Seriously? OMG! WTF?

The delayed plans to send Vancouver-born actor James Doohan’s ashes to space are back on track again, with a launch date set for this fall. Doohan, who played chief engineer Scotty on the original Star Trek TV series, died July 20, 2005, at age 85. Plans were made to send some of his ashes into space this year – it was one of his last requests – but a fire aboard a rocket in March resulted in a delay of the launch. Space Services Inc., a private Houston company, now plans the launch for Oct. 21, spokesperson Susan Schonfeld said Monday. Also on the flight will be ashes of former NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper. And there is plenty of room, so Space Services is taking reservations for other ashes as well, Schonfeld said. "He was such a beloved character that everybody wants to be on this particular launch with Scotty," she said, explaining what she said is a strong demand. "(People) want to make sure that their loved one is with Scotty." The company offers a price structure with various options, including $495 US for one gram of ashes. The company says it pioneered "post-cremation memorial spaceflights" with the launch of remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and ’60s pop icon Timothy Leary into space in 1997.

Jam! Showbiz 

Jack Warden, an Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor who played gruff cops, coaches and soldiers in a career that spanned five decades, has died. He was 85.Warden, who lived in Manhattan, died Wednesday at a hospital in New York, Sidney Pazoff, his longtime business manager, said in Los Angeles Friday."Everything gave out. Old age," Pazoff said. "He really had turned downhill in the past month; heart and then kidney and then all kinds of stuff."Warden was nominated twice for supporting-actor Oscars — for the 1975 movie "Shampoo" and in 1978’s "Heaven Can Wait."He won a supporting actor Emmy for his role as a coach in the 1971 made-for-TV movie "Brian’s Song" and was twice nominated in the 1980s for leading actor in a comedy for his show "Crazy Like a Fox."

KNBC 

Red Buttons, the carrot-topped burlesque comedian who became a top star in early television, died Thursday in Los Angeles, according to a spokesman.He was 87.Buttons died of vascular disease at his home in the Century City area of Los Angeles. The spokesman, Warren Cowan, said Buttons had been ill for some time, and was with family members when he died.Although he was mainly known for his comedy, Buttons won an Oscar for a dramatic role in 1957, for Best Supporting Actor in "Sayonara."

WKMG (Thanks Denise)

It is a sad sad day in Hollywood today. As yet another one of the comedic greats from yesteryear is no longer with us.  

Kasey Rogers, an actress who was a regular on television shows like "Bewitched" but was best known for an appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s "Strangers on a Train," has died. She was 80.Rogers died July 6 at USC University Hospital from a stroke, said her companion, Mark Wood.Using the name Laura Elliott, Rogers played Farley Granger’s estranged wife, Miriam, who is strangled by the psychotic character in "Strangers on a Train.""For decades, no one realized Laura Elliott and Kasey Rogers were the same woman," Wood told The Los Angeles Times. "All of a sudden, Hitchcock fans were coming out of the woodwork. They wanted to know what happened to Laura Elliott."Born Imogene Rogers on Dec. 15, 1925, in Morehouse, Mo., Rogers moved with her family to Burbank as a child. She earned the nickname Casey, a reference to "Casey at the bat," because of her hitting prowess in grade-school baseball. Later she changed the C to a K. Twice married and divorced, Rogers is survived by her brother, four children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.A funeral will be held Friday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in the Hollywood Hills.

Celebrity Death Beeper 

Pink Floyd legend Syd Barrett has died at his Cambridgeshire home.
The singer, 60, who suffered from an LSD-induced breakdown while at the peak of his career in the Sixties, died last Friday (July 7) from complications related to diabetes.
His brother Alan confirmed his death today (July 11), telling The Guardian: "He died peacefully at home. There will be a private family funeral in the next few days."
A spokeswoman for Pink Floyd has confirmed the news.
‘Syd’ Barrett was born Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge on January 6, 1946, the youngest of five children. A keen musician from an early age, he acquired the nickname which became his most prominent moniker aged 15, a reference to another Cambridge musician, also named Sid Barrett.
Barrett formed Pink Floyd along with Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright in 1965, reputedly naming the band after two blues artists, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, who had a place in his record collection.

NME 

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