13th Annual Pop Culture Necrology: A salute to lesser-known 'late greats'

Shirley Jean Rickert

Michael Jackson, 50, died June 25.

You probably heard about that.

You likely also heard about the deaths of legends and favorites of movies, TV, music, letters and fine art such as newscaster Walter Cronkite, actress Bea Arthur, "Kung Fu" star David Carradine, author John Updike, director John Hughes and painter Andrew Wyeth.

Ron Asheton, guitarist

Eddie Bo

Sky Saxon

Shih Kien

Monte Hale

Marilyn Chambers

Shirley Jean Rickert

Brenda Joyce, Jane of the Jungle

Mollie Sugden

The local music scene in particular mourned Sun Studio wild man Billy Lee Riley, "Ol' Man River" belter James Hyter, Memphis-born saxophonist and Ray Charles bandleader Hank Crawford, blues queen Koko Taylor and the Yoda of North Mississippi, Jim Dickinson.

Meanwhile, TV fans were saddened by the loss of a sidekick (Ed McMahon), a pieman (Soupy Sales) and an angel (Farrah Fawcett).

But for every Oscar winner (Karl Malden) and American original (solid-body electric-guitar innovator Les Paul) whose passing received special attention, there were numerous figures whose deaths were less noted or overlooked.

To balance the scales somewhat, we now present our 13th annual Pop Culture Necrology -- a salute to some lesser-known "late greats" with their own (sometimes significant, sometimes small, sometimes just plain weird) claims to fame.

As always, our key resource was local author Harris M. Lentz III, whose definitive "Obituaries in the Performing Arts" series is published annually by McFarland and Co. of North Carolina. (Visit mcfarlandpub.com.) He also writes an obituary column for FamousMonstersofFilmland.com.

Lentz's books typically run to more than 400 pages each, and Lentz says his first draft of the 2009 edition lists 1,484 names. So the roll call below represents just a very, very few of those worth remembering.

So -- to quote the title of the 1980 recording by poet/author/rocker Jim Carroll, who passed away Sept. 11 at age 60 -- here are some "People Who Died":

Take-no-prisoners guitarist Ron Asheton, a founding member with Iggy Pop of the Stooges, a punk-anticipating Detroit rock band that recorded such classic late 1960s-early 1970s albums as "Fun House" and "Raw Power," died Jan. 6 at 60 after an apparent heart attack.

Other pop/rock stars who packed up their gear for good were Bob Bogle (June 14, 75), lead guitarist-turned-bass player for The Ventures; Buffalo Springfield drummer Dewey Martin (Jan. 31, 68); psychedelic garage rock savant Sky Saxon (June 25, 71), leader of L.A.'s The Seeds ("Pushin' Too Hard"); bellowing Blue Cheer lead singer and bassist Dickie Peterson (Oct. 12, 63); Gordon Waller (July 16, 62), who harmonized with Peter Asher on such Peter & Gordon 1960s hits as the Lennon-McCartney composition, "A World Without Love"; and blond Greenwich Village native Mary Travers (Sept. 16, 72), of Peter, Paul and Mary, who helped make the world safe for folk music (or vice versa).

Texas-born Monte Hale -- the last of the singing cowboys who rode and strummed their way through hundreds of Republic Pictures B-Westerns during the first three decades of sound cinema -- headed for that last roundup on March 29, to harmonize with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. He was 89.

Ivory Snow model turned adult-film star Marilyn Chambers -- who gained notoriety in the X-rated "Behind the Green Door" during the "porno chic" era of the early 1970s -- died April 12 at 56, of complications from heart disease. Chambers tried to go legit, more or less, by playing a scientifically created vampire with a stinger in her armpit in David Cronenberg's "Rabid" (1977).

Tireless New Orleans pianist, singer, songwriter, producer and all-around musical legend Eddie Bo -- whose 1962 novelty dance hit "Check Mr. Popeye" warned the spinach-addicted sailor that "Olive's in the danger zone" -- died March 18 at 78. Bo was equally adept at jazz, pop, R&B and funk, as was his Crescent City colleague and fellow Jazzfest mainstay, blind singer-guitarist Snooks Eaglin (Feb. 18, 73).

