The ALL DEAD Club

Tommy Lasorda, the fiery Hall of Fame manager who guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to two World Series titles and later became an ambassador for the sport he loved during his 71 years with the franchise, has died. He was 93. vThe Dodgers said Friday that he suffered heart failure at his home in Fullerton, California. Resuscitation attempts were made on the way to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday
Lasorda had a history of heart problems, including a heart attack in 1996 that ended his managerial career and another in 2012 that required him to have a pacemaker.

Michael Apted, the acclaimed British director behind the revolutionary series of decades-spanning Seven Up documentaries and features including Coal Miner's Daughter, Nell and The World Is Not Enough, has died. He was 79. Roy Ashton at the Gersh Agency confirmed Apted's death to The Hollywood Reporter. A spokesperson for the DGA said he died Thursday night in Los Angeles. No cause of death was immediately available.

Brad Venable, a prominent voice actor who played Griffon/Nightmare in Devil May Cry 5, has passed away at age 43. According to IGN, no cause of death has been given at the time of publishing.

Venable’s lengthy voice acting credits included Final Fantasy VII Remake, 2020’s Demon’s Souls remake, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Shenmue III, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. He also lended his vocal talents to anime such as Hero Mask (Lennox Gallagher), Dragon Ball Super (Shisami), Attack on Titan (Daz), and My Hero Academia.

Dave Creek, an animator who worked on the sitcom “Central Park” and served as lead character designer for “Bob’s Burgers,” has died at 42 on Thursday from injuries sustained in a skydiving accident last weekend.

Ed Bruce, a country music songwriter renowned for writing chart-topping hits such as “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” died in Clarksville on Friday, Jan. 8 at the age of 81.
Bruce was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, AFTRA, and the Musician’s Union, dabbling in several realms of entertainment during his 64-year career.

Steve Lightle, Classic Legion of Super-Heroes Artist, Dies at 61.
After beginning his comics career with a story in AC Comics' Black Diamond #4 in 1984, Lightle transitioned to DC Comics, illustrating a 10-page story in New Talent Showcase #4. Later that year, Lightle became the new artist on Legion of Super-Heroes, replacing Keith Giffen. He drew interiors for Legion of Super-Heroes for two years, between 1984-1988, while also doing covers. During his time on Legion of Super-Heroes, Lightle co-created Legionnaires Tellus and Quislet, and he was a part of the creative team behind the death of Legionnaire Karate Kid.

John Reilly, a longtime soap opera actor known for his time on "General Hospital," died on Saturday, his daughter confirmed to CNN. He was 86. In a career that spanned more than 30 years, Reilly appeared on "As the World Turns," "Sunset Beach," "Passions" and "Dallas." For 11 years, he starred as Sean Donely on "General Hospital."

Nancy Bush Ellis, a longtime Democrat who helped her Republican brother and nephew get elected president, has died of complications of the coronavirus. She was 94.
She died on Sunday at an assisted living facility in Concord, Massachusetts, her son Alexander Ellis III told The New York Times. She was hospitalized on Dec. 30 with a fever and tested positive for the coronavirus, he said.
Although she was a Democrat for decades who backed environmental and antipoverty causes, she was first and foremost fiercely loyal to her family.

Julie Strain, B-movie legend and Penthouse Pet, has died at age 58.
It's been twelve years since Strain appeared in a movie, but in her nineteen years of acting she racked up over 130 credits, including an appearance in the Exorcist spoof Repossessed, Steven Seagal's Out for Justice, the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Double Impact, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Beverly Hills Cop III, and the horror films Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart, Psycho Cop Returns, The Devil's Pet, Sorceress, Sorceress II: The Temptress, the Bare Wench franchise, How to Make a Monster, Thirteen Erotic Ghosts, and Blood Gnome, among others.

Her most well-known roles came in Heavy Metal 2000 and the Andy Sidaris films Fit to Kill, Day of the Warrior, and L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies: Return to Savage Beach, as well as Christian Drew Sidaris's Enemy Gold and The Dallas Connection. Her half-sister Lizzy Strain followed her into acting, and the sisters both appeared in the films Bleed, Delta Delta Die!, Birth Rite, Bloodsucking Strippers, No Pain No Gain, Tales from the Crapper, Evil Ever After, Azira: Blood from the Sand, Chantal, The Devil's Muse, and Magus.

It was revealed in 2018 that Strain was suffering from degenerative dementia, an affliction that was tied to head trauma she received from a horse riding accident when she was in her twenties. That accident also gave her retrograde amnesia, which wiped much of her youth from her memories.

Strain was married to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman for over a decade, and together they had a son named Shane. Her longtime companion Dave had been taking care of her during her final years, and he was holding her hand when she passed away early Sunday morning.

Vincent Logan, 79, Scottish Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Dunkeld (1981–2012)

Aleksandr Borisovich Nikitin, 59, Russian football player (Torpedo Volzhsky, SKA Rostov-on-Don, Rotor Volgograd) and manager.

Leonidas Pelekanakis, 58, Greek Olympic sailor (1984, 2000, 2004), COVID-19

Untung Suharsono Radjab, 66, Indonesian police officer, Chief of the Greater Jakarta Metropolitan Regional Police (2011).

Safwat El-Sherif, 87, Egyptian politician, Minister of Information (1981–2004), COVID-19

Dinesh Chandra Yadav, Nepalese politician, MP (2013–2017), COVID-19

Jessica Campbell -- the former actress best known for her role as Tammy Metzler in "Election" -- died suddenly and unexpectedly last month ... according to her family. Jessica passed away on December 29 in Portland, and though a full autopsy has been conducted by the Multnomah County Medical Examiner her family is still awaiting the results.

