Dead Pool 2019

[99 Bananas]

Nothing wrong with a guy living in the broom closet with a bed made of old Jeg’s catalogs at AutoZone. I go there often - very pleasant experience.

fixed

[joswift]

LOS ANGELES — Lee Mendelson, the producer who changed the face of the holidays when he brought “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to television in 1965 and wrote the lyrics to its signature song, “Christmas Time Is Here,” died on Christmas day, his son said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/obituaries/producer-charlie-brown-christmas-dies-christmas-day-86-n1108121?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR1on4XTUqBNGAufD8tpyloon9KtXOu5vJzouNfM_yj6GHSX9o5vg7DsiZw

[Gregzs]

Legendary Artist And Designer Syd Mead Dies, Aged 86


Syd Mead, the widely renowned conceptual artist and "visual futurist", has died at the age of 86. His work informed some of sci-fi's greatest cinematic achievements, including Blade Runner, Tron and Aliens.

A talented artist from childhood, Mead began his professional career as an industrial designer for the Ford Motor Company in 1960s Detroit. He started his own company in 1970, with clients over the next two decades including Philips, United States Steel, Sony and Honda. His imagination had been fired in early life by the pulp sci-fi magazines to which his father subscribed, but his subsequent work in film was grounded by that eye for the practical and functional. "The logic to doing (science fiction) is it has to look like it works," he told Empire in 2014. "Once you have that, then you can start doing weird stuff with it, but if you don’t have that initial familiarity link then you’ve failed."

Even as a corporate and industrial artist, his work was extraordinary enough that he was lecturing and exhibiting at one-man shows from the early 1970s. That high profile eventually caught the eye of director Robert Wise, who brought Mead in as a production illustrator to design the V'Ger spacecraft for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. He immediately moved on to Tron and Blade Runner, which he worked on concurrently. "Once Ridley Scott found out I could paint... he just let me go," Mead recalled. "I painted my way much further into the film than would normally be the case. I designed all the vehicles, and saw my little wash renderings become real on the Warner Bros. backlot."

He designed spaceships for Peter Hyams' 2010 ("the G.E. kitchen of tomorrow") and James Cameron's Aliens ("a massive armed freight carrier"); the playback decks for Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days; and the portable mask kits in the Mission: Impossible movies, among many other extraordinary creations. His most recent credits numbered Neill Blomkamp's Elysium and Brad Bird's Tomorrowland, and his final film work was for Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049.

Mead had been suffering from lymphoma for the last three years, and died at home in Pasadena, California on December 30. He had been due to receive the Art Directors Guild’s William Cameron Menzies Award during the Guild’s 24th Annual awards in February.

"Science fiction," he always said, "is reality ahead of schedule."

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/legendary-artist-and-designer-syd-mead-dies-aged-86/?fbclid=IwAR0J3nqbnzvqN9nC059kAyxbkFBDrJ88Zt8COYuXYh6jRUgdAmDzmUIqp2s

[Gregzs]

Schoolhouse Rock! Singer Jack Sheldon Dies at 88


Jack Sheldon, a trumpeter, singer, and actor who famously contributed to Schoolhouse Rock!, has passed away at the age of 88. Word of Sheldon's passing was first publicly revealed on Facebook, through a post shared by his biographer and documentarian, Doug McIntyre. The news has since been confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by Dianne Jimenez, Sheldon's longtime manager.

Born in 1931, Sheldon began to professionally play music at the age of 13, and grew to become an integral part of the 1950s' West Coast jazz scene. Sheldon's musical talents led to him contributing to quite a lot of television theme songs, including playing trumpet on Peter Gunn and The Munsters, as well as The Sandpiper's "The Shadow of Your Smile".

On the acting side, Sheldon's filmography included Freaky Friday, Gilligan's Island, Dragnet, and Petticoat Junction. He even briefly had his own sitcom in the 1960s, which was called Run, Buddy, Run.

