final credits - july 2005
Ivor Arbiter | Alan Barry | Gus Bodnar | Eddie Bunker | Chuck Cadman | Maria do Couto Maia-Lopes | Bud Cullen | Stuart Davis | James Doohan | Richard Eastham | Camillo Felgen | James L. Fisher | Geraldine Fitzgerald | Gretchen Franklin | Arthur W. Funk | Bertram F. Given | Jim Haskins | June Haver | Edward Heath | Bob Houston | Mary Jean Kelly | Gavin Lambert | Stanley S. Lane | Frances Langford | Alberto Lattuada | Ernest Lehman | Richard Leiterman | London Bombings - July 7, 2005 | Don McLean | Frank Moores | Frieda Mueller | Philip Nicholson | Charles Okun | Louis Pitoscia | Ford Rainey | Jocelyn Rickards | Tom Schwalm | Alex Shibicky | Kohachi Shigetaka | Freddy Soto | Grace Thaxton | Lawrence Teeter | Gerry Thomas | Mary Alice Mills Thomas | Richard Verreau | George D. Wallace | Arthur Wood | Chris Wright | Charles Young | Harrison Young | Gu Yue
Arthur W. Funk >permalink<
Sparkle window cleaner entrepreneur
"Don't wash your windows, Sparkle them."
Using a formula his father had acquired years earlier, Funk began making Sparkle, known for its purple color, in his basement in the 1950s. From a machine that made one gallon at a time, a conveyor belt took the bottles out of the basement window and on to his father's Elgin Paper Co. trucks. Elgin Paper was a company that distributed paper and janitorial products.
Funk was an idea man and his slogans made the Sparkle product, the aristocrat of glass cleaners, popular across America. After all, Sparkle was the next best thing to hiring a window washer.
July 31, 2005 at age 75. Congestive heart failure.
Lawrence Teeter >permalink<
Lawyer
Teeter was a criminal defense and civil rights attorney who represented some unusual clients and causes. He fought against the recent remodeling of Los Angeles' famed Hollywood Bowl concert venue for a local association. He also once represented Norma Jean Almodovar, a former LAPD traffic officer turned call girl who ran unsuccessfully for California lieutenant governor on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1986 and ultimately served a mandatory three-year state prison term for pandering despite Teeter's protest that the 1982 law specifying the sentence was unconstitutional.
In 1994, Teeter took on the client for which he will be best remembered: Sirhan Sirhan. For over a decade, Teeter repeatedly tried to get Sirhan's case overturned. Sirhan continues to serve a life sentence, convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
Kennedy was shot June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after a celebration of his victory in the California Democratic presidential primary. Teeter maintained that Sirhan was in the wrong position and too far away to have fired the bullets that killed Kennedy. While conceding that Sirhan did fire a gun that night, Teeter said he did so in a hypnotic trance akin to the 1962 fictional film "The Manchurian Candidate."
Teeter suggested his client was hypnotized and framed by the CIA or the "military industrial complex," which feared Robert Kennedy would end the Vietnam War if he were elected president. Teeter also claimed evidence that would have fingered the actual assassin was destroyed by the Los Angeles Police Department.
July 31, 2005 at age 56. Lymphoma.
Chris Wright >permalink<
Canadian football league player
Wright was a wide receiver and kick return specialist who helped the Baltimore Stallions win the Canadian Football League's Grey Cup in 1995 during the league's brief experimental foray into the American market. During the playoff's deciding game, Wright caught a punt at his own 28-yard line and streaked downfield for an 82-yard touchdown. The Stallions relocated to Montreal in 1996, becoming the Alouettes.
Wight was murdered in his native state of Georgia. After Wright's sister heard several early morning shots in front of her house in Atlanta, she found Wright's body outside in the street, next to his car.
Wright established a Canadian Football League rookie record of 1,236 punt return yards in his 1995 rookie season. His 2,256 total return yards also broke Edmonton Eskimo Henry (Gizmo) Williams's league record of 2202. Wright was named a CFL all-star in his first year in the league.
The Alouettes released Wright in 1999 just 24 hours before he was to receive a $20,000 bonus from the team. He played briefly afterwards for the British Columbia Lions.
July 31, 2005 at age 32. Multiple gunshot wounds.
Stuart Davis >permalink<
Organ donor
When Edmonton's Francis Winspear Centre for Music first opened in 1997, the wall behind the performance stage was blank and featureless. The community-funded concert hall had plans for a pipe organ to be installed (the world-famous organ builders Orgues Létourneau Limitée of St. Hyacinthe, Québec had already given it their designation of Opus 50) but the needed monies were not yet in place. In the summer of 2000, Stuart Davis, a retired university professor, stopped by the hall to ask if he might make a donation towards the pipe organ. Davis asked if $2 million dollars in the form of then-lucrative Nortel stock would help.
Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Davis attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He met his wife Winona while waiting in line at a campus bookstore. Davis completed his PhD at McGill University in 1940. Two years later, he accepted a teaching position in the U of A's chemistry department. He spent 40 years teaching future scientists while pursuing research on the physical properties of clay.
Parallel to his acumen for investing in financial stock, Davis was also a man of thrift. Living near the University, he always travelled to work on a bicycle and he never turned down a free meal. He was especially fond of dessert which he would often eat first.
The Davis Organ made its debut on September 14, 2002. English concert organist Christopher Herrick performed the first solo recital on the 96 stop, 122 rank and 6,551 pipe instrument.
Davis was named Edmonton's 2003 philanthropist of the year. In 2004, he gave $500,000 to the U of A's Faculty of Science to support the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science (CCIS). The world-class teaching and research facility was about to commence construction at the time of Davis' death. He was also reported to having made provision for a substantial donation of his $3 million estate to the University Hospital Foundation.
July 30, 2005 at age 88.
Louis Pitoscia >permalink<
Wrestler and screen heavy
"Big Lou" first came to national attention as a professional wrestler, haunting Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens in the 1940s. A decade later, he was a cigar-chomping bruiser in sketch comedy send-ups of gangsters, hoods and prison inmates as a regular on the classic Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television show Wayne and Shuster.
Pitoscia left the square circle in the early 1950s, and duked out film roles in Hollywood with fellow wrestler Mike Mazurki. Pitoscia landed a bit part in "My Favorite Spy," starring Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr. He played a hood who got killed. Pitoscia liked the easy work, but preferred to exploit his thespian talent in his home country. He soon teamed up with Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster who had also resisted lucrative U.S. offers.
Ed Sullivan was a huge fan of the Wayne and Shuster team. The duo performed on Sullivan's show 67 times, more often than any other act. Pitoscia appeared frequently on what is now David Letterman's stage numerous times, always a heavy, always with a cigar in his mouth (even when playing in drag).
American audiences continued to spot Pitoscia in his roles in "Moonstruck" and "Mrs. Soffel." In Canada, his was a familiar face in commercials and through guest appearances on "SCTV," "Seeing Things," "Adderly" and "Robocop."
Pitoscia enjoyed playing the gangster stereotype, even in his own home. When his niece once brought a date over for dinner, he took out a switchblade to clean his nails and asked the young man "So, what are your intentions with my niece?" The suitor was never heard of again.
July 28, 2005 at age 76.
Charles Young >permalink<
Fourth-oldest man in the United States
The ironically named Young was the oldest man living in the state of Minnesota, the fourth-oldest in the U.S., the sixth-oldest man in the world and 57th-oldest person in the world. He had seven children, 30 grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren and 17 great-great grandchildren.
