'60 Minutes' reporter Ed Bradley dies

By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer

Ed Bradley, the award-winning television journalist who broke racial barriers at CBS News and created a distinctive, powerful body of work during his 26 years on "60 Minutes," died Thursday. He was 65.

Bradley died of leukemia at Mount Sinai hospital, CBS News announced.

He landed many memorable interviews, including the Duke lacrosse players accused of rape, Michael Jackson and the only TV interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Bradley "was tough in an interview, he was insistent on getting an interview," said former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, "and at the same time when the interview was over, when the subject had taken a pretty heavy lashing by him �\ they left as friends. He was that kind of guy."

With his signature earring and beard, Bradley was "considered intelligent, smooth, cool, a great reporter, beloved and respected by all his colleagues here at CBS News," Katie Couric said in a special report.

"A reporter's reporter," fellow "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace told CBS News Radio.

Bradley's consummate skills were recognized with numerous awards, including four George Foster Peabody awards and 19 Emmys, the latest for a segment on the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder case of Emmett Till.

Three of his Emmys came at the 2003 awards: for lifetime achievement; a report on brain cancer patients; and a report about sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. He also won a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Bradley joined "60 Minutes" in 1981 when Dan Rather left to replace Cronkite as anchor of "The CBS Evening News."

Actress, Film-maker, writer, Adrienne Shelly was found murdered the day before yesterday.

First reports said it looked like a suicide, but once the cops opened their eyes they realized she'd been murdered, and then the crime scene was made to look like a suicide.

Shelly, alone (in her apartment or her office, the reports vary) got into an argument about the noise with one of the construction workers on the floor below. The guy, a 19 year old who has since confesed, hit her, apparently knocked her out, and thinking he killed her he decided to make it look like she'd hung herself in the shower. After examination, it turns out the blow to the head didn't killer her, she was strangled when he hung her from the shower rod.

I guess you have to be sort of a live theater person, or an indy film buff to know Adrienne Shelly, but she was an amazing actress.

Her new film, written and directed by Shelly, "Waitress" staring Kerri Russel, Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto, and Andy Griffith was expected to make the cut for the next Sundance Film Festival.

She'd just turned 40, and leaves behind a husband and a 3 year old daughter.
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bmwracer wrote:

'60 Minutes' reporter Ed Bradley dies By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer Ed Bradley, the award-winning television journalist who broke racial barriers at CBS News and created a distinctive, powerful body of work during his 26 years on "60 Minutes," died Thursday. He was 65. Bradley died of leukemia at Mount Sinai hospital, CBS News announced. He landed many memorable interviews, including the Duke lacrosse players accused of rape, Michael Jackson and the only TV interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Bradley "was tough in an interview, he was insistent on getting an interview," said former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, "and at the same time when the interview was over, when the subject had taken a pretty heavy lashing by him �\ they left as friends. He was that kind of guy." With his signature earring and beard, Bradley was "considered intelligent, smooth, cool, a great reporter, beloved and respected by all his colleagues here at CBS News," Katie Couric said in a special report. "A reporter's reporter," fellow "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace told CBS News Radio. Bradley's consummate skills were recognized with numerous awards, including four George Foster Peabody awards and 19 Emmys, the latest for a segment on the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder case of Emmett Till. Three of his Emmys came at the 2003 awards: for lifetime achievement; a report on brain cancer patients; and a report about sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. He also won a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists. Bradley joined "60 Minutes" in 1981 when Dan Rather left to replace Cronkite as anchor of "The CBS Evening News."

Thats so shocking. I really like him better then Mike Wallace.

