Amy Winehouse is dead...

Obituary by Variety:

Grammy-winning chanteuse Amy Winehouse, who drew as much attention for her struggles with drugs and the law as she did for her soulful singing, has been found dead in her North London home, according to London police. She was 27.

The cause of death has not been announced by officials.

Earlier on Saturday, Winehouse's manager issued a statement saying that the singer was canceling all upcoming shows. "Amy Winehouse is withdrawing from all scheduled performances," said manager Tim Gatt. "Everyone involved wishes to do everything they can to help her return to her best and she will be given as long as it takes for this to happen."

With her distinctive beehive hairdo and frequent run-ins with the law for fighting and drugs, she provided tabloid fodder as well as filling out the top of the pops with her hit single "Rehab," which was named number one song of 2007 by Time magazine.

Winehouse's jazz-influenced debut album, "Frank," released in 2003 when she was 20, propelled her to success in Great Britain.

Her follow-up album, "Back to Black," released in 2006, added elements of rock 'n roll and R&B, and included such hit singles as "Rehab," and "You Know I'm No Good." It was the best-selling album of 2007 and the top iTunes album in the UK in 2007 and won five Grammys, for best new artist, record of the year song of the year, best female pop vocal performance and best pop vocal album. She toured during summer 2007, performing at Lollapalooza, atlhough many other appearances were also cancelled due to ill health. After performing at several 2008 summer festivals, her father announced that she would take a hiatus from performing due to her respiratory issues.

Born in the Southgate area of Enfield, London, Winehouse was introduced to a wide range of music at an early age. She attended Susi Earnshaw Theatre School and then began training at Sylvia Young Theatre School until her expulsion for allegedly not applying herself. She began playing guitar at age 13 and then began writing music. Her then-boyfriend, soul singer Tyler James, sent a demo tape to an A&R person, which led to her signing with Island/Universal. She hired singer Sharon Jones' band the Dap-Kings to back her up in the studio and on tour.

From 2005 to 2008, she was in and out of rehab, hospitals and jail, and in June 2008 she was diagnosed with early signs of emphysema, as well as a irregular heartbeat, which were said to be brought on from her addictions to cigarettes and crack cocaine. Her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, a chronic drug user whom she married in 2007, was sentenced to 27 months in prison in July 2008 for his part in obstructing justice in an attack on a pub owner.

R.I.P. Peter Falk

Deadline has the obituary:

The beloved rumpled trenchcoat-wearing police lieutenant on the Columbo TV series died at his Beverly Hills home last night after a long bout with Alzheimer's Disease, according to his daughter, who gave the news to KNX-1070. He was 83. The five-time Emmy winner (four forColumbo) also was a two-time Oscar nominee (for 1960's Murder, Inc and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles). He was a key member of iconoclastic filmmaker John Cassavetes' regular ensemble, starring in such independent film classics as Husbands (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974), and in a cameo at the end of Opening Night. In 1972 he won a Tony for his performance in Broadway's The Prisoner of Second Avenue. But his most famous role was Columbo, which first aired in 1968 as part of an anthology series on NBC from 1971-1978, took a five-year respite, and returned occasionally on ABC from 1983-2003. He once described Columbo as "an ass-backwards Sherlock Holmes" who chewed cigars instead of smoked a pipe. (The debut episode in 1971 was helmed by 25-year-old Steven Spielberg in one of his earliest directing roles.)

Born in New York City, Falk had his right eye surgically removed when he was 3 because of a malignant tumor and wore a glass eye for most of his life. That and his talent made him a natural character actor when he joined a community theater group in Hartford, Conn. Eventually he was signed by the William Morris Agency and began acting full-time in 1956 on the New York stage and that year made his Broadway debut in Diary of a Scoundrel. Lore has it Falk failed a screen test at Columbia Pictures and was told by studio boss Harry Cohn that "for the same price I can get an actor with two eyes." But Murder Inc in 1960 was his breakout movie role, and he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and again in this category in 1961 for Pocketful of Miracles, Frank Capra's last feature. He co-starred in the 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, in Robin And The 7 Hoods, and in The Great Race his TV career caught fire. Falk occasionally worked in films in his later life (The In-Laws, The Princess Bride, Wings of Desire, Faraway, Roommates, among them).

-Joey's Two Cents: Rest in peace...

R.I.P. Clarence Clemons...

The New York Times has the obituary:

Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, whose jovial onstage manner, soul-rooted style and brotherly relationship with Mr. Springsteen made him one of rock’s most beloved sidemen, died on Saturday at a hospital in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 69.

