Star Trek star Tom Troupe dies aged 97, five days after celebrating birthday
The actor passed away at his home in Beverly Hills, California from natural causes on July 20, just five days after his birthday.
He is survived by his son Christopher Troupe, daughter-in-law Becky Coulter, granddaughter Ashley Troupe and several nieces and nephews. Tom was married to Sixteen Candles actress Carole Cook from 1964 until her death from heart failure at the age of 98 in 2023.
Instead of flowers, requests for donations have been made to either the Entertainment Community Fund or the Pasadena Humane Society.
The actor was born on July 15, 1928, in North Kansas City, Missouri.
He moved to New York in 1948, and studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio in Manhattan in the early 1950s, after he was given a scholarship from the late Reversal of Fortune actress-and-teacher, Uta Hagen.
Tom also served in the Korean War - which was fought from 1950 until 1953 - and was awarded a Bronze Star for his service.
He married his first wife Sally Singer on June 5, 1955. The couple welcomed son Christopher before divorcing in 1962.
After serving in the war, Tom returned to New York and made his Broadway debut as Peter van Daan in 1957's The Diary of Anne Frank, which also starred Joseph Schildkraut and Gusti Huber.
The following year, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he landed dozens of top film and TV acting jobs during the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Some of his most notable acting credits included playing David Day in the Mission: Impossible TV series, as well as being cast as Lieutenant Matthew Harold in the Star Trek TV series, both in 1967.
He also appeared in The Fugitive, The Wild, Wild West, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Cagney and Lacey, CHiPs, Knots Landing and Murder She Wrote.
On stage, Tom co-starred alongside Carole in The Lion in Winter, Fathers Day and The Gin Game.
He also co-wrote a one-actor play called The Diary of a Madman.
Tom also co-founded The Faculty, a Los Angeles-based acting school, alongside Charles Nelson Reilly, Lu Leonard, John Erman, and Dom DeLuise.
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BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
'There were days where I felt I could never leave': Intimate images of 'the real Hotel California'
The legendary Record Plant Studios was where the most iconic rock stars of the 1970s gathered, immersing themselves in the decadent atmosphere. Now a new book offers a glimpse inside – and argues that The Eagles' time there inspired the US band's most famous song. In 1974, seeking more creative autonomy and a punchier rock sound, The Eagles parted company with their London-based producer, and headed back to their hometown of Los Angeles, California, where Record Plant Studios, founded by legendary audio engineer Gary Kellgren and shrewd businessman Chris Stone, offered a radical alternative. Here – immersed in the studios' relaxed set-up, where every aspect of the rock-star lifestyle was serviced, from hotel suites to hot tubs − they recorded their hit album Hotel California. Warning: This article contains mentions of drug use. Even when The Eagles took their partying into the studio, the managers did not mind. As Stone remarks in a revealing new book, published by Thames & Hudson: "The longer we kept them there, the more money we made." With musicians finding it so hard, once checked in, to tear themselves away, it was little wonder that within a year of the title track's release, there were whisperings that the Record Plant was the "real" Hotel California. Buzz Me In – Inside the Record Plant Studios, by veteran music journalists Martin Porter and David "Mr Bonzai" Goggin, tells the story of one of the US's most successful recording studios during its most decadent years; from its beginnings (in 1968) in New York – where Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland was made – to its wild Californian incarnations in LA and Sausalito, recording rock legends such as Fleetwood Mac, The Who and The Eagles. Buzz Me In, named after the password used to gain entry to the LA studio, invites the public into a rock 'n' roll world that few have seen. Accompanied by a playlist of the studios' seminal recordings, it draws on Stone's memoirs and archives, behind-the-scenes images, and more than 100 interviews with the artists, producers and studio staff who helped shape Record Plant's success. In the 1970s, Porter and Goggin got closer than most to the secret world behind the studio's doors. "It took me many years to realise that it was a pretty special time," Porter tells the BBC. Forty years on, one figure who had survived this frenzied period