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Nuke Nixon
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Heather Armstrong: 'Queen of mommy blogging' dead at 47
Heather Armstrong, who found success in the 2000s documenting the ups and downs of motherhood on her blogging website Dooce, has died at the age of 47.
Her boyfriend Pete Ashdown told the Associated Press (AP) he had found her on Tuesday night in their Utah home.
The "queen of mommy blogging" wrote frequently about her children, relationships and personal struggles.
At the height of its popularity, her Dooce website received more than eight million visitors a month, reports Vox.
That was in 2009 - the same year Ms Armstrong was named in Forbes' annual list of the 30 most influential women in media.
Ms Armstrong founded Dooce in the early 2000s as a place to discuss work, sex and leaving the Mormon church.
The site's name came from an inside joke about how she was unable to spell out the word "dude" quickly in online chats, according to the AP and New York Times.
In 2002, Ms Armstrong was fired from her job as a web designer in Los Angeles after the blog - in which she gave colleagues nicknames like That One Co-worker Who Manages to Say Something Stupid Every Time He Opens His Mouth - was found to be hers.
Her firing, and the reason for it, ignited a public debate about privacy - and boosted traffic to her blog.
The site restarted six months later as a different kind of blog after she became pregnant. Embracing honesty in her writing, Ms Armstrong detailed her children's temper tantrums, her mental health challenges, and her struggles with alcoholism and postpartum depression.
According to an estimate quoted in the Wall Street Journal, by 2009, the blog may have generated $40,000 (£32,000) a month in revenue from paid advertising.
Ms Armstrong turned her success into a strong social media presence and three books, including the 2009 memoir It Sucked and then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown and a Much Needed Margarita.
According to the book, she suffered chronic depression throughout her life and it was not treated until she got to college.
A caption on a Dooce Instagram page on Wednesday announcing her death said: "Hold your loved ones close and love everyone else."
Mr Ashdown told the AP that his partner had been sober for more than 18 months but had recently had a relapse. He said she had taken her own life.
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May 12th, 2023 03:53 AM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Doyle Brunson Dies: ‘Godfather Of Poker’ And Two-Time World Champion Was 89
Doyle Brunson, the American poker legend who helped popularize the card game globally, has died aged 89.
Known as ‘the Godfather of Poker,’ Brunson was a leading professional player for more than 50 years, wrote a number of books on the game and was a familiar face on programs such as High Stakes Poker and World Series of Poker. He was a Poker Hall of Fame inductee and a two-time World Series of Poker Main Event champion.
Perhaps aptly, he passed away in the home of poker, Las Vegas, on Sunday. He was known in poker circles by a nickname referring to his home state, however: ‘Texas Dolly.’
Brunson appeared in films such as Zak Penn improv comedy The Grand as a poker pro and was a consultant on Lucy You, a 2007 film from Curtis Hanson about a hotshot player with personal demons.
Poker superstars such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Scotty Nguyen have written messages expressing their sadness at Brunson’s passing. Negranu, considered by many the greatest poker player of the modern era, wrote on Twitter, “There will never be another Doyle Brunson.”
Brunson began playing illegal poker games in the U.S. before settling in Las Vegas, where he began to build his fortune. He played in the first World Series of Poker and was a champion in 1976 and 1977. He went on to author several books such as Super System: A Course in Power Poker, providing insight into tactics and mindsets for millions of amateur players. He retired from professional poker in 2018, but did occasionally return for tournaments.
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May 15th, 2023 02:41 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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‘Superstar’ Billy Graham Dies: Wrestling Legend Was 79
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Pro wrestling legend “Superstar” Billy Graham died Wednesday at 79. No cause was given, but he had been battling ill health for some time and had been hospitalized in the ICU on life support.
Graham, real name Eldridge Wayne Coleman, was a three-time former world champion professional wrestler, including a 1977-78 title run in the WWWF, which eventually became the WWE. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.
His wife, Valerie, posted Monday morning on Graham’s Facebook account that she had refused to remove his life support.
