Hail and farewell: A tribute to those we lost in 2022

Lee Cowan remembers and celebrates a few of the wonderful individuals who left their mark, and made essentially the most of their time with us:

His class, his model, and his grace made Sidney Poitier (“Lillies of the Subject,” “To Sir With Love”) extraordinary amongst actors, but in addition a mannequin of social consciousness. Each function he performed pushed previous the boundaries of what society would permit again then. When the script for “Within the Warmth of the Evening” referred to as for his character, Virgil Tibbs, to be slapped by a White man, Poitier informed the studio, “If he slaps me, I will slap him again.”

He defined in a 1975 interview: “Blacks have been going to the flicks ever since its inception. They noticed themselves not often, and after they did see themselves, as a rule, they did not notably stroll away from the theater with a lot delight or a lot sense of non-public dignity.”

He broke so many obstacles, together with changing into the primary Black actor to win an Oscar in a number one function. Accepting his Academy Award, he stated, “It’s a lengthy journey to this second.”

Sidney Poitier was 94.

We misplaced one other champion: the good Bill Russell. The Boston Celtic was maybe greatest recognized for his prowess on the basketball court docket, however he, too, fought passionately for equality and inclusion.

In 2011, as he introduced a Medal of Freedom to Russell, President Barack Obama stated, “He marched with King; he stood by Ali. When a restaurant refused to serve the black Celtics, he refused to play within the scheduled recreation.”

Russell left us at 88.

One other sports activities legend we misplaced was so good he was recognized by just one title: Pelé. He helped rework the game of soccer (or soccer) by enjoying it higher than anybody. He was 82.

For nearly 70 years, Dodgers announcer Vin Scully was baseball’s poet. Considered one of his most well-known calls was in 1974, when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s all-time dwelling run file: “What a wonderful second for the nation and the world! A Black man is getting a standing ovation within the Deep South for breaking a file of an all-time baseball idol!” 

With that one name Scully summed up a nation’s simmering racial tensions. The sport will not be the identical with out him.

Virginia McLaurin lived to see so very a lot – she was 113 when she died. A sharecropper’s daughter, she lived lengthy sufficient to bop with the Obamas on the White Home.

Those that skilled injustice at dwelling helped their nation struggle it abroad. “We had been simply as all in favour of supporting that effort as all people else at the moment,” Charles McGee, one of many final surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, stated in 2016. He died quietly at 102.

Against this, Queen Elizabeth II‘s demise was introduced to the world. She was the longest reigning monarch in British historical past – 70 years on the throne. Her sense of obligation reigned supreme.

On this nation, we misplaced a queen of our personal: nation music queen Loretta Lynn. Her hearty rural roots resonated – a real coal miner’s daughter who wrote from the center.

Meat Loaf was actually himself, too; Marvin Lee Aday had a sound all his personal. His “Bat Out of Hell” album confirmed that rock music may be operatic.  Meat Loaf left us at 74.

Joanna Simon was true opera, however she was additionally the sister of pop star Carly Simon. The 2 of them, together with their different sister, Lucy, all turned singer-songwriters.

“Nicely, I used to be very refined,” Joanna stated in 1975, “and Lucy was kind of an angel, she was very candy and overly good; and Carly was the character!”

Tragically for the Simon household, the day after Joanna died, her sister Lucy died as properly, leaving their early trio now all the way down to only one.

Ronnie Spector was one in every of a trio, too, as lead singer of The Ronettes. The “Be My Child” singer died at 78.

Her music helped outline the ’60s, a decade of music that culminated in Woodstock, the pageant co-created by live performance promoter Michael Lang. 

These three days in the summertime of 1969 summed up a technology’s hopes and fears. “M*A*S*H” tapped into a few of those self same frustrations, solely as a substitute of Vietnam, it was set through the Korean Battle. We misplaced Burt Metcalfe, who produced the final episode of “M*A*S*H,” which to today holds the file for the most-watched finale on tv.

In 1983 Metcalfe stated, “A lot of individuals write and say, ‘I by no means know from week to week whether or not you are going to make me snicker or cry.’ As a result of that is what life is about. Life is laughter and sorrow. So, why cannot you do each?”

“Hogan’s Heroes” discovered humor in maybe essentially the most unlikely place of all: a prisoner of battle camp in World Battle II Germany. Robert Clary performed the humorous Frenchman Corporal LeBeau, however he had a really critical facet, as a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust. A long time after the collection ended, Clary revealed he himself survived 31 months in focus camps. “There are some individuals on this world proper now denying what occurred,” he stated in 1983, “and we can’t allow them to inform these lies. It is essential to show these younger children it did occur. Don’t forget.”

