Legendary Isaac Hayes, icon of soul and funk and innovative composer whose trailblazing work spanned decades, from his Grammy Award and Academy Award winning “Theme from Shaft” to his resurgence on “South Park” as Chef has died at 65.

Isaac Hayes, the singer and songwriter whose luxurious, strutting funk arrangements in songs like “Theme From ‘Shaft’ ” defined the glories and excesses of soul music in the early 1970s, died on Sunday in East Memphis, Tenn. He was 65.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said that Mr. Hayes’s wife, Adjowa, found him collapsed near a treadmill at their home in Cordova, an eastern suburb of Memphis, and he was pronounced dead an hour later. The cause of death was not known.

With his lascivious bass-baritone and flamboyant wardrobe, Mr. Hayes developed a musical persona that was an embodiment of the hyper-masculine, street-savvy characters of the so-called blaxploitation films of the era. In his theme song to Gordon Parks’s “Shaft” from 1971, the title character is summed up in a line that has become a classic of kitsch: “Who’s a black private dick/Who’s a sex machine to all the chicks?”

(Furthermore: “He’s a complicated man/But no one understands him but his woman.”)

The “Shaft” theme won an Academy Award and has become one of his best-known songs. But Mr. Hayes’s career stretched far beyond soundtracks. For much of the 1960s and into the ’70s he was one of the principal songwriters and performers for Stax Records, the trailblazing Memphis R&B label, and in the 1990s he revived his career by providing the voice for the amorous and wise Chef on the cable television show “South Park.”

Photo credit: 60 Cycle Media

Isaac Hayes was born Aug. 20, 1942, in a tin shack in rural Covington, Tenn., to a mother who died early and a father who left home. He was raised largely by his grandparents, and worked in cotton fields while going to school. He began playing in local bands, and by early 1964, when he was 21, he was working as a backup musician for Stax. His first session was with Otis Redding.

Soon he began writing songs with David Porter, and their music — numbers like “Soul Man” and Hold On, I’m Comin’ ” for Sam and Dave, and “B-A-B-Y” for Carla Thomas — came to embody the Stax aesthetic. It was tight, catchy pop, but full of sweat and grit, a proudly unpolished Southern alternative to Motown.

Source: Isaac Hayes, Singer-Songwriter Who Defined ’70s Soul, Is Dead at 65

Isaac Hayes in 1999 (Photo credit: Julie Kremen/Tunes.com Inc.)

Hayes also pursued an acting career, with cameos in several movies including Escape from New York, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and the blaxploitation spoof I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.

In the 1990s Hayes reached a new generation as Chef. Two years ago, however, he left the show after an episode that he felt made fun of the Scientology movement, of which he was a member.

“There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins,” he said.

There was subsequent dispute about the origin of the statement. Hayes suffered a stroke in early 2006, and it has been reported that this was the reason he left the show.

An appearance on a TV talk show in April this year appeared to suggest that Hayes was suffering from the side-effects of a stroke.

Isaac Hayes performing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an inductee in 2002. (Photo credit: G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times)

However, he continued to lead an active life, spearheading a campaign for the Memphis Heart Clinic which was due to start on Friday.

He established the Isaac Hayes Foundation in 1993 to do philanthropic work in Africa, and was subsequently crowned king of a small community in Ghana.

A businessman who owned two restaurants and wrote a best-selling cook book, Hayes was married four times and had 12 children.

Source: Isaac Hayes, soul singer who defined black urban cool, dies at 65

Top Photo: Issac Hayes, 1970s (Photo credit: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)

See also:

• Isaac Hayes: Life in Pictures 
• The Many Lives of Isaac Hayes
• Isaac Hayes (Rolling Stone)

Isaac Hayes performing “Theme from Shaft”

Isaac Hayes - Shaft - live performance 1973

“Shaft” (1971) opening scene

Isaac Hayes Performing Burt Bucharach’s & Hal David’s “Walk On By (Single Version)” at Music Scene 1969. Dionne Warwick Cover



Isaac Hayes -” The look of Love” (live) 1973

Isaac Hayes, Music Legend (1942-2008) - Video Tribute

Bernie Mac dead?  Previously an Internet rumor, but sadly, now a confirmed fact.  Actor and comedian Bernie Mac’s death has been confirmed by the Chicago Tribune.

Comedian and Chicago native Bernie Mac died early Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia, his publicist confirmed.

Mac, 50, had been hospitalized for about a week at Northwestern Hospital, according to his spokeswoman. A few years ago, Mac disclosed that he suffered from sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in tissue, most often in the lungs.

The comic born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough could cut an imposing figure. He stood 6-foot-3, was built like a fullback and carried himself with a bouncer’s reticence. But perhaps the strongest weapon in the Chicago comedian’s arsenal was that voice, that amalgam of thought and a delivery that could rise like a tidal wave, outpace a Gatling gun and remained, to his last days, loud and unapologetic.

He wasn’t scared, he told us time and again, to tell anyone what he thought, to say what others were afraid to say. That fearlessness wasn’t always welcome, considering Mac didn’t get his big break until his 30s. But when he did, the comic skyrocketed to success in stand-up, television and the big screen.

Mac shared screen time with some of Hollywood’s larger-than-life leading men, co-starring with Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon in the “Ocean’s 11″ remake and subsequent sequels.

Most recently, Mac garnered attention for making unsavory comments at a Barack Obama benefit that the presumptive Democratic candidate had to distance himself from.

