DECEMBER 31. 2005 • Q-NOTES
2005 Year in Review
17
Gay icons are lost in 2005
fiom page 14
in June, 1956, the two divorced after less
than five years together. Miller was 89 at
the time of his death.
February 21
Former '60s teen queen Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee passed away from
kidney failure at the age of 63. At
the height of her fame in the 1960s
Dee was perhaps the biggest
female teen idol of her time. She
left behind a legacy of film roles
that includes “Gidget” “Tammy
and the Doctor,” “Imitation of Life”
and “Portrait in Black.” Dee cap
tured media attention again in her
later years because of the movie
“Beyond the Sea,” which recalled
her life with husband and singer
Bobby Darren. Actor Kevin Spacey
portrayed Darren, Kate Bosworth
played Dee.
Marchs
Composer Martin Denny
The father of the influential genre of
pop called “exotica” died in his home in
Hawaii at the age of 93. Denny created
a hypnotic international
sound that blended exot
ic elements — bird calls,
croaking frogs, jazz
rhythms, chimes and
gongs.
He once described it as
a fusion of Asian, South
Pacific, American jazz,
Latin American and clas
sical styles. In the mid-
1990s Denny experienced
a rebirth of sorts when his
music was rediscovered
by a new generation and
labeled the “cocktail
lounge” sound.
March 21
Cabaret singer Bobby Short
Openly gay Cabaret singer Bobby
Short, once described as “the tuxedoed
embodiment of New York style and
sophistication,” was a fixture at his piano
in the Carlyle Hotel for more than 35
years.
His career stretched over more than 70
years and included Grammy nominations
for “You’re the Top: Love Songs of Cole
Porter” and “Late Night at the Cafe
Carlyle.” The 80-year-old Short died of
leukemia at New York Presbyterian
Hospital.
May 2
Writer and Activist Jack Nicholls
One of the original founders of the
Mattachine Society, writer lack Nicholls
co-edited the pioneering weekly publica
tion Gay from 1969 to 1973. He also
wrote a number of cutting-edge books on
gay male sexuality, including the early
’70s tome “I Have More Fun With You
Than Anybody,” which chronicled his
relationship with fellow writer and
activist Lige Clark.
Nichols, 67, died at Cape Canaveral
Hospital of cornplications from cancer, a
Queen of mean:
Soap opera diva
Ruth Warrick con
tinued working on
'One life to live'
up until a few
d^s before her
de^ at 89.
Activist and
writer Jock
Nichols was
a founder of
the
Mattachine
Society.
disease he had been fighting for 20
years.
May 25
Filmmaker Ismail Merchant
Filmmaker Ismail Merchant,
who with partner James Ivory
produced such heralded dra
mas as “A Room With A View”
and “Howards End,” died at the
age of 68 following an extended
illness. The two men — part
ners in life and filmmaking —
formed Merchant Ivory produc
tions in 1963 and went on to
produce many cinematic clas
sics, such as “The
Europeans,” “Mr. and Mrs.
Bridge,” “The Bostonians,”
“Maurice” and “Slaves of
New York.” Merchant died sur
rounded by family and friends
at a hospital in London.
June 6
Activist and National Coming Out Day
founder Jean O'Leary
Jean O’Leary, a nun-turned-lesbian
activist who organized the first White
House meeting of gay rights leaders and
was one of the co-founders of National
Coming Out Day, died of complications
from lung cancer.
The 57-year-old O’Leary was
diagnosed with cancer in September
• 2003. She died at the home of her
partner of 12 years.
June/
Actress Anne Bancroft
Actress Anne
Bancroft, the star of
such films as “The
Graduate,” “The Miracle
Worker” and “Torch
Song Trilogy,” died of
uterine cancer. In
recent years Bancroft
appeared in such films
as “G.l. Jane” and “The
Roman Spring of Mrs.
Stone.”
June 16
Composer David
Diamond
Anne Bancroft
starred in the goy-
themed cinema
smash 'Torch Song
Trilogy.'
Openly gay classical music composer
David Diamond was one of the most gift
ed, colorful, and cantankerous creative
figures in the world of music. As a young
man in his 20s, Diamond was champi
oned by many of the prominent musical
figures of the 1940s — among them
Maurice Ravel and Joseph Szigeti.
Among the many conductors who pre
sented his works were Leopold
Stokowski, Pierre Monteux, Dimitri
Mitropoulos and Serge Koussevitzky,
One of Diamond’s strongest advocates
for many years was another gay man —-
Leonard Bernstein, who led the pre
mieres of Diamond’s Fourth Symphony
in Boston and his Fifth and Eighth in
New York. Diamond, 89, died of conges
tive heart failure.
see 2005on 18
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