Dame Margaret Price, British soprano, died from heart failure she was , 69.

 Dame Margaret Berenice Price, DBE  was a Welsh soprano died from heart failure she was , 69..

(13 April 1941 – 28 January 2011)[1]

Early years

Price was born in Blackwood, Wales. Born with deformed legs, she was operated on at age four and suffered pain in her legs the rest of her life. She often looked after her younger brother John who was born with a mental handicap.^[2] The family had ties in Cardigan and north Pembrokeshire and often spent their summer holiday in Moylegrove .^[3]

Her father, a talented amateur pianist, was opposed to a musical career, and hence she never attended a young Eisteddfod and was aiming for a career as a biology teacher. She was educated at Pontllanfraith Secondary School, near Caerphilly. At 15, her school music teacher organised an audition with Charles Kennedy Scott, who convinced her to study with him at Trinity College of Music in London and obtained a scholarship for her. Over the next few years, Price was trained as a mezzo soprano.^[2][4]

Career

After graduation, she joined the Ambrosian Singers, performing with them on the soundtrack of the 1961 Charlton Heston film El Cid.^[2]
Unrecognised through the normal channel of competitions, she was championed by her now-converted father, who wrote to opera houses to arrange auditions. As a result, Price made her operatic debut in 1962, singing Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Welsh National Opera.^[2]
After her father wrote to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1962, she auditioned and was turned down twice by musical director Georg Solti who said that she "lacked charm".^[2] However, she was accepted as an understudy, thanks to casting director Joan Ingpen, and she formed of a close personal and professional relationship with composer James Lockhart.^[2] Solti added a rider to her contract, stating that she should never expect to sing lead in the main house, so she sang minor roles as a mezzo.^[2] Her breakthrough came in 1963 when Teresa Berganza cancelled a performance and Price got the chance to take over as her nominated understudy, again in the role of Cherubino, a performance that made her famous overnight.^[4]
After that, Lockhart convinced Price to take further singing lessons to improve her technique and develop the luminous high range that made her one of the most popular lyric sopranos of the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1967, she performed with Benjamin Britten’s English Opera Group in The Impresario, and as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1968, critic Desmond Shawe-Taylor called her singing “brilliant, flexible and large scale” as Constanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Glyndebourne.^[2]
As Price did not enjoy travelling, she always kept a "home" stage, where she stayed and performed for the majority of each year. Initially this was Covent Garden, but from 1971 she made Germany her base, initially at Cologne Opera where she made her debut in Don Giovanni, and latterly the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where she lived until retirement in 1999.^[4] Price hence formed a professional relationship with Otto Klemperer, who conducted her first recording of a major role in a complete opera - Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte. The 1972 recording established Price as a Mozart specialist.^[5]
In the years that followed, Price appeared as a guest at important opera houses. Her Metropolitan Opera debut came in 1985 as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello.
In 1989 she appeared in the WNO production of Salome at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, in a performance attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales.^[6]

Repertoire

Price was most famous for her Mozart portraits, especially Fiordiligi, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the Contessa in The Marriage of Figaro (after having sung Cherubino and Barbarina at the beginning of her career), and Pamina in The Magic Flute. Additionally, she sang Verdi roles, such as Amelia (Un ballo in maschera, a role she also recorded with Luciano Pavarotti), Elisabetta (Don Carlos) and Desdemona (Otello), her debut role at the Met, as well as Aida (also with Pavarotti in San Francisco, which was preserved on video), Richard Strauss's Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea.
Price was also very active as a lieder singer, equally at home in the romantic idiom of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann or Richard Strauss and the Second Viennese School.
During her career, Price made many recordings of operas and of lieder. One of her most famous recordings is the Isolde in Carlos Kleiber's complete recording of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, a role she never sang on stage. She was a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera.

