Christopher Hitchens dies at 62 after suffering cancer

BBC News – Christopher Hitchens dies at 62 after suffering cancer

British-born author, literary critic and journalist Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62.

He died from pneumonia, a complication of the oesophageal cancer he had , at a Texas hospital.

Vanity Fair magazine, which announced his death, said there would “never be another like Christopher”.

He is survived by his wife, Carol Blue, and their daughter, Antonia, and his children from a previous marriage, Alexander and Sophia.

Poor old Hitch.

I’ll be honest — I never liked him as an individual, but I always respected his skills as an orator and polemicist. His bravery in the face of his terminal illness is an example to us all, as was his unwillingness to bow down in the face of the smugness of god-botherers; I can imagine him spitting vitriol at anyone who waved a Bible and asked if he was ready to reconsider. We shan’t see his like again.

Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!

I watch a lot of zombie movies. I like them, and the genre dovetails nicely with my like of vampire and other monster movies.

Jaws star Roy Scheider dies at 75

US actor Roy Scheider, best known for playing the police chief in the Jaws movies, has died at the age of 75.

As well as starring in the first two shark thrillers, Scheider received two Oscar nominations during his career.

He was up for best supporting actor for The French Connection in 1972 and best actor for 1979’s All That Jazz.

He died in hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas. He had been treated there for multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cell, for the past two years.

He is to be buried at sea, inside a shark. OK, I made that bit up.

I liked Roy Scheider, mainly because I knew nothing about his private life.