Free Republic

Michael Parks, a prolific character actor who found early fame in 1960s countercultural roles and later became a favorite of directors including Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith, has died. He was 77.

Growing up in Queens, where he played high school baseball, Sam Mele had no shortage of advice on the fine points of the game. His uncles Tony and Al Cuccinello were major league infielders, and Tony’s Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Al Lopez, who was their catcher and a future Hall of Fame manager, dropped by to give him a tip or two. Mele became an outstanding baseball and basketball player at New York University, played for 10 seasons in the major leagues, mostly in the outfield, then managed the Minnesota Twins to the 1965 American League pennant. He died on Monday...

R.I.P., DON GORDON (November 13, 1926 – April 24, 2017), movie and TV character actor. He had recurring roles on THE BLUE ANGELS (1960-61), PEYTON PLACE (1966), and LUCAN (1977-78). He appeared with his friend Steve McQueen in BULLITT (1968), PAPILLON (1973) and THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) and two episodes of WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE.

Col. Leo K. Thorsness, one of the most highly decorated American airmen of the Vietnam War and a belated recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroism on a mission that took place 11 days before he was shot down and taken prisoner, died Tuesday in Jacksonville, Fla. Colonel Thorsness, who had been brutalized during his six years of captivity at the notorious North Vietnamese prison known as the Hanoi Hilton, where he was a cellmate of John McCain’s, was 85. His death was announced by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which said he had been treated for...

A spokesman with the Federal Bureau of Prisons has confirmed the death of evangelist Tony Alamo. He was 82. Alamo, who operated ministries in Arkansas decades ago, had been imprisoned under his real name of Bernie Hoffman at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Butner in North Carolina. Hoffman died on Tuesday, the spokesman said. He had been sent to prison in 2009 after a conviction of transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes.

Ken Sears, an All-America basketball player for Santa Clara in the 1950s who later played eight seasons in the NBA, died Sunday in his hometown of Watsonville, the university announced Monday. He was 83. Mr. Sears played from 1951 through ’55 for the Broncos under head coach Bob Feerick and started as a freshman on their Final Four team of 1952. He was twice named the WCC Player of the Year, beating out USF’s Bill Russell for the honor in 1955.

Jonathan Demme, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who observed emphatically American characters with a discerning eye, a social conscience and a rock ’n’ roll heart, achieving especially wide acclaim with “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Philadelphia,” died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 73. His publicist, Leslee Dart, confirmed the death. Mr. Demme disclosed that he had cancer in 2015. Mob wives, CB radio buffs and AIDS victims; Hannibal Lecter, Howard Hughes and Jimmy Carter: Mr. Demme (pronounced DEM-ee) plucked his subjects and stories largely from the stew of contemporary American subcultures and iconography. He created a body...

Kate O’Beirne was part of National Review’s world before she joined the staff. When she became the magazine’s Washington editor in 1995 her resume already included stints at Senator Jim Buckley’s office, the Reagan administration, and the Heritage Foundation. She served NR in that position for eleven years and then became president of National Review Institute for six more.

Erin Moran, best known as Ron Howard's kid sister in the classic sitcom "Happy Days," has died, TMZ reports......

Erin Moran who famously played Joanie Cunningham on "Happy Days" and its spinoff "Joanie Loves Chachi" has died ... TMZ has learned. We're told authorities in Indiana got a call just after 4 PM ET Saturday from someone reporting an "unresponsive female."  EMT's arrived and found Erin Moran's body ... she was already dead.   Moran shot to spotlight in the early 70s when she was cast on "Happy Days" as Joanie, the younger sister of Ron Howard's character. She continued the role in 1982 alongside Scott Baio in "Joanie Loves Chachi" but the show only lasted one season.

Clifton James, a veteran actor who appeared as Sheriff J.W. Pepper in two James Bond films, died Saturday morning at age 96... James most famous role came on film. He appeared in two James Bond films opposite Roger Moore: “Live and Let Die” (1973) and “The Man with the Golden Gun” (1974). He portrayed the crowing Louisiana sheriff, J.W. Pepper (pictured). James would play similar Southern lawman in numerous other roles during his career, including “Silver Streak” and “Superman II” Among his other film credits included “Cool Hand Luke,” “Eight Men Out” and “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” ...

