Archive for the 'Sad/ Tragic' Category
How tragic.
The son of hip-hop producer Dr. Dre died over the weekend
Andre Young Jr., 20, was discovered “unresponsive” by his mother at his home in Woodland Hills, Calif., on Saturday morning, according to the L.A. County Coroner’s office.
“Dr. Dre is mourning the loss of his son,” his rep Lori Earl says in a statement. “Please respect his family’s grief and privacy at this time.”
Young’s mother told police that she attempted to rouse her son at 10:24 a.m. on Saturday, and when she couldn’t, she called paramedics. They pronounced him dead at the scene.
Young “had been out with friends” the previous night and returned home around 5:30 a.m., according to L.A. County Coroner’s assistant chief Ed Winter. An autopsy was performed Monday. No foul play is expected.
Dr. Dre, whose given name is Andre Young, is one of hip-hop’s most prolific musicians. Dr. Dre has four other children, sons Curtis, 26, Marcel, 17, and Truth, 11, and daughter Truly, 7.
So young, so sad. R.I.P.
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If you have a cell phone and a car, you’ve probably done the text and drive. But, I will also note that Kayla Preuss, 16, was also drunk driving. At 16, you’re definitely not a very good driver, coupled with driving while intoxicated and texting, she didn’t stand a chance. So sad.
A 16-year-old Highland girl who died after losing control of her car and crashing on the 10 Freeway had been texting on her mobile phone moments before the accident.
Kayla Preuss lost control of her Infiniti and slammed into the center median. The white 2004 G35 veered across the freeway, hit a guardrail, shot back across the road and hit the median again before coming to rest.
Kayla died within seconds of blunt injuries to her head.
Phone records show Kayla was texting moments before the accident, and her mobile phone, which was flipped open, was found resting on the floorboard by her feet, authorities said.
About 40 text messages had been sent over a three-hour period, the last of which was sent at 2:38 a.m., moments before the crash, a coroner’s investigation found.
“I hope it makes a lot of kids think,” said Kayla’s mother, Kelly Preuss.
There have been some of her friends who have gotten into accidents from texting, right after (Kayla’s death),” Preuss said.
Kayla had a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent, coroner’s spokeswoman Sandy Fatland said.
Investigators determined alcohol and speeding (one witness reported Kayla had been driving about 90 mph) were the primary factors that led to the crash that killed Kayla. Ramos said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that texting factored into the equation.
Um, texting may not be the entire cause for the accident, but drunk driving, speeding and texting doesn’t exactly help out either.
R.I.P. Kayla.
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We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.
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The show went on for the Dave Matthews Band on Tuesday night, with Matthews paying tribute from the stage to saxophonist LeRoi Moore, who died earlier in the day.
“We all had some bad news today,” Matthews told the sell-out crowd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles after the first song. “Our good friend LeRoi Moore passed on and gave his ghost up today and we will miss him forever.”
Fans shouted Moore’s name in tribute as the band resumed playing. Two songs later, Matthews once again made reference to Moore, saying: “It’s easier to leave than be left.”
Moore, a founding member of the band, died Tuesday afternoon of complications from an all-terrain vehicle accident in June, the band’s rep announced.
Moore, who had recently returned to his house in L.A. to begin a physical rehabilitation program, died at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, according to the rep.
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Bernie Mac, who for the past 30 years made the public laugh with an over-sized comic persona in film, television and comedy clubs, has died of pneumonia. He was 50.
George Clooney:
“The world just got a little less funny. He will be missed dearly.”
Brad Pitt:
“I lament the loss of a ferociously funny and hardcore family man. My thoughts are with Rhonda and their family. Bernie Mac, you are already missed.”
Samuel L. Jackson:
“He was also an attentive husband, a great father and loving grandfather. I feel blessed to have shared years of friendship with Bernie Mac, and I’m honored to have finally co-starred with him in what I consider to be his finest cinematic acting achievement.
“My sincere prayer is that his family will be comforted by the warmth of love from all of us who knew and respected this man.”
George Lopez:
“Bernie fell into that category of people who were inherently different like when you saw them, you knew they were different and when they spoke, you knew they were different. As comics, we’re all brothers. and I’ll miss him a lot. He was a good friend of mine.”
Luke Wilson:
“He couldn’t have been a nicer guy. He just seemed like a real family man and just a nice guy on the set, just very kind of normal guy.”
Mac began his career performing stand-up comedy for spare change in Chicago subways. His first break came when he won a citywide talent contest in 1990.
By 1994 he had established himself as a headliner in his own right, touring the U.S. with his comedy-music-dance extravaganza, the “Who Ya Wit Tour.” Meanwhile, TV guest spots on HBO’s “Rosie Perez Presents Society’s Ride” (1993) and Russell Simmons’ “Def Comedy Jam” (1994) led to his own HBO series, Midnight Mac (1995), and a recurring guest spot on TV’s Moesha.
He also appeared in films such as Mo’ Money (1992), Spike Lee’s Get on the Bus (1996), and Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and Ocean’s Twelve (2004). He performed on the “Kings of Comedy” tour with fellow stars, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, and Cedric the Entertainer. In 2001 he launched his hit Fox TV series, The Bernie Mac Show.
Thanks for the laughs. R.I.P. Mr. Mac.
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Isaac Hayes died Sunday in Memphis, where he lived. He was 65.
A releative discovered an unresponsive Hayes near an exercise machine in their home at midday, and Hayes was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m. when he arrived at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis.
“Family members had gone to the grocery store and left him home. When the family came home around 1, his wife’s cousin found him lying on the floor in the basement near a treadmill. The treadmill was running, so it is believed that he had been working out.”
Although the hospital is still determining the cause of death, Shular says Hayes most likely died of natural causes.
With his distinct basso profundo (his voice seemed emanate in his feet), from 1997 to 2006, Hayes voiced the role of South Park’s school-cafeteria sage, Chef. However, he abruptly quit over what he considered the show’s disrespect for religion.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone speculated that Hayes was offended by the show’s treatment of his faith, Scientology.
Born in Covington, Tenn., Hayes was a self-taught musician. At age 22, he was hired by Stax Records of Memphis to play backup for piano and sax for Otis Redding and others. In the ’60s, with David Porter, he wrote soul hits for Sam and Dave (”Hold On, I’m Coming” and “Soul Man”
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Leonardo DiCaprio’s maternal grandmother Helene Indenbirken has died at the age of 93.
Indenbirken passed away in a hospital in her native North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
A cause of death has not yet been reported.
Leo was very close to Indenbirken — the wife of a coal miner — whom he often referred to as “Oma.”
The two would see each other whenever DiCaprio was in Europe (he was photographed August 4 on a yacht in Ibiza, Spain). She also accompanied him to many movie premieres, including 2005’s The Aviator.
“I love spending time with her because she is gangsta, with an ‘a,’” he told Vanity Fair in 2004. “She will tell people exactly what she thinks to their face.”
DiCaprio told Vanity Fair his grandmother also saved his mother’s life.
A toddler during World War II, his mother, Irmelin, suffered a broken leg. His grandmother nursed her back to health in a German hospital.
“All these refugees from the war and all the soldiers came into the hospital,” DiCaprio told Vanity Fair. “She ended up contracting five or six major illnesses and stayed for two and a half, three years.
“My grandmother basically came every day and nursed her back to health because the nurses didn’t have time.”
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