/ Stars that died in 2023

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Steven Michael Woods, Jr., American murderer, died from lethal injection he was 31.

Steven Michael Woods, Jr. was an American who was executed by lethal injection in the state of Texas died from lethal injection he was 31.

(April 17, 1980 - September 13, 2011)

 Woods was sentenced to the death penalty after a jury convicted him of the capital murders of drug dealer Ronald Whitehead, 21, and Bethena Brosz, 19, on May 2, 2001 in The Colony, Texas.[3] Woods petitioned to media outlets for prisoner rights in February 2004.[4]
In late 2006, Woods was part of a hunger strike in the Polunsky unit in West Livingston, Texas, to oppose death row inmates' treatment.[5]
Woods' co-defendant, Marcus Rhodes, pled guilty to shooting both victims to death with a firearm in the same criminal transaction and received a life sentence. During the trial it was revealed that authorities had recovered backpacks belonging to the slain pair along with shell casings and a bloodied knife in Rhodes' car. Guns used in the slayings were also recovered from the home of Rhodes' parents.[6]
However, in Texas, the Law of Parties states that a person can be criminally responsible for the actions of another if he or she aids and abets, conspires with the principal or anticipates the crime. Although Rhodes pled guilty to the murders and Woods' did not, and there was no physical evidence tying Woods to the scene, Woods was executed for the crime.[7] Witnesses testified at Woods' 2002 trial that he and Rhodes said that they lured Whitehead to an isolated road on the pretense of a drug deal and that Woods shot and killed him, because Whitehead knew about a killing two months earlier in California. Rhodes was later found guilty of the California murder and Woods was not. Prosecutors said Brosz was merely driving her boyfriend Ron to the drug deal. Brosz had been killed because she witnessed Whitehead's death, yelled and then attempted to flee.[2]

Fairness of Sentencing/Conviction Dispute

The fairness of Woods' case and punishment was criticized by Noam Chomsky[8] and Amnesty International.[9] Woods' criminal case was reported locally and internationally. Woods' final motion for a stay was denied on September 2, 2011.[13]

Execution

In his last words, Woods stated, "You're not about to witness an execution, you are about to witness a murder. I am strapped down for something Marcus Rhodes did. I never killed anybody, never. I love you, Mom. I love you, Tali. This is wrong. This whole thing is wrong. I can't believe you are going to let Marcus Rhodes walk around free. Justice has let me down. Alex Calhoun completely screwed this up. I love you too, Mom. Well Warden, if you are going to murder someone, go ahead and do it. Pull the trigger. It's coming. I can feel it coming. Goodbye everyone, I love you".[14] then took several deep breaths before all movement stopped.[2] A needle carrying the lethal drugs on his right arm pierced a green tattoo of a rose branch. The distinctive tattoo had identified him when he was arrested. Woods was pronounced dead on September 13, 2011 at 6:22pm.[15] Woods' was the 10th execution carried out in Texas in 2011[16] and the 474th since Texas resumed the death penalty in 1982.


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Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin, Irish hereditary knight, died he was 74.

Desmond John Villiers FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin , was an Irish hereditary knight[3] and president of the Irish Georgian Society.

(13 July 1937 – 14 September 2011)

The son of Desmond FitzGerald, 28th Knight of Glin (1901–1949), and Veronica Villiers (daughter of Ernest Villiers, M.P.),[2] FitzGerald was born into an old Anglo-Irish aristocratic family in County Limerick[4] and was educated at the University of British Columbia and Harvard University. He worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, in the furniture department.[3] He later returned to Ireland, and became active in conservation issues, becoming involved with the Irish Georgian Society. He was appointed its president in 1991. He has also represented the Christies art auctioneers in Ireland. [5] He died in Dublin in 2011.[6]

Family

He was originally married to Loulou de la Falaise for a brief period. In 1970 he married his second wife, Olda Willes, the daughter of Major Thomas and Georgina Willes. His three daughters are: Catherine, who married Dominic West in 2010, and was previously married to Ned Durham; Nesta and Honor.

