Icons we mourn: Lena Horne

Lena Horne, who was the first black performer to be signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went on to achieve international fame as a singer, died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She was 92 and lived in Manhattan.

Ms. Horne might have become a major movie star, but she was born 50 years too early, and languished at MGM in the 1940s because of the color of her skin ...

NYT

Icons we mourn: Alexander McQueen

I don't know what to say about the untimely death of Alexander McQueen, except that I wish I owned more than one piece of his clothing. An amazing designer, gone too soon. Click here for a retrospective, via NY Mag.



Previously: Looong weekend, Loyalty on your feet, All about the tailoring.

Icons we mourn: J.D. Salinger

J. D. Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91.

So, not having been raised in the US of A, I read "Catcher" much later than most of you out there, but I was fortunate to be introduced to Franny and Zooey at a reasonably young age, and it was my favourite book for years, only replaced by Pilgrim, by Timothy Findley, when I was around twenty five (I think). Anyway, it's now number two, but a solid number two. So thanks, J.D.

Icons we mourn: Miep Gies

Miep Gies, the last survivor among Anne Frank’s protectors and the woman who preserved the diary that endures as a testament to the human spirit in the face of unfathomable evil, died Monday night, the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam said. She was 100.

The British Broadcasting Corporation said Mrs. Gies suffered a fall late last month and died at a nursing home.

“I am not a hero,” Mrs. Gies wrote in her memoir, “Anne Frank Remembered,” published in 1987. “I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more — much more — during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness.”

Mrs. Gies sought no accolades for joining with her husband and three others in hiding Anne Frank, her father, mother and older sister and four other Dutch Jews for 25 months in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. But she came to be viewed as a courageous figure when her role in sheltering Anne Frank was revealed with the publication of her memoir. She then traveled the world while in her 80s, speaking against intolerance. The West German government presented her with its highest civilian medal in 1989, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands knighted her in 1996.

NY Times

Icons we mourn: The Decade

The NY Times does the comprehensive version of my occasional "Icons we mourn" posting. Can't believe how many have gone in just the past ten years. The ones I'll miss the most:

Katharine Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Paul Newman, John Gielgud, Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, Fred Rogers, Ted Kennedy, John Updike, Nina Simone, Oscar Peterson, Richard Avedon, Sydney Pollack, Yves St. Laurent and Natasha Richardson.

And furthermore, Julia Child, Betty Friedan, Brooke Astor, Madeline L'Engle, Anthony Mingella, and William Safire.

In Remembrance

Icons we mourn: Tavern on the Green

Tavern on the Green, once America's highest-grossing restaurant, is singing its culinary swan song.

The former sheepfold at the edge of Central Park, now ringed by twinkling lights and fake topiary animals, is preparing for New Year's Eve, when it will serve its last meal. Just three years ago, it was plating more than 700,000 meals annually, bringing in more than $38 million.

But that astronomical sum wasn't enough to keep the landmark restaurant out of bankruptcy court. Its $8 million debt is to be covered at an auction of Baccarat and Waterford chandeliers, Tiffany stained glass, a mural depicting Central Park and other over-the-top decor that has bewitched visitors for decades.

NY Times

Icons we mourn: Jeanne-Claude

Jeanne-Claude, who collaborated with her husband, Christo, on dozens of environmental arts projects, notably the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris and the Reichstag in Berlin and the installation of 7,503 vinyl gates with saffron-colored nylon panels in Central Park, died Thursday in Manhattan, where she lived. She was 74. (...)

Like all of their projects, these were intended to be temporary, a quality at the heart of the artistic enterprise. Whether executed in oil drum or brightly colored fabric, the art of her and her husband, Jeanne-Claude said, expressed “ the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last.”

One of my few regrets about my time in New York is that I missed seeing The Gates.

NYTimes

Icons we mourn: William Safire

William Safire, a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon and a Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for The New York Times who also wrote novels, books on politics and a Malaprop’s treasury of articles on language, died at a hospice in Rockville, Md. on Sunday. He was 79.

There may be many sides in a genteel debate, but in the Safire world of politics and journalism it was simpler: there was his own unambiguous wit and wisdom on one hand and, on the other, the blubber of fools he called “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”

He was a college dropout and proud of it (...) from 1973 to 2005, Mr. Safire wrote his twice weekly “Essay” for the Op-Ed Page of The Times, a forceful conservative voice in the liberal chorus. Unlike most Washington columnists who offer judgments with Olympian detachment, Mr. Safire was a pugnacious contrarian who did much of his own reporting, called people liars in print and laced his opinions with outrageous wordplay. (...) for 32 years tenaciously attacked and defended foreign and domestic policies, and the foibles, of seven administrations. Along the way, he incurred enmity and admiration, and made a lot of powerful people squirm. And from 1979 until earlier this month, he wrote “On Language,” a New York Times Magazine column that explored written and oral trends, plumbed the origins and meanings of words and phrases, and drew a devoted following, including a stable of correspondents he called his Lexicographic Irregulars.

The columns, many collected in books, made him an unofficial arbiter of usage, and one of the most widely read writers on language. It also tapped into the lighter side of the dour-looking Mr. Safire: a Pickwickian quibbler who gleefully pounced on gaffes, inexactitudes, neologisms, misnomers, solecisms and perversely peccant puns, like “The President’s populism and the First Lady’s momulism.”

There were columns on blogosphere blargon, tarnation-heck euphamisms, dastardly subjunctives and even Barack and Michelle Obama’s fist bumps. And there were Safire “rules for writers”: Remember to never split an infinitive. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. Avoid cliches like the plague. And don’t overuse exclamation marks!!

I just loved him - smart and unapologetic. And I think he would have enjoyed this obit.

