Cuddly Dudley, British rock and roll singer, died from natural causes he was , 87.

Cuddly Dudley (born Dudley Heslop in Kingston, Jamaica) was an English rock & roll singer, and actor, who came to fame on the Oh Boy! TV series, and is noted for being “Britain's first black rock & roller” died from natural causes he was , 87..

Early career

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, probably in 1929^[2] (although Allmusic^[3] says the 1930s) he started performing when very young with a "native song and dance act" for tourists. In 1947 he went to Britain where he spent a year in the play Sauce Tartare at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End, before singing in clubs for 6 months. He then played in Folies Bergeres at the Hippodrome, London and toured Australia in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, before joining Sid Milward's Comedy orchestra, The Nit Wits, supporting Max Bygraves.^[2]
By the mid-1950s Dudley was recording for Oriole Records,^[3] as part of the Charles Ross Orchestra, and adopted the nickname Cuddly Dudley,^[4] playing on his slightly round figure. He toured New Zealand and Switzerland with Charles Ross, then joined Mambo bandleader Perez Prado to tour Italy, before returning to the West End with Plaisirs de Paris at the Prince of Wales Theatre.^[2]
Dudley was influenced by early rock 'n' roll and, being black, with a strong voice, decided to change musical style. His manager, Guy Robinson, promoted him as "Bristol's answer to The Big Bopper"^[4] and he adopted a big grin, flashy suits and snazzy ties. He was also a co-founder of The Dominoes, with pianist Iggy Quail and vocalist Boysie Grant. ^[5]
Although he was little known outside Afro-Caribbean circles, within this community he was as popular as any other rock & roll performer, which led to his manager persuading Jack Good to give him a residency on Good's new TV series Oh Boy!.^[1]

Oh Boy!

Dudley appeared on both pilot recordings of Oh Boy! (T1 & T2) as Dudley Heslop, but changed back to Cuddley Dudley, before the main series started.^[6] He was usually backed by the house band, Lord Rockingham's XI and appeared in a total of 21 episodes, the most appearances by any artist, one more than Cliff Richard, whilst The Drifters (who became The Shadows) and Marty Wilde appeared on 17 shows each.^[6] His first recordings as Cuddly Dudley were on the TV spin-off album Oh Boy! (Parlophone 1958), where he sang "Hey Hey Hey Hey" (later covered by The Beatles) and "Lets Rock While the Rocking's Good".^[4] A solo single "Later" b/w "Lots More Love" was released in 1959, and in 1960 he appeared, as himself, in the film Girls of the Latin Quarter, directed by Alfred Travers and starring Jill Ireland, which was filmed in the London branch of the nightclub Latin Quarter. He also deputised for Cliff Richard, appearing at several concerts when Cliff was ill.^[4]

Later career

After the demise of Oh Boy! in May 1959, he began touring with his own all-black band, The Embraceable Four, with whom he supported The Platters on their 1960 UK tour, and released a second single, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Too Pooped To Pop".
In 1961 he became the lead singer with “The Redcaps”, with whom he released a single "Sitting On A Train". Originally known as "Red-E-Lewis And The Redcaps" (named after Gene Vincent's The Blue Caps) original lead singer Reddy Lewis (Edward Stubbs) had left to form the Red Cats, with Jimmy Page on guitar. The Redcaps comprised Mick Green, Vic Cooper, Frank Farley, Johnny Patto and Johnny Spence, and from May–July 1961 Reddy Lewis returned, but Dudley remained lead vocalist.^[7] Farley, Patto and Spence left to become The Pirates backing Johnny Kidd (who had the same manager as Dudley),^[8] when the original Pirates “jumped ship”. Green, The Redcaps other guitarist, joined the Pirates later when Patto left.^[9]
By 1963/64 Dudley had rejoined pianist Iggy Quail and recorded some of the first bluebeat and ska tracks outside Jamaica. Dudley and Quail formed a trio with Clyde Davies (bass), who accompanied comedians such as Tommy Trinder and Bob Monkhouse and had a residency at the Kingfisher Club.^[5] Dudley released several singles on Piccadilly as well as some more for Oriole. He retired from the music business in the mid-1960s. He died on 15 July 2011 aged 87^[10]