Young saw the turn of the 20th century, pinched pennies during the Great Depression, lived through two world wars and the inauguration of 19 presidents.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Young worked for the Standard Oil Company, delivering heating oil to homes and farms around the state. He was popular with children because he always gave out treats he carried in his pockets. During the Depression, a stick of gum was more than enough to brighten a child's day.
Two generations later, Young volunteered at the nursing home located next door to his assisted-living apartment building. On one occasion a man Young was pushing around in a wheelchair asked his name and he told Young he'd given him gum as a child.
July 27, 2005 at age 110.
Ivor Arbiter >permalink<
Put the 'T' in Beatles
Arbiter was initially a saxophone repairer and played drums as a hobby. He soon made drums his life's work -- designing, manufacturing and selling them for over 40 years. He was one of the first in Britain to open an exclusive shop for the instrument called Drum City. He also opened Sound City, a guitar and amplification outlet, and later the Fender Soundhouse after securing the UK franchise for popular and inexpensive guitars. Among his customers were Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix.
In 1963, someone named Brian Epstein arrived in his store with a drummer. They were there seeking a replacement for Ringo Starr's battered Premier kit. Epstein asked that the band's name appear on the bass drum, and Arbiter hastily sketched the "drop-T" logo on a scrap of paper. Local sign-writer Eddie Stokes painted the bass-drum heads during his lunch hour and Arbiter was paid £5.
In the late 1980s, Arbiter was taken with karaoke after visiting a Japanese trade show. He started importing karaoke machines, later manufacturing his own. In 2001, Arbiter received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Music Industries Association.
July 26, 2005 at age 75.
Ford Rainey >permalink<
Actor
Rainey was usually cast as presidents, judges and other authority figures -- his lean and rugged face the result of early jobs as a horseman, logger, fisherman, coast guard, fruit picker, carpenter, clam digger and oil tanker roustabout.
Despite being shy as a youngster, Rainey was introduced to the stage by a high school drama teacher. He gained confidence appearing on Seattle, Washington radio stations and in repertory theater, eventually performing in every state in the United States.
In 1939 Rainey made his Broadway debut in Dostoevski's "Possessed." Two years later, he appeared as Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and took the title role in a touring production of "King Lear." He made his movie debut with an uncredited role in the 1949 James Cagney picture "White Heat."
Rainey was also a familiar face in the movies, with credits that include "The Sand Pebbles" with Steve McQueen and "Two Rode Together" with James Stewart and Richard Widmark. He repeatedly played presidents, ranging from Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 miniseries "Captains and the Kings" to fictional President McNeil on TV's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." Rainey first portrayed Lincoln in a 1953 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of "Miss Curtis Goes to Washington."
Rainey's numerous television credits include "Bonanza," "Perry Mason," "The Fugitive," "Gunsmoke," "Route 66" and "The Untouchables." He had recurring roles as the guardian on "The Bionic Woman," a general in "M*A*S*H" and a judge in "The Waltons" and "Matlock." Rainey worked into his 90s, appearing in such recent series as "ER" and "The King of Queens."
Rainey kept active taking up the guitar, piano and other diversions late in life. At about age 90, he began breeding dozens of budgerigars and won numerous competitions around Southern California.
July 25, 2005 at age 96. Complications from a series of strokes.
Maria do Couto Maia-Lopes >permalink<
Fourth oldest person in the world
Born October 24, 1890, do Couto Maia-Lopes remembered the day when the last king of Portugal, Manuel II, visited a nearby town. The date was November 23, 1908.
do Couto Maia-Lopes was the oldest person ever in Portugal. She became nearly deaf and blind in her later years, and was confined to bed after a 2002 domestic accident with boiling water that burned her feet.
do Couto Maia-Lopes had a total of eight daughters, seven grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1942. One of her great-granddaughters married a grandson of Portugal's oldest man.
July 25, 2005 at age 114.
George D. Wallace >permalink<
Actor
Born in New York City, Wallace moved with his family to West Virginia where, at the age of 13, he began to work in the coal mines. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1936, got out four years later, returning when World War II broke out. While in the service, he became the light heavyweight champion of the Pacific Fleet.
After service, Wallace supported himself with odd jobs, such as working for a meat packer ("knockin' steers in the head") to lumberjacking. It was when he was a singing bartender that he attracted the attention of Hollywood columnist Jimmie Fidler, who encouraged him to get into show business. Wallace soon enrolled in drama school while earning a living tending the golf course at MGM.
Wallace made his film debut in 1950 in "The Sun Sets at Dawn." He went on to appear in more than 25 westerns, including the Hopalong Cassidy films. A role in a short-lived and modest early 1950s serial took his career to Broadway, major films and television.
Wallace landed the part of Commando Cody, Sky Marshall of the Universe, in the Republic serial "Radar Men From the Moon." Although it only ran for 12 episodes, it is a cult favorite among serial fans. Outfitted with a leather jacket, a bullet-shaped silver helmet and an atomic-powered rocket pack with a simple control panel with three dials: on/off, fast/slow and up/down, Wallace played a scientist flying to the moon to investigate why targets on Earth were being destroyed by an unknown weapon.
The helmet conveniently hid Wallace's face, so that stunt man Dave Sharpe could run at the camera, bounce off a hidden springboard and shoot over the camera as "Cody" launched into space. The moon scenes were shot in 112-degree heat in the Mojave Desert, and the trademark leather jacket also saw service in other Republic serials "King of the Rocket Men" and "Zombies of the Stratosphere."
"Radar Men" led to a role in the classic 1955 sci-fi remake of Shakespeare's The Tempest. While filming "Forbidden Planet," a casting director heard Wallace singing between scenes and introduced him to Broadway composer Richard Rodgers. Wallace was soon cast opposite opera star Helen Traubel in "Pipe Dream." He then starred in "Pajama Game," "Jennie" and "New Girl in Town," for which he was nominated for a New York Drama Critics Award as best actor in a musical. His career stalled in 1960 when a horse fell on him and broke his back during the making of an episode of the TV show "Swamp Fox". Recovery took seven months.
All told, Wallace's career spanned more than 50 years and nearly 200 appearances in film and on television. His movie credits include "Submarine Command," "Lifeguard," "Night of the Hunter," "The Big Sky," "The Lawless Breed," "Punchline," "Forces of Nature," "Postcards From the Edge," "Multiplicity," "Nurse Betty" and "Minority Report." His TV appearances range from "Hopalong Cassidy" and "Four Star Playhouse" to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Joan of Arcadia," with guest shots on "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza" "ER," "Dynasty," "L.A.Law" and "Hill Street Blues."
Wallace fell while on vacation and had been hospitalised for five weeks in Pisa, Italy before he was sufficiently stabilised to return to his Los Angeles home.
July 22, 2005 at age 88. Complications from injuries sustained a fall.
Frieda Mueller >permalink<
Oldest German
Not much was known about Mueller -- even by those who cared for her for the last ten years. She had few visitors, apparently outliving those close to her. A nephew said Mueller was born on October 18, 1894 in Potsdam. She had married a railroad employee, Wilhelm Mueller, in 1914. Wilhelm died in 1958.
Mueller reportedly slept a lot, spoke little, owned few possessions and liked listening to classical music. Staff of the nursing home where she spent her final days said she aged well because her face was hardly wrinkled. The title of the oldest German now passes to 108-year-old Robert Meier.
