A Few Deaths to Report

ExtremeSleuth

ExtremeSleuth

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William Diehl, ‘Sharky's Machine’ author, dies
Also wrote ‘Primal Fear,’ ‘Hooligans’

ATLANTA - William Diehl, best-selling author of “Primal Fear” and other novels, has died at Emory University Hospital. He was 81.

Diehl died Friday, said Sarah Carter of H.M. Patterson & Son funeral home in Atlanta. He died of aortic embolism, said his wife, Virginia Gunn.

He started on his first novel, “Sharky’s Machine,” while serving as a juror. Diehl, then 50, was bored by the trial and started writing fiction on a notepad. The book, published in 1978, became a best-seller and — later — a movie starring Burt Reynolds.
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Diehl was unemployed when he got the news that the book was going to be published, his longtime friend Michael Parver said. When his agent first called to tell him, the phone line went dead. Diehl hadn’t paid the bill, Parver told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Diehl’s friends and relatives were turned into characters in his later works. Parver became a dirty cop in the novel “Hooligans.”

The author’s other novels included “Primal Fear,” a 1993 thriller about a lawyer defending a young man accused of slaying an archbishop. It was turned into the 1996 film starring Richard Gere and Edward Norton.

Diehl was writing his 10th novel at the time of his death. It was expected to be published sometime next year, his friends said.

Diehl was formerly a writer for the Journal-Constitution, and had been a freelance photographer and magazine editor. Diehl was also a World War II veteran, serving as a ball turret gunner aboard a B-24 bomber.
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‘Jezebel of Jazz’ Anita O’Day dies at 87
Sassy standards singer survived heroin addiction in ’40s, dies in her sleep.

LOS ANGELES - Anita O'Day, whose sassy renditions of "Honeysuckle Rose," "Sweet Georgia Brown" and other song standards that made her one of the most respected jazz vocalists of the 1940s and '50s, has died. She was 87.

O'Day died in her sleep early Thursday morning at a convalescent hospital in West Hollywood where she was recovering from a bout with pneumonia, said her manager Robbie Cavolina.

"On Tuesday night, she said to me, get me out of here," Cavolina said. "But it didn't happen."

Once known as the "Jezebel of Jazz" for her reckless, drug-induced lifestyle, O'Day lived to sing and she did so from her teen years until this year when she released "Indestructible!"

"All I ever wanted to do is perform," she said in a June 1999 interview with The Associated Press. "When I'm singing, I'm happy. I'm doing what I can do and this is my contribution to life."

Cavolina recently completed a feature film about O'Day and accompanied her to shows and on tours.

"She got to see how many people really loved her at the shows we did, in New York, in London," Cavolina said. "She had come back after all of this time. She really lived a very full and exciting life."

Fame with a price
O'Day was born in Chicago. She left home at age 12 and often bragged about being "self-made" and never having a singing lesson.

She began her career in her teens and later recorded hits with Stan Kenton and Gene Krupa. Her highly stylized performance of songs like "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine," "Let Me Off Uptown," "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" made her famous the world over.

In her prime, O'Day was described as a scat singer and a natural improviser whose unique interpretations energized the most familiar songs. She inspired many singers, including June Christy and Chris Connor.

Her fame came at a price.

She suffered from a 16-year heroin addiction and an even longer alcohol problem. Wild, drug-related behavior and occasional stints in jail on drug charges earned her the nickname "Jezebel of Jazz."

"I tried everything," she once said. "Curiosity will make you go your own way."

She overdosed many times and on one occasion in the late 1940s, it was almost fatal.

The experience shocked her into giving up drugs, but she continued to drink.

Loss of singing voice ends drinking
In late 1996, the same year she received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts, O'Day fell down the stairs of her Hemet, Calif., home after a drinking binge. She was admitted to a hospital with a broken arm but ended up with severe food poisoning and pneumonia.

She survived the ordeal but her recovery — both physical and emotional — was painful. She left the hospital in a wheelchair and did not walk for nearly a year. Her right hand was paralyzed but worst of all, she said, she had lost her singing voice.

Although she blamed the complications on poor hospital care, the near-death experience convinced O'Day to give up alcohol.

It took nearly a year to get her voice back and start singing again. But once she did, she was right back on stage.

For the last years of her life, O'Day performed at various Los Angeles night spots.

O'Day had no children and no immediate family, Cavolina said.
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May they RIP
 
Ravin. All of the deaths that you report... Does that mean they went to hell?

Jason - no disrespect to those who have passed. R.I.P.
 
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