Category: people

In an age of blockbuster best sellers and cutthroat competition in a shrinking industry, Mr. Mehta was an almost ideal editor and publishing executive: a voracious reader and instinctive decision maker who could spot great books and, coming from a paperback world, had no qualms about aggressively marketing them. – The New York Times

“Barbara Testa had enjoyed a perfectly anonymous life in Hollywood until she crawled up in the attic one day and opened a steamer trunk left behind by her grandfather, a 19th-century attorney with powerful friends. Inside … was a handwritten manuscript that would solve a century-old literary riddle and plunge Testa into the headlines in a mounting dispute over ownership of the precious document, the missing first half of the original [manuscript] of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” – Los Angeles Times

“Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, AL Kennedy and Janice Galloway, among others, were all Gray’s bairns. Authors invited Gray to illustrate their books. Little magazines sported his self-portraits and cursive designs on their covers. A graphic artist known locally for his eccentric appearance and behaviour became, at the age of nearly 50, a central figure of the literary world.” – The Guardian

Foster, who served in the Korean War and helped produce movies including the Oscar-nominated McCabe and Mrs. Miller, “was part of the migration from New York to L.A. where Hollywood was Shangri La. He was a classic poor kid from an immigrant family and he always felt really privileged and couldn’t believe he was in Hollywood.” – Los Angeles Times

Lyon went on acting until 1980, but – as is the case with many child stars – “she receded from acting and turned away from public life in her later years.” – Los Angeles Times

Singer, behind the scenes, was “instrumental in galvanizing federal officials, philanthropies and academics to seed the public airwaves with quality programming and to finance future development.” – The New York Times

Fraser “wrote or translated songs into Inuktitut, an Inuit language, [and] a key aim was to ‘use pop music as a platform to strengthen her language,'” her producer said. “She also wanted to make the music as accessible to as many people as possible, he said, so she mixed English and Inuktitut in her recordings and blended traditional Inuit sounds and themes with contemporary pop.” – Seattle Times (AP)

Of course he did many other things in a long life of TV producing – many of them Peanuts-focused – but “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was one of the first and biggest and certainly, along with his lyrics for “Christmas Time Is Here,” Mendelson’s most enduring contribution to Christmas in the United States. He died on Christmas Day. – Washington Post

“The creator of 10 Broadway shows and contributor to several more, Herman won two Tony Awards for best musical: Hello, Dolly! in 1964 and La Cage aux Folles in 1983. He also won two Grammys — for the Mame cast album and Hello, Dolly! as song of the year — and was a Kennedy Center honoree.” – AP

He performed at the Berlin State Opera in his native East Germany and at Milan’s La Scala, as well as a 25-year run at the famed Salzburg festival. One of his specialties was performing and recording the songs of composers Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. – Washington Post (AP)