John Karl "Jack" Kershaw was an American attorney best known for challenging the official account of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. died he was 97

John Karl "Jack" Kershaw  was an American attorney best known for challenging the official account of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.  died he was 97 , claiming that his client James Earl Ray was the innocent patsy of a mystery man named Raul who masterminded the conspiracy to kill the civil rights leader. Kershaw was also a Southern secessionist and segregationist who helped found the League of the South. In 1998 he sculpted a monument to Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest.



(October 12, 1913 – September 7, 2010)

Early life

Kershaw was born on October 12, 1913 in Missouri. He moved to the Old Hickory section of Nashville, Tennessee with his family in his youth. He attended Vanderbilt University, where he played on the school football team and earned a degree in geology. He was awarded a law degree at the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Night Law School.^[1]

James Earl Ray case

Starting in 1977, Kershaw represented James Earl Ray, who had been sentenced to 99 years in prison for his role in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charged with firing the shot that killed Dr. King on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Ray had pleaded guilty to the crime in 1969 at the suggestion of his attorney Percy Foreman; Ray would have faced an automatic death sentence had he been convicted of the assassination by a Tennessee state court. Ray claimed that he had been coerced into entering a plea, and Kershaw helped his client push the claim that Ray was not responsible for the shooting, which was said to have been the result of a conspiracy of an otherwise unidentified man named "Raul" whom Ray had met in Montreal. With the claim that he was "partially responsible without knowing it" as part of what Ray "thought was a gun-smuggling operation", Kershaw and his client met with representatives of the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations and convinced the committee to run ballistics tests — which ultimately proved inconclusive — that would show that Ray had not fired the fatal shot.^[1]
Ray was one of a group of five inmates who escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in June 1977, which Kershaw claimed was additional proof that Ray had been involved in a conspiracy that had provided him with the outside assistance he would have needed to break out of jail. Kershaw convinced Ray to take a polygraph test as part of an interview with Playboy. The magazine said that the test results showed "that Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr., and that he did so alone". Ray fired Kershaw after discovering that the attorney had been paid $11,000 by the magazine in exchange for the interview, and hired conspiracy theorist Mark Lane to provide him with legal representation.^[1] Ray died in prison in 1998.^[2]

Secessionist and segregationist

In 1994, Kershaw was one of the founders of the League of the South, a group that supports Southern secession and defends the practice of slavery in the United States. He remained a board member until 2009. He was also a past chairman of the League's Cultural and Educational Foundation. Kershaw was previously active in the Nashville chapter of the White Citizens' Council and the Tennessee Federation for Constitutional Government, both segregationist groups.^[2]
Kershaw sculpted an equestrian monument to Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate Army general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan, which was unveiled to the public in July 1998.^[3] The 25-foot-high^[2] statue was constructed on private land facing Interstate 65. It was accompanied by an array of 13 Confederate battle flags and was lit up at night.^[4] Kershaw justified the memorial by saying, "Somebody needs to say a good word for slavery".^[5] Kershaw also created a similarly large statue of Joan of Arc.^[2]
Kershaw died at age 96 on September 7, 2010, in Nashville. His wife, the former Mary Noel, had died in 1989, and Kershaw left no other immediate survivors.^[1] In a post following his death to the "Hatewatch" website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Kershaw was called "one of the most iconic American white segregationists of the 20th century".^[2]

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Glenn Shadix American actor (Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas), died from a fall. he was , 58,

William Glenn Shadix Scott (April 15, 1952 – September 7, 2010), born William Glenn Shadix, was an American actor, known for his role as Otho Fenlock in Tim Burton's horror/comedy film Beetlejuice.

