In Memoriam, 2022: Legendary TV Broadcaster Barbara Walters Dead at 93, Pope Benedict XVI (95)

[NewbieCanuckFan]

48 minutes ago, gurn said:

ICP 

Inter 

Cranial 

Pressure

Bleeding inside the skull pushes the brain down into the spinal column. Damages the part of our brain, at the back of our heads, that controls automatic breathing.

 

 

 

Isn't that how the "first 'bass player' for the Beatles", Stu Sutcliffe died?  Head trauma from an earlier injury he suffered?  I can't remember all the specifics.

[Gurn]

11 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said:

Isn't that how the "first 'bass player' for the Beatles", Stu Sutcliffe died?  Head trauma from an earlier injury he suffered?  I can't remember all the specifics.

don't know about that, but afaik Ron Tabak, lead singer of Prism went that way.

I've lost 2 Aunts that suffered brain aneurisms, with out actual trauma, just weak bulging veins that burst.

 

If you ever get what you describe as the worst head ache you've ever had, and it comes from out of nowhere- get to a hospital ASAP.

Tell them it is possible ICP.

 

[canuckster19]

On 2/10/2022 at 10:00 PM, DonLever said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/bob-saget-head-trauma-cause-of-death-1.6345970

 

A medical examiner in Florida says comedian and actor Bob Saget died from blunt head trauma, likely from an "unwitnessed fall."

Saget was found dead in a Florida hotel room on Jan. 9 at age 65, after performing standup comedy the night before.

 

Thursday's statement from medical examiner Joshua Stephany in Orlando says a toxicology analysis didn't show any illicit drugs or toxins in Saget's body and that his death was an accident.

That conclusion was first announced by the family of the Full House star. Saget most likely hit the back of his head and "thought nothing of it and went to sleep," his family said in a statement to Reuters. No drugs or alcohol were involved.

"As we continue to mourn together, we ask everyone to remember the love and laughter that Bob brought to this world, and the lessons he taught us all," the statement said. 

Emergency responders found the actor unresponsive on Jan. 9 in a room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando and pronounced him dead at the scene, the Orange County sheriff's office said at the time.

Sounds like another death that could have been prevented if people didn't want to go to the emergency room and their long wait times because they're full of morons who won't get vaccinated!

[Gurn]

Ivan Reitman passes at 75 yrs of age. Guy was an iconic director of comedies.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/other/ivan-reitman-producer-ghostbusters-director-dies-at-75/ar-AATOxht?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

 

Ivan Reitman, the influential filmmaker and producer behind beloved comedies from “Animal House” to “Ghostbusters,” has died. He was 75.

 

Reitman died peacefully in his sleep Saturday night at his home in Montecito, Calif., his family told The Associated Press.

“Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father, and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life,” children Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman and Caroline Reitman said in a joint statement. “We take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world. While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through his films will remember him always.”

Known for big, bawdy comedies that caught the spirit of their time, Reitman’s big break came with the raucous, college fraternity sendup “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” which he produced. He directed Bill Murray in his first starring role in “Meatballs” and then again in “Stripes,” but his most significant success came with 1984’s “Ghostbusters.”

Not only did the irreverent supernatural comedy starring Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis gross nearly $300 million worldwide, it earned two Oscar nominations, spawned a veritable franchise, including spinoffs, television shows and a new movie, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” that opened this last year. His son, filmmaker Jason Reitman directed.

Among other notable films he directed are “Twins,” “Kindergarten Cop,” “Dave,” “Junior” and 1998's “Six Days, Seven Nights.” He also produced “Beethoven,” “Old School” and “EuroTrip,” and many others, including several for his son.

He was born in Komarmo, Czechoslovakia, in 1946 where his father owned the country’s biggest vinegar factory. When the communists began imprisoning capitalists after the war, the Reitmans decided to escape, when Ivan Reitman was only 4. They traveled in the nailed-down hold of a barge headed for Vienna.

“I remember flashes of scenes,” Reitman told the AP in 1979. “Later they told me about how they gave me a couple of sleeping pills so I wouldn’t make any noise. I was so knocked out that I slept with my eyes open. My parents were afraid I was dead.”

