Obituary thread

[xzar_monty]

4 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Google tells me that he died from "dementia". What does that mean? I assume that his brain was so ravaged that his autonomic nervous system shut down?

You're not completely off. People whose dementia has progressed a lot tend to have weak immune systems, so they're prone to infections and such, from which it happens to follow that one of the most common causes of death for people with late-stage dementia is, surprise surprise, pneumonia.

Your question is valid, though. There are fatal diseases that don't kill you as such, they just make you very vulnerable to various other things that will kill you. (Some people whose cause of death is marked as dementia will actually die from malnutrition.)

[Keyrock]

Windham Rotunda better known as Bray Wyatt age 36.

[Zoraptor]

Well that sucks. And everyone thought he was finally recovering.

12 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

You're not completely off. People whose dementia has progressed a lot tend to have weak immune systems, so they're prone to infections and such, from which it happens to follow that one of the most common causes of death for people with late-stage dementia is, surprise surprise, pneumonia.

Your question is valid, though. There are fatal diseases that don't kill you as such, they just make you very vulnerable to various other things that will kill you. (Some people whose cause of death is marked as dementia will actually die from malnutrition.)

Yeah, vast majority of people who die from 'dementia' die from pneumonia (or malnutrition when they lose their swallow reflex or for Alzheimers lose all interest in food, or from a plethora of other secondary effects). Unlike HIV it's possible to die directly from the disease itself via the breathing reflex being lost but it's pretty rare to survive that long.

[Gromnir]

nizo yamamoto

cancer

[Keyrock]

Bob Barker age 99.

[Bartimaeus]

RIP Arleen Sorkin, original (and best*) voice of Harley Quinn: the only one that could ever make me like a Brooklyn accent. She also played a long-time main character on Days of Our Lives, Calliope Jones, which was actually a major influence in the creation of the Harley Quinn character. There was a bizarre dream sequence on the show where Arleen dressed up and played as a wacky jester; Paul Dini, a friend of Arleen's and a key DC Comics character designer working on Batman: The Animated Series, needed a random henchwoman for the Joker and used Arleen's portrayal of the jester as inspiration...before then getting Arleen officially cast to voice the character as well. Though it was only intended that Harley Quinn appear in one episode, they liked the character so much that she would return numerous times before eventually solidifying the character as a mainstay of DC Comics.

Spoiler

*And I don't say that lightly, considering Tara Strong** and Hynden Walch, two of my favorite voice actresses, have also voiced Harley Quinn.

**Admittedly, Tara Strong's Harley Quinn is...uh, arguably kind of bad, but it's not her fault that her voice is ill-suited for the role and they hired her anyways: the only way she seems to really be able to try to do it is by going to this unnaturally whiny and baby talk-ish voice. Arleen sounds like...you know, a woman talking in her natural voice, even if it does have this kind of wacky cartoonish quality to it. Honestly though, this is is okay, because I think by the time Tara Strong took over Harley Quinn, they had kind of butchered just about everything that I had loved about the character anyways, so it's pretty fitting.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[ShadySands]

Jimmy Buffett at 76

[Keyrock]

36 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Jimmy Buffett at 76

Now who's going to sue people for anything remotely similar to one of his song titles?

[Gfted1]

Ian Wilmut

[Keyrock]

A week late but Steve Harwell age 56.

Somebody once told him the world would try to roll him, and I guess it finally did.

[Amentep]

David McCallum, 90 maybe best known by modern audiences as Ducky on NCIS, but fondly remembered by older audiences as UNCLE agent, Ilya Kuryakin.

[Gromnir]

5 hours ago, Amentep said:

David McCallum, 90 maybe best known by modern audiences as Ducky on NCIS, but fondly remembered by older audiences as UNCLE agent, Ilya Kuryakin.

am always thinking o' him first for his role in the great escape, and then as judas in the greatest story ever told. 

the man from uncle were a smidge before our time and in our locales it didn't get the syndication reruns the way many other shows o' the same time period did, not that we had regular access to tv until the early 80s. as such, we hardly saw any uncle stuff until we were already in our thirties. cool show though.

oh well.

HA! Good Fun!

[Amentep]

The Great Escape is another good one - which i should have noted; forgot he was in Greatest Story but been ages since I saw it.

[Gromnir]

the greatest story ever told had one o' the more bloated casts am able to recollect, and it weren't a comedy like mad, mad, mad, mad, world where an overstuffed cast is part o' the joke. while judas is pivotal in greatest story, he don't get a heck o' a lot o' screen time, and by the time you get to judas is a possibility you are exhausted. george stevens tried to tell the entirety o' the jesus story from birth to ascension. were impossible to give any character other than jesus much development. also, greatest story is arguable more respectful o' source material than most other cinematic religious epics, but that also meant it could be a bit dry for substantial portions o' the film. even so, david mccallum stood out for us in a film with a legion o' academy award winning performers. no small task.

HA! Good Fun!

[HoonDing]

Jeremy Silman

[Gfted1]

Michael Gambon

[melkathi]

Unity...

[Amentep]

3 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Michael Gambon

RIP.  He was good in everything I ever saw him in (think Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective (1986) would have been first).

[Malcador]

3 hours ago, melkathi said:

Unity...

Suicides are always tragic

[Malcador]

Diane Feinstein

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Diane Feinstein

Her record breaking 868 year run in the senate has come to an end. 

[Gromnir]

as hard as it might be to believe, feinstein don't even crack the top 100 longest serving Congressman list.

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

4 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

as hard as it might be to believe, feinstein don't even crack the top 100 longest serving Congressman list.

HA! Good Fun!

I'm pretty sure she was the longest serving woman in the senate, though.

[Gromnir]

with enough qualifiers, any statement may be true. as far as tenure durations, she might be top ten o' Congressmen who's last name begins with an "F."

pelosi has served longer albeit in the house. is also at least three men current in the senate who has served longer. feinstein did serve longer than any other California senator and she were also the longest serving woman senator, but again, the hyperbolic 868 years bit ignores the admitted surprising reality that feinstein is way down the list o' longest tenures... somewhere in the 150 range?  'cause she were so old and clear enfeebled, is perhaps easy to overlook just how not unique were the duration o' her tenure.

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

2 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

with enough qualifiers,

Two in this case: Female and Senator. I don't think that's excessive, but that's just me.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Keyrock