Sunday, July 25, 2010

David Warren - Invented "Black Box"

David Warren invented the "black box" flight voice recorder used on airplanes to reconstruct flight information after a crash. He came up with the idea after investigating the world's first commercial airline crash in 1953.

He thought it would be useful for investigators to have voice recordings of the cockpit crew in the event of a crash. Although he built his prototype in 1956, it took several years before they were installed in commercial airliners around the world.

Mr Warren,85, died on July 18. 2010 at his home in Australia. His father was killed in a plane crash in 1934.

Mr Warren was the principal research scientist at the Defense Science and Technology Organization's Aeronautical Research Laboratory in Australia from 1952-1983.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Bob Sheppard - Yankees Announcer

Bob Sheppard served as the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium for 55 seasons. During that time from 1956-2005, he was a constant at over 4,500 regular season games. There were also 121 postseason games and 62 games in 22 World Series.

Mr Sheppard, 99, died on July 11, 2010 at his home in Baldwin, New York. He had been ill for a short time after leaving his job with the Yankees.

He will be forever known as "The Voice of God", a title given to him by Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson when he played with the team. It stuck with him the last 30 years of his career.

Mr Sheppard was a very prolific announcer. He also covered New York Giants football games from 1956-2005.

The team honored him in 2000 with a plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. He was considered to be the only team employee who George Steinbrenner never yelled at.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Ilen Woods - Voice of Cinderella

Ilen Woods, 81, was the voice of Cinderella in the 1950's Disney blockbuster animated film. She died on July 1, 2010 at a nursing home in Los Angeles from complications related to Alzheimer's disease.

As an 18 year old in 1948, she recorded a demo for an upcoming Disney feature. Two days later, she auditioned and won the featured speaking and singing role of Cinderella.

She later sang on the Perry Como and Arthur Godfrey shows in the 1950's before retiring from show business in the early 1970's.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Corey Allen- Played Opposite James Dean

Corey Allen played the role of a high school gang leader who got into a fight with actor James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause". His character, Buzz Gunderson, got into a losing knife fight with Dean and later died in the movie when his car plunged off a cliff.

Mr. Allen died at the age of 75 on June 25, 2010 at his home in Hollywood.

He had a number of other movie and television roles before he becoming a director in 1969. He won an Emmy in 1984 for directing an episode of "Hill Street Blues".

He also directed a two-hour pilot for "Star Trek - The Next Generation". He followed up with numerous episodes for that show as well as its sequel, "Star Trek - Deep Space Nine".

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Allyn Ferguson - Composer

Allyn Ferguson was an Emmy-winning composer who co-wrote the theme songs for the 1970's television hits "Charlie Angels" and "Barney Miller". Mr Ferguson died on June 23, 2010 at the age of 85 at his home in Los Angeles.

He wrote the music scores for dozens of television episodes during the 1970's and 1980's, but was best known for "Charlie's Angels" and "Barney Miller" which he co-wrote with Jack Elliot.

The received eight Emmy nominations and won it in 1985 for the television adaption of the classic novel "Camille".

He was also the musical co-director for the Oscars, Emmy and Grammy Award shows.