Death Notices

Started by Armagh4SamAgain, April 05, 2007, 03:25:33 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

ziggysego

Nora Ephron has died. She wrote and directed so many amazing films like Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia and You've Got Mail.
Testing Accessibility

Gazzler

Quote from: ziggysego on June 27, 2012, 01:00:04 AM
Nora Ephron has died. She wrote and directed so many amazing films like Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia and You've Got Mail.
Sleepless in Seattle and You've got mail are amazing films? Since when?
I've never even heard of the Juila one.

ziggysego

Quote from: Gazzler on June 27, 2012, 01:07:30 AM
Quote from: ziggysego on June 27, 2012, 01:00:04 AM
Nora Ephron has died. She wrote and directed so many amazing films like Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia and You've Got Mail.
Sleepless in Seattle and You've got mail are amazing films? Since when?
I've never even heard of the Juila one.

You've got no heart Gazzler  ;D
Testing Accessibility

AQMP

Just as a follow up to the recent death of Cuban boxer Teofilo Stevenson, the Guardian has this as one of its 50 great Olympic moments today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jul/02/50-stunning-olympic-teofilo-stevenson

Cassius Clay had won gold in 1960, Joe Frazier in 1964 and George Foreman in 1968. Victory in the Olympic heavyweight divisions had become a guaranteed route to the fame and fortunes of professional boxing, and the Americans were certain that they had another contender in 1972 in the shape of Duane Bobick.

Bobick had certainly looked impressive in winning the US trials, in which he inflicted a memorable humiliation on the future world champion Larry Holmes, who in the end crawled out of the ring on his hands and knees to escape Bobick's flying fists. His success in the final was a 59th successive victory, of which 58 had been knockouts. He was the reigning Pan-America, National Golden Gloves, National Amateur Athletic Union, All-Navy, All-Service and International Military Championships champion. "I think I'm fast both with my feet and my hands," he said, in the run-up to the Games. "I regard myself as a good boxer with power in both fists."

No American had lost a heavyweight fight since Percy Prince Jr 12 years earlier, and Bobick was not considered likely to be the first. He was handsome, a confident and articulate public speaker, and was soon to be a world-beating boxer. A future of fame and glory awaited, as did publication of an already-completed autobiography, to which he needed only to add a chapter describing his glory in Munich.

Bobick coasted through the first round and in the second outpointed Russia's Juriy Nesterov – though not, wrote the New York Times, "until he had eaten enough leather to make saddles for a company of Cossacks". In the third he would face the 20-year-old Cuban Teófilo Stevenson for the second time. They first met at the Pan-American Games the previous year, with Bobick winning, and while he told reporters that Stevenson was "very, very tough, and has a very good left jab", he considered the possibility of defeat extremely remote. "He couldn't have improved that much in a year," he said.

Three brutal rounds and a couple of knockdowns later, Bobick's mother was sobbing in the front row and her son's unbeaten record, by then stretched to 65 fights, was over. "I had a bad day," he said. "Sevenson was in a lot better condition. He was a better fighter. Last time I faced him all he had was a jab."

Bobick went on to have a decent career as a professional, at least until he lost to Ken Norton in 58 seconds at Madison Square Garden in 1977. He was last heard from in 1997, when his right arm was badly mangled in an accident at a paper mill. But if he was never to reap the riches that had been predicted for him, neither – and for entirely different reasons – was his Olympic conqueror. When the Pulitzer-winning journalist Eugene Robinson visited Stevenson in Cuba for the Observer 10 years ago he was living in a house with no running water – and he could hardly have been happier.

Stevenson went on to win gold in Munich, pummelling West Germany's Peter Hussig in the semi-final with his increasingly renowned right fist, and taking gold when his Romanian opponent, Ion Alexe, reported a broken thumb and withdrew from the final. When he returned home, one of three Cuban gold-medalists in Munich (all of them boxers), he was applauded wherever he went, and embraced by Fidel Castro himself.

That's when the big-money offers started, and by the time he arrived in Montreal to defend the title four years later he had turned down at least three of or above a million dollars. In 1974 he made his position perfectly and quite poetically clear: "No, I will not leave my country for one million dollars or for much more than that," he said. "What is a million dollars against eight million Cubans who love me?"

