Edward Gough Whitlam: 1916-2014

Some time during the middle of the 1960s, I suddenly realised that the existence of a program of National Conscription in Australia, combined with the apparently endless war in Vietnam, meant that I was probably doomed to be mangled or killed on a foreign shore, for no particular reason. I was uncomfortable with the prospect.
   The tangible outworking of my discomfort was that I joined the local branch of the Australian Labor Party. (Yes, "Labor" is spelt without a 'U' in this context, due largely to the involvement of failed American gold miners in the establishment of the Party, way back when. All other Australian usages of the word require the 'U'.)
   I happened to be living in a small country town in the heart of 'Black Jack' McEwan's electorate, which consistently recorded the lowest vote in the country for the ALP. The significance of this is that the local party was dispirited, members were few and mostly inactive, and a friend and I were free to appoint ourselves to whatever roles we desired. As such we became Delegates to the ALP National Conference held at

the St Kilda Town Hall in 1971. I was shocked to discover that the Conference wasn't much more than a fashion parade. (I was 17 years old at the time. Make allowances.) We were treated to displays of black-suited eloquence by such friends of the working man as Bob Hawke and Don Dunstan, but the unquestioned star of the show was one Edward Gough Whitlam.
   Like most Australians at the time, I had no idea that Gough was an actor. Yes, indeedy. And sympathetic to the idea that Australia should have its own film industry. The Australian film revival of the 1970s only really took shape after Gough became Prime Minister. His government established the Australian Film and Television School and the Australian Film Commission, which led to a resurgence of the Australian film industry, later dubbed the Australian New Wave.
   Not only that but Gough appeared in some of the films that his innovations had made possible, and helped unleash 'Dame' Edna Everage on the world.

Edward Gough meets Bazza McKenzie in Barry McKenzie Holds His Own.

Edward Gough meets Edna Everage and dubs her a 'Dame,'
in Barry McKenzie Holds His Own.

And to round things out, we can listen to that speech, one last time.

Bobby Womack: 1944-2014

Bobby Womack was born and raised in Cleveland, the third of five brothers. Their mother played organ in the church; their father was a minister and musician. One night, eight-year-old Bobby, who often played his father's guitar when he wasn't around, broke a guitar string. After his father replaced the string with a shoelace, he let Bobby play the guitar for him. The man was shocked by his son's talents as well as the talents of his other sons. Soon afterwards, he bought Bobby his own guitar and they formed The Womack Brothers. The group toured the gospel circuit with their parents.

He started his career as the lead singer of The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist. Womack's career spanned more than 50 years and included a repertoire in the styles of R&B, soul, rock and roll, doo-wop, gospel, and country.

Womack wrote and originally recorded the Rolling Stones' first UK No. 1 hit, "It's All Over Now" and New Birth's "I Can Understand It" among other songs. As a singer he is most notable for the hits "Lookin' For a Love", "That's The Way I Feel About Cha", "Woman's Gotta Have It", "Harry Hippie", "Across 110th Street" and his 1980s hit "If You Think You're Lonely Now".

Here are a few tracks.











And if you've got time, here's a BBC documentary about his life.

Eli Wallach: 1915-2014

Eli Wallach, who appeared in over 150 films and TV shows, died on Tuesday. He was 98.
    He was born in Brooklyn, the son of Polish immigrants who ran the local sweet shop. One of the few Jewish children in his mostly Italian-American neighborhood, he made both his stage and screen breakthroughs playing Italians. He graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he learned to ride horses—a skill he would put to good use in westerns.
    Wallach attended the Actors Studio from its inception; there, he studied acting with founding member Robert Lewis, alongside Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Herbert Berghof, Sidney Lumet, and his soon-to-be wife, Anne Jackson.
    In 1953 he was supposed to play Angelo Maggio in the film From Here to Eternity, but was abruptly replaced by Frank Sinatra before filming began. Sinatra went on to win an Oscar for the performance, which revived his career. Sinatra purportedly used pressure from his underworld connections to get the part, an incident that inspired the Johnny Fontane character in the classic 1972 film The Godfather.
    Wallach continued to find meaty movie roles, almost through to the end of his life. In later years he could be found in the likes of The Godfather 3, Mystic River and The Ghost Writer. Despite his glittering film career, Eli was never nominated for an Academy Award. However, he was awarded an honorary Oscar in November 2010.

