Sherman Hemsley of 'The Jeffersons' dies at 74

EL PASO, Texas -- Sherman Hemsley, the actor who made the irascible, bigoted George Jefferson of "The Jeffersons" one of television's most memorable characters and a symbol for urban upward mobility, has died. He was 74.

Police in El Paso, Texas, said late Tuesday that Hemsley was found dead at a home on the eastside of the city. A statement from police said no foul play is suspected and that the exact cause of death is pending.

The Philadelphia-born Hemsley first played the blustering black Harlem businessman on CBS's "All in the Family" before he was spun off onto "The Jeffersons," which in 11 seasons from 1975 to 1985 became one of TV's most successful sitcoms -- particularly noteworthy with its mostly black cast.

With the gospel-style theme song of "Movin' On Up," the hit show depicted the wealthy former neighbours of Archie and Edith Bunker in Queens as they made their way on New York's Upper East Side. Hemsley and the Jeffersons (Isabel Sanford played his wife) often dealt with contemporary issues of racism, but more frequently reveled in the sitcom archetype of a short-tempered, opinionated patriarch trying, often unsuccessfully to control his family.

Hemsley's feisty, diminutive father with an exaggerated strut was a kind of black corollary to Archie Bunker -- a stubborn, high-strung man who had a deep dislike for whites (his favourite word for them was honkies). Yet unlike the blue-collar Bunker, played by Carroll O'Connor, he was a successful businessman whose was as rich as he was crass. His wife, Weezie, was often his foil -- yet provided plenty of zingers as well.

Despite the character's many faults -- money-driven, prejudiced, temperamental, a boar -- Hemsley managed to make the character endearing as well, part of the reason it stayed on the air for so long. Much like O'Connor's portrayal of Archie Bunker, deep down, Hemsley's Jefferson loved his family, his friends (even the ones he relentlessly teased) and had a good heart. His performance was Emmy and Golden Globe nominated.

"He was a love of a guy" and "immensely talented," said Norman Lear, producer of "The Jeffersons" and "All in the Family," after learning of his death.

"When the Jeffersons moved in next door to the Bunkers, I wanted to deliver the George Jefferson who could stand up to Archie Bunker," Lear recalled Tuesday.

"It took some weeks before I remembered having seen Sherman in 'Purlie' on Broadway."

Hemsley read for the part and "the minute he opened his mouth he was George Jefferson," Lear said. Hemsley was smaller than O'Connor's Archie but "he was every bit as strong as Archie," Lear said.

Sherman Alexander Hemsley, though, was far less feisty. The son of a printing press-working father and a factory-working mother, Hemsley served in the Air Force and worked for eight years as a clerk for the Postal Service.

Having studied acting as an adolescent at the Philadelphia Academy of Dramatic Arts, he began acting in New York workshops and theatre companies, including the Negro Ensemble Company. For years, he kept his job at the post office while acting at night, before transitioning to acting full-time.

He made his Broadway debut in 1970's "Purlie," a musical adaptation of Ossie Davis' Jim Crow-era play "Purlie Victorious." (Hemsley would later star in a 1981 made-for-TV version of "Purlie," as well.) it was while touring the show that Hemsley was approached by "All in the Family" producer Norman Lear ("Good Times," Sanford and Son") about playing a character on the sitcom that would become "All in the Family."

Hemsley joined the show in 1973, immediately catapulting himself from an obscure theatre actor to a hit character on the enormously popular show. Two years later, "The Jeffersons" was spun off. Among the numerous "All in the Family" spin-offs ("Maude," "Archie Bunker's Place, "704 Hauser"), "The Jeffersons" was the longest-running.

The character, the owner of a chain of dry-cleaning stores, was devised, Hemsley said, as "pompous and feisty."

"All of it was really hard for because -- rude, I don't like to be that way," Hemsley said in a 2003 interview for the Archive of American Television. "But it was the character, I had to do it. I had to be true to the character. If I was to pull back something, then it just wouldn't work."

After "The Jeffersons" was abruptly cancelled, Hemsley starred in the sitcom "Amen" as a fiery Philadelphia church deacon, Ernest Frye. The show latest five years, running 1986 to 1991.

Jackee Harry, a longtime friend who made appearances on the show, said she and Hemsley had planned to tour in the musical "Ain't Misbehavin'." She said they had discussed it recently and that he seemed in good health and in good spirits.

