The Wall

People Who Died -- October, 2025

Happy Halloween. A fitting day for this dreck to get distributed. Halloween evolved from the Celtic festival of Samhain, associated with the spirits and the dead. The Celts believed that the transition from Summer to Winter permitted the spirits to return to earth and tonight’s the night. Tread lightly. I am not a big fan of the holiday as dressing up as someone else seems ridiculous to me. Repugnant as I may be, I like myself and don’t really want to be someone else. To each, their own. Half the country is prancing around tonight as someone they wish they were. Under 12, I get it. Over that, I begin to wonder. Anyway, on with the show. I’m getting this out early tonight so I can go out trick or treating.

Like Robert Redford, last month, Diane Keaton, who died this month at 79, transcended acting, her main profession, to reach icon status in the Country, and maybe even the world. She was a force for fashion, liberation, free thinking, and excellence. Nominated for four Oscars, she won on her first try for “Annie Hall,” the famed Woody Allen movie. I might add that I actually saw “Annie Hall,” one of the few I can boast having seen. The lost nominations were for “Reds,” “Marvin’s Room,” and “Something’s Gotta Give.” Her light heartedness, self-deprecating personality, and spontaneity, made her a perfect fit for comedies, but she also played much darker roles like Al Pacino’s wife in the Godfather movies (which unlike “Annie Hall,” I have not seen), and in movies like “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “Crimes of the Heart,” and “Southern Gothic.” For me, though, it was the Allen films such as “AH,” “Play it again Sam” (the film version), “Love and Death,” and most importantly “Sleeper,” that did it for me. That ability to toggle from comedy to tragedy, speaks to her talent. Born in LA, she moved to New York at 19 to study acting. She always wanted a film career and thought that having to act in plays and do the same thing night after night was her definition of hell. That said, she started her career on Broadway in “Hair,” and then moved to Woody Allen’s “Play it Again Sam.” As Allen moved to films, so too did she. The two worked together often, were romantically involved at some point, and remained friends. To balance dating Allen, she also had relationships with Al Pacino and Warren Beatty. She once said that “Warren was gorgeous, very pretty. But Al’s face is like whoa. Killer, killer face.” I saw no quotes about Allen in that vein. Allen explained Keaton in this manner: “If Huckelberry Finn were a gorgeous young woman, he’d be Keaton.” Keaton became Allen’s muse. “As time went on, I made movies for an audience of one, Diane Keaton” Allen said. “I never read a single review of my work and cared only what Keaton had to say about it.” High praise if not a little eccentric. And she could sing. Watch this. She also wrote books, directed movies, and was a pretty good photographer. And let’s not forget her fashion sense, which veered away from runways and more favored, at times, the bag-lady look. But she pulled it off, though, and in her own way changed the style sense of the Country. She never married and raised two adopted children. She was once quoted as saying, “I’m a lot of fun on a date.” Of that I have no doubt.

Basil’s wife is dead, and I don’t know how he will get on without her. I loved the British sitcom “Fawltey Towers” with John Cleese. It remains timeless and hilarious and if you have never seen it, you are missing something. Cleese is a master, and Prunella Scales, who played his dutiful wife, Sybil, died at 93. She apparently watched the show the day before she died, so I am assured that she went out laughing. She appeared in countless television shows and plays, but it was as Sybil Fawlty where she found international fame. Although the show only ran for two seasons, it has remained a hit with audiences. She referred to her husband on the show as an “ageing brilliantined stick insect.” He referred to her as “his little piranha fish.” A true love story, “Fawltey Towers.” The British Film Institute rated it as number one on the list of the top 100 British television shows. Both before and after the show, she was a staple on British television, often playing wives in comedies. While (thankfully), never on the” Love Boat,” in the early days of her Alzheimer’s, she did star with her husband, a film critic, on the series “Great Canal Journeys,” where they floated on waterways of the world. Her husband updated viewers about her condition on each episode. It was seen by British viewers as an incredible love story. Ms. Scales was quoted as saying “I am famous for playing unfortunate wives, but I have been a very lucky wife.” Next to Basil Fawlty, almost any husband would seem like the ultimate catch.

