/ Stars that died in 2023

Friday, December 8, 2017

Bruce Surtees, American cinematographer (Lenny, Dirty Harry, Beverly Hills Cop) died from complication of diabete he was 74

Bruce Mohr Powell Surtees  was an American cinematographer, the son of Maydell and cinematographer Robert L. Surtees.[1] He is best known for his extensive work on Clint Eastwood's films, mostly westerns of the 1970s and early 1980s. His filming style has been compared to that of the Dollars trilogy of Sergio Leone.
He began as a camera operator working on Eastwood's films during the late 1960s, his credits including Coogan's Bluff and Two Mules for Sister Sara. He became a main cinematographer in 1971 with The Beguiled in which he worked as director of photography.
In 1971 he was director of photography on Dirty Harry.
Surtees was nominated for an Academy Award for his cinematography on Lenny (1974). He died in 2012 of complications from diabetes.[2][3]

(July 23, 1937 – February 23, 2012)

Filmography


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David Sayre, American scientist died he was 88

David Sayre was an American scientist, credited with the early development of direct methods for protein crystallography and of diffraction microscopy (also called coherent diffraction imaging). FORTRAN, and later suggested the use of electron beam lithography for the fabrication of X-ray Fresnel zone plates.
While working at IBM he was part of the initial team of ten programmers who created
The International Union of Crystallography awarded Sayre the Ewald Prize in 2008 for the "unique breadth of his contributions to crystallography, which range from seminal contributions to the solving of the phase problem to the complex physics of imaging generic objects by X-ray diffraction and microscopy(...)".[1]

(March 2, 1924 – February 23, 2012) 

Life and career

Sayre was born in New York. He completed his bachelor's degree in physics at Yale University at the age of 19. After working at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, he earned his MS degree at Auburn University in 1948. In 1949, he moved to Oxford with his wife Anne Colquhoun, whom he had married in 1947. Sayre completed his doctoral studies in Dorothy Hodgkin's group in 1951. It is at this time that Sayre discovered the equation now named after him, based on the concept of atomicity. Although the key to most direct methods still in use today, Sayre did not share the 1985 chemistry Nobel prize awarded for their discovery. It is also around this time that Sayre, inspired by Claude Shannon's recent work, suggested in a short paper that the crystallographic phase problem could be solved more easily if one could measure intensities at a higher density than imposed by Bragg's law. This insight is widely seen as the initial spark that lead to recent lensless imaging techniques.
Back in United States, David Sayre worked on structure determination of a carcinogen molecule in the lab of Peter Friedlander at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The structure determination program he wrote for the IBM 701 attracted the attention of John Backus, who hired him to be part of the initial team of programmers that developed the high-level programming language FORTRAN. Sayre was to remain at IBM until his retirement in 1990. In the early 1970s, Sayre became interested in X-ray microscopy. He suggested to use the newly developed electron beam lithography apparatus at IBM to produce Fresnel zone plates, a type of X-ray lens now widely used in Synchrotron facilities. In the '80s, he came back to the goal of achieving lensless imaging, which he pursued the rest of his life.

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William Raggio, 85, American politician, Nevada State Senator (1972–2011), respiratory illness

William Raggio  was an American politician and a former Republican member of the Nevada Senate. He represented Washoe County's 3rd district from 1972 until his retirement in 2011. He is the longest-serving member in the history of the State Senate.

 (October 30, 1926 – February 23, 2012)

Early life, education, and early career

Raggio was born in Reno, Nevada in 1926. In order to obtain his B.A. he attended Louisiana Tech University, University of Oklahoma, and University of Nevada, Reno. He obtained his J.D. from the Hastings College of Law at the University of California and the Boalt Hall School of Law at University of California, Berkeley.
He then went to the military. He was a member of the United States Navy Reserve (USNR) and became a Second Lieutenant of the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR). He started his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney of Washoe County (1952–1958) and was the D.A. of the county (1958–1970).[1]

Political career

1970 U.S. Senate race

Main article: United States Senate election in Nevada, 1970
Raggio first ran for public office statewide in 1970 against incumbent Democrat U.S. Senator Howard Cannon, who defeated Raggio, the Republican nominee, with nearly 58% of the vote to serve a third term.

