Paul the octopus, the most famous octopus that has ever accurately predicted World Cup matches, died Tuesday morning in his German aquarium at the tender age of 2 1/2.
He died of natural causes.
Paul rocketed to worldwide fame when he “predicted” the correct outcome of all seven Germany matches and the final between Spain and the Netherlands at the World Cup in South Africa over the summer by eating a bit of food out of a box bearing the flag of the winning team ahead of each match.
German fans turned on him, threatening to eat him, when he rightly predicted Spain to beat his home country in the semi-final. In Spain, Pulpo Paul was regarded as a national hero after his prediction of the country’s first World Cup victory came true.
As Paul rose to surprising prominence, a number of other animals tried to get in on the act. From parakeets to chimps, others tried, but none could match Paul’s perfection.
Following the World Cup, Paul retired from eating out of flag boxes and focused in tentacles on raking in the cash. Born in England, he was paid to support the country’s 2018 World Cup bid. He also starred in a Chinese movie and had his own range of merchandise, with all proceeds going to charity.
A memorial will be held for Paul at the Sea Life aquarium in Germany, featuring video of “his most beautiful and moving moments” as well as the presents he received from around the world. Paul’s urn will also be put on display.
Bob Guccione, who took magazine nudity to a new level — or low — with his hardcore Penthouse magazine, has died of cancer at the age of 79. He passed away with his wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, and two of his children by his side at his Plano, Texas home where he’d lived since last year.
The one-time New Jersey resident, whose magazine’s explicit nudity served as a raunchier rival to the more high-brow Playboy, was also a painter whose works were featured in museums such as the Nassau County Museum of Art in New York.
Guccione claimed Penthouse earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher, and he was listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people with a net worth of about $400 million in 1982.
The skin magazine brought down a religious icon and a beauty queen during the 1980s. It published nude photos of Miss America Vanessa Williams, which cost her the crown. It also featured sexually explicit tales of televangelist Jimmy Swaggart that toppled his ministry in 1988 and 1989.
But Guccione’s empire ultimately fell apart thanks to several bad investments and changes in the pornography industry, which became flooded with competition as it migrated from print to video and the Internet.
He ultimately lost it all, as his company, his world-class art collection, and his huge Manhattan mansion were eventually sold.
Married four times, Guccione had a daughter, Tonina, from his first marriage and three sons, Bob Jr., Tony, and Nick, and a daughter, Nina, from his second marriage.
Tom Bosley, a character actor who will forever be revered and remembered as Howard Cunningham in the hit sitcom ‘Happy Days,’ died on Tuesday at his home on Palm Springs, his family has told TMZ.
According to the report, Bosley had been battling a staph infection. He was 83.
Born in Chicago in 1927, Bosley gravitated to acting after serving in the Navy during World War II and found success in a stage production of ‘Our Town’ and later at the Woodstock Opera House in Illinois, where he befriended fellow newcomer Paul Newman.
Several small TV and film roles were to follow, but in 1974 he landed the role of a lifetime as the wise patriarch in ‘Happy Days,’ alongside Ron Howard and his TV wife, Marion Ross. The show ran for 11 seasons and ushered in an era of nostalgia for the simpler and less turbulent 1950s.
Bosley struck gold again with ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ playing Sheriff Amos Tupper in the long-running mystery series starring Angela Lansbury. He also took center stage in his own show, playing the title character in ‘Father Downing Mysteries’ from 1987 until 1991.
He reprised the ‘Happy Days’ role in a 1995 episode of ‘Family Guy.’
Barbara Billingley of “Leave it to Beaver” and “Airplane” fame has died at the ripe old age of 94.
Barbara Billingsley, who wore a classy pearl necklace and dispensed pearls of wisdom as America’s quintessential mom on “Leave it to Beaver,” has died at age 94, a family spokeswoman said Saturday.
The actress passed away at 2 a.m. (5 a.m. ET) Saturday at her home in Santa Monica, California, after a long illness, spokeswoman Judy Twersky said. A private memorial is being planned.
Actor Jerry Mathers, who played Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver, called Billingsley a lifetime mentor. “Barbara was a patient advisor and teacher. She helped me along this challenging journey through life by showing me the importance of manners, and respect for others,” Mathers said in a statement. “She will be missed by all of her family, friends, fans and most especially by me.”