Discography

Singles

• "Later" / "Lots More Love" - (1959) - HMV (Pop 586)
• "Too Pooped to Pop" / "Miss In-Between" - (1960) - HMV (POP 725)
• "Sitting in a Train" / "The One That I Like" - (1961) - Ember (S136)
• "Blarney Blues" / "Peace On Earth" - 1964 - Oriole (ICB9)
• "Way of Life" / "When Will You Say You'll Be Mine" - 1964 - Oriole (ICB10)

Compilations

• Oh Boy! (1958) Parlophone - 2 tracks:- "Hey Hey Hey Hey" and "Lets Rock While the Rocking's Good" CD (2009) Highnote (GVC1008)
• That British Sound Vol 10 - CD (2010) No Hit Records BLC 89 - 2 tracks:- "Sitting in a Train" & "Later"
• From Calypso to Disco: The Roots of Black Britain - 1 Track:- "The Ferryboat Ride"
• The Piccadilly Story - (1994) & (2006) - Castle (72386) - 1 Track:- "The Ferryboat Ride"
• British Rock'n'Roll 1955~1960 CD (1986) See For Miles (SEE38) "Later" & "Lots More Love"

 

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Ed Flesh, American art director, inventor of the Wheel of Fortune wheel, died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease he was , 79.

Edwin Albert Flesh Jr, known as Ed Flesh, was an American art director and designer who worked on a variety of television programs from the 1950s through the 1990s. He is best known for designing the Wheel used in the game show, Wheel of Fortune.^[1] In 1993, Flesh was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on Supermarket Sweep.^[2] His other credits as a television art director include Pyramid, Days of Our Lives, Press Your Luck, Celebrity Sweepstakes, Second Chance, The New Newlywed Game, To Say the Least and Name That Tune.



(December 4, 1931 - July 15, 2011)

Flesh was a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was born on December 4, 1931.^[2][1] He received his bachelor's degree from Franklin & Marshall College, located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.^[1] Flesh then enrolled at Yale Drama School, where he studied graduate level scenic design for three years.^[1]
Flesh relocated to New York City after completing his studies at Yale. He worked as a scene designer for off-Broadway productions before being hired as the the "supervisor of scenic design" for NBC.^[1] He transferred from New York to NBC Studios in Burbank, California, where he worked as the head art director for games shows, as well as the soap opera, Days of our Lives.^[1]
Flesh is credited with conceiving and designing the wheel for NBC's Wheel of Fortune.^[1] Flesh designed the wheel to spin "horizontally instead of vertically", a design unlike most previous game show wheels.^[1]
Flesh later designed the sets for The Montel Williams Show and The David Letterman Show, a short-lived daytime show on NBC which aired in 1980.^[1] He also designed the sets for three special editions of The Oprah Winfrey Show, in which Oprah Winfrey interviewed John Travolta, Barbra Streisand and Madonna.^[1]
Ed Flesh died on July 15, 2011, at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, California, at the age of 79.^[1] He was survived by his partner of forty-four years, David Powers.^[1]

 

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Cornell MacNeil, American operatic baritone died he was , 88

 Cornell MacNeil was an American operatic baritone known for his exceptional voice and long career with the Metropolitan Opera, which spanned 642 performances in twenty-six roles died he was , 88. F. Paul Driscoll wrote in Opera News that he "was a great baritone in era of great baritones — Warren, Gobbi, Merrill, Milnes — and in the contemporary press, comparisons to his colleagues were frequent. But MacNeil's performances had singular musical richness, and moral and intellectual complexity that were his alone. MacNeil may have had rivals, but he had no equals."


(September 24, 1922 – July 15, 2011),

Life and career

MacNeil was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Among his teachers were Friedrich Schorr and Richard Marzollo. He debuted with various companies in the United States from 1953 (including the New York City Opera) and at La Scala and the Metropolitan in 1959.^[3] In 1969 he became president of the American Guild of Musical Artists.^[4]
MacNeil's voice was notable for its huge size and volcanic top notes. Despite some vocal decline in the late 1970s, he maintained a high standard throughout his long career. Two of his most notable roles were the title role in Rigoletto, and Iago in Otello. MacNeil was a regular at the Metropolitan Opera.^[5] His debut was on March 21, 1959, as Rigoletto. Rigoletto was also the role he sang the most at the Met, 104 times, including the Met's first telecast of that opera in 1977, in the production by John Dexter.
MacNeil was also well-known for the role of Baron Scarpia in Tosca, a role he sang 92 times at the Met between November 2, 1959 and December 5, 1987, which was his last performance with the Met.

