April Pop Culture RIPs, including an almost more real Jim Morrison than the real Jim Morrison

Val Kilmer leads the list of influentual figures we lost this past month. He passed away at the age of 65 from pneumonia, after battling and recovering from throat cancer over the last decade of his life. It’s tough to stomach so much mortality happening to someone who, at least in the 1991 classic biopic The Doors, was one of the seemingly more immortal modern-day actors playing that band’s lead singer Jim Morrison. The New York Times wrote that Kilmer (no relation to the famed wobble-ball-throwing quarterback of the Washington Redskins Billy Kilmer, since you were certainly wondering) “gave a vividly stylized performance as Jim Morrison … an emblem of psychedelic sensuality.” Actor Robert Downey Jr. told the newspaper: “I’m sure this can’t be news to you that he’s chronically eccentric.” Director Oliver Stone’s “outlaw” touches surely made it such a memorable film, even though it wasn’t particularly critically acclaimed at the time. I thought then and I still think Kilmer’s performance is the greatest ever of a rock star in a movie. The actor starred in multiple other fine films, including Batman Forever, Top Secret!, Top Gun and its followup Maverick.

Mike Peters has passed away from blood cancer at the age of 66. He was the lead singer for The Alarm, which could easily be grouped in the same 1980s big new-wave genre as the likes of U2 and had one of the most joyous songs of that decade, “Absolute Reality,” which hit #35 in the UK but didn’t chart at all the U.S. I was a big fan of the album Strength in my teens.

George Foreman was a two-time heavyweight boxing champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and, perhaps greatest of all, a man who knew his way around a grill. He passed away at age 76. Foreman’s most famous boxing match was his loss to Muhammad Ali in the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire, which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although even that cultural moment may not surpass the image of the retired legend selling his George Foreman Grills in those QVC-like commercials.

Richard Chamberlain is not an actor I know much about, except as a kid, one couldn’t miss those epic TV miniseries that, back then, basically everyone in the country would watch at the same time. He starred in two of the biggest ones Shogun and The Thorn Birds (although neither were as monumental as Roots). Chamberlain passed away from a stroke at the age of 90.

Clem Burke was not the drummer for Blondie in the band’s first few months, but when he took over, he remained its beatmaker for more than 50 years. The drums are definitely not the first or second thing I think of when listening to the 1980s wavers, but his steady beat helps singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein shine on classics like “Sunday Girl,” “Heart of Glass,” and “Hanging On the Telephone.” Burke passed away from cancer at age 70.

Lenny Schultz was a stand-up comedian who, if you remember his performances on shows like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, you remember. Dude was nuts. He frantically used props to make fundamental observations on life. It’s easy to see Schultz’s influence on the brilliant Robin Williams. He passed away from natural causes at age 91.

Robert McChesney was one of our leading scholars on democracy. His classic 1993 book, Telecommunications, Mass Media and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of US Broadcasting, 1928–1935, was one of my textbooks at communications grad school at Georgetown University. It “examined the broad-based movement in the 1920s and ’30s that sought to democratize radio, which was then in the hands of commercial hucksters and snake-oil salesmen” and he continued to monitor the negative effects of corporations’ ongoing efforts to control the media. McChesney passed away at age 72.

Walt Jocketty was part of the last wave (it feels so long ago) of excellent St. Louis Cardinals baseball teams. As the team’s respected general manager, he won National League championships in 2004 and 2006 and a World Series title (the team’s 10th overall) in 2006 (they won an 11th in 2011). His biggest maneuvers to bring the team that string of success were to hire legendary manager Tony La Russa and to acquire stars like Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Mark McGwire, Scott Rolen, and Adam Wainright. He passed away at age 74 after a string of health issues.

Virginia Giuffre will forever be remembered by that photo of her teenage self smiling for the camera while the much-older Prince Andrew has his arm around her waist. Turns out she was caught up in the nasty and high-powered Jeffrey Epstein sex saga. Giuffre said she was “passed around like a platter of fruit.” She committed suicide at the age of 41.

Steve McMichael was a Hall of Fame defender who starred on the classic 1980s Chicago Bears teams. While not quite at the star level of Walter Payton, Jim McMahon, and the Fridge, the New York Times noted: “McMichael reveled in an exaggerated, untamed persona. His nicknames included Ming the Merciless, after the tyrant in Flash Gordon, and Mongo, after the dimwitted ruffian who punches out a horse in the Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles.” He passed away at age 67 from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Mike Patrick is one that I was surprised by. He always seemed like the same middle-aged sportscaster and so I hadn’t realized how long he had been doing it and how much he had aged. He passed away at age 8o from heart and kidney ailments. While he called games for many other sports I like such as baseball and college basketball, I’ll remember him most alongside Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire for NFL games on Sunday nights.

David Thomas was the leader of a band, Pere Ubu, which I’ve always thought of as a more experimental Talking Heads. It has never been a go-to band for me, but I do somehow have a lot of the Cleveland group’s songs in my library. I need to give it all a deeper dive one of these days. Thomas passed away after a lengthy illness at age 71.

And of course we can’t forget Pope Francis, who passed away at age 88.