NYT

Icons we mourn: Mary Travers

Without irony, "Puff the Magic Dragon" was one of my favourite songs from childhood, and from camp, and so it is with genuine sadness that the FGB notes the passing of Ms. Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary. And that's even before we get into "Blowin' in the Wind", "If I Had a Hammer", and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone."

But it's not about me, or camp - although it was wonderful to visit recently.

Ms. Travers brought a powerful voice and an unfeigned urgency to music that resonated with mainstream listeners. With her straight blond hair and willowy figure and two bearded guitar players by her side, she looked exactly like what she was, a Greenwich Villager directly from the clubs and the coffeehouses that nourished the folk-music revival.

NYT

Icons we mourn: Patrick Swayze

I realize that this space is usually reserved for less "pop" type people, but I can't help myself. If nothing else, "Dirty Dancing" holds a very special place in a lot of our hearts, and so, tonight, let's have the time of our lives.

NYT

And, how could I forget, North and South! Whatever happened to epic miniseries anyway?

Icons we mourn: Edward M. Kennedy

After 47 years of service, the Lion of the Senate has left us. Edward M. Kennedy passed away this evening at his home in Hyannis Port, MA.

One of the most influential and longest-serving senators in U.S. history -- a liberal standard-bearer who was also known as a consummate congressional dealmaker

There are times I wish I was one of those people who went to bed at a decent hour. Tonight, I am glad I checked the NYT website one last time before shutting down. He will be missed.

NYT

Icons we mourn: Walter Cronkite

From 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives.

He became something of a national institution, with an unflappable delivery, a distinctively avuncular voice and a daily benediction: “And that’s the way it is.” He was Uncle Walter to many: respected, liked and listened to. With his trimmed mustache and calm manner, he even bore a resemblance to another trusted American fixture, another Walter — Walt Disney.

(...) He was so widely known that in Sweden anchormen were once called Cronkiters.

NY Times

Icons we mourn: Bea Arthur

"Bea Arthur, who used her husky voice, commanding stature and flair for the comic jab to create two of the most endearing battle-axes in television history, Maude Findlay in the groundbreaking situation comedy “Maude” and Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls,” died Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. Ms. Arthur received 11 Emmy Award nominations, winning twice — in 1977 for “Maude” and in 1988 for “The Golden Girls.” She was a seasoned and accomplished theater actress and singer before she became a television star and a celebrity in midcareer, and she won a Tony Award in 1966 for playing Angela Lansbury’s best friend, the drunken actress Vera Charles, in “Mame.”"

OK, I'm /really/ going to miss Bea Arthur. Talk about guts. Also, nor relying on one's looks as an actress. By which I mean she didn't always look as gorgeous as she does in the photo to the left, and it didn't matter a whit.

Icons we mourn: Natasha Richardson

Ms. Richardson was an intense and absorbing actress who was unafraid of taking on demanding and emotionally raw roles. Classically trained, she was admired on both sides of the Atlantic for upholding the traditions of one of the great acting families of the modern age.

What to say? A member of stage royalty, suddenly taken from us. She will be missed.

NYT

Icons we mourn: Joe Ades

Joe Ades sold vegetable peelers, and spent many a weekend peeling carrots in Union Square. He will be missed. If you're in the area Saturday, take a moment.

"We will gather at the statue on the south side of Union Square park on Saturday, February 7th, at 1 p.m; and invite everyone to bring memories, anecdotes, and of course, a peeler and carrots or potatoes. As we join together to peel, we will create a temporary vegetable memorial that will incorporate stories and photos that the community brings to share."

Gothamist

Icons we mourn: John Updike

John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday at age 76.

Updike, a resident of Beverly Farms, Mass., died of lung cancer, according to a statement from his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

A literary writer who frequently appeared on best-seller lists, the tall, hawk-nosed Updike wrote novels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir ''Self-Consciousness'' and even a famous essay about baseball great Ted Williams. He was prolific, even compulsive, releasing more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s. Updike won virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for ''Rabbit Is Rich'' and ''Rabbit at Rest,'' and two National Book Awards.

NYT

Icons we mourn: Pinter and Kitt

Apologies for the delay and the clumping, but I couldn't let these two get away without recognition. And I think it's a fun pairing, after all.

Harold Pinter, the British playwright whose gifts for finding the ominous in the everyday and the noise within silence made him the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation, died on Dec. 24, 2008. He was 78 and lived in London.



Eartha Kitt, who purred and pounced her way across Broadway stages, recording studios and movie and television screens in a show-business career that lasted more than six decades, died on Dec. 25, 2008. She was 81 and lived in Connecticut. Forever Feline, Forever Fierce.

Icons we mourn: Mr. Blackwell

Mr. Blackwell, the acerbic designer whose annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86.

Mr. Blackwell, whose first name was Richard, was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960 — long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair.

Year after year, he would take Hollywood’s reigning stars and other celebrities to task for failing to dress in what he thought was the way they should.

Being dowdy was bad enough, but the more outrageous clothing a woman wore, the more biting his criticism.

“The list is and was a satirical look at the fashion flops of the year,” he said in 1998. “I merely said out loud what others were whispering. ... It’s not my intention to hurt the feelings of these people. It’s to put down the clothing they’re wearing.”

He told The Los Angeles Times in 1968 that designers were forgetting that their job “is to dress and enhance women. ... Maybe I should have named the 10 worst designers instead of blaming the women who wear their clothes.”

NYTimes

Icons we mourn: Paul Newman

Paul Newman. What can I say, except I haven't seen enough of his films, and will remedy that, and hope he'll understand. I think he will.

Icons we mourn: Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed Stalin's prison system in his novels and spent 20 years in exile, has died near Moscow at the age of 89. The author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, who returned to Russia in 1994, died of either a stroke or heart failure. The Nobel laureate had suffered from high blood pressure in recent years.

BBC