Arts and Letters
Business
Irwin Molasky (age 93) - Molasky dropped out of college to work in construction in California before moving to Vegas in 1951. That's where he and three other men founded a real-estate development company. The Molasky group developed commercial and resort properties throughout the Southwest an built the first hospital in Las Vegas. Molasky was also co-founder of Lorimar Productions and was instrumental in the development of UNLV. He died July 4, 2020.
Miscellaneous
Scott Erskine (age 57 - Erskine was sentenced to death in 2003 for the killing of two boys aged nine and 13. He had already spent four years in prison during his late teens and twenties for rape and attempted rape. Court records say that, at age 10, Eskine had attempted to sodomize his six-year-old sister. He died in San Quentin prison July 3, 2020, of the COVID-19 virus.
Mary Kay Letournea (age 58) - Letourneau, a former schoolteacher, was convicted in 1997 of molesting a former student, 13-year-old Samoan-born Vili Fulaau. After serving a 3-month prison sentence and being paroled, she was caught with Fulaau again. Two daughters resulted from their... mating, the second of whom was born in prison. After her release in 2005, she married Fulaau. Letournau died of colon cancer July 6, 2020.
Reckful (age 31) - Byron Bernstein, aka "Reckful," was a Twitch streamer and a professional eSports player best known as a master of World of Warcraft. He was also a low-level professional poker player. Like his older brother before him, the Israeli-American Bernstein committed suicide, dying July 2, 2020.
Rubble (age 32) - Rubble, a resident of Exeter in England, was born May 5, 1988. That wouldn't be so interesting if he were human, but Rubble was a domestic feline; certified by Guinness as the oldest living cat. The Maine coon cat's death was announced July 3, 2020.
Movies, Television, and Stage
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Hugh Downs (age 99) - Downs began his career so long ago that he started in radio, an announcer at a staion in Lima, Ohio (home of the "Glee" kids). His first TV appearance was in - get this - 1945. He hosted the game show "Concentration, announced from a variety of shows, and hosted "Good Morning America for almost a decade. At one time he held the record for most hours appearing on television. Downs died July 1, 2020. |
Brndis Kemp (76) - Kemp was a character actress in films and television in addition to her stage appearances. Her longest-running roles were the part of Alma on "AfterMASH" and as a member of the ensemble cast on ABC's version of SNL, "Fridays." She made multiple guest appearances as well, and had small parts in many films. Kemp succumbed to COVID-19 and brain cancer on July 4, 2020.
| Kevin Rafferty (age 73) - Rafferty was a cinematographer and director of documentary films, among them The Atomic Cafe (1992) and Blood in the Face (1991). Michael Moore credits Rafferty with teaching him the art of documentary during the filming of Roger and Me, for which Rafferty was cinematographer. Strangely enough, he was a cousin of President George W. Bush. Rafferty died of cancer July 2, 2020. |  |
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Naya Rivera (age 33) - Rivera was an actress and singer, best-known for her role as snarky cheerleader Santana Lopez in the television series "Glee," although she also had a role in the show "The Royal Family" as a pre-teen. After the show closed, she had a brief career as a singer. Rivera was reported missing from a boat in Ventura County, California, on July 8, 2020. Her body was located July 13; her death ruled an accidental drowning. |
Music
| Charlie Daniels (age 83) - Daniels was an Country and Western artist whose blockbuster crossover hit, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," made him a household name in 1979 and won him a Grammy Award. He made multiple appearances in films as himself, and also appears on a number of record albums from the 1960s and 70s as a sideman. Daniels was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame. He died July 6, 2020, after a stroke. |  |
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Ennio Morricone (age 91) - Morricone was a composer and conductor, best known in the US for his film and television scores. He collaborated with director Sergio Leonoe on a fistful of "spaghetti westerns" before he was picked up by Hollywood. Among his dozens of American film scores are those for Brian De Palma's The Untouchables and Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. His works collected Oscar and Grammy nomnations like kids collect rocks. He died after a fall on July 6, 2020. |
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Joe Porcaro (age 90) - Porcaro, a jazz drummer, compiled a long list of appearances as a sideman with such acts as Rosemary Clooney, Gerry Mullligan, Richard Marx, and Harry Connick Jr. He may have been most proud of his appearances with the band Toto, founded by his sons Jeff, Mike, and Steve. His work appears on the soundtrack of Enter the Dragon due to collaboration with Lalo Schifrin. Porcaro died July 5, 2020. |
Politics
Amadou Gon Coulibaly (age 61) - Coulibaly was the sitting Prime Minister of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) at the time of his death, a position he had held since being chosen in 2017. At the time of his death, he was front-runner in his country's 2020 presidential election. He had previously served as secretary general in the administration of the previous President, Alassane Ouattara. Coulibaly, who had undergone heart surgery in 2012, became ill and died July 8, 2020.
Jay Severin (age 69) - Severin parlayed a twenty-year career as a Republican political consultant into a gig as a conservative AM radio talk-show host on Boston and New York stations. He was fired in Boston for a history racist statements about Muslims and Latinos and sexual innuendo about co-workers. He later spent four years as a commentator on Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" network. Severin died July 7, 2020, after a massive stroke.
Sports
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Mike Ryan (age 78) - Ryan was a light-hitting (lifetime .193) catcher who spent eleven seasons in the bigs with Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. He is distinguished mainly for having the second-lowest career batting average in MLB history, hanging on on the strength of his defensive skill. After retiring in 1974, he coached at the minor league level and spent fifteen years as a coach with the Phillies. Ryan died July 7, 2020. |
Tommy Vaughan (age 77) - Vaughan spent seven seasons in the NFL, all of them with the Detroit Lions. He was drafted in 1965 and retired in 1971 after a head injury. Vaughan started more than sixty games at free safety and was a punt and kickoff returner. After retiring, he was an assistant coach for several colleges. Vaughan died July 4, 2020,