Back in the New York groove. We lost Ace Frehley this month at 74. Come to find out, he lived in Morristown, so he was my neighbor. I won’t fault him for not dropping over to have a glass of wine, but it would have been nice. I liked their first album (it included “Strutter”), but that was about it. I never enlisted in the Kiss Army. Proving that I am a reverse market indicator, the band was a mega-act and managed for maximum financial impact. The fact that the members were characters, permitted them to be somewhat anonymous and I am certain that on nights, the four original members were not the ones seen on stage. In fact, the members sold the rights to the group so we may never know who is up there performing. That said, now that one is gone, sort of harms the brand by ruining the myth that it could be all of them onstage. Also, in case you are wondering, he is not the one with the tongue, that is Gene Simmons. Along with Paul Stanly, Frehley was the principal songwriter for the band, but let’s face it, the music was not the primary moving force here. It was the whole package. Frehley had problems with alcohol. Mr. Staley was quoted as saying, “I don’t know if Ace knew the backside of his guitar to the front and it was probably due to ingesting certain liquids.” Frehley downplayed his drinking as a problem, claiming that Simmons and Stanley used it to try and minimize his contributions to the band. Frehley was born in the Bronx and answered an ad in the Village Voice (remember that’s where Springsteen found some of his musicians as well) for a band seeking a guitarist with “flash and ability.” From there Kiss was born. Frehley left the band in 1982, claiming to be put off by the commercialization of the band. Anyone reading this have a Kiss lunchbox? That commercialization earned Kiss about $100 million per year. While Frehley had the best solo career of anyone of the band’s alums, he never attained the heights to warrant an army, as Kiss had. Still, his “Back in the New York Groove,” is a staple at Citi Field. He put out seven albums himself and two with Frehley’s Comet. He also rejoined the band for some lucrative reunion tours. When the rights to Kiss were sold, for I am sure what is an obscene amount of money, the owners of those rights were Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, so somewhere along the line, Frehley relinquished his rights. Perhaps that explains why he was my neighbor and not living on a yacht somewhere. “And baby, you’d better believe.”

Ray Davies once wrote: “I don’t feel safe in this world no more, I don’t want to die in a nuclear war, I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like and ape man.” Well, this month we lost Jane Goodall at age 91, who all but did that. Goodall was born in London, and at 23 went off to a friend’s family farm near Nairobi, Kenya. As a child, she loved the Tarzan movies and pictured herself as Jane. This birthed a love of animals and Africa. In Nairobi, she met Louis Leakey, a paleoanthropologist. She went to work as his assistant accompanying him on a trip to Tanzania through unchartered wilderness. Leaky had a notion of finding someone to live around Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania, to study a group of chimpanzees that lived there. Goodall agreed to be that person and along with her mother, who was a writer, took up residence. She observed a group of chimps and realized that they used certain implements as tools. This was the first time that anyone, but humans, were known to use a tool. It illustrated a much higher intelligence level that we had ascribed to these creatures. Her study got her accepted into a doctoral program at Cambridge University even though she didn’t have an undergraduate degree. Saved her a lot on student loans I bet. In 1963, National Geographic dedicated 37 pages to the work she had been doing in the wild, observing up-close, this group of chimpanzees. The photographs that accompanied the narrative were taken by Hugo van Lawick, who would become her husband. They had a child and divorced. The article, which talked about how this group socialized, established a hierarchy, raised their young, and communicated, was groundbreaking and put her and her work on the map. Goodall went on to publish 17 books about her work and another 5 children’s books. Her ability to communicate and tell the story of this group of chimps and how they lived, drawing parallels with humans, was spellbinding to many. In the 1970’s, she did more promotional touring and talking rather than observing, and she established the Jane Goodall Institute, which promotes a variety of conservation initiatives. She received numerous accolades and awards. Queen Elizabeth named her a Dame of the British Empire, and President Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perhaps most impressively, to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of her going to the region she studied so carefully, Mattel released a Jane Goodall Barbie. It simply can’t get any better than that.

