Obituary News

Willie King Alabama Blues Singer, Guitarist

Source: Michael Ricci
March 11, 2009

Willie King, 65, an Alabama blues singer and guitarist whose career took him from backwoods juke joints to the largest blues festivals in North America and Europe, died Sunday in Alabama.

King had a heart attack at his home in the Old Memphis community of Pickens County near the Mississippi line, said band member Debbie Bond. She said he died on the way to the hospital.

King appeared in the 2003 Martin Scorsese film “Feel Like Going Home" and was ...

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Tullio Pinelli Co-Writer of Fellini Films Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 11, 2009

Tullio Pinelli, 100, the Italian screenwriter best known for his close association with director Federico Fellini, died Saturday in Rome, according to European newspapers. The cause of death was not announced.

Working with Fellini, and on occasion Ennio Flaiano, Pinelli co-wrote more than a dozen of Fellini's films, including such legendary works as “La Strada," “La Dolce Vita" and “8 1/2 ."

Four of his films with Fellini were nominated for Academy Awards. He also worked with several other leading ...

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Jimmy Boyd Singer of 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus' Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 9, 2009

Jimmy Boyd, a singer best known for recording the Christmas novelty hit “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” in 1952 when he was 13, died Saturday. He was 70.

Boyd, who also was a child actor, died of cancer at a Santa Monica convalescent hospital, said Eleanor Pillsbury, a longtime friend.

Three weeks after the yuletide kiss-and-tell was released, the song was No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It sold 2 million records in less than 10 weeks. Tens of ...

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Grand Ole Opry Member Hank Locklin Dies in Ala

Source: All About Jazz
March 9, 2009

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Horton Foote Playwright, Screenwriter Chronicled Small-Town Southern Life Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 7, 2009

Horton Foote, whose bittersweet stories of heartbreak and regret set in small Southern towns earned him wide popular acclaim as well as two Academy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, died Wednesday. He was 92.

Foote died in his sleep at his apartment in Hartford, Conn., said Paul Marte, a spokesman for the Hartford Stage theater company. Foote was in Hartford with his family, including his actress daughter Hallie and son-in-law Devon Abner, who are appearing in a stage adaptation of ...

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Ian Carr, Jazz Trumpeter and Author of Miles Davis Biography, Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 7, 2009

Ian Carr, a Scottish-born trumpeter who, like his formidable influence, Miles Davis, was an early practitioner of jazz-rock fusion and later repaid his artistic debt by writing Davis’s biography, died on Feb. 25 in London. He was 75.

The cause was complications after pneumonia and a series of mini- strokes, Alyn Shipton, Mr. Carr’s biographer, said in an e-mail message. An obituary on the Web site iancarrsnucleus.net — dedicated to the music of Mr. Carr and the band, Nucleus, which ...

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Sydney Chaplin Stage Actor and Son of Charlie Chaplin Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2009

Sydney Chaplin, an actor who experienced his greatest success on stage, earning a Tony Award for starring in the late 1950s musical “Bells Are Ringing," died Tuesday. He was 82.

Chaplin, the oldest surviving child of film legend Charlie Chaplin, died at his Rancho Mirage home of complications following a stroke, said Jerry Bodie, a longtime friend.

He was the second son of Charlie Chaplin and his second wife, Lita Grey, an ingenue who married the movie giant when she ...

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Jazz Educator Dr. William L. Fowler Dies at 91

Source: All About Jazz
March 3, 2009

Dr. William Lambourne Fowler passed away at approximately 6:12 pm on February 27, 2009 at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, California surrounded by his loving sons. He was 91 years old. During the Great Depression of 1929, young Bill Fowler taught himself to play blues harmonica, dirt-band mandolin, Dixieland tenor banjo, and finally jazz guitar, ending up at age 17 in a Salt Lake City speakeasy trio. Still unable to read music at 21, Bill headed a Continental ...

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