AP Obits--6/16
ObitsMan
ths_33
Obituaries in the News
Mon Jun 16,10:36 PM ET
FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Hume Cronyn, the versatile stage and screen actor who
charmed audiences with his portrayals of irascible old men and frequently
paired up with his wife, Jessica Tandy, died of cancer. He was 91.
He and Tandy were married for nearly 52 years at the time of her death from
ovarian cancer in September 1994.
The couple were honored at the 1994 Tony Awards with the first-ever Special
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Cronyn, known to modern audiences for his roles in the 1980s "Cocoon" movies,
was a seasoned stage actor, making his theater debut in 1931 as a paperboy in
"Up Pops the Devil."
He was known for his versatility as an actor, playing a variety of characters
on stage, including a janitor in "Hippers' Holiday," in his Broadway debut in
1934; the gangster Elkus in "There's Always a Breeze," in 1938; and Andrei
Prozoroff, the brother in Chekhov's "Three Sisters," in 1939.
He made his film debut in 1943 as the detective story addict Herbie Hawkins in
Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt."
Cronyn appeared in Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" in 1944.
Cronyn went on to take other film parts, both major and minor, appearing in
several movies over the next 50 years, including: "Phantom of the Opera"
(1943); "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946); "People Will Talk" (1951);
"Cleopatra" (1963); "There Was a Crooked Man" (1970); and "The World According
to Garp" (1982).
He was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actor for his
performance in "The Seventh Cross" in 1944.
Cronyn frequently worked with his wife — on Broadway in "The Gin Game"
(1978), on television, in "Foxfire" (1987); and in movies, as a married couple,
in "Cocoon" (1985) and "Cocoon: The Return" (1988).
Both he and Tandy were Emmy Award nominees in 1994 for their performances in
"Hallmark Hall of Fame: To Dance With the White Dog." Cronyn won the award for
best actor in a miniseries or special for the CBS movie about an elderly man
whose dead wife's spirit returns in the form of a dog. He won two other Emmys
as well.
He also won a Tony as supporting actor for playing Polonius in "Hamlet," a 1964
production of Shakespeare's play directed by John Gielgud.
Jimmy Knepper
NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Knepper, a jazz trombonist best known for his volatile
relationship with composer Charles Mingus, died Saturday. He was 75. He died
from complications of Parkinson's disease in Triadelphia, W. Va.
Knepper's distinct but versatile sound was considered an important part of some
of Mingus' most popular albums, including "The Clown," and "Tijuana Moods."
Knepper began playing with Mingus' band in the late 1950s. He stayed with the
band for five years, but also occasionally worked with other bandleaders
including Stan Kenton, Herbie Mann, and Benny Goodman when he toured the Soviet
Union.
While preparing for a 1962 performance, Mingus slapped Knepper in the mouth as
the two argued. The strike broke an incisor and affected Knepper's range on the
trombone.
Mingus was convicted of assault. His relationship with Knepper ended for
several years until the two worked together again on four albums through the
1970s and during a Carnegie Hall concert in 1976. Mingus died in 1979.
Knepper spent much of the 1980s with the Mingus Dynasty, a band made up largely
of former Mingus sidemen. Through the 1990s, he toured Europe as a freelance
soloist.
Donald Macdonald
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Macdonald, vice chairman emeritus and retired director
of Dow Jones & Company, died Friday. He was 83.
Macdonald was a principal figure in Dow Jones' international expansion through
the 1970s and 1980s. He spearheaded the launch of The Asian Wall Street Journal
in 1976 after leading the company in acquiring a shareholding in the Far
Eastern Economic Review.
In 1983, Macdonald spurred an expansion into Europe by creating The Wall Street
Journal Europe.
A World War II veteran, Macdonald received a B.A. degree from New York
University in 1948, and a master's degree from New York University's graduate
school of business administration in 1950.
He joined Dow Jones in 1953 as an advertising sales representative in New York.
After rising through several advertising management and executive positions, he
was elected a director of the company in 1977 and vice chairman in 1979.
Macdonald was also president of Dow Jones' international and magazine groups,
and oversaw publications including The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Wall
Street Journal Europe and Barron's.
William Marshall
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor William Marshall, who played a variety of roles,
from Shakespeare's "Othello" on stage, to "Blacula" in the camp movie classic,
died Wednesday. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He was 78.
The actor appeared in dozens of films and in popular TV series such as "Star
Trek" in the 1960s and "The Jeffersons" in the 1980s.
He taught acting workshops at colleges and at the Mufandi Institute in Watts,
where he served as director in the 1960s.
On stage, Marshall portrayed singer Paul Robeson and statesman Frederick
Douglass, a role he spent 15 years researching. He eventually played the part
of the famed abolitionist on television.
Marshall was born in Gary, Ind., and studied acting at the Actors Studio and
the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City after spending several years as an
art student at New York University.
He played the Moorish king in "Othello" in Europe and in the United States. The
London Sunday Times once hailed him as "the best Othello of our time."
Marshall brought the same dignity to the title role in the 1972 movie,
"Blacula" and its sequel, "Scream, Blacula, Scream!" First conceived as a
dimwitted count, Marshall modeled the character on the original Count Dracula
in Bram Stoker's 19th century novel.
Esmond Patterson
ATLANTA (AP) — Esmond Patterson, who hosted a gospel radio show in Atlanta
for more than 45 years, died Saturday from pneumonia. He was 75.
