Franklin’s Interred, Dude

African-American scholar John Hope Franklin has died at the age of 94, in a shameless attempt to extend discussion of black history beyond its prescribed month. Franklin was the inspiration for Franklin and Roosevelt Franklin, the only black characters on Peanuts and Sesame Street, respectively; although it’s entirely possible I just made that up. He was renowned for shaping the discussion of black life in America in the 18th and 19th centuries in America, while also interacting with the men who defined black life in the 20th and 21st. He published articles and books on slavery and worked closely with Martin Luther King and W.E.B. Du Bois. He argued that historians shouldn’t just chronicle the past, but should help shape the future, working with Thurgood Marshall in the Brown v. Board of Education case and marching with Dr. King in Selma. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, capping a career in which he was the first African-American president of the American Historical Association; the first black department chairman at a predominantly white institution, Brooklyn College; the first black professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke; the first black chairman of the University of Chicago’s history department; and the first African-American to present a paper at the segregated Southern Historical Association, one of many groups that later elected him its president.

Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, K-E-L-L Died!

(Props to Phil)

Or
For whom the Kell Tolls
(Kudos to Phil)

Or
Found a Death Kell
(More merit for Phil)

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Hell's Kells
(Additional accolades for Phil)

Or
All's Kell that Ends Kell
(Another tip o’ the cap for Phil)
Hall of Fame third baseman George Kell has died at the age of 86. Kell was named to 10 All-Star teams in 15 seasons and hit .300 nine times, including the famed down to the wire 1949 batting title as a member of the Tigers, where he beat Ted Williams .34291 to .34276. He followed that by hitting .340 in 1950, but after dropping to .319, he got traded to the Boston Red Sox. He concluded his career in 1957 with the Baltimore Orioles, imparting his wisdom to rookie third baseman Brooks Robinson, helping him become the second greatest third baseman of all time, no matter what Annie Reed says. His favorite play came against the Yankees, when Joe DiMaggio hit a line drive to third, breaking Kell’s jaw. Kell said, “I picked up the ball, made the play, and then passed out.” Kell and Robinson entered the Hall together in 1983. After his playing career ended, he spent 40 years in the Tigers’ broadcast booth.

It’s All Downhill

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I’ll be Skiing You
Natasha Richardson, a member of the Redgrave acting family and wife of a guy who hasn’t done anything noteworthy in more than a decade, died in a skiing accident sending ski helmet futures skyrocketing. After a week of public mourning, I’m still not sure who she is. The daughter of Vanessa Redgrave, niece of Lynn Redgrave, granddaughter of Sir Michael Redgrave, sister of Joely Richardson, wife of Liam Neeson, great-granddaughter of Roy Redgrave and cousin of Jemma Redgrave starred in the remake of The Parent Trap and Maid in Manhattan. Richardson was better known and acclaimed for her work on the stage, winning the 1998 Tony as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, and appeared on Broadway in Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Comedy and A Streetcar Named Desire.

St. Peter’s Cloud has a Silver Lining

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Fortune Irrevocably Reversed
(Accolades for Phil)

Or
What's that smell in Veronica's Closet?
(More merit for Phil)
Ron Silver, wannabe politician, has died of cancer at the age of 62. On The West Wing, Silver played Bruno Gianelli, who helped orchestrate Josiah Barlet’s successful re-election campaign over Florida governor Rob Richey, an unengaged politician not too subtly based on George W. Bush. Later, he worked on the unsuccessful campaign of Republican Arnie Vinick to succeed Barlet. This mirrored his real-life switch, from a Dukakis-supporting Democrat to his post-September 11 attack support for Bush and appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention, a flip-flop that somehow went unnoticed that year. At his day job, he was the senator who headed the Time Enforcement Commission in Timecop, Jean Claude Van Damme’s finest film to date, Det. Mickey McSorely, an incompetent and impotent cop on the trail of a man-eating alien, the director who hires and fires Buddy Young, Jr. on Mr. Saturday Night, Allen Dershowitz in Reversal of Fortune, defending Claus von Bulow in the trial where he was accused of killing his wife Sonny, who died earlier this year, Angelo Dundee in Ali, Veronica’s arch-nemesis on Veronica’s Closet. The West Wing also was a chance for him to reunite with his former co-star on The Stockard Channing Show. He also played the father of the girl who dated the boy whose FATHE R WAS THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY in the porn-ified Romeo and Juliet update Skin.

Bad Day at Black Rock

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Hoo Rah. Hoo Rah. Rutgers Rah. Upstream. Downstream. Blue Fish. Dead Fish.
Millard Kaufman, creator of Rutgers University’s most famous alumnus, has died at the age of 90 from complications of open-heart surgery. Kaufman created the rich myopic and confused retiree Quincy Magoo in the cartoon short Ragtime Bear in 1949. He later scored two Oscar nominations for the screenplays for Take the High Ground!, starring Karl Malden and Richard Widmark as drill sergeants prepping recruits for Korean in 1953 and Bad Day at Black Rock, a film noir starring Spencer Tracy as a man trying to re-pay his son’s debt to a Japanese immigrant murdered by a small town mob, in 1955.

I Saw Mommy Bury Daddy

Jimmy Boyd, original singer of the Christmas staple “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” has died of cancer at the age of 70. When released in 1952, the song was condemned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston – back when it still had room to point out other people’s foibles – until it was explained that it wasn’t really Santa. But, if they “didn’t see me creep, down the stairs to have a peep,” what kind of kinky games was Mommy playing with Daddy dressed in a red velvet suit and beard? Other pop culture touches included playing a biology student who wanted to learn about a planet where man evolved from apes in Inherit the Wind, two years as Mr. Batgirl, while married to Yvonne Craig, and a budding music career crushed by his loyalty to Mitch Miller, who still expects this rock n’ roll fad to pass any day now.