"It's a sad, sad, sad day," she said from her home in Beverly Hills.

She recalled when the two of them were on a Manhattan sidewalk during the era of "The Jeffersons," and passersby went wild.

"He got mauled and mugged," she laughed. "He said, 'What's all the screaming about?' He was so popular and he didn't even know it."

She described him as "a very private person unlike George Jefferson. But he was very kind and very sweet, and generous to a fault."

Hemsley frequently turned up as a guest on sitcoms like "Family Matters," "The Hughleys" and even, in a voice role, "Family Guy." He twice reprised George Jefferson, appearing as his famous character on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and, in 2011, on "House of Payne."

Hemsley, whose films include 1979's "Love at First Bite," 1987's "Stewardess School" and 1987's "Ghost Fever," released an album, "Ain't That a Kick in the Head, in 1989.

Via:CTVnews

British Open 2012: Ernie Els Wins As Adam Scott Falters Late

Ernie Els of South Africa plays a shot off the first tee at Royal Lytham & St Annes golf club during the third round of the British Open Golf Championship, Lytham St Annes, England, Saturday, July 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England — Ernie Els plucked the ball from the hole after one last birdie and heaved it into the grandstand. At the time, it looked like nothing more than a classy gesture by a former British Open champion – not the next one.

The name on the claret jug was supposed to be Adam Scott, who had a four-shot lead with four holes to play.

But in a shocking turnaround Sunday, Els returned to the 18th green less than an hour later to claim the oldest trophy in golf. Scott joined a list of players who threw away a major.

That was not lost on Els, whose heart sank when he looked over at the 32-year-old Australian.

"Sorry," Els told him. "You're a great player, a great friend of mine. I feel very fortunate. You're going to win many of these."

Scott might not get another chance like this.

After hitting a 3-wood into a pot bunker on the final hole, Scott had one last chance when he stood over a 7-foot par putt to force a playoff. It stayed left of the cup, and Scott dropped into a crouch. Standing off to the side, his chin quivered as the magnitude of the meltdown hit him. Instead, he mouthed one word: "Wow."

Wow, indeed.

Even though Els had gone more than two years without winning, and had thrown away two tournaments in recent months with shaky putting, the Big Easy felt all along that something special was going to happen at this British Open.

And it did – all because of a collapse by Scott that no one saw coming.

"I know I let a really great chance slip through my fingers today," Scott said.

On a wind-swept afternoon at Royal Lytham & St. Annes that blew away the hopes of Tiger Woods and a handful of others, Scott looked steady as ever by going eight straight holes without making bogey. And that's when it came undone.

"I had it in my hands with four to go," Scott said.

A bogey from the bunker on the 15th cut the lead to three. That was followed by a three-putt bogey on the 16th, where his 3-foot par putt spun in and out of the cup and made the gallery gasp. From the middle of the 17th fairway, he hit a 6-iron that turned left, ran down the slope and took one last bounce in shin-high grass.

"I thought, `Hold on. We've got a problem here,' " said Graeme McDowell, playing with Scott in the final group.

By then, Els had posted a 2-under 68 with a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole, a cheer that Scott recognized while playing the 17th. Scott failed to get up-and-down for par from the rough and suddenly was tied.

Els headed to the practice green, where it rarely works out for him. In perhaps the most crushing defeat in a career filled with them, Els was on the putting green at Augusta National in 2004 when Phil Mickelson made an 18-foot birdie putt to win the Masters.

"I just thought, `I'll probably be disappointed again,' " Els said. "You're not really hoping the guy is going to make a mistake, but you're hoping you don't have to go a playoff, you can win outright. This one was different, because I feel for Adam."

Els, who started the final round six shots behind, wound up with his second British Open – the other one was 10 years ago at Muirfield – and fourth major championship at a stage in his career when it looked as if his best golf was behind him.

"Amazing," Els said. "I'm still numb. It still hasn't set in. It will probably take quite a few days because I haven't been in this position for 10 years, obviously. So it's just crazy, crazy, crazy getting here."

The celebration was muted, unlike his other three majors.

"First of all, I feel for Adam Scott. He's a great friend of mine," Els said. "Obviously, we both wanted to win very badly. But you know, that's the nature of the beast. That's why we're out here. You win. You lose. It was my time for some reason."

