Roger Moore, the handsome English actor who appeared in seven films as James Bond — the most of any Bond actor — and as Simon Templar on “The Saint” TV series, has died in Switzerland after a short battle with cancer. He was 89.
Fans and former Happy Days co-stars are mourning Erin Moran, who was found dead in southern Indiana on Saturday. The AP reports that no cause of death has been determined for the 56-year-old former child star, and an autopsy is pending. The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office says emergency workers found her around 4pm after receiving a call about an unresponsive female. The recent life of Moran, best known for her role as Joanie Cunningham, is as mysterious as her death, reports the Indianapolis Star. She moved to Indiana with husband Steve Fleischmann in 2011, but is believed to have struggled with homelessness after being kicked out of the trailer they shared with Fleischmann’s mother.
Apple could potentially find the cash to pull off a $200 billion-plus takeover of Disney — creating a company worth $1 trillion with “almost limitless opportunities in content and technology.”
That’s according to a speculative analysis from RBC Capital Markets, which in a note to client Thursday said such a colossal tie-up would be contingent on Apple getting tax breaks to “repatriate” overseas cash.
“Recently, investors have increased their expectations that Apple could seriously consider acquiring Disney,” RBC analysts Steven Cahall and Leo Kulp wrote in the note. Continue reading
Thanks to the latest generation of shiny new consoles from Sony and Microsoft, there’s two fancy new terms to try and get your head around – 4K and HDR (or high-dynamic-range). And, confusingly, the different consoles all do differing amounts of each, from the Pro to a normal PS4, Xbox One to the Xbox One S and the undeniably more powerful Scorpio.
Abrasive comic Don Rickles, the honorary Rat Pack member and celebrity roast guest whose career spanned six decades, has died. He was 90.
Rickles died Thursday morning at his home in Los Angeles from kidney failure, his longtime publicist Paul Shefrin confirmed. He would have turned 91 on May 8.
Though he appeared in films and on television, Rickles’ mainstay was always nightclub performances, appearing in Las Vegas and elsewhere into his late 80s. He also found late success as the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the “Toy Story” films, which were exceptional box office performers, and popped up frequently on latenight talkshows.
Chuck Barris, whose game show empire included “The Dating Game,” “The Newlywed Game” and that infamous factory of cheese, “The Gong Show,” has died. He was 87.
Barris died of natural causes Tuesday afternoon at his home in Palisades, New York, according to publicist Paul Shefrin, who announced the death on behalf of Barris’ family.
Barris made game show history right off the bat, in 1966, with “The Dating Game,” hosted by Jim Lange. The gimmick: a young female questions three males, hidden from her view, to determine which would be the best date. Sometimes the process was switched, with a male questioning three females. But in all cases, the questions were designed by the show’s writers to elicit sexy answers.
Celebrities and future celebrities who appeared as contestants included Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Martin and a pre-“Charlie’s Angels” Farrah Fawcett, introduced as “an accomplished artist and sculptress” with a dream to open her own gallery.
After the show became a hit on both daytime and nighttime TV, the Barris machine accelerated. New products included “The Newlywed Game,” “The Parent Game,” “The Family Game” and even “The Game Game.”
The world of comic books has lost another legend, as artist Bernie Wrightson, known primarily for his work on horror comics and being the co-creator of DC Comics‘ iconic horror hero Swamp Thing, has passed. The legendary artists lost his long battle with brain cancer on March 18, 2017, at the age of 69. His wife Liz Wrightson posted the news on Bernie’s official Facebook page. Aside from Swamp Thing, Bernie Wrightson was also well known for his work for Heavy Metal magazine, as well as his years-ahead-of-its-time illustrations of the Frankenstein monster.Wrightson was born in Dundalk, Maryland in 1948, and was raised on a steady diet of EC horror comics. In 1966, Wrightson began working for The Baltimore Sun newspaper as an illustrator at the age of 18, and it was in the following year, after meeting artist Frank Frazetta at a comic-book convention in New York City, that he decided to create and illustrate his own stories. In 1968, he showed pages of his artwork to DC Comics editor Dick Giordano, and he was then given his first freelance assignment.
In 1968 he drew his first professional comic book story, “The Man Who Murdered Himself,” which appeared in House of Mystery No. 179 (March–April 1969). He then became the “go-to” illustrator for horror and mystery anthology comics for DC, which were very popular back in the early ’70s. He did contribute some work to Marvel books at this time as well, such as Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows. Essentially, he was THE horror guy in comics at the time. It was in 1971 that Wrightson co-created Swamp Thing with writer Len Wein, a character that would go on to become a pillar of DC Comics publishing, and become the subject of one of the very first DC Comics films outside of Superman: The Movie.