The Reitmans joined a relative in Toronto, where Ivan displayed his show biz inclinations: starting a puppet theater, entertaining at summer camps, playing coffee houses with a folk music group. He studied music and drama at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and began making movie shorts.

With friends and $12,000, Reitman made a nine-day movie, “Cannibal Girls,” which American International agreed to release. He produced on a $500 budget a weekly TV revue, “Greed,” with Dan Aykroyd, and became associated with the Lampoon group in its off-Broadway revue that featured John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Murray. That soon led to “Animal House."

By the time 1990's “Kindergarten Cop” came around, Reitman had established himself as the most successful comedy director in history. Though not even being the father of three children could have prepared him for the arduous task of directing 30 children between the ages of 4 and 7 in the Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy.

Reitman slowed down as a director after “Six Days, Seven Nights” — only four films would follow “Evolution,” “My Super Ex-Girlfriend,” “No Strings Attached” and “Draft Day,” from 2014.

But he continued producing and, with “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” even found himself on the press circuit with his son, providing emotional moments for both with the passing of the baton.

When asked late last year why the 1984 film continued to fascinate, Reitman told the AP that it was hard to define.

“I always had a sort of sincere approach to the comedy,” he said. “I took it seriously even though, it was a horror movie and a comedy, I felt you had to sort of deal with it in a kind of realistic and honest way.”

 

[Heretic]

RIP Mr. Brooker, RIP...you skipped the light fandango...

 

Gary Brooker dead: Procol Harum frontman who sang A Whiter Shade of Pale dies at 76

Singer Gary Brooker, well known for singing Procol Harum's 1967 classic A Whiter Shade of Pale has sadly died at the age of 76

By

Vicki NewmanAssistant Showbiz Editor

• 16:21, 22 Feb 2022
• UPDATED17:00, 22 Feb 2022

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Procol Harum frontman Gary Brooker has died.

The singer, who co-wrote and sang the band's classic A Whiter Shade of Pale, was 76 when he lost his life to cancer on Saturday, February 19.

The band said in a statement: "He lit up any room he entered, and his kindness to a multilingual family of fans was legendary.

"He was notable for his individuality, integrity, and occasionally stubborn eccentricity. His mordant wit, and appetite for the ridiculous, made him a priceless raconteur (and his surreal inter-song banter made a fascinating contrast with the gravitas of Procol Harum’s performances)."

They continued: "His first single with Procol Harum, 1967’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale,’ is widely regarded as defining ‘The Summer of Love’, yet it could scarcely have been more different from the characteristic records of that era.

 

 

Gary was 76

"Nor was it characteristic of his own writing. Over 13 albums, Procol Harum never sought to replicate it, preferring to forge a restlessly progressive path, committed to looking forward, and making each record a ‘unique entertainment’.

"Gary’s voice and piano were the single defining constant of Procol’s fifty-year international concert career. Without any stage antics or other gimmicks he was invariably the most watchable musician in the show (he played several other instruments in the studio)."

While Gary was best known for his work with the band after leading them throughout their 55-year history, he also toured heavily with big names in the business, including Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.

 

Gary was awarded an MBE in the Queen's birthday honours list in 2013 in recognition of his charity work.

He had married Françoise Riedo, a Swiss au pair affectionately known as Franky in 1968 after meeting three years earlier. They didn't have any children.

[nuckin_futz]

Mark Lanegan, Grunge Pioneer and Screaming Trees Singer, Dead at 57

Musician also played with Queens of the Stone Age, released 11 solo albums, and authored numerous books

 

 

 

Mark Lanegan, the gruff-voiced singer who fronted Screaming Trees before embarking on a successful solo career, has died. A rep for the artist confirmed that the artist died at his home in Killarney, Ireland. “No other information is available at this time,” the publicist wrote. “The family asks everyone to respect their privacy at this time.” Lanegan was 57.