Rome (AFP) - Emma Morano, an Italian woman believed to have been the oldest person alive and the last survivor of the 19th century, died Saturday at the age of 117, Italian media reported... "She had an extraordinary life, and we will always remember her strength to move forward in life," the mayor of Verbania was quoted as saying... Morano's death means there is no one living known to have been born before 1900. "I eat two eggs a day, and that's it. And cookies. But I do not eat much because I have no teeth," she said in her...

Comedian Charlie Murphy Brother Of Eddie Murphy Gone At 57 After A Long Battle With Leukemia%21

NEW YORK (AP) — He was only kidding. Really. Don Rickles loved everybody: black or white, gay or straight, fat or thin. But don't get him started on his wife, or the time she dove into their swimming pool while wearing all her jewelry. And drowned. For more than half a century, the hollering, bald-headed "Mr. Warmth" let everyone have it. Insults rained on the meek and the mighty, from unsuspecting fans to such fellow celebrities as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Johnny Carson.

Bob Cerv, who holds the single-season record for home runs by a Major League Baseball player in Kansas City history, died Thursday in Blair, Neb. He was 91. Cerv, who served during World War II, was friends with former President Harry Truman, played basketball and baseball at Nebraska and, as a member of the Yankees, roomed with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle as they dueled for the home-run title in 1961... In six seasons with the Yankees, Cerv was mostly a part-time outfielder/pinch hitter, but he played in two World Series (1955 and 1956), and the Yankees won the 1956...

Don Rickles, one of the most legendary, iconic and influential comedians in history, has died. We've learned Don died Thursday morning of kidney failure at his home in Los Angeles. His wife, Barbara, was by his side. Don rose to fame in the '60s ... he got a huge boost by making regular appearances on "The Tonight Show" and "The Dean Martin Show." Rickles got Frank Sinatra's attention in Miami Beach when he performed a comedy routine, and the 2 regularly worked together throughout the years. Rickles was the best insult comic ever, and was a master at roasting celebs...

Roy Sievers, who won the American League’s first Rookie of the Year Award playing for the 1949 St. Louis Browns and became one of baseball’s leading power hitters of the 1950s with the original Washington Senators, died on Monday at his home in Spanish Lake, Mo. He was 90... Playing in the outfield and at first base for 17 major league seasons, Sievers hit 318 home runs. His best season came in 1957, when he had a league-leading 42 homers and 114 runs batted in while hitting .301 for the last-place Senators. The right-handed-batting Sievers also hit home runs in...

Richard N. Bolles, a former Harvard physics major, Episcopal minister and career counselor whose own twisting vocational path led to his writing “What Color Is Your Parachute?” — the most popular job-hunter’s manual of the 1970s and beyond — died on Friday in San Ramon, Calif. He was 90... Mr. Bolles (pronounced bowls) originally self-published his manual in 1970 as a photocopied how-to booklet for unemployed Protestant ministers. In 1972, he recast it to appeal to a wider audience and found an independent publisher in Berkeley, Calif., willing to print small batches so that it could be frequently updated. Since...

Acclaimed Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, whose work focused on war atrocities and denounced anti-Semitism and tyrannical dictators, has died. He was 84... Yevtushenko gained notoriety in the former Soviet Union while in his 20s, with poetry denouncing Josef Stalin. He gained international acclaim as a young revolutionary with "Babi Yar," the unflinching 1961 poem that told of the slaughter of nearly 34,000 Jews by the Nazis and denounced the anti-Semitism that had spread throughout the Soviet Union... Until "Babi Yar" was published, the history of the massacre was shrouded in the fog of the Cold War...

WLOX - Nearly 40 years after he created the multi-color symbol of the LGBT movement, Gilbert Baker died Friday at the age of 65. Details about his death are unknown at this time, but friends say Baker died in his sleep. News of the man known as the father of the rainbow flag spread on social media. My dearest friend in the world is gone. Gilbert Baker gave the world the Rainbow Flag; he gave me forty years of love and friendship. pic.twitter.com/titd3XZ0zD — Cleve Jones (@CleveJones1) March 31, 2017 According to his website, the first flag - which was...