Her cousin, Sarah Wessling said the day she died, Jessica worked a normal day seeing patients at her practice -- she was a naturopathic physician -- and returned home to visit with her mother and aunt.
Sarah says Jessica went to the bathroom but never came out, and when her aunt went to check on her ... she found her collapsed on the floor. We're told the aunt tried to revive her but couldn't, and neither could EMTs when they arrived.

The family says Jessica had been complaining of congestion and felt like she was getting a cold, but they didn't think it was COVID.

The family says Jessica has been cremated and they are planning a memorial.

She was 38.

Siegfried Fischbacher, an illusionist known for working with exotic cats as one half of Siegfried & Roy, has died from pancreatic cancer, according to his publicist Dave Kirvin.
He was 81.

Phil Spector, the music producer responsible for some of the biggest hits in music and the architect of The Wall of Sound has died at age 81 from COVID-related complications, after being transferred from his prison cell to a hospital. He was diagnosed 4 weeks ago and went to the hospital but recovered well enough to return to prison, where he was serving a 19-to-life sentence for the murder of Lana Clarkson.

Actress Mira Furlan famous for her role as Minbari Ambassador Delenn in BABYLON 5 has died at age 65, Ms Furlan was also known for her role in the series LOST.

Jimmie Rodgers, the early Rock and Roll star who was successful in the 1950s and 1960s with hit tunes like “Honeycomb” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine,” died Monday. He was 87 years old and living near Palm Springs, Calif.

Longtime MLB home run king Hammerin' Hank Aaron dies at 86, the Hall of Fame slugger whose 755 career home runs long stood as baseball's golden mark.

Larry King, Veteran TV and Radio Host, Dead at 87

“With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host, and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles,” King’s official Twitter announced Saturday morning. No cause of death was provided, but King’s death came weeks after it was revealed that the 87-year-old host was battling coronavirus.

“For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster. Additionally, while it was his name appearing in the shows’ titles, Larry always viewed his interview subjects as the true stars of his programs, and himself as merely an unbiased conduit between the guest and audience. Whether he was interviewing a U.S. president, foreign leader, celebrity, scandal-ridden personage, or an everyman, Larry liked to ask short, direct, and uncomplicated questions. He believed concise questions usually provided the best answers, and he was not wrong in that belief.”

Cloris Leachman, Emmy and Oscar Winner, Dies at 94

Oscar winner and multiple Emmy winner Cloris Leachman, best remembered as the delightfully neurotic Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and her own subsequent sitcom, died of natural causes on Tuesday in Encinitas, Calif. She was 94.

“It’s been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time,” her longtime manager Juliet Green said. “There was no one like Cloris. With a single look she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh ’till the tears ran down your face. You never knew what Cloris was going to say or do and that unpredictable quality was part of her unparalleled magic.”

The daffy, self-absorbed Phyllis, a character she claimed was close to her own persona, brought the actress two Emmys as a featured actress in a series during the mid-’70s and made Leachman a household name.

Leachman also won a supporting actress Oscar in the early part of the decade for a far different character, an embittered small-town housewife in Peter Bogdanovich’s elegiac “The Last Picture Show”; she would later reprise the role in the film’s less successful sequel “Texasville.” Both films were based on the writings of Larry McMurtry.

Overnight success for the actress, however, came only after two decades of hard work in theater, television and some films. Leachman was in her 40s when stardom finally hit.

Leachman’s pitch-perfect timing and effortlessness in comedy and her unadorned honesty in drama was the result of many years honing her craft and incorporated her own life experiences as a mother of five children (by producer George Englund).

Her open, all-American look took her through several decades in a wide variety of roles on Broadway and early television as well as more than 40 movies, where she moved easily from leading roles to character parts.

The actress won a total of eight primetime Emmys, both for drama and comedy, and one daytime Emmy.

Cicely Tyson, an Actress Who Shattered Stereotypes, Dies at 96

Cicely Tyson, the stage, screen and television actress whose vivid portrayals of strong African-American women shattered racial stereotypes in the dramatic arts of the 1970s, propelling her to stardom and fame as an exemplar for civil rights, died on Thursday. She was 96.

Her death was announced by her longtime manager, Larry Thompson, who provided no other details.

In a remarkable career of seven decades, Ms. Tyson broke ground for serious Black actors by refusing to take parts that demeaned Black people. She urged Black colleagues to do the same, and often went without work. She was critical of films and television programs that cast Black characters as criminal, servile or immoral, and insisted that African-Americans, even if poor or downtrodden, should be portrayed with dignity.

Her chiseled face and willowy frame, striking even in her 90s, became familiar to millions in more than 100 film, television and stage roles, including some that had traditionally been given only to white actors. She won three Emmys and many awards from civil rights and women’s groups, and at 88 became the oldest person to win a Tony, for her 2013 Broadway role in a revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful.”

At 93, she won an honorary Oscar, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2018 and into the Television Hall of Fame in 2020. She also won a career achievement Peabody Award in 2020.

SOPHIE, pioneering pop producer and singer, has died
The influential and critically-acclaimed Scottish artist died in an accidental fall on Saturday morning at the age of 34. Artists and fans from around the world are paying tribute to SOPHIE, whose groundbreaking art changed the landscape of pop and electronic music.