Three Deaths of Hollywood's Undead

The future is full of the dead undead. The last few days have been a sync storm of signs.

JOHN BERNECKER

On July 12, 2017, the death of a stuntman who body doubled for stars on The Walking Dead died of a tragic injury on the set. John Bernecker suffered terrible injuries when he fell more than 20 feet and landed on concrete.

Bernecker was a veteran stunt performer and fight choreographer. According to his IMDB page, he has worked on projects such as Olympus Has Fallen, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2, and Logan among many others.

He is also listed as having worked on upcoming films like Marvel's Black Panther and Dwayne Johnson's Rampage.

He also worked as an actor in several films, appearing in bit parts Logan, The Last Witch Hunter, Goosebumps, and an episode of Season 1 of True Detective.

GEORGE A. ROMERO

Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero dies at 77.

On Sunday, July 16, 2017, George Romero, whose classic Night of the Living Dead and other horror films turned zombie movies into social commentaries and who saw his flesh-devouring undead spawn countless imitators, remakes and homages, died. He was 77.

Romero died Sunday after a battle with lung cancer, his family said in a written statement provided by his manager Chris Roe. Romero's family said he died while listening to the score of The Quiet Man, one of his favorite films, with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher, and daughter, Tina Romero, by this side.

Romero is credited with reinventing the movie zombie with his directorial debut, the 1968 cult classic, Night of the Living Dead. Romero's zombies, however, were always more than mere cannibals; they were metaphors for conformity, racism, mall culture, militarism, class differences and other social ills.

MARTIN LANDAU

On July 15, 2017, Martin Landau, 89, a character actor who starred in the 1960s television show Mission: Impossible and won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi (shown above) in the movie Ed Wood, died Saturday.

Landau died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles following "unexpected complications during a short hospitalization," his publicist said in a statement.

Landau was born June 28, 1928, in Brooklyn and worked as a cartoonist for the New York Daily News before becoming an actor, according to the Internet Movie Database.

GAME OF THRONES SYNC

These three "undead" deaths appear to have synced with the return to HBO of the 7th season of The Game of Thrones on Sunday night, 7-16 (1+6=7). The program was greatly anticipated for the reappearance of the Night Walkers, the GoT's version of the undead.

Little did viewers (mild spoiler alert) also know it would involve an example feature that was a speciality of Martin Laudau's on Mission: Impossible, the use of an identity-hiding mask.

The end of GoT's Season 6 foreshadowed the shocking opening of the new season. The "undead," certainly, were part of what this was about.

In an example of parallel thinking, concurrently, Jake Kotze writes: “Truly a "night of the living dead" with horror legend George Romero dying as the undead White Walkers return to our screens in Game of Thrones”.

Thanassis Vermbos writes me privately with these thoughts: 

Nitrogen’s atomic number is 7. It was first discovered and isolated in 1772 (17, 77). Antoine Lavoisier suggested the name azote, from the Greek άζωτικός "no life", as it is an asphyxiant gas; his name is instead used in many languages, such as French, Russian and Turkish, and appears in the English names of some nitrogen compounds such as hydrazine, azides and azo compounds. Nitrogen also has a boiling point at 77 degrees Kelvin. A-zote means no life –Romero’s zombies are exactly that; non-living creatures.

These are undead times.

'Night of the Living Dead' director George A. Romero dies at 77

George Romero, whose classic "Night of the Living Dead" and other horror films turned zombie movies into social commentaries and who saw his flesh-devouring undead spawn countless imitators, remakes and homages, has died. He was 77. 

Romero died Sunday after a battle with lung cancer, his family said in a written statement provided by his manager Chris Roe. Romero's family said he died while listening to the score of "The Quiet Man," one of his favorite films, with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher, and daughter, Tina Romero, by this side.