Tony Dow, who played Beaver’s brother, Wally Cleaver, also reflected on Billingsley’s legacy. “She was as happy as a lark being recognized as America’s mom,” Dow told CNN’s Don Lemon. “She had a terrific life and had a wonderful impact on everybody she knew, and even people she didn’t know.”
The actress won a new legion of fans in a brief, but memorable, scene in the 1980 send-up movie “Airplane.” “Oh, stewardess. I speak jive,” Billingsley said in her role — much different from her June Cleaver persona — as an elderly passenger comforting an ill man on the flight. She, the sick man and his seat companion engaged in street-slang banter.
In a different age, that would have led to the type of career resurgence Betty White is currently enjoying. But Dow is right: A great, long life.
In 1957, Leona Gage won the title of Miss USA, but the next day she was stripped of the title. Gage died at the age of 71 in Los Angeles. She died of heart failure after a weeks-long illness at Sherman Oaks hospital.
Why was Leona Gage Stripped of Miss USA Title?
Pageant officials took the title away from Gage after they found out she had lied to them. Apparently she was the married mother of two children when she won the title of Miss USA, which meant that she was not technically a Miss.
Not only did she lie about being a mom and a wife, but she also lied about her age – she was actually 18, but she told officials she was 21 years old. She also lied to reporters after her win saying that she didn’t even have a boyfriend. She said, “I want to wait until I’m 26 before I become seriously interested in the opposite sex.” Wow! That was really an elaborate lie she was involved in. Of course, she said she was used to being involved in lies after lying to her mom about her first pregnancy as long as she could.
The fallen Miss USA was born Mary Leona Gage in Texas, and she was Miss Maryland USA in the Long Beach, California pageant in 1957. She was exposed after reigning for just one day. In fact, the 18 year old had been married two times before the pageant. Both of her marriages were at age 14, but the first one was annulled quickly. Her second child was born when she was 16 years old – contestants are not allowed to be married or have children.
Leona Gage Television Appearances After Losing Miss USA Crown
Interestingly, after Gage was stripped of the crown, she appeared on several TV shows including the Ed Sullivan Show. She tried to become an actress, but her career never took off. She lost the tiara, prizes, trips and studio contract, which all went to Miss Utah.
Unfortunately for Gage, she had a difficult life. She experienced six failed marriages, and she lost custody of all five of her children – two of them actually passed before she did. Additionally, she had a drug problem and multiple suicide attempts.
What a sad life the controversial former Miss USA Leona Gage had. It is really too bad that she wasn’t able to turn it around. Thankfully most of her children ended up being successful despite their mother’s issues, which is something she must have been proud of.
His daughter Jamie Lee Curtis’ rep has confirmed the news of the legendary actor’s passing, but no further details were available.
Curtis, whose real name was Bernard Schwartz, was perhaps most known for his comedic turn in Billy Wilder’s ‘Some Like It Hot’ with co-stars Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acknowledged Tony’s talents in 1959 when he received an Academy Award nomination for his role in the movie ‘The Defiant Ones’ starring opposite Sidney Poitier.
Tony was married six times. Jill Vandenberg Curtis was his current wife whom he married in 1998.
Tony was born June 3, 1925. He died at the age of 85.
Pop singer Eddie Fisher passed away Wednesday night at his home in Berkeley of complications from hip surgery, his daughter, Tricia Leigh Fisher of Los Angeles, told The Associated Press. He was 82.
“Late last evening the world lost a true America icon,” Fisher’s family said in a statement released by publicist British Reece. “One of the greatest voices of the century passed away. He was an extraordinary talent and a true mensch.”
In the early 50s, Fisher sold millions of records with 32 hit songs including ‘Thinking of You,’ ‘Any Time,’ ‘Oh, My Pa-pa,’ ‘I’m Yours,’ and ‘Wish You Were Here.’ His fame was enhanced by his 1955 marriage to movie darling Debbie Reynolds — they were touted as “America’s favorite couple” — and the birth of two children. Their daughter Carrie Fisher became a film star herself in the first three ‘Star Wars’ films as Princess Leia.
His clear voice brought him a devoted following of teenage girls in the early 1950s before marriage scandals overshadowed his fame.
When Eddie Fisher’s best friend, producer Mike Todd, was killed in a 1958 plane crash, Fisher comforted the widow, Elizabeth Taylor. Amid sensationalist headlines, Fisher divorced Reynolds and married Taylor in 1959.
