Obituary

[NOV]

[tscii]
Actor David Carradine Dead At 72
The 'Kill Bill' and 'Kung Fu' star was found in his hotel room in Thailand, where he was filming a movie.

"Kill Bill" and the man behind the legendary 1970s TV series "Kung Fu," has died at age 72.

Carradine was reportedly found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand, either late Wednesday or early Thursday morning. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death to The Associated Press but would provide no further details out of respect for Carradine's family.

Citing unidentified police sources, the Thai English-language newspaper The Nation has reported that Carradine was found hanged in a luxury hotel room and died as a result of suicide, though other sources say he died of natural causes.

Carradine was staying in Bangkok while filming a movie, according to Fox News. The film's crew noticed his absence when they went out to a restaurant. A producer went to Carradine's room and discovered the actor had died.

Carradine appeared in the late '60s Western series "Shane" and went on to portray Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in "Kung Fu" from 1972 to 1975, a role he reprised in a TV-movie and a '90s TV series. Carradine appeared in over 100 feature films, but perhaps his most well-known recent movie was as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films. MTV News spoke with Carradine in February, and the actor talked hopefully about returning to work with Tarantino on another "Bill" installment.

"[Tarantino] planned an anime version of the life of Bill before the movie — which would have to be anime because I'm not getting any younger," Carradine said.

[groucho070]

Just saw it in the morning. Wonder why? Nalla thaaney iruntharu manusan.

Well, RIP Grasshopper.

[Wibha]

And Farrah Fawcett :| :cry:

RIP!!

[NOV]

[tscii:55c5e92a1e]Michael Jackson dead at 50


LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Jackson, the sensationally gifted child star who rose to become the “King of Pop” and the biggest celebrity in the world only to fall from his throne in a freakish series of scandals, died Thursday, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. He was 50.

The person said Jackson died in a Los Angeles hospital. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear. Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30 p.m., Capt. Steve Ruda told the Los Angeles Times. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the newspaper.

Jackson’s death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music’s premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album “Thriller” — which included the blockbuster hits “Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” — remains the biggest-selling album of all time, with more than 26 million copies.

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched voice punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks second only to his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

By some measures, he ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. In fact, he united two of music’s biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie.

As years went by, he became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grownup life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, often wore a germ mask while traveling and kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him. The case took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Jackson was preparing for what was to be his greatest comeback: He was scheduled for an unprecedented 50 shows at a London arena, with the first set for July 13. He was in rehearsals in Los Angeles for the concert, an extravaganza that was to capture the classic Jackson magic: showstopping dance moves, elaborate staging and throbbing dance beats.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital as word of his death spread. The emergency entrance at the UCLA Medical Center, which is near Jackson’s rented home, was roped off with police tape.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson has just died,” a woman boarding a Manhattan bus called out, shortly after the news was annunced. Immediately many riders reached for their cell phones.

In New York’s Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

“No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow,” Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend sent to his telephone. “It’s like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died.”

[/tscii:55c5e92a1e]

[NOV]

for obituary msgs for Michael Jackson, please go to dedicated thread here: http://tfmpage.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?p=1832307#1832307

[groucho070]

Liked or not, he made quite an impact, especially in the 80s.

R.I.P John Hughes.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/08/07/creator-of-home-alone-dies-at-59-115875-21578100/

Creator of Home Alone dies at 59

By Allison Martin 7/08/2009

SHOWBIZ

Home Alone creator John Hughes has died of a heart attack aged 59.

The writer, producer and director, collapsed during a morning walk in New York while visiting family.

Hughes wrote and produced Home Alone I and II, starring Macaulay Culkin. The first was the top grossing film of 1990.

He was also director of a number of successful 80s coming-of-age films, including The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Born in Michigan, Hughes began his career as an advertising copywriter in Chicago.

The last film he directed was the comedy Curly Sue in 1991, starring Jim Belushi and Kelly Lynch.

But he turned his back on Hollywood to run a farm in northern Illinois.

Hughes leaves his wife of 39 years, Nancy, two sons, John and James, and four grandchildren.

[NOV]

[tscii:8e8e8f4034]John Hughes, director of Planes Trains & Automobiles (percussor to Anbe Sivam), Home Alone, Ferris Buellers Day Off, etc, passed away last Thursday.



Commentary: Filmmaker John Hughes fondly remembered
By A. O. Scott


I've reached the age when my children sometimes ask, "Dad, what were things like in the olden days, when you were a teenager?" They mean the 1980s, and it's not so easy to explain. The ancient past never is.

