Passages

[Ovader]

John Calley

Mike Figgis had this to say on Twitter of Calley:

He saved my bacon...bought Leaving Las Vegas for MGM against all opinion. Cool guy, jazz fan, bon vivant..RIP

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Otakar Vávra

[MichaelB]

Otakar Vávra

Since he reached his centenary last February, you can't say that he didn't have a good innings. When I reviewed Golden Sixties, that amazing 26-part series about the Czechoslovak New Wave, I noted that Vávra was one of the first people they interviewed, back in 2003, presumably because he'd have already been 92 then and they weren't taking any chances.

Although I doubt anyone would consider him a first-rank talent as a director (though he made some very good films, notably Witches' Hammer in 1969), he's unquestionably one of the most important figures in Czech cinema history, partly because of the continuity he provided between the 1930s and the 2000s (he only definitively retired in 2008), but mostly because he taught a vast number of important Czech directors (including the majority of New Wave luminaries) at FAMU - and not just the nuts and bolts of film direction, but also the diplomatic skills that they'd need to survive in an industry run by ideologised bureaucrats. (Vávra had a lot of experience of this, as a working filmmaker under both the Nazis and the Stalinists).

[flyonthewall2983]

Francesco Quinn.

[Antares]

Francesco Quinn.

Francesco Quinn

You're a little late

[Feego]

Frances Bay, who played just about everyone's grandma. She was always great and memorable in her work with David Lynch.

[GaryC]

One I missed earlier - English-born Australian actress Michele Fawdon died on 23 May.

She won an AFI Award for Cathy's Child in 1979, beating amongst others Judy Davis for My Brilliant Career. She seems to have spent most of her career on television.

[colinr0380]

I'm not sure if we have mentioned this previously but on looking back at To Sleep With Anger over the weekend I noted that Vonetta McGee died in July 2010. Here's Alex Cox's Guardian obituary from around that time (she appears in Repo Man)

[Feego]

Dolores Hope, wife of Bob Hope

[Tom Amolad]

Paulette Dubost.

[perkizitore]

David Croft

[Arthur Bannister]

Uan Rasey

Although the linked article doesn't mention the fact, Rasey was also the featured soloist on the Chinatown soundtrack.

[Perkins Cobb]

Straw Dogs screenwriter David Zelag Goodman, presumably as a rebuke to Rod Lurie.

[ellipsis7]

Nice Guardian obit for Dubost...

Her memoirs were titled 'C'est Court, la Vie' ('Life Is Short', 1992), nevertheless she lived to 100...

[Ovader]

Read on Facebook from Carlos Losilla of Cahiers du Cinéma-España that film editor Peter Przygodda (notably worked with Wim Wenders) passed away.

[antnield]

Bert Jansch

[Forrest Taft]

A great loss, 67 is too young an age. I've been listening to "The Black Swan" since I read about his death. A great album, and a great guitarist. I believe he was one of Neil Young's favorites.

[Brian C]

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

[flyonthewall2983]

Steve Jobs

[dx23]

Steve Jobs

Just saw that on CNN and I'm in utter shock.

[mfunk9786]

Just goes to show you that disease, if inclined, can rip you to shreds regardless of the resources at your disposal. Jobs was truly a modern day Edison, or at least as close as we've come.

[jbeall]

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

Just came here to post that as well. Thanks for doing so first. Rev. Shuttlesworth is/was a real hero. This seems like a really big deal, and yet on the campus of Alabama State (an HBC, and Shuttlesworth's alma mater), most of my students don't know who he is.

[perkizitore]

Charles Napier

[dad1153]

^^^ Great character actor. :( His white collar asshole government guy in "Rambo II" made the perfect make-believe foil on whom the desire to seek vengeance would drive a lunatic like John Rambo to mow hundreds of Vietnamese just to threaten the guy with a knife, and we'd cheer too. He also must have been in every cop/action show in the 70's and 80's as 'generic bad guy #2' or 'thug that beats Banner to become the Hulk' or 'Rockford partner that fell with the mob.'

[MichaelB]

Steve Jobs

Just saw that on CNN and I'm in utter shock.

Hardly shock - he never struck me as the kind of man who'd hand over his company until the absolute last possible minute, so it was sadly clear that his days were numbered from the moment he did so in August. Lasting seven years following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is a pretty amazing achievement in itself, though I daresay he had the best medical attention imaginable.

I've just posted a Facebook status eulogy, to the effect that I'm "writing this on a MacBook Pro, and an iPhone is lying a few feet away: later, the latter will accompany [me] to London, along with [my] iPad. [My wife] is currently listening to Harry Potter audiobooks on an iPod while using her own Macbook. It's very likely that [our] kids will watch something made by Pixar later today. None of this will be any kind of special tribute: it's just a completely normal day."

Jobs was truly a modern day Edison, or at least as close as we've come.

As the Guardian obituary points out, he significantly changed the shape of four major industries: personal computing, mobile telephony, music and film. Most other great visionary entrepreneurs, even at the level of Henry Ford or Conrad Hilton, shaped just one.