Another who blew his last note: New Orleans-born ball of energy Sam Butera (June 3, 81), the raucous saxophonist for Louis Prima.

Dauntless Z-movie director Ray Dennis Steckler, 70, who acted in his films under the Pynchon-worthy name "Cash Flagg" and in 1964 delivered a "thriller" with the instantly famous if marquee-defying title "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies," died Jan. 7.

Joining him in the great grindhouse in the sky were actor Don Edmonds (May 30, 73), who directed the infamous 1970s "Nazisploitation" films "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS" and "Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Shieks," and British producer Harry Alan Towers (July 31, 88), responsible for "The Brides of Fu Manchu," "Circus of Fear" and almost 100 others.

"Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" The voice of the arm-waving robot in the TV series "Lost in Space" belonged to Dick Tufeld (now 87), but the actor and stunt man inside the suit from 1965 to 1968 was Bob May, who died Jan. 18 at 69. May was fond of the role, and called the cumbersome tin can his "home away from home."

Last year's "necrology" included comedian, country musician and "Hager Twins" member Jim Hager. His brother and fellow "Hee Haw" cast member waited just eight months to join him: Jon Hager, 67, died Jan. 9.

Martial artist Shih Kien, 96, a popular villain in Hong Kong action films known in the West as the crime lord who battled Bruce Lee with his claw hand in 1973's "Enter the Dragon," died June 3. Another famous "Oriental" villain was Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman (Oct. 19, 91), remembered as the title megalomaniac in the first James Bond movie, "Dr. No" (1962).

Gidget, the fast food-promoting, bug-eyed Chihuahua who inspired such national catch phrases as "Yo quiero Taco Bell" and "Drop the chalupa!," died July 21 at 15.

Other Zoo's Who animal celebs that kicked the water dish include Rumpus (early October, 5), the Great Dane who appeared in such Lady Gaga music videos as "Poker Face"; and Tweet (Sept. 11, 18), a giraffe who guested in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective"

Shirley Jean Rickert, 82, a spit-curled blond child star in 1930s "Our Gang" comedy shorts who became a burlesque peeler after growing to maturity, died Feb. 6. Replying to a fan from Detroit on her Web site, she described her career dichotomy: "Detroit was one of the towns where I would appear on a kiddie TV show on Saturday morning as Shirley Jean of the Our Gang/Little Rascals and disrobe on stage at night for the little kiddies' parents."

Another ecdysiastical icon was Alice Schiller (Dec. 19, 95), a reportedly ladylike teetotaler who in the early 1960s transformed Hollywood's The Pink Pussycat into a celebrity watering hole/striptease house and what the New York Times called "one of the most successful, celebrated and profusely feathered nightclubs of its era."

Charles H. Schneer, 88, the producer whose partnership with one-man stop-motion special effects squad Ray Harryhausen resulted in such fantasy classics as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts," died Jan. 21.

Groomed to be a successor to Vincent Price by American-International Pictures, the elegant and imposing Robert Quarry was cast as the title bloodsucker in the early 1970s cult classics "Count Yorga, Vampire" and "The Return of Count Yorga"; he died Feb. 20 at 83.

They saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus: Boy singer Jimmy Boyd -- whose Columbia Records version of that believe-it-or-not once-controversial holiday song (Boston Catholics protested the mixing of osculation and Christmas) became a pop phenomenon in 1952, selling close to 3 million copies in two weeks -- died March 7 at 70. About two years Jimmy's senior, 13-year-old Molly Bee also had 1952 success with "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" for Capitol, although her version stalled at No. 13 on the Billboard charts. Bee, 69, died Feb. 7.

Altovise Davis, 65, widow (and third wife) of Sammy Davis Jr., died March 14. A chorus-line dancer, Mrs. Davis became a familiar TV face after her marriage, appearing on such game shows as "Tattletales."