stood out: Chris Stone, who is pictured in the book in front of the bubble-written logo designed by Kellgren. "Chris Stone was very prominent in the business and told great stories," says Porter, who was convinced that Stone's memories of the Record Plant's wildest decade were a book in the making. Yet Stone kept knocking him back, insisting: "The story dies with me, Porter." But in the last two years of his life (he died in 2016), he relented, uniting Porter with Goggin, his close friend and publicist, to help steer the endeavour. A blueprint exported worldwide Record Plant was special. "The major artists, that's where they wanted to go," Goggin tells the BBC. It led the race for the latest technology ("more tracks, bigger speakers…") and "created an environment that was unlike the traditional, [more clinical] recording studios". It also gave artists more freedom from the record labels, creating a blueprint for a new way of working that was later exported worldwide. The wizard driving this new direction was Kellgren. He was "fun", "creative" and "innovative", says Porter. "He knew how to work the console, make great sounds, but he also knew how to create a party, and a space where artists wanted to make music and hang out and spend time." More like this:• The album that sent shockwaves through the 00s• The 'untold story' of the ultimate 70s rock band• Why Oasis defined the spirit of 90s Britain When, in 1969, the duo opened a sister studio in LA (and another in Sausalito in 1972), they supercharged the original concept, creating a sort of rock hotel, with group Jacuzzis, mirror-ceilinged bedrooms, bedrooms with nicknames including "S&M", and, in keeping with the era, a variety of illicit drugs intended to keep these paying guests holed up as long as they could. "Mirrors were embedded in the consoles, and the assistants were instructed to make sure there was a clean blade and a straw there every morning," says Porter. Unsurprisingly, Record Plant was a magnet for the wildest rockers, including The Who's hot-tempered drummer Keith Moon, who is pictured in the book in 1976 against the tie-dyed sound-absorbing screens of Record Plant's LA studio. During one frustrating vocal session, he smashed a light bulb in the ceiling each time he missed a note, eventually plunging the studio into darkness. While Stone supplied the business acumen, Kellgren was its creative force: a capricious character who spent most of the 1970s high on drugs, and died tragically young in 1977. He was the brains behind the weighty brick invitations to the LA studio opening, sent to rock royalty far and wide, causing chaos at the post office. On the opening night, the silk-screen-printed invitations were handed to a tuxedoed builder who cemented them together, creating an eye-catching wall of fame. Parallels with Hotel California Working alongside producer Bill Szymczyk, The Eagles would spend an intense nine months at Record Plant LA honing their Hotel California album, whose title song spoke of a place where you could "check out any time you like", but could "never leave". John Lennon was a case in point, encamping at the studio for the best part of five years, enjoying the opportunity to jam with Mick Jagger, or have Elton John play on a new record. It was at Record Plant LA that he spent his infamous "lost weekend" phase, and, in 1980, he signed an autograph for the receptionist at Record Plant New York just minutes before he was fatally shot. Record Plant and its legendary parties drew numerous stars into its vortex, gave them everything they wanted, and held them in its thrall. In Buzz Me In, Ken Caillat, who produced Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, describes the band's experience at the Sausalito studio as "druggy" and "claustrophobic". In a poignant echo of that famous lyric, he remarks: "There were days where I felt I could never leave." Record Plant had no qualms about catering to every predilection in its quest to sell studio time. On the days Hendrix was expected at the New York studio, a bowl of freshly rolled joints would be placed on the mixing desk. At Sausalito, a tank of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) was installed by Sly Stone's bed; in the LA studio's canteen, The Eagles' Glenn Frey ran up a $50,000 (£37,000) gambling debt playing pinball. Even clean-living Stevie Wonder "was eating up $175 an hour for Studio C [LA] while he was just playing air hockey". The culture of the place was communicated before you even stepped inside. In the studio parking lot, Kellgren would station his purple Rolls-Royce with the licence plate GREED next to his silver Mercedes-Benz, DEDUCT. The album Hotel California went platinum in December 1976, and the eerie