Dick Clark, the music industry maverick, longtime TV host and powerhouse producer who changed the way we listened to pop music with American Bandstand, and whose trademark Rockin' Eve became a fixture of New Year's celebrations, died today at the age of 82, ABC News has learned.
Clark, who suffered a serious stroke in 2004 but returned to the airwaves, reportedly died from a heart attack.
Clark landed a gig as a DJ at WFIL in Philadelphia in 1952, spinning records for a show he called Dick Clark's Caravan of Music. There he broke into the big time, hosting Bandstand, an afternoon dance show for teenagers.
Within five years, the whole country was watching. ABC took the show national, and American Bandstand was born.
When Dick Clark moved to Hollywood in 1963, American Bandstand moved with him. He started Dick Clark Productions, and began cranking out one hit show after another; his name became synonymous with everything from the $25,000 Pyramid to TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes to the American Music Awards. In 1972, Dick Clark became synonymous with one of the biggest nights of the year.
New Year's Rockin' Eve
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on ABC became a Dec. 31 tradition, with Clark hosting the festivities for more than three decades, introducing the entertainment acts and, of course, counting down to midnight as the ball dropped in New York's Times Square.
Football great Junior Seau's brain will be examined for evidence of repetitive injuries from his playing days following the retired linebacker's suicide in his California beachfront home, a pastor for the family said on Friday.
Seau, a 12-time Pro Bowl (all-star game) selection who played for 20 years in the National Football League, was found unconscious at his home by his girlfriend on Wednesday with a gunshot wound to the chest and a revolver nearby, police said.
Seau's death at age 43 comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of the effects of repeated blows to the head in football, and the potential for such injuries to contribute to depression and long-term health problems in players.
The death was at least the third apparent suicide by a former NFL player since February 2011.
Seau, who played for the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots after leaving the Chargers, retired after the 2009 season.
Adam Yauch, the gravelly voiced Beastie Boys rapper and the most conscientious member of the seminal hip-hop group, has died. He was 47.
Yauch's representatives confirmed that the rapper died Friday morning in New York after a nearly three-year battle with cancer.
Also known as MCA, Yauch was diagnosed with a cancerous salivary gland in 2009. At the time, Yauch expressed hope it was "very treatable," but his illness caused the group to cancel shows and delayed the release of their 2011 album, "Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2."
The Brooklyn-born Yauch created the Beastie Boys with high school friend Michael "Mike D" Diamond. Originally conceived as a hardcore punk group, it became a hip-hop trio soon after Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz joined. They released their chart-topping debut "Licensed to Ill" in 1986, a raucous album led by the anthem "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)".
Carroll Shelby, the legendary auto racer and car designer who built the fabled Shelby Cobra sports car and injected testosterone into Ford's Mustang and Chrysler's Viper, has died. He was 89.
Soon after his win at Le Mans, he gave up racing and turned his attention to designing high-powered "muscle cars" that eventually became the Shelby Cobra and the Mustang Shelby GT500.
Shelby had also inaugurated the World Chili Cookoff competition and he began marketing Carroll Shelby Original Texas Chili.
Carroll Hall Shelby was born Jan. 11, 1923, in Leesburg, Texas.
During World War II he was an Army Air Corps flight instructor who corresponded with his fiancee by dropping love letters stuck into his flying boots onto her farm.
After leaving the military in 1945, he started a dump truck business, then decided to raise chickens. The poultry business initially flourished, with Shelby earning a $5,000 profit on the first batch of broilers he delivered. He went broke, however, when his second flock died of disease.
A friend then invited him to become an amateur racer and his success led to his joining the Aston-Martin team and competing in races all over the world.
[http://ca.news.yahoo.com/donna-summer--queen-of-disco--dead-at-63.html]Donna Summer Dead at 63[/url]
Donna Summer, Queen of Disco, dead at 63
Donna Summer, the woman affectionately known as the Queen of Disco, died in Florida this morning after a battle with cancer. She was 63.
The five-time Grammy award winner rose to superstardom in the '70s with hits such as "Hot Stuff," Last Dance" and Bad Girls." Her success continued well into the '80s with "This Time I Know It's for Real," and "She Works Hard for the Money."
Summer, along with producer Giorgio Moroder, were accredited with defining the '70s dance music era, influencing a slew of acts including David Bowie and Duran Duran.
Summer married Bruce Sudano, the Brooklyn Dreams singer, back in the '80s. They have two daughters.
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