Juliano Mer-Khamis, Israeli actor and political activist, was shot. and killed he was , 52

 Juliano Mer-Khamis was an Israeli actor, director, filmmaker and political activist of Jewish and Christian Arab parentage , was shot. and killed he was , 52. On 4 April 2011, he was assassinated by a masked gunman in the Palestinian city of Jenin, where he established the Freedom Theatre.

( ‎29 May 1958 – 4 April 2011) 

Biography

Juliano Khamis (later Mer-Khamis) was born in Nazareth, the son of Arna Mer, a Jewish communist, and Saliba Khamis, an Israeli-Arab intellectual and one of the leaders of the Israeli Communist Party in the 1950s. He had two brothers, Spartacus and Abir.^[4] His grandfather was Gideon Mer, a scientist who pioneered the study of malaria during the British Mandate.^[5] In his youth, he adopted his maternal surname, Mer, and served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a combat soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade.^[6] In a 2009 interview with Israel Army Radio, Mer-Khamis said of his background: "I am 100 percent Palestinian and 100 percent Jewish." ^[7]
Mer-Khamis was married to Jenny, a Finnish activist he met in Haifa. They had a son, Jay, and were expecting the birth of twins at the time of his death.^[8]

Film and acting career

Mer-Khamis's first film, The Little Drummer Girl, was an American thriller from 1984 directed by George Roy Hill and starring Diane Keaton, which dealt with the Israeli-Arab conflict. He starred in Avi Nesher's film, Za'am V'Tehilah (1985). Later he appeared in such Israeli films as 51 Bar (1985), Wedding in Galilee (1987), Tel Aviv Stories (1992), Zohar (1993), Under the Domim Tree (1994), and Overture 1812 (1997). He appeared in several films by Amos Gitai: Kedma, Esther (1986) and Kippur (2000).^[9]
In 2002, Mer-Khamis was nominated for the Ophir award for Best Actor for his role in Kedma.^[10] One of the last films in which he appeared was the Palestinian film Salt of this Sea (2008), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
He performed on stage with Beit Lessin Theater and Habima Theatre. In 2003, he produced and directed his first documentary film, Arna's Children, together with Danniel Danniel. The film is about his mother's work to establish a children's theatre group in Jenin during the 1980s. Seven years after the death of his mother, and following the battle in Jenin in 2002, Mer-Khamis returned to Jenin to meet and interview the children who participated in the theater, and found out that some became militants and were killed.^{[citation needed]}
In 2006, following a wave of international support which was followed by his film, Mer-Khamis opened a community theater for children and adults in Jenin, called The Freedom Theatre.

The Freedom Theatre

Juliano Mer-Khamis lying in state at the al-Midan Theatre, Haifa

In 2006, Mer-Khamis established the Freedom Theatre along with Zakaria Zubeidi, a former military leader of the Jenin Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Jonatan Stanczak, Swedish-Israeli activist, and Dror Feiler, Swedish-Israeli artist. The Freedom Theatre is a community theatre that provides opportunities for the children and youth of the Jenin Refugee Camp by developing skills, self-knowledge and confidence and using the creative process as a model for social change.^[11]

Death

Mer-Khamis was shot by masked gunmen in front of the theater he founded in Jenin.^[12] He was rushed to the Jenin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after his arrival.^[13] PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the killing saying that "We cannot stand silent in the face of this ugly crime, it constitutes a grave violation that goes beyond all principles and human values and it contravenes with the customs and ethics of co-existence."^[14]
Based on the testimony of an eyewitness, Palestinian police charged Mujahed Qaniri, from Jenin's refugee camp, with having carried out the murder. There are varying accounts of Qamiri's affiliation, some describe him as a former member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades who defected to Hamas, but a Hamas spokesman has denied any involvement, describing this as a purely criminal incident.^{[15] [12]}

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1984	The Little Drummer Girl	Julio
1985	Not Quite Paradise	Hassan (terrorist)
1985	Za'am V'Tehilah
1985	51 Bar	Thomas
1986	Esther	Haman
1987	Wedding in Galilee (Urs al-Jalil)	Officer
1989	Berlin-Yerushalaim	Menahme
1993	Sipurei Tel-Aviv (Tel Aviv Stories)	Jeno
1993	Zohar	Morris
1993	Deadly Heroes	Ramon
1994	Nothing to Lose	Antonio Valdez
1994	Under the Domim Tree (Etz Hadomim Tafus)	Ariel
1994	Yom Yom	Jules
1997	Overture 1812
2000	The Last Patrol	Jesus Carrero
2000	Kippur	The Captain
2002	Kedma	Moussa
2003	Arna's Children	Himself	Won FIPRESCI Prize
2004	God's Sandbox (Tahara)	Nagim	Nominated for Best Actor
2008	Salt of this Sea	Hiking leader	Palestinian submission for Oscar in "Best Foreign Language Film" category
2009	Hadutha Saghira	Israeli soldier
2010	Miral	Shaikh Saabah

Television and video

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Hostages	Ali	Series
1992	Sweating Bullets	Melito	Series - played in "Don't Say Nothing Bad About My Baby" episode
1995	The Revolutionary	Centurion	Video
1996	The Revolutionary II	Centurion	Video
1998	Florentine	Remi	Series
2001	1000 Calories	Eitan Katz	TV movie
2006	Dijihad!	Omar	TV movie

 

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Wayne Robson, Canadian actor (The Red Green Show) died he was , 64.