Title

FitzGerald was the last Black Knight; as he had no sons and the title cannot be passed to a daughter, the title was extinguished with his death.[7] A similar title, the Knight of Kerry, is held by his distant cousins.

Glin Castle

FitzGerald divided his time between Glin Castle, Glin, County Limerick (which he inherited as a child), and his Dublin townhouse.[3][8]
The Knight devoted his life to restoring the belongings of the castle, which had been sold due to previous financial difficulties, and rebuilding and finishing the remaining parts of the estate including the Georgian house that had remained incomplete for centuries.[5]


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Choi Dong-Won, South Korean baseball player (Lotte Giants, Samsung Lions), died from colon cancer he was 53.


Choi Dong-Won was a South Korean pitcher in the Korean professional baseball league who played for the Lotte Giants and Samsung Lions  died from colon cancer he was 53. Choi batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Busan.

(May 24, 1958 – September 14, 2011) 


Amateur career

In 1975, Choi gained national attention at the Champions Invitational Tournament where he threw a complete game no-hitter against 1974 national champion Kyungbuk High School and took another no-hitter into the ninth inning in the team's next game before it was broken up by an infield single.[1] In 1976, he led his team to win the Blue Dragon Flag National Championship, setting a high-school record for most strikeouts in a major-tournament game with 20 in the semifinal and earning 4 out of the team's 5 wins during the tourney. In September 1976, Choi was selected for the South Korean junior national team and competed in the 3–game friendly series against Japan where he hurled a one-run complete game victory in Game 1,[2] and racked up another victory the very next day in Game 2 coming up on relief in the third inning and throwing seven innings of one-run ball.[3]
Upon graduation from high school, Choi entered Yonsei University and played college baseball from 1977 to 1980. In November 1977, Choi was first called up to the South Korea senior baseball team and played an important role in the team's first world championship at the 1977 Intercontinental Cup held in Nicaragua.[4]
After graduation from Yonsei University in 1981, Choi signed with the Lotte amateur baseball team. In August 1981, Choi competed for South Korea in the 1981 Intercontinental Cup where he posted a 2–0 record and an ERA of 1.32. Choi took a perfect game with 11 strikeouts into the bottom of the ninth inning against Canada in round-robin phase before giving up a single.[1] However, he was eventually named the tourney's Best Pitcher.[5]

Professional career

Toronto Blue Jays

After the impressive performances at the 1981 Intercontinental Cup in Canada, the Toronto Blue Jays showed a strong interest in Choi, regarding him as having the potential to play in the big league immediately.[1]
The Blue Jays' scouts went to see Choi six times before signing him to a major league contract reportedly worth around $250,000, an unprecedented bonus at the time. Meanwhile, South Korea was in the process of forming its own professional baseball league. When the government discovered Choi was heading to Toronto, it threatened to jail the scouts if they tried to leave the country with the contract.[6]
The Blue Jays planned on bringing Choi to Blue Jays' spring training for the 1983 season, but the government intervened again.[6]
Choi was given a choice: Serve a mandatory military commitment before going to Canada, or pitch in the Korean professional league and have his military service waived. Choi eventually opted for the latter,[6] declaring for the KBO Draft after the 1982 Amateur World Series.

