70

Nickolas Ashford (? - August 22, 2011) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946 in The Bronx) were a husband and wife songwriting/production team and recording artists. They met at Harlem's White Rock Baptist Church in 1963. After having recorded unsuccessfully as a duo, they joined aspiring solo artist and former member of the Ikettes, Josie Jo Armstead, at the Scepter/Wand label where their compositions were recorded by Ronnie Milsap ("Never Had It So Good"), Maxine Brown ("One Step At A Time"), as well as the Shirelles and Chuck Jackson. Another of the trio's songs "Let's Go Get Stoned" gave Ray Charles a number one U.S. R&B hit in 1966. That same year Ashford & Simpson joined Motown where their best-known songs included "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "You're All I Need To Get By", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing", and "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". As performers, Ashford and Simpson's best-known song is "Solid" (1984 US and 1985 UK). The duo was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.

Nick Ashford  Cause of Death
Nick Ashford died August 22, 2011, from complications of throat cancer

Ashford & Simpson - Solid

Michael Sarrazin (May 22, 1940 – April 17, 2011) was a Canadian actor who found fame opposite Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

Sarrazin also appeared in The Flim-Flam Man, Joshua Then and Now, and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Quickening". He hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, as well, on April 15, 1978.

For 14 years he was in a relationship with actress Jacqueline Bisset, whom he met in the 1968 film The Sweet Ride.

Michael Sarrazin Cause of death:
He died on April 17, 2011 after a brief battle with cancer, with his daughters Catherine and Michele at his side, according to a family spokesman.

 Eye of the Cat (1969) Michael Sarrazin UNCUT THEATRICAL VERSION

Michael Sarrazin is the male actor

Dixie Virginia Carter (May 25, 1939 – April 10, 2010)  was an American actress, having appeared in films, television and on stage. She was best-known for her long-running role in the sitcom Designing Women (1986-1993). She had been nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Desperate Housewives in 2007.

Death of Dixie Carter
Dixie Carter died on April 10, 2010. No cause was immediately disclosed. Carter is survived by Hal Holbrook, her husband of nearly 26 years, and two daughters from a previous marriage.

In 2006-07 Carter found renewed fame with a new generation of fans as the very disturbed and disturbing Gloria Hodge on Desperate Housewives, earning an Emmy nomination for her work on the series. Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry started out in Hollywood as Carter's assistant on the set of Designing Women.

Johnny Maestro begin his career in the 1950s with The Crests, whose hits included "16 Candles."

Johnny Maestro died of cancer

JOHNNY MAESTRO - Worst That Could Happen

Vern Gosdin (August 5, 1934 - April 28, 2009) was an American country music singer. He idolized The Louvin Brothers and The Blue Sky Boys as a young man and sang in a gospel quartet called The Gosdin Brothers. Nicknamed "The Voice," an inheritor of the soulful honky tonk style of Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard rose to the top of the business and notched hit after barroom hit. Some of these scored hits in the 1970s and 1980s, included "Chiseled in Stone," "Set 'em Up Joe," "I'm Still Crazy," "That Just About Does It," "If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)," "Today My World Slipped Away," "Slow Burning Memory," "This Ain't My First Rodeo," "Way Down Deep" and "I Can Tell By The Way You Dance (You're Gonna Love Me Tonight)."

Death of Vern Gosdin
Gosdin, who suffered a stroke at the start of April 2009, died peacefully in his sleep at a Nashville hospital the evening of April 28, 2009 at the age of 74

Vern Gosdin - Chiseled in Stone

Jimmy Boyd (born January 9, 1939 in McComb, Mississippi; died March 7, 2009) was an American singer, musician, and actor.

Death of Jimmy Boyd
On March 7, 2009, he passed away from cancer.
Jimmy Boyd was 70 years old at the time of his death

Jimmy recorded the song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" for Columbia Records, when he was 12 years and 11 months old. Even in those days of limited media, it became a record industry phenomenon, selling over two and a half million records in its first week's release. Jimmy's name became an international household word, and he skyrocketed to the status of a major star. Columbia Records execs were baffled at the song's popularity. They had already presented Jimmy with two gold records. (In the days before the Grammy Award existed, gold records were effectively the Grammys, and they were actually real gold). Jimmy's record went to number one on the charts again the following year at Christmas, and went on to sell again and again every Christmas. Today on the internet it sells worldwide to new generations, and has reportedly sold over 60,000,000 records since its initial release.