Romero is credited with reinventing the movie zombie with his directorial debut, the 1968 cult classic, "Night of the Living Dead." Romero's zombies, however, were always more than mere cannibals; they were metaphors for conformity, racism, mall culture, militarism, class differences and other social ills.

It happened on Wednesday and he was rushed to Atlanta Medical Center, where he later died.

Little People Lost: 2016

In a year of seemingly so many giants of Hollywood and music dying suddenly or shockingly, let us pause to remember the "Little People" often forgotten who we lost too.

For as long as show business has existed, little people have been delighting audiences — usually for the wrong reasons. In the early 1800s, they were billed as "midgets" and put on display alongside oddities like the "Feejee Mermaid" in dime museums, precursors to freak shows that served as entertainment for the unwashed masses.

***
The politically correct term is "little people," abbreviated to "LPs." "Dwarf" is acceptable, the plural being "dwarfs" — not "dwarves" (which conjures Tolkien or Snow White's pals). "Midget" long has been considered offensive, referred to by many LPs as "the M-word." ~ Seth Abramovitch, "Little People, Big Woes in Hollywood: Low Pay, Degrading Jobs and a Tragic Death," Hollywood Reporter, August 25, 2016.

KIM TRIPP

Kim Tripp, 32, starred as the little people's "Mini Kim Kardashian" at Beacher's Madhouse in Las Vegas and Hollywood Roosevelt. She was found dead on the porch of her Las Vegas apartment, on Saturday, March 20, 2016.

MIHALY "MICHU" MESZAROS

Michu Meszaros, 76, the diminutive actor behind the beloved sitcom character Alf (1986), died following a stroke, on June 12, 2016. Standing at 2 feet, 9 inches, he was well-known in the skills of juggling, acrobatics and pantomime in Hungary, and brought to the United States in 1973. He was a performer formerly known as “Michu, the smallest man in the world," as a member of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Besides ALF, Meszaros played Hans in Waxwork (1988), Andy in Big Top Pee-Wee (1988), Augusto in Warlock: The Armageddon (1993), and Leprechaun in Death to Cupid (2015).

KENNY BAKER

Kenny Baker, the British actor who gave life to the droid R2-D2 in the Star Wars films, died at the age of 81, on Saturday, August 13, 2016. He had been ill for years, with a lung condition. Baker, who was 3 feet, 8 inches, told his family he did not expect to live past his teen years because he was a "little person," so "it is amazing he lived this long," said his niece.

Up until his final moments, Baker was in good spirits and was watching the Olympics on television.

 
Besides appearing as R2-D2 in ten Star Wars and aligned films, Baker was in many movies, including Circus of Horrors (1960), Flash Gordon (1980), The Elephant Man (1980), Time Bandits (1980), Amadeus (1984), Labyrinth (1986), Willow (1988), and U.F.O. (1993).

MARTIN HENDERSON

A dwarf, who shot to fame in 2011 after being cruelly tossed by a rugby fan in a bar, died earlier in 2016, according to media reports of December 19, 2016. The 4 ft, 2 inches tall Martin Henderson, 42, who played a goblin in Harry Potter, was left with serious injuries following the incident, while he was out celebrating his 37th birthday.

The attack was blamed on the notorious antics of the England rugby team. It came one month after star Mike Tindall and several of his teammates admitted attending a "dwarf tossing" event in a New Zealand bar.

Henderson’s story went worldwide and his name trended on Twitter after Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage asked fans to Google him during his Golden Globes victory speech in January 2012. Drinklage said: “I want to mention a gentleman I’m thinking about in England, his name is Martin Henderson. Google him.”

MICHAEL J. ANDERSON

The actor Michael J. Anderson did not die in 2016. But some are saying he performed professional suicide with this claims against David Lynch.

The Year 2017 may be personified by the broadcast of Twin Peaks. Has Michael J. Anderson's Hollywood self-destruction late in 2016 already spelled the vanishing of "The Man from Another Place" in the revival of the series?

