Dan Haggerty, Actor Who Played Grizzly Adams, Dies at 74 from Cancer

SAD NEWS, ACTOR OF ONE OF MY FAVORITE 70′S SHOWS PASSES AWAY …

Dan Haggerty, the actor who played mountain man Grizzly Adams with his sidekick, a real bear named Ben, in the 1974 movie (VIDEO) that would become a NBC TV weekly show, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, has passed away. Dan Haggerty died Friday in Burbank, California at 74 as a result of cancer of the spine. Haggerty. who rose to stardom with his rose as the gently mountain man, Grizzly Adams, who was falsely accused of murder and fled to the woods. On a personal note, how I loved this show growing up as a kid and could not wait for it all week to come on. Grizzly Adams and his relationship with an orphaned bear named Ben, Hollywood take note. The TV series ran from 1977 to 1978. Why does it seem like it was so much longer? Maybe it was because it was one of my favorite TV shows of all time!

Dan Haggerty – Rest in Peace

Early on in his career and this was something I never knew, Haggerty was cast in a small non-speaking role as a bodybuilder in the 1964 film Muscle Beach Party, with Franky Avalon and Annette Funicello, and also as a bodybuilder in Girl Happy. These were followed by appearances in various biker and wildlife films such as Easy Rider, Angels Die Hard, The Adventures of Frontier Fremont, and Terror Out of the Sky.

Dan Haggerty IMDb

Dan Haggerty, who played a gentle mountain man with a luxuriant beard and a bear named Ben in the 1974 movie “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” and the NBC television series of the same name, died on Friday in Burbank, Calif. He was 73.

The cause was cancer of the spine, his friend and manager Terry Bomar said.

Mr. Haggerty was working as a stuntman and animal handler in Hollywood when a producer asked him to act in some opening scenes he was reshooting for a film about a woodsman and his bear. Based on the novel “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams,” by Charles Sellier Jr., it told the story of a California man falsely accused of murder who flees to the woods, where he develops a rapport with the animals around him and tames an orphaned bear.

The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams – The Adams Cub

ABC News has confirmed with the actor’s manager Terry Bomar:

“Dan Haggerty, a beloved Father and friend, has died at 4:30 this morning at St Joseph Hospital in Burbank, CA, surrounded by his family that loved him. He had fought a long hard battle with cancer of the spine that was discovered in August of this year,” Bomar wrote in a press release.

He continued, “All the awards pale in comparison to his huge laugh and wonderful sense of humor that made everyone laugh with him. He would light up any room he entered. He loved life, loved his family, loved his friends and fans.”

Grizzly Adams Pilot Episode Part 1

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

NY Times OBIT:

Daniel Francis Haggerty was born on Nov. 19, 1942, in Los Angeles. His parents separated when he was 3, and he had a troubled childhood, escaping several times from military school before going to live with his father, an actor, in Burbank, Calif.

At 17 he married Diane Rooker. The marriage ended in divorce. His second wife, the former Samantha Hilton, died after a motorcycle accident in 2008. He is survived by his children, Megan, Tracy, Dylan, Cody and Don.

His first film was “Muscle Beach Party” (1964), in which he played a body builder named Biff opposite Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Bit parts in biker and wildlife films followed, as characters like “Bearded Biker” or “Biker With Bandana.” He appeared briefly in “Easy Rider” as a member of the hippie commune that Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper visit.

He made several films with an outdoor setting, including “Where the North Wind Blows” (1974), in which he played a Siberian tiger trapper, and “The Adventures of Frontier Fremont” (1976). He appeared as a dog trainer in the David Carradine film “Americana” (1983). In “Grizzly Mountain” (1997) and “Escape to Grizzly Mountain” (2000) he played a character very much like Grizzly Adams.

As his career cooled, Mr. Haggerty appeared in horror films like “Terror Night” (1987), “Elves” (1989) — playing an alcoholic mall Santa — and “Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan” (2013).

Legendary Musician David Bowie Dies at 69, Rest in Peace

THIS MORNING I WOKE UP STUNNED AND SADDENED …

David Bowie, one of my all-time favorite musicians, has passed away at the age of 69. According to reports, Ziggy Star Dust died after an 18-month battle with cancer. Honestly, I never knew he had it. Bowie had just released his last album, “Blackstar,” this past Friday on his birthday. His music spanned so many generations and Bowie kept reinventing himself and his music. See David Bowie in concert was more than a concert, it was an epic event. The man was a music legend with more fantastic songs than most band have songs. In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single “Fame” and the hit album Young Americans. But that is not before the glam rocker had such huge hits as  ”Space Oddity” and “Star Man.” However, probably my favorites are probable “Changes” and “Heroes”. But there are just too many to pick from. Then there was the MTV years where Bowie hit it big with “Let’s Dance,” “Modern Love” and “China Girl.”

You will be missed, Rest in Peace.

David Bowie – Space Oddity

David Bowie, the infinitely changeable, fiercely forward-looking songwriter who taught generations of musicians about the power of drama, images and personas, died on Sunday, two days after his 69th birthday.

