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Iconic bossa nova producer, songwriter, pianist and song interpreter Sérgio Mendes has died at 83. The legendary Brazilian superstar whose career spanned more than six decades and helped craft the modern sound of Latin pop and dance died in Los Angeles of undisclosed causes.
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Beginning in his teens, Mendes — who was born on Feb. 11, 1941 in Rio de Janeiro — focused on dreams of becoming a classical pianist before being inspired by the then bubbling bossa nova explosion in the late 1950s that put a jazzy spin on the popular samba style. He honed his chops played clubs and performing with his bossa nova mentors, Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, before forming his first band, the Sexteto Bossa Rio, with whom he released his 1961 debut recording, Dance Moderno.
Mendes and his band quickly jumped from the clubs of Rio to New York, where Mendes played the first bossa nova festival at Carnegie Hall, followed by a pop-in at the iconic Birdland jazz club in 1962. That serendipitous visit led to an impromptu set with hard bop legend saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, resulting in 1963’s Cannonball’s Bossa Nova album, which featured a mix of jazz-tinged sambas with Mendes on piano. Mendes’ busy year also included contributions to American jazz flutist Herbie Mann’s 1963 albums, Do the Bossa Nova with Herbie Mann and its follow-up, Latin Fever.
After moving to the U.S. in 1964, Mendes formed the first in a series of eponymous bands, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’65 and released The Swinger From Rio album, with contributions from Jobim and American jazz trumpeter Art Farmer, followed by a live album recorded with his Brasil ’65 crew, In Person at El Matador.
Bouncing between recordings for Atlantic Records and Capitol, Mendes released albums at a furious pace throughout the late 1960s, quickly cementing his status as one of the premier ambassadors for the swinging bossa nova sound. But it was when he signed to jazz great Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’ A&M Records that Mendes’ album sales and chart success began to take off thanks to the renamed Brasil ’66’s debut single, the Jorge Ben-penned “Mas que Nada.”
The track with lead vocals from American jazz singer Lani Hall, appeared on the platinum-selling Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 and ran up to No. 47 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, helping cement its status as one of Mendes’ most beloved songs. The group, which continued to chart through the decade with groovy samba-inflected covers of pop songs, including their Grammy-nominated 1968 take on the Beatles’ “The Fool on the Hill,” as well as the Fab Four’s “Day Tripper” and boss nova’d versions of the Mamas & the Papas’ “Monday, Monday” and the Cole Porter standard “Night and Day.”
The group’s second A&M album, 1967’s Equinox, reached No. 3 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart, followed a few months later by Look Around, which established a soon-to-be-familiar pattern of mixing bossa nova covers and originals with takes on popular English-language songs, including the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” and Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s Dusty Springfield hit, “The Look of Love”; Mendes’ version bested Springfield’s on the U.S. charts, going all the way to No. 4 on the Billboard pop tally. The song’s popularity was boosted when Mendes performed the Oscar-nominated song from the James Bond movie Casino Royale on the 1968 Academy Awards telecast.
In 1968, Mendes replaced the entire Brasil ’66 lineup — with the exception of singer Hall — on the group’s fourth LP, Fool on the Hill, which spawned two top 10-charting singles with the Beatles cover title track and a take on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair.” Mendes released three more albums on A&M through the end of the 1960s — 1968’s Sergio Mendes’ Favorite Things and Crystal Illusions and 1969’s Ye-Me-Lê — which continued the winning formula of mixing bossa nova with grooving takes on Great American Songbook classics and American pop hits by the likes of Otis Redding, Glen Campbell and Bacharach/David.
His output continued apace in the 1970s, when he released more than a dozen albums, including 1970’s Stillness, which featured new lead vocalist Gracinha Leporace and Love Music, his third album with the reconfigured band — now known as Brasil ’77. The familiar formula continued apace, mixing songs by Jobim with covers of well-known tunes by Stevie Wonder and Leon Russell.
By the 1980s his release schedule began to slow, but Mendes’ popularity bumped up again with 1983’s self-titled album, which gave him his first top 40 LP in more than a decade, as well as his highest-charting single, the No. 4 Hot 100 adult contemporary hit written by Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil, “Never Gonna Let You Go.” Mendes scored his only Grammy win in 1992 with Brasileiro, which won the 1993 Grammy for best world music album.
