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News and Entertainment
Eric John Black - Actor and screenwriter who appeared in several commercials and TV pilots, who was a member of the Second City Detroit comedy troupe, and who was in the process of developing a new cartoon series name "Daft Buggers" for Nickelodeon, was struck by a car and killed on Sept. 21 near Hazel Park, MI at the age of 36.
Tom Busby - Canadian actor best known for his role as Milo Vladek in "The Dirty Dozen", who also appeared on Canadian TV and in the films like "The War Love" and "Heavenly Pursuits", died of a heart attack on Sept. 20 in Glasgow, Scotland at age 67.
Catharine Crozier - Concert organist who performed recitals throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, who was one of the first American women organists to have a professional touring and recording career and who become known for her definitive playing of contemporary works, died Sept. 19 in Portland, OR of pneumonia at age 89.
Charles Dungey - Veteran jazz bass player and singer, who worked with many of jazz's great names, including J.J. Cale, Buddy Emmons, Eartha Kitt and Bob Crosby, and who was in the orchestra of the Mike Douglas Show, died Sept. 22 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in Atlanta, GA at age 68.
Stanley Fafara - Child actor who played Beaver's friend Hubert 'Whitey' Whitney on "Leave It to Beaver" from 1957 to 1963, who struggled with drug and alcohol problems for many years after his acting career ended, working as a roofer, waiter and janitor and eventually as a drug dealer, but who had been clean and sober since 1995, died Sept 20 in Portland, OR of liver and kidney failure after surgery for a constricted intestine at the age of 54.
Mark Fineman - Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, who had worked for the paper for 18 years and won multiple awards, and who was on assignment in Iraq covering the war, died Sept. 23 of a heart attack in Baghdad at age 51, becoming the 18th non-Iraqi journalist to die in Iraq since March 2003.
Herb Gardner - Tony-winning playwright best-known for his 1962 Broadway hit "A Thousand Clowns", which was the first of a string of successes that featured eccentric characters, who was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation of this play, and among whose other plays were "I'm Not Rappaport" and "The Goodbye People", died Sept. 24 in New York City of lung disease at age 68.
Pamela Gordon - Actress of TV, stage and film, who had roles in such films as "Weird Science", "Poltergeist II", "Chuck & Buck" (as Buck's coughing mom), "Stealing Harvard" and the upcoming "The Technical Writer", and in TV shows like "ER", "Frasier" and "The X-Files", died Sept. 21 of esophageal cancer in Los Angeles at age 66.
Sir Ian Hunter - British concert promoter who played a major role in shaping the famous annual Edinburgh Festival as director from 1950 to 1955, who was the first to add the visual aspect to the event by organizing parallel exhibitions of major painters, died Sept. 5 in West Sussex, England at age 84.
Ellen Idelson - TV comedy writer for numerous shows including "Will & Grace", "Suddenly Susan", "Caroline In the City", "Dream On" and "Ellen", who helped produce the series "Grosse Pointe" and "Danny" and who is the daughter of comedy writer Bill Idelsen and actress Seemah Wilder, died Sept. 19 in Los Angeles of Crohn's disease at age 42.
Gordon Jump - Familiar TV actor best known for his role as Arthur Carlson in "WKRP in Cincinnati" from 1978 until 1982, who also appeared in shows like "Daniel Boone", "Get Smart" and "The Partridge Family", and who the Maytag repairman in ads that ran from 1989 until he retired earlier in 2003, died Sept. 22 of respiratory failure in Los Angeles at age 71.
Frank Lowe - Jazz tenor saxophonist who played and recorded with a range of musicians around the New York jazz and improvisational music scene including Alice Coltrane and trumpeter Don Cherry, whose style has been described as eclectic, and who recorded nearly 20 albums during his career, died Sept. 19 of lung cancer in New York City at age 60.
Gordon Mitchell - Bodybuilder and beefcake actor who had bit parts in films like "The Ten Commandments" and "Li'l Abner", before heading off to Spain and Italy to star in over 100 films, mostly badly-dubbed sandal-and-spear epics and spaghetti westerns, in a career that lasted into the 1990's, died Sept. 20 in his sleep in Los Angeles at age 80.
Tary Owens - Music producer and owner of Catfish Records in Austin, Texas, who revived the careers of several forgotten or unsung bluesmen including Roosevelt "the Grey Ghost" Williams, T.D. Bell and Erbie Bowser, and who was married to singer Maryann Price, died Sept. 21 of cancer in Houston at age 60.
Robert Palmer - Stylish British rocker who became known for his slick videos like "Addicted to Love" featuring blank faced mini-skirted fashion models in white makeup dancing and playing guitar behind the sharp-dressed Palmer, and who developed a signature sound in the 1980's that was a combination of rock, rhythm and blues, and reggae and included big worldwide hits like "Simply Irresistible", "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" and "Every Kinda People", died Sept. 26 of a heart attack while traveling in Paris at age 54.
Sarah Parkinson - British TV writer and producer and wife of comedian Paul Merton, who worked on Merton's BBC news quiz show "Have I Got News For You" and on the upcoming BBC show "Room 101", died Sept. 22 of breast cancer at age 41.