Wayne Robson was a Canadian television, film and stage actor best known for playing the part of Mike Hamar, an ex-convict and sometime thief, on the Canadian sitcom The Red Green Show from 1993 to 2006, as well as in the 2002 film Duct Tape Forever died he was , 64..

(April 29, 1946 – April 4, 2011) 

Robson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He began his acting career in Vancouver, acting on stage. In the 1970s he moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he continued his stage acting career and appeared in Canadian television commercials. After receiving several small character roles in films such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Popeye (1980), Robson starred in the 1984 film The Grey Fox for which he was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Robson voiced Bloom in the cartoon Pippi Longstocking and Matthew Cuthbert in "Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series". Robson played minor characters in such films as Finders Keepers (1984), One Magic Christmas (1985), Parents (1989), Dolores Claiborne (1995), Two If by Sea (1996), Cube (1997), Welcome to Mooseport (2004), and Survival of the Dead (2009). He appeared as Holly Hunter's ailing father, Tug Jones in the TV movie Harlan County War (2000). Robson was nominated and won several Gemini Awards. He also appeared in the TV series and miniseries The Good Germany, Puppets Who Kill, Franklin, Relic Hunter, and Lexx.
Robson died on April 4, 2011 at the age of 64.^[1]

 

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Craig Thomas, Welsh author, died from pneumonia he was , 68.

David Craig Owen Thomas  was a Welsh author of thrillers, most notably the Mitchell Gant series died from pneumonia he was , 68..

(24 November 1942 – 4 April 2011)

The son of the Western Mail rugby union writer, JBG Thomas,^[1] Craig was educated at Cardiff High School. He graduated from University College, Cardiff in 1967, obtaining his M.A. after completing a thesis on Thomas Hardy.^[2] Thomas became an English teacher, working in various grammar schools in the West Midlands, and was Head of English at the Shire Oak School, Walsall Wood.
After unsuccessfully trying script writing for radio,^[3] Thomas wrote part-time, with his wife as editor, in two fields: philosophical thoughts in books of essays; and techno-thrillers, a genre whose invention is often attributed to the better-known Tom Clancy, though many fans feel that Thomas was its true originator.^[2] Most of Thomas's novels are set within MI.6 and feature the characters of Sir Kenneth Aubrey and Patrick Hyde.
His best-known novel was Firefox, which brought him to global prominence and became a successful Hollywood film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. After his third novel, the Cold War espionage thriller Wolfsbane, he left teaching altogether, in 1977. His later books include Snow Falcon and A Different War. Shortly before his death he finished a two-volume commentary on German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.^[1]
Thomas and his wife Jill had lived near Lichfield, Staffordshire,^[3] but moved to Somerset in 2010. He died on April 4, 2011 from pneumonia, following a short battle with acute myeloid leukemia.^[1][2] He was 68.

Bibliography

• Rat Trap – Michael Joseph, London (1976)
• Firefox – Michael Joseph, London (1977)
• Wolfsbane – Michael Joseph, London (1978)
• Moscow 5000 – Michael Joseph, London (1979) (as David Grant)
• Snow Falcon – Michael Joseph, London (1980)
• Emerald Decision – Michael Joseph, London (1980) (as David Grant)
• Sea Leopard – Michael Joseph, London (1981)
• Jade Tiger – Michael Joseph, London (1982)
• Firefox Down – Michael Joseph, London (1983)
• The Bear's Tears – Michael Joseph, London (1985) (published in the USA as Lion's Run)
• Winter Hawk – Collins, London (1987)
• All the Grey Cats – Collins, London (1988) (published in the USA as Wildcat (1989))
• The Last Raven – Collins, London (1990)
• A Hooded Crow – HarperCollins, London (1992)
• Playing with Cobras – HarperCollins, London (1993)
• A Wild Justice – HarperCollins, London (1995)
• A Different War – Little Brown, (1997)
• Slipping into Shadow – Little Brown, (1998)

 

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Amy Applegren, American baseball player (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League) died she was , 83.

Amy Irene "Lefty" Applegren  was a pitcher and infielder who played from 1944 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5'4, 125 lb., she batted and threw left-handed died she was , 83..

