Allen Coage, American-born Olympic judo bronze medalist and professional wrestler known as "Bad News Brown". died he was 63

  Allen James Coage  was an American-Canadian judoka and professional wrestle died he was  63.^[5] He won medals for the United States at several international judo competitions, including the heavyweight bronze medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics, and later appeared in professional wrestling promotions such as the World Wrestling Federation, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling under the ring names Bad News Brown, Buffalo Allen, and Bad News Allen.^[5][7][8]

^{(October 22, 1943 – March 6, 2007)}

^{Coage was born in Harlem, New York City and raised in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Queens, attending Thomas A. Edison High School.[4][2] After graduating in 1962, Coage began working in a bakery, eventually becoming a foreman.[4]}

Coage trained in judo under Jerome Mackey after seeing a poster for Mackey's dojo on the New York City Subway. He began his career in 1964 at the relatively late age of 22. After seven months as a white belt, he placed first in the Chicago Invitational tournament. Coage achieved a black belt in two and a half years and after five years was named a sandan.^[4] Coage wrestled in a "classical" style,^[8]with his favored throws being the Ōuchi gari and the Tai otoshi.^[4]

Coage won the Amateur Athletic Union judo championship (heavyweight class) in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1975, as well as winning the open division in 1970. He also competed in the Pan American Games, winning gold medals in the heavyweight class in 1967 and 1975.

In 1970, Coage relocated to Japan for two years, where he studied at Nihon University, majoring and minoring in judo.^[4][9][10] In 1972, Coage suffered a severe knee injury during an Olympic Trials bout with Jimmy Wooley, rendering him unable to compete in the 1972 Summer Olympics.^[8]

Upon recovering, Coage began training for the 1976 Summer Olympics. Coage was initially excluded from the United States judo team until a class action lawsuit was filed against the United States Olympic Committee by the United States Judo Association. Coage ultimately won a bronze medal.^[8] His victory made him the first African American to win a solo Olympic Games medal in a sport other than boxing or track and field.

Coage retired from competitive judo following the 1976 Summer Olympics due to frustrations around internal politics.^[6] He went on to hold a number of other jobs, including briefly working as a bodyguard for singer Aretha Franklin, before deciding to train as a professional wrestler.^[11]

Coage was married three times. With his first wife, Audrey, he had his eldest child, Tonya. Then Coage was in a long-term relationship with Lorriane, in which he had his eldest son, Bryan, and April, and two step children—Martin and Ronda. He had another relationship with Lottie, in which he had two more children, Michael and Nancy. Coage was then married for a second time to Katharine, in which he had Lynnette. During his last marriage until his death, Coage was married to Helen in which he had one son, Allen Jr. (AJ) and raised two step children, Dawn and Frances. The youngest child of Coage is Keira, whom he had with another woman during his third marriage.^[5][6]

Born in the United States, Coage later permanently relocated to Canada, ultimately securing Canadian citizenship.^[5]

^{Coage died of a heart attack on the morning of March 6, 2007, at Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary, minutes after being rushed there due to chest pain.[3]}

  

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William O. Wooldridge, American army officer died he was 89

William O. Wooldridge was a United States Army soldier and the first Sergeant Major of the Army.

Wooldridge served on active duty from 1940 to 1972 died he was 89. His military career spanned two wars and 14 campaigns, during which he was twice decorated for gallantry in action. He was sworn in as the first Sergeant Major of the Army on July 11, 1966 by Chief of Staff of the Army, General Harold K. Johnson. Wooldridge's appointment was recorded in the Congressional Record of the 89th Congress Vol. 112, No. 110.

(August 12, 1922 – March 5, 2012) 

William Wooldridge was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and grew up in Texas. He enlisted in the United States Army at Fort Worth^[1], Texas on 11 November 1940. Wooldridge served first with Company F, 23rd Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. In December 1941 he was assigned to detached service with the British forces in Iceland. The following year, he was released from detached service and assigned to Company K, 26th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division when it arrived in England. He served with his division throughout World War II in an infantry rifle company, being promoted through the ranks to first sergeant. Wooldridge landed on D-Day as a squad leader (sergeant).

