In 2024, we've experienced the loss of several luminaries in the world of entertainment. These beloved figures—actors, comedians, musicians, singers, and coaches—have touched our lives with their talent, passion, and dedication. They've left an indelible mark on our hearts and shaped the world of entertainment in ways that will continue to inspire and influence generations to come.
Among the incredible actors who bid farewell this year, we mourn the loss of a true chameleon who effortlessly.
U.S. Paralympic swim coach Jimi Flowers died Saturday in a climbing accident in Aspen, Colo., USA Swimming said.
Flowers was USA Swimming's national team director from 1989-93. He also worked at Auburn and the U.S. Olympic Committee.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Jimi Flowers,” USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus said. “Jimi was a wonderful man and a friend to so many of us in the swimming family and in the Olympic community. Our thoughts and prayers today are with Jimi's family as well as with our friends at U.S. Paralympics.”
Authorities believe Flowers fell at about 13,000 feet, on the east side of the ridge between K2 and Daly saddle. Flowers' climbing partner, who was not identified in a sheriff's office news release about the incident, reported seeing Flowers sliding at high speed through snow chutes and rock bands, coming to rest at about 12,500 feet in a rocky section.
K2 is a point on 14,130-foot Capitol Peak, northeast of the infamous Knife Edge — a thin ridge of rock — that leads to the summit from K2. Northeast of K2 is Mount Daly.
The partner contacted his own wife, at about 2:45 p.m., and she contacted authorities. Mountain Rescue Aspen and a Flight for Life helicopter were summoned, but a Frisco-based helicopter was unable to fly because of mechanical problems and a chopper was dispatched from Denver, according to the sheriff's office.
Mountain Rescue members were picked up by the helicopter at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport and dropped, one at a time, onto a flat knoll about 1.5 miles from Flowers' location. Both deputies and the rescue leader were able to maintain periodic cell phone contact with the partner.
A Snowmass paramedic, also a member of mountain rescue, reached Flowers at about 6:25 p.m. He had no pulse and was not breathing, according to the sheriff's office. Rescuers began cardio-pulmonary resuscitation until the effort was called off by Aspen Valley Hospital's emergency department. Flowers apparently suffered significant injuries to his head, back and a leg.
Flowers' climbing partner was evacuated by a second Flight for Life helicopter, while a three-person Mountain Rescue team spent the night near Flowers' body. A second, four-person team hiked in from the Capitol Lake trailhead and spent the night about a mile below the lake.
Beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday, rescuers aided in transporting Flowers' body, which was picked up by helicopter using a long cable and flown to the nearest landing spot, where other rescuers put the body into the aircraft. The helicopter delivered the body to Aspen Valley Hospital shortly after 8:30 a.m. Rescuers at the scene were also transported out via helicopter, while the second team hiked back out to the trailhead. The operation involved 19 team members on both Friday and Saturday; it concluded by noon Saturday.
Most climbing accidents occur during the descent, when fatigue and a relaxed mindset can lead to inattention, according to Mountain Rescue. The exact cause of Flowers' fall may never been known, the sheriff's office noted.
Harris was born in Fulham,[1] the son of Richard Reader Harris and Elsie (nee Tagen). He was Chairman of Rolls Razor Ltd, which made washing machines. In July 1964 the company went bankrupt, and a subsequent investigation revealed irregularities in the company's accounts. In 1969, Harris was charged with carrying on company business with intent to defraud the company's creditors, falsifying the balance sheet, and deceiving investors as to the company's financial state. [2]
With his trial ongoing as the 1970 general election was called, and despite the judge dismissing two charges, the Heston and Isleworth Conservative Association voted to reject Harris and selected instead Barney Hayhoe. On 29 May, Harris was acquitted on the remaining charge; although time remained for his readoption, the Association stuck to its previous choice.
Harris was married to Pamela Stephens from 1940 until their divorce in 1963; their three daughters survive him. He is also survived by his second wife Una. His son from his second marriage died in 2007.