In 2006 he teamed with Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am for Timeless, a No. 44 Billboard 200 LP which featured vocals from a raft of neo soul singers including Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and india.arie, as well as Q-Tip, John Legend, Stevie Wonder and Justin Timberlake.
Mendes continued to release music throughout the 2000s, including his final studio album, 2020’s In the Key of Joy. In addition to his Grammy award and two Latin Grammys, Mendes was nominated for an Oscar in 2012 for his theme song to the animated film Rio, “Real in Rio.” Mendes was also profiled in the 2020 documentary Sérgio Mendes: In the Key of Joy.
Listen to some of Mendes’ most beloved songs below.
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James Darren, the former teen idol and pop singer who played the dreamy surfer Moondoggie in three Gidget movies before starring on television on The Time Tunnel and T.J. Hooker, died Monday. He was 88.
Darren died in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his son Jim Moret, a correspondent for Inside Edition, told The Hollywood Reporter. He had entered the hospital for an aortic valve replacement but was deemed too weak to have the surgery; he went home but had to return.
“I always thought he would pull through,” Moret said, “because he was so cool. He was always cool.”
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Early in his career, the dark-haired Darren received excellent notices for starring in Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) — portraying the son of a hoodlum defended by Humphrey Bogart’s character in 1949’s Knock on Any Door — and for playing the Greek soldier Spyros Pappadimos in The Guns of Navarone (1961).
Even though he could not surf, the Philadelphia native got the role of Moondoggie (real name: Jerry Matthews) opposite three actresses as the precocious Malibu teen: Sandra Dee in Gidget (1959), Deborah Walley in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Cindy Carol in Gidget Goes to Rome (1963).
Darren revived his singing career in the late ’90s when he appeared on several episodes of the syndicated series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the holographic lounge singer Vic Fontaine, a role he called “one of the most enjoyable” he ever played.
Several of his Frank Sinatra-styled performances were recorded for the 1999 album This One’s From the Heart.
After many years out of the limelight, Darren made an impression as the husband of a bar owner in Harry Dean Stanton‘s final film, Lucky (2017).
James William Ercolani was born on June 8, 1936. Growing up on South 10th Street in South Philadelphia, he was inspired by another Philly native, Eddie Fisher, to become a singer and actor, and he commuted to New York to study acting with Stella Adler.
While in the city, the owner of a photography shop connected him to Columbia Pictures talent scout Joyce Selznick (David O. Selznick’s niece), and he went on to sign a contract with the studio.
Darren made his film debut as a high school senior and gang member opposite Robert Blake in the crime drama Rumble on the Docks (1956), then followed with roles in Operation Mad Ball, The Brothers Rico and The Tijuana Story in 1957 and Gunman’s Walk in ’58.
The Gidget movies made him extremely popular with young ladies.
“The defining moment was when I was at a studio in San Francisco and word got out that I was there,” he recalled in a 2015 interview with Los Angeles magazine. “Thousands of girls were screaming out front. When I had to leave the building, they tackled me to the ground and pulled pieces of my hair out. The police had to rescue me and took me to the roof until things settled down.”
To land the Gidget gig, Darren had to convince the producers that he could carry a tune. “They were going to use somebody else’s voice, but I told them I could sing,” he said. “We went into one of the soundstages with a piano player and I sang the song and they said, ‘He can do it.’ Then they put me on their label, Colpix.”
Darren also was heard performing in All the Young Men (1960), Diamond Head (1962), Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963) and For Those Who Think Young (1964).
He sang “Almost in Your Arms” at the 1959 Academy Awards and “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” on the 1964 Oscar telecast; performed as Yogi Bear in a 1964 animated film; and did a number on a 1965 episode of The Flintstones.
He also played the best friend opposite Sal Mineo in The Gene Krupa Story (1959), starred as a car mechanic in The Lively Set (1964) and ventured to Italy to topline Venus in Furs (1969) with Barbara McNair.
Darren was married to childhood sweetheart Gloria Terlitsky from 1955 until their 1958 divorce and to Evy Norlund, a former Miss Denmark, from 1960 until his death. He lived for decades in a home on Kimridge Road in Beverly Ridge Estates that had been owned by Audrey Hepburn.
