John Hughes, RIP

Don't let him be remembered for "Drillbit Taylor," that's all I'm asking.

Perhaps the landmark filmmaker of the 1980s, John Hughes died yesterday at age 59 in New York City of a heart attack. Creator (writer and director) of such hits as "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink" and "Weird Science," he made stars of Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall, not to mention providing invaluable career springboards to Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Robert Downey Jr., Judd Nelson, John Cusack, Alan Ruck, and even John Candy (who knew Candy and Steve Martin could be such a great "dramedic" duo?). He launched the "Home Alone" and "Beethoven" franchises and lent his talents as a writer to a surprising number of movies (including the aforementioned... aw forget about that one).

I was in college when the majority of his films hit the big screen, but I loved his stuff greatly. Even his near-great films like "Some Kind of Wonderful" had something going for them. I was a huge fan of "Weird Science" and "Breakfast Club" in particular, seeing both in the theater more than once.

When he stepped out of the business (or so it seemed), I missed his point of view tremendously. There weren't many (heck, ANY) writer-directors who could capture the essence of being a teen the way Hughes did. Shermer, Illinois seemed like a modern Oz, where Ferris Bueller could bump into Lisa on his way to a party at Claire Standish's house. It takes a special kind of magic to make that happen, and Hughes had it in spades.

RIP, Mr. Hughes, and thank you.

Passing (the unexpected addendum)

Wow.
Talk about unexpected.
We got home last night and I heard Charlie Gibson say, "Next...remembering Michael Jackson."
What the...??
Can't believe Michael Jackson is gone.
Last night and all of today, the Internet and news and all has been buzzing about the entirety of the man's life. Some dwell on the negative--and there was a lot of it, especially in the last two decades--and some dwell on the positive.
I hope he'll be remembered as one of the world's great entertainers, whose influence shaped a generation of new performers and left a legacy of incredible music and unbelievable dance moves. He was one of a kind, love him or hate him, and the most important thing about his life was surely the body of work he's given to the ages.
RIP, Mr. Jackson, and thank you.

Passing

We lost two celebrities this week: Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett. McMahon was 86, Fawcett was 62. (Oddly enough, she's the same age my dad was when he passed away, also from cancer.)

It's enough to make me reflect on their place in my growing-up years.

Sometimes when we traveled for summer vacation from Wisconsin to Mississippi (or back again), we would stay in a motel to get a break from the road. Dad liked to drive until late, so that "break" might not happen until after 10pm Central (which is 11pm Eastern--it sounds early but it was late for us). We'd trudge into the room, worn out and cranky, and turn on the TV to settle down for the night. We'd almost always watch THE TONIGHT SHOW with Johnny Carson. Carson's routine was funny even to us kids (most times), but it was Ed McMahon that told us when things were really funny. His big, booming laugh was a barometer for "okay this is funny" or "it wasn't funny but we're laughing anyway."

It was a nice part of my childhood, those motel room nights with the family, watching a little TV and sharing a laugh together.

As for Farrah, I never owned the infamous red swimsuit poster, but I know guys who did. Heck, there was one hanging in an office in my high school. She embodied the California girl ideal of the mid-70s, fluffy hair and sparkling smile and all. I was disappointed when she quit Charlie's Angels after one season (I thought even then it was a bad career move to trust in one season's work on TV--a lesson David Caruso didn't learn), but times moved on and there were other "It girls." Still, nobody was quite the same as Farrah. She had that kind of charisma that's impossible to define but unmistakable.

In saying farewell to both of these folks, I'm reminded that life moves on for all of us. The people I loved watching as a kid are aging (or, in many cases, gone), while the newest crop of celebrities are people I don't recognize. It's a generation gap thing.

But thanks, Ed and Farrah, and rest in peace.

RIP David Carradine

Kwai Chang Caine's long journey is finally at an end. Bill has met his maker. And the fellow from the Yellow Pages ads is now gone far away.

David Carradine, the seventy-something star of "Kung Fu," Kill Bill and lots more besides, was found hanged in a hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand earlier today. A local newspaper asserts that he committed suicide but, as of now, I don't believe there's any official word one way or the other. (Carradine's agent has since claimed he believes the actor died of natural causes.)

He was filming a new movie, Stretch, at the time of his death.

This is sad news, folks. Carradine could play just about anything, with an impish sense of humor and a gravity in those eyes of a life fully lived. He'll be missed.

RIP, Mr. Carradine, and God bless you.

Ricardo Montalban (1920-2009)

=sigh=
Well, you know these always come in threes.

Word is in that Ricardo Montalban has passed away, age 88. He lists 167 performances in TV and movies (per IMDB.com), but he is best known for his portrayal of Mr. Roarke in the original "Fantasy Island" and as Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek (both the episode "Space Seed" and the movie "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan"). In recent years, he had done appearances in movies and voice work in animated TV shows.

Rest in peace, Mr. Montalban.

MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28661103/

Patrick McGoohan, RIP

Actor, producer, writer and director Patrick McGoohan passed away in Los Angeles today at the age of 80.