But in a pinch I can turn to "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." The haircuts, the music, the clothes — it's all there, and also something of the buoyancy and confusion of being young in those days when VCRs were still a novelty, and vinyl records were not yet obsolete, when text was not a verb and the potential of the Internet was something not even the nerds of "Weird Science" could intuit.

John Hughes, who died on Aug. 6 at 59, directed only eight films, of which the four I've mentioned are the best. All but his last, "Curly Sue," belong to the '80s, a decade in which Hughes was also busy as a producer, a screenwriter and a pop-culture embodiment of the age. Historians of cinema may be slow or begrudging in appreciating his achievement, but if auteur status is conferred by the possession of a recognizable style and set of themes, Hughes' place in the pantheon cannot be denied.

Especially for those of us born between the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Bicentennial, the phrase "a John Hughes movie" will instantly conjure a range of images and associations, including the smooth, pale faces of a bevy of young actors. I cringe at the phrase "brat pack," but there they are: Judd Nelson, Jon Cryer, Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Anthony Michael Hall.

And above all, of course, Molly Ringwald, the ginger-haired teenager who, from 1984 to '86, was for Hughes what James Stewart had been for Frank Capra at the end of the Great Depression, and what Anna Karina had been for Jean-Luc Godard in the mid-'60s: an emblem, a muse, a poster child and an alter ego.

Especially in "Sixteen Candles" and "Pretty in Pink" (directed by Howard Deutch from Hughes' script), she represented his romantic ideal of the artist as misfit, sensitive and misunderstood, aspiring to wider acceptance but reluctant to compromise too much.

In "Sixteen Candles" she's Sam, the neglected younger sister and social oddball; in "Pretty in Pink" she is Andie, a poor girl in a sea of affluence. That both characters have boys' names is evidence of just how much their author identified with them.

Shortly after I heard the shocking news of Hughes' death, I was talking to a friend of mine, a few years older than I am, who had seen almost none of those movies. The half-decade gap in our ages made all the difference. While I was in high school, in my own private breakfast club, she was a budding undergraduate cinephile, dressing in black and watching Godard movies.

But I don't think I'm alone among my cohorts in the belief that John Hughes was our Godard, the filmmaker who crystallized our attitudes and anxieties with just the right blend of teasing and sympathy. Godard described "Masculin Féminin," his 1966 vehicle for Jean-Pierre Léaud and Karina, as a portrait of "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola." McCarthy and Ringwald, in "Pretty in Pink," were corresponding icons for the children of Ronald Reagan and New Coke.

Which is not to say — I hasten to tell the children of Barack Obama and Vitamin Water — that movies provide a literal or comprehensive picture of that time. A lot of stuff is left out. Politics, for one thing. Black people, for another. And like many other filmmakers who solicit the favor of young audiences, Hughes has been faulted for smoothing over too many rough edges and softening harsh social and psychological realities.

The response, which will never satisfy some critics, is that his films are fables, not documentaries. These comic dramas may seem juvenile, but they have a classicism — an attention to nuances of dialogue, an elegance of narrative design — that places them well within the noble tradition of Hollywood romance. The spirit of Ernst Lubitsch smiles on "Sixteen Candles," and some of Preston Sturges' mischief inhabits "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

In any case, it is as fairy tales rendered from experience, rather than as blunt records of life, that his mid-'80s movies live on. They capture — with a winning mixture of optimism and melancholy, with a generosity of spirit tempered by a punitive sense of right and wrong — something essential in the experience of youth.

Not only in that specific era, but also before and, I'm guessing, since. Like most artists who are perceived as the voice of a generation, Hughes did not belong to the generation in question. He was a baby boomer, a member of the high school class of 1968 in Northbrook, Ill. And his vision of the classes of 1984 and after was certainly colored by a post-'60s sense of wariness and counter-counterculture suspicion.

A few years ago an article in Slate pegged Hughes as a conservative, even a reactionary, whose celebration of rebellion had more to do with the middle-class resentments that brought Reagan into office than with residual anti-establishment radicalism. The answers to this accusation are: maybe so, and so what?

It is true that while his heroes, most notably Ferris Bueller and the members of the Breakfast Club, are in conflict with authority, they are also stubborn in their individualism and often unapologetically materialistic. Which is part of what makes them authentic, and authentically confused.