Geezer wrote:

Actress, Film-maker, writer, Adrienne Shelly was found murdered the day before yesterday. First reports said it looked like a suicide, but once the cops opened their eyes they realized she'd been murdered, and then the crime scene was made to look like a suicide. Shelly, alone (in her apartment or her office, the reports vary) got into an argument about the noise with one of the construction workers on the floor below. The guy, a 19 year old who has since confesed, hit her, apparently knocked her out, and thinking he killed her he decided to make it look like she'd hung herself in the shower. After examination, it turns out the blow to the head didn't killer her, she was strangled when he hung her from the shower rod. I guess you have to be sort of a live theater person, or an indy film buff to know Adrienne Shelly, but she was an amazing actress. Her new film, written and directed by Shelly, "Waitress" staring Kerri Russel, Cheryl Hines, Jeremy Sisto, and Andy Griffith was expected to make the cut for the next Sundance Film Festival. She'd just turned 40, and leaves behind a husband and a 3 year old daughter.

I've seen this girl in the movie Big girls don't cry. RIP

bmwracer wrote:

'60 Minutes' reporter Ed Bradley dies By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer Ed Bradley, the award-winning television journalist who broke racial barriers at CBS News and created a distinctive, powerful body of work during his 26 years on "60 Minutes," died Thursday. He was 65. Bradley died of leukemia at Mount Sinai hospital, CBS News announced. He landed many memorable interviews, including the Duke lacrosse players accused of rape, Michael Jackson and the only TV interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Bradley "was tough in an interview, he was insistent on getting an interview," said former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, "and at the same time when the interview was over, when the subject had taken a pretty heavy lashing by him �\ they left as friends. He was that kind of guy." With his signature earring and beard, Bradley was "considered intelligent, smooth, cool, a great reporter, beloved and respected by all his colleagues here at CBS News," Katie Couric said in a special report. "A reporter's reporter," fellow "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace told CBS News Radio. Bradley's consummate skills were recognized with numerous awards, including four George Foster Peabody awards and 19 Emmys, the latest for a segment on the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder case of Emmett Till. Three of his Emmys came at the 2003 awards: for lifetime achievement; a report on brain cancer patients; and a report about sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. He also won a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists. Bradley joined "60 Minutes" in 1981 when Dan Rather left to replace Cronkite as anchor of "The CBS Evening News."

He will be greatly missed. May he Rest In Peace.

Enna wrote:

He will be greatly missed. May he Rest In Peace.

a very accomplished journalist. always fun to watch.

More sad news:

LOS ANGELES - Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned to comedy at 70 with his Oscar-winning self-parody in "City Slickers," died Friday.

Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. Palance was 85 according to Associated Press records, but his family gave his age as 87.

When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor he delighted viewers of the 1992 Academy Awards by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups to demonstrate his physical prowess.

"That's nothing, really," he said slyly. "As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not."

gaijin mark wrote:

More sad news: LOS ANGELES - Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned to comedy at 70 with his Oscar-winning self-parody in "City Slickers," died Friday. Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. Palance was 85 according to Associated Press records, but his family gave his age as 87. When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor he delighted viewers of the 1992 Academy Awards by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups to demonstrate his physical prowess. "That's nothing, really," he said slyly. "As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not."

One-of-a-kind! He will be sorely missed. May he Rest in Peace.

Singer Gerald Levert Dies of Heart Attack at Age 40

Gerald Levert (July 13, 1966 - November 10, 2006) was an American R&B singer, one of several from the musical Levert family. His father, Eddie Levert, is the lead singer of the 1970s soul group The O'Jays. Gerald Levert sang with his brother, Sean Levert, and Marc Gordon in the R&B trio LeVert. He was also a part of LSG, an R&B musical group comprised of Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill, and Levert.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Levert scored big hits with "Baby Hold On to Me", "Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop (Goes My Mind)", "Casanova", and "ABC-123" (not to be confused with the Jackson Five hit of the same name). He also wrote and produced the late Barry White's "comeback" hit, "Practice What You Preach". As a solo artist, Gerald's hits included "I'd Give Anything (to Fall in Love)", "You Got That Love", "Funny", and "Mr. Too Damn Good to You". Gerald and Eddie collaborated together on many different occasions, and they recorded an album called Father and Son together.

Levert died of an apparent heart attack in his sleep while at his Cleveland, Ohio, home on November 10, 2006. Sister 2 Sister magazine reported that Gerald and his father had just returned from a 10-day trip to South Africa where they had met with Nelson Mandela.

