Book Review: Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2017

Every year, for research purposes, I compile a list of showbiz people who pass away. It is printed on my website, shared in social media, and I always offer my list to Harris Lentz to check against as he compiles his latest Obituaries books for McFarland publishers. And while my list is a feature article with some annotation, Lentz’s books are magnificent research tools offering capsule bios for every entry.

Harris has been compiling his Obituaries in the Performing Arts every year for decades now, and they continue to be invaluable on several levels. They not only compile, alphabetically, the performers, filmmakers, etc, who have died that year, they present information about each one that goes beyond mere annotation and gives biographical detail even to the most obscure entries.

The year 2017 included the heartbreaking losses of such superstars as Jerry Lewis, Mary Tyler Moore, Tom Petty, Jim Nabors, Fats Domino, Glen Campbell, Don Rickles, and Chuck Berry.

There were old timers like Maude Linder, daughter of French silent movie star Max Linder, Bill Dana, Professor Irwin Corey, Rose Marie, Hugh Hefner, Monty Hall, Danielle Darrieux, and Groucho’s daughter Miriam Marx. And there were those far too young to go like Ralphie May, Brad Bufanda, Prodigy, and Blake Herron.

The music world lost Al Jarreau, Buddy Greco, Sonny Geraci, and Lonnie Brooks, among others. We wondered how the time passed by so quickly with the passing of David Cassidy and Stephen Furst. The wrestling world said goodbye to Bobby Heenan, George “The Animal” Stelle, Tom Zenk, and Nicole Bass. And this is only a fraction of the book, which also provides obituaries for Lorna Gray and Beverly Warren, two ladies remembered for working with The Three Stooges; Bernie Casey, Chelsea Brown, Mike Connors, Dick Gregory, Shelly Berman, Mel Tillis, and Richard Schickel. My friend David Shepard, a film archivist from whom I learned a lot, also passed on. So did Barbara Sinatra, director George Romero, both John Hurt and John Heard, voice actress June Foray, and rocker Gregg Allman.

This book runs over 400 pages, is in two columns per page, and each entry not only includes a biography, but also a photo to identify them – so helpful for those familiar names that need a face to make things click.

Any library’s reference section should already include Harris Lentz’s previous Obituaries volumes, and add this one to the shelves. It is value-packed with data, and written in an engaging, interesting manner that never becomes dull and statistical.

The book is available here