Cleto Escobedo, III , sax player and bandleader for Jimmy Kimmel Live!,  died on Nov. 11. He was 59. Escobedo and Kimmel had been childhood friends in Las Vegas, and Cleto and the Cletones played on Jimmy Kimmel Live!  since its debut in 2003. The son of musician Cleto Escobedo, Jr., Cleto III toured with Paula Abdul and several other artists, and joined Kimmel’s show with his father’s band, which he inherited. Escobedo joined a 2017 suit trying to get musicians compensated f

“ What Ever Became Of …?” author Richard Lamparski , 93, died on Nov. 11. His books—11 of them, published between 1967-89, are treasure troves of interviews with not only old movie stars, but sports, political, and arts figures. I hold Vol. 1 in my dainty little hands now, and the subjects include Adele Astaire, Gertrude Ederle, Jesse Owens, and Patsy Kelly. He touched history in a way we all wish we could, and he shared it with us. He also wrote the more recent books Hollywo

Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai  ( Ran, Harakiri, The Human Condition ), 92, died on Nov. 8. Born in Tokyo, he was a huge stage star before entering films, appearing in nearly 200 between 1954-2020. His most famous in the US were Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 medieval drama Ran , and Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition  trilogy ( No Greater Love ,  Road to Eternity , and  A Soldier’s Prayer); Nakadai eventually appeared in 11 of Kobayashi’s films. “There's just something about bein

Offbeat actress Sally Kirkand ("the Sylvia Miles of Karen Blacks"), 84, died on Nov. 11. The daughter of a Vogue  fashion editor, Kirkland began acting Off-Broadway; she hung out at Andy Warhol’s Factory, and appeared in several of his “films.” She worked steadily, but mostly in small roles—she had small or supporting roles in Going Home , The Way We Were , The Sting , Big Bad Mama , Crazy Mama , A Star Is Born , and Private Benjamin . It wasn’t till the’80s that Kirkland be

Porn star Jeanna Fine , 61, died on Nov. 10, according to the XBIZ website. Fine made her debut in 1986, and through the early 2000s appeared in hundreds of films, becoming one of the industry’s top, and most-awarded, stars. Her resume includes (I swear I am not making any of these up) Abducted by the Enema Bandit, All Anal on the Western Front, Around the World in 80 Gays, Edward Penishands, Generally Horny Hospital, Lust Tango in Paris, Moonlusting, Saturday Night Beaver, S

Stage, screen, and TV character actress Betty Harford , 97, died on Nov. 2. Harford started her career onstage with the UCLA Theater Group. She had continuing roles in The Paper Chase  (as old pal John Houseman’s secretary) and Dynasty  (as the Carringtons’ cook), and voiced Gumby’s mother, Gumba, on The Gumby Show . She also played Natalie Wood’s sister in the delightfully awful Inside Daisy Clover , and had small roles in such movies and TV shows as The Twilight Zone, The A

Jordanian-born British actor and playwright Nabil Shaban , 72, died of a brain hemorrhage on Oct. 25. Shaban was born with osteogenesis imperfect (“brittle bone syndrome”), which left him with stunted legs and lower torso. After spending most of his childhood in hospitals, Shaban studied psychology and sociology at the University of Surrey, then formed his own theater company, as no one else would cast him. He became quite a star, in London and Edinburgh, playing Hamlet , his

The Farmers’ Almanac , an entertaining annual (and calendar) containing such information as weather forecasts, planting advice, folklore, astronomy, and general advice, will cease publication as of next year. It was the oldest continuously published periodical in North America. I frequently bought their calendars, which were beautifully designed and chock-full of interesting tid-bits. The editors posted, “After more than 200 years of sharing a unique blend of weather, wit and

New Zealand director Lee Tamahori , 75, died on Nov. 7. Tamahori worked his way up as an assistant director and in TV before his first big hit, the dark Once Were Warriors (1994) brought him international fame. He went on to direct Mulholland Falls, Along Came a Spider, Die Another Day, The Devil’s Double, The Patriarch, Billions, The Convert , and an episode of The Sopranos . He became unwillingly known for his kinky private life—he and his girlfriend were into cross-dressi

Adorable, saucer-eyed British actress Pauline Collins  ( Upstairs, Downstairs, Shirley Valentine ) died on Nov. 5. She was 85. Collins was already a rising young actress ( Doctor Who, The Liver Birds ) when cast as mischievous maid Sarah on Upstairs, Downstairs (the best British series ever , and I will hear no arguments) and she stole the show. She and her husband/costar John Alderton left for an unsuccessful spin-off, Thomas and Sarah , then costarred in the delightful Wod