The Ghost Writer (2010)

The Holiday (2006)

The Godfather III (1990)

Two Jakes (1990)

Tough Guys (1986)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

How To Steal a Million (1966)

The Misfits (1961)

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Hal Douglas: 1924-2014

Hal Douglas, one of Hollywood's top trailer voiceover artists, died last Friday at the age of 89.

Born Harold Cone, he was primarily raised by his grandparents after his mother died when Hal was nine. Douglas trained as a pilot and served three years in the Navy during World War II. He wrote fiction in his spare time. He studied acting at the University of Miami, changed his last name to Douglas, after moving to New York, and supplemented his income from acting gigs with voiceover and announcer work on both radio and television. Hal soon became one of the most sought after (and instantly recognizable) vocal talents for commercials and lead-ins for TV shows.

For years, Douglas was among the three go-to voiceover artists for trailers, the others being Don LaFontaine, who died in 2008 and is credited with coining the much-parodied phrase "in a world...", and Don Morrow, who did trailers including A Fistful of Dollars and Titanic. You can see Douglas in a rare on-screen role in the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld's documentary Comedian (which you can view below), where he parodies a voiceover artist.

You can hear him on a few selected trailers.

IMDb    Wikipedia

Lou Reed: 1942-2013

Lou Reed has died from complications from a liver transplant he received in May 2013.

He was born in Brooklyn in 1942. He met John Cale at a record store in New York in 1964. They formed a band which, after a few iterations, became Velvet Underground. He left the band in 1970 and commenced a solo career that made him world famous.

The two albums he released that had a big impact on me at the time were Transformer and Berlin. It was a delight many years later to have Perfect Day appear on the soundtrack of the movie Trainspotting (1996). His music has IMDb credits on over 150 movie soundtracks.

Blue in the Face (1995)

Here are a couple of tracks to remember him by.

20 Essential tracks    IMDb    Lester Bangs    Rolling Stone    Wikipedia

Elmore Leonard: 1925-2013

Elmore Leonard, 87, passed away last night. He was born in New Orleans, but spent most of his life in Detroit. He wrote 45 novels, many of which were made into movies. His books were, he said, "about people, with guns, in dire situations."

Leonard served in construction during World War II. After the war, he worked at an advertising agency, but got bored. So he started writing Westerns in his free time. He quit advertising to write full-time in 1961 and eventually moved into crime writing.

I always start with the characters. I get to page 300 and I start thinking about the ending.

The first part moves along O.K., and then I have to think about the second part, because the second part keeps it going. And then you've got to get to some new things, say around page 250. There is always those surprises near the end.

The first of his crime novels, Big Bounce, was rejected 84 times before it was published as a paperback in 1969.

He didn't have a best-seller until his 60th year, and few critics took him seriously before the 1990s.

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“You asking me,” Catlett said, “do I know how to write down words on a piece of paper? That’s what you do, man, you put down one word after the other as it comes in your head. It isn’t like having to learn how to play the piano, like you have to learn notes. You already learned in school how to write, didn’t you? I hope so. You have the idea and you put down what you want to say. Then you get someone to add in the commas and shit where they belong, if you aren’t positive yourself. Maybe fix up the spelling where you have some tricky words. There people do that for you. Some, I’ve even seen scripts where I know words weren’t spelled right and there was hardly any commas in it. So I don’t think it’s too important. You come to the last page you write in ‘Fade out’ and that’s the end, you’re done.” ~Elmore Leonard, Get Shorty

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Facebook    IMDb    New York Times    Twitter   Website    Wikipedia

Annette Funicello: 1942-2013

When I was a kid, we didn't own a TV. The family next door did, and—if we were in favor at the time—we might be invited in to watch the after-school TV shows, which included The Lone Ranger (1949-1957), Robin Hood (1955-1960), and The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1959).

The moment I waited for, the moment when my little prepubescent heart skipped a beat, was at the first appearance of Annette Funicello in blurry B&W. Oh, she was gorgeous...

Funicello began her professional career at the age of twelve. She rose to prominence as a "Mouseketeer" on the original Mickey Mouse Club.

She moved on from Disney to become a teen idol, starring in a series of "Beach Party" movies with Frankie Avalon. These included Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Pajama Party (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965).