1974 LG race

Incumbent Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Nevada Harry Reid decided not to run for another term, in order to run for the U.S. Senate. This left an open seat. Democrat nominee Robert E. Rose defeated Raggio, the Republican nominee, with an estimated 52% of the vote statewide.[2]

State Senate tenure (1972–2011)

Raggio served 12 special and 19 regular sessions, the longest Senate service in Nevada history. He was Senate Minority Floor Leader in 1977–1979, 1983–1986, 1991, and 2009. He was Senate Majority Floor Leader in 1987–1989 and 1993–2007. He was Chairman of the Interim Senate Finance Committee in 1988–1990, 1993–1994, 1997–1998, and 2001–2002.[1] He was Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1987 to 1989 and 1993–2005. He was also Chairman of the Legislative Committee on Education from 1997 to 1999 and 2001–2003.[3]

Death

On February 23, 2012, Raggio died at the age of 85 while on vacation in Sydney, Australia. His cause of death was reported as respiratory illness.[4][5] Raggio fathered three children, Leslie, Tracy and Mark (d. 2004).

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Billy Strange,, American songwriter ("Limbo Rock") and music arranger died he was 81



William Everett "Billy" Strange was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He was a session musician with the famed Wrecking Crew, and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum as a member of The Wrecking Crew in 2007.

(September 29, 1930 – February 22, 2012)

Biography

Early life

Billy Strange was born in Long Beach, California on September 29, 1930.[1]

Recordings and songwriting

Strange teamed up with Mac Davis to write several hit songs for Elvis Presley, including "A Little Less Conversation", the theme from Charro!, and "Memories". Strange also composed the musical soundtrack for two of Presley's films Live a Little, Love a Little and The Trouble with Girls. He also wrote "Limbo Rock" that was recorded by The Champs and Chubby Checker.
Strange recorded many cover versions of James Bond movie themes for GNP Crescendo Records and provided the instrumental backing and arrangement for Nancy Sinatra's non-soundtrack version of "You Only Live Twice" as well as Nancy and Frank Sinatra's "Somethin' Stupid". He was recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame for his pioneering contribution to the genre.[2]
Strange played guitar on numerous Beach Boys hits, including "Sloop John B" and the Pet Sounds album. He also played guitar for Nancy Sinatra, Jan & Dean, The Ventures, Willie Nelson, The Everly Brothers, Wanda Jackson, Randy Newman, and Nat King Cole, among others. One of his most famous performances is on Nancy Sinatra's version of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)".
Strange arranged and conducted all of Nancy Sinatra's Reprise albums as well as Nancy Sinatra's and Lee Hazlewood's 1972 RCA Records release, Nancy & Lee Again and their 2003 album, Nancy & Lee 3. He also arranged the 1981 Sinatra and Mel Tillis album, Mel & Nancy. He arranged and conducted for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Duane Eddy, and Elvis Presley. One of his most famous arrangements was "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" for Nancy Sinatra. Strange also performed the vocals for Steve McQueen in Baby the Rain Must Fall.[3]
Heard on the soundtracks of many Disney features, Strange played themes for such TV shows as "The Munsters" (1964), "Batman" (1966) and "Have Gun - Will Travel" (1957). He is the guitarist heard on the theme to "The Munsters".[4]
"A Little Less Conversation", which he wrote with Mac Davis, was on the sound­tracks of the DreamWorks ani­mated fea­ture films Shark Tale (2004) and Megamind (2010).[5]
He sang his own com­po­si­tion, "The Bal­lad of Bunny and Claude", in the Mer­rie Melodies Bunny And Claude (We Rob Car­rot Patches) (1968) and The Great Carrot-Train Rob­bery (1969).[5]

Personal life

Strange was married to singer and actress Joan O'Brien from 1954 to 1955. They had a son, Russell Glen Strange, born on October 4, 1955.
He was also married to Betty Jo Conrad (son: Jerry Strange)from 1960 to 1978. They had a daughter together, Kelly Kimberly Strange, born on November 11, 1964.
While separated from Betty Jo, Strange moved from California to Tennessee to open and run a publishing firm for the Sinatras and lived with/dated Tricia "LeAnn" King. They had a daughter, Mary "Micah" King (Strange), who was born on December 23, 1976 in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.
Strange was married to singer Jeanne Black in his final years. He died on February 22, 2012, aged 81.[3]