Graham got into pro wrestling in the late 1960s. He wrestled until 1987, when injuries and health issues ended his career. He became a TV commenter after leaving the ring.
Graham won the WWWF championship from Bruno Samartino in April 1977, but lost it to Bob Backlund in February 1978.
Graham was considered an influence on such noted wrestlers as Hulk Hogan, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Scott Steiner and Ric Flair, among others.
He is survived by his wife and two children.
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May 18th, 2023 04:06 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Andy Rourke Dies: The Smiths Bassist Was 59
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Andy Rourke, the bass player for the Smiths, died today of pancreatic cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He was 59.
His death was announced by his former bandmate, the Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who said in a statment on social media, “Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul and as a supremely gifted musician.”
The moody band from Manchester, England, whose jangly guitar sound, steady post-punk rhythms and mordantly humorous lyrics sung in a dark-of-night baritone by frontman Morrissey, was one of the most influential rock bands of the 1980s, scoring multiple hit records in the UK and becoming a mainstay in the U.S. of what was then the fledgling college radio circuit.
Rourke was a member of the band throughout its relatively short run of 1983-87, and added his melodic bass playing to all four of the band’s studio albums: The Smiths (1984), Meat Is Murder (1985), The Queen Is Dead (1986) and Strangeways, Here We Come (1987).
After the Smiths came to an acrimonious end — reportedly caused, at least in part, by Rourke’s drug use — years of lawsuits followed. But music did too: Rourke played bass, sometimes with Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, for such artists as Sinéad O’Connor, Pretenders and Badly Drawn Boy, among others.
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May 19th, 2023 04:00 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Jim Brown Dies: NFL Legend, Civil Rights Activist And Actor In ‘The Dirty Dozen’ & More Was 87
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Jim Brown, the NFL Hall of Famer and Civil Rights activist who turned to acting and appeared in films and TV shows ranging from The Dirty Dozen and I Spy to Draft Day, Mars Attacks! and The A-Team, died Thursday night in Los Angeles. His wife, Monique Brown, said in an Instagram post that he died peacefully, but she did not provide a cause.
Brown is considered among the greatest football players of all time. Drafted sixth overall in 1957 by the Cleveland Browns out of Syracuse University, his bruising running style redefined the running back position. As a rookie, he ran for 237 yards in a game against the Los Angeles Rams — a record that would stand until the 1970s.
Among his myriad NFL records and milestones, he was the first to top 100 career rushing touchdowns and set single-season and career rushing marks — all amid 12- or 14-game seasons. A three-time MVP, he also was Rookie of the Year, an eight-time All-Pro and eight-time rushing leader, retiring with a slew of records. His Browns won the NFL championship in 1964, three years before the first Super Bowl.
Brown still was playing football when he made his big-screen debut in the 1964 Richard Boone-led western Rio Conchos. After his NFL retirement, he appeared in an episode of the Bill Cosby-Robert Culp action series I Spy in 1967, and he had a key role that same in the star-packed World War II action-adventure pic The Dirty Dozen.
Directed by Robert Aldrich, it followed the story of a rebellious U.S. Army Major (Lee Marvin) who is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers. Its ensemble cast also includes Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas, Trini Lopez and Donald Sutherland.
That role – in which he died heroically after wiping out numerous Nazis — was followed by, among others, Ice Station Zebra in 1968. Other film roles would include Slaughter, Keenan Ivory Wayans’ I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and Oliver stone’s Any Given Sunday. On TV, he had roles on such popular series as CHiPs, Knight Rider, T.J. Hooker, The A-Team and Arli$$, among many others.
Brown was the first Black man to do an interracial love scene in a major Hollywood movie — with Raquel Welch in the 1969 western 100 Rifles. It also starring another running back-turned-actor, Burt Reynolds.
Brown continued to make movies and guest on TV shows all the way into the 2010s, most recently in the 2014 Draft Day, which starred Kevin Costner as the Cleveland Browns’ general manager. Among his more famous roles was as retired boxing champ Byron Williams, who channeled an Egyptian pharaoh as he battled little green aliens in Tim Burton’s campy 1996 romp Mars Attacks!
