FINAL SALUTE Each Year We Note the Passing of Influential Creators, Performers, and Institutions
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FINAL SALUTE Each year we note the passing of influential creators, performers, and institutions. These passings occurred between SoonerCon 28 and the original date for SoonerCon 29. American actress and singer Peggy Lipton passed away May 11, 2019. Her best-known acting role was as undercover cop Julie Barnes on The Mod Squad, 1968-1973. She won a new generation of fans when she ran the Double R Diner as Norma Jennings, in Twin Peaks. Doris Day was a big-band singer, TV and film actress, and talk-show host. She won several awards for comedy and popularity. She was also an activist for animal welfare, lending her star power to several organizations bearing her name. She died May 13, 2019. Domestic cat Tardar Sauce was better known as the meme she unwittingly founded: Grumpy Cat. Dwarfism contributed to her scowling face, which graced ads for Friskies and General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios. The frowning feline cashed in her lives on May 14, 2019. The career of the inspired Tim Conway began in 1962 and lasted through TV, movies, voice-overs, and video games. Among his noted appearances were the goofy Dorf; four years on McHale ‘s Navy; eleven years on The Carol Burnett Show; several solo TV shows; and as Barnacle Boy, 1999-2012, on SpongeBob SquarePants. Conway took his final bow on May 14, 2019. Born in China, I.M. Pei moved to America in 1935 and in 1948 became a professional architect. He designed the John F. Kennedy Library, which took until 1979 to complete. In 1962 he was selected by OKC’s Urban Renewal Authority to redesign our downtown. Some of his ideas were panned—the Century Center was largely empty until 2015—but other features, such as the Myriad (now Cox) Convention Center and Myriad Gardens, still anchor OKC’s center. Pei died on May 16, 2019. American physicist Murray Gell-Mann died May 24, 2019. His research into quantum theory and complex systems brought new angles on deep reality. He helped develop the quark model, called “the eightfold way” in reference to Buddhism. Among many honors, he won the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics. Dark glasses and a Panama hat marked singer-guitarist Leon Redbone, along with his love for blues and jazz. His performances enlivened SNL, The Tonight Show, and A Prairie Home Companion, as well as his themes for Harry and the Hendersons, Mr. Belvedere, and Elf. he died on May 30, 2019. American musician Roky Erickson helped start the psych-rock genre as a member of the 13th Floor Elevators. He struggled with several bouts of obsession ands mental illness. A 1990 fund-raising tribute album was populated by Z.Z. Top, R.E.M., T. Bone Burnett, and a dozen other well-wishers. Erickson transcended May 31, 2019. Artist Keith Birdsong died June 4, 2019. Born in Muskogee, he was a noted sf artist, providing cover art for more than 30 Star Trek novels. His photorealistic paintings of Trek and Star Wars subjects appeared in offerings for the Hamilton Collection and the Bradford Exchange. He provided art for 13 US Postal Service stamps. Keith was our Artist GOH for SoonerCon 2007. Songwriter and musician Dr. John passed on June 6, 2019. He released 30 albums and won six Grammys. His biggest hits were 1973’s “Right Place, Wrong Time” and “Such a Night.” Italian producer and director Franco Zeffirelli died June 15, 2019. He designed many operatic productions which gained fame. Among his most famous films were 1967’s The Taming of the Shrew (with Taylor and Burton); the 1977 TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth; and the 1968 Romeo and Juliet, winner of two Oscars and notable at the time for featuring teenagers in the title roles. TV writer Peter Allan Fields died on June 19, 2019. In his 40-plus-year career, he wrote multiple episodes for The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The F.B.I., McCloud, and The Six Million Dollar Man. He was writer or co-writer for 13 episodes of TNG and DS9, as well as being a producer and co-producer for the latter show. Musician, producer, and songwriter Dave Bartholomew died June 23, 2019, at age 100. He wrote or co-wrote several songs that became hits for Fats Domino, including “I hear You Knockin’,” “Blue Monday,” “Ain’t That a Shame,” and “My Ding-a-Ling.” He was in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and in 1991 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Billy Drago made a career out of looking like a villain. His splashiest role was in 1987’s The Untouchables but he was familiar from recurring roles on Brisco County Jr, Charmed, and