Only 40 years old. Man, that sucks.
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Tributes flow for Belinda Emmett

POLITICIANS have joined the biggest names in the Australian entertainment industry to pay tribute to Belinda Emmett's dignified eight-year battle with two bouts of cancer, which finally claimed her life.

The 32-year-old passed away at dawn at St Vincent's Hospital with her husband, Rove McManus, her parents and siblings at her side.

"It is with great sadness we advise that Belinda Emmett's battle with cancer has ended," her family said in a statement.

Friends said McManus was shattered by his loss, and Network Ten yesterday issued a statement confirming that his live weekly variety show would not air this week.

"Ten will give Rove the time he needs away from the show and any support we can during this very sad time," the statement said.


Very sad...... so young...... she was a well-known Aussie actress and married to Rove McManus, a TV show host.

Director Robert Altman, has reportedly died yesterday in a LA hospital... post more when news reports are posted



ETA:

Quote:

Film Director Robert Altman Dies By DAVID GERMAIN AP Movie Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Robert Altman, the caustic and irreverent satirist behind "M-A-S-H," "Nashville" and "The Player" who made a career out of bucking Hollywood management and story conventions, died at a Los Angeles Hospital, his Sandcastle 5 Productions Company said Tuesday. He was 81. The director died Monday night, Joshua Astrachan, a producer at Altman's Sandcastle 5 Productions in New York City, told The Associated Press. The director died Monday night, Joshua Astrachan, a producer at Altman's Sandcastle 5 Productions in New York City, told The Associated Press. The cause of death wasn't disclosed. A news release was expected later in the day, Astrachan said. A five-time Academy Award nominee for best director, most recently for 2001's "Gosford Park," he finally won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2006. "No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have," Altman said while accepting the award. "I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition." Altman had one of the most distinctive styles among modern filmmakers. He often employed huge ensemble casts, encouraged improvisation and overlapping dialogue and filmed scenes in long tracking shots that would flit from character to character. Perpetually in and out of favor with audiences and critics, Altman worked ceaselessly since his anti-war black comedy "M-A-S-H" established his reputation in 1970, but he would go for years at a time directing obscure movies before roaring back with a hit. After a string of commercial duds including "The Gingerbread Man" in 1998, "Cookie's Fortune" in 1999 and "Dr. T & the Women" in 2000, Altman took his all-American cynicism to Britain for 2001's "Gosford Park." A combination murder-mystery and class-war satire set among snobbish socialites and their servants on an English estate in the 1930s, "Gosford Park" was Altman's biggest box-office success since "M-A-S-H." Besides best-director, "Gosford Park" earned six other Oscar nominations, including best picture and best supporting actress for both Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith. It won the original-screenplay Oscar, and Altman took the best-director prize at the Golden Globes for "Gosford Park." Altman's other best-director Oscar nominations came for "M-A-S-H," the country-music saga "Nashville" from 1975, the movie-business satire "The Player" from 1992 and the ensemble character study "Short Cuts" from 1993. He also earned a best-picture nomination as producer of "Nashville." No director ever got more best-director nominations without winning a regular Oscar, though four other men - Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Clarence Brown and King Vidor - tied with Altman at five. In May, Altman brought out "A Prairie Home Companion," with Garrison Keillor starring as the announcer of a folksy musical show - with the same name as Keillor's own long-running show - about to be shut down by new owners. Among those in the cast were Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson and Tommy Lee Jones. "This film is about death," Altman said at a May 3 news conference in St. Paul, Minn., also attended by Keillor and many of the movie's stars. He often took on Hollywood genres with a revisionist's eye, de-romanticizing the Western hero in 1971's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and 1976's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson," the film-noir gumshoe in 1973's "The Long Goodbye" and outlaw gangsters in "Thieves Like Us." "M-A-S-H" was Altman's first big success after years of directing television, commercials, industrial films and generally unremarkable feature films. The film starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould was set during the Korean War but was Altman's thinly veiled attack on U.S. involvement in Vietnam. "That was my intention entirely. If