Lotte Giants

Choi was selected by the Lotte Giants in the first round of the 1983 KBO Draft.
He had a respectable rookie season, posting a 9–16 record and an ERA of 2.40 with 148 strikeouts. Wearing uniform number 11, Choi hurled 9 complete games and one shutout, and was ranked fourth in ERA and strikeouts.
Choi established himself in 1984 with a breakout season for the Giants. He was 27–13, ranked first in wins, and fanned a league-leading 223 batters during the season. Choi also lowered his ERA to 1.92, second-lowest in the league behind OB Bears pitcher Jang Ho-Yeon (1.58), and posted the second-highest innings pitched total in a season in KBO history with 284.2 (on the contrary, ERA champion Jang Ho-Yeon pitched only 102.1 innings in the season). In the 1984 Korean Series, the Giants beat the Samsung Lions in seven games. Choi started for the Giants four times and threw four complete-games with a 3–1 record as a starter, with his final outing being Game 7. Choi accumulated one more win as a long reliever in Game 6, coming up on relief in the fifth inning and hurling five shutout innings with six strikeouts. As a clutch "iron arm" pitcher, Choi finished the Series with an astonishing 4–1 record and an ERA of 1.80 in 40 innings pitched in nine days. He still holds the most unbreakable records for most wins (4) and most innings pitched (40.0) in a single championship series.[7]
Choi's 1986 season ended as one of the finest he had ever posted. He posted a 19-14 record and an ERA of 1.55 with 208 strikeouts in 267 innings pitched. Choi pitched a career-high 17 complete games and his 1.55 ERA was the lowest of his eight-season career. He led the league in innings pitched, and was runner-up in wins, ERA and strikeouts (208).[8]

Samsung Lions

Prior to the 1989 season, Choi was traded with Kim Yong-Chul to the Samsung Lions for Jang Hyo-Jo and Kim Si-Jin. After the trade, his career quickly spiraled downward. His statistics did not improve while with the Lions. In just over two years with the Lions, he posted a 7–7 record with an ERA of 4.50.[1]
Choi became the first member of the 1,000 strikeout club on May 20, 1990 when he fanned Lee Kwang-Eun of the LG Twins in the fifth inning in Daegu. However, after the 1990 season, Choi announced his retirement from baseball as a player.

Post playing career

Choi Retired in 1990 and then dabbled in politics, did some baseball broadcasting work and acted. After 2001 he returned to baseball as the minor league manager for the Hanwha Eagles (2007–2009) and supervisor for the KBO (2009–2011).[9]

Death and memorial

Choi died of colon cancer at a hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do on September 14, 2011, aged 53.[9] Choi was survived by wife, son and brother.[1]
The Lotte Giants retired Choi's squad number 11 on September 30, 2011. The number is the club's first-ever retired number since the club was founded in 1975.[10] He was portrayed by Cho Seung-woo in the 2011 film, Perfect Game about the two top pitchers him and his rival Sun Dong-Yeol in the Korea Baseball Organization league during the 1980's.

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Gautam Rajadhyaksha, Indian photographer, died he was 60.

Gautam Rajadhyaksha was one of India's leading fashion photographers, and was based in Mumbai, India died he was 60. [1][2] He was one of India's best known celebrity portraitists, having photographed almost all the icons of the Indian Film industry.

(September 16, 1950 – September 13, 2011)

Personal life and education

Born in Mumbai, Rajadhyaksha was educated at St. Xavier's High School, Fort,[3] and obtained his degree in Chemistry at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, where he later also taught for two years.[4] He was the cousin of noted novelist Shobha De.