six-and-a-half-minute title song – with its beguiling mix of rock, country and Latin influences, including a flamenco-style guitar intro – topped the US charts the following May. The parallels between the lyrics and the studio were obvious to Kellgren. "My God, they're writing about Record Plant!" he exclaimed to producer Jimmy Robinson. The "warm smell of colitas rising up through the air" recalled the marijuana smoke that filled the studios, for example; while the "lovely face" on reception could be attributed to Rose Mann, who would direct visitors down a long open-air hallway into a labyrinth of corridors suggested in the song's opening verse. Her "Tiffany-twisted" mind may have been inspired by the Tiffany-glass ceiling of the control room at Sausalito, or perhaps the 125 stained-glass windows at "The Castle", a Hollywood mansion off Sunset Boulevard purchased by Record Plant in 1975, where Kellgren had hoped to create a rock palace, and whose spires bear some resemblance to the Beverly Hills Hotel featured on the album cover. Some Record Plant employees were convinced that the night manager Michael Gately, who buzzed everyone in, was the "night man" in the song; his "master's chambers" denoted the echo chambers just along the hall from Studio C; the studio's walled car park was the "courtyard", where staff liked to party. And might the "spirit" of "1969" hark back to the studio's star-studded opening? Rumours circulated that the Record Plant was the real Hotel California, encouraged by Kellgren, who saw that the myth-making was good for business and, says Goggin, "certainly didn't try to stop it". The evidence was persuasive. "Pink champagne on ice" might simply be code for Record Plant's extravagances, but the "mirrors on the ceiling" were more literal. There was a mirror over the vocal booth in Studio C, in every back hotel room, and – most significantly – over the king-sized bed of the nautical-themed Boat Room, a space frequented by The Eagles that had a hideaway concealed beneath a panel under the bed where Kellgren would spy on the recording sessions below. The Eagles, however, batted away such speculation. "It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America, which was something we knew about," Don Henley told Gayle King in a 2007 interview for CBS. "There are so many similarities," Porter tells the BBC. "A lot of the lyrics, a lot of the vibe at the time, was inspired by the place where they wrote the song." The question is put to Chris Stone in the book. "Was the Record Plant the real Hotel California?" His reply: "We were anything our customers wanted us to be." Buzz Me In – Inside the Record Plant Studios by Martin Porter and David Goggin is published by Thames & Hudson. -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
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Will Ozzy Osbourne's death finally mend his daughters' feud? How vastly-different siblings Aimee and Kelly reunited for their father's final days after admitting they weren't on speaking terms
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A source shared that the sisters were both there to care with their father as recently as last week, after flying over from Los Angeles. They said: 'Kelly has been at the house a lot in the last week or so, so has Aimee. It is terribly sad for all of them, they really hoped he would be able to carry on for a bit longer. 'But it's so lovely that he had his children around him during his last days.' Ozzy shares daughters Kelly and Aimee, as well as son Jack, with his wife of 43 years Sharon, and also had three children, Louis, Jessica and Eliot, from his first marriage to wife Thelma Riley. The Osbourne family shared the news of Ozzy's death in a statement, where they said he died 'surrounded by love' after battling Parkinson's disease for six years. The message was signed by his wife Sharon, and four of his children, Jack, Louis, Kelly and Aimee, showing how the siblings had come together ahead of his passing. 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After serving two months in prison for burglary, he decided to pursue his love of music and by 1970 Black Sabbath had gained a huge following in the US and UK with the release of their first album. Ozzy quit the band in 1978 and divorced his first wife Thelma, who he had two children with, four years later, amid his ongoing substance abuse problems. He went on to marry second wife Sharon Osbourne, who helped him transform into a successful solo artist and the couple had three children together. Ozzy gained a whole new audience of fans with the family's reality TV show The Osbournes in 2001. He is survived by his wife Sharon and his five children, Jessica, Louis, Aimee, Kelly and Jack.