Early life and education

Shadix was born in Bessemer, Alabama, and added the surname "Scott" when his mother remarried a few years after his birth. He attended Birmingham-Southern College for two years, studying with absurdist playwright-director Arnold Powell.^[2]

Career

He lived in New York City prior to moving to Hollywood in the late 1970s. He got his breakthrough film role in Beetlejuice while doing a stage play, portraying Gertrude Stein.^{[citation needed]} Beetlejuice filmmaker Tim Burton went on to cast Shadix in 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes.
In 2005, Shadix was cast as the voices of the Brain and Monsieur Mallah in season five of the Teen Titans animated series. His other voice work includes the aforementioned Nightmare, and episodes of Jackie Chan Adventures and Justice League Unlimited. He reprised his Nightmare Before Christmas role in the video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, and the Square-Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II.
His television work included the HBO drama Carnivàle, the NBC television comedy Seinfeld, in which he played Jerry's landlord, and playing the roles of giant brothers Typhoon and Typhon in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
On stage, Shadix was set to begin rehearsals for a Birmingham production of Alan Bennett's History Boys.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

He was openly gay, and wrote that, as a teenager, he underwent electroconvulsive aversion therapy in an unsuccessful attempt to become straight.^[3]
In 2007, after spending 30 years in Los Angeles, he returned to his native Bessemer, Alabama, where he purchased a Queen Anne style Victorian era home. The house was completely destroyed in a fire on December 13, 2008; Shadix told reporters that "I have lost my dream."^[4]

Death

On September 7, 2010, Shadix accidentally fell at his condominium in Birmingham, Alabama, and died of blunt trauma to his head. Shadix had mobility problems and was in a wheelchair.^[5]

Filmography

• The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) as Twin Oaks Customer
• Beetlejuice (1988) as Otho Fenlock
• Sunset (1988) as Roscoe Arbuckle
• Heathers (1989) as Father Ripper
• Meet the Applegates (1991) as Greg Samson
• Sleepwalkers (1992) as Mr. Fallows
• Demolition Man (1993) as Associate Bob
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) as Mayor of Halloween Town
• Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills (1994) as the Voice of "Nimbar"
• My Summer Story (1994) as Leonard Doppler, Manager of Orpheum Theater
• Love Affair (1994) as Anthony Rotundo
• Dunston Checks In (1996) as Lionel Spalding
• Multiplicity (1996) as Building Inspector
• The Empty Mirror (1996) as Hermann Goering
• Planet of the Apes (2001) as Senator Nado
• Gore Vidal's Caligula (2005, short film) as Claudius
• The Final Curtain (2007) as Jack Strong

Television

• The Golden Girls (1987) 1 episode; "Diamond in the Rough"
• Night Court (1992) 1 episode; "The 1992 Boat Show"
• Cheers (1992) 1 episode; "The Beer Is Always Greener"
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1993) 1 episode; "Hex and the Single Guy"
• Carnivàle (2003) 1 episode; "Tipton"

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Lucius Walker, , American pastor,died from a heart attack he was 80

The Reverend Lucius Walker  was an American Baptist minister who served as executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization in the 1960s and was a persistent advocate for ending the United States embargo against Cuba ,died from a heart attack he was 80. He made multiple trips to Cuba with supplies provided in violation of the embargo.


(August 3, 1930 – September 7, 2010)

Biography

Walker was born on August 3, 1930, in Roselle, New Jersey and was recognized for his preaching skills by the time he was in his teens. He earned his undergraduate degree from Shaw University and then earned a Doctor of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School as part of his "love affair with the teachings of Jesus" and received his ordination in 1958. He later earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, where he majored in social work.^[1]
During the 1960s Walker served as executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, where he pushed for greater cooperation between local religious organizations in helping to improve declining neighborhoods, saying in 1969 that "It's a travesty how much churches have said about social justice and how little they have done". Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, who had been the foundation's president, pulled the American Jewish Congress out of the organization in protest against a demand that religious organizations allot $500 million as reparations for slavery.^[1][2] Walker was named associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches in 1973 and returned to the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization in 1978 after he had been fired for making excessive contributions to community organizers.^[1]
In August 1988, Walker was on a river boat that was attacked by Contras in Nicaragua in which two people were killed. Walker said he had come "face to face with the terrorism of our own government" and blamed President Ronald Reagan for the deaths.^[3] This event led Walker to create Pastors for Peace, to fight what he saw as American imperialism. The organization made aid shipments to Latin America providing tons of much-needed supplies.^[1]
As part of Pastors for Peace, Walker made 21 annual missions to Cuba, what he called "friendshipments", by way of Canada and Mexico. During his final trip, in July 2010, Walker brought medical equipment, including EKG machines, incubators and medicines.^[4] Despite offers to assist in all of the processes necessary to obtain licenses needed to make the shipments on a legal basis, Walker refused to cooperate in what he saw as an unjust process. Following his death, Granma, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, stated that "Cubans, in gratitude, have to say that we don't want to think of a world without Lucius Walker".^[4]
A resident of Demarest, New Jersey, Walker died at age 80 on September 7, 2010, at his home there of a heart attack. He was survived by three daughters, two sons and three grandchildren. His wife, the former Mary Johnson, died in 2008.^[1]