Career

Having completed his diploma in advertising and public relations, Rajadhyaksha joined the photo services department of Lintas India Ltd,[4] a leading advertising agency in 1974, and eventually becoming the head of the department. During his 15 year stint, he participated in the creation of milestone ad campaigns, while continuing his childhood passion of photography over the weekends.
His first encounter with fashion photography happened 1980, when he happen to shoot pictures of actress Shabana Azmi (a college mate), Tina Munim and Jackie Shroff, and his passion for portraiture photography was lit,[4][5] eventually he left his advertising job in 1987, and took up commercial photography full-time, and soon started doing product campaigns, media assignments and fashion portfolios.[4]
While he was still working for the Lintas, as a copywriter, Shobha De his cousin invited him to write for her magazine, 'Celebrity', soon after started shooting photographs for his articles, this got him attention and soon acclaim as a glamour photographer, and before long he started working for other magazines as well, including The Illustrated Weekly of India, and film magazines like Stardust, Cineblitz and Filmfare.[6]
Apart from doing occasional television talk shows, he edited Marathi entertainment fortnightly, 'Chanderi' and composed a popular column, Manas Chitra, in a leading Marathi news daily.[citation needed]
His 1997 released coffee table book, titled FACES, contained profles of 45 film personalities beginning with Durga Khote, one of India's first ladies of the Indian screen and ending with Aishwarya Rai, the former Miss World and today Bollywood's leading actress. In 1992, he wrote his first screenplay, for the film, 'Bekhudi', which launched actress Kajol's career and his second, 'Anjaam' presented, Madhuri Dixit with a challenging role. In 2000, he held his first ever photo-exhibition in Pune which showcased, twenty years of his photography work.[5] Exhibitions of Rajadhyaksha's work have been held in Pune, Goa and Kolhapur with all attracting large crowds. Further exhibitions of his work in San Francisco, London, Birmingham and Dubai, have all been well attended as well.[4]
He used to idealise the work of Jitendra Arya and was also influenced by his works published in Flimfare, The Illustrated Weekly of India and often The Times of India.

Death

Gautam Rajadhyaksha died on September 13, 2011, in the morning, three days before his 61st birthday, from an apparent heart attack.[7]

Filmography

Movie stills

Screenwriter

  • Bekhudi (1992)
  • Anjaam (1994) (story)
  • Sakhi (2007) (story and screenplay) [8]


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Carl Oglesby, American anti-war activist, died from lung cancer at 76.


Carl Oglesby  was an American writer, academic, and political activist  died from lung cancer at 76.. He was the President of the leftist student organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from 1965 to 1966.

(July 30, 1935 – September 13, 2011)








Early years

Carl Oglesby's father was from South Carolina, and his mother from Alabama. They met in Akron, Ohio, where Carl's father worked in the rubber mills.[1] Carl progressed through the Akron Public School System, winning a prize in his final year for a speech in favor of America's Cold War stance. He went to Kent State University; but dropped out in his third year to try to make his way as an actor and playwright in Greenwich Village, a bohemian area of New York. After a year, he returned to Kent State and graduated, writing three plays (including "a well-received work on the Hatfield-McCoy feud")[1] and an unfinished novel. He worked at odd jobs until, around 1960, he came to Michigan.

Contact with SDS

Oglesby first came into contact with members of SDS in Michigan in 1964. At the time he was thirty years old and had a young family (a wife, Beth, and three children, Aron, Caleb, and Shay). He was a technical writer for the Systems Division of Bendix (a defense contractor); at the same time he was trying to get a part-time degree from the University of Michigan.
He wrote a critical article on American foreign policy in the Far East in the campus magazine. SDSers read it, and went to meet Carl at his family home to see if he might become a supporter of the SDS. As Oglebsy put it, "We talked. I got to thinking about things. As a writer, I needed a mode of action [...] I saw that people were already moving, so I joined up." He became a full-time Research, Information, Publications (RIP) worker for SDS.
He became so impressed by the spirit and intellectual strength of the SDS that he rapidly became deeply involved in the organization, becoming its President within a year. His first project was to be a "grass-roots theatre", but that project was soon superseded by the opposition to escalating American activity in Vietnam; he helped organize a teach-in in Michigan, and to build for the large SDS peace march in Washington on April 17, 1965. The National Council meeting after was Oglesby's first national SDS meeting. On November 27, 1965, Oglesby gave a speech before tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators in Washington, which became one of the most important documents to come out of the anti-war movement. According to Kirkpatrick Sale: "It was a devastating performance: skilled, moderate, learned, and compassionate, but uncompromising, angry, radical, and above all persuasive. It drew the only standing ovation of the afternoon... for years afterward it would continue to be one of the most popular items of SDS literature."[2]
Oglesby's political outlook was more eclectic than that of many in SDS. He was heavily influenced by libertarian economist Murray Rothbard, and dismissed socialism as “a way to bury social problems under a federal bureaucracy."[1] He once unsuccessfully proposed cooperation between SDS and the conservative group Young Americans for Freedom on some projects,[3] and argued that "in a strong sense, the Old Right and the New Left are morally and politically coordinate":[4]
“ In his essay “Vietnamese Crucible,” published in the 1967 volume Containment and Change, Oglesby rejected the “socialist radical, the corporatist conservative, and the welfare-state liberal” and challenged the New Left to embrace “American democratic populism” and “the American libertarian right.” Invoking Senator Taft, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Congressman Buffett, and Saturday Evening Post writer Garet Garrett, among other stalwarts of the Old Right, he asked, “Why have the traditional opponents of big, militarized, central authoritarian government now joined forces with such a government’s boldest advocates?” What in the name of Thomas Jefferson were conservatives doing holding the bag for Robert Strange McNamara?[1] ”
In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[5] Also in 1968, he was asked by Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver to serve as his running mate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket in that year's presidential election (he declined the offer).[1]

