Robert Schimmel, Comedian, Dies Following Car Accident

Robert George Schimmel (January 16, 1950 – September 3, 2010) was an American stand-up comedian whose material was often X-rated and controversial. He was perhaps best known for his comedy albums and his appearances on HBO and The Howard Stern Show. Schimmel is number 76 on the 2004 program Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups Of All Time.


Health
Schimmel battled lymphoma into remission and the disease did not return. He also survived a heart attack

Car accident and death
On August 26, 2010, while travelling on Arizona State Route 101 in Scottsdale, Arizona, Schimmel was involved in a major car accident that left him in a very serious condition. Schimmel’s 19 year old daughter Aliyah was driving with her father and brother. Police reported that she was run off the road by an out-of-control SUV and lost control of the vehicle which rolled over a concrete embankment. It came to a stop on its side on the shoulder of the freeway. Aliyah Schimmel was hospitalized and is in stable condition. Schimmel’s son was not injured.


On September 3, 2010, Schimmel died of his injuries. He was survived by five children.



*Thank you Darrah & Russ for contacting me.

Mike Edwards, Member of ELO, dies of Freak Accident 62

Mike Edwards (May, 31 1948 – September, 3 2010), known as Swami Deva Pramada or simply Pramada, was an English cellist and music teacher. His wide-ranging career was most widely notable for his membership of the Electric Light Orchestra.

He played as a member of the Electric Light Orchestra  from their first live gig in 1972 until he departed in January 1975, of his own choosing. Previously he had had little interest in non-classical music, though he had played on recording sessions for Barclay James Harvest.

His eccentric cello playing (fingering the cello strings with an orange or grapefruit) and bizarre costumes were a major ingredient of the early ELO touring band. Edwards’ live "party piece" was The Dying Swan, where he would perform a cello solo and ultimately his cello would explode through the use of pyrotechnics. His cello playing contributed to the albums ELO II, On the Third Day, The Night The Light Went On (In Long Beach) and Eldorado. He was later replaced as cellist by Melvyn Gale.

Death of Mike Edwards
Mike Edwards was killed in Devon, England, between Harbertonford and Halwell.  A 1300 lbs hay bale (roll of hay) rolled down a hillside and collided with the van he was driving.  Mike Edwards was sixty two years old at the time of his death.

Related Story
ELO Bass Player Kelly Groucutt dies 63 (February 20, 2009) 

 Electric Light Orchestra – Eldorado Overture/Can’t Get It Out of My Head
Mike Edwards & Hugh McDowell on Cello, Mik Kaminski on Violin

Cammie King “Gone with the Wind” Child Actress, Dies 76

Eleanore Cammack "Cammie" King (August 5, 1934 – September 1, 2010) was a former child actress in American films. She is best known for being one of the actresses who portrayed "Bonnie Blue Butler" in Gone with the Wind (1939). She also provided the voice for the doe "Faline" in the animated Disney film, Bambi (1942).

She was the godchild of Herbert Kalmus, co-founder of Technicolor, and became his stepchild in 1949 when he married her mother, Eleanore King.

In the early 2000s, King made a guest appearance as a contestant on the TV game show To Tell the Truth, hosted by John O’Hurley.

Upon reflecting on her film career, King once joked, "I peaked at 5." She spent 40 years working as a marketing coordinator for the Fort Bragg-Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce.

Death of Cammie King
King died on September 1, 2010, at her home in Fort Bragg, California, aged 76, from lung cancer.

 Cammie King – Gone with the Wind

Gertrude “Luna” Vachon, Former WWE Wrestler, Dead 48

Gertrude Elizabeth Vachon (January 12, 1962 – August 27, 2010) was a Canadian professional wrestler better known by the ring name Luna Vachon

Career

  • Early career (1985-1992)
  • World Wrestling Federation (1993-1994)
    • Luna’s first WWF appearance was in April 1993 at WrestleMania IX, 
    • In 1994, Luna was the first woman to appear in a WWF video game,
  • Independents and Extreme Championship Wrestling (1994-1996)
  • World Championship Wrestling (1997)
  • World Wrestling Federation (1997-2000)
  • Independent circuit (2000-2007)
    • her last match took place on December 7 for Great Lakes Championship Wrestling in Milwaukee. She successfully defended her GLCW Ladies Championship against Traci Brooks and then retired as champion.

Death of Luna Vachon
On the morning of August 27, 2010, Luna Vachon was found dead at her Florida home, when her mother called on her. According to the autopsy, she died of a drug overdose. Investigators found oxycodone  and multiple prescription drugs in her bedroom. The Medication was due to her many injuries suffered during her career as well as her bipolar disorder. Luna became addicted to the medication at some point and underwent rehabilition, paid for by WWE, which she completed in June 2009. She was buried in a ceremony open to immediate family only, at the ranch formerly owned by her close friend Andre the Giant.

Madusa vs Luna Vachon – 1997

Celebrity surgeon Frank Ryan killed in car crash

Click for a complete news from AP

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LOS ANGELES — Celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan, who made headlines for performing multiple surgeries on reality TV star Heidi Montag, has died. He was 50 years old.

The California Highway Patrol says Ryan’s 1995 Jeep Wrangler went off the side of Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu and landed on its roof Monday afternoon.

Besides Montag, Ryan’s celebrity clientele included musician Vince Neil, actor Lorenzo Lamas, reality stars Lisa Gastineau and Adrianne Curry and several models and beauty queens.

Patricia Neal, Oscar-winning actress, dies 84

Patricia Neal (January 20, 1926 – August 8, 2010) was an American actress of stage and screen. She won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in the drama Hud (1963).

