Public Figures Who Lived (Too?) Long

[JCMach1]

One Vote for the tragic Leni Reifenstahl

Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003) was a German film director, dancer and actress widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal friendships with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels thwarted her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, after which she was arrested but never convicted of war crimes.<1>

The propaganda value of her films made during the 1930s repels most commentators but many film histories cite the aesthetics as outstanding.<2><3><4> After her death the Associated Press described Riefenstahl as an "acclaimed pioneer of film and photographic techniques."<5> Der Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin noted, "Leni Riefenstahl conquered new ground in the cinema."<6> The BBC said her documentaries "were hailed as groundbreaking film-making, pioneering techniques involving cranes, tracking rails, and many cameras working at the same time."<7> Reviewer Gary Morris called Riefenstahl "an artist of unparalleled gifts, a woman in an industry dominated by men, one of the great formalists of the cinema on a par with Eisenstein or Welles."<8> Riefenstahl later published her still photography of the Nuba tribes in Africa and made films of marine life... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leni_Riefenstahl

Probably one of the most brilliant filmmakers you have never heard of... She was also brilliantly misguided under the NAZI regime.

==========================================================

Who is your nomination?

[jmowreader]

1. One vote for Prescott Bush

Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895-1972) is the father of George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st president of the United States, and grandfather to George Walker Bush, the one we're stuck with now. He is the first in a long line of Bush men to attend Yale. He was a businessman, Nazi sympathizer, and politician, ending his career in the Senate.

Now...during World War I Prescott was an artillery officer in the American Expeditionary Forces in France. If the fucking Reichswehr would have known how to fire a counterbattery mission, they could have saved us all a lot of grief.

[pitohui]

2. i think everyone has heard of her but be that as it may...

i don't know enough about her later life to know if SHE felt she lived too long, didn't she get into the underwater movies and have an entire other life? or am i thinking of someone else?

public figures who lived too long would be, to my mind, people who are obviously suffering and had no quality of life after a certain point but weren't allowed to go because they were too prominent, you can probably figure out who i'm thinking of, our society tortures old people for profit, it really does

for the most part, the good die young, at least at the moment, no progressive figure is springing to mind for having lived "too" long

[JCMach1]

3. She did... kind of a tragic figure... obviously she couldn't really make movies

after the war... She did some nature stuff and photography. She scuba diving into her 90's I believe.

Tragic and tragically flawed...

[cordelia]

4. Ronald Reagan

He died about 96 years too late.

[Captain Angry]

5. I don't wish an early death on anyone.

BUT, since I have to pick somebody to participate, I will choose Strom Thurmond.

Hate must be powerful to keep somebody alive that long.

[FloridaJudy]

6. J. Edgar Hoover

Ran the FBI as his personal fiefdom for 48 years. Used it to persecute anyone he perceived as being leftist.

[Lou Queb]

7. Nobody lives too long I believe, I'd rather say public figures who lived long

Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford lived up to their 90s. Winston Churchill died at 90. What about Pinochet ? He dead right ?

[otherlander]

22. He dead

AND...

they won't tell anyone where his grave is because they fear it'd become the world's most popular urinal. :evilgrin:

It's true! If you think I'm lying, just try to find out where he's burried. They won't tell you.

[BeachBaby]

8. Well, being that you didn't specify whether the nominee need to

be deceased or not, I can think of one person right now who has been around too long, and done alot of damage in the meantime - and apparently still has alot of power:

Henry Kissinger

[Lou Queb]

9. yes, he's still alive and I believe that Robert Mc Namara is very old too.

[BeachBaby]

10. I followed the 9/11 investigation very closely.

Henry Kissinger was asked by BushCo to head the Commission. Apparently, those 4 tough broads from Jersey (and I say that with respect and admiration) weren't too thrilled with it. They demanded to have a meeting with him, which they were granted.

They asked him about his clientele....and because of their concerns regarding conflict of interest issues, they wanted to know if any of his clients were of Saudi descent, namely bin Laden family members. He refused to answer, and resigned from the Commission position the next day.

That's my girls. ;)

I was blown away when I heard that he was chosen to head the commission. I had no idea he was still in the political fray.

[BeachBaby]

11. Holy shit - you're right about McNamara!

He's almost 92 freaking years old!

Ya ever wonder how so many politicians live for so long? How come they rarely become stricken with cancer and strokes and massive heartattacks like the rest of us mere mortals? Hmmmmm.;)

[HERVEPA]

12. Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. oh---easy---General Franco

close 2nd...that # 2 Al-Quada guy they keep killing over and over.

dead heat for 3rd...McCain

[Robeson]

18. Is he still dead?....

...;-)

[AlCzervik]

14. not that i wish death on anybody but....when Henry Kissinger dies i won't be boohooing for him.

[BrotherBuzz]

15. Paul Harvey

[annabanana]

16. Generalissimo Francisco Franco

[Brigid]

17. But he's still dead!

At least, that's what they said on SNL. :evilgrin:

[Lou Queb]

19. Franco is dead yes, a long time ago.

Tito was old as well as Mao Tse Toung I believe was old

[martymar64]

20. Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov

He was Stalin's right hand man. He lived to be 96.

[FarLeftRage]

21. Hmm... I'll say milton friedman...

that motherfucker should have been stillborn or aborted...