Sadly, the variety of those that lived via these horrors is dwindling. Take Hannah Pick, who was one in every of Anne Frank’s greatest pals. She lived to the age of 93. Ilse Scheuer and her sister Ruth survived the camps collectively, they usually died collectively in September, simply days aside. 

It is unimaginable for anybody to grasp the dangers to those that went towards the Nazi regime, however Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s Listing” gave us a glimpse. Mimi Reinhard was the real-life secretary that typed up the names on that listing, largely Polish-Jewish refugees. She lived to be 107.

Two of our beloved TV exhibits suffered losses. Liz Sheridan, who performed Jerry Seinfeld’s mother, left us this previous 12 months. And we additionally misplaced Estelle Harris, who performed George Costanza’s mother. They had been each 93.

“Cheers” misplaced a member of its household, too: Kirstie Alley, who performed Rebecca Howe for therefore a few years. She additionally performed Mollie reverse John Travolta in “Look Who’s Speaking.”

Travolta referred to as their relationship particular, identical to the one he had with one other co-star he misplaced, Olivia Newton-John. Their movie “Grease” turned one of many highest-grossing film musicals ever, and within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s Newton-John herself turned a legend.

She very bravely and publicly battled most cancers in her closing years, exhibiting us all a dignified and considerate finish. She informed “Sunday Morning” in 2019, “After a time I went, you realize what? I do not know what my time is, however I have to get pleasure from my life, so I will eat a cookie if I would like it. And I will have a cup of tea if I would like it. And if I will have slightly little bit of wine, I am going to do this. As a result of the enjoyment of life and on a regular basis dwelling needs to be part of that therapeutic course of as properly.”

Nation star Wynonna Judd is therapeutic after shedding her mother, Naomi Judd. She took her personal life only a day earlier than she and her daughter had been to be inducted into the Nation Music Corridor of Fame.

In September Wynonna informed “Sunday Morning” she may nonetheless really feel her mom nudging her: “And typically I say, ‘I actually miss you; why aren’t you right here, so we may argue?'”

Cher misplaced her mother, too. Georgia Holt, like her daughter, was a singer, mannequin and actress in her personal proper.

In grief, possibly that is the best honor we can provide – to recollect the happiest moments, not the unhappy ones. 

There was no “yesterday” for these concerned within the trend business, like André Leon Talley, the pioneering editor at Vogue who was at all times wanting hopefully ahead; and Vivienne Westwood, who helped form our view of the punk motion with model and perspective, a world decidedly breaking with the traditions of previous. 

There was no subculture on “Go away It to Beaver,” however followers who liked the sitcom are mourning the lack of Tony Dow, who performed Wally Cleaver. He was America’s large brother, who guided Beaver when Ward, their dad, wasn’t round to do it himself.

Talking of dads, how may we neglect Jim Redmond, who rushed onto the racetrack after his son Derek pulled a hamstring within the 1992 Olympics. They completed the 400 meter arm-in-arm.

When Taylor Hawkins, the legendary drummer for the band Foo Fighters, died at solely 50 this 12 months, it was his son Shane who performed the drums in his father’s stead.

Bob Saget was maybe greatest generally known as a TV dad. However dwell stage comedy was actually his ardour.

One of many nicest guys within the enterprise, Saget had a wit that could possibly be fairly sharp. Throughout a 2008 Comedy Central Roast, Saget remarked about comic Gilbert Gottfried, “Gilbert, you may have the supply of somebody who’s simply been pepper sprayed, severely!”

To which Gottfried responded, “I Googled Bob Saget, and it got here again, ‘Why?'”

Gottfried’s voice discovered its approach into so many characters we keep in mind. Iago the Parrot, from “Aladdin,” was annoying and but oddly lovable – excellent for Gottfried’s abilities. 

The identical was true for Pat Carroll, the voice of the sea-witch Ursula in “The Little Mermaid.”

Our children know Angela Lansbury as a singing teapot, from “Magnificence and the Beast.” For adults, although, she was Jessica Fletcher in “Homicide, She Wrote.” However her abilities actually burst via on Broadway, the place she was a six-time Tony Award-winner. Angela Lansbury was 96.