Selected filmography

As actor

Soundtrack

Selected discography

  • Billy Strange Plays Roger Miller
  • Mr. Guitar
  • The James Bond Theme / Walk Don't Run '64
  • English Hits of '65
  • Goldfinger
  • Secret Agent File (later rereleased as a compilation)
  • James Bond Double Feature
  • In the Mexican Bag
  • Great Western Themes
  • Billy Strange and The Challengers
  • Strange Country
  • 12 String Guitar
  • Railroad Man
  • Super Scary Monster Party (compilation)
  • De Sade (film soundtrack)
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Severo Lombardoni, Italian music producer died he was 62

Severo Lombardoni  was a music producer in Italy died he was 62. He was founder and owner of Discomagic S.r.l[1] and is known as a pioneer of Italo disco and Italo Dance[2] music.[3]

(7 March 1949 in Pedrengo at Bergamo - 13 February 2012 in Milan, original name)

Biography

Severo was the oldest child of Francesco Lombardoni and his wife Francesca, née Nava. He has had three younger siblings; his sisters Anna[4] and Ornella, and a brother Vittorio, who are all involved inSeriate from 1960 to 1963 and graduated at the Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” di Milano in 1969.
the music industry. Severo attended technical college in
As a teenager Severo was a keen cyclist and regularly took part in local cycle races. He played several instruments; including the trombone, the piano, the accordion und the guitar[5] during his time at the Conservatory in Milan, and for some years after he played in several local bands. He also worked for a year as a music teacher at a junior school.
In 1974 Lombardoni opened a record shop in his home town of Seriate. In 1977 he moved to Milan and set up a record-wholesale business.

DiscoMagic and Lombardoni Publishing

In 1981 Lombardoni established the record company DiscoMagic and the publishing company Lombardoni Edizioni Musicali. He was one of the pioneers of Italo disco music in the early 1980s and DiscoMagic was hugely successful, becoming one of the major Italo disco producers in Italy. As well as the major label Disco Magic Severo created several sub-labels to promote different music genres. In addition, DiscoMagic distributed Italian, European and worldwide titles on behalf of labels such as “Time Records”, “DWA”, “RARE” and “GGM”.
DiscoMagic had its headquarters in Via Mecenate in Milan which subsequently became the centre for music wholesalers and producers. In the late 1980s he was extremely successful with his compilations and was the first Italian music producer to make use of TV advertising.
With Lombardoni Publishing Srl Severo acted as music publisher too. Some of the composers he has collaborated with include Pierluigi Giombini, Paolo Pelandri, Domenico Ricchini, Manuel Curry and Luis Garcia Perez. His major successes included “Dolce vita” by Ryan Paris, “Happy children” by P. Lion, “Don't cry tonight” by Savage, "Shanghai", "Sayonara" by Lee Marrow ; all released in 1983 and “Ride on Time” by Black Box[6] released in 1989 . “Ride on time” from the record “Dreamland” became a huge success throughout Europe, and the United States as well, although the success was somewhat marred by copyright disputes.
In 1988 Severo established Lombardoni Musik GmbH in Germany and by 1990 the company was listed in the top ten of the most successful music publishers in Germany.
Due to financial problems, the company closed in 1997 and Severo was forced to sell the main label, “Disco Magic”, and its catalogue, to the German music producer Bernhard Mikulski (ZYX Music).

