Celebrity Death Thread

[DeanUK]

RIP British comedian, Mel Smith of "Not the nine o'clock news" fame and "Alas Smith & Jones". 60 years old.

Genuinely unhappy about this. Very funny and brilliant man.

Very sad, Not the Nine O'Clock news and Smith and Jones had some great sketches. I've still got their albums.

A couple of my favourite sketches

The first one is Audio only

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtpbTnA6I2Y"]smith and jones-antiques roadshow - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPXQ9fotZM"]Not The Nine O'Clock News - HiFi Shop - YouTube[/ame]

RIP

[Marko69]

Superb, Dean. I've just watched a few Smith & Jones there. One of my favourite clips was a head to head sketch, Mel doing his usual "know it all" thing......, he was talking about overtaking on the motorway.

SMITH: get this, I'm on the motorway yeah?
JONES: yeah
SMITH: So the guy in front is being a bit of a prick yeah?
JONES: oh right yeah
SMITH: so I pull into the fast lane yeah?
JONES: right ok
SMITH: And woof!
JONES: So.... You hit a dog then?
SMITH: No no no, I overtook him big time!!

Maybe not American humour, but I still laugh my arse off at that.

[Tony G]

July 21
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Events

356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson.
365 – A tsunami devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter Scale. 5,000 people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city.
1861 – American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run – at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins and ends in a victory for the Confederate army.
1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown.
1873 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West.
1877 – After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.
1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium.
1918 – U-156 shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts.
1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
1925 – Sir Malcolm Campbell, father of Donald Campbell, becomes the first man to break the 150 mph (241 km/h) land barrier at Pendine Sands in Wales. He drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h).
1944 – World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators are executed in Berlin, Germany for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
1949 – The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.
1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
1959 – Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green becomes the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate. He came in as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in as shortstop in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
1961 – Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
1969 – Space Race: Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission (July 20 in North America).
1970 – After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
1972 – The Troubles: Bloody Friday – the Provisional IRA detonate 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing 9 and injuring 130.
1973 – In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
1983 – The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 ?C (−128.6 ?F).
2005 – Four terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks after the similar July 7 bombings, target London's public transportation system. All four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers are captured and later convicted and imprisoned for long terms.
2011 – NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135.

Births

1620 – Jean Picard, French astronomer (d. 1682)
1816 – Paul Reuter, German-English journalist (d. 1899)
1899 – Ernest Hemingway, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
1911 – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author and theorist (d. 1980)
1924 – Don Knotts, American actor (d. 2006)
1938 – Janet Reno, American lawyer and politician, 79th United States Attorney General
1948 – Snooty, American manatee
1948 – Cat Stevens, English singer-songwriter and musician
1948 – Garry Trudeau, American cartoonist
1949 – Al Hrabosky, American baseball player
1951 – Robin Williams, American comedian and actor
1957 – Jon Lovitz, American comedian and actor
1961 – Jim Martin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Faith No More, EZ-Street, Spastik Children, and Voodoocult)
1968 – Brandi Chastain, American soccer player
1973 – Ali Landry, American model and actress
1979 – David Carr, American football player
1980 – CC Sabathia, American baseball player
1983 – Kellen Winslow II, American football player


Deaths

1796 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet (b. 1759)
1944 – Claus von Stauffenberg, German military officer, head of the 20 July plot (b. 1907)
1967 – Jimmie Foxx, American baseball player (b. 1907)
1982 – Dave Garroway, American journalist (b. 1913)
1998 – Alan Shepard, American astronaut (b. 1923)
1998 – Robert Young, American actor (b. 1907)
2010 – Ralph Houk, American baseball player, manager and executive (b. 1919)

[PackFanInChiTown]

Dennis Farina is gone at age 69.

[Tony G]

I don't think I ever liked a character he played.

RIP

[YT]

RIP Mr. Farina.

I liked him as an actor...esp playing a cop. I guess he was so good at it because he used to be a cop IRL (Chicago PD for 18 yrs)

[jaadam4]

I don't think I ever liked a character he played.

RIP

Check yo'self fool...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDzrTEO_WVs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDzrTEO_WVs[/ame]

[jaadam4]

The coincidental part of it for me is that I just quoted this same line this morning..

[Marko69]

Apologies in advance for more soccer.

