Passages

[GaryC]

Marvin Isley, bassist with the Isley Brothers.

[denti alligator]

Experimental novelist David Markson. Author of the novel from which the Sinatra film Dirty Dingus Magee was adapted, one of my favorite writers, the namesake of my board handle.

Indeed, his last four "novels" were incredible works of experimental fiction.

[MichaelB]

Jerzy Stefan Stawiński, writer of many Polish classics including Kanał, Eroica, Bad Luck and Knights of the Teutonic Order.

[domino harvey]

Jimmy Dean

[Matt]

81. Not bad for a guy who made a living selling sausage, wrapped in a pancake, on a stick.

[Donald Brown]

I'm guessing his wares weren't part of his diet.

[Tom Amolad]

I'm guessing his wares weren't part of his diet.

"I'm the Wienie King! Invented the Texas Wienie! Lay off 'em, you'll live longer."

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Bekim Fehmiu, an apparent suicide.

[Ovader]

Peter Brunette

[Dr Amicus]

Peter Brunette

Gutting - his book on Rossellini was the main set text on a course I took on Rossellini as an undergraduate, and a model of lucid writing it was too.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Sebastian Horsley

[Perkins Cobb]

Elzbieta Czyzewska, of Skolimowski's Rysopis and Wajda's Everything For Sale, and a New Yorker for most of her later life.

[MichaelB]

Ronald Neame, at the grand old age of 99.

Link to follow.

[GaryC]

Nobel Prizewinner José Saramago, whose novel Blindness (Ensaio sobre a cegueira) was filmed in 2008.

[dadaistnun]

What a tremendous loss. I know everyone gravitates towards Blindness (and it is remarkable), but I'd like recommend All the Names, a beautiful, strange, and melancholic work. His prose is not anywhere near as difficult as some would have you believe.

Here's the NYT obit.

[dad1153]

Ronald Neame, at the grand old age of 99.

Link to follow.

There you go.

He was nearing 100 and didn't even die of natural causes! He was a tough dude but it's no surprise that his direction of "The Poseidon Adventure" elevated it over the disaster movie genre it helped kick-start for Irwin Allen (i.e. "The Swarm" and "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure"). Distinguished Geoffrey Unsworth-type career (had Geoffrey lived long-enough to want to write/produce/direct his movies).

[dadaistnun]

Bill Dixon

[Dr Amicus]

Alan Plater

Mostly TV - including the marvellous 80's A Very British Coup.

[neuro]

Bill Dixon

Absolutely devastating. One of the absolute titans of Free Jazz and one of the coolest dudes around. For a film-related tie-in, I wholeheartedly recommend Ron Mann's Imagine the Sound, which features great footage of Dixon at work (and at rest). It's also the greatest Free Jazz film I've seen.

[skuhn8]

The Kinks lose an alumnus: former bassist Pete Quaife at the tender age of 66. I'll take Village Green Preservation Society over any single album by The Beatles or Stones.

[reno dakota]

Robert Byrd

[dad1153]

Allyn Ferguson, TV composer ("Charlie's Angels," "Barney Miller," etc.)

[Feego]

Corey Allen, Buzz from Rebel Without a Cause.

[Polybius]

And, as mentioned in the article, a busy and accomplished TV director.

[dad1153]

Movie producer Elliott Kastner (Where Eagles Dare, The Long Goodbye, etc.).