Bernie West, American screenwriter (All in the Family, Three's Company), died from complications of Alzheimer's disease he was 92,

Bernie West was an American television writer best known for his work in sitcoms such as All in the Family, its spinoff The Jeffersons and Three's Company died from complications of Alzheimer's disease he was 92.

(May 30, 1918 – July 29, 2010)

Biography

Born on May 30, 1918, in the Bronx as Bernard Wessler, he earned his undergraduate degree from Baruch College, earning a Bachelor of Business Science in advertising.^[1] West worked as a nightclub comedian, and performed on tour with the U.S.O. in the Pacific Theatre after being rejected from the military based on medical issues.^[2] As part of the comedy duo Ross & West, he toured the hotel circuit in the Catskills and Poconos with Ross Martin, quipping, "Everything we did may not have been original, but what we stole was good!"^[3] After Martin left, he was replaced by Mickey Ross, a college friend of West's who changed his name from Isadore Rovinsky so that the comedy duo could retain the Ross & West name.^[3][1]

[edit] Broadway

West appeared on Broadway in the 1956 production of Bells Are Ringing, creating the role of Dr. Kitchell, the song-writing dentist on stage and appearing in the 1960 film version starring Judy Holliday and Dean Martin.^[3] He also appeared in 1962's All American by Mel Brooks and starring Ray Bolger, Poor Bitos with Donald Pleasance, The Beauty Part with Bert Lahr and the 1969 production of The Front Page alongside Helen Hayes.^[2][3] He appeared on television on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Phil Silvers Show.^[2]

Television work

After submitting a script for the show in 1971, West and partner Mickey Ross became writers for Norman Lear's All in the Family, working with another partner, Don Nicholl, as producers.^[2] West won an Emmy Award in 1973 for his writing on the episode "The Bunkers and the Swingers", together with Ross and Lee Kalcheim.^[3][1] The writing team created the character played by Bea Arthur as the lead in the All in the Family spinoff Maude. The trio wrote and produced The Jeffersons, another spinoff from All in the Family that ran for decade starting in 1975. In 1977 they created Three's Company, which ran until 1984, as well as that show's less-successful spinoffs The Ropers and Three's a Crowd.^[3]

Together with his wife Mimi, who died in April 2004, West was a generous contributor to the Los Angeles Free Clinic. She had first discovered the Free Clinic after driving her husband to his job writing for All in the Family. West regularly contributed a portion of his salary while his wife worked there without pay. In 1997, the couple donated $500,000 towards the provision of pediatric dental care for those children without access to dentists.^[4][5]

West died at age 92 on July 29, 2010, at his home in Beverly Hills, California due to complications of Alzheimer's disease. He is survived by two daughters and two grandsons.^[2]

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Lorene Yarnell American mime artist (Shields and Yarnell), died of a brain aneurysm.she was , 66,

Shields and Yarnell were an American mime team, formed in 1972, consisting of Robert Shields (born March 26, 1951) and Lorene Yarnell , died of a brain aneurysm she was , 66.

(March 21, 1944 – July 29, 2010)

Shields

Shields was born in [Los Angeles] and went to Morningside High School in Inglewood Californa, and at the age of 18, while working as a street mime and performing at the Hollywood Wax Museum was seen by Marcel Marceau, who offered Shields a full scholarship to his school of mime in Paris. Shields soon returned to California,^[1] working in Union Square, San Francisco.

Yarnell

Lorene Yarnell (also a native Angelino) had become a tap dancer and actress in television shows and off-Broadway musicals before she met Shields, in San Francisco.^[2] Lorene also later appeared as Claudine in the 1983 outdoor production of "Can-Can" at The Muny in St. Louis, starring Broadway's Judy Kaye, John Reardon, John Schuck, Lawrence Leritz and Beth Leavel to excellent reviews.^[3]

As a duo

The Shields and Yarnell comedy act originated in their partnership.^[2] Their specialty was taking on the personae of robots, with many individual, deliberate motions (as opposed to normal smooth motion) stereotypical of robots and early animatronics, enhanced by their ability to refrain from blinking their eyes for long stretches of time. They called themselves The Clinkers. ^[4]

Their dance and mime performances were featured in 1977-78 on their own CBS television comedy-variety program, The Shields and Yarnell Show. They appeared on 400 national television shows in the US,^[2] including The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Red Skelton Show ^[5], The Muppet Show (1979), and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.^[2] They performed in the unsuccessful Broadway musical production Broadway Follies in New York City, which shuttered after several performances. Career highlights included shows for two American Presidents and a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, as well as a tour of China with comedian Bob Hope.^[2]