RIP to Lawrie Reilly, an absolute legend. The last surviving member of Hibernians "Famous Five"....., very sad to hear this news today.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jul/22/lawrie-reilly

[Tony G]

July 22 is the 203rd day of the year (204th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 162 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

1298 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk – King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk.
1796 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta – outside Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
1894 – The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was the Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but The 'official' victory was awarded to Albert Lema?tre driving his 3 hp petrol engined Peugeot.
1933 – Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles (25,099 km) in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
1934 – Outside Chicago's Biograph Theater, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
1942 – Holocaust: the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
1991 – Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested in Milwaukee after police discover human remains in his apartment.
1992 – Near Medell?n, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States.
1997 – The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
2003 – Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year old son, and a bodyguard.
2011 – Norway is the victim of twin terror attacks, the first being a bomb blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo, the second being a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Ut?ya.

Births

1890 – Rose Kennedy, American philanthropist, wife of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (d. 1995)
1923 – Bob Dole, American attorney and politician
1923 – The Fabulous Moolah, American wrestler (d. 2007)
1932 – Oscar de la Renta, Dominican fashion designer
1934 – Louise Fletcher, American actress
1940 – Alex Trebek, Canadian-American game show host
1941 – George Clinton, American singer-songwriter and producer (Parliament and Funkadelic)
1946 – Danny Glover, American actor
1947 – Don Henley, American singer-songwriter and drummer (The Eagles)
1955 – Willem Dafoe, American actor
1957 – Dave Stieb, American baseball player
1966 – Tim Brown, American football player
1972 – Keyshawn Johnson, American football player
1980 – Scott Dixon, New Zealand race car driver
1992 – Selena Gomez, American actress and singer

Deaths

1864 – James B. McPherson, American army general (b. 1828)
1932 – Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., American actor and producer (b. 1867)
1934 – John Dillinger, American bank robber (b. 1903)
1967 – Carl Sandburg, American poet (b. 1878)
2003 – Qusay Hussein, Iraqi soldier, son of Saddam Hussein (b. 1966)
2003 – Uday Hussein, Iraqi son of Saddam Hussein (b. 1964)
2008 – Estelle Getty, American actress (b. 1923)
2013 -- Lawrie Reilly
2013 Dennis Farina

[Kansas]

1894 – The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was the Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but The 'official' victory was awarded to Albert Lema?tre driving his 3 hp petrol engined Peugeot.

"Hey, Usain Bolt. Yeah, we know you ran the fastest time. In fact, it was a new world record, but.......um.........the little white guy from France who ran a 12.9? Yeah, well.......he's the winner.

/WTF?

[Marko69]

Estelle Getty is dead? Never knew that.

[Tony G]

Kansas - The first driver across the finishing line at Rouen was Jules-Albert, Comte de Dion but he did not win the main prize because his steam vehicle needed a 'stoker' and was thus ineligible. The fastest petrol powered car was a 3 hp (2.2 kW; 3.0 PS) Peugeot driven by Albert Lema?tre. The premier prize, the 5,000 franc Prix du Petit Journal, for 'the competitor whose car comes closest to the ideal' was shared equally by manufacturers Panhard et Levassor and The sons of Peugeot brothers, with vehicles that were 'easy to use'

[Tony G]

July 23 is the 204th day of the year (205th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 161 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events


1829 – In the United States, William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.
1914 – Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia will reject those demands and Austria will declare war on July 28.
1942 – The Holocaust: the Treblinka extermination camp is opened.
1962 – Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.
1967 – 12th Street Riot: in Detroit, Michigan, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It will leave 43 killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned.
1968 – Glenville Shootout: in Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization led by Ahmed Evans and the Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins and lasts for five days.
1968 – The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying 10 crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft was en route from Rome, Italy, to Lod, Israel.
1983 – Gimli Glider: Air Canada Flight 143 runs out of fuel and makes a deadstick landing at Gimli, Manitoba.
1984 – Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown after nude photos of her appeared in Penthouse magazine.
1986 – In London, England, United Kingdom, Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.
1995 – Comet Hale–Bopp is discovered; it will become visible to the naked eye nearly a year later.
1997 – Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel.


