Sad news from Hollywood today...

Robert Altman, the caustic and irreverent satirist behind "MASH," "Nashville" and "The Player" who made a career out of bucking Hollywood, has died at 81. The director died Monday night at a Los Angeles Hospital, Joshua Astrachan, a producer at Altman's Sandcastle 5 Productions in New York City, told The Associated Press.

The cause of death wasn't disclosed. A news release was expected later in the day, Astrachan said.

[Yahoo! News] Director Robert Altman dead at 81

Former talk show host Mike Douglas passed away early this morning in Palm Beach, Florida. Today was his 81st birthday.

In the years before I started school, it was a rare weekday that I didn't sit down to watch "The Mike Douglas Show." I was too young to stay up and watch Johnny Carson, and shows like "Solid Gold" and "Friday Night Videos" were still a few years away, so my introduction to popular culture came largely by way of Douglas and his daily guests.

From his Associated Press obituary...

Douglas' afternoon show aired from 1961 to 1982. It featured his ballad and big-band singing style, other musicians, comedians, sports figures and political personalities, including seven former, sitting or future presidents.

"People still believe `The Mike Douglas Show' was a talk show, and I never correct them, but I don't think so," Douglas said in his 1999 memoir, "I'll Be Right Back: Memories of TV's Greatest Talk Show."

"It was really a music show, with a whole lot of talk and laughter in between numbers."

Douglas did about 6,000 shows, most 90 minutes long, and estimated that at its peak the syndicated show was seen in about 230 cities.

Tom Kelly, who co-authored Douglas' memoir, said he had about 30,000 guests appear on his show over the years.

"One big key to his great success was he had his ego in check," Kelly said. "He always let the guest have the limelight. He was a fine performer. He could sing, he could do comedy, he did it all, but he always gave the guest the spotlight."

Douglas was among the "early settlers" in daytime talk shows, said Robert Thompson, a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

"Mike Douglas was an old-fashioned traditionalist, holding down the fort while the culture was changing," Thompson said. "He was always the very friendly talk show host, nice to everybody. He would lean toward his guest as if he really cared. He owned that territory."

More sad news for Grateful Dead fans...

Vince Welnick, the Grateful Dead's last keyboard player and a veteran of other bands, including the Tubes and Missing Man Formation, has died, the Grateful Dead's longtime publicist said Saturday.

Welnick died Friday, said Dennis McNally, who would not release the cause. The Sonoma County coroner's office said an autopsy would be performed next week.

Welnick is the 4th Grateful Dead keyboardist to die, following Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (d. 1973), Keith Godchaux (d. 1980), and Brent Mydland (d. 1990). Welnick played with the band from 1990 until the death of Dead frontman Jerry Garcia in 1995.

Sadly, reports suggest that Welnick may have taken his own life.

My favorite Vince story comes from McNally's 2002 Dead bio, A Long Strange Trip, when Welnick learns firsthand how erratic his new bandmates could be...

Vince's real introduction to the Dead may well have been at the next show after the Garden run, in Stockholm, a truly abysmal night. Despite three days' rest after the flight from home, the band was jet-lagged. Garcia had eaten a chunk of hashish and was useless. At the drum break, Vince went to visit the facilities and then stood backstage, wretched, when [I] came up to him and recognized his dismay. "Vince, you don't understand. It's not you. This is a band that really sucks sometimes, and tonight's the night. Don't worry about it."

Vince Welnick was either 51 or 55 at the time of his death (reports vary).

[MyWay] Grateful Dead's Last Keyboardist Dies

From the San Francisco Chronicle...

He was a psychedelic cowboy who rode the bus with Ken Kesey and took virtually every step of the long, strange trip with the Grateful Dead. Known to one and all solely as Ramrod, he died yesterday of lung cancer at Petaluma Valley Hospital. He was 61.

"He was our rock," said guitarist Bob Weir.

[...]

Ramrod joined the Dead in 1967 as truck driver and was held in such high regard by the members of that sprawling, brawling organization that he was named president of the Grateful Dead board of directors when the rock group actually incorporated in the '70s. It was a position he held until the death of guitarist Jerry Garcia in 1995.

[SFGate.com] Mainstay of Grateful Dead crew dies

Some sad news... One of my favorite musicians, country legend Buck Owens, died earlier today at his home in Bakersfield, California.

To most people of my generation, Owens is known as little more than one of the co-hosts of the goofy variety show "Hee-Haw." Prior to that gig, however, Owens had a spectacular music career and is one of the most influential artists in country music history. He had over 20 No. 1 records during his heyday, and he played a vital role in transforming the country music sound from the heavy orchestration that dominated the genre through the early 1960's (think Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold) to the twangy, electrified approach that would rule from the late 60's forward.

Owens was 76 years old.

[My Way News] 'Hee Haw' Co-Host Buck Owens, 76, Dies