Weekly News 6/12/2015: Film Icon Sir Christopher Lee Passes

This week we said goodbye to three unique men, each renowned in his field. Sir Christopher Lee, best recognized for his roles as Dracula and Saruman in “Lord of the Rings” passed away on Jun 7th. Dusty Rhodes, the wrestler known as “The American Dream” died on June 11th. Famed Navajo Code Talker, Bahe Ketchum died on June 8th. In other news, critics weigh in on Hollywood’s current handling of the subject of death and hundreds gather to bid farewell to a fallen Marine.

Digital Dying Weekly News: 6/12/2015

Why My Sister Allowed Her Death to Be Filmed for TV

Jun 12, 2015–time.com: At 32 years old, my older sister, Renee, had to choose how she wanted to die from terminal cancer. While her choice didn’t make financial sense, and it made life harder for her family members, it was the only choice she could live with. She chose to die at home in San Francisco. I am forever grateful for her choice… Read the full story

For Some Reason, Everyone Thinks Rue McClanahan Of ‘The Golden Girls’ Just Died Again

Jun 11, 2015–inquisitor.com: The hit television show The Golden Girls has been off the air for a long time now, and out of the four main stars, only Betty White remains alive. Estelle Getty died in 2008. Bea Arthur died in 2009. Oddly enough, Rue McClanahan passed away in 2010, but for some reason, her death notice has gone viral and a lot of people think she just died today… Read the full story

‘It’s terrible when you lose an old friend’: Roger Moore leads tributes as Hammer Horror and Lord of the Rings star Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93

Jun 11, 2015–dailymail.com: Film legend Sir Christopher Lee has died at the age of 93, prompting an outpouring of grief from Hollywood stars. The actor – who found fame in the Hammer Horror films before becoming known to a new generation through his role in fantasy blockbusters – had been treated for heart failure and respiratory problems in hospital. He died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on Sunday morning after three weeks of treatment, but his widow decided to withhold the news until today so family and friends could be informed… Read full story

‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’ Review: Funny Filmmaking Meets Serious Subject

Jun 11, 2015–wsj.com: Movies that deal with death and dying are often praised, when they’re praised at all, as life-affirming. That only begins to describe “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” which is also life-enhancing and enlivening. This brilliantly funny, casually profound and deeply affecting coming-of-age chronicle, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon from a screenplay by Jesse Andrews, even manages to be life-enlightening—it’s a fresh take on contemporary adolescence as a journey from ironic detachment to openhearted feeling… Read the full story

Hundreds Gather on Overpasses to Honor Fallen Marine

Jun 11, 2015–nbcsandiego.com: Southern California law enforcement officers and firefighters gathered by the hundreds along highway overpasses from Lindbergh Field to Murrieta Wednesday evening to honor a fallen Marine as his body returns home. Marine Sgt. Eric M. Seaman, 30, died when a Camp Pendleton-based UH-1Y helicopter crashed while delivering supplies to earthquake victims in Nepal… Read the full story

Inside a Texas biker gang funeral

Jun 11, 2015–bbc.com: “Look at it now, it’s such a tranquil place. It was the same that Sunday afternoon, until all hell broke loose.”
McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara stands outside the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, the scene of a deadly shoot-out between biker gangs. He points to where the carnage happened. “You could see bodies lying about – one was right there on the grass, five here on the parking lot, one over there behind that pick-up truck… Read full story

“Golden Girls” star Rue McClanahan goes viral five years after her death

Jun 11, 2015–cbsnews.com: They say cats have nine lives. Well, it seems Rue McClanahan, the consummate cougar, has had at least three. News of the death of the Emmy-winning actress who played the bawdy Blanche Devereaux on the hit TV series “The Golden Girls” was trending on Twitter and Facebook Thursday. Strange, given that McClanahan passed away five years ago. Even stranger: The same thing happened last year… Read full story

How Hollywood has learned to embrace the realities of death in film

Jun 9, 2015–theguardian.com: Judging by the movies they’re making about cancer, terminal illness and imminent death, the kids are alright. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is the latest in a recent surge of movies about young people dying that have all been uncommonly realistic and unflinching about the uglier, more sombre aspects of death. Like last summer’s champion tearjerker The Fault in Our Stars, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl gives us another terminally ill girl, befriended by two movie-crazy high school boys who decide to make a movie especially for her… Read full story

Obama delivers touching eulogy at Beau Biden’s funeral

Jun 6, 2015–thestar.com: Politicians, military leaders and celebrities from across the U.S. came to bid farewell on Saturday to former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, whose death at age 46 opened yet another chapter of grief for his father, Vice-President Joe Biden. Calling himself part of the Biden clan, President Barack Obama remembered Beau Biden as a selfless son and consummate public servant in a eulogy delivered at Biden’s funeral service… Read full story