Danger Will Robinson. June Lockhart, the mother of Will, who was looked over by a robot that was obviously fueled by AI, died at 100. She had a pretty impressive career, which began in the 1930 classic, “A Christmas Carol.” She also had roles in “All This, and Heaven Too,” with Bette Davis; “Seargent York,” with Gary Cooper; and “Meet me in St. Louis,” with Judy Garland. At 22 she starred in the Broadway production “For the Love of Money,” for which she received a Tony award for Best Performance by a Newcomer, a class of award which no longer exists, probably for political correctness. Both of her parents were actors, so she was genetically predisposed to the stage. But it was television that made her a household name, first as the mother in “Lassie,” next as the mother in “Lost in Space,” and third, as Dr. Janet Craig, who worked at the Shady Rest Hotel in Hooterville on seasons six and seven of “Petticoat Junction,” which every male on the planet tuned in just to see the three daughters, Betty Joe, Billy Jo and Bobbie Jo Bradley. It was as racy as television got back in the 60’s. Now those folks go to Porn Hub. “Lassie” ran for 17 seasons. So many, that nine dogs played the role. Ms. Lockhart played the role of Ruth Martin (mother of Tim), from 1958 to 1964. She replaced Cloris Leachman who originated the role. Before playing the role of Dr. Maureen Robinson, the mother of Will, in “Lost in Space,” she was on such shows as “Perry Mason,” and “Death Valley Days.” “Lost In Space” ran for three years and was a low budget, off the wall, science fiction sitcom which was sort of a space-aged “Gilligan’s Island.” Suffice it to say, she did plenty of movies, theatre, and television. She worked into her 90’s. She was Betty White before Betty White was Betty White. Bill Mumy, Will Robinson on the show, once asked her how she stayed so young looking and she answered, “I’ve had great work done and some young boyfriends.” Listen up ladies.

I write this one on Sunday morning and the best Sunday mornings begin with a good bagel, and optimally with some lox (salmon cured in a brine, not smoked) and creme cheese. No one does it better than Zabar’s when it comes to great food, and this month, we lost Saul Zabar at 97. Mr. Zabar toiled for over 70 years at the famous food retailer. He said that running Zabar’s was a way of life and given how he devoted himself to the place that is not surprising. I might add that Zabar’s is not exactly a health food store but the fact that he lived to 97 is a testament to eating good food, even if it is salted and smoked and full of carbs. Zabar’s was started by Mr. Zabar’s parents, and after working in the store as a kid, he was done with smoked fish, hoping to become a doctor. When his father died at 49, however, rather than dispensing medications, he moved chicken soup and the like, which many will tell you is medicinal. With his two brothers, he made Zabar’s a go-to destination in New York, and a place known around the world. Mr. Zabar was a micromanager, involved in all aspects of the store. They roast their own coffee (8,000 pounds of beans a week), and he visited the fish providers to ensure that the taste will meet the standards of his customers, and produced a legendary chocolate babka. Zabar’s flourished and became a real resource for the people on the Upper West Side and across the Country through their mail order business. The reason for that is due to the quality of the products they sold. It was Saul Zabar, through his meticulous management, geared totally to his customer base, that made Zabar’s the gem that it is. Hopefully, he imbued his love for perfection into his children, who now run this iconic retailer.

Bruce Cutler, the pugnacious courtroom battler who helped earn John Gotti the nickname Teflon Don, died this month at 77. Cutler, a street-smart battler, was known for his hard-knuckled cross examinations of the government’s witnesses. He started as a prosecutor in the Brookly D.A.’s office, and then went to work with Barry Slotnick, a prominent criminal defense attorney who often represented mob figures. It was there that he met Mr. Gotti. He got acquittals for Gotti on three separate occasions. In the fourth indictment, (for the Paul Castellano murder, amongst other things), the government got Cutler disqualified from representing the man who had been nicknamed the Teflon Don, because Cutler, they argued, had been the de-facto in-house counsel for the crime family that Gotti headed. Without his usual lawyer, Mr. Gotti was convicted and sent to Super Max prison where he met his end. While we like to idealize the lives of mobsters, they generally end up killed by their colleagues, dying in prison, or toiling away in a fearful existence all their lives. No pension in that business. Cutler, on the other hand, did very well for himself in defending them. He was an outspoken advocate for his client, not afraid to criticize the government or the judges. He once excoriated a judge presiding over one of his cases and was found guilty of criminal contempt. He was sentenced to 90 days house arrest and three years’ probation, as well as being suspended from the practice of law for 180 days. He remained combative. He represented Phil Spector, who also was found guilty of killing a woman in his home. The plight of a criminal defense lawyer is that regardless of how good you are, too often your clients are guilty and, lacking a magic wand, there is little you can do to keep them out of jail. Cutler once played himself in the movie “15 Minutes,” and Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci, who wrote a book about Cutler, said that he could “take the prosecution’s evidence, spin it, scruff it, twist it and pound it into pulp, until it was nothing more than a lumpy pile of reasonable doubt.” Not bad for a defense lawyer.