Arturo "Thunder" Gatti died he was 37, Gatti was a Canadian professional boxer.[1][2] Gatti was born in Italy and raised in Montreal, Quebec. Upon turning pro in 1991, Gatti relocated to Jersey City, New Jersey, but after retiring from boxing he moved back to Montreal where he worked in real estate.[3][4]
He participated in Ring Magazine's "fight of the year" a total of four times (1997, 1998, 2002, and 2003). His brother, Joe Gatti, is also a professional boxer. Arturo announced his retirement on July 14, 2007. On July 11, 2009, Arturo was found dead in a hotel in Brazil.[5]
(April 15, 1972 – July 11, 2009)
Arturo Gatti was a member of the Canadian National Team, and was training to represent Canada at the 1992 Summer Olympics, but at age 19 (in 1991), he decided to turn pro instead.[6][7] He began boxing professionally on the night of June 10, 1991, with a third round knockout of Jose Gonzalez in Secaucus. He went undefeated for six bouts before losing to King Solomon by split decision in six rounds on November 17, 1992.
On December 15, 1995, Gatti challenged the IBF's world super featherweight champion, Floyd Patterson's adoptive son Tracy Harris Patterson. Gatti became world champion when he narrowly outpointed Patterson (scoring: 116–111, 115–112, 114–113), and signed a multi-fight deal with HBO to fight on HBO Boxing.
He only had 2 fights in 1996, once defending his world title. But his title defense, at Madison Square Garden against DominicanWilson Rodriguez was the first of three Gatti fights in a row to be named a candidate for "fight of the year" by Ring Magazine. Dropped in round two and with his right eye closing fast, Gatti knocked down Rodriguez in round five with a left hook to the body, before finishing him off in round six to retain the title.
In 1997, he again won a points victory over Patterson but this time by a larger margin (118–108, 117–109, 116–110). He then scored a technical knockout over former world champion Calvin Grove in round seven of a non-title affair. Then came his defense against former world champion Gabriel Ruelas, which was also named "fight of the year" by Ring Magazine. Rocked by a left uppercut in the fourth, Gatti absorbed more than 15 consecutive punches before being saved by the bell. In the fifth, he connected on a left hook to knock Ruelas out.
After that fight, Gatti chose to relinquish the world title, going up in weight to the lightweight division. However, 1998 was a bad year for Gatti, as he lost all three of his fights that year. He lost by a technical knockout in round eight to Angel Manfredy, and then lost a pair of close decisions in 10 rounds to Ivan Robinson. Gatti-Robinson I was chosen "fight of the year" by Ring Magazine, thus marking the second year in a row that a Gatti fight was given that award, and the third year in a row a Gatti fight was nominated.
He only had one fight in 1999, knocking out Reyes Munoz in round one.
His first fight of 2000 proved to be controversial. Faced with former world champion Joey Gamache, Gatti won by a knockout in round two. When Gamache went into a coma for a day and it was discovered that Gatti had gained 19 pounds since the weigh-in the day before and thus had a large advantage in size over Gamache, boxing legislators pushed for a new law requiring boxers not to exceed a certain amount of extra weight from the weight accorded on the day of the fight. Gatti was also accused by Gamache's handlers of not having actually made the contracted weight of 141 pounds. After Gatti-Gamache, boxing commissions started weighing the boxers a second time, on the day of the fight.
Gatti then won his two other fights that year, over lesser quality name opponents.
In 2001, Gatti only had one fight, going up in weight to meet welterweightOscar de la Hoya, who beat him by a technical knockout in five rounds. In 2002, Gatti returned to the junior welterweight division and defeated former world champion Terronn Millett by a knockout in round four.
He then split two ten round decisions with "Irish" Micky Ward, losing their first bout, but winning their second. Gatti-Ward I also garnered "fight of the year" honors by Ring Magazine.
