Celebrity R.I.P.s

Migos Rapper Takeoff Dead at 28, Shot in Houston



https://www.tmz.com/2022/11/01/migos-takeoff-dead-dies-shot-houston-quavo-migos/

 

Its 3am here I’ve just woken up to this news :’’( Urghhh America you are a messed up place!! Can’t help but feel that Offset isn’t going to play on this matter.

 

Aaron Carter, Singer and Brother of Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, Dies at 34



https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/aaron-carter-dead-singer-brother-nick-1235256302/

 

Fred Hickman, a pioneering sports broadcaster and anchor who helped to launch two major cable networks and influenced and informed a generation of sports journalists and fans, has passed away. He was 66. R.I.P.










https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/10/busi...0T17:52:06&utm_source=twCNN&utm_medium=social

 

COMEDIAN GALLAGHER DEAD AT 76



https://www.tmz.com/2022/11/11/comedian-gallagher-dead-dies-watermelon/

 

Kevin Conroy, Longtime Voice of Batman, Dies at 66



https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/kevin-conroy-dead-batman-voice-actor-1235260222/

 

Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, 2-time UFC Championship contender, & Bellator competitor, passes away at 38 from organ failure due to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis according to yahoo sports.




https://sports.yahoo.com/anthony-ru...Kpw0oVUtu2uiUoG5G6SemlLBY06WGNa85JQvYs2mP4Dt1

 

POWER RANGERS' JASON DAVID FRANK DEAD BY SUICIDE AT 49



https://www.tmz.com/2022/11/20/power-rangers-jason-david-frank-dead-dies-tommy-oliver-green-white/

 

Damn between him and Kevin Conroy my childhood is dying.

 

Urgh suicide deaths hit so hard, to be in such complete despair that you see no way out, heart wrenching :’(

 

Irene Cara, 'Fame' singer, passes away at 63, publicist says. R.I.P.





https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainmen...ist/story?id=93993054&cid=social_twitter_abcn

 

RIP To the lovely Irene Cara. That is a young age to me.

 

Very sad. We all know her Golden Globe and Oscar wiinning song, that movie...and then the next song and movie.
Lots of tributes coming in...


https://mol.im/a/11473863

From her family...



Also, never knew her beautiful song Out Here on my Own was nominated too, with her Song, Fame eventually winning it. Imagine that?

 

Long before Jennifer Lopez in the early 2000's dominated the New York and then national media . . . in a better time . . . in a better place . . . there was one Latina who mesmerized the masses by the millions . . . a pillar of the people . . . a champion of the children who dream and strive to one day rise to the very top of the entertainment industry as they ascend adolescence and practice and toil at their artistic passion . . . whether it be singing, dancing, acting or composing . . . Irene Cara Escalera:

My earliest memories of her are from syndicated reruns of her in the late 1970's on a very popular children's show "The Electric Company:



She was a prominent figure on that show from 1971-1973 as I understand now and graduated from that show by the mid 70's to star in her first motion picture in 1975's "Romeo and Juliette" omage starring opposite Kevin Hooks ~ "Aaron loves Angela":


What was so notable about this project was that her performance ingratiated her with the Afro-American audience as did her persuasive and palpable love for the people. Long before Jennifer Lopez took the Money Train in 1995 . . . and fled never to return to her adoring masses of African ancestry with any acting project opposite a romantic AA co-star ever again . . . Irene made the conscious decision to assertively seek role after role in such casting calls where she would so sincerely emote her love and affection for the Black man. She was prominently featured as the lead in 1976 cult classic "Sparkle" where she would shine at the precious young age of 16 years old opposite her Black male love interest of 25 years old in the 80's "Miami Vice" icon Phillip Micheal Thomas:



Long before Jessica Alba would cash the check from Andre Harrell and Uptown by accepting the lead role in a project formerly entrusted to late & legendary Aaliyah Haughton in 2002 and then say "See ya later Honey" to the adoring Afro-American audience of fans and never look back . . . Irene Cara would succeed "Aaron Loves Angela" with the Emmy - award winning series "Roots: The Next Generation" in 1979:
Then she undertook the Maya Angelou written and directed NBC television movie " Sister, sister" in winter 1979 for which she would go on to earn an NAACP Image award for Best Young Actress when the movie was finally released in 1983:


This was subterfuge by the TV powers that be because Irene Cara had shot an pilot for her very own NBC television series aptly named "Irene" where she would be romantic opposites with Keenan Ivory Waynans that debuted in 1981 but never got the work order to go to series (SMDH), If "Sister, Sister", which gained critical acclaim for its original plot of an upper-middle class Black family in rural North Carolina rather the typical 1970's standard of urban blight featuring drug-infested poverty and prostitution for which Afro-American audiences were so often inundated, gets ample promotion all fall then aired in prime time the weekend preceding Thanksgiving 1980 . . . I would submit to everyone that Irene Cara's career would have a vastly different trajectory as "Irene" gets ordered to series the following year when it premieres in 1981:

Irene also "sparkled" in her minor role in the CBS television movie "The Guyana Tragedy" as newlywed wife of Levar Burton which earned multiple Emmy nominations and a Best Male Actor Emmy for Powers Boothe:





In that very summer of 1980, Irene Cara would climb to uncharted heights with her iconic performance as a NYC high school student of Cuban-American and Puerto-Rican ancestry named Coco Hernandez enrolling at the New York School of the Performing Arts in "Fame":



She would once again play the romantic lead opposite of a black man in Howard Rollins in her passionate portrayal of Myrlie Evers, wife and widow of Civil rights Icon Medgar Evers in "For Us, the Living" wihch aired in 1983 on ABC:

EDIT: I just recently learned that Irene Cara had to get an entertainment lawyer to receive her royalties from her hit songs which were constantly getting mainstream airplay and stayed at the top of the charts. She never signed those standard employment contracts that artists often sign like "New Edition" or "TLC" which limit their financial rights in exchange for quick cash and a cute car upfront . . . she was like Aaliyah in that her biggest commercial hits were from movie soundtracks and not record deals. The industry powers that be fought her tooth & nail . . . they fought her blood & bone . . . but she eventually prevailed and they punished her after the successful litigation by blacklisting her in the late 1980's . All Irene wanted was what she was justly entitled for . . . lucrative financial compensation. She was looking around and watching other people eat flame-grilled lamb & lobster as her songs "Fame", "Out here on my own" and "What a Feeling" played on constant repeat on the radio. She deserved soooooo much MORE than the meager flowers she received for all her artistic contributions throughout her career . We should have loved and appreciated her much more than we did considering how many of us, me included, spent myriad money on Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Alba and their projects

 

Clarence Gilyard, Jr Dies: ‘Walker, Texas Ranger,’ ‘Die Hard’ & 'Matlock' Star Was 66




https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/clarence-gilyard-jr-dies-walker-072304736.html

 

Here is an incredible live performance on "The David Letterman show" where a 21 year old Irene Cara just puts the Albas and Lopezes who are so strangely silent this week in the aftermath of her passing, to utter and complete shame!!! ~

I have been playing this particular jam all weekend now and I have undergone a deep dive into my childhood archives since this tragic news was released. Listen to the orchestral structure and arrangement then the compelling and visceral cresendo of the instrumental accompaniment in the background!!! I learned last night that the original title for "Fame" was "Hot Lunch" but then the month before they finished shooting an adult movie surprised the suits with its NYC premiere lol of the same title:

Lastly . . . let me not forget her Grammy winning song which she also co-wrote for the soundtrack of "Flashdance" :

 

Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter, dies aged 79






https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63812952

 

Bob McGrath from "Sesame Street passes away at 90





https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/s...vid=744c373c4ae6488bb0e98a3e0c9ae379#comments

 

Actress Kirstie Alley has passed away at the age of 71 after a brief battle with cancer. R.I.P.




https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/kirstie-...ily/story?id=94525889&cid=social_twitter_abcn

 

I just read this :’-( can’t even believe she was 71! My mind is blown with the amount of celebrity deaths in the past two years. Virgil’s and DMX’s death still tear me up.