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Donald Cortez "Don" Cornelius (September 27, 1936 – February 1, 2012) was an American television show host and producer who is best known as the creator of the nationally syndicated dance/music franchise Soul Train, which he hosted from 1971-1993. Cornelius sold the show to MadVision Entertainment in 2008.

Don Cornelius Cause of Death
Don Cornelius died of a self-inflicted gunshot.  Cornelius suffered from dementia and his health had been on the decline.
Don Cornelius was 75 years old at the time of his death

Don Cornelius Grooving Down the Soul Train Line

Memorable characters: Good Ol' Boys from Blues Brothers, Murdock from Rambo II

Charles L. Napier (April 12, 1936 – October 5, 2011) was an American actor, known for his portrayals of square-jawed tough guys and military types.

Charles Napier served in the U.S. Army with the 11th Airborne Division before becoming an actor.

Napier was a regular in Jonathan Demme-directed movies, including The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. Some of Napier's memorable roles include Murdock, the intelligence officer commanding Rambo in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Tucker McElroy, lead singer and driver of the Winnebago for "The Good Ol' Boys" in The Blues Brothers (1980).

Charles Napier cause of death
Charles Napier was found collapsed at home, and was taken off life support the next day.  Exact cause of death is not specified as of October 6, 2011.
Charles Napier was 75 years old at the time of his death

Must watch video
Feature Film Actor Charles Napier featured on Shelby Headline News

Sylvia Robinson (March 6, 1936 - September 29, 2011) was a singer, musician, music producer, and record label executive, most notably known for her work as founder/CEO of the seminal hip hop label Sugar Hill Records. She is credited as the driving force behind two landmark singles in the genre. The first was "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang, which was the first rap song to be released by a hip hop act. The second was "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five.

Sylvia Robinson cause of death
Sylvia Robinson died of congestive heart failure.
Sylvia Robinson was 75 years old at the time of her death.

Pillow Talk - Sylvia Robinson

The Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's Delight

Willie "Big Eyes" Smith (January 19, 1936 – September 16, 2011) was a Grammy Award-winning American electric blues vocalist, harmonica player, and multi-award winning drummer. He was best known for several stints with the Muddy Waters band beginning in the early 1960s.

On February 13, 2011, he won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album for Joined at the Hip, an album he recorded with Pinetop Perkins.

In 1961 Smith became a regular member of Muddy Water's band, which then consisted of George "Mojo" Buford, Luther Tucker, Pat Hare, and Otis Spann. By the mid '60s he'd left the band for more steady work as a cab driver. In the late '60s he rejoined Muddy's band and remained a permanent member until 1980.

Willie "Big Eyes" Smith Cause of death
Willie Smith died following a stroke on September 16, 2011.
Willie Smith was 75 years old at the time of his death.

Willie "Big Eyes" Smith Harmonica

Marian Mercer (November 26, 1935 – April 27, 2011) was an American actress and singer.

She drew critical notice for her performance in New Faces of 1962, and won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance, and the Theatre World Award for Promises, Promises (1968).

Marian Mercer Cause of Death
Marian Mercer died from Alzheimer's disease, in Newbury Park, California.
Marian Mercer was 75 years old at the time of her death.

IT'S A LIVING SITCOM INTRO

Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1935 – April 22, 2011) was a female American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist and guitarist. She was the eighth child of an eleven-child mining family in West Virginia. Her music is characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provocative pro-union, feminist songs.

Dickens was born in Mercer County, West Virginia. She met Mike Seeger, younger half-brother of Pete Seeger and founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers and became active in the Baltimore-Washington area bluegrass and folk music scene during the 1960s. During this time she also established a collaborative relationship with Mike Seeger's wife, Alice Gerrard, and as "Hazel & Alice" recorded two albums for the Folkways label: Who's That Knocking (And Other Bluegrass Country Music) (1965) and Won't You Come & Sing for Me (1973). Dickens and Gerrard were bluegrass bandleaders at a time when the vast majority of bluegrass bands were led by men.

Hazel Dickens Cause of Death
Hazel Dickens died in Washington, DC, of complications from pneumonia.
Hazel Dickens was 75 years old at the time of her death

Hazel Dickens - A Few Old Memories 

Kenneth Mars (April 14, 1936 – February 12, 2011) was an American television, movie and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein.

