Tag: passing

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Legendary Singer Aretha Franklin Dead At 76

Aretha Franklin

The Queen of Soul has left us.

At the age of 76, legendary soul/R&B singer Aretha Franklin passed away early Thursday due to advanced pancreatic cancer.

Earning an astonishing 20 Grammy Awards, the Detroit-based Franklin indelibly shared her singular vocal style and power with an adoring audience with hit songs like “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Think” and “Spanish Harlem.”

An LGBTQ ally, she became one of the earliest A-list divas to sing at a same-sex wedding back in 2011.

Kevin Phinney wrote for Metrosource, “For any gay, lesbian or marginalized person of any stripe, ‘Respect’ was much more than a sturdy slice of soul that could crowd a dance floor: It was an act of defiance, a declaration of pride, and a promise to the world and the person in the mirror to never settle for second-class treatment ever again.”

Franklin’s last performance was at Elton John’s annual AIDS Foundation gala in November 2017.

More from The Hollywood Reporter:

Aretha Franklin, the sensational songbird whose voice was sweeter than honey to millions, making her an inspirational American icon and one of the most admired vocalists of all time, died on Thursday at her home in Detroit after battling advanced pancreatic cancer, her publicist confirmed to the Associated Press. She was 76.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in the Motor City, Franklin was firmly rooted in gospel but also excelled in the worlds of jazz, R&B and pop. She collected 20 Grammys — including a lifetime achievement award — covering a span of four decades; was the first woman enshrined into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (in 1987); and, befitting a queen, was named No. 1 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

She sold more than 75 million records worldwide, according to one estimate, and had 10 Top Ten hits in a roughly 18-month stretch beginning in early 1967. A tireless road warrior, Franklin also sold millions of concert tickets, almost always arriving to shows in her custom bus (she had a fear of flying).

Franklin’s signature song, the 1967 smash “Respect” for her first album for Atlantic Records, became a battle cry for the feminist and civil rights movements. Recorded two years earlier by Otis Redding from a man’s point of view, her righteous reworking pushed “Groovin’ ” by The Young Rascals from the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

It’s worth noting that in 1987, Franklin was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And deservedly so.

Let’s celebrate just a few of my Aretha favorites throughout the years.

RIP Aretha Franklin.

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News Round-Up: August 7, 2018

(Fran Dullon via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Spanish fitness model Fran Dullon is living this summer out LOUD. #woof

• Aryeh Cohen, a 44-year-old rabbi from St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis was arrested in a sex trafficking sting earlier this year after chatting and sharing explicit photos with someone claiming to be a 16-year-old boy on Grindr. He was apparently grooming the boy for sex.

• An Indiana judge has ordered a school district in Evansville, Ind., to allow a 17-year-old transgender student to use restrooms that align with his gender identity just days before the beginning of the school year.

• An anti-LGBT group is calling for a boycott of Britney Spears over her support for LGBTQ rights.

• Texas’s Hood County Clerk Katie Lang still won’t issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

• Charlotte Rae, who played the wise and wonderful “Mrs. Garrett” on the long-running sitcoms Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life fame passed away at the age of 92. After a long career on the Great White Way, the two-time Tony Award nominee moved into successful longevity television.

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Tony Award Winner Gary Beach (The Producers) Passes Away At 70

Tony Award-winner Gary Beach, who brought the singing and dancing candlestick “Lumiere” to life for the original Broadway production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and won a Tony Award for his gayer-than-gay, show-stopping performance as director “Roger De Bris” in the mega-hit musical The Producers, has passed away at the age of 70.

Gary Beach

Making his Broadway debut as the understudy for the role of “Edward Rutledge” in the original Broadway run of 1776 in 1969, Beach eventually took over the role and played “Rutledge” until the show closed in 1972.

Many other shows on the Great White Way would follow including, the short-lived Something’s Afoot, Annie, and Doonesbury.

Waiting for him after all those shows, however, was the role of French candlestick “Lumiere,” who led a cast of singing/dancing plates, spoons and saucer imploring Belle to “Be Our Guest” in Beauty and the Beast—the first full-scale Disney musical on Broadway which opened in 1994.

And then, in 2001, Beach was cast as director Roger De Bris in Mel Brooks’ 2001 mega-hit The Producers.

Beach scored mightily as the gay-gay-gay, over-the-top gay director “Roger De Bris,” who finally receives his moment of glory center stage.

His slapstick-to-perfection performance brought him the 2001 Tony Award for ‘Best Featured Actor in a Musical.’ Beach returned to the role for the 2005 film adaptation alongside fellow original Broadway cast members Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

Here’s an extended clip of Beach’s big number in The Producers. He makes his entrance as ‘Hitler’ at the 6:00 mark:

Beach continued to star on Broadway, taking on the role of “Albin” the 2004 revival of Jerry Herman’s La Cage aux Folles (another Tony Award nomination) and as “Thénardier” in the 2006 revival of Les Misérables.