The Fisher-Taylor marriage lasted only five years. She fell in love with co-star Richard Burton during the Rome filming of ‘Cleopatra,’ divorced Fisher and married Burton in one of the great entertainment world scandals of the 20th century. Fisher’s career never recovered from the notoriety. He married actress Connie Stevens, and they had two daughters. Another divorce followed.
In 1983, Fisher attempted a full-scale comeback. But his old fans had been turned off by the scandals, and the younger generation had been turned on by rock. The tour was unsuccessful.
At 47, Fisher married a 21-year-old beauty queen, Terry Richard. The marriage ended after 10 months. His fifth marriage, to Betty Lin, a Chinese-born businesswoman, lasted longer than any of the others. Fisher had two children with Reynolds: Carrie and Todd; and two girls with Stevens: Joely and Tricia.
Actress Lynn Redgrave has died, her children have announced.
She was 67.
Redgrave, sister of Vanessa Redgrave, was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 60.
Her publicist Rick Miramontez, speaking on behalf of her children, said Redgrave died Sunday night at her Manhattan apartment.
Her death comes a year after her niece Natasha Richardson died from head injuries sustained in a skiing accident and just a month after the death of her older brother, Corin Redgrave.
Actor Robert Culp, best known for his role as an international tennis star and globe-trotting secret agent in the hit 1960s television series “I Spy,” died Wednesday morning after a fall at his Hollywood home, authorities said.
The 79-year-old actor was rushed to Queen of Angels hospital shortly after 11 a.m. after hitting his head while taking a walk outside his home in the 1800 block of El Cerrito Place, said LAPD Lt. Bob Binder.
He was found by a jogger who called 911, and paramedics, patrol officers and detectives responded to the scene.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later. A preliminary investigation found “that his death is accidental and there appears to be no sign of foul play,” Binder said. An autopsy by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office is pending.
Culp broke into Hollywood in the late 1950s but catapulted to fame playing Kelly Robinson in the hourlong 1965-68 espionage series “I Spy,” which was shot in exotic locales around the world.
Besides its popularity, the show also broke the color barrier for dramatic television series as the first noncomedy series to star an African American actor, Bill Cosby.
Off screen, Culp has been active in civic causes, most recently in his efforts to oppose construction of an elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo.
In 2007, the actor joined with real estate agent Aaron Leider in filing a lawsuit against zoo director John Lewis and the city to stop construction of a $42-million elephant exhibit and bar the zoo from keeping elephants there, accusing authorities at the facility of withholding medical care from the animals and keeping them cramped in small places.
Last year, after temporarily halting construction on the elephant exhibit amid a fierce debate, the City Council voted to go ahead with the project as planned.
Sadness!
source: ‘I Spy’ Star Robert Culp Dies After Fall at Home [popeater]
Comedy legend Soupy Sales, the man who took thousands of pies to the face in his 5,000+ live television appearances, has died at the age of 83. His legend spans all the way back to the ’50s and ’60s, thanks to ‘The Soupy Sales Show’ and ‘What’s My Line?’
Sales died Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York, his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher, said. Sales had many health problems and entered the hospice last week, Usher said.
Sales began his TV career in Cincinnati and Cleveland, then moved to Detroit, where he drew a large audience on WXYZ-TV. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961.
The comic’s pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities lined up to take one on the chin alongside Sales. During the early 1960s, stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine received their just desserts side-by-side with the comedian on his television show.
source: Soupy Sales dies at 83; slapstick comic had hit TV show in 1960s [los angeles times]
Henry Gibson, the quintessential character actor who played Nazis, priests, drunks and nosy neighbors during a 45-year career that included a stint as an original cast member on ‘Laugh-In,’ died Monday at his home in Malibu. His son, James, said Gibson died after a brief battle with cancer. He was 73.
Beginning with a role in ‘The Nutty Professor’ in 1963, Gibson worked steadily until just last year. His big break arrived in 1968 when he began a 3-year stint on ‘Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,’ where each week he would hold a flower and read a poem.
The rest of the 1960s and 1970s were spent working on acclaimed TV shows, including ‘Love, American Style,’ and more meaty film projects like Robert Altman’s 1975 country music opus, ‘Nashville,’ for which Gibson earned a Golden Globes nomination.