The unspecified North Shore Chicago suburb where most of these stories take place is, at first glance and in its own mind, a paradise of uniformity and privilege. And this setting, rather than being the facile hell imagined in movies like "American Beauty," is shown as a genuine expression of the American utopian ideal, a pastoral city on a hill where everyone is comfortable and everyone's the same.

The paradox is that most people feel, and want to be, different. Not to smash the system or flee its clutches, but rather to find a place within it where they can be themselves, even if they like strange music, come from a poorer family or favor eccentric styles of dress. That desire is what motivates Sam, the birthday girl in "Sixteen Candles," and it also drives both the cocky Ferris Bueller and his nervous buddy Cameron.

The great, paradoxical insight of "The Breakfast Club" is that alienation is the norm, that nerds, jocks, stoners, popular girls and weirdos are all, in their own ways, outsiders.

Adolescence is the stage at which this contradiction is most acute, and its possible resolution most tantalizing. And when Hughes moved outside of that zone, into childhood or early adulthood, a sour, hostile undertone crept into his films. You see this in the brutal slapstick of "Home Alone" (which he wrote and produced but did not direct) and the eruptions of misogyny in "She's Having a Baby," and also in the belligerence of John Candy, who replaced Ringwald as Hughes' second self in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and "Uncle Buck."

So you might say that, as an artist, John Hughes never outgrew high school. And it's a little eerie that Hughes died so soon after Michael Jackson, another fixture of '80s popular culture locked in perpetual youth.

Their deaths make me feel old, but more than that, they make me aware of belonging to a generation that has yet to figure out adulthood, for whom life can feel like a long John Hughes movie. You know the one. That Spandau Ballet song is playing at the big dance. You remember the lyrics, even if it's been years since you heard them last. This is the sound of my soul. I bought a ticket to the world, but now I've come back again. Why do I find it hard to write the next line?

http://www.mercurynews.com/style/ci_13047430?nclick_check=1[/tscii:8e8e8f4034]

[groucho070]

I posted the news earlier...but no response. I guess our Hubbers either don't know him, or like him, or experienced the 80s filled with his films...most of which I didn't like, but were important landmarks of the American pop culture.

[NOV]

most of which I didn't like...which means I like them very much :lol2:

loved FBOD and felt very aligned to the film. needless to say as a steve martin fan, watched PTA in the cinema and thorougly enjoyed it. HA is defintely good.

RIP Hughes. :cry:

[groucho070]

PTA was good. Inspiration for Anbe Sivam.

[NOV]

Patrick Swayze dies at 57 of pancreatic cancer

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/15/nation/20090915091150&sec=nation

[html:c9cba160bc]
http://stupidcelebrities.net/wp-content/patrickswayzeretna_468x666.jpg
[/html:c9cba160bc]

August 18, 1952 - Sept 14, 2009



LOS ANGELES: Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.

He had kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot.

It drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran on the cable television station in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.

Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance.

He acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009.

"Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing."

As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort's sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.

It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

And it allowed him to poke fun at himself on a "Saturday Night Live" episode, in which he played a would-be Chippendales exotic dancer alongside the corpulent - and frighteningly shirtless - Chris Farley.

A major crowd-pleaser, "Dirty Dancing" drew only mixed reviews from critics, though Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "Given the limitations of his role, that of a poor but handsome sex-object abused by the rich women at Kellerman's Mountain House, Mr. Swayze is also good. ... He's at his best - as is the movie - when he's dancing."

Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action film "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar.

But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side.

He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) - with great frustration and longing - through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody."

It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image.

The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho," he told the AP then.

But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognise him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane.

Swayze played Darrel "Dary" Curtis, the oldest of three wayward brothers - and essentially the father figure - in a poor family in small-town Oklahoma. Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.

In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill.

He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse.

In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A."

The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Swayze had a couple of movies in the works when his diagnosis was announced, including the drama "Powder Blue," starring Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker and his younger brother, Don, which was scheduled for release this year.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, People magazine reported in a cover story. - AP

[groucho070]

RIP.

[groucho070]

Ronnie James Dio.....saddest day for Hard Rock/Metal fans. RIP man!

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/05/17/ronnie.dio.obit/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

Condolences continued to pour in late Sunday night following the death of heavy metal rocker Ronnie James Dio, who lost his battle with stomach cancer earlier in the day.

"Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45 a.m. 16th May," his wife, Wendy Dio, said in a message on his official website.
Dio, 67, followed Ozzy Osbourne as Black Sabbath's lead vocalist in 1979.

"Many, many friends and family were able to say their private goodbyes before he peacefully passed away," she wrote. "Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all."