(November 16, 1926 – April 3, 2011)

Early life

Born in Peoria, Illinois, Amy Applegren was one of five siblings in the family of Roy and Amy [nee Gardiner] Applegren. She started playing softball at the age of eleven for the Farrow Chicks, a team based in her hometown. In the early 1940s she joined the Caterpillar Dieselettes, where she came to the attention of a scout of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The league had been founded the year before by Philip K. Wrigley, a chewing-gum magnate and owner of the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball club. Wrigley feared that major leaguers would be drafted into the military during World War II, while minor leaguers were already being called up. Teams of girls (never called women) seemed like a way to fill ballparks, according to an article in Smithsonian magazine in 1989. Applegren showed up at Peru, Illinois for a tryout and was offered a contract to play. The league lasted for 12 seasons from 1943 to 1954, and she played in all but the first and last seasons.^[2][3][4][5]

AAGPBL career

Applegren joined the AAGPBL in 1944 with the Rockford Peaches, playing for them two years. A hard-thrower underhand lefty, Applegren posted a 16-15 record for Rockford in her season debut and went 13-11 the next year, as part of a pitching rotation that included Carolyn Morris and Jean Cione. In the interim, she graduated from Peoria Manual High School.^[6]
The Peaches, with Bill Allington at the helm, clinched the league title in 1945 with a 67-43 record and later defeated the Fort Wayne Daisies in the best-of-seven series, four to one games, behind a strong pitching effort from Morris (3-0) and the opportune hitting of Dorothy Kamenshek (6-for-21, .285).^[2][7][8][9]
Applegren opened 1946 with the expansion Muskegon Lassies, managed by Buzz Boyle, as the league usually switched players as needed to help new teams to be competitive. Nevertheless, the Lassies went 46-66 their first year, good enough for a modest sixth place in the now eight-team league. Applegren struggled to an 8-18 record, even though she hurled a no-hitter against the Grand Rapids Chicks on July 31.^[2][10][11]
The first AAGPBL spring training outside the United States was held in 1947 in Havana, Cuba, as part of a plan to create an International League of Girls Baseball. All the teams stayed at the Seville Biltmore Hotel and were filmed for Fox Movietone News going down the steps at the University of Havana. On the other hand, the Brooklyn Dodgers trained in the Cuban capital because Jackie Robinson, who would be the first Afro-American to play in the Major Leagues, was training with the Dodgers for the first time. By then, city ordinances in Vero Beach, Florida, where the Dodgers normally trained, prevented blacks and whites players from competing on the same field against each other. Notably, newspaper stories from Havana indicate that the All-American girls drew larger crowds for their exhibition games at Estadio Latinoamericano than did the Dodgers. That season the league made the transition from underhand to full side-arm pitching.^[5][12]
Muskegon, now managed by legendary Bill Wambsganss, saw a vast improvement in 1947. Besides Applegren, the revamped Lassies included top notch players as Jo Lenard (OF), Dorothy Maguire (C), Charlene Pryer (IF), Doris Sams (OF/P), Dorothy Stolze (IF), Nancy Warren (P) and Evelyn Wawryshyn (IF), among others. Muskegon (69-43) won a close pennant race with the Grand Rapids Chicks (65-47), having three of the top four leaders in earned run average with Sams (0.98), Applegren (1.06) and Warren (1.13), but failed in the first round of the playoffs dropping 3 of 4 games to the Racine Belles.^[10][13]
In 1948 Applegren moved to first base as the league shifted strictly to overhand pitching. She then turned in a competent defensive player and a solid hitter. She spent part of two seasons with Muskegon, and was dealt back to Rockford during the 1949 midseason.^[14][15]
Applegren played for the Peaches through 1952, being part of the champion teams in 1949 and 1950, and joined the South Bend Blue Sox in 1953 for her last AAGPBL season.^[16][17]
With their fourth Championship Title the Rockford team set an all-time record in the league. Interestingly, Applegren was a member of three Peaches champion teams (including her 1945 season), being glorified for the same feat by Eleanor Callow, Lois Florreich and Ruth Richard (all of them did it from 1948 through 1950). Nevertheless, the four girls were surpassed by the eternal Rose Gacioch, who did it in 1945 and from 1948 to 1950, to set an all-time record for the most championship titles for a player while playing in the same team.^[10]

