Obituary - Current Affairs for September, 2016

Nobel prize winning visionary Shimon Peres pushed his country towards peace through the Israeli accord.

• The former Israeli President and Prime Minister whose life story mirrored that of the Jewish state passed away on 28th Sept 2016
• He was 93 at the time of his death following a stroke
• He had a 70 year long political career and his public life was credited with leading Israel through its most defining moments.
• He disentangled troops from Lebanon and rescued the economy from triple digit inflation in the 1980s
• He also was a protege of Israeli founding father David Ben Gurion
• He was first elected to the Parliament in 1959 and held every major Cabinet post including defence, finance and foreign affairs
• He also held three brief stints as the PM
• His key role in the first Israel Palestine peace accord earned him a Nobel Prize.
• Shimon Peres was born on Aug. 2, 1923, in Vishneva, then part of Poland. He moved to pre-state Palestine in 1934 with his immediate family.
• Rising quickly through Labour Party ranks, he became a top aide to Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister and a man Peres once called “the greatest Jew of our time.”
• At 29, he was the youngest person to serve as director of Israel’s Defence Ministry, and is credited with arming Israel’s military almost from scratch.
• He authored as many as 10 books

• Arnold Palmer was the golfing great adored by fans called Arnie’s Army
• He died on 25th Sept at the age of 87 according to the US Golf Association
• Palmer captured seven major tournaments during his illustrious career, taking The Masters four times (in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1964), the British Open twice (in 1961 and 1962) and the US Open once (in 1960).
• He was one of the first going television superstars
• His go-for-broke style enthralled fans
• He was, along with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, known as the golfing legend of his times, setting the stage for success by golfers like Tiger Woods
• The cause of death was not immediately given
• Ben Hogan, Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones were some other all time greats in golfing
• Called The “King”, Palmer won the U.S. Open once (Cherry Hills, 1960), and played off for the title in 1962, 1963 and 1966.

Oscar winning writer and director of LA Confidential, Curtis Hanson died at the age of 71 on 22nd Sept 2016. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease

• He is known for acclaimed films such as Wonder Boys and 8 Mile
• His adaptation of Jame Ellroy noir novel also won him accolades
• Hanson went on to direct the 1994 movie The River Wild with Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon which won him success
• But it was LA Confidential which had Oscar winner Kim Basinger along Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey that won him critical acclaim
• Hanson won the Oscar for screenplay with Brian Helgeland
• Hanson drew inspiration from films by Stanley Kubrick, Robert Aldrich and Nicholas Ray in which LA played a key role. Ray’s 150 film In a Lonely Place also inspired Hanson
• LA Confidential introduced Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce into American Cinema
• LA Confidential was one of 24 pictures registered by the Library of Congress in 2015 as worthy of preservation in the National Film Industry
• Hanson started small, with a horror film called “The Arousers” in the early 1970s. In 1983, his film “Losin’ It” gave Tom Cruise his first lead role.
• “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” a thriller about a revenge-seeking nanny starring Annabella Sciorra and Rebecca De Mornay, was Mr. Hanson’s breakout hit, released in 1992.
• In 1999, Mr. Hanson became the first chairman of the U.C.L.A. Film & Television Archive, granting him easy access to decades of his favourite films.

Albee’s best known work Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won the Tony Pulitzer Award.

• He died at the age of 88 in Montauk, NYC after a short illness. He underwent extensive surgery and succumbed after that
• He is considered one of the most important American playwrights of his time
• He wrote controversial and intense plays detailing anxiety, disillusionment and death
• He burst into theatre setting with The Zoo Story(1958)
• This two character drama showcasing class struggle and disaffection premiered in Berlin in 1959 and went on to Off Broadway in 1960
• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf debates two years later on Broadway and the drunken description of tortured couple George and Martha was even made into a black comedy film in 1966 by Mike Nichols starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor
• Taylor won the best actress award for this play at the Oscars
• Albee won 3 Pulitzer prices for best drama
• 1967 for a A Delicate Balance made into a 1973 film starring Katherine Hepburn and Paul Scofield
• Seascape in 1975
• Three Tall Women in 1994
• He also won the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.
• He started his career in NY’s Greenwich Village where he found a more sympathetic environment in the avante garde scene.

He died at Bloemfontein on September 5, 2016 at the age of 97.

• Cricket South Africa (CSA) has paid rich tribute to Lindsay Tuckett.
• The cricketer represented South Africa in nine Test matches against England between 1947 and 1949.
• He made his debut in the first Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham in 1947, taking 5/68 in the first innings in 37 overs.In his full international career he took 19 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls.
• The right-hander began his first-class career for Orange Free State in the 1934/35 season at the age of just 16.
• The oldest surviving all rounder is now SA’s Johnny Watkins
• Tuckett is best remembered for bowling in the final of the first test at Kingsmead in 1948-1949

Noted Assamese poet, literary critic, author and winner of Sahitya Akademi award Nalinidhar Bhattacharya dies on September 4, 2016 at the age of 95 from old age ailments.

• He was the former principal of Arya Vidyapeeth College in Guwahati.
• His younger brother Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya also led the Sahitya Akademi and won the Jnanpith award in 1979
• Born in the 1920s, Bhattacharya began his literary career as a poet but also became a leading critic and essayist
• He won several awards including Soviet Land Nehru Award (1983), Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award (1991), Sahitya Akademi Award (2002), and the Assam Valley Literary Award (2006).
• He was also honoured with the Sahityacharya title in 2010 by the Assam Sahitya Sabha.

The President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Mr Islam Karimov died. India’s president Shri Pranab Mukherjee condoled the passing away of the Uzbek President.

• H.E. Mr. Nigmatilla Yuldashev is the Acting President and Chairman of the Senate of Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan
• Karimov was Uzbekistan’s first and only president.
• He died at the age of 78- his death was announced by daughter Lola Karimova- Tilyaeva on her official Instagram account.