Obituary News

TV Theme Music Obituary

Source: Michael Ricci
May 31, 2008

R.I.P/TV Theme as it fades into sunset, Original music that has helped define shows is becoming a product for nostalgia.

Earle Hagen and Alexander Courage, who died days apart this month, were maestros of a musical genre that faded some years before they did. They composed TV theme music, those signature snippets that sent Pavlovian signals to viewers. It's fair to say they don't make TV theme composers like them anymore. In fact, it's fair to say they don't make ...

Continue Reading

Al Gallico Music Publisher N.Y., Nashville Dies

Source: All About Jazz
May 31, 2008

Al Gallico, 88, an influential music publisher whose firm's copyrights included “Stand By Your Man," “Time of the Season" and “House of the Rising Sun," died of cardiac arrest and pulmonary disease May 15 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Services were Wednesday in Los Angeles. Al Gallico, one of the leading independent country music publishers in the 1960s and 1970s. His companies' copyrights included “Stand By Your Man," “Almost Persuaded," “The Most Beautiful Girl," “Let Me Be There" ...

Continue Reading

Coroner: Sean Levert Died of Natural Causes

Source: All About Jazz
May 30, 2008

Continue Reading

Alexander 'Sandy' Courage Composer of Star Trek Theme Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
May 30, 2008

Alexander “Sandy" Courage, who composed the soaring theme for the Star Trek TV series in the 1960s and was an Emmy Award-winning, Oscar-nominated arranger, has died. He was 88. Sandy Courage, who had been in declining health since 2005, died May 15 at an assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, said his step-daughter, Renata Pompelli. After launching his 54-year career as a composer for CBS Radio in 1946, Courage became an orchestrator and arranger at MGM in 1948. Over the next ...

Continue Reading

Utah Phillips Grammy Songwriter Passes

Source: All About Jazz
May 30, 2008

Utah Phillips - Singer, Songwriter, Activist, Raconteur and Unionist Bruce “U. Utah" Phillips, the Grammy-nominated folk singer known for his bushy white beard, tireless tour schedule and equally tireless work for social justice, died of congestive heart failure Friday at his home in Nevada City. He was 73 and had been having health problems in recent years. Mr. Phillips rose to prominence on the folk scene with the single “Moose Turd Pie," a song from his 1973 debut ...

Continue Reading

Harvey Korman Life in Comedy

Source: Michael Ricci
May 30, 2008

Harvey Korman, an Emmy-winning comedic actor best known for playing the self- described “luminous second banana" for a decade on television's The Carol Burnett Show and for starring in such Mel Brooks films as Blazing Saddles, has died. He was 81. Korman, who had undergone several major operations, died Thursday at UCLA Medical Center of complications from an abdominal aortic aneurysm that ruptured four months ago, his daughter, Kate Korman, told The Times. With a knack for physical humor and ...

Continue Reading

Actor Harvey Korman Dies

Source: All About Jazz
May 29, 2008

Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to The Carol Burnett Show and on the big screen in Blazing Saddles, died Thursday. He was 81.

Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said in a statement released by the hospital. His daughter, Kate Korman, said in the statement that it was a “miracle" that her father had ...

Continue Reading

Joseph Pevney Star Trek Series Director Dies

Source: Michael Ricci
May 28, 2008

Joseph Pevney, versatile film, TV director worked on original Star Trek series, and in 1958 he worked on Twilight for the Gods with Rock Hudson and Cyd Charisse.

Pevney, a former Broadway actor who played supporting roles in several notable films noir in the late 1940s before directing movies such as Man of a Thousand Faces and Tammy and the Bachelor, died May 18 of age-related causes at his home in Palm Desert, said his wife, Margo.He was 96. Focusing ...

Continue Reading