July 21, 2005 at age 110.
James Doohan >permalink<
The Star Trek universe glows a little dimmer with the loss of another one its stars. James Doohan, who played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, chief engineer on the U.S.S. Enterprise featured in the late 1960s TV series "Star Trek," joins DeForest Kelley (June 11, 1999) and series creator Gene Roddenberry (October 24, 1991) on another plane of existence.
Whenever the Enterprise was in peril, Scotty would squeeze himself into the nearest Jeffries Tube to work his magic on the warp drive, manipulating the dilithium crystals despite the fact the engines just couldn't take it anymore. And whenever Kirk was in a jam, it was time to "Beam me up, Scotty." For more about Doohan and his contribution to pop culture, visit the Last Link James Doohan tribute page.
July 20, 2005 at age 85. Pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease.
Eddie Bunker >permalink<
Mr. Blue
Edward Bunker: screenwriter, novelist, actor and 21-year guest at the Hotel San Quentin (beginning in 1940). 
At the age of 15 he put a fork into a friend's eye, and later after a prison escape, he crossed America as a fugitive listed on the FBI's ten most wanted list.
Bunker was the youngest inmate ever sent to San Quentin, aged just 17 years. By the time he was released at 38, he had penned two books while on the inside, Confessions of a Felon, and No Beast So Fierce, which was adapted as 1978 Dustin Hoffman starring film "Straight Time." Bunker also wrote the screenplay for 1985's "Runaway Train" and 2000's "Animal Factory," based on own his novel.
His acting credits include "Straight Time," "Reservoir Dogs," "Runaway Train," "The Running Man," "Tango and Cash" and 2005's "The Longest Yard."
Most recently, Bunker was signed on to adapt friend James Ellroy's "Suicide Hill." Bunker died during surgery, and was the second "Reservoir Dogs" actor to die (Lawrence Tierney died in 2002). For more about Bunker's unbelievable life story, visit his entry at Wikipedia.
July 19, 2005 at age 71. Cancer and diabetes.
Gerry Thomas >permalink<
TV dinner inventor
When it comes to the tale of inventing the TV dinner, there are two stories to be told. One concerns the myth propagated by Gerry Thomas, and the other involves obituary writers who failed to check their facts.
Thomas was a salesman for the Omaha, Nebraska-based Swanson and Sons Company in late 1954 when he came upon the idea of packaging frozen meals in a segmented tray. He had spent five years in the service and was familiar with single compartment Army mess kits developed by Ancel Keys, who died November 20, 2004. In those trays, all the 'courses' ran together into a single mess. When he was visiting a distributor, Thomas spotted a segmented and disposable aluminum-foil tray and was told it was developed for an experiment in preparation of hot meals on Pan American Airways.
Soon Thomas launched the first Swanson TV Dinner in a package that featured a TV screen and knobs on the cover, containing turkey with corn bread dressing and gravy, sweet potatoes and buttered peas - and in separate compartments. It sold for about a dollar and could be cooked in 25 minutes at 425 degrees. In its first year, ten million were sold. Today, frozen foods bring in about $30 billion each year.
Thomas claimed that he didn't want to be known as the father of the TV dinner. After all, he just invented the segmented tray. He also invented a story, "a metaphor," for how his product came to be.
In a story repeated across newspapers and the internet, it was told that Swanson found itself with an oversupply of turkeys -- so many that they were piled aboard refrigerated railroad cars and were being shuttled around the country to keep them cool. Some reports put the volume of meat at 520,000 pounds of excess holiday fare. The tale had it the weather in late 1951 was unusually warm and had reduced demand for the holiday birds, causing a surplus. Swanson's apparent solution was the invention of the home-cooked fast-food dinner.
However, 1951 was one of the coldest winters on record. And former Swanson employees say the company owned eight stories of freezer space in Omaha and wouldn't have needed refrigerated trains to store surplus fowl. Also up for contest was Swanson's claim to inventing the dinner that accompanied the new fad of television.
In 1944, the W.L. Maxson Co. created the real first frozen dinner, which was sold to the Navy and to airlines as "Strato-Plates." FrigiDinner, not Thomas, devised the first aluminum tray for frozen meals in 1947.
There were further claims that Thomas, in 1999, was honoured with a handprint, alongside a tray print, on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Or outside Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, right beside those of Sean Connery. Also not true. At left, National Lampoon's parody recording "Radio Dinner."
Thomas' profile prior to Swanson remains intact. He served as an Army officer during World War II and won a Bronze Star for his work in breaking a Japanese code while on Okinawa. Afterward, he enrolled at the University of Nebraska where he and Johnny Carson acted together in musical comedy.
After the Campbell Soup Co. acquired Swanson in 1955, Thomas became a sales manager, then a marketing manager and director of marketing and sales. He left the company after a heart attack in 1970. He later directed an art gallery and did consulting work. The original Swanson TV dinner tray resides in the Smithsonian Institute next to the leather jacket worn by the Fonz in the TV show "Happy Days."
July 18, 2005 at age 83. Liver cancer.
Edward Heath >permalink<
Ted Heath was born during a German air raid on July 9, 1916. It was said that he did not move around other people, they moved around him — and after his fall from office, they moved away from him. He was one of the few real-life figures ever referred to by the Beatles in song ("Taxman") along with Lucy (in the sky) Richardson. When he hitchhiked through Europe in 1937, he once brushed shoulders with Adolf Hitler at a Nuremberg rally. He was the 47th prime minister of Britain, elected fourteen times as member of parliament during a five decade run.
For more about the most European of British leaders, visit the Last Link Edward Heath tribute page.
July 17, 2005 at age 89. Pneumonia due to failing health since suffering a pulmonary embolism in 2003.
Gavin Lambert >permalink<
Screenwriter, Hollywood historian
English-born Lambert entered Magdalen College, Oxford, dropping out as soon as he found out he was required to learn medieval English in order to obtain a degree. He announced that he was a homosexual so as to be rejected for military service in 1942.
The friendship he struck with future film director Lindsay Anderson in college led him to writing scripts for the two-minute commercial films shown in British movie theaters. Their school ties led them to editing the Oxford Film Society's newly established magazine, Sequence, in spring 1947. As film critic, Lambert became known for championing neglected American films while castigating a dreary post-war British cinema. His ideas were upstream of other UK critics who dismissed Hollywood cinema as inferior to European "art" films.
Within fifteen issues, Sequence achieved such a notoriety that their editorial staff were photographed for Vogue magazine over the caption "Wise, Witty and Courageous." In 1949, Denis Forman, the new director of the British Film Institute, invited Lambert to overhaul the institute's Sight and Sound magazine. Two years later, he became Sight and Sound's editor, a position he held until 1956.
After directing his independently financed movie "Another Sky" (which drew praise from directors Luis Bunuel and Nicholas Ray), Lambert moved Los Angeles to work as Ray's assistant. He did uncredited writing on Ray's films "Bigger Than Life" and "The True Story of Jesse James," and also collaborated on the script for "Bitter Victory." He also adaptated Tennessee Williams' "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," his own "Inside Daisy Clover," and won two adaptation Oscar nominations for "Sons and Lovers" and "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden."
