/ Stars that died in 2023

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Antonio Molino Rojo, Spanish film actor, died he was 85.

Antonio Molino Rojo [1] was a Spanish film actor who appeared primarily in Spaghetti westerns in the 1960s and 1970s died he was 85..

(14 September 1926 – 2 November 2011)

He made nearly 90 appearances in film between 1955 and 1988 but is probably most recognizable in western cinema for his roles in the Sergio Leone trilogy of Spaghetti westerns A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More, (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966. He also appeared in the Sergio Leone picture Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968.
Rojo did not always play gang members in the westerns; in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Rojo portrayed the good captain at the Union concentration camp whose leg was being eroded by gangrene. In the film he told Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) that he knew he was systematically torturing and robbing the prisoners, and hoped that before he died, he could amass enough evidence to bring Angel Eyes to trial at a court martial. Rojo died in Barcelona on November 2, 2011.


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Leonard Stone, American actor (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory), died from cancer he was 87.

Leonard Stone was an American character actor who played supporting roles in over 120 television shows and 35 films died from cancer he was 87..

(November 3, 1923 – November 2, 2011)




Life and career

In 1961 and 1962, he was twice cast in different roles on ABC's The Real McCoys in the episodes "Money from Heaven" and "You Can't Beat the Army". Between 1962 and 1966, Stone made four guest appearances on CBS's Perry Mason. In his 1962 role, he played murderer Jerel Leland in "The Case of the Hateful Hero." In 1966, he had a supporting role as Morton on the short-lived CBS sitcom The Jean Arthur Show starring Jean Arthur and Ron Harper. He played popular and memorable characters on The Outer Limits, Lost in Space, and M*A*S*H. He appeared twice on ABC's The Donna Reed Show as Mr. Trestle in "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys" (1961) and as Harlan Carmody, Jr., in "Joe College" (1965).
In the 1965-1966 season, he appeared as Doc Joslyn in thirteen episodes of Camp Runamuck on NBC.
One of his most notable roles came in 1971, when he played Sam Beauregarde, the father of Golden Ticket winner Violet Beauregarde, in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. He was one of the last surviving parents from the movie.
Between 1988 and 1994, he was cast as Judge Paul Hanson in twelve episodes of the NBC legal drama L.A. Law.
Stone started his career as a young actor studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He performed in the West End, on Broadway, and toured the world. He traveled for eight years in Australia and New Zealand with the musical South Pacific. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1959 for Best Supporting Actor in Redhead, a Bob Fosse musical. He also was in the Tony Award-nominated cast of Look Homeward, Angel in 1957, which premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York. Based on the Thomas Wolfe novel, it won a Pulitzer Prize.
Stone's final role came in 2006 at the age of 83, when he played a minor character in Surrender Dorothy.[1]

Death

He died on November 2, 2011 in Encinitas, California,[2] after a brief bout with cancer, one day shy of his 88th birthday.[3]

Personal

Stone married Carole Kleinman in 1964, and together they raised four children and eight grandchildren. In 1983, Stone moved to San Diego from his longtime home in Los Angeles, but continued to commute for work.
Stone was a contestant on an episode of Wheel of Fortune which aired September 22, 2000. He placed second, winning $4,250 in cash and a trip to Bermuda valued at $5,310.[4]
In the early 1950s, Stone began writing a children's story about a kangaroo who never grew. In 2011, Keepy was published on Kindle and Nook.
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Papa Bue, Danish trombonist and bandleader, died he was 81.

Arne "Papa" Bue Jensen,[1] known as Papa Bue, was a Danish trombonist and bandleader, chiefly associated with the Dixieland jazz revival style of which he was considered an important proponent  died he was 81.. He founded and led the Viking Jazz Band, which was active from 1956.



