/ Stars that died in 2023

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Kushimaumi Keita, Japanese sumo wrestler and coach (Tagonoura), died from a ischaemic heart disease he was 46

Kushimaumi Keita ,[1] born as Keita Kushima was a sumo wrestler from Shingū, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan died from a ischaemic heart disease he was , 46. A successful amateur, his highest rank in professional sumo was maegashira 1. After his retirement he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association and established Tagonoura stable.

( 6 August 1965 – 13 February 2012)

Career

He began doing sumo from the age of four, due to his father's love of the sport. He was the first person to earn the Amateur Yokozuna title whilst still in high school (at which time he already weighed 160 kg), and he continued amateur sumo at Nihon University. In total he captured 28 collegiate sumo titles, a record at the time.[2] He joined the prestigious Dewanoumi stable and made his professional debut in January 1988, beginning in the third highest makushita division. He fought under his own name until he reached the second highest jūryō division, whereupon his shikona was modified slightly from Kushima to Kushimaumi. Although it took him seven tournaments to progress from makushita to jūryō, he won two consecutive yūshō or tournament championships from his jūryō debut to reach the top makuuchi division in July 1989, the first wrestler to do so since 15 day tournaments were established in 1949. He won his first Fighting Spirit prize in March 1990, and earned two kinboshi for defeating yokozuna Asahifuji in September 1991 and Hokutoumi in March 1992 (this was Hokutoumi's final match before retirement). In March 1993 he was famously knocked out by a harite (slap to the face) from Kyokudōzan and had to withdraw from the tournament with his score at seven wins and six losses. His best result in a top division tournament was his runner-up performance in September 1993, where he finished behind Akebono on twelve wins. This however, was achieved from the low position of maegashira 13, and despite his great potential he never managed to reach the san'yaku ranks. In his later career he suffered increasingly from shoulder and hip injuries, and was demoted to the jūryō division on several occasions. He announced his retirement in November 1998 at the age of 33, after falling into the makushita division.

Fighting style

Kushimaumi was one of the heaviest wrestlers ever, weighing over 200 kg at his peak, and his great physical strength was demonstrated by his frequent use of the kimedashi (arm barring force out) technique.[2] He also regularly employed yorikiri (the force out) and kotenage (the arm lock throw).

Retirement from sumo

Kushimaumi remained with Dewanoumi stable as an elder of the Japan Sumo Association, under the name Tagonoura. In February 2000 he branched out and opened up his own Tagonoura stable. In 2011 he produced his first sekitori ranked wrestler, the Bulgarian Aoiyama. Another former rikishi was the Tongan born Aotsurugi (who took Japanese citizenship to allow Aoiyama to join the stable).
In 2003 he suffered an acute myocardial infarction, but it proved not to be life-threatening and he made an immediate recovery.
He died on 13 February 2012 at the age of 46,[3] of ischaemic heart disease.

Career record

Kushimaumi Keita[4]
Year in sumo January
Hatsu basho, Tokyo
March
Haru basho, Osaka
May
Natsu basho, Tokyo
July
Nagoya basho, Nagoya
September
Aki basho, Tokyo
November
Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
1988 Makushita tsukedashi #60
5–2
 
