The death of Ronald Todd Milsap, 49, son of country music star Ronnie Milsap, appears to be medically related. He was found deceased this morning on his houseboat at 4 Corners Marina by his son, who had not heard from his father in the past 2 days.
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) February 23, 2019
Morgan Woodward, ‘Dallas’ and ‘Gunsmoke’ Actor, dies 93
Thomas Morgan Woodward (September 16, 1925 – February 22, 2019) was an American actor, best known for his recurring role on the soap opera Dallas as Marvin “Punk” Anderson. He also played Boss Godfrey (the Walking Boss) in Cool Hand Luke (1967), the silent, sunglasses-wearing “man with no eyes”, and he has the most guest appearances on Gunsmoke at 19 episodes.
Woodward died on February 22, 2019 at his house in California.
Cool Hand Luke ‘s Man Behind the Mirrored Glasses with Morgan Woodward
Peter Tork of the Monkees Dies 77
Peter Halsten Thorkelson (February 13, 1942 – February 21, 2019), better known as Peter Tork, was an American musician, composer and actor, best known as the keyboardist and bass guitarist of the Monkees.
On March 3, 2009, Tork reported on his Web site that he had been diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare, slow-growing form of head and neck cancer.
On March 4, 2009, Tork underwent successful surgery in New York City. On June 11, 2009, a spokesman for Tork reported that his cancer had returned. Tork was reportedly “shaken but not stirred” by the news, and said that the doctors had given him an 80% chance of containing and shrinking the new tumor. Tork died from complications of the disease on February 21, 2019, at his home in Mansfield, Connecticut.
Stanley Donen, director of ‘singing in the rain’ and more, dies 94
Stanley Donen (April 13, 1924 – February 21, 2019) was an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are On the Town (1949) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952), both of which starred Gene Kelly who co-directed. His other films include Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Funny Face (1957), Indiscreet (1958), and Charade (1963). He began his career in the chorus line on Broadway for director George Abbott, where he befriended Kelly. From 1943, he was in Hollywood and worked as a choreographer before beginning to collaborate with Kelly. After On the Town, Donen worked as a contract director for MGM under producer Arthur Freed producing critically well-received box-office hits. Donen and Kelly co-directed the musical Singin’ in the Rain, released in April 1952, which has appeared on lists of the best films ever made. Donen’s relationship with Kelly deteriorated during their final collaboration, It’s Always Fair Weather (1955). He then broke his contract with MGM to become an independent producer in 1957. He continued making films throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, often financial successes that gained positive attention. His film output became less frequent in the early 1980s and he briefly returned to the stage as a director in the 1990s and again in 2002.
On February 21, 2019, Donen died at age 94 from heart failure in New York City. In addition to May, he is survived by two sons and a sister.
Singing In The Rain (Gene Kelly)
Karl Lagerfeld, Fashion Designer, Dies 85
Karl Otto Lagerfeld (September, 10 1933 – February, 19 2019) was a German creative director, fashion designer, artist, photographer, and caricaturist who lived in Paris. He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position he held from 1983 until his death, and was also creative director of the Italian fur and leather goods fashion house Fendi, and of his own eponymous fashion label. He collaborated on a variety of fashion and art-related projects. He was recognized for his signature white hair, black sunglasses, fingerless gloves, and high, starched, detachable collars.
Following health complications in January 2019, Lagerfeld was admitted to the American Hospital of Paris in Parisian suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine on 18 February. He died there the following morning from complications of pancreatic cancer.
George Mendonsa, Sailor In Iconic WWII Photo, Dies 95
George Mendonsa, the Navy sailor whose passionate kiss in Times Square symbolized a nation’s exuberance over the end of World War II, has died. He was 95.
James Ingram, singer, ‘Just Once,’ ‘Somewhere Out There’, dies 66
James Edward Ingram (February 16, 1952 – January 29, 2019) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist. He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song.
Since beginning his career in 1973, Ingram had charted eight Top 40 hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart from the early 1980s until the early 1990s, as well as thirteen top 40 hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In addition, he charted 20 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart (including two number-ones). He had two number-one singles on the Hot 100: the first, a duet with fellow R&B artist Patti Austin, 1982’s “Baby, Come to Me” topped the U.S. pop chart in 1983; “I Don’t Have the Heart”, which became his second number-one in 1990 was his only number-one as a solo artist. In between these hits, he also recorded the song “Somewhere Out There” with fellow recording artist Linda Ronstadt for the animated film An American Tail. The song and the music video both became gigantic hits. Ingram co-wrote “The Day I Fall in Love”, from the motion picture Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), and singer Patty Smyth’s “Look What Love Has Done”, from the motion picture Junior (1994), which earned him nominations for Best Original Song from the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Grammy Awards in 1994 and 1995.
James Ingram cause of death
Ingram died on January 29, 2019, from brain cancer, aged 66, at his home in Los Angeles.
James Ingram ” Just Once “
Patti Austin & James Ingram – Baby Come To Me (1983)
Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram – Somewhere Out There
Michel Legrand, composer of ‘Windmills of Your Mind,’ dies 86
Michel Legrand (February 24, 1932 – January 26, 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, he wrote over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many memorable songs. He is best known for his often haunting, jazz-tinged film music. His celebrated scores for the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), earned Legrand his first Academy Award nominations. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song “The Windmills of Your Mind” from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).
Legrand died in Paris on 26 January 2019 at the age of 86. Cause of death was not released. He remained active until his death and had concerts scheduled to take place in the spring.
Windmills of your Mind
James Frawley, TV director, ‘Muppet Movie’ & ‘Monkees’, dies 82
James Frawley (September 29, 1936 – January 22, 2019) was an American director and actor. He was a member of the Actors Studio since around 1961. He was best known for directing The Muppet Movie in 1979 and The Monkees television series.
In 1966, he was hired as a director for the new series The Monkees; he ended up directing half of the series’ 58 episodes.
He began a career of over four decades as a director. TV series he directed included Cagney & Lacey, Smallville, Ghost Whisperer and Judging Amy, along with many others. He directed occasional feature films and television films, most notably The Muppet Movie in 1979, in which he also had a cameo. His last acting role was a bartender in TV’s American Gothic in 1996.
He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series in 1967 for the episode “Royal Flush” of The Monkees, and was nominated for the same award the following year for another Monkees episode, “The Devil and Peter Tork”.
Frawley died in Indian Wells, California on January 22, 2019.
Gloria Greer interviews Jim Frawley