one-offs for Supernatural, the X-Files, and Friday the 13th: The Series (and many more). He cashed out on June 24, 2019. Actor Max Wright appeared in plays at the Lincoln Center and on Broadway, and as a regular cast member for WKRP in Cincinnati, AfterMASH, Buffalo Bill, and Misfits of Science. But his greatest fame was as the exasperated “father” to an Alien Life Form for TV’s ALF, 1986-1990. Wright was thankful when the series ended his role as right-hand man to a puppet, and appeared in several films afterwards. Wright passed away June 26, 2019. Before he was murdered (fictionally) in the 2009 film adaptation of Watchmen, Lee Iacocca engineered the 1979 government bailout of Chrysler. He shepherded the development of the minivan in the early 1980s. In his 30 years at Ford, he championed the Escort and the infamous exploding Pinto. His biggest impact may have been spearheading the Ford Mustang onto the market. The real Iacocca died on July 2, 2019. After not making it in the publishing world, Arte Johnson made many guest appearances on TV before hitching his U-boat to Rowan & Martin ‘s Laugh-In, where he served from 1968 to 1973 in a plethora of silly roles, most notably dirty old man Tyrone F. Horneigh and the German WWII soldier Wolfgang, to whom everything was “verrrrry interresting!” Johnson also voiced several cartoons and appeared as Renfield in 1979’s Love at First Bite. Also in his resume are about 80 audiobooks. Johnson died July 3, 2019. Born as a comic book in 1952, MAD became a magazine in 1955, partly to escape the dastardly clutches of the Comics Code Authority, and survived for nearly 60 years as the last child of EC Comics. The heartthrob of wiseasses of all ages, MAD featured the work of such genii as Harvey Kurtzman, Don Martin, Al Feldstein, Mort Drucker, and Wally Wood. The institution’s decline began when MAD began carrying ads in 2001. The death of Alfred E Neuman’s favorite mag was announced on July 4, 2019—no new material would appear in any subsequent issues. Character actor Eddie Jones passed away July 6, 2019. He appeared on and off Broadway; on TV in the 1991 Dark Shadows, in 45 episodes in the 2000-2002 The invisible Man, and many others; as a voice actor for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex; and in film. His biggest genre role was Superman’s adoptive dad Jonathan Kent, 1993-1997, in more than 80 episodes of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. The demise of Volkswagen’s iconic Beetle body style was announced on July 9, 2019. On this side of the pond, the Beetle symbolized economy and quirkiness; its shape still embodies 1960s Flower Power. Although retooled a couple of times—most recently in 2012, to catch Millennial tastes—the Beetle fell before the rise of the SUV, its antithesis. Rip Torn died July 9, 2019. He was perhaps most famous for appearing in Men in Black, The Larry Sanders Show (the latter bringing Cable ACE and Emmy awards), 30 Rock, and Will & Grace. He played Richard Nixon, US Grant, and scads of roles in between, including videogames and animation. Already a star in his native Netherlands, actor Rutger Hauer’s strong features and resolute bearing caught our attention in genre films like Blade Runner, Ladyhawke, Batman Begins, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hauer also supported conservation efforts and established an AIDS- awareness organization. He passed July 19, 2019. Chris Kraft was NASA’s first Director of Flight Operations and head of the Johnson Space Center, which was renamed in his honor in 2011. He helped institute the protocols by which America led the world to the moon. Kraft was featured on a cover of TIME and was called into Mission Control to help save Apollo 13. The Earthbound space pioneer died on July 22, 2019. Harold Prince, director and producer, was associated with many of the last century’s biggest Broadway musicals (and some flops). Chief among his blockbuster productions were West Side Story, Cabaret, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, and Phantom of the Opera. Winner of a record 21 Tony Awards, Prince died on July 31, 2019. Writer and Princeton professor Toni Morrison died August 5, 2019. As an editor at Random House, she helped bring Black literature into the mainstream. Her Beloved trilogy earned her a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. In later years she won a Grammy for a children’s spoken-word album. Director-screenwriter Peter Fonda was most known for his acting roles. He started in Roger Corman films before riding a counterculture wave with 1969’s Easy Rider, for which he was also nominated for an Oscar for screenwriting. He easily mixed with rock legends like the Byrds and the Beatles.