Every weekday morning at 2 a.m., Patterson woke up and put on one of his 150
tuxedos, which he wore during his "Sunrise Morning Gospel" radio show that
aired on WAOK-AM at 4 a.m.
Patterson also brought national gospel singers to perform in Atlanta and
organized concerts for local talent.
A gospel singer himself, the Atlanta native launched his first radio show in
1955 at WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the country.
In 1963, Patterson took his two-hour weekday show to WAOK, where he remained
until the station changed its format to news/talk in 2001. He closed each show
by saying, "You ain't nothing but sugar, Atlanta. Stay sweet till we meet
again."
Patterson, who also sold life insurance, furniture and radio ads, won a Stellar
Award, the Grammy of gospel music, in 1996.
Leighton Rees
LONDON (AP) — Leighton Rees, a factory worker who became the world's first
professional darts champion and helped give the working-class pub game broad
appeal, died June 8. He was 63. Rees had a history of heart problems.
With a dry sense of humor and a thirst for drink, Rees was credited with
helping give darts mass appeal in Britain and the United States in the '70s and
'80s.
Born Jan. 17, 1940, in Ynysybwl, near Pontypridd in Wales, Rees left school at
15, with one of his teachers declaring he would be "good only for reading the
sports pages."
He worked for 21 years with a company making spare car parts until 1976, when
the money he earned in amateur contests allowed him to become a professional
darts player.
A year later, his team won the first World Darts' Federation World Cup and he
was crowned the World Cup singles champion.
The highlight of his career came in 1978, when he won the inaugural Embassy
World Darts crown, which popularized darts as a television event.
Olav Hans Ulland
KENT, Wash. (AP) — Olav Hans Ulland, the first ski jumper to clear 100
meters, died June 7. He was 92.
Ulland was also an Olympic coach and judge, and the co-founder of a group of
sporting goods stores in the Pacific Northwest.
Ulland was known in the Seattle area for "Sniagrab" — bargains spelled
backward — sales that once drew thousands to the flagship outlet of the
now-defunct Osborn & Ulland chain.
One of 11 children on a farm seven miles from Kongsberg, Norway, ski jumping
capital of the world at the time, Ulland began jumping by age 4.
Competing for Norway from 1929 to 1936, he won a number of titles in the early
1930s and was the first to break the 100-meter by soaring 103 1/2 meters at
Ponte di Legno, Italy, in 1935.
As a coach, Ulland took the Italian team to the 1936 Olympics in Germany, then
came to the United States in 1937 to coach Seattle Ski Club jumpers and decided
to stay.
He coached the U.S. team at the 1956 Olympics in Italy and the 1958 World
Championships in Finland. He was chief of jumping competitions at the 1960
Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif., and an International Ski Federation jumping
judge.
Ulland, who won his last senior ski jumping championship in Leavenworth at age
52, continued to jump until he was 60. He was inducted into the U.S. National
Ski Hall of Fame in 1981.
Enrico Baj
ROME (AP) — Enrico Baj, an Italian painter and graphic artist known for his
links to the Surrealist and neo-Dadaist movements, died overnight, the ANSA
news agency said Monday. He was 78.
Baj studied at Milan's Brera Academy and was keenly interested in the post-war
era of nuclear power. He co-founded the Nuclear Movement in 1951 and was also
affiliated with the Bauhaus, Surrealist and neo-Dadaist movements.
Art critic and Italy's former culture undersecretary, Vittorio Sgarbi,
described Baj's surrealism of the 1950s and 1960s as "strongly linked to the
reality of that period, in an artistic language that was fantastic and
expressive."
Pierre Bourgault
MONTREAL (AP) — Pierre Bourgault, a Quebec political leader known for
passionate oratory on independence from Canada, died Monday of respiratory
problems. He was 69.
Bourgault headed a small party of hardline separatists that merged with another
group to form the Parti Quebecois in the 1960s, leading to two failed
referendums on Quebec sovereignty.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Jean Chretien described Bourgault as a "gifted
speaker" and devoted supporter of the separatist cause. Chretien, who is from
Quebec but has opposed separatism throughout his political career, acknowledged
he and Bourgault differed on the issue.
Bourgault joined the Rassemblement pour l'independance nationale and became its
president in 1964. The party won 6 percent of the vote in Quebec's provincial
election in 1966. It eventually joined with another separatist group to create
the Parti Quebecois in 1968.
Since then, Quebec had held two referendums on sovereignty — in 1980 and 1995
— that both were defeated. In April, the Parti Quebecois lost the provincial
election after nine years in power.
Sir Bernard Williams
LONDON (AP) — Sir Bernard Williams, one of Britain's most influential
philosophers who is credited with reviving the field of moral philosophy, died
June 10. He was 73. No cause of death was given.
Williams held academic posts both in Britain and the United States, wrote
studies of Descartes and early Greek ethical thought and analyzed the liberal
doctrines of utilitarianism and Kantian ethics.
He wrote and presented a philosophy series, "What is Truth," on British
television and in the 1970s chaired the government's Committee on Obscenity and
Film Censorship.
Williams also served on government committees analyzing the moral issues
surrounding gambling, drug abuse and social justice.
Williams was keen to free philosophy from traditional restraints and reference
points, writing in his 1972 "Morality" that "whereas most moral philosophy at
most times has been empty and boring ... contemporary moral philosophy has
found an original way of being boring, which is by not discussing issues at
all."
Williams was knighted in 1999.