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.
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.
Carol Elaine Channing (January 31, 1921 – January 15, 2019) was an American actress, singer, dancer and comedienne. Known for starring in Broadway and film musicals, her characters usually radiated a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, whether singing or for comedic effect.
She began as a Broadway musical actress, starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1949 and Hello, Dolly! in 1964, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the latter. She revived both roles several times throughout her career, most recently playing Dolly in 1995. Channing was nominated for her first Tony Award in 1956 for The Vamp followed by a nomination in 1961 for Show Girl. She received her fourth Tony Award nomination for the musical Lorelei in 1974.
As a film actress, she won the Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Her other film appearances include The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) and Skidoo (1968). On television, she appeared as an entertainer on variety shows, from The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s to Hollywood Squares. She had a standout performance as The White Queen in the TV production of Alice in Wonderland (1985), and had the first of many TV specials in 1966, An Evening with Carol Channing.
Channing was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981 and received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995. She continued to perform and make appearances well into her 90s, singing songs from her repertoire and sharing stories with fans, cabaret style. She released an autobiography, Just Lucky I Guess, in 2002, and Larger Than Life, a documentary film about her career, was released in 2012.
Carol Channing cause of death
Channing died on January 15, 2019, of natural causes at her home in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 97.
Carol Channing – “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” (1957)
Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie are divorcing after 25 years of marriage, the Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner has announced, potentially leading to the costliest divorce settlement in history with $137 billion at stake.
The richest man in the world, currently worth about $137 billion, according to Bloomberg, made the divorce announcement on Wednesday on his Twitter.
Herbert David Kelleher (March 12, 1931 – January 3, 2019) was an American billionaire airline executive and lawyer. He was the co-founder, later CEO, and chairman emeritus of Southwest Airlines until his death.
Blake Willard Nordstrom (October 4, 1960, Seattle – January 2, 2019, Seattle) was an American businessman and banker. The great-grandson of John W. Nordstrom, he served as sole President of the Nordstrom department store chain from 2000-14, and then co-president with his brothers, Peter and Erik Nordstrom, from 2015 until his death in 2019 at the age of 58.
Daryl Frank Dragon (August 27, 1942 – January 2, 2019) was an American musician and songwriter, known as Captain from the pop musical duo Captain & Tennille with his then-wife Toni Tennille.
Dragon died on January 2, 2019 from renal failure.
Captain & Tennille 1979 Do That To Me One More Time
Eugene Arthur Okerlund (December 19, 1942 – January 2, 2019), better known by his ring name “Mean” Gene Okerlund, was an American professional wrestling interviewer, announcer and wrestler. He was best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. Gene was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 by Hulk Hogan. He was eventually signed to a lifetime contract with WWE and worked for promotional programs, mostly WWE Network programming and, occasionally, the TV series.
Okerlund died on the morning of January 2, 2019, at the age of 76 in a Sarasota, Florida hospital. This was later confirmed on WWE social media and its official website later that day. It was revealed by his son, Todd Okerlund, that he had received three kidney transplants and had suffered a fall in the weeks leading up to his death.
Stewart Robert “Bob” Einstein (November 20, 1942 – January 2, 2019) was an American actor, comedy writer and producer, who is best known for creating and performing the satirical stuntman character Super Dave Osborne. Einstein is also known for his roles as Marty Funkhouser in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Larry Middleman on Arrested Development.
Einstein got his start as a writer on several television variety shows, including The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Einstein won two Emmy Awards as a writer and was nominated four other times. He also won a CableACE Award for acting as Super Dave, along with five other nominations.
Einstein is the older brother of fellow actor and comedian Albert Brooks.
He was 76 and recently had been diagnosed with cancer.
Ray Sawyer (February 1, 1937, Chickasaw, Alabama, United States – December 31, 2018) was an American singer best known as a vocalist with the 1970s rock band, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. Though primarily a backing vocalist and occasional percussionist on congas or maracas, he sang lead on their hit song “The Cover of Rolling Stone” and was a recognisable presence in the band due to the eyepatch and cowboy hat he wore. He was also the uncle of the vocalist of Wild Fire, Zack Sawyer.
Dr. Hook had many hit singles such as “Sylvia’s Mother”, “Cover of a Rolling Stone”, “A Little Bit More”, “Only Sixteen”, “Walk Right In”, “Sharing the Night Together”, “When You’re in Love with a Beautiful Woman”, “Better Love Next Time”, “Sexy Eyes”, “Girl Can Get It”, and “Baby Makes Her Bluejeans Talk”.
No cause of death was given.
Dr Hook & The Medicine Show – “Cover Of The Rolling Stone” Ray Sawyer with eyepatch
