Tony Martin died he was 96,

When Tony Martin's wife, dancer Cyd Charisse, died six months ago, he was bereft. They had a blessed marriage - the kind where if one of them was away even for a few days, he or she would call the other to eagerly relate everything that had happened. After 65 years together, Martin suddenly found himself alone in their spacious Los Angeles condo, staring at photos of his gorgeous wife.

Aware of the need for a change, he phoned his agent, Scott Stander, and said he wanted to work. That made sense except for a few details: Martin was 95 years old and his profession was singing to audiences. Sinatra was forgetting lyrics in his 60s, and Elvis' voice was shot in his 30s.

But Martin still has the sound - "an unusually rich timbre synonymous with virility," in the words of one music critic - that made him one of the great singer-actors of the first half of the 20th century. He made hits of "To Each His Own," "I Get Ideas," "I Hear a Rhapsody," "La Vie en Rose" and "There's No Tomorrow" (based on "O Sole Mio," which also was the basis for Presley's "It's Now or Never").

These songs form the heart of the nightclub act he'll perform this weekend in San Francisco. A piano player comes regularly to his house to help him rehearse.
"I wouldn't perform unless I could remember well. This is my business," he says.
In the midst of our phone conversation, he started crooning "You stepped out of a dream. You are too wonderful to be what you seem." He first sang it to Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner in the 1941 "Ziegfeld Girl."

A gerontologist should make a study of what keeps him going. Everybody wants what he has at his age. Martin attributes his stamina to doing calisthenics almost every day. It must be working. Stander says that Martin's couch is quite low and that he himself has trouble getting out of it, but "Tony bounds right up." He lives alone and dresses without assistance. For a photo shoot the other day, he put on a well-tailored tweed suit.

Charisse was the cook at their house. Martin admits to being hopeless at it. The evenings when his housekeeper doesn't prepare a meal, he orders out. "French, Italian, Chinese - it all depends what I feel like," he says. "I have a good appetite." Martin still drives and will sometimes meet his friends at a restaurant for dinner.
He's also an ardent San Francisco Giants fan who used to drag his wife to windy and cold Candlestick Park. Martin now follows the games religiously on TV.
"As you get older, what you hold on to as long as you can is your independence, and Tony has his," says Stander, who has known him for years. "He makes his own decisions. He has a housekeeper and people that keep an eye on him, but he is very self sufficient."

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Cornelia Wallace died she was 69 years old

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Former Alabama first lady Cornelia Wallace, who threw herself over Gov. George C. Wallace when he was shot in a 1972 assassination attempt, has died in Sebring, Fla. She was 69.

Wallace's cousin, Melissa Boyen, said the former first lady died Thursday from cancer.

Cornelia Wallace was the niece of two-term Gov. James E. "Big Jim" Folsom. The dark-haired beauty, known simply as "C'nelia," married George Wallace on Jan. 4, 1971 — just days before he began his second term as governor. It was the second marriage for both.

The union marked a merger between Alabama's two most famous political families and surprised some because George Wallace had defeated Jim Folsom in the 1962 race for governor and the relationship between the two governors had been strained since then.

Cornelia Wallace was a socially active first lady known for her lively personality. But for many, the most lasting memory of her occurred on May 15, 1972.

She was accompanying her husband on the Democratic campaign trial for president when Arthur Bremer shot him four times at a campaign rally in Laurel, Md. A news camera captured photos of Cornelia Wallace throwing herself over her husband's body to shield him as he lay bleeding in a shopping center parking lot.

"She's etched in Alabamians' memory because of the tragedy of that," said Joe Turnham, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.

William Stewart, a longtime political scientist at the University of Alabama, said he remains impressed by her bravery during the shooting and her loyalty to her husband during his long recovery from the wounds that left his legs paralyzed.

"I don't know if he would have made it without her," Stewart said. "She was totally devoted to him. It was beautiful to see."

Edward D. Cartier Dies At 94

Edward D. Cartier, 94, who illustrated classic science fiction, fantasy, mystery and pulp fiction by such authors as Isaac Asimov, L. Ron Hubbard, and Walter B. Gibson of The Shadow fame, died Dec. 25 at his home in Ramsey, N.J.
"He was one of the very last illustrators from the golden age of science fiction," said Mr. Cartier's son Dean. "He did over 800 illustrations for The Shadow and was still signing autographs . . . one for a fan just last week. He was sharp to the very end of his life."
Mr. Cartier is considered the definitive illustrator of The Shadow and Unknown magazines, and illustrated extensively for publications including Astounding Science Fiction, Doc Savage, Other Worlds, and Red Dragon Comics.
He was a friend of Hubbard's in the heyday of Hubbard's career, and for the last 20 years was a judge for the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest. Mr. Cartier was also the art director for the Mosstype Corp. for more than 25 years.
A 1936 graduate of the Pratt Institute in New York, Mr. Cartier had his sights on becoming a Western artist but landed a job illustrating The Shadow magazine.
Though his name was Edward Daniel Cartier, fans of The Shadow would "write to Ed D., which became Edd, and my dad liked it. . . . It became his pen name," his son said.
Mr. Cartier served as an infantryman and heavy-machine gunner for a tank battalion in France and Germany during World War II.
He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and again when his hospital train was blown apart. He received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
Mr. Cartier's wife of 65 years, Georgina, died in May. In addition to his son Dean, he is survived by a second son, Kenn.

