Obituary News

Dale Wasserman Dies at 94; Playwright Best Known for 'Man of la Mancha'

Source: Michael Ricci
December 27, 2008

Dale Wasserman, a playwright best known for writing the book for the Tony Award- winning Broadway musical Man of La Mancha and the stage version of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, has died. He was 94.

Wasserman died Sunday of congestive heart failure at his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., said Richard Warren, a friend.

Beginning with writing live television dramas in the 1950s, Wasserman went on to write screenplays for several films, including The Vikings ...

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Valentin Berlinsky Mainstay Cellist of the Borodin Quartet Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
December 27, 2008

Valentin Berlinsky, for six decades the cellist of the Borodin Quartet, one of the most renowned string quartets in the world and by all accounts the longest continuously playing one, died on Dec. 15 in Moscow. He was 83 and had lived in Moscow most of his life. The death was announced on the quartet’s Web site, borodinquartet.com, which gave no cause. Named for the Russian Romantic composer Alexander Borodin, the ensemble was in fact most closely associated with the ...

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Richard Van Allan, Opera Bass-Baritone, Dies at 73

Source: Michael Ricci
December 27, 2008

Richard Van Allan, a British bass-baritone who was a commanding presence on the world’s opera stages, died on Dec. 4 in London. He was 73. The National Opera Studio, which Mr. Van Allan directed from 1986 to 2001, announced his death. He learned he had lung cancer two years ago. Mr. Van Allan’s roles included Pooh-Bah in Jonathan Miller’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” at the English National Opera. He sang the lead in Don Giovanni with the ...

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Notable Deaths of 2008

Source: Michael Ricci
December 26, 2008

Actor Paul Newman died this year. So did Larry Harmon, who was better known as Bozo the Clown; W. Mark Felt, who was the mysterious Deep Throat; and William Stulla, who as Engineer Bill delighted a generation of children with a glass of milk.

William F. Buckley, the father of the modern conservative movement, also left the scene, as did singer and self-proclaimed “sex kitten" Eartha Kitt and the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter.

Millionaire Steve Fossett's adventurer's life came ...

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John Costelloe 'Sopranos' Johnny Cakes Dead in Suicide

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

Police: 'Sopranos' actor who played gay cook 'Johnny Cakes' dead in apparent suicide in NYC

Police say the actor who portrayed the gay lover of a closeted mobster on The Sopranos has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in New York. Police spokesman Lt. John Grimpel says John Costelloe was found dead in an apparent suicide at his Brooklyn home on Dec. 18. Police were called to his residence after family members were unable to reach him. The ...

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Joza Karas Musician Revived Compositions by Jews in Concentration Camp

Source: Michael Ricci
December 26, 2008

Joza Karas, a Czechoslovakian-born violin teacher who spent decades tracking down and reviving musical compositions written by Jews in the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt, died Nov. 28 at his home in Bloomfield, Conn. He was 82 and had congestive heart failure.

Karas spent more than 50 years teaching violin at the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music and performing with the Hartford Symphony.

His second career of discovering lost music began in the summer of 1970 after reading an ...

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Harold Pinter Influential Playwright and Nobel Winner Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
December 26, 2008

Harold Pinter: master of menace. The English dramatist's original style changed the face of 20th century theater. As he wrote about oppression and censorship for the stage, he also lobbied for justice as a political activist.

Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning British playwright who addressed the isolation, fear and brutality of life in an original style that changed the face of 20th century theater, has died. He was 78. Pinter, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005, ...

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Eartha Kit Seductive Singer Crooned "Santa Baby" Dies on Christmas

Source: Michael Ricci
December 25, 2008

Eartha Kitt, who purred and pounced her way across Broadway stages, recordings and movie and television screens in a show-business career that lasted more than six decades, died on Thursday. She was 81 and lived in Connecticut. Ms. Kitt, who began performing as a dancer in New York in the late 40s, went on to achieve success and acclaim on Broadway, recordings, film and television, long before other entertainment multitaskers like Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler. With her ...

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