(8 May 1930 – 2 November 2011)

Early life and career

Arne Bue Jensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.[1] At an early age, he became fascinated with jazz, prompted by a pile of records from his brother with artists such as Harry James, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Bert Ambrose. Some records by Bunk Johnson and George Lewis reviving the New Orleans musical made a particular impression.
After World War II, Jensen became a sailor for a few years, visiting ports all around the world, where he had an opportunity to listen to enjoy their often lively music venues. It was around this time that he started to play jazz. For borrowed money, which it would take him years to repay, he bought a slide trombone. He was taught the seven basic positions of the slide by a musician from the Royal Danish Orchestra but apart from that he was self-taught. Soon he played with other young jazz musicians and performed in clubs and bars around Copenhagen. He played in bands such as the Royal Jazzman (later the Bohana Jazz Band), Henrik Johansen’s Jazz Band and the Saint Peter Street Stompers, participating as a sideman in several of their recordings.[4] In the 1950s, Papa Bue worked with the Bonanza Jazz Band, Chris Barber, Adrian Bentzon and Henrik Johansen.[1]

The Viking Jazz Band


Papa Bues Viking Jazzband live in concert on the July 7th 1992 in Braunschweig
In the mid 1950s, he was part of the musical environment of the entertainment district around Nyhavn. He jammed with other young jazz musicians in various informal arrangements and, along with six other musicians, he founded the New Orleans Jazz Band in 1956, after a jam session in the establishment 'Cap Horn'. Since Jensen was the eldest he became the bandleader and, as he was also the only band member who was a father, he was given the nickname "Papa Bue" which stuck.[4]
In late 1957, Jensen renamed the ensemble the Viking Jazz Band. The name came from the American journalist and vocalist Shel Silverstein[5] who attended one of their concerts at Cap Horn during a stay in Copenhagen. He subsequently wrote an article about them, calling them the Danish Vikings, explaining that they played the original New Orleans and Chicago jazz even better than any American band at the time. The band adopted the new name and released their first album as the Viking Jazz Band in 1958.[4] In 1960 their "Schlafe Mein Prinzchen" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[6]
At a time when many jazz musicians worked in the Bebop idiom, his style remained based on the Dixieland tradition but also with influences from early swing music. He is considered one of the most significant proponents of his genre.[7]
The group remained active into the 1990s, and recorded with musicians such as George Lewis (1959), Champion Jack Dupree (1962), Art Hodes (1970), Wild Bill Davison (1970, 1974), Wingy Manone, Edmond Hall and Albert Nicholas.[2] They also played with George Lewis, Earl Hines, Stuff Smith, Ben Webster. Wild Bill Davison was a permanent band member.[7]
Jensen released a large number of albums, many of them issued or reissued on Storyville Records, Timeless Records, and Music Mecca.
It was Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band which recorded Bent Fabricius-Bjerre's theme music for the Olsen Gang series, now a legendary sequence for the Danes.[7]

Awards and accolades

In 1969, Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band was the only non-American band to participate in the New Orleans Jazz Festival and Jensen was honored with the "Golden Keys to the City".[7]

Death

Papa Bue died on 2 November 2011, at the age of 81.[1]

Discography

  • A Tribute To Wingy Manone (Rec. Dec. 7th 1967, Storyville)
  • All That Meat And No Potatoes (With Wild Bill Davison & Gustav Winkler, Rec. Nov 1977, Storyville)
  • The 25th Anniversary Session (Rec. 1981, V-KING Records)
  • Everybody Loves Saturday Night, Vol. 1 (compilation, released 5 December 1996)
  • Song Was Born (released 20 September 1999)
  • 40 Years Jubilee Concert (released 20 September 1989)
  • Canal Street Blues (released 20 September 1999)
  • Church Concert (live recording, released 1 January 2000)
  • Live at Mosebacke Stockholm (live recordings from 1970, released 14 November 2000)
  • 1958–1969: Hit Singles (compilation, released 1 May 2001)
  • 1971: Live in Dresden (live recordings from 1971, released 10 July 2001)
  • Rags & Marches (compilation, released 5 March 2002)
  • Hamburg 1970–1971: A Tribute to Finn Otto Hansen (compilation, released 6 July)



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Sid Melton, American character actor (The Golden Girls, Green Acres, The Danny Thomas Show), died from pneumonia he was 94.


