Dick Van Patten
 

Actor Dick Van Patten, perhaps best known as patriarch Tom Bradford on the '80s series Eight Is Enough, has died. He was 86.

The actor was born in Kew Gardens, New York, in 1928 and began his career as a child star and model. He made his Broadway debut when he was 7 years old in Tapestry in Gray. He went on to appear in nearly 30 more Broadway shows.

Van Patten made the jump to television with the role of Nels Hansen in I Remember Mama, which ran from 1949 to 1957.

He also went on to act in numerous other TV shows including The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Happy Days, The Love Boat and, more recently, Arrested Development, That '70s Show and Hot in Cleveland.

He also acted in various Disney films, along with three movies directed by Mel Brooks (High Anxiety, Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.) In 2009, Van Patten penned an autobiography, Eighty Is Not Enough, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

http://www.people.com/article/dick-v...s-topheadlines

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I loved him as the King of Druidia in Spaceballs.

Wonder how many people here actually know what I am talking about.

Patrick Macnee
 

Patrick Macnee, the British-born actor best known as the stylish secret agent John Steed in the 1960s TV series "The Avengers," has died. He was 93.

"The Avengers" had its debut in the United States in 1966 and ran for eight years in syndication.

Macnee's character in the series was accompanied by a string of beautiful women who were his sidekicks. The most popular was Diana Rigg, who played junior agent Emma Peel from 1965 to 1968.

Macnee also appeared in "Hamlet", "A Christmas Carol," ''Until They Sail," ''Les Girls," and ''Young Doctors in Love." He also had a notable role in the cult comedy classic "This Is Spinal Tap" as British entrepreneur Sir Denis Eton-Hogg. -

See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bos....dzBE6Uxh.dpuf

Architecture geeks will morn his passing.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...W0miaTpfZCycgw

Donald Wexler, Architect Who Gave Shape to Palm Springs, Dies at 89

Here is a really great short video about his contribution to steel frame and off site pre-fab work. It's Vimeo so I can't embed it. Enjoy.

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/...-master675.jpg


"Donald Wexler, an architect whose innovative steel houses and soaring glass-fronted terminal at the Palm Springs International Airport helped make Palm Springs, Calif., a showcase for midcentury modernism, died on Friday at his home in Palm Desert. He was 89.

His son Gary confirmed his death.

Mr. Wexler, a disciple of the California architect Richard Neutra, went to Palm Springs in the early 1950s to work for William Cody, a leading practitioner of the style known as Desert Modern. “Wexler worked from an existing Desert Modern vocabulary — indoor-outdoor spaces, walls of glass, a focus on mountain views, all very spare and minimal — and applied it to all sorts of buildings over the years,” said Peter Moruzzi, an architectural historian and the founder of the Palm Springs Modern Committee, a preservation group. “He had a profound influence not just on Palm Springs but on the entire Coachella Valley.” - New York Times

Burt Shavitz
 

Burt Shavitz, the Maine beekeeper and co-founder of Burt's Bees whose face and untamed beard have been featured on thousands of cases of natural cosmetics, died Sunday of respiratory complications in Bangor, Maine. He was 80.

Born in 1935, he spent his childhood in New York. After serving in the Army in Germany and a brief stint as a photographer, Shavitz left for Maine and began his celebrated eccentric lifestyle as a hippie who made his livelihood selling honey.

According to The Associated Press, Shavitz' life was altered by a chance encounter with a hitchhiker, Roxanne Quimby. He struck up a friendship with the single mother, impressed with her self-reliance and back-to-land ethos.

In the 1980s she began making products from his beeswax. A business partnership soon resulted and Burt's Bees was born, with Shavitz' image as a key feature of the product labels.

In 1994 Quimby moved Burt's Bees to North Carolina, and the business partnership dissolved. He received an undisclosed monetary settlement and 37 acres of land in a remote corner of Maine. In 2007, Clorox purchased Burt's Bees for $925 million.

After separating from the business end of Burt's Bees, Shavitz returned to a reclusive, minimalist lifestyle. He famously lived in a cluttered house with no running water and enjoyed watching wildlife. His life was featured in the 2013 documentary "Burt's Buzz."

