Year: 2016

David Margulies, ‘Ghostbusters’ actor and Broadway star, dies at 78

David Margulies, who worked steadily on stage and screen, including roles in “Ghostbusters” and “The Sopranos,” died Monday, his agent Harry Abrams confirmed. He was 78.

A Brooklyn native, Margulies graduated from City College of New York and made his off-Broadway debut in 1958 in “Golden 6,” according to his biography at the Milken Archive of Jewish Music.

His face was instantly recognizable from dozens of films and TV shows, including 1984’s “Ghostbusters,” in which he played the mayor of New York. He repeated the role in the 1989 sequel.

His big-screen career also included appearances in “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “A Most Violent Year.”

On the small screen, he was recognizable for parts on several TV shows including “The Sopranos” — as Tony Soprano’s lawyer, Neil Mink — “Northern Exposure,” “Law and Order” and “Touched by an Angel.”

Margulies had an even more successful career on Broadway, where he debuted in 1973 in a revival of “The Iceman Cometh.” He also appeared in “Conversations With My Father,” “Angels in America: Perestroika” (as Roy Cohn) and “Wonderful Town.”

He appeared in his first film, “A New Leaf” starring Walter Matthau and Elaine May, in 1971.

According to IMDB, Margulies appears in the role of Nobel-winning author Elie Wiesel in the upcoming TV movie “Madoff,” about the rise and fall of financier Bernie Madoff.

David Bowie dead at 69 after losing secret battle with cancer

David Bowie has died after losing a secret 18-month battle with cancer, it was announced today.

The music legend’s death came just two days after this 69th birthday and the release of his latest critically acclaimed album, Blackstar.

His supermodel wife, Iman, film director son Duncan Jones, 44, and daughter Alexandria, 15, were understood to be at his bedside in New York when he passed away yesterday.

Only the singer’s family and closest friends knew he had been battling cancer and the news, announced on Bowie’s official Twitter account and Facebook pages, came as a huge shock to fans.

The announcement of his death read: “David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer.

“While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.”

Hopes among fans that the message may have been a hoax were crushed when Bowie’s son, film director Duncan Jones, previously known as Zowie Bowie, posted a black and white photograph of him as a toddler with his father and confirmed in a tweet: “Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all.”

Rumours had persisted about his ill health, dating back to 2004 when he collapsed backstage at a German music festival and underwent heart surgery for a blocked artery.

His public apperances had become rare and he was last seen looking gaunt at the premiere of Lazarus, the off-Broadway musical based on his songs. There were reports today that he had a lung tumour.

Blackstar, which was the first of Bowie’s records not to feature a picture of him on the album cover, features ominous lyrics which now appear to have foreshadowed his death.

In its title track he sings: “Something happened on the day he died, Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside, Somebody else took his place and bravely cried, I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar.”

The third track, Lazarus, starts with the lyrics: “Look up here, I’m in heaven, I’ve got scars that can’t be seen, I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen, everybody knows me now.”

Tributes to the iconic star flooded in from well-wishers from all walks of life, from his many collaborators to those who had been touched by his music.

Brian Eno, with whom he worked with on the “Berlin Trilogy” of albums which included his classic Heroes, simply said: “Words cannot express: RIP David Bowie.”

The star, who has been a musical icon for more than four decades, was known for reinventing himself and dabbling in diverse genres including glam rock, electronica, dance and pop.

His breakthough album was 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, after his debit hit single Space Oddity was released in 1969.

Comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, who convinced his long-time idol to star as himself – and ridicule Gervais – in an episode of 2006 sitcom Extras, paid tribute just moments after he finished hosting the Golden Globes in Hollywood. He said: “I just lost a hero. RIP David Bowie.”

Fellow artist Pharrell Williams described Bowie as a “true innovator” and a “true creative”.

Actress Mia Farrow said: “David Bowie we will miss you so much.”

Following his initial rise to stardom in the 1970s, Bowie was renown for reinventing himself from the glam rock of hit albums like Space Oddity and Ziggy Stardust to the blue-eyed soul of Young Americans, the enormous pop success of Let’s Dance and the electronic experimentation on Heroes.

