Feb 10

Prostate Cancer And Good Taste To Prevent Louis Gossett Jr From Making Iron Eagle 5

By nelson on February 10th, 2010 at 10:24 am in Celebrity Death Watch 3 Comments »
I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Iron Eagle 4 was not a good movie.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Iron Eagle 4 was not a good movie.

Louis Gossett Jr is urging black people to get checked out for prostate cancer.  Apparently, up until recently he didn’t realize that black folks get cancer, too.

KTLA.com writes:

LOS ANGELES — Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. announced today that he is in the early stages of prostate cancer.

The 73-year-old actor said he wanted to make his diagnosis public “to set an example for the large number of African-American men who are victims of this disease because of the comparatively low emphasis in our community on preventative examinations and early treatment. I want to influence them to seek, as I have, the fine medical care and early detection now available.”

Gossett stepped into the world of cinema in the Sidney Poitier vehicle A Raisin in the Sun in 1961.

His Emmy Award-winning role of Fiddler in the 1977 groundbreaking television miniseries Roots first brought Gossett to the audience’s attention.

Popularity: 41%

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Feb 10

Turns Out Being A Fat, Lazy, Human Chimney Is More Dangerous Than Crab Fishing

By nelson on February 10th, 2010 at 10:06 am in The Recently Deceased 3 Comments »

The only thing Captain Phil hated more than exercise was haircuts.

The only thing Captain Phil hated more than exercise was haircuts.

Captain Phil Harris, skipper of the Cornelia Marie, one of the primary figures on the show Deadliest Catch, is taking a voyage on the big crab boat in the sky.  Never seen without a cigarette attached to his face or an egg sandwich fastened tightly to his hand, Captain Phil’s early death is a surprise to no one.

MSN.com writes:

Discovery Channel: ‘Deadliest Catch’ captain dies
Feb. 10, 2010, 12:14 AM EST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Phil Harris, the fishing boat captain whose adventures off the Alaska coast were captured on the television show “Deadliest Catch”, has died, the Doscovery Channel said Tuesday night. He was 53.

Harris suffered what his family described as a massive stroke on Jan. 29 while the fishing vessel he captained, Cornelia Marie, was in port at St. Paul Island, Alaska. The fisherman was flown to Anchorage for surgery.

The reality show, which has filmed five seasons, has been one of the Discovery Channel’s most popular and depicts the crab fishing industry in the dangerous waters off Alaska.

“It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad – Captain Phil Harris. Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end,” sons Josh and Jake Harris said in a statement released by the network. “For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down.”

In a statement, Discovery Channel senior vice president Elizabeth Hillman says, “Phil was a devoted father and loyal friend to all who knew him.”

“We will miss his straightforward honesty, wicked sense of humor and enormous heart,” she said.

In an e-mail to The Associated Press, she said no additional information was immediately available Tuesday night.

Harris had seemed to be improving, and in a posting last Saturday on the ship’s Web site, he was described as “talking to friends and family today; showing his greatest progress” since the stroke.

His sons wrote in a Feb. 3 posting that “No one ever said Captain Phil Harris wasn’t tough. Today, dad showed some good signs of improvement, squeezing our hands and even summoning his trademark Captain’s bluntness … We are encouraged but still very cautious.”

According to the ship’s Web site, Harris started working on fishing boats at age 7 and started work 10 years later on a crab boat. When Harris turned 21, he ran a fishing vessel out of Seattle, making him one of the youngest to captain a vessel in the Bering Sea.

When Harris suffered the stroke, the family said a friend, Derek Ray, had flown to St. Paul to take over the role of relief skipper for the rest of the opilio crab season.

Harris’ fishing vessel was based in Seattle.

Here at Tinseltomb, we will break open a bag of frozen crab legs tonight in his honor.  We’ll eat them while smoking a pack of Marlboro’s, as Captain Phil would have liked.

Popularity: 100%

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Dec 15

Evangelist Oral Roberts Finally Burning In Hell

By Tinseltomb Tony on December 15th, 2009 at 2:15 pm in The Recently Deceased 1 Comment »
Pictured: Oral Roberts (Best known for stealing money from old people.)

Pictured: Oral Roberts (Best known for stealing money from old people.)

Honestly, I don’t think Oral Roberts is exactly Tinseltomb material, but he is dead, and he is a quasi-celeb, so here’s the news.

The AP writes:

TULSA, Okla. – Oral Roberts, a pioneer in televangelism who founded a multimillion-dollar ministry and a university that bears his name, died Tuesday. He was 91. Roberts died of complications from pneumonia in Newport Beach, Calif., according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross. The evangelist was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday. He had survived two heart attacks in the 1990s and a broken hip in 2006.

Popularity: 33%

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Nov 23

Dennis Hopper Desperately Hoping To Delay Trip To Tinseltomb

By Tinseltomb Tony on November 23rd, 2009 at 8:54 pm in Celebrity Death Watch 1 Comment »

Dennis Hopper is hoping that his new, experimental cancer treatment will delay trip to the boneyard.  It is rumored that his primary fear of death stems from the uncertain availability of booze, gambling, and whores in the afterlife.

The Denver Post writes:

ARCADIA, Calif. — Prostate cancer couldn’t keep Dennis Hopper away from the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday.