"Burt Shavitz, our co-founder and namesake, has left for greener fields and wilder woods. We remember him as a wild�]bearded and free�]spirited Maine man, a beekeeper, a wisecracker, a lover of golden retrievers, a reverent observer of nature and the kind face that smiles back at us from our Hand Salve."

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bos....4UoFhmsP.dpuf

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Thanks for the almond creme stuff.

Bobbi Kristina Brown
 

Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of late music legend Whitney Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown, died on July 26, surrounded by her family, at Peachtree Christian Hospice in Duluth, Georgia. She was 22.

Story

Lynn Anderson
 

Lynn Anderson, country music singer most famous for the hit "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden," has died, according to the Associated Press. She was 67.

After beginning her country music career in 1966, she became a regular singer on "The Lawrence Welk Show" from 1967 to 1969. This exposure to a broad national audience paved the way for her crossover hit and signature song, "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden." The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart and No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart. She won a Grammy Award and "Female Vocalist of the Year" from the Country Music Association in 1971.

Further hits followed, including "You're My Man," "How Can I Unlove You," and "Cry." She frequently made guest appearances on television throughout the 1970s, including a starring role in an episode of "Starsky & Hutch." She continued to record and release music throughout her career, with her last album, "Bridges," released in June, 2015.

In addition to music, she was an avid equestrian, winning several national and world championships. She also bred Quarter Horses and Paint Horses. She won the title of "California Horse Show Queen" in 1966.




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I still have that record.

Flora MacDonald 89. Remarkable Canadian politician. If I wasn't typing on a miserable mini IPad, I'd type out her whole obituary. A most magnificent woman....and she spent her later years voting NDP.

Louise Suggs
 

Louise Suggs, legendary golfer and one of the founders of the LPGA Tour has died, according to the LPGA. She was 91.

The winner of 61 professional tournaments, including 11 majors, Suggs helped co-found the LPGA in 1950 alongside two of her rivals, Patty Berg and Babe Zaharias. She served as LPGA president for three years, from 1955 to 1957. She was inducted into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame in 1967 and the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1979.

Suggs was a trailblazer throughout her career. She became the first woman ever elected into the Georgia Athletic Hall of Fame in 1966, paving the way for women to become future inductees. And in 1961 Suggs got the chance to prove that women golfers could compete against men. In an LPGA tournament held on a par-3 course in Palm Beach, Florida, Suggs triumphed against a 24-player field that included fellow LPGA professionals and PGA professionals including Sam Snead.

http://www.lpga.com/news/2015-louise-suggs-passes-at-91

Gerald S. O'Loughlin
 

Gerald S. O’Loughlin, a veteran character actor who was probably best known for playing Lieutenant Ryker on the 1970s ABC cop show "The Rookies," has died, according to the Hollywood Reporter. He was 93.

O’Loughlin appeared in Truman Capote’s "In Cold Blood" in 1967 and also in the movies "Ensign Pulver," "Ice Station Zebra" with Rock Hudson and "The Organization" opposite Sidney Poitier.

O’Loughlin also starred on television as neighbor Joe Kaplan in the 1980s NBC family drama "Our House," starring Wilford Brimley.

"The Rookies" ran on ABC from 1972 through 1976 and starred Georg Stanford Brown, Michael Ontkean and Kate Jackson. His character Ed Ryker guided his new troops with patience and a bit of resignation.
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I like the characters this guy played.

Julian Bond 1940 - 2015
 

Julian Bond, a former chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a charismatic figure of the 1960s civil rights movement, a lightning rod of the anti-Vietnam War campaign and a lifelong champion of equal rights for minorities, died on Saturday night, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was 75.

Mr. Bond died in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., after a brief illness, the center said in a statement Sunday morning.

He was one of the original leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, while he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

He moved from the militancy of the student group to the top leadership of the establishmentarian N.A.A.C.P. Along the way, he was a writer, poet, television commentator, lecturer, college teacher, and persistent opponent of the stubborn remnants of white supremacy.