Spike Lee’s 2002 documentary Jim Brown: All-American, was a retrospective of Brown’s career in football, showbiz and social activism.
Born on February 17, 1936, in St. Simons Island, GA, Brown was a main character in Regina King’s 2020 directorial debut film One Night in Miami, which is set on February 25, 1964 — the night a brash young Cassius Clay shocked the world by knocking out seemingly invincible Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion. In the film, while crowds of people swarm Miami Beach to celebrate the match, Clay – unable to stay on the island because of Jim Crow-era segregation laws – spends the evening at the Hampton House Motel in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood celebrating with three of his closest friends: Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Brown (played by Aldis Hodge). All of them were beginning to assert themselves in the Civil Rights movement.
In 1967, Brown organized the Cleveland Summit response to Muhammad Ali’s decision to defy the Vietnam War draft on religious grounds. Eleven of America’s top athletes — including Brown, Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — as well as Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes met with Ali, who had changed his name by then, to discuss his stance. The group met for hours, with Ali defending and explaining his decision, eventually winning over even the skeptics among them.
Afterward, all 11 athletes held a press conference and expressed their unified support for Ali. The Cleveland Summit has been called “a significant turning point for the role of the athlete in society” and “one of the most important civil rights acts in sports history” as well as a predecessor of the sports-centric protest movements such as the one spurred by Colin Kaepernick.
Brown also was a friend of Richard Pryor, whose legendary 1979 stand-up album Wanted: Live in Concert had a nearly five-minute bit about him. Among the classic lines are one about a time Brown bit off part of a defender’s finger. Pryor said: “Referee asked, ‘Why’d you do that?’ Jim said, ‘All outside this mask belongs to him; all inside belongs to me.” More great lines: “Some people have a death wish and like to f*ck with him. And that’s all it can be is a death wish. [Guy] says, ‘I can’t find a building to jump off of, let’s go up to Jim Brown’s house and f*ck with him.” Later, Pryor added that Brown “knew nothing about the backdown. You can’t just say to Jim, ‘If you don’t get outta the way, I’m gonna kick your ass.’ ‘Cause Jim will say, ‘Well, that’s an ass-whoopin’ I gotta take.”
Pryor also talked about Brown in 1982’s Live on the Sunset Strip, the comic’s first album after a near-fatal drug-fueled incident. Discussing a time Brown came to his house while Pryor was smoking crack, he said: “What you gonna do? You gonna get well, or you gonna end out friendship. What you gonna do?” Pryor said that Brown kept repeating the line but and almost got him to the hospital but had to leave — “and the pipe said, “Hey Rich, Jim’s gone…”
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May 20th, 2023 05:09 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Pete Brown Dies: Lyricist For Cream’s ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ And ‘White Room’ Was 82
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Pete Brown, the cowriter for the massive Cream hits “Sunshine of Your Love” and “White Room” in the 1960s, died Friday in London of cancer. He was 82 and his death was confirmed on his official Facebook page.
“Pete was known to repeat the mantra ‘I come from a long line of worriers, not warriors.’ One of his other favorite expressions, passed down from Spike Hawkins, was ‘that’s life – up one minute, down the next twenty-five years,'” the Facebook tribute stated. “Despite his tendency towards Jewish pessimism, he lived the life of a warrior poet. He was proudly anti-establishment, and dedicated his life to his creative endeavors, in an uncompromising way.
Brown was asked by Cream drummer Ginger Baker to help write songs for Cream, a power trio featuring guitarist Eric Clapton and bass player Jack Bruce. He remained a collaborator with Bruce for decades after Cream’s relatively short life.
“In recent years (Brown) was featured in two documentary films: ‘White Rooms and Imaginary Westerns,’ a loose adaptation of his autobiography, and ‘The Cream Acoustic Sessions,’ a documentary on the re-working of many of the Cream songs,” the songwriter’s Facebook page said. “An accompanying album, ‘Heavenly Cream’ is due for release later this year.”
