Celebrities In Passing

2008 has seen some wonderful gains in Hollywood, some wonderful gains for the country ,  as well as some devastating losses for both.  Hollywood 2009 will be missing some of the best and brightest,  older stars, new talents, up and coming young people who’s stars hadn’t yet risen..  many of those who combined talent, with consideration of their fellow man, and owned a good dose of common sense as well.

The world will sorely miss some of those who acted, who offered us their talents in other ways, such as directing, animation and production.

With 2008 drawing to a close, Hot Gossip would like to pay tribute to these who, among some few others, will be conspicuously missing from; and sorely missed by– the entertainment world in 2009.

•   Sean Levert–musician, popular with trio Levert, among his hits are  “Baby I’m Ready” and “Casanova
•  Stan Winston–American visual effects and film director. Renowned for work in  the Terminator,Jurassic Park, Aliens,Predator, and Edward Scissorhands, his worked earned a total of four Academy Awards.
• Stanley Kamel–Arab-American television actor quite well known for playing the role of Dr Kroger, who was Adrian Monks psychiatrist on the television series Monk.
•  Suzanne Pleshette–American Actress best known for her role as the wife of the innkeeper on the Bob Newhard Show
• Paul Newman–American Actor, philanthropist, Academy Award–winner, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian and auto racing enthusiast. He won an Academy Award for his performance in  The Color of Money, three Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, an Emmy award, as well asseveral national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing.
•  Sydney Pollack–Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.
• Tiffany Sloan–Playboy model and actress, passed away at the age of 35
•  Tim Russert–American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press.
• Vampira–Maila Nurmi–a Finnish American actress, who created  and played the 1950s character Vampira. Her portrayal of this character as a television horror host which was quite influential for decades.
•  Van Johnson–American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during World War II. Considered a major matinee idol.
• Warren Cowan–American Film Industry Publicist
•  Yma Sumac–Peruvian soprano, also known as the Inca Princess. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous proponents of exotica music was an international success, based on  her extreme vocal range, which was said to be “well over four octaves”
• Yves Laurent –Designer to the stars and the wealthy of the world, Laurent clothing was the height of fashion for more than a few years.
• Earle Hagen–Song writer, best known for co-writing and whistling “The Fishin’ Hole”, the melody of the main theme to The Andy Griffith Show,  and the instrumental classic “Harlem Nocturne” used as the theme to television’s Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer
• Eddy Arnold-American country and folk singer, one of the most popular in American history.International hits include, Make the World Go Away.
• Edie Adams–American singer, Broadway, television and film actress and comedienne.
• EdmundHillary–New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On 29 May 1953 at age  33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers reach the summit of Mount Everest
• Estelle Getty –American actress, who appeared in film, theatre and television. She is best known for her long-running role as Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls mother of Bea Arthurs character, Dorothy, although in reality she was actually a year younger than Bea Arthur.
• Evelyn Keyes–Portrayed Scarlett O’Hara’s sister Suellen in Gone with the Wind (1939).Her 1949 role as Kathy Flannigan in Mrs. Mike pushed her to Hollywood stardom. Keyes’ last important film role was  Tom Ewell’s  wife in The Seven Year Itch.
• George Carlin–American comedian, noted for his political incorrectness and his use of the” seven words you can’t say on television”.
• Paul Benedict–actor who was known for his portrayal of the neighbor Bentley on the Jeffersons television show.
• Harvey Korman–American comedian, noted for his part in the Carol Burnett variety show, as well as for his comedy film parts in Mel Brooks films,  most notably as Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles
• Hazel Court— English actress known for her roles in horror films during the 1950s and early 1960
• Heath Ledger–Academy Award-nominated Australian television and film actor.
  Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his movie career. His work included nineteen films, including critical and box-office successes
  Ledger won the 2005 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and the 2006 “Best Actor” award from the Australian Film Institute and was nominated for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor
• Heather Stohler--American model whoworked on photoshoots with Kate Moss for Calvin Klein and also appeared on the covers of Italy’s version of Vogue and Germany’s version of Marie Claire. Passed away along with her boyfriend in a weekend fire.
• Isaac Hayes–Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter, actor and musician. Hayes was one of the main creative forces behind southern soul music label Stax RecordsNamed to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005, Hayes was also a remarkable Humanitarian.
• Ivan Dixon–American actor, director, and producer–well known for his series role in the 1960s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, for his Emmy Award-nominated role in the The Final War of Olly Winter, and for directing hundreds of episodes of television series. Active in the Civil Rights Movement, he served as a president of Negro Actors for Action
•  Jeff Healey–(born Norman Jeffrey Healey, was a blind Canadian jazz and blues-rock guitarist and vocalist.
• Jill Adams— renowned English actress.She featured or starred in over 25 films during the 1950s and 1960s. Her films include The Green Man and Doctor at Sea.
• Jim McKay–American television sports journalist.McKay is best known for hosting ABC’s Wide World of Sports (1961–1998), and his introduction “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat..” has gone down in pop culture as legendary.
• Jo Stafford–American singer of traditional pop music  whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. Greatly admired for the purity of her voice and  considered one of the most versatile vocalists of the era,first ever female to have a No 1 on the UK Singles Chart.
• John Law–American actor,  his role as the blind angel Pygar in the 1968 science fiction cult classic Barbarella brought him great fame, and as news anchor Robin Stone in the 1971 The Love Machine.
• Abby Mann–American film writer and producer.BornAbraham Goodman in Philadelphia, he grew up in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was best known for his work on controversial subjects,is most famous work is the drama Judgment at Nuremberg.
• Alexander Courage–American orchestrator, arranger, and composer of music, primarily for television and motion pictures.
• Anita Page–American film actress who reached stardom in the last years of the silent film era. She was wildly popular,eportedly at one point receiving the most fan mail of anyone on the MGM lot. Pagewas the last surviving “famous” film star of the silent era
• Bernie Mac–American actor and comedian. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D.L. Hughley as The Original Kings of Comedy.
• Bettie Page–American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She was also one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine.
• Beverly Garland–American film and television actress, businesswoman and hotel owner. Garland gained prominence for her role as Fred MacMurray’s second wife, “Barbara Harper Douglas,” in the long-running 1960s sitcom, My Three Sons
• Bo Diddley–influential American rock & roll singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was known as “The Originator”
• Brad Renfro–a victim of an accidental overdose, Renfro is best known for his role in The Client,where he played alongside Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. In 1995, he won Hollywood Reporter’s “Young Star” award, and was nominated as one of People’s “Top 30 Under 30”
• Charlton Heston-American actor known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in El Cid, and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, even though he supported conservative politics and was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.
• Clay Felker–American magazine editor and journalist who founded New York Magazine
• Cyd Charisse–American dancer and actress.
•  Dody Goodman–American character actress known for her portrayal of the Mary Hartmans mother on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
• Ollie Johnston–American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney’s “Nine Old Men”, and the last living member.His work was recognized with the National Medal of Arts three years ago in 2005.
  His credits include Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia and Bambi and The Rescuers.

Some Information on celebrities gleaned from Wikipedia