Year: 2020

Categories
Deaths Matters of Life & Death

Max Von Sydow, actor, dies

  • March 8, 2020

Max Von Sydow as Ming the MercilessActor Max Von Sydow, a frequent flyer in the science fiction and fantasy genre (among a legendary and very storied history of work in film and TV), dies at the age of 90. Rising to prominence in Ingmar Bergman’s influential 1957 movie The Seventh Seal, Von Sydow’s other major roles included Christ in 1965‘s The Greatest Story Ever Told, Father Merrin in 1973‘s The Exorcist and 1977‘s Exorcist II. In 1980, Von Sydow became a genre fixture with his near-definitive portrayal of Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon. Later genre entries included King Osric in 1982‘s Conan The Barbarian, roles in Dune and Dreamscape (both in 1984), The Minority Report (2002), episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Tudors, and Game Of Thrones (the latter for which he received an Emmy nomination), and a brief but pivotal role in the opening scenes of 2015‘s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Categories
Apollo Crewed Spaceflight Deaths Matters of Life & Death

Al Worden, astronaut, dies

  • March 18, 2020

Al WordenApollo 15 astronaut Al Worden dies at the age of 88. As the mission’s command module pilot, he was the only member of Apollo 15’s crew to not walk on the moon, though he does still hold the distinction of performing the furthest spacewalk from Earth, when he retrieved film cannisters from the body of the service module, requiring him to suit up and venture outside the vehicle while it was roughly halfway on its journey from the moon back to Earth. With the other members of the crew, he was embroiled in a seemingly minor scandal involving space-flown postal covers that turned out to almost be a career-ender once the astronauts were back on Earth; he made the jump to NASA’s Ames Research Center rather than returning to the Air Force, where he had been a past instructor at the Aerospace Research Pilot School, reporting directly to Colonel Chuck Yeager. After retiring from NASA, he made an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1982, and continued promoting the space program and science education.

Categories
Deaths Matters of Life & Death Movies Television

Honor Blackman, actress, dies

  • April 5, 2020

Honor Blackman in The AvengersHonor Blackman, who rose to fame portraying Cathy Gale in the second and third seasons of The Avengers, dies at the age of 94. Despite her success in The Avengers, she left her starmaking role behind to graduate to big screen spy antics in the James Bond film Goldfinger. Other movie roles included Jason And The Argonauts and Bridget Jones’s Diary, with TV roles in Danger Man, The Saint, Columbo, The Upper Hand, and a guest starring role in parts 9-12 of the 1986 Doctor Who story The Trial Of A Time Lord.