D’Angelo, the R&B artist, died this month at 51. I have to admit that prior to his death, I never heard his name. His demise caused so much ink to spill, I wanted to find out about him. One of my favorite musical artists, Jon Cleary, wrote glowingly about him. I listened to his material and found it not to be what I would generally consume, but it was good R&B, evoking Curtiss Mayfield for me. He was talented, and I felt he ought to make this rag which is probably something he would have preferred not to have occurred. Robert Christgau the Village Voice critic wrote, “he is R&B Jesus, and I am a believer.” Somewhat like saying “I saw rock n’ roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” D’Angelo drew comparisons to Prince. He produced his own music had a sweet voice and played guitar as well as keyboards. His album “Voodoo,” won a Grammy for best R&B recording and the song “Untitled (How Does It Feel),” earned a Grammy for best male R&B vocal performance. He struggled with depression and substance abuse, although it was pancreatic cancer that ultimately killed him. In 2014, he released the album “Black Messiah,” again to critical acclaim. It won the Grammy for best R&B record and one track (“Really Love”), won best R&B song. While I didn’t know the guy, President Obama did, having one of his tunes on his Summer Playlist in 2015, and giving tribute upon his death. Better than what I will get.

Before I get to bass players, lets deal with the more important instrument – drums. We lost one of the greats in Jack DeJohnette, at 83. He started on the piano at about five, played rock n’ roll piano, and sang in a doo wop group in high school, but it was Jazz that captured his heart. He picked up the drums when a friend left a kit at his house, and he practiced to great drummers like Art Blakey and Max Roach. Largely a side man (as most jazz drummers are), he played with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Charles Lloyd, Keith Jarret, John Abercrombie, Michael Brecker, Pat Metheney, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis. With Davis, he replaced Tony Williams and played on the album “Bitches Brew.” He was also a bandleader, heading Compost, New Directions, and Special Edition. He performed at Woodstock and the Fillmore East because Bill Graham liked to sprinkle jazz bands in with the rock stars. Not to be hemmed in, he put out a record with Vernon Reid from In Living Colour, that leaned more to rock. He played subtlety and explosively depending on the color he wanted to paint with the kit. “Sometimes, if I feel a piece is too stiff, I’ll inject some fire into it, so that it’ll loosen up and the players will get the spirit,” he told Downbeat Magazine. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee School of Music, won two Grammy’s (he was nominated for another six), and was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, one of the highest honors a jazz player can receive. He also put out some records playing the piano which he also did well. He once said of himself, “I’m a complete musician.” That he was.

Last month it was hockey goalies, this month it is bass players. They died in droves this month. We’ll start with John Lodge, the bass player of the Moody Blues, who left us at 82. To me, the Moody Blues were like their music, not too abrasive. They had some decent tunes and were decent listening, and they were a tad better than okay to me. I know you could get Moody Blues voices on a Mellotron so that is something, and their “Days of Future Past” album is seen as one of the first “concept” albums and I have to admit pretty good. They weren’t a band built around a singer or guitarist, but rather were the sum of their parts. Lodge was not the Moodies original bass player but entered when Denny McLaine (Wings) and Bassist Clint Warwick left the band. Justin Heyward joined at the same time, and they put out “Days of Future Past,” which made ample use of the aforementioned Mellotron, and really put them on the map. They put out a series of chart-topping albums after that. The members did quite well which permitted Mr. Lodge to once quip about a reviewer that panned the band, that he could “run him over in my Rolls Royce.” Lodge started in the band (love the name) El Riot and the Rebels, and was then asked to join the Moodies. The band stopped touring in 2019, but Mr. Lodge, who had put out numerous solo records, continued to play and tour. “Why do we never get an answer.”

Sam Rivers, one of the founders of Limp Bizkit, and the band’s bass player, died this month at 48. According to his New York Times obit, the band described him as “the pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound.” Impressive for a bass player. They usually get discarded and replaced within days of their demise. That might not be the case with Mr. Rivers. However, if Neal Peart can be replaced, it’s only a matter of time for Limp Bizkit. It seems only EVH is irreplaceable. Mr. Rivers started in music by playing the tuba in his middle school band. He was spurred on by his jazz drummer friend, John Otto, who Rivers would later recruit to join him in Limp Bizkit. He was playing around Jacksonville, Florida, when Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit’s lead singer, ran into him while he, Mr. Rivers, was working in a Chick-Filet, which is a good place for a musician to work since it is closed Sundays. Durst asked him to join forces and Rivers recruited Mr. Otto and they had a band. Guitarist Wes Borland was added soon thereafter and a few years later, DJ Lethal joined the band. When Limp Bizkit put out its first album, “Three Dollar Bill Yall,” Rivers was 19. He left the band in 2015 for health reasons brought on by his excessive drinking. Not shockingly, the band went on without him, but after a liver transplant, he rejoined the for some tours. He also produced some local bands in the Jacksonville area. His last Limp Bizkit performance was this past August at the Leeds Festival in England. Cheers.

