In Remembrance---2009

[Villano]

Mexican wrestler Abismo Negro (Andrés Alejandro Palomeque González) was found dead Sunday under strange circumstances. From the news:

González was on a bus with other passengers heading to Mexico City when he became agitated, and panicked and demanded to be let off the bus at 1:30AM. He then sent a text message to his wife that he was lost outside. She contacted local wrestling promoter Vicente Martinez who organized a search party. In the morning of March 22, González was found floating face down in a river.

They still don't know if it was an accident or foul play or what caused his panic attack.

 

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Mexican boxer Raul Macias, world bantamweight champion from 1955 to 1957, died Monday of cancer. He was 74.

Macias was nicknamed "The Mouse" because of his short stature (5' 3.5"). He participated in the 1952 Olympics and remains one of Mexico's top sports heroes.

 

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Uriel Jones, the drummer for the Funk Brothers, Motown's house band, died Tuesday from complications of a heart attack. He was 74.

 

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Singer-songwriter Dan Seals, a member of the pop duo England Dan & John Ford Coley and later a successful country artist, died yesterday of mantle cell lymphona. He was 61.

Dan was the brother of Jim Seals from Seals & Crofts.

 

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Johnny Blanchard, who played in five consecutive World Series with the New York Yankees (hitting two home runs in 1961), died yesterday of a heart attack. He was 76.

 

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World boxing champion Giovanni Parsi was killed in a car accident yesterday. He was 41.

Parsi also won a gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

 

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Wayne Lewellen, the former head of distribution for Paramount Pictures, died yesterday of cancer. He was 65.

Among the films he distributed were such blockbusters as Top Gun, Forrest Gump, and Titanic.

 

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Irving R. Levine, a reporter and economist for NBC News, died today of prostate cancer. He was 86.

 

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Joseph Jasgur, who took the first publicity photos of Marilyn Monroe and was one of the first paparazzi, died last Saturday. He was almost 90.

 

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Maurice Jarre, who wrote music for over 150 films, theater, ballet, and television, died yesterday of cancer. He was 84.

Jarre won three Academy Awards for composing the scores to Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, and A Passage to India. He also did the music for the Jesus of Nazareth mini-series. He just received a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

His son, Jean-Michael Jarre, is a pioneer in electronic music.