On June 7, 2003, he and Ward had a rubber match. Gatti broke his twice-repaired right hand on an uppercut to the hip in the fourth, and he dropped his arm, wincing in pain. He fought nearly one-handed for several rounds afterward, using his right sparingly. In the sixth, Gatti dominated the round but got caught with an overhand right to the top of the head a second before the bell rang and went down. Gatti then recovered again and was never in trouble after that. The final scorecards read, 96–93 (twice), and 97–92, in favor of Gatti. The third fight between the two was again named "fight of the year" by Ring Magazine.
On January 24, 2004, Gatti also recovered from a broken hand, scored a tenth round knock-down and defeated Gianluca Branco of Italy by a twelve round unanimous decision to win the vacant WBC junior welterweight title.
On July 24, 2004, he knocked out the previously unbeaten former world champion Leonard Dorin in two rounds at Atlantic City, to retain his title. It should be noted that Dorin was dropped with one single body shot.
Gatti's second defense of his WBC title came against former world junior lightweight champion Jesse James Leija on January 29, 2005. Gatti beat Leija by a fifth round knockout.
In his next fight, Gatti was dominated by former Super Featherweight and Lightweight world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. on June 25. He took several punches to the gut thus slowing him down to react. Gatti's corner threw in the towel after taking a strong body shot, thus ending his title reign via sixth-round technical knockout, in what is regarded as Gatti's worst defeat.
After the loss to Mayweather, Gatti moved up to the welterweight division. He beat Thomas Damgaard on January 28, 2006, by an eleventh round technical knockout.
On July 22, 2006, Gatti was knocked out by Carlos Baldomir vying for the world welterweight Championship. He then broke off his relationship with Buddy McGirt and had a new trainer in Micky Ward.
Gatti attempted a comeback on July 14, 2007 against Alfonso Gomez, only to get KO'd in seven rounds. After the fight Gatti announced his retirement in the dressing room, reportedly quipping: "I'll be back—as a spectator."
Gatti retired with a record of 40 wins and 9 losses, with 31 wins by knockout. On September 24, 2008 reports had surfaced that Gatti was considering a comeback against Montreal welterweight Antonin Decarie (19–0), the Canadian and North American Boxing Organization champion. In March 2009, Gatti was charged with assaulting his then girlfriend Amanda Rodrigues, but failed to appear in court. When he appeared April 17, he was released on bail and was ordered to stay 200 meters from Rodrigues.[8]
On July 11, 2009, Gatti was found dead in Brazil, in a hotel named Dorisol. The hotel is located on Porto de Galinhas beach (municipality of Ipojuca, Pernambuco). Gatti and his wife were on a second honeymoon with their 1 year-old son.[9][10][11]
Foul play is suspected and Gatti's wife, Amanda Rodrigues, is one of the main suspects. Authorities in Brazil are somewhat confused by Amanda's changing story as well as the recovery of a bloody purse strap which one investigator believes was used to strangle the unconscious fighter. Former boxing champion Acelino Freitas, who was a close friend of Gatti, claims Gatti and his wife were having problems and were about to split up.[12]
George Alexander Eugene Douglas Haig was the only son of Field Marshal Earl Haig and the Honourable Dorothy Vivian, daughter of the 3rd Lord Vivian.
He was educated at Stowe and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read history. He was commissioned into the Royal Scots Greys as a university entrant in 1938.
On return to England in 1945 he studied at the School of Arts and Crafts at Camberwell and subsequently divided his life between the family estate at Bemersyde, where he welcomed his ever-widening circle of artistic friends, his painting and duties to the Earl Haig Fund services charity in Scotland and as Chief of the Haig family.
Although he returned again and again to painting his favourite Border country around Bemersyde and the Tweed, he also produced many works of Venice and the Veneto. He had his first London exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1949 and at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh the same year.
