Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 2820 Location: hentai no mori..tehehehe..XD
Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2008 3:31 pm Post subject:
"Tony Takitani" director dies at 59
Fri, September 19, 2008 (3:14am EDT)
Film and commercial director Jun Ichikawa has passed away in a Shibuya hospital, it was learned on Friday. He was 59. According to reports, Ichikawa was taken to a hospital after he collapsed while away from home.
Ichikawa made his directorial debut in 1987 with "BU-SU." His filmography includes "Tokyo Lullaby" and "Osaka Story," though his highest-profile work was perhaps his adaptation of Haruki Murakami's story "Tony Takitani," which starred Issei Ogata and Rie Miyazawa. That film picked up the special jury prize at the 2004 Locarno International Film Festival.
Last year, Ichikawa directed the Riko Narumi-starring "Ashita no Watashi no Tsukurikata." His newest work, titled "buy a suit," has already been scheduled to make its world premiere in the Japanese Eyes section of this year's Tokyo International Film Festival (October 18-26).
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12123 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:19 pm Post subject:
Paul Newman dies at 83
WESTPORT, Conn. - Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as an activist, race car driver, popcorn impresario and the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money," has died. He was 83.
Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.
In May, Newman he had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.
He got his start in theater and on television during the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers. He was nominated for Oscars 10 times, winning one regular award and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including "Exodus," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Verdict," "The Sting" and "Absence of Malice."
Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting."
He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray. They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in "The Long Hot Summer," and Newman directed her in several films, including "Rachel, Rachel" and "The Glass Menagerie."
Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 2820 Location: hentai no mori..tehehehe..XD
Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 5:21 pm Post subject:
Singer Frank Nagai passes away
Sun, November 2, 2008 (1:09am EST)
Singer Frank Nagai, known for his low voice and several big hits such as "Yurakucho de Aimashou" and "Kimi Koishi," died of pneumonia on October 27, it was learned on Sunday. He was 76 years old.
The singer, whose real name was Kiyoto Nagai, released "Yurakucho de Aimashou" as his first hit in 1957. Four years later, "Kimi Koishi" earned him a Japan Record Award. He was also a regular face on NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen between 1957 and 1982.
Nagai attempted suicide in 1985 but failed, though he had been rehabilitating ever since then. This summer, his health worsened after he caught a cold, and he unfortunately never recovered.
NEW YORK – The family of Michael Crichton, the million-selling author of such historic and prehistoric science fantasies as "Jurassic Park," "Timeline" and "The Andromeda Strain," says the author has died in Los Angeles.
Crichton died Tuesday at age 66. He had been privately battling cancer, his family said.
"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand," his family said in a statement.
Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 2360 Location: Texas Country:
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 3:55 am Post subject:
Majel Roddenberry, 'First Lady of Star Trek,' dies
NEW YORK (AP) �\ Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, has died. She was 76. Roddenberry, an actress who appeared in numerous "Star Trek" TV shows and movies, died Thursday of leukemia at her home in Bel-Air, Calif., her representative said.
At Roddenberry's side were family friends and her only son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr. Gene Roddenberry died in 1991.
Her romance with Roddenberry earned her the title "The First Lady of Star Trek." A fixture in the "Star Trek" franchise, her roles included Nurse Christine Chapel in the original "Star Trek," Lwaxana Troi in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and the voice of the USS Enterprise computer in almost every spin-off of the 1966 cult series. She recently reprised the voice role in the upcoming "Star Trek" film directed by J.J. Abrams.
Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 2820 Location: hentai no mori..tehehehe..XD
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2008 12:09 am Post subject:
Former porn star Ai Iijima found dead at Tokyo apartment
Wednesday 24th December, 08:40 PM JST
TOKYO �\Former television personality Ai Iijima was found dead at her condominium unit in Tokyo�fs Shibuya Ward on Wednesday afternoon, less than two years after she announced her retirement from show business, police said.