Lanegan rose to prominence in the late Eighties and early Nineties as frontman for Screaming Trees, the psychedelic-leaning, Ellensburg, Washington hard-rock group that foreshadowed grunge. His deep, dramatic voice gave weight to guitarist-songwriter Gary Lee Conner’s compositions in the band’s early days before he took more of an active role himself.

 

The group scored Top 10 hits on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart with the singles “Nearly Lost You” and “All I Know.” During his time in Trees, Lanegan launched a concurrent solo career, beginning with 1990’s The Winding Sheet, an album that featured guest appearances by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. He continued with his solo career after the dissolution of Screaming Trees in 2000, frequently making guest appearances with Queens of the Stone Age and teaming with former Belle and Sebastian singer Isobel Campbell, Duke Garwood, and the Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli. The latter duo billed themselves as the Gutter Twins.

 

 

Lanegan detailed his formative years in vividly gritty detail in his 2020 memoir Sing Backwards and Weep. Behind the scenes, he grappled with alcoholism and heroin addiction while maintaining his musical career. He cleaned up for the first time after Courtney Love paid to send him to rehab. In a Rolling Stone interview after the book came out, he explained why Love helped him. “I remember Courtney leaving me a letter saying, ‘Kurt loved you as a big brother and would have wanted you to live. The world needs you to live,'” he said. “That was powerful because I hadn’t done any good for anybody in years.” He subsequently connected with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, (who performed as a second guitarist in Screaming Trees) and toured with that group while painting sets for television shows. His most recent solo album, Straight Songs of Sorrow, came out in spring 2020.

 

Mark William Lanegan was born in Ellensburg, Washington on Nov. 25, 1964. Both of his parents were schoolteachers who divorced when Lanegan was young. He claimed in his memoir that his mother was verbally abusive toward him, so he opted to live with his dad. “My father spent scant time trying to parent me,” he wrote. “Due to his own prodigious drinking schedule and his lifelong interest in playing cards all night with his pals and chasing women, he quickly gave up trying to enforce any kind of control.” Lanegan started stealing cans of beer from his dad while in junior high. His grades suffered and he was kicked off the baseball team (which he loved). He discovered marijuana and LSD and eventually quit drinking.

 

Meanwhile, Lanegan was becoming enamored with punk. After discovering the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.,” he started collecting albums by the Damned, Stranglers, Ramones, Iggy Pop, and the Velvet Underground, among others. After sobering up, he reconnected with childhood friend Van Conner, and learned that Van, his brother Gary Lee, and a drummer named Mark Pickerel had a band. Gary Lee suggested that Lanegan record some vocals over some of the songs he’d written, and Screaming Trees were born.

 

Screaming Trees’ debut, Clairvoyance, was released in 1986 to little fanfare. The music was a psychedelic swirl of guitar, church organ, and Lanegan’s reedy vocals. After signing to SST, the label run by Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn, the band released similar sounding albums every year through 1989, during which time it built up a steady local following.

 

One person introduced himself to Lanegan after a concert, saying, “I’m a huge fan of yours. If you ever need an opener or want to do something musical together, please give me a call.” It was Kurt Cobain. In his memoir, Lanegan recalled a moment later on when Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic asked to join the Trees but Lanegan counseled him to stay with Nirvana. “The difference between Nirvana and the Trees was so clear to me,” he wrote. “Nirvana were who they were from the first time I saw them: great songs, great singer, great look, everything.”

 

[Gurn]

^ If that guy's lungs looked like his right hand, I'm almost surprised he made it to 57.

Heavy, heavy build up on that thumb and finger.

 

Smoking is really, really bad for you.

[DonLever]

 

Sally Kellerman, who was Oscar-nommed as 'Hot Lips' Houlihan in 'MASH,' dies at 84 | Toronto Sun

 

Sally Kellerman, who was Oscar nominated for her supporting role as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s “MASH” feature film, died Thursday in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 84.

