"Winds that howl and winds that blow
And you, got to let it go.
People come and people go
Winds that howl and winds that blow
And you, got to let it go."
Strangefolk. Lyrics to "Lines and Circles". From the album,"Lore". 1995.
It's been a wild celebrity ride this year, and it's not even September yet. There have been so many deaths, someone, somewhere, is super mad at the hairless apes roaming the world.
I'm not going to go through what will become the Television Academy's "In Memoriam" page, but I do want to touch upon several "big names" for me, leading to the more recent news this week. I also am going back and forth in months because I am looking them up as I type this.
I read last month that Bud Cort had passed away in February, due to "complications of pneumonia". I don't recall this making major news because I would have remembered hearing about it when it happened; unless outlets were covering it really quickly during working hours and my not watching television. While I've only seen a handful of his movies (most notably, "Harold & Maude"), I didn't know much more of him or that he had been doing a lot various gigs up until 2016 (when IMDB stopped listing his roles). It's been so long since I've seen the other films he's been in, I totally forgot he had a character in them. For example, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", "Pollack", "Coyote Ugly", "But I'm A Cheerleader", "Dogma", "And The Band Played On", "M*A*S*H", and the list goes on. The characters may be briefly shown, but he's still very much credited.
In March, the news broke about Nicholas Brendon, known primarily for his role of "Xander" on the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" television series, but also later for "Kevin" on "Criminal Minds". He too, had an array of films and shows, but I think he was more remembered as Xander than anything else. He "died in his sleep due to natural causes" but was notorious for being a bad boy in some later years (including addictions to alcohol and pills, as well as multiple arrests and various charges). It's a shame because he seemed like a good guy and it only shows you how "the industry" can mess you up.
I am not much of a fan of James Van Der Beek, but he had passed away in February, "after a battle with colorectal cancer". He was known for playing the title character, "Dawson", on "Dawson's Creek" in the late 1990s and had some sports related movies during that time ("Varsity Blues"). He was also in the first season of "Pose" several years ago. His shows weren't ones I was regularly watching, and I think maybe I haven't seen a complete season of "Dawson" in my life. If I've seen 5 episodes, I've seen four too many. It wasn't one of those shows I was in to, but is still part of my generation. I watched "Pose" more for it being a Ryan Murphy series, as well as the portrayal of New York's ball culture rise in the 1980s.
Showing my young age, the next name really shouldn't be on my radar, but neither should Bud Cort be listed here (and what will come later). However, I must add it because I am familiar with their work.
Robert Duvall, who passed away in February, with nothing posted online as for reasons how (i.e. natural causes, etc). More known for his role in "The Godfather" series, he was a heavy hitter in other major films ("Apocalypse Now", "The Judge", "To Kill A Mockingbird") and television shows (known for working with horror master Alfred Hitchcock and on an episode of the science fiction shows such as "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits", although it was short lived episodes for him). More dramas and what feels like historical films than anything else, he is yet another name to add to the "M*A*S*H" movie line up (I'm sensing a theme here with the war film).
You'd have to be living under a rock, if you didn't know the name "Chuck Norris". A man known for his action and martial arts roles, he passed away in March, after being "hospitalized for a medical emergency". Most people know Mr. Norris as "Walker, Texas Ranger", but he was also known for playing himself in television shows (walk on roles) and philanthropy work (martial arts for kids, various Veterans foundations). Local internet lore constantly churned out memes in his jokingly favor - if you needed help in a fight, Chuck Norris would scare the opponent into submission.
A voice and actress to be reckoned with, Catharine O'Hara died in January, due to a "pulmonary embolism". Known for playing Macauley Culkin's mom in the "Home Alone" movies, Ms. O'Hara was a comedic legend. She not only had a voice over role in "Nightmare Before Christmas" (one of my favorite Tim Burton movies), she starred alongside Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton in "Beetlejuice" (another Burton fave). If you look at her acting credits, it really does look favorable in Tim Burton's cache of films. Later years, she worked on the television series "Schitt's Creek" (something I didn't start) and "The Studio". This woman had such an array of credits to her name, it's amazing to see what she hasn't been in!
I saw on the "Entertainment Weekly" website that Derry Brownson died on August 13. Derry was the keyboardist and a founding member of the British band, EMF. One of the band's top (known) singles would be "Unbelievable", which is from their 1991 album, "Schubert Dip". This, to some extent, feels like the only hit American airwaves heard from them because it hit Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of '91. When radio stations weren't playing "Unbelievable" on rotation, parties were playing "Children" and "Lies", which is off of the same album. "Schubert Dip". It seems like that record dropped multiple singles, but the most known is track six, "Unbelievable".