Productions (choice)

  • 1983, Ryan Paris, “Dolce Vita”
  • 1983, P. Lion, “Happy Children”
  • 1983, Savage, “Don't cry tonight”
  • 1985, Lee Marrow "Shanghai"
  • 1985, Lee Marrow "Sayonara"
  • 1987, Lee Marrow "Don't Stop The Music"
  • 1988, Savage, “So Close”
  • 1990, Sabrina Salerno, “Yeah Yeah”
  • Joe Yellow, “I'm Your Lover”
  • Den Harrow, “A laste of Lave, To Meet Me”
  • Gary Low, “You Are a Danger”

Sublabels (choice)[7]

  • “Out”
  • “High Energy”
  • “Sensation Records”
  • “Out Records”
  • “Trash Records”
  • “Yellowstone Records”

Hitland

Since the end of the 1990s Severo worked for some years with his son Matteo publishing collections and reprints of Italo disco hits of the 1980s under the label “Hitland”. In recent years he continued the “Hitland” label with his first wife Marilena.
Severo had a son, Matteo, with his first wife and a daughter, Francesca, with his second wife Adriana. He died on February 13, 2012 of an Intracranial hemorrhage. His funeral was held at the church Madonna Aiuto dei Cristiani in Milan, followed by a burial at the cemetery in Pedrengo/Bergamo.

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Saturday, April 25, 2015

Mike Melvoin, American jazz pianist and composer, died from cancer , he was 74

Michael "Mike" Melvoin  was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger died from cancer , he was 74. He served as chairman and president of The Recording Academy and worked as a prolific studio musician, recording with Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, The Jackson 5, Natalie Cole, and The Beach Boys. Melvoin was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for "All Or Nothing At All" from his album It's Always You.[1]

(May 10, 1937 – February 22, 2012)

Biography

Melvoin was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and began playing the piano at the age of three. He studied English at Dartmouth College, graduating in 1959, but decided to pursue a career in music.[2] After moving to Los Angeles in 1961, he played with Frank Rosolino, Leroy Vinnegar, Gerald Wilson, Paul Horn, Terry Gibbs, Joe Williams, Peggy Lee and others. He released his debut album as a bandleader, Keys to Your Mind, in 1966 on Liberty Records. Melvoin played in clubs in Los Angeles, and accompanied singer Bill Henderson and played with Herb Ellis and Plas Johnson on Concord Jazz releases.
Melvoin worked extensively as a studio musician, performing on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966), Frank Sinatra's That's Life (1966), the Jackson 5's ABC (1970), John Lennon's "Stand by Me" (1975), Tom Waits' Nighthawks at the Diner (1975), and Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" (1976). He also began composing for film and television in the early 1970s including The Partridge Family, contributing scores to Fame and MacGyver.
His children, Wendy (of Wendy & Lisa), Susannah and Jonathan all became professional musicians. Melvoin died in Burbank, California on February 22, 2012 of cancer, at age 74.[3]

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Lucio Battisti
With Thelma Houston & Pressure Cooker
With Milt Jackson
With Lalo Schifrin
With Gábor Szabó
With Tom Waits

As composer

  • Keem-O-Sabe (by the Electric Indian, top 40 hit 1969)

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Barney Rosset, American publisher (Grove Press) and free speech advocate he died he was , 89

Barnet Lee "Barney" Rosset, Jr.  was the former owner of the publishing house Grove Press, and publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Evergreen Review. He led a successful legal battle to publish the uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, and later was the American publisher of Henry Miller's controversial novel Tropic of Cancer. The right to publish and distribute Miller's novel in the United States was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1964, in a landmark ruling for free speech and the First Amendment.

(May 28, 1922 – February 21, 2012)

Early life

Rosset was born and raised in Chicago to a Jewish father, Barnet Rosset, and an Irish Catholic mother, Mary (née Tansey).[1][2][3] He attended the progressive Francis Parker School, where he was best friends with renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler. He went on to study at Swarthmore College, UCLA and the New School for Social Research. He was graduated from the University of Chicago and received a second degree from the New School. During World War II, he served in the Army Signal Corps as an officer in a photographic company stationed in China. Rosset married American Abstract Expressionist painter Joan Mitchell in 1949. The couple later divorced. Mitchell was instrumental in Rosset's acquisition of Grove Press. He owned an East Hampton Long Island quonset hut, previously used as a studio by painter Robert Motherwell.