In addition to his wife and Moret, survivors include his other sons, Christian and Anthony; grandchildren Amanda, Carly, Matthew, Natalie and Nicholas; and goddaughter A.J. Lambert, daughter of Nancy Sinatra.
Over the years, Darren encountered many fans of his music, some of them unexpected.
“I was in a pizza shop one day with a friend of mine. I heard this motorcycle pull up, and in walked Bruce Springsteen in his little motorcycle cap, like Brando wore in The Wild One — I guess he left his helmet outside,” he recalled in his chat with Weaver. “I said, ‘Oh, I gotta go say hi to him.’
“I walked up to him and said, ‘Hi, I don’t want to interrupt you, but my name is James Darren. I just want to tell you I’m a big fan. I love all your stuff.’ And he said, ‘James Darren? I bought “Goodbye Cruel World” in Freehold, New Jersey.’ Isn’t that sweet?”
–Duane Byrge contributed to this report
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Danielle Moore, the ebullient lead singer of British dance band Crazy P has died at 52. The band announced her passing in an Instagram post on Sunday (Sept. 2). “We are devastated to announce the unbelievable and shocking news that our beautiful Danielle Moore has died in sudden and tragic circumstances,” they wrote, writing that Moore passed on Friday afternoon (August 30) without revealing the specific cause of death.
“We cannot believe the news ourselves and we know it will be the same for all of you. She gave us so much and we love her so much,” they continued. “Our hearts are broken. We need time to process that this has happened. Danielle lived a life driven by love compassion community and music. She lived the biggest of lives. We will miss her with all our hearts X.”
A week before Moore’s death, Crazy P posted footage of the singer rocking the stage during a festival set at the Lost Village Festival in Bristol, England while wearing one of her signature fedoras (read a loving tribute written by the festival over the weekend here). Crazy P were slated to perform at the Forwards Festival in Bristol on Sunday (Sept 1), with the slot called off following Moore’s death.
“We want to thank you all for coming this weekend, there is so much to celebrate, however, it is with heavy hearts that we share the incredibly sad news that our dear friend Danielle Moore, beloved singer of @crazypmusic has passed away,” read a statement from Forwards. “We can’t really find the words today but the world has lost a very special human and we are absolutely devastated. The band were due to join us this weekend as they have so many, many times over our history across all our events, they are family we hold dear, so we would like to spend today reflecting on our love and memories of Danielle.”
Disco house group Crazy P (whose full name was Crazy P–is) was formed in the mid-1990s by musicians Chris Todd and Jim Baron while they were attending the University of Nottingham, with the duo releasing their debut album, A Nice Hot Bath With… in 1999 on Paper Recordings. In 2002, Moore and keyboardist Mav Kendricks joined the band — which also included bassist Tim Davies — and they released their sophomore effort, The Wicked Is Music.
They released five more albums over the years, including their most recent, 2019’s Age of the Ego, with Moore also taking solo gigs as a DJ. Their first new single in more than three years, the bouncy “Any Signs of Love,” dropped in June.
Irish singer Róisín Murphy posted a loving tribute to Moore on X, writing, “One of the most beautiful souls has left us. The brillant Danielle Moore of Crazy P has died suddenly and she has taken so much light with her. One of the best in music, an amazing person and an amazing singer, performer and songwriter. I know there will be a great sense of loss and mourning across our community. She touched everybody she met with light and love. Sending sincerest condolences to those friends and family closest to her. I, like so many, loved and admired her.”
In a bio on her agency’s site, Moore said, “performing is everything… When I’m performing, I feel like I’ve stepped into my alter ego and am able to take on any mood. It’s very empowering to become detached from my own slightly vulnerable self.” The singer fell in love with the power of dance music on packed floors of clubs in her native Manchester, and translated that energy into her always upbeat, joyful performances.
Though undated, the bio notes that following the release of Age of the Ego — an album she said she’s “most proud of… lyrically speaking” — Crazy P was planning to put “more projects in the world, as well as some planned solo works that will see Danielle showcase her own musical chops.”
See Crazy P’s tribute to Moore and listen to some of her most beloved vocals below.
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Fatman Scoop has died after collapsing during a concert in Connecticut on Friday night (Aug. 30). He was 53.
