Octopus Overlords

Felix Silla, best known as the gibberish-spouting Cousin Itt on the 1960s TV sitcom The Addams Family, died today from pancreatic cancer. He was 84 and died in Las Vegas, according to a tweet from Gil Gerard, who costarred with him on the 1979-81 NBC series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Silla donned a full-body hairpiece, sunglasses and a bowler hat to achieve the role of Cousin Itt, who could only be understood by members of the Addams Family, thanks to his strange mumbling. The role was one of several where Silla’s face went unseen, including appearances as robot Twiki on Buck Rogers and as a hang-gliding Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi.

Bonanza episode Hoss and the Leprechauns,

Charles Geschke, the co-founder of the software company Adobe who helped develop the Portable Document Format, or PDF, has died at the age of 81.

Geschke set up Adobe in 1982, giving the world the ubiquitous PDF software, among many other audio-visual innovations.

He made headlines 10 years later when he was kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom before being released unhurt after a four-day ordeal.

Geschke died in California on Friday.

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said Geschke, widely known as Chuck, "sparked the desktop publishing revolution".

He composed rock singer Meat Loaf’s debut album “Bat Out of Hell” in 1977, which is one of the best-selling albums of all time with more than 50 million copies sold around the world. Steinman collaborated with Meat Loaf on the singer’s 1981 album “Dead Ringer,” served as composer/producer on his 1993 album “Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell” and composed his 2016 “Braver Than We Are” album.

Some of the popular songs Steinman composed include Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Barry Manilow’s “Read ‘Em and Weep,” Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” Celine Dion’s version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”

Daehawk wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:54 pm Jim Steinman, Songwriter for Meat Loaf, Celine Dion and More, Dies at 73

He composed rock singer Meat Loaf’s debut album “Bat Out of Hell” in 1977, which is one of the best-selling albums of all time with more than 50 million copies sold around the world. Steinman collaborated with Meat Loaf on the singer’s 1981 album “Dead Ringer,” served as composer/producer on his 1993 album “Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell” and composed his 2016 “Braver Than We Are” album.

Some of the popular songs Steinman composed include Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Barry Manilow’s “Read ‘Em and Weep,” Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” Celine Dion’s version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”

Joe Long wasn’t an original member of The Four Seasons. But he joined in 1965, when the group was still in its heyday, and remained a group member until 1975. When the group was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2018, he was inducted along with them.

Long — the grandson of Italian immigrants, born Joseph LaBracio in Elizabeth, in 1941 — has died at the age of 79, his friend Alfredo Nittoli posted on Facebook today. Nittoli had also posted, recently, about Long’s struggles with COVID.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:07 pm I hate that song but RIP to the man.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Apr 23, 2021 3:05 pm Genuinely upsetting me today.

Smoove_B wrote:

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:07 pm I hate that song but RIP to the man.

I know that he Humpty Dance is how they became popular, but Doowutchyalike was actually first.



Again, RIP MC Blowfish and Piano Man.

Also, one of my favorites, and not because of the Octopus reference



Genuinely upsetting me today.

Celebrated information security researcher Dan Kaminsky, known not just for his technical ability but also for his compassion and support for those in his industry, has died. He was 42.

Though Kaminsky rose to fame in 2008 for identifying a critical design weakness in the internet's infrastructure – and worked in secret with software developers to mitigate the issue before it could be easily exploited – he had worked behind the scenes in the infosec world for at least the past two decades.

When your Register hack asked Kaminsky why he hadn't gone to the dark side and used the flaw to become immensely wealthy – either by exploiting it to hijack millions of netizens' web traffic, or by selling details of it to the highest bidders – he said not only would that have been morally wrong, he didn't want his mom to have to visit him in prison. You can read more technical info on the DNS flaw here.

In a statement thanking everyone for their kind words, Kaminsky's family said he died as a result of diabetic ketoacidosis, and asked for privacy at this time.

Suitably Ironic Moniker wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 4:36 pm Olympia Dukakis dies at 89. I've only seen her in a couple of films, but when Moonstruck is one of those films, that's more than enough to know what an amazing talent she was.

hentzau wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 12:30 am
Loved Puffinstuff as a kid, and she was one of my favorite parts of the show.

Actress Tawny Kitaen, who appeared in "Bachelor Party" and provocative 1980s rock videos, has died in California. She was 59.

Kitaen -- whose real first name was Julie -- died Friday at home in Newport Beach, according to a release from the Orange County Coroner's Office. The cause of death is not yet known.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Sat May 08, 2021 7:55 pm Obama's dog Bo died of cancer.