring to manipulate the images as little as possible and eliminate, as far as possible, “personal intrusion.”

Joseph Maurice Deal was born on Aug. 12, 1947, in Topeka, Kan. After earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1970, he was granted conscientious-objector status and, fortuitously, sent to Eastman House to work as a guard and janitor instead of serving in the military.


By the early 1970s he was exhibiting at the Light Gallery in Manhattan. He received a master’s degree in photography from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, in 1974. After returning to Eastman House, he began teaching at the University of California, Riverside, while completing a thesis for his master of fine arts degree, granted in 1978, from the University of New Mexico.

At Riverside, he started the photography program and helped found the California Museum of Photography (now the University of California, Riverside/California Museum of Photography).In 1989 Mr. Deal was appointed dean of the school of art at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1999 he became the provost of the Rhode Island School of Design, where he also taught photography. He lived in Providence for the rest of his life.

His first two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, Meredith, of Boston, he is survived by his father, Percy, of Albuquerque, and his wife, Betsy Ruppa.


After “New Topographics,” Mr. Deal turned his attention to the uneasy coexistence of man and nature along the San Andreas Fault in Southern California, producing a portfolio of images, “The Fault Zone,” that juxtaposed the hasty activity of human beings with the inexorable, drawn-out processes of geology.

Mr. Deal adopted a style of close-up inspection in “Subdividing the Inland Basin,” a record of suburban subdivisions east of Los Angeles, and “Beach Cities,” whose images of Southern California oceanfront communities became some of Mr. Deal’s best-known work.

n recent years he photographed in the Midwest. In his portfolio “West and West: Reimagining the Great Plains,” he used the camera to impose a gridlike square that alludes to the grids mapped out after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. These photographs were organized for a traveling show now at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson, until Aug. 1.

In 2009, the center, in collaboration with Eastman House, partly recreated “New Topographics” as a traveling exhibition, using more than 100 photographs from the 1975 show. It is scheduled to open at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on July 17.


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Tom Nicon, French model, has died from an apparent sucide he was 22

Tom Nicon, a 22-year-old French model who was known as a top runway walker, was found dead today in Milan, one day before the start of Milan’s Men’s Fashion Week. Nicon is said to have fallen from a window in his apartment. Nicon was a French fashion model who modeled for a number of clients including Louis Vuitton, GQ and Vogue,[1][2]. He took part in shows for Burberry Prorsum, John Varvatos, Moncler, Moschino, Z Zegna, Dries van Noten, Hugo Boss, Jean Paul Gaultier, Kenzo, Louis Vuitton, Tim Hamilton and Yves Saint Laurent. He was most famous for being the "face" for top UK fashion house Burberry[3]

(born in Toulouse, France 22 March 1988 – Milan, Italy on 18 June 2010)

Nicon's body was found in the courtyard of a building in central Milan on 23 June 2010 after falling four floors from a window of an apartment he was residing in and just hours before a scheduled show he was to appear in at Milan Fashion Week event.[4] He had been depressed following a split from his Italian girlfriend. He had attended a Versace fitting on the same morning. Police are treating Nicon's death as a suicide.[5] Police are investigating.[6][7]

Nicon’s death is the latest in a series of top models passing, including Ambrose Olsen and Lina Marulanda. Sports Illustrated model Noemie Lenoir attempted suicide just last month.

Nicon had appeared in shows for Versace, Louis Vuitton, Gareth Pugh and Costume National, among others. Isaac Likes speculated about a tribute to Nicon at some of the first shows tomorrow, in which Nicon might have appeared.

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Dickey Betts died he was 80

Early Career Forrest Richard Betts was also known as Dickey Betts Betts collaborated with  Duane Allman , introducing melodic twin guitar ha...