[edit] Later years

Price retired to a 160-year-old farmhouse on Ceibwr Bay, part of Moylegrove near Cardigan, Ceredigion, overlooking the Irish Sea. From there, she successfully bred and showed Golden Retrievers, having the rear seats of her Chrysler removed to create what she termed a “dogmobile.”^[2] She came out of retirement once to perform at a Poppy day concert at her local church, something she later commented on: “It was the most nerve-racking occasion of my life. Never again will I sing in public.”^[2]
Price was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to music in 1993.^[7]
Price died on 28 January 2011 from heart failure at her home in Ceibwr, aged 69.^[2][3][4]

Honours

• Bayerische Kammersängerin^[4]
• Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), 1982
• Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), 1993

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Charlie Callas, American comedian and actor (Silent Movie, Switch) died he was , 83.

Charlie Callas  was an American comedian and actor most commonly known for his work with Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin and his many stand-up appearances on television talk shows in the 1970s. He was also known for his role as Malcolm Argos, the restaurant owner and former con man, on the Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner television series Switch.
Tony Belmont, executive director of the National Comedy Hall of Fame in St. Petersburg, FL [1] said about Mr. Callas, "There were two things he could do that made his career, He could think very fast on his feet, and he had an unbelievable number of sounds that he made with his voice. He would tell a joke about two guys hunting. If you or I told it, the joke wasn't so funny. But Charlie made it hysterical by sticking in these sounds; so you would hear the gun cocking, the duck flying overhead, the explosion of the shotgun and then the duck falling and screaming all the way to the ground." ^[1]

(December 20, 1927 – January 27, 2011)   Life and career

Callas was born in 1927 in Brooklyn, New York as Charles Callias and served in the United States Army during World War II. He began his career as a drummer playing in groups with Bernie Cummins,^[2] Tommy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, and Buddy Rich.^[3] He dropped a vowel from his legal name, Callias, when he took to the stage.
Callas was known for his rubbery face, trademark nervous chattering and dark comedy. His first television appearance was in 1963 on "The Hollywood Palace," and then soon was opening for Frank Sinatra in nightclubs around the country. He made nearly 50 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. On September 21, 1982 on The Tonight Show, Mr. Callas was "bombing" and Mr. Carson made a whistling sound of a bomb failing; in comic reaction, Mr. Callas "shoved" Mr. Carson. Mr. Carson was annoyed at the gesture and told Mr. Callas that he would never again appear on his show, and never did. ^[4]

He also appeared on The Andy Williams Show at various times as "Captain Weird", a parody of superheroes. Callas' only known dramatic role was that of a restaurant owner, Malcolm Argos, in the 1970s show, Switch. He was also a regular performer on The ABC Comedy Hour in 1972.^[3] He was a semi-regular on "The Flip Wilson Show" and co-host of the "The Joey Bishop Show."
His two most recent television appearances were on the Larry The Cable Guy's Christmas Spectacular (2007) and the Larry The Cable Guy's Star-Studded Christmas Extravaganza (2008).

Death

Charlie Callas died on January 27, 2011 from natural causes at age 83 in his home in Las Vegas, Nevada The Associated Press reported that he is survived by his sons, Mark and Larry. His wife, Evelyn, passed away at 80 in July 2010. ^[5]

Big break

Appearing on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show in 1965, one of the guests, Jerry Lewis, practically fell off his chair in hysterics as Callas performed his hunting routine. Lewis turned to Griffin and said he had to use Callas in his current project. The one appearance on the Griffin show landed Callas a role in the 1967 Lewis' film, The Big Mouth. Lewis recalled the story on his short lived 1984 talk show in which Callas served as his sidekick and performed the hunting routine. ^[6]

Filmography

• The Big Mouth (1967) — Rex
• Switch (TV) (1975–1978) — Malcolm Argos
• Silent Movie (1976) — Blindman
• Pete's Dragon (1977) (voice) — Elliott
• High Anxiety (1977) — Cocker Spaniel
• The Carepenters....Space Encounters (1978) - Charlie
• Legends of the Superheroes (1979) — Sinestro
• History of the World: Part I (1981) — Soothsayer
• Hysterical (1983) — Count Dracula
• The Dom DeLuise Show (TV) (1987) — Charlie
• Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) — Himself
• Silk Stalkings (TV) (1993) — El Cid
• Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) — Man in Straitjacket
• Horrorween 3D (2010)

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William L. Eagleton American diplomat died he was , 84,.