The cause was complications of a stroke he suffered last Sunday at his home in Singer Island, Fla., a spokeswoman for Mr. Springsteen said.

In a statement released Saturday night, Mr. Springsteen called Mr. Clemons “my great friend, my partner.”

“With Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music,” he added. “His life, his memory and his love will live on in that story and in our band.”

From the beginnings of the E Street Band in 1972, Mr. Clemons played a central part in Mr. Springsteen’s music, complementing the group’s electric guitar and driving rhythms in songs like “Born to Run” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” with muscular, melodic saxophone hooks that echoed doo-wop, soul and early rock ’n’ roll.

But equally important to the group’s image was the sense of affection and unbreakable camaraderie between Mr. Springsteen and his sax man. Few E Street Band shows were complete without a shaggy-dog story about the stormy night the two men met at a bar in Asbury Park, N.J., or a long bear hug between them at the end of the night.

Mr. Clemons also became something of a celebrity in his own right, acting in Martin Scorsese’s “New York, New York” and other films, and on television shows like “Diff’rent Strokes,” and jamming with President Bill Clinton at the 1993 inaugural ball.

A former college football player, Mr. Clemons towered over Mr. Springsteen at 6 feet 4 inches and about 250 pounds — his self-evident nickname was the Big Man — and for most of its history, he stood out as the sole black man in a white, working-class New Jersey rock band. (The keyboardist David Sancious, who is also black, played with the group until 1974.) Onstage he had almost as much magnetism as Mr. Springsteen, and even if much of his time was spent hitting a cowbell or singing backup, he could still stir up a stadium crowd with a few cheerful notes on his horn.

For many fans, the bond between Mr. Springsteen and Mr. Clemons was symbolized by the photograph wrapped around the front and back covers of the 1975 album “Born to Run.” In that picture, a spent yet elated Mr. Springsteen leans on a shoulder to his right for support; the flip side revealed that it belonged to Mr. Clemons.

“When you look at just the cover of ‘Born to Run,’ you see a charming photo, a good album cover, but when you open it up and see Clarence and me together, the album begins to work its magic,” Mr. Springsteen wrote in a foreword to “Big Man: Real Life and Tall Tales,” Mr. Clemons’s semifictional memoir from 2009, written with Don Reo. “Who are these guys? Where did they come from? What is the joke they are sharing?”

Clarence Anicholas Clemons was born on Jan. 11, 1942, in Norfolk, Va. His father owned a fish market and his grandfather was a Southern Baptist preacher, and although he grew up surrounded by gospel music, the young Mr. Clemons was captivated by rock ’n’ roll. He was given an alto saxophone at age 9 as a Christmas gift; later, following the influence of King Curtis — whose many credits include the jaunty sax part on the Coasters’ 1958 hit “Yakety Yak” — he switched to the tenor.

“I grew up with a very religious background,” he once said in an interview. “I got into the soul music, but I wanted to rock. I was a rocker. I was a born rock ’n’ roll sax player.”

Mr. Clemons was also a gifted athlete, and he attended Maryland State College (now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore) on a scholarship for football and music. He tried out for the Dallas Cowboys and the Cleveland Browns, but a knee injury ended his hopes for a football career.

He was working as a youth counselor in Newark when he began to mix with the Jersey Shore music scene of the late 1960s and early ’70s. He was older than Mr. Springsteen and most of his future band mates, and he often commented on the oddity — even the liability — of being a racially integrated group in those days.

“You had your black bands and you had your white bands,” he wrote in his memoir, “and if you mixed the two you found less places to play.”

But the match was strong from the start, and his saxophone soon became a focal point of the group’s sound. In an interview with The New York Times in 2005, Jon Landau, Mr. Springsteen’s manager, said that during the recording sessions for “Born to Run,” Mr. Springsteen and Mr. Clemons spent 16 hours finessing the jazzy saxophone solo on that album’s closing song, “Jungleland.”

Mr. Clemons’s charisma and eccentricity extended offstage. Wherever the band played, he made his dressing room into a shrine he called the Temple of Soul. He claimed to have played pool with Fidel Castro and won. And by many accounts, including his own, he was a champion partier on the road. He was married five times and divorced four. His fifth wife, Victoria, survives him, as do four sons: Clarence Jr., Charles, Christopher and Jarod.