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Clive Donner, British film director (The Caretaker, What's New Pussycat?), died from Alzheimer's disease he was , 84

Clive Stanley Donner  was a British film director who was a defining part of the British New Wave, directing films such as The Caretaker, Nothing But the Best, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush and What's New Pussycat?. He also directed television movies and commercials through the mid-1990s.

 

• (21 January 1926 – 6 September 2010[1][2])

  Early career

  Donner was born in West Hampstead, London. His father was a concert violinist and his mother ran a dress shop; his grandparents were Polish immigrants.^[1] Donner began his filmmaking career while attending Kilburn Polytechnic. He started in the film industry working as a cutting-room assistant at Denham Studios, having got the spot after joining his father, who was at the studio to record the soundtrack for the 1943 film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.^[3] Donner did national service with the Royal Army Educational Corps,^[1] and afterwards was hired by Pinewood Studios as a film editor, where the movies he worked on included The Card, The Million Pound Note starring Gregory Peck, I Am a Camera, Alastair Sim's 1951 Christmas classic Scrooge and the 1953 Genevieve, a comedy about two couples involved in a vintage automobile rally.^[3]
  

  Professional career

  1950s

  He began his profesional directing career on a number of low-budget films with several low-budget films he worked on at Pinewood, including the 1957 crime drama The Secret Place about a troubled youth starring Belinda Lee, Ronald Lewis and David McCallum, Heart of a Child the 1958 tear jerker starring Jean Anderson and Donald Pleasence, and Some People a film about a group of alienated youth who form their own rock band, starring Kenneth More and Ray Brooks. His television work during that time included episodes of Danger Man and Sir Francis Drake, as well Mighty and Mystical, a documentary series about India.
  

  1960s

  Donner's breakthrough directing role came in 1963 with The Caretaker, a film made with a low budget funded almost entirely by financial contributions starting at £1,000 each from such individuals as Richard Burton, Noël Coward, Peter Sellers and Elizabeth Taylor, with the stars bypassing their standard fees and taking shares of the film's revenue. The movie, based on the play of the same name by Harold Pinter, was filmed in black-and-white with cinematography by Nicolas Roeg.^[3]
  Donner's next film, 1964's Nothing But the Best, was a satire on the British class system starring Alan Bates and Denholm Elliott, based on a screenplay by Frederic Raphael. The film tells the story of Jimmy Brewster (played by Bates) as a lower-class striver who seeks to move up in the system under the tutelage of his upper crust instructor Charlie Prince (Elliott).
  Donner made his first Hollywood film in 1965 with What's New Pussycat?, a comedy starring Peter O'Toole and Peter Sellers. O'Toole played the womanizer Michael James, who does his best to remain faithful to his fiancée Carole Werner (played by Romy Schneider), while a bevy of woman — Ursula Andress, Capucine, Paula Prentiss — fall in love with him, with Sellers playing the role of his psychoanalyst, Dr. Fassbender. The success of the title song, performed by Tom Jones, added to the movie's popularity with audiences.^[3] Woody Allen, who wrote the screenplay and made his first screen appearance in the movie, hated the film, saying that the vision he had for the movie in his original script had been distorted.^[1]
  Donner's 1967 film Luv, an adaptation of the play by Murray Schisgal, starred Peter Falk, Jack Lemmon and Elaine May, but the addition of locations and characters to the original work led to criticism of the casting and direction, and the film was a commercial failure. Donner rounded out the 1960s with the 9th-century period piece Alfred the Great in 1969, starring David Hemmings.
  

