Erica Watson, Chicago actress and stand-up comedian, dies from COVID-19 complications
Watson, a Kenwood Academy High School and Columbia College alumna, wore many hats as an actress, stand-up comedian, public relations representative and activist. Her acting credits and media work include Showtime’s “The Chi,” NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” Spike Lee’s feature film“Chi-Raq,” ABC 7’s “Windy City Live” and WCIU’s “The Jam.”
‘Jumping’ Johnny DeFazio Passes Away At 80
DeFazio, a former four-time WWWF Junior Heavyweight Champion, has passed away at the age of 80. He wrestled from the 1960s to the 1980s, for companies like Spectator Sports and Capitol Sports (which eventually became WWWF, then WWF). While in the WWWF, he also won the International Tag Team titles with Geeto Mongol.
After retiring, he became a politician, and was longtime member of the Allegheny County Council, as well as the former President of the same council.
Bob James, who replaced Sammy Hagar in Montrose and fronted the band for two albums, died at the age of 68.
He joined Ronnie Montrose’s group in 1975 and was heard on Warner Bros. Presents… Montrose later that year, then on Jump On It the following year. Despite critical acclaim neither LP charted well, which led Montrose to split the band after releasing the instrumental album Open Fire in 1978.
James went on to join Magnet, a project overseen by Peter Frampton which featured former Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley. The group released one album, Worldwide Attraction, in 1979. After that, he formed Private Army with future Quiet Riot members Rudy Sarzo and Frankie Banali. He wrote the song “Reach Out” with a later group, USSA, which was recorded by Cheap Trick. Before and after that period of his career he’d been associated with the band Shatterminx, also known as Swan. A number of their previously unreleased tracks from the ‘70s were recently made available via social media.
Pleasantville native Ralph Peterson Jr., a jazz drummer, bandleader, composer and educator, died at 58.
Peterson Jr. was the son of former Pleasantville Mayor Ralph Peterson Sr., a pioneer in the city, who died in 2014 at age 81. Peterson Sr. was the city’s first Black police chief in 1981 and its first Black mayor in 1992.
Peterson Jr. came up in a family of drummers, according to his official website. Peterson’s grandfather played drums and so did four of his uncles. He started on drums at age 3, but it was as a trumpeter that he made his way into the jazz studies program at Rutgers University.
Besides Peterson’s family, he was one in a line of famous South Jersey jazz drummers, including the late Chris Columbo of Atlantic City; Harvey Mason Sr., an Atlantic City native; Peter Erskine, a Somers Point native; and the late Art Blakey, who lived in Northfield for part of his life.
Soap Star Gil Rogers Who Played One of Daytime’s Vilest Baddies Dead at 87
The saying “They don’t make ’em like that anymore” was all but coined for actors like Gil Rogers. When he set foot on screen, you didn’t see someone who’d gotten into costume and memorized a script, you saw whoever he was playing, simple as that. He vanished, and his character… materialized.
Nicola Pagett, British stage and screen actress in ‘Upstairs, Downstairs,’ dies at 75
Nicola Pagett, a British stage and screen actress who dazzled millions of television viewers as Elizabeth Bellamy, a headstrong daughter of Edwardian aristocrats who grows up to become a militant suffragette in the acclaimed period drama “Upstairs, Downstairs,” died March 3 at a hospice center in Esher, a London suburb. She was 75.
The cause was brain cancer, said her daughter, Eve Swannell. Ms. Pagett had been diagnosed with the disease less than three weeks earlier.
Legendary Charlotte wrestling promoter Jim Crockett Jr. dies at 76.
Ric Flair was a relatively unknown wrestler the day he said he arrived in Charlotte “with $150 in my pocket” in 1974.
Charlotte was a professional wrestling epicenter, home to the National Wrestling Alliance, then the second-largest wrestling operation in the U.S.
At its helm was Jim Crockett Jr., who died on Wednesday at age 76.