Iijima, 36, was found lying in the living room in casual clothes and with no obvious injuries, police said, adding they believe she either died of an illness or committed suicide. An autopsy will be conducted on Thursday.
Iijima�fs body was found around 3:15 p.m. Wednesday by an acquaintance who paid a visit to the condo after Iijima had stopped responding to communications from her several days ago. The acquaintance had the resident manager open Iijima�fs unit on the 21st floor of the condominium building.
Iijima gained popularity in the 1990s as a variety show host and for other roles. Her autobiographical novel �e�ePlatonic Sex,�f�f published in 2000, became a bestseller and was made into a movie as well as a television drama.
In 2006, she made public that her health was not good due to a kidney disease and other problems. She announced her retirement in March last year, saying, �e�eIt is impossible to survive in the entertainment industry if I cannot find my goal and dream, and cannot keep trying.�f�f
Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 5042 Location: where the sun never stop shining
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 11:57 am Post subject:
Eartha Kitt, sultry 'Santa Baby' singer, dies 81
12/25/2008 6:36 PM, AP
Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died, a family spokesman said. She was 81.
Andrew Freedman said Kitt, who was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died Thursday in Connecticut of colon cancer.
Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten" famous for her catlike purr, was one of America's most versatile performers, winning two Emmys and nabbing a third nomination. She also was nominated for several Tonys and two Grammys.
Her career spanned six decades, from her start as a dancer with the famed Katherine Dunham troupe to cabarets and acting and singing on stage, in movies and on television. She persevered through an unhappy childhood as a mixed-race daughter of the South and made headlines in the 1960s for denouncing the Vietnam War during a visit to the White House.
Through the years, Kitt remained a picture of vitality and attracted fans less than half her age even as she neared 80.
Associated Press Writer John Rogers
Mon Dec 29, 5:49 pm ET
LOS ANGELES – Freddie Hubbard, the Grammy-winning jazz musician whose style influenced a generation of trumpet players and who collaborated with such greats as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, died Monday, a month after suffering a heart attack. He was 70.
Hubbard died at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his manager, fellow trumpeter David Weiss of the New Jazz Composers Octet. He had been hospitalized since suffering the heart attack a day before Thanksgiving.
A towering figure in jazz circles, Hubbard played on hundreds of recordings in a career dating to 1958, the year he arrived in New York from his hometown Indianapolis, where he had studied at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music and with the Indianapolis Symphony.
Soon he had hooked up with such jazz legends as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley and Coltrane.
"I met Trane at a jam session at Count Basie's in Harlem in 1958," he told the jazz magazine Down Beat in 1995. "He said, `Why don't you come over and let's try and practice a little bit together.' I almost went crazy. I mean, here is a 20-year-old kid practicing with John Coltrane. He helped me out a lot, and we worked several jobs together."
In his earliest recordings, which included "Open Sesame" and "Goin' Up" for Blue Note in 1960, the influence of Davis and others on Hubbard is obvious, Weiss said. But within a couple years he would develop a style all his own, one that would influence generations of musicians, including Wynton Marsalis.
"He influenced all the trumpet players that came after him," Marsalis told The Associated Press earlier this year. "Certainly I listened to him a lot. ... We all listened to him. He has a big sound and a great sense of rhythm and time and really the hallmark of his playing is an exuberance. His playing is exuberant."
Hubbard played on more than 300 recordings, including his own albums and those of scores of other artists. He won his Grammy in 1972 for best jazz performance by a group for the album "First Light."
As a young musician, Hubbard became revered among his peers for a fiery, blazing style that allowed him to hit notes higher and faster than just about anyone else with a horn. As age and infirmity began to slow that style, he switched to a softer, melodic style and played a flugelhorn. His fellow musicians were still impressed.
"The sound he gets on just one note. I know he does all the flashy stuff and the high stuff and it's all great but ... he'd play `Body and Soul' on the flugelhorn and it was just that much better again than everyone around him," trumpeter Chris Botti said in an interview earlier this year.
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