Abridged discography

• Menotti: The Consul (Neway, Powers; Engel, 1950) Decca Records
• Verdi: La traviata: excerpts (Kirsten, Hayward; Cellini, 1958) [live] VAI
• Puccini: La fanciulla del West (Tebaldi, del Monaco, Tozzi; Capuana, 1958) Decca Records
• Verdi: Aïda (Tebaldi, Simionato, Bergonzi; Karajan, 1959) Decca Records
• Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (Tucci, del Monaco; Molinari-Pradelli, 1959) Decca Records
• Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana (Simionato, del Monaco; Serafin, 1960) Decca Records
• Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (Nilsson, Simionato, Bergonzi; Solti, 1960-1) Decca Records
• Verdi: Rigoletto (Sutherland, Cioni, Siepi; Sanzogno, 1961) Decca Records
• Verdi: Luisa Miller (Moffo, Verrett, Bergonzi, Tozzi, Flagello; Cleva, 1965) RCA
• Verdi: Rigoletto (Grist, Gedda; Molinari-Pradelli, 1967) EMI
• Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (Carlyle, Vickers; Bartoletti, 1968) [live] VAI
• Verdi: La traviata (Stratas, Domingo; Levine, 1982) Elektra

Abridged videography

• Verdi: Rigoletto (Cotrubas, Domingo, Díaz; Levine, Dexter, 1977) [live]
• Verdi: Otello (Scotto, Vickers; Levine, Zeffirelli/Melano, 1978) [live]
• Puccini: Tosca (Verrett, Pavarotti, Tajo; Conlon, Gobbi, 1978) [live]
• Weill: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Stratas, Varnay, Cassilly, Plishka; Levine, Dexter, 1979) [live]
• Puccini: Il tabarro (Scotto; Levine, Melano, 1981) [live]
• Verdi: La traviata (Stratas, Domingo; Levine, Zeffirelli, 1982)
• Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini (Scotto, Rom, Domingo; Levine, Faggioni, 1984) [live]
• Puccini: Tosca (Behrens, Domingo; Sinopoli, Zeffirelli, 1985) [live]

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Googie Withers, English actress died she was , 94.

 Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress died she was , 94.. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.


(12 March 1917 – 15 July 2011)

Biography

An Anglo-Indian, Withers was born in Karachi, then part of British India, to Edgar Withers, a captain in the Royal Navy, and a Dutch-German mother named Zitette.^[3] She acquired the name "Googie" (Little Pigeon) at a young age from her ayah (nanny).^[4] As a child, she learned Urdu.^{[citation needed]} Her father left the Royal Navy to manage a foundry in Birmingham, England, and Googie was sent to a boarding school near Dover.^[3] She began acting at the age of twelve. A student at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, she was a dancer in a West End production when she was offered work as a film extra in Michael Powell's The Girl in the Crowd (1935). She arrived on the set to find one of the major players in the production had been dismissed and was immediately asked to step into the role.
During the 1930s, Withers was constantly in demand in lead roles in minor films and supporting roles in more prestigious productions. Her best known work of the period was as one of Margaret Lockwood's friends in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). Among her successes of the 1940s was the Powell and Pressburger film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), a topical World War II drama in which she played a resistance fighter who helps British airmen return to safety from behind enemy lines. She is remembered for her role as the devious Helen Nosseross in Night and the City (1950), a classic film noir.^{[citation needed]}
While filming The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947), Withers met her co-star, the Australian actor John McCallum. They were married on 24 January the following year, and remained married until McCallum's death in 2010.^[5]
Withers first toured Australia in the stage play Simon and Laura. When McCallum was offered the position running J.C. Williamson Theatres, they moved to Australia in 1959. Withers starred in a number of stage plays, including Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea, Desire of the Moth, The First 400 Years (with Keith Michell), Beekman Place (for which she also designed the set), The Kingfisher, Stardust, Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Wilde's An Ideal Husband for the Melbourne Theatre Company; both productions toured Australia. They appeared together in the UK in The School for Scandal at the Duke of York's Theatre in Londons West End and on the subsequent British Council tour of Europe in 1983–4 and in W. Somerset Maugham's The Circle at the Chichester Festival Theatre.^{[citation needed]}
Withers starred on Broadway with Michael Redgrave in The Complaisant Lover and in London with Alec Guinness in Exit the King. During the 1970s, she appeared as Faye Boswell, the governor of a women's prison, in the television series Within These Walls. Because Within These Walls had been a moderate success in Australia, she was approached by producers to play the role of the Governor of the Wentworth Detention Centre in the later series Prisoner, a job which she declined. The role eventually went to Patsy King.^{[citation needed]}
In 1986, Withers starred in the BBC adaptation of Hotel du Lac, which was followed a year later by another BBC production of Northanger Abbey. In 1990, she appeared in ITV's adaptation of Ending Up. Her last screen performance was as the Australian novelist Katharine Susannah Prichard in the 1996 film Shine, for which she and the other cast members were nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for "Outstanding performance by a cast".
In 2002, aged 85, Withers appeared with Vanessa Redgrave in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan in London's West End.
In 2004, Withers came back into the news when a character on the ITV soap Coronation Street, Norris Cole, quipped that "Googie Withers would turn in her grave". Granada Television was forced to apologise a week later when they realised that she was very much alive.^[6]
In October 2007, aged 90 and 89 respectively, Withers and McCallum appeared in an extended interview with Peter Thompson on ABC TV's Talking Heads program.^[4]