Later years

Oglesby was forced out of SDS in 1969, after more left-wing members accused him of "being 'trapped in our early, bourgeois stage' and for not progressing into 'a Marxist-Leninist perspective.'"[1] After the collapse of SDS in the summer of 1969, Oglesby became a writer, a musician and an academic. He wrote several books on the JFK assassination, and the various competing theories that attempt to explain it. He recorded two albums, roughly in the folk-rock genre. He taught Politics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College. He attended the April 2006 North-Eastern Regional Conference of the "new SDS", where he gave a speech, in which he said that activism is about "teaching yourself how to do what you don't know how to do".[6]

Death

Carl Oglesby died of lung cancer at his home in Montclair, New Jersey on September 13, 2011, aged 76.

Books by Carl Oglesby

  • Containment and Change, Macmillan (1969).
  • The Yankee and Cowboy War: Conspiracies from Dallas to Watergate, Sheed Andrews and McMeel (1976). ISBN 0-8362-0688-6.
  • Who Killed JFK? (The Real Story Series), Odonian Press (1991). ISBN 1-878825-10-0.
  • The JFK Assassination: The Facts and Theories, Signet (1992). ISBN 0-451-17476-3.
  • Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960s Antiwar Movement (2008). ISBN 1-4165-4736-3.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

DJ Mehdi, French musician, died he was 34.

Mehdi Favéris-Essadi , better known by his stage name DJ Mehdi, was a French hip hop and electro producer of mixed French and Tunisian origin  died he was 34..

(20 January 1977 – 13 September 2011)

Biography

Mehdi was born of Tunisian background in Hauts-de-Seine, the northwestern suburbs of Paris. He was a former disc jockey of the groups Different Teep (ex-group of Manu Key & Lil Jahson), Ideal J and former member of the collective the Mafia K'1 Fry. He was also a long time the quasi-appointed producer of the group 113 and carried out the nearly all the production of the albums for Different Teep and Karlito. Amid his work, Mehdi had remixed various electronic acts and composition soundtracks for many French and international films.
After having been recognized for his efforts and budding into one of the French underground hip hop music scene’s premier producers, DJ Mehdi henceforth pushed boundaries by mixing hip hop and electronic music. He collaborated with such notable artists as Daft Punk, Cassius, MC Solaar, Futura 2000, Asian Dub Foundation and Chromeo among others.[2] “Coming from a rap music background, it’s always nice to collaborate within other music genres…Paris is very inspiring because a lot of people are making great stuff, music and in other arts related fields also. My music and philosophies revolve around beats and blues, that’s how I would try to describe it.”
Signing to cross-genre label Ed Banger Records, Mehdi and Pedro Winter (aka Busy P) were working on various disco-hop sounds the two as far back as 1997. Together they hosted a very successful monthly night at former Paris nightspot Pulp. “I like to be the DJ, I love it so much. I love to try new things. You would never get into this business to be bored, or you would hope not.”
Mehdi released his first full-length LP in 2002 The Story of Espion, followed by his second album, Lucky Boy, in August 2006. With the popularity of cross genre hip hop into such areas as indie and electronic music, popularization by Timbaland and other labels from the United States in more recent years had assisted to bridge the gap between dance genres.
Mehdi's single "I Am Somebody" was used in a 2007 American commercial for XM radio. More recently, DJ Mehdi was part of a group of friends and DJ's collectively known as "Club 75" which includes Cassius, Busy P and Xavier de Rosnay (Justice). He launched a project together with Riton in 2010 that was titled "Carte Blanche".
Mehdi died on September 13, 2011, when the skylight of his Paris home collapsed while he was celebrating his close friend Riton's birthday with a group of friends on the roof. Mehdi was the only fatality, while three others were injured.[3][4]