Life after baseball

Following her baseball days, Applegren returned to Peoria and worked for Caterpillar Tractor Company as a data entry clerk for insurance benefits. She retired in 1985, after 19 years of work. Applegren, who never married, lived with her mother and took care of her. After retiring from Caterpillar she enjoyed playing golf and bowling.^[2][18][19]
In the early 1980s, a group of former members of the league led by June Peppas created the AAGPBL Players Association and lobbied to have the circuit recognized in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York. Yet it was not really a well know fact until 1992, when filmmaker Penny Marshall premiered her film A League of Their Own, which was a fictionalized account of activities during the league's first season. This film brought a rejuvenated interest to the extinct league, while many of the real players began to earn a rebirth of celebrity over the years for coming.^[5][20]
Commenting about the event, Applegren said, When you concede both the pioneer nature of the AAGPBL and the league’s high caliber of play, it seems only fitting the AAGPBL be accorded such a place of honor in the history of our national pastime. In 1993, she received word she had been selected for membership in the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame.^[2][6][18]
Amy Applegren died in Washington, Illinois on April 3, 2011 at the age of 83.^[21]

Career statistics

Pitching

GP	W	L	W-L%	ERA	IP	H	RA	ER	BB	SO	WHIP
206	86	98	.467	2.52	1451	905	586	407	880	501	1.23

Batting

GP	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA
234	1007	102	237	15	3	1	73	61	72	66	.235

Fielding

PO	A	E	TC	DP	FA
2435	535	90	3060	86	.971

 

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Ulli Beier, German writer died he was , 88.

 Horst Ulrich (Ulli) Beier was a German editor, writer and scholar, who had a pioneering role in developing literature, drama and poetry in Nigeria, as well as literature, drama and poetry in Papua New Guinea died he was , 88.. His wife Georgina Beier had an instrumental role in simultaneously stimulating the visual arts in both Nigeria and Papua New Guinea.

(30 July 1922 – 3 April 2011) 

Beier was born in Glowitz, Germany, in July 1922. His father was a medical doctor and an appreciator of art and raised his son to embrace the arts. After the Nazi party' rise to power, the Beiers, who are non-practicing Jews, left for Palestine. In Palestine, while his family were briefly detained as enemy aliens by the British authorities, Ulli Beier was able to earn a BA as an external student from the University of London. However, he later moved to London to earn a degree in Phonetics. A few years later, after his first marriage to the Austrian artist Susanne Wenger, he was given a faculty position at the University of Ibadan to teach Phonetics.

Career

While at the University, Beier transferred from the Phonetics department to the Mural Studies department. It was at the Mural Studies department he became interested in Yoruba culture and arts. Though, he was a teacher at Ibadan, he ventured outside the city and lived in nearby cities, of Ede, Ilobu and Osogbo, this gave him an avenue to see the spatial environment of different Yoruba communities. In 1956, after visiting the First Congress of Negro Artists and Writers organized by Presence Africaine at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France Ulli Beier returned to Ibadan and founded the magazine Black Orpheus, the name was inspired by Jean Paul Sartre's essay "Orphée Noir". The journal quickly became the leading space for Nigerian authors to write and publish their work. The journal became known for its innovative works and literary excellence and was widely acclaimed. Later in 1961, Beier, co-founded the Mbari Artists and Writers Club, Ibadan, a place for new writers, dramatist and artists, to meet and perform their work. In 1962, he co-founded (with the dramatist Duro Ladipo) Mbari-Mbayo, Osogbo. In the early 1980s he founded and directed the Iwalewa Haus, an art centre at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.
Ulli Beier was known for his efforts in translating African literary works. He emerged as one of the scholars who introduced African writers to a large international audience for his works in translating plays of dramatists such as Duro Ladipo and publishing Modern Poetry (1963) an anthology of African poems.
After Beier left Nigeria in 1968, he worked in Papua New Guinea and intermittently returned to Nigeria for brief periods. While in Papua New Guinea, he co-organised with Georgina Beier the country's first art exhibition, at the University of Papua New Guinea’s Centre for New Guinea Cultures, featuring artwork by Timothy Akis. Ulli Beier created the literary periodical Kovave: A Journal of New Guinea literature, which reproduced works by Papua New Guinean artists including Timothy Akis and Mathias Kauage.^[2] His efforts have been described as significant in facilitating the emergence of Papua New Guinean literature.^[3]
While in Papua New Guinea, he encouraged Albert Maori Kiki to record his autobiography, which Beier transcribed and edited. The book, Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime was published in 1968.^[4]
He lived in Sydney, Australia with his wife and artist Georgina Beier. Beier died aged 88 on 3 April 2011 at his home in Annandale.

Published works

• Voices of Independence: New Black Writing from Papua New Guinea, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980. 251 pp.s
• Editor: The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry, 1999.
• Black Orpheus: An Anthology of New African and Afro-American Stories, 1965.
• Thirty Years of Oshogbo Art, Iwalewa House, Bayreuth, 1991.
• Neue Kunst in Afrika: das Buch zur Austellung, Reimer, Berlin, 1980 (Contemporary Art in Africa, Pall Mall Press, London, 1968).
• A Year of Sacred Festivals in One Yoruba Town, Nigeria Magazine, Marina, Lagos, Nigeria, 1959.

 

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