Death

Withers died on 15 July 2011 at her Sydney home, aged 94. Her husband John McCallum predeceased her on 3 February 2010.^[7]

Honours

Withers was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to drama, in the 1980 Australia Day Honours List.^[8] In the 2002 Queen's Birthday Honours List (UK), she was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Family

Withers and McCallum were the parents of three children; actress Joanna McCallum, art director Nicholas and Amanda.^[9]

 

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Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, Kenyan peace activist, recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, died from a car accident. she was , 47

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi  was an ethnic Somali peace activist based in Mombasa, Kenya died from a car accident. she was , 47. A Kenyan citizen, she worked as a consultant to government and civil society organisations.

(1964 - 14 July 2011)

Personal life

Dekha was born in 1964 in Wajir. She was married to Dr. Hassan Nurrow Abdirahman with whom she had four children. The couple divorced in 2007 and in 2009, she married Abdinoor, a Somali ophthalmologist.^[1]

Career

Dekha was a trustee of Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA) and of NOMADIC, a pastoralist organisation based in Wajir. She was also a founding member of the Wajir Peace and Development Committee, the Coalition for Peace in Africa, ACTION (Action for Conflict Transformation), and the Peace and Regeneration Oasis (PRO).
Dekha worked as a consultant trainer on peacebuilding and pastoralists' development with many local and international agencies in various countries, including Cambodia, Jordan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, Netherlands, Israel, Palestine, Zimbabwe, the UK, Uganda and Kenya. She was also an Associate of Responding to Conflict and previously worked as RTC's Trainer and Learning Coordinator.

Awards

In 2007, Dekha was honoured with the Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", which was presented at the Swedish Parliament by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation to those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The Jury commended her "for showing in diverse ethnic and cultural situations how religious and other differences can be reconciled, even after violent conflict, and knitted together through a cooperative process that leads to peace and development".
She was also honoured with Hessian Peace Prize of Germany in 2009.

Death

On 7 July 2011, Dekha, her husband Abdinoor, and their driver were on their way to a peace conference in Garissa, when their car crashed into a truck. Her husband and driver died instantly. Dekha sustained heavy injuries and was airlifted to Nairobi. She died shortly afterwards at the Aga Khan Hospital at 11.45 am, 14 July 2011. She was 47 years old.^[2]

 

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Eric Delaney, British percussionist and band leader died he was , 87

Eric Delaney was an English drummer and bandleader, popular in the 1950s and early 1960s  died he was , 87

.
(22 May 1924 – 14 July 2011^[1])

