Celebrity death that bummed you out the most...

[Undertoad]

Manute Bol dead at 47

[squirell nutkin]

R.I.P.
Edith Shane

[Sheldonrs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/bu...hayek.html?hpw

Nicolas Hayek Dies at 82; His Swatch Saved an Industry
By MARGALIT FOX
Published: June 28, 2010

Nicolas Hayek, a Lebanese-born business consultant who is widely credited with having saved the Swiss watch industry with the introduction of the Swatch, the inexpensive, plastic — and, as it transpired, highly collectible — wristwatch that made its debut in 1983, died Monday in Biel, Switzerland. He was 82.


Salvatore Di Nolfi/KEYSTONE, via Associated Press
Nicolas Hayek was asked to help shut the troubled Swiss watch industry, but instead he revived it by introducing the Swatch.
Mr. Hayek, a founder and the chairman of the Swatch Group, died of heart failure while working at the company’s headquarters, according to an announcement on the company Web site.

The formation of the Swatch Group, which in addition to Swatch today comprises high-end watch brands like Breguet, Omega, Longines, Tissot, Calvin Klein and Mido, made Mr. Hayek one of Switzerland’s wealthiest men. The exquisite irony is that the company came about after Mr. Hayek was brought in to help shut the foundering Swiss watch industry altogether.

A flamboyant figure with a roguish sense of humor, Mr. Hayek was “a rare phenomenon in Europe — a genuine business celebrity,” as The Harvard Business Review described him in 1993.

Nicolas Hayek was born in Beirut in 1928 and moved to Switzerland as a young man. After studying mathematics, physics and chemistry at the University of Lyon in France, he started a consulting firm, Hayek Engineering, in Zurich in the early 1960s.

By the 1970s, the vaunted Swiss watch industry, a pillar of the national economy for centuries, was in jeopardy. Japanese watchmakers like Seiko had begun to undercut Swiss prices. And public tastes were shifting from the finely wrought analog timepieces in which Swiss artisans had long specialized to the pale flickering faces of mass-market digital watches.

In the early 1980s, with no apparent remedy in sight, a group of Swiss banks asked Mr. Hayek to compile a report on how the watchmaking industry might best be liquidated. Instead, he merged two of its former titans, Asuag and SSIH, which between them owned brands like Omega, Longines and Tissot.

Mr. Hayek bought a majority stake in the reorganized group, known as SMH — the Société Suisse de Microélectronique et d’Horlogerie. (He was fond of telling interviewers that the initials stood for “Sa Majesté Hayek” — “His Royal Highness Hayek.”)

In 1983, SMH introduced the Swatch. Lightweight, with vibrantly colored bands and breezy novelty faces, it was remarkably inexpensive to produce. (It had 51 parts, as opposed to the nearly 100 needed to make a traditional wristwatch.) It retailed for less than $35 when it was first marketed in the United States later that year.

The Swatch quickly became a sought-after collector’s item worldwide. It was very likely the first time that ordinary people had even considered owning multiple watches. (Mr. Hayek himself was known to appear in public wearing as many as eight — four to an arm — though at least a few of these were from his luxury brands.) Several hundred million Swatches have been sold since the brand’s inception.

The success of the Swatch also resuscitated the high-end brands under the SMH umbrella. The company, whose name was changed to the Swatch Group in the 1990s, generated about $4.9 billion in sales last year, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

By redirecting consumers’ attention to Swiss watchmaking as a whole, the little plastic watch lifted all boats. Even the expensive brands, like Breguet, “we will continue to sell — and sell well,” Mr. Hayek told the publication Swiss News in 2008. He added, “We sell the mentality of Switzerland.”

Mr. Hayek stepped down as the Swatch Group’s chief executive in 2002 and was succeeded by his son, Nicolas Jr. His daughter Nayla sits on the company’s board. Information about other survivors could not be confirmed.

Over time, the humble Swatch itself was borne upward by its own success: the company has issued limited-edition Swatches designed by noted artists like Keith Haring. In 1992, The New York Times reported, a Swatch by Kiki Picasso, a pseudonym of the French artist Christian Chapiron, sold at auction at Christie’s in London for $28,000.