Their TV special Toys On The Town, written by Shields, earned an Emmy.^[2]

They won an award as Las Vegas "Entertainer of the Year," dual Georgies for "Rising Stars of the Year" and "Special Attraction of the Year" from the American Guild of Variety Artists.^[2]

Post-divorce

Shields and Yarnell were married in 1972 and divorced in 1986.^[6] Shields opened a jewelry and art business in Sedona, Arizona,^[1], while Yarnell remarried and moved to Norway.^[7] As of 2002^[update] they still reunited periodically to tour with their act.^[2] Yarnell appeared in the 1987 Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs as the body of the robot Dot Matrix. Joan Rivers provided the voice for the character.

In 2002, Shields met Laurie Burke, a widely renowned singer-songwriter in Sedona, and the two were married on September 25, 2006. Burke was diagnosed with a brain tumor the next spring, and died April 25, 2007. ^[8] Shields married Jennifer Griffiths in December 2009 at The Little Chapel of the West in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple currently resides in Sedona, Arizona where Shields creates paintings, sculptures and jewelry design.

Death of Lorene Yarnell

Lorene Yarnell moved to Norway in 1998 with her fourth^[9] husband Bjorn Jansson. She died of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm on July 29, 2010, at the age of 66.^[10]

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Zheng Ji Chinese nutritionist and biochemist, world's oldest professor. died he was , 110,

Zheng Ji was a nutritionist and a pioneering biochemist from Nanxi, Sichuan. He was reputed to be the world's oldest professor and the founder of modern nutrition science in China Zheng Ji Chinese nutritionist and biochemist, world's oldest professor died he was , 110.

(Chinese: 郑集) (6 May 1900 – 29 July 2010)

Career

In 1924 Zheng Ji passed the entrance exam for the Southeast National University (originally known as the Nanjing Advanced Normal School, moving in 1928 to the National Central University, and then to the Nanjing University) biology department in 1929. In 1930 he went to America to study, majoring in biochemistry at Ohio State. He also attended Yale and Indiana University, and in 1936 he obtained his PhD.

Upon returning to China he successively served as a research fellow at the Scientific Research Institute of China; as a professor at the Central Medical School; as both a biochemistry professor and department head, simultaneously, at the Eastern China Military Medical School; as a professor at the Number 4 Military Medical College; and as both a biology professor and the head of the biochemistry teaching and research department at the Nanjing Medical School.

In 1945, at the Central Medical School, he established a biochemistry research institute to train graduate students. This was the first formal organization in China to teach biochemistry to graduate students, training a large number of students who went on to work in a variety of fields. After turning 70 he began to study the biochemistry of old age, proposing a theory of metabolic imbalance, forming the basis of geriatric biochemistry in China.

He participated in the establishment of the Chinese Nutrition Society and, later on, the Biochemistry Society. He was a past chairman of the Central University Professors Association and the first council chair of the Chinese Nutrition Society.

Zheng Ji turned 110 in May 2010 and at the time was claimed to be the oldest professor living in the world.^[1] He spent the greater part of his life teaching at the medical school and biology department of Nanjing University.

Personal Life

In recent years prior to his death he sold off family property, such as his family home, using the proceeds to make donations both to the university and to society at large, and to set up both a scholarship for needy students and a scientific endowment.^{[citation needed]}

Zheng Ji died on 29 July 2010.^[2]

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John Aylesworth, Canadian-born American television writer and producer, co-creator of Hee Haw, died from complications of pneumonia he was , 80

John Bansley Aylesworth was a Canadian television writer, producer and actor, best known as co-creator of the American country music television variety show Hee Haw, which appeared on network television for two years and then ran for decades in first-run syndication.^[1]

(August 18, 1928 – July 28, 2010)

Early career at CBC

Aylesworth was born on August 18, 1928, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and performed on radio as a child. He left high school before graduating and went into the advertising business as a writer, working together with Frank Peppiatt. His wife recalled that they "were total cutups at the agency" and were approached by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation based on their reputation to write sketches for the late night variety program After Hours.^[2] They also wrote and performed on the CBC programs The Big Revue and On Stage and Aylesworth created Front Page Challenge, a current events and history game show that ran on CBC Television from 1957 to 1995.^[1][3]