His stellar career is only surpassed by the love and admiration of his fellow theatre artists.

Before becoming a journalist, I had a career on the Broadway stage. Although I never worked with Gary, I met him several times. And he was always the definition of warmth and kindness.

More importantly, though, are the messages flooding my Facebook and social media – my friends who did work with him 8 shows a week for so long.

Reading through Facebook and Twitter, some of the most veteran performers of the Broadway stage shared their love and devotion to the master artist.

If I could impart anything about the memory of this top-tier artist to you, its the incredible, universal affection the theatre world has for Gary.

Gary is survived by his husband, Jeff Barnett.

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Hollywood Golden Boy, Tan Hunter, Passes Away At 86

Tab Hunter, the handsome heartthrob of Hollywood’s golden age, has passed away at the age of 86 in his home in Santa Barbara, California.
Tab Hunter (screen capture from Damn Yankees)

Tab Hunter, the handsome heartthrob of Hollywood’s golden age, has passed away at the age of 86 in his home in Santa Barbara, California.

The news was announced on the Facebook page for the 2015 documentary about his life, Tab Hunter: Confidential:

A representative reported the death was due to a blood clot.

With a career spanning over 40 films from the 1950s like Damn Yankees! and Battle Cry to the 1980s in Grease 2, and John Waters’ movies Polyester and Lust in the Dust, Hunter had recently returned to the spotlight after coming out in his 2005 memoir, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star.

Hunter also enjoyed some success in the music world, scoring a hit single with “Young Love” in 1957.

A revealing documentary based on his memoir was released in 2015 simply titled, Tab Hunter Confidential. The documentary is currently on Netflix and I can’t recommend it enough.

His most notable recent public appearance was attending a performance of the acclaimed revival of The Boys in the Band on Broadway. The 86-year-old was spotted backstage speaking with one of the play’s stars, Zachary Quinto, who is producing a new biopic regarding the longtime, secret romance between Hunter and actor Anthony Perkins.

Fearful of losing his all-American image, Hunter never spoke about his sexuality until his memoir in 2005.

In an interview from last year with the Pocono Record, he said:

“If I had come out during my acting career in the 1950s, I would not have had a career. Not much in Hollywood has changed in 60 years. I really didn’t talk about my sexuality until I wrote my autobiography. My film career had long since been over by then. I believe one’s sexuality is one’s own business. I really don’t go around discussing it. Call me ’old school’ on that topic.”

Hunter would have turned 87 this Wednesday, July 11.

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Dame Gillian Lynne (CATS, Phantom Of The Opera) Passes Away At 92

Director/choreographer Dame Gillian Lynne (Cats, Phantom of the Opera) passed away today at the age of 92

A legend leaves us.

With heavy heart I share the news that acclaimed director/choreographer Dame Gillian Lynne passed away today at the age of 92.

Best known for her choreography for two of the longest running shows on Broadway – CATS and The Phantom of the Opera – Gillian’s career spanned decades and knew no boundaries.

From ballet to opera to theater to television to movies, Dame Gillian was triumphant in every medium she approached.

More career details from BroadwayWorld:

Gillian was a leading soloist with Sadler’s Wells Ballet, the star dancer at the Palladium, played opposite Errol Flynn in the movies and danced with all the greats on TV. She became instrumental in the development of jazz dance in Britain and her distinctive style – a fusion of classical and jazz – led to her groundbreaking work on the world-famous Cats, which was recognised with a new category of Olivier Award, specially created for her to acknowledge Outstanding Achievement of the Year in a Musical. Cats continues to be produced worldwide Gillian’s 50-plus Broadway and West End shows include: Tonight at 8.30, Love on the Dole, The Match Girls, TomFoolery, Jeeves Takes Charge, Cabaret, The Roar of the Greasepaint, Pickwick, The Card, Phil The Fluter, Hans Christian Andersen, My Fair Lady, Songbook, The Phantom of the Opera and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

For the Royal Shakespeare Company: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, The Way of the World, As You Like It, Once in a Lifetime and The Boy Friend. She has previously worked with Adrian Noble on the RSC production The Secret Garden.

Gillian’s opera productions include the direction of Bluebeard, The Trojans, The Midsummer Marriage, The Flying Dutchman and Parsifal. Among Gillian’s ballets are Breakaway, Lippizaner, The Brontes and Journey for the Bolshoi.

On television, Gillian has directed The Various Ends of Mrs F’s Friends, Easy Money, The Look of Love, The Morte d’Arthur, which won the Samuel G Engel Award in America, and A Simple Man, which won a 1987 BAFTA.

She staged many of The Muppet Shows for ATV and her 11 feature films include A Wonderful Life, Half a Sixpence, Man of La Mancha and Yentl.