Source: Bernie Mac dies at 50 (Chicago Tribune)

Scene from “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001) (L-R)Eddie Jemison as Livingston Dell, Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr, Carl reiner as Saul Bloom and Bernie Mac as Frank Catton. Photo credit: Bob Marshak/Warner Bros

Bernie Mac as Elston in a rare dramatic role in “Pride” (2007) Photo credit: Lionsgate Entertainment

In 2001, the Fox network took a gamble on “The Bernie Mac Show,” an unconventional family comedy in which Mr. Mac portrayed a childless married comedian who reluctantly takes in his sister’s three youngsters when she goes into a drug-treatment program.

The irascible Mr. Mac made a different kind of TV dad, “more Ike Turner than Dr. Spock,” Chris Norris wrote in a 2002 profile for The New York Times Magazine. Mr. Mac’s special style of tough love — ”I’m gonna bust your head till the white meat shows,” he warned his surly teenage niece — set the show apart from other family sitcoms and raised a few critical eyebrows. But audiences saw enough of the character’s soft center to find the show touching.

“The success of my comedy has been not being afraid to touch on subject matters or issues that everyone else is politically scared of,” Mr. Mac told The Times in 2001. “It’s a joke, believe me. I’m not trying to hurt anybody.”

Bernie Mac, Comic From TV and Film, Is Dead at 50 (New York Times obituary)

See also:

• Bernie Mac’s life, career - Photos
• Bernie Mac had sarcoidosis, but what is it?

Here is a sample of Bernie Mac’s edgy comedy; a scene from “The Original Kings of Comedy” (2000) a stand-up comedy film, directed by Spike Lee. Strong language.



Bernie Mac Dead? Bernie Mac Dies At 50, Chicago Tribune Confirms

Legendary, trailblazing comedian and cultural icon,  George Carlin, has died at 71.

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.

The cause of death was heart failure. Mr. Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, went into the hospital on Sunday afternoon after complaining of heart trouble. The comedian had worked last weekend at The Orleans in Las Vegas.

Recently, Mr. Carlin was named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was to receive the award at the Kennedy Center in November. “In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Kennedy Center chairman. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”

Jack Burns and George Carlin, late 1950s

Mr. Carlin began his standup comedy act in the late 1950s and made his first television solo guest appearance on “The Merv Griffin Show” in 1965. At that time, he was primarily known for his clever wordplay and reminiscences of his Irish working-class upbringing in New York.

But from the outset there were indications of an anti-establishment edge to his comedy. Initially, it surfaced in the witty patter of a host of offbeat characters like the wacky sportscaster Biff Barf and the hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet. “The weather was dominated by a large Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high. Tonight’s forecast . . . dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning to widely scattered light in the morning.”

Mr. Carlin released his first comedy album, “Take-Offs and Put-Ons,” to rave reviews in 1967. He also dabbled in acting, winning a recurring part as Marlo Thomas’ theatrical agent in the sitcom “That Girl” (1966-67) and a supporting role in the movie “With Six You Get Egg-Roll,” released in 1968.

By the end of the decade, he was one of America’s best known comedians. He made more than 80 major television appearances during that time, including the Ed Sullivan Show and Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show; he was also regularly featured at major nightclubs in New York and Las Vegas.

That early success and celebrity, however, was as dinky and hollow as a gratuitous pratfall to Mr. Carlin. “I was entertaining the fathers and the mothers of the people I sympathized with, and in some cases associated with, and whose point of view I shared,” he recalled later, as quoted in the book “Going Too Far” by Tony Hendra, which was published in 1987. “I was a traitor, in so many words. I was living a lie.”

In 1970, Mr. Carlin discarded his suit, tie, and clean-cut image as well as the relatively conventional material that had catapulted him to the top. Mr. Carlin reinvented himself, emerging with a beard, long hair, jeans and a routine that, according to one critic, was steeped in “drugs and bawdy language.” There was an immediate backlash. The Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas terminated his three-year contract, and, months later, he was advised to leave town when an angry mob threatened him at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club. Afterward, he temporarily abandoned the nightclub circuit and began appearing at coffee houses, folk clubs and colleges where he found a younger, hipper audience that was more attuned to both his new image and his material.

By 1972, when he released his second album, “FM & AM,” his star was again on the rise. The album, which won a Grammy Award as best comedy recording, combined older material on the “AM” side with bolder, more acerbic routines on the “FM” side. Among the more controversial cuts was a routine euphemistically entitled “Shoot,” in which Mr. Carlin explored the etymology and common usage of the popular idiom for excrement. The bit was part of the comic’s longer routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which appeared on his third album “Class Clown,” also released in 1972.

“There are some words you can say part of the time. Most of the time ‘ass’ is all right on television,” Mr. Carlin noted in his introduction to the then controversial monologue. “You can say, well, ‘You’ve made a perfect ass of yourself tonight.’ You can use ass in a religious sense, if you happen to be the redeemer riding into town on one — perfectly all right.”

The material seems innocuous by today’s standards, but it caused an uproar when broadcast on the New York radio station WBAI in the early ’70s. The station was censured and fined by the FCC. And in 1978, their ruling was supported by the Supreme Court, which Time magazine reported, “upheld an FCC ban on ‘offensive material’ during hours when children are in the audience.” Mr. Carlin refused to drop the bit and was arrested several times after reciting it on stage.

Source: George Carlin, Irreverent Comedian, Dies at 71

See also:

• George Carlin, comic in search of meaning
• Collusion of Politics and Comedy

Here are a few clips of George Carlin’s iconoclastic stand-up comedy, with unsparing language, and scathing social commentary.

George Carlin 7 Words You Can Never Say on Television

George Carlin - Religion

George Carlin on white people

George Carlin - A place for my stuff

George Carlin Airline Announcements - Part 1

George Carlin Airline Announcements - Part 2

Legendary Comedian, George Carlin, (1937-2008) - Video Tribute