Sid Melton  was an American actor known for his roles as incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe in the CBS sitcom Green Acres and as Uncle Charlie Halper, proprietor of the Copa Club, in Make Room for Daddy and its spin-offs.[1]

(May 22, 1917 – November 2, 2011)


Melton appeared in about 140 film and television projects in a career that spanned nearly 60 years. Among his most famous films were Lost Continent with Cesar Romero, The Steel Helmet with Gene Evans and Robert Hutton, The Lemon Drop Kid with Bob Hope, and Lady Sings The Blues with Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams.
He was later a regular on The Danny Thomas Show and Green Acres, and appeared in several episodes of The Golden Girls.[2]

Career

Born as Sidney Meltzer in Brooklyn, New York, he was the brother of screenwriter Lewis Meltzer, and the son of Isidor Meltzer, a Yiddish theater comedian.
Melton made his stage debut in a 1939 touring production of See My Lawyer and in 1941 was cast as Fingers in Shadow of the Thin Man. During World War II he entertained American soldiers overseas where he met screenwriter Aubrey Wisberg who arranged for him to have a part in his Treasure of Monte Cristo for Robert Lippert.[3]
This was his first film after signing his first Hollywood contract with Lippert Pictures in 1949. The studio churned out low-budget films, most of them made in less than a week, and he was the comic relief in dozens of them, including Treasure of Monte Cristo, Mask of the Dragon and Lost Continent.
Other movies included On the Town, The Geisha Boy, The Tunnel of Love, and Blondie Goes to College. He appeared in two Lippert Pictures, Lost Continent and Radar Secret Service, which were later featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, whose hosts gave Melton the nickname "Monkey Boy" due to his comedy relief antics.
He played Captain Midnight’s sidekick, Ichabod Mudd, in Captain Midnight, an early 1950s Saturday-morning children’s show. Until the end of his life, old fans would greet him on the street with his signature introductory gag line, “Mudd with two D’s.[4]
Melton appeared three times as Harry Cooper in the 1955–1956 CBS sitcom It's Always Jan, starring Janis Paige and Merry Anders.
In the Late 1950's, Sid played several small roles in the popular DesiLu show The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, in which he is a construction worker who comes into the room through the window to ask for Milton Berle's autograph for his children. He also starred in another episode in which he plays as a bellboy for a hotel in Nome, Alaska that Lucy and the gang are staying at. Although minor roles, they are noteworthy being that he worked along side some of the biggest names in 50's television in a company that would come to be part of Paramount.[5]
His television credits also include The Golden Girls (as Sophia's deceased husband, Salvadore, in flashback and dream sequences), Captain Midnight (as Ichabod "Ikky" Mudd), Dragnet and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. He also had a guest role in an episode of Adventures of Superman called The Deadly Rock, and as a photographer in an episode of I Dream of Jeannie entitled "The Biggest Star in Hollywood". He also guest-starred in one episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, where he played deli-owner Bert Monker who is in love with Sally Rogers.
Melton was married once, in the 1940s, but the marriage was annulled. “After that,” said brother-in-law, David Lawrence, “he kept dogs, mainly wire-haired terriers.”[6]
In 2005, he attended Eddie Albert's funeral along with Green Acres co-stars Mary Grace Canfield and Frank Cady.

Death

Melton died from pneumonia on November 2, 2011. He was interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

Selected filmography



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Lou Maletta, American media executive, founder of Gay Cable Network, died from liver cancer he was 74.


