Bernie Mac Biography (1958-2008)

In The News:
Actor and comedian Bernie Mac died August 9, 2008, in a Chicago area hospital due to pneumonia, his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. He was 50.

Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation in tissue (most often the lungs), but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. The pneumonia was unrelated to the disease, the publicist said.

More than 6,000 people attended a memorial service for Mac on August 16 at the House of Hope Church on Chicago's South Side.

Biography:
Born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough on October 5, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois. Growing up in a large family on Chicago's South Side, his grandfather was the deacon of a Baptist church.

Mac performed his first standup routine at the age of eight, impersonating his grandparents at the dinner table for the church congregation.

After losing his mother to cancer (his brother, father and grandmother died not long after), Mac realized the healing power of laughter. He began telling jokes for spare change in the Chicago subway. While working various odd jobs, he eventually established his own weekly variety show at Chicago's Regal Theatre and joined the comedy club circuit in 1977.

Mac's acting career started with a role as a club doorman in the comedy Mo' Money (1992) and also appeared as Pastor Clever in Friday (1995). Mac's frequent appearances on HBO's Def Comedy Jamin the early 1990s also helped put him on the map.

Mac's edgy comedy seemed an unlikely fit for television, but after frequent appearances on the series Moesha and gaining wide acclaim for his starring role in Spike Lee's The Original Kings of Comedy in 2000, Mac was primed to create a sitcom on his own terms.

Based on family experiences that shocked audiences into laughter in Kings, The Bernie Mac Show enjoyed a strong debut on Fox in 2001. The series ran through 2006 and starred Mac as a reluctant dad to three adopted kids. The show nabbed both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

Mac's film career also took off. In 2001, he joined an all-star cast in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, playing a smooth con-artist who assisted co-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt in high-profile heists.

In 2001, he also co-starred with Chris Rock in Head of State, then replaced Bill Murray's Bosley in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) and shared billing with John Ritter in director Billy Bob Thornton's Bad Santa (2003).

In 2004, he took on his first starring role as an aging baseball hero in Mr. 3000 and then starred again in the race relations comedy Guess Who? (2005). Mac also reunited with the cast for the sequels Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007).

Before his death, Mac completed work on the film Soul Men with Isaac Hayes, who, coincidentally, died the same weekend as Mac. It is scheduled for release in November 2008.

Besides his work in film and television Mac also authored two books, 2001's I Ain't Scared of You: Bernie Mac on How Life Is and his 2003 memoir, Maybe You Never Cry Again. The latter described Mac's impoverished childhood, strict upbringing and his mother's belief in him.

In 1977 at age 19, Mac married his high school sweetheart, Rhonda, whom he credits with much of his success, particularly as the young couple struggled through the early years of Mac's fledgling career. They had a daughter, Je'Niece, and a granddaughter.

Source

Co-founder of Dallas Opera dies at 92 in Italy

The co-founder of the Dallas Opera has died at a hospital in Viterbo, Italy. Nicola Rescigno was 92.

Jonathan Pell, the Dallas Opera director of artistic administration, says he received a phone call Monday afternoon from Rescigno's nephew, who had been informed of his uncle's death by the hospital.

Pell says Rescigno had been in the hospital to have surgery for a broken leg. He says Rescigno "went to sleep and didn't wake up."

Rescigno and the late Lawrence V. Kelly founded the Dallas Opera in 1957. Pell says the pair attracted well-known performers such as Maria Callas.

He says plans to honor Rescigno by the Dallas Opera will be announced later.

Biography

Nicola Rescigno was an Italian-American conductor, particularly associated with the Italian opera repertory.

Born in a musical family, he studied with Pizzetti, Giannini and Polacco. He made his debut in 1943, conducting La traviata, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He then toured the USA with the San Carlo Opera Company and served as music director for the Connecticut Opera and Havana Opera.

In 1953, he co-founded the Chicago Lyric Opera, where he was music director from 1954 to 1956, and conducted the American debut of Maria Callas there. In 1957, he co-founded the Dallas Opera where he served as artistic director and principal conductor from 1957 to 1990. While at the Dallas Opera, he conducted the U.S. debuts of such singers as Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, Dame Joan Sutherland, Teresa Berganza, Magda Olivero, Jon Vickers, and stage director Franco Zeffirelli. He presented there the American premieres of Handel's Alcina and Vivaldi's Orlando furioso. He also conducted the world premieres of Virgil Thomson's Fantasy in Homage to an Earlier England (1966) and Dominick Argento's The Aspern Papers (1988).

He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1978, conducting Don Pasquale (with Beverly Sills, in John Dexter's production), followed by L'elisir d'amore (1980), L'italiana in Algeri (with Marilyn Horne and Rockwell Blake, 1981), and La traviata (1981-82). Rescigno also conducted at the San Francisco Opera. He conducted at most of the major opera houses of Italy, and made guest appearances at Glyndebourne, London, Paris, Vienna, Zurich, Buenos Aires, etc.

He was closely associated with Callas, having been one of her favourite conductors, and recorded several albums of operatic arias with her for EMI, from 1958 to 1969. He also recorded an album of Verdi arias with Robert Weede (in 1953), excerpts from Francesca da Rimini (with Mario del Monaco and Olivero, 1969), and complete sets of Tosca (with Mirella Freni, 1978) and Lucia di Lammermoor (with Edita Gruberova, 1983). Also available, on DVD, are a 1959 concert from Hamburg with Callas, and a 1981 performance of L'elisir d'amore from the Met, with Judith Blegen and Luciano Pavarotti.

He was the uncle of the conductor Joseph Rescigno.

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