William Lester Eagleton, Jr.  was a former United States Foreign Service Officer and diplomat died he was , 84.^[1]

(August 27, 1926 – January 27, 2011)

 Early life

Born in Peoria, Illinois, Eagleton served in the United States Navy from 1944–46, and graduated from Yale University in 1948. He joined the U.S. foreign service in 1949.

Diplomatic career

Eagleton served as United States Ambassador to Yemen 1967, Tunisia 1977, Libya 1978-1979, Algeria 1979, Iraq 1980-1984 and Syria 1985-1988. He is also an author of The Kurdish Republic of 1946 (1961) and, “Iraqi Kurdistan” in The World Today (1956).^[2]
After his term as Ambassador to Syria ended in 1988, Eagleton worked with the United Nations as Deputy Commissioner-General for Palestinian Refugees (1988–94), Special Coordinator for Sarajevo (1994–1996), and Director of UN Operations in Western Sahara (1999). He rejoined the State Department in 2003 as a special advisor for Northern Iraq.

Textile Publications

Eagleton's 1988 book Introduction to Kurdish Rugs drew from his experience collecting rugs in Baghdad and elsewhere in the middle east. It remains the standard book on Kurdish pile weavings, which remain relatively unknown even among textile collectors.

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Mārtiņš Freimanis, Latvian musician (F.L.Y.) and actor, performed at Eurovision Song Contest 2003, died from influenza he was , 33.

Mārtiņš Freimanis  was a Latvian musician, singer, songwriter, actor and TV personality died from influenza he was , 33.^[1]

(7 February 1977 – 27 January 2011)

Freimanis was born in Liepāja, but spent his childhood in Aizpute. He represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the group F.L.Y., and he also composed the entry for the country in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 named "The War Is Not Over".
On 18 January 2011, Freimanis was taken to the Infectology Centre of Latvia in Riga, with what was first reported to be severe respiratory tract infection, where he died nine days later.^[2] It was later revealed that Freimanis died of intoxication caused mainly by hepatotoxicity and made worse by fatty liver, weak heartbeat, which had caused renal insufficiency, and pleurisy.
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Boyd Kirkland, American animation producer and director, Mormon missionary, died from pulmonary fibrosis he was , 60.

Boyd D. Kirkland  was an American television director of animated cartoons. He was best known for his work on X-Men Evolution. His other famous works included Batman: The Animated Series. He suffered from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). While in ICU at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, he died waiting for a lung transplant on January 27, 2011^[1].

(November 11, 1950 - January 27, 2011)

 Biographical background

Kirkland was raised in Utah as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).^[2] He received his bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Weber State College in Ogden, Utah.^[3] His career in animation started in 1979 as a layout artist.^[4] This evolved into XAM! Productions,^[3] a partnership based in Salt Lake City that subcontracted for larger Los Angeles based studios. He moved his family to Los Angeles in 1985.^[4]
Kirkland has published articles about the nature of God in Mormon thought. While a missionary for the LDS Church, Kirkland was confused about the Adam-God doctrine, ostensibly taught in the 19th century, which led him to start questioning the current official church teachings.^[5] After brief unhelpful requests for answers from church leaders, Kirkland continued in his own research into the controversy, resulting in articles published in Sunstone Magazine,^[6] Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought,^[7] and chapters of Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine.^[8][5]
Kirkland has worked as a producer for Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series, and with storyboards for G.I. Joe: The Movie, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, My Little Pony: The Movie, and Starchaser: The Legend of Orin. He has also worked on various Mormon cartoons from the Living Scriptures, Inc., including "The Savior in America" and "The Miracles of Jesus."^[9]