Sheldon went on to join Schoolhouse Rock! in its second season, and lent his voice to multiple iconic shorts in the series. These included "I'm Just a Bill", "Conjunction Junction", "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla", and "The Tale of Mr. Morton". Sheldon's role in the series was so popular that he went on to parody it on The Simpsons and Family Guy, and even took part in a club tour of Schoolhouse Rock! songs. Outside of that, Sheldon served as the music director and onscreen sidekick for The Merv Griffin Show, a role he held for 18 years.

Sheldon was also candid about his battles with alcoholism and cancer, as well as the debilitating stroke that he suffered in 2011. After the stroke led to him losing the use of his right arm and hand, Sheldon learned how to replay the trumpet left-handed, and performed onstage again in 2013.

“Jack is definitely one of a kind. …Los Angeles has a lot of great players, but I don’t know anyone who can do the comedy, the singing, and the playing like Jack,” Clint Eastwood, who was a friend of Sheldon's, said in a 2002 Los Angeles Times profile. “Playing technically well is one thing, but Jack gets a great sound that a lot of players just don’t get.”

“It’s a haunting trumpet he plays,” Merv Griffin added. “Henry Mancini once told me, ‘If I’ve got a couple making passionate love onscreen and I’m writing the score, it’s Jack Sheldon’s trumpet I want.’”

Our thoughts are with Sheldon's family, friends, and fans at this time.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/2020/01/01/jack-sheldon-death-jazz-musician-schoolhouse-rock-2019/?fbclid=IwAR3sW8dSSp_3ymLUIyEGIdFDrDEyc9Nyy91DS9swtLjfQW5sWbFQ08w8kYY

[The Scott]

Schoolhouse Rock! Singer Jack Sheldon Dies at 88


Jack Sheldon, a trumpeter, singer, and actor who famously contributed to Schoolhouse Rock!, has passed away at the age of 88. Word of Sheldon's passing was first publicly revealed on Facebook, through a post shared by his biographer and documentarian, Doug McIntyre. The news has since been confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by Dianne Jimenez, Sheldon's longtime manager.

Born in 1931, Sheldon began to professionally play music at the age of 13, and grew to become an integral part of the 1950s' West Coast jazz scene. Sheldon's musical talents led to him contributing to quite a lot of television theme songs, including playing trumpet on Peter Gunn and The Munsters, as well as The Sandpiper's "The Shadow of Your Smile".

On the acting side, Sheldon's filmography included Freaky Friday, Gilligan's Island, Dragnet, and Petticoat Junction. He even briefly had his own sitcom in the 1960s, which was called Run, Buddy, Run.

Sheldon went on to join Schoolhouse Rock! in its second season, and lent his voice to multiple iconic shorts in the series. These included "I'm Just a Bill", "Conjunction Junction", "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla", and "The Tale of Mr. Morton". Sheldon's role in the series was so popular that he went on to parody it on The Simpsons and Family Guy, and even took part in a club tour of Schoolhouse Rock! songs. Outside of that, Sheldon served as the music director and onscreen sidekick for The Merv Griffin Show, a role he held for 18 years.

Sheldon was also candid about his battles with alcoholism and cancer, as well as the debilitating stroke that he suffered in 2011. After the stroke led to him losing the use of his right arm and hand, Sheldon learned how to replay the trumpet left-handed, and performed onstage again in 2013.

“Jack is definitely one of a kind. …Los Angeles has a lot of great players, but I don’t know anyone who can do the comedy, the singing, and the playing like Jack,” Clint Eastwood, who was a friend of Sheldon's, said in a 2002 Los Angeles Times profile. “Playing technically well is one thing, but Jack gets a great sound that a lot of players just don’t get.”

“It’s a haunting trumpet he plays,” Merv Griffin added. “Henry Mancini once told me, ‘If I’ve got a couple making passionate love onscreen and I’m writing the score, it’s Jack Sheldon’s trumpet I want.’”

Our thoughts are with Sheldon's family, friends, and fans at this time.

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/2020/01/01/jack-sheldon-death-jazz-musician-schoolhouse-rock-2019/?fbclid=IwAR3sW8dSSp_3ymLUIyEGIdFDrDEyc9Nyy91DS9swtLjfQW5sWbFQ08w8kYY

RIP.

[Rambone]

We need a new thread for 2020 because people haven’t stopped dying. PIP David Stern