 

 

Among her other roles were a cameo in Altman’s “The Player,” a professor in Rodney Dangerfield’s “Back to School” and a Starfleet officer in the “Star Trek” episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

 

The willowy blonde actress with the characteristically throaty voice appeared in two Altman films in 1970; the other was the more experimental “Brewster McCloud,” in which she starred with Bud Cort and Michael Murphy. In this film, which did not have a conventional narrative, Kellerman played Louise, the mother of the bewinged Cort character, Brewster.

 

She starred next opposite Alan Arkin in the Gene Saks-directed Neil Simon effort “Last of the Red Hot Lovers”; the Cleveland Press said: “Sally Kellerman as the first woman makes out the best, managing to be both alluring and hostile. She’s great with a put-down and her retorts have bite.”

 

She starred with James Caan in the goofy 1973 road movie “Slither” (in which the actress played a witch, no less) and was among the starry cast of the musical version of “Lost Horizon.” Kellerman reteamed with Arkin along with a young Mackenzie Philips for another wacky road movie, 1975’s “Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins,” then was part of the starry cast assembled for the spoof disaster movie “The Big Bus.”

 

In 1976’s “Welcome to L.A.,” made by Altman acolyte Alan Rudolph (and produced by Altman), Kellerman played a realtor, frantic because her husband is cheating on her, who is among the women that a songwriter played by Keith Carradine sleeps with during a sojourn in Los Angeles.

 

She appeared in the critically acclaimed “Great Performances” outing “Verna: USO Girl,” starring Sissy Spacek. Variety said: “Kellerman, singing in a whiskey baritone or dropping supposedly sophisticated comments, reflects that particular type of blas? attitude that WWII curtailed, if it didn’t kill it.”

 

 

Returning to television, where she had started, Kellerman had a major role in NBC’s mammoth 1978 “Centennial” miniseries, starring as Raymond Burr’s daughter, who marries the fur trapper Pasquinel, played by Robert Conrad, who is central to the story.

 

The actress played the mother of a very young Diane Lane in the delightful “A Little Romance,” but the focus here was on the teen lovers; Kellerman and Arthur Hill were in the picture to have a troubled marriage from which Lane’s character sought escape. Kellerman had a more interesting role in her next picture, the teen-girls-go-astray pic “Foxes,” in which she and Jodie Foster established in a few scenes a believably complicated mother-daughter relationship.

Edited February 25, 2022 by DonLever

[Gurn]

Without this man, Roger Bannister would have had no one pushing him to break the 4 minute mile

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/winter-olympics/john-landy-pursuer-of-bannister-s-4-minute-mile-dies-at-91/ar-AAUk7AZ?ocid=msedgntp

 

John Landy, an Australian runner who dueled with Roger Bannister to be the first person to run a four-minute mile, has died. He was 91

Landy's family on Saturday said the former athlete, who also became governor of Australia's Victoria state, had died at his home in Castlemaine after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

 

“Dad passed away peacefully on Thursday surrounded by what he loved most: his family and the Australian bush,” Landy’s son Matthew Landy said. “We are going to really miss him. He was not only a wonderful husband, but a wonderful father and he lived a wonderful life.”

Landy took up competitive running to help him get fit to play Australian rules football, only becoming serious about it after making a state track and field squad in 1951.

Later he was to make world headlines as he vied with Englishman Bannister to become the first man to run under four minutes for the mile.

Bannister was the first to achieve the feat, in a time of 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds at Oxford, England on May 6, 1954. Less than two months later, in Finland, Landy improved on Bannister’s world record when he ran the mile in 3:57.90.

Those two times preceded the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver where Landy and Bannister, the world’s two fastest milers, met face-to-face in a showdown billed as the Race of the Century. The Englishman won and soon after retired to become a neurologist.

At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Landy was the favorite to win the “metric mile,” the 1,500 meters. But it was in the lead-up to those Games that Landy earned his place in Australian sporting history.

Running in the Australian Mile Championship in 1956, Landy was in a strong position when fellow athlete Ron Clarke tripped and fell in front of him with about a lap and a half to go.

Landy leaped over Clarke and then turned back to help his rival to his feet, a gesture that cost him valuable seconds and around 50 meters. After checking on Clarke, he began running again and circled the field to win the race that assured him a place in Australia's Olympic team.

