Three obits from the past four weeks each sit one step off a name everyone knows.

Wayne Perkins, Birmingham, Alabama session guitarist, died March 16 in Alabama after a stroke at 74. [1] Eric Clapton recommended him to the Rolling Stones in 1975 as a possible replacement for Mick Taylor; Perkins played on "Hand of Fate," "Memory Motel," and the overdubbed slide on "Fool to Cry" during the Black and Blue sessions before Keith Richards chose Ronnie Wood. [1] [2] Perkins also nearly joined Lynyrd Skynyrd — Ronnie Van Zant was his close friend, and Perkins turned the gig down in December 1976; the plane crash was in October 1977. [1] He played on Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch a Fire and Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark.

John Nolan, English stage and screen actor, died April 11 at 87. [3] He trained at Drama Centre London in the 1960s, did Royal Court work and BBC miniseries through the '70s, and in 1998 played a role in his nephew Christopher's directorial debut Following. He went on to play Wayne Enterprises board member Douglas Fredericks in Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and former MI6 agent John Greer on Jonathan Nolan's Person of Interest. [3] Christopher Nolan's tribute called him "the first artist I knew."

Angela Pleasence, daughter of Donald Pleasence, died April 9 at 84. Her six-decade career began on Coronation Street in 1968 as Monica Sutton, moved through Doctor Who as Queen Elizabeth I, and closed with Happy Valley in 2016. She appeared in more than sixty screen roles. [4] Her last film was Your Highness (2011).

Three careers that earned their obituary lines one step to the side of the poster. The line is the life.

-- CAMILLE BEAUMONT, Los Angeles