• Tweet
• 
  
  
  
  
• 
  

We saw this interesting article about Elizabeth Taylor today – please read it at this link: Year in Review: Elizabeth Taylor leads the list of celebrity deaths – Dallas Morning News

Here’s an excerpt:

Some believe that in 2011, the world lost its most beautiful woman.

When Elizabeth Taylor, 79, took leave of this life in March, hers joined many celebrated names now in the possession of memory and history. Her beautiful face, and the Everyman face of Harry Morgan (M*A*S*H and much else), who passed away at 96, led a cavalcade of lives completed this year.

MUSIC: The already fabulous Celestial Band gained many new members. Cesaria Evora, 70, barefoot diva of Cape Verde, now sings forever. Sylvia Robinson, hip-hop pioneer, was 75, and Milton Babbit, electronic music pioneer, was 94. Nick Ashford, 70, of Ashford and Simpson, can now sing to the sax of Clarence Clemons, 69, of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and the uncanny, spectacular stylings of George Shearing, 91, who can see fine now. Rapper Heavy D was 44, Nate Dogg was 41, and Slim Dunkin was 24. Bluegrass royalty Hazel Dickens was 75. Gerry Rafferty, 63, is no longer stuck in the middle, and the soul of Dobie Gray, 71, is now forever free, as are those of rock ’n’ roll pensmiths Jerry Ragovoy, 80, and Jerry Lieber, 78. Paul Motian, 80, can now bring his coolest of drum sounds to the highest level.

Two poets, rap godfather Gil Scott-Heron, 62, and Phoebe Snow, 60, can match beats, while Hubert Sumlin, 80, and David “Honeyboy” Edwards, 96, play sweet blues guitar, and Pinetop Perkins, 97, shows what it’s all about on keys, and TV on the Radio’s Gerard Smith, 36, plays bass. Bill Tapia, historic ukulelist, 103, can accompany R&B man Howard Tate, 72, while Roger Williams, 87, plays those rolling glissandos. The tragic Amy Winehouse, 27, brings her voice to a perpetually appreciative audience, along with Teena Marie, 54. And Don Kirschner, 76, can manage the whole show.

TV/FILM: James Arness, 88, has holstered his last six-shooter, and Jackie Cooper, 88, was a baby face to the last. Speaking of beautiful faces, Susannah York, 72, had one of the loveliest, and Michael Sarrazin, 70, had two of the most soulful eyes. Jerry Haynes, 84, was “Mr. Peppermint” to thousands of North Texas children and a mainstay of local theater. Maria Schneider, 58, can compare notes on arrival with Marlon Brando.

Ryan Dunn (Jackass), 34, can compete with Peter Falk, 83, to see who’s most mischievous, while Anne Francis, 80, looks on. Handsome Farley Granger was 85; Cliff Robertson was 88. Dolores Hope, 102, finds husband Bob waiting for her, and Arthur Laurents, 93, and director Sidney Lumet, 86, can trade good ones.

David Nelson, 74, can tell stories about his parents, Ozzie and Harriet, to Pete Postlethwaite, 64, while Andy Rooney, 92, complains that heaven ain’t what it used to be. Jane Russell, 89, stood out among Technicolor babes, as did Ken Russell, 84, among directors. Sherwood Schwartz, 94, can hang out with Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus and other Gilligan’s Island alums. And Yvette Vickers (Attack of the 50-Foot Woman), 82, doesn’t have to worry about her height anymore. Both the football and media worlds lost former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and Monday Night Football commentator Don Meredith, 72, and Bubba Smith, 66.

ARTS and LITERATURE: Painters Lucien Freud, 88, and Cy Twombly, 83, have perfected their canvases. Two longtime masters of the daily comics, Bil Keane (Family Circus), 89, and Tom Wilson (Ziggy), 80, need not come up with a strip every day anymore. Among writers, the wonderful Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali, 80, has found the peace his writing foretold, and American Michael S. Hart, 64, author, inventor of the e-book, and founder of Project Gutenberg, is now beyond the electronic text. German postmodernist novelist Christa Wolf, 82, joins stately Reynolds Price, 77, and spiritual Samuel Menashe, 85. And the exacting and excellent Christopher Hitchens, 62, has found release from long struggle.

Locally, we said goodbye to Denise Brown, 86, who taught generations of children how to dance as the founder of City Ballet; arts philanthropist Charles Wyly, 77; Texas author Jay Milner, 88; Warren Leslie III, 84, author of Dallas Public and Private: Aspects of an American City; former Dallas Morning News columnist Maryln Schwartz, 69, and former Dallas Times Herald society columnist Julia Sweeney, 84.

RADIO: The wave world lost big names, including poet of the radio Norman Corwin, 101; crazy guy Fred Imus, 69, brother of Don; and Dallas disc jockey Linwood “Cousin Linnie” Henderson, 74.

POP CULTURE: Apple innovator and visionary Steve Jobs, 56, moved on to the next vision, as did jumpsuited exercise evangelist Jack LaLanne, 96.

From staff reports and John Timpane, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Read more here: Year in Review: Elizabeth Taylor leads the list of celebrity deaths – Dallas Morning News