Death Anniversary Thread

[Drewsky1211 4,767]

Marty Feldman died on this day 42 years ago, aged 48.

- Feldman's famous bug-eyes were the result of Graves' ophthalmopathy, made more pronounced by vehicle accidents and botched reconstructive eye surgery.

- Feldman initially wanted to become a jazz musician before becoming a comedian, playing the trumpet. His first comedy act was in a group called "Morris, Marty and Mitch", appearing on a 1955 episode of Showcase. Feldman delved into television further when he paired up with Barry Took and created Bootsie and Snudge in 1960.

- Feldman was a principal writer of The Frost Report, where he would collaborate with many famous comedians of the day- including most of Monty Python, two of The Goodies, The Two Ronnies, and Tom Lehrer. Feldman would also co-opt some of their work into his own material, such as in his 1974 TV special Marty Back Together Again:

- In terms of acting, Feldman was best known as Igor (it's pronounced eye-gore) in Young Frankenstein. He collaborated with Mel Brooks again in his 1976 film Silent Movie as Marty Eggs (an obvious expy of himself).

- Feldman was also known for being a guest star in a 1981 episode of The Muppet Show:

- Feldman died of a heart attack during the production of his final film Yellowbeard- likely caused from his chronic smoking habit. The epitaph on his grave is a message from his wife Lauretta- "He made us laugh, he took my pain away, I love you."

[The Ashes Urn 1,358]

American jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd died on this day 25 years ago, aged 74.

 

[John "요한" Sulu 423]

On this day 4 years ago, French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who served his term from 1974 to 1981, passed away at the age of 94.

 

Photo Credit: © European Communities, 1975 / EC, Photo: Christian Lambiotte / CC BY 4.0

[Drewsky1211 4,767]

Scatman John died on this day 25 years ago, aged 57.

- John's full name was John Larkin. Born with a severe stutter, he would learn to play piano and would mitigate the effects of his stutter by scatting along to the works of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.

- John would emigrate to Germany in 1990, and his agent would decide to modernize scat by having him sing over Eurodance beats. In 1995, John would release the Scatman's World album, headed by his autobiographical single "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)":

The song reached number 1 in several countries, including Canada, France, Ireland and Spain. Nowadays, the song is considered to be a meme, mostly due to being affiliated with early YouTube Poop videos (circa 2006-2007):

Also on the album was the titular "Scatman's World", which has also entered meme status:

- John would make two more albums afterwards: Everybody Jam! in 1996 (notably featuring a scat cover of Queen's "The Invisible Man"), and Take Your Time in 1999.

- Scatman John was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1998, losing has battle to the disease after one year.

[Ulitzer95 12,700]

9 hours ago, John "요한" Sulu said:

On this day 4 years ago, French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who served his term from 1974 to 1981, passed away at the age of 94.

 

Photo Credit: © European Communities, 1975 / EC, Photo: Christian Lambiotte / CC BY 4.0

 

Nothing to say over at the Shadow Lists thread, Mr. Sulu?

Also, you don't have to give photo credit every time. This is a bloody forum. You're not publishing anything.

[MariNisia 4,209]

36 minutes ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Nothing to say over at the Shadow Lists thread, Mr. Sulu?

 

About Shadow Lists... Mr. Sulu will be the first player ever to collect 51 hits, I'm bloody sure. 

[The Ashes Urn 1,358]

American jazz and R&B guitarist Jimmy Shirley died on this day 35 years ago, aged 76.

 

[Toast 16,167]

2 hours ago, Ulitzer95 said:

Nothing to say over at the Shadow Lists thread, Mr. Sulu?
Also, you don't have to give photo credit every time. This is a bloody forum. You're not publishing anything.

 

And reducing the size of the images would be good too.

[Drewsky1211 4,767]

Jeremy Thorpe died on this day 10 years ago, aged 85.

- Thorpe came from a political family- his father John served as an MP from 1919 to 1923, as did his maternal grandfather John Norton-Griffiths (1910 to 1924). Like his father his name was also actually John, but he went by his middle name.

- Thorpe was elected to Parliament in 1959, largely introducing bills to help industrialize his constituency. He became known for helping fund Liberal Party candidates' campaigns in swing seats, which would help propel him up the party's ranks, and in 1967 was named the leader of the Liberal Party. Thorpe's reputation declined after the Tories won the 1970 election, and by 1975 the Liberals were seeing disastrous election results.

- Thorpe is most famous (or infamous) for his affair with Norman Scott- Scott alleged that Thorpe mistreated him during the early 1960s and planned to have his exposé published. Thorpe planned to hire his friend David Holmes as a hitman to kill Scott before the allegations were released, embezzling campaign funds to pay a different hitman named Andrew Newton. Newton would attempt to do so in 1975, instead missing and shooting his dog (who sadly died).

- Thorpe would resign as the Liberal Party leader in May of 1976, and in 1977 Newton would incriminate Thorpe after completing his prison sentence. Thorpe was indicted with charges of conspiracy to murder in August 1978, and obviously lost reelection to Parliament in the 1979 election. Ultimately, Thorpe was found not guilty.

- In 1979, Thorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which progressed quite slowly. It was not until 2009 that he retired from public life, and survived with the disease for 35 years.

- Thorpe made only one appearance on the DeathList, in 1994 (spot no. 44).