She was honored with the Olivier Award for her choreography for CATS, as well as Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for the Broadway production. Another Tony nomination came for her gorgeous work on Phantom.

My first big job as an actor in New York City was being cast as “The Magical Mr. Mistoffelees” in a brand-new national touring company of CATS. The job, and the show, saved my life in many ways.

Years later I was able to thank Dame Gillian for her brilliant work that in very real terms created jobs for thousands and thousands of people.

A total class act, she could also be very bawdy and fun.

Rest in Peace, Dame Gillian.

Tony Award winner Betty Buckley, who worked with Dame Gillian on CATS and the London premiere of Jerry Herman’s Dear World, shared her thoughts on the loss on Instagram:

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Joe Jackson, Creator Of Jackson 5, Dies At 89

Joe Jackson, the patriarch behind the Jacksons' musical empire, has died following a bout with cancer. He was 89 years old.
Joe Jackson

Joe Jackson, the patriarch behind the Jacksons’ musical empire, has died following a bout with cancer. He was 89 years old.

In the 1960s, Jackson decided to create a pop music group with five of his sons – Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael – who would go on to be the Jackson 5.

Often described as domineering, Joe Jackson had a hand in every aspect of the group’s career from rehearsal hours to dance steps to their touring schedule.

From People

:

Anchored by a 7-year-old Michael, The Jackson 5 found immediate success, becoming the first American group to have four singles land the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Soon after, Joe moved the entire family from Indiana to California.

In 1968, Joe signed a Motown contract—without reading it—that gave the company ironclad control over everything recorded by The Jackson 5, a move that cost the family millions. Michael fired his father as manager in 1983.

Eventually, young Michael would step away from the group (and his father’s control) in 1979 with his brothers following suit in 1983. Janet Jackson would soon follow as well.

“I’m glad I was tough, because look what I came out with,” Joe Jackson told CNN in 2013. “I came out with some kids that everybody loved all over the world. And they treated everybody right.”

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The Shoulders On Which We Stand: LGBT Activist Dick Leitsch Passes Away At 83

The now-famous 'Sip-In' where gay men were refused service
The now-famous ‘Sip-In’ where gay men were refused service 

In a world where we, thankfully, have high school gay/straight alliances and Pride parades galore, it’s important to remember a time when being gay didn’t come with so many allies.

As we know, there was a time when it was outright dangerous to walk down the street being openly gay.

It’s with that in mind that we take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Dick Leitsch, an important, early leader in the gay rights movement.

Dick Leitsch died June 22 at a hospice center in Manhattan due to liver cancer. He was 83.

From The Washington Post:

A bartender, freelance journalist and onetime Tiffany sales representative, Mr. Leitsch was a self-described “hick from Kentucky who didn’t known anything about gay rights” when he followed a boyfriend to New York in 1959. He soon became a member and young leader of the Mattachine Society, an early gay advocacy group named after a group of medieval jesters who, disguised by masks, protested the oppression of peasants.

Mr. Leitsch rarely donned a mask himself. After being named president of the organization’s New York chapter in 1965, he took the group in a more aggressive direction, taking on the city’s police chief and newly elected liberal mayor, John V. Lindsay, in campaigns that drew on the tactics of the African American civil rights movement and became a model for other gay rights groups across the country.

In that pre-Stonewall era, a few years before an uprising at a Greenwich Village gay bar galvanized a broader protest movement for equality and acceptance, few gays used their name or showed their face on television. Mr. Leitsch was a notable exception, appearing on “The David Susskind Show,” in local news and radio broadcasts and at town-hall-style meetings.

In 1960s New York Leitsch actively opposed anti-gay entrapment by police and organized the very first major act of civil disobedience by a gay rights group — a ‘sit-in’ that came to be known as the Sip-In.

Here’s the history on that now-famous ‘Sip-In’ which occurred on April 21, 1966, at a Greenwich Village bar named ‘Julius:’

Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, the society’s president and vice president respectively, and another society activist, John Timmons, planned to draw attention to the practice by identifying themselves as homosexuals before ordering a drink in order to bring court scrutiny to the regulation [against serving gays]. The three were going to read from Mattachine stationary “We are homosexuals. We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service.”

The three first targeted the Ukrainian-American Village Restaurant at St. Mark’s Place and Third Avenue in the East Village, Manhattan which had a sign, “If you are gay, please go away.” The three showed up after a New York Times reporter had asked a manager about the protest and the manager had closed the restaurant for the day. They then targeted a Howard Johnson’s and a bar called Waikiki where they were served in spite of the note with a bartender saying later, “How do I know they’re homosexual? They ain’t doing nothing homosexual.”

Frustrated, they then went to Julius, where a clergyman had been arrested a few days earlier for soliciting sex. A sign in the window read, “This is a raided premises.” The bartender initially started preparing them a drink but then put his hand over the glass which was photographed. The New York Times ran a headline the next day “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars.”

