Well known personalities who have passed away recently (Renamed)

[red750]

Pixie Skase, widow of controversial businessman Christopher Skase, dies age 83

 

She died on November 15, her daughter Amanda Larkins confirmed on Tuesday night.

 

Ms Skase was one of Melbourne's best known and most glamorous socialites in the 1980s.

 

She was known for hosting extravagant parties, her big blonde hair, shoulder pads and love of the finer things in life such as flashy diamonds and French champagne.

 

Her husband died from stomach cancer in 2001 and Ms Skase returned permanently to Australia in 2009, where she mostly kept a low profile.

[onetrack]

The original drummer for the Bee Gees, Colin "Smiley" Peterson, has died, aged 78. There's only one of the Gibb brothers left alive now - Barry - he's the last surviving member of the Bee Gees.

Colin Petersen was drumming at public performances, as recently as last Saturday. He gained the nickname "Smiley", because he was the child actor of that name in the 1956 film, which also starred Chips Rafferty.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-19/bee-gees-drummer-colin-smiley-petersen-dead-at-78/104618874

 

Amazingly, Dennis Bryon, who was also a Bee Gees drummer after Petersen left, also died just five days ago, on the 14th November 2024.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/arts/music/bee-gees-drummers-dead.html

 

Edited November 19 by onetrack

[old man emu]

I always thought that the Ronnie Burns 1969 song, Smiley, was about the character from the movies, Smiley (1956) and Smiley Gets A Gun (1958). Smiley, you’re off to the Asian war/ And we won’t see you smile no more…

 

The boy, Smiley, in those movies would have been of an age in the late 60s to be called-up for National Service and  to go to Vietnam. The name ‘Smiley’ in Ronnie Burns’s record would have resonated with Australian audiences. Whether or not writer Johnny Young intended this, it added to the song’s theme of lost innocence by bringing to mind the carefree 1950s childhood of that earlier Smiley.

 

When Johnny Young wrote the song, he had in mind Australian pop star and Vietnam War conscript Normie Rowe: Before he left, he was really happy-go-lucky, fun-filled young fella. When he came back, he changed. 

[red750]

Earl Holliman, Angie Dickinson's boss in Police Woman, has died, aged 96. Also appeared in Twilight Zone, Giant, Wide Country, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

 

[onetrack]

Interesting snippets about Earl Holliman - he never married (might've been the reason he lived so long? 😄 ) - he worked as an aircraft assembler at North American Aviation - and he put his age up by a year to join the military during WW2. When his true age was discovered, he was discharged - then he signed up again, as soon as he was of legal age!

His Dad was a dirt-poor Louisiana farmer named Frost, who died before he was born. His poverty-stricken mother, left with TEN kids (!!) then had to give up seven of them for adoption.

Earl was adopted by an oil-field worker and his wife - Earl & Velma Holliman. Fortunately, his adopted parents provided a happy and inspirational upbringing.

 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0391096/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

[onetrack]

Maggie Tabberer has died, just 5 days short of her 88th birthday.

 

https://www.watoday.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/australia-s-first-supermodel-maggie-tabberer-dies-at-87-20241206-p5kwfq.html

[facthunter]

This is another depressing topic..  Nev

[onetrack]

It's the depressing part of getting older. All your friends and associates die, and you end up with nothing more than memories. I can recall my parents talking about how virtually all their friends and associates had died. So, it's important as you get older, to ensure you keep befriending younger people.

[rgmwa]

As long as I'm not listed on here, all is relatively well.

[spacesailor]

At this rate .

I just hope someone  will be here to record the

Last  person's epitaph. it would be a shame for that last person , to be missed .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

It's for "Well Known Personalities" .so relax.   Nev

[Marty_d]

I think you're pretty well known in this circle Nev.

[facthunter]

Maybe so but that still leaves the "Personality"..   Nev

[old man emu]

John Marsden, Australian writer especially known for his young adult novel Tomorrow, When the War Began, which began a series of seven books, passed away this month (December 2024) - date not given. 

 

An English teacher at  Geelong Grammar School's Timbertop, Marsden made the decision to write for teenagers, following his dissatisfaction with his students' apathy towards reading, or the observation that teenagers simply were not reading anymore. His first book, So Much to Tell You, was published in 1987. In 1993, Marsden published Tomorrow, When the War Began, the first book in the Tomorrow series and his most acclaimed and best-selling work. It was was adapted into a feature film of the same name that was released on 2 September 2010 in Australia and New Zealand. Marsden won every major writing award in Australia for young people's fiction.

 

I well remember my daughter reading Tomorrow, When the War Began. She was n=more bookish during her teens, but I think my less bookish son also managed to finish it. I even think that I watched the movie.

[onetrack]

I got confused for a moment between this John Marsden, and the other John Marsden, the highly promiscuous and abrasive gay lawyer, who's been dead for years.

[old man emu]

It was a pity that the author bore the same name as that small time suburban solicitor.

[onetrack]

Michael Leunig, one of Australia's finest cartoonists and poets, has passed away, aged 79. Mr Curly and his ducks have gone home for good. I had the pleasure of going to one of his talks in Perth about 20-odd years ago, he was a gentle soul, and a great observer of human nature. He was declared a National living treasure by the National Trust in 1999.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-19/australian-cartoonist-michael-leunig-dies/104748614