On A Pale Horse

I've never really understood Cuba Gooding Jr. At times he seems like a complete boob by picking roles like Boat Trip, Rat Race, & Snow Dogs then turns around and appears to be a real intelligent funny actor that picks roles in flicks like As Good As It Gets, Boyz in the Hood & Radio. But I guess there is something to be said about making millions doing commercial crap and justifying the soul with low paying serious roles. The real mystery to me is why he got an Oscar for Jerry Maguire rather then for his portry of Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear in the movie Men of Honor.

Carl Brashear enlisted with the US Navy in 1948 shortly after the desegration was instituted but not fully grasped. But he worked his way through the diving program and became the first black certified diver in 1951. In 1966, while on a mission to recover an unexploded hydrogen bomb a towing line broke and hit his lower right leg nearly severing it. Doctors tried to repair the damage but the leg was ultimately amputated. His career in the Navy was an up hill battle from day one and this obstacle wasn't going to get in Brashears way either. He continued to train and battle through pain and discomfort to become the first amputee diver in 1968 and the first black Master Diver in 1971. He retired from the Navy in 1979 and continued a career with the government until his final retirement.

He passed away from respritory and heart failure.

January 19, 1931 - July 25, 2006 - RIP

Labels: 1931 births, 2006 July deaths, heart failure, military, pioneer

What always bothered me were those people that were so anti 'something' in public and behind closed doors they were overly involved in the same activity (huh?). Like I respect my mom, but totally disagree with her when it comes to homosexuality. She is 100% against it, she even stopped watching Rosie & Ellen just because they came out. She's told me this in public and at the dinner table. I wonder what she would do if she ever found out that I had a girlfriend for awhile (oops). It's the people that will publically denouce a topic, such as homosexuality, and then are a complete deviant when they are behind closed doors. Example, James West, the former mayor of Spokaine, Washington. He publically supported anti-gay legislature & led a movement to impeach a governer for sexual harassment. But the hypocritical politican sexually assulted two boys while serving as a Boy Scout leader and his online profile on Gay.com was RightBi-Guy (hot!).

He said he was sorry but was recalled anyway.

He passed away from complications of colon cancer.

March 28, 1951 - July 21, 2006

RIP

Labels: 1951 births, 2006 July deaths, cancer, political

I'm not telling you how old I was in 1978 but I was old enough to remember my dad taking me to see Heaven Can Wait at the theatre across the street from Eastland and just down the road from the St. Clair Shores apartments where we lived. He had just picked me up from my Grandma's house (8 Mile & Groesbeck a nice place before Tycoon's moved in).

My dad never really knew what to do with me so he just took me to movies. Which I think was an inherited trait because my other Grandma (his mom) did the same thing with me.

Anyways...it was in this movie I first saw a soprano saxophone and I knew right then and there that was the only instrument that I wanted to play. This was way before Kenny G. totally pussified the sax the way he did. Because this was such a dream I took band for eight years (band fag for life!) and each year I asked the band director if we could add a soprano sax to the line up and every year the answer was 'no'. Well every year that is except my senior year when D.K. added a beautiful soprano sax, from the band budget, but let someone else play it. Just another crushing moment in a series of disappointment.

Jack Warden played Coach Max Corkle in that flick. He also played Morris Buttermaker in the TV adaptation of Bad News Bears (staring little Cory Feldmen). But playing the gruff and hard nosed coach wasn't the only part that he was good at. He was nominated for two supporting actor Oscars in the aforementioned Heaven Can Wait as well as Shampoo and walked away with an Emmy for his part in Brian's Song.

He served in WW2 as a paratrooper and was scheduled to make a jump on D-Day but shattered his leg during a practice jump the day before. It was when he was in bed recuperating he decided to become an actor and made his film debut in 1951 with 'You're in the Navy Now".

He passed away in a New York hospital from a combination of heart and kidney failure, or as his manager called it "Just old age".

September 18, 1920 - July 19, 2006

RIP

Labels: 1920 births, 2006 July deaths, actor, heart failure, kidney failure

I'm back...as if anybody cared.
2006 has been one bitch of a year and if anything your little reaper wishes she kicked the bucket. But here I am...back and ready to regurgitate celebrity obits.