He continued to excel as an amateur, and the Americans continued to underestimate him. Before the 1976 Olympics, the US coach Pat Nappi insisted: "I don't think he'll win it. He's lost that speed and that punch. He's rusty. Not enough work." Perhaps he felt obliged to say that given that the latest American challenger, John Tate, was due to face Stevenson in the first round. But the Cuban was hardly challenged as he proceeded serenely through the tournament, beating his first three opponents in a combined time of under seven and a half minutes. In the final he faced another Romanian, Mircea Simon, whose tactic was not entirely dissimilar to Alexe's – to avoid him. Simon at least got into the ring, but spent the first two rounds furiously if successfully backpedalling. Within seconds of Stevenson finally laying a glove on him in round three, his corner had thrown in the towel.

Asked about his future intentions, Stevenson again insisted he would remain in Cuba. "I do not want to turn professional," he said. "When there were professional boxers in Cuba, they were treated like merchandise." And with that he returned to his little Government-built bungalow next to a sugar refinery in Puerto Padre, and to his £35-a-month stipend.

Might he have beaten Ali? It is certainly possible – at this point in his career he was moving with a fluency that the American, a little over 10 years his senior, could no longer emulate. At 6ft 5in his height alone would have discomfited the celebrated champion, and had he landed a blow with that murderous right fist even Ali's famed jaw might have suffered. Two years later Ali was to lose to Leon Spinks, who most would consider a lesser fighter than Stevenson.

"Stevenson is the best – better than Foreman or Frazier and as good as Ali," said Bob Surkein, a former boxer and the head referee at Montreal. "Stevenson would have been phenomenal," said Don King. "He could have been in the same class as Muhammad Ali or Joe Frazier. But we'll never know."

"Of course I would like to have seen what would have happened against Ali," Stevenson said. "The feeling you have when you think about it is that you will be the one getting the victory."

Ali's own assessment of Stevenson, delivered a fortnight after the Montreal Olympics, was dismissive: "Good amateur," he said. Pressed for more, he continued: "I saw him get a little tired in round three against the last guy he fought. Imagine if he had to fight 15 hard rounds against bad people like me or George Foreman or Joe Frazier or Ken Norton, somebody who would put pressure on him?"

What's more, Ali insisted that "if he's offered $2m and don't take it, he's a damn fool". Stevenson didn't take it. His steadfast refusal to allow his principles to be purchased left many in the west bemused. "If people cannot understand how someone can turn down millions of dollars for a matter of principle, who seems brainwashed to you?" he responded.

In 1977 Stevenson turned down another $1m offer – the money would have gone to the Cuban government, to protect his amateur status – to fight Leon Spinks in New York. It refused, and anyway Stevenson suffered serious burns when his stove exploded, and was incapable of significant action. In 1979 another promoter, Ben Thompson, thought that he had a deal for Stevenson to fight Ali in New Orleans, but that too collapsed.

So to Moscow in 1980, where it seemed to be business as usual as in the first round Solomon Ataga submitted the moment Stevenson first landed his right fist on the Nigerian's chin. Seconds later Stevenson was charitably helping his bemused and beaten rival back to his corner. But from then on nobody allowed him to get close, with Poland's Grzegorz Skrcecz dancing around him for two and a half rounds before finally submitting in the quarter-finals, and both Hungary's Istvan Levai – who had beaten Stevenson the previous year – and Russia's Pyotr Zayev, in the final, taking their bouts the full distance – the first to do so at the Olympics.

"I'm a better boxer than Stevenson," insisted Zayev, after he was presented with the silver medal, "but you have to box twice as well to beat him because he's the champion and the referees and judges favour him." Henry Cooper, commentating for the BBC, dismissed the lot of them. "This is the worst collection of heavyweights I've seen in any tournament in my life," he said.

Two years later Stevenson returned to Munich, a decade after he rose to prominence there, for the World Amateur Championships, only to lose to Italy's Francesco Damiani. It was his first ever defeat at World or Olympic level, and when he returned home people simply didn't understand how it had happened. "In Cuba everyone saw the fight. It was inevitable that they asked me what happened. When you are this kind of hero, you feel like you belong to the people. They feel very deeply about you."

