'Let's Make a Deal' host Monty Hall dead at 96

Monty Hall, one of the most popular game show hosts in American television history as he presided over a throng of outrageously costumed and nearly delirious contestants on "Let's Make a Deal" for almost three decades, died on Saturday at age 96, his son said.

Richard Hall said his father died at home in Beverly Hills, California, likely of heart failure.


Members of his audiences, dressed as clowns, playing cards or giant tomatoes, would shriek "Monty, Monty, Monty!" as they tried to convince Hall to give them a chance to win a washing machine or a new Cadillac. Sometimes the prizes were a "zonk" - a gag gift such as a live donkey or a wrecked car.

Hall was the co-creator of "Let's Make a Deal" and hosted more than 4,000 episodes from 1963 to 1986 (with occasional hiatuses) and then again in 1990 and 1991. The show drew good ratings even as it jumped from network to network and into syndication.

"Let's Make a Deal" became a part of American pop culture, with Hall one of the most recognizable stars on TV.

Hall also produced other game shows, hosted variety shows and appeared as a guest star on television series. He was known for charity work for organizations including Variety Clubs International, which raised money for disadvantaged children.

"Many people know my father as an icon on TV but he was also a tireless supporter of charities that meant as much to him as his TV work," Richard Hall said by telephone from California.

He was born Monte Halperin on Aug. 25, 1921, in Winnipeg, the son of a slaughterhouse owner father and an actress mother. After working in radio in Canada, he came to the United States in 1955.

In the early 1960s, he was developing game shows and joined forces with TV veteran Stefan Hatos. They devised "Let's Make a Deal" in which Hall picked people from the audience to become contestants in sort of a trading game. Initially, audience members wore normal clothing but started wearing costumes and carrying funny signs to get Hall's attention.

Hall would offer contestants a modest prize, then give them a chance to trade it for a mystery prize hidden by a curtain, stashed in a big box or concealed behind door No. 1, door No. 2 or door No. 3. That prize might be worth thousands of dollars or might be a "zonk" like a farm animal. Audience members jumped up and down, shouted, cried and kissed Hall when they won, and sometimes even when they lost.

"In 4,700 shows, I got kissed 50,000 times," Hall said in an interview with a classic TV website. "Even when they lost, they were very nice about it. But you know the law in game shows - if you go on a show and you win a donkey, that's your prize. You're entitled to it."

The show's producers showed mercy on the "zonk" winners, however. After the taping of the show, they would be offered a substitute prize, such as a television, and most would take it.

"In 1 percent of the cases, they didn't," Hall said. "There was a time when a farmer won five calves and he wanted the calves. That cost me a fortune because when you rent them from the animal place, they're expensive."

Other members of the show's team were studio announcer Jay Stewart and model Carol Merrill, who displayed the prizes.

Hall made appearances on revivals of the show, including the version hosted by comedian Wayne Brady starting in 2009.

In 1991, the New York Times published an article about what became known as "the Monty Hall problem" - a probability puzzle hotly debated by mathematicians centering on the advisability of switching choices when given options like those on his show. The conundrum was featured in the 2008 film "21" with Kevin Spacey.

Hall was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1973.

In 1947, Hall married his wife, Marilyn, who became an Emmy Award-winning producer. Their three children include Tony Award-winning actress Joanna Gleason. (Reporting and writing by Will Dunham; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'True Blood' actor Nelsan Ellis dead at 39

WASHINGTON -- Nelsan Ellis, an actor best known for his role in the vampire series "True Blood," has died. He was 39 years old.

The actor died following complications from heart failure, his manager told CNN.

His portrayal of Lafayette, a gay cook and medium, helped him spring onto the acting scene after his character became a favorite of fans of the HBO drama, which ran from 2008 to 2014.

"We were extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Nelsan Ellis," the HBO network said in a statement Saturday. "Nelsan was a long-time member of the HBO family whose groundbreaking portrayal of Lafayette will be remembered fondly within the overall legacy of True Blood."

"Nelsan will be dearly missed by his fans and all of us at HBO."

As news of his death spread many fans posted a clip from the show where Ellis's character bursts out of his restaurant kitchen to confront a table of homophobic diners.

An alumnus of New York's prestigious Juilliard performing arts conservatory, Ellis's credits include silver screen appearances in 2009's "The Soloist" as well as 2011's Oscar-award winning film "The Help."