The Mattachines took their case to court and the courts agreed with them saying that gays had a right to peacefully assemble.

Thanks to that ruling, the practice of licensed, legally operating gay bars began.

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Gorilla Koko, Who Learned To Communicate Through Sign Language, Passes Away At Age 46

Koko, the beloved western lowland gorilla who famously learned to communicate through sign language, has died in her sleep at the age of 46.

Koko was believed to have had an IQ of between 75 and 95 and could sign more than 1,000 words. The average IQ of a human is around 90 to 110. Scientists say she also understood spoken English.

From The Today Show:

“Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy. She was beloved and will be deeply missed,” the organization said in a statement.

The western lowland gorilla died Tuesday at the foundation’s preserve in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains.

Born at the San Francisco Zoo in 1971 on the Fourth of July, Koko was named “Hanabi-ko,” which means “fireworks child” in Japanese.

Animal psychologist Francine “Penny” Patterson began to teach Koko sign language a year later while she was a graduate student.

Patterson, along with biologist Ronald Cohn, eventually would go on to help establish The Gorilla Foundation in 1986.

“Koko’s capacity for language and empathy has opened the minds and hearts of millions,” the foundation said in its statement.

Here’s a 2016 report on Koko:

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Award-Winning Chef & Traveller Anthony Bourdain Dead At 61

Chef and traveler Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN’s Parts Unknown, has passed away after being found unresponsive in his hotel room in France by friend and fellow chef Eric Ripert.

The chef, story-teller and award-winning TV host was 61.

According to several reports, the cause of death is an apparent suicide.

Boudain and Ripert were in France filming an episode for the popular CNN series.

CNN issued this statement:

It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain. His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller. His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time.

Bourdain was author of numerous celebrated books and winner of almost every food award in existence. He was held in high regard within the food industry and admired by fans who appreciated his raw and real exploration of uncharted areas of the world.

After nine seasons of his Emmy Award-winning No Reservations on The Travel Channel, Boudain launched his wildly successful Parts Unknown in 2012.

In 2013, Peabody Award judges honored Bourdain and Parts Unknown for “expanding our palates and horizons in equal measure.”

An ally to the LGBTQ community, he teamed up with the Human Rights Campaign in 2014 for the push for marriage equality.

In 2011, after New York recognized marriage equality, the Brown Coffee Company in San Antonio, Texas, tweeted: “No human law can ever legitimize what natural law precludes #SorryFolks #NotEqual #WhyBother #ChasingAfterTheWind #SelfEvident.”

Bourdain simple but direct response: “Dear Brown Coffee: God called. He said you suck.”

I’ve often shared with folks that the best way for the world to learn to understand each other is to travel. The sharing of food with people in other places becomes an instant connection, and we move closer from there.

Just as having visibility for the LGBTQ community makes us that much more relatable, travel opens our minds and hearts to understanding the hows and whys of others.

And that is exactly what Anthony Bourdain helped us do.

RIP Anthony Bourdain.

Please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 if you are having thoughts of suicide.

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Superman Star Margot Kidder Dead At 69

Actress Margot Kidder

Best known for her portrayal of strong-willed reporter “Lois Lane” in the 1978 hit film Superman: The Movie, actress Margot Kidder has died at the age of 69.

People Magazine reports Kidder passed away on Sunday at her home in Livingston, Montana, of unknown causes.

Although she began her career in the 1960s, Kidder saw her star skyrocket after her turn as “Lois Lane” in Superman: The Movie opposite Christopher Reeve. She would go on to reprise the part of the intrepid Ms. Lane in three film sequels.

Other credits include 1974’s Black Christmas, 1979’s The Amityville Horror and Heartaches in 1981.

She also served as producer and starred as Eliza Doolittle in a 1983 adaptation of Pygmalion opposite Peter O’Toole for Showtime.

However, amid all that success, Kidder quietly waged war with mental health demons that eventually left her homeless.

From People:

After being reported missing for days in 1996, police took her away in handcuffs to Olive View-UCLA Medical Center.

“The woman we saw was in obvious mental distress,” Officer Rick Young of the Glendale police told PEOPLE at the time. “She didn’t think one person was following her. She thought a whole group of people were after her.”

Kidder told PEOPLE five months later that the root of most of her problems — which include “mood swings that could knock over a building” — was manic depression. She was first diagnosed with the condition by an L.A. psychiatrist eight years prior, but she refused to take the recommended prescription of lithium, the recommended treatment.

“It’s very hard to convince a manic person that there is anything wrong with them,” said Kidder, who was working on a memoir at the time. “You have no desire to sleep. You are full of ideas.”

She is survived by her daughter.

Watch the famous flying sequence from Superman: The Movie below: