The Inquisitr » celebrity deaths

Brit actor Edward Woodward dies at 79

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:41:03 +0000

Actor Edward Woodward has died at the age of 79, the BBC reports.

Woodward, who American viewers may remember from The Equalizer or 70s cult horror film The Wicker Man, and has appeared more recently on BBC soap EastEnders and in the movie Hot Fuzz, had been in ill health for a few months before his passing.

Woodward is survived by four children and his second wife, actress Michele Dotrice.

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Captain Lou Albano dead at 76

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:12:18 +0000

Pro wrestler Captain Lou Alban0- born Louis Vincent Albano- died this morning at the age of 76.

If you’re not a wrestling fan, you may remember Captain Lou Albano from Cyndi Lauper’s videos in the 1980s, including the huge hit “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Albano also played Lauper’s father in a Goonies tie in video, “Time after Time,” and “She Bop.” He was well-known outside the world of professional wrestling and frequently crossed over to work on TV and in films.

Albano had apparently been ill for some time, and was placed under hospice care earlier this week after being released from the hospital. No cause of death has been disclosed.

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Guitar legend Les Paul dead at 94

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:20:44 +0000

Pivotal guitar legend Les Paul died at a hospital in White Plains, NY today. He was 94.

Paul and second wife Mary Ford (who died in 1977) had a string of hits in the 40s and 50s, including “How High the Moon,” “The Tennessee Waltz,” “Vaya con Dios” and “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise.” Paul designed guitars and promoted many for Gibson, with Eric Clapton, Wes Montgomery and Pete Townshend among famous users of the Les Paul line of guitars. Paul built solid body guitars, free of the sound distortions common in acoustic versions.

The Washington Post quoted Paul on why the he reinvented the guitar.

“I wanted people to hear me,” he told the publication Guitar Player in 2002. “That’s where the whole idea of a solid-body guitar came from. In the ’30s, the archtop electric was such an apologetic instrument. On the bandstand, it was so difficult battling with a drummer, the horns, and all the instruments that had so much power.

“With a solid-body, guitarists could get louder and express themselves,” he said. “Instead of being wimps, we’d become one of the most powerful people in the band. We could turn that mother up and do what we couldn’t do before.”

Paul is survived by a companion, Arlene Palmer, and four children.

NYC Hipster/artist Dash Snow dies of heroin overdose

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:50:32 +0000

Notable NYC scenester Dash Snow has died of a heroin overdose, Gawker is reporting.

A somewhat prominent, subversive artist known for working in his own ejaculate, Snow was profiled a few years back in New York Magazine.

If you were going to hate these guys, here’s how you would do it: You could hate them for using the word artist so frequently and so shamelessly. Or you could hate Snow for coming from money—mountains of it!—and being a cop-taunting, Saddam Hussein–fetishizing petty criminal. If you are an aging punk, you could hate Snow in particular for going over old ground and thinking it’s something new. (Iggy Pop puked on his audiences a long time ago.) Or you could hate all three of them for being so enamored with penises and what comes out of them. How much talent does it really take to come on the New York Post, anyway?

Besides graffiti and bukkake-art, Snow was also known for being born into a relatively prominent artsy family (Uma Thurman is his aunt) but eschewing his connections to live like a street punk.

News that he had overdosed on heroin and died last night at a lower Manhattan hotel hit Twitter early this morning. The New York Times confirmed his death via his grandmother, art collector and philanthropist Christophe de Menil. Snow was 27.

Coroner: Billy Mays likely died of heart disease

Kim LaCapria — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:31:46 +0000

In news that likely came as a relief to US Airways, a Florida coroner has initially determined it was likely heart disease that killed the infomercial celebrity and star of Discovery’s Pitchmen.

Mays, who was to turn 51 next month, was found unresponsive by his wife yesterday morning at his home in Florida. Initial reports posited that Mays may have died as a result of injuries sustained in a “hard landing” in Tampa on Saturday. However, the coroner’s initial findings reveal that that is not likely the case:

According to Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams, Mays “had an enlarged heart, a thickening of the wall of the ventricle which takes blood to the heart.”