On August 10, 2016, as one online journal wrote:

In an astonishing online attack, Twin Peaks cult actor Michael J. Anderson has unleashed a disturbing barrage of hate-filled vitriol on esteemed filmmaker David Lynch’s reputation. The ‘revelations’ were posted up by ‘Little Mike’ on his Facebook profile photo.
It reads: “He totally did NOT rape his own under-age daughter and then write a television series about it. She totally has NOT lived under a DEATH THREAT from her own father, all her life if she ever told. He NEVER had his “best friend” murdered. And he DEFINITELY NEVER suggested to me that I should kill myself! There’s a whole bunch of other stuff he never did either.”

Whom did I miss?

Real Animal Attacks 2015!

CBS's Zoo television series began June 30, 2015. 

It is almost as if the program saw into the future.

Discovery's Shark Week, the real kind, apparently already began.

There is something going on with the animals. There have been recent attacks by sharks, alligators, sturgeon, lion, tiger, and leopard. Despite the warning signs, in some cases, the humans ventured forth into these encounters.


Sharks

An increase of shark attacks, especially along the Carolina coasts, during the summer of 2015 has not gone unnoticed. The number is large enough for sharks to become a media story. Last time this happened? In which sharks became a media focus? 2001.

The most recent attack was ironic because it was against a past member of the media.

A former editor-in-chief at The Boston Herald suffered serious injuries after he dramatically tried to fight off a 7-foot shark Wednesday [July 1, 2015] off the coast of North Carolina.
Andrew F. Costello reportedly came face-to-face with the monster while vacationing with his family at the coastal town of Ocracoke.
Costello, 68, was swimming with his son around noon when the attack occurred.
"I could see from where I was standing that he had a big baseball-sized chunk of flesh taken off of his leg right above his knee and there was a lot of blood everywhere," Jackson Fuqua, 15, who witnessed the attack, told The Boston Herald.
“I saw a big trail of blood from the water to where the man was laying down on a beach towel. There were a lot of EMS workers all around him and they were frantically trying to help him and work to close the wounds he had,” Fuqua told the paper.
Costello suffered wounds to his ribcage, lower leg, hip and hands, according to the paper. He is reportedly in fair condition at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.

The synchromystic world actually started talking about the "shark imagery" back in February 2015.

Credit: Keys to Cosmic Doorways.

In 2015, on the Sunday after July 4th, it becomes "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel. 

Few remember that during 2001, the "Summer of the Shark" began on the 4th of July.

Shark attacks generally get more attention by the media than most news. Except for mass shootings, school shootings, workplace violence, and terrorist attacks.

Time Magazine in 2001 acknowledged it was “The Summer of the Shark,” even though statistically, there were less attacks than in some other years.

Alligators

But there was something more sinister waiting in the wings - 9/11, of course. First, however, another animal got the headlines; the "Summer of the Gator" happened too in 2001.

In my twilight language book, The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004), I noted the unfolding of the "if it bleeds, it leads" focus on shark and alligator attacks. The media, almost completely, forgot about animal encounters after the Twin Towers came down. Terrorism and war were the new wall-to-wall coverage for months.

The news for 2015 is now shifting to alligator attacks too.

Word reached me from the director of Southern Fried Bigfoot that a violent encounter with an alligator occurred on June 28, 2015, at Charlotte Lake, Cedar Hill Park, Wallisville, Texas. A 13-year-old boy, Kaleb, was swimming near the shore when bitten in the arm and leg by an alligator. The gator also began to pull him under the water. Kaleb's father, James Hurley, jumped in the water, kicked the alligator off his son, and pulled Kaleb to safety. Both Kaleb and James Hurley are recovering at the hospital. Source.

Seventy-five miles away, also in Texas, there was an alligator fatality early Friday morning, July 3, 2015.