One painting of this period was The Mailbag Sewer, from a series of prison visits to encourage art as a therapy for delinquents. His friendship with Victor Pasmore and Paul Klee stimulated his search for a personal style, yet his gentle and modest personality led to an absorption with the subject rather than expression. Lawrence Gowing strongly influenced his landscape work.
Paul Maze, who became a close friend when Haig bought a cottage near his home after the war, gave him a freer and more intuitive vision, and his landscapes became increasingly marked by the nervous energy of the drawn line. The critic Douglas Hall remarked on the strength of his “skeletal drawings in black” as the hallmark of his work, especially of Bemersyde with its “dyke-defined fields, crowblack fir woods and tall, splay-branched silvers”.
In the lower Dolomites — his second wife’s family home — Haig found an affinity with his native Border country in the clear light, the drama of the mountains and the uneven tumble of undergrowth, rock and river. He showed paintings with the Scottish Gallery consistently for more than 50 years.
He welcomed the editing of his father’s diaries and papers by Robert (later Lord) Blake which were published in 1953. Although there was some opposition to their publication, notably from Lord Trenchard, the former Chief of the Air Staff, Haig felt that they presented the Field Marshal in a fairer light, but would have preferred the press not to have focused on the implied criticism of Marshal Foch. He was particularly appreciative of the campaign, mounted in 2008, to rehabilitate his father’s reputation, based on his final offensive in 1918.
Haig was a member of the Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland, of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland 1958-61 and of the council and executive committee of the Earl Haig Fund for Scotland 1950-65, being appointed OBE for this work in 1966, president of the Scottish Arts Council 1980-86 and of the Scottish Craft Centre 1950-75.
He was a trustee of the National Gallery of Scotland 1962-72 and was involved with many other charities and trusts, in particular those associated with the Armed Services and the blind.
His marriage in 1956 to Adrienne Thérèse Morley was dissolved in 1981, when he married Donna Geroloma Lopez y Royo di Taurisano. He is survived by his second wife, a son and two daughters of his first marriage. The son, Viscount Dawick, succeeds to the Earldom.
Kenya Mizukami was a Japanese journalist who edited one of the world’s most widely read newspapers and whose dispatches in the 1950s gave ordinary Japanese an elegantly crafted picture of Europe as it recovered from the Second World War.
Mizukami, simultaneously an ardent Anglophile and a sincere Francophile, was known across the sprawling Yomiuri media group for his cosmopolitan tastes and natural gift for languages. That flair for language, along with his reputation as a straight-talking, uncomplicated newsman, set him apart somewhat from the traditional grandees of the Yomiuri – a cadre known for its close alignment with the centre-right Liberal Democratic Party that has controlled Japan since 1955.
A producer of attractive, thoughtful reportage, Mizukami adopted a managerial style of encouraging the same in his staff: he ordered correspondents to focus their energies on generating “one interesting story per week, rather than churning out a boring story every day”. Over the course of his reporting career he stuck closely to his own advice, seeking exciting stories wherever possible. In 1967 he wrote dispatches from Tel Aviv on the unfolding Arab-Israeli war. In the space of one April fortnight in 1986 he pulled off the remarkable coup of securing exclusive interviews with both President Reagan and President Mitterrand of France.
Mizukami joined the Yomiuri Shimbun group as a reporter while Japan was still under American occupation. His background in international studies, which he pursued at Tokyo University, prepared him for life as a foreign correspondent, and he was fortunate that this aptitude was recognised early by his editors. Within seven years of joining — comparatively quick for a young journalist — he was posted to Geneva for a few months, before taking up the prestigious post of London correspondent.
Friends recall Mizukami’s exceptionally fond memories of those first four years in London, where he became a regular golfer and a devotee of the dog races. Later in his career, when he returned to Britain as London bureau chief and a fully fledged editor, he famously insisted that his staff learn the behaviour of the British gentleman, paying particular attention to their table manners.