Controversial British "New Wave" author J.G. Ballard, 78, whose often dystopian novels inspired David Cronenberg's "Crash" and Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun," died April 19. A typically provocative short-story title: 1967's "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race." Another groundbreaking science-fiction author was Philip José Farmer (Feb. 25, 91), famous for his massive "Riverworld" novels, his "fictional biographies" of Tarzan and Doc Savage, and "The Lovers" (1952), the first legitimate novella to imagine alien-human sex.

He was neither spooky nor altogether ooky, but he perhaps was a little kooky: Musician Vic Mizzy, who composed the unforgettable theme songs for the offbeat TV sitcoms "The Addams Family" and "Green Acres," died Oct. 17. He was 93.

Ken Annakin, the director of such proto-Spielberg blockbusters as "Swiss Family Robinson" (1960), "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" and "Battle of the Bulge" (both 1965), died April 22 at 94. He was widely considered to be the inspiration for the character name "Anakin Skywalker," although George Lucas denied it.

The successor to Maureen O'Sullivan, actress Brenda Joyce (July 4, 92) was Tarzan's mate, Jane, in five jungle adventures, including the final four movies starring Johnny Weissmuller and the first with Lex Barker.

The Swamp Thing, stuntman/actor Dick Durock, 72, shuffled off this mortal bayou on Sept. 17. Covered head to toe in greenish and monstrous prosthetic makeup, Durock played the DC Comics heroic humanoid vegetable mass in Wes Craven's "Swamp Thing" (1982), the sequel, "The Return of Swamp Thing," and a 1990-93 USA Network TV series. Durock also was the stuntman for "Jethro Bodine" on "The Beverly Hillbillies."

"Mrs. Slocombe" herself, actress Mollie Sugden, who portrayed the harried (and big-haired) saleswoman from 1972 to 1985 on the ubiquitous Britcom "Are You Being Served?" died July 21 at 86.

Once ubiquitous sitcom guest actor Carl Ballantine -- remembered for his regular role as sailor Lester Gruber on "McHale's Navy" in the 1960s -- died Nov. 3 at 92.

South Carolina-born, New York-based Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II -- better known as radio and TV evangelist "Reverend Ike" -- died July 28 at 74. Founder of the United Church of Jesus Christ for All People, among other nondenominational organizations, the flamboyant Ike gathered followers (and donations) during his 1970s heyday with the slogan: "You can't lose with the stuff I use!"

Nightclub comic Sammy Petrillo, 75, whose uncanny resemblance to Jerry Lewis was a blessing that became a curse, died Aug 15. Petrillo teamed with crooner Duke Mitchell in the 1950s for a Martin-and-Lewis impersonation act that was immortalized in the duo's only starring movie, 1952's "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla," advertised as "a horror film that will stiffen you with laughter!"

Actress Collin Wilcox, whose claim that she was raped by a "Negro" is disproved by heroic lawyer Gregory Peck in the classic "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), died Oct. 14 at 74. The man who put words in Wilcox's mouth, Horton Foote, 92, the distinctively Southern Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist (1995's "The Young Man from Atlanta") who won Oscars for his scripts for "Mockingbird" and "Tender Mercies" (1983), died March 4.

Born with the unheroic name of Eugene Klass, Gene Barry (Dec. 9, 90) became the idol of boys as TV's "Bat Masterson," from 1958 to 1961. He followed that series with roles on the programs "Burke's Law" and "The Name of the Game," and, back in the 1950s, he battled Martians in "The War of the Worlds" and a whip-wielding Barbara Stanwyck in Sam Fuller's "Forty Guns." Barry was brought out of retirement to make a cameo in Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" remake.

Songwriter Aaron Schroeder (Dec. 2, 84) not only penned 17 tunes for Elvis, including the hits "It's Now or Never" and "Stuck on You," but a number that probably everybody can sing: the theme to the TV cartoon smash, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!"

Here's a good excuse to visit a pub: Hoist a cold one to the memory of Liam Clancy, 74, the youngest and last surviving member of Ireland's musical Clancy Brothers, who died Dec. 3.

-- John Beifuss: 529-2394

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