He also served for 20 years in the Georgia Legislature, mostly in conspicuous isolation from white colleagues who saw him as an interloper and a rabble-rouser.

Mr. Bond’s wit, cool personality and youthful face became familiar to millions of television viewers during the 1960s and 1970s; he was described as dashing, handsome and urbane.

On the strength of his personality and quick intellect, he moved to the center of the civil rights action in Atlanta, the unofficial capital of the movement, at the height of the struggle for racial equality in the early 1960s.

Moving beyond demonstrations, he became a founder, with Morris Dees, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy organization in Montgomery, Ala. Mr. Bond was its president from 1971 to 1979 and remained on its board for the rest of his life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/us/julian-bond-former-naacp-chairman-and-civil-rights-leader-dies-at-75.html?_r=0

Juanite Moore
 

Annie in Imitation of Life. She was amazing. I just watched the 1959 movie and was shocked at how emotional it was still for me.

She was 99 years old. G-d Bless her

Dr. James "Red" Duke
 

Dr. "Red" Duke passed away.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/dr...at-86/34914850

I remember as a young one, watching him on the news doing medical segments.

Darryl Dawkins
 

"Chocolate Thunder" passes away at age 58 of a heart attack.


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ba...ons&soc_trk=fb

Oliver Sacks 1933 - 2015
 

Oliver Sacks, Casting Light on the Interconnectedness of Life

http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.o...iversacks4.jpg

It’s no coincidence that so many of the qualities that made Oliver Sacks such a brilliant writer are the same qualities that made him an ideal doctor: keen powers of observation and a devotion to detail, deep reservoirs of sympathy, and an intuitive understanding of the fathomless mysteries of the human brain and the intricate connections between the body and the mind.

Dr. Sacks, who died on Sunday at 82, was a polymath and an ardent humanist, and whether he was writing about his patients, or his love of chemistry or the power of music, he leapfrogged among disciplines, shedding light on the strange and wonderful interconnectedness of life — the connections between science and art, physiology and psychology, the beauty and economy of the natural world and the magic of the human imagination.

In his writings, as he once said of his mentor, the great Soviet neuropsychologist and author A. R. Luria, “science became poetry.”

In describing his patients’ struggles and sometimes uncanny gifts, Dr. Sacks helped introduce syndromes like Tourette’s or Asperger’s to a general audience.

In books like “Awakenings,” “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and “An Anthropologist on Mars,” Dr. Sacks — a longtime practicing doctor and a professor of neurology at the New York University School of Medicine — gave us case studies of patients whose stories were so odd, so anomalous, so resonant that they read like tales by Borges or Calvino. A man, with acute amnesia, who loses three decades of his life and lives wholly in the immediate present, unable to remember anything for more than a minute or two. Idiot savant twins, who can’t deal with the most mundane tasks of daily life but can perform astonishing numerical tricks, like memorizing 300-digit numbers or rattling off 20-digit primes. A blind poet who suffers from — or is gifted with — extraordinarily complex hallucinations: a milkman in an azure cart with a golden horse; small flocks of birds wearing shoes that metamorphose into men and women in medieval clothes.

Dr. Sacks depicted such people not as scientific curiosities but as individuals who become as real to us as characters by Chekhov (another doctor who wrote with uncommon empathy and insight). He was concerned with the impact that his patients’ neurological disorders had on their day-to-day routines, their relationships and their inner lives. His case studies became literary narratives as dramatic, richly detailed and compelling as those by Freud and Luria — stories that underscored not the marginality of his patients’ experiences, but their part in the shared human endeavor and the flux and contingencies of life.

Those case studies captured the emotional and metaphysical, as well as physiological, dimensions of his patients’ conditions. While they tracked the costs and isolation these individuals often endured, they also emphasized people’s resilience — their ability to adapt to their “deficits,” enabling them to hold onto a sense of identity and agency. Some even find that their conditions spur them to startling creative achievement.