In Paris, where Mizukami worked as a correspondent in the late 1950s, the experience was somewhat different. Here, the young reporter developed a love for French literary and artistic culture that would follow him for the rest of his life. As Mizukami rose through Yomiuri’s regimented hierarchy — first as foreign editor, then in a variety of management roles — the group itself became a generous sponsor of all things French and cultural. In October 2008 the French Ministry of Culture — describing him as “above all, a great journalist”, named him Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work in building cultural bridges between France and Japan. He helped to organise an exhibition of works by Matisse in 2004 and another of Monet in 2007.
Having joined Yomiuri Shimbun in 1947, Mizukami was appointed foreign editor in 1969, managing editor in 1982 and vice-president in 1990. He was appointed president of Yomiuri Shimbun, Osaka, in 1992 and became its chairman in 1997. In 2002 he assumed the post of chairman of the board of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, and in 2004 he became chairman of the group executive committee. He served as chairman of the Japan National Press Club for just under four years from 1989.
Mizukami is survived by his wife, Fujiko, and their two children.
After earning his MBA, McNamara worked a year for the accounting firm Price Waterhouse in San Francisco. In August 1940 he returned to Harvard to teach in the Business School and became the highest paid and youngest Assistant Professor at the time. Following his involvement there in a program to teach the analytical approaches used in business to officers of the Army Air Forces (AAF), he entered the Armed Forces as a captain in early 1943, serving most of the war with the AAF's Office of Statistical Control. One major responsibility was the analysis of U.S. bombers' efficiency and effectiveness, especially the B-29 forces commanded by Major General Curtis LeMay in China and the Mariana Islands.[7] He left active duty in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant colonel and with a Legion of Merit.
From "Whiz Kid" to President at Ford Motor Company
In 1946 McNamara joined Ford Motor Company, due to the influence of a Colonel he worked under named Charles "Tex" Thornton. Thornton had read an article in Life magazine which reported that the company was in dire need of reform.
McNamara was one of ten former World War II officers known within Ford as the "Whiz Kids", who helped the company to stop its losses and administrative chaos by implementing modern planning, organization, and management control systems. Starting as manager of planning and financial analysis, he advanced rapidly through a series of top-level management positions.
In the mid-1950s, McNamara opposed Ford's planned Edsel automobile and worked to stop the program even before the first car rolled off the assembly line. He eventually succeeded in ending the program in November 1959. The car continues to be seen as one of the largest blunders in automotive history.
McNamara was a force behind the wildly popular Ford Falcon sedan, which was introduced in the fall of 1959 as a 1960 model. He saw the Falcon, which was small, simple and inexpensive to produce, as a much better alternative to the large, expensive-to-build cars which proliferated in Detroit in the late Fifties. During his time as an executive, McNamara placed a high emphasis on safety standards, introducing in the Lifeguard package both the seat belt, and a dished steering wheel that reduced the chances of a driver being impaled by the steering column.[8]
McNamara also came close to terminating the Lincoln after the very large 1958 through 1960 models proved unpopular, forcing product planners to reinvent the car for 1961. His new, smaller Lincoln Continental, which debuted as a 1961 model in four-door sedan and four-door convertible form, was an instant hit and remains an icon among Sixties automobiles today.
On November 9, 1960, McNamara became the first president of Ford from outside the family of Henry Ford. He received substantial credit for Ford's expansion and success in the postwar period.
After his election in 1960, President-electJohn F. Kennedy first offered the post of Secretary of Defense to former secretary Robert A. Lovett; Lovett declined but recommended McNamara. Kennedy then sent Sargent Shriver to approach him regarding either the Treasury or the Defense cabinet post less than five weeks after McNamara had become president at Ford. At first McNamara turned down the Treasury position, but eventually, after discussions with his family, McNamara accepted Kennedy's invitation to serve as Secretary of Defense.