The New York rapper, whose real name is Isaac Freeman III, was performing at Town Center Park in Hamden, Conn., where he appeared to have suffered a medical emergency, according to TMZ. Fan-captured video on X (formerly Twitter) showed the legendary hip-hop hype man and radio personality collapsing mid-performance. After medical personnel performed chest compressions on Freeman behind the DJ booth, the artist was then transferred to a local hospital.
Freeman’s passing was confirmed Saturday morning (Aug. 31) in a post from his family on Instagram. A specific cause of death was not provided.
“It is with profound sadness and very heavy hearts that we share news of the passing of the legendary and iconic Fatman Scoop,” the heartfelt message begins. “Last night, the world lost a radiant soul, a beacon of light on the stage and in life.”
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The post continued, “Fatman Scoop was known to the world as the undisputed voice of the club. His music made us dance and embrace life with positivity. His joy was infectious and the generosity he extended to all will be deeply missed but never forgotten.”
Freeman’s tour manager Bryan “DJ Pure Cold” Michael also shared the sad news on social media.
“I am honestly lost for words,” Michael wrote on Instagram. “You took me all over the world and had me performing alongside you on some of the biggest and greatest stages on this planet, the things you taught me have truely made me the man I am today.”
Freeman gained prominence with his 1999 club favorite “Be Faithful,” featuring the Crooklyn Clan. He also appeared on Missy Elliott’s 2005 hit “Lose Control,” alongside Ciara. The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and its video earned a Grammy Award in 2006 for best short form music video. The track also earned a Grammy nomination for best rap song.
Freeman’s other accomplishments include a feature on Mariah Carey’s 2005 song “It’s Like That,” which reached No. 16 on the Hot 100. Over the years, he would appear on tracks by Skrillex (“Recess”), David Guetta (“Love Is Back”) and Ciara (“Level Up” remix), among many others.
Maurice Williams, a rhythm and blues singer and composer who with his backing group the Zodiacs became one of music’s great one-shot acts with the classic ballad “Stay,” has died. He was 86.
Williams died Aug. 6, according to an announcement from the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, which did not immediately provide further details.
A writer and performer since childhood, Williams had been in various harmony groups when he and the Zodiacs began a studio session in 1960.
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They unexpectedly made history near the end with their recording of “Stay,” which Williams had dashed off as a teenager a few years earlier.
Over hard chants of “Stay!” by his fellow vocalists, Williams carried much of the song and its plea to an unnamed girl. Midway, he stepped back and gave the lead to Shane Gaston and one of rock’s most unforgettable falsetto shouts — “Oh, won’t you stay, just a little bit longer!”
Barely over 1 minute, 30 seconds, among the shortest chart-toppers of the rock era, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1960 and was the group’s only major success.
But it was covered by the Hollies and the Four Seasons among others early on and endured as a favorite oldie, known best from when Jackson Browne sang it live for his 1977 Running On Empty album.
“Stay” also was performed by Browne, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and others at the 1979 No Nukes concert at Madison Square Garden and appeared in its original version on the blockbuster Dirty Dancing soundtrack from 1987.
The song was inspired by a teenage crush, Mary Shropshire.
“(Mary) was the one I was trying to get to stay a little longer,” Williams told the North Carolina publication Our State in 2012. “Of course, she couldn’t.”
Williams’ career was otherwise more a story of disappointments. He wrote another falsetto showcase, “Little Darlin,” and recorded it in 1957 with the Gladiolas. But the song instead became a hit for a white group, the Diamonds. In 1965, Williams and the Zodiacs cut a promising ballad, “May I.” But their label, Vee-Jay, went bankrupt just as the song was coming out and “May I” was later a hit for another white group, Bill Deal & the Rhondels.
Like many stars from the early rock era, Williams became a fixture on oldies tours and tributes, while also making the albums Let This Night Last and Back to Basics. In the mid-1960s, he settled in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in 2010 was voted into the state’s Hall of Fame. Survivors include his wife, Emily.
Williams was born in Lancaster, South Carolina, and sang with family members in church while growing up. He was in his teens when he formed a gospel group, the Junior Harmonizers, who became the Royal Charms as they evolved into secular music and then the Zodiacs in honor of a Ford car they used on the road. Meanwhile, he was a prolific writer and needed little time to finish what became his signature hit.