Louis Phillip "Lou" Maletta Jr. was an American media executive and LGBT rights activist. Maletta founded the Gay Cable Network in 1982  died from liver cancer he was 74..[1]

(December 14, 1936 – November 2, 2011)

Life and career

Maletta was born in Brooklyn, New York and served in the United States Army. After his discharge, he worked as a freelance photographer and travel agent. Maletta married and had a daughter with his wife before divorcing and coming out as gay. He was with his partner Luke Valenti from 1974 until Maletta's death.
Maletta's start in media came with the show Men & Film on Manhattan Cable Television, a show that evolved from showing edited gay pornography to covering events important in the community. He was inspired to start Gay Cable Network after seeing the effects AIDS had on a friend. The network went on to produce original programming, including coverage of Democratic National Conventions and Republican National Conventions between 1984 and 2000.
Andy Humm, then a GCN correspondent, recounted years afterward that Maletta's wearing of a "spandex, a black leather jacket, the Gay Network T-shirt and a cowboy hat" at a backwoods Mississippi Hardee's while en route to the Republican National Convention caught the attention of other patrons, so much so that the place went "deadly silent. I didn’t think we’d get out alive, but perhaps the locals were just too shocked to react.[2]"
Gay Cable Network closed in 2001 upon Maletta's retirement. All 6,100 video tapes of GCN's archive were sold to the New York University's Fales Library for preservation in 2009.
Maletta was also the off-camera voice in a Calvin Klein campaign pulled in 1995 for racy content which some suggested had overtones of underage pornography.[3] Maletta died of liver cancer in Kingston, New York.[4]


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Stan Bergstein, American harness racing executive, died he was 87.

Stanley F. Bergstein  was an American sports executive died he was 87.. He was the executive vice president of the Harness Tracks of America from 1961 to 2011. He was the first person to be inducted into both the Harness Racing Hall of Fame and it's Communicator's Hall of Fame.

(June 19, 1924 – November 2, 2011)

Bergstein died on November 2, 2011 after suffering from health problems for a year.[1] He died only nine months after he retired as vice president. He is survived by his two children, Al and Lisa and four grandsons. His wife, June, died in 2010, four days after their 60th wedding anniversary.[2]
Born above a grocery store in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, to the grocer Milton and his wife Esther, on 19 June 1924 and died in his home in Tucson, Arizona on 2 November 2011 at the age of 87.
The most accurate obituary this writer has seen appears to be from the Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-11-08/news/ct-met-bergstein-obit-20111108_1_harness-tracks-phil-langley-harness-racing-hall
Also, Stan wrote a detailed article on his career before 1970 that was republished in the 9 November 2011 "Horseman and Fair World" (which is not yet available on the Internet as of this writing).
Served in WWII landing on Omaha Beach a few days after DDay. Fought across Normandy with Patton's Army. Fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Was injured and received the Purple Heart.
After returning from the war, graduated from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
Worked in public relations for a variety of harness racing tracks in the 1940s. Also spent time as announcer and car driver, PR and other activities with the Harlem Globetrotters from approximately 1948 to 1952.
Married the model June Hanna in 1950. They had a son and daughter.
In 1961 he helped create Harness Tracks of America, a trade group representing race track owners. He originally held the title of Executive Secretary, but also ran day to day operations for the organization. He held both that position and that of Executive Vice President until his retirement in February 2011, at which time he took the position of President Emeritus.
In 1968, he additionally joined, as the vice president of publicity and public relations, the U.S. Trotting Association, the governing body of the standardbred sport. He also became editor of the USTA's award-winning monthly magazine, HoofBeats.
In the 1950s, he worked as an announcer at many race tracks around America, including Sportsman's Part and Maywood Park in Chicago, Santa Anita in Los Angeles, and numerous other tracks. He also appeared on television as both color commentator and announcer for such premiere race events as The Little Brown Jug, and The Hambeltonian, later in his career.
Bergstein was also a reader of horse pedigrees, which is a specialized skill requiring a knowledge of horse lineage. He was hired by major auctioneers, such as the late George Swinebroad and others, at the fall sales events in Lexington, Kentucky; Harrisburg Pennsylvania and other locations. Eventually he became a certified auctioneer, and ran his own sales for a couple of years in the 1970s.
He also ran a small bookstore specializing in harness horse books and magazines, out of his home, eventually compiling one of the largest private collections of books on the subject, according to Stan's knowledge of other booksellers and private collectors. He sold the bulk of the library in the 1980s to a buyer from Sweden.
In the 1970s and into the 1980s he was co-anchor on a television show on WOR-TV in New York City, broadcasting harness racing in conjunction with the State's then new Off Track Betting industry.
He ended his working relationship with USTA in the mid-1970s, but remained a close business associate with the organization until his death.
In the 1970s he created the "World Driving Championship", yearly series of races from top drivers and horses from around the world. The Driving Championship would take the drivers and horses to races in Europe, Australia, United States and Canada, among other countries.
Bergstein also created a yearly convention of the harness racing industry, managing the event. He was a keynote speaker, and also was master of ceremonies at many annual events over the decades.
Bergstein owned a series of harness horses during his life, and also was partner in a number of horse breeding operations.
Moved with his wife June to Tucson Arizona in the 1980s, moving the offices of HTA there as well.
Created a relationship between HTA and the University of Arizona's racing industry studies program,and strove to hire it's graduates to his organization. Many of his hires went on to significant roles in the harness racing industry.
Health problems and the natural aging process led him to retire from HTA in February 2011. He was still writing a number of weekly columns for various journals at the time of his death.

