This week: a soul singer with a famous son and one of music's biggest talent agents
THE soul singer Cuba Gooding Sr, who has died aged 72, was the lead singer of soul group The Main Ingredient and had a brief solo career with Motown Records. He was also the father of the Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr.
Gooding Sr's biggest hits with The Main Ingredient were Everybody Plays The Fool in 1972 and Just Don't Want To Be Lonely, in 1974.
His son Cuba, who won the best supporting actor Oscar in 1997 for his role in Jerry Maguire, spoke about his father earlier this year and said one of his earliest memories was him performing at Disneyland.
"He would pull me up on stage with him and make me finish the song because I'd seen him perform it all the time," Gooding Jr said. "It was a lot of feeling like, 'I come from royalty'."
Cuba Gooding Sr was encouraged to pursue a singing career by his family. "My mom and dad were determined that their first-born son would do something in the arts, if I had the talent," he said in 2014. "Being born in Harlem had its advantages if you wanted to be an entertainer because it was literally the entertainment capital of the world.
"I lived only eight blocks away from the Apollo Theater, and 19 blocks from Carnegie Hall. Although Carnegie Hall required a little bit more sneaking in the back."
Gooding Sr and his wife Shirley had four children, actors Cuba and Omar, musician Tommy and daughter April. His body was reportedly found in a parked car in the San Fernando Valley in California. There was no suspicion of foul play but according to some reports drug paraphernalia and alcohol were found in the vehicle.
THE agent and talent manager Sandy Gallin, who has died aged 76, guided the careers of stars such as Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Cher and Nicole Kidman, as well as being a TV, movie and Broadway producer.
Other Gallin clients included Neil Diamond, Joan Rivers, Mariah Carey, Whoopi Goldberg, Renee Zellweger, Lily Tomlin, Martin Lawrence, Paul Lynde and Howie Mandell.
He helped produce such films as 1991's Father of the Bride and 1994's IQ starring Tim Robbins, as well as the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
He earned a Primetime Emmy Award in 1980 for producing The Miracle Worker, starring Melissa Gilbert.
He also managed Michael Jackson after the pop star was accused of molestation and guided Milli Vanilli when the performers were stripped of their Grammy Award after it was discovered they had not sung on their hit album.
On Broadway, Gallin produced the 2002 Tony Award-nominated revival of Man of La Mancha, starring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and a revival of Hedda Gabler with Kate Burton.
Gallin was raised in New York City and was a graduate of Boston University. He broke into the agency business in the traditional manner, starting in the mail room of the GAC agency. He took typing and shorthand in night school, became a secretary, then an agent.
"I booked the Sullivan show for seven years," he said in 1983. "I saw how Ed operated, how he gave talent the best possible exposure. It was a brilliant operation."
Gallin continued up the agency ladder, later joining Raymond Katz in the powerhouse Katz-Gallin agency.
He appeared in front of cameras in the mid-1980s as host for Live ... and In Person, NBC's hour-long extravaganzas. In later life, he sold houses and took charge of luxury renovations.
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