East Makushita #38
5–2
 
East Makushita #24
6–1
 
East Makushita #9
5–2
 
East Makushita #4
4–3
 
West Makushita #2
4–3
 
1989 East Makushita #1
4–3
 
West Jūryō #12
11–4–P
Champion

 
East Jūryō #3
10–5–PPP
Champion

 
West Maegashira #13
8–7
 
West Maegashira #11
9–6
 
East Maegashira #5
6–9
 
1990 East Maegashira #9
6–9
 
East Maegashira #14
10–5
F
East Maegashira #4
6–9
 
West Maegashira #8
5–8–2
 
East Jūryō #1
10–5
 
East Maegashira #12
9–6
 
1991 East Maegashira #6
8–7
 
East Maegashira #1
5–10
 
East Maegashira #6
6–9
 
East Maegashira #10
10–5
 
East Maegashira #3
8–7
East Maegashira #3
6–9
 
1992 West Maegashira #6
8–7
 
West Maegashira #3
7–8
West Maegashira #4
8–7
 
East Maegashira #3
6–9
 
West Maegashira #6
8–7
 
West Maegashira #2
8–7
 
1993 West Maegashira #1
7–8
 
West Maegashira #2
7–7–1
 
East Maegashira #4
6–9
 
West Maegashira #7
5–10
 
East Maegashira #13
12–3
F
West Maegashira #1
5–10
 
1994 West Maegashira #7
1–2–12
 
East Jūryō #4
9–6
 
East Jūryō #2
8–7
 
West Maegashira #15
8–7
 
East Maegashira #15
8–7
 
East Maegashira #9
8–7
 
1995 West Maegashira #4
3–12
 
East Maegashira #12
4–11
 
East Jūryō #5
7–8
 
West Jūryō #6
9–6
 
West Jūryō #2
9–6
 
East Jūryō #1
8–7
 
1996 East Jūryō #1
7–8
 
East Jūryō #2
10–5
 
East Jūryō #1
8–7
 
West Maegashira #15
6–9
 
West Jūryō #2
6–9
 
East Jūryō #7
6–9
 
1997 West Jūryō #9
11–4
 
East Jūryō #4
8–7
 
West Jūryō #2
9–6
 
West Jūryō #1
9–6
 
West Maegashira #13
7–8
 
West Maegashira #15
3–12
 
1998 West Jūryō #6
7–8
 
East Jūryō #9
12–3–P
Champion

 
West Jūryō #2
7–8
 
East Jūryō #4
7–8
 
West Jūryō #5
4–11
 
East Makushita #1
Retired
0–0–7
Record given as win-loss-absent    Top Division Champion Retired Lower Divisions
Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: =Kinboshi(s); P=Playoff(s)
Divisions: MakuuchiJūryōMakushitaSandanmeJonidanJonokuchi
Makuuchi ranks: YokozunaŌzekiSekiwakeKomusubiMaegashira

See also

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Daniel C. Gerould, American playwright and academic died he was 84

Daniel+C
Daniel Charles Gerould  was the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center and Director of Publications of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. A scholar, teacher, translator, editor, and playwright, Gerould was a specialist in US melodrama, Central and Eastern European theatre of the twentieth century, and fin-de-siècle European avant-garde performance. Gerould was one of the world’s most recognized “Witkacologists,” a leading scholar and translator of the work of Polish playwright, novelist, painter, and philosopher Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz ("Witkacy").[1] Gerould was best known for introducing English-language audiences to the writings of Witkiewicz through such work as Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents (PAJ Publications 1980), Witkacy: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz as an Imaginative Writer (University of Washington Press, 1981), The Witkiewicz Reader (Northwestern University Press, 1992), and his original translations of most of Witkiewicz’s plays.

(March 28, 1928 – February 13, 2012)

Career

Gerould began his teaching career at the University of Arkansas (1949–1951) and earned a Diplôme in French Literature from the Sorbonne in 1955 and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago in 1959. Gerould taught at San Francisco State University from 1959 to 1968, where he founded the Department of World and Comparative Literature. In 1968, Gerould’s play Candaules Commissioner, an anti-war comedy informed by US military action in Vietnam and the Classical Greek allegory of King Candaules, premiered at the Stanford Repertory Theatre.[2][3] He began teaching at the Graduate Center, CUNY in 1970.
In 1981, Gerould founded the Institute for Contemporary East European Drama and Theatre with Alma Law as part of the Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Gerould and Law co-edited the Institute’s tri-annual publication, originally titled Newsnotes on Soviet and East European Drama and Theatre, later changed to Soviet and East European Performance, and finally Slavic and East European Performance.
Gerould was a highly visible presence and driving force at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center CUNY, serving as executive director from 2004 to 2008, and thereafter as director of academic affairs and publications.

Work

Gerould's writings often include thick personal description of historical figures to frame important theoretical texts, as seen in his collection Theatre/Theory/Theory.
Known for his "sometimes oddball attraction to little-known works by obscure artists," Gerould described being more interested in the “underrated than the overexposed and universally celebrated," noting Witkacy as "a case in point, having gone from controversial outsider to classic of the avant-garde in three decades.”[4]
His translations in Polish received numerous awards, including prizes from the Polish Centre of the International Theatre Institute, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Polish Authors Agency, Jurzykowski Foundation, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs, and Marian Kister.
Gerould was also responsible for bringing new productions of many previously-forgotten or under-produced plays to New York and other U.S. stages. Gerould brought plays by Witkiewicz, including his translation of The Crazy Locomotive directed by Des McAnuff and featuring Glenn Close.[5]
Gerould was a beloved educator and mentored generations of doctoral students during his long career at the Graduate Center. He was the recipient of the City University of New York Award for Excellence in Teaching (Graduate Center) and was honored by TWB, Theater Without Borders, as a Groundbreaker in international theatre exchanges.[6]

Personal life

Gerould was born in Cambridge in 1928. His father, a journalist from a New England whaling family, was of French Huguenot descent. In the 2010 introduction to his compendium of essays, QuickChange, Gerould described trips to the “legitimate stage” with his mother in the 1930s and early 40s as planting the seeds for his long career as an “intensive spectator”:
“At that time many Broadway-bound productions tried out first in Boston, and I remember Ethel Barrymore in The Corn Is Green by Emlyn Williams and Arsenic and Old Lace with Boris Karloff. I felt myself a seasoned spectator, was at home among audiences, and was always ready to applaud bravura displays of virtuoso acting.”
Gerould graduated from Boston Latin High School and entered the University of Chicago at the age of 16. He later traveled to Paris as an exchange student in the 1954-55 season, further shaping his passion for the theatre and impassioned spectatorship.[7]
A thin, reed-like man, Gerould was spry and energetic, frequently found chopping wood and climbing fruit trees at his Woodstock, New York home on weekends away from New York City. He was an avid jazz collector, and was married to the Polish scholar and translator Jadwiga Kosicka, with whom he frequently collaborated.[5] His older sister, Joanne Simpson, was the first woman to ever receive a Ph.D. in meteorology. She eventually became NASA's lead weather researcher. Daniel Gerould's son Alexander L. Gerould is a professor at the Department of Criminal Justice Studies at San Francisco State University.

Selected Publications

American Melodrama. Editor. (1982)
Avant Garde Drama: A Casebook. Edited by Bernard F. Dukore and Daniel C. Gerould. (1976)
Avant-Garde Drama: Major Plays and Documents, Post World War I. Edited and with an introduction by Bernard F. Dukore and Daniel C. Gerould. (1969)
Comedy: a Bibliography of Critical Studies in English on the Theory and Practice of Comedy in Drama, Theatre, and Performance. Editor, Meghan Duffy; Senior Editor, Daniel Gerould; initiated by Stuart Baker, Michael Earley & David Nicholson. (2006)
Country House. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Translated and with an introduction by Daniel Gerould. (1997)
Critical Reception of Shawʾs Plays in France: 1908-1950. Dissertation by Daniel Gerould. 1959.
Doubles, Demons, and Dreamers: An International Collection of Symbolist Drama. Editor. (1983)
Gallant and Libertine: Divertissements & Parades of 18th-Century France. Editor Daniel Gerould. (1983)
Life of Solitude: Stanisława Przybyszewska : a Biographical Study with Selected Letters. Jadwiga Kosicka and Daniel Gerould. (1989)
Maciej Korbowa and Bellatrix. Stanisław Witkiewicz. Translated and introduced by Daniel Gerould. (2009)
Maeterlinck Reader: Plays, Poems, Short Fiction, Aphorisms, and Essays. Maurice Maeterlinck. Edited & translated by David Willinger and Daniel Gerould.(2011)
Melodrama. Daniel Gerould, Guest Editor; Jeanine Parisier Plottel, General Editor. (1980)
Mother & Other Unsavory Plays: Including the Shoemakers and They. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Edited and translated by Daniel Gerould and C.S. Durer; foreword by Jan Kott. (1993)
Mrożek Reader. Sławomir Mrożek. Editor Daniel Gerould. (2004)
Playwrights Before the Fall: Eastern European Drama in Times of Revolution. Editor Daniel Gerould. (2010)
Quick Change: 28 Theatre Essays, 4 Plays in Translations. Daniel Gerould. (2010)
Romania After 2000: Five New Romanian Plays. Gianina Carbunariu ... [et al.]. Edited by Saviana Stanescu and Daniel Gerould. (2007)
Theatre/Theory/Theatre: The Major Critical Texts from Aristotle and Zeami to Soyinka and Havel. Edited with introductions by Daniel Gerould. (2000)
Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents. Edited by Daniel Gerould and Jadwiga Kosicka. (1980)
Twentieth-Century Polish Avant-Garde Drama: Plays, Scenarios, Critical Documents. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz ... [et al.]. Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Daniel Gerould, in collaboration with Eleanor Gerould. (1977)
Witkacy: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz As an Imaginative Writer. Daniel Gerould. (1981)
Witkiewicz Reader. Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Daniel Gerould. (1992)

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Eamonn Deacy, 53, Irish footballer, member of Aston Villa championship-winning team (1981), died from a heart attack he was 53

Eamonn "Chick"[1] Deacy  was a professional footballer from Galway, Ireland.

After a trial at Clyde Deacy made an impressive League of Ireland debut for Sligo away to Shelbourne at Harold's Cross Stadium on 14 December 1975.[2]

(1 October 1958 – 13 February 2012)
 
His only win in Sligo's colours came at Glenmalure Park on 4 January 1976. The next month he faced Geoff Hurst at Turners Cross.
His debut game for his home town club was in the FAI League Cup on 5 September 1976.[3] In his third League Cup game against Sligo he was sent off.
Deacy made his debut for Limerick on 28 November 1976 at Flower Lodge. At the end of the season he was on the losing side in the FAI Cup Final. However in his last game for the Shannonsiders he won the Munster Senior Cup.
Deacy scored Galway Rovers first goal in the League of Ireland on 2 October 1977.
The 21-year-old full back left Galway Rovers for Aston Villa in February 1979, after writing 12 letters to the club requesting a trial. He went on to have an unforgettable five years at the club, during which time they won the League Championship, European Cup and European Super Cup.
He was one of only 14 players used by Ron Saunders in the 1980–81 league-winning season, making enough appearances (11 in all, including six starts) to win a medal (he was Villa's number 12 on 19 occasions that season).[4] He made one appearance for Villa in European competition against Juventus in the 1982–83 European Cup.[5] He had a brief loan spell at Derby, where he played five games, before rejecting an offer of a new two-year deal from Villa to return home to Galway.
Deacy's first game back in the Maroon was in a League of Ireland Cup tie against Finn Harps on 2 September 1984.
Ironically his last League of Ireland game was also in Harold's Cross on St Patrick's Day 1991 away to St Patrick's Athletic.
He won 4 caps for the Republic of Ireland national football team.[6][7] He also played for the Republic of Ireland national football team amateur team that qualified for the 1978 UEFA Amateur Cup.
He died following a heart attack on 13 February 2012.[8] Terryland Park was renamed Deacy Park in honour of Chick[9] A testimonial was held on 18 August at Deacy Park.[10]

Honours

Galway United
Limerick
Aston Villa
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Louise Cochrane, American-born British television producer died she was 93.

Louise Cochrane  was an American-born writer and television producer best known for creating the BBC Children's TV programme Rag, Tag and Bobtail in the early 1950s died she was 93. She also wrote a series of career guidance books for young people and a biography of the 12th-century philosopher Adelard of Bath.[1]

(22 December 1918 – 13 February 2012)

Early life

Louise Cochrane (née Morley) was born in New York on 22 December 1918.[1] Her father, Christopher Morley, was a writer. After attending Hunter College High School she enrolled at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania to study politics. After graduating in 1940[2] she spent a short time working for Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of American President Franklin D Roosevelt. Later that year she joined the International Student Service,[a] with responsibility for organising its conference programme. There in 1942 she met Englishman Peter Cochrane, a delegate visiting from Britain;[3] within a year she had joined him in England,[1] and the couple were married a few weeks later.[2]

Career

Cochrane joined the BBC in 1948 as a producer of schools' news and current affairs programmes, and was appointed to the Fulbright Commission two years later.[1] In 1953 Cochrane wrote the first of her 26 episodes of Rag, Tag and Bobtail,[4] a children's television series that "continues to be remembered with affection". She also wrote a series of four books giving career guidance for young people.[1]
In 1958 Cochrane moved with her husband and two daughters to Sussex, where she took up secondary school teaching. Ten years later the family moved to the area around Bath, which along with her keen interest in mathematics, and geometry in particular,[3] triggered Cochrane's long-standing interest in the 12th-century philosopher Adelard of Bath, of whom she published a biography in 1994.[1]

Later life

The Cochranes relocated to Edinburgh in 1979, where Louise remained active despite her failing eyesight. She died on 13 February 2012 aged 93, survived by her husband and daughters Alison and Janet.[2]

Selected works

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Monday, August 11, 2014

Al Brenner, American football player (New York Giants, Hamilton Tiger-Cats) died he was 64

Allen Ray Brenner was a football player in the Canadian Football League for seven years died he was 64.

(November 13, 1947 in Benton Harbor, Michigan – February 13, 2012 in Clinton, North Carolina)

Football career

Brenner played defensive back for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Ottawa Rough Riders from 1971-1977. He was a CFL All-Star in 1972, the same year he set a record of most interceptions in a season at 15, and also won the Grey Cup with the Tiger-Cats. He was also part of the Ottawa Rough Riders when they won the Grey Cup in 1976. Brenner started his career with the New York Giants of the NFL, for whom he played two seasons. He played college football at Michigan State University where he was an All-American in 1968. Al Brenner was also the Head Coach of the Burlington Braves Junior Football Team in 1981.
While playing in the CFL for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats he intercepted Joe Theismann 4 times in one game. Brenner also was part of "The Game of the Century", where both Michigan State and Notre Dame were ranked number 1 in the country and went to a 10-10 tie in 1966.

Disappearance

Brenner was reported missing in April 1983. He, his wife, and four children were residents of Burlington, Ontario.[1] Brenner is featured in a Fifth Estate program on Dec 3, 2010 which discusses his disappearance and subsequent resurfacing eight years after abandoning his family.[2] He is interviewed living in an unnamed small town in North Carolina and says he cannot explain why he left.

Death

Brenner died Feb. 13, 2012 at age 64 in Clinton, North Carolina after a long illness.[3]




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Charles Anthony, American tenor, died from kidney failure he was 82

Charles Anthony Caruso (né Calogero Antonio Caruso), better known by his stage name of Charles Anthony, was an American tenor noted for his portrayal of comprimario characters in opera died from kidney failure he was 82. Anthony had the distinction of appearing in more performances at the Metropolitan Opera than any other performer.[1] He celebrated his fiftieth anniversary with the company in 2004, and gave his farewell in the role of the aged Emperor Altoum in Turandot, at the Met, on January 28, 2010.[2]

( July 15, 1929 – February 15, 2012)

Early years

Anthony was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the child of immigrants from Sicily. He studied music at Loyola University New Orleans, where he studied under Dorothy Hulse, also the teacher of Audrey Schuh and Harry Theyard, from where he graduated in 1951. The tenor sang the role of the Messenger in Il trovatore, at the New Orleans Opera Association, in 1947. At the age of twenty-two, he auditioned under his birth name for the Metropolitan Opera's Auditions of the Air. He won the auditions, but Sir Rudolf Bing convinced him to drop his surname, saying that it would invite comparisons with Enrico Caruso.

At the Metropolitan

Anthony made his debut at the Metropolitan on March 6, 1954, playing the role of the Simpleton in Boris Godunov. Critics were impressed; The New York Times wrote, "Mr Anthony had better be careful. If he does other bit parts so vividly, he'll be stamped as a character singer for life." In the event, this proved true; although Anthony performed some larger roles early in his career (including Don Ottavio, to the Donna Anna of Herva Nelli, in Don Giovanni), he made his mark as a comprimario singer.
On February 17, 1992, following Act II of a performance of Puccini's Tosca, Anthony was honored in an onstage ceremony on the occasion of his breaking the record of George Cehanovsky for most appearances by an artist at the Metropolitan Opera. By the time of his retirement, Anthony had performed 2,928 times with the company, over fifty-six seasons.[3] He was also an honorary member of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One in New York City. Following his retirement from the Metropolitan Opera, he lived in Tampa, Florida, where he died at his home from kidney failure at the age of 82.[1]

On television

Anthony was included in many of the Met's telecasts, including Otello (conducted by James Levine, 1979), Elektra (with Birgit Nilsson, 1980), Un ballo in maschera (with Katia Ricciarelli, 1980), Il trittico (with Renata Scotto, 1981), Rigoletto (with Louis Quilico in the title role, 1981), Der Rosenkavalier (with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, 1982), Idomeneo (produced by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, 1982), Tannhäuser (with Richard Cassilly, 1982), Don Carlos (opposite Plácido Domingo and Mirella Freni, 1983), Ernani (with Luciano Pavarotti in the name part, 1983), Lohengrin (with Peter Hofmann, 1986), Dialogues des Carmélites (directed by John Dexter, 1987), Ariadne auf Naxos (with Jessye Norman, 1988), Il barbiere di Siviglia (1988), Un ballo in maschera (staged by Piero Faggioni, 1991), La fanciulla del West (1992), Stiffelio (1993), Il tabarro (with Teresa Stratas, 1994), Simon Boccanegra (1995), Otello (1995), Die Meistersinger (2001), Fedora (1997), Samson et Dalila (1998), and, finally, Turandot (with Maria Guleghina, 2009).

Studio recordings

In 1956 and 1957, the tenor recorded excerpts from Les contes d'Hoffmann, Pagliacci, La périchole (with Patrice Munsel and Theodor Uppman), and Don Pasquale (with Salvatore Baccaloni) for the Metropolitan Opera Record Club.
In 1982, Anthony recorded Gastone, in La traviata (which he had sung opposite Maria Callas, in 1958), with Levine leading Stratas, Domingo, and Cornell MacNeil. In 1990, he recorded the role of the Messenger, in Aïda, conducted by Levine.

Death

Mr Anthony died on February 15, 2012, from kidney failure, aged 82.

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Dory Previn, American singer-songwriter (Mythical Kings and Iguanas) and lyricist (Valley of the Dolls, Last Tango in Paris) died she was 86

Dory Previn (born Dorothy Veronica Langan;[1] was an American lyricist, singer-songwriter and poet died she was 86.
During the late 1950s and 1960s she was a lyricist on songs intended for motion pictures and, with her then husband, André Previn, received several Academy Award nominations. In the 1970s, after their divorce, she released six albums of original songs and an acclaimed live album. Previn's lyrics from this period are characterized by their originality, irony and honesty in dealing with her troubled personal life as well as more generally about relationships, sexuality, religion and psychology. Until her death, she continued to work as a writer of song lyrics and prose.

(October 22, 1925 – February 14, 2012)

Biography

Early years

Previn was born in Rahway, New Jersey,[4] the eldest daughter in a strict Catholic family of Irish origin. She had a troubled relationship with her father, especially during childhood. He had served in the First World War and been gassed, and experienced periods of depression and violent mood swings.[4] He tended to alternately embrace and reject her, but supported her when she began to show talents for singing and dancing. However, his mental health deteriorated after the birth of a second daughter, culminating in a paranoid episode in which he boarded the family up in their home and held them at gunpoint for several months. Previn's childhood experiences, described in her autobiography Midnight Baby, had a profound effect on her later life and work.[citation needed]
After high school, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for a year before having to leave due to financial difficulties.[5] She toured as a chorus line dancer and singer, and started to write songs. She later wrote,[6] "I have been an actress, model, and chorus girl. I've worked at odd jobs – secretary, salesgirl, accounting in a filling station, waitress – anything to keep me going while I pursued my writing." At this time, she entered a brief first marriage which ended in divorce soon after.[7]

Lyricist and marriage: 1958–1969

Through a chance contact with film producer Arthur Freed, she gained a job as a lyricist at MGM. There she met, and began collaborating with, composer André Previn. In 1958, as Dory Langdon, she recorded an album of her songs, The Leprechauns Are Upon Me, with André Previn and jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell accompanying her, for Verve Records. She married André Previn in 1959. The couple collaborated on a number of songs used in motion pictures, including "The Faraway Part Of Town" sung in the film Pepe by Judy Garland, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song in 1960. In 1961 they wrote "One, Two, Three Waltz" for the movie One, Two, Three, and, in 1962, wrote "A Second Chance" for the movie Two for the Seesaw, which won them a second Oscar nomination. They also wrote songs recorded by Rosemary Clooney, Chris Connor, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, Eileen Farrell, Jack Jones, Marilyn Maye, Carmen McRae, Matt Monro, Leontyne Price, Nancy Wilson, Monica Zetterlund and others. In 1964, she and André Previn collaborated with Harold Arlen on "So Long, Big Time!", which was recorded by Tony Bennett.[5] Later in 1966, the song was covered by Carola, accompanied by the Heikki Sarmanto Trio.[8]
By the mid-1960s Previn's husband had become a classical music conductor, touring worldwide. She had a morbid fear of air travel and did not join him. In 1965 Previn's mental health deteriorated, she suffered a nervous breakdown and was briefly institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital. However, she continued to write with her husband, on songs including "You're Gonna Hear from Me", recorded by Frank Sinatra, and began to use the name Dory Previn professionally. In 1967, they wrote five songs for the movie Valley of the Dolls. The soundtrack album spent six months in the charts, and Dionne Warwick had a pop hit with her version of the theme song.[5] In 1968, she wrote a new English language libretto for Mozart's The Impresario.[9] The following year she won a third Oscar nomination for "Come Saturday Morning," with music by Fred Karlin, from the movie The Sterile Cuckoo. A hit version was recorded by The Sandpipers.[10]
In 1968 André Previn had fully moved from composing film scores to conducting symphony orchestras, most notably the London Symphony Orchestra. While in London he began an affair with the then 23-year-old actress Mia Farrow, who was working on the film A Dandy in Aspic.[11] In 1969 Previn discovered that Farrow had become pregnant, compelling Previn to separate from her husband. Their divorce became final in July 1970. André Previn subsequently married Farrow.[5] This betrayal led to Previn being institutionalized again, where she was treated with electroconvulsive therapy.[12] This seemed to change her outlook as a songwriter, making her more introspective. She subsequently expressed her feelings regarding Farrow and the end of her marriage in the song "Beware of Young Girls" on her 1970 album On My Way to Where.[citation needed]