Hee Haw

Aylesworth and Peppiatt relocated to the United States in 1958 and got work writing for The Andy Williams Show.^[2] They had worked together on The Jimmy Dean Show and wondered why a show hosted by a Country music star didn't feature the Country music more prominently.^[3] Aylesworth's 2010 book The Corn Was Green: The Inside Story of Hee Haw published by McFarland & Company told how he and Peppiatt came up with the idea for Hee Haw after seeing "country banter" between Charley Weaver and Jonathan Winters on The Jonathan Winters Show, and seeing that the shows atop the Nielson ratings included The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Green Acres and Petticoat Junction, along with Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and the duo conceived immediately of the format of Country variety.^[2][4] Originally a summer replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Hee Haw was an immediate ratings winner throughout that first summer and was permanently added to the CBS schedule in December 1969.^[3] Co-hosted by Roy Clark and Buck Owens, the hour-long program featured regulars Archie Campbell, Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl, Junior Samples, Lulu Roman and Gordie Tapp.^[3][4]

Ron Simon curator of television and radio at New York's Paley Center for Media described their collaboration at Hee Haw as "an interesting hybrid of two of the most popular programs of the '60s, The Beverly Hillbillies and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and ironically outlasted both of them.^[4] The show featured a sequence of brief sketches of cornball humor, combined with performances by top acts in bluegrass, country and western and gospel music. The show lasted for two seasons, starting in 1969 on CBS in prime time and lasted on network television until 1971 when CBS axed all of its country-oriented programming.^[3] The show then ran in syndication for another 22 years, making it one of the longest-running programs in television history with 585 episodes.^[1] Simon noted that Hee Haw featured performances by "Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Conway Twitty preserved in their prime".^[2]

Later career

Aylesworth also wrote for other television programs, including The Jonathan Winters Show, The Judy Garland Show, Kraft Music Hall and Your Hit Parade, receiving Emmy Award nominations for The Julie Andrews Hour in 1973 and in 1976 for The Sonny and Cher Show.^[2]

They sold the show in 1982 for $15 million. Aylesworth worked on a stage musical based on the life of Jimmy Durante. He repeatedly tried to find work as a television writer, but couldn't find any work. He gave up looking in the 1980s and filed a class action lawsuit against agents and the television studios claiming age discrimination.^[1]

Later life

Aylesworth was a resident of Palm Desert, California. He died at age 81 on July 28, 2010, at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, due to complications of pneumonia as a complication of pulmonary fibrosis.^[1] He was survived by his fourth wife, Anita Rufus, as well as by a daughter and son from his first marriage and a daughter and two sons from his second wife, along with one grandson.^[3]

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Michael Batterberry, American editor, founder of Food and Wine Magazine, died of cancer he was 78

Michael Carver Batterberry was an American food writer who founded and edited Food & Wine and Food Arts together with his wife, has died of cancer he was 78.

(April 8, 1932 – July 28, 2010)

Batterberry was born on April 8, 1932, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, his American parents having relocated there while his father was working for Procter & Gamble. He relocated to the United States with his family upon the outbreak of World War II. Batterberry attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology, but dropped to move to Venezuela with his family, where his father was establishing P&G's presence in Latin America. Batterberry worked as a painter and interior designer in Venezuela and Rome.^[1]

After his return to the U.S. in the 1950s, Batterberry worked as a freelance food writer. He married writer Ariane Ruskin, and the two of them were arts editors at Harper's Bazaar. They co-authored On the Town in New York, From 1776 to the Present, a historical gastronomic survey that covered the city's food history from banquets to Chinese takeout which was described by The Washington Post as being "considered the authoritative history of dining in the country's culinary capital".^[2] In November 1998, the publishing firm Routledge issued a new edition of the book on its 25th anniversary.^[3]

With Robert and Lindy Kenyon covering the business side and with funding by Hugh Hefner, Batterberry and his wife started publishing The International Review of Food and Wine in 1978, which had a prototype issue published in Playboy.^[1][2] Later renamed simply Food & Wine, the magazine's mission was to be a more down-to-earth alternative to Gourmet and its "truffled pomposity", while appealing to both women and men as readers, with early issues featuring articles by such non-traditional food writers as George Plimpton and Wilfrid Sheed.^[2] When it was first published, a senior editor of Gourmet magazine scoffed at the new alternative, saying "We don't look at the others as competition. They look at us, try to copy us and fail miserably".^[2] By 1980, when it was sold to American Express, the magazine had circulation of 250,000 per issue, evenly split by gender, and had sold 900,000 copies a month by the time of his death.^[1]

