RIP – JEREMY DOYLE

EXPIRED: 12/19/11 -  Jeremy Doyle, 28, became a paraplegic at the age of 4 when he was run over by a car.  That didn’t stop him though. At 24, Doyle played in Australia’s National Wheelchair Basketball League. A year later, he joined the Australia men’s national wheelchair basketball team, making his debut at the 2009 Paralympic World Cup. There, and at the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship, Doyle helped his team win gold medals. He was chosen to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and was training for that event.

Doyle had been diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2010 and beaten it but a scan in August of 2010 showed it had spread. By that time he had met the girl of his dreams, Melanie Carr. The two of them had met online in April and in person in May. They spent the summer planning their future together when doctors told him the terminal had returned with a vengeance. They gave him three to 12 months to live.

On December 2nd they became man and wife. They barely had two weeks together before Melanie became a widow.

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RIP – WYATT KNIGHT

EXPIRED: 10/29/11 - Wyatt Knight, 56, went from being an actor with a ton of promise to a baby wrangler, a stunt man and an extra on a lot of Hollywood movies no-one has ever heard of. But that’s okay, because he had a blessed life with a great set of kids and a wonderful wife. Unfortunately the actor, who came to fame as the star of the  the 1980s “Porky’s” films, also had non-Hodgkin lymphoma. And the emotional and physical pain became too much to bear.

So the actor who portrayed bad boy Tommy Turner in “Porky,” and it’s sequels “Porky’s II: The Next Day” and “Porky’s Revenge,” left Los Angeles for beautiful and serene Kula, Hawaii and took a gun to his head to end his suffering.

What an awful way to go.

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RIP – ANDY WHITFIELD

EXPIRED: 09/11/11 – Andy Whitfield, 39, was born in Wales and moved to Australia in 1999. He had appeared in a few Australian TV shows like “Packed to the Rafters” and “McLeod’s Daughters” when a casting agency noticed the buff actor and imagined him saying “I AM SPARTACUS!”

Virtually unknown at the time, Whitfield took the role of the Thracian slave, a role made famous by Kirk Douglas in the 1960 Stanley Kubrick film, and breathed new life into it. It also breathed new life in the cable station, Starz, which filled the show, now called “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” with graphic violence and sexual scenes. After the first season ended last year, Whitfield returned to Australian to rest before the grueling shooting schedule for the next season began. It was during this time that he was diagnosed with cancer.

While waiting for Whitfield to get treatment and recover, Starz produced a 6-part prequel, “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena,” that aired in spring of 2011 with only a brief voiceover from the actor.

But in January, they decided they could wait no longer and filled the role of Spartacus with Liam McIntyre, another Australian actor.

Whitfield died in the arms of his wife, Vashti, just 18 months after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

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RIP – LAURA ZISKIN

EXPIRED: 06/12/11 -  Laura Ziskin, 61, was one of the most successful female film producers in Hollywood history, having shaped Pretty Woman, Fight Club & the Spider-Man franchise. While fighting a 7 yr battle with breast cancer she co-founded Stand Up To Cancer & produced 2 of its telecasts herself. Just last week, she wrote a column for The Huffington Post urging cancer survivors & their loved ones to contribute to the ongoing fight against the disease.

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RIP – CATFISH COLLINS

photo by dizzy atmosphere

EXPIRED: 08/06/10 – Phelps “Catfish” Collins, 66, was the older brother of Bootsy Collins, who frequently stole the spotlight. But there was hardly a better funk guitarist than Catfish.

Known mostly for his work in P-Funk, Collins laid down memorable riffs on many influential records by Parliament, Funkadelic, and records by his brother’s troupe, Bootsy’s Rubber Band.

In 1968, the Bootsy and Catfish, Collins brothers, formed a group called The Pacemakers, along with Kash Waddy and Philippe Wynne. The band was hired by James Brown to back him up when the singer lost his regular band during salary disputes. Collins was with Brown during the recordings of “Super Bad,” “Get Up,” “Soul Power” and “Give It Up.” By 1971, the brothers quit to join joined Funkadelic, touring with the band and working on the album “America Eats Its Young.”

RIP – JO JO BILLINGSLEY

EXPIRED: 06/24/10 – Deborah Jo “JoJo” Billingsley, 58, was born Deborah Jo White was in Memphis, Tennessee, and started singing three years later, having learned the songs of the cattle workers who sang while they toiled on her daddy’s farm.

By the time she was 12 she was soloing in Church and became a star in her High School Glee Club.

Pretty innocent training for a girl who, upon graduation, was going to see an entirely different way of life.

When Billingsley was 17, her father died, and it became necessary for her to find a job to support the family. She auditioned for a local band called Oil Can Harry, who ended up touring the world: 15 countries in 11 weeks. Pretty crazy stuff for a kid from Tennessee.

After little more than a year with the band she was asked to audition for Lynyrd Skynyrd who were looking for female backup singers. The audition went something like this. Skynyrd leader, Ronnie Van Zant, was sitting in a chair, backstage after a show wearing his standard black Stetson over his eyes. He pushed the hat up, looked at Billingsley and said, “She’ll do just fine.”

She joined the group on that night in 1975.

RIP – JOHN ANCZARSKI

EXPIRED: 06/23/10 – John Anczarski, 19, could have driven across the United States if he had wanted to, but then he wouldn’t have met so many people, or touched so many lives or raised as much cash for Breast Cancer awareness.

So he chose to bike across the country instead.

John Anczarski, was the youngest of a foursome who rode for a project they called the called ‘The Pink Pedal.” They included Ty Bereskie, 20, and Travis Brown and Nicholas Gober, both 21. Four college kids hoping to see a little part of the world, meet some interesting people, get some exercize and raise awareness, and money for Breast Cancer research.

RIP – STEVE NEW

EXPIRED: 05/24/10 – Steve New, 50, just celebrated his birthday a week and some days ago, and since he knew it was probably going to be his last, made sure it was shared many friends and family.

New was a well loved and, although not hugely famous, pretty important musical link in the 70′s and 80′s British punk and New Wave scene. A guitarist & vocalist, he had played with the London Jazz Orchestra at the age of 14 but was asked to audition for the Sex Pistols as a second guitarist alongside Steve Jones when he was just 15 years old.

When Pistols’ original bass player Glenn Matlock was kicked out of the band and replaced by Sid Vicious, he invited New to join his new group Rich Kids alongside Rusty Egan and former Slik singer Midge Ure.  The Clash’s Mick Jones was in the band for a short time too.