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News and Entertainment
Matt Beer - Flamboyant and troubled columnist who wrote for the Detroit News and the San Francisco Examiner, who was editor of Orbit magazine, the Detroit Monthly magazine and at the web-culture website suck.com, who was known for his ability to write gossip columns that pushed the boundaries of good taste and the First Amendment, died Oct. 6 of an apparent heart attack in Cambodia where he had arrived two days earlier to begin a new job as editor of an English-language newspaper there. He was 50 years old.
Arthur Berger - American composer, critic, music analyst, and teacher, best known for his fiery essays in the "Perspectives of New Music" periodical he founded, who composed noted works such as the orchestral "Ideas of Order" and the neoclassical "Quartet for Winds", and who published "Reflections of an American Composer", a collection of his essays, in 2002, died Oct. 8 of heart failure in Boston at age 91.
Mervyn "Butch" Blake - Shakespearian actor and member of the Stratford Festival Company acting troupe of Canada, who appeared in more than 130 productions during 42 consecutive seasons at the Festival, who acted in major venues throughout Canada, and appeared in several films including "The Black Tulip" and "The Three Musketeers", died Oct. 9 in Toronto after a long illness at age 95.
Clarence B. Cagle - Pianist for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys from 1943 until Wills left for Hollywood to make Western films a few years later, and who played with his brother Johnnie Lee Wills for many years afterward, died Oct. 5 in Tulsa, OK at age 83.
June Cann - Founder and owner of June Cann Management, who represented some of Australia's biggest stars, including Nicole Kidman, Bryan Brown, Naomi Watts, Noah Taylor and Jack Thompson, died Oct. 5 in Woollahra, Australia at age 86.
Carl Fontana - Jazz trombonist who played with orchestras like Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton and Kai Winding, who was a member of Supersax and recorded several solo albums, and who was a regular Las Vegas performer over the years, died Oct. 10 of Alzheimer's in Las Vegas at age 75.
James Forlong - Television correspondent for Britain's Sky News, who was suspended from the network in July 2003 after he admitted faking parts of a report on the war in Iraq (he claimed to have an exclusive of a missile launch but showed archival footage during the report), was found dead in his London home on Oct. 4, an apparent suicide at age 44.
Wally George - Conservative talk show host and one of the first to use a "combat TV" format, who rose to popularity in the 1980's as host of "Hot Seat", a show where he sat at a desk in front of an American flag and a picture of the space shuttle trading insults with a guest in the "hot seat" (usually actors portraying strippers, struggling shock rockers, homosexuals and other "un-American" folk) until Wally proclaimed "You're outta' here!" and threw them off the show, and who is the father of actress Rebecca DeMornay, died Oct. 5 of bone cancer in Fountain Valley, CA at age 71.
Stuart Golland - British television actor who is best known for his role as Ward, the pub landlord, on the series "Heartbeat", who appeared in numerous other TV shows including "All Creatures Great and Small" and "Rumpole on the Bailey", and who also acted in Ken Loach's 1981 film "Looks and Smiles", died Sept. 11 in Leeds, England at age 58.
Tommy Hanlon - U.S.-born Australian TV personality and circus performer, who was one of that country's first TV stars as host of Australia's highest rated daytime program ever,"It Could Be You", a show that reunited long-lost relatives, who later worked for 23 years as master of ceremonies at Silvers Grand Magic Circus, and who appeared in several Hollywood movies, died Oct. 10 in Melbourne of cancer at age 80.
Beate Hasenau - German actress who appeared in dozens of films and TV shows in Germany, as well as the 1977 U.S. film "The Late Show", died Oct. 1 of cancer in Hamberg at age 67.
Carl "Cork" Hubbert - 4' 7" actor who usually had roles as elves or midgets in such films as "Legend", "Under the Rainbow" and "The Ballad of the Sad Café", who also appeared in numerous TV shows in the past few years including "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch", "Charmed", "ER", "The Drew Carey Show" and the up and coming Comedy Central movie "Knee High P.I.", died Sept. 28 in Venice, CA of diabetes complications at age 51.
Eugene Istomin - Acclaimed American pianist best known for his performances of the German and Viennese Classical and Romantic repertory, and his recordings of Beethoven, who made a mark on the chamber music world as a member of the Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio in the 60's and 70's, died Oct. 10 in Washington, DC of liver cancer at age 77.
Joel Johnson - Minneapolis blues musician, and radio personality, who was rhythm guitarist of the Joel Johnson Band which released several albums, but who was known most for supporting other acts through his "Lazy Bill Lucas" radio show on KFAI-FM in Minneapolis for the last 14 years, died of a brain hemorrhage after his radio show on Oct. 2 in Minneapolis at age 55.
