i did a bit a while back about all musical icons that had dropped dead by APRIL of 2016…
…and the hits just keep on coming – and not just musicians! there was also…
abe vigoda (1921-2016) – this guy was rumored to be dead for so long there was a website you used to be able to go to that just said whether he was alive or dead. i guess that’ll go away soon. he was the actor who played “fish” on barney miller in the 70’s (his fellow cast mate ron glass also passed this year) and was in all the godfather movies as well. also, lest we forget, he was immortalized in the beastie boy lyric “you know i’ve got rhymes like abe vigoda” (posse in effect from licensed to ill (1986)).
arnold palmer (1929-2016) – whether you golfed or not you knew who the fuck arnold palmer was, even if you didn’t like tea and lemonade combined into a drink. a true legend in his sport, so lest we forget another sports icon…
muhammad ali (1942-2016) – the champ is the undisputed greatest of all time in boxing and motherfuck anybody who disagrees. parkinson’s rattled his body but not his spirit. while plenty like to talk about him like he was out of it for several years keep in mind he carried in the olympic torch only ten years ago, and has been active till the last few. he was a legend in his sport. you know who wasn’t?
fidel castro (1926-2016) – before he was the cuban presidenté for life he was a suck-ass baseball player. okay, maybe not “suck ass”, but it was bad enough that he went into government work and made it to where i have to jump through hoops to get their cigars…but at least it looks like i can actually GO there in the not-so-distant future, so there’s that.
sir george martin (1926-2016) – i purposely placed this fifth because this was, for all intents and purposes, the “fifth beatle”. without martin their career would not have been what it was because the sound would not have been what it was. and talk about the keeper of the flame – he not only helped dig through the hours of tape to compile the three volume anthology series in 1990’s he and his son RE-dug through shit to compile the music for the cirque de soleil show “love” in 2008.
and finally…
nancy reagan (1921-2016) – there are some who criticize me for not putting alan rickman or gene wilder on this list…and while i enjoyed the former in the “…potter” movies (as well as his excellent performance in dogma) and the latter in blazing saddles and some (NOT all) of the pryor movies and he is forever the REAL willy wonka, i found it interesting that little miss “just say no” dies and eight months later a record number of marijuana legislation passes. plus, looking back the majority of folks on this list were born in the roaring ’20’s so this kept the theme.