Tommie Woodward, 28, (pictured above, from his Facebook page) suffered severe trauma to a limb when he was attacked early Friday morning at the private marina, which is along a bayou extending from the Sabine River near the Louisiana line, Orange, Texas, police Captain Robert Enmon reported. The alligator was estimated to be 11 feet long.

The owners of the marina recently had spotted a large alligator on a few occasions, and put up a sign warning people to stay out of the water, police said. Woodward reportedly when told this, yelled out "F*ck the alligators," and jumped in.

According to the Beaumont Enterprise, the incident was the first fatal attack by an alligator in Texas in about 200 years.

Cody

Then on Saturday, July 4, 2015, an 8-foot alligator grabbed Mike Karris' 11-year-old dachshund, Cody, at the boat ramp in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Karris and his girlfriend were unable to rescue their dog. The last attack on a dog was more than 15 years ago. Source.

Sturgeon

There's also a problem with leaping sturgeon. In Florida, boaters are infrequently, but routinely hurt by sturgeon jumping from rivers and colliding into people in boats.

On May 23, 2015, on the Santa Fe River, a sturgeon crashed through a boat windshield, injuring the driver of a boat. Early in June 2015, a sturgeon in the Suwanee River in Manatee Springs State Park jumped into a boat with 14-year-old Heavyn Nash and knocked her unconscious. Nash was fishing with her mother and grandfather when the 4- to 6-foot fish decided to join them.

A jumping sturgeon on the Suwannee River. Florida Fish and Wildlife

Then on July 2, 2015, a fatality took place. A 5-year-old girl was killed after a sturgeon leaped out of a northern Florida river and struck her while she was boating with her family, state wildlife officials said. Jaylon Rippy died after getting hit by the fish on the Suwannee River, south of Lake City, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement posted on the Suwannee Democrat Bulletin. Her mother, Tanya Faye Rippy, and 9-year-old brother, Trevor Rippy, were injured by the sturgeon, as well.

On Friday, July 3, 2015, two adults traveling in a boat on the Santa Fe River between the Suwannee River and a Branford area campground were also struck by a leaping sturgeon, Fish and Wildlife Commission officials said in a statement.

Lion, Tiger, and Leopard

Big cats have been in the news too.

The lion that would kill was photographed moments before the attack, by another tourist (above) and by the victim (below).

On June 1, 2015, New Yorker Katherine Chappell, 29, was killed by a lion when she rolled her window down to take photographs. This occurred at the Lion Park, near Johannesburg, South Africa that had clear signs warning its visitors.

Clear signs prohibiting open windows are found at the park.

Chappell was as an Emmy-award-winning visual-effects artist on HBO’s Game of Thrones. She also had worked on Captain America and Godzilla.

The white tiger at the zoo before its escape.

An escaped zoo white tiger killed a 43-year-old warehouse worker on June 17, 2015. Police then shot and killed the white tiger in Tbilisi, Georgia. Severe flooding allowed hundreds of wild animals to escape the city zoo in this country that was part of the former Soviet Union. The tiger attack happened at a warehouse in the city center. The animal had been unaccounted for since the weekend floods destroyed the zoo premises. Doctors said the man was attacked in the throat and died before reaching the hospital. Source.

A leopard attack on July 2, 2015, also occurred in South Africa. A guide at South Africa's most famous national park, Kruger National Park, survived a leopard attack after a tourist scared the animal away with his car.

The incident occurred Thursday afternoon at the wild animal game park as the guide drove an Open Safari Vehicle (OSV) past some leopards. One of the leopards was the vehicle's group of people lost sight of it. The leopard had gone around to the driver's side and jumped at the guide, clamping down on his arm.
"Everybody in the OSV started hitting the leopard with any object they had with them," the park said.
A tourist driving another vehicle raced over and used the truck to scare away the leopard.
"We would like to thank the tourist from another vehicle for his quick and decisive action as he saved the guide and tourists' lives," park general manager William Mabasa said in the statement.
The guide was treated for his injuries. Source.

What's next?