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Rijk de Gooyer, Dutch actor, died from pancreatic cancer he was 85.


Rijk de Gooyer  was a Dutch Golden Calf- winning actor, writer, comedian and singer  died from pancreatic cancer he was 85.. From the 1950s until the early 1970s, he became well known in The Netherlands as part of a comic duo with John Kraaijkamp, Sr. In the United States best known for having small roles in films such as Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Soldaat van Oranje, A Time to Die and The Wilby Conspiracy.[1]

(17 December 1925 – 2 November 2011)


Biography

De Gooyer was raised in a baker family as an identical twin. In World War II he worked as an interpreter.[2] Initially for the American 101st Airborne, later on for the British Field Security. From 1959 till 1961 de Gooyer studied at an actors school of the UFA in Berlin. During these years, he would have worked for the CIA as an informant.[3]
In the 1950s, he started a comic duo with Johnny Kraaijkamp. Thanks to their performances on TV, the duo became extremely popular. In the Johnny & Rijk shows, De Gooyer always played the part of the feeder, with Kraaijkamp providing the laughs. They split up in the 1970s, when De Gooyer focused more on his film career.
He played in films such as Soldaat van Oranje, De Inbreker and Madelief, krassen in het tafelblad. In 1982 he won the Golden Calf for Best Actor for all his works, according to him he could have won it a year ago but because he wasn't there it went to Rutger Hauer. In 1995 he threw his Golden Calf for Hoogste Tijd out on the street after the ceremony. De Gooyer was videotaped while he threw the award out of the window because he was on the Dutch hidden-camera show Taxi (the Dutch version of Taxicab Confessions). His (current) last Golden Calf, for Madelief, Krassen in het Tafelblad was also thrown out on the street this time by Maarten Spanjer (who hosted Taxi). De Gooyer could be seen in various Dutch commercials, for companies such as Reaal, KPN and Paturain.
De Gooyer was the lead in In voor- en tegenspoed, the Dutch version of Johnny Speight's sitcom franchise (known in the UK as Till Death Us Do Part among other names and in the U.S. as All in the Family). De Gooyer played Fred Schuit (literally Fred Barge), the Dutch equivalent of Alf Garnett or Archie Bunker. He won a Golden Film in 1997 for the role.


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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...