[Sheldonrs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/mo....html?_r=1&hpw

Vonetta McGee, Film and TV Actress, Dies at 65
By MARGALIT FOX
Published: July 15, 2010
Vonetta McGee, a film and television actress originally known for blaxploitation pictures like “Blacula,” “Hammer” and “Shaft in Africa,” died on July 9 in Berkeley, Calif. She was 65 and a Berkeley resident.

Vonetta McGee with William Marshall in “Blacula,” from 1972.
The cause was cardiac arrest, said Kelley Nayo, a family spokeswoman.

In “Blacula” (1972), Ms. McGee portrayed the love interest of Mamuwalde (William Marshall), an African prince who, after an ill-fated trip to Transylvania centuries earlier, re-emerges in modern Los Angeles as a member of the thirsty undead.

Reviewing the film in The New York Times, Roger Greenspun called Ms. McGee “just possibly the most beautiful woman currently acting in movies.”

In “Hammer” (1972), Ms. McGee appeared opposite Fred Williamson in the tale of a young black prizefighter. In “Shaft in Africa” (1973), the third installment in the private-eye series starring Richard Roundtree, she played an emir’s daughter.

Ms. McGee’s other films include “The Kremlin Letter” (1970); “Detroit 9000” (1973); “Thomasine & Bushrod” (1974); and “The Eiger Sanction” (1975), directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.

Lawrence Vonetta McGee, named for her father, was born in San Francisco on Jan. 14, 1945. While studying pre-law at San Francisco State College, she became involved in community theater. She left college before graduating to pursue an acting career.

Ms. McGee’s first film work was in Italy, where her credits include the 1968 films “Faustina,” in which she played the title role, and “Il Grande Silenzio” (“The Great Silence”). After seeing her Italian work, Sidney Poitier arranged for her to be cast in her first American film, “The Lost Man” (1969), in which he starred.

In later years Ms. McGee had recurring roles on several television shows, among them “Hell Town,” “Bustin’ Loose,” “L.A. Law” and “Cagney & Lacey,” on which she portrayed the wife of Detective Mark Petrie, played by Carl Lumbly. Ms. McGee and Mr. Lumbly were married in 1986.

Besides Mr. Lumbly, Ms. McGee is survived by their son, Brandon Lumbly; her mother, Alma McGee; three brothers, Donald, Richard and Ronald; and a sister, also named Alma McGee.

Though she was associated in public memory with the genre, Ms. McGee deplored the term “blaxploitation.” It wasn’t the “black” that troubled her — that was a source of pride. It was the “exploitation.”

“She was constantly a person who preferred roles where women got to make choices,” Ms. Nayo said on Friday. “Where women got to be strong.”

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Manute Bol dead at 47

Pooka needed my help to reach some dishes on a high shelf in the kitchen cabinet, she said "see that small bowl up there" and I said "so you need my help to reach the minute bowl. ???"

[Pete Zicato]

Gloria Stuart died on the 26th. She is most recently famous for playing old Rose in The Titanic.



She was quite the babe back in the day.

[Undertoad]

RIP Arthur Penn, director of "Bonnie and Clyde", "The Miracle Worker", "The Chase", "Alice's Restaurant", "Little Big Man" and "Penn and Teller Get Killed".

No relation to Sean Penn, Michael Penn, the late Chris Penn, nor to Penn Jillette.

[Undertoad]

RIP comedian Greg Giraldo, of an accidental overdose of prescription medications.

http://www.tmz.com/2010/09/29/comedi...ription-pills/

[classicman]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

RIP comedian Greg Giraldo, of an accidental overdose of prescription medications.

http://www.tmz.com/2010/09/29/comedi...ription-pills/

Damn - add him to the list...

[Cloud]

You forgot to mention Gloria Stuart was 100 years old. Damn! quite a run.

[monster]

Tony Curtis

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39433821

[wolf]

Stephen J. Cannell

He was responsible for a lot of television that I really, really liked.

[monster]

Norman Wisdom

[Pete Zicato]

Bucket seal has passed.

http://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/...Fallen+friend/

[xoxoxoBruce]

Pssst... Pete, that was 5 years ago.