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The Rest in Peace Thread


SteveAJones

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Another Leave it to Beaver Death Goodbye Lumpy Rutherford.

By: Irene Zutell
April 17, 2013

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Source: Getty Images

Frank Bank, aka Leave it to Beaver's Lumpy Rutherford.

Leave It To Beaver was a seminal sitcom, a 24 karat icon of television's golden age. Now, another cast member, Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford, has died at age 71. After his career as a pal of Wally Cleaver's, actor Frank Bank, forever typecast as a dim-witted bully, found success as a financial broker. Another Cleaver pal, the smarmy Eddie Haskell, also had a distinguished post TV career as a member of LAPD.

Audiences have come to expect child stars to implode. It's almost a given that they'll do a downward spiral into drugs or worse - armed robbery and suicide. Yet here was a man who segued from star to businessman, without scandal, shame or criminal record. Why?

Maybe the very content of Leave It To Beaver had something to do with the normal lives of the kids in the cast. The show broke new ground. Unlike contemporaries Ozzie and Harriet or Father Knows Best, where the kids were merely set dressing for the parents, Leave It To Beaver stories invariably revolved around Beaver or his older Brother Wally. The stories were told from their point of view. Each was almost an American mid-century suburban version of an Aesop fable. Beaver would do something thoughtless or selfish or careless or deceitful and by episode's end, karma would hit him right in the face and he'd wind up having to atone for his transgression. Many times, his Mom and Dad would disagree on the right course of action and discuss it in the kitchen as Beaver slept - or eavesdropped at the top of the stairs.

Beaver and Wally, and their pals Eddie Haskell and Lumpy Rutherford, were a complete breed apart from today's horrific sitcom children. They didn't mouth off. They were actual kids playing average kids - not secret rock stars or internet moguls. They were always respectful — even if it was fake, as in Eddie's case. Their parents knew more than they did. Their actions had consequences. Failure - in school or on the playing field - wasn't whitewashed with an undeserved "awesome!" and a "participation trophy." There was more reality in an episode of Leave It To Beaver than in an entire season of any given show today.

Leave It To Beaver, despite the requisite Hollywood coating of nice, had some pretty solid moral underpinnings. And maybe that's why Eddie and Lumpy, Wally and the Beaver did just fine once the show was over.

Ironically, Beaver premiered the day Sputnik was launched. And was cancelled a few weeks prior to JFK's assassination. A golden age indeed.

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Criss Crossed Out

Chris Kelly, of rap duo Kriss Kross, dies in Georgia

10:44 PM, May 1, 2013 |

Associated Press

ATLANTA — Authorities in Georgia say Chris Kelly, a member of the 90s rap duo Kriss Kross, has died in Atlanta.

Investigator Betty Honey of the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office said the 34-year-old Kelley was pronounced dead around 5 p.m. Wednesday at the south campus of the Atlanta Medical Center.

Honey said authorities are unsure of Kelly’s cause of death and that an autopsy has yet to be performed.

Kelly, known as “Mac Daddy” performed alongside Chris Smith, known as “Daddy Mac,” in the early and mid-90s. The duo might be best remembered for the song “Jump” from their 1992 debut album, “Totally Krossed Out.”

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Slayer Guitarist dies at 49.

Thrash metal guitar god Jeff Hanneman has died from liver failure.

The 49-year-old founding member of Slayer was hospitalized in Southern California, according to the band's Facebook page. "Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother ... passed away at about 11 a.m. this morning," says the statement posted Thursday evening.

The musician hadn't been on the road with Slayer since 2011, when he contracted
necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease, most likely brought on by a spider bite. It's unclear whether that illness was connected to his death.

Fellow musicians quickly tweeted their condolences. "RIP TO A TITAN OF METAL," wrote Disturbed vocalist David Draiman on Twitter. "WOW ... I'm in shock," tweeted former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. Black Label Society and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zykk Wylde wrote, "RIP brother. You will be missed."

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Slayer Guitarist dies at 49.

Thrash metal guitar god Jeff Hanneman has died from liver failure.

The 49-year-old founding member of Slayer was hospitalized in Southern California, according to the band's Facebook page. "Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother ... passed away at about 11 a.m. this morning," says the statement posted Thursday evening.

The musician hadn't been on the road with Slayer since 2011, when he contracted

necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease, most likely brought on by a spider bite. It's unclear whether that illness was connected to his death.

Fellow musicians quickly tweeted their condolences. "RIP TO A TITAN OF METAL," wrote Disturbed vocalist David Draiman on Twitter. "WOW ... I'm in shock," tweeted former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. Black Label Society and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zykk Wylde wrote, "RIP brother. You will be missed."

Damn! What kind of spider bite was it? 49 is very young to have such an adverse reaction to one. My condolences to his family, bandmates and fans.

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Very sad to hear that Ray Harryhausen has passed away, aged 92.

He must have inspired and scared many of us in our youth.

So sad, I was a HUGE fan of "Jason and the Argonauts" as early as 1st grade. He was a master at his craft.

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Director George Lucas: "Ray has been a great inspiration to us all in the special visual industry. The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much. Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have been no Star Wars."

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Ray Harryhausen dies at 92; special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen pioneered stop-motion animation, creating classics such as 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms,' and 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.' Without his work, 'there never would have been a "Star Wars" or a "Jurassic Park,''' Steven Spielberg said.

By Dennis McLellan, Special to the Los Angeles Times

May 7, 2013, 12:49 p.m.

