I just checked the NYT obits that I haven’t been doing in quite a while, and went through the long list of deaths in 2019. Some of them surprised and shocked me. Here they are the ones that had meaning for me. Some will be too obscure for the younger bloggers and others will trigger memories

Kathy Griffin’s mom, 99. Kathy often referenced her mother in her stand-up routine.

Don Imus, the iconoclastic radio host. 79

Sue Lyon , 73. Did you see “Lolita”? She was the nymphet James Mason was stuck on.

Kenny Rogers, 81 country music icon.

Danny Aiello, 86. A movie bad/good guy who really nailed every role

Rene Auberjonois. Most recent role was as lead partner of the law firm on the Boston Legal TV series.

Ron Liebman, 82. Actor with leading roles and support roles. He was a smarmy defense lawyer in some Law & Order episodes.

Diahann Carrol, 84. Black singer. Really beautiful.

Robert Forster, 78. Oscar nominee for his role as the bail bondsman in “Jackie Brown.” Never saw him in anything else, but this movie was special.

John Simon, 94. He was a literary critic during my years in publishing. A prominent voice.

Paul Badura-Skoda, 91. A classical pianist. Big in my world.

Alicia Alonso, 98. Cuban Ballerina who danced into her later life and was phenomenal. She also suffered partial blindness and her partners had to be where they were supposed to be at all times. The audience never knew. Read her wiki page.

Cokie Roberts, 75. She’s the journalist who flummoxed Sarah Palin when she asked her what magazines she read, and Palin couldn’t answer.

T. Boone Pickens, 91, oil magnate.

Carol Lynley, 77. Really lovely young girl who achieved some fame as an actress. We studied ballet with the same teachers in the 60s. Had coffee with her once. It shocks me that I have outlived her.

Valerie Harper, 80. TV’s “Rhoda”. I really enjoyed her.

Peter Fonda, 79, actor and Jane Fonda’s brother.

Toni Morrison, 88, black author, known to me when I was at Harper & Row.

Hal Prince, 91, Broadway entrepreneur and producer.

Rutger Hauer, 75. Actor, a big Scandinavian hunk.

Robert Morgenthau, 99, Manhattan’s D.A. when I was living there.

RipTorn, 88. Actor.

Ross Perot, 89. Like Trump but not so stupid, ran for president on his business smarts and dropped out because reporters asked questions, not like when you say jump and your toadies say “how high”.

Arte Johnson, 90. He was the funny little guy in the bushes on “Laugh In” who would say in a heavy German accent, “Very Interesting ..."

Lee Iacocca, 94. He was a household word.

Gloria Vanderbilt, 95. Poor little fabulously rich girl who had a horrid childhood and developed a clothing line.

Franco Zeferilli, 96, the director.

Claus von Bulow, society figure who was convicted but later acquitted of the attempted murder of is wife, Sunny. Twice she suffered an insulin overdose and the second one put her into a semi-coma until death. I am convinced money changed hands.Jeremy Irons made the movie.

Bart Starr, 85, Packers Quarter Back.

Machiko Keyo, 95, star of Rashomon.

Herman Wouk, 95, novelist.

John Havlicek, 79, Boston Celtic the year that the New York Knicks went all the way. Jay and I were in the Garden that night.

Georgia Engel, 70, who played the wide eyed goofy wife of self-important anchorman Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore show.

Doris Day, 97. It seemed she would go on forever.

Charles Van Doren, 93, son of Mark, the scholar. He was seduced into a quiz show, given the answers.it made him a celebrity and then a disaffected “loser” exposed the whole thing. Quite a scandal.

Jan Michael Vincent, 75, a leading man, starred In Wouk’s The Winds of War TV series
.
Carmine Persico, 89, crime boss.

Luke Perry, 52, 90210 heartthrob.

Edwad Nixon, 88, Dick’s brother.

Andre Previn, 89, phenomenal Hollywood musician and composer, worked with his wife, Dory. They took in Mia Farrow to offer condolences when Frank Sinatra dumped her. Sweet young thing sucked the life out of his
marriage, seduced him, had his twins. He divorced Dory and married Mia. And if anyone cares, Soon Yi Previn was his adopted daughter, not Woody Allen’s, but the vengeful Mia kept insisting Woody's interest in Soon Yi (with whom he never lived and later married) was incestuous. Of course she would. This time around it was someone else who was the youngest, not her.

Stanley Donen, 94.

Karl Lagerfeld, 85.

Lee Radziwill, 85, Jackie Kennedy’s sister.

Paul Kranski, 87, anarchist and yuppies founder.

Albert Finney, 82

Tempus and all that,
xx, Teal