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Gaming Icons R.I.P.
Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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When arguably the two most famous American-born gaming icons, Bobby Fischer and Gary Gygax, passed away within less than two months, I thought it might be neat to create a geeklist about some others.
(I guess I sort of got carried away with the idea. Oh, well. I had fun with it.)
Did I make any mistakes or miss anyone, especially those from other countries?
Minimum requirements:
1. A year of death (and hopefully a month and day), except possibly for those who died over 500 years ago with proper estimated dates.
2. The person should have been a game designer, a famous game player, a game artist, a game company founder or executive, or have some minimal notoriety such as a wikipedia entry, a somewhat prominent obituary, an important book or magazine entry, or something similar. (Those solely connected with video games should not be included and only those with prominent role-playing game connections should probably be included. Those who had a negative influence such as by banning games should also probably be excluded.)
(And no, I'm not going to rearrange the list alphabetically...)
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Darrell K. Sweet (August 15, 1934 - December 5, 2011) was an artist known for his fantasy novel cover art. Some of his artwork was used for various game items. He was nominated for Hugo award in 1983.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Sherrill David "Jerry" Robinson (January 1, 1922 - December 7, 2011) was an American comic book artist known as the creator of the Batman villain the Joker.
He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Marc Piret (December 19, 1963 - December 15, 2011) was a game player and boardgamegeek user from Liège, Belgium. He was born in Huy, Belgium.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/Shandiel
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Vitaly Valerianovich Tseshkovsky (September 25, 1944 - December 24, 2011) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was a former chess champion of the USSR. He was co-winner of the 1978 Soviet Championship and winner of the 1986 Championship.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Bob Anderson (September 15, 1922 - January 1, 2012) was an English actor and Olympic fencer who was the stunt double for Darth Vader in the movies The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. His portrayal of Darth Vader and work on Lord of the Rings, Zorro, James Bond, and The Princess Bride movies probably helped influence a few games.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Rockland Francis "Rocky" Russo (March 6, 1948 - January 1, 2012) was a game designer and historian from Salt Lake City, Utah, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was passionate about aeronautics and engineering. In 1977, he and Michael Scott Kurtick designed Space Patrol, a game which was later converted into the first Star Trek role-playing game.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Joseph Henry Condon (February 15, 1935 - January 2, 2012) was a Princeton-born experimental physicist and engineer who with Ken Thompson created Belle, a computer hardware that played championship quality chess. Condon created the custom hardware.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Oeva Jean Wells Koebernick, known as Jean Wells, (July 25, 1955 - January 25, 2012) was a writer, artist, and editor known for role-playing game contributions. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, she was employed by TSR between 1979 and 1981. She was married to fellow game designer Corey Koebernick.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Ardath Frances Hurst (February 20, 1930 - February 1, 2012) was a Texas author who wrote for Dragon magazine.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Nikolay Evdakov (May 5, 1964 - February 6, 2012) was a Russian professional poker player who made his name in the poker world when he set the record for the most cashes in a single World Series of Poker.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Steven Francis Kordek (December 26, 1911 - February 19, 2012) was the Chicago-born game inventor who revolutionized the game of pinball in the 1940s by designing what became the standard two-flipper machine by revising the "pin game", a version where a player would pull a plunger and then shake the table to redirect the ball. Flippers had just been introduced but his alteration provided direct-current, making the flippers more powerful and more accurate. He last contributed to a game in 2003.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Pierre Clequin (c. 1955 - February 22, 2012) was a game designer who is probably best known for designing games with Bruno Faidutti such as Warrior Knights, Knightmare Chess, and Baston.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Janice "Jan" Grant Berenstain (July 26, 1923 – February 24, 2012) was an American illustrator who created the Berenstain Bears, together with her husband Stan Berenstain who was also an illustrator. Her artwork helped inspire a few children's games.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Ralph McQuarrie (June 13, 1929 – March 3, 2012) was an academy award-winning artist who provided artwork for the Star Wars movies and other science fiction movies. His Star Wars concept paintings have been displayed in various art exhibitions. He previously worked for Boeing and for CBS, animating the Apollo space program. His artwork was used in various Star Wars games.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Greg Novak (September 4, 1950 - March 7, 2012) was pioneering wargamer from Champaign, Illinois. He worked for GDW Games and is known as the co-designer of the popular miniatures rules Volley & Bayonet.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (May 8, 1938 - March 10, 2012) was a French comic artist. His most famous creation was the Western comic series "Blueberry" which he co-created with Jean-Michel Charlier. He was credited as an artist for the role-playing game Metabarons.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Ian "Turps" Turpie (November 6, 1943 – March 11, 2012) was an Australian television celebrity known for hosting the Australian version of The Price Is Right and other game shows.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Professor Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman "Phillip" Barker (November 3, 1929 - March 16, 2012) was a game designer and retired professor of Southwestern Asian Studies. Since the age of ten, he developed the background, history, and lore of an imaginary world called Tékumel where his role-playing games and other games have been set.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Yuri Razuvaev (October 10, 1945 – March 21, 2012) was a Russian chess player and trainer. He became a grandmaster in 1976 and was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer in 2005.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Hans Kreijns (May 27, 1928 - April 4, 2012) was a Dutch contract bridge champion. He was the best-known player from The Netherlands. He won the World Pairs Olympiad title in 1966 in Amsterdam and was second at the 1965 European Team Championship in Ostend, Belgium.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Jack Tramiel (December 13, 1928 – April 8, 2012) was a Polish-born American businessman who founded Commodore International, the manufacturer of the iconic Commodore 64 home computers which launched many computer games. In 1984, he resigned from Commodore and bought the consumer division of Atari. He and his parents survived the Auschwitz labor camp and were later rescued from by American forces; he was a co-founder of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Dirk "Smartie" Martens (1970 - April 8, 2012) was an active game player, LARP player, and game organizer who died of ALS. The card game Wizard was one of his favorites.
http://boardgamegeek.com/user/smartie
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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James Ronald Pierce (August 14, 1929 - April 11, 2012), also known as "Fort Worth Jim", was a pastor who was "an avid rabid gamer" and longtime member of the South Arlington Gamers. He might be best known on boardgamegeek for his Twilight Struggle and other photos. He died at the age of 82.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Richard Wagstaff "Dick" Clark (November 30, 1929 – April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality and businessman who was also known as the host of the American television game show Pyramid. He also had two brief runs as a quiz-show host. He hosted the syndicated television game show The Challengers and was an executive producer of the game show Greed.
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Chris R.
United States
Unspecified
Missouri
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Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston, Jr. (December 31, 1928 – April 29, 2012) was an American professional gambler and pool hall hustler who became poker's first superstar. He won the 1972 World Series of Poker Main Event and had appeared on The Tonight Show and I've Got a Secret. Preston won five times in World Series and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992 and a few other gambling halls of fame.
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Posted Wed Dec 7, 2011 3:29 am
Portland
Oregon
Unspecified
Missouri
By date of death.
(If the exact day is not known, I think the person is assumed to have passed away on the first day of the known month or year.)
Villeurbanne
Thumbs up to you anyway!
Unspecified
Missouri
Yeah, I went a bit crazy at one point. I probably need to split this geeklist into two or more parts at this point, but it is difficult to know if certain people should be on the primary geeklist or a secondary one. For example, certain artists or cartoonists may have contributed to several mass-marketed or obscure games. Where should I place them? What about chess, poker, and bridge players who are famous but perhaps not really, really famous?
Villeurbanne
But, wel, I guess the work to make to separate lists would be tremendous…