The coroner also found that no internal, external or head injuries were present. With toxicology results due in a few weeks, other factors could be found to have caused Mays’ unexpected and early demise. It’s interesting, though, that the Fox News video of Mays relaying his injury on the flight was held up as possible insight into his death. With these findings, it’s much more likely that this video is a more eerily prophetic view into what killed him.

Billy Mays dead

Kim LaCapria — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:38:56 +0000

Infomercial pitchman and internet legend Billy Mays has died, Fox News is reporting.

Mays, 50, was found unresponsive by his wife Sunday morning in his Tampa home. Oddly, on Saturday Mays was involved in an incident in which a plane he was traveling on experienced a front-tire blowout on landing. Fox speculates that the two incidents might be connected.

In a statement, Mays’ wife Deborah said:

“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times.”

No related posts.

Not dead: Jeff Goldblum

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:44:21 +0000

Demi Moore started a mini-stir with a tweet roping Jeff Goldblum into today’s celebrity deaths.

Rumors began swirling with a newspaper report originating in not America Australia New Zealand that the actor had fallen off a cliff whilst filming. Moore tweeted:

And yes Ed McMahon. I just heard Jeff Goldblum may have died today too!!! Can anyone confirm that?

However, all reports indicate that the death of Jeff Goldblum is a hoax. An old one, too, as it was originally started years ago about Tom Hanks and circulated about Goldblum as early as 2006. (Snopes debunked the original report when it was attached to Hanks.)

So, as of now, Jeff Goldblum is not dead. This has not stopped people from tweeting and retweeting the news, however.

David Carradine has died

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:32:12 +0000

The American embassy in Bangkok, Thailand has confirmed that kung-fu legend and Kill Bill titular star David Carradine has been found hanged in his hotel room by a maid at the Swissotel Nai Lert Park in an apparent suicide. He was 72.

Carradine was well-known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in TV’s Kung Fu. After flying high in the seventies, he appeared in many low-budget flicks until being cast alongside Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vol. I and Kill Bill Vol. II- a role he admits Quentin Tarantino based partly on Carradine’s autobiography Endless Highway.

David Carradine is survived by brothers Keith and Robert and niece Martha Plimpton.

Michelle Williams Talks About Heath Ledger

Meieli Sawyer — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:51:27 +0000

Michelle Williams has revealed details about her grieving process for late ex-husband Heath Ledger. This is what sucks about promoting your current projects: people invariably start asking you personal questions, and you can’t dodge them because you don’t want to put people off what you’re pimping (in this case, Synecdoche, New York and Wendy and Lucy). I feel bad for her for more than one reason:

“It’s so sad. I guess it’s always changing. What else can I say? I just wake up each day in a slightly different place—grief is like a moving river, so that’s what I mean by ‘it’s always changing’. It’s a strange thing to say because I’m at heart an optimistic person, but I would say in some ways it just gets worse. It’s just that the more time that passes, the more you miss someone. In some ways it gets worse. That’s what I would say.”

Since Michelle’s threatened to stay out of the spotlight forever (thanks to the paparazzi’s intrusion), let’s hope she keeps an even keel and keeps making that serious work on which she seems to thrive.

Paul Newman Passes Away from Lung Cancer

Meieli Sawyer — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:50:52 +0000

Paul Newman passed away on Friday after battling cancer, leaving a legacy and questions behind. While the actor, entrepreneur, and personality faced health problems, it’s reported that his death came as a surprise. As a result, it’s unclear how his Newman’s Own food company will proceed without him.

As Les Banwart, the vice-chairman of the nonprofit organization Aileron, told CNN, “When a celebrity dies without a plan, the company and product can die with him.” Newman’s Own Organics published a statement on Saturday morning assuring us that Paul Newman’s charitable ways will continue on:

“We will miss Paul, but we will honor his vision for the Common Good through dedicated stewardship of his company that will perpetuate his philanthropic legacy. Paul wouldn’t have it any other way.”

When I think of Paul Newman, I think of his Hole in the Wall Camps for kids (how can you forget a name like that?), his hunky Studio 54 days, and his absolutely kick*ss Limeade.

Paul Newman died at the age of 83.