March 2011 Celebrity Deaths

March 2011 Celebrity Deaths

March in memoriam

In March we said farewell to many beloved figures, including a famous composer, a grunge legend and a princess.

Scrod down to read about the notable lives of:

Knut the polar bear

Nate Dogg

Mike DeStefano

Geraldine Ferraro

1935-2011

Three-term congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro passed away at a Massachusetts hospital, where she was being treated for this disease.  In 1984 Ferraro became the first woman vice presidential candidate on a major U.S. party ticket.  Ferraro was 75.   

Elizabeth Taylor

1932-2011

Elizabeth Taylor was a Hollywood legend known for her many films, two Academy Award wins (for a 1966 classic and an emotional drama), her many marriages, AIDS activism and an unlikely friendship with a fallen pop star. She died of congestive heart failure at age 79.

Loleatta Holloway

1946-2011

She was a Chicago-born disco and soul singer, best known for her 1980 hit about love, who influenced a number of performers, including a singer-turned-actor who sampled the soul icon for his one-time hit. She died from heart failure at age 64.

Pinetop Perkins

1913-2011

He was a famed blues piano player who still played regularly at clubs before his death at age 97. Throughout his career, he collaborated wither several legendary musicians, which as this blues icon and this guitar god.

Ferlin Husky

1925-2011

He was a pioneering country singer in the 1950s and 1960s who had more than 50 hits. Husky was instrumental in introducing a new style of country music. He died at age 85.

Oliver Humperdink

1949-2011

Oliver Humperdink was a well-established pro wrestling manager from the 1970s through the early 1990s  whose health deteriorated after a nearly fatal accident. He died at age 62.

Knut the polar bear

2006-2011

Knut was a major attraction at the Berlin Zoo but shocked visitors watched him die in his pen. The pearly-white bear was only 4 years old.

Michael Gough

1913-2011

He was a longtime British actor best known for his fatherly figure in a superhero film franchise about a caped crusader. Gough appeared in more than 100 films. He died at the age of 94.

Nate Dogg

1969-2011

He was a West Coast hip-hop crooner who created and popularized a style of singing rap. He rose to fame collaborating with some of the biggest names in the business and was known as hip-hop's hook man. He died at age 41 of complications from multiple strokes.

Smiley Culture

1963-2011

Smiley Culture was a British reggae star who rose to fame in the 1980s. Watch some of his music videos. He died at the age of 48 from a reported self-inflicted stab wound. 

Princess Antoinette

1920-2011

Antoinette was the princess of a European microstate and the daughter of royalty. Her younger brother married a movie star. She died at the age of 90.

Marty Marion

1916-2011

Marty Marion was a renowned shortstop who later went on to manage the team he played for and another MLB team. He earned nicknames for his shape and style. He died at the age of 93.

Richard Wirthlin

1931-2011

Richard Wirthlin, a chief strategist and pollster, helped steer the political career of one of the most revered Republican presidents and was known as the prince of polling. He died at the age of 80.

Todd Cerney

1953-2011

This Nashville musician wrote the 1980s love ballad "I'll Still Be Loving You" and had a five-week No. 1 country hit in 2001. He died at the age of 57.

Mike Starr

1966-2011

Mike Starr was the former bassist for an iconic grunge-rock group who in his last several years battled serious drug and alcohol addiction. The troubled musician even sought help on a reality TV series. He died at the age of 44.

Hugh Martin

1914-2011

Hugh Martin composed one of the best-known Christmas tunes of all time and has song credits on a classic film. He died at the age of 96.

Hazel Rowley

1951-2011

Hazel Rowley was an acclaimed biographer who wrote about several famous figures, including the love life of a renowned philosopher. Get her books. She died at the age of 59.

Blair River

1981-2011

Blair River was the 575-pound spokesman for an Arizona hamburger joint that touted its high-calorie menu. He died from complications of pneumonia at the age of 29.

Mike Lounge

1946-2011

Mike Lounge was a veteran shuttle astronaut who flew into orbit on three different missions, including the first after a major space disaster. He went on to represent astronauts' interests for the space agency before retiring in 1991. Lounge died at the age of 64.

Leonard Lomell

1920-2011

Leonard Lomell, considered a World War II hero, found "by pure luck" and disabled guns hidden by the Germans on D-Day. Some believe his actions ensured the success of the liberation invasion to end the war. He died at the age of 91.

Ryan Hawks

1985-2011

Ryan Hawks was a professional big-mountain skier who was part of a group of hard-core freestyle skiers. He died from injuries sustained in a fall during a national competition. Hawks died at the age of 25.

Johnny Preston

1939-2011

Johnny Preston was a pop singer who had a No. 1 hit in 1960 with a teenage tragedy song followed by another adolescent hit. He died at the age of 71.