Mr. Springsteen put the E Street Band on hiatus on 1989, and apart from reuniting for a recording session in 1995, the group did not play again until 1999. But by the mid-1980s, when Mr. Springsteen reached his commercial peak, Mr. Clemons had already found fame on his own. In 1985 he had a Top 20 hit with “You’re a Friend of Mine,” on which he sang with Jackson Browne, and played saxophone on records by Aretha Franklin and Twisted Sister. Recently he was featured on Lady Gaga’s album “Born This Way.”

Mr. Clemons’s first encounter with Mr. Springsteen has become E Street Band lore. In most tellings, a lightning storm was rolling through Asbury Park one night in 1971 while Mr. Springsteen was playing a gig there. As Mr. Clemons entered the bar, the wind blew the door off its hinges, and Mr. Springsteen was startled by the towering shadow at the door. Then Mr. Clemons invited himself onstage to play along, and they clicked.

“I swear I will never forget that moment,” Mr. Clemons later recalled in an interview. “I felt like I was supposed to be there. It was a magical moment. He looked at me, and I looked at him, and we fell in love. And that’s still there.”

-Rest in peace Big Man...

R.I.P. Laura Ziskin

From Deadline:

She died peacefully at her home tonight surrounded by her husband, screenwriter Alvin Sargent, her family, and her friends after a long and courageous and public bout with breast cancer. She was 61. In Hollywood where women rarely make it to the top of the movie establishment, Laura Ziskin rose to become one of Hollywood’s leading independent producers and studio executives. She is best known for producing the blockbuster Spider-Man film trilogy which broke box office records worldwide and became the highest grossing film franchise in Sony Picture Entertainment’s history. But she will be remembered most for her humanity as the proud producer of the historic three-network "Stand Up To Cancer" televised fundraisers. Like one in 3 women in this country, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in February 2004. (Doctors had repeatedly missed it previously because of the diffuse type of cancer she had.) She never wanted anyone to refer to her struggle as a 'battle': instead, she preferred to focus on the victories and was determined to use all her resources to make cancer a first tier issue in this country. As she wrote me in March 2011: "Three years ago, Stand Up To Cancer was little more than a dream, a bold idea shared by a few. We knew that cancer scientists finally had both the knowledge and the technology to make critical breakthroughs in detecting, treating and preventing cancer, but too often lacked the funds needed to bring new developments to fruition. Our goal was to raise money that would help speed up the pace at which scientific breakthroughs move from labs to clinics, where they can help patients and save lives, and to build a grassroots movement in support of that effort. Since our launch in 2008, thanks to all of you who have stood up with us, the collaborative 'Dream Teams' of researchers that we fund have already made significant scientific progress, and the SU2C grassroots community continues to grow."

Among the highlights of her movie career was 2002 when she produced the 74th Annual Academy Awards and became the first woman to ever produce the awards solo. The show was nominated for 8 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special. Then, in 2007, Ziskin did it again, this time producing the first ever 'Green' Oscar ceremony. The show was nominated for 9 Emmy Awards.

A native of the San Fernando Valley, Ziskin wanted a movie career from the very beginning. She was a graduate of both USC and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. After graduation, Ziskin started out writing for game shows and then became Jon Peters' personal assistant and then a development executive, moving into feature films with Jon Peters' production company where she worked on the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand. In 1978, she was the associate producer of The Eyes of Laura Mars.

In 1984, Ziskin partnered with Sally Field in Fogwood Films and produced Murphy’s Romance, which yielded an Academy Award nomination for James Garner as Best Actor. She also produced No Way Out starring then newcomer Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman. In 1990, she was Executive Producer of Pretty Woman, which remains one of the
highest grossing films in Disney’s history.

In 1991, Ziskin produced the comedy hit What About Bob?, from a story by Ziskin and Sargent. And she produced the drama The Doctor. A year later, she produced Hero, which was also from a story by Ziskin and Sargent, and two years later, To Die For.

In 1994, Ziskin was named President of Fox 2000 Pictures, a newly formed feature film division of 20th Century Fox. Under her stewardship, Fox 2000 released such films as Courage Under Fire, One Fine Day, Inventing The Abbotts, Volcano, Soul Food, Never Been Kissed, Fight Club, Anywhere But Here, Anna And The King, and The Thin Red Line, which garnered 7 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.

-Rest in peace...

R.I.P. Jackie Cooper

Obituary from Variety:

Jackie Cooper, the first child star of the talkie era who continued acting into adulthood and also had a career as a TV director, producer and executive, has died. He was 88.

As of 2011, Cooper's Oscar nomination for Skippy was the earliest nom -- 1931 -- in any Academy Award category in which the nominee was still living. He was also the youngest nominee ever, and until 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated for best actress in 2004, he was the only person to earn a Best Actor/Actress nom before his/her 18th birthday (others have been nominated in supporting categories).