In January 1974, he left DC to work at Warren Publishing, and in 1975 he would begin what many consider to be his greatest achievement, when he spent seven years drawing approximately 50 detailed pen-and-ink illustrations to accompany an edition of Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. Wrightson’s take on the monster was unique and terrifying, and looked totally different that anything we’d seen before in movies or television. In the late ’80s, he returned to DC, where he drew the now-classic Batman mini-series The Cult.
In 1983 Bernie Wrightson began a long and fruitful collaboration with the modern master of horror Stephen King, when he illustrated the comic book adaptation of the King written horror film Creepshow. This ended up leading to many other collaborations with King, including illustrations for the novel Cycle of the Werewolf, which became the movie Silver Bullet, and the restored edition of King’s apocalyptic opus, The Stand. He also lent his talents to Wolves of the Calla, the fifth installment of King’s Dark Tower series.
In more recent years, Wrightson did production design for the Reavers in the 2005 Joss Whedon film Serenity, and illustrated many comics for publishers like Bongo, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and Kitchen Sink Press. He ended up retiring from comics in January of 2017 following complications from brain surgery. In addition to his wife Liz, he is survived by two sons, John and Jeffrey, and one stepson, Thomas Adamson. You can read his full obituary on his official website by clicking here.
Is there a particular favorite comic from Bernie Wrightson that speaks to you the most? Let us know down below in the comments.
St. Charles County police officers responding to a report of a medical emergency found the legendary rocker unconscious about 12:40 p.m., authorities said.
Berry was pronounced dead about 45 minutes later after first responders failed to revive him, authorities said.
Bruce Springsteen was among a slew of rock giants who paid tribute to the man known as a founding father of the genre.
“Chuck Berry was rock’s greatest practitioner, guitarist, and the greatest pure rock ‘n’ roll writer who ever lived,” The Boss tweeted.
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger offered a poetic take on Berry’s inimitable legacy.
“He lit up our teenage years, and blew life into our dreams of being musicians and performers,” Jagger said on Twitter.
“His lyrics shone above others and threw a strange light on the American dream. Chuck, you were amazing, and your music is engraved inside us forever.”
Even Bill and Hillary Clinton paused to honor Berry. “The man was inseparable from his music — both were utterly original and distinctly American,” they said. “He made our feet move and our hearts more joyful.”
Remembering the life and career of rock ‘n’ roll icon Chuck Berry
In a way Berry wrote his own epitaph more than a half century ago in his 1958 hit “Johnny B. Goode.”
“He could play a guitar,” Berry wrote, “just like a-ringin’ a bell.”
The classic chords that propelled 1950s Berry hits like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybellene,” “School Day,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Sweet Little Sixteen” guided virtually every later rock guitarist, starting with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and Eric Clapton.
“Chuck was probably the hardest person I’ve ever had to work with, including Mick Jagger,” Keith Richards said after organizing a 1986 show celebrating Berry’s 60th birthday. “But it was worth it, because he’s where it all started.”
Earlier that year Richards had inducted Berry as the first-ever member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Berry was half of rock ‘n’ roll’s original twin pillars, next to Elvis Presley. He never sold as many records as Elvis, but his sound was just as distinctive and defining — and unlike Elvis, Berry was a lyricist and composer.
“You weren’t a rock guitarist,” wrote critic Dave Marsh, “if you didn’t know the riveting lick that kicks off ‘Johnny B. Goode.’ ”
Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born in St. Louis on Oct. 18, 1926. By the early 1950s he had been a GM worker, a cosmetologist and a three-year reform school student following a car theft and robbery spree.
He also had a wife, Themetta, and two daughters Darlin and Melody. The pair would have two more children, a daughter Aloha and son Charles Jr.
To earn extra money he played guitar at night — mostly jazz, though he was conversant with blues, rhythm and blues, country, popular and Latin music.
In the early 1950s he joined the Johnnie Johnson Trio, and in 1955 legendary bluesman Muddy Waters introduced him to Phil and Leonard Chess of Chess Records.
He reconfigured a country standard, “Ida Red,” into “Maybellene,” a humorous tale that likened a car chase between a Cadillac and a V8 Ford to the singer’s pursuit of his gal. “Maybellene” caught on with powerful rock ‘n’ roll deejay Alan Freed, who took half a writer’s credit and promoted Berry heavily on the radio, TV, stage and in the movies “Rock Rock Rock” and “Mr. Rock and Roll.”
