Driss Chraibi (80) Moroccan novelist who wrote about Islam, colonialism, and the treatment of women in his homeland. Chraibi moved to Paris in 1945 to study chemistry and remained in France until his death. He wrote 19 novels, most dealing with colonialism and his memories of Morocco, all in French, his adopted tongue. He died in southwest France on April 1, 2007.

Johnny Hart (76) cartoonist whose award-winning "B.C." comic strip appeared in newspapers worldwide. Populated by prehistoric cavemen and dinosaurs, “B.C.’’ was launched in 1958 and eventually appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers with an audience of 100 million. Hart died of a stroke while working at his drawing board in Endicott, New York on April 7, 2007.

Jill McGown (59) successful crime novelist after being laid off from the British Steel Corp. in the early Ô80s. McGown, who particularly admired Agatha Christie and Josephine Tey, aimed for tight plots and offered the traditional British menu of murder, many suspects, and an unexpected twist. Most of her books are whodunnits featuring two police officers, Det. Chief Inspector Danny Lloyd and Det. Inspector Judy Hill, and located in a fictional English town based loosely on Corby, in Northamptonshire. She died of cancer in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England on April 6, 2007.

Otto Natzler (99) master glazer and wizard of the kiln who with his wife, Gertrud (d. 1971), created some of the most admired ceramic objects of the 20th century. Pottery by the Natzlers was a prized wedding gift in the ’40s and ’50s with prices ranging from $35 to $400. Otto Natzler died of cancer in Los Angeles, California on April 7, 2007.

Laurie Baker (90) British architect whose chance meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in the ’40s started him on a lifelong career of designing low-cost and environmentally respectful houses in India. Baker designed many innovative structures and inspired a movement that thrives today in the hands of Indian architects. He died in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the state of Kerala, India, on April 1, 2007.

William Becker (85) cofounder of Motel 6, the innovative low-budget motel chain launched in Santa Barbara, California in the early ’60s. Becker died of a heart attack in Kingman, Arizona on April 2, 2007.

Dr. John Billings (89) Australian physician, founder of a natural contraception method that won support among Catholics. Billings and his wife Evelyn pioneered the Billings Ovulation Method in the ’50s—a technique that helps women to identify their fertile and nonfertile states based on their menstrual cycle. Critics of the Billings method argue the church supported it because of its relatively high failure rate, which earned it the nickname “Vatican Roulette.’’ Billings died in Melbourne, Australia on April 1, 2007.

James J. Needham (80) first full-time paid chairman of the New York Stock Exchange (1972-76). A certified public accountant, Needham was named chairman of the stock exchange in 1972 after a reorganization of its leadership. He died of complications related to myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder, in Southampton, New York on April 6, 2007.

Louis Flores Ruiz (88) businessman who transformed a tiny family business that sold homemade enchiladas into the largest manufacturer of frozen Mexican food in the US. The massive growth of Ruiz Foods—founded in 1964 in the San Joaquin Valley—reflected the rise of the Latino population in the US and the country’s growing appetite for ethnic food. Ruiz died in Dinuba, California on April 1, 2007.

Conrad Spizz (90) tough-talking, cigar-chewing artisan of smoked fish whose work was enshrined behind glass at some of New York City’s best-known food shops. For more than 50 years, Spizz ran Rego Smoked Fish, a smokehouse and retail outlet in Middle Village, Queens. He was the first of two well-known figures in NYC’s smoked-fish community to die this month; his death came five days before that of Rubin Caslow, who ran Acme Smoked Fish in Brooklyn. Spizz died of a heart attack in Port Washington, New York on April 3, 2007.

Carroll Johnson (69) longtime Spanish professor at the University of California at Los Angeles whose Freudian analysis of novelist Miguel de Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote stirred controversy among Cervantes scholars. Johnson died of a stroke in Chicago, Illinois, where he had gone to deliver a lecture, on April 3, 2007.

Werner Maser (84) German historian considered one of the leading experts on Hitler and his regime. Maser won international acclaim with a biography of Hitler, Hitler: Legend, Myth & Reality (1971), translated into 22 languages. He died in the west German city of Speyer on April 5, 2007.

Elliott P. Skinner (82) former US ambassador to the Republic of Upper Volta, the West African nation now known as Burkina Faso, and a former chairman of the anthropology department at Columbia University. Skinner was a professor at Columbia (1954-94) and in 1972 was named the first black department chairman in the university’s history. He died of heart failure in Washington, DC on April 1, 2007.

