Delayed Deceased
The Passing of (the fake) Papa Bear
(Props to Craig)
Or
Dead Like a Corpse
Jack Warden, who twice earned Oscar nominations for not throttling Warren Beatty, has died at the age of 85. Warden co-starred with Beatty as a businessman in Shampoo and as a football trainer in Heaven Can Wait. He won an Emmy for playing Chicago Bears coach George Halas in Brian’s Song, then was nominated twice more as leading actor for his role as PI Harrison Fox, Sr. in Crazy Like a Fox. Other roles included the lone voice of reason in Twelve Angry Men, when he played Juror No. 7, who was more interested in going to a baseball game than adjudicating, Kermit and Fozzie’s editor in The Great Muppet Caper, a parody of his role as Harry Rosenfeld, metro editor in All the President’s Men, twin rival automotive resale entrepreneurs in Used Cars, and owner of the Washington Sentinels in The Replacements. Like every other actor of his generation, he paid his dues on The Twilight Zone, appearing in The Lonely as James Corry, a felon committed to solitary confinement on an asteroid who falls in love with a robot and as Mouth McGarry who discovered a robot pitcher that would have been unbeatable if only he fielded his position better than Reuven Malter in The Chosen.
Witout
The man who launched a thousand heart attacks has died of his own at the age of 90. Harry M. Olivieri, younger brother of Pat, the South Philly King of Steaks, and co-creator of the original cheesesteak, has rolled over. In 1930, the brothers ran a hot dog stand in Philadelphia when they decided to try grilling a hunk of steak with onions on their cart for lunch. A passing cabbie bought that first steak sandwich for a dime and by the 1940s, Pat’s was open 24 hours a day with lines around the block comprised of everyone from celebrities to Naval Yard workers. Cheez Whiz was added 22 years later in one of the seminal gastronomic feats of the century. The cheesesteak became the signature of Philadelphia and ordering took on its own lingo – Whiz wit was the traditional Cheese Whiz cheesesteak with grilled onions. Among a litany of flubs that cost him the White House, John Kerry helped seal his fate by first attempting to order a cheesesteak with Swiss, then eating as daintily as though he were scooping caviar.
Mako like a tree and leave
Mako, who was the dramatic counterpart to the comedic Pat Morita in terms of go-to Asian-American actors, has died of esophageal cancer at the age of 72. Mako was determined to expand Asian roles beyond stereotypes and caricatures, and in his biggest break, The Sand Pebbles, Mako created a sympathetic character in his pidgin-English-speaking Chinese “coolie” Po-han, eternally deferential to his white masters. The role earned him an Academy Award nomination. Mako also earned a Tony nod for multiple roles in the Stephen Sondheim musical Pacific Overtures. To Hollywood, all Asians look alike, and the Japanese actor was called on to play Chinese, Korean, a Singaporean in Seven Days in Tibet and whatever Akira the Wizard was supposed to be in Conan the Barbarian. Mako was a frequent guest star on M*A*S*H, including appearances as a gruff doctor trying to exchange patients before Frank Burns pulls out a pistol from a Cracker Jack box and as a gruff intelligence officer whose attempts to arrest a prisoner were thwarted by Charles Winchester’s chess distractions. Other roles included the voice of Aku on Samurai Jack, the Vietcong cook who helped the A-Team escape a POW camp and a rival economist who shared the Nobel Prize with President Bartlett on The West Wing. When Mako became sick, he was preparing to appear in a new comedic play for a San Francisco theater troup, but out of respect the play was canceled rather than recasting the part.
The Cornthwaite is Over
Robert Cornthwaite, who created the definitive mad scientist role, has died at the age of 89. As Dr. Carrington in 1951’s The Thing, Cornthwaite was the quintessential doctor who missed the big picture, that being a 7-foot murderous alien wiping out an arctic installation because he thought E.T.’s big brain could be used to solve Soduko easier. Cornthwaite took on aliens again in the original War of the Worlds and Satan in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Cornthwaite reprised his best known role in the 2005 parody of B-films The Naked Monster. Other roles included Alan A. Dale, a cheap knock-off of the Archer when Van Johnson got too important to do Batman and resident genius Professor Windish on Get Smart.
Took a Dive
Carl Brashear, the sharecroppers’ son who overcame racism, the loss of a leg and having Cuba Gooding, Jr. portray him on screen, has died of heart failure at 75. Brashear’s career, which saw him become the first black master diver in U.S. Navy history was immortalized in the 2000 film Men of Honor, with Gooding practically screaming “Show me the medals.” After being turned down by the Army, the Navy accepted him as a steward, but he wrote more than 100 letters requesting a slot in diver’s school before he was allowed to enroll, and then endured racial epithets left on his bunk. In 1966 aboard a salvage ship, Brashear helped retrieve a hydrogen bomb from a crashed plane. Back aboard, a line broke sending a pipe hurtling toward Brashear and his men. He pushed them to safety, but his leg was crushed, and he lost so much blood he was declared dead. Opting for amputating, rather than recuperating his damaged leg, Brashear signed his own transfer back to diving school. There, he dove with his artificial leg and sent pictures of the dive back to Navy officials, who had been attempting to discharge him. After climbing ladders with barbells strapped to his back and walking unaided with nearly 300 pounds of equipment to simulate a diver’s load, he was reinstated, the first amputee to return to diving duty. When he retired, he was a master chief boatswain’s mate.
This is What Happens When Your Moon Moves into Cancer
(Props to Shawn)
In a cosmic convergence he apparently didn’t see coming, radio astrologer Darrell Martinie, aka the Cosmic Muffin, has died at the age of 63. Martinie would soft-pedal unpleasant predictions, saying that a client would enter a stressful period in a relationship when the crystal ball and chicken bones clearly indicated a divorce. Former Massachusetts governor William Weld had a use for someone with such a fluid appreciation of the truth and named him the state’s official astrologer in 1993. Even before embarking on his astrology career, Martinie had become familiar with the dark arts, having entered a Benedictine monastery in the 1970s.
You can’t have a little because you’ve had enough
Lennie Weinrib has left Living Island at the age of 71. The actor who wrote every episode of H.R. Pufnstuf and provided the distinctive voice of the mayor, the love child of Mayor McCheese and an iguana. Weinrib piled on the pop culture offenses by providing the voice of Scooby-Doo’s insufferable nephew Scrappy-Doo. Weinrib was prolific in his voice over work on cartoons and for commercials in the 1960s and 1970s. Among the creations brought to voice: Secret Squirrel, Inch High (Private Eye), Moonrock, as well as various roles on The Kwicky Koala Show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder and Jabberjaw.
Ideadarod
Or
All Dog(sledder)s go to Heaven?
(Kudos to Craig)
Or
Soon to be Mush, Mush!
(Accolades for Craig)
Susan Butcher, 4-time winner of the worst idea for a sport ever, has died of leukemia at the age of 51. In 1986, Butcher became the second female winner of the Iditarod, the 1,100-mile dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome, and dominated the race in the late 1980s, repeating in 1987 and 1988, then reclaiming her title in 1990. She continued to place in the top four through 1993. Prior to wasting her time racing across Alaska without diphtheria antidote, she was the first to top Mount McKinley with a sled dog team.
In-a-Coffin-N-Out-of-Time
Esther Snyder, who co-founded In-N-Out Burger and popularized the drive-through window with her late husband Harry in Baldwin Park in 1948 for the fast-food industry, has died at 86. Snyder had succeeded her husband and two sons as head of the Western fast food chain. While contemporary Southern California burger joints McDonald's, Carl's Jr. and Jack in the Box grew into regional or national chains, the Snyders kept In-N-Out small, with a focus on quality – they do not freeze burgers and use a single meat packing plant - limiting them to 202 stores in three states: California, Nevada and Arizona. Snyder picked the Biblical verses that adorn the chain’s drink cups.
Doug Out
Mike Douglas, the first giant of daytime talk, has died at the age of 81, leaving his set to Cosmo Kramer. Originating from Cleveland, then Philadelphia and finally LA, Douglas’ show was a cultural touchstone, with a peak audience of 7 million viewers a day in the late 1960s. Bill Cosby credited Douglas with discovering him. Ralph Nader started scaring people about their cars on the show and John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted for a week, taking time out of their busy bed-in schedule. Others who got to bat against Douglas’ soft balls included Richard Nixon, The Rolling Stones, Liberace, Malcolm X, Gene Simmons, Robert Frost, Richard Pryor and Truman Capote. The show won the first daytime Emmy for best talk show and by the time he left the air in 1981, he was making $2 million a year, a figure in television topped only by Johnny Carson.
Radioinactive Man
James A. Van Allen, identifier of the earth’s accessories, has died at 91. Van Allen played Cosmic Mr. Blackwell, criticizing the planet for overdoing it with two rings of charged particles trapped by the earth’s magnetic field at 400 to 4,000 miles and 9,000 to 15,000 miles over the surface. “How can you trust a planet that can’t trust it’s own pants?” he asked. The deranged genius also advocated a mission that dropped atomic bombs in the South Atlantic to determine if the earth’s magnetic field also trapped radioactive particles while also attempting to awaken long dormant giant rubber monsters. Van Allen also led scientists who called for a manned moon landing by 1968, but ultimately settled for a Hollywood sound stage.
(Props to Craig)
Or
Dead Like a Corpse
Jack Warden, who twice earned Oscar nominations for not throttling Warren Beatty, has died at the age of 85. Warden co-starred with Beatty as a businessman in Shampoo and as a football trainer in Heaven Can Wait. He won an Emmy for playing Chicago Bears coach George Halas in Brian’s Song, then was nominated twice more as leading actor for his role as PI Harrison Fox, Sr. in Crazy Like a Fox. Other roles included the lone voice of reason in Twelve Angry Men, when he played Juror No. 7, who was more interested in going to a baseball game than adjudicating, Kermit and Fozzie’s editor in The Great Muppet Caper, a parody of his role as Harry Rosenfeld, metro editor in All the President’s Men, twin rival automotive resale entrepreneurs in Used Cars, and owner of the Washington Sentinels in The Replacements. Like every other actor of his generation, he paid his dues on The Twilight Zone, appearing in The Lonely as James Corry, a felon committed to solitary confinement on an asteroid who falls in love with a robot and as Mouth McGarry who discovered a robot pitcher that would have been unbeatable if only he fielded his position better than Reuven Malter in The Chosen.
Witout
The man who launched a thousand heart attacks has died of his own at the age of 90. Harry M. Olivieri, younger brother of Pat, the South Philly King of Steaks, and co-creator of the original cheesesteak, has rolled over. In 1930, the brothers ran a hot dog stand in Philadelphia when they decided to try grilling a hunk of steak with onions on their cart for lunch. A passing cabbie bought that first steak sandwich for a dime and by the 1940s, Pat’s was open 24 hours a day with lines around the block comprised of everyone from celebrities to Naval Yard workers. Cheez Whiz was added 22 years later in one of the seminal gastronomic feats of the century. The cheesesteak became the signature of Philadelphia and ordering took on its own lingo – Whiz wit was the traditional Cheese Whiz cheesesteak with grilled onions. Among a litany of flubs that cost him the White House, John Kerry helped seal his fate by first attempting to order a cheesesteak with Swiss, then eating as daintily as though he were scooping caviar.
Mako like a tree and leave
Mako, who was the dramatic counterpart to the comedic Pat Morita in terms of go-to Asian-American actors, has died of esophageal cancer at the age of 72. Mako was determined to expand Asian roles beyond stereotypes and caricatures, and in his biggest break, The Sand Pebbles, Mako created a sympathetic character in his pidgin-English-speaking Chinese “coolie” Po-han, eternally deferential to his white masters. The role earned him an Academy Award nomination. Mako also earned a Tony nod for multiple roles in the Stephen Sondheim musical Pacific Overtures. To Hollywood, all Asians look alike, and the Japanese actor was called on to play Chinese, Korean, a Singaporean in Seven Days in Tibet and whatever Akira the Wizard was supposed to be in Conan the Barbarian. Mako was a frequent guest star on M*A*S*H, including appearances as a gruff doctor trying to exchange patients before Frank Burns pulls out a pistol from a Cracker Jack box and as a gruff intelligence officer whose attempts to arrest a prisoner were thwarted by Charles Winchester’s chess distractions. Other roles included the voice of Aku on Samurai Jack, the Vietcong cook who helped the A-Team escape a POW camp and a rival economist who shared the Nobel Prize with President Bartlett on The West Wing. When Mako became sick, he was preparing to appear in a new comedic play for a San Francisco theater troup, but out of respect the play was canceled rather than recasting the part.
The Cornthwaite is Over
Robert Cornthwaite, who created the definitive mad scientist role, has died at the age of 89. As Dr. Carrington in 1951’s The Thing, Cornthwaite was the quintessential doctor who missed the big picture, that being a 7-foot murderous alien wiping out an arctic installation because he thought E.T.’s big brain could be used to solve Soduko easier. Cornthwaite took on aliens again in the original War of the Worlds and Satan in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Cornthwaite reprised his best known role in the 2005 parody of B-films The Naked Monster. Other roles included Alan A. Dale, a cheap knock-off of the Archer when Van Johnson got too important to do Batman and resident genius Professor Windish on Get Smart.
Took a Dive
Carl Brashear, the sharecroppers’ son who overcame racism, the loss of a leg and having Cuba Gooding, Jr. portray him on screen, has died of heart failure at 75. Brashear’s career, which saw him become the first black master diver in U.S. Navy history was immortalized in the 2000 film Men of Honor, with Gooding practically screaming “Show me the medals.” After being turned down by the Army, the Navy accepted him as a steward, but he wrote more than 100 letters requesting a slot in diver’s school before he was allowed to enroll, and then endured racial epithets left on his bunk. In 1966 aboard a salvage ship, Brashear helped retrieve a hydrogen bomb from a crashed plane. Back aboard, a line broke sending a pipe hurtling toward Brashear and his men. He pushed them to safety, but his leg was crushed, and he lost so much blood he was declared dead. Opting for amputating, rather than recuperating his damaged leg, Brashear signed his own transfer back to diving school. There, he dove with his artificial leg and sent pictures of the dive back to Navy officials, who had been attempting to discharge him. After climbing ladders with barbells strapped to his back and walking unaided with nearly 300 pounds of equipment to simulate a diver’s load, he was reinstated, the first amputee to return to diving duty. When he retired, he was a master chief boatswain’s mate.
This is What Happens When Your Moon Moves into Cancer
(Props to Shawn)
In a cosmic convergence he apparently didn’t see coming, radio astrologer Darrell Martinie, aka the Cosmic Muffin, has died at the age of 63. Martinie would soft-pedal unpleasant predictions, saying that a client would enter a stressful period in a relationship when the crystal ball and chicken bones clearly indicated a divorce. Former Massachusetts governor William Weld had a use for someone with such a fluid appreciation of the truth and named him the state’s official astrologer in 1993. Even before embarking on his astrology career, Martinie had become familiar with the dark arts, having entered a Benedictine monastery in the 1970s.
You can’t have a little because you’ve had enough
Lennie Weinrib has left Living Island at the age of 71. The actor who wrote every episode of H.R. Pufnstuf and provided the distinctive voice of the mayor, the love child of Mayor McCheese and an iguana. Weinrib piled on the pop culture offenses by providing the voice of Scooby-Doo’s insufferable nephew Scrappy-Doo. Weinrib was prolific in his voice over work on cartoons and for commercials in the 1960s and 1970s. Among the creations brought to voice: Secret Squirrel, Inch High (Private Eye), Moonrock, as well as various roles on The Kwicky Koala Show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder and Jabberjaw.
Ideadarod
Or
All Dog(sledder)s go to Heaven?
(Kudos to Craig)
Or
Soon to be Mush, Mush!
(Accolades for Craig)
Susan Butcher, 4-time winner of the worst idea for a sport ever, has died of leukemia at the age of 51. In 1986, Butcher became the second female winner of the Iditarod, the 1,100-mile dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome, and dominated the race in the late 1980s, repeating in 1987 and 1988, then reclaiming her title in 1990. She continued to place in the top four through 1993. Prior to wasting her time racing across Alaska without diphtheria antidote, she was the first to top Mount McKinley with a sled dog team.
In-a-Coffin-N-Out-of-Time
Esther Snyder, who co-founded In-N-Out Burger and popularized the drive-through window with her late husband Harry in Baldwin Park in 1948 for the fast-food industry, has died at 86. Snyder had succeeded her husband and two sons as head of the Western fast food chain. While contemporary Southern California burger joints McDonald's, Carl's Jr. and Jack in the Box grew into regional or national chains, the Snyders kept In-N-Out small, with a focus on quality – they do not freeze burgers and use a single meat packing plant - limiting them to 202 stores in three states: California, Nevada and Arizona. Snyder picked the Biblical verses that adorn the chain’s drink cups.
Doug Out
Mike Douglas, the first giant of daytime talk, has died at the age of 81, leaving his set to Cosmo Kramer. Originating from Cleveland, then Philadelphia and finally LA, Douglas’ show was a cultural touchstone, with a peak audience of 7 million viewers a day in the late 1960s. Bill Cosby credited Douglas with discovering him. Ralph Nader started scaring people about their cars on the show and John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted for a week, taking time out of their busy bed-in schedule. Others who got to bat against Douglas’ soft balls included Richard Nixon, The Rolling Stones, Liberace, Malcolm X, Gene Simmons, Robert Frost, Richard Pryor and Truman Capote. The show won the first daytime Emmy for best talk show and by the time he left the air in 1981, he was making $2 million a year, a figure in television topped only by Johnny Carson.
Radioinactive Man
James A. Van Allen, identifier of the earth’s accessories, has died at 91. Van Allen played Cosmic Mr. Blackwell, criticizing the planet for overdoing it with two rings of charged particles trapped by the earth’s magnetic field at 400 to 4,000 miles and 9,000 to 15,000 miles over the surface. “How can you trust a planet that can’t trust it’s own pants?” he asked. The deranged genius also advocated a mission that dropped atomic bombs in the South Atlantic to determine if the earth’s magnetic field also trapped radioactive particles while also attempting to awaken long dormant giant rubber monsters. Van Allen also led scientists who called for a manned moon landing by 1968, but ultimately settled for a Hollywood sound stage.
posted by The Grim Reaper at 11:48 PM
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