Lambert became known as Hollywood's resident historian, acting as biographer for Norma Shearer, Lindsay Anderson, Natalie Wood, George Cukor. He also wrote "GWTW: The Making of Gone With the Wind." Lambert's The Slide Area is consideredone of the best books on Los Angeles and the movie business.
July 17, 2005 at age 80. Pulmonary fibrosis
Geraldine Fitzgerald >permalink<
Actress
Fitzgerald's six-decade career on stage and before the cameras had a spectacular start, but the independent spirit of the Irish-born actress kept her from becoming one of Hollywood's greatest stars. 
It was her aunt, Shelah Richards, who inspired Fitzgerald to become an actress, and together at a Dublin Theatre they met a seventeen-year-old Orson Welles. After a notice-grabbing start in British films (the best known of which is 1937's "The Mill On The Floss"), Fitzgerald moved to New York and soon appeared with Welles' Mercury Theatre. During a production of Heartbreak House, Fitzgerald was spotted by Hal Wallis, who with Samuel Goldwyn, promptly signed her to seven year contract -- a highly unusual contract, in which she stipulated that she be allowed six months off every year to work in live theatre.
Fitzgerald's first two Hollywood films were made back-to-back and were both released in 1939. At the age of 26, she appeared with Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan in "Dark Victory." Fitzgerald then played opposite Laurence Olivier in William Wyler's adaptation of "Wuthering Heights." The film earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, which she was rumoured to have asked to be withdrawn.
The relationship between Fitzgerald, Goldwyn and the Hollywood Dream Factory slowly became unglued, and studio boss Jack Warner refused to give her the lead in "The Maltese Falcon," the role going to Mary Astor instead. Role refusals by Fitzgerald led Goldwyn to suspend her several times for lengthy periods, and soon Fitzgerald drifted back to New York, where she met and married Stuart "Boy" Scheftel, a patron of the arts who once ran for the office of that city's mayor. Scheftel was the grandson of Isidor Straus, the co-owner of Macy's department store and who went down with the Titanic in 1912.
The end of the 1940s found Fitzgerald back in Britain where her film career picked up again. By the time she returned to the U.S., she presented herself as a character actress on stage and screens big and small. During the 1960s she appeared in "Ten North Frederick," "The Pawnbroker," "Rachel, Rachel," "The Mango Tree" (for which she received an Australian Film Institute Best Actress nomination), "Harry and Tonto," "Arthur," and "Poltergeist II: The Other Side," as well as numerous television appearances. She won an Emmy nomination for an appearance on "The Golden Girls," and a Tony nomination, which has rarely been bestowed on a woman, for directing "Mass Appeal" on Broadway.
At age 55, Fitzgerald took singing lessons and started a career as a cabaret singer. Her voice, once described as "honey on sandpaper," lent unique renditions to a wide range of songs -- from the Beatles to Edith Piaf.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Geraldine's son from her first marriage, is a successful director in his own right. He first directed episodes of Britain's "Ready, Steady, Go!" pop music show in 1964, and has filmed concerts by the Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young, Paul Simon and The Who, as well as numerous feature films.
July 17, 2005 at age 91. Alzheimer's disease.
Camillo Felgen >permalink<
Translated Beatles songs
As a singer, Felgen represented his home country of Luxemburg at the Eurovision Song Contests of 1960 and 1962. He went on to become a popular singer in Germany and France in the 1960s and 1970s, later carving out a career as a radio presenter for Radio Luxemburg and hosting the game show "Spiele Ohne Grenzen" for German television. He also owned a small chain of fashion stores.
Felgen will best remembered to Beatles fans for translating the lyrics for "She Loves You" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as "Sie Liebt Dich" and "Gib Mir Deine Hand." One of the phonetically sung songs made their way onto the North American-only Beatles release "Something New." United Artists initially held the soundtrack rights for the first Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night" and Capitol released a competing record using eight of the 14 songs from the UK version, two songs from a UK EP, and a German-language version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
July 16, 2005 at age 84.
Stanley S. Lane >permalink<
Fought in two world wars and Korea
Lane was born Samuel Levine in a Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. He was raised in New York and left school in the eighth grade. He had a fondness for Zane Grey's frontier novels, and despite never having seen a horse before, he enlisted in the Army cavalry in 1917, lying about his age. When his deception was discovered, he refused an offer of a discharge. Lane was one of about 30 living American veterans of the first world war.
Lane resigned from the service in 1929, trying his luck as a grocer in Connecticut. When the business failed during the Depression, he re-enlisted under his new, legally changed name. During World War II, he served in England and participated in the invasion of North Africa. During the Korean War, he was an instructor and head of the maintenance department at the Army Quartermaster School at Fort Lee, Virginia.
July 15, 2005 at age 103. Renal failure.
Richard Leiterman >permalink<
Cinematographer
The visual style that set Canadian film apart was pioneered by Richard Leiterman. He lensed some of Canada's quintessential films, including "Goin' Down The Road" in 1970 and "My American Cousin" in 1985. His hand-held cinema verite style allowed the camera to move about in a manner not usually seen in feature film.
It was Leiterman's brother-in-law, Allan King, who encouraged him to take a camera technician course at the University of British Columbia. He sold his car, bought a 16mm camera, and shot stock footage which he sold to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He co-founded Allan King Associates in 1962, shooting news events. The next year, Leiterman shot "One More River," a look at racism in America.
Leiterman teamed with director Don Shebib for a number of now classic titles, including "Goin' Down The Road," "Between Friends" and "Wedding In White" (both 1972), "Who Has Seen The Wind?" (1977) and "Silence Of The North" (1981). During the late 1990's, he shot the Canadian TV series "Cold Squad," and taught cinematography at Sheridan College in Toronto, retiring in April, 2005.
Leiterman's work earned him a Canadian Film Award in 1975, a Genie Award in 1981, three Emmy Awards, and a Kodak New Century Award in 2000. A complete list of his more than 150 credits can be found as his entry in the Canadian Film Encyclopedia.
July 14, 2005 at age 70. Amyloidosis.
Alan Barry >permalink<
Actor
Although Barry was a familiar voice on British radio in the 1970s as member of the BBC Radio Repertory Company, he preferred to work in theatre in his native Ireland. While at the BBC, he narrated numerous television documentaries and appeared on shows such as "Z Cars," "Ballykissangel" (as Superintendent Foley), and in the 1993 TV movie "And The Band Played On."
Barry had a short list of film credits, most of them British productions. He appeared in 1993's "In the Name of the Father" and 1996's "Some Mother's Son."
July 13, 2005 at age 72.
Arthur Wood >permalink<
Mouth guard inventor
Among dentists, they were known as "bloody Chiclets." Young patients showed up with them every fall and winter with heartbroken parents in tow. The cause of these broken teeth? Hockey pucks.
In the late 1950s, a neighbour's son, 17-year-old who had only just had his teeth straightened, showed up in Wood's chair after having lost four teeth to a hockey stick. Wood saw the gaps in childhood grins as needless damage and soon found himself working with York University researcher Charlie Patterson (who himself was working on devising a hockey helmet).
Together Wood and Patterson came up with what was first known as a "mug guard" or "teeth guard." By 1961, the equipment had become obligatory for all skaters in what was then the Toronto Township Hockey League. At that year's annual convention of the Ontario Dental Association, Wood presented his innovation and the device was adopted across the country not only for hockey but many other contact sports.
By the time the wearing of helmets was made compulsory for new players entering the National Hockey League in the 1979-80 season, a generation had grown up with unbroken smiles and Wood saw teeth injuries drop to near zero. Wood was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 1991 for his invention -- a device he never sought a patent for.