Through the family’s Jim Crockett Promotions Inc., Crockett built “a TV syndication empire” that rivaled top-rated “Wheel of Fortune,” the Observer reported in 1987. The studio/offices were on Briabend Drive, off South Boulevard, where Flair and other wrestlers hung out.
Crockett was an “influential promoter” who “helped champion” not only Flair but fellow wrestling Hall of Famers Ricky Steamboat and The Road Warriors, the WWE posted on its website.
He made the Hall of Fame career of Dusty Rhodes, The Charlotte Observer reported in 1987. And Crockett’s NWA made a name in the U.S. for Andre the Giant, according to a bio of the late 7-foot-4 French wrestler
Singer-songwriter Michael Stanley died this week of lung cancer at age 72.
Michael Stanley, the dark-haired guitarist with the voice that growled, did the unthinkable without the momentum of superstardom, in Cleveland, regardless of his reach to the coasts. He sold out the once-proud Richfield Coliseum, opened by Frank Sinatra with a black-tie gala and where the Cavaliers played for decades, for two nights faster than Led Zeppelin in their prime. Sold out the theater-in-the-round Front Row for ten consecutive nights as the swan song for the Michael Stanley Band. Sold out four more-than-SRO shows at Blossom Music Center, a record that has yet to be broken.
Frank Thorne, Legendary Red Sonja Artist, Dies at 90
Born on June 16, 1930, Thorne began his comic book career in 1948, penciling romance titles for the now-defunct Standard Comics. He went on to work on a number of newspaper strips and comic books, including Perry Mason, Flash Gordon and The Green Hornet. Starting with 1976's Marvel Feature #2, Thorne started drawing Red Sonja, a character created by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith for Marvel Comics' Conan the Barbarian series (who was also partially based on Robert E. Howard's characters Red Sonya and Dark Agnes). He succeeded Dick Giordano, who drew the character in Marvel Feature #1.
Thorne went on to draw Red Sonja throughout most of her first eponymous solo series at Marvel, which ran for a total of 15 issues from January 1977 to May 1979. The artist then went on to create several erotic fantasy comics, writing and illustrating "Moonshine McJugs" for Playboy, "Lann" for Heavy Metal and "Danger Rangerette" for National Lampoon. He also created the miniseries Ribit for Comico, as well as a number of graphic novels for Fantagraphics Books, including Ghita of Alizarr, The Iron Devil and The Devil's Angel. Thorne's work earned him multiple honors, including a National Cartoonists Society award in 1963, a San Diego Inkpot Award in 1978 and a Playboy editorial award.
Geoffrey Scott, Actor on 'Dynasty' and 'Dark Shadows,' Dies at 79
He worked on several other soap operas and was a familiar face in commercials for Marlboro, Old Spice and Camel cigarettes.
Geoffrey Scott, who portrayed tennis pro Mark Jennings, the first husband of Linda Evans' Krystle Carrington, on the 1980s ABC primetime soap Dynasty, has died. He was 79.
Scott died of Parkinson's disease on Feb. 23 — just after midnight on the day after his birthday — in Broomfield, Colorado, his wife, Cheri Catherine Scott, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The handsome Scott also played a U.S. marshal fighting aliens in 1880s Wyoming on "The Secret Empire" portion of 1979 NBC series Cliffhangers!; starred alongside Jerry Reed on the 1981 CBS series Concrete Cowboys (he stepped into the role originated by Tom Selleck in a TV movie on which the show was based); and was a quarterback on the 1984-85 HBO sitcom 1st & Ten.
On daytime soap operas, Scott portrayed publisher Sky Rumson on ABC's Dark Shadows in 1970, Jeffrey Jordan on CBS' Where the Heart Is in 1972, David McAllister on ABC's General Hospital in 1989 and Billy Lewis on CBS' Guiding Light in 1994.
Roger Mudd, longtime TV journalist, dies at 93
Mudd’s national career started at CBS News in 1961, where he was weekend anchor for “CBS Evening News” and sometimes substituted for anchor Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) on the program’s weeknight broadcasts. Mudd left CBS in 1980 – when he lost the chance at the weeknight anchor spot to Dan Rather – and moved to NBC News, where he was co-anchor on “NBC Nightly News,” “American Almanac,” and “1986,” as well as hosting “Meet the Press.” In later years, Mudd became a correspondent for “The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour” and a primary anchor for the History Channel.