Best known as "Number Six" in THE PRISONER, a 17-episode series he created as a kind-of continuation of DANGER MAN (there has been some controversy over this, btw), McGoohan also starred in, wrote and directed a number of Columbo TV movies (winning two Emmys in the process); he also starred in the Disney production of "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" and Mel Gibson's epic "Braveheart." He was also in David Cronenberg's SCANNERS, for you genre fans.

I remember watching The Prisoner with disbelief and absolute confusion at the age of 11 in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. It was in reruns on a local station at an odd hour, and the surreal show blew my circuits. McGoohan's Number Six was a model of privacy, self-control and integrity unlike nearly anything else in the rather dissolute '70s. (I know, it was broadcast in the '60s but I didn't discover it until much later.) McGoohan was one of those actors who is always watchable, always fascinating.

Very sad, but McGoohan created much that we value even today. (A remake of The Prisoner is currently underway on AMC with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen.)

Rest in peace, Mr. McGoohan, and thank you.

Ain't It Cool News: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39763
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28657018/

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, RIP

Nurse Christine Chapel, Lwaxana Troi and Number One have taken their last ride on the Starship Enterprise. Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away in Bel Air, CA, on December 18th following a struggle with leukemia. She was 76.

Regarded as the "first lady of Star Trek," not only for her long marriage to creator Gene Roddenberry but also for her role in the original series and its subsequent movies (not to mention her semi-regular role as "Lwaxana Troi" on Star Trek: the Next Generation"), as well as lending her vocal talents as the computer voice on all four spinoff series and multiple computer and video games.

Though best known as Nurse (later Doctor) Chapel, where her storyline revolved around a frustrated romantic interest in Mr. Spock, she was originally hired to be the Enterprise's first officer--which was later rejected by the studio as unrealistic. She was retained in the cast (one of the few actors to achieve that distinction) when a second pilot was shot with William Shatner as the new lead.

She is the only actor who can claim to have been part of every incarnation of Star Trek.

Her last role, as the voice of the U.S.S. Enterprise's computer, will be in Star Trek (2009), in theaters next spring.

In a World...

Sad news, friends.
Don LaFontaine, aka "The Voice" of countless movie trailers, has passed away.
Ain't It Cool News had a nice tribute here.
I don't think I'll ever watch a movie trailer again without thinking "in a world..." as made immortal by Mr. LaFontaine.
RIP.

Of interest: LaFontaine's website

In Memoriam: Dan Fogelberg

Dan Fogelberg, a folk-rock singer with hits like "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne," died of prostate cancer at his home in Maine earlier today. He was 56.

I can't listen to "Leader of the Band" without tearing up a little. Like Fogelberg's, my dad was a musician who went to war (Dad was in the Navy in WWII) and poured his heart and soul into his music. He gave us (Mom, Rob, Beth and me) all the love he had, too, but music was his first love. He played trumpet for most of his 62 years on this planet, earning a Masters from LSU (where he met my mom) and working for most of my growing-up years for the American Federation of Musicians.

He would have been 82 this February.

Fogelberg's song gives me a way to grieve for my dad, and for that, I can't thank him enough. With the coming of the holidays, hearing his bittersweet love song "Same Old Lang Syne" will be just a little more poignant this year.

RIP, Dan.

In Memoriam: Robert Jordan

Just heard that Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time mega-series of novels, has passed away at age 58 of a rare blood disease. He was working on the 12th volume of his series at the time of his death. Rumors had circulated for a long time behind the scenes that he was not well but his passing is still abrupt and unhappy.

I picked up an advance review copy (ARC for short) of Eye of the World, his first WOT novel, in 1988 at the American Booksellers Association Conference in DC. It was a promising start, a big story about an ancient hero seemingly reincarnated as a farmboy, whose two friends follow him into danger when a sorceress plucks him from obscurity.

The series moved on into byzantine political intrigue, magical machinations, betrayal, heroism, and some extremely convoluted workings aimed at preventing the destruction of the world by Rand al'Thor's ancient enemy (who was breaking the bonds that kept him imprisoned, even as Rand recovered the powers and memories of his earlier self). Rand acquired lovers and prophecies in abundance, while his friends turned out to be destiny's lodestones as well.

I hung in there for a long while but eventually dropped the series after the fourth or fifth novel. The storyline was spinning out beyond my comprehension and it seemed like a lot of effort to retain all the diverse plot threads.

Some of you reading this will remember my long-ago girlfriend Debbie. She loved the WOT series tremendously; our last afternoon was mostly a long conversation about the third or fourth book in the series and where we thought it might go (in those days, we expected it to wrap up around book 6. We were naive.) Well, Debbie passed away in 1997 or thereabouts in a traffic accident, so she never got to see even the last several of Jordan's novels. I met Jordan briefly at Worldcon in 2004 and told him about Debbie, which is my only personal connection to the gentleman; he expressed his regrets somewhat ruefully and said he wished she'd seen it through.

Unhappily, there are now legions of fans who are in the same circumstances.

My thoughts and prayers will be with his family.

News item on Yahoo!
Jordan's blog