Ray Harryhausen, the stop-motion animation legend whose work on "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," "Jason and the Argonauts" and other science fiction and fantasy film classics made him a cult figure who inspired later generations of filmmakers and special-effects artists, has died. He was 92.

Harryhausen died Tuesday in London, where he had lived for decades. His death was confirmed by Kenneth Kleinberg, his longtime legal representative in the United States.

In the pre-computer-generated-imagery era in which he worked, Harryhausen used the painstaking process of making slight adjustments to the position of his three-dimensional, ball-and-socket-jointed scale models and then shooting them frame-by-frame to create the illusion of movement. Footage of his exotic beasts and creatures was later often combined with live action.

Working with modest budgets and typically with only two or three assistants -- if any -- to keep costs down, Harryhausen created innumerable memorable big-screen moments.

In "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" (1953), a dinosaur thawed out by A-bomb testing in the Arctic goes on a Big Apple rampage in which it devours a New York cop before meeting its demise at Coney Island.

In "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963), the mythological hero Jason, played by Todd Armstrong, slays a seven-headed hydra guarding the Golden Fleece, then Jason and two of his men battle seven sword-wielding warrior skeletons that spring from the hydra's scattered teeth.

In "The Valley of Gwangi" (1969), a group of turn-of-the-20th-century cowboys on horseback attempt to lasso the movie title's namesake, a 14-foot Tyrannosaurus rex, to capture it for a Wild West show.

And who can forget the prehistoric flying reptile that scoops up and carries off Raquel Welch, clad in an animal-skin bikini, in "One Million Years BC" (1966)?

The fantasy world of Ray Harryhausen inspired Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron and many other filmmakers, some of whom have paid cinematic homage to the special-effects maestro.

In Pixar's 2001 animated feature "Monsters Inc.," a Monstropolis restaurant is named after Harryhausen.

Director Robert Rodriguez's "Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams" included a Harryhausen-inspired multiple-skeleton swordfight and a closing-credit thank you to Harryhausen.

And Lucas' "Star Wars: Episode 2 -- Attack of the Clones" featured a gladiator-style scene, including two shots set up exactly like ones Harryhausen devised for his 1958 classic "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad."

"I had seen some other fantasy films before, but none of them had the sort of awe that the Ray Harryhausen movies had," Lucas said in "The Harryhausen Chronicles," a 1998 documentary written and directed by film critic and historian Richard Schickel.

In 1992, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Harryhausen with the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for technical achievement.

As part of a Hollywood contingent that wrote letters and donated money to get Harryhausen a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, Spielberg wrote: "Without Harryhausen's effects work over the last five decades, there never would have been a 'Star Wars' or a 'Jurassic Park.'

His films continue to set our imagination on fire."

For Harryhausen, it all began with a giant gorilla named Kong.

Born in Los Angeles on June 29, 1920, Harryhausen was 13 when he saw "King Kong" during its run at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

"I haven't been the same since," he is repeatedly quoted as saying over the years.

Edited by SteveAJones
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FILM DIRECTOR BRYAN FORBES WHO DIRECTED 'THE STEPFORD WIVES'

Veteran film director and author Bryan Forbes has died at the age of 86 following a long illness.

The creator of 1970s classic horror film The Stepford Wives died surrounded by family members at his home in Virginia Water, Surrey.

After working as an actor in London’s West End, Mr Forbes went on to become one of the UK’s most respected directors.

He released a string of hits, including 1961’s Whistle Down the Wind, which he later described as his most popular film.

His varied work was recognised in 2004 when the director was awarded a CBE for services to the arts and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.

Mr Forbes counted the late Queen Mother amongst his friends and worked with some of the UK’s most high-profile stars, including Roger Moore, Elton John and Michael Caine.

In an interview with the Daily Mail last June, Mr Forbes revealed that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1975 before doctors later admitted they had made a mistake.

Born in Stratford, East London, in 1926, Mr Forbes trained as an actor at prestigious drama school RADA before serving in the military for three years.

Following a number of minor acting roles he set up a production company with his friend Richard Attenborough in 1959, only taking charge of Whistle Down the Wind - his first film behind the lens - when an established director was forced to pull out.

Journalist and author Matthew D’Ancona, a family friend, described Mr Forbes as ‘simply irreplaceable’.

He said: ‘Bryan Forbes was a titan of cinema, known and loved by people around the world in the film and theatre industries and known in other fields including politics.

‘He is simply irreplaceable and it is wholly apt that he died surrounded by his family.’

As an actor he appeared in the 1955 film The Colditz Story. He also began to write for the screen, receiving his first full credit for The Cockleshell Heroes in the same year.

In 1964, Forbes wrote and directed Séance on a Wet Afternoon. In 1965 he went to Hollywood to make King Rat.

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He released a string of hits, including 1961's Whistle Down the Wind, which he later described as his most popular film

article-2321657-00C377B61000044C-864_634

The creator of 1970s classic horror film The Stepford Wives died surrounded by family members at his home in Virginia Water, Surrey

Forbes was married to actress and Sixties pin-up Nanette Newman, who he wed in 1955 after divorcing his first wife Constance Smith.

The couple had two daughters, TV presenter Emma Forbes and journalist Sarah Standing.

Over his lengthy career, Mr Forbes juggled a plethora of interests, including owning a bookshop for 37 years that contained 10,000 books.

He was also the president of EMI Elstree studios, wrote a regular column for the Spectator magazine and penned two autobiographies.



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Actress Jeanne Cooper died of an undisclosed illness Wednesday at the age of 84. Cooper is best known for portraying Kay Chancellor on the soap opera, The Young and the Restless. She was the mother of actor Corbin Benson.

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