In Memoriam
By 
There’s a whole bunch of folks who have died in the last few days who deserve a mention, but none of them quite would be likely to get a whole post. So let’s do them all real quick.
Tatsuya Nakadai will always be remembered for his astounding turn as the lead in Ran, Kurosawa’s adaptation of King Lear. I admit I had no idea he was still alive. But of course he was also in Yojimbo and Sanjuro and Kagemusha, all legendary Kurosawa films. He also starred in Kobayashi’s The Human Condition trilogy, great films and critical in Japan dealing with its imperialist legacy.
Lenny Wilkens is one of the NBA legends, both as player and coach and boy did he look the 70s part (look at the image the Times used for his obituary).
Paul Tagliabue did a lot for the NFL, largely forcing the owners to accept free agency and ushering in relative labor peace, though the owners have always had the advantage when it comes labor negotiations and the NFLPA is probably the weakest of the pro sports unions. On the other hand, he denied concussions like a tobacco lawyer denied cancer. That’s at least as important to his legacy as anything else.
I think the only Peter Watkins movie I’ve actually seen is Punishment Park, but it’s all time favorite. It’s great–it’s in the middle of the Vietnam War. The Nixon administration has decided to round up all its internal enemies and force them through secret trials that lead to either prison or they take their chances in Punishment Park, where they will be hunted down like dogs by the cops. Then hire non-professionals–actual hippies and Black Power activists to play themselves and then actual supporters of the war to play themselves. Then they scream ideology at each other for 90 minutes. It’s fucking great.
It’s been too long and I don’t really remember how good or not Bob Trumpy was in the booth at NFL games. But I watched a lot of games that he called, that’s for sure.
Michael Ray Richardson was the poster child for the drug problems that hit pro basketball in the 70s and 80s. Len Bias was more famous because of what people he thought he would be and then of course how he died, but Richardson was banned from the league and then got his life together and recovered and had a pretty good last few decades.