During the filming of The Fountainhead (1949), Neal had an affair with her married co-star, Gary Cooper, whom she had met in 1947 when she was 21 and he was 46. By 1950, Cooper’s wife, Veronica, had found out about the relationship and sent Neal a telegram demanding they end it. Neal became pregnant by Cooper, but he persuaded her to have an abortion.

Death of Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal died at her home in Edgartown, Massachusetts on Martha’s Vineyard, August 8, 2010, of lung cancer.

Patricia Neal & Gary Cooper  – "The Fountainhead"

Bobby Hebb, ‘Sunny’ singer-songwriter dies 72

Bobby Hebb (Robert Von Hebb, July 26, 1938 – August 3, 2010) was an African American singer and songwriter, best known for his writing and recording of "Sunny".

"Sunny" has been recorded by, among others, Cher, Boney M, Georgie Fame, Johnny Rivers, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, the Electric Flag, The Four Seasons, two different versions from Frankie Valli, the Four Tops, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Les McCann, Wes Montgomery, Dusty Springfield, and Classics IV.[1] One re-recording, a disco version called "Sunny ’76" was a hit for Hebb in that year. In 2000, Musiq did an updated dance version retitled "Just Friends (Sunny)," which went to #31 on the U.S. Billboard charts.

Hebb also had hits with his "A Satisfied Mind" in 1966 and "Love Me" in 1967, and has written many other songs, including Lou Rawls’ 1971 hit "A Natural Man." Six years prior to "Sunny", he reached the New York Top 50 with a remake of Roy Acuff’s "Night Train To Memphis".

Death of Bobby Hebb
Bobby Hebb died of lung cancer.
Bobby Hebb was 72 years old at the time of his death

Bobby Hebb – Sunny

Mitch Miller, record executive and ‘Sing Along’ star, dies 99


Star Location: 7001 Hollywood Blvd

Mitchell William "Mitch" Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American musician, singer, conductor, record producer, A&R man and record company executive. One of the most influential figures in American popular music during the 1950s and early 1960s, both as the head of Artists & Repertoire at Columbia Records and as a best-selling recording artist, he is sometimes thought of as the creator of what would become karaoke with his NBC-TV series, Sing Along with Mitch. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in the early 1930s, Miller began his musical career as an accomplished player of the oboe and English horn, and recorded several highly regarded classical albums featuring his instrumental work. But he is best remembered as a conductor, choral director, television performer and recording executive.

Death of Mitch Miller
Mitch Miller died of complications from surgery
Mitch Miller was 99 years old at the time of his death

Mitch Miller – Santa Claus is comin’ to Town

Hank Cochran, country music songwriter, dies 74

Garland Perry "Hank" Cochran (August 2, 1935 – July 15, 2010) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Starting in the 1960s, Cochran has been a prolific songwriter in the genre, including major hits by Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold and others. Cochran was also a recording artist between 1962 and 1980, charting seven times on the Billboard country charts, with his highest solo peak being the #20 "Sally Was a Good Old Girl."

Rough Childhood
Born during the Great Depression in Isola, Mississippi, he contracted pneumonia, whooping cough, measles and mumps all about the same time at age 2. The doctor didn’t think that he would survive. His parents divorced when he was 9, he moved with his father to Memphis, Tennessee, but then went to an orphanage. He was sent to live with his grandparents, in Waynesboro, Mississippi, after he had run away from the orphanage twice.  He started to work at the oil rig when he was 16.

Then he quickly took over the County Music scene and became a legend.
Hank Cochran wrote a lot of songs for many artists.

Death of Hank Cochran
He had cancerous tumors surgically removed from his pancreas and lymph node at a Nashville Hospital in July 2008. Cochran had a grapefruit-sized aortic aneurysm removed at a Nashville hospital in April 2010. He passed away on July 15, 2010.

 THE LEGEND HANK COCHRAN

 
 Notable artists who have recorded his songs include:
 
    * Eddy Arnold
    * Patsy Cline
    * Natalie Cole
    * Elvis Costello
    * Bing Crosby
    * Ella Fitzgerald
    * Mickey Gilley
    * Vern Gosdin
    * Merle Haggard
    * Emmylou Harris   
    * Rebecca Lynn Howard
    * Burl Ives
    * George Jones
    * Norah Jones
    * Loretta Lynn
    * Henry Mancini
    * Dean Martin
    * Reba McEntire
    * Ronnie Milsap
    * Brad Paisley
    * Johnny Paycheck
    * Elvis Presley
    * Ray Price
    * Jim Reeves
    * Linda Ronstadt
    * Dinah Shore
    * Nancy Sinatra
    * George Strait
    * Hank Williams Jr
    * Lee Ann Womack

George Steinbrenner, Yankees owner, died of heart attack, 80

George Michael Steinbrenner III (July 4, 1930 – July 13, 2010) is a businessman and owner and former principal executive of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees. His outspokenness and role in driving up player salaries have made him one of the sport’s most controversial figures.

Steinbrenner is known as a hands-on executive, earning the nickname "The Boss." His tendency to meddle in daily on-field decisions, and to hire and fire (and sometimes re-hire) managers led then-Yankees skipper Dallas Green to give him the derisive nickname "Manager George."

During Steinbrenner’s ownership since 1973, the longest in club history, the Yankees have earned 11 pennants and 7 World Series titles.

Death of George Steinbrenner
George Steinbrenner died of heart attack.
George Steinbrenner was 80 years old at the time of his death