Jack Hayes
Filed under: Composer — Tags: Jack Hayes — admin @ 4:58 pm
Born in 1919
Jack Hayes as an American composer and orchestrator. He was twice nominated for an Academy Award, for The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964 and for The Color Purple in 1985. He ha worked on more than 200 films during a Hollywood career that spanned 60 years.
Hayes died on August 24,2011 of natural causes. He was 92.
Esther Gordy Edwards
Filed under: Business — Tags: Esther Gordy Edwards — admin @ 4:28 pm
Born on April 25, 1920.
Esther Gordy Edwards as a staff member and associate of her younger brother Berry Gordy’s fabled Motown label during the 1960s. Edwards created the Motown Museum, Hitsville U.S.A., by preserving the label’s Detroit studio. She also served as President of the Motown Museum. In 1985, Edwards became the director of the Motown Historical Museum (Hitsville U.S.A.) and has since been credited with carefully maintaining the original studios of Motown. Edwards is often described as “the pillar of Motown”.
Esther died on August 24, 2011. She was 91 years old.
Comments OffSybil Jason
Filed under: Actors — Tags: Sybil Jason — admin @ 4:15 pm
Born on November 23, 1927 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Sybil Jason was a motion-picture child actress who, in the late 1930s, was presented as a rival to Shirley Temple. The apex of her career came with a concert performance with Frances Day at London’s Palace Theatre. Jason’s theater work led to appearances on radio and phonograph records, and a supporting role in the film Barnacle Bill. Her American film debut came as the lead in Little Big Shot (1935), directed by Michael Curtiz and co-starring Glenda Farrell, Robert Armstrong, and Edward Everett Horton. Jason followed this with supporting roles opposite some of Warner Bros. most popular stars, including Kay Francis in I Found Stella Parish (1935), Al Jolson in The Singing Kid (1936), Pat O’Brien and Humphrey Bogart in The Great O’Malley (1937), and again with Kay Francis in Comet Over Broadway (1938). Warners also starred her in The Captain’s Kid (1937), and four Vitaphone two-reelers filmed in Technicolor: Changing of the Guard, A Day at Santa Anita, Little Pioneer, and The Littlest Diplomat.
Jason died on August 23, 2011. Aged 83.
Comments OffMike Showers
Filed under: Actors — Tags: Mike Showers — admin @ 2:39 pm
Born on March 14,1966 in Cincinnati,Ohio.
Mike Showers was an American actor who was best known for his role as Capt. John Guirdy on the television series Treme.
Showers died on August 24, 2011. Showers’ death was caused by drowning. He was 45.
Comments OffFrank DiLeo
Filed under: Actors, Music Agents — Tags: Frank DiLeo — admin @ 11:50 am
Born October 23, 1947 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Frank DiLeo was an American music industry executive and actor, known for his portrayal of gangster Tuddy Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and at one time being Michael Jackson’s manager.
Frank DiLeo died on the morning of August 24, 2011 after experiencing complications following heart surgery
Frank Potenza
Filed under: Television — Tags: Frank Potenza — admin @ 1:51 pm
Frank Potenza was a former New York City police officer who turned to comedy as “Uncle Frank” on his nephew Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show. Potenza, 77 years of age, served as a police officer for two decades and as a private security guard before Kimmel asked him to join his fledgling show as a guard and cast member in 2003.
Potenza died on August 23, 2011.
Comments OffJohn Davies
Filed under: Actors — Tags: John Davies — admin @ 1:31 pm
Born on March 9, 1939 in Paddington, London.
John Davies was the son of the scriptwriter Jack Davies. His credits as a child actor include the title role in David Lean’s Oliver Twist (1948), The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951) and a few episodes of the television series William Tell (1958). He is best known for his adult career as a director and producer of several highly successful British sitcoms. Davies became a BBC production assistant during 1966, being promoted to producer in 1968.[2] During this early period Davies worked on sketch shows such as The World of Beachcomber (1968), the earliest episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969) and The Goodies (1970–72). He also worked on All Gas and Gaiters (1969–70) and the 1972 series of Steptoe and Son.
Davies died from cancer on August 22, 2011 at his home in Blewbury, Oxfordshire.
Comments OffNick Ashford
Filed under: Musicians — Tags: Nick Ashford — admin @ 1:15 pm
Born on May 4, 1942 in Fairfield, South Carolina.
Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson were a husband and wife songwriting/production team and recording artists. Ashford and Simpson met at Harlem’s White Rock Baptist Church in 1963. After having recorded unsuccessfully as a duo, they joined aspiring solo artist and former member of the Ikettes, Joshie Jo Armstead, at the Scepter/Wand label where their compositions were recorded by Ronnie Milsap (”Never Had It So Good”), Maxine Brown (”One Step At A Time”), as well as the Shirelles and Chuck Jackson. Another of the trio’s songs, “Let’s Go Get Stoned”, gave Ray Charles a number one U.S. R&B hit in 1966. That same year Ashford & Simpson joined Motown, where their best-known songs included “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “You’re All I Need To Get By”, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing”, and “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)”. As performers, Ashford and Simpson’s best-known song is “Solid” (1984 US and 1985 UK). The duo was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.
Ashford died in New York on August 22, 2011, of complications from throat cancer.
Comments OffJerry Leiber
Filed under: Songwriter — Tags: Jerry Leiber — admin @ 12:59 pm
Born on April 25,1933
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. Stoller was the composer of the duo and Leiber the lyricist. Their most famous songs include “Hound Dog”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Kansas City”, “Stand By Me” (with Ben E. King), and “On Broadway” (with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil).
Jerry Leiber died in Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 78 on August 22, 2011, from cardio-pulmonary failure.
Comments OffJimmy Sangster
Filed under: Screenwriter — Tags: Jimmy Sangster — admin @ 11:34 am
Born on December 2, 1927.
Jimmy Sangster was an English screenwriter and director, known for his work for horror film producers Hammer Film Productions, including scripts for The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula (US: Horror of Dracula). Sangster originally worked as a production assistant at the studio, as well as assistant director, second unit director, and production manager. After Hammer Films Productions’ success with The Quatermass Xperiment, Sangster was approached to write The Curse of Frankenstein. He later turned to direction with The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust for a Vampire (both 1970) for the studio, but with far less success. His third (and last) film as director was 1972’s Fear in the Night, which resurrected the psychological woman-in-peril thriller Sangster had begun with his script for Taste of Fear in 1961.
Jimmy Sangster died on August 19, 2011 (aged 83).
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