Among the best remembered moments of Mudd’s career was the interview he conducted with Senator Edward M. Kennedy (1932–2009) of Massachusetts in 1979. Kennedy was running for the Democratic nomination for president, and Mudd’s simple question for him was: “Senator, why do you want to be president?” It wasn’t a gotcha question, but it appeared to stump Kennedy, who offered a rambling and confusing answer that never really got down to the point. The moment dealt a blow to Kennedy’s campaign, and it boosted Mudd’s profile as a political interviewer.
Boxing legend Marvin Hagler dies at age 66
The former undisputed middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987 passed away unexpectedly at his home in New Hampshire, according to a social media post from his wife Kay Hagler. The boxing world and fans are paying tributes and reflecting on the legacy of one of the greatest boxers in history.
Former Top Gear Host Sabine Schmitz Dead at 51 After Battle with Cancer
Sabine, affectionately known as the Queen of Nürburgring, the only woman ever to win Germany's famous 24-hour touring car and GT endurance racing event in 1996 and 1997, died Tuesday. She revealed last year she had been battling a rare form of cancer since 2017.
The Nürburgring's racing account tweeted, "The Nürburgring has lost its most famous female racing driver. Sabine Schmitz passed away far too early after a long illness. We will miss her and her cheerful nature. Rest in peace Sabine!"
George Segal, movie actor and ‘The Goldbergs’ regular, dies at 87
George Segal, a versatile actor who moved from dramatic roles in the 1960s and 1970s to sitcom success on “Just Shoot Me” and “The Goldbergs,” has died at age 87.
“The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” his wife, Sonia Segal, said in a statement to Deadline.com on Tuesday.
Segal was Oscar-nominated for his work as a young, married professor visiting his older, squabbling friends (Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966).
He also appeared alongside Ruth Gordon in “Where’s Poppa?” (1970), Barbra Streisand in “The Owl and the Pussycat” (1970), Glenda Jackson in “A Touch of Class” (1973) and Elliott Gould in “California Split” (1974).
Deadline said Segal will appear April 7 on his final episode of ABC’s “The Goldbergs.” For eight years, Segal played Pops Solomon, the wisecracking patriarch of a family making the most of the 1980s.
Award-winning actress Jessica Walter has died at 80
Jessica Walter, the award-winning actress whose career spanned five decades, passed away in her sleep at her New York City home on Wednesday, March 24th. She performed lead voice work for the animated comedy Archer, earning multiple Annie Awards nominations for her role as Malory Archer. But it was her role on Arrested Development as Lucille Bluth that made her an impenetrable force as she earned one Emmy nomination and two SAG nominations for her performance.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry has passed away at the age of 84
Tributes are pouring in for the author who penned "unsentimental" novels that "demythologized" the American West. McMurtry is known for such works as The Last Picture Show and Lonesome Dove. He also wrote Brokeback Mountain and won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay of that novel in 2006. He passed away at his home in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 84.
William "Biff" McGuire, Serpico and Thomas Crown Affair Actor, Dies at 94
Tony-Nominated actor William “Biff” McGuire is dead at the age of 94. The star’s career lasted over seven decades and saw him work with countless other legends of the screen. The Tony’s nominated him for The Young Man From Atlanta in 1997 and Morning’s At Seven in 2002. In the world of movies, he worked with Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair and Al Pacino in Serpico. Doug Hughes, former Seattle Rep Associate Artistic Director, told Deadline that McGuire actually was shy in real life but “a nearly scary confidence once he stepped on a stage.” The actor gave an interview with talkinbroadway back in 2004 that explained how he fell into acting as a result of his service during World War II. Sometimes, people find inspiration in the strangest circumstances. For McGuire, this meant learning under people in Britain who had given their lives to the trade.