Bubba Smith, probably best known as Hightower in the Police Academy movies, died yesterday in his home at the age of 66. No cause of death has yet been named, but the results of his autopsy should be known late today or tomorrow. I think I speak for everyone when I say that this is a tragedy, and if God was fair, it would’ve been that son of a bitch Guttenberg.

Smith was found dead at his Baldwin Hills home. No cause of death has been determined and there were no initial indications of foul play. Smith was 66.
A caretaker found Smith dead at his home Wednesday afternoon, police said.
A 6-foot-7, 280-pound defensive end, Smith was the No. 1 NFL draft pick from Michigan State University when he joined the Baltimore Colts in 1967.
He played five seasons for the Colts, which included their upset loss to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III and a victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl V. He spent two seasons with the Oakland Raiders and two more with the Houston Oilers before a knee injury ended his career in 1976.
After football, Smith was recruited to the ranks of former professional athletes who appeared as themselves in commercials for Miller Lite beer. He and fellow NFL veteran Dick Butkus were cast as inept golfers and polo players in the TV spots. Smith also was featured solo in one commercial extolling the virtues of the beer, beaming into the camera, “I also love the easy-opening cans,” while ripping off the top of the can.
Despite a lucrative contract and widespread popularity, Smith, who didn’t drink, walked away from the job out of concerns that the spots were contributing to alcohol consumption.
He turned to acting in movies and TV, playing Moses Hightower in six “Police Academy” movies. He also appeared in a number of TV series, including “Half-Nelson,” “Blue Thunder” and “Good Times.”
His brother Tody, a star at USC and in the NFL, later became Bubba’s agent. He died at 50 in 1999. [LATimes]

I’ll always remember Bubba Smith as the good former-football-player-turned-actor-in-a-police-procedural-parody movie, the one who didn’t kill people.

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America lost its favorite cross-eyed detective today as Peter Falk, best known as Columbo, died in Beverly Hills at the age of 83, just two years younger than Hugh Hefner. I think we can all agree that his best role was as the kindly grandfather in The Princess Bride. Damn, I loved that guy.

His family announced his death in a statement, The Associated Press reported. He had been treated for Alzheimer’s disease in recent years.
Mr. Falk had a wide-ranging career in comedy and drama, in the movies and onstage, before and during the three-and-a-half decades in which he portrayed the slovenly but canny lead on “Columbo.” He was nominated for two Oscars; appeared in original stage productions of works by Paddy Chayefsky, Neil Simon and Arthur Miller, worked with the directors Frank Capra, John Cassavetes, Blake Edwards and Mike Nichols, and co-starred with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis and Jason Robards.
But like that of his contemporary Telly Savalas of “Kojak” fame, Mr. Falk’s primetime popularity was founded on a single role.
A lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department, Columbo was a comic variation on the traditional fictional detective. With the keen mind of Sherlock Holmes and Philip Marlowe, he was cast in the mold of neither — not a gentleman scholar, and not a tough guy. He was instead a mass of quirks and peculiarities, a seemingly distracted figure in a rumpled raincoat, perpetually patting his pockets for a light for his signature stogie.
He drove a battered Peugeot, was unfailingly polite, was sometimes accompanied by a basset hound named Dog, and was constantly referring to the wisdom of his wife (who was never seen on screen) and a variety of relatives and acquaintances who were identified in Homeric-epithet-like shorthand — an uncle who played the bagpipes with the Shriners, say, or a nephew majoring in dermatology at U.C.L.A. — and who were called to mind by the circumstances of the crime at hand.
It was a low-rent affect that was especially irksome to the high-society murderers he outwitted in episode after episode.
Mr. Falk had a glass eye, resulting from an operation to remove a cancerous tumor when he was 3 years old. The prosthesis gave all his characters a peculiar, almost quizzical squint. And he had a mild speech impediment that gave his L’s a breathy quality, a sound that emanated from the back of his throat and that seemed especially emphatic whenever, in character, he introduced himself as Lieutenant Columbo. [NYTimes]

Yep, he was ridiculously likable.  I keep trying to poke out one of Zac Efron’s eyes, or knock out one of Taylor Lautner’s teeth with a tack hammer to maybe give them little character, but nooo, you gotta handle everyone with kid gloves these days. Everyone’s a pussy.  As for that headline, yes,all news of celebrity tragedy will be accompanied by a bad Roger Ebert pun from now on.  “Hey, how about that Mama Cass? Hearing how she passed has me all choked up.  But seriously, folks, try the veal.”

UPDATE: Here’s Columbo going apesh*t on some smarmy coffee motherf*cker. Thanks for the tip, Guy: Read the rest of this entry »

Ugh, I hope I get to go back to making fun of Jerry Bruckheimer soon.  Death news sucks.  Much more so when it’s someone likable.  Anyway, more details about the car accident that killed Jackass star Ryan Dunn:

The Porsche shot through about 40 yards of trees before it hit the last one and exploded into flames, according to police. The police press release (.PDF) reads, “Preliminary investigation revealed that speed may have been a contributing factor to the accident.” [NBCPhiladelphia]

So speed may have been a factor in the car flying through 40 yards of forest before exploding into a fiery supernova, but let’s not jump to any conclusions before all the facts are in.

UPDATE: TMZ now reports that Dunn was the driver of the 2007 911 Porsche GT3, which was “fully engulfed in flames” when police found it.

Well this sucks. TMZ reportedly confirmed with Bam Margera’s mother that Ryan Dunn died in a car crash early this morning outside West Goshen Township. The 34-year-old Dunn was a member of the Jackass crew whose stunts included the toy-car-in-the-butt stunt Steve O wouldn’t do and driving the golf cart that flipped and almost killed Johnny Knoxville. In other words, some of their best bits.

Dunn and an unidentified person both died in the crash which happened around 3 a.m. at Route 322 and New Street in West Goshen Township. It’s unclear who was driving the car.
We’re told the car caught fire in the crash — and hours later, a tow truck was called to the scene to remove the charred wreckage.
Just hours before his death, Dunn posted a photo on Twitter showing himself drinking with friends. [TMZ]

Ryan Dunn joined the original crew of Jackass after producers Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze invited Bam Margera to be apart of their show after seeing Bam’s stunts in CKY2K.  Margera soon brought Dunn onboard, saying, “He did a lot of dumb sh*t in high school, so I said come along for the ride.” Most recently, Dunn appeared on Minute to Win It and was hosting a new show (Proving Ground) on G4, which premiered on Tuesday.

Details of the crash aren’t yet known (right now, police are saying “speed may have been a factor”).  It’s always weird when a guy who’s known for doing reckless stunts people expect to one day kill him ends up dying from something that could’ve killed anyone, like a car crash. It’s like a real-life Final Destination.  Same thing got Sam Kinison. Read the rest of this entry »

Well this sucks.  Randy “Macho Man” Savage has died after suffering a heart attack while driving at 10 am this morning in (where else), Tampa, Florida. He was 58.

Florida Highway Patrol tells TMZ … Savage was driving his 2009 Jeep Wrangler when he veered across a concrete median … through oncoming traffic … and “collided head-on with a tree.”
Savage was transported to Largo Medical center, where he died from his injuries.
Savage’s wife was a passenger in the vehicle during the collision — but survived with “minor injuries.” She was transported to a different local hospital where she was treated.

A heart attack AND a car wreck, he always was one for excess.  It’s important to remember: Macho Men don’t die, they just get raptured early. (*pours baby oil out on ground, pushes feather boa out to sea*)

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