Author: John

 

Farrah Leni Fawcett (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) was an American actress. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett shot to international fame in 1976 due in part to her role as private investigator Jill Munroe in the TV series Charlie’s Angels. Fawcett went on to become a critically acclaimed actress, appearing off-Broadway and in highly rated television movies in roles often challenging (The Burning Bed, Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story, Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, Margaret Bourke-White) and sometimes unsympathetic (Small Sacrifices).

Fawcett was also a pop culture figure whose hairstyle was emulated by millions of young women and whose poster sales broke records, making her an international sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s.

Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, and began treatment, including chemotherapy and surgery

Death of Farrah Fawcett
Fawcett died on June 25, 2009, at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California
Farrah Fawcett was 62 years old at the day of her death

Charlie’s Angels Minisode – Dirty Business

Farrah Fawcett’s Cancer and Death 

Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, and began treatment, including chemotherapy and surgery. Four months later, on her 60th birthday, the Associated Press wire service reported that Fawcett was, at that point, cancer free.

Less than four months later, in May 2007, Fawcett brought a small digital video camera to document a doctor’s office visit. There, she was told a malignant polyp was found in the area where she had been treated for the initial cancer.

Fawcett traveled to Germany for treatments described variously in the press as “holistic”, “aggressive”, and “alternative”.

In early April 2009, Fawcett, back in the U.S., was rushed to a hospital, reportedly unconscious and in critical condition. On April 6, the Associated Press reported that her cancer had metastasized to her liver.

On April 9, Fawcett was released from the hospital, picked up by longtime companion O’Neal, and, according to her doctor, was “walking and in great spirits and looking forward to celebrating Easter at home.”

A month later, on May 7, Fawcett was reported as being critically ill, with Ryan O’Neal quoted as saying that she now spends her days at home, on an IV, often asleep. The Los Angeles Times reported that Fawcett was in the last stages of her cancer and had the chance to see her son Redmond in April 2009 under supervision, as he was then incarcerated.

Fawcett died at approximately 9:30 a.m. on June 25, 2009, in the intensive care unit of Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, with O’Neal and Stewart by her side

Sky "Sunlight" Saxon (1946 – June 25, 2009) was an American rock and roll musician who was best known as the leader and singer of the 1960s Los Angeles garage rock band The Seeds.

Death of Sky Saxon
Saxon died on June 25, 2009, in an Austin, Texas hospital. He had been hospitalized with what doctors suspected was an infection of the internal organs, but the cause of death has not yet been released. He was reported to be 63 years old

The Seeds – Pushin’ Too Hard
Sky Saxon – Lead Singer and Bass guitarist

 

Edward Leo Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American comedian, game show host, announcer, and television personality. Most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson’s announcer on Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992, and as the host of the talent show Star Search from 1983 to 1995, he later also became well-known as the presenter of American Family Publishers sweepstakes, which arrives unannounced at the homes of winners. He subsequently made a series of Neighborhood Watch Public Service Announcements parodying that role.

The Tonight Show
McMahon and Johnny Carson first worked together as announcer and host on the daytime game show Who Do You Trust? (1957-1962). McMahon and Carson left to join The Tonight Show in 1962.

He describes what happened when the pair first met, the whole meeting being "about as exciting as watching a traffic light change".

For more than 30 years, McMahon introduced the Tonight Show with a drawn-out "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!" His booming voice and constant laughter alongside the "King of Late Night" earned McMahon the nickname the Human Laugh Track and "Toymaker to the King".

Death of Ed McMahon
Ed McMahon died in his sleep at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center just after midnight on June 23, 2009.  Ed McMahon had a "multitude of health problems the last few months" including broken neck from a fall last year.  Unconfirmed report says he also had a bone cancer.
McMahon was 86 years old at the time of his death

Ed McMahon with Johnny Caron

92 years old Walter Cronkite is in very bad shape.

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (born November 4, 1916) is a retired American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1970s and 1980s he was often cited in viewer opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America" because of his professional experience and kindly demeanor.

Co-founder of legendary Tacoma garage-rock band, the Ventures, and the architect behind the distinctive guitar sound of early hits "Walk, Don’t Run" and "Perfidia" — has died

Bogle became ill over the weekend and died Sunday

The Ventures – Bob Bogle Medley 1997

Johnny Palermo (1982 – June 8, 2009) was an American television actor. He had appeared in more than 30 television shows. He was regular on the Nickelodeon series Just for Kicks, and had appeared in Everybody Hates Chris as Chris’ classmate Frank DiPaolo.

Death of Johnny Palermo
Palermo and girlfriend Alessandra Giangrande were both killed in an early morning car crash in North Hollywood.  Johnny Palermo was 27 years old at the time of his death.

Television
Just for Kicks
Everybody Hates Chris
Cold Case
General Hospital
CSI: Miami
Rules of Engagement
How I Met Your Mother
CSI: NY

Independent movie in post production (to be released)
Pizza With Bullets

Huey Long (April 25, 1904 – June 10, 2009) was an African American singer and musician and the last living member of the Ink Spots.

Born in Sealy, Texas, Long began his musical career in 1925 playing banjo for Frank Davis’ Louisiana Jazz Band, based in Houston. He switched from the banjo to the guitar after migrating to Chicago, where he appeared at the 1933 World’s Fair with Texas Guinan’s Cuban Orchestra.

In early 1944, Ink Spots leader Bill Kenny offered Long a position with the group. He stayed with them until 1985, and eventually moved to New York City, where he taught and wrote music.

Death of Huey Long
Long celebrated his 105th birthday in April 2009 and resided at his Houston home until his death in June 2009.

Ink Spots – If I didn’t Care

Barry Beckett (February 4, 1943 – June 10, 2009) born in Birmingham, Alabama was a keyboardist who worked as a session musician with several notable artists on their studio albums. He was also a record producer, most notably of albums by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dire Straits, Joe Cocker, John Prine, McGuinn-Hillman, The Staple Singers, Phoebe Snow, Etta James, T. Graham Brown, Lorrie Morgan, Eddy Raven, Delbert McClinton, Frankie Miller, Jerry Jeff Walker, Alabama, Hank Williams, Jr., Neal McCoy, Confederate Railroad, Phish, Tammy Graham, Sonia Dada, Ilse DeLange and others.

As part of the Fame rhythm section, some of their songs involved are "I Never Loved a Man" (Aretha Franklin), "Land of 1000 Dances" (Wilson Pickett), "Kodachrome" (Paul Simon) and "When a Man Loves a Woman" (Percy Sledge).

He was involved in the "Muscle Shoals Sound", being a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and in 1969, one of the founders of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. The Sound studio produced such hits as "Torn Between Two Lovers" (Mary MacGregor) and "Smoke from a Distant Fire" Sanford-Townsend Band). Beckett moved to Nashville in 1982 to become A & R country music director for Warner Brothers Records and co-produced Williams, Jr.’s records with Jim Ed Norman. Beckett produced records independently after leaving Warner Brothers.

Death of Barry Beckett
Barry Beckett had been diagnosed with cancer and suffered strokes.
Barry Beckett was 66 years old at the time of his death.

BEAUTIFUL LOSER BOB SEGER – Barry Beckett on piano

* General public may not remember his name. But Jack Nimitz played with "Who’s who" in American Jazz history.

Jack Nimitz (January 11, 1930 – June 10, 2009) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.

Jack Nimitz played with Bill Berry, Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson, Supersax, Frank Strazzeri, Thelonious Monk, Terry Gibbs, Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Bellson, Chuck Mangione, Shelly Manne, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Gil Fuller, Gene Ammons Oliver Nelson, Kenny Burrell, Quincy Jones, Milt Jackson, Frank Capp and Joey DeFrancesco into the 1980s.

Additionally he recorded with the vocalists Johnny Hartman, June Christy, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae,Anita O’Day and Diane Schuur.

In the 1990s Nimitz recorded with Stewart Liebig, Bill Perkins, Bud Shank and Gerald Wilson.

In 1995 he released his first album under his own name. The Jack Nimitz Quintet played their final performance on May 10, 2009, in Northridge, California.

Death of Jack Nimitz
Jack Nimitz died from complications from emphysema
Jack Nimitz was 79 year of at the time of his death

 Supersax / Night In Tunisia – Jack Nimitz on trumpet

Kenny Rankin (February 10, 1942 – June 7, 2009) was an American pop and jazz singer and songwriter from the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, New York.

Rankin appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson more than 25 times. Host Johnny Carson was so impressed by him that he wrote the liner notes to Rankin’s 1967 debut album Mind Dusters, which featured the single "Peaceful," a cover of which Helen Reddy would reach #12 in 1973. Georgie Fame also had a hit with this song in 1969.

When Paul McCartney and John Lennon were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, McCartney asked Rankin to represent them at the ceremony based on the strength of his 1975 versions of McCartney’s songs Blackbird and Penny Lane.

Death of Kenny Rankin
Rankin passed away from lung cancer on June 7, 2009
Kenny Rankin was 67 years old at the time of his death

Kenny Rankin – Blackbird

Kenny Rankin: Haven’t We Met