In one memorable scene, Freed’s deejay character says his box-office receipts have been frozen, so he can’t pay the artists. Berry assures Freed he will play anyway, saying, “This one’s for rock ‘n’ roll.”
That scene became a classic because the real-life Berry would not play a note until his cash fee was secure in his hands.
Berry became a jukebox icon with a stream of radio hits about cool cars, the malt shop, high school, teenage music and teenage love.
Dismissed by adults as simplistic rhymes, they were some of the first rock ‘n’ roll poetry, full of great one-liners, wit, winks and even subtle social commentary.
Berry is also credited with popularizing the duck walk, an onstage move he initially invented in 1956 to “hide the wrinkles” in his lone suit.
And he’s rock ‘n’ roll’s only intergalactic star — a recording of “Johnny B. Goode” was included on the interstellar Voyager spacecrafts’ “Golden Record.”
“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry,” John Lennon once said.
Berry was also one of the genre’s first bad boys. He was arrested in December 1959 for illegally bringing a minor suspected of being a prostitute across state lines. He was convicted in 1962 and served 18 months in prison.
Behind bars, Barry continued making music, writing the hits that would revive his career — “Promised Land,” “No Particular Place to Go” and “Nadine.”
By the 1970s he had become one of the first “rock ‘n’ roll revival” artists. He toured endlessly and hired local bands to back him — including, one night, a young Bruce Springsteen’s.
In 1972 Berry had his last radio hit, and his only No. 1, with the novelty song “My Ding-A-Ling.” By the end of the 1970s Berry had been invited by President Jimmy Carter to play at the White House and had served five months in prison for tax evasion.
He won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985 and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987.
Along the way he also sued the late John Lennon because Lennon pinched the line about “a flat-top” from Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me” and used it in the Beatles’ “Come Together.”
Lennon settled by agreeing to record three Berry songs on his “Rock ‘N’ Roll” album.
His reputation took another hit in 1989 when he was sued by several women claiming that he had videotaped them in the bathroom of his restaurant near St. Louis. Berry eventually admitted to the pervy acts and paid restitution to 74 women.
Berry ultimately became wealthy, living with his family and a huge collection of expensive cars at his Wentzville, Mo., estate.
The tireless musician rocked and rolled into his 80s — even performing in South America four years ago at the age of 86.
Berry’s final New York performance was a 2011 New Year’s Eve show at B.B. King’s where he closed out the night with “Auld Lang Syne” and “Johnny B. Goode.”
Singer Martha Reeves was signing autographs after her own Saturday night performance at the famed Times Square venue when she learned of Berry’s death.
“It’s breaking my heart to hear this … I love Chuck Berry,” Reeves told the Daily News after her show. “He had a habit of getting all of his money and putting it in his guitar case and going on stage with it right there. I loved him for that. Best guitarist I’ve ever heard.”
Several rock lovers took a moment outside the famed Times Square venue to remember Berry.
“I’m absolutely sick about it,” said Janet Kent, 65, of the Upper East Side. “It was the foundation of my music-loving experience.”
A former jazz musician who identified himself as Oscar J. said he’d remember Berry for his stylish moves on stage.
“The duck walk. Putting the guitar behind his head. He was doing all that before Jimmy Hendrix,” Oscar said. “Not to say anything bad about Hendrix.”
Because Berry was reclusive, fans debated for decades whether his experiences with the law and the music business had embittered him.
He said in a 1986 interview he was not bitter, just private.
“I love rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. “It’s been very good to me and I think I’ve given something back.”
It’s almost that time of the year again! Which means it’s pre-pre registration time for New York Comic Con tickets. Those that jumped through their hoops to get tickets last year, like myself, received a new message in their inboxes this morning. It’s from ReedPOP, the company that runs NYCC. It’s a typical newsletter sent to fans. The good news is that the dates for this year’s NYCC is October 5 – 8, 2017. But it includes one paragraph of what many might consider bad news…. Continue reading
Some conservatives and Donald Trump supporters are freaking out online because there’s a new pirate station called Resistance Radio, dedicated to fighting fascism and Nazi propaganda. Only one problem: It’s fake.
Amazon announced this week that it was launching Resistance Radio as a companion program for “The Man in the High Castle”, an alt-history drama loosely adapted from the Philip K. Dick novel. The pre-recorded radio program is basically a bunch of people talking about how the Third Reich is bad and does bad things. For some, they thought that applied to America’s current president (and/or they didn’t bother actually listening to it). In response, several irate opposers flocked to Amazon’s sponsored #ResistanceRadio hashtag to complain about the station’s “liberal agenda.” Continue reading