Fredy Knie Sr. - Master horse trainer and circus performer and the fifth generation of his family to belong to Switzerland's Knie circus troupe, which was founded in 1803, who served as director of the circus for 50 years, and whose sons continue to run the highly popular show, died Oct. 8 after a long illness at age 83.
Don Lanphere - Bebop jazz saxophone player, who recorded with such bebop trumpet legends as Fats Navarro and Max Roach, who was a regular at clubs and jazz events in the Pacific Northwest, and who was known as "the dean of the jazz world in Seattle", died Oct. 9 in Redmond, WA at age 75.
Louis Lichtenfield - Motion picture matte artist and Oscar-nominated photographic f/x producer, who worked on such films as "Flash Gordon" and "King Kong", and who was nominated for an Academy Award for visual effects for his work on 1957's "The Spirit of St. Louis", died Sept. 12 of cancer in Los Angeles at age 84.
Thalia Mara - Noted ballet dancer and ballet educator who danced professionally with various ballet companies around the world, who founded both the School of Ballet Repertory and the National Academy of Ballet and Theatre Arts in New York City, who was a contributing editor to Dance Magazine, a critic and feature writer for The Christian Science Monitor and an author of eleven published books on ballet, including the "Steps In Ballet" series, died Oct. 8 in Jackson, MS at age 92.
Dale Oliver - Disney animator for over 30 years, whose credits include "101 Dalmatians", "Peter Pan", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Robin Hood", died Oct. 2 of an aneurysm at age 84.
Lloyd Pfautsch - Composer of religious music and one of the country's most respected university choral conductors and teachers, who founded and directed the Dallas Civic Chorus, and who taught at Southern Methodist University for 34 years, died Oct. 2 after a stroke in Dallas at age 82.
Mu Qing - President of the Chinese government's Xinhua News Agency from 1982 until 1992, who had been a war correspondent for the agency for many years, and who published dozens of other works including photo albums and books on journalism theory, died Oct. 4 in Beijing at age 82.
Denis Quilley - British stage actor who starred in several major West End musicals and was a mainstay at the National Theatre in London, who appeared in several films as well including "Privates On Parade", "Anne of the Thousand Days" and "Murder On the Orient Express", died Oct. 5 of cancer in London at age 75.
Antanas Rekasius - Lithuanian composer who wrote symphonies, ballets and other large scale works, which are distinguished by their way-out mode of expression, from humorous touches to fiery temper, who was one of the most controversial figures in Lithuanian classical music, and whose music was performed both in the ex-USSR and abroad, was found shot to death on Oct. 4 in Vilnius, Lithuania, an apparent suicide, at age 75.
Lee Robinson - Australian filmmaker and industry pioneer, who directed films like "The Siege at Pinchgut", "Walk into Paradise" (Australia's first Cannes Film Festival participant) and "Attack Force Z", but who is best known for creating and producing the phenomenally successful Australian television series "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo", died Sept. 22 in Sydney at age 80.
Timothy S. Robinson - Journalist who covered the Watergate trials and other legal matters for The Washington Post, who later was editor of the National Law Journal, who was director of network programming for NBCi.com and chief producer for the Excite and AltaVista Internet search services (How do you produce a search service?), and who recently became editorial director for search and navigation at America Online, died Oct. 7 of colon cancer in Leesburg, VA at age 58.
Alberita Semrad - Journalist, author, TV show host and freelance writer for Chicago-area newspapers and magazines, who wrote the children's book "The Zoo" and hosted "The Book Lady" show on WTTW-TV in Chicago in the 1960's, died Oct. 3 in Chicago at age 107.
Don Sider - Journalist for Time and People magazines for more than 50 years, who was invited earlier this year by the Pentagon to cover the war in Iraq for People, who recently made news himself when he was booked into a Georgia jail in September on suspicion of criminal trespassing for snooping on Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck on the actor's estate, died Oct. 8 of heart disease in West Palm Beach, FL at age 70.
Florence Stanley - Gravely-voiced stage and TV actress best known as Bernice, the wife of Detective Phil Fish (Abe Vigoda) on "Barney Miller", who also had regular roles on "My Two Dads" and "Nurse", and who appeared in films like "Outrageous Fortune", "Up the Down Staircase" and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire", died Oct. 3 from complications of a stroke in Los Angeles at age 79.