Survivors include his wife, Sheridan, daughter, Jessica Walker, and son, Tad.
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May 22nd, 2023 04:49 PM |
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Jaden_3.0
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Ray Stevenson RIP
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May 22nd, 2023 11:45 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Ray Stevenson Dies: ‘Thor’, Vikings’ & ‘Rome’ Actor Was 58
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Ray Stevenson, a veteran actor whose dozens of film and TV credits include RRR, the Thor and Divergent films, Rome, Vikings and Star Wars animated series, died Sunday in Italy. He was 58. His reps at Independent Talent confirmed the news but did not provide details.
He most recently has been cast in historical drama 1242: Gateway to the West, taking over the lead role that originally was to be played by Kevin Spacey.
Stevenson played the main antagonist Scott Buxton in SS Rajamouli’s global box office smash RRR and is known for playing Volstagg in Marvel’s Thor franchise and Othere in History’s Vikings. He also has voiced Gar Saxon in the animated Star Wars series The Clone Wars and Rebels and was set to join Rosario Dawson in Disney+’s upcoming The Mandalorian spinoff Ahsoka.
Born on May 25, 1964, in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, Stevenson began his screen career in the early 1990s, appearing in European TV series and telefilms. His first big-screen credit was opposite Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh in Paul Greengrass’ 1998 drama The Theory of Flight. We went on to land roles in such features as Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur (2004), Lexi Alexander’s Punisher: War Zone (2008), the Hughes Brothers’ The Book of Eli (2010) and Adam McKay’s The Other Guys (2010).
Stevenson’s next role would be among his most famous, playing Volstagg — an Asgardian member of the Warriors Three — in Marvel’s Branagh-directed Thor (2011). He would reprise the role in a pair of sequels: Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
He also co-starred as Porthos in Paul W.S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers (2011), Firefly in Jon M. Chu’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) and Marcus in 2014’s Divergent and its sequel Insurgent the following year. He toplined Kill the Irishman, playing Danny Greene opposite Vincent D’Onofrio, Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken in Jonathan Hensleigh’s 2011 pic based on a true story.
On the small screen, along with Vikings and the Star Wars series, he starred opposite Poppy Montgomery in the French American series Reef Break, which aired one season on ABC in 2019. He also starred as Titus Pullo in the 2005-07 HBO series Rome and co-starred in the 2017 British miniseries Rellik. Stevenson also played Blackbeard on Starz’s Black Sails and guested in such series as Murphy’s Law, Dexter, Crossing Lines, Medici and The Spanish Princess.
More recently, he co-starred last year as Commander Jack Swimburne in Season 3 of the German TV series Das Boot.
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May 23rd, 2023 12:08 AM |
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rudester
Tommy
 Gender: Male
Location: United States |
Marlene Clark, 'Sanford and Son' Actress, Dead at 85: 'An Extraordinary Woman'
__________________
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May 27th, 2023 10:57 AM |
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Nuke Nixon
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John Beasley Dies: ‘Everwood’ & ‘The Soul Man’ Actor Was 79
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Beasley was born in Omaha, Nebraska in June 26, 1943 and didn’t get started in acting until his 40s. His first acting credits were in films like V.I. Warshawski (1991), The Mighty Ducks (1992), Rudy (1993), Untamed Heart (1993) and Little Big League (1994) and in TV shows like Brewster Place (1990), Lucky Day (1991) and Laurel Avenue (1993).
His first main role in a television series was in Greg Berlanti’s Everwood in the role of Irv Harper which he played throughout its four-season run. Beasley was also a main cast member of The Soul Man, a sitcom created by Suzanne Martin and Cedric the Entertainer.
Other television credits included Judging Amy, CSI, The Lost Room, NCIS, Boston Legal, CSI: Miami, Treme, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Shots Fired, The Resident, and The Mandalorian.