Glenn Clifton, 51, a singer who performed as Young Bleed , died of of a brain aneurysm, and let’s not have any wisecracks, children. The Baton Rouge native was rapping and hip-hopping from the time he really was  young. In 1995 he joined the group Concentration Camp (!), and in 1997 had his first hit with “How You Do That.” In 2010 he formed his own record company, Trap Door Entertainment. Between 1998 and 2020, Young Bleed released nine albums. “I’m the young that bleed for

Talented, versatile actress Diane Ladd , 89, died on Nov. 3. Ladd was Oscar-nominated for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore  (that’s two Flos who died this year!), Wild at Heart , and Rambling Rose . Born in Mississippi, Ladd started her career in 1950s TV and worked her way through larger parts in the ‘60s. It wasn’t till the early ‘70s—after 20 years—that she broke through with roles in Chinatown, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Bluegrass, A Kiss before Dying, The Cemetery C

Singer Donna Jean Godchaux (The Grateful Dead) died on Nov. 3. She was 78. Godchaux was a backup singer (with a strong mezzo-soprano voice) for such artists as Percy Sledge (“When a Man Loves a Woman”), Elvis Presley (“Suspicious Minds,” “In the Ghetto”), Boz Scaggs, Duane Allman, Cher, Neil Diamond, and others; she sang with The Grateful Dead from 1972-79, and with the Jerry Garcia Band, the Heart of Gold Band, and her own Donna Jean Godchaux Band. She was married (from 197

Busy character actor Lee Weaver , 95, died on Sept. 22. Weaver had conspicuous supporting roles in The Bill Cosby Show, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Hill Street Blues  (as exhibitionist Buck Naked), Vanishing Point , Heaven Can Wait,   The Onion Field , Bulworth , How Stella Got Her Groove Back , Donnie Darko , The 40-Year-Old Virgin, I Spy, The Wild Wild West, Julia, Sanford and Son  (as the official who tries to take Fred’s elephant), Beverly Hills 90210, My Name is Earl, Com

French actor Tchéky Karyo , 72, died of cancer on Oct. 31. Karyo was born in Turkey but raised in France, where he started his career onstage, breaking through into movies with the 1982 film La Balance . Besides his many French films and TV shows, Karyo appeared in such international projects as La Femme Nikita, Vincent and Me, 1492, Nostradamus  (in the title role), Bad Boys, Operation Dumbo Drop, GoldenEye, Addicted to Love , and The Name of the Rose . On TV, his most famou

TV director Ralph Senensky , 102, died on Nov. 1. Senensky started his career directing regional theater, but moved into TV in the early 1960s. He helmed multiple episodes of Dr. Kildare, The Fugitive, Star Trek, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, The Partridge Family, Nanny and the Professor, The FBI, The Waltons , and Hart to Hart , as well as one-offs of more than 70 other shows. “Directing episodic television is like jumping on a freight train in motion,” Senensky said. “As

British experimental filmmaker Peter Watkins , 90, died on Oct. 29. Watkins’s films might be described as “mockumentaries” or “docudramas,” except I hate those words. While at the BBC, he was tasked with producing and directing a documentary on the Jacobite uprising of 1746; the result, Culloden (1965), was a You Are There -style film with modern reporters interviewing 18th-century combatants. He went on to create similar time-bending films: The War Game  (this nuclear war w

1990s child actor Floyd Roger Myers, Jr. , 42, died on Oct. 29, after years of heart problems. Myers appeared as the young Will Smith on an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , and played the young Marlon Jackson in the 1992 mini-series The Jacksons: An American Dream . He also had a bit part in the 2000 series Young Americans . Myers co-founded the Fellaship Mens Group, which, its website says, “creates safe, judgment-free spaces for men to be seen, heard, and supported.”

Porn star Dino Phillips , 55, has died, it was announced on Oct. 29. No cause was given. His resume includes such eyebrow-raising titles as Too Damn Big!, Wet Warehouse, Runway Studs, Bitanic , and Too Many Tops . Writer Sabin Gray posted that Phillips “was a sweet guy who I could always depend on to help me out with charity fundraisers and events.”

Actress and literary matricide Maria Riva —daughter of Marlene Dietrich—died on Oct. 28. She was 100. Born in Berlin to Dietrich and her husband, director Rudolf Sieber, she came to the US with her mother, and in the 1950s began acting on TV (she was also a Rheingold Beer Girl). Through the ’50s she appeared on such shows as Suspense, Studio 1, You Are There , and the unfortunately titled Climax! , but her career never really took off. After that, she pretty much devoted hers