He made a surprise comeback in 2013 when he suddenly released a new single on his 66th birthday with an album out just weeks later, his first for 10 years.

He made a habit of confounding the critics – killing off his most famous creation, Ziggy Stardust, at the height of his fame.

Born David Jones in South London on January 8, 1947, he changed his name to Bowie in 1966.

Bowie married supermodel Iman in 1992 and the pair went on to have a daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones. Duncan Jones, his son from his first marriage to Angie Bowie, was his best man at the wedding.

As well as being a reformed chain smoker, Bowie was a heavy cocaine user in the 1970s and moved from Los Angeles to Paris and later Berlin to help him escape the substance. He had not appeared live since a charity performance in New York in 2006.

Dal Richards, Vancouver’s King of Swing, dead at 97

Vancouver big band leader Dal Richards has died. He would have turned 98 on Jan. 5, 2016.

Dallas Murray Richards, born in Vancouver in 1918, has long been known as Vancouver’s “King of Swing”.

The musician was honoured with the Order of Canada, the Order of B.C. and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and was an inductee of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Over the years, he hosted national radio and television shows, including on CBC, helped launch the careers of talented young musicians and played countless concerts.

After 79 consecutive New Year’s Eve gigs, and nearly as many shows at the Pacific National Exhibition, it’s hard to imagine anyone has kept the music going for longer.

His reign began in 1940, at the brand new Panorama Roof of the Vancouver Hotel. Generations of people have rung in their new year with Dal Richards, who played every New Year’s Eve from 1936 to 2014.

Ever the gentleman, he never lost his enthusiasm for the big night, as Richards told CBC Radio just before he played his 76th New Year’s Eve.

Richards first turned to music as a boy. He was hit by a slingshot in the left eye and his doctor recommended trying out an instrument to lift him out of depressed state.

His natural affinity for the clarinet eventually helped him forget about his injury.

By the time he entered high school at Kerrisdale’s Magee Secondary, he yearned to be in a band like the ones he heard on the radio, so he rounded up a band which became his first orchestra.

When he began his life as a professional musician, Richards joined the band at the Palomar Ballroom, the city’s original Hotel Vancouver at Georgia and Burrard Street, and soon took over as the bandleader.

His passion for music and the audience continued well into his nineties.

In an interview with CBC Music on his 95th birthday, Richards shared his secret.

“Well, if you find something you like doing in life, pursue it with your heart. That is what I’ve done with music. I found that it was my love, so it enveloped my life totally.”

Wayne Rogers Dies: ‘M.A.S.H.’s Trapper John Was 82

Actor and entrepreneur Wayne Rogers, best known for playing Captain “Trapper” John McIntyre from 1972-1975 on the long-running CBS dramedy M.A.S.H. has died today following complications from pneumonia. His publicist confirmed the news to Deadline: he was 82.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1933, he was a graduate of The Webb School in Tennessee and earned a history degree from Princeton, then served in the US Navy before embarking on his career as an actor. Acting on both television and film, among his early roles he played Slim Davis on the soap Search for Tomorrow in 1959, appeared on Odds Against Tomorrow in 1960, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. Rogers also co-starred on the ABC Western drama Stagecoach West as Luke Perry from 1960-1961.

Other early roles include appearances on The Invaders, The F.B.I., Gunsmoke, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Death Valley Days, and The Fugitive. Rogers also had a small supporting role in the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke.

He was of course most famous for his three-year stint as “Trapper” John on M.A.S.H., an adaptation of Robert Altman’s hit 1970 film based on the book by Richard Hooker. Originally intending to audition for the role of Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, Rogers found that character too cynical and instead opted for the character whose outlook he considered sunnier. He was known to have enjoyed his time on the series, and became close friends with co-star Alan Alda, but was dissatisfied after Alda’s Hawkeye became the center of the show at, he felt, the expense of his own role, and chose to leave after the third season.

Rogers was the second of three actors to play the character. Elliott Gould originated the role in Altman’s film, and Pernell Roberts famously portrayed him for seven seasons on CBS’ Trapper John, M.D..

Following M.A.S.H., Rogers continued to work steadily. In 1975, he played an FBI agent on the 1975 TV movie Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan, he starred in the short lived NBC series City of Angels, he starred on the CBS series House Calls, as well as the miniseries Chiefs. He also guest starred five times on Murder, She Wrote.

Among his other television and film roles, he co-starred in the TV film I Dream of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later, the 1981 film The Hot Touch, and later he played Civil Rights attorney Morris Dees in Rob Reiner’s Ghosts of Mississippi.

“His humor, honesty, knowledge and caring.. not to mention talent.. made him a very special guy and friend. One of the proudest experiences of my career was arranging, at his request, for him to appear in 1988 and again in 1990 as expert witness on the House of Representatives investigative hearing into the possible repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act preventing banks from non-banking activities,” said publicist Dick Guttman. “The word about his testimony moved out very quickly throughout the Capitol, and when we lunched in the Senate dining room, he was table-hopped by a who’s-who of Senators and Congressmen. Wayne, a banker, said it was a prescription for disaster. Pro repeal advocates on the panel argued that these were permitted in Japan and that, as result, eight of the ten most successful banks in the world were Japanese. Wayne predicted correcting the resultant problems those banks would experience. He definitely was a key factor in preventing the repeal. Unfortunately, the repeal prevailed a dozen years later, and we had to live the consequences. Here was a banker arguing regulation of banks. That was Wayne, clear-headed and persuasive in his knowledge.”

Later in life Rogers became well known as a business investor, having started doing so knowing that his income as an actor was not necessarily reliable long term. He eventually earned a sizable income from real estate and other ventures, penning the book Make Your Own Rules about his experiences, and was a regular panelist on the Fox Business Network show Cashin’ In. He also served on the Board of Directors of the electronics components manufacturer Vishay Intertechnology, Inc., and as the head of Wayne Rogers & Co., a stock trading investment corporation.

He is survived by his wife Amy Hirsh, whom he married in 1988.

Singer Natalie Cole Dies at 65: “Our Beloved Mother and Sister Will be Greatly Missed”

“Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived..with dignity, strength and honor.”

Natalie Cole, the singer and songwriter best known for the songs “Unforgettable,” “Inseparable” and “This Will Be,” has died, THR confirmed. She was 65.

Publicist Maureen O’Connor said that Cole, the daughter of legendary performer Nat King Cole, died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles due to “complications from ongoing health issues.”

Her family released a statement:

“It is with heavy hearts that we bring to you all the news of our Mother and sister’s passing. Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived..with dignity, strength and honor. Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever.”

Cole’s mother was the late singer Maria Hawkins Cole.

She received a kidney transplant in May 2009 and had battled Hepatitis C. Through the years, she struggled with drug addiction.

Cole’s 1991 jazz album, “Unforgettable … With Love,” featuring numerous standards sung by her father, sold 14 million copies.

The album reached the top of the Billboard 200 album chart on July 27, 1991. It featured a duet (“Unforgettable”) with her father.

“Unforgettable … With Love” won multiple Grammys, including the 1992 Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, Song of the Year, Arrangement Accompanying Vocals and Producer of the Year.

Cole was a frequent performer at fundraisers and helped raise millions for various charitable causes.

The Recording Academy released the following statement on the passing of Cole:

We are very saddened to learn of the passing of one of music’s most celebrated and iconic women, Natalie Cole. A nine-time Grammy winner and MusiCares Person of the Year honoree in 1993, Natalie followed her legendary father into the music business with magnificent hits like “Inseparable,” “This Will Be” and “Unforgettable,” achieving multiplatinum, worldwide success in her own right. We’ve lost a wonderful, highly cherished artist and our heartfelt condolences go out to Natalie’s family, friends, her many collaborators, as well as to all who have been entertained by her exceptional talent.