RIP thread

[johnbear]

[danton]

Quote:
Originally Posted by gedly
Alan Simpson: Steptoe and Son writer dies at 87

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38906672

Their work has been a part of my life forever. It says something to me about how wrong this country, the U.K. (sic) has gone that I feel fairly confident that no B.B.C. Commissioning Editor would today take either of their most famous creations – Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son – as is. We have moved but is it onwards or downwards? So be it. Rest in Peace Alan and thanks for the laughter and often humour with a serious side.

[Decadence]

Originally Posted by danton

Quote:
Originally Posted by gedly
Alan Simpson: Steptoe and Son writer dies at 87

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38906672

Their work has been a part of my life forever. It says something to me about how wrong this country, the U.K. (sic) has gone that I feel fairly confident that no B.B.C. Commissioning Editor would today take either of their most famous creations – Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son – as is. We have moved but is it onwards or downwards? So be it. Rest in Peace Alan and thanks for the laughter and often humour with a serious side.

Here in the States, many people don't know that Simpson's "Steptoe & Son" was the basis for our own





Can't imagine the 70s without this. RIP, Alan.

[snowy25]

I came across Sanford and Son online a few years ago and watched them. I know a number of episodes were basically remakes of Steptoe ones but it was still a great show in its own right. Usually re-imaginings of shows fail but in this case its transferred quite well. I suspect in part to the great writings involved originally. =

[chris chunt]

Goodbye Tara .

[patwynnfan]

British actor Alec McCowen, who played gadget inventor Q opposite Sir Sean Connery in "rogue Bond" film Never Say Never Again, has died at the age of 91.

His death was announced in a tweet by talent agency Conway van Gelder Grant. Born in 1925, the Rada-trained actor performed with the RSC and starred in the first production of Equus in 1973 . The National Theatre also marked his passing on Twitter, calling him "one of the most highly-regarded actors of his generation".
Other notable stage roles included the Fool alongside Paul Scofield in Peter Brook's 1962 production of Shakespeare's King Lear. He also travelled the world with a one-man performance of St Mark's Gospel and played a detective in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy. To many, though, he will be best remembered for his brief appearance as Q - here nicknamed Algy - in 1983's Never Say Never Again. "Now you're on this, I hope we're going to have some gratuitous sex and violence!" he was seen telling Connery's James Bond in the "unofficial" remake of 1965's Thunderball. The character Q has also been most recently played by Ben Whishaw, as well as Desmond Llewelyn and John Cleese. McCowen, who was made an OBE in 1972 and a CBE in 1986, is survived by his sister Jean, two nephews and two nieces. His partner, the actor Geoffrey Burridge, died in 1987.

[snowy25]

Originally Posted by johnbear

British Jockey and Trainer died age 55.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rac...ed-age-55.html

It appears he fell from the bathroom window according to an inquest into his death. He became epileptic after a fall in 96 and its possibly when trying to close the window he had a fit and fell through it.

[patwynnfan]

A Nobel laureate who failed his school exams before going on to pioneer body scanning technology has died aged 83. Sir Peter Mansfield led a team in the 1970s that developed Magnetic Resonance Imaging, one of the most important breakthroughs in modern medicine. The son of a gas fitter, he left school at the age of 15 before embarking on a career at the University of Nottingham. Vice-chancellor Professor Sir David Greenaway said his work "changed our world for the better". MRI scans generate 3D images of the body's internal organs without potentially harmful X-rays by utilising strong magnetic fields and radio waves. Sir Peter shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003 with the inventor of the technique, US chemist Professor Paul Lauterbur. He is credited with further developing the technology, showing it can be mathematically analysed and interpreted, creating scans that take seconds rather than hours and generating much clearer images.

In his own biography on the Nobel Prize website, Sir Peter recalls growing up in Lambeth, south London, and being evacuated during World War Two. He failed his 11-plus exam and attended a central school and a secondary modern school. Sir Peter then worked as a printer's assistant until an interest in rocketry helped him secure a job at the government's rocket propulsion department in Westcott, Buckinghamshire. He completed national service and at the age of 21, studied for A-levels part time and obtained a degree in physics at Queen Mary College, University of London. He joined the University of Nottingham as a physics lecturer in 1964 and remained there until his retirement 30 years later. In a statement issued through the university, Sir Peter's family said: "As well as being an eminent scientist and pioneer in his field, he was also a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who will be hugely missed." In 1978, Sir Peter ignored warnings he could be putting himself in danger and became the first person to step inside a whole-body MRI scanner so that it could be tested on a human subject. And only last month, he joined former colleagues to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre at the University of Nottingham. Sir David said: "Few people can look back on a career and conclude that they have changed the world. In pioneering MRI, that is exactly what Sir Peter Mansfield has done." There was also a tribute from Sir Peter's friend, Prof Peter Morris, who was a young PhD student when he first worked with Sir Peter in the 1970s. Prof Morris, who still works at the university's school of physics and astronomy, said: "MRI has lost the rock on which it was founded. "Sir Peter's pioneering research has revolutionised diagnostic medicine and all of us have felt its benefits. "He has been the defining influence on my life as supervisor, colleague and friend. We will not see his like again." The university said Sir Peter's invention of the fast scanning technique, known as echo-planar imaging, underpins the most sophisticated MRI applications in clinical use. It said Sir Peter's work "transformed neuroscience and physiology research by opening windows on the working brain and body" -helping doctors to detect cancer and look for subtle abnormalities in brain activity in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.

[Greenman]

Re Alec McCowen. I was sorry to read of his death but I remember his disastrous attempt to be a Q-type in the equally dreadful Never Say Never Again, a Bond film it isn't(Rowan Atkinson is wasted as Nigel Small-Fawcett) and he had one of the most cringworthy lines ever as 'Algy' "I'm so glad you're back Mr Bond. Are we going to get some gratuitous sex and violence?" sheesh!! (or words to that effect)

[johnbear]

American Science Fiction and Horror Writer Died age 71.
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/02...ant-1945-2017/