Paramount's Skippy, a film now largely forgotten, was also nominated for best picture and is to date the only Best Picture nominee based upon a comic book, comic strip or graphic novel.

Cooper was a star in the early 1930s, before Shirley Temple got her start, crying often and well onscreen.

He was born John Cooper Jr. in Los Angeles; his father abandoned the family when he was a toddler. A nephew (by marriage) of film director Norman Taurog, Cooper began appearing in short comedy films with Lloyd Hamilton and Bobby Clark when he was 3. It was Taurog who would direct him in Skippy.

He was one of the most prominent stars in a number of "Little Rascals" or "Our Gang" films produced by Hal Roach in 1930 and 1931 and scored again with 1931 sentimental boxing tale The Champ, in which he starred with Wallace Beery. (That film was remade with Jon Voight and Ricky Schroder in 1979). Beery and Cooper starred in a series of films together at MGM including The Bowery and Treasure Island; the pair captivated movie audiences, but Cooper would later accuse Beery of seeking to undermine him.

Cooper continued to find roles as he aged into adolescence but did not regain his earlier stardom, replaced by the likes of Freddie Bartholomew and Roddy McDowall in the public eye. He did draw favorable notices for his performances in 1940's Booth Tarkington adaptation Seventeen and in 1942's Syncopation.

Cooper served in the Navy during WWII, eventually attaining the rank of captain.

He did not find much acting work immediately after the war, appearing in the 1947 comedy Kilroy Was Here with another former child star, Jackie Coogan.

Cooper soon found himself without a Hollywood contract for the first time since he was 3. He headed for New York and made his Gotham stage debut in a 1949 production of Magnolia Alley at the Mansfield Theater. Soon thereafter, he toured the U.S. as Ensign Pulver in Mr. Roberts and played the role in the London production in 1951.

Transitioning to television, he found occasional roles on "Schlitz Playhouse," "Robert Montgomery Presents" and "Studio One in Hollywood," among many others.

In 1955 he began a three-year run as star of NBC sitcom "The People's Choice." Subsequently Cooper starred in the title role of a Navy doctor in CBS sitcom "Hennesey," from 1959-62, drawing Emmy noms for Best Actor in a Comedy two years running.

He was already beginning to extend his skill set, directing three episodes of "The People's Choice" and four episodes of "Hennesey" and producing an episode of the latter.

Cooper next became an executive. He was hired in 1964 as VP of program development for Columbia Pictures' TV division (formerly Screen Gems). For five years he was responsible for packaging series (such as "Bewitched") and selling them to the networks.

After exiting Col in 1969, Cooper spent more time directing for TV than acting.

In 1971, however, he appeared in the fairly daring ABC telepic "Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring." He and Eleanor Parker played the parents of Sally Field, who runs away but eventually returns only to discover that establishment hypocrisy remains. In 1975 he made a last effort at a series-regular role, playing a news reporter in ABC's "Mobile One." Cooper was still guesting on the likes of "Hawaii Five-O" and "Ironside," but he directed 13 episodes of "MASH" in 1973-74, winning an Emmy for comedy directing for one of them.

He helmed an episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"; five episodes of "The Rockford Files"; five of "Black Sheep Squadron"; three of "Quincy, M.E."; and three of "The White Shadow." For directing the pilot of "The White Shadow" he won an Emmy.

In 1978 he appeared in the feature film role for which he would become best known to generations unaware of his work as a child many decades earlier: newsman Perry White in Superman, starring Christopher Reeve. He returned for Superman II, Superman III and 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

He continued directing during the 1980s, with four episodes of "Sledge Hammer!"; two of "Magnum, P.I."; four of "Cagney and Lacey"; two of "Simon and "Simon"; and two of "Jake and the Fatman" in 1989.

In his last acting job, he appeared in two episodes of the ABC series "Capital News" in 1990.

Cooper announced his retirement in 1989, although he was still directing episodes of the syndicated series "Superboy."

After 1989 he occasionally appeared in retrospective and documentary programs about Hollywood.

Cooper's autobiography, Please Don't Shoot My Dog, was published in 1982. The title comes from director Norman Taurog's threat to shoot young Jackie's dog if he could not cry in Skippy.

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1501 Vine Street.

Cooper was married three times: to June Horne (1944-49), to Hildy Parks (1950-51) and to Barbara Kraus from 1954 until her death in 2009. He is survived by two sons. Two daughters predeceased him.