Louise Platt - Actress of film, TV and stage best known for her role as Lucy Mallory, the pregnant wife of a cavalry officer in the 1939 film "Stagecoach", who was the first actress considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film "Gone With the Wind", died Sept. 6 in Greenport, NY at age 88.
Yuri Senkevich - Documentary filmmaker and host of Russia's longest running TV show, "Traveler's Club", who at one time was as doctor at the IMBP becoming a cosmonaut candidate in 1965, and who in 1968 traveled to the Antarctica to take part in an isolation study, collapsed and died of a heart attack on Sept. 25 at his studio in Moscow at age 66.
Sports
Art and Literature
Harold Austen - Life partner of author Gore Vidal for the last 53 years, died Sept. 22 of brain cancer in Los Angeles at age 74.
Lord Blake - British historian best known for the acclaimed "Disraeli", a biography of prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, who also wrote such books as "The Private Papers of Douglas Haig" and "The Unknown Prime Minister (Life of Andrew Bonar Law)", and who has been the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography since 1980, died Sept. 20 in Brundall, England at age 86.
Mary Ritchie Key - Linguist whose research in the indigenous languages of Mexico and South America led her to write dozens of books and articles about them, who enlisted scholars from around the world to create the Intercontinental Dictionary Series, a computerized lexicon for non-European languages, died Sept. 5 in Tustin, CA after a long illness at age 79.
Marc Olden - Suspense-thriller author and entertainment publicist who wrote best-selling novels like "The Ghost", "Dai-Sho" and "Fear's Justice", and whose novel "The Exchange Students" was recently optioned by Robert DeNiro's film company Tribeca, died Sept. 5 in New York City of peritonitis at age 69.
George Plimpton - Self-deprecating author and "participatory" journalist, who wrote about his experiences playing football with the Detroit Lions, sailing with John Kennedy, playing tennis with former President Bush, and acting in movies and TV, in books like "Paper Lion", "Bogey Man", "Out of My League" and "Shadow Box", who seemed to know everybody, athletes, actors, musicians, statesmen, and who founded and published The Paris Review, a periodical dedicated to breaking emerging authors, including Philip Roth and Jack Kerouac, died Sept. 25 of a likely heart attack in his New York apartment at age 76.
Edward Said - U.S. author and Columbia University professor who was a leading spokesman in the United States for the Palestinian cause, who wrote passionately about the Palestinian conflict with Israel, as well as on a variety of other subjects, and among whose books is "The Question of Palestine" and "After the Last Sky", died Sept. 24 in New York City of leukemia at age 67.
Donald Worcester - Renowned author and historian of Latin America and the Old West, who produced numerous articles, historical books, textbooks, three western novels and eight children's books, including the award-winning book "The Apaches: Eagles of the Southwest", died Sept. 21 in Fort Worth, TX at age 88.
Hugo Young - One of England's leading columnists and political authors, who was an authoritative and scholarly voice of liberal politics in Britain, who was the long time political editor of the Guardian, and among whose many writings is the acclaimed political biography of Margaret Thatcher, "One of Us", died Sept. 22 of cancer in London at age 64.
Politics and Military
John Bailey - Powerful Connecticut political figure who for the last nine years served as the chief state's attorney, the top law enforcement officer of Connecticut, and whose family is one of the state's most famous and politically influential, died Sept. 22 of ALS in West Hartford, CT at age 59.
Mike Barnett - Georgia state representative who served five terms from 1982 to 1992, whose primary focus was passing laws concentrated on issues affecting children, their education and welfare, died Sept. 18 of a heart attack in Cummings, GA at age 59.
Joe Clarke - Kentucky state representative who served as a Republican from 1970 until 1998, who held the powerful post of chairman of the Appropriations and Revenue Committee for many years and who was elected speaker of the House in 1993 because of a squeaky-clean image after his predecessor was convicted in a bribery scandal, committed suicide on Sept. 22 at his home in Danville, KY at age 70.
Simcha Dinitz - Israeli ambassador to the United States in the 1970's, who was ambassador during the 1973 Mideast War and played a crucial role in helping organize a U.S. airlift of weapons to Israel at the time, died Sept. 22 of a heart attack in Jerusalem at age 74.
Willis "Bill" Earl - World War I veteran who helped build airfields in France, who lied about his age and enlisted at age 16, died Sept. 17 in Vancouver, WA at age 103.
Kathleen Gingrich - Mother of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who gained national attention in 1995 when she told television journalist Connie Chung that her son had used the word "bitch" to describe Hillary Clinton, died Sept 23 in Harrisburg, PA after a long illness at age 77.
Hugh Gregg - Republican Governor of New Hampshire from 1953 to 1955 who at age 34 was the youngest ever to serve in that state, who became known as "Mr. Primary" after leaving office for his years of promoting the importance of New Hampshire's presidential primary including the authoring of two books on the subject, and who is the father of Senator Judd Gregg, died Sept. 24 in Lebanon, NH at age 85.
