Noteworthy – Page 21

14Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Sarah Maldoror, filmmaker

Sarah Maldoror a French filmmaker of French West Indies descent died on 13 April 2020, at the age of 90, from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in France. Maldoror is best known for her feature film Sambizanga (1972) on the 1961–1974 war in Angola. Born Sarah Durados in 1929 in Condom, Gers, the daughter of emigrants from Guadeloupe, she chose her artist's name in remembrance of Les Chants de Maldoror by Lautréamont. She attended a drama school in Paris. Together with her husband, Angolan nationalist Mário Pinto de Andrade, she received a scholarship and studied film with Mark Donskoi in Moscow in 1961–62 where she met Ousmane Sembène. After her studies, Maldoror, worked as an assistant on Gillo Pontecorvo's acclaimed film, The Battle of Algiers (1966). She also worked as an as...

14Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Thomas Kunz, biologist

Thomas H. Kunz ‑ an American biologist specializing in the study of bats – died from Covid-19 on April 13, 2020. He was credited with coining the study of aeroecology; additionally, he wrote several fundamental textbooks and publications on bat ecology. Kunz grew up in Missouri. He credited his interest in biology to his fifth-grade teacher, who was passionate about silkworms. Kunz received a BA in biology in 1961 and MA in education in 1962 from the University of Central Missouri. He went on to receive another MA from Drake University in biology in 1968, and gained his PhD from the University of Kansas in systematics and ecology in 1971. Kunz taught high school in Kansas after receiving his MA in education. Kunz states that his first experience working with b...

14Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Benjamin Levin, holocaust survivor

Benjamin Levin a Jewish partisan during World War II, the last surviving member of the Avengers group led by Abba Kovner died on April 13, 2020 from COVID-19. After the war, he joined the Irgun, and was one of the surviving crew members of the Altalena ship. In 1967, he immigrated to the United States. Levin was born in Vilna, then part of the Second Polish Republic. He was the son of Chaim Levin, a local merchant and gourmet food shop owner. After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the family initially fled to the village of Michališki [be] in present-day Belarus. When it became unsafe, the family returned to Vilna and lived in Vilna Ghetto. In 1943, when he was 16 years old, Levin and his older brother Shmuel joined the Avengers (Nokmim) partisan group of...

14Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, Spain

Baldiri Alavedra, footballer

Baldiri Alavedra Pla –a Spanish professional footballer who played as a midfielder – died on 13 April 2020 at the age of 76, from coronavirus during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. Born in Gavà, Alavedra played for Condal, Sabadell, Xerez, Terrassa, Gramenet and Gavà.

14Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Gil Bailey, radio broadcaster

Gil Bailey –a pioneering Caribbean radio broadcaster, known as the “Godfather of Caribbean Radio” or "Godfather of Reggae Radio" ‑ died on 13 April 2020 from COVID-19. Bailey was born in the Airy Castle village in Jamaica's St. Thomas Parish in 1936. In 1957, at the age of 21, he moved to London, where he gained employment as MC at Count Suckle's Cue Club. In 1967 Bailey relocated to New York where he married Pat Bailey. Pat and Gil started broadcasting in 1969, leasing time on WHBI in Newark.

14Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Jerry Givens, executioner

Jerry Bronson Givens–the chief executioner of Virginia from 1982 until 1999, during which he executed 62 people, including two of the Briley Brothers – passed away after contracting Covid-19 on April 13, 2020. He spent most of his career in Virginia's correctional system, and was initially a supporter of capital punishment. However, beginning in 1999, he served four years in prison for perjury and money laundering. This experience, together with the revelation that Earl Washington Jr., whom Givens had nearly executed in 1985 before his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, was innocent, transformed Givens into an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, which he spent the rest of his life campaigning against. He died from COVID-19 during the COVID-1...

13Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Israel, Noteworthy, Profiles

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, rabbi

Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron–an Israeli rabbi who served as Rishon LeZion (Chief Rabbi of Israel) from 1993 to 2003 – passed away on April 12, 2020 after contracting the COVID-19 virus. He died in Shaare Zedek Medical Center after his condition was exacerbated by previous medical issues. Bakshi-Doron had also served as Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Bat Yam and Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Haifa. Bakshi-Doron was criticized by Haredi leaders for some of his halakhic (Jewish legal) decisions, and by the Reform movement for his position on assimilation. He was known for his promotion of interfaith dialogue and nonviolence. Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron was born in Jerusalem to Ben-Zion Bakshi-Doron, a native of the city, and Tova, an immigrant from Aleppo, Syria. He had two brothers and a sister. As a young man, E...

13Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

France, Noteworthy, Profiles

Maurice Barrier, actor & singer

Maurice Barrier– was a French actor and singer – died on 12 April 2020 after suffering from Covid-19. He was 87. Barrier was the son of a cabinetmaker, and had his first job working in his father's workshop. While in Rennes at age 28, he met several resident actors at the Théâtre National de Bretagne and made his stage debut in Caligula, written by Albert Camus. His first major role on television was in the film The Taking of Power by Louis XIV. His other major films included The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, Two Men in Town, Black and White in Color, Coup de tête, and Flic Story. He played alongside several actors, such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Pierre Richard, Gérard Depardieu, and G&eac...

13Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Canada, Noteworthy, Profiles

Claude Beauchamp, journalist

Claude Beauchamp ‑ a journalist, publisher, and political activist in the Canadian province of Quebec ‑ died on April 12, 2020 days after contracting COVID-19 and years after developing a chronic illness. Beauchamp began his career as a financial writer for La Presse and served as assistant publisher and editor-in-chief of Le Soleil in the late 1970s. He became president and general manager of Publications Les Affaires Inc. in 1980, one year after the company purchased the business journal Les Affaires. Beauchamp relaunched the journal as a tabloid and later oversaw the company's purchase of smaller, niche-oriented papers such as Quebec Construction, Revue Commerce, Quebec Yachting, VeliMag, Voile Libre, Ski Quebec, and Sports Marketing Canada. Corporate...

Joel M. Reed, film director, producer and screenwriter

13Apr

By Web TeamNo Comments

Noteworthy, Profiles, United States

Joel M. Reed, film director, producer and screenwriter

Joel M. Reed ‑ an American film director, producer and screenwriter ‑ died on April 12, 2020, aged 86, in a care facility in New York City after contracting COVID-19. Reed is best known for directing the controversial Blood Sucking Freaks (1976), a notorious horror comedy that was the subject of protests upon its initial release and has since achieved cult status. Reed also directed the films Career Bed (1968), Sex by Advertisement (1969), The G.I. Executioner (Wit's End / Dragon Lady / Wild Dragon Lady; 1971), Blood Bath (Terror / Night and the City; 1976) and Night of the Zombies (Gamma 693 / Sister of Death / Battalion of the Living Dead; 1981). Reed wrote and directed Blood Bath, which was produced by the Trans-Orient Entertainment...