Grove Press and Evergreen Review writers

Rosset introduced American readers to numerous significant writers, including Samuel Beckett (Nobel Prize in Literature 1969), Pablo Neruda (Nobel Prize 1971), Octavio Paz (Nobel Prize 1990), Kenzaburō Ōe (Nobel Prize 1994), Harold Pinter (Nobel Prize 2005), Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Khushwant Singh, Jean Genet, John Rechy, Eugène Ionesco and Tom Stoppard.
Interviewed by Tin House publisher Win McCormack, Rosset talked about publishing Beckett:
I had actually read a little bit of Beckett in transition Magazine and a couple of other places. I was going to the New School. My New School life and the beginnings of Grove crossed over. At the New School, I had professors like Wallace Fowlie, Alfred Kazin, Stanley Kunitz and others, who were very, very important to me. I was doing a great deal of reading and writing papers for them, and one day I read in The New York Times about a play called Waiting for Godot that was going on in Paris. It was a small clip, but it made me very interested. I got hold of it and read it in the French edition. It had something to say to me. Oddly enough, it had a sense of desolation, like Miller, though in its language, its lack of verbiage, it was the opposite of Miller. Still, the sense of a very contemporary lost soul was compelling. I got Wallace Fowlie to read it. His specialty was French literature. His judgment meant a lot to me even though he was so different from me. He was a convert to Catholicism, he was gay, and incredibly intelligent. He read the play and told me that he thought - and this before anybody had really heard about it much - that it would be one of the most important works of the 20th Century. And Sylvia Beach got involved in it somehow. She was a friend and admirer of Beckett. Waiting for Godot just hit something in me. I got what Beckett writing was available and published it. He flew into the web and got trapped. He had been turned down by Simon and Schuster, I found out, much earlier, on an earlier novel.[4]
There is a recent interview available with him on NPR.2/12
In an interview with the Brooklyn Rail, Rosset spoke about the Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn being taken to court for obscenity charges:
We had a case in New York and, of course, he [Miller] wouldn’t go to the court. I had lunch with him at a restaurant on sixth Avenue right near here called Alfred’s with our lawyer and three or four other people, and then we had to go to court. But he wouldn’t go. He’d been summonsed so he was breaking the law by not going. So we went into court, and the District Attorney questioned me and said, “You see that we have a jury here of men and women with children who go to school right near where that book is on sale, near the subway stop. What’d you think they feel to have their children reading this book?” So I took out the book and started reading and the jury started laughing and they thought it was wonderful. I said to them, “If your children got this book and read the whole book you ought to congratulate them.” And they loved it, and they refused to convict me of anything. That was a great pleasure. Miller couldn’t leave this country until the decision was in, verified and so forth. For at least a year or two years, he couldn’t go. It was so funny because they accused me of soliciting him to write the book—write Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn—in Brooklyn, and at that point I was only 8 years old! Miller was a little older than me. It was a specific charge against me that was absurd. I was a pimp supposedly. They didn’t even bother to see how ridiculous their charge would look.[5]
Launched in 1957, Evergreen Review pushed the limits of censorship, inspiring hundreds of thousands of younger Americans[citation needed] to embrace the counterculture. Grove Press published Beat Generation writers, including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Rechy, Hubert Selby, Jr. and Jack Kerouac. Rosset also purchased the American distribution rights to the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow).
The online Evergreen Review features Beat classics as well as debuts of contemporary writers, including Giannina Braschi and Dennis Nurkse.[6] In 2007, Rossett married Astrid Myers, managing editor of the online Evergreen Review. In 2008, Rosset completed writing his autobiography.[7] He died in 2012 after a double heart valve replacement.[8]

Film

Obscene, a documentary feature about Rosset by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O’Connor, was released September 26, 2008.[7][9] The film was a selection of the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Featured in the film are Amiri Baraka, Lenny Bruce, William S. Burroughs, Jim Carroll, Elsa Dorfman, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Al Goldstein, Erica Jong, Ray Manzarek, Michael McClure, Henry Miller, John Rechy, Ed Sanders, Floyd Salas, John Sayles, Gore Vidal, John Waters and Malcolm X.

Awards

Rosset was awarded the French title Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1999. He was honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship on October 21, 2008 for his work in defending free expression. On November 19, 2008, Rosset received the lifetime achievement Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation in honor of his contributions to American publishing.[10] In 2012, he was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for "Distinguished Publisher".[11]

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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...