The actor and artist, 73, attended the Breeders’ Cup in support of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, the official charity of the year-ending thoroughbred championships Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Southern California.

It was revealed last month that Hopper, right, had been diagnosed with cancer, although he said Saturday he has been battling it for nine years.

He has started an experimental treatment at the University of Southern California. “It has great promise,” Hopper said. “Everything’s good right now.”

Hopper is one of racing’s biggest and best-known fans.

I leave you with a clip of some of Dennis Hopper’s best work:

Popularity: 47%

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Nov 20

Bob Marley To Become Richest Dead Celeb In Lucrative Deal, Singer’s Legacy Fully Whored Out By Estate

By Tinseltomb Tony on November 20th, 2009 at 9:11 pm in Back... In the News 2 Comments »

I never got deep enough into the Rasta (A/K/A unemployed marijuana addict) lifestyle to truly appreciate the greatness of Bob Marley, but I can definitely appreciate that the guy had talent.  He’s also going to be able to afford a shitload more marijuana than anyone else in Heaven, that is if his relatives don’t blow all the proceeds of a lucrative new licensing deal on jerk chicken and rum before the dead singer can get a cut.

Fortune Magazine writes in a very interesting article:

TORONTO (Fortune) — Is reggae superstar Bob Marley bigger than Jesus? That’s debatable, but the music legend who died 28 years ago is about to challenge Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson for the title of richest dead celebrity.

Toronto-based private-equity firm Hilco Consumer Capital has struck a management deal with the Marley estate, which is expected to generate worldwide annual sales in excess of $1 billion by 2012. That seems like a huge number, but by some estimates the Marley name, sound, and image already generate as much as $600 million in pirated merchandise.

“Marley is a strong global brand,” says Mickey Goodman, a professional marketer and professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “He enjoys a high level of awareness, and people feel positive about his music.”

Major licensing agreements for the Marley brand are about to be launched in two key areas: consumer electronics — including headphones, docking stations, and speakers — and health care, which will likely feature skin-care products and herbal supplements. Also in the works, according to Hilco, are deals for a Marley-branded calming beverage, a video game similar to Guitar Hero featuring Marley’s songs, and a chain of restaurants celebrating the music superstar.

Could this be commercial overkill for the Rastafarian whose spiritual songs about social injustice, hope, and redemption have become anthems for billions of fans, from Marrakech to Tokyo, and will it alienate them?

“This is not just about money,” says Jamie Salter, Hilco’s chief executive. “We have to believe in the people and products we partner with.” Salter adds that the Marley estate will have final say on all business ventures, and that charities will figure into the overall mix of Marley branding.

For a second I thought I smelled ganja,  then I just realized I smelled bullshit.

Popularity: 86%

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Nov 17

Ken Ober Transitions To The Big Unemployment Line In The Sky

By Tinseltomb Tony on November 17th, 2009 at 10:00 pm in The Recently Deceased 1 Comment »

Ken Ober, known for being the host of MTV’s pioneering 1980 series Remote Control game show and not much else, died of unknown causes on Sunday.

MTV writes:

Yesterday’s news about the untimely death of Ken Ober is still being felt by family, friends and colleagues. As Kurt Loder wrote in his remembrance of the veteran comedian and TV producer, “Remote Control” was so ahead of its time that the rest of television has yet to really catch up to it. “Remote Control” was a remarkable half hour of programming, somehow simultaneously supporting the quiz format, sketches, stand-up, music videos and the occasional foray into pick-up baseball.

The game show portion was especially brilliant, as it brought together the sort of knowledge found in dusty boxes of “Trivial Pursuit” with garbage facts left behind after hours of television viewing (movie theme songs, cast members on “The Partridge Family,” details about “The Facts of Life”). In essence, Ober was a nerd who managed to spin his obsession with junk culture into a point of view and a career. In the age before the Internet, this was a remarkable accomplishment.

E! adds:

Ober began his career on Star Search but spent recent years behind the scenes, working in production on comedies like The New Adventures of Old Christine and Mind of Mencia.

Lee Kernis, the star’s manager, said that Ober complained to a friend of a headache and flulike symptoms on Saturday.

I didn’t particularly consider Ober to be a celebrity, but some others in our office wanted to give the dead bastard the benefit of the doubt.  He should thus be honored to be one of the introductory celebrity stiffs on Tinseltomb.  The video above is an absolute classic.  Isn’t it funny how black LL Cool J used to pretend to be?

Popularity: 29%

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Nov 12

Welcome to Tinseltomb – Breathing New Life Into Celebrity Death!

By Tinseltomb Tony on November 12th, 2009 at 11:17 pm in Site Admin 1 Comment »

Welcome to our brand new blog, Tinseltomb.  Tinseltomb has been a site that we’ve wanted to create for over ten years now.  Our goal is to turn the deaths of beloved celebrities into your daily comedy.  We’ll post all sorts of interesting news items, original content, and insight into celebrity deaths and much more.  Your feedback and comments are greatly appreciated.

This site is proudly dedicated to Billy Mays, one of my all time favorite celebrities dead celebrities.  So, sit back, enjoy this great Billy Mays video, and watch our site grow.

Popularity: 28%

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