Funicello and Avalon became iconic as "beach picture" stars and were re-united in 1987 for the Paramount film Back to the Beach, parodying their own surf-and-sand films two decades earlier.

In 1992, Funicello announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She died of complications of the disease on April 8, 2013.

    The New York Times    

Robert Chew: 1960-2013

Robert F. Chew passed away Thursday at the age of 52. The actor and teacher died of heart failure while asleep in his Baltimore home.

He was best known for portraying Proposition Joe on The Wire, and was one of the few characters from the drug world who appeared in all five seasons. Like many in the Wire company, Chew was a born-and-bred Baltimore resident.

Chew also appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street and The Corner, both written by The Wire creator David Simon. In addition to acting, Chew was a teacher of young-adult actors at Baltimore's Arena Players, through which he helped twenty-two of his students land parts on the HBO hit, most notably the four young leads who were called upon to carry its fourth season, which focused on the Baltimore City School System.

Chew is survived by his mother and three sisters. Funeral services will be held Thursday, Jan. 24.

The many voices of Robert F. Chew:

   Baltimore Sun    IMDb    Wikipedia   

Charles Durning: 1923-2012

Charles Durning was an American actor who appeared in over 200 films and TV shows. He was born in Highland Falls, New York, the second youngest of five children. His mother was a laundress at West Point, and his father was an Irish immigrant who gained U.S. citizenship by joining the army.

Durning served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Heart medals. He participated in the Normandy Landings on D-Day, being among the first troops to land at Omaha Beach. Durning was wounded, transported back in England, recovered, and arrived back at the front in time to take part in the Battle of the Bulge.

He got his start as an usher at a burlesque theater in Buffalo, N.Y. When one of the comedians showed up too drunk to go on, Durning took his place. He studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. The school dismissed him within a year, and he went from job to job, from doorman to dishwasher to cabdriver. He boxed professionally for a time, delivered telegrams and taught ballroom dancing. Every so often he landed a bit part in a play.

His big break came in 1962, when the founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival, invited him to audition. It was the start of a long association, in which he was cast, often as a clown, in 35 plays. His big break with the movies came when he was cast in The Sting.

He died of natural causes in his home in the borough of Manhattan. Durning and his first wife had three children before divorcing in 1972. In 1974, he married his high school sweetheart, Mary Ann Amelio. He is survived by his children, Michele, Douglas and Jeannine.

The Sting (1973)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Tootsie (1982)

Dick Tracy (1990)

State and Main (2000)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

To close, here's Charles Durning speaking at a National Memorial Day Concert in 2007. (Tom Hanks goes first and sets the scene.) 

Dave Brubeck: 1920-2012

David Warren "Dave" Brubeck (December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist. He wrote a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time and has endured as a jazz classic. Brubeck experimented with time signatures throughout his career, recording "Pick Up Sticks" in 6/4, "Unsquare Dance" in 7/4, "World's Fair" in 13/4, and "Blue Rondo à la Turk" in 9/8.

Brubeck was born in Concord, California. His father was a cattle rancher, and his mother taught piano for extra money. Brubeck could not read sheet music during his early lessons, attributing this difficulty to poor eyesight, but "faked" his way through.

After graduating College in 1942, Brubeck was drafted into the army and served overseas in George Patton's Third Army. He was spared from service in the Battle of the Bulge when he volunteered to play piano at a Red Cross show; he was such a hit he was ordered to form a band. He created one of the US armed forces' first racially integrated bands. 

He returned to college after serving nearly four years in the army, Brubeck helped to establish Fantasy Records. The Dave Brubeck Quartet enjoyed phenomenal success in the 1950s and '60s, selling millions of albums. Their 1959 album, Time Out, was significant for its use of uncommon, complex time signatures - influenced by the pianist's classical training.

The record spawned Take Five, the biggest-selling jazz single of all time and a staple of the band's live set for the rest of their careers. Although Brubeck disbanded the quartet in 1967 to enable him to concentrate on composing, they reconvened regularly until Desmond's death in 1977. 

He continued to compose, play and record in his later years. His final release was the 2007 solo piano album Indian Summer.

"When you start out with goals - mine were to play polytonally and polyrhythmically - you never exhaust that. I started doing that in the 1940s. It's still a challenge to discover what can be done with just those two elements."

The musician is survived by his wife, Iola; four sons and a daughter; and his grandchildren.

 
For more, see The Washington Post.