TOP TEN DEAD OF 2008

1. GEORGE CARLIN Most Stand-up comics tend to morph into something else as their careers "evolve", generally becoming either half-baked actors or taking on talk shows, or some other supposed greater entertainment challenge. George Carlin did a few movies, but for the most part remained a stand-up comic right to the end. A stellar, long-term career of social observation and absurdest humor. He proved, as Lenny Bruce did, that stand-up is an art form all its own.
2. BETTIE PAGE America is, and always has been, sexually Puritanical. But no more so than it was in the mid-twentieth century. Along came Bettie Page who stood before us completely nude and completely joyous. This wasn't the pornography that adolescent males stared at by flashlight under their covers, it was unabashed, unembarrassed sensuality that celebrated the human form as a work of art and not something nasty that needed to be covered up. Even Bettie's S & M images -campy, surrealistic - are difficult to view without a smile.
3. PAUL NEWMAN What more can be said about a man who reached the heights of his craft, spent fifty years married to the same woman, and devoted much time and money to charities? Role model? Hero? He had that bemused grin, even in the most trying of circumstances, making us feel that he knew something we didn't, and that he would make everything ok.
4. DON HELMS This is a name that not many will recognize. Don Helms was the steel guitar player for Hank Williams during Williams' final and most productive years. I met Helms in 1996 and he was the most down-to-earth friendly person you will ever meet. He was playing with Williams' daughter Jett on a concert tour. Jett's "talents" are questionable, but when Mr. Helms played Cold, Cold Heart solo on his steel guitar it was a musical moment of sublime proportion. Country/Bluegrass musicians rarely get recognized as great musicians, but their talents are as accomplished as in any other genre.
5. CYD CHARISSE In "Silk Stockings" there is a sequence where Cyd Charisse removes her black stockings and puts on her silk stockings. It is one of the most beautiful and sensual scenes of any musical. It is proof that a woman can also be sexy with her clothes on. Cyd Charisse matched all of her male dancing counterparts step for step, even besting Gene Kelly in their gorgeous dance number in "Singin' in the Rain." A class act on and off the screen.
6. HEATH LEDGER Before Heath Ledger's death there were some scenes from "The Dark Night" that leaked out. One short sequence showed Ledger as The Joker with his head sticking out of a moving automobile. The look on his face of stark, uninhibited evil, was spellbinding. Once seeing the entire film, the performance takes on more and more depth until a scene where The Joker, dressed as a nurse, exits a hospital he has just blown up. He walks down the street, the brilliance of Ledger added to the incredible feeling of loss that the viewer feels, combine for one of the year's most powerful moments on film.
7. MICHAEL DEBAKEY Is it even possible to fathom that someone is able to place an artificial heart into the body of a human being? Debakey's pioneering in the medical field is astonishing. From performing or assisting on nearly 20,000 heart-related surgeries to developing the concept of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH). Doing all that he did to better the human condition and living to the age of ninety nine, what a full, valuable life.
8. JEFF HEALEY Blind electric guitar player who taught himself how to play holding the instrument on his lap. And when he played a solo, he rose to his feet and my neck hairs went up with him.
9. BO DIDDLEY True musical pioneer and developer of "The Bo Diddley Beat" a rhythm that was an inspiration to many early Rock and Roll musicians including Buddy Holly, consequently being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Diddley was also one of the first musicians to hire women on a regular basis as his band members.
10. CHARLTON HESTON No one uttered over-the-top grandiose dialogue with the jaw-set conviction of Mr. Heston. Who else could possibly have played Moses or Judah Ben Hur?