Career

Delaney was born in Acton, London. Aged 16, he won the Best Swing Drummer award and later joined the Bert Ambrose Octet which featured George Shearing on piano. During 1947–54 he appeared with the Geraldo Orchestra and filled his time with regular session work in recording studios and on film, TV and radio. In 1954 he formed his own band and later signed with the new Pye Records label. He made three Royal Variety Show appearances, the first in 1956.
Delaney specialised in up-tempo dance hall music, often carrying a rock n' roll label but closer in spirit to that of Geraldo and Joe Loss. As with many similar artists, the music he performed became less popular after The Beatles entered the musical scene. He remained active touring in the UK, notably in holiday resorts, nonetheless.^[3]
Although best known as a jazz drummer, Delaney was a multi-percussionist. As well as the drums he played xylophone, glockenspiel, timpani, military side drum, tubular bells, a variety of Chinese gongs and tam tams^{[citation needed]} and incorporated many everyday items such as brushes and whistles into his shows over the years.^{[citation needed]}

Singles

Pye

THE ERIC DELANEY BAND

• N.15046 Cockles and Mussels/Say Si Si (04/56)
• N.15054 Oranges and Lemons/Delaney's Delight (07/56)
• N.15069 Rockin' the Tymps/Ain't She Sweet (09/56)
• N.15079 Rock 'n' Roll King Cole/Time for Chimes (02/57)
• 7N.15113 Fanfare Jump/Jingle Bells (11/57)

ERIC DELANEY'S BIG BEAT SIX

• 7N.15782 Big Noise from Winnetka/Big Beat (02/65)

Parlophone

THE ERIC DELANEY BAND

• R4646 Bass Drum Boogie/Let's Get Organised (1960)
• R4753 Drum Twist/Yes Indeed (1961)
• R4876 Washboard Blues Twist/Sing, Sing, Sing (1962)
• R4925 Manhattan Spiritual/Down Home (1962)

A more complete list of Delaney's records (78rpm to CD) including earlier Mercury recordings together with a tentative filmography and videography are in Sammons, Eddie (June 2010). The Magnificent Eric Delaney. Fastprint. ISBN 184426825X.

Marble Arch

THE BIG BEAT OF-ERIC DELANEY

• MAL 768 LP Disributed Pye Records Ltd 1968 (UK)

 

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William Lockhart Garwood, American jurist (United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit), died from a heart attack he was , 79.

William Lockhart Garwood was a United States federal judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit died from a heart attack he was , 79. .

(October 29, 1931 – July 14, 2011)

Born in Houston, Texas to Wilmer St. John Garwood and Ellen Burdine Clayton, Garwood was named after his maternal grandfather, William Lockhart Clayton, a Houston cotton merchant and, as undersecretary of state for economic affairs, a principal architect of the Marshall Plan.
Garwood received a B.A. from Princeton University in 1952 and an LL.B. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1955. Upon graduating first in his law school class, he clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for John R. Brown, a judge whom he would later count as a colleague on that same court. He served for three years as a JAG officer in the United States Army and then returned to Austin, Texas, where he entered private practice with the firm of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon, Moody & Garwood.

Judicial service

On November 15, 1979, Garwood was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas by Governor Bill Clements and became the first Republican to serve on that court since the end of Reconstruction. Notably, his father, W. St. John Garwood, had served for a decade on the Texas high court, from January 14, 1948 to December 31, 1958, and is still regarded as one of Texas's finest jurists.Will Garwood's tenure was shorter-lived however, ending on December 31, 1980. As he is fond of joking, "I was returned to private practice one-year later by popular mandate".
On September 17, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated Garwood to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit created by 92 Stat. 1629 (President Jimmy Carter previously had nominated Andrew L. Jefferson, Jr. to the seat, but the United States Senate had declined to act on Jefferson's nomination before Carter's presidency ended). Garwood was confirmed by the Senate on October 21, 1981 and received his commission on October 26, 1981. He assumed senior status on January 23, 1997, but maintained a nearly-full workload on the court until his death.

Notable opinions

In United States v. Lopez, 2 F.3d 1342 (5th Cir. 1993), Judge Garwood, writing for a unanimous panel, invalidated the Gun-Free School Zone Act as an unconstitutional exercise of the Commerce Clause power. When Lopez was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, it became the first Court decision in nearly six decades to place limits on Congressional power under the Commerce Clause and was one of the first shots fired in the Rehnquist Court's Federalist Revival.
In United States v. Emerson, 270 F.3d 203 (5th Cir. 2001), Judge Garwood wrote the first federal appellate decision embracing the individual-rights view of the Second Amendment.

Death

Garwood died in Austin on July 14, 2011 of a heart attack at age 79.^[1]

 

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