He voiced the roles of Ariel's father King Triton in The Little Mermaid, and Littlefoot's Grandpa Longneck in The Land Before Time movie series and the spin-off television series.

Death of Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars died of pancreatic cancer.
Kenneth Mars was 75 years old at the time of his death.

The Producers (1968) - Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars)

Corey Allen (June 29, 1934 – June 27, 2010) was an American  film and television  director, writer, producer, and actor. He began his career as an actor but eventually became a television director. He may be best known for playing the character Buzz Gunderson in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955).  He was one of the last surviving cast members of the film.

Allen turned to directing starting in the 1960s, where he worked on such television programs as Hawaii Five-O, Hill Street Blues, Ironside, Mannix, Murder, She Wrote, Police Woman, The Rockford Files, Star Trek: The Next Generation  and The Streets of San Francisco.  He won an Emmy Award, in 1984, for directing an episode of Hill Street Blues.

Death of Corey Allen
He died due to complications of Parkinson's disease on June 27, 2010, in Hollywood, California, just two days before his 76th birthday. He was survived by a daughter, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren

Johnny Carter (June 2, 1934 – August 21, 2009) was an American doo-wop and R&B singer. He was a founding member of The Flamingos and a member of The Dells. Both groups have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, making Carter one of the few multiple inductees. He joined The Dells as a replacement for Johnny Funches in 1960 and remained an active member of the group until his death

The Dells - Oh What a Night

Mike Seeger (August 15, 1933 – August 7, 2009) was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, and dobro. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary recordings, and performed in more than 40 other recordings. He desired to make known the caretakers of culture that inspired and taught him

Seeger received six Grammy nominations and was the recipient of four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. His influence on the folk scene was described by Bob Dylan in his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One.

Death of Mike Seeger
A week before his 76th birthday, Seeger died at his home in Lexington, Virginia on August 7, 2009, after stopping cancer treatment

Harve Presnell (September 14, 1933 - June 30, 2009) was a Golden Globe-winning American film, stage and television actor.

Early life
Presnell was born as George Harvey Presnell in Modesto, California. in Modesto, California, and attended the University of Southern California. He made his stage debut at the age of sixteen, singing in an opera.

His height, booming voice, and operatic training landed him the role of Johnnie Brown in Meredith Willson's musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown on stage which premiered on Broadway in 1960. He later reprised the role in the 1964 film version. He appeared as a cavalry scout in The Glory Guys (1965) and sang the stirring "They Call the Wind Maria" in the 1969 film Paint Your Wagon.

His film career was revived when he played William H. Macy's father-in-law in Fargo (1996). Subsequent parts included General George C. Marshall in Saving Private Ryan, Mr. Parker on The Pretender, Dr. Sam Lane on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and A.I. Brooks on Dawson's Creek. He starred in NBC's Andy Barker, P.I.

Death of Harve Presnell
Harve Presnell died of pancreatic cancer.
Harve Presnell was 75 years old at the time of his death

The Unsinkable Molly Brown - Trailer

Co-founder of legendary Tacoma garage-rock band, the Ventures, and the architect behind the distinctive guitar sound of early hits "Walk, Don't Run" and "Perfidia" — has died

Bogle became ill over the weekend and died Sunday

The Ventures - Bob Bogle Medley 1997

Dominick "Dom" DeLuise (August 1, 1933 - May 4, 2009) was a Golden Globe - nominated American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, and chef. He is the husband of actress Carol Arthur, and the father of actor, writer, director Peter DeLuise, and actors David DeLuise and Michael DeLuise

Death of Dom DeLuise
Dom DeLuise died in his sleep, peacefully, at Los Angeles hospital after a long illness.
Dom DeLuise was 75 years old at the time of his death.

DeLuise is probably best known as a regular in Mel Brooks's films. He appeared in The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World, Part I, Spaceballs & Robin Hood: Men in Tights. In Silent Movie (1976), Brooks plays a film director and his strange friends, DeLuise (as "Dom Bell") and Marty Feldman, struggle to produce the first major silent film in forty years. Brooks's late wife, actress Anne Bancroft, directed Dom in Fatso (1980). He also had a cameo in Johnny Dangerously as the Pope, and in Jim Henson's The Muppet Movie as a wayward Hollywood talent agent who comes across Kermit the Frog singing "The Rainbow Connection" in the film's opening scene.