July 11, 2005 at age 88.
Don McLean >permalink<
Founder, Partners Film Company
In the business, he was known as "The Don," the godfather of the Canadian commercial production industry. His Partners Film Company is not only the largest in Canada, but is the largest commercial production company in the world. McLean spent nearly fifty years in the selling business, starting as a travelling salesman, carting china and giftware goods through rural Manitoba.
McLean succeeded by forming international partnerships that have his clients world-wide access. He fostered boutique production houses that gave many young fillmakers their first break. He started Partners Film Company in 1978, sold it to a division of John Labatt Limited in 1988, and bought it back in 1995. A number of feature spots are available at his company's web site for viewing.
July 11, 2005 at age 72. Complications from bypass surgery.
Frances Langford >permalink<
Actress and singer
It is not often a performer gets to appear in a movie to portray her own career, but such was the case with Frances Langford. 
She was a big band singer, an actress, a radio show performer and a morale boost for U.S. armed forces in three wars. She was known as the "Sweetheart of the Fighting Fronts," and her trademark song was "I'm in the Mood for Love," written for her for the 1935 movie "Every Night At Eight."
Born Frances Newbern in Florida, Langford became known as the "Florida Thrush." A throat operation while she was still a teenager changed her voice, keeping her from her dream to go into opera. Her first professional appearance on a local radio station at the age of 16 was heard by Rudy Vallee, who offered her a regular spot on his radio show. Soon she was singing for the Glenn Miller and Les Brown bands.
In 1931, Langford moved to Hollywood, appearing on the Louella Parsons radio show "Hollywood Hotel" and in movies like "I'll Reach For A Star." When Bob Hope held his first military show in Riverside, California in 1941, the response was so great he continued broadcasting from training bases and theatres of war overseas. He asked Langford to join him. Their relationship continued into the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, and Langford once wrote a daily newspaper column called "Purple Heart Diary" about her war experiences (later starring in a movie of the same name).
Langford's big film break came when she starred with James Cagney in 1942's "Yankee Doodle Dandy," the bio-pic of George M. Cohan. She sang with Cagney in the classic war-bond-selling scene, singing "Over There."
In addition to her film work and appearances with Hope, Langford played Blanche Bickerson on the popular 1940s radio comedy "The Bickersons," opposite Don Ameche. The pair briefly co-hosted an early television program, "The Frances Langford-Don Ameche Show," which ran during the 1951-52 season. Langford was also a regular guest on the Spike Jones radio show.
Langford was once married to Ralph Evinrude, the outboard motor heir. She later married Harold Stuart, once the assistant secretary of the Air Force under Harry Truman. They spent summers on Canada's Georgian Island, travelling from Florida aboard her 110-foot yacht. Langford appeared in thirty movies, and fittingly played herself in her final film, 1954's "The Glenn Miller Story."
July 11, 2005 at age 92. Congestive heart failure.
Gretchen Franklin >permalink<
EastEnder
For fifteen years, Franklin played Ethel Skinner on the popular British soap opera "The EastEnders." 
The role brought the veteran actress stardom in her seventies after a long career in character roles in film and on television.
Franklin worked as a chorus girl in London's West End theater district in the 1930s, and made her first film appearance came 1954 British film, "Before I Wake." In the 1960s, she had parts in the popular police dramas "Dixon of Dock Green" and "Z Cars," and played the wife of the Alf Garnett in the pilot episode of the comic sitcom "Till Death Us Do Part" in 1965. Franklin was unable play in the classic sitcom's TV run due to a theatrical commitment she was refused to be released from.
Her films include small roles in the 1965 Beatles film "Help!," appearing again with John Lennon in 1967's "How I Won the War," and with James Cagney in his last film, 1981's "Ragtime."
On "EastEnders," Ethel's character, always accompanied by her dog (who she called 'my little Willy'), was written out in a controversial story line that saw her begging a friend to help her die by placing morphine pills close enough for her to take a final, lethal dose.
July 11, 2005 at age 94.
Richard Eastham >permalink<
Character actor
Once a rising star on Broadway, Eastham will be most familiar to younger audiences as Gen. Phil Blankenship on TV's "Wonder Woman," which aired on ABC and CBS from 1976 to 1979. 
His career started four decades earlier, taking over the lead in "South Pacific" from Italian opera singer Ezio Pinza, who originated the role on Broadway.
As a university student, Eastham sang with the St. Louis Grand Opera. After returning from service in the U.S. Army, he studied acting at the American Theatre Wing in New York City. While performing on Broadway, he became friends with Ethel Merman when they performed together in "Call Me Madam," and they appeared together again in his first film, 1954's "There's No Business Like Show Business."
Eastham soon found steady television work, starting with the show "Tombstone Territory." He played Harris Claibourne, editor of the Tombstone, Arizona Epitaph newspaper, and served as narrator for the series he called a "sagebrush opera."
Eastham's film career was limited, but he appeared in several notable Disney films, such as 1960's "Toby Tyler" and 1965's "That Darn Cat!"
Eastham's TV appearances include some of the more popular shows of the 1960s and 1970s, including "Perry Mason," "Bonanza," "The Invaders," "Kojak," "Baretta" and "Barnaby Jones." His last role was as Dr. Howell for two years on "Falcon Crest."
July 11, 2005 at age 89. Alzheimer's disease.
Frank Moores >permalink<
Newfoundland's second premier
The Canada of today came into existence in 1949. 
It was then that Joey Smallwood led Newfoundland into Confederation in a highly controversial vote that saw the independent island (the world's 15th largest) join its neighbour. Up until 1949, the Republic of Newfoundland had enjoyed the status of an independent country.
Smallwood, a Liberal and the last father of Confederation, lost to Moores' Conservatives in 1972. Moores served only two terms until 1979, but made a lasting impact on his province's stake in its adopted country. He maintained Newfoundland's ownership of natural resources, in particular its off-shore oil deposits. In 1977, he defended Newfoundland seal hunters in New York, Washington, Paris and London, squaring off against angry animal-rights protesters. He threatened former Quebec premier René Lévesque to cut off electricity unless Quebec renegotiated a better deal for Newfoundland over the price of power from Churchill Falls.
Moores became a lobbyist after his career in provincial politics, and helped organise Brian Mulroney's campaign for the leadership of the federal Conservatives. He was caught up in the "Airbus affair," which involved speculation of wrongdoing and kickbacks in Air Canada's acquisition of Airbus jets. Years later, the federal government apologised to Moores because an RCMP Airbus investigation that became public had "wrongly reached conclusions that Moores had engaged in criminal activity."
July 10, 2005 at age 72. Cancer.
Freddy Soto >permalink<
Stand up comic
The trip from El Paso to Hollwyood to carve out a career in stand up comedy can be long and hard. 
Soto first landed a job as a limousine driver for Richard Pryor, worked the door at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood and eventually earned a spot opening for singer Marc Anthony on a 30-city tour. His star was on the rise with appearances on late-night talk shows and a DVD and concert tour as part of the Three Amigos (with fellow Hispanic comics Pablo Francisco and Carlos Mencia). Soto landed several television pilots for UPN and CBS, and had a part in the 2004 film "Spanglish," serving as the housekeeper's translator.
