Ziggy Creator Tom Wilson Sr., R.I.P.

From The Associated Press --

Tom Wilson Sr., the creator of the hard-luck comic strip character Ziggy, has died, his family said Monday. He was 80.

Tom Wilson Jr., who took over the comic in 1987, said his father died Friday of pneumonia at a Cincinnati hospital. The elder Wilson had moved from Cleveland to a Cincinnati nursing home about eight years ago to be near his family, his son said.

Wilson was an artist at American Greetings card company in Cleveland for more than 35 years and first published Ziggy in a 1969 cartoon collection, "When You're Not Around."

Ziggy was launched in 15 newspapers in 1971 and now appears in more than 500 daily and Sunday newspapers. It also has appeared in books, calendars and greeting cards.

Tom Wilson Jr. said the name Ziggy derived from his father's school experience of being the last alphabetically. When a new classmate arrived with a last name beginning with "Z," the idea took root with the friendly sounding "y'' ending, such as Billy or Tommy.

"Ziggy is a last-in-line character," the son said in a phone interview. "The last picked for everything and kind of a lovable kind of loser character."

"I had a 'y' at the end and 'z' at the beginning, so the word Ziggy just fell into place. That became his name," was the way Tom Wilson Sr. described it, according to his son.

Tom Wilson Jr. said his father was always optimistic.

"He was a passionate and charismatic man, it came out in everything he did," he said. "He loved ideas and he loved creating — that was really what drove him. He wasn't a loser in that sense because his passion just came out and inspired everyone around him."

Wilson was "a visionary cartoonist," said John McMeel, chairman and president of Andrews McMeel Universal, which owns Universal Uclick, formerly known as Universal Press Syndicate.

"Tom leaves behind a wonderful legacy in Ziggy, a hard-luck comics page hero who serves as a reflection of Tom's endearing wit and optimism in the face of adversity," he said in a statement.

Ziggy also starred in the ABC Christmas special, "Ziggy's Gift," which won a 1983 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program and was re-released on DVD in 2005.

Universal Uclick, which syndicated the Ziggy column, said Wilson also was head of a creative team that developed the Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears character licensing.

"Tom Wilson had a unique gift for producing creations that stirred imaginations and touched people's lives," said Hugh Andrews, chief executive officer and president of Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Besides his son, Wilson is survived by his wife, Carol, and daughters Ava and Julie.

Funeral services will be private.

Cliff Robertson, R.I.P.

From EW.com --

Cliff Robertson, who portrayed John F. Kennedy in P.T. 109 and later won an Academy Award for his role as a mentally disabled man in Charly, died Saturday of natural causes. He had turned 88 one day earlier.

The film, television, and theater veteran enjoyed a career that spanned more than five decades, making his big-screen debut in the 1955 romantic drama Picnic opposite William Holden and Kim Novak. He would appear in dozens of films, including The Girl Most Likely, Gidget, Sunday in New York, The Naked and The Dead, The Devil’s Brigade, Three Days of the Condor, and more recently, the Spider-Man movies as Uncle Ben Parker.

A popular leading man in the ’60s, he played a sitting President — John F. Kennedy — in the 1963 World War II drama P.T. 109, after Kennedy gave his casting approval. Five years later, he scored an Oscar for his touching portrayal of mentally challenged bakery employee Charlie Gordon in Charly, which was based on the novel Flowers for Algernon. Robertson — who won an Emmy in 1966 for his performance in an episode of Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre – also popped up in such TV series as The Twilight Zone, Batman, and Falcon Crest, and in commercials for AT&T. He also earned attention for blowing the whistle on a film studio president who had victimized him in a check forgery scheme in 1977.

Jani Lane, R.I.P.

From The Hollywood Reporter --

The singer, who had a history of alcohol-related arrests, was 47.

Jani Lane, the former lead singer of the rock group Warrant, was found dead in a Los Angeles-area hotel Thursday night, TMZ reported.

His body was found at the Comfort Inn in Woodland Hills, but no cause of death has been released.

The singer had a history of alcohol-related arrests. He was taken into custody in June 2009 for reporting crashing into a parked car. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor DUI and was put on probation for three years.

A year later, he was arrested for a similar incident that landed him in jail for 120 days.

Lane (born John Kennedy Oswald) also served as the lyricist and main songwriter for Warrant. He joined the band in 1986, two years after its formation by guitarist Erik Turner.

The band is probably best known for their single “Cherry Pie,” which Lane wrote. The song, a top 10 hit in 1990, featured a guitar solo by C.C. Deville of Poison, Jani’s longtime friend and bandmate of Bret Michaels, who tweeted his condolences to Lane's family after the news broke.

Lane also wrote several other hits for the group, including “Heaven,” “Down Boys” and “Sometimes She Cries” from their debut album, Dirty Rotten Filty Stinking Rich, and “I Saw Red” and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” from the group’s second album, Cherry Pie.

He left Warrant three times over the years, including the most recent, in 2008.

He was featured on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club 2 in 2005 and last year toured with Great White, filling in for singer Jack Russell, who was recovering from surgery.

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Bubba Smith, R.I.P.

From E! Online --

Bubba Smith, the former NFL star who made a successful jump to acting with a series of memorable Miller Lite ads and a key role in the hilarious Police Academy movies, has died. He was 66.

Authorities believe Smith succumbed to natural causes Wednesday at his Los Angeles-area home.

Ed Winter, assistant chief investigator for the L.A. County Coroner's Office, tells E! News that an investigator is en route to the former footballer's Baldwin Hills residence so the exact cause of death won't be know for a while.

Born Charles Aaron Smith, the 6-foot-7 football star plied his trade at Michigan State (where he was cheered on to the chants of "Kill, Bubba, Kill") before become a Pro Bowler in the NFL. He earned a Super Bowl ring with the Baltimore Colts in 1970, followed by stints with the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers. After retiring in 1976, he decided to pursue a career in the entertainment industry and began appearing in small roles in such shows as Good Times, Charlie's Angels and Taxi.

His popularity took off after popping up in a series of Miller Lite commercials with fellow former NFL greats Dick Butkus and John Madden in the early '80s. (He and Butkus would later reteam for the 1984 TV spinoff of the film Blue Thunder, which also costarred Dana Carvey.)

Smith's greatest mark on the big screen came playing Moses Hightower, the gentle giant of a cadet, who along with Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall and the rest of the bumbling recruits busted baddies in 1984's classic comedy, Police Academy. The film was such a hit, he reprised the part in five more sequels and a short-lived TV series.

More recent credits include Married...With Children, Family Matters, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and last year's indie horror flick Blood River.