The rock community paid tribute to Dio in messages late Sunday.
"In addition to his powerhouse vocal ability, Ronnie was a true gentleman who always emanated great warmth and friendship to us and everyone around him," KISS said. "We will miss him."
Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian called Dio's death a big loss.

"So many memories of Ronnie. Toured together many times. He always had a kind word and a smile, and he loved the Yankees," Ian said.

Musician Slash summed up the loss in one sentence: "Ronnie died at 7:45 a.m., but his music will live for eternity."

Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx, who became friends with Dio while touring Europe, said the rocker will be missed.

"I still have this image of him standing on stage in front of 100,000 belting out 'Man on the Silver Mountain' and remember the shivers it sent up my spine," Sixx said.

He called Dio "one of the kindest souls I have ever met and his talent was beyond inspirational to so many of us."

"Those of us that had the opportunity to know Ronnie can tell you what a wonderful and passionate man he was," Sixx said.

Dio most recently was touring with Heaven and Hell, a version of Black Sabbath renamed for legal reasons. All shows were canceled last March because of his illness.

His last public appearance was in April at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards when he accepted a vocalist of the year award for his work on last year's Heaven and Hell album. Dio appeared frail, but he spoke while accepting his award.

Born Ronald James Padavona in 1942, Dio's professional music career began as a high school student in the late 1950s.

His 1960s rock group The Electric Elves evolved into Elf by the early 1970s, when the group played heavy blues rock.

Dio's rock became darker with his band Rainbow, which he left in 1979 to join Black Sabbath.

Black Sabbath released three albums with Dio, including "Heaven and Hell" in 1980, "Mob Rules" in 1981 and "Live Evil" in 1982.
Dio left that band in 1982, but he had a brief reunion with the group a decade later.

He formed the group Dio in 1982 and later Heaven and Hell.

[venkkiram]

Sidney Lumet :cry:

Director of too many classic films to count, from 12 Angry Men through Fail-Safe, The Pawnbroker, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Serpico, Network, Dog Day Afternoon, Murder on the Orient Express, Prince of the City, The Verdict, Daniel, Family Business and his last film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Lumet

ஆழ்ந்த இரங்கல்! நீங்கள் மறைந்தாலும், உங்கள் படைப்புக்கள் அழியா!

[ajithfederer]

Rest in Peace sidney lumet.

[groucho070]

Oh man!!! Lumet :cry: He was so active making movies into his grand old age. What a contribution to the film industry.

[rajraj]

Etta James passed away! :( May her soul rest in peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YApNirMC9gM&feature=related


There are a few other singers I used to listen to -Connie Francis, Doris Day,Aretha Franklin,.......

[raagadevan]

Whitney Houston Dies at Age 48

"In pictures: Whitney Houston's life"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17001559

"I will always love you..."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPHCThqqt0s

[NOV]

LOS ANGELES - Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.
Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown.

News of Houston's death came on the eve of music's biggest night — the Grammy Awards. It's a showcase where she once reigned, and her death was sure to case a heavy pall on Sunday's ceremony. Houston's longtime mentor Clive Davis was to hold his annual concert and dinner Saturday; it was unclear if it was going to go forward.

At her peak, Houston the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.

Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."

She had the he perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.

She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.

But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.

Video: Whitney Houston's ups and downs

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.

It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.

She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.

Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.

"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother's act in a club ... it was such a stunning impact," Davis told "Good Morning America."

"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.

Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with "Whitney Houston," which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. "Saving All My Love for You" brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. "How Will I Know," "You Give Good Love" and "The Greatest Love of All" also became hit singles.

RIP oh Great one! :bow:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agnIXp5LN9c&feature=related

[V_S]

Unbelievable news! She is very young to die. What a great and sensational voice she had!. Tragic! :sad: May her soul rest in peace

[Divine22]

My fav Whitney songs : school days ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ZR8QtKV1s

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKBLK6CcIlU&feature=related

[rajraj]

Dick Clark.

May his soul rest in peace.

Here is something to remember from the 60s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSkigLWYrck

[ajaybaskar]

"Top Gun" director Tony Scott fatally jumped off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro on Sunday afternoon, according to Los Angeles police sources. His body was pulled out of the water by Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard officials.

[For the record, 9:48 p.m. Aug. 19: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said a suicide note was found in Scott's car, which was parked on the bridge. In fact, the note found in his car listed contact information. Investigators later found a suicide note at his office.]