Singer-songwriter: 1970–1980

In 1970 she signed as a solo artist with the Mediarts company founded by Alan Livingston and Nik Venet, and recorded her first album for 12 years, On My Way To Where.[5] Much of the album, which like several subsequent albums was produced by Venet, deals with her experiences in the late 1960s. "Mister Whisper" examines episodes of psychosis from within the confines of a psychiatric hospital, while "Beware of Young Girls" is a scathing attack on Mia Farrow and her motives for befriending the Previns (Farrow belatedly apologized to Dory in her memoir What Falls Away). The track "With My Daddy in the Attic" is a chilling piece dealing with Stockholm Syndrome and fantasies of incest. The album's lyrics were published in book form in 1971.
Her second album of this period, Mythical Kings and Iguanas, released in 1971, was even more successful. United Artists Records then took over Mediarts and released her third album, Reflections in a Mud Puddle. The album was voted one of the best albums of 1972 by Newsweek magazine, and was included in The New York Times critics' choice as one of the outstanding singer-songwriter albums of the 1970s. "Taps, Tremors and Time-Steps: One Last Dance for my Father," the second side of Reflections In a Mud Puddle, is a personal account of the deterioration of their relationship and her anguish at their differences remaining unresolved at the time of her father's death.[citation needed]
In 1972 she released Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign, a thematic album about Hollywood misfits and Mary C. Brown, an actress who kills herself jumping from Hollywood's letter "H", apparently based upon real-life Peg Entwistle. The songs were intended for a musical revue that ran briefly in Los Angeles. Previn teamed up with producer Zev Bufman to stage it on Broadway, but the previews were poor and the show was cancelled before it opened.[13]
Her albums maintained a balance of intensely personal lyrics and wider commentary – "A Stone for Bessie Smith" is about the premature death of singer Janis Joplin, while "Doppelgänger" examines the latent savagery of humanity. Self-conscious spirituality at the expense of the tangible is criticised in "Mythical Kings and Iguanas," while songs dealing with emotionally frail characters appear as "Lady With the Braid", "Lemon-Haired Ladies", and "The Altruist and the Needy Case". Feminist issues and dilemmas are explored in "Brando" and "The Owl and the Pussycat", while the male ego is attacked with wit and irony in "Michael, Michael", "Don't Put Him Down", and "The Perfect Man".[citation needed]
In 1973, her screenplay Third Girl From The Left was filmed and broadcast as a TV movie.[5] She also undertook some public performances that year, including a concert in New York on April 18, 1973. This was recorded and released later as a double LP, Live At Carnegie Hall, which featured in a book of the two hundred best rock albums. She also continued to collaborate on music for film and TV. Her last film credit was the title song for Last Tango in Paris (1973), with music by Gato Barbieri.
She then switched to Warner Bros. Records, and released the album Dory Previn in 1974, followed by We're Children of Coincidence and Harpo Marx in 1976. Overcoming her fear of flying, she toured in Europe in the late 1970s, and in 1980 performed in a musical revue of her songs, Children Of Coincidence, in Dublin.[5] She withdrew from music for a period, and wrote two autobiographies, Midnight Baby: an Autobiography (1976, ISBN 0-02-299000-4) and Bogtrotter: An Autobiography with Lyrics (1980; ISBN 0-385-14708-2). The latter title refers to her Irish heritage: "bogtrotter" is a derogatory term for an Irish person. She wrote Schizo-phren, a one-woman play with songs.[citation needed]

Later life

From the 1980s, she often used the name Dory Previn Shannon, Shannon being her mother's maiden name.[14] In 1983 she wrote and appeared in a musical statement on nuclear war, August 6, 1945, in Los Angeles. Working for television, she won an Emmy Award in 1984 for "We'll Win this World" (from Two of a Kind) with Jim Pasquale, and an Emmy nomination in 1985 for "Home Here" (from Two Marriages) with Bruce Broughton.[15]
In 1984 she married actor and artist Joby Baker. She performed in London in 1986, and wrote a stage work, The Flight Of The Gooney Bird. She last appeared in concert in 1988, in Dublin and at the Donmar Warehouse in London. As a writer, her short stories have appeared in several publications, and she has also worked on a novel, Word-Play with an Invisible Relative. She lectured on lyric writing, recording, and writing autobiographies at various American universities.[15] Baker provided illustrations for The Dory Previn Songbook (1995), which contains songs from her period with United Artists.
In 1997 she collaborated with André Previn again, to produce a piece for soprano and ensemble entitled The Magic Number.[16] This was first performed by the New York Philharmonic, with Previn as conductor and Sylvia McNair performing the soprano part. A piano reduction was published by G. Schirmer, Inc (ISBN 0-7935-8803-0). In 2002 she released a royalty-free recording available via the internet entitled Planet Blue.[17] This contains a mixture of recent and previously unreleased material dealing with environmental degradation and the threat of nuclear disaster. She continued to work, in spite of having suffered several strokes, which affected her eyesight. A new compilation of her early 1970s work, entitled The Art of Dory Previn, was released by EMI on January 21, 2008.[citation needed]

Death

Previn died, aged 86, on February 14, 2012, at her farm in Southfield, Massachusetts, where she lived with her husband, Joby Baker.[18][19]

Discography

Original albums

Compilation albums

  • One A.M. Phonecalls (1977) United Artists
  • In Search of Mythical Kings: The U.A. Years (1993) EMI
  • The Art of Dory Previn (2008) EMI
Previn's material from her period with United Artists has been re-issued on CD under the Beat Goes On label.

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