“It took me about 30 minutes to write ‘Stay,’ then I threw it away,” he later told www.classicsbands.com. “We were looking for songs to record as Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs. I was over at my girlfriend’s house playing the tape of songs I had written, when her little sister said, ‘Please do the song with the high voice in it.’ I knew she meant ‘Stay.’ She was about 12 years old and I said to myself, ‘She’s the age of record buying,’ and the rest is history. I thank God for her.”
Maxie Solters, a third-generation entertainment publicist, died unexpectedly Thursday (Aug. 15) in Los Angeles. She was 37. She was also a writer, actor and producer. No cause of death was shared.
Solters followed her father, Larry Solters, and her grandfather, Lee Solters, in the family business. Her grandfather was a legendary press agent, who handled such acts as Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Carol Channing and Frank Sinatra. Larry Solters’ Scoop Marketing represents the Eagles, Irving Azoff and Iconic Artists Group, among other clients.
Solters, who was known for her helpful and friendly demeanor, joined Scoop in 2012, working with such clients as the Kia Forum, the Hollywood Bowl and Music Forward.
Maxie Solters
Solters family
Solters grew up in Sherman Oaks, California, and graduated from Oakwood School and the University of Southern California with a theater degree. Before joining Scoop, she worked in film and television casting and also served as a coordinator for One Billion Rising, the global movement for justice and equality. In addition to acting in a number of theatrical productions, Maxie, who was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, also created, produced and starred in her own comedy web series, including 2016’s Chooch and Adventures in Online Dating and 2017’s Climax! The Series.
Her social justice work also included involvement in V-Day International and work on women’s rights.
Survivors include her father, Larry, and his partner, Carol Greenhut; her mother, Debra Graff; her longtime partner, Dim Dobrin; her aunt, Susan Reynolds; her cousin, Jonah Reynolds; and her dog, Pookie. A celebration of life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Maxie’s name to One Billion Rising, a cause she deeply believed in.
Jack Russell, the former frontman of 1980s and ’90s glam rockers Great White, has died at age 63.
The news comes from the Instagram page for Jack Russell’s Great White, which is the band name the frontman toured under after the group disbanded in 2001.
“With tremendous sadness, we announce the loss of our beloved Jack Patrick Russell — father, husband, cousin, uncle, and friend,” the statement begins, adding that the singer “passed peacefully” surrounded by his wife Heather Ann, son Matthew Hucko and other family and friends. “Jack is loved and remembered for his sense of humor, exceptional zest for life, and unshakeable contribution to rock and roll where his legacy will forever live and thrive.”
The family is asking for privacy and shared that details of a public memorial would be announced at a later date.
On the Instagram page for Great White, Russell’s original bandmates shared their “deepest condolences to the family of Jack Russell. We hope they take comfort in knowing Jack’s incredible voice will live on forever.” The ended the statement: “Rest In Peace, to one of rock’s biggest champions.”
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Great White landed six songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in the late ’80s and early ’90s, including the top five smash “Once Bitten Twice Shy,” which peaked at No. 5 in 1989 and whose music video was in heavy rotation on MTV. The song’s album, 1989’s …Twice Shy, was a top 10 hit on the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at No. 9.
Following the group’s end in 2001, the lead singer hit the road as Jack Russell’s Great White — most infamously headlining Rhode Island’s The Station nightclub in 2003, when pyrotechnics started a fire that killed 100 people, including bandmate Ty Longley, and injuring 230. Russell’s tour manager, Daniel Biechele, pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter in 2006 and served two years in prison of a 15-year sentence. The owners of The Station, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, pleaded no contest, with Michael serving almost three years in prison and Jeffrey being sentenced to community service. The band also reached settlements with victims in several lawsuits.
Last month, Russell’s Instagram page had announced his retirement from touring after diagnoses of Lewy Body Dementia and Multiple System Atrophy. “Words cannot express my gratitude for the many years of memories, love, and support,” the retirement announcement read. “Thank you for letting me live my dreams.”
Find the family and band statements below.
Greg Kihn, the beloved pop and rock musician known for his hit “Jeopardy,” died on Tuesday (Aug. 13) after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 75 years old.