Dean Martin & Dom DeLuise

Dom DeLuise's Filmography & TV works on next page

Filmography
tom thumb (1958)
Diary of a Bachelor (1964)
Fail-Safe (1964)
The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
The Busy Body (1967)
What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968)
The Twelve Chairs (1970)
Norwood (1970)
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971)
Every Little Crook and Nanny (1972)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)
Silent Movie (1976)
The World's Greatest Lover (1977)
Sextette (1978)
The End (1978)
The Cheap Detective (1978)
The Muppet Movie (1979) (cameo)
Hot Stuff (1979) (also director)
The Last Married Couple in America (1980)
Fatso (1980)
Wholly Moses (1980)
Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)
History of the World, Part I (1981)
The Cannonball Run (1981)
Peter-No-Tail (1981) (voice in English dubbed version)
The Secret of NIMH (1982) (voice)
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
Cannonball Run II (1984)
Johnny Dangerously (1984)
Haunted Honeymoon (1986)
An American Tail (1986) (voice)
A Taxi Driver in New York (1987)
Spaceballs (1987) (voice only)
Going Bananas (1988)
Oliver & Company (1988) (voice)
The Princess and the Dwarf (1989)
All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) (voice)
Loose Cannons (1990)
Driving Me Crazy (1991)
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) (voice)
Munchie (1992) (voice only)
The Magic Voyage (1992) (voice)
Almost Pregnant (1992)
The Skateboard Kid (1993) (voice only)
Happily Ever After (1993) (voice)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Don't Drink the Water (1994)
The Silence of the Hams (1994)
A Troll in Central Park (1994) (voice)
All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996) (voice)
Red Line (1996)
Boys Will Be Boys (1997)
The Good Bad Guys (1997)
Between the Sheets (1998) (Cameo)
The Godson (film) (1998)
An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island (1998) (voice)
Baby Geniuses (1999)
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (1999) (voice)
Lion of Oz (2000) (voice)
The Brainiacs.com (2000)
It's All About You (2001)
Always Greener (2001)
My X-Girlfriend's Wedding Reception (2001)
Remembering Mario (2003) (voice only)
Girl Play (2004)
Breaking the Fifth (2004)
Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm (2006) (voice)

Television
Amazing Stories (TV series) (1 Episode Guilt Trip)
The Entertainers (1964–1965)
The Dean Martin Summer Show (regular performer in 1966)
The Dom DeLuise Show (1968) (summer replacement for Jackie Gleason)
The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (regular performer from 1971 - 1972)
The Roman Holidays (1972) (cancelled after four months)
The Dean Martin Show (regular performer from 1972 - 1973)
Lotsa Luck (1973–1974)
Only with Married Men (1974)
The Muppet Show (1977) [Guest]
Happy (1983) (also executive producer)
The Dom DeLuise Show (1987 - 1988)
21 Jump Street (1989)
Die Laughing (1990)
Timmy's Gift: A Precious Moments Christmas (1991) (voice)
Fievel's American Tails (1991 - 1992) (voice)
Candid Camera (host from 1991 - 1992)
The Ren & Stimpy Show (cast member from 1993 - 1995) (voice)
Married... With Children (1993) (voice)
Burke's Law (1994–1995)
seaQuest DSV (1994)
Tin Soldier (1995)
Shari's Passover Surprise (1996)
3rd Rock from the Sun (1997)
Dexter's Laboratory
Cow and Chicken
Hercules: The Animated Series
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1998)
All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series (1996 - 1999) (voice)
Charlie Horse Music Pizza (1998 - 1999)
Stargate SG-1 episode "Urgo" (2000)
Robot Chicken (2005) (guest voice)
"Spaceballs: The Animated Series" (2008) (voice)

David "Fathead" Newman (February 24, 1933 - January 20, 2009) was an American saxophonist.

Death of David Newman
On January 20, 2009, Newman died from complications of pancreatic cancer

David Newman Biography
In 1954, David joined Charles in his band as the baritone saxophone player (although he is more famous as a tenor saxophone and flute player) and began a twelve year gig with Charles. He later joined Herbie Mann, with whom he played for another ten years.