Landy never made a big deal of the gesture, describing it as “that silly race when I whizzed back to Ron Clarke."

“I reacted on the spur of the moment," Landy told the Australian Associated Press. “I ran down his arm with my spikes when I was jumping over him. That’s why I went back. A lot of people seemed to think it was the most significant thing I ever did in running. It wasn’t.”

Landy won bronze in the 1,500 at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, finishing third behind Ron Delany of Ireland and Klaus Richtzenhain of Germany.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in a statement that Landy was one of the great pioneers of the golden age of middle-distance running in the 1950s.

“He lit the spark that led to the legendary chase for the four-minute mile between 1952 and 1954 and was one of main protagonists in that quest,” said Coe, the two-time 1,500-meter Olympic gold-medal winner. “Ultimately Roger Bannister got there first but was also the first to recognize that Landy’s excellence inspired him to reach that historic landmark.”

Landy went on to work in the field of agricultural science, a subject he studied at Melbourne University, and held various positions in sporting and community organizations.

In 2001 he became governor of Victoria — representing the British royalty in the state — a post he held for five years.

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said: “If Australia needed a role model, it is John Landy."

“His rivalry with Roger Bannister, as the pair closed on the sub four-minute mark for the mile, captured not only Australia’s imagination, but that of the world."

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Dennis Passa, The Associated Press

 

 

 

[DonLever]

https://www.miraclemile1954.com/

 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by DonLever

[thedestroyerofworlds]

https://deadline.com/2022/03/william-hurt-dead-oscar-winning-actor-was-71-1234977307/

 

William Hurt Dies: Oscar-Winning Actor For ‘Kiss Of The Spider Woman’ Was 71

 

William Hurt, who often played a quiet intellectual in his early acting roles, but later took more strident turns in science fiction and Marvel films, has died just a week before his 72nd birthday.

 

William Hurt’s son, Will, posted today that his father has died. It was announced in May 2018 that the elder Hurt had terminal prostate cancer that had spread to the bone.

 

“It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday. He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes. The family requests privacy at this time.”

Hurt had three consecutive Academy Awards nominations for Best Actor in the mid-1980s. These included Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987). He won for Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Hurt was also an active stage actor during the 1980s, appeared in Off-Brodway productions and receiving his first Tony Award nomination in 1985 for the Broadway production of Hurlyburly.

His debut film role was in 1980, playing a scientist in the science fiction thriller Altered States, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. From there, he played a memorable role as the lawyer seduced by Kathleen Turner in Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat (1981). Kasdan cast Hurt again in 1983 as part of the ensemble in The Big Chill. He then appeared in the role of Arkady Renko in Gorky Park.

Hurt often worked with top-tier directors. His first five films were helmed by Ken Russell, Peter Yates, Lawrence Kasdan, Michael Apted and Héctor Babenco. He went on to work on two more films with Kasdan — The Accidental Tourist and I Love You to Death — as well as projects with James L. Brooks, Woody Allen, Gregory Nava, Wim Wenders, Anthony Minghella, Wayne Wang, Nora Ephron, Franco Zeffirelli, Carl Franklin, István Szabó, David Cronenberg, Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, Ridley Scott, Anthony and Joe Russo and many more.

 

Hurt earned his fourth Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance in Cronenberg’s crime thriller A History of Violence (2005).

 

His career continued with such films as A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Village, Syriana, The Good Shepherd, Mr. Brooks, Into the Wild, and Robin Hood.

In 2014, Hurt was on the scene of one of the worst on-set accidents in recent history. He was starring as Gregg Allman in Randall Miller’s biopic, Midnight Rider, when a train smashed into the set on a trestle in rural Georgia, killing camera assistant Sarah Jones and injuring several others. Hurt was on the trestle but unharmed.

The actor later said he repeatedly expressed concern that cast and crew, loaded with gear, were safe on the trestle should a train come and was assured by AD Hillary Schwartz that they were.

