The 2013 Off Topic Celebrity Dead Pool

[Wezil]

Only because Jr snuck Dr. Koop in there.

That was a brilliant deception. It let me slip up the midddle.

[molly bloom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21973505
Richard Griffiths died-


[ATTACH=CONFIG]173774[/ATTACH]

Damn it all. I watched 'Withnail & I' with the commentary on Wednesday while lying in bed with an upper respiratory tract infection, and felt much better afterwards. I'll have to watch 'The History Boys' again.

Richard Griffiths, who has died aged 65 from complications following heart surgery, was a fine actor defined by his largeness of spirit, his comic instinct and his empathy with outsiders, as well as his undeniable physical size. He was the kind of actor whom everyone remembers with affection, whether as the flawed but inspirational Hector in Alan Bennett's The History Boys (first staged in 2004, then filmed in 2006) or as the eccentrically gay Uncle Monty in Bruce Robinson's Withnail and I (1987).

Like most actors who have a thriving career in film and television, he learned his craft in theatre. I first became aware of him in the late 1970s when he rose steadily through the ranks of the Royal Shakespeare Company. I was especially struck by his ability to speak verse with mellifluous clarity. As co-presenter of a BBC TV arts programme, I hired him in the runup to the 1979 general election, to read passages of Shakespeare that seemed appropriate to a bitter political contest. I recall his modesty, charm and, given his subsequent career in television, surprising nervousness. Needless to say, he did an outstanding job.

What was fascinating about Griffiths's career was his triumph over what, to others, might have seemed insuperable obstacles. He was not born into the theatrical purple and was not naturally endowed with leading-man good looks. He was born in Thornaby-on-Tees in the North Riding of Yorkshire. His childhood was not easy, since both his steelworker father, Thomas, and his mother, Jane, were deaf and, at an early age, he had to learn sign language to communicate with them. He left his Catholic school at 15 and found consolation in the theatre: first by taking drama classes at Stockton and Billingham Technical College and then by becoming a student at Manchester Polytechnic's drama school.

He settled for a time in Manchester, did the rounds of local theatres and got an early break in films, with a small role in It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1977). It was his work at the RSC that transformed his career. Given his roly-poly appearance, he started off in minor comic roles: an officer in Trevor Nunn's musicalised The Comedy of Errors in 1976 and the big-bummed Pompey in Measure for Measure in 1978. Soon the RSC realised that Griffiths had a natural authority on stage. He was superbly flustered as the King of Navarre in John Barton's memorably autumnal Love's Labour's Lost (1978), and a year later played the dimwitted hero who becomes a studio bigwig in Nunn's buoyant revival of George Kaufman and Moss Hart's satire on Hollywood, Once in a Lifetime.

By then, Griffiths had become noticed as a distinctive character actor with a peculiar mix of grace and solemnity, and throughout the 1980s he was busy in TV and film. In 1982 he played the lead in a BBC drama serial about a computer conspiracy, Birds of Prey. A succession of noted film roles, in Chariots of Fire (1981), Gandhi (1982), Britannia Hospital (1982), A Private Function (1984) and Greystoke (1984), led to his unforgettable appearance in Withnail and I. In one famous scene, the life-loving, genially promiscuous Uncle Monty bursts into the bedroom of the alcoholic hero's best friend to announce his desire to have him – "even if it must be burglary".

Firmly established as a national favourite, Griffiths went on to appear as Henry Crabbe, the gourmand and disillusioned cop, in the TV series Pie in the Sky (1994-97), and from 2001 onwards he was a fixture in the Harry Potter films as Uncle Vernon Dursley. Although film and TV work continued to flood in – his later credits included Roger Michell's Venus (2006) and Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011) – it was in the theatre, particularly with his performance as Hector in The History Boys at the National, that he confirmed his star status. It was a tricky role, since Hector was both a brilliant teacher and a habitual boy-groper. Griffiths's great achievement was to show that Hector was a natural life-enhancer, getting the boys to improve their French by impersonating the inhabitants of a bordello, and a deeply flawed human being. Griffiths won Olivier and Tony awards, in London and New York, for his compassionate study of this natural outsider, and repeated his performance in Nicholas Hytner's film version.