On July 9th, Soto received a standing ovation after a performance at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. He went to the home of a friend, went to sleep and was found dead the next morning. The cause of death not immediately apparent, and his family believes he died of an aneurysm.
July 10, 2005 at age 35.
Philip Nicholson >permalink<
Author, Man on Fire
Nicholson wrote under the pseudonym A. J. Quinnell to maintain a distance from the public should his any of his books become successful. Nicholson met the cast of characters that would fill his novels when he worked for a shipping company in Liverpool and as a trader in textiles working out of Hong Kong.
While Nicholson was on a flight between Tokyo and Hong Kong, an Italian passenger suffered a heart attack. He convinced the flight crew to order a special ambulance to a private clinic he knew of instead of the general hospital. The following day Nicholson was visited by a group of important-looking Italians who expressed their eternal gratitude with a promise of help if ever he needed it.
The plot for Man on Fire centred on Mafia kidnappings in Italy. Nicholson called up his air travel friend, and asked for introductions to lawyers, anti-Mafia investigators -- and to the mafiosi, who were happy to assist as long as they got their names in the novel.
Man on Fire became a 1987 movie starring Scott Glenn and Joe Pesci. The screenplay went through several transitions under its Italian-French direction. Nicholson dropped by the set one day, looked at the script, and questioned why the story did not follow what he had written in his book. A script-writer on hand then asked, "You mean, there's a book . . .?"
In 2004, Tony Scott remade the film with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning. Scott shifted the locale to Mexico because of the high number of kidnappings in Mexico City. Nicholson was happy with the production, remarking that it used a lot of his original dialogue.
July 10, 1005 at age 65.
Alex Shibicky >permalink<
Slapshot pioneer
It's hard to imagine what hockey must have been like before Fred "Bun" Cook and Alex Shibicky came along. Goalies must have faced pucks that travelled no faster than the player skating towards them. But when Shibicky poured down the ice in 1937, with a trick he learned from Cook the previous year in practice, netminders suddenly became aware of ... the slapshot.
Today the slapshot is a staple of the game, with speeds clocked by radar at over 160 kilometres (100 miles) per hour. Usually fed by a pass, the slapshot is delivered by a one-time waist-high backswing from the hip. In the hands of Shibicky, it produced game and season winning results. Playing for the New York Rangers, Shibicky played left wing along brothers Neil and Mac Colville on what was known as the "bread line" (a term sports writers came up with to describe the team's "bread and butter"). All in their early 20s, they were the youngest line in the NHL in 1936.
The Rangers soon won the Stanley Cup in 1940, after splitting the first four games of the finals against the Toronto Maple Leafs, then winning the next two games and the Cup. Shibicky played the last two games on a broken right ankle, and his death leaves Clint Smith (now 91), Dutch Hiller (90) and Alf Pike (87) as the only surviving members of the 1940 team. The Rangers did not win another Stanley Cup until 1994.
Shibicky scored 110 goals and had 91 assists in a career shortened by World War II, when he served three years in the Canadian armed forces. He played only one more season before a back injury ended his playing career in 1946. The Winnipeg-born native survived "bread line" members Neil, the center, who died in 1987, and his brother Mac, the right wing, who died in 2003.
July 9, 2005 at age 91. Congestive heart failure
Chuck Cadman >permalink<
Independent member of Canada's parliament
Cadman was first elected in 1997, representing the federal riding of Surrey North, near Vancouver, British Columbia. 
He had earlier belonged to the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties before running as an independent. The political career of an independent is usually reduced to a footnote, but Cadman's vote helped save the government of prime minister Paul Martin in early 2005.
Martin's Liberals were elected to a minority mandate in June, 2004. Their grip as Canada's governing party came to a test on May 19, 2005 during a budget amendment vote that saw $4.6 billion added in social program spending and delayed corporate tax cuts -- conditions imposed by the New Democrat Party in return for Liberal support in the house.
Canada's parliament holds 365 seats. The daily attendance of all elected members was a matter closely watched by all parties. In the past two years, Cadman was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for malignant melanoma. He flew to Ottawa for the vote from his home to support the budget bill on behalf of his constituents, who opposed an election call so soon after the last one. Martin's bill passed 153-152 due to Cadman's presence. Cadman said he made up his mind to support the government only a half hour before the vote.
Cadman first came to political prominence as a crusader for victims' rights after his 16-year-old son, Jesse, was stabbed to death in a random street attack. An electronics technician by trade and a one-time rock guitarist, his mane of long, silver hair, drawn back into a pony tail, once made him mistaken for a janitor in his own parliamentary office.
July 9, 2005 at age 57. Skin cancer.
Bertram F. Given >permalink<
Garbage disposal inventor
In 1939, Given was studying architecture at UC Berkeley when he dropped out to join his father's Given Machinery Company. His fascination with machines and engineering coincided a few years later with the postwar housing boom and the promise of leisure-class lifestyles compliments of the labour-saving devices of the new modern age. Given saw an opportunity -- and began working on a way to get rid of garbage.
The perfect home for the baby-boom generation was portrayed as 'hospital clean,' and Given gave the American homemaker the Waste King garbage disposal. Not content with providing the perfect housefwife with a sanitory way to get rid of household waste, Given also came up with a hands-off way of dealing with dirty dishes in the form of the Given Manufacturing Co. manufactured dishwasher. Next up was a barbecue grill and a cooking range. In 1957, Given renamed the company Waste King Corp.
By 1960, Waste King's annual sales topped $37 million, with ranges, space heaters, dryers and dishwashers populating its product line. Given sold Waste King Corp. to Norris Industries, which incorporated his appliances into its Thermador brand in 1968.
July 7, 2005 at age 88. Heart failure.
Jocelyn Rickards >permalink<
Costume designer
Rickards dressed actors in some of the most defining British films of the 1960s. 
At a time when fashions changed by the week, she was often asked to predict trends two years in advance. Her look added to the 'sense of the new' that marked films such as "Look Back In Anger," "From Russia With Love," "The Knack," "Blow-up," "Ryan's Daughter," "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" and "Morgan - A Suitable Case for Treatment" for which she won an Academy Award nomination.
The Australian born designer had worked in British theater during the 1950s prior to costuming for film, and in the 1970s she taught costume design at the University of Southern California.
July 7, 2005 at age 80.
London Bombings >permalink<
On Thursday, July 7, 2005, four explosions ripped across central London at the end of the morning's rush hour, killing more than 50 people and injuring 700. Three bombs went off almost simultaneously at the Liverpool Street and Edgware Road Tube stations, and on another train travelling between King's Cross and Russell Square. A fourth bomb tore the roof off a double-decker bus at the junction of Tavistock Square and Upper Woburn Place an hour after the underground explosions.
On July 14, the London Times began posting tributes to those killed in the bombings. For the latest information about this tragedy and the ongoing investigation into the event, the links below offer comprehensive coverage. Free registration may be required for some sites.
- Times Of London - London Bombs
- Times Of London - London Lives
- BBC News - London Attacks
- BBC News - List of Bomb Blast Victims
- Guardian Unlimited - Attack On London
- CBC News - London Bombing
- CTV News - Attacks On London
- New York Times - Bombings In London
- Google News - London Bombings
- Wikinews - Coordinated Terrorist Attack Hits London
- We're Not Afraid -- a weblog of submitted images showing the world "we're not afraid" of what happened in London.