Anthony Jackson, one of the truly great bass players, died this month at 73. Spinal Tap guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, famously explained how his amplifiers were better because they went to 11. While the average bass player uses a guitar with four strings, Jackson’s contrabass had six. Explaining it, he once said that “as the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family, the instrument should have had six strings from the beginning. The only reason it had four was because Leo Fender was thinking in application terms of an upright bass, but he built it along guitar lines because that was his training. The logical concept for the bass guitar encompasses six strings.” Jackson was a session player and played his instrument all over the world on tours with all sorts of bands and musical acts, including the Buddy Rich Orchestra. When you get Dave Weckl (my favorite drummer), to speak well of you as part of the rhythm section, you have arrived. Weckl said that Jackson “was one of the most important people ever to pick up the bass guitar (correction: as he always said, ‘it’s a six-string contrabass guitar’).” Can’t get much better than that.

Finally on bass players, Danny Thompson, who played with everyone from Roy Orbison to Eric Clapton, died this month at 86. He was named after his parents’ favorite song, “Danny Boy.” As a bass player, he was happy to only make his four strings sing and generally played an upright bass (double bass), which he referred to as Victoria. As a kid, he was an excellent footballer and also learned to play guitar, mandolin, trumpet, and trombone. He was called to military service and spent two years playing trombone in the army band. He ultimately landed, though, on the bass. He was a member of Alex Corner’s Blues Incorporated (replacing Jack Bruce), where he played with the guitarist John McLaughlin. He also played with Richard Thompson before forming the group Pentangle. He toured with Mr. Orbison and played on Rod Stewart’s “Every Picture Tell’s a Story” album and Clapton’s “461 Ocean Blvd.” record. The list of people he played with is huge. On his death, John McLaughlin wrote: “Danny was a genial person just a lovely human being and such a fine musician.” Because it’s all about the bass.

Most college basketball teams have mascots to spur them on, but Loyola of Chicago’s basketball team had something much better, a conduit to God through Sister Jean Delores Schmidt, of the Order of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (okay, maybe it was just to Mary she could connect, but that’s religious juice if there is any), who died this month at 106. Sister Jean, as she was known, was the teams Chaplin, cheerleader, part-time strategist, and all-around general assistance Nun, who was brought in to assist the players academically, but became much more of a mentor for them. “I’ll tell Sister Jean stories till the day that I die,” said one player. In her custom-made athletic shoes, with sister on one shoe, and Jean on the other, she generally sat behind the Ramblers bench until she broke her hip and was in a wheelchair, requiring a seat further back. A lifelong teacher, when she “retired” from Loyola of Chicago, the University President asked her to stay on in order to help the basketball team academically, which she happily did. She then became the team’s Chaplain where she would often pray with the team before games. Now this notion that God somehow plays favorites in sports competition is somewhat ridiculous, although with some Notre Dame wins, it makes you wonder. However, the first thing many sports stars do after a win is to thank the Almighty as if he was somehow putting the whammy on the opposition. I don’t think religion works that way. I mean, it’s not like the big guy has a FanDuel account or anything. Anyway, she was their religious, academic, and all-around fan. She really came to the National fore in the 2018 NCAA tournament when the Ramblers upset Miami and then Tennessee to get to the Sweet Sixteen. I mean, where talking Loyola of Chicago here, not Duke. The team put out a Sister Jean bobblehead to secure her celebrity (there have been two additional Bobblehead days as well). In 2016, Loyola granted her an honorary doctorate for 50 years of service. When she turned 100, Governor Pritzker pronounced it Sister Jean Day in Illinois. When she hit 103, the school named the plaza outside the Loyola CTA station for her, and at 105, she was given a Presidential Proclamation by President Biden. All things considered; I’d be happiest with the bobbleheads.

I’ll end on a religious note because I need all the help I can get. Watch out for hobgoblins.