Over the years up to 2008, Newman has recorded over thirty-eight albums under his own name, including his first, Ray Charles-Presenting David "Fathead" Newman (1959) and second, Wide Open Spaces, which was produced by Cannonball Adderley, the following year

David Fathead Newman & David Leonhardt - "Heads Up"

David "Fathead" Newman's discography on next page

David "Fathead" Newman Discography
Ray Charles-Presenting David "Fathead" Newman - 1959 (Atlantic Records)
Wide Open Spaces - 1960
Straight Ahead - 1962 (Atlantic Records)
House of David (Atlantic Records)
Captain Buckles (Atlantic Records)
Live at the Village Gate (Atlantic Records)
The Weapon - 1972
Teasin' - 1973 - Cornell Dupree
Mr. Fathead - 1976 (Warner Bros. Records)
Back To Basics - 1977 (Milestone)
The Atlantic Family Live at Montreux - 1977
Still Hard Times - 1982 (Muse)
Fire! Live at the Village Vanguard - 1988 (Atlantic Records)
Return to the Wide Open Spaces - 1990
Mr. Gentle Mr. Cool - 1994
Under a Woodstock Moon
I Remember Brother Ray - 2005
Kissing in 29 Days - 2006 - JW-Jones
Cityscape- 2006
Life - 2007

Nick Reynolds is the father of folk songs, paved the way for Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Nick Reynolds (July 27, 1933 San Diego, California - October 1, 2008 San Diego, California) American folk musician and recording artist. One of the founding members of The Kingston Trio group, whose largely folk-based material captured international attention during the late fifties and early sixties.

Death of Nick Reynolds
Nick Reynolds died on October 1, 2008, in San Diego, CA
Nick Reynoldswas 75 years old at the time of his death

Nick Reynolds lived the last years of his life comfortably and well in Coronado, California with his wife Leslie. For eight years, Nick joined John Stewart to do a “Trio” fantasy camp in Scottsdale, Arizona. In addition to a dinner with a question and answer session, fantasy campers joined Reynolds and Stewart on stage to perform a song, becoming for that one moment a member of a "Kingston Trio," the group whose contributions to folk, pop, and world music constitute Nick Reynolds' musical legacy.

Nick Reynolds' biography continues next page

The man who never returned

Biography
Growing up in Coronado Island, California, his passions as a kid growing up were tennis, skin-diving and singing with his family. His father, a Navy captain, was an avid guitar player who brought back songs from his travels around the world. He taught Nick the guitar and ukulele, and the family spent many nights singing and harmonizing for pure enjoyment. Nick enrolled in Menlo College in 1954 as a business major, and met Bob Shane in an accounting class. They soon started hanging out, drinking, and chasing women together, and this, in turn, led to playing music, initially as a way of being popular at parties -- Shane's guitar and Reynolds' bongos became a fixture at local frat gatherings, and after a few weeks of this, Shane introduced Reynolds to Dave Guard.

Shane returned to Hawaii for a time to work for his father's sporting goods company. Guard and Reynolds began playing with Joe Gannon on bass and singer Barbara Bogue, and became Dave Guard & the Calypsonians. Reynolds then left for a time following his graduation and was replaced by Don McArthur in a group that was known as the Kingston Quartet, and in a resulting shuffle, Reynolds and Shane (back all the way from Hawaii) were brought back into the group, now rechristened the Kingston Trio. Their initial approach to music was determined by the skills that each member brought or, more accurately, didn't bring to the trio -- Nick Reynolds sang a third above the melody, swapped his ukulele for a tenor guitar, and his bongos for a conga drum. Reynolds provided the group with an ebullient vocal style, superb harmonizing, and an ability to convey tender lyrics with a touching intimacy. The trio disbanded in 1967 but was revived in the seventies under the direction of original member Bob Shane, and continues to the present although Shane retired from performing in 2004. When the Trio disbanded, Nick moved to Oregon where he spent twenty years ranching and raising 4 children.

In 1981 the Trio reunited, featuring Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, Dave Guard, John Stewart, George Grove, Roger Gambill. A PBS Reunion Special DVD was recorded, hosted by Tommy Smothers and featuring special guest Mary Travers. In 1983, Nick Reynolds collaborated with John Stewart and Lindsey Buckingham on a new album/CD "Revenge of The Budgie" with seven new recordings.

In the mid-eighties Reynolds moved back to California and rejoined the Trio in 1987/1988. He sang and played with them happily for another 11 years, then retired for the second time in December, 1999. Folk Music Archives interviewed the Trio in San Antonio and New York City when Nick Reynolds, a founding 1958 member performed his last full-time performance with the group during a concert with the San Antonio Symphony.