Jimmy Boyd - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Playing on original 78 rpm record

Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 60s and on. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives for modern jazz and bebop

Following a long setback of health problems and a serious lip injury in 1992 where he ruptured his upper lip and subsequently developed an infection, Hubbard was again playing and recording occasionally, even if not at the high level that he set for himself during his earlier career. His best records ranked with the finest in his field

Death of Frederick Hubbard
On December 29, 2008, Hubbard's hometown newspaper, The Indianapolis Star reported that Hubbard died from complications from a heart attack suffered on November 26 of the same year. Billboard magazine reported that Hubbard died in Sherman Oaks, California

Freddie Hubbard - Misty

Freddie Hubbard's discography continues next page

Freddie Hubbard Discography

Paul Benedict (September 17, 1938 - December 1, 2008) was an American character actor who made numerous appearances in television and movies beginning in the 1960s. He is probably best recognized for his roles as The Number Painter on the PBS children's show Sesame Street, and as the quirky English neighbor "Harry Bentley" on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons.

Death of Paul Benedict
On December 1, 2008, Benedict was found dead at his home in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Paul Benedict was 70 years old at the time of his death.

Biography
Benedict was born in Silver City, New Mexico, the son of Alma Marie (née Loring), a journalist, and Mitchell M. Benedict, a doctor.[1] He grew up in Massachusetts. As a young man, he suffered from acromegaly, a pituitary disorder that affects the extremities and face, which accounted for his slightly oversized jaw and nose.

As could be heard in his other film and TV roles, he had a slight English accent even when not in character as Bentley. Benedict played the director of the Richard III production in the 1977 movie The Goodbye Girl starring Richard Dreyfuss, in which Richard was to be portrayed in the play as a stereotypical gay man. He was in a short scene in the 1984 mockumentary film This is Spinal Tap, playing the awkward desk clerk who checks in the band. In the 1990 film The Freshman, he played the condescending NYU film school professor of Matthew Broderick's main character. He also made a memorable appearance as the incorrectly assumed title character in the 1996 film Waiting for Guffman, another mockumentary involving many of the same writers and actors.

Benedict also played the role of a slave trader in Dino De Laurentiis' Mandingo opposite James Mason and Perry King in 1975. Perhaps his best known movie role was of the reverend Lundquist in the 1972 Sydney Pollack film Jeremiah Johnson.

Reggae star Alton Ellis dies 70

Raggae singer Alton Ellis - 2007

Alton Ellis OD (born Alton Nehemiah Ellis) (September 1, 1940 - October 10, 2008) was a musician best known as one of the innovators of rocksteady music, and was often referred to as the "Godfather of Rocksteady". In 2006, he was inducted into the International Reggae And World Music Awards Hall Of Fame.

Alton Ellis died on 10 October 2008 at Hammersmith Hospital, West London, after collapsing during a show in London in August of that year.

Breaking News, more coming 

Pervis Jackson is an American R&B singer, noted as the bass singer for The Spinners , and is one of the group's original members. He is perhaps best known for his line of "12:45" from the group's Billboard Top 10 smash, "They Just Can't Stop It (Games People Play)". As of 2008, Jackson was still singing with The Spinners. 08-18-2008 Pervis Jackson, a member of "The Spinners," died from cancer at Sinai Grace hospital this morning.

The group took off in the 70's with one of its bigger hits - Games People Play.

According to the Detroit News, Pervis Jackson died of cancer on August 18, 2008 in Detroit, MI. He was 70-years-old.

John Phillip Law (September 7, 1937 – May 13, 2008) was an American film actor, with more than a hundred movie roles to his credit. He was the son of actress Phyllis Sallee, and the brother of actor Thomas Augustus Law.

He is best known for his roles as the blind angel Pygar in the science fiction classic Barbarella, and as news anchor Robin Stone in The Love Machine. (The latter reteamed him with Alexandra Hay, his costar from the 1968 "acid comedy" Skidoo.)

Besides Barbarella, a few of Law's movies have become cult classics, including Danger: Diabolik, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Death Rides a Horse, Attack Force Z, and The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. 

Death of John Phillip Law
Cause of death is not known,  John Phillip Law was 70 years old at the time of his death

Death Rides a Hourse - US Film Trailer

Suzanne Pleshette (January 31, 1937 - January 17, 2008) was an American actress, primarily known in character-type roles.

The naturally brunette-headed Pleshette was best known for her role as Bob Newhart's wife, Emily Hartley, on The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s. She later guest-starred as Katey Sagal's mother, Laura Egan, on 8 Simple Rules, in the 2000s.

Death of Suzanne Pleshette
Suzanne Pleshette died early in the evening of January 17, 2008 of respiratory failure at her Los Angeles home.
Suzanne Pleshette was 70 years old at the time of her death.

** Suzanne Pleshette's husband is Tom Poston, an actor who passed away April 30, 2007.  At the time of her death, the city of Hollywood was getting ready for her star on the walk of fame.

Early life
Born to Eugene Pleshette, manager of the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York and dancer Geraldine Kaplan, she was a cousin of Knots Landing actor John Pleshette. Pleshette graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. She then attended Syracuse University.