  1970s

  Donner directed the 1974 film Vampira, a comedy horror film of the vampire genre that sought to piggyback on the commercial success of Young Frankenstein.
  In 1977 he directed the made-for-television movie Spectre, produced by Gene Roddenberry.
  

  1980s

  1980 brought The Nude Bomb, a comedy based on the television series Get Smart, which featured Don Adams reprising his role as secret agent Maxwell Smart.^[3] Donner followed up in 1981 with the spoof Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen that featured Angie Dickinson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Peter Ustinov.^[2]
  For television he directed the 1982 movie The Scarlet Pimpernel with Ian McKellen and Jane Seymour.^[2] He also directed television production of the Charles Dickens classics Oliver Twist in 1982 and A Christmas Carol in 1984, both of which starred George C. Scott.^[3]
  

  Death

  Donner died at age 84 on 7 September 2010 in London due to complications of Alzheimer's disease.^[3] His wife, Jocelyn Rickards, a costume designer whom he met while working on Alfred the Great and married in 1969, died in 2005.^[3]
  

  Selected filmography

• The Purple Plain (1954)
• The Secret Place (1957)
• Heart of a Child (1958)
• Some People (1962)
• The Caretaker (1963)
• Nothing But the Best (1964)
• What's New Pussycat? (1965)
• Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967)
• Luv (1967)
• Alfred the Great (1969)
• Vampira (1974)
• Spectre (1977)
• The Nude Bomb (1980)
• Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981)
• A Christmas Carol (1984)
• Arthur the King (1985)
• Stealing Heaven (1988)
• Charlemagne, le prince à cheval (1993)
• 
  

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Corneille, Dutch artist. died he was 88

Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo , better known under his pseudonym Corneille, was a Dutch artist died he was  88.^[1]

(3 July 1922 – 5 September 2010)

Corneille was born in Liege, Belgium, although his parents were Dutch and moved back to the Netherlands when he was 12.^[2] He studied art at the Academy of Art in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. He was one of the founders of the REFLEX movement in 1948 and in 1949 he was also one of the founders of the COBRA movement, which has had great influence on Scandinavian art.^[3] He was active within the group from the beginning, not only painting but also publishing poetry in the Cobra magazine.^[4] He was a cofounder of the Experimentele Groep in Holland.
The poetic Corneille was strongly influenced by Miró and Klee. After the group dissolved in 1951 he moved to Paris and began collecting African art. These primitive artifacts became evident in his works, which began to take on a more imaginative style, like landscapes seen from a bird's eye view, exotic birds and stylised forms.^[5] His work is in the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou.^[6]
Until his death Corneille lived and worked in Paris, made visits to Israel where he worked with the Jaffa Atalier. On 24 September 2003 an exhibition of his prints opened at the Ramat-Gan Museum of Art, Israel.^[7] He died at Auvers-sur-Oise, France.

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David Dortort, American television producer and writer (Bonanza, The High Chaparral). died he was , 93

David Dortort ^[1], was a Hollywood producer and writer, best known for his role as producer in the television series Bonanza (1959–1967) and The High Chaparral (1967–1971)  died he was , 93. Much of Dortort's energies in the late 1960s went to the newer series, therefore leaving the production of Bonanza mostly to his associates during its last five and a half years (1967–1973).
Other series produced by Dortort were The Restless Gun (1957–1959), The Cowboys television version (1974), and a prequel series featuring younger versions of the Bonanza characters called Ponderosa (2001), which was produced with Beth Sullivan. In 1979–1980, he created the 13-week CBS miniseries, The Chisholms, starring Robert Preston, Rosemary Harris, and Ben Murphy. Michael Landon appeared in a supporting role in the pilot for The Restless Gun, starring John Payne, aired on March 19, 1957, as an episode of The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and Dan Blocker played multiple roles in The Restless Gun in the first season.

(October 23, 1916 – September 5, 2010)



Alan W. Livingston of NBC hired Dortort to write the screenplay for the pilot episode of Bonanza.^[2] He did it at night, while producing The Restless Gun by day.^[3]
In 2001, his alma mater, the alumni association of City College of New York, where he had studied history, honored him with its John H. Finley award.^[4]
A native of New York City, Dortort was married for 67 years to Rose Dortort née Seldin, who died September 30, 2007, at age 92. They had two children, Wendy Czarnecki and Fred Dortort. Dortort died in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, California, on September 5, 2010, a month and a half before his 94th birthday. He had a history of heart problems.^[5]

Contents [hide] 1 Writings 2 References 3 Further reading 4 External links

Writings

Dortort's two published books:

• Dortort, David (1947). Burial of the fruit. New York: Crown Publishers. http://lccn.loc.gov/49007923. Retrieved 2009-09-24. 
• Dortort, David (1949). The post of honor. New York: Whittlesey House. http://lccn.loc.gov/47000360. Retrieved 2009-09-24.

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Jefferson Thomas, American civil rights pioneer, member of the Little Rock Nine, died from pancreatic cancer.he was , 67

Jefferson A. Thomas was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American students who, in 1957, were the first black students ever to attend classes at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1999, Thomas and the other people of the Little Rock Nine were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton.

(September 19, 1942 – September 5, 2010)

Early life and education

Jefferson Thomas was born in Little Rock to Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Thomas. He was the youngest of seven children. Thomas first attended Horace Mann High School, a segregated all-black school, where he was a track athlete. In 1957, he chose to volunteer to integrate all-white Little Rock Central High School for the 1957–58 school year as a sophomore.
On September 4, 1957, Thomas and the rest of the Little Rock Nine made an unsuccessful attempt to enter Central High School, which had been segregated. Despite the presence of the National Guard, an angry mob of about 400 surrounded the school and prevented them from going in. The National Guard were removed with the protection of the students left to the local police. On September 23, 1957, a mob of about 1000 people surrounded the school again as the students attempted to enter. The following day, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent U.S. Army troops to accompany the students to school for protection. The troops were stationed at the school for the entirety of the school year, although they were unable to prevent incidents of violence against the group inside.

Career

Despite the harassment, Thomas graduated from Central High School in May 1960, and entered Wayne State University, Detroit. In mid-1961, Thomas relocated to Los Angeles, California. He served as Treasurer of the NAACP Youth Council and State President of the Progressive Baptist Youth Convention. He also attended Los Angeles State College, joined the Student Government, and was elected President of the Associated Engineers. He obtained a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration. Thomas also served as an Infantry Squad Leader during the Vietnam War in 1967.

Later life

Thomas narrated the United States Information Agency's 1964 film Nine from Little Rock. In the film Thomas said, "If Little Rock taught us nothing more, it taught us that problems can make us better. Much better." The goal of this government propaganda film, in the context of the Cold War, was to show countries concerned about American racism the progress the United States had made with respect to civil rights. It achieved this goal at least in part as the film received wide acclaim (including an Academy Award) and was distributed to 97 countries.^[1]
Thomas resided in Columbus, Ohio with his wife, Mary. He served as a volunteer mentor in the Village to Child Program co-sponsored by Ohio Dominican University, where he received his Honorary Degree, “Doctor of Humane Letters”, on May 13, 2001, for his life-long efforts in human rights and equality advancement.
Thomas was a frequent speaker at numerous high schools, colleges and universities throughout the country. He was the recipient of numerous awards from local and federal governmental agencies which include the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the Little Rock Nine by President Bill Clinton in 1999. Also, in 1999, he and the other members of the Little Rock Nine received the NAACP’s prestigious Spingarn Award "for their bravery and heroism throughout Central High’s first year of integration".^[2]
In August 2005, the State of Arkansas honored the Little Rock Nine with statues of their likeness on the Capitol grounds.
After over twenty-seven years as a civil servant, Thomas retired on September 30, 2004, from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Columbus, Ohio. In his later years, he served on the Board of Directors for the City of Refuge Learning Academy at the First Church of God.
Thomas died in September 2010 from pancreatic cancer in Columbus Ohio. He was fourteen days away from his 68th birthday ^[3][4] and the first of the Little Rock Nine to have died. After a funeral in Columbus, Thomas was buried near family at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.^[5]
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