Guess who died in 2023

[kcmets]

Tom Smothers. I remember most The Who destroying their gear on their show

Probably quite staged and phony but pretty crazy Tv for the times...

[MFS62]

Later

[Frayed Knot]

I always had trouble remembering which was which ... including just now.

I remember the show but it was a bit before my time at least as far as me appreciating the edginess and coloring outside the
lines going on. Learned most of that in retrospect. Nice career(s) even if their prime was a bit short (not entirely their fault).

[kcmets]

[TransMonk]

Herb Kohl, former US Senator and former NBA owner, 88

[Edgy MD]

Also and perhaps most prominently, the last of founding family of Kohl's retailers, and probably one of the last living magnates from the golden age of the American department store.

Roomed with Bud Selig at Harvard, and they kind of worked side by side to try to create a Jewish-led renaissance in Milwaukee, and if didn't do too badly, during an era when the American city was seemingly in decline everywhere.

Also, he was, like, totally rich.

[Frayed Knot]

British actor Tom Wilkinson - 75

Most notably for me was his role as the lead courtroom attorney who goes off the rails in MICHAEL CLAYTON
Also FULL MONTY, IN THE BEDROOM, BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, and as Ben Franklin in the JOHN ADAMS
mini-series.

[metirish]

Veteran journalist and filmmaker John Pilger , age 84

[Frayed Knot]

The race to be the final death of 2023 appears to go to Shecky Greene [Fred Sheldon Greenfeld], the long time comedian and Vegas lounge act.
He was 97 and, had you asked me, prior to just now, I would have guessed that he had already been dead for decades.

[Edgy MD]

I just read your post twice and I still feel pretty certain that he's been dead for decades.

[Frayed Knot]

I know, right?
I would have associated him as being from an era closer to my grandparents' generation.
Instead he turns out to be just three years older than my father.

[MFS62]

One of Edgy's first admonishments to me (when I posted a joke) was, "Take it easy, Shecky".
Later

[Frayed Knot]

Well 'Shecky', over the years, became a kind of shorthand for that old-fashioned version of the standup comic so it often got
used to stick on someone trying to be funny. A president attempting to inject some humor into a press conference might
attract a comment of, 'Hey check out Shecky Nixon over there'.
One of Imus's occasionally recurring characters was a (fake) Pakistani comic named Shecky Bahuda, aka: The Whacky Packy

[MFS62]

Racer Cale Yarborough - 84.
https://www.cbssports.com/nascar/news/c ... ies-at-84/
Later

[Lefty Specialist]

One of Edgy's first admonishments to me (when I posted a joke) was, "Take it easy, Shecky".
Later

“Frank Sinatra once saved my life,” Greene quipped. “A bunch of guys were beating on me and Frank said, ‘OK, that’s enough.’ ”