Mr. Bowie’s death was confirmed by his publicist, Steve Martin, on Monday morning.

He died after an 18-month battle with cancer, according to a statement on Mr. Bowie’s social-media accounts.

“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family,” a post on his Facebook page read.

Mr. Bowie wrote songs, above all, about being an outsider: an alien, a misfit, a sexual adventurer, a faraway astronaut. His music was always a mutable blend: rock, cabaret, jazz and what he called “plastic soul,” but it was suffused with genuine soul. He also captured the drama and longing of everyday life, enough to give him No. 1 pop hits like “Let’s Dance.”

David Bowie – Changes

The Guardian – The legendary musician known for musical innovation and experimentation with his image died 18 months after being diagnosed with cancer.

The singer’s death was confirmed in a Facebook post on his official page: “David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.”

Writing on Twitter, Bowie’s son, the film director Duncan Jones, 44, said: “Very sorry and sad to say it’s true.” The news came as a shock to some, who were initially sceptical, but Bowie’s publicist, Steve Martin, told the Reuters news agency: “It’s not a hoax.”

David Bowie – Heroes

More from the NY Times obit:

Born David Robert Jones on Jan. 8, 1947, in South London, Mr. Bowie was a person of relentless reinvention. He emerged in the late 1960s with the voice of a rock belter but with the sensibility of a cabaret singer, steeped in the dynamics of stage musicals. He was Major Tom, the lost astronaut in his career-making 1969 hit “Space Oddity.”

He was Ziggy Stardust, the otherworldly pop star at the center of his 1972 album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.”

He was the self-destructive Thin White Duke and the minimalist but heartfelt voice of the three albums he recorded in Berlin in the ’70s, often considered his greatest work: “Low,” “ ‘Heroes’ ” and “Lodger.”

The arrival of MTV in the 1980s was the perfect complement to Mr. Bowie’s sense of theatricality and fashion. “Ashes to Ashes,” the “Space Oddity” sequel that revealed “we know Major Tom’s a junkie,” and “Let’s Dance,” which offered, “Put on your red shoes and dance the blues,” gave him worldwide popularity.

Mr. Bowie was his generation’s standard-bearer for rock as theater: something constructed and inflated yet sincere in its artifice, saying more than naturalism could. With a voice that dipped down to baritone and leaped into falsetto, he was complexly androgynous, an explorer of human impulses that could not be quantified.

 David Bowie – Starman (1972)

French Officials Say a Man Shot Dead outside a Paris Police Station was Wearing a Fake Explosives Vest Yelling “Allahu Akbar” … One Year Anniversary of Charlie Hebdo Terror Attack

Today is the one year anniversary since Islamic extremists attacked satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

A man was shot and killed by French police as he threatened police officers with a knife. A police union official, said the man may have been wearing an explosives vest, and cried out “Allahu Akbar” or ‘God is great’ in Arabic. The authorities are treating this as a possible terror attack.

Police shot and killed a man Thursday after he tried to enter a northern Paris police station wielding a knife, a French Interior Ministry spokesman told CNN affiliate BFMTV.

The man was shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.

UPDATE I: Two French officials say a man shot dead outside a Paris police station was wearing a fake explosives vest.

The two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, said he had wires protruding from his body. They said he has not yet been identified.

One of the officials said the man threatened officers at the police station in northern Paris with a butcher’s knife.

Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister Has Died at 70 … Rest in Peace to a Heavy Metal Rock Legend (Video)

SAYING GOOD MY TO A TRUE ROCK AND ROLLER …

Lemmy Kilmister, the founding member and frontman of Motörhead, has dies at the age of 70. Sadly, Kilmister passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. The WAPO described Lemmy as follows, “a voice like shrapnel and a bass tone to match. A steady diet of rock ‘n’ roll and rebellion, fueled by, until not so long ago, a bottle of Jack Daniels per day and sexual escapades too numerous to count. Plus: muttonchops.” Yeah, and your point? Lemmy Kilmister did it his way and I have to admit, Motörhead was one of my guilty pleasures. When you want to blow off some steam, hear some serious rock and crank the music at 11, Motörhead was on that playlist. Rest in Peace Lemmy Kilmister.

WWE pays tribute to The Ace of Spades

Lemmy Kilmister, the founding member and frontman of Motörhead, and a leading figure in hard rock’s resurgence in the late ’70s and its endurance since, has died of cancer, according to the band’s Facebook page. He was 70 years old.

“There is no easy way to say this…our mighty, noble friend Kilmister passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer,” the band wrote on Facebook, adding that the rock veteran had just learned of his condition on December 26th (two days after his birthday), while at home with his family, “sitting in front of his favorite video game from The Rainbow… We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren’t words.”

The man known to most as simply Lemmy was born Ian Fraser Kilmister in Staffordshire, England, and founded Motörhead in 1975. In his long tenure as the group’s singer, bassist and primary songwriter — he was its sole remaining original member — Lemmy became a heavy metal icon; though the group’s hard-charging approach also nodded to punk, and appealed to its fans.