He returned to the London stage in 2007 to play the role of the desiccated psychiatrist who envies a damaged young boy's capacity for ecstasy, in Peter Shaffer's Equus. As Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe played the boy – and at one point appeared stark naked – the production was a box-office triumph, but Griffiths lacked the intellectual dynamism of the role's originator, Alec McCowen.

Griffiths, who was made an OBE in 2008, seemed much more at ease back at the National in 2009, playing WH Auden (replacing an ill Michael Gambon in the role) in Bennett's The Habit of Art. The complex play-within-a-play structure allowed Griffiths to portray both Auden – the apostle of freedom and intellectual bully – and a tetchy actor worried about his lines and missing a lucrative voiceover engagement. Griffiths's capacity for grumpiness was used to great comic effect in his final appearance on the London stage, last summer, in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. As one half of a vaudevillian double act with Danny DeVito, briefly united and bound together by mutual loathing, Griffiths made the precise placement of a chair seem a matter of cosmic significance.

Clearly Griffiths himself had a short fuse: three times in recent years he stopped a performance in its tracks to inveigh against interruption from mobile phones, although it is fair to say that he was always applauded by similarly outraged spectators. But he was not an actor who will be remembered for his indignation. What we shall all recall, with pleasure, is his silvery voice, his genial presence and his priceless ability to empathise with characters who, for whatever reason, exist somewhere on the margins of conventional society.

He is survived by his wife, Heather, whom he married in 1980.

• Richard Griffiths, actor, born 31 July 1947; died 28 March 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/mar/29/richard-griffiths

If anyone hasn't seen the series : 'Birds Of Prey' then I recommend it whole-heartedly, as an early example of the cyber thriller and a fine setting for Griffiths' low key acting style. I will miss his presence greatly.

Richard Griffiths by James Corden: goodbye Rizzo – we miss you alreadyThe comedian and actor recalls fun, kindness – and Uncle Monty's brief return – in tribute to Griffiths, who has died aged 65.


The first time I met Richard Griffiths I was standing in the vast space of rehearsal room 2 at the National Theatre and about to begin my first day as a History Boy. I'd never done a play before. I was standing by the tea and coffee station, clutching my script and hoping my northern accent was up to scratch when Richard walked over. "Don't look so frightened," he said with the broadest smile. "The scary days working here are when you get your first payslip."

He popped a custard cream into his mouth and walked off. Neither of us knew that day what the play was going to become or quite how much time we as a company were about to spend together. We'd all signed up to do 75 shows at the National in London but we went on to give more than 500 performances around the world, shoot a movie and finish up on Broadway.

The whole process lasted about three years, and Richard was at the centre of its success. He became the ninth History Boy: we nicknamed him Rizzo, and he was one of us. He'd invite us to his dressing room for cocktails after the show or even the odd poker game. He had the most brilliant sense of fun. He wanted to make sure we were enjoying what we were doing – that we knew how very special this moment was for us.

His performance as Hector, like every other performance he gave in his career, was perfect – and he was quite unaware of how brilliant he was. Audiences and critics loved him from the very first scene.

Like many others of my generation, the first time I became aware of Richard as an actor was when I watched Withnail and I. His brief performance as Uncle Monty is, I believe, one of the greatest comic creations in film – and the finest piece of scene stealing you will ever see. His voice so rich, his eyes so full of lust and vigour, it gets better with every viewing. Richard had an ability in even the biggest comic creations to give his characters a humane quality – he always played the truth of the scenes, never the jokes. He saw Monty for what he was, a lonely man in desperate need of company.

I would often stand in the wings and plead with him to repeat some lines from Withnail and I and he would just laugh and tell me not to be so silly. That he'd even forgotten how to do it.

I never stopped asking him and he never stopped saying no. Until one day, we were performing The History Boys in Sydney and during one of the classroom scenes I said one of my lines too early and accidentally cut two of his. I was mortified. We just had to carry on and hope the audience hadn't noticed but as soon as the curtain came down I rushed to his dressing room to apologise.


He placed his hands firmly on my shoulders, squinted and in that deep voice of Uncle Monty said, "I'm preparing myself to forgive you, boy!" He knew that timing was everything. It was the most wonderful way to be forgiven.