Although not especially knowledgeable about defense matters, McNamara immersed himself in the subject, learned quickly, and soon began to apply an "active role" management philosophy, in his own words "providing aggressive leadership questioning, suggesting alternatives, proposing objectives and stimulating progress." He rejected radical organizational changes, such as those proposed by a group Kennedy had appointed, headed by Sen. W. Stuart Symington, which would have abolished the military departments, replaced the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) with a single chief of staff, and established three functional unified commands. McNamara accepted the need for separate services but argued that "at the end we must have one defense policy, not three conflicting defense policies. And it is the job of the Secretary and his staff to make sure that this is the case."
Initially, the basic policies outlined by President Kennedy in a message to Congress on March 28, 1961 guided McNamara in the reorientation of the defense program. Kennedy rejected the concept of first-strike attack and emphasized the need for adequate strategic arms and defense to deter nuclear attack on the United States and its allies. U.S. arms, he maintained, must constantly be under civilian command and control, and the nation's defense posture had to be "designed to reduce the danger of irrational or unpremeditated general war." The primary mission of U.S. overseas forces, in cooperation with allies, was "to prevent the steady erosion of the Free World through limited wars." Kennedy and McNamara rejected massive retaliation for a posture of flexible response. The United States wanted choices in an emergency other than "inglorious retreat or unlimited retaliation", as the president put it. Out of a major review of the military challenges confronting the United States initiated by McNamara in 1961 came a decision to increase the nation's "limited warfare" capabilities. These moves were significant because McNamara was abandoning President Dwight D. Eisenhower's policy of massive retaliation in favor of a flexible response strategy that relied on increased U.S. capacity to conduct limited, non-nuclear warfare.
McNamara married Margaret Craig, his teenage sweetheart, on August 13, 1940. Margaret McNamara, a former teacher, used her position as a Cabinet spouse to launch a reading program for young children, Reading Is Fundamental, which became the largest literacy program in the country. She died of cancer in 1981.
The couple had two daughters and a son. Robert Craig McNamara, who objected the Vietnam War as a student, is a walnut and grape farmer in California. [17] He is the owner of Sierra Orchards in Winters, California. Daughter Kathleen McNamara Spears is a forester with the World Bank.[18]
In the Errol Morris documentary, McNamara reports that both he and his wife were stricken with polio shortly after the end of World War II. Although McNamara had a relatively short stay in the hospital, his wife's case was more serious and it was concern over meeting her medical bills that led to his decision to not return to Harvard but to enter private industry as a consultant at Ford Motor Company.
On September 29, 1972, a passenger on the ferry to Martha's Vineyard recognized McNamara on board and attempted to throw him into the ocean. McNamara declined to press charges. The man remained anonymous, but was interviewed years later by author Paul Hendrickson,[19] who quoted the attacker as saying, "I just wanted to confront (McNamara) on Vietnam."
After his wife's death, McNamara dated Katharine Graham, with whom he had been friends since the early 1960s. Graham died in 2001.
In September 2004, McNamara wed Diana Masieri Byfield, an Italian-born widow who had lived in the United States for more than 40 years. It was her second marriage.[20]
In 1966, Levin was forced to leave the performing version of the Raiders when he was called up for the draft. To avoid this he joined the National Guard instead. This enabled him to record with the group during his time off. The fact that this was done is an indication of how well Levin stood in with Revere, as well as his popularity with the fans and the worth of his playing, because producer Terry Melcher wasn't above bringing in session players whenever he felt it necessary. Subsequently, after Phil Volk and Mike "Smitty" Smith left the band, Levin reteamed with them in Brotherhood, a promising trio signed to RCA that never got its full chance to be heard, owing to the members' lingering contractual obligations to Columbia Records from their Raiders work.
He subsequently demonstrated his worth as a guitarist by working with Ananda Shankar, Emitt Rhodes, and Lee Michaels, among other artists. He has also participated in reunions of various ex-members of the Raiders, and worked with his friend Phil Volk on several occasions.
After a long battle with cancer, Drake Levin died July 4, 2009 at his home in San Francisco, with his wife Sandra at his side. He was 62.[1]
