Notables & Notorious Deaths in 2012

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 1, 2012 at 7:45am

'Soul Train' creator Don Cornelius commits suicide at 75 in LA   from a self-inflicted gun shot.  "Soul Train" began in 1970 in Chicago and aired in syndication from 1971 to March 2006, featuring primarily African-American musicians. It brought the best R&B, soul and later hip-hop acts to TV and had teenagers dance to them. It was one of the first shows to showcase African-Americans prominently, although the dance group was racially mixed. Cornelius was the first host and executive producer

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Steve C on February 1, 2012 at 9:29am

Suspected suicide.

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 1, 2012 at 9:36am

He "died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," L.A. Coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter tells PEOPLE

and you are using your testing profile because of why??? Your'e not going to rename it Sharpie are you lol.

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 7, 2012 at 3:07pm

it's official;

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Coroner's officials on Tuesday offiically ruled Don Cornelius'  death a suicide, nearly a week after the Soul Train creator and host killed himself with a gunshot to the head.

The agency made the determination after conducting an autopsy on Cornelius' body Friday. Investigators are still awaiting the results of toxicology tests before issuing a final report.

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 1, 2012 at 7:54am

little late on getting the 2012 thread underway... but on January 22 Joe Pa passed away after battling lung cancer.  Say what one will of late developments but he was one heck of football coach.

 

Joseph Vincent "Joe" Paterno was the Penn Stat Nittany Lions head coach  for nearly 46 years, from 1966 through 2011. Paterno, nicknamed "JoePa", holds the record for the most victories by an NCAA Divison 1 (FBS) football coach with 409 and is the only FBS coach to reach 400 victories. He coached five undefeated teams that won major bowl games and, in 2007, was inducted into the College Footbal Hall of Fame as a coach.

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 1, 2012 at 8:01am

On January 19th a tragic loss of someone way too young.  Sarah Burke 29 a pioneering Canadian freestyler, who helped get superpipe accepted into the Olympics died from brain injuries suffered during a training crash in park city utah. 

Sarah Burke was a four-time Winter X Games gold medalist and pushed to have superpipe skiing added to the Winter Olympics.

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 1, 2012 at 8:17am

Etta James, 5 days before her 74th birthday passed away on Jan 25th.  She collected six Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. Rolling Stone magazine ranked James No. 22 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and No. 62 on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists.

she gained fame with “Dance with Me Henry,” “At Last,” “Tell Mama,” and “I’d Rather Go Blind.”

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 1, 2012 at 8:28am

John Rich on January 29 at 86 passed away.  Rich was a film and television director. He directed such television shows as Where's Raymond?, Mister Ed, The Dick Van Dyke Show, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, Good Times, Barney Miller, Newhart, Benson, The Brady Bunch, Bonanza, The Rifleman, The Twilight Zone, Murphy Brown, and Gilligan's Island.

If you never saw the episode where Sammy Davis Jr. kissed Archie Bunker it is worth finding it on youtube (has to be there) as it has to be one of the "funniest" skits of all time.

This is Rich on the left accepting an emmy with Carl Reiner in 1963 for the Dick Van Dyke Show.

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 1, 2012 at 8:44am

Robert Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on “Welcome Back Kotter, died at his New Jersey home on January 26. He was 60 years old. 

I'll bet some old enough to remember Welcome Back Kotter can still remember Juan Epstein's lines;

"Hey Mr. Kotter, I got a note!"

Classic. Oh, like you never pulled a similar stunt in high school ("Signed, Epstein's mother")

or the Up your nose with a rubber hose!

or his full name; Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein

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Permalink Reply by Barry S on February 1, 2012 at 8:57am

I'm old enough. I saw them all.

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 2, 2012 at 3:39am

Angelo  Dundee died in his apartment in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday {2/1} night at the age of 90, and with him a part of boxing died, too.

 

Dundee was best known for being in Ali's corner for almost his entire career, urging him on in his first fight against Sonny Liston through the legendary fights with Joe Frazier and beyond. He was a cornerman, but he was much more, serving as a motivator for fighters not so great and for The Greatest.

 

Promoter Bob Arum said he had been planning to bring Dundee to Las Vegas for a Feb. 18 charity gala headlined by Ali.

''He was wonderful. He was the whole package,'' Arum said. ''Angelo was the greatest motivator of all time. No matter how bad things were, Angelo always put a positive spin on them. That's what Ali loved so much about him.''

Arum credited Dundee with persuading Ali to continue in his third fight against Joe Frazier when Frazier was coming on strong in the ''Thrilla in Manilla.'' Without Dundee, Arum said, Ali may not have had the strength to come back and stop Frazier after the 14th round in what became an iconic fight.

Dundee also worked the corner for Leonard, famously shouting, ''You're blowing it, son. You're blowing it'' when Leonard fell behind in his 1981 fight with Tommy Hearns — a fight he would rally to win by knockout.

A master motivator and clever corner man, Dundee was regarded as one of the sport's great ambassadors. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994 after a career that spanned six decades, training 15 world champions, including Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio and Jose Napoles.

''He had a ball. He lived his life and had a great time,'' Jimmy Dundee said. ''He was still working with an amateur kid, a possible Olympic kid, down here. When he walked into a boxing room he still had the brain for it.''

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Permalink Reply by DB on February 4, 2012 at 6:49am

George Esper, veteran AP Correspondent dies at 79

Vietnam Combat & Veterans & their familes might recall some of the gritty stories he wrote spending 10 years in vietnam.   The most illustrating was the one on the photographer being a NVA spy...  One of his last dispatches during the fall of saigon before all communication was shut off was telling;  All those military & civilians lost 'cause we couldn't go past the DMZ!  Yup, Military Intelligence & Political wars are an oxymoron. 

Esper wrote his most memorable story on April 30, 1975, the day the war ended with the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese. He and two other AP reporters declined to join the frantic evacuation of foreigners from Saigon as the North Vietnamese army drove toward the city.

Two North Vietnamese soldiers entered the bureau, accompanied by a longtime freelance photographer for the AP who on that day revealed that he had been a communist spy. He assured the reporters they were safe. Esper offered them Coca Cola and stale cake — the only food on hand — then interviewed the soldiers. Hours later, AP’s communications were abruptly cut, but not before the story got out. The New York Times ran it on its front page.

In the dispatch, he wrote how a former freelance employee walked in to the AP office accompanied by two North Vietnamese soldiers. Amid the tumult outside, Esper served them Coca-Cola and leftover cake and interviewed the soldiers.

"After smoking a cigarette, Tran Viet Ca, a 24-year-old private, told the Americans he had served seven years in the North Vietnamese Army," he wrote.

"Two days ago we attacked Bien Hoa," he said. "Today we drove down the highway past the United States Army base at Long Binh.

"Our forces were led by a brigade of tanks. There was a little resistance, but most Saigon soldiers had already run away. Then we drove into Saigon."

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