In 1980, he played an Illinois Nazi going after a pair of soul-singing louts in ‘The Blues Brothers’ and later in the decade played the villainous neighbor in Tom Hanks’ hit ‘The Burbs.’
Other memorable films include a ‘Gremlins’ sequel, Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Magnolia,’ and most recently a turn as a clergyman who gets an earful from Vince Vaughn in ‘Wedding Crashers.’
Until last year, he carried on a recurring role on ‘Boston Legal.’
Born James Bateman in Germantown, Pa., Gibson began acting professionally at age 8. He is survived by his wife and three sons.
Laugh-In was one of my favorite shows, yes… that dates me. I loved Goldie Hawn the most on the show.
RIP funny man.
source: ‘Laugh-In,’ Film Actor Henry Gibson Dies [popeater]
Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy, the youngest Kennedy brother who was left to head the family’s political dynasty after his brothers President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, has died at age 77.
Known as the “liberal lion of the Senate,” Kennedy championed health care reform, working wages and equal rights in his storied career. In August, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the nation’s highest civilian honor — by President Obama. His daughter, Kara Kennedy, accepted the award on his behalf.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, known as Ted or Teddy, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent a successful brain surgery soon after that. But his health continued to deteriorate, and Kennedy suffered a seizure while attending the luncheon following President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
For Kennedy, the ascension of Obama was an important step toward realizing his goal of health care reform.
At the Democratic National Convention in August 2008, the Massachusetts Democrat promised, “I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin the great test.”
Sen. Kennedy made good on that pledge, but ultimately lost his battle with cancer.
source: Ted Kennedy Dies of Brain Cancer at Age 77 [abc news]
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy and a champion of the disabled who founded the Special Olympics, died Tuesday, the Special Olympics said. She was 88.
Born on July 10, 1921, in Brookline, Massachusetts, Shriver was the fifth of nine children to Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. She emerged from the long shadow of siblings John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as the founder of the Special Olympics, which started as a summer day camp in her backyard in 1962.
Today, 3.1 million people with mental disabilities participate in 228 programs in 170 nations, according to the Special Olympics.
No final decision has been made on funeral arrangements, a source close to the family said.
It’s hard for us to believe: the amazing Eunice Kennedy Shriver went home to God this morning at 2 a.m.
She was the light of our lives, a mother, wife, grandmother, sister and aunt who taught us by example and with passion what it means to live a faith-driven life of love and service to others. For each of us, she often seemed to stop time itself – to run another Special Olympics games, to visit us in our homes, to attend to her own mother, her sisters and brothers, and to sail, tell stories, and laugh and serve her friends. How did she do it all?
Inspired by her love of God, her devotion to her family, and her relentless belief in the dignity and worth of every human life, she worked without ceasing – searching, pushing, demanding, hoping for change. She was a living prayer, a living advocate, a living center of power. She set out to change the world and to change us, and she did that and more. She founded the movement that became Special Olympics, the largest movement for acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities in the history of the world. Her work transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe, and they in turn are her living legacy.
We have always been honored to share our mother with people of good will the world over who believe, as she did, that there is no limit to the human spirit. At this time of loss, we feel overwhelmed by the gifts of prayer and support poured out to us from so many who loved her. We are together in our belief that she is now in heaven, rejoicing with her family, enjoying the fruits of her faith, and still urging us onward to the challenges ahead. Her love will inspire us to faith and service always.
She was forever devoted to the Blessed Mother. May she be welcomed now by Mary to the joy and love of life everlasting, in the certain truth that her love and spirit will live forever.
As everyone not living in a cave knows by now, pop icon Michael Jackson died yesterday at the age of 50. Below is a roundup of some of the more prominent obituaries, including the headlines, the introductory paragraphs, and the most prominent photo.
Michael Jackson’s life was infused with fantasy and tragedy – LA Times
Michael Jackson was fascinated by celebrity tragedy. He had a statue of Marilyn Monroe in his home and studied the sad Hollywood exile of Charlie Chaplin. He married the daughter of Elvis Presley.
Jackson met his own untimely death Thursday at age 50, and more than any of those past icons, he left a complicated legacy. As a child star, he was so talented he seemed lit from within; as a middle-aged man, he was viewed as something akin to a visiting alien who, like Tinkerbell, would cease to exist if the applause ever stopped.
