Hollywood Memoir

Gene McDaniels (February 12, 1935 – July 29, 2011) was an American singer and songwriter, who had his greatest recording success in the early 1960s.

Born Eugene Booker McDaniels had six Top 40 hits in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The two that went into the Top 5 were 1961’s "Tower of Strength" (#5 on the pop chart) and "A Hundred Pounds of Clay," which reached #3 on the pop chart, and sold over one million records, earning gold disc status.

In 1974, Roberta Flack reached #1 with McDaniels’ "Feel Like Makin’ Love", which she won a Grammy Award.

Eugene McDaniels cause of death
Eugene McDaniels died after a brief illness.
Eugene McDaniels was 76 years old at the time of his death.

A Hundred Pounds of Clay – Eugene McDaniels

Feel Like Makin’ Love – Written by Eugene McDaniels

Hideki Irabu (May 5, 1969 – July 27, 2011) was a professional baseball player of Okinawan and American mixed ancestry. He played professionally in both Japan and the United States.

Irabu made his highly publicized debut in The US on July 10, 1997.  He played with the Yankees from 1997 through 1999, winning two World Series rings (1998, 1999).  1998 was Irabu’s best season in MLB, featuring career bests in games started (28), complete games (2), innings pitched (173), wins (13), and ERA (4.06).

After the 1999 season, he was traded to the Montreal Expos. He started only 14 games for the Expos in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, he signed as a free agent to pitch for the Texas Rangers as a closer. At the end of the year, Irabu moved back to Japan.

Hideki Irabu cause of death
Hideki Irabu was found dead in his home near Los Angeles on July 27, 2011 in an apparent suicide by hanging.

Jeret "Speedy" Peterson (December 12, 1981 – July 25, 2011) was an American World Cup aerial skier from Boise, Idaho, skiing out of Bogus Basin. A three-time Olympian, he won the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Jeret Peterson cause of death
On July 25, 2011, Peterson was found dead in Lambs Canyon, Utah. The cause of death was determined to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Three days previously, Peterson had been arrested for driving while intoxicated. In Italy, he was still reeling from the suicide of a friend named Trevor Fernald, who had committed suicide and been found by Peterson only months before. Peterson also had problems with alcohol and depression and admitted he had his own thoughts of suicide, all stemming from a childhood in which he was sexually abused and lost his 5-year-old sister to a drunk driver.

Speedy Peterson with The Hurricane at Deer Valley

Gervais Duan "G. D." Spradlin (August 31, 1920 – July 24, 2011) was an American actor. He often played devious authority figures. He is credited in over 70 television and film productions, and has performed alongside such notable actors as Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, and George C. Scott, among others.

Spradlin portrayed a corrupt U.S. Senator from Nevada, Pat Geary, in The Godfather, Part II. He also played a conspirator in the attempted assassination of a state governor in Nick of Time. Among his film credits are One on One (1977) (as an authoritarian basketball coach), Apocalypse Now (as the general who assigns Martin Sheen’s character to the search mission). He played the head football coach B.A. Strother of the North Dallas Forty (1979), General Durrell the commandant of the "Carolina Military Academy" in the 1983 movie The Lords of Discipline, and Ed Wood and The Long Kiss Goodnight, as the President of the United States.

In 1984, Spradlin played a villainous Southern sheriff in Tank. In 1988, he played Admiral Raymond A. Spruance in the miniseries War and Remembrance. In 1989, Spradlin played a small role in the film War of the Roses as a divorce lawyer, with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Spradlin retired from acting after his last film, Dick (1999), in which he played Ben Bradlee. He appeared in the Electronic Arts Godfather II video game in 2009.

GD Spradlin cause of death
GD Spradlin died of natural causes at his cattle ranch in San Luis Obispo.

America (band) – Best new Artist

Dan Peek on Left

Dan Peek (November 1, 1950 – July 24, 2011) was a member of the rock band, America, from 1970 to 1977, together with Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell. He contributed lead and backing vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, and harmonica to their recordings during his tenure in the band. As a member of America, Peek contributed with four Top 100 singles: "Don’t Cross The River" (#35), his most successful single "Lonely People" hit (#5), "Woman Tonight" (#44), and "Today’s the Day" (#23). "Lonely People" and "Today’s the Day" also hit number 1 on the Billboard AC charts. Although he did not write them, "Ventura Highway", "Sister Golden Hair", "Tin Man (song)", and "A Horse with No Name" are also collaborations of Peek’s.

Dan Peek Cause of Death
Dan Peek died of undisclosed causes on July 24, 2011
Dan Peek was 60 years old at the time of his death

CBN American folk rock band America Dan Peek

Christopher "Chip" Mayer (February 21, 1954 – July 24, 2011), born George Charles Mayer III in Manhattan, New York City, was an American film and TV actor.

Mayer played the role of Vance Duke in the 1982-1983 season of The Dukes of Hazzard for 17 episodes. Mayer continued his work in television and movies into the early 1990s, including a stint on the daytime serial Santa Barbara. He also played Kenneth Falk in the film Liar Liar (1997) alongside Jim Carrey.

Chip Mayer cause of death
Mayer was engaged to be married a fourth time, at the time he was found dead of natural causes at home in Sherman Oaks, California.

Please listen to ‘Och was ik maar bij moeder thuis gebleven’

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Johannes Andreas (Johnny) Hoes (April 19, 1917 – July 23, 2011) 

Amy Jade Winehouse (September 14, 1983 – July 23, 2011 London) was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz.

Amy Winehouse cause of death
Over 3 months later, on October 26, coroner ruled her death accidental, by cosuming too much alcohol. Her blood alcohol level was 5 times over legal limit.

Substance abuse and mental health issues
Winehouse’s battles with substance abuse were the subject of much media attention. In various interviews, she admitted to having problems with self-harm, depression and eating disorders. In 2005, she went through a period of drinking, heavy drug use, violent mood swings and weight loss. People who saw her during the end of that year and early 2006 reported a rebound that coincided with the writing of Back to Black. Her family believes that the mid-2006 death of her grandmother, who was a stabilising influence, set her off into addiction. In August 2007, Winehouse cancelled a number of shows in the UK and Europe, citing exhaustion and ill health. She was hospitalised during this period for what was reported as an overdose of heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and alcohol.

 Amy Winehouse – Rehab

Linda Christian (November 13, 1923 – July 22, 2011) was a Mexican movie actress, who filmed films in Mexican cinema and in Hollywood, her career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara in the last Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film Tarzan and The Mermaids (1948). She is also noted for being the first Bond girl, appearing in a 1954 TV adaptation of the James Bond novel Casino Royale. In 1963 she starred in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "An Out for Oscar".

Linda Christian Cause of Death
Linda Christian died of colon cancer.  Linda Christian was 87 years old at the time of her death.

 Linda Christian & Tyron Power (January 27, 1947)

Tom Aldredge (February 28, 1928 – July 22, 2011) was an American actor. He achieved notice on television, in films and in theatre.

Tom Aldredge cause of death
Tom Aldredge died July 22, 2011 in a hospice in Tampa, Florida from lymphoma,
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system.
Tom Aldredge was 83 years old at the time of his death

The American Astronaut – Tom Aldredge