Births

1892 – Haile Selassie I, Ethiopian emperor (d. 1975)
1894 – Arthur Treacher, English actor (d. 1975)
1918 – Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player (d. 1999)
1933 – Bert Convy, American actor, singer, and game show host (d. 1991)
1933 – Benedict Groeschel, American priest, author, and talk show host
1935 – Jim Hall, American race car driver
1938 – Juliet Anderson, American porn actress and producer (d. 2010)
1938 – Ronny Cox, American actor
1938 – Charles Harrelson, American convicted murderer, father of Woody Harrelson (d. 2007)
1940 – Don Imus, American radio radio host
1947 – David Essex, English singer-songwriter and actor
1952 – John Rutsey, Canadian drummer (Rush) (d. 2008)
1954 – Annie Sprinkle, American porn actress and producer
1961 – Woody Harrelson, American actor
1965 – Slash, English-American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver, and Hollywood Rose)
1967 – Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor and director
1971 – Alison Krauss, American singer-songwriter and fiddler
1972 – Marlon Wayans, American actor, director, writer, and producer
1973 – Nomar Garciaparra, American baseball player
1973 – Monica Lewinsky, American White House intern, author, and handbag designer
1989 – Daniel Radcliffe, English actor

Deaths

1793 – Roger Sherman, American lawyer and politician, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1721)
1875 – Isaac Singer, American inventor and businessman, founded the Singer Corporation (b. 1811)
1885 – Ulysses S. Grant, American soldier and politician, 18th President of the United States (b. 1822)
1930 – Glenn Curtiss, American aviation pioneer (b. 1878)
1951 – Philippe P?tain, French general and politician (b. 1856)
1955 – Cordell Hull, American politician, 47th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
1966 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)
1971 – Van Heflin, American actor (b. 1910)
1973 – Eddie Rickenbacker, American fighter ace, founder of Rickenbacker Motors (b. 1890)
1982 – Vic Morrow, American actor (b. 1929)
2010 – Daniel Schorr, American journalist (b. 1916)
2011 – Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter (b. 1983)
2012 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut (b. 1951)

[Tony G]

7/24

Events

1411 – Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scotland, takes place.
1487 – Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands strike against a ban on foreign beer.
1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI.
1701 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit, Michigan.
1847 – After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City. Celebrations of this event include the Pioneer Day Utah state holiday and the Days of '47 Parade.
1866 – Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
1901 – O. Henry is released from prison in Austin, Texas after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.
1911 – Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas".
1915 – The passenger ship S.S. Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.
1923 – The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in World War I.
1927 – The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.
1935 – The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109?F (43?C) in Chicago, Illinois and 104?F (40?C) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1938 – First ascent of the Eiger north face.
1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, and American planes by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
1950 – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.
1959 – At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate".
1963 – The iconic Bluenose II was launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The schooner is a major Canadian symbol.
1966 – Michael Pelkey makes the first BASE jump from El Capitan along with Brian Schubert. Both came out with broken bones. BASE jumping has now been banned from El Cap.
1967 – During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Qu?bec libre! ("Long live free Quebec!"). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
1974 – Watergate scandal: the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.
1983 – George Brett batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the "Pine Tar Incident".
2005 – Lance Armstrong wins his seventh consecutive Tour de France.
2011 – Digital switchover is completed in 44 of the 47 prefectures of Japan, with Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima television stations terminating analog broadcasting operations later as a result of the Tohoku earthquake.

Births

1897 – Amelia Earhart, American pilot and author (d. 1937)
1920 – Bella Abzug, American politician (d. 1998)
1936 – Ruth Buzzi, American actress and comedian
1946 – Gallagher, American comedian
1947 – Robert Hays, American actor
1949 – Michael Richards, American comedian, actor, writer, and producer
1951 – Lynda Carter, American actress
1963 – Karl Malone, American basketball player
1964 – Barry Bonds, American baseball player
1969 – Jennifer Lopez, American actress, singer, dancer, and businesswoman
1982 – Elisabeth Moss, American actress
1982 – Anna Paquin, Canadian-New Zealand actress
1985 – Teagan Presley, American porn actress
1985 – Eric Wright, American football player
1998 – Bindi Irwin, Australian television host, actress, and singer

Deaths


1862 – Martin Van Buren, American politician, 8th President of the United States (b. 1782)
1980 – Peter Sellers, English film actor, comedian and singer (b. 1925)
2012 – Sherman Hemsley, American actor (b. 1938)