Durning Needled

With more than 200 screen credits on his resume, if you’ve never seen Charles Durning, you’re either Amish, lying or, as his appearances included both The Sting and The Muppet Movie, an idiot. He was one of the first men on the beach at Normandy on D-Day, and the lone member of his unit to survive an ambush. In Belgium, he was stabbed seven times in hand-to-hand combat before beating the German soldier to death with a rock, then was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and marched into the forest at Malmedy, where he was one of the only survivors when the Germans opened fire on 90 POWs. After that, surviving in the rough and tumble streets of Hollywood was a piece of cake. Among his more memorable roles were Lt. Snyder, the crooked cop trying to shake down grifters in The Sting; Doc Hopper, the frog leg cooking restaurateur in The Muppet Movie; Pappy O’Daniel, good ol’ boy governor in O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Les, the widower who finds Dustin Hoffman attractive in Tootsie; and Moretti, the hostage negotiator dealing with the idiot crooks in Dog Day Afternoon. Along the way, he earned supporting Oscar nominations as another slippery governor in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and as a horny Nazi in To Be or Not to Be, and 9 Emmy nominations, most recently as Tommy’s father in Rescue Me, but never won. He had to mollify himself with a Silver Star for valor and three Purple Hearts, and a Tony for playing Big Daddy in a revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Down for the Count

(Props to Monty)

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Zero, Zero Wonderful Beats Per Minute

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It’s Time For Saying Goodbye

Jerry Nelson, whose hand filled the ass of some of the most beloved characters of your childhood, has died at 78 of emphysema, likely the result of 30 years of felt inhalation. The longtime puppeteer was one of the Jim Henson originals, and worked on Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and The Muppet Show. Among the characters for whom he provided movement and voice are Count von Count, Herry Monster, Fat Blue, Sherlock Hemlock, the Amazing Mumford, Sgt. Floyd Pepper, Lew Zealand, Dr. Julius Strangepork, J.P. Grosse, Robin, Emmet Otter (of Jug-Band Christmas fame), Camilla the Chicken, Uncle Deadly, Crazy Harry, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Herbert Birdsfoot, Fleet Scribbler, Simon Soundman, Lewis Kazagger and Pops the doorman. He made a rare visible appearance as the telethon announcer in last year’s big screen version of The Muppets, providing a link to their storied history. Nelson retired from physical puppetry in 2004, but continued to voice several Muppets up to his death, and he will be heard as Count von Count in several episodes of the upcoming 43rd season of Sesame Street.

Visiting Davy Jones Locker

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Dead Duck

Peter Baird, the puppeteer who brought Howard the Duck to life, had his strings cut at the age of 52. Baird also worked on Shining Time Station, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and Davy Jones Locker, a continuation of the work of his famous puppeteer parents Bil and Cora Baird. (This one's all for you Greg. - Ed.)

Departacus

(Props to Tom for the header)
Peter Ustinov kept his Appointment with Death, passing away from heart failure at the age of 82. Equally comfortable with comedy or drama, Ustinov won Oscars for his work as Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus and as Emperor Nero in Quo Vadis?, was nominated for two others and played the truck driver whose lorry was hijacked by an escaping Miss Piggy in The Great Muppet Caper during a career spanning 60 years. Perhaps best known as Hercule Poirot in several films based on Agatha Christie novels, Ustinov was a gifted dialectician, being fluent in French, German, English, Italian, Russian and Spanish and passable in Turkish and Greek, among others. A gifted and witty story-teller, even in his later years while often confined to a wheelchair, Ustinov continued to raise money as a Goodwill Amabassador UNICEF, an organization he had devoted more than 30 years of his life to help.