Category: people

A child star who was once dubbed “the Scottish Shirley Temple,” she “grew up to become one of the most dynamic jazz artists of her generation, writing lyrics and electrifying audiences with her daring, high-speed singing as part of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.” Later in life, she had a brief movie career and then returned to singing; in between, she led “an often-troubled personal life, which included heroin addiction and a tumultuous relationship with taboo-breaking comedian Lenny Bruce.” – The Washington Post

“A foreign correspondent who wrote books about terrorism and international intrigue” — he worked at The Washington Post and Newsweek for many years and at his death was world news editor of The Daily Beast — “but who was perhaps best known for a revealing memoir about his tortured relationship with his father, the renowned poet and novelist James Dickey.” – The Washington Post

“Williams is a courtly, soft-voiced, inveterately self-effacing man of eighty-eight. He is well aware of the extraordinary worldwide impact of his “Star Wars” music—not to mention his scores for “Jaws,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T.,” the “Indiana Jones” movies, the “Harry Potter” movies, the “Jurassic Park” movies, and dozens of other blockbusters—but he makes no extravagant claims for his music, even if he allows that some of it could be considered “quite good.” – The New Yorker

He began training his training at age 4 and went on to win the World Championship of Hoop Dance three times in each of three age divisions and tour with Cirque du Soleil for three years. – The New York Times

Trained at the Paris Opera Ballet, she became an international star in the title role of Carmen by her husband, choreographer Roland Petit (for whom she continued to dance for decades, sometimes with the likes of Nureyev and Baryshnikov as partners). She went to Hollywood and starred alongside Bing Crosby in Anything Goes. Back in Paris, where she and Petit were the toast of high society, she became queen of the city’s music hall scene, decked out in resplendent feathers for her signature tune, a lewd little number called “Mon Truc en plumes.” – The Washington Post

According to the publisher’s own history, Elliott founded the magazine during a summer holiday from Keele University, where he was studying. “He produced the first edition on the kitchen table in his mother’s house in Kensington with £70, part of a recent 21st birthday present from his aunt.” It began its global expansion in 1995 with the launch of Time Out New York and the process continued in the following decade. – The Guardian

Parker was a huge supporter of civil rights and gave most of her estate to Martin Luther King (whom she had never met) when she died in 1967. When King died, the estate was transferred to the NAACP and she was buried at Baltimore headquarters. Now the organization is moving to Washington… – The New York Times

Sapardi, an influential poet and cultural critic, founded the Indonesian Literary Scholars Association and served as a dean at the University of Indonesia. One author: “As long as I’ve known him he had always been a close reader – meticulous and generous, yet critical. … He steadfastly held on to his maxim, ‘Literature is how an author presents an idea, not the idea itself.'” – The Star (Malaysia/The Jakarta Post)

Despair about the state of the world, a little rosé, and voilà: “Orlean sent 27 entertaining, if typo-infused, tweets (read: “I do r e we. Know who is I my house”) that careen from the state of the world to the location of her cat, Leo, interspersed with frequent nods to her progressing drunkenness and her husband’s mounting concern for her well being. Taken together, the tweets feel oddly in tune with the tenor of the times — surreal, raw, a little unhinged.” – Los Angeles Times

Tucci began her career in Italy in the 1950s and went on to international acclaim, including in the 1960s at the Metropolitan Opera. “An unaffected and subtly compelling actress, she was best known for her interpretations of the spinto repertory, like her rendition of the title role of Verdi’s Aida, which demanded both lyric soprano lightness and the vocal heft to lift soaring phrases over an orchestra.” – The New York Times