He redoubled his efforts in training, aiming to win an unprecedented fourth gold in Los Angeles in 1984. Cuba were to boycott those Games – the gold medal went instead to Tyrell Biggs of the USA, who had lost both of his previous bouts against Stevenson, the second a few months previously – and in 1987, aged 36, he announced his retirement. He served as vice president of the Cuban Boxing Federation, as a diplomat for his sport and for his country, but most importantly he continued being Teófilo Stevenson, the most humble of national heroes, until his death following a heart attack last month, at the age of 60.

Long before his death the emotions inspired by his refusal to turn professional had changed from bemusement to admiration. After it, Castro praised "this young man, humble sun of a humble family, who would not change his people for all the dollars in the world". Ali, who had later come to call Stevenson a friend and twice visited him in Cuba, described him as "one of the great boxing champions".

Before his funeral, mourners queued to pass his coffin, upon which rested the Cuba flag and two boxing gloves. Among those present was the former heavyweight Félix Savon, a compatriot and the only man since to win three boxing golds. "They offered him, offered him and offered him and he did not abandon his country," he said. "Teófilo belonged to Cuba and the world. Those who have not heard of Teófilo have not lived."



Shamrock Shore

Andy Griffith who played Matlock dead aged 87

BennyCake

Quote from: ziggysego on June 27, 2012, 01:00:04 AM
Nora Ephron has died. She wrote and directed so many amazing films like Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia and You've Got Mail.

Dude, you're a dude! I think you need help, or a kicking. Or both.

Tony Baloney

Quote from: BennyCake on July 03, 2012, 07:22:30 PM
Quote from: ziggysego on June 27, 2012, 01:00:04 AM
Nora Ephron has died. She wrote and directed so many amazing films like Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia and You've Got Mail.

Dude, you're a dude! I think you need help, or a kicking. Or both.
I have to step in here in support of Ziggy. I'm a fan of When Harry Met Sally. There I've said it...

AshwoodGael

I bought a coriander plant two weeks ago and it died.

trileacman

Quote from: Tony Baloney on July 03, 2012, 07:34:13 PM
Quote from: BennyCake on July 03, 2012, 07:22:30 PM
Quote from: ziggysego on June 27, 2012, 01:00:04 AM
Nora Ephron has died. She wrote and directed so many amazing films like Sleepless in Seattle, Julie and Julia and You've Got Mail.

Dude, you're a dude! I think you need help, or a kicking. Or both.
I have to step in here in support of Ziggy. I'm a fan of When Harry Met Sally. There I've said it...

You two deserve each other.
Fantasy Rugby World Cup Champion 2011,
Fantasy 6 Nations Champion 2014

Hardy

Whenever I hear the phrase "Romantic Comedy", I reach for my sick bucket.

Gazzler

Quote from: Hardy on July 04, 2012, 09:45:32 AM
Whenever I hear the phrase "Romantic Comedy", I reach for my sick bucket.
Wow you have a bucket just for your vomit and it's within reach all of the time!
Do you get sick often? You should probably see a Doctor.

Hardy

Go jump in a lake.
(Disclaimer: not all statements are to be taken literally. The management accepts no responsibility for actions taken as a result of suggestions in this post. Please enjoy this post responsibly. Please report any irregularity with this post to the moderators. But not while driving.)

Gazzler

Quote from: Hardy on July 04, 2012, 10:31:37 AM
Go jump in a lake.
(Disclaimer: not all statements are to be taken literally. The management accepts no responsibility for actions taken as a result of suggestions in this post. Please enjoy this post responsibly. Please report any irregularity with this post to the moderators. But not while driving.)
Interesting.
I think you should still see a Doctor about the vomiting though.

AQMP

Comedian and actor Eric Sykes aged 89.

Denn Forever

Quote from: AQMP on July 04, 2012, 11:15:54 AM
Comedian and actor Eric Sykes aged 89.

He had a good innings.

One of his most famous sketches - The Plank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2RoudtrVv8
I have more respect for a man
that says what he means and
means what he says...