“It’s the sorrow of my professional life and one of the great sorrows of my personal life,” Hurt later said. “It was simply impossible to imagine anything like that could happen. The one other thing I could have done was say, ‘This isn’t good enough for me, I’m walking off the set.’ But it was our very, very first day with a crew that had worked together before."

 

Shortly after the accident, director/producer Miller attempted to move forward with the production, but Hurt quit rather than return to the film.

Miller, Jay Sedrish, and Schwartz were all convicted of criminal trespassing and involuntary manslaughter in her death. Sedrish and Schwartz only got probation. Miller got two years in jail and eight years probation.

To younger fans, Hurt was part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films in his role as the blustering Thaddeus Ross, a General who was there on the fateful day Bruce Banner became the Hulk. The Ross character appeared in five Marvel films, including The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Widow, as well as the Marvel One-Shot The Consultant and the Disney+ animated series What If…?, the latter voiced by Mike McGill.

Hurt was born March 20, 1950 in Washington, DC. His father was part of the US Agency for International Development, a role which saw the family move to Lahore, Mogadishu and Khartoum. His parents divorced, and his mother married Henry Luce III, son of publisher Henry Luce.

 

He went on to attend Tufts University, where he studied theology. But the acting bug bit him, and he joined the Juilliard School’s drama division, where he spent four years immersed among such future stars as Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve.

 

Starting in 1977, Hurt was a member of the Circle Repertory Company, winning an Obie Award for his appearance in Corinne Jacker’s My Life. He had a broad resume in theater, winning a 1978 Theatre World Award for his multiple performances in Fifth of Jul, Ulysses in Traction, and Lulu. 

Hurt is survived by four children. No memorial details have been revealed.

[Gurn]

A damn fine actor, my condolences to the family and fans.

 

It will never happen to him again.

 

Edit-turns out it never happened to him the first time. woops.

Thanks RUPERTKBD

Edited March 14, 2022 by gurn

[RUPERTKBD]

16 hours ago, gurn said:

A damn fine actor, my condolences to the family and fans.

 

It will never happen to him again.

 

That's not the Hurt you're looking for....

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hurt

[Warhippy]

And there goes Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall

 

[thedestroyerofworlds]

 

https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/33505127/wrestling-legend-wwe-hall-famer-scott-hall-dies-63

Wrestling legend, WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall dies at 63

Scott Hall, one of the most influential men in the history of professional wrestling, died Monday, according to WWE. He was 63.

Hall, a two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee, broke his hip last month, PW Torch reported, and had severe health complications during surgery to repair it over the weekend.

Kevin Nash, Hall's longtime best friend and former tag-team partner, wrote Sunday on Instagram that Hall was on life support, which he was later removed from on Monday, according to close friend Sean Waltman.

"He's gone," Waltman wrote Monday night on Twitter.

Hall, nicknamed "The Bad Guy," made his biggest mark in wrestling as a founding member of the group that would go on to be called the New World Order (nWo). He left the then-WWF in 1996, where he was known as "Razor Ramon," to sign as a free agent with WCW. It was a major contract that ignited a series of lucrative free-agent signings going back and forth between WWF and WCW, during one of the hottest periods ever in pro wrestling.

The storyline that was portrayed once Hall arrived in the company was that he was an invader, perhaps working on behalf of the WWF, attempting to take over WCW.

Nash, known as "Diesel" in WWF, would sign with WCW, too, and join Hall to become The Outsiders. In July 1996, Hulk Hogan, a longtime wholesome "good guy" and massively popular name, joined Hall and Nash to form the villainous nWo, launching one of the great groups and storylines in the history of pro wrestling.

"Scott was one of the greatest performers I ever saw," former WCW wrestler and head of creative Kevin Sullivan said on his podcast in 2020.

The 6-foot-7 Hall, a Maryland native who moved around often as a child due to his father's service in the military, got his pro-wrestling start in Championship Wrestling of Florida in 1984. He bounced around across the AWA, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, WWC in Puerto Rico and WCW in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before hooking on with WWF in 1992. It was there that he starred as Razor Ramon, a Miami-Cuban character based on Scarface.

 

Scott Hall would team with Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan to form the original New World Order (nWo), a group whose impact on pop culture still resonates today. WWE

In WWF, Hall performed in a historic ladder match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania X and won the WWF Intercontinental title four times.

In WCW, Hall won the tag team titles seven times (six with Nash as The Outsiders), the United States Heavyweight championship twice and World Television title once. The nWo was a revolutionary concept, because it broke down the fourth wall in pro wrestling like never before. The WWF ended up suing WCW, claiming WCW was using its intellectual property -- that Hall and Nash were playing the same characters they did in WWF and were pretending to still be working for WWF.

Booned by the buzz created by the nWo, WCW beat WWF in the head-to-head cable television ratings for 83 weeks straight, something that would have been unheard of just a year earlier.

Hall and Nash were cast as heels, or bad guys, but fans embraced them anyway, because of their magnetic charisma that popped off the screen. The toothpick-chewing Hall had an iconic look with long, dark, slicked-back hair and a single curl on his forehead. He had memorable catchphrases like "hey, yo" and "survey says." His finishing move, a slam while Hall is holding up his opponent by both arms outstretched, was called the "Razor's Edge."

"There was nobody cooler than Scott Hall," former WCW and current AEW broadcaster Tony Schiavone told ESPN last summer. "Kevin Nash was cool, too, but freakin' Scott Hall was ahead of his time."

The pop-culture impact of Hall and the nWo is still felt today. NBA star Kevin Durant wore an nWo jacket last year before a Brooklyn Nets game. Comedian Aziz Ansari and model Kendall Jenner were spotted wearing nWo shirts in recent years. In 2018, Drake was pictured wearing a Razor Ramon shirt. Rapper Westside Gunn and his brother Conway the Machine go by the handle "Hall n Nash" as a duo.

"I didn't wanna be Jordan I wanted to be SCOTT," Westside Gunn tweeted Monday.

After WCW went out of business and was bought by the WWF in 2001, Hall returned to the now-WWE with Nash and Hogan to re-form the nWo. In 2002, he was released by WWE due to substance-abuse issues, which he struggled with for many years. Hall had reportedly gotten clean in recent years.

Hall had several runs in Total Nonstop Action (TNA) during the 2000s. In 2014, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as his individual character from WWF, Razor Ramon. A second induction followed in 2020. Hall went in as part of the nWo with Nash, Hogan and Sean "X-Pac" Waltman.

"We were the 'Outsiders' but we had each other," Nash wrote on Instagram. "Scott always felt he wasn't worthy of the afterlife. Well God please have some gold-plated toothpicks for my brother. My life was enriched with his take on life. He wasn't perfect but as he always said 'The last perfect person to walk the planet they nailed to a cross.'"

Hall capped his 2014 Hall of Fame speech with a line that has been shared all over social media in the past few days.

"Hard work pays off," Hall said. "Dreams come true. Bad times don't last. But bad guys do."

[thedestroyerofworlds]

 

 

 

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992066/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies

Stephen Wilhite, creator of the GIF, has died

49

It’s pronounced ‘jif’

 

 

[nuckin_futz]

5 hours ago, thedestroyerofworlds said:

 

 

 

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992066/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies

Stephen Wilhite, creator of the GIF, has died

49

It’s pronounced ‘jif’

 

 

[Gurn]

[RUPERTKBD]

This is just awful....Foo Fighters drummer, Taylor Hawkins has passed away at 50 years old....

 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/25/entertainment/taylor-hawkins-foo-fighters-obit/index.html

 

@DonLeverI think this deserves a title update.

Edited March 26, 2022 by RUPERTKBD

[thedestroyerofworlds]

 

 

 

 

https://deadline.com/2022/04/estelle-harris-dead-seinfelds-estelle-costanza-was-93-1234993091/

Estelle Harris Dies: ‘Seinfeld’s Estelle Costanza, ‘Toy Story’ Franchise’s Mrs. Potato Head Was 93

April 2, 2022 7:16pm

Chris Haston/Castle Rock Entertainment/Everett Collection