you look at that film, there's no mention of what war it is," Altman said in an Associated Press interview in 2001, adding that the studio made him put a disclaimer at the beginning to identify the setting as Korea. "Our mandate was bad taste. If anybody had a joke in the worst taste, it had a better chance of getting into the film, because nothing was in worse taste than that war itself," Altman said. The film spawned the long-running TV sitcom starring Alan Alda, a show Altman would refer to with distaste as "that series." Unlike the social message of the film, the series was prompted by greed, Altman said. "They made millions and millions of dollars by bringing an Asian war into Americans' homes every Sunday night," Altman said in 2001. "I thought that was the worst taste." Altman never minced words about reproaching Hollywood. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he said Hollywood served as a source of inspiration for the terrorists by making violent action movies that amounted to training films for such attacks. "Nobody would have thought to commit an atrocity like that unless they'd seen it in a movie," Altman said. Altman was written off repeatedly by the Hollywood establishment, and his reputation for arrogance and hard drinking - a habit he eventually gave up - hindered his efforts to raise money for his idiosyncratic films. While critical of studio executives, Altman held actors in the highest esteem. He joked that on "Gosford Park," he was there mainly to turn the lights on and off for the performers. The respect was mutual. Top-name actors would clamor for even bit parts in his films. Altman generally worked on shoestring budgets, yet he continually landed marquee performers who signed on for a fraction of their normal salaries. After the mid-1970s, the quality of Altman's films became increasingly erratic. His 1980 musical "Popeye," with Robin Williams, was trashed by critics, and Altman took some time off from film. He directed the Broadway production of "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," following it with a movie adaptation in 1982. Altman went back and forth from TV to theatrical films over the next decade, but even when his films earned critical praise, such as 1990's "Vincent & Theo," they remained largely unseen. "The Player" and "Short Cuts" re-established Altman's reputation and commercial viability. But other 1990s films - including his fashion-industry farce "Ready to Wear" and "Kansas City," his reverie on the 1930s jazz and gangster scene of his hometown - fell flat. Born Feb. 20, 1925, Altman hung out in his teen years at the jazz clubs of Kansas City, Mo., where his father was an insurance salesman. Altman was a bomber pilot in World War II and studied engineering at the University of Missouri in Columbia before taking a job making industrial films in Kansas City. He moved into feature films with "The Delinquents" in 1957, then worked largely in television through the mid 1960s, directing episodes of such series as "Bonanza" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Altman and his wife, Kathryn, had two sons, Robert and Matthew, and he had a daughter, Christine, and two other sons, Michael and Stephen, from two previous marriages. When he received his honorary Oscar in 2006, Altman revealed he had a heart transplant a decade earlier. "I didn't make a big secret out of it, but I thought nobody would hire me again," he said after the ceremony. "You know, there's such a stigma about heart transplants, and there's a lot of us out there." --- Associated Press writer Jeff Baenen in St. Paul, Minn., contributed to this report. © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

krim wrote:

Director Robert Altman, has reportedly died today in a LA hospital... post more when news reports are posted

One the great American directors of all time.

Condolences.

NEW YORK - Peter Boyle, the actor who transformed from an angry workingman in "Joe" to a tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" and finally the comically grouchy father on "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71.

Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.

If you've never seen "Young Frankenstein", see it. One of the funniest movies ever.

Godfather of Soul James Brown RIP
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Soul Brother Number One.

The Godfather of Soul.

Mr. Dynamite.

The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.


Rest in Peace.

yup, agreed. the godfather of soul r.i.p.

influenced many artists from different genres. an inspiration to a lot of people.

I missed that! RIP James Brown.

I saw the Blues Brothers movie the other night. Reminded me what a great artist he was.

a-nesuto wrote:

Godfather of Soul James Brown RIP

A great loss to the music industry. He died Christmas Eve from Pneumonia. He was to perform in Madison Square Garden for the New Year celebration. A lot of folks will miss him.

I will always remember James Brown singing in the Rocky 4 movie before Apollo Creed got beaten.