Obituary News

Bob Greenberg Music Industry Executive

Source: Michael Ricci
September 16, 2009

Bob Greenberg, 75, a longtime music industry executive who held key positions at several record labels including Atlantic, Warner Bros., MGM/UA and Mirage, died Friday in West Hills, a day after suffering a stroke, his brother Jerry said. Born May 8, 1934, in New Haven, Conn., Bob Greenberg got his start in the business in the 1960s doing promotional work for Eastern Allied Associated Record Distributors. He moved on to oversee promotions for Warner Bros. in the Northeast, then arrived ...

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Patrick Swayze Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
September 14, 2009

Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers' hearts with “Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with “Ghost," died today after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released today evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in ...

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Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker, is Dead

Source: Michael Ricci
September 13, 2009

Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker in the outlaw tradition of Rimbaud and Burroughs who chronicled his wild youth in The Basketball Diaries, died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.

The cause was a heart attack, said Rosemary Carroll, his former wife.

As a teenage basketball star in the 1960s at Trinity, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Carroll led a chaotic life that combined sports, drugs and poetry. This ...

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Pierre Cossette Father of the Grammy Awards Telecast Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
September 13, 2009

Pierre Cossette, the avuncular old-school talent agent, manager, music mogul and Broadway producer often called the father of the Grammy Awards telecast for persuading nervous TV executives to put “longhairs with high heels and makeup" on a live national broadcast in 1971, died Friday. He was 85. Cossette, who had suffered in recent years with congestive heart failure, died at Barrie Memorial Hospital in Montreal, not far from his family's summer home in St. Anicet. “He had a rough few ...

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Luther Thomas 1950-2009

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
September 12, 2009

Citing a broadcast by the NYC public radio station WKCR, NPR's A Blog Supreme has posted an item saying that saxophonist Luther Thomas has died.The St. Louis native and former Black Artists Group member (pictured) has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark for a number of years, and at this point there don't seem to be any obituaries or other fresh news stories about him anywhere online, in either English or Danish.There are two other sources that confirm ...

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Army Archerd Dies at 87; Variety Columnist Watched over Hollywood for Half a Century.

Source: Michael Ricci
September 10, 2009

Reporter known for being a trusted figure who stood apart from the industry broke the story of Rock Hudson's battle with AIDS.

Army Archerd, a prolific reporter who chronicled the personal and professional lives of Hollywood stars and moguls for more than half a century from his columnist's perch at Daily Variety, and rocked the entertainment world when he announced in 1985 that actor Rock Hudson was suffering from AIDS, has died. He was 87. Archerd collapsed at home in ...

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17-Year-Old Daughter of Saxophonist Jesse Davis Shot and Killed in Oakland, CA

Source: Michael Ricci
September 9, 2009

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Wycliffe Johnson, Boisterous Reggae Producer and Musician, Dies at 47

Source: Michael Ricci
September 6, 2009

Wycliffe Johnson, an innovative composer and producer known as Steely, who held sway over two decades of reggae music, died on Tuesday in East Patchogue, N.Y. He was 47 and lived in Kingston, Jamaica. The cause was a heart attack following pneumonia, said his daughter Kerry Johnson. He had moved to Brooklyn this summer for treatment of kidney problems related to hypertension and diabetes, she said, and died at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital several weeks after surgery for a blood clot ...

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