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The star, born on July 10, 1949, in Baltimore, Md., moved to San Francisco in the mid 1970s, where he became one of the first artists signed to Matthew King Kaufman’s Beserkley Records. He formed the Greg Kihn Band, featuring guitarist Robbie Dunbar, bassist Steve Wright, and drummer Larry Lynch, and the group released a self-titled album in 1976. Through the 1970s, Kihn released an album each year.
However, it wasn’t until 1981 when Kihn got his first major Billboard hit with “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em),” from the Rockihnroll album. The track hit No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
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Just two years later, he unveiled the dance-ready hit, “Jeopardy,” which climbed to No. 2 on the Hot 100. In 1984, Kihn gave “Weird Al” Yankovic permission to parody his song into “I Lost on Jeopardy,” and even made a cameo at the end of the music video as the driver of a convertible. In 1985, Kihn signed with EMI.
Beyond his success as a musician, Kihn was also an accomplished author. He wrote four horror fiction novels, including 1996’s Horror Show and 1998’s Shade of Pale. 1998’s Big Rock Beat and 1999’s Mojo Hand were written as sequels to Horror Show. He also wrote Carved in Rock: Short Stories by Musicians, which compiled stories from him and other rock musicians including Pete Townshend, Joan Jett and more. His 2013 novel, Rubber Soul, was a Beatles-themed murder mystery story.
Kihn is survived by Jay Arafiles-Kihn, his wife; his son, Ryan Kihn, and daughter, Alexis Harrington-Kihn; as well as his grandchildren.
Susan Wojcicki, a pioneering tech executive who helped shape Google and YouTube, has died, her husband said. She was 56.
Wojcicki played a key role in Google’s creation and served nine years as YouTube’s CEO, stepping down last year to focus on her “family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about,” she said at the time.
She was one of the most respected female executives in the male-dominated tech industry.
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Her collaboration with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin began shortly after they incorporated their search engine into a business in 1998. Wojcicki rented the garage of her Menlo Park, California, home to them for $1,700 a month, cementing a formative partnership. Page and Brin — both 25 at the time — continued to refine their search engine in Wojcicki’s garage for five months before moving Google into a more formal office and later persuaded their former landlord to come work for their company.
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Wojcicki joined Google, now known as Alphabet, as its marketing manager in 1999 and served in various positions as Google grew its online advertising presence by acquiring YouTube in 2006 and DoubleClick in 2008. She served as Google’s senior vice president of advertising and commerce from 2011 to early 2014 and CEO of YouTube from 2014 to 2023.
“Her loss is devastating for all of us who know and love her, for the thousands of Googlers she led over the years, and for millions of people all over the world who looked up to her, benefited from her advocacy and leadership, and felt the impact of the incredible things she created at Google, YouTube, and beyond,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a note to employees.
Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who was vice president of Google’s sales and operations from 2001 to 2008 before decamping to Facebook, said in a Facebook post that Wojcicki was formative in her tech career.
“She taught me the business and helped me navigate a growing, fairly chaotic organization at the beginning of my career in tech,” Sandberg wrote. “She was the person I turned to for advice over and over again. And she was this person for so many others too.”
Her husband, Dennis Troper, announced her death in a social media post late Friday.
“My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non small cell lung cancer,” he wrote.
“Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many,” Troper said.
No other details of her death were immediately provided.
Wojcicki and Troper’s 19-year-old son, Marco Troper, died in February at the UC Berkeley campus where he resided as a freshman student.
Eric Gardner, chairman and CEO of Panacea Entertainment, died from complications of pneumonia on July 19 at his home in Camarillo, Calif. Gardner, whose career as a talent manager and producer of television shows and Las Vegas residencies spanned more than 50 years, was 74 years-old.
Gardner, who managed dozens of acts over the years, was inducted into the Personal Managers Hall of Fame at their 2017 ceremony in Las Vegas. He was still managing Todd Rundgren and Paul Shaffer at the time of his death.
Gardner’s career began in 1970 when, as a graduate student earning his Master of Fine Arts in playwriting at Columbia University, he started coordinating tours for such rock bands as Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead and, later, KISS. His company, Panacea Entertainment Corp., was the industry’s first rock and roll tour coordination company. By 1973, it was coordinating tours in 23 countries.