The wind finally arrived off the Irish Sea and ushered in pure chaos – a mental blunder by Woods that led to triple bogey on the sixth hole, a lost ball by Brandt Snedeker that took him out of contention and a topped shot that made McDowell, a former U.S. Open champion, look like an amateur.

"I guess my disappointment kind of seems relatively stupid in relation to the guy ... I've just seen a guy lose The Open Championship," said McDowell, who played in the final group of a major for the second straight time.

Nothing was more stunning than what happened to Scott, who closed with a 75.

"I managed to hit a poor shot on each of the closing four holes," Scott said. "Look, I played so beautifully for most of the week. I shouldn't let this bring me down."

Even so, it added another chapter to Australian heartbreak, most of that belonging to his idol, Greg Norman.

Scott was the fourth Australian since the 2007 Masters to lead going into the final round of a major, yet the proud land Down Under remains without a major since Geoff Ogilvy won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2006.

"Greg was my hero when I was a kid, and I thought he was a great role model, how he handled himself in victory and defeat," Scott said. "He set a good example for us. It's tough. I can't justify anything that I've done out there. I didn't finish the tournament well today.

"But next time ... I'm sure there will be a next time and I can do a better job of it."

Already in the World Golf Hall of Fame, the 42-year-old Els joined even more elite company. He became only the sixth player to win the U.S. Open and British Open twice. The others are Jack Nicklaus, Woods, Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones and Lee Trevino.

Woods came undone on the sixth hole when he tried to blast out of a bunker from a plugged lie, stayed in the bunker, and three-putted for triple bogey. Still with an outside chance after a birdie on the 12th, he stuck with his conservative plan of hitting iron off the tee and made three straight bogeys. He closed with a 73 to tie for third with Brandt Snedeker, who also had his share of problems for a 74.

Woods had his best finish in a major since he lost to Y.E. Yang in the 2009 PGA Championship, though he remains winless in the last 17.

"It's part of golf," said Woods, who moves to No. 2 in the world. "We all go through these phases. Some people, it lasts entire careers. Others are a little bit shorter. Even the greatest players to ever play have all gone through little stretches like this."

Els finished at 7-under 273. He failed to qualify for the Masters this year for the first time in nearly two decades, but that won't be a problem now. His win gives him a five-year exemption into the majors.

It was the most shocking collapse at the British Open since Jean Van de Velde took a triple bogey on the final hole at Carnoustie and lost in a playoff. But this was different. It wasn't a last-minute blowup, more of a slow bleed, similar to Jason Dufner losing a five-shot lead to Keegan Bradley in the PGA Championship last year, or Ed Sneed making bogey on the last three holes at the 1979 Masters.

There was just enough wind to make the 206 bunkers at Royal Lytham look a little bit bigger. And as the gusts increased, a calm week turned chaotic.

It started with Woods on the sixth hole, his first triple bogey at a major championship since he lost his ball on the opening hole at Royal St. George's in 2003.

"One yard," he said to his caddie, a measure of the miss. It plugged near the steep wall of a pot bunker.

Instead of chipping to the middle of the bunker, Woods tried to get out with a ferocious swing. The ball smacked into the wall, nearly hit him and wound up near the left wall. He sat on the grass, his left knee (which has gone through four surgeries) flexed underneath him, his right leg extended as he dipped his upper body toward the sand to make a swing. This one also hit the ball, and caromed around and out to the right. From there, he three-putted for a 7.

"The game plan was to fire it into the bank, have it ricochet to the right and then have an angle to come back at it," Woods said. "Unfortunately, it ricocheted to the left and almost hit me."

Just like that, he was seven shots behind. It was the second time this year that one of golf's biggest stars made triple bogey in the final round of a major while in contention. Phil Mickelson made his on the fourth hole at the Masters and never recovered.

Els made a bogey on the ninth to fall six shots behind. All that did was fire him up, and he came home in 32. His 68 is best measured in these terms – of the last 12 players who teed off in the final round, no one else had better than a 72.

Yet there was one more collapse, in the final hour, and it was the one everyone will remember from this British Open. It's one Scott will somehow need to forget. As winner and runner-up met in a portable trailer before going out to the trophy presentation, Els told him: "Don't beat yourself up."