He was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry at the battle for Aachen, Germany in October 1944. He also received a Purple Heart for injuries in this battle. He was awarded a second Silver Star for gallantry during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, while serving as a platoon sergeant.

Wooldridge returned to Fort Sam Houston, Texas in May 1945. In October he was assigned to the Pacific Theater. After attending the 1st 3 Graders Course, Oahu Officer Troop and Staff School, at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, he was assigned to Headquarters, Eighth United States Army, South Korea as a member of the occupation forces.

In July 1948 he was assigned as a platoon sergeant in the 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, at Bamberg, Germany. He was promoted to first sergeant in Company K, 26th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, in 1950.

In May 1954 Wooldridge returned to the United States as first sergeant of Company G, 3rd Infantry, at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. He rejoined the 1st Infantry Division as first Sergeant of Company D, 26th Infantry at Fort Riley, Kansas in December 1955. On 20 December 1956, he was appointed sergeant major of the 3rd Battalion, 26th Regiment. He left Fort Riley as sergeant major of the 2nd Battle Group, 28th Infantry Regiment, for duty in Germany in December 1958, and became the 24th Infantry Division's sergeant major in March 1963.

Wooldridge returned to the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley as sergeant major of the 1st Brigade in February 1965. In June 1965 he was selected by the division commander, Major General Jonathan O. Seaman, as the Division Sergeant Major. The next month he deployed with the division's advance party to the Republic of Vietnam. He served as division sergeant major until his selection as the first Sergeant Major of the Army in July 1966.

Wooldridge was chosen for this important new position from thousands of candidates. He served as Sergeant Major of the Army until September 1968. He is credited with improving the status of the non-commissioned officers by convening the first Major Command Sergeants Major Conference and recommending the Noncommissioned Officer Candidate Course, the Sergeants Major Academy, the Command Sergeant Major program, and a standardized NCO promotion process. Wooldridge and General Johnson worked together as an effective professional team. He came to revere Johnson, calling him "the finest officer I ever served with in my life".

After serving as Sergeant Major of the Army, Wooldridge returned to Vietnam as sergeant major of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MAC-V). He is the only SMA to return to field duty after serving in the top enlisted position.

In 1969, while Command Sergeant Major of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Wooldridge was accused in a congressional inquiry of fraud and corruption related to the military club system, amounting to more than $150 million annually.^[2] In 1973 the Department of Justice and Wooldridge reached an agreement whereby Wooldridge pleaded guilty to accepting stock equity from a corporation engaged in providing merchandise to the non-commissioned officers' clubs in Vietnam. The government did not find any wrongdoing on his part while serving as the Sergeant Major of the Army. "Although the investigation tarnished the final years of Wooldridge's career, it could not diminish his heroic wartime exploits or his arduous labors on behalf of enlisted soldiers and non-commissioned officers as the first Sergeant Major of the Army."

He was earlier awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal, but it was withdrawn following this episode. In Robin Moore's novel Khaki Mafia, a fictional character in a criminal cartel is based on Wooldridge in Vietnam.

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Philip Madoc, Welsh actor (Dad's Army, The Life and Times of David Lloyd George) died he was 77

  Philip Madoc^2] was a Welsh actor died he was 77. He performed many stage, television, radio and film roles. On television, he played David Lloyd George in The Life and Times of David Lloyd George and the lead role in the detective series A Mind to Kill. His guest roles included multiple appearances in the cult series The Avengers and Doctor Who, as well as a famous episode of the sitcom Dad's Army. He was also known to be an accomplished linguist.

 (5 July 1934 – 5 March 2012)[

Madoc was born Philip Arvon Jones near Merthyr Tydfil and attended Cyfarthfa Castle Grammar School, where he was a member of the cricket and rugby teams,^[3] and displayed talent as a linguist. He then studied languages at the University of Wales and the University of Vienna. He eventually spoke seven languages, including Russian and Swedish, and had a working knowledge of Huron Indian, Hindi and Mandarin. He worked as an interpreter, but became disenchanted with having to translate for politicians: "I did dry-as-dust jobs like political interpreting. You get to despise politicians when you have to translate the rubbish they spout."^[4] He then switched to acting and won a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art(RADA).