Robert Morse took his Broadway stardom and turned it into a movie profession, after which re-emerged a long time in a while tv as one of many stars of “Mad Males,” the place his character exited with a real flourish:

On the earth of make-believe, few made you consider greater than Rubeus Hagrid, from the Harry Potter collection. Robbie Coltrane, the Scotsman who embodied that half-giant, left us at 72.

Generally giants could be diminutive in stature – and that is actually the case for “Will & Grace” star Leslie Jordan. We misplaced him at solely 67.

We misplaced “Magnum PI” actor Roger Mosley this previous 12 months; he left us at 83.

For followers of ’80s and ’90s stardom, it was an particularly unhappy 12 months. We misplaced Ivan Reitman, the director of a bunch of fan favorites, together with “Ghostbusters,” “Stripes” and “Dave” …

… and Joe Turkel, the congenial, however creepy, bartender in “The Shining.”

One of many largest mob motion pictures of the ’90s misplaced two of its stars: Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino, each of them “GoodFellas.”

However when it got here to mob hits, Sonny Corleone’s demise in “The Godfather” required actor James Caan to be rigged with a number of tiny explosives. “On me, I had 147; across the toll sales space, 5,000,” he informed “Sunday Morning” earlier this 12 months.

Was he scared? “Somewhat, however there have been women on the set, and I needed to do it!”

Farewell to him, and to all these we cheered on screens giant and small:

Tony Sirico (“The Sopranos”);

Louise Fletcher (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”);

Philip Baker Hall (“Secret Honor,” “Seinfeld”);

Anne Heche (“Wag the Canine”);

Director-actor Peter Bogdanovich (“The Final Image Present”)

Bob McGrath and Emilio Delgado (“Sesame Avenue”);

William Hurt (“Broadcast Information”); and 

Nichelle Nichols (“Star Trek”).

These of us who work in broadcasting have been mourning our personal: David Small, a longtime “Sunday Morning” editor; gifted producer Diane Ronnau; Michael “Hoppy” Hopkins, the person in control of CBS logistics; Victor Paganuzzi, who designed our “Sunday Morning” set; Lenny Mancini, who informed everybody the right way to mild it; and artist Robin Metz, who created so lots of our beloved suns.   

Our personal Bill Plante lined the White Home for CBS Information for greater than half a century. He was household right here.

And we’ll actually miss humorist Roger Welsch, who despatched us his “Postcards From Nebraska.” He was our consummate story-teller.

These are only a few of our pals, on-camera and off-, who helped to lovingly discover in nearly the whole lot a narrative to inform: former CBS Information correspondents Richard Wagner and James McManus; CBS Sports activities analyst Grant Wahl; CBS Information author Bruce Meyer; former CBS reporter and ABC Information anchor Jed Duvall; CNN’s Bernard Shaw; former CBS Washington Bureau chief Janet Leissner; CBS Information producer David Caravello; and CBS Information photojournalist George Christian. 

We misplaced historical past’s story-teller, too: David McCullough, whose writing and voice enlightened us on the teachings of our previous.

A type of classes is to by no means repeat this once more: the internment of Japanese People throughout World Battle II. Norman Mineta was one in every of them. He went on to turn into the primary Asian American Cupboard Secretary, and he helped get the U.S. to formally apologize to Japanese People for his or her mistreatment.

We misplaced different world leaders, too, like Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was nothing if to not the purpose. Whereas America’s Ambassador to the United Nations in 1996, she condemned the shootdown of unarmed civilian planes by Cuba’s army: “Frankly, this isn’t cojones. That is cowardice.”

We misplaced conservative Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican in that chamber; and Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving Japanese prime minister; and Mikhail Gorbachev, the final president of the Soviet Union, who helped finish the Chilly Battle. 

There are such a lot of we failed to say: the miraculous (like Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris, recognized for his “Immaculate Reception”); the wild (like “Nice Balls of Hearth” singer Jerry Lee Lewis, who lived as much as his nickname, The Killer); the groundbreaking (like “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper Coolio); and the voice of a few of the ’80s largest film hits (“Fame” singer Irene Cara).

However we thought we might finish with Christine McVie, the Fleetwood Mac hit-maker who reminded us that yesterday is certainly gone. The purpose is to “take into consideration tomorrow.”

Do not cease fascinated about tomorrow
Do not cease, it will quickly be right here
It’s going to be higher than earlier than
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone
Why not take into consideration instances to return?

To all we misplaced this previous 12 months, we bid a fond “Hail and Farewell.”

      
Story produced by Younger Kim. Editor: Steven Tyler.