The couple started Food Arts in 1988, a trade journal aimed at restaurants and hotels, which was acquired by M. Shanken Communications the following year. Batterberry remained as the publication's editor in chief until his death, with his wife continuing as the magazine's publisher. He and his wife were recognized with the James Beard Foundation Award for lifetime achievement in May 2010.^[1] The foundation's president Susan Ungaro called the Batterberrys "legends in the culinary publishing world", having "started a hallmark magazine that people still look to today" after three decades in print.^[2]

A resident of Manhattan, he died there at age 78 on July 28, 2010, due to complications of cancer. He was survived by his wife, and as The New York Times noted in his obituary, he was "not survived by Gourmet magazine, which ceased publication in November".^[1]

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Ivy Bean, British Internet celebrity, one of the oldest people on Facebook and Twitter, died of natural causes she was 104,

Ivy Bean was a British internet personality, known for being the oldest person in the world on both Facebook and Twitter Ivy Asquith.

(8 November 1905 – 28 July 2010)

Early life

Ivy Asquith was born in Bradford, as one of 8 children. She went to school at James Street School in Thornton and left at 14 to go and work at the Prospect Mill.^[1] During her time at the mill, she worked firstly in spinning and then in the winding department. She later married Harold Bean, a soldier in the Royal Army Service Corps who briefly served in North Africa. After Harold left the army, he and Ivy went to work in service for the Lord and Lady Guiness at Greens Norton Hall in Northampton. It was during their time there that they had their only daughter, Sandra.

After several years in Bedford, the family returned to Bradford and Bean began working for Arthur Crossland, a local mill owner. She had worked for Crossland for about 18 years when he passed away and she decided it was time to retire. A few months later, she began working for her former boss' daughter. Several years later, Bean retired for the second time, aged 73, a little while after her husband Harold passed away, aged 75. She would remain on her own until the age of 92, when she moved into a residential home, where she remained for ten years, until the home closed down and she moved into another care facility, just one week before her 102nd birthday.

Later years and fame

In 2007 she first accessed the internet via a computer given by social services to her care home.^[2] At the age of 102, Bean joined Facebook in 2008, making her one of the oldest people ever on Facebook. An inspiration to other residents,^[3] she quickly became more widely known, and several fan pages were made in her honour. Bean discussed her life in a care home, her favourite meal, and episodes of Deal or No Deal she had seen.^[4]

Singer Peter Andre had a private meeting with Bean in September 2009 while in Bradford for a book signing.^[5] She visited Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah in Downing Street early in 2010.^[6] Some time after creating her Facebook page, Bean also joined Twitter, when she passed the maximum number of friends allowed by Facebook.^[1] At the time of her death, she had 4,962 friends on Facebook and more than 56,000 followers on Twitter.

Illness and death

In early July 2010, staff at Bean's care home reported on her Twitter account that she had been admitted to hospital, but that she was in good spirits and would be back online as soon as her health allowed. A week later it was reported that she was suffering from liver failure. On 23 July, Bean returned home but her condition worsened and at 12:08 am on 28 July, she died at the age of 104. Admirers Stephen Fry and Graham Linehan were saddened by the news.^[7][8]

Family

Bean is survived by a daughter, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She was married to Harold Bean (1902–1978), and never remarried after he died.

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J. J. Maura, American television announcer and voiceover artist (WCAU, QVC), died of cancer he was , 61

Joseph J. Maura, Jr., often professionally credited as J.J. Maura, was an American television announcer and voiceover artist. Maura worked as the announcer for WCAU-TV, the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for twenty years. ^[1]

(June 16, 1949 – July 28, 2010)

Joseph J. Maura Jr. was born in on June 16, 1949, in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania, to parents, Joseph J. Maura, Sr. and Isabel C. (née Fuoco) Maura.^[2] He was raised in Hellertown, Pennsylvania.^[1] Maura graduated from Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1967.^[1]

Maura's career in television and radio began at several stations throughout the region, including WAEB in Allentown, Pennsylvania, KQV in Pittsburgh, WIP in Philadelphia, and QVC, based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.^[1] During his career, Maura's on-air names included Jim Lloyd, Jim Hamilton and J.J. Media.^[1][2] Maura joined WCAU in Philadelphia, where he worked as the station's main announcer for twenty years, until his retirement due to illness.^[1]

J.J. Maura died from cancer on July 28, 2010, in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania, at the age of 61.^[1][2] He was survived by his wife, Lois (Deutsch) Maura; four children - Lisa, Ann, Russell and David; and 12 grandchildren.^[1]

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