Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics History Roundtable The Passing Parade: Obituaries: 2017

I think they liked him in France because he portrayed their image of how stupid Americans were

Former world featherweight champion Sugar Ramos, real name Ultiminio Ramos, has died at the age of 75 after a long fight from cancer.

One of the first victims of the professional boxing ban in Cuba, Ramos moved to Mexico – where he later became an idol – to escape the communist regime of Fidel Castro in 1961. Two years later he challenged Davey Moore for the WBA and WBC featherweight titles, and it is the tragic outcome of that bout that became Ramos’ unwanted claim to fame.

Gene Michael, a Yankee for nearly a half-century, rising from sure-handed shortstop to general manager and building teams that won four World Series championships, died on Thursday. He was 79.

The Yankees reported his death on its website, saying the cause was a heart attack. It did not say where he died.

For much of Michael’s time with the Yankees, George Steinbrenner ran a revolving door that sent players, coaches, managers and front-office personnel spinning in and out of Yankee Stadium. Michael was fired a couple of times, then hired back.

Joe DeNucci, a former world class middleweight boxing contender who became a politician and the longest-serving state auditor in Massachusetts history, has died at age 78.

DeNucci, who had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, died Friday at his home in Newton, where his death was confirmed by the Andrew J. Magni & Son Funeral Home.

In his boxing days he fought quality opponents including Emile Griffith, a world champion in multiple weight classes, before turning to the equally rough-and-tumble world of state politics. As a Democrat, he served as a state representative and later held the office of state auditor for 24 years.

Science fiction author Jerry Pournelle passed away earlier this week after a sudden illness at the age of 84. He helped popularize the military science fiction genre with novels such as Janissaries and The Mercenary, but is also credited with a major milestone: the first author to write a novel entirely on a computer.

Pournelle wrote on his blog on Thursday that he had come down with a cold and the flu while attending DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia, and his son Alex confirmed his passing last night, (via File770) saying that he didn’t suffer. Steven Barnes, with whom Pournelle collaborated on several novels, told me in an email that “he was an absolute original, one of the best and smartest men I’ve ever known.”

Born in 1933, Pournelle served in the US Army during the Korean War, and later earned his doctorate in political science. He ended up in the defense industry, working for Boeing and NASA where he worked on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. He also wrote science fiction on the side, publishing his first short story in Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact in 1971.

Otto Wanz, the most famous wrestler in Germany and Austria during the 70s and 80s, passed away Thursday morning from what was described as a short but heavy illness. He was 74.

Wanz, a powerhouse at 6-foot-2 and 380 pounds, would be best known in the United States for his run as AWA Champion in 1982. Wanz had been champion of his own Catch Wrestling Association, but was largely unknown outside of Germany and Austria. He defeated Nick Bockwinkel for the title on August 29th, 1982, in St. Paul in a match that caused lingering hard feelings between Bockwinkel and longtime manager Bobby Heenan, because Bockwinkel never told Heenan that the title was changing hands ahead of time.

Harry Dean Stanton, the gaunt, hollow-eyed, scene-stealing character actor who broke out of obscurity in his late 50s in two starring movie roles and capped his career with an acclaimed characterization as a corrupt polygamist on the HBO series “Big Love,” died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 91.

His death, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was confirmed by his agent, John S. Kelly.

Mr. Stanton spent two decades typecast in Hollywood as cowboys and villains before his unusual talents began to attract notice on the strength of his performances in the movies “Straight Time” (1978); “Alien,” “Wise Blood” and “The Rose” (all 1979); and “Escape From New York” (1981).

In those roles — as a former criminal bored in the law-abiding world, a 22nd-century space traveler, a street preacher pretending to be blind, a devastatingly cruel country-music star and a crazed demolitions expert — his look and his down-home voice were the same, but his characters were distinct and memorable.