Grace Thaxton >permalink<
Supercentenarian
Thaxton's longevity is obviously a family trait. Her mother lived until age 109, and her son Robert turned 90 on July 12, 2005.
At 114, Grace was the sixth oldest documented person in the world, the fourth oldest person in the United States, and the oldest person in Kentucky.
Born on June 19, 1891, in Rockland, New York, Thaxton attended college in Washington, D.C., and moved to Kentucky to teach at a female college in 1913. A year later, she married Andrew Jackson Thaxton and lived on their farm for 81 years. Andrew died in 1959.
Thaxton had only one bout with a serious illness during the flu epidemic of 1918. She drove a car until she was 95 and hooked rugs until she was 103. She reportedly did not feel old until her only son, Robert, turned 80 in 1995.
July 6, 2005 at age 114. Urinary tract infection.
Jim Haskins >permalink<
Author, The Cotton Club
Haskins' The Cotton Club was the first book by a black author to be adapted for a major motion picture. With a screenplay written by William Kennedy, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, it was Haskin's book that provided the backdrop about late-1920s gangsters and jilted love in a Harlem speak-easy.
Haskins once said that he "stumbled into writing" when friends encouraged him to keep a journal of his experiences teaching a New York public school special needs class. That record became Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher and when it was published in 1969, one reviewer said it was the saddest book on education he had ever read.
The publication exposed what was wrong with inner-city schools, and Haskins responded by writing books for children to provide them with positive black role models. His more than 100 books documented figures such as Richard Pryor, Scott Joplin, Lionel Hampton, Winnie Mandela, Rosa Parks, Stevie Wonder and Spike Lee. At the time of his death, he was working on a book about Chicago Cubs' Hall of Fame shortstop Ernie Banks.
One other of Haskins' works was brought to the screen. His biography Mr. Bojangles: The Biography of Bill Robinson was turned into the 2001 TV movie "Bojangles" which starred Gregory Hines.
July 6, 2005 at age 63. Emphysema.
Bud Cullen >permalink<
Canadian federal cabinet minister
Cullen was first elected to parliament, representing the Sarnia-Lambton, Ontario riding, during the 1968 campaign that brought Pierre Trudeau to power as prime minister. 
He was appointed to the Trudeau cabinet in 1974 as minister of national revenue, and later served as the minister of employment and immigration from 1975 to 1979.
It was Cullen who was instrumental in changes to the Immigration Act that allowed Vietnamese war refugees to more easily seek shelter in Canada. His changes helped usher in a provision for the private sponsorship of refugees.
Cullen also sponsored rules to protect Canadian publications threatened by U.S. competition, changing the way "split-runs" of American magazines could occupy Canadian news stands. He also introduced the Unemployment Insurance Act.
Cullen retired from parliament in June, 1984 and was named a judge to the Federal Court of Canada two months later. His work as a member helped establish Sarnia as a worldwide petrochemical centre.
July 5, 2005 at age 78.
Mary Alice Mills Thomas >permalink<
One of Tennessee's oldest residents
Mary Alice Mills Thomas was the oldest of eight children. She drove many of her younger siblings to school in a covered wagon. She spent her entire life in Tennessee, and was preceded in death by her parents and her husband of 44 years. Alice had five great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.
In a life that spanned three centuries, Thomas was known as a special friend to animals and birds. Relatives said her mind was still good despite her age.
July 5, 2005 at age 110.
Mary Jean Kelly >permalink<
Demonstration lady
There was a time when a woman's home was in the kitchen. No wonder that when Mary Jean Kelly and her kind appeared, they were seen as heroines rescuing women across America from their domestic hells.
Prior to the postwar revolution of suburban appliance technology, women spent countless hours hand-washing and drying clothes, cooking elaborate meals over hot stoves, dealing with iceboxes and the near-daily chore of shopping required to serve up food fresh on the family dinner table.
All that changed with the introduction of refridgerators, washing machines, dryers and later on, microwave ovens. But how was a busy homemaker to keep up with all these new-fangled devices? Enter Mary Jean Kelly and her army of appliance demonstrators.
From their pulpits at suburban supermarkets and on the new medium of television, across America the Mary Jean Kellys pitched the promise of freedom with their demonstrations of the latest products designed with the busy homemaker in mind.
Mary Jean Kelly was based in San Francisco and worked for many years for the Philco Corporation. Her territory covered 13 western U.S. states. She ended her helpful career working for Thermador, demonstrating microwave ovens.
July 5, 2005 at age 94.
Richard Verreau >permalink<
Opera tenor
Born near Quebec City, Verreau first sang at his parish church and later studied music at Laval University and in Paris. He went on to further study bel canto in Rome. He soon travelled the world, singing in Italy, Belgium, France, Austria, Russia and the U.S., making his debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera in a 1963 production of "Faust." He made close to a dozen recordings and performed at festivals across Canada, including at Montreal's Expo '67.
Verreau was once courted by Hollywood after Mario Lanza walked away from MGM studios in the mid-1950s. Verreau was leery of the opportunity after seeing how big-screen fame turned the once golden-voiced Lanza into a lonely recluse and addict. Verreau turned MGM's offer down.
In his prime, Verreau said he could sing two operas a day and cram 200 performances into a year because it hardly felt like work at all. However, in 1968 a persistent and recurring throat infection caused him to have his tonsils removed. The surgery resulted in a loss of stamina and sudden fits of sneezing that would sneak up on the singer in mid-song. Ironically, like Lanza, Verreau entered a period of alcohol and despair that finally ended in April, 1972 following the alcohol-related suicide of a friend.
A friend of many established painters and sculptors, Verreau was encouraged by them to open an art gallery in Quebec City. The business was a success. His contributions to opera were recognised when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1998 and an Officer of the Order of Quebec in 2000. The Montreal International Musical Competition named its people's choice award after him, and in 2004 the Opéra de Québec gave him the honourary title of ambassador of opera.
July 5, 2005 at age 79.
June Haver >permalink<
Actress
She was once groomed to be "the next Betty Grable," but left acting to join a convent. 
Once known as the "pocket Grable," Haver finally gave up her film career after adopting twins with actor Fred MacMurray. "I'm a mother now," she said. "I'm needed at home."
After appearing on radio shows in her home town of Chicago, Haver landed a role in Twentieth Century Fox's "Home in Indiana" in 1944. Included in the cast was a young Lon McCallister. The part brought her to the attention of studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck, who saw her as a successor to Betty Grable as Hollywood's next blonde pinup girl. She once co-starred with Grable herself in 1945's "The Dolly Sisters."
Haver also appeared in a series of light musicals that appealed to wartime audiences, and met Fred MacMurray, her future husband, in 1945's "Where Do We Go From Here?" It was the only movie they would make together, and though she married him on screen, their off-screen nuptials would have to wait as MacMurray was then a happily married family man. Haver's chances of succeeding Grable diminished when Fox executives turned their spotlight on another blonde, Marilyn Monroe. Haver's last film was 1953's "The Girl Next Door."
In the summer of 1950, Haver went to Rome and Jerusalem and had an audience with the Pope. She then broke her $3,500-a-week contract with Fox and spent eight months as a novice nun in the Sisters of Charity convent in Xavier, Kansas. She left the cloth stating she "did not have the physical strength to withstand the strain of religious life."
