Author: John

Kim Peek (11 November 1951 – 19 December 2009) was an American prodigious savant known as a megasavant. He had a photographic or eidetic memory, but also social developmental disabilities, possibly resulting from congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman, in the movie Rain Man. He was not autistic and likely had FG syndrome.

Kim Peek was born with macrocephaly, damage to the cerebellum, and, perhaps most important, agenesis of the corpus callosum, a condition in which the bundle of nerves that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is missing; in Peek’s case, secondary connectors such as the anterior commissure were also missing. There is speculation that his neurons made other connections in the absence of a corpus callosum, which results in an increased memory capacity.

Death of Kim Peek
Peek died on 19 December 2009, of a heart attack. He is survived by his father.  He was 58 years old at the time of his death

Connie Hines (March 24, 1931 – December 18, 2009) was a retired American actress, best-remembered for playing Alan Young’s wife, Carol Post, on the 1960s syndicated and then CBS sitcom Mister Ed.

Death of Connie Hines
Hines died from heart problems at her home in Beverly Hills, California. She was 78 years old.

Mister Ed: Ed Saves Christmas Part II of III
Connie Hines is Carol (Blonde)

Jennifer Jones (March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009) was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette

Death of Jennifer Jones
Jones enjoyed a quiet retirement in Southern California close to her son. She granted no interviews and rarely appeared in public. She died of natural causes at her home on December 17, 2009, aged 90

Jones married Selznick on July 13, 1949, a union which lasted until his death on June 22, 1965. After his death, she semi-retired from acting. According to media reports, Jones attempted suicide in November 1967 by jumping off a cliff; she was hospitalized in a coma before eventually recovering. Her daughter, Mary Jennifer Selznick (1954–1976), committed suicide by jumping from a 20th-floor window on May 11, 1976. This led to Jones’ interest in mental health issues.

Jennifer Jones

Jennifer Jones’ Filmography continues on next page

Chris Henry (May 17, 1983 – December 17, 2009) was an American football wide receiver who played five years in the National Football League for the Cincinnati Bengals. He played college football at West Virginia and was drafted by the Bengals in the third round of the 2005 NFL Draft.

Death of Chris Henry
On December 16, 2009, Henry was involved in a car accident in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he sustained life-threatening injuries. Charlotte police stated that Henry fell out the back of his fiancee’s moving truck while engaging in a domestic dispute with her. On December 17, 2009, Charlotte police announced that Henry had died at 6:36 a.m. ET. No cause of death was immediately released.

Henry had been involved in a string of legal troubles during his professional career, which include several arrests for such offenses as driving under the influence, marijuana possession, assault, and criminal damage. He was suspended for the first four games of the 2008 season.

Alaina Reed Hall (November 10, 1946 – December 17, 2009) was an American actress best known for her roles as Olivia, Gordon’s younger sister, on the long-running children’s television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.

After 227 ended in 1990, Hall appeared in guest roles on various TV shows, including Herman’s Head and Blossom. She also provided the voice for the animated characters on Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? and Sonic the Hedgehog. In 1995, Hall co-starred on the short-lived WB sitcom Cleghorne!, starring Ellen Cleghorne. The following year she appeared in the television film The Cherokee Kid. She has since had recurring roles on Ally McBeal, Any Day Now, and ER.

In addition to stage and television work, Hall has also appeared in several films including Death Becomes Her (1992), opposite Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep, Cruel Intentions (1999), and the 2007 independent feature I’m Through with White Girls (The Inevitable Undoing of Jay Brooks).

Death of Alaina Reed Hall
Alaina Reed Hall died on December 17, 2009, aged 63, from breast cancer. At the time of her death she was married to Tamim Amini.

Sesame Street – Sing (Olivia & Linda)

Roy Edward Disney (January 10, 1930 – December 16, 2009) was a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company, which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his uncle Walt Disney founded. At the time of death he was a shareholder (over 16 million shares or about 1%),and served as a consultant for the company and Director Emeritus for the Board of Directors. He is perhaps best known for organizing the ousting of two top Disney executives: first, Ron Miller in 1984, and then Michael Eisner in 2005. He graduated from Pomona College in 1951.

Death of Roy Disney
Disney, who had been battling stomach cancer, died at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California.  He was 79 years old.

Granville Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American Pentecostal television evangelist and was also a Christian charismatic.

Death of Oral Roberts
Oral Roberts died on December 15, 2009 at the age of 91. He had been "semi retired" living in Newport Beach, California, and according to Charity Navigator, Roberts earned $83,505 per year.

Family
On May 4, 2005 Evelyn, Roberts’ wife of 66 years, died in a Southern California hospital at the age of 88.

Roberts’ daughter, Rebecca Nash, died in an airplane crash on February 11, 1977, with her husband, businessman Marshall Nash.

Roberts’ eldest son, Ronald, committed suicide in June 1982, five months after receiving a court order to get counseling at a drug treatment center.

Two other children of Roberts are living: son Richard, a well-known evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), and daughter Roberta Potts, a lawyer.

Yvonne King (Burch) of King Sisters died on December 13, 2009 in Santa Barbara, California.

Java Jive

Val Avery (July 14, 1924 – December 12, 2009) was an American character actor who appeared in hundreds of movies and television shows since the 1950s. In a career that spanned 50 years, Avery appeared in over 100 films and had appearances in over 300 television series.

Avery portrayed a cat burglar who conspires with Lieutenant Columbo to catch another criminal, the deputy police commissioner, in A Friend in Deed (1974), directed by another Cassevetes collaborator, Ben Gazzara. He also appeared in Dead Weight (1971), The Most Crucial Game (1972) and Identity Crisis (1975).

Avery appeared Cassavetes’ Too Late Blues (1961), Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) and Gloria (1980). Avery’s other appearances have come in everything from films like The Long, Hot Summer (1958), The Magnificent Seven (1960), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) The Wanderers (1979) and Donnie Brasco (1997) to TV shows like Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, The Munsters and Law & Order.

Death of Val Avery
Avery died Saturday December 12, 2009 in his Greenwich Village home. He was 85.

Gene Barry (June 14, 1919 – December 9, 2009) was an American stage, screen, and television actor.

Death of Gene Barry
Gene Barry died on December 10, 2009 at Sunrise Senior Living in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 90.He is survived by his sons, Michael and Frederick, and his daughter, Elizabeth, as well as three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His wife, Betty, preceded him in death after nearly 58 years of marriage in 2003.