RIP – AL MARTINO

EXPIRED: 10/13/09 – Al Martino, 82, enlisted in the army as teenager. Then, long after WW2 was over, he played Johnny Fontane in the 1972 movie based on Mario Puzo’s best selling crime novel, The Godfather. But he had quite a career besides that well known part.

RIP – GRIETJE JANSEN-ANKER

EXPIRED: 10/13/09 – Grietje Jansen-Anker, 112, the Netherlands’ oldest resident, lived in a Rotterdam nursing home with her daughter. As she was not in favor of exploiting her age, she barred the media from many of her birthday celebrations and wouldn’t welcome the mayor when he called on her with a birthday cake.

RIP – DANIEL MELNICK

EXPIRED: 10/13/09 – Daniel Melnick, 77, entertained us w/ Get Smart, the Flintstones, The Fugitive and Altered States. So how did he entertain himself? Playing poker w/ Steve Martin, Neil Simon, Chevy Chase & Johnny Carson of course.

In a career that spanned decades, Melnick produced both Oscar-winning prestige pictures such as Kramer vs. Kramer and Network, as well as the action movies Total Recall and The Quick and the Dead.

RIP – CULLEN BRYANT

EXPIRED: 10/13/09 – Cullen Bryant, 58, former LA Rams fullback who, at 6-foot-1, 234-pounds, was one of the NFL’s bigger running backs. His family didn’t even know he was sick and under a doctor’s care when he passed away.

In 1975, the Rams had signed former Detroit Lions receiver Ron Jessie. Under the “Rozelle Rule” on free agents, the team signing a free agent had to compensate the team that lost the player. If the teams couldn’t agree on compensation, the commissioner had the power to award either draft choices or move players. They decided to move Bryant to Detroit.