Notable works

X-Men: Evolution

Boyd Kirkland was a producer and writer.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero

SubZero could be considered a major personal achievement in film making by Boyd Kirkland. As a writer, director and producer on the film, he was an integral part of the creative process. This gave him a unique opportunity to highly influence critical decisions and make the type of movie he felt Batman fans would enjoy and appreciate.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Boyd Kirkland was a sequence director and storyboard artist for Mask of the Phantasm.

Batman: The Animated Series

Boyd Kirkland was a writer and director for Batman: The Animated Series.^[10]

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Vaughn Mancha, American football player (Boston Yanks), died from heart failure he was , 89.

Svein Erling "Matta" Mathisen  was a footballer from Norway died from heart failure he was , 89.. With the exception of a short spell with Scottish club Hibernian in 1978, "Matta" played for IK Start throughout his career, where he won the Norwegian league title in 1978 and 1980. Mathisen was capped 25 times for Norway, scoring twice, but many claim that he never reached his full potential for the national team.

(30 September 1952 – 27 January 2011)

Playing attacking midfielder or striker, Mathisen was a creative player popular among the fans in Kristiansand, although there was a widespread feeling that he maybe paid too little attention to defensive play. In total he played 327 top-tier league matches, and scored 106 goals. Both numbers are club records, and when he retired in 1989 he also held the domestic "matches played" record. It has later been beaten by Ola By Rise, Roar Strand, Christer Basma, Erik Hoftun and Bjørn Johansen.
In 2010, Mathisen was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and began treatment for it, but he continued to play football and appear on television. In an interview with Verdens Gang, Mathisen said the sickness had taught him to love the little things in life, and that he was optimistic about his recovery.^[1]
Svein Mathisen died in his sleep from cancer in the early hours of 27 January 2011, nearly six months after being diagnosed. His last public appearance had been at a local football tournament just a few days prior. Several football personalites expressed grief over his passing, and his old club IK Start cancelled all activities for the day. ^[2]
Mathisen's son Jesper is also a footballer, who plays as a central defender or defensive midfielder for IK Start. He is also a former under-21 international for Norway.

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Diana Norman, British author and journalist. died she was , 77

Diana Norman  was a British author and journalist writing historical fiction and non-fiction died she was , 77. She was born in Devon. Her father was a journalist, and she followed this profession until moving to the countryside to "bring up two daughters, study medieval history, and write".^{[2][unreliable source?]} She also published books under the pen name Ariana Franklin, featuring the fictional medieval pathologist Adelia Aguilar.
Diana Norman was married to the film critic Barry Norman. She died on 27 January 2011.^[3]

(25 August 1933 – 27 January 2011)

Novels

Writing as Diana Norman

• Fitzempress' Law (1980)
• King of the Last Days (1981)
• The Morning Gift (1985)
• Daughter of Lîr (1988)
• Pirate Queen (1991)
• The Vizard Mask (1994)
• Shores of Darkness (1996)
• Blood Royal (1998)
• A Catch of Consequence (2002)
• Taking Liberties (2003)
• The Sparks Fly Upward (2006)

Writing as Ariana Franklin

• A Murderous Procession (2010)
• Relics of the Dead (UK) published as Grave Goods in the US (2009)
• The Death Maze (UK) published as The Serpent's Tale in the US (2008)
• Mistress of the Art of Death (2007) winner of a prize from the Crime Writers' Association^[4]

• City of Shadows (2006)

Non-fiction

• Taking Liberties (2003)
• Terrible Beauty: Life of Constance Markievicz, 1868-1927 (1987)
• Road from Singapore (1970, 1979)
• The Stately Ghosts of England (1963, 1977)

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