Do you know the renowned personalities we lost at the beginning of this year, 2023? If not, we recommend clicking this link to learn more about the actors and actresses we will truly miss:
- Billy Packer
- Alfred Leslie
- George Zimbel
- Yoshimitsu Yamada
- Jerry Blavat
- Everett Quinton
- Álvaro Colom
- Lloyd Morrisett
- Myrtle Witbooi
1. Billy Packer Death
Billy Packer, an announcer known as “the voice of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament” for many years, passed away on Thursday, according to a tweet from his son. He was 82.
- He began providing CBS with NCAA game coverage in the early 1980s.
- Mark Packer said, “The Packer Family would like to communicate some unfortunate news.” “Billy, our wonderful father, has passed away. We can rest easy knowing that he and Barb are in heaven. Adieu, Billy.
- Mark Packer explained the kidney failure as the explanation to the Associated Press. He claimed that his father had spent the previous three weeks receiving medical attention in a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Packer has been “synonymous with college basketball for more than three decades and set the standard of excellence as the voice of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament,” according to Sean McManus, the head of CBS Sports.
- In a statement, McManus said that “he had a major impact on the growth and popularity of the sport.”
- In typical Billy flair, he offered his style, viewpoint, and ideas when analyzing the game, but he never lost sight of the action on the field.
- Billy was a dedicated basketball player, but at his core, he was a family man. His contributions to college basketball, CBS Sports, and—most importantly—his reputation as a devoted husband, father, and grandpa will all live on. Everyone will miss him much.
- The National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame inducted Packer in 1988, and according to the organization’s website, “Packer’s love for the game blossomed at Wake Forest University, where he guided the Deacons to two Atlantic Coast Conference championships and the Final Four of the 1962 NCAA tournament. In his career, he scored 1,316 points.
- According to The Hall, Packer began broadcasting high school football games in 1970. He was hired by NBC in 1975 to cover the NCAA regional finals, then in the early 1980s, he started working for CBS to cover NCAA games.
In addition, Packer was honored with the Curt Gowdy Award from the National Basketball Hall of Fame and was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the Wake Forest University Hall of Fame. He received the Outstanding Sports Personality/Analyst Sports Emmy Award in 1993.
2. Alfred Leslie’s Death
He was 95. His son Anthony stated that complications from a Covid infection led to his hospital-acquired death.
3. George Zimbel Death
Billy Packer, an announcer known as “the voice of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament” for many years, passed away on Thursday, according to a tweet from his son. He was 82.
- He began providing CBS with NCAA game coverage in the early 1980s.
- Mark Packer said, “The Packer Family would like to communicate some unfortunate news.” “Billy, our wonderful father, has passed away. We can rest easy knowing that he and Barb are in heaven. Adieu, Billy.
- Mark Packer explained the kidney failure as the explanation to the Associated Press. He claimed that his father had spent the previous three weeks receiving medical attention in a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Packer has been “synonymous with college basketball for more than three decades and set the standard of excellence as the voice of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament,” according to Sean McManus, the head of CBS Sports.
In a statement, McManus said that “he had a major impact on the growth and popularity of the sport.” In typical Billy flair, he offered his style, viewpoint, and ideas when analyzing the game, but he never lost sight of the action on the field. Billy was a dedicated basketball player, but at his core, he was a family man.
His contributions to college basketball, CBS Sports, and—most importantly—his reputation as a devoted husband, father, and grandpa will all live on. Everyone will miss him much.
4. Yoshimitsu Yamada Death
Aikido, a kind of defensive martial arts, was introduced to the United States by Yoshimitsu Yamada, who passed away on January 15 in Manhattan. He was 84.
- His daughter Mika Ito said that a heart attack was to blame.
- Aikido, which loosely translates to “the method of the harmonious mind,” evolved as a counterbalance to more combative martial arts like karate following World War II. Aikido is primarily a defensive art, employing throws and joint locks to divert an attacker’s force while causing them as little harm as possible. Although there are many ability levels, Aikido is not a sport.
- Even in Japan, it was unknown throughout the early decades. When the creator of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, sent Mr. Yamada and several other young pupils around the world to establish dojos and prepare the following generation of instructors, things started to change.
- At the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City, Mr. Yamada gave an excited crowd a demonstration of aikido.
Mr. Yamada immediately seized control of the New York Aikikai, a dojo on Manhattan’s West 18th Street to establish an Aikido community there.
5. Everett Quinton Death
Everett Quinton, a fixture of New York’s downtown theatrical scene since the 1960s, died of glioblastoma in Brooklyn on January 23. 71.
- The actor-death director was verified by friend Julia Campanelli on behalf of his sister Mary Ann Quinton to The New York Times.
- Quinton made his name in Off (and Off Off) Broadway theater with his partner, actor, playwright, and director Charles Ludlam, at the Ridiculous Theatrical Company’s Greenwich Village playhouse.
- Quinton and Ludlam met in the mid-1970s and were together until Ludlam died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1987. Their union produced scores of glitter-filled, sequined stage comedies that were among the first and most beloved LGBT theater of the 1970s, ’80s, and early ’90s, with Quinton leading the way following Ludlam’s death.
- The pair’s biggest hit was 1984’s The Mystery of Irma Vep, a penny dreadful spoof in which Quinton and Ludlam played a mystery novel’s worth of characters, switching between male and female drag styles. The New York Times’s Frank Rich called the show “Mr. Ludlam and Mr. Quinton have exalted the Ridiculous to the sublime.”
- Quinton led the Ridiculous after Ludlam’s death until 1997 when its Sheridan Square venue closed to the dismay of its fans. Quinton performed at La MaMa and on TV, but the Ridiculous will always be his home. In 1985’s Miami Vice, he portrayed “Homosexual Pusher,” and in 1994’s Natural Born Killers, he was a deputy warden.
Last year, he played Melvin Funk in Billy Eichner’s Bros, the first mainstream gay rom-com to play in cinemas larger than the Ridiculous, where Quinton had pioneered.
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