Don LaFontaine, RIP… “that Announcer Guy From the Movies”

Don LaFontaine, the man whose resonant voice read the trailers of thousands of movies over the past three decades, died

CMT is reporting sad news:

Jerry Reed, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor whose No. 1 country hits include “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” “Lord, Mr. Ford” and “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft),” died Tuesday (Sept. 2).

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Oscar-winning soul singer Isaac Hayes who, along with Al Green, James Brown and Stevie Wonder, was one of the dominant black artists in the early 1970s, died in Memphis on Sunday, his friend and former manager,

Bernie Mac has died in Chicago, at age 50.  The Chicago Tribune reports:

Comedian and Chicago native Bernie Mac died early Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia, his publicist confirmed.

Mac, 50, had been hospitalized for about a week

Word from the Winston-Salem Journal, this morning, that Announcer Skip Caray has died.

Caray, who would have celebrated his 69th birthday on Aug. 12, went to take a nap yesterday afternoon and didn’t wake up. He is survived by

Erica Wagner at the London Times notes the passage of one of the great voices of freedom: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:

Years of internal exile and suffering never daunted him. The 1962 publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Warren Jeffs indited (Associated Press):

ELDORADO, Texas – A grand jury on Tuesday indicted polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and five other members of a sect raided in April

If the People of Texas prevail chalk it up to

HOUSTON, July 12 (Reuters) – Surgeon Michael DeBakey, whose ground-breaking heart transplants and coronary bypass operations made him one of the giants of 20th century medicine, has died at age 99.

The Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital said

Fox News:

Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary and conservative pundit who bedeviled the press corps and charmed millions as a FOX News television and radio host, died Saturday after a long bout with cancer. He was 53.

Former Senator Jesse Helms has died of natural cause at age eighty-six, MSNBC:

RALEIGH, North Carolina – Former Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, a leading conservative from North Carolina who served 30 years in the Senate before retiring in 2003,

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.
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LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Dancer and actress Cyd Charisse, whose legs were insured for a million dollars in the heyday of the Hollywood musical, died at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, her agent said. She was 87.

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The New York Times reports:

Tony Schwartz, a self-taught, sought-after and highly reclusive media consultant who helped create what is generally considered to be the most famous political ad to appear on television, died Saturday at his home in

Local Buffalo native gone big time, Tim Russsert managing editor of NBC’s Washington bureau and host of Meet the Press has died suddenly at age 58, NBC News:

WASHINGTON – Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the