Bob Thomson - Host of the long-running PBS how-to television series "The Victory Garden" from 1979 to 1991, who showed people not only how to grow vegetables and flowers, but also how to do landscape gardening, died Oct. 2 in Topsfield, MA from the effects of Alzheimer's disease at age 74.
Sports
Alexander "Fabela" Chavez - Lightweight boxer known as 'Fabulous Fabela' who fought in the 1940's and 50's with a career record of 41-24-7, who never won a world title but whose popularity helped to sell out cards in Southern California, and who was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993, died Oct. 1 of lung cancer in Palm Springs, CA at age 73.
Walter Elcock - President of the U.S. Tennis Association and International Tennis Federation in the early 1970's, who was responsible for equalizing the prize money for men and women at the 1973 U.S. Open, died Oct. 9 in Brookline, MA at age 81.
Wilson Jones - Two-time world's billiard champion in 1958 and again in 1964, whose success spurred the popularity of the sport in his home country of India, where he was considered a pioneering hero, died Oct. 4 in Mumbai, India after a series of strokes at age 81.
Johnny Klippstein - Major league baseball pitcher from 1950 until 1967 who played for 8 different teams, the first 5 years with the Chicago Cubs, and then 5 with the Cincinnati Reds, who had a career record of 101-118 as both a starter and a reliever, and who remained a staunch Cubs fan after retiring from baseball (he died listening the Cub's playoff game), died Oct. 10 in Elgin, IL of prostate cancer at age 75.
William "Buck" Lai - Basketball coach, baseball coach and athletic director at Long Island University, who returned basketball to the school after the point shaving scandals of the early 1950's, who with his wife Mary Lai, were affiliated with the school for more than 60 years, and who was the son of the William "Buck" Lai, Sr., the first Chinese major league baseball player, died Oct. 7 in Glen Cove, NY at age 78.
Dan Snyder - Hockey player who played in 36 games for the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers last season and 35 games for the minor league Chicago Wolves, who helped Chicago win the AHL championship during 2001-02, died Oct. 5 in Atlanta from injuries received in a car accident on Sept. 29. He was 25 years old. (Snyder was a passenger in a car driven by Thrasher teammate Dany Heatley, who was driving his Ferrari at about 80 mph on a narrow two-lane road when he lost control, spun off the road and smashed into a brick and wrought iron fence, splitting the car in two. Heatly is likely to be charged with vehicular manslaughter).
Dean Thompson - One of Southern California's most popular and successful sprint car drivers, who won California Racing Assn. championships in 1980, '81 and '82, and won 111 races in his career, died Oct. 7 of a ruptured aneurysm in Torrance, CA at age 53.
Dr. Wyatt Webb - Head basketball coach at Akron University from 1968 to 1975, who was the youngest coach in school history at age 26, who compiled a record of 126-60, leading the Zips to the Div. II national championship game in 1972, died Oct. 8 of cancer in Fairlawn, OH at age 62.
Dwain Weston - Skydiver and president of the Australian BASE Association (BASE jumping is a sport where participants get certification by free-jumping from a Building, an Antenna (or crane), a Span (or bridge), and the Earth (e.g. a cliff)), who was participating in a skydiving stunt at the Royal Gorge Bridge near Canon City, Colorado on Oct. 5 where he and another parachutist jumped from an airplane intending to do an acrobatic maneuver around the bridge, was killed when he struck the bridge railing and fell into the Royal Gorge in front of 200 horrified spectators. He was 30 years old.
Art and Literature
Francis Earle Barcus - Specialist in the field of mass communication and on television's effects on children, whose books "Children's Television" and "Images of Life on Children's Television" have become major references on the subject of how TV affects children, and who was an expert on content analysis, a method of social science research where the investigator examines media messages, died Oct. 4 in Boston of a heart attack at age 76.
Dale H. Fife - Author of children's books, who wrote two dozen books beginning with 1947's "Weddings in the Family" (made into a TV movie by NBC) to 1991's "The Empty Lot", and who won numerous awards for her writing, died Oct. 8 in Burlingame, CA at age 102.
Cliff Harville - Playwright who drew on his West Texas roots to create indelible character portraits in plays like "Rough Draft", "Sunsets" and "Mary Martin Taught My Mama Dancing", died Oct. 4 in Fort Worth, TX after heart surgery at age 77.
Carolyn Heilbrun - Feminist scholar, Columbia University professor and novelist, best known as the author of nine feminist books that included "Toward a Recognition of Androgyny", "Reinventing Womanhood" and "Writing a Woman's Life", who also wrote the Kate Fansler series of detective novels under the pseudonym Amanda Cross, committed suicide on Oct. 9 in New York City at age 77.
