AP Features, June 20th, 2007
Richard Bell
TORONTO (AP) _ Richard Bell, a songwriter and keyboardist who played with Janis Joplin, has died. He was 61.
Bell died Friday of multiple myeloma at a Toronto hospital, according to his promotions company in Nashville, Tenn.
His resume included stints with some of rock 'n' roll's most legendary performers, including Joplin and The Band.
He began playing with Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band in 1970 and appeared on "Pearl," her posthumously released album. He later joined The Band as a keyboardist and played on their albums "Jericho," "High on the Hog" and "Jubilation."
As a studio musician he played with artists such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joe Walsh, Paul Butterfield, the Cowboy Junkies, Bruce Cockburn and Bonnie Raitt. In recent years he has been part of the Toronto jazz/blues group PorkBelly Futures.
He had been diagnosed with cancer about a year ago. He was well enough this spring to work in studio in Nashville on a comeback album with the Flying Burrito Brothers, but the cancer reared up again and he returned to Toronto.
Born March 5, 1946, in Toronto, Bell was the son of esteemed Canadian conductor, musician and educator Leslie Bell. A child prodigy, Bell began playing the piano at the age of four, and studied at Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music.
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Jose Luis Cantero
MADRID, Spain (AP) _ Spanish singer Jose Luis Cantero, known as El Fary, has died. He was 69.
He died Tuesday at home after suffering for more than a year from lung cancer, according to the Culture Ministry.
Born in the district of Madrid's Las Ventas bullring, El Fary was one of Spain's best known singers of the flamenco-style genre known as Spanish Song.
Cantero was a fervent admirer of traditional Spanish singers, especially Rafael Farina. He was given his stage name because of the similarity of his high-pitched wailing form of singing to that of Farina.
He reached the height of his fame in the 1980s with his hit song "El Toro Guapo" ("The Handsome Bull") and for a television series he acted in called "Menudo es mi Padre" ("Some Father I Have").
He came back into the spotlight in recent years when film director Santiago Segura used one of his songs in his 1998 film "Torrente _ The Dumb Arm of the Law," with both the song and the movie becoming immensely popular.
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Ed Friendly
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Television producer Ed Friendly, who helped create the hits "Little House on the Prairie" and "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," has died. He was 85.
Friendly died Sunday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe following a yearlong battle with cancer, Warren Cowan, a spokesman for the family, said Tuesday.
His Ed Friendly Productions was founded in 1967 after he moved to California from New York. "Laugh-In," the wacky sketch comedy show that Friendly created with George Schlatter, became a sensation after it debuted in 1968, making stars of Dick Martin, Dan Rowan, Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and popularizing such phrases as "Sock it to me!"
Friendly also helped produce "Little House," which ran from 1974-83 and was based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Friendly credited his late wife, Natalie, with inspiring him to obtain the rights, Cowan said.
Friendly also produced TV movies, specials and miniseries. The 1979 miniseries "Backstairs at the White House" was nominated for 11 Emmys, winning one for makeup.
Born in New York in 1922, Friendly worked in advertising and then as a radio and television director. He eventually became a producer and later was NBC's vice president of special programs.
Friendly also was a noted thoroughbred owner. Among his horses was Timeless Answer, winner of the Los Angeles Handicap in June 1990.
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Efrain Guigui
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) _ Efrain Guigui, a former conductor of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, died Monday. He was 81.
He died in Los Angeles from complications of cancer, said his son, Martin Guigui.
Guigui led the VSO from 1974 to 1989, notably taking the orchestra on a tour of all of Vermont's 251 towns to celebrate the orchestra's 50th anniversary.
During his tenure, Guigui, a clarinetist, was honored with the Alice Ditson award from Columbia University, which honors conductors for their support of American music. In 1989 the Vermont Council on the Arts presented him with the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Guigui was born in Panama and raised in Argentina. He moved to Middlebury in 1974 to lead the VSO.
After leaving Vermont, Guigui did guest conducting in South America and started a youth orchestra in Mexico, his son said. He was invited to conduct in many places, including the Juilliard School in New York.
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Terry Hoeppner
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) _ Terry Hoeppner, hired to revive Indiana University's foundering football program, died Tuesday. He was 59.
He died of complications from a brain tumor, just two seasons into a rebuilding program that energized fans, school spokesman J.D. Campbell said. Hoeppner had two brain surgeries in 18 months and spent the last few months on medical leave.
It was Hoeppner who added "The Rock" nickname to Memorial Stadium after moving a three-ton limestone boulder into the north end zone before his first season with the Hoosiers in 2005.
Hoeppner compiled a record of 48-25 at Miami of Ohio before going to Indiana. Last week, the school said assistant Bill Lynch would replace him as coach for the 2007 season.
A native of northeastern Indiana, Hoeppner grew up a Hoosiers fan, attended college at Franklin, near Indianapolis, and coached on the prep level in his home state.
In eight seasons as a head coach, six at Miami, Hoeppner was 57-39, and he took Miami to consecutive bowl games in 2003 and 2004.
Last season, the energetic Hoeppner returned sooner than expected after the September surgery and the team finished 5-7.
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Van Pritchartt Jr.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) _ Van Pritchartt Jr., former managing editor of the Memphis Press-Scimitar and editor and publisher of the Collierville Herald, has died. He was 80.
Pritchartt died Friday after a long illness, The Commercial Appeal reported.
He was the managing editor of the Press-Scimitar when the newspaper closed in 1983. Five years later, he took over as publisher of the Herald in the Memphis suburb of Collierville and remained there until his death.
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Lola Wasserstein
NEW YORK (AP) _ Lola Wasserstein, an inspiration for many of the characters in the works of her daughter Wendy Wasserstein, died Saturday. She was 89.
Wasserstein died of natural causes at her Manhattan apartment, her daughter Georgette Levis said. Wendy Wasserstein, the noted playwright, died last year.
Lola Wasserstein, an avid dancer even in her 80s, was a model for the character of Tasha Blumberg in "Isn't It Romantic," an untraditional Jewish mother who takes dance classes and wears skirts over black leotards.
She also inspired the mother character in "The Sisters Rosensweig," as well as the off-stage mother of character Holly Kaplan in "Uncommon Women and Others," who urges her daughter to find a boyfriend.
Born Lola Schleiffer in Poland, Wasserstein came to the United States in 1931. She was married to Morris Wasserstein, an inventor and businessman who died in 2003.
Another daughter, Sandra Meyer, a marketing executive, died in 1998.