The Sun
17 minutes ago
- The Sun
I was addicted to drugs by 12 & a mum by 14 – then the man who promised to rescue me turned out to be the worst monster
HE was supposed to be her knight in shining armour - saving Karla Solomon from her challenging upbringing. And for a while he really was. But every fairy tale comes to an end, sooner or later. 4 4 Born in California and then moving to Texas, Karla's childhood was very heavy - blighted by drug abuse, 'friendships' with adults twice her age and eventually running away from home. By 12, Karla had become severely addicted to drugs - and felt forced to sell her tiny body in exchange for cash. ''I remember giving a man a b***job at the back of his car just so I could get a chicken nugget Happy Meal,'' she bravely shared in an interview with Soft White Underbelly. When she was 14 - and already arrested by the police more than a dozen times - Karla fell pregnant. She kept the baby and made a go of it with her then-partner, but eventually they split and Karla met her now-husband. The couple moved back to Texas to be closer to Karla's mum - but then she became addicted to pain killers and ran away again, this time to Louisiana. Now a mum-of-three, Karla was determined not to return to her former live and tried to make her money doing music videos. But a rapper she performed for soon turned nasty, demanding sex instead of the cash she was promised. Karla, then 29, escaped but was too scared to return to the home her children lived in, so turned to a high profile local man she knew only as 'Fat', but whose real name is Herman Fox. Next thing she knew, she was in a whirlwind relationship. Who is Craig France and how long did the sexual predator get for his offences ''Within days he was taking me to the mall, buying be beautiful things,'' she told KSAT News. ''He was completely doting on me, taking me to the most expensive hotels. Spending the whole night pampering me, talking to me, finding out my hopes and dreams and aspirations.'' She truly believed she was in a loving relationship and her life would now change. One day, Fat took her on a drive. Throughout the course of the day, Karla noticed he sent women into motels to have sex with men, and took the money they brought back. 'My Prince Charming turned into a monster like that," she said. Eventually Karla was driven to a cheap hotel herself. "I run for the door and he holds me and kisses me and tells me sweet things about how I just need to do it one time until he finds another girl. And I do it," she explained sadly. ''But then I have to do it again and again and again and before I know it I have a $1500 (£1,110) a day quota that I have to meet every day.'' If she could not give him the money, Fox threatened she would be ''severely sexually abused, sodomised and beaten''. Over the course of 54 days, she was trafficked from Louisiana to Texas, then Colorado and back. She recalls: 'A lot of people don't understand (and say) 'Well, Karla you were in your car, couldn't you have left?' I tried." One day Fox left his car keys on a chest of drawers, while he went to another hotel room to check on one of his girls and Karla made a run for it. ''I drove as far away as possible,'' said Karla, who by then was addicted to methamphetamine and weighed less than 7 stone. ''I had been beaten so badly that my ribcage was completely crushed, I had bruises all over my body from trying to protect myself from all of his blows.'' 'I'm gonna do the same thing to her' But as Karla was calling her now-husband for help, she started receiving messages from Fox, ordering her to return - immediately. 'He sent me a video. It was where my daughter gets on and off the bus. He said 'I'm gonna take her, and I'm gonna do the same thing to her.'' Desperate to save her daughter, she went back to him. 'It was move-in week at A&M [Texas A&M University) and that's a big attraction for traffickers," she said. ''Because there's a lot of men in town that have a lot of money because they're putting their boys off to college, or girls. ''And there's a lot of new college boys who want to have parties. My quota goes up to $2500 (£1,900). This goes on for about seven days." What Is Human Trafficking? Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labour or commercial sex act. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide – including right here in the UK. It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality. Traffickers might use the following methods to lure victims into trafficking situations: Violence Manipulation False promises of well-paying jobs Romantic relationships Language barriers, fear of their traffickers, and/or fear of law enforcement frequently keep victims from seeking help, making human trafficking a hidden crime. Traffickers look for people who are easy targets for a variety of reasons, including: Psychological or emotional vulnerability Economic hardship Lack of a social safety net Natural disasters Political instability. Source: Blue Campaign Thankfully for Karla, behind the scenes a huge criminal investigation was going on, and Fox was arrested shortly afterwards. ''I collapsed on the floor and I told DPS [state police], 'You guys just saved my life'.'' At the hospital, Karla was diagnosed with STDs, a severe addiction to crystal meth and complex PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). ''They determined I had multiple broken ribs - they don't see how I was still alive because the bones were so close to puncturing all of my major organs. ''I couldn't look anyone in the face - all I could do was cry and shake like a leaf.'' At that point police were able to arrest Fox on a marijuana charge but still had to build a case against him for any trafficking charges. He eventually took a plea deal and was sentenced to 30 years in prison without parole. 4 Trying to end her suffering Back in Texas, where she was living with her mum and stepdad again, Karla struggled with severe PTSD and even tried to take her own life. A close friend stepped in, helping her realise she had a bigger purpose - and her gut-wrenching trauma suddenly became her therapy. 'We started a ministry together. We just opened our first safe house for girls just like me. We're looking to expand,' Karla told KSAT News in 2019. Now, approaching her 40th birthday, Karla lives with her husband and their three kids. She presents to police and airport staff, explaining how they can increase efforts to combat trafficking - a crime that a shocking 27.6 million people worldwide are subjected to, according to data by Homeland Security. 'The one thing I still get emotional about is helping other girls and boys. ''There's this one girl I've been working with and she's left and came back, and left and came back and I get it. ''And she's finally made the decision she's not going back. And that's just the most beautiful - because I did that.'