Robert Lochner - Chief interpreter for U.S. occupation forces in Germany after World War II, who later served as John F. Kennedy's interpreter during his triumphal visit to West Germany in 1963, where he helped the president practice his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, died Sept. 21 in Berlin of a lung embolism at age 84.
Wesley McCune - Founder and director for over 30 years of Group Research, a Washington-based research and news organization that tracked right-wing organizations and individuals, which has been called the "Birchers of the left", died Sept. 22 of congestive heart failure in Washington, DC at age 87.
Simon Muzenda - Vice president of Zimbabwe and longtime loyal aide of autocratic leader Robert Mugabe, who was a main player in Rhodesia's (as Zimbabwe was known before 1980) fight for independence from Britain, died Sept. 20 in Harare, Zimbabwe after a long illness at age 80.
Aquila al-Hashimi - Iraqi diplomat and Shiite Muslim, who was one of three women and the only official of the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein appointed to Iraq's American-picked Governing Council, who was expected to become Iraq's new ambassador to the United Nations, and who was ambushed and shot by assailants on Sept. 20, died from her injuries on Sept. 25 in Baghdad at age 50.
Ralph Twiggs - Longtime Georgia state representative who was first elected to the Georgia Legislature in 1973, and who focused on passing laws mainly on law enforcement issues and development in the mountains, died Sept. 17 in Houston, TX of cancer at age 75.
Social and Religion
Hideko Arima - Woman known as Japan's oldest "bar mama", who ran the Gilbey A bar in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza district for 52 years until the day she passed away, died Sept. 20 at her bar of a sudden illness at age 101.
Sonora Carver - New Jersey woman who made history in 1924 when she became the first woman to ride the diving horses at Steel Pier in Atlantic City, who became blind after a diving accident but continued high-diving horses for many years, and whose story was told in the 1991 movie "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken", died Sept. 21 in Pleasantville, NJ at age 99.
Casey - The oldest and largest bull African elephant in North America, who was believed to be the oldest and largest captive elephant in the world, who was originally named Casey A. after the Kansas City Athletics baseball team, died Sept. 24 of old age at the zoo in Kansas City, MO at age 52.
Mary Crombie - Illinois woman who was the ninth oldest person in the world, who was a longtime Chicago Cubs fan who could remember the last time the Cubs won the World Series in 1908, died Sept. 22 in Dixon, IL at age 113.
Donald Stewart Lucas - Central figure in the homophile movement in the 1950s and '60s and a founder and former leader of the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights groups in the United States, died Sept. 22 of Parkinson's disease in San Francisco at age 77.
Derek Prince - Biblical scholar and spiritual patriarch who established Derek Prince Ministries, an organization that trains missionaries, church leaders and congregations through 12 worldwide offices, who wrote over 45 books including "Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting" and "The Spirit-filled Believer's Handbook", and who hosted the radio program "Keys to Successful Living" for many years, died Sept. 24 of heart failure in Jerusalem at age 88.
Business and Science
Kenneth Culp Davis - Legal scholar whose 1951 book "Administrative Law" became a landmark guidebook for the thousands of lawyers who practice before governmental administrative agencies and the judges who review agency decisions, died August 30 in San Diego at the age of 94.
Jack Dymond - Noted oceanographer who was among the scientists that in 1977 discovered hydrothermal vents in the ocean floor off the coast of Ecuador, a discovery that altered views about many of Earth's fundamental processes, and who became well-known for his research dives in a one-person submersible to the Crater Lake floor, drowned Sept. 19 while fishing on the Rogue River near Gold Beach, OR at age 64.
Galileo - Spacecraft launched with Atlantis in 1989 that has become one of NASA's most successful missions, which has orbited Jupiter since 1995 sending scientific measurements journeying a total of 2.8 billion miles, which discovered a large ocean on the Jupiter moon of Europa that scientists say could harbor extraterrestrial life, but which recently became low on propellant, was intentionally forced by scientists into the atmosphere of Jupiter on Sept. 21 and vaporized to prevent it from someday crashing on Europa and contaminating it with Earth microbes.
Xabier Gorostiaga - Central American economist and Jesuit priest who became an advocate for the poor, who lectured all over the world on economic development and published numerous volumes of essays, and who once described the world as "a champagne glass civilization" in that 80% of the world's income is taken by 20% of the population, while 60% of the world's population survives on just 6% of the income, died Sept. 14 of brain cancer in Spain at age 66.
Joe Magliochetti - Chairman and chief executive officer of auto parts giant Dana Corp., who had been with the company for 37 years, and had recently been fighting a hostile takeover bid of the company by ArvinMeritor Inc., died unexpectedly on Sept. 22 while being treated for pancreatits in Toledo, OH at age 61.
Bernard Manischewitz - President and owner of the kosher foods company B. Manischewitz, which was founded by his grandfather in 1888 and is known for it's wine and matzo, and who became the last generation to own the company as he sold to investors in 1991, died Sept. 20 of heart disease in Verona, NJ at age 89.
Franco Modigliani - Economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1985 for his theory on personal savings (about how people save money for their old age) and for his work on how to determine the market value of businesses, and who was a longtime professor of economics at MIT, died Sept. 25 in Cambridge, MA at age 85.
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