Discography

Albums

Ideal J
  • Original Mc's Sur Une MIssion (1996)
  • Le Combat Continue (1998)
113
  • Ni barreaux, ni barrières, ni frontières (1998)
  • Les Princes De La Ville (1999)
  • Fout La Merde (2002)
Karlito
  • Contenu Sous Pression (2001)
Mapei
  • Cocoa Butter Diaries (2009)
Solo work
  • The Story Of Espion (2002)
  • Des Friandises Pour Ta Bouche (2005)
  • Lucky Boy (2006)
  • Lucky Boy at Night (2007)

Singles

  • "Wonderbra" ("Paradisiaque", Mc Solaar) (1997)
  • "Classik" / "Au Fond De Mon Cœur" / "Esclave 2000" ("Touche D'Espoir", Assassin) (2000)
  • "A L'Anciene" / "Les Points Sur Les I Remix" ("Les Points Sur Les I", Intouchable) (2000)
  • "Le Ssem" / "Le Jeu de La Mort" ("La Vie Avant La Mort", Rohff) (2001)
  • "Couleur Ebène" ("Ouest Side", Booba) (2006)
  • "I am Somebody" ("I am Somebody", DJ Mehdi, real: So_Me) (2007)
  • "Signatune" (2007)

Remixes

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David Jull, Australian politician, Member of the House of Representatives (1975–1983, 1984–2007), died he was 66.

David Francis Jull  was an Australian politician  died he was 66..   He was a long-serving Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of Bowman, Queensland, from 1975 to 1983 and Fadden, Queensland, from 1984 to 2007.

(4 October 1944 – 13 September 2011)

Jull was born in Kingaroy, Queensland, and was educated at the University of Queensland. He was an announcer on radio and television from 1963 to 1965 and then a director of television station TVQ, Brisbane until he entered politics.[1] He was elected at the 1975 general election, but defeated in 1983.
He was Deputy General Manager of the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation 1983–84.[2]
Jull was reelected to parliament at the 1984 election. He was a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry 1989–94, and was Minister for Administrative Services 1996–97.[2] He resigned from the ministry following accusations that he had failed to prevent other MPs from abusing their parliamentary allowances.[3]
Jull was chair of the Parliamentary Committee on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation 1997–2002, and of its successor, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (formerly the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD), since 2002. In this capacity he presided over the Committee's inquiry into the performance of the Australian intelligence services in relation to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in 2003–04.

Health problems and death

Jull was diagnosed with lung cancer, and in 2005 underwent surgery to remove one of his lungs,[4][5] He retired from Parliament at the 2007 election.[2]
Jull died peacefully on 13 September 2011 in Brisbane, aged 66. He is survived by two sons and two stepsons.[6][7] Jull was accorded a state funeral, which took place on 23 September.[8]
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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...