newsmakers

newsmakers

Elaine Stritch, brash stage legend, dies at 89

NEW YORK

Elaine Stritch, the brash theater performer whose gravelly, gin-laced voice and impeccable comic timing made her a Broadway legend, has died. She was 89.

Joseph Rosenthal, Stritch’s longtime attorney, said the actress died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Birmingham, Mich.

Although Stritch appeared in movies and on television, garnering three Emmys and finding new fans as Alec Baldwin’s unforgiving mother on “30 Rock,” she was best known for her stage work, particularly in her candid one-woman memoir, “Elaine Stritch: At Liberty,” and in the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company.”

A tart-tongued monument to New York show-business endurance, Stritch worked well into her late 80s, most recently as Madame Armfeldt in a revival of Sondheim’s musical “A Little Night Music.” She replaced Angela Lansbury in 2010 to critical acclaim.

In 2013, Stritch — whose signature “no pants” style was wearing a loose-fitting white shirt over sheer black tights — retired to Michigan after 71 years in New York City and made a series of farewell performances at the Carlyle Hotel: “Elaine Stritch at the Carlyle: Movin’ Over and Out.”

Johnny Winter, blues legend, dies at 70

GENEVA

Texas blues legend Johnny Winter emblazoned himself into the world’s consciousness with his tattooed arms churning out lightning-fast guitar riffs and his striking, long, white hair flowing from under his cowboy hat.

His contrasting appearance and devotion to the blues pioneers of the 20th century turbo-charged a career in which he emulated and, ultimately, championed, his childhood hero Muddy Waters and other icons. Winters carved out a wide niche — and became an icon himself — starting in the late 1960s and 1970s — with a sound that blues and country singer Tracy Nelson, prominent during the same era with her band Mother Earth, described as “Texas second generation.”

Winter’s representative, Carla Parisi, confirmed Thursday that he died in a hotel room just outside Zurich a day earlier at age 70.

The cause of death was unclear, and authorities have ordered an autopsy, said Zurich police spokeswoman Cornelia Schuoler. She said investigators mainly are looking at “medical causes,” and there is no indication that anyone else was involved.

Marvel unveils black Captain America

LOS ANGELES

The new Captain America will be an African American.

Superhero Sam “The Falcon” Wilson will take over as the patriotic Avenger in an upcoming installment of the long-running comic- book series, Marvel Comics chief creative officer Joe Quesada said Wednesday during an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”

Wilson first appeared as winged superhero Falcon in 1969 and was one of the first African-American superheroes.

The change will come this November in “All-New Captain America” No. 1. The character recently was portrayed by actor Anthony Mackie in the film “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”

Associated Press