Mike DeStefano

1967-2011

Mike DeStefano was a stand-up comic who gained fame after appearing on a televised comedy show and a reality show. He battled drug addiction and carried a life-threatening virus. He was scheduled to star in a one-man show before his death at the age of 43.

Jean Bartel

1923-2011

Jean Bartel was the 1943 winner of a long-standing beauty competition despite refusing to participate in a tradition. She apparently wowed judges with a Cole Porter hit.

 She died at the age of 87.

Joe Morello

1928-2011

Joe Morello was a legendary jazz drummer best known for his time with a famous jazz quartet, with which he played on some of the best-selling jazz records of all time. He died at the age of 82.

Richard Martin

1951-2011

Former NHL star Richard Martin scored a rookie record in his second professional season. His career was cut short after a severe injury. Martin died at the age of 59.

Mitchell Page

1951-2011

Mitchell Page was an MLB outfielder who came up with an impressive record and later became a hitting coach for another professional team. He died at the age of 59.

Jack Hardy

1947-2011

 

Jack Hardy was a folk singer, playwright and promoter credited with influencing several famous 1970s and 1980s artists, such as this prominent folksinger. He toured for almost 40 years. Hardy died at the age of 63.

 

Source:Specials

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Bluesman, Pinetop Perkins, dies

Bluesman, Pinetop Perkins, dies

In 1969 in Buffalo, a wiry, middle-aged chain smoker sat in on piano during a jam session and earned a spot in the band of legendary bluesman Muddy Waters.
By then, Pinetop Perkins had already performed with the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson and slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk. The old school bluesman with the aggressive keyboard style and gravelly voice had played the rickety bars among the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, and toured with rock pioneer Ike Turner in the 1950s.

"Muddy came by, and heard him jamming, and he liked what he heard. The rest is history," said Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, who was a drummer in the band.

By the time he and Waters hooked up, Pinetop was in his 50s and "had more energy than us younger folks did," Smith said.

That verve kept him playing the blues and collecting Grammy Awards until shortly before his death from cardiac arrest Monday at his Austin home. He was 97.

Perkins' skills came not from any sort of formal training but from an innate ability and love for a musical form that arose from the South's plantation system.


"I didn't get no schooling. I come up the hard way in the world," Perkins told the Associated Press in a 2009 interview.

Bob Corritore, a harmonica player who performed occasionally with Perkins and produced some of his work, said, "Pinetop could find the cracks and fill them in and be the glue and mortar of the whole band."

Fellow great bluesman B.B. King was saddened by the loss of his friend.

"He was one of the last great Mississippi Bluesmen. He had such a distinctive voice, and he sure could play the piano. He will be missed not only by me, but by lovers of music all over the world," King said in an emailed statement.

Perkins won a Grammy in February for best traditional blues album for Joined at the Hip: Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. That win made Perkins the oldest Grammy winner, edging out late comedian George Burns, who was 95 when he won in the spoken category for Gracie: A Love Story in 1990.

Perkins also won a 2007 Grammy for best traditional blues album for his collaboration on the Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas. He received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2005.

Even at his age, he was a fixture at Austin clubs, playing regular gigs up to last month. He had more than 20 performances booked this year, said Perkins' agent Hugh Southard. And after they won the Grammy this year, Smith and Perkins discussed recording another CD.

"I thank the Lord for me being here all the time. I play any piano with a good tune," Perkins said in 2009.

Perkins, whose real first name was Willie, was born in 1913 in Belzoni, Miss. He gave himself the nickname "Pinetop" because he liked the music of an earlier performer named Pinetop Smith, said Corritore.

And, piano wasn't his first choice of instrument. He started out on the guitar.

"But due to a misunderstanding with a woman he was stabbed in the arm and had tendon damage so he switched to piano," said Corritore.

Perkins accompanied Williamson on the popular King Biscuit Time radio show broadcast on KFFA in Helena, Ark., in the 1940s, but was known mostly as a sideman until he started recording his own style decades later.

Boogie Woogie King was Perkins' first solo album in 1976. Beginning in 1992 with Pinetop's Boogie Woogie, he released a string of 15 albums in as many years.

"There were times I got to spend full weeks with him working on projects. Through all of it, he was just strong and steady," Corritore said.

Perkins lived his life in the tradition of many bluesmen, rambling from place to place, watching most of his contemporaries pass on. He moved to Austin in 2004 to live with an associate since he had no family.

"We knew he lived a good life. What can you say about the man? He left here in his sleep. That's the way I want to go," said Smith, who lives in Chicago.

His manager, Patricia Morgan, said funeral arrangements were pending in Austin and a graveside service would be held near Clarksdale, Miss., where he wanted to be buried.





Source: Usatoday

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