Ron Asheton died he was 60

Ron Asheton died he was 60. [1] Ron was an American guitarist and co-songwriter with Iggy Pop for the rock band The Stooges.

(July 17, 1948 – c. January 1, 2009)

He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Asheton was on the Stooges first two albums, and later appeared as bassist for their third, Raw Power, when he was replaced in both instrument and songwriting prominence by The Stooges' new guitar player, James Williamson. With the Stooges reformed, however, he once again appeared as the band's guitarist.
Apart from The Stooges, Asheton also played in the bands The New Order (not the UK band of the same name), Destroy All Monsters, New Race, and more recently with Mike Watt, J. Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.), Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Mark Arm of Mudhoney among others (as The Wylde Ratttz), on the soundtrack for the Todd Haynes film Velvet Goldmine, which starred Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Asheton also acted, appearing with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre star Gunnar Hansen in Mosquito which came out in 1995 as well as in two other films, Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo and Legion of the Night. In later life, Asheton enjoyed attending St James' Park to watch his beloved Newcastle United FC play.
Asheton already had five years practicing the accordion behind him when he began playing guitar while he was ten.

He is ranked as number 29 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Asheton was found dead in his Ann Arbor, Mich. home of a reported heart attack on January 6th, 2009, having died several days earlier. more

Pat" Hingle died he was 84

Pat" Hingle died he was 84. Martin Patterson "Pat" Hingle was an American actor.

(July 19, 1924 – January 3, 2009)

Hingle was born Martin Patterson Hingle in Denver, Colorado, the son of Marvin Louise (née Patterson), a schoolteacher and musician, and Clarence Martin Hingle, a building contractor.[1] Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas. He served on the destroyer USS Marshall during World War II. He returned to the University of Texas after the war and earned a degree in radio broadcasting.


In 1960, he had been offered the title role in Elmer Gantry, but could not do it due to a near fatal accident; caught in an elevator in his West End Avenue apartment building that had stalled between the second and third floors, he crawled out, trying to reach the second floor corridor, lost his balance and fell 54 feet down the shaft, fracturing his skull, wrist, hip and most of the ribs on his left side, breaking his left leg in three places and losing the little finger on his left hand. He lay near death for two weeks and his recovery took more than a year.

Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) with Judge Adam Fenton (Hingle) in Hang 'Em High (1968).
Hingle is traditionally known for playing judges, police officers, and other authority figures. One of his notable roles is the father of the character played by Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass (1961). While he is probably best known in recent times for playing Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 film Batman and its three sequels, Hingle has a long list of television and movie credits to his name, going back to 1948. Among them are Hang 'Em High (1968), Sudden Impact (1983), Road To Redemption (2001), When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979), Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (1986), The Grifters (1990), Citizen Cohn (1992), Muppets from Space, and Shaft (2000). Along with Michael Gough, who played Alfred Pennyworth, he is one of only two actors to appear in four Batman films.

Hingle originated the role of Gooper in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof . He also starred as Victor Franz in the premiere production of The Price by Arthur Miller .In the 1997 revival of the musical 1776, Hingle played Benjamin Franklin, with Brent Spiner as John Adams. In 2002, he was a regular cast member of ABC's series The Court. He also played Horace in 1995's The Quick and the Dead.
Recently, he appeared in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, as the original owner of Dennit Racing.


He died at his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, of leukemia on January 3, 2009, having been diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006.[2][3]

Jett Travolta died he was 16

Jett, born on April 13, 1992, was the only son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston. Early in childhood Jett suffered from Kawasaki disease that caused seizures at random times. January 3, 2009

Maria de Jesus died she was 115

LISBON, Portugal (Jan. 2) - A Portuguese woman who lived to see five of her great-great grandchildren born and was believed to have been the world's oldest person died on Friday at the age of 115, officials said.
Maria de Jesus died in an ambulance near the central Portuguese town of Tomar, town council officials said.
She had been listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest person. That title now falls to an American, 114-year-old Gertrude Baines, who lives in a Los Angeles nursing home.
Born Sept. 10, 1893, de Jesus was widowed at 57, outlived three of her six children, had 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
On Friday, she ate breakfast normally, but then was taken to hospital because of a swelling, her daughter Maria Madalena told state news agency Lusa, without elaborating.
De Jesus was 115 years and 114 days old.
"I regret the death of this lady, she really was the sweetest person," town councilor Ivo Santos said in Tomar, central Portugal, 135 kilometers (84 miles) north of Lisbon.
There are now only 82 women and nine men verified as being 110 or older, according to gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles.