Year: 2011

Billie Wayne Grammar (August 28, 1925 – August 10, 2011), known professionally as Billy Grammar, was an American country music singer and noted guitar player. He is best known for the million-selling "Gotta Travel On", which made it onto both the country and pop music charts in 1959. It was Grammar’s first hit record, and his most enduring.

In 1990, Grammar was inducted into the Illinois Country Music Hall of Fame, along with Tex Williams, Lulu Belle and Scotty, and Patsy Montana. Grammar suffers from a degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa. He became completely blind. On February 27, 2009, he was honored by the Grand Ole Opry for his 50 years as a member.

Billy Grammer cause of death
Grammar died on August 10, 2011, at 12:20 a.m. He was in Benton Hospital being treated for a long-term illness, which included suffering a heart attack in January.
Billy Grammer was 85 years old at the time of his death.  He was eighteen days short of his 86th birthday.

Gotta Travel On – Billy Grammer

Francesco Daniele Quinn (March 22, 1963 – August 5, 2011) was an Italian-born American actor. The third son of Oscar winner Anthony Quinn, Francesco is perhaps best known for his breakout role as Rhah in Oliver Stone’s Academy Award-winning Platoon (1986).

Francesco Quinn appeared in many feature films including the New York Independent Film Festival winner Placebo Effect. He acted with his father in several films, including A Star For Two with Lauren Bacall. The two Quinns also had the opportunity to share the role of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, son and father playing the character as a young and old man.

Francesco Quinn has appeared extensively in television guest star roles in crime and thriller dramas.
He also voiced Mirage/Dino in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Francesco Quinn cause of death
Francesco Quinn died on August 5, 2011, in Malibu after a heart attack.
Francesco Quinn was 48 years old at the time of his death

Interview with Francesco Quinn

Annette Charles (March 5, 1948 – August 3, 2011) was an American actress, probably best remembered for her role as "Cha Cha" DiGregorio in Grease. She has made several appearances on television, as well.

Charles was born Annette Cardona in Los Angeles, California. She speech at California State University, Northridge.

Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith (February 28, 1945 – August 3, 2011) was an American actor and former athlete. He was a professional football player in the 1960s and 1970s who became an actor in the late 1970s.  He was well known for his tremendous size at 6 ft 7 in (2 m).

He is perhaps best known for his role as Moses Hightower in the Police Academy movie series

Smith spent nine seasons in the NFL as a defensive end. He was the first overall selection in the 1967 NFL draft, chosen by the Baltimore Colts. The Colts won Super Bowl V at the end of the 1970 season, earning Smith his only Super Bowl ring.

Bubba Smith cause of death
Bubba Smith was found dead in his home on August 3, 2011, apparently of natural causes

Police Academy – Bubba Smith

The Barrett Sisters are an American award-winning gospel trio from Chicago, Illinois. The trio consists of sisters DeLois Barrett Campbell, Billie Barrett GreenBey and Rodessa Barrett Porter. They have been singing together for more than 40 years.

The eldest Barrett sister, Delois Barrett Campbell, died August 2, 2011. She was 85.

Delois Barrett Campbell sitting down.

Gene McDaniels (February 12, 1935 – July 29, 2011) was an American singer and songwriter, who had his greatest recording success in the early 1960s.

Born Eugene Booker McDaniels had six Top 40 hits in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The two that went into the Top 5 were 1961’s "Tower of Strength" (#5 on the pop chart) and "A Hundred Pounds of Clay," which reached #3 on the pop chart, and sold over one million records, earning gold disc status.

In 1974, Roberta Flack reached #1 with McDaniels’ "Feel Like Makin’ Love", which she won a Grammy Award.

Eugene McDaniels cause of death
Eugene McDaniels died after a brief illness.
Eugene McDaniels was 76 years old at the time of his death.

A Hundred Pounds of Clay – Eugene McDaniels

Feel Like Makin’ Love – Written by Eugene McDaniels

Hideki Irabu (May 5, 1969 – July 27, 2011) was a professional baseball player of Okinawan and American mixed ancestry. He played professionally in both Japan and the United States.

Irabu made his highly publicized debut in The US on July 10, 1997.  He played with the Yankees from 1997 through 1999, winning two World Series rings (1998, 1999).  1998 was Irabu’s best season in MLB, featuring career bests in games started (28), complete games (2), innings pitched (173), wins (13), and ERA (4.06).

After the 1999 season, he was traded to the Montreal Expos. He started only 14 games for the Expos in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, he signed as a free agent to pitch for the Texas Rangers as a closer. At the end of the year, Irabu moved back to Japan.

Hideki Irabu cause of death
Hideki Irabu was found dead in his home near Los Angeles on July 27, 2011 in an apparent suicide by hanging.

Jeret "Speedy" Peterson (December 12, 1981 – July 25, 2011) was an American World Cup aerial skier from Boise, Idaho, skiing out of Bogus Basin. A three-time Olympian, he won the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Jeret Peterson cause of death
On July 25, 2011, Peterson was found dead in Lambs Canyon, Utah. The cause of death was determined to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Three days previously, Peterson had been arrested for driving while intoxicated. In Italy, he was still reeling from the suicide of a friend named Trevor Fernald, who had committed suicide and been found by Peterson only months before. Peterson also had problems with alcohol and depression and admitted he had his own thoughts of suicide, all stemming from a childhood in which he was sexually abused and lost his 5-year-old sister to a drunk driver.

Speedy Peterson with The Hurricane at Deer Valley

Gervais Duan "G. D." Spradlin (August 31, 1920 – July 24, 2011) was an American actor. He often played devious authority figures. He is credited in over 70 television and film productions, and has performed alongside such notable actors as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, and George C. Scott, among others.

Spradlin portrayed a corrupt U.S. Senator from Nevada, Pat Geary, in The Godfather, Part II. He also played a conspirator in the attempted assassination of a state governor in Nick of Time. Among his film credits are One on One (1977) (as an authoritarian basketball coach), Apocalypse Now (as the general who assigns Martin Sheen’s character to the search mission). He played the head football coach B.A. Strother of the North Dallas Forty (1979), General Durrell the commandant of the "Carolina Military Academy" in the 1983 movie The Lords of Discipline, and Ed Wood and The Long Kiss Goodnight, as the President of the United States.

In 1984, Spradlin played a villainous Southern sheriff in Tank. In 1988, he played Admiral Raymond A. Spruance in the miniseries War and Remembrance. In 1989, Spradlin played a small role in the film War of the Roses as a divorce lawyer, with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Spradlin retired from acting after his last film, Dick (1999), in which he played Ben Bradlee. He appeared in the Electronic Arts Godfather II video game in 2009.

GD Spradlin cause of death
GD Spradlin died of natural causes at his cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo.

America (band) – Best new Artist

Dan Peek on Left

Dan Peek (November 1, 1950 – July 24, 2011) was a member of the rock band, America, from 1970 to 1977, together with Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell. He contributed lead and backing vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, and harmonica to their recordings during his tenure in the band. As a member of America, Peek contributed with four Top 100 singles: "Don’t Cross The River" (#35), his most successful single "Lonely People" hit (#5), "Woman Tonight" (#44), and "Today’s the Day" (#23). "Lonely People" and "Today’s the Day" also hit number 1 on the Billboard AC charts. Although he did not write them, "Ventura Highway", "Sister Golden Hair", "Tin Man (song)", and "A Horse with No Name" are also collaborations of Peek’s.

Dan Peek Cause of Death
Dan Peek died of undisclosed causes on July 24, 2011
Dan Peek was 60 years old at the time of his death

CBN American folk rock band America Dan Peek