As we ring out the old year, and ring in the new, it’s always fun to look back and see who died. I certainly can’t do justice to death the way that Mort Mortenson can, so you may want to stop by thesnotgreensea.com and poke about through the archives there. And if you appreciate the great job he’s done over there (there would be no Sedition Radio without it), you may want to help him out with a donation to pay for his hosting costs.

Aside from the US Military people and Iraqi civilians who died needlessly in 2006 (there are, sadly, too many to mention), there were – as always – quite a few “celebrity” deaths throughout the year. Today, I’ll list a few of the deaths from the first six months of the year This is by no means a comprehensive list (it’s much too long as it is), so if I’ve missed your favorite dead guy (or gal), feel free to chastise me severely in the comments. It would be a nice contrast to all of that sucking up you were accused of doing.

January

Way back on January 2nd, the rather inept bisexual bank robber, John Wojtowicz (played by Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon) died of cancer. The $7,500 he earned by selling the rights to his story helped to finally transform his partner in crime (among other things) Ernest Aron into Elizabeth Debbie Eden. Alas, Ms. Eden passed away from AIDS-related pneumonia back in 1987.

Also in January, Ramona Bell, the 47 year old wife of radio host Art Bell, passed away, allegedly from an asthma attack (smoking and asthma – not a good combination). It didn’t take Art long to jump back into the saddle, though, as he married his third wife – Airyn Ruiz – just three months later. They say empowerment is the final stage of grief, and it must be true, since the Bells are expecting their first child in June.

Lou Rawls passed away at the age of 72 (from lung and brain cancer, which doesn’t sound good, does it?) on January 6th, which is the same day that they pulled the plug on Hugh Thompson, Jr., a chopper pilot in Vietnam who (along with his crew members Glenn Andreotta – who died just three weeks later – and Lawrence Colburn) was instrumental in putting a stop to the My Lai massacre.

Chris Penn – Sean’s brother – died on January 24th at the age of 40, from a combination of cardiomyopathy and multiple medication intake. Henry Zapruder (son of possibly the world’s most famous amateur film maker, Abraham Zapruder) died the same day, from brain cancer.

On January 30, Coretta Scott King went to join her husband Martin, at the age of 78, and Yippies co-founder Stew Albert passed away form liver cancer.

February

On February 3rd, America lost its Grandpa – longtime lefty rabble rouser, actor, restaurateur, Green Party candidate for NY Governor, and College Basketball Scout (among many, many other things), Al Lewis. And on the 8th, Akira Ifukube – composer of the musical scores for the Godzilla movies – passed away at the age of 91. Three days later, the author of Jaws – Peter Benchley – died from pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 65.

Andreas Katsulas – who played G’Kar in Babylon 5, Commander Tomalak in Star Trek: TNG, and the one-armed man in the movie version of the Fugitive, among other things – passed away from lung cancer at the age of 59 on February 13th.

Sportscaster Curt Gowdy died on February 20th from leukemia, at the age of 86. My favorite memory of him came during a Buffalo Bills game. After OJ Simspon ran for a touchdown, Gowdy excitedly exclaimed, “OJ’s been picking his hole clean all day!”

Two TV legends passed away on February 24th. Don Knotts – who will forever be remembered as Barney Fife, not to mention Mr. Limpett, and possibly as the illegitimate father of Mick Jagger – passed away at the age of 81, as did Dennis Weaver (who played Chester on Gunsmoke, among other things – also 81). The next day, we lost Darren McGavin – who played Kolchak in The Night Stalker, as well as the much beleaguered father in A Christmas Story). He was 83.

March

On the first day of March, Johnny Jackson (drummer for the Jackson 5, but, interestingly enough, not actually one of those Jacksons) was stabbed to death at the age of 54. Dana Reeve (Christopher Reeve’s widow) and Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett – both 45 – died on March 6th. Slobodan Milosevic died on March 11th (they say heart attack, but of course we all know he was murdered, and that Wes Clark and Bill Clinton are the real war criminals). Maureen Stapleton (who did not play Edith on All in the Family) passed away from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the age of 80, on March 13th. On March 25th, Buck Owens, known best (to me, anyway) from Hee-Haw, died of a heart attack, at the age of 76.

March 27th saw the deaths of Dan Curtis (who produced Dark Shadows) and Ronnie Reagan’s press secreatry, Lyn Nofziger (which I think is Nils Lofgren spelled sideways). Speaking of dead Republicans, Caspar Weinberger (HEW secretary under Nixon and Ford, which apparently qualified him to be Sec Def under Reagan) died the next day.

April

Gene Pitney (who wrote such songs as Town Without Pity, and Hello Mary Lou) died on April 5th at the age of 66, from a broken heart (no, seriously, he had heart disease). William Sloane Coffin died from CHF on the 12th, as did Puggy Pearson, Kazuo Kuroki, William Woo, and Mushin Musa Matwalli Atwah (all of whom I include for alliterative purposes only).

May

Earl Woods, who taught his son Tiger to play golf (much like my dad taught me to play golf, though I obviously lack Tiger’s talent), passed away at the age of 74 (which is the same age as my dad was when he died), of prostate cancer (which is sort of what my dad died of, except what he really died of was the torture they put him through in order to “cure” it). On May 8th, George Lutz – who moved into the infamous house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, just thirteen months after Ronald DeFeo, Jr. shot and killed six members of his family there (the Lutz’s got a real “deal” on the house, though they only stayed there for 28 days) – passed away at the age of 59.

Former heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson died on May 11th at the age of 71, from Alzheimer’s disease and prostate cancer. On the 14th, the second Clarabell the Crossdressing Clown, Lew Anderson, died of prostate cancer, at the age of 84.

On May 23rd, 85 year old Lloyd Bentsen (who pointed out that Dan Quayle was “no Jack Kennedy,” and later served as Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretary), passed away.

On the 29th, CBS News sound man James Brolan (42) and cameraman Paul Douglas (48), died from injuries sustained in a car bombing while reporting with the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division in Baghdad. Billiards champ Steve Mizerak died that day as well.

June

On June 2nd, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and former Tubes member Vince Welnick became yet another Grateful Dead keyboard player to meet a tragic end, after committing suicide. We lost another keyboard player four days later, as Billy Preston died of kidney failure at the age of 59. On June 7th, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US military strike, finally bringing an end to the violence in Iraq.

On the 23rd, Aaron Spellings – who brought us such classics as Charlie’s Angels, Beverly Hills 0U812, and Tori – passed away at the age of 83. A day later, Patsy Ramsey, mother of, well, you know who, died of ovarian cancer, as did 38 year old homeless advocate David Owen, who was murdered.

Tomorrow, I’ll list deaths that occurred in the second half of the year (including any more last minute additions).