My abiding memory comes from our last performance together on Broadway. Towards the end of act two, Richard's character, Hector, dies in a motorbike accident and the eight boys whom he has inspired so much sing the song Bye Bye Blackbird at his memorial service. Francis De La Tour had a speech about where each of the boys had ended up in the future.

And then from the back of the stage, Richard would appear almost like a ghost and speak to the boys.

We were all so sad because it was our final show that many of us were crying before we reached the interval, but I always presumed that Richard – being such an old pro – wouldn't get caught up in the moment like that. But when he came out to deliver his final lines he was as moved as the rest of us. In the role of Hector, he had shown the world he was so much more than a brilliant scene stealer. He could be, if the part was right, a leading man.

He began to speak but paused for a moment, his voice cracking under the emotion. The lines were so meaningful it was as if he wanted we eight young actors to really hear them. Then he gathered himself and continued.

"Pass the parcel, that's sometimes all you can do," he said. "Take it, feel it, and pass it on. Not for me. Not for you. But for someone. Somewhere. One day. Pass it on, boys, that's the game I wanted you to learn. Pass it on." We miss you already, Rizzo. Rest in peace.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/mar/29/richard-griffiths-james-corden-rizzo

[molly bloom]

Apologies if he's already been mentioned, but he escaped my notice (I think) :

Skyfalllen-

Kevin Peek Of Sky Dies At Age 66
by Paul Cashmere on February 18, 2013

Kevin Peek, the Australian guitarist who achieved international success as a member of Sky, has died in Perth at the age of 66.

Peek’s death is somewhat of a mystery. According to various social media posts by his friends he succumbed to cancer.

Classical guitarist John Williams was the founder of Sky and recruited Peek for the first line-up. The first album in 1979 featured Williams, Herbie Flowers, Francis Monkman, Tristan Try and Kevin Peek. The self-titled debut album for Sky went platinum in Australia and the UK via an unusual classical meets rock flavoured hit with ‘Cannonball’.

The second album, ‘Sky 2’ was another success. The classical piece ‘Toccata’, arranged by Peek, reached no. 5 on the UK singles chart in 1980.

Peek had been a long-time member of Cliff Richard’s band and worked with Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Manfred Mann and Lulu.

In 1991, Kevin left the band to work as a producer in Perth but his financial situation had a turn for the worse and Peek was declared bankrupt twice. He served a three-year jail sentence.

In 2010, Kevin Peek was once again in front of the court linked to a ‘Ponzi’ investment scheme and was facing fraud charges at the time of his death.

http://www.noise11.com/news/kevin-peek-of-sky-dies-at-age-66-20130218

and

In life, internationally-revered guitarist Kevin Peek was a difficult man to put in a box.

With rafts of financial impropriety hanging over the larger-than-life character over the past two decades, at one time landing him in jail, Peek also became a difficult man to track down.

It was like working for Benny Hill.
In death, the enigmatic former guitarist for the progressive 70s British rock group Sky, remains as elusive as ever.

By Friday, tributes had started to filter through social media as whispers of the beloved Australian musician's demise spread through Perth's tight-knit recording studio community.

Advertisement It is understood Peek had succumbed to cancer in a Perth hospice this week, aged 66.

However, family and close friends appear to have done everything possible to keep his passing a guarded secret.

A move perhaps motivated by fear of those Peek burnt financially.

But for many, Peek would be remembered as a mentor, a musical genius willing to give those around him a hand up in the music business.

"Kevin was always a very mysterious character," said Soundbyte Studios director Julian Douglas-Smith who worked as a sound engineer for Peek from the late 80s to the early 90s.

Adelaide-born Peek had returned to Australia after a successful career on the British rock scene and taken up part ownership over the West Perth studio.

His stories were littered with names like Elton John, Keith Richards, Tom Jones and Cliff Richard.

Any situation could be reduced to a witty one-liner when Peek was around.

"It was like working for Benny Hill," Douglas-Smith said. "It was just bizarre.

"You could never have a serious conversation with him - he was always laughing."

It was the 80s and Peek was a legitimate international rock star, people would have done anything to be close to him.

"He was larger than life," Douglas-Smith said. "He was a true eccentric and an incredibly talented musician."

"I think a lot of people were enamoured by him and taken in by the fact that he was a rock star.

"Even by the late 80s Sky was still a very well-known band and I think a lot of people jumped on that bandwagon because they wanted to be close to Kevin."

By 1994 Peek had landed himself in jail, serving three years for an elaborate factoring fraud scheme, run out of that same studio.

He was again on fraud charges at the time of his death, more than 200 of them, regarding his relationship with an import-export business.

Prosecutors were poised to argue the business had been a classic multi-million dollar ponzi scheme.

Peek had vehemently denied the charges and was bracing to go to trial later this year.

"It's been an absolute disaster for everybody, for all of us," Peek said outside court in 2011.

"I'm left with nothing out of it as well; it's just a very strange sort of set of circumstances."

But those charges were dropped by a District Court of WA judge after an application by Peek's lawyer that he was no longer fit to stand trial on Monday.

That same lawyer was unaware of his death as late as Wednesday, according to their office.

Regardless, friends, colleagues and fans had started posting their condolences on social media websites on Tuesday.

Even they seemed unsure about whether the rumours were true.

"Hearing a rumour that Kevin Peek has died. I hope it's not true," wrote Mark Hamilton.

"Wonderful guitar, wonderful guitar player."

"RIP KEVIN PEEK," Rare Records wrote on their page.

The line was echoed by Eric Adelfred in Denmark and Andy Habzansky, a retired steel mill worker in Chicago.

The Facebook page of Tony Rivers who worked with Peek on Mike Hugg's 1973 album Stress and Strain attracted an outpouring of sorrow at the news.

"Another sad loss today, and he is another ex Cliff [Richard] band member who now joins the 'February Club' Australian Kevin Peek passed away today, I don't know anything about it I just read it on Brian Bennett's FB page," Mr Rivers wrote on Tuesday.

"Kevin was around in my early days with Cliff, a gentle giant a tall soft spoken man, played beautiful acoustic guitar on some of Cliff's recordings.

"A lovely man...RIP Kevin Peek."

Notably, no death notices or obituaries had appeared in Peek's home state of WA.

There were whispers of an intimate burial in a southern Perth suburb on Friday, where it is understood about 30 close friends and family mourned his passing.

An employee of the funeral home responsible for the former rock star's service would only say "I'm sorry I can't release any information about that".

Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/in...#ixzz2P206P3Bp

Kevin Peek playing:

[-Jrabbit]

One of the greatest record producers of all time, Phil Ramone, has passed away at age 72. In his prime, rare was the year when he wasn't in the running for a Grammy; he was nominated over 30 times and won 14 of them. Phil brought us some of the greatest and most popular music of our lifetimes, and I was honored to meet him on more than one occasion. The world is culturally and artistically poorer for his loss. May he rest in peace.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Bumped.

[ColdWizard]

I block Wezil's spree with my #1, Jack Pardee.

HOUSTON -- Jack Pardee, one of Bear Bryant's "Junction Boys" at Texas A&M who went on to become an All-Pro linebacker and an NFL coach, died Monday.

He was 76.

In November, Pardee's family announced that he had gall bladder cancer that had spread to other organs and that he had six to nine months to live. The family has established a memorial scholarship fund in Pardee's name at the University of Houston, where Pardee coached from 1987-89.

"Today, we mourn the passing of a great man who dedicated his life to the game of football and was a true gentleman in every sense of the word," Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades said.

"It was not a coincidence that success followed coach and his teams wherever he worked, and the University of Houston program was blessed to have him lead our football program during some of our most exciting times."

Pardee was born in Iowa and moved to west-central Texas as a teenager.

He played six-man football at Christoval High School before moving on to Texas A&M. Bryant became the Aggies' coach in 1954 and moved their preseason camp to desolate Junction, about 100 miles northwest of San Antonio.

The state endured a severe drought and an historic heat wave that year, but Bryant worked his team through the brutal conditions and refused to allow water breaks in an effort to toughen players. Pardee was one of 35 players who made it through to the end of the 10-day camp without quitting.

"Not only did we lose a Texas A&M legend today, we lost a man who was a legend at every level of football," Texas A&M athletics director Eric Hyman said in a statement.

Pardee played three seasons at Texas A&M and was the 14th overall pick in the 1957 NFL draft by Los Angeles. He played for the Rams from 1957-64, sat out a year to deal with melanoma, and played seven more seasons. He finished his playing career with the Washington Redskins in 1973 and coached the team from 1978-80.

"In his time both on the field and on the sideline, Jack Pardee will forever be a part of the Washington Redskins' legacy," owner Daniel Snyder said in a statement.

"He will be remembered not just as a linebacker for the 1972 NFC Champions, nor as just the coach for our franchise. He will be remembered as someone whose spirit truly embodied the values that we associate with the burgundy and gold."

Before the NFL, Pardee coached in the World Football League. He was the Bears' head coach from 1975-77 and guided Chicago to its first playoff appearance since the early 1960s. Pardee moved to the Redskins in 1978, while the Bears made the postseason again in 1979.

"The Bears family was saddened to hear of Jack Pardee's passing," Bears chairman George McCaskey said in a statement. "Coach Pardee's time with us was only three seasons, but he made an impact by ending a 14-year playoff drought in 1977."

The Redskins fired Pardee after Washington went 6-10 in 1980. He served as San Diego's defensive coordinator for one season, then returned to Texas to coach the USFL's Houston Gamblers.

When the USFL disbanded in 1987, Pardee became the coach at the University of Houston and brought along the fast-paced "run-and-shoot" offense that worked well with the Gamblers.

The NCAA levied severe sanctions on the program in 1988, the result of violations committed under previous coach Bill Yeoman. Houston was banned from playing in a bowl game for two years and banned from playing on television in the 1989 season.

But the Cougars led the nation in total offense (624.9 yards per game) and passing offense (511 yards per game) in 1989, and quarterback Andre Ware became the first black quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy. Houston finished 9-2 and ranked No. 14 in the nation.

"When you talk about the great offenses in the history of college football, coach Pardee's run-and-shoot teams from the late 1980s must be considered near the top of that list," Houston coach Tony Levine said.

"We continue to feel the impact from his innovative ideas and leadership of those teams in college football today, and our thoughts and prayers go out to all his family and friends."

His Houston teams were a precursor to the high-flying offenses now common in college football. He coached the Cougars to a 95-21 win over a just-back-from-the-NCAA-death-penalty SMU team in 1989.

The Cougars became the first team in NCAA history to finish with more than 1,000 yards of offense, as they piled up 1,021 yards in the win where Ware was on the bench by halftime.

Pardee became the coach of the NFL's Houston Oilers in 1990, and led the team to the playoffs in each of his first four seasons. Current Tennessee coach Mike Munchak was an offensive lineman for the Oilers from 1982-93 and then became one of Pardee's assistant coaches.

"We lost a great coach and, more importantly, a great man today," Munchak said in a statement. "I truly admired his passion for football and was especially inspired by his love of the history of the game. He often shared stories of his NFL playing days to motivate his players, which has greatly influenced the way that I now coach my players. Coach Pardee will surely be missed."

Oilers owner Bud Adams traded star quarterback Warren Moon to Minnesota before the 1994 season, and Pardee resigned after a 1-9 start that year. He ended his NFL coaching career with a record of 87-77.

Pardee's last coaching job came when he worked for the Birmingham Barracudas of the Canadian Football League in 1995. His name emerged several years later for the Houston job, but the school hired Kevin Sumlin instead. Ted is the color analyst for Houston football radio broadcasts.

"When my father was diagnosed back around Thanksgiving, we were able to have many great conversations about the past and the future," Ted said in a statement.

Pardee and his wife, Phyllis, were married for more than 50 years and have five children and 12 grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were pending Monday night.

[ColdWizard]

Jon Miller.

[Wezil]

You are relentless aren't you?!

[ColdWizard]

I overcompensated for being late the year before.

[SlowwHand]

I'm getting pissed off now.

[Wezil]

Hey Sloww!

I'm going to be in your fine state in a couple weeks. Meet me at the airport and we'll have a beer.

[ColdWizard]

I'm getting pissed off now.

I'm sorry, but putting Zsa Zsa in my top ten is the most I could do.

[Wezil]

Zsa Zsa is the only celeb you and I share at this point.

I'm perfectly positioned to overrtake you.

[ColdWizard]

I don't expect more than maybe one more hit for the rest of the year.

[Wezil]

Jack Pardee was 76 and a Unique pick for ColdWizard (1)

= (171 - 1) + (100 - 76) + 25
= 219 points


That gives CW a lead of over 1000 points...