Law enforcement sources said several witnesses saw Scott, the brother of director Ridley Scott, climb over a fence on the bridge and jump off. The coroner's office identified him Sunday evening. Scott was a respected action-movie director who also made "Enemy of the State," "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "Crimson Tide."

[kid-glove]

Never really liked most of his stuff, but very very tragic. :(

[satissh_r]

Arnold Schwarzenegger is no more...
Gr8 loss to hollywood...

RIP his soul.. :(


Please confirm your sources before posting such news.. I don't see any such news on the web

[satissh_r]

http://www.accesskollywood.com/news-id-arnold-schwarzenegger-died-arnold-schwarzenegger-16-10-123863.htm

When the whole world media isn't reporting any such news you expect us to believe a site called accesskollywood?

[satissh_r]

http://www.emirates247.com/entertainment/celebrity-gossip/schwarzenegger-dead-arnie-hoax-gets-viral-action-on-twitter-2012-10-16-1.479164

This is what I could find

[Senareb]

avasarapattutten...i del. my posts..pls. del. urs also.

[NOV]

James Garner dies at 86

http://talesfromahungrylife.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/jamesgarner.jpg http://static3.bornrichimages.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/jgarn.jpg

(CNN) -- James Garner, the understated, wisecracking everyman actor who enjoyed multi-generational success on both the small and big screen, has died. He was 86.
Police, who were called to his residence Saturday night in Los Angeles, say he died of natural causes.
Garner starred in hit TV series almost 20 years apart -- "Maverick" in the late 1950s and "The Rockford Files" in the 1970s. He also had a notable film career, starring in such classics as "Sayonara" (1957), "The Great Escape" (1963), "The Americanization of Emily" (1964), "Grand Prix" (1966) and "Victor/Victoria" (1982), as well as the TV movies "My Name Is Bill W." (1989) and "Barbarians at the Gate" (1993). More recent films included "Space Cowboys" (2000) and "The Notebook" (2004).

[raagadevan]

The Best Robin Williams Moments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1uWvvMsL5w

[raagadevan]

RIP!

Actor-director Richard Attenborough dies at 90

“Gandhi,” Attenborough’s 1982 film about the life of Mohandas Gandhi, the nonviolent spiritual and political leader of India’s fight for independence from British rule, won eight Academy Awards, including a best actor Oscar for Ben Kingsley. With “Gandhi,” Attenborough not only won the Oscar for best director but, as the film's producer, he also took home the best picture Oscar.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-richard-attenborough-dies-20140824-story.html#page=1

[venkkiram]

Rest in peace Richard Attenborough!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1U_1G-O_QM8/UwEsrPGogTI/AAAAAAAAfcU/w-IhN1C3yYw/s1600/JurassicPark_370Pyxurz.jpg

[RAGHAVENDRA]

http://www.celebritiesfans.com/media/pictures/richard_attenborough.jpg

An icon of cinema beyond generations..

May His Soul Rest in Peace

[mahendra raj]

Pughazenthi, 78, who was one of Kaviarasu Kannadhasan's earlier assistant who went on to become AC Thirulogachander's permanent Associate Director since the early sixties died in Doha where he was vacationing in his son's house. His remains will be flown today to Thiruvanthapuram and taken to his native house in Kadayanallur, Thirunelveli today.

He use to share with me many interesting stories about his days with both Kannadhasan and ACT.

May his soul rest in peace.

[raagadevan]

Om Puri Passes Away; May His Soul Rest In Peace...

With a body of work so vast and countless memorable roles, Om Puri left the cinema industry
a little poorer as he died on Friday. From Ardh Satya till his latest work in Konkona Sen Sharma's
A Death in the Gunj, the veteran actor stayed true to his talent, keeping audiences riveted everywhere.

Om Puri in Richard Attenborough's GANDI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PYsyl4xBDA

Om Puri - The Package; The Hindu:

http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/Om-Puri-1950-2017/article16999000.ece

[raagadevan]

Goodbye Shashi Kapoor... May His Soul Rest In Peace!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX_hxJa243Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL2YnJsE70w

[raagadevan]

Shashi Kapoor: Remembering Bollywood's crossover star

BBC News - December 5, 2017

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-42233392

[rajraj]

Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul passed away today (8/16/2018).

May her soul Rest In Peace .

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/obituaries/aretha-franklin-dead.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

[raagadevan]

Violinist, composer Balabhaskar passes away

May his soul rest in peace!

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2018/oct/02/violinist-composer-balabhaskar-passes-away-1879966.html