Beasley’s film credits also included The General’s Daughter (1999), Crazy in Alabama (1999), The Sum of All Fears (2002), The Purge: Anarchy (2014), I’ll See You in My Dreams (2015), The Turkey Bowl (2019), Cowboys (2020) and Spell (2020), to name a few. Firestarter was his last acting credit in 2022.
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May 31st, 2023 07:27 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Jacky Oh Dies: ‘Wild ‘N Out’ Star Was 32
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Jacky Oh, who appeared as part of the “Wild ‘N Out” sketch comedy and battle rap improv game show television series, has died. No details were given on the cause of her death, which was reportedly in Miami and confirmed by a post on the show’s Instagram page. She was 32.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Jacklyn Smith, known to the world as Jacky Oh, a talented Wild ‘N Out family member whose impact will be forever treasured and missed,” a BET Media Group spokesperson wrote. “Jacky Oh was a loving friend and beloved colleague of the Wild ‘N Out cast throughout five seasons. More importantly, she was a tremendous mother to three beautiful children.”
“The BET Media Group extends our sincere condolences to the Smith family, DC Young Fly, B Simone, Nick Cannon, and all friends who loved and cared for Jacky Oh during this difficult time.”
Jacky Oh was romantically linked with fellow “Wild ‘N Out’ cast member DC Young Fly. She was no longer on the long-running series, and was reportedly working as a realtor.
The couple shares three children: Nova, Nala, and Prince.
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Jun 2nd, 2023 02:34 AM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Sergio Calderón Dies: ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean’ & ‘Men In Black’ Actor Was 77
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Sergio Calderón, the actor recognizable from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Men In Black and The Ruins and many other projects over course of his six-decade career in films and television, died this morning surrounded by family, his spokesperson confirmed to Deadline. He was 77.
In At World’s End, Calderón played one of the film’s Pirate Lords, Captain Eduardo Villanueva of the Adriatic Sea. The actor posted photos to social media of himself and franchise star Johnny Depp as well as rock star Keith Richards, who played the Pirate Lord of Madagascar and Depp’s father in the film.
More recently, the actor appeared in The Ruins, Little Fockers and, last year, the FX series Better Things as well as an episode of Peacock’s The Resort.
In addition to directors such as Gore Verbinski (Pirates) and Barry Sonnenfeld (MIB), Calderón worked with Sergio Leone in his 1971 film Duck, You Sucker! and John Huston (twice) in The Bridge in the Jungle and Under the Volcano.
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Jun 2nd, 2023 02:37 AM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Barry Newman Dies: ‘Vanishing Point’ Star Was 92
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Barry Newman, who was behind the wheel of a “super-charged” Dodge Challenger in Vanishing Point, a 1971 film featuring several breakneck police chases, and later starred as a defense attorney on the NBC series Petrocelli, has died.
He was 92 and died May 11 in a New York hospital, with his death confirmed by social media posts from friends. No cause has been established.
Newman had appeared on Broadway and the film The Lawyer (1970) (which later spun off into the Petrocelli tv series) when he was offered Vanishing Point. In the film, his drug-addicted character was tasked with delivering a car from Colorado to California, with the stipulation that if he could do it in 15 hours, his meth purchase would be free.
The film was directed by Richard C. Sarafian and became a cult classic, as Cleavon Little kept up a steady stream of radio chatter on the epic journey. No less than Steven Spielberg called it one of his favorite films.
Newman’s film resume also includes Sylvester Stallone’s Daylight, Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey, and 40 Days and 40 Nights. He was also in the films City on Fire, Amy, and Good Advice, among other films.
In television, he appeared on L.A. Law, Murder, She Wrote, The Fall Guy and The O.C., the latter where he played Professor Max Bloom.
Diagnosed with vocal-cord cancer in 2009, Newman stepped back from acting, but did return to star in the independent film Finding Hannah in 2022.
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Jun 5th, 2023 12:11 AM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Pat Cooper Dies: Comedian & Actor In ‘Analyze This,’ ‘Seinfeld’ Was 93
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Born Pasquale Caputo on July 31, 1929, in Brooklyn, he tried to join multiple branches of the U.S. Armed Forces but was rejected and turned to comedy. He adopted his stage name during an early-’60s stint doing stand-up, which further angered the Italian family he often roasted in his act.