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In 1974, Panacea’s emphasis shifted to talent management. Over the years, Gardner represented such diverse musical artists as Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones, Kenney Jones of The Who/ Faces/Small Faces, Rundgren, Donny Osmond, Rick Wright of Pink Floyd, The Stray Cats, Jefferson Starship, Sex Pistols, John Lydon, Steven Van Zandt and Max Weinberg (both of the E Street Band), Hot Tuna, Blue Öyster Cult, Grace Jones and Bettye LaVette.
He also represented Late Night with David Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer; writer/producer Jim Steinman; actors David Hasselhoff, Richard Belzer and Richard Chamberlain; and psychologist, author and activist Timothy Leary, among others.
In 1981, Gardner relocated Panacea from New York to Los Angeles to expand into film and television. His first foray in 1982 was signing Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, whom he helped develop from a local Los Angeles television personality into an international film and television phenomenon. Over the next 26 years, he produced her many film and television projects.
Gardner’s IMDB page includes 40 credits as a producer or executive producer, including multiple projects with Elvira, Hasselhoff, Belzer, Rundgren (both solo and with his band Utopia), Shaffer and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones.
Gardner both produced and directed a 1976 TV special, Blue Öyster Cult: Live 1976. That was the year the band landed its biggest hit, “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper,” which reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
He executive produced Digital Dreams, a 1983 TV movie which documented Wyman’s life. Two years later, he executive produced Willie and the Poor Boys, a film about the “supergroup” of the same name. The band consisted of Wyman and Charlie Watts, also of the Rolling Stones, plus Andy Fairweather Low, Mickey Gee and Geraint Watkins. Their eponymous album reached No. 96 on the Billboard 200 in 1985.
Gardner executive produced Heavy Metal Heaven, a 1990 miniseries in which Elvira introduced six programs celebrating the genre.
He executive produced The Filth and the Fury, a 2000 documentary about the career of the notorious punk rock band, Sex Pistols. The film was directed by Julien Temple, who had also directed The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, the classic 1980 documentary about the band. The Filth and the Fury provided an opportunity for the surviving members of the group to tell their side of the story. Also in 2000, Gardner executive produced Rotten TV, a short-lived VH-1 series hosted by Lydon of Sex Pistols fame.
He executive produced Bitter Jester, a 2003 show which was billed as the first documentary to offer a glimpse into the process behind the comedy we watch in clubs, on television and at the movies. The film included interviews with Richard Pryor and Belzer, among others.
In 2006, he executive produced Running With Arnold, a documentary on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful gubernatorial campaign in California that year. The doc was narrated by Alec Baldwin.
In 2019, he executive produced Paul Shaffer Plus One, an eight-episode TV series in which Shaffer and his guests discussed inspirations and influences and notable songs.
Despite having a hand in numerous music projects, Gardner’s longest-running TV project was Shahs of Sunset, a Bravo reality series which followed a group of affluent young Persian-American friends who juggle their flamboyant L.A. lifestyles with family demands. More than 125 episodes were produced from 2012-2021.
Gardner was also behind several successful Las Vegas residencies. In 2009, he launched and produced Donny & Marie featuring Donny and Marie Osmond at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in association with Caesar’s Entertainment. He co-produced with Planet Hollywood, also in Las Vegas, the “Ringo Starr and His All-Star Band” residency shows. Once again with Caesar’s Entertainment, he produced “Paul Shaffer and the Shaff-Shifters” residency shows.
Gardner was active right up until his death. Projects in the works at the time of his death included a Blues Brothers primetime animated TV series in partnership with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s widow Judy Belushi (who died two weeks before Gardner, on July 5 at age 73); adapting the hit 1980 Blues Brothers movie as a Broadway musical; “Sharknado the Musical” in Las Vegas in partnership with Caesar’s Entertainment/Greg Young/The Asylum; a Hellraiser primetime TV series with former New World Entertainment chairman Larry Kuppin; and a feature film about Timothy Leary life’s story with HBO.
Gardner is survived by his wife, Janis, who is the co-owner of Panacea Entertainment, and three grown daughters, Cameron, Madeleine and Nathalie.