Off Topic December RIP

Bob Dole

 

RIP


Edward Shames, last surviving officer of the WWII Band of Brothers, dies aged 99
By Christina Coulter For Dailymail.Com 03:31, 05 Dec 2021 , updated 03:31, 05 Dec 2021

2hrs ago
Retired Colonel Edward Shames, the last surviving officer from the legendary Easy Company of World War II paratroopers whose exploits were featured in the award-winning miniseries Band of Brothers, died at age 99 on Friday.

Shames died 'peacefully at home,' according to an obituary posted by the Holloman-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory.

Born to Jewish parents, Shames forged his mother's signature to enlist in the Army in 1942 at just 19, and was one of the officers in charge of the famed Easy Company, part of the US Army's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

The book Band of Brothers - chronicling the bravery of Easy Company, or the Screaming Eagles - was written by Stephen Ambrose in 1992.

Shames's death leaves 97-year-old Bradford Freeman as the last surviving member of Easy Company. Freeman, who enlisted and was a mortarman, was a consultant for the Band of Brothers HBO miniseries created by Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg in 2001.

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Edward Shames (pictured) forged his mother's signature to enlist in the Army in 1942 at just 19 years old, and was one of the famed members of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, leading to its chronicling in the book Band of Brothers in 1992

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Edward Shames (pictured in 2019) died 'peacefully at home,' according to an obituary posted by the Holloman-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory

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Nine years after Band of Brothers was written by Stephen Ambrose, the book was made into an HBO miniseries, created by Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg. Shames was played by actor Joseph May (pictured)
In 2012, Shames described the grueling training he underwent in Georgia before he was first sent out into combat.

'A 25-mile march for us was just like a Sunday stroll,' he said.

'We had to walk 10 to 12 miles to get to our training area at Toccoa and then train all day and walk back 10 or 12 miles back to camp every day.'

Shames's first day on active duty as a member of the Easy Company involved him parachuting into Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

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Pictured are the members of the Easy Company, who inspired the HBO miniseries 'Band of Brothers'

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Edward Shames is pictured here with another member of the Easy Company

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Ed Shames, left, is pictured here with Paula Abdul in 2015 on the anniversary of D-Day
'You could hear the shrapnel hitting against the side of the plane and when we jumped out, you could hear the bullets coming through the parachutes,' Shames recounted.

He went on to fight in Operation Pegasus, Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge - and became one of the first American soldiers to help liberate Dachau concentration camp.

After Germany's surrender in 1945, Shames raided Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest,' used primarily to entertain visiting dignitaries, along with the rest of Easy Company. There, he swiped bottled of cognac that were labeled 'for the Fuhrer's use only,' which he used to toast his oldest son's bar mitzvah.

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After Germany's surrender in 1945, Shames (pictured) raided Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest,' used primarily to entertain visiting dignitaries, along with the Easy Company
Shames retired as a colonel after working for the National Security Agency for Middle East Affairs and the Army reserve.

He and his wife, Ida, were married for 73 years and traveled the world together before she eventually passed away. The pair are survived by their sons Douglas and Steven, their four grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.

Services for Shames will be held in Norfolk, Virginia, at Forest Lawn Cemetery on Sunday morning.

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Edward Shames, center, hugs Ed McClung, center left, both members of the World War II Army Company E of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne, with veterans Jack Foley, left, Joe Lesniewski, right, and Shifty Powers, far right, at the Library of Congress in Washington, on July 16, 2003

 

Rock musician John Miles has died at the age of 72, his family have confirmed.

Born in Jarrow, north-east England, he was best known for the epic ballad Music, which reached number three in the UK charts in 1976.

Soon afterwards, Melody Maker magazine named him "the brightest, freshest force in British rock".

The star, who later played with Tina Turner, "passed away peacefully after a short illness," his family said.

"He was a loving husband, father and grandfather and we will all miss him more than any words could ever express," read a statement posted on Miles' official Facebook page.

"He will live on forever in our hearts and with the wonderful musical legacy he has left behind. You were our first love and will be our last."

The message echoed the words of Miles's biggest hit: "Music was my first love / And it will be my last / Music of the future / And music of the past."

 

To live without my music
Would be impossible to do.
'Cause in this world of troubles
My music pulls me through.

RIP John Miles.

 

I saw him years ago at Scunny Baths Hall - only remembering one hit, I wasn't expecting much and was surprised at how really good he and his band were. RIP Music Man ...

 

R.I.P. John Miles.

 

Back in the day I bought his album after hearing that track, the album was also fantastic.

RIP John Miles - I loved your music

 

robbie shakespeare, reggae legend, half of sly & robbie, aged 68.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_Shakespeare

 

Good band, RIP,

 

Another character from our childhoods
RIP

Roy Holder obituary
Stage and screen actor who appeared in several popular TV series including Ace of Wands, Doctor Who and Sorry!
Anthony Hayward
The actor Roy Holder, who has died aged 75 of cancer, performed in the classics on stage and was directed by Franco Zeffirelli in film versions of two Shakespeare plays, but he will be best remembered by a generation of young television viewers for his role in a teatime fantasy series.

Ace of Wands, devised by Trevor Preston– later to write for The Sweeney and create the hard-hitting dramas Out and Fox – began in 1970, starring Michael Mackenzie as the psychic magician Tarot, fighting evil with his young assistants, played by Judy Loe and Tony Selby. Tarot, who was described in publicity as “a 20th-century Robin Hood, with a pinch of Merlin and a dash of Houdini”, also had a pet Malay fishing owl called Ozymandias.