It was impossible in the early 1980s to imagine the surreal final chapters of Jackson’s life. In that decade, he became the world’s most popular entertainer thanks to a series of hit records — “Beat It,†“Billie Jean,” “Thriller†— and dazzling music videos. Perhaps the best dancer of his generation, he created his own iconography: the single shiny glove, the Moonwalk, the signature red jacket and the Neverland Ranch.
In recent years, he inspired fascination for reasons that had nothing to do with music. Years of plastic surgery had made his face a bizarre landscape. He was deeply in debt and had lost his way as a musician. He had not toured since 1997 or released new songs since 2001. Instead of music videos, the images of Jackson beamed around the world were tabloid reports about his strange personal behavior, including allegations of child molestation, or the latest failed relaunch of his career.
For his legions of fans, he was the Peter Pan of pop music: the little boy who refused to grow up. But on the verge of another attempted comeback, he is suddenly gone, this time for good.
Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.
[...]
As with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full effect Mr. Jackson had on the world of music. At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he has sold more than 750 million albums. Radio stations across the country reacted to his death with marathon sessions of his songs. MTV, which grew successful in part as a result of Mr. Jackson’s groundbreaking videos, reprised its early days as a music channel by showing his biggest hits.
From his days as the youngest brother in the Jackson 5 to his solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Jackson was responsible for a string of hits like “I Want You Back,†“I’ll Be There†“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough†“Billie Jean†and “Black or White†that exploited his high voice, infectious energy and ear for irresistible hooks.
As a solo performer, Mr. Jackson ushered in the age of pop as a global product — not to mention an age of spectacle and pop culture celebrity. He became more character than singer: his sequined glove, his whitened face, his moonwalk dance move became embedded in the cultural firmament. His entertainment career hit high-water marks with the release of “Thriller,†from 1982, which has been certified 28 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and with the “Victory†world tour that reunited him with his brothers in 1984.
But soon afterward, his career started a bizarre disintegration. His darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2003, when he was indicted on child molesting charges. A young cancer patient claimed the singer had befriended him and then groped him at his Neverland estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., but Mr. Jackson was acquitted on all charges.
Singer Michael Jackson, the man known as the King of Pop to legions of fans around the globe, who lived most of his extraordinary life in the public eye, died Thursday in Los Angeles after going into cardiac arrest. He was 50 years old.
[...]
It used to be that Jackson’s talent was the most compelling thing about him, says music critic Jody Rosen. “I think ‘I Want You Back’ is one of the greatest pop singles I’ve ever heard,” Rosen says.
“I Want You Back” was the hit single that famously thrust a young Michael Jackson and four of his brothers from the Gary, Ind., talent show circuit to world fame. Their grimly focused father put Michael on stage at age 5. The child, says Rosen, somehow channeled the gifts of vastly more seasoned performers. “He had a very gritty voice at that time, which is strange, given that as he grew older, he started to sing more and more like a pre-pubescent little boy,” Rosen says. “And when he was a pre-pubescent little boy, he was singing like a soul elder statesman.”
Object of Acclaim, Curiosity, The ‘King of Pop’ Dies in L.A. – WaPo
Michael Jackson, 50, died yesterday in Los Angeles as sensationally as he lived, as famous as a human being can get. He was a child Motown phenomenon who grew into a moonwalking megastar, the self-anointed King of Pop who sold 750 million records over his career and enjoyed worldwide adoration.
But with that came the world’s relentless curiosity, and Mr. Jackson was eventually regarded as one of show business’s legendary oddities, hopping from one public relations crisis to another.
In the end there were two sides to the record: The tabloid caricature and the provocative, genre-changing musical genius that his fans will always treasure. There were those whose devotion knew no bounds, who visited the gates of his private ranch north of Santa Barbara, Calif., arriving at Neverland on pilgrimages from Europe and Asia, and who were among the first to flock to UCLA Medical Center as news of his death spread yesterday afternoon. Those were the same kind of fans who camped out at the Santa Barbara Superior Courthouse, to show their support during his 2005 trial. They released doves and wept when he was acquitted.
Then there was the other kind of fan, who preferred to keep memories of the singer locked firmly in his 1980s prime: Today’s young adults all have memories of being toddlers and grade-schoolers who moonwalked across their mother’s just mopped kitchen floors. Even the hardest rockers will easily confess to the first album they ever bought: “Thriller.”
These are fair accounts, I think, balancing Jackson’s undeniable status as a music icon as well as the bizarre spectacle of his life offstage.