Cooper became estranged from his parents while focusing on his insult-heavy comedy career. His angry onstage persona led to multiple firings from stints opening for the likes of Frank Sinatra and Paul Anka. By the mid-’60s, he was being booked on many of the era’s most popular variety and shows including those hosted by Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore. Cooper made about a half-dozen appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the early 1970s and was a regular on celebrity roasts and Jerry Lewis’ telethons.
He later would guest on such shows as Late Night — with both David Letterman and Conan O’Brien — Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and Howard Stern. He became a favorite of the Howard Stern and appeared more often on his radio show.
Cooper also released several albums during the 1960s recorded-comedy boom. His first, Our Hero … Pat Cooper in 1966, featured one side of stand-up — mainly making fun of his family’s Italian stereotypes — and one of parody songs. The LP only reached No. 88 on the Billboard 200 but would ride the chart for more than nine months. Its late-’66 follow-up, Spaghetti Sauce & Other Delights, peaked at around the same position.
Cooper also was a guest comic on Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine and went on to appear as himself in several documentary films including The Aristocrats, Mulberrry St. and Dean Martin: The One and Only.
By the early 1980s, Cooper was landing guest spots on TV. Among the popular shows on which he appeared were Vega$, Charlie’s Angels, L.A. Law and It’s a Living. Seinfeld fans might remember him from the Season 7 episode “The Friars Club” in 1996.
In the 1999 Billy Crystal-Robert De Niro comedy Analyze This, Cooper played Salvatore Masiello, a member of the De Niro character’s mob crew. He reprised the role for it 2002 sequel Analyze That. Other big-screen credits include Silent Predator, Code of Ethics and This Thing of Ours.
He ranked No. 69 on Comedy Central’s 2014 list of 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.
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Jun 7th, 2023 09:31 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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The Iron Sheik Dies: Wrestling Star Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri Was 81
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The man born Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri but known to millions of pro wrestling fans as The Iron Sheik has died. He was 81.
Vaziri was an amateur wrestler in his native Iran before becoming a leading star and top villain, or “heel,” of professional wrestling during the World Wrestling Federation’s heyday in the 1980s. He had relocated to the United States in the early 1970s to work for as a wrestling coach and trainer for the U.S. Olympics team, becoming a professional wrestler in 1972.
Initially performing under the ring name The Great Hossein Arab, he switched to The Iron Sheik after joining the then-WWF in the early 1980s (it was renamed as WWE in 2022). Donning traditional, if stereotypical, Arab garb, his role as wrestling’s premier villain coincided, and no doubt benefited, from the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979-81.
By 1983, The Iron Sheik, with his trademark “Camel Clutch” maneuver, had become the only Iranian champion in WWE history, taking the belt that year when he defeated Bob Backlund at Madison Square Garden. The victory, according to the WWE, was a controversial one, as Backlund’s manager Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel after Backlund refused to submit.
The Iron Sheik held the title for just under a month before losing the championship to then-named Hollywood Hogan on January 23, 1984, in what is remembered as one of the most famous matches of all time. Although The Iron Sheik lost, he was involved in the match that launched the career of a soon-to-be-renamed Hulk Hogan and moving professional wrestling firmly into popular mainstream culture.
Among his most popular storylines was a long-running feud with the cartoonishly American Sgt. Slaughter, leading to the massively popular Boot Camp Match at Madison Square Garden. Both would become stars of the mid-1980s WrestleMania craze and Slaughter inducted The Sheik into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
The Iron Sheik left WWE in 1988 for the WCW in 1989, returning briefly to the WWE in 1991 in a much-publicized detente with former enemy Sgt. Slaughter. He reappeared in 1997 as a manager of The Sultan and last appeared for one night only as The Iron Sheik at WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001.