Holder was introduced a year later as Chas Diamond, a photographer living with his sister, Mikki, a journalist, in a studio above an old London street market. They became Tarot’s new assistants for the final series, in 1972, when Holder’s storylines included sharing a dream about ancient Egypt with the mystery-solving magician and, under hypnosis, robbing a post office. “I went in as the baddie,” he recalled. “Then, they asked me to do the next series as the goodie.”

In recent years, Holder appeared at fan conventions and autograph-signing sessions for cult series such as Ace of Wands and Doctor Who, in which he appeared in the 1984 story The Caves of Androzani as Krelper, an impatient gun smuggler working for a mercenary selling weapons to an outlaw who creates androids.

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Roy Holder in the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind.Photograph: ITV/Shutterstock
Holder’s longest-running television role was in the sitcom Sorry! (1981-88) as Frank, drinking pal of the neurotic middle-aged librarian Timothy Lumsden (Ronnie Corbett), who lives with his domineering mother. “Just shut up about your mother!” Frank tells Timothy in one of his attempts to find him a partner. “Over there is a girl who likes you very much. You like her very much. Now, get to it or you’re going to find yourself neutered!”

Roy was born in Birmingham, to Florence (nee Clifford) and Frederick Holder. He was three when his father, a factory worker, died and his mother later remarried. He acted in plays while attending Upper Thomas Street secondary modern school. At the age of 15, he was plucked from a shortlist of 150 pupils by the BBC to play a “rough-looking” boy with a broad Birmingham accent for a leading role as Robert Shaw’s son in The Train Set (1961), a play written by David Turner and performed live.

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Roy Holder, left, with Robert Shaw in The Train Set, 1961. Photograph: AF Archive/Alamy
Richard Attenborough was so impressed by Holder’s performance that, in his role of producer, he cast him alongside Hayley Mills as Jackie, one of the children encountering a murderer (Alan Bates) whom they mistake for Jesus Christ, in Whistle Down the Wind, one of the most popular films of 1961. Holder showed his adaptability by adopting a northern accent, reflecting the resetting of Mary Hayley Bell’s novel from Kent to Lancashire. He played a schoolboy again, alongside Laurence Olivier’s alcoholic teacher, in the film Term of Trial (1962).

After returning to TV as Bugs in the children’s serial The Chem Lab Mystery (1963), Holder established himself as a character actor in dozens of series and plays, as well as bringing his comedy skills to light entertainment in The Little and Large Show (from 1987 to 1991) and The Les Dennis Laughter Show (1990-91).

He had a starring role as the tough Sergeant Bilinski, of Six Platoon, B Company Wessex Rangers, in the army drama Spearhead (1978-81). He also played Potty, one of the Brummie anglers, in the comedy-drama series Eh Brian – It’s a Whopper (1984) and the slow-witted wagon driver Hiram Ford in Middlemarch (1994).

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Roy Holder, left, with Hywel Bennett in Loot, 1970.Photograph: Moviestore/Shutterstock
Holder’s early stage career included four years with the National Theatre company at the Old Vic (1964-67), during which time he had elocution lessons after Olivier told him: “My dear boy, you must lose your Birmingham accent.”

Zeffirelli, a guest director there, cast Holder in two Shakespeare film adaptations – as Biondello in The Taming of the Shrew (1967), starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and Peter in Romeo and Juliet (1968), with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey in the title roles. Swimming with Taylor in the Mediterranean during time off was one of the actor’s happiest memories.

His other film parts included the clown in Othello (1965), one of the raw recruits in The Virgin Soldiers (1969), Bob in The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970), Hal in Loot (1970) and Fred Goddard in War Horse (2011).

In 2016, after they had been together for more than 40 years, Holder married Pauline Cox, a BBC makeup and hair designer whom he had met when they were working on the play Brent Geese in 1975.

She and their children, Kate and Thomas, survive him.

Roy Trevor Holder, actor, born 15 June 1946; died 9 November 2021

 

If this doesn’t bring a tear nothing will.


Letter: Ray Kennedy obituary
Through playing in a testimonial football match in the late 1970s I got to know Emlyn Hughes. He recognised me as an ex-soap actor from TV, and eventually introduced me and my son Joby, then aged six, to Ray Kennedy.

One Saturday I took Joby to watch Liverpool play and they gave us tickets for the players’ lounge so that he could meet the team. I asked Joby who his favourite player was. “Ray Kennedy,” he said with his eyes lighting up. “I know him. I say goodnight to him every night on the poster on my wall.”

After the match Joby sat on the floor with a drink. I didn’t know Ray that well, but when I saw him entering with his family and friends I went over and told him the story. He asked where Joby was and said he would just see to his guests and then come over.

In no time at all, with that big smile of his, he pointed at Joby and said “Joby! Fancy seeing you here! Did you enjoy the game?”

How to make a friend for life.

 

RIP Mensi, Angelic Upstarts.

 

RIP Sir

Incidentally, I’ve just stumbled upon an official HBO podcast celebrating the 20th anniversary of Band Of Brothers. Interviews with writers, directors and actors from the program.
It’s just like the program- absolutely brilliant and sobering.

 

RIP.
He wrote one of my favourite songs.

 

Tragic, grew up watching the Monkees on Saturday mornings RIP

 

His mother invented tipex

 

https://louderthanwar.com/mensi-angelic-upstarts-rip/