Madoc acted on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing the roles of Iago, Othello and Dr Faust.^[1] As a television actor he first gained widespread recognition in two serials, first as the relentless SS Officer Lutzig in the Second World War serial Manhunt (1969), and then as the vicious Huron warrior Magua in a serialisation of The Last of the Mohicans (1971). He played a character resembling Lutzig, but for comic effect, in "The Deadly Attachment", an episode of the comedy Dad's Army in which he played a U-boat captain held prisoner by the Walmington-on-Sea platoon of the Home Guard. He records names on his "list" for the day of reckoning after the war is won, prompting Captain Mainwaring's famous line "Don't tell him, Pike!" Madoc's ability to give life to German villains also surfaced in the TV series The Fortunes of War, directed by James Cellan Jones.

He also appeared in five episodes of the TV series The Avengers between 1963 and 1969 ("The Decapod", "Six Hands Across a Table", "Death of a Batman", "The Correct Way to Kill", "My Wildest Dream").

In 1974 he played a corrupt and lecherous priest, Vicar Davyd, in the BBC Wales serial Hawkmoor. In 1977 he appeared as Dr Evans in the television adaptation of Andrea Newman's book Another Bouquet (the sequel to A Bouquet of Barbed Wire).

Madoc starred in the detective series A Mind to Kill as DCI Noel Bain. This series was made simultaneously in Welsh and English from 1994 to 2002. He appeared in episodes of the BBC sitcoms The Good Life and Porridge ("Disturbing The Peace"), and in a controversial episode of The Goodies ("South Africa"), which satirised Apartheid. He took the lead role in the BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George.

Films in which Madoc appeared included Operation Crossbow (1965), The Quiller Memorandum (1966), Berserk! (1967), Doppelgänger (1969), Hell Boats (1970), Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974) and Operation Daybreak (1975). His later film performances included Leon Trotsky in Zina (1985), and Jimmy Murphy in the football movie Best (2000).

Madoc presented an educational 1960's television series, Komm mit, to teach German.

Madoc appeared in the second Doctor Who film, Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966) and later in the BBC series itself. He appeared in two Second Doctor serials — The Krotons where he played Eelek, a high-ranking member of Gond Society, and The War Games, where he played the villainous alien War Lord. In the 1970s he appeared in two Fourth Doctor serials — The Brain of Morbius and The Power of Kroll. He recorded DVD commentaries for The Krotons, The War Games and The Brain of Morbius and was interviewed about his roles in Doctor Who in the short film "Philip Madoc - a Villain for All Seasons", which appeared as an extra on the DVD for The Power of Kroll. In 2003, he guest-starred in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio adventure, Master, and returned to Big Finish in the 2008 Sixth Doctor story Return of the Krotons. He voiced the War King in the Faction Paradox audio series.

He appeared twice in the drama series UFO, once as the partner of Ed Straker's estranged wife and once as the captain of a British warship under attack by the aliens. In the pilot episode of Space: 1999 (1975) he had a brief appearance as Commander Anton Gorski, who was replaced by Commander John Koenig for the remainder of the series. In addition to his minor role of Anton Gorski, his likeness later appeared in the comic book adaptation of the Space 1999 saga, where his characters previously minor role was expanded upon. He also made a guest appearance in Survivors.

Philip Madoc's first marriage, to the actress Ruth Madoc, lasted for 20 years. They had a son and a daughter, and divorced in 1981. Madoc's second marriage, which also ended in divorce, was to Diane.^[4]

He was patron of Best Theatre Arts, a theatre school in St Albans^[10] and President of the London Welsh Male Voice Choir.^[11]

He was a big fan of David Pearce, the professional boxer and was one of the 2,000 people who attended his funeral.

It was stated in January 2012 that Madoc had been diagnosed with cancer. He died on 5 March 2012 at the Michael SobellHospice in Northwood, northwest London.^[2] He was cremated at the West Hertfordshire Crematorium in Watford.^[12]

  

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