Haver met up again with MacMurray (whose wife had died in 1953) at a New Year's Eve party, marrying in the summer of 1954. The pair had planned to retire at MacMurray's California ranch, but a TV pilot MacMurray had filmed was accepted. It was called "My Three Sons" and it ran for 12 years. MacMurray died in 1991 and the ranch was sold to the Gallo family five years later.
Haver's last appearance before cameras was as herself. She and Fred appeared in "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour," the follow-up to the "I Love Lucy" show. They joined two other popular but fictional couples, the Ricardos and the Mertzes, on a uranium hunt in Nevada.
July 4, 2005 at age 79. Respiratory failure.
Alberto Lattuada >permalink<
Italian film director
One of the great periods of Italian cinema took place just after World War II, and Alberto Lattuada was one its guiding lights. He gave Federico Fellini his first directorial job, and helped launch the careers of many Italian stars.
Lattuada first trained as an architect. In 1933, he began to work in the film industry, performing set decoration and scriptwriting, and as an assistant for directors such as Ferdinando Maria Poggioli and Mario Soldati. In 1940, he co-founded the Cineteca Italiana, Italy's first film archive which also ran a film club. On the eve of World War, they screened Jean Renoir's banned anti-war film, "La Grande Illusion," and Lattuada soon came to the attention of police. It would not be the last time he courted controversy.
Italian post-war cinema reacted against the facist doctrine that had shrouded the country for a decade. Young filmmakers embraced 'neo-realism,' unblinking examination of everyday life. Lattuadu helped set the tone with his 1946 film "Il Bandito" (The Bandit). In 1950, he gave a fellow screenwriter a directorial credit for "Luci Del Varieta" (Variety Lights), and for some reason critics noticed Fellini more than his benefactor (even though Fellini stated to the press, "To tell the truth, Lattuada did everything, I just looked on").
In 1960, Lattuada released "Dolci Inganni" (Sweet Deceits), which depicted a 16-year-old girl's first sexual experiences. Italians denounced it as an offense to public decency. His next film, "Il Mafioso" in 1962, was one of the first films to delve into the world of the Sicilian Mafia. This caused another quarter of Italian society to be upset.
In 1978, Lattuada managed the same on both sides of the Atlantic with "Cosi' come Sei" (Stay as You Are), which detailed a relationship between a much older man, played by Marcello Mastroianni, and an adolescent played by Nastassja Kinski, who he later learns may be his own daughter. The film helped launch Kinski's career in the U.S.
Near the end of his career, Lattuada finally made a foray into television with the Emmy-winning mini-series "Christopher Columbus" in 1984. He made his last film a year later.
July 3, 2005 at age 90.
Charles Okun >permalink<
Assistant director
Okun left a teaching career in the 1950s to join the film industry, first as an electrician on documentaries, commercials and industrial training films.
In 1961, he became an assistant director working first on commercials, and by 1968 on feature films. Okun's work on over thirty films was beside some of Hollyood's best directors on some of the industry's more notable films: Frank Perry on "Diary of a Mad Housewife," Otto Preminger on "Such Good Friends," Michael Winner on "Death Wish," Jonathan Demme on "Handle With Care," Ted Kotcheff on "Fun with Dick and Jane" and Michael Cimino on "The Deer Hunter" (which won five Academy Awards). Teaming with Lawrence Kasdan as executive producer/ producer/unit production manager on eight films, Okun credits include "Silverado," "The Accidental Tourist," "Grand Canyon," "Wyatt Earp," "French Kiss," "Mumford," and "Dreamcatcher."
July 3, 2005 at age 80. Cancer.
Harrison Young >permalink<
Character actor
In addition to a career that saw him appear in over 100 film and television roles, Young was most widely seen in Steven Speilberg's "Saving Private Ryan," playing the elder Pvt. James Ryan. Full tribute available at Rusty's Obituaries at EInsiders.
July 3, 2005 at age 75.
Kohachi Shigetaka >permalink<
Japan's oldest man
Shigetaka used to enjoy watching samurai dramas on TV and eating sashimi and eel. Experts say a traditional fish-based, lowfat diet may be Japan's secret to long life. A farmer from Hiroshima, Shigetaka became the nation's oldest Japanese man in July, 2004.
The title of oldest man in Japan now goes to Nijiro Tokuda of Kagoshima, southern Japan, who is just one month younger than Shigetaka. The nation's oldest person is a 112-year-old woman, Yone Minagawa of Fukuoka, also in southern Japan, born in January, 1893.
Japan has one of the world's longest average life spans. In 2003, Japanese women set a new record for life expectancy, at 85.3 years, while men live an average of 78.3 years.
July 3, 2005 at age 110. Pneumonia.
Ernest Lehman >permalink<
Screenwriter
When Ernest Lehman accepted his honourary Oscar in 2001, he said "I appeal to all movie critics and feature writers to please always bear in mind that a film production begins and ends with a screenplay." Lehman wrote some of cinema's best, including "Sabrina," "Sweet Smell of Success," "West Side Story," "North by Northwest" and "The Sound Of Music." For more about this legendary screenwriter, visit the Last Link Ernest Lehman tribute page.
July 2, 2005, at age 89. Heart attack.
Gu Yue >permalink<
Famous for playing Mao Zedong
Sometimes a film career can built on playing one role. In the case of Gu Yue, it was Chairman Mao Zedong, the Communist Chinese leader who led his country through a cultural revolution during the 1960s. Full tribute available at Rusty's Obituaries at EInsiders.
July 2, 2005 at age 68. Heart attack.
Gus Bodnar >permalink<
Fast hands, fast feet
Within 15 seconds of playing his first game in the National Hockey League, Bodnar set a record that has remained unbroken to this day. In a game against the New York Rangers on October 30, 1943, the Toronto Maple Leafs rookie popped one into the net -- and the record books -- with the fastest rookie goal in history. Bodnar won the Calder Memorial Trophy, given to the most outstanding NHL rookie, later in his inaugural season that saw him rack up 22 goals and 40 assists (then a rookie record).
Bodnar helped Toronto win the Stanley Cup in 1945 and 1947, after which he was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks in a blockbuster, seven-player deal. As a Hawk, Bodnar earned another place in the NHL record book on March 23, 1952, by assisting on all of Bill Mosienko's three goals in 21 seconds. The record for the three fastest goals still stands, as does the record for three fastest assists.
Bodnar retired from the NHL in 1955, playing nearly 700 games. He then coached at the Junior C, Junior B and Junior A levels and in the Western Professional League, helping the careers of Brad Park and Wayne Gretzky. Taking up golf, Bodnar often out shot his sons-in-law with his unconventional but effective slapshot-style drive.
July 1, 2005 at age 82.
James L. Fisher >permalink<
Boom and dolly innovator
It has been said that the invention of zoom lens marked then end of the true craft of cinematography. 
For fifty years, when the director wanted to make an actor's face appear larger, it meant physically moving the camera closer to the subject. It was then that camera dollies came into play, and James L. Fisher's were among the best. He also advanced the technology of boom microphones -- and his equipment became generically known as the "fisher boom."
Fisher's career began at MGM's laboratories in the late 1930s. He saw a need for better microphone booms and worked to improve their quality. In the mid 1960's he began to design and manufacture camera dollies. His models became the standard for multi-camera film sit-coms and are used on soundstages to this day.
Fisher won numerous awards for his technology, including an Oscar for his dollies, an Emmy for his boom microphone, and recognition for technical achievement from the Society of Operating Camera Men and the International Cinematographers Guild.
July 1, 2005.