Posted on 12/20/2008 7:13:12 AM PST by mgc1122
Notable Passings Of 2008
Another year winds down, and I thought it important to list a few of the memorable public characters who passed on this year. Some we loved. Some we didn't know. Some went too soon. Some not soon enough. Some we like and will miss. Others ... not so much.
They include:
W. Mark Felt, "Deep Throat", Dec. 18W. Mark Felt, the former FBI second-in-command who revealed himself as "Deep Throat" 30 years after he tipped off reporters to the Watergate scandal that toppled a president, died on Dec. 18. He was 95.
Van Johnson, actor, Dec. 12 Van Johnson, whose boy-next-door wholesomeness made him a popular Hollywood star in the '40s and '50s with such films as "30 Seconds over Tokyo," ''A Guy Named Joe" and "The Caine Mutiny," died on Dec. 12 of natural causes. He was 92.
Forrest J. Ackerman, sci-fi writer, sometime actor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi," died on Dec. 4 at 92.
Michael Crichton, author of best sellers including "Jurassic Park" and "The Andromeda Strain," died in Los Angeles on Nov. 5.
Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as Hud, Cool Hand Luke and The Color of Money - followed by a second act as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario - died on Sept. 26. He was 83.
Bernie Mac, a comedian-actor who blended style, authority and a touch of self-aware bluster to make audiences laugh, died on Aug. 9 of complications from pneumonia. He was 50.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning Russian author whose books chronicled the horrors of dictator Josef Stalin's slave labor camps, died of heart failure on Aug. 3. He was 89.
Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died on July 25. He was 47.
Tony Snow, a conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with reporters in the White House briefing room during a stint as President Bush's press secretary, died of colon cancer on July 12. He was 53.
Jesse Helms, former U.S. senator, July 4an unyielding champion of the conservative movement who spent three combative and sometimes caustic decades in Congress where he relished his battles against liberals, Communists and occasionally a fellow Republican, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86.
George Carlin, comedian, June 22. whose staunch defense of free speech in his most famous routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, died on June 22. He was 71.
Jim McKay, TV sports announcer , June 7 who spanned the globe to bring television viewers the constant variety of sports on ABC's influential "Wide World of Sports," where he told of "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat," died of natural causes on June 7. He was 86.
Tim Russert, 'Meet the Press' host, June 13 of NBC's "Meet the Press" and the network's Washington bureau chief, collapsed and died at work on June 13 after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 58.
Charlton Heston, Oscar-winning actor, April 5 who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures including Moses, Michelangelo and Andrew Jackson and went on to become an unapologetic gun advocate and darling of conservative causes, died on April 5. He was 84.
Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer, March 18, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died on March 18 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka after suffering breathing problems. He was 90.
William F. Buckley Jr., the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right's post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House, died on Feb. 27. He was 82.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, died on Feb. 11. It was disclosed last month that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. He was 80.
Roy Scheider, a one-time boxer whose broken nose and pugnacious acting style made him a star in "The French Connection" and who later uttered one of cinematic history's most memorable roles in "Jaws," died on Feb. 10. He was 75.
Heath Ledger was found dead at a downtown Manhattan residence on Jan. 22. He was 28.
Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, died at his home in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Jan. 17. He was 64.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers, died on Jan. 10. He was 88.
SIr Edmund Hillary?
I assume Hillary R C went to his funeral.....
Arthur C. Clarke is equally well known as the father of the geostationary satellite arc named after him “The Clarke Belt”.
Majel Roddenberry, and Bettie Page.
OTOH, while I can't say that I'm sorry that the negative contributions that many of those deceased notables made to America's rapidly declining political, economic, social, and moral wellbeing during their lifetimes will hopefully be things of the past now that they have departed this life, the death of any man or woman other than a relatively few infamous tyrants such as Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, etc, etc, is not a proper occasion for celebration, especially for those of us on the socially conservative side of the aisle.
Let's leave the celebration of death to the cackling vultures at sites such as Democrat Underground and the Daily KOS who never fail to gleefully applaud the passing of any prominent conservative public figure.
Charon to The Grim Reaper: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
Ol' Iguana face died??
To whom shall I apply that moniker now??
rest in peace
Paul Weyrich died a few days ago.
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