With his wrestling fame leading to other opportunities, The Iron Sheik made regular appearances on The Howard Stern Show and in such films as The Tale of the 3 Mohammads (2005), Operation Belvis Bash (2011) and on TV in Robot Chicken, The Eric André Show and in the 2014 biographical documentary The Sheik. He occasionally used his legal name Khosrow Vaziri in credits.[/i]
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Jun 7th, 2023 09:35 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Worthless, hatemongering scumbag Pat Robertson dies at 93
Evangelical Christian leader Pat Robertson, who ran for president as a Republican, has died at the age of 93.
He was one of the driving forces of a movement to increase the influence of the religious right in US politics.
He founded the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in 1960 and helped grow it into a cable media empire.
For decades, Robertson hosted a CBN talk show called the 700 Club that combined religious news and political commentary with light entertainment.
CBN announced the news of his death on Thursday. No cause was given.
Robertson also founded the Christian Coalition, the organisation that grew to be a pivotal player in Republican politics starting in the 1980s.
It provided endorsements and financial and organisational support to candidates who echoed their views on hot-button social issues like abortion, religious liberty and "traditional" values.
In 1988, Robertson campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination.
He finished second in the Iowa caucuses behind Kansas Senator Robert Dole, with the the support of the state's large evangelical community.
Robertson's White House run faltered after eventual nominee and president George HW Bush won the New Hampshire primary.
Despite the defeat, Robertson's campaign - he came top in four state-nominating contests - demonstrated that evangelical Christians were a growing force in Republican politics.
The evangelical leader would go on to become a kingmaker in Republican politics for decades.
Robertson's brand of religious-infused politics frequently generated controversy.
He was sharply criticised for appearing to blame American cultural liberalism - including the gay rights movement and abortion - for the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.
In 2010, he claimed a devastating earthquake in Haiti was because its people made a "pact with the devil" during their fight for independence from France.
After Donald Trump was elected president, Robertson said those who opposed him were "revolting against what God's plan is for America".
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Jun 8th, 2023 01:33 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
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Jack Lee Dies: Front Of L.A.’s The Nerves And Songwriter For Blondie, Paul Young Hits Was 71
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Jack Lee, part of the influential Los Angeles band The Nerves in the 1970s and later a hit songwriter, died May 26 in Santa Monica, Calif. at age 71. He died after a long battle with colon cancer.
Lee is best remembered for his song “Hanging on the Telephone,” which Blondie covered from The Nerves version. Lee also wrote Paul Young’s “Come Back And Stay.”
Lee was one of three singer-songwriters in the Nerves. The band started in San Francisco, then moved to Los Angeles in 1977 to ride the power pop trend of that moment. Lee, the guitarist, was joined by Peter Case on bass and Paul Collins on drums. Case went on to form The Plimsouls, while Collins was the founder of The Beat.
The group had just one self-titled EP released in 1976 on Bomp! After the Nerves breakup, Lee had two solo recordings.
A memorial is planned at the Echoplex nightclub in Echo Park, date TBD. Survivors include his children Wallie Autry, Grace Lee, Mary Lee, and Cynthia Jacqueline Lee Cook; grandchildren Jack Autry, Brenlee Autry, Adam Mejia, Alana Joy Nichols, Jackson Cook, and Hudson Cook; half siblings Robert Emiel Lee, Virginia E. Lee, and Katherine Lee; and wife Mieke Sofia Lee.
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Jun 8th, 2023 05:41 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
Senior Member
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Mike Batayeh Dies: ‘Breaking Bad’ Actor & Comedian Was 52
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Actor and comedian Mike Batayeh, best known for his role as laundromat manager Dennis Markowski on Breaking Bad, has died. He was 52.
Batayeh died June 1 in his sleep of a heart attack at his Michigan home, his family said in a statement.
In three episodes of the Emmy-winning Breaking Bad, Batayeh played Dennis Markowski, manager of the Lavandería Brillante industrial laundromat that served as a cover for Gus Fring’s (Giancarlo Esposito) giant meth lab. Markowski wound up meeting a fiery end in prison.