In fact, Dr. Sacks wrote in “An Anthropologist on Mars,” illnesses and disorders “can play a paradoxical role in bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life that might never be seen or even be imaginable in their absence.” A young woman with a low I.Q. learns to sing arias in more than 30 languages, and a Canadian physician with Tourette’s syndrome learns to perform long, complicated surgical procedures without a single tic or twitch. Some scholars believe, Dr. Sacks once wrote, that Dostoyevsky and van Gogh may have had temporal lobe epilepsy, that Bartok and Wittgenstein may have been autistic, and that Mozart and Samuel Johnson could have had Tourette’s syndrome.

In his later books, Dr. Sacks increasingly turned to chronicling his own life — from his deep love of chemistry as a boy in “Uncle Tungsten,” to his experiments with L.S.D. and amphetamines in “Hallucinations,” to his coming of age as a young man and as a doctor in “On the Move.” It was a life as eclectic and adventurous as his intellectual pursuits, taking him from medical school in England to a stint as a forest firefighter in British Columbia to medical residencies and fellowship work in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He held a weight-lifting record in California, and on weekends, sometimes drove hundreds of miles on his motorcycle, from California to Las Vegas or Death Valley or the Grand Canyon.

Animated by a self-deprecating sense of humor and set down in limber, pointillist prose, Dr. Sacks’s autobiographical accounts are as candid and searching as his writings about his patients, and they suggest just how rooted his compassion and intuitive understanding — as a doctor and a writer — were in his youthful feelings of fear and dislocation. He tells us about the lasting shock of being evacuated from London as a boy during the war, and being beaten and bullied at boarding school. The rest of his life, he writes, he would have trouble with the 3 B’s: “bonding, belonging, and believing.”

He also writes about the frightening psychotic episodes of his schizophrenic brother, Michael, and his own feelings of shame for not spending more time with him — and his simultaneous need to get away. Science, with its promise of order and logic, provided a refuge for young Oliver from the chaos of his brother’s madness, and medicine promised both family continuity (his father was a general practitioner; his mother, a surgeon) and a way to study and try to understand brain disorders like Michael’s.

From today's New York Times

Heart broken over Oliver sacks. What an incredible loss :((

Dr. Wayne Dyer
 

A man whose words of inspiration help guided me through the years and through my growth. Dr. Wayne Dyer.



Self-Help Pioneer Dr. Wayne Dyer Dies at 75, Family and Publisher Say

by M. Alex Johnson

Dr. Wayne Dyer, the self-help guru whose best-seller "Your Erroneous Zones" was adopted by millions as a guide to better living, has died at 75, his family and publisher said Sunday.

Dyer died Saturday night in Maui, Hawaii, said Reid Tracy, chief executive of Dyer's publisher, Hay House. The cause of death wasn't immediately reported.




The world has lost an incredible man. Wayne Dyer officiated our wedding & was an inspiration to so many. Sending love pic.twitter.com/kzsCS278jr
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) August 30, 2015


Wayne Dyer has passed away today. 4 those of us who loved him it's sad, but he knew death was a transition. We send love 4his next adventure
— Tony Robbins (@TonyRobbins) August 31, 2015



It was always a pleasure to talk to @DrWayneWDyer about life's big questions. He always had big answers. RIP Wayne. You brought the Light.
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) August 31, 2015

The spiritualist magazine Mind Body Spirit regularly listed Dyer as one of the 10 most spiritually influential people in the world. He ranked eighth last year.

Wes Craven, horror movie director passed away at age 76.
He directed the nightmare on elm street series.

R.I.P. The horror community has lost a legend.


I can't link due to being on a mobile device.

The world lost such a great man!

My two cents
 

I would catch him on PBS as well as on OWN ( Oprah Winfrey Network. I have appreciated his motivating thoughts through the years. I am sorry for the loss for his family , friends and those in life that appreciated him. I will miss him and the knowledge along with motivation he shared with the world.

Dean Jones
 

A Disney star of the 1960s, Dean Jones, has died of Parkinson's Disease at age 84.

His boyish good looks and all-American manner made him Disney's favorite young actor for such lighthearted films as "The Shaggy D.A," "That Darn Cat!" and "The Love Bug."

Over the course of his career, he'd appear in 46 films and five Broadway shows. In 1995, Jones was honored by his longtime employers with a spot in the Disney Legends Hall of Fame.