Neil Postman - Influential social critic who came to attention with his 1982 book "The Disappearance of Childhood", where he asserted that an immersion in a media environment (e.g. TV) shaped children's lives to their detriment, and society's, by steeping their minds in vast amounts of information once reserved for adults, causing cynicism, apathy and arrogance to replace curiosity and short-circuiting education and moral development (whew! heavy), and who wrote 20 books and more than 200 magazine articles, died Oct. 5 of lung cancer in Flushing, NY at age 72.
Martin Ridge - Noted scholar on the American West, who wrote numerous history books including "Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier" and "Ignatius Donnelly: The Portrait of a Politician", and who served for 11 years as editor of the Journal of American History, died Sept. 22 in Pasadena, CA at age 80.
Politics and Military
Viola Burnham - Widow of Guyana President Forbes Burnham, who served as vice president and deputy prime minister from 1985-1991 after his death, and who was a key figure in the establishment of the infamous Jonestown 'agricultural colony' under Jim Jones in the 1970's, died Oct. 10 of cancer in Georgetown, Guyana at age 72.
Marjorie Bong Drucker - Widow of WW2 flying ace and war hero Richard I. Bong, who became a celebrity when America saw her picture painted on the nose of her fiancée's P-38 Lightning fighter plane which became known as "Marge's plane" and she became known as "the most shot-after girl in the South Pacific" (Richard Bong was killed in a plane crash in 1945), and who later became an outspoken advocate for veterans and preserving history, writing a book and opening the Richard I. Bong World War II Heritage Center, died of cancer on Oct. 4 in Superior, WI at age 79.
Lady Donaldson (real name Dorothy Warwick) - The first and only woman in the 800-year history of the office to be lord mayor of London, the highest government title in the City of London, who served one term in 1983, died Oct. 4 in Lymington, England at age 82.
Henry Giordano - Commissioner of the federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1962 to 1968, who was a longtime undercover drug agent, whose rugged features allowed him to pose as a down-at-the-heels narcotics peddler, a flashily prosperous racketeer, a small-time gambler, an escaped convict or a sailor, and who worked undercover with the Canadian Mounties to arrest the notorious Mallock brothers in 1949, died Sept. 19 of cancer in Olney, MD at age 89.
Don Holland - State senator from South Carolina, who had been that state's longest-serving active lawmaker (34 years in the senate, 10 years as a representative), and who had served as chairman of the powerful Judiciary committee, died Oct. 5 in Camden, SC of a heart ailment at age 75.
Jose Carlos Martinez - Brazilian lawmaker and president of the Brazilian Labor Party, part of that country's governing coalition, was killed in a plane crash on Oct. 4 about 220 miles west of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was 55 years old.
Prince Norodom Narindrapong - Cambodian prince who was in line to become that country's king, but who fell from grace after expressing sympathy for the Khmer Rouge, and had moved to Paris, died Oct. 7 of a heart attack at his Paris apartment at age 49.
Mildred O'Neill - Widow of former speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, died Oct. 6 in her sleep at her home in Bethesda, MD at age 89.
Elisabeta Rizea - Romanian anti-communist resistance fighter whose defiance of the regime made her a symbol of Romania's fight against tyranny, whose story was told in Romanian newspapers and films about the communist era after the fall of communism in 1989, died in Pitesti, Romania on Oct. 6 at age 91.
Social and Religion
Roma Armbrust - Half of the environmentalist duo referred to as 'grandmas in tennis shoes', who formed the Ormond Beach Observers, a group of environmental advocates and concerned residents, whose goal was to conserve the last undeveloped stretch of coastal wetlands in Ventura County, California, who over the years had fought back several grand development proposals, including theme parks and housing developments, died Oct. 10 in Ventura, CA of pancreatic cancer at age 76.
Bertha Champagne - Babysitter for the family of Marvin Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, who lived with the family in Fairfax, Virginia, was killed outside the Bush's home on Oct. 6 after being crushed when her car rolled into her, pinning her between the vehicle and an outbuilding on the property (she apparently had accidentally shifted the car into gear after going outside to retrieve something from it). She was 62 years old.
Jet - Pioneering border collie who drew international acclaim for chasing birds off Southwest Florida International Airport's runway, who was the first such dog to be used at a commercial airport as part of a wildlife management program, a practice now used at dozens of airports worldwide, and who was inducted into the Florida Animal Hall of Fame, died Oct. 7 in Fort Myers, FL of a degenerative heart condition at age 8.