Via:HuffingTonPost

Gustav Klimt up close and personal on his 150th birthday

On his 150th birthday, Vienna's museums offer an intimate look at Gustav Klimt, digging beneath the layers of paint and scratching away at the artist... but not without a good dose of kitsch. (See: Gustav Klimt's 150th birth anniversary marked by Google doodle)


Over the past century, Klimt has gained worldwide recognition even beyond the art world, something Vienna has been keen to exploit with ad campaigns borrowing heavily from his famous golden paintings like "The Kiss."


His work shocked early-1900s Vienna and alternated between opulence and tormented figures.


But the 400 postcards and messages that Klimt sent his lifelong friend Emilie Floege -- on display at the Leopold Museum -- also show a whimsical, laid-back personality.


"I wanted to send you a funny card but first I have to get over the... enormous stupidity of mankind. Affectionately, Gustav," he wrote in one note.


Pictures of summer holidays show him eternally clad in a shapeless painter's smock, hair dishevelled and a mischievous smile on his lips while stroking a cat.


In his cards -- he wrote to Emilie up to eight times a day, often inane observations -- he described his breakfast or complained of a hangover or a bad cold.


Not for nothing is the exhibit titled "Klimt: Up Close and Personal": the art here takes a backseat to the man.


The Wien Museum also used the occasion to examine a "star artist whose curse is that everyone thinks they know him so well."


Proof is the multitude of kitschy souvenirs depicting "The Kiss" or other famous Klimt works on sale in Vienna and elsewhere.


Earlier this year, the museum made a call on Facebook for the "worst of the worst" and the result was some 140 objects sent from around the world, including pictures of tattoos, a toilet-seat cover and a bejeweled egg with the two figures from "The Kiss" rotating to Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love."


Alongside this however, the Wien Museum has also put its entire Klimt collection on show for the first time, including the artist's death mask, his massive painter's smock -- the last in existence -- and some 400 drawings from his beginnings in art school to his last few years.


Far from the golden spirals and arabesques of his most famous work, the rough sketches -- here a leg, there a shoulder -- provide "an insight into Klimt's development and working methods: a close-up of an artist," said museum director Wolfgang Kos.


For this 150th anniversary, Vienna's museums have been falling over themselves trying to top each other, with even the respected Belvedere -- home of "The Kiss" -- organising a "Gustav Klimt and Emilie Floege lookalike contest" on the artist's birthday on Saturday.


But those keen to focus on his art are also in luck with the Secession art gallery bringing visitors right up to Klimt's famous Beethoven frieze -- situated three to five metres (10-16.5 feet) above ground and usually seen only from below -- via a temporary platform.


The work behind the massive painting, the layers of gold leaf and paint, are meanwhile revealed in a video documenting the painstaking restoration work after the piece was severely damaged.


Born on July 14, 1862, Klimt was a key figure of Vienna's art scene during its heyday as a cultural and intellectual hub, bustling with people like Sigmund Freud, Adolf Loos, Egon Schiele and Otto Wagner.


Even long after his death in 1918, he made headlines when "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer," one of his best-known works, was at the centre of a dispute over Nazis stolen art.


With his stamp now on umbrellas, magnets and pens everywhere, "Klimt is, posthumously, one of Vienna's most effective advertising agencies," as Wien Museum director Kos puts it. 

Via: Gadgets

Talk show host Anderson Cooper: "I'm gay"

Anderson Cooper revealed on Monday that he is gay, ending years of reluctance to talk about his personal life in public.

The CNN journalist wrote in an online letter that he had kept his sexual orientation private for personal and professional reasons, but came to think that remaining silent had given some people a mistaken impression that he was ashamed.

"The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself and proud," he wrote in the letter, published by Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Beast.

Cooper, the son of Gloria Vanderbilt, had long been the subject of rumors about his sexual orientation. He said that in a perfect world, it wouldn't be anyone's business, but that there is value in "standing up and being counted."

"I still consider myself a reserved person and I hope this doesn't mean an end to a small amount of personal space," he wrote. "But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter's shield of privacy."

CNN said it would not comment, and that Cooper was on assignment and there were no plans for Cooper to discuss it on the air.

Few national television news reporters have publicly acknowledged being gay, with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and CNN's Don Lemon perhaps the best known.

Cooper's show, "Anderson Cooper 360," received an award this year from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

"Even prior to coming out publicly, Anderson's terrific work has raised awareness of inequalities facing LGBT people, said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. "He's a role model to millions and now will inspire countless others."

Via: FoxNews