http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dick-gautier-dead-get-smart-actor-was-85-964369



Dick Gautier, who starred on Broadway in the original production of Bye, Bye Birdie and then famously played Hymie the Robot on the sitcom Get Smart, has died. He was 85.

Gautier died Friday night at an assisted living facility in Arcadia, Calif., after a long illness, his daughter Denise told The Hollywood Reporter.

Gautier, who started his career as a stand-up comic, received a Tony nomination for playing Conrad Birdie, the character based on Elvis Presley, in the memorable, original 1960 production of Bye, Bye Birdie, starring Dick Van Dyke.

The handsome actor appeared as Hymie on just six episodes of Get Smart over four seasons, yet he was one of the spy spoof's most popular characters.

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http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/obituary/7655255/magic-alex-mardas-beatles-dead



Alexis Mardas, better known to Beatles fans as "Magic Alex," has died at age 74, according to multiple news reports, including CNN Greece. He was reportedly found dead in his apartment of natural causes. News IT reported he had been dead several days before his body was found.

Mardas was probably one of the more infamous characters from the Beatles universe. John Lennon was reportedly introduced to him by Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones after Mardas created a psychedelic light box for them. He was friendly with John Dunbar, who was a friend of Paul McCartney's and the husband of Marianne Faithful before she was involved with Mick Jagger.

His strange electronic gadgets were embraced by all of the Beatles, but especially Lennon, who dubbed him "Magic Alex." Some of his ideas had foresight, like the phone that dialed by voice recognition and displayed the numbers of callers. But then there were others, like the electronic brooches that made noise and flashed in no particular order, the artificial sun using laser beams and the invisible curtain that used ultrasonic vibrations to screen the Beatles from their fans.

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Lennon thought so much of him that, according to author Philip Norman, he introduced him at a group meeting as "my new guru." His friendship with the band was also demonstrated in the fact he went on several holidays with various members of the group. When Mardas married in 1968, The Beatles attended his wedding. And when The Beatles began Apple Corps, Mardas was hired to head Apple Electronics, which author Tony Bramwell in his book Magical Mystery Tours: My Life With The Beatles called "a waste of time and money." He was also chosen to design lighting for The Beatles' newly opened Apple Boutique and reportedly tried to help them buy a Greek island.

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http://lubbockonline.com/entertainment/2017-01-11/friend-allsup-guitarist-who-toured-holly-used-life-after-coin-flip-good

Friend: Allsup, guitarist who toured with Holly, used life after coin flip ‘for good’



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Steele, who spoke with the guitarist’s wife, confirmed Allsup died Wednesday. He was 85.

“Tommy’s body may have been 85, but his hands were as young as ever, and so was his mind,” said Steele, adding he’s a longtime friend of the Holly family and an avid fan and researcher of Holly and the Crickets. “He played unbelievable. It was almost effortless, or seamless.”

Allsup outlived Holly, teenage singer Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, who all died Feb. 3, 1959, when the plane they were travelling in after a show crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa.

Holly initially offered members of his touring band, including Allsup, a spot on the four-seater aircraft he chartered after a Winter Dance Party tour across the Midwest, according to A-J Media archives.

Bob Hale, a disc jockey at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, told reporters he flipped the coin that decided whether Allsup or Valens would have the last seat.

It was Allsup who pulled out a 50-cent piece and flipped it.

He lost the coin flip and was asked decades later by music historian Bill Griggs what happened to the coin. Allsup said that he kept it.

“It saved my life,” Allsup told Griggs.

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