A Detroit native, Batayeh also appeared in guest starring or recurring roles in series such as Everybody Loves Raymond, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Bernie Mac Show, The Shield, Sleeper Cell and Touch, among others.
His film work includes American Dreams, Gas, American East, Don’t Mess With The Zohan and a leading role in Detroit Unleaded.
As a comedian, Batayeh has performed at comedy clubs such as Gotham in NYC and Los Angeles clubs including Laugh Factory, Comedy Store, Improv and Icehouse. He was part of the first wave of Western comics to perform for local audiences in the Middle East, including Dubai, where he filmed a comedy special for Showtime Arabia. He also performed in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, where he was invited two years in a row by the royal family of Jordan for the Amman International Comedy Festival.
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Jun 10th, 2023 12:41 AM |
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Nuke Nixon
Senior Member
Gender: Unspecified
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Unabomber Ted Kaczynski Dies in Federal Custody at 81
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Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski, the vengeful bomber who killed three people in a series of attacks over a nearly two-decade span before his own relatives helped authorities identify him, has died. He was 81.
Kaczynski, known as the "Unabomber," died at the federal prison medical centre in Butner, N.C., Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, told The Associated Press.
He was found unresponsive in his cell early Saturday morning and pronounced dead at about 8 a.m. local time, she said. A cause of death was not immediately known.
Before his transfer to the prison medical facility, Kaczynski had been imprisoned at the so-called supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo.
After attacks at two Illinois universities and one on an American Airlines cargo hold in 1978-79, Kaczynski was given the nickname Unabomber by an FBI-led task force.
It was a shortened handle for University-and-Airlines-Bomber, although ultimately the three men who died in Kaczynski bombings between 1985 and 1995 were a computer store owner, a public relations executive and a forestry executive.
Kaczynski's attacks across eight U.S. states — many of them delivered through the postal system — would also injure 23 people. Some were targeted by name even though he didn't personally know them, and others were the victims of cruel randomness. Some of the injured lost vision or body parts.
While not as brutal a toll as the domestic terrorist had wished — as expressed in voluminous journals Kaczynski wrote — the attacks vexed and alarmed authorities during a period where there were multiple American casualties in bombings aboard a Pan Am flight, as well as at the World Trade Center in New York and a federal building in Oklahoma City.
The manhunt was said to involve hundreds of personnel over its duration, and cost millions of dollars. A $1-million US reward and one of the most well-known suspect sketches ever did not specifically lead to this arrest. Kaczynski proved elusive by hand-crafting his bomb components, while not leaving fingerprints, at his remote Montana cabin.
Ultimately, Kaczynski's need to explain his actions doomed him. The New York Times and Washington Post, in a controversial decision in September 1995, published his 35,000-word manifesto entitled Industrial Society and Its Future. The FBI feared publicizing the words of a murderer but reasoned that the tactic would be fruitful with the internet newly accessible to millions.
Calling the industrial revolution "a disaster for the human race," the author said in his manifesto that "in order to get our message before the public with some chance of making a lasting impression, we've had to kill people," falsely implying he was part of a group.
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Jun 10th, 2023 10:42 PM |
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Nuke Nixon
Senior Member
Gender: Unspecified
Location: |
Kyle Brown Dies: ESPN Director Has Medical Emergency At NCAA Baseball Playoffs, Was 42
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ESPN director Kyle Brown died suddenly on Saturday after suffering a “medical emergency” at an NCAA baseball super regional in Winston Salem, N.C., the network announced. He was 42.
The game between No. 16 Alabama and No. 1 Wake Forest was delayed for two hours. Wake Forest eventually won, 5-4.
The network issued a statement following his death.
“A 16-year ESPN employee, Kyle was a deeply admired member of our production team — and highly accomplished, having captured two Sports Emmy Awards while working a multitude of sports from baseball and basketball to Monday Night Football and college football,” ESPN said in a statement on Sunday.
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Jun 12th, 2023 01:18 AM |
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