Kilmister, whose gruff vocals and pummeling bass were central to that sound, cut a distinctive presence offstage as well, with his mutton chops and prominent facial moles. He appeared in a number of films and video games, and inspired a titular 2010 documentary that featured such admirers as Dave Navarro, Alice Cooper, Nikki Sixx and Slash.

Ace of Spades

Motorhead Frontman Lemmy Dies at 70.

A rock and roll hellraiser par excellence, the British musician was a member of Hawkwind in the early 1970s before founding Motorhead. The band’s biggest hit was “Ace of Spades” in 1980.

Always cutting a distinctive figure with his giant mutton-chops, large facial moles and low-slung Rickenbacker bass, Kilmister was born Ian Fraser Kilmister in Staffordshire, England. A rock and roll lifer from the moment he saw the Beatles at Liverpool’s Cavern Club as a teenager, Kilmister played in a variety of British bands during the 1960s, briefly served as a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and played bass in space rock outfit Hawkwind from 1972 to ’75 (when he was fired after being arrested for drug possession at the U.S.-Canada border). But it’s as the founder and lone constant member of Motorhead that most of his legend relies.

The rare group to be revered by metalheads and punks in equal measure, Motorhead’s compulsion to push rock music to its fastest, loudest and most primal form left a profound influence on thrash and speed metal, though Kilmister himself always insisted that the band should be described purely as rock and roll. Famously laying out his ambitions for the group to become “the dirtiest rock and roll band in the world; if we moved in next door, your lawn would die,” Kilmister sang with a guttural yet surprisingly melodic growl, and played bass in the style of a rhythm guitarist, heavy on distortion and power chords.

Motörhead – The Game / Live at WWF Wrestlemania XVII, 2013

11 People Killed as Deadly Tornadoes Hit the Dallas, TX Suburbs (VIDEO)

SAY A PRAYER FOR THOSE IN THE DALLAS, TEXAS AREA THAT WERE HIT WITH DEADLY TORNADOES LAST NIGHT …

Last night, tornadoes swept through the Dallas area leaving substantial damage and at least eleven people dead either from the storm or related traffic accidents.  The National Weather Service in Fort Worth said several tornadoes touched down in the Dallas area, although the full extent of damage would not be known until daylight Sunday.

The storm blew the roofs off homes and left vehicles mangled or turned upside down, churches damaged, power lines down, natural gas lines burst, trees toppled and debris strewn across neighborhoods. The damage stretched over about a 40-mile-long area from 20 miles south of Dallas to northeast of the city.

Joe Harn, police spokesman for Garland, about 20 miles northeast of Dallas, said five people were killed in vehicle accidents during the massive storm, but it’s unclear if all five were in the same vehicle or how they died.

Tornado in Sunnyvale, Garland, and Rowlett, Texas

CNN: Tornadoes, storms hit Dallas suburbs; 11 people killed.

Severe storms and tornadoes tore through north Texas, killing at least 11 people in the latest incident of deadly weather in the nation.

The storms hit Dallas suburbs Saturday evening, with Garland suffering the most casualties, authorities said.

Lt. Pedro Barineau with the Garland Police Department confirmed Sunday morning that eight people died in the storm that ripped through Garland.

Barineau said 15 people were hurt and 600 structures were damaged.

Three additional deaths were reported in Collin County, said Lt. Chris Havey, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. Havey said officials don’t expect the death toll to rise, but they are sifting through debris and making sure no victims were overlooked.

In some neighborhoods in Garland, the storms ripped facades off houses, leaving gaping holes. Cars that had been in driveways ended up inside homes after the tornado barreled through, witnesses said.

Officials said earlier that five of the deaths were related to vehicles hit by a tornado in southeast Garland.

Garland resident Pat McMillian said the tornado left neighborhoods in darkness.

UPDATE I: Death Toll Rises in Dallas as Storms Sweep South.

At least 11 people were killed in the Dallas area Saturday night when 11 tornadoes swept North Texas, officials said.

The storm tossed cars off freeways and destroyed at least one apartment building, a recreation vehicle park and several homes across the suburbs northeast of the city, according to officials with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and the Garland Police Department. About 50,000 people were without power, officials said.

“There’s been quite an impact in damage and potentially injuries and death,” said Rich Thompson, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service’s storm prediction center in Norman, Okla.

Jason Whitely ?@JasonWhitely

In Rowlett, which borders Garland, at least three houses had collapsed, and the people who lived in them had not been found, said Detective Cruz Hernandez of the Rowlett Police Department.

Detective Hernandez said that the damage in Rowlett was extensive and that the police were seeking to rescue anyone trapped in their homes, although the effort was being hampered by continuing bad weather.

“We can’t get a good sense of it because it’s dark and it’s starting to rain right now,” he said.

On Sunday, Brian Funderburk, the city manager of Rowlett, said 23 people were injured when the city was directly hit by a large tornado. The city enacted a 24-hour curfew in areas affected by the storm to keep roads clear for residents and emergency operations.