Eleanor Lambert - Fashion publicist who helped put American designers on par with their European counterparts, who presided over the International Best-Dressed List for many years, and who created the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, died Oct. 7 in New York City after a brief illness at age 100.
L.C. - Fiesty cat who was adopted by workers at the Escondido, California city library, who lived at the library and served as the official greeter, and who jumped into the national spotlight in 1999 when the owner of a guide dog sued the city for $1.5 million when L.C. attacked his dog during a library visit (no harm was done to him or his dog and the lawsuit is still unsettled), died Oct. 4 or 5 at a private home in Escondido at age 11.
Gertrude "Trudi" Nadel - Elderly Florida woman who had been robbed at her home several weeks earlier by men posing as repairmen, who vowed she wouldn't be duped so easily again, but who on Oct. 10 was accosted by a man in a minivan who grabbed her purse as she was leaving a store, refused to let go of it and was dragged to her death when the minivan took off with her hands in the passenger side window. She was 86 years old.
Rev. Johnny Clyde Reynolds - Minister at the Turner Monumental AME Church in Atlanta, who on Oct. 5 had just finished teaching Sunday and was preparing for the main church service, and who stopped in the sanctuary to talk to Shelia Wilson, 43, and her mother Jennie Mae Robinson, 67, was shot in the back and killed as he walked away from them by Shelia Wilson, who then shot and killed her mother, then herself, in front of a stunned congregation. Rev. Reynolds was 62 years old.
Aaron Rollins & Seth Bartell - Students at Ricori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota who were shot during a rampage by freshman Jason McLaughlin on Sept. 24. The boys were shot in a hallway outside the weight room. Rollins, 17, died at the scene and Bartell, 14, died of his injuries on Oct. 10. It was reported that McLaughlin was a target teasing because of severe acne.
Elena Slough - The oldest documented person in the United States, and third oldest person in the world, who lived in the same nursing home as her 90-year-old daughter, died Oct. 5 in Trenton, NJ at age 114, just 3 days after the death of her daughter.
Timothy Treadwell - Wildlife enthusiast, photographer and author who founded Grizzly People, an organization devoted to preserving bears and their wilderness habitat, who traveled recently with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard to the Katmai National Park and Preserve on the Alaska Peninsula to film encounters with bears, was mauled to death by a large brown bear on Oct. 6 (as was Huguenard), after they had set up video equipment to capture the encounter. Treadwell was 46 and Huguenard 37.
Business and Science
Israel "Izzy" Asper - One of the world's most power media moguls, whose conglomerate CanWest Global Communications owns the Southam newspaper chain in Canada; RadioWorks, New Zealand's largest radio group; New Zealand's TV3 and TV4; Australia's Network Ten; Ireland's TV3; and Northern Ireland's UTV, among numerous others, and who though accused on several occasions of editorial interference at his media outlets donated millions of dollars to charities, died Oct. 7 in Winnipeg, Canada of undisclosed causes at age 71.
Carville Earle - American geographer and anthropologist, among whose books are "Concepts in Human Geography" and "Geographical Inquiry and American Historical Problems", died Oct. 9 in Baton Rouge, LA after a long illness at age 60.
Douglas Fang - Scion of a San Francisco newspaper publishing family and chief operating officer of the San Francisco Examiner AsiaWeek, the Independent and Grant Printing, died Oct. 8 in New York from stomach cancer at age 38.
Barry Gaudette - World renowned forensic scientist, who specialized in hair and fiber analysis, whose dog-hair evidence helped convict Wayne Williams in the Atlanta child murders, but whose biggest contribution was helping to bring DNA analysis technology to labs across Canada, died Oct. 1 in Ottawa, Canada of multiple myeloma at age 56.
Shirley Glass - Psychologist and couples therapist known as "the godmother of infidelity research" who wrote the book "NOT Just Friends: Protect Your Relationship from Infidelity and Heal the Trauma of Betrayal", died Oct. 8 of breast cancer in Baltimore at age 67.
Ulrico Hoepli - Head of the Hoepli Library, an a family-owned Italian publishing house founded in 1870 and now being run by the fifth generation of Hoepli's, and which is famous for printing the Hoepli Manual, a chemical handbook for engineers now in it's 83rd edition, died Oct. 9 in Milan at age 97.
Charles Seabrook - Owner, with his father and brothers, of Seabrook Farms, at one time the largest irrigated vegetable farm in the world, whose experiments with freezing and packing vegetables led to a partnership with Clarence Birdseye and revolutionized the food industry, died Oct. 4 in Woodstown, NJ at age 94.
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