Fans of "The Sopranos" would be remiss in knowing Vincent Pastore passed away on August first. His character, "Sal 'Big Pussy' Bonpensiero was a mainstay on the first two seasons of the mob show. My mom used to always watch this series, so I am familiar with the actor. His credit listing reads like he does mostly drama / gang (mafia) movies; he found his niche at being typecast as a New York bruiser. "Carlito's Way", "Goodfellas", "New Jack City", and "The Basketball Diaries" are a few other films he starred in.
Sam Neill, better known for his work in movies such as "Jurassic Park", "Merlin" and "Peaky Blinders passed away July 13. The news reported most of his acting credits, but not once did someone mention "Merlin". It was weird and overall, his death was a shock to a lot of people. The crew of the 1920s Manchester mob show have lost a lot of people the last few years, and it's sad to see how connected to other movies they are (Helen McCrory comes to mind. She played "Aunt Polly" in the series, but she's also better known to "Harry Potter" movie fans as "Narcissa Malfoy").
There are way too many names on the list to continue cherry picking them and writing about it. My whole point of making this post is twofold: One to mention Dolly Parton and the other to mention Tim Curry.
I'm not a huge Dolly fan, but I respect what she's done in her eighty years on this earth. The philanthropy she set in motion, such as libraries and reading materials for children and LGBTQIA etc. acceptance. She was an actress, a writer, a singer - royalty among her genre, but she wasn't afraid to fight for what she thought was right. She was a humanitarian and it seems a contradiction, but she was political in how she used her words in music; never in advertising or online. You just need to listen closely to figure it out. There was no malice or fighting with her when she spoke up or how she spoke up. According to reports, she made you feel like you didn't have to hide anything around her. You could be outspoken and she would not argue back (actually, she would, in her own Southern way) but you didn't feel dumb about it. She played a sort of safe route while trailblazing her way through life, not only for herself, but for others. She lived to help people, not harm them. I read the other day that she could have been a billionaire multiple times over, but due to giving away a lot of her wealth to various charitable organizations, she left this place with several million dollars. All due to her wanting to be better and do better for people. I'll always find it fascinating that she wrote the music to "9 to 5" on her fingernails! That's talent to get the rhythm down like that... seriously. I'm glad I worked with a person who adored Dolly because I was one of a group of people who chipped in to buy him the last part of Dolly's memoir series, "Star of the Show: My Life on Stage". We all got to write a little passage in the first page of the book for the person and I think we made his holiday season. He has Dolly everything and I know he's probably not doing so well right now. JH, if you're reading this, you're being thought about and I'm so happy we all got you that book. It's a wonderful read about Ms. Parton and you deserve it.
Tim Curry, on the other hand, is someone I've spoken about before. His acting and musical credits are pages long because he's been on stage and screen since the late 1960s. The last few times I mentioned his name here, I kept toying with the idea of buying his memoir, "Vagabond" and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed reading it because he was insightful yet illusively evasive about his life. He wanted to write about the things he did and saw, but still kept a lot of it private. You could tell there were things he was leaving out, and it did make you want to know what it is, but I respect anything of reason for privacy. With his death on August 25 at age 80, there are rumors swirling on what triggered it, but I'm not posting those here. I will say, they would make sense, given the circumstances. Based on his book and his interviews, I know he's lived a long, hard life and again according to a few interviews he gave this year (because it's the 50th anniversary of "Rocky Horror"), he was given the death question. He said something to the effect of "not fearing it" and he is "trying to avoid it" even though he "would welcome it in the end". Based on the same interviews, I think he was appreciative for what he had in his life because his own father passed away at a young age due to a stroke. Tim was older than his father when he had his own stroke in 2012, so every year he lived past that day, was a good day. Fourteen years later, as my aunt texted me last night, "Do you think Dr. F-N-F has returned to his home planet?", to which I said "Anything is possible!". Long live Nigel Thornberry, Pennywise the Dancing Clown, Rooster Hannigan, Wadsworth, Long John Silver, The Lord of Darkness and Hexxus!
There have been way too many memes the last 72 hours about Dolly and Tim's death, and unfortunately, some are very much geared to hating on a certain individual. I'm not linking anything here, nor am I going to explain it more. I'm leaving it at "the hairless apes roaming the woods around each continent are doing something to anger higher powers if we keep losing celebrities at a clip, yet others are still standing. Mother nature is very angry with us, given all the heat and humidity it doesn't belong in, the flash flooding, the power outages... we're definitely not on the right track".
Until we get another list going and we fix our future, be mindful of your surroundings and tell your friends you dig them (or you'll help bury them if needed. Whatever works). Oh, and I just finished reading James Patterson's novel, "Zoo". I watched the television series when it aired, but think the book is way better. Check it out if you can.
Cheers;
See also:
