The 2013 Off Topic Celebrity Dead Pool

[SlowwHand]

R.I.P.

[Straybow]

Is "Elspet" somebody who can't spell "Elisabeth" ???

[molly bloom]

Is "Elspet" somebody who can't spell "Elisabeth" ???

No. Scottish variant of Elizabeth.

[Straybow]

Ah, I believe that is the same thing. [/snark]

[molly bloom]

...Moving on- eggboxes may never again be as dread inspiring: Raymond Cusick

The iconic shape of the Daleks – the most enduring villains from the BBC's long-running television science-fiction series Doctor Who – came from the imagination of the designer Raymond Cusick, who has died aged 84. The famous domed silhouette, with three protuberances – eyestalk, sucker arm and gun – and distinctive spherical skirt decorations, has retained its shape even into the current incarnation of the show.

Cusick's involvement with the second Doctor Who adventure, The Daleks, in 1963, came by chance. The original designer was due to be Ridley Scott, but his schedule ended up clashing with the proposed filming dates. Cusick took the job instead, which required him to come up with such creations as a petrified jungle, a gleaming alien city and some robotic-looking creatures. The Dalek was revealed to be not a machine but a protective shell in which a mutant creature – the result of the genetically disastrous consequences of nuclear war – was housed.

According to Cusick, Terry Nation, the Doctor Who writer who created the Daleks, suggested they should make a gliding movement "like the Georgian state dancers", but there was little other visual description in the script. There was a general consensus among the production team that the cliched "man in a suit" look be avoided in favour of something more otherworldly. Cusick demonstrated the creature's style of movement by grabbing a pepperpot and sliding it across the table to the model maker Bill Roberts (whose company Shawcraft built the Daleks). An initial design involved the Dalek operator propelling the machine with a tricycle housed inside it but eventually the actors moved the squat, castor-mounted props along by shuffling their feet.

Over the next two years, Cusick had to contend with a number of Doctor Who adventures that required new sets each week. The Keys of Marinus (1964), for example, featured hideous brains in jars one week, a lethal jungle the next and a snowy vista after that. Cusick felt that the show's low budget was stretched particularly thinly on stories of this kind, but was assisted by the low-resolution television picture, which, he admitted, covered a multitude of sins. Planet of Giants (1964) was a humdrum story made remarkable by Cusick's impressive renderings of an oversized science laboratory, dead insects and a moving giant fly.

Cusick left Doctor Who after the 12‑part epic The Daleks' Master Plan (1965-66), on which he shared the intensive workload with a fellow designer, Barry Newbery, and was occasionally somewhat rueful about his involvement with the show. He recalled appearing on the TV discussion show Late Night Line-Up with Nation and asking him afterwards about potential involvement with the forthcoming Dalek feature films (made in colour by Aaru productions and starring Peter Cushing in 1965 and 1966). Nation was enthusiastic and reassuring about the projects but, Cusick said: "Then I never heard from him again." From these films and many other commercial exploitations of the Daleks, Nation, a freelancer with a canny agent, became a rich man. Cusick, on the other hand, was a BBC staff member, and only after a lengthy and hard-fought battle by his head of department, got a special merit payment that amounted to no more than a few hundred pounds. He was, however, the proud recipient of a gold Blue Peter badge for his work.

Born in Lambeth, central London, Cusick nurtured a desire to be a sculptor and attended evening classes at art school, but his father felt he should pursue a more practical path. He studied science and maths at Borough Polytechnic (now London South Bank University) but did not enjoy it, then enlisted in the army and served in Palestine. Returning to the UK, he worked in repertory theatre and joined the BBC staff as a design assistant in 1960. Graduating to designer proper in 1962, he was – as was the norm – expected to turn his hand to a variety of programmes with diverse requirements and from different genres.

After Doctor Who, he worked on productions as wide-ranging as The Pallisers (1974), The Duchess of Duke Street (1976-77), Rentaghost (1978), When the Boat Comes In (1981) and Miss Marple (1985-87). A history enthusiast, he most enjoyed productions that required fastidious research. He had a particular interest in the Napoleonic wars and contributed military campaign articles to the journal of the Waterloo Association.

He provided a vast number of photographs and design sketches for J Jeremy Bentham's 1986 book Doctor Who: The Early Years, and contributed to several Doctor Who DVDs. He was largely self-deprecating about his work, highlighting the ad hoc nature of 1960s television production.

After retiring from the BBC in 1988, he ran a small hotel in south London with his wife Phyllis, whom he had married in 1964 ("Monster man marries" said the local paper). She predeceased him. He is survived by two daughters and seven grandchildren.

• Raymond Patrick Cusick, television production designer, born 1928, died 21 February 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/feb/24/raymond-cusick

[molly bloom]

Richard Briers (see above) used to provide narration for this Bob Godfrey's psychedelic animation, 'Roobarb' :

Bob Godfrey, who has died aged 91, was the godfather of British animation, celebrated for short films including the initially banned Kama Sutra Rides Again (1972) and the Oscar-winning Great (1975) as well as his children's TV series Roobarb (1974), narrated by Richard Briers, and the Bafta-winning Henry's Cat (1982-93), narrated by Bob. His seemingly simple drawings drew their strength from posture and gesture and his constant innovations in style were the result of shoestring budgets. He was in every way a true amateur film-maker who produced, directed, animated, acted in and did the voiceovers for his films. His influence on leading animators cannot be overestimated: Richard Williams (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) worked in his basement; Terry Gilliam made his Monty Python animations overnight in Bob's studio, as he could not afford his own place; and Nick Park credits The Do-It-Yourself Animation Show, presented by Bob in the 1970s, as a major influence.

Other successful producers and directors kept their awards and certificates in prominent places; Bob's were in his loo. He was always very approachable and was never happier than when surrounded by students; he even took his classes to the pub. His studio had a lifesize hanging effigy of Margaret Thatcher. On receiving a letter from the then prime minister, and fearing the worst, he was surprised to find he had got the MBE, appointed in 1986.

Bob was born in West Maitland, in New South Wales, Australia, and emigrated to the UK with his parents a few years later. He went to school in Ilford, north-east London, and attended art school in Leyton. Work as a graphic artist for the manufacturer Lever Brothers in the 1930s was followed by a spell with the GB Animation outfit financed by J Arthur Rank. As a Royal Marine during the second world war, he took part in the D-day landings.

Henry's Cat, created by Stan Hayward and drawn by Bob Godfrey He began to concentrate on animation in the early 1950s and drew upon influences ranging from Donald McGill's seaside postcards to the Goons. He particularly liked satirising political figures and British attitudes to sex. Small men and dominant women played their part, and his loose style of drawing belied his artistic skill. It was his speciality to combine live action with various animation styles. He directed and acted in several live-action films; enjoyed bit parts in the Beatles films A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965); and won a Bafta award for Henry 9 til 5 (1970).

The anecdotes of Bob's life abound. There was the time that Yoko Ono paid him £5 to photograph his derriere for her exhibition. His irreverence often landed him in trouble. A film laboratory refused to develop a scene that had the Queen singing Good Evening Friends as a finale. His cutout technique of animation featured photographs from magazines that were used without permission, leading to threats by photographers. He also pushed the limits of the medium: Kama Sutra Rides Again was banned but it later earned an Oscar nomination, as did Dream Doll (1979) and Small Talk (1994).

His unfulfilled ambition was to make a feature film – it nearly came true with a project called Jumbo – but he was at least partly satisfied with Great, a half-hour cartoon on the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, voiced by Briers. Despite the Oscar it brought Bob, he rarely made money on his films. The fact that he survived in the industry was in part due to it being more fun to work with him on ideas he was enthusiastic about than it was to work in a studio making dull commercials. It was taken for granted that if you worked with Bob you would almost certainly be used as a cartoon character in one of his movies, and there was a more than even chance that you wouldn't get paid on time.

The financial situation changed a little for the better when Roobarb, made for the BBC, took off. In the series, Roobarb, a green dog, sets out to achieve certain goals which are meaningful to him, but considered useless by his arch-enemy, Custard, a pink cat. The onlooking birds take great delight in seeing Roobarb fail, yet he lives to fight another day. When the BBC wanted a new series of Roobarb, Bob asked if I would write a series to suit the same audience. I put forward the idea of Henry's Cat, and it was accepted, but this time he decided to finance it himself. The series enabled Bob's studio to keep going during a difficult time for the animation industry.

Bob's love of ridiculing pretentious attitudes was the underlying theme of both Roobarb and Henry's Cat. Henry's Cat is never seen in profile, and he doesn't have a name, as the first story was based on Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin. The boy, Henry, got lost in the second story and was never part of the TV series or the published books. Henry's Cat also sets out to achieve impossible goals, but has a group of friends who aid and abet him in his objectives. Unlike Roobarb, most of the Henry's Cat stories have happy endings. The cat's face is made up of an M (for the ears), two eyes (giving an I), an O (for the nose) and a W (for the mouth) to form the word MIOW.

I once had a phone call from Bob with good news and bad news. The good news was that the studio's computer had been stolen. The bad news was that they had caught the thief and got it back. As the industry moved from traditional animation to the new, computer-driven technology, styles changed. It was the end of an era and the studios full of bric-a-brac and pinned-up sketches, with their truly bohemian atmosphere, were replaced by screens and machines.

Bob is survived by his wife, Beryl, whom he married in 1947, their daughters Claire and Tessa, and six grandchildren. His daughters Susan and Julia predeceased him.

• Roland Frederick Godfrey, animator and film-maker, born 27 May 1921; died 21 February 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/feb/22/bob-godfrey1

And the animation:

[Wezil]

-Jrabbit is back in the running...

(CNN) -- Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has died, Dartmouth College said Monday. He was 96.

Koop served as surgeon general from 1982 to 1989, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

He was outspoken on public health issues and did much to elevate the office of the surgeon general.

He died peacefully at his home in Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth said in a news release.

I'll update the last couple celebs this weekend.

[PLATO]

There goes my top 5 position.

[Guynemer]

I used to have the Koop on my list.

[Donegeal]

Maybe next year...

[molly bloom]

The circle is broken again. Cleotha Staple:

During the second half of the 20th century, the Staple Singers became one of black America's favourite groups. After achieving fame with traditional gospel songs, they were inspired by Martin Luther King to embrace protest music, before moving on to soul with the Stax label of Memphis, Tennessee. The group consisted of Roebuck "Pops" Staples and his children. Of these, the mainstays of the Staple Singers were the youngest, Mavis, and the eldest, Cleotha, who has died aged 78.

Cleotha was born in rural Mississippi. Her father worked at various jobs but found his metier as a musician, learning the guitar from listening to renowned blues players such as Charley Patton and Howlin' Wolf. Roebuck's brother and sister had moved north to Chicago and in 1936 he followed them to the Windy City with his wife Oceola and the two-year-old Cleotha. There the family grew to five children and by the late 1940s, Pops had schooled Cleotha and her siblings in the close harmonies of classic gospel music. Cleotha (also known as Cleo or Cleedi) attended the city's Doolittle school, then the Dunbar trade school, where she learned dressmaking – she would later design and make stage outfits for the Staple Singers.

The family group began to perform at the Mount Zion Baptist church where Roebuck's brother Chester was the pastor and in 1953, the Staple Singers joined Vee Jay, one of Chicago's larger record companies. Here, they achieved national prominence with such records as On My Way to Heaven, Will the Circle Be Unbroken and Uncloudy Day, which is believed to have been the first million-selling gospel single.

Pops built the vocal sound around Cleotha's bright soprano and Mavis's rich contralto. "Cleotha was the rock," according to the gospel expert Bill Carpenter. "Her voice was high in a light way, soothing and velvety, so Pops' guitar playing bounced off that." Cleotha always stood next to her father on stage.

They toured throughout the US and sometimes faced blatant racism. On one occasion Cleotha intervened to defuse the situation when Pops reacted aggressively to a white gas station attendant who refused to give him a receipt. Such behaviour was typical of Cleotha, who was sometimes referred to as "granny" because of her mature demeanour. She described herself as "the strong, silent type".

After hearing King preach in Montgomery, Alabama, Pops decided to put King's words into song, stating: "If he can preach this, we can sing it." He went on to write a number of civil rights anthems, including Why (Am I Treated So Bad)?, which was one of King's favourite songs. The Staple Singers were the first African Americans to record a Bob Dylan song (Blowin' in the Wind, in 1963).

Although Pops stoutly maintained that they were still expressing their Christian beliefs in their music, the Staple Singers had drifted away from the gospel music scene. This was underlined in 1968, when, after making folk-gospel albums for Riverside, they signed a contract with Stax, the pre-eminent soul and rhythm and blues company. Over the next decade, they had four top 10 pop hits, including the No 1 records I'll Take You There (1972), and Let's Do It Again (1975) and eight R&B hits. The Staple Singers were also among the stars of the 1971 Soul to Soul concert in Ghana and the charity Wattstax concert, held in Los Angeles in 1972. It was with Stax that Cleotha made one of her few performances as a solo singer, recording a duet with Eddie Floyd.

When Stax got into financial difficulties, Pops took the group to record for Warner Bros, and there were later albums for Epic and Priority. In 1999, the Staple Singers were the first gospel group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they were to disband the next year, following the death of Pops. Soon afterwards, Cleotha was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Cleotha is survived by her brother Pervis and sisters Mavis and Yvonne. Her husband, Edgar Harris, and her sister Cynthia predeceased her.

• Cleotha Staple, singer, born 11 April 1934; died 21 February 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/feb/24/cleotha-staples

The way she was:




The Staple Singers - 'Come Go With Me' :

[-Jrabbit]

RIP classical pianist Van Cliburn, 78.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/27/us-vancliburn-idUSBRE91Q0XG20130227

[ColdWizard]

RIP classical pianist Van Cliburn, 78.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...91Q0XG20130227

My third hit this month.

[-Jrabbit]

Taking a commanding lead!

[ColdWizard]

Indeed. And there's a week-long window open for a grand slam award.