"My heart breaks for his kids and his family," wrote his co-star in that film Octavia Spencer in an Instagram post. "He was sooooo funny. I miss him."

The Illinois native also depicted Martin Luther King Jr. in "The Butler," released in 2013.

"True Blood" co-star Joe Manganiello took to Twitter to pay tribute to the late actor: "Crushed today by the loss of my friend and castmate Nelsan Ellis."

"He was a wonderful person, a pioneer, and a one of a kind artist."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

World's oldest man dies at 112 in Japan

TOKYO, Japan - The world's oldest man, Yasutaro Koide, died on Tuesday at the age of 112 in central Japan, a local official said.

Koide, born just months before the Wright brothers made their first successful flight, died in hospital in the central Japanese city of Nagoya, where he had lived for many years, said the city official.

The super-centenarian, recognised as the world's oldest male at 112 last year, died of heart failure and pneumonia, the official added.

Koide, a former tailor who was born on March 13, 1903 in Fukui prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, received a certificate from Guinness World Records confirming the achievement after another Japanese man who was just a month older died in July.

Asked about the key to longevity, Koide had reportedly said: "The best thing to do is avoid overwork and live with joy."

Japan is known for the longevity of its people and around a quarter of its population of 127 million is aged 65 or older.

It was not immediately clear who would succeed Koide as the world's oldest male.

Currently, the world's oldest person is American Susannah Mushatt Jones who is 116 and was born on July 6, 1899, according to the Guinness World Records website.

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Lifestyle factors can halve heart failure risk after 65

Older people who walk briskly, are moderately active in their free time, drink moderately, don’t smoke and avoid obesity may be half as likely to develop heart failure as people who don't engage in these healthy habits, a new study suggests.

Based on the findings, optimizing a few healthy lifestyle factors can cut heart failure risk in half, according to lead author Liana Del Gobbo, a research fellow at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.

“A key finding is that physical activity among older adults does not have to be strenuous to reduce heart failure risk,” Del Gobbo told Reuters Health by email.

“We saw benefits for adults who walked at moderate or brisk pace (more than 2 or 3 miles per hour) and burned calories through leisure activity, like house or yard work, walking, engaging in outdoor activities, or other forms of physical activity, equivalent to about 30 minutes per day of moderate-intensity activity,” she said.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than five million people in the US have heart failure, in which the heart fails to pump enough blood and oxygen to support the rest of the body. Heart failure can be treated with medication, a reduced-sodium diet and increased physical activity, but about half of those diagnosed with heart failure die within five years.

For the new study, researchers followed 4,490 men and women age 65 and older without initial signs of heart failure. The average age at the start of the study was 72.

For up to 21 years, with annual physical exams and questionnaires, the researchers collected data on study subjects’ diet, walking pace and distance, leisure activity, exercise intensity, alcohol use, smoking status, weight and waist circumference.

During the study, 1,380 people developed heart failure.

Walking “briskly,” or at least two miles per hour, taking part in calorie-burning leisure activities, modest alcohol intake of no more than one or two drinks per day, avoiding smoking and maintaining a healthy weight were all tied to lower heart failure risk.

Those who optimized at least four of these factors were half as likely to develop heart failure as those who only optimized zero or one of the factors, as reported in JACC: Heart Failure.

“At a population level, we especially need to work on encouraging adults to engage in physical activity,” she said.

The researchers accounted for other factors, like socioeconomic status, that could affect heart failure risk.

Surprisingly, specific dietary pattern was not tied to heart failure risk, and exercise intensity was less important than walking pace and leisure activity.

Researchers did see an increased risk of heart failure with higher salt intake, which “makes sense,” Del Gobbo said, because too much salt increases a person's risk for high blood pressure, which is a key risk factor for heart failure.

Many “healthy lifestyle messages” about lowering heart attack risk also apply to heart failure, said Dr. David J. Maron, director of Preventive Cardiology at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, who coauthored a commentary on the new findings.

“We spend a tremendous amount of money in this country on heart failure-related events,” Maron told Reuters Health by phone. “Living a good life can help prevent a very expensive illness.”

“The amazing thing from this study is if you do these four behaviors that you can reduce your risk of heart failure by 50%,” he said. “It’s just an association, and doesn’t prove cause and effect,” but is still a powerful finding, he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com