Danny Barcelona (77) longtime drummer with Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars, who traveled the world with the legendary jazz trumpeter and played on scores of recordings, including Armstrong’s 1964 hit “Hello, Dolly!’’ The Hawaiian-born drummer joined Armstrong’s All-Stars in 1958 and traveled with the band throughout the US, Asia, Europe, Africa, and behind the Iron Curtain for more than 10 years. He died of cancer in San Gabriel, California on April 1, 2007.

Robert ("Bob") Clark (67) film director best known for the holiday classic A Christmas Story (1983). Clark was killed with his son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark (22), in a head-on crash with a vehicle steered into the wrong lane by a drunken unlicensed driver, Hector Velasquez-Nava (24), an illegal alien, in Pacific Palisades, California on April 4, 2007.

Luigi Comencini (90) Italian postwar film director known as the “children’s director’’ for his explorations of the world of children. Besides films such as Pane, amore e fantasia (1953; Bread, Love & Dreams), Comencini was one of the founders of the Cineteca Italiana—the first film archive in Italy. He died in Rome, Italy on April 6, 2007.

Stan Daniels (72) Emmy-winning TV writer and producer who worked on two of the most acclaimed comedies of the ’70s. Daniels won eight Emmys during his long TV career, including three as cocreator and executive producer of Taxi and three as a writer on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. He died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California on April 6, 2007.

Susan Elliott (65) widow of British actor Denholm Elliott. The couple had an open marriage for 30 years, during his double life as a promiscuous bisexual until his death from AIDS in 1992. Disabled by a stroke, Susan Elliott died of severe burns sustained in a house fire, in London, England on April 7, 2007.

John Flynn (75) film director best known for the action movies Rolling Thunder (1977) and The Outfit (1973). Flynn developed a cult following for his movies portraying tough guys wreaking mayhem and getting revenge. He died in his sleep in Los Angeles, California on April 4, 2007.

Colin Graham (75) artistic director of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, formed in 1976. Graham joined the company in 1978 and became artistic director in ’85. During his 29 years in St. Louis, he staged 48 new productions. He died of respiratory and cardiac arrest in St. Louis, Missouri on April 6, 2007.

Terry Hall (80) British ventriloquist who entertained the baby-boom generation as the creator and sidekick of Lenny the Lion, British TV’s most ineffectual king of beasts (’50s-’60s). Hall died of Alzheimer’s disease in Coventry, England on April 4, 2007.

Ariel Hanrath-Clark (22) actor, musician, and son of filmmaker Bob Clark who had small roles in several films such as It Runs in the Family (1994), I’ll Remember April (1999), and Baby Geniuses (1999). Hanrath-Clark was killed in a car accident along with his father, in Pacific Palisades, California on April 4, 2007.

Edward Mallory (76) actor who portrayed the angst-ridden Dr. Bill Horton on the NBC daytime drama Days of Our Lives for 14 years (1966-80). Mallory portrayed a surgeon who pined for and eventually married his brother’s wife, after keeping secret the fact that he had fathered her son. He died in Cumberland, Maryland on April 4, 2007.

Katy McElhinny (19) aspiring actress and singer who landed lead roles in the College of the Sequoias’ production of Dangerous Liaisons and the Tulare County Office of Education's Beauty & the Beast. McElhinny was also first runner-up in March’s Miss Tulare County pageant. She was killed in a car accident in Tulare, California on April 2, 2007.

Barry Nelson (89) MGM contract player during the ’40s who later had a prolific theater career and was the first actor to play James Bond on screen. Before Sean Connery was tapped to play the British agent on the big screen in Dr. No (1962), Nelson played Bond in a one-hour TV adaptation of Casino Royale in 1954. He died unexpectedly while traveling in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on April 7, 2007.

Walter Nicks (81) internationally known dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Nicks was a certified master teacher of the technique of Katherine Dunham, at whose Manhattan school he had trained in the mid-’40s. His choreography, rooted in traditional modern and jazz dancing, demanded first-rate technique from his performers in blues-jazz dances and high-powered sass, most notably in performances in 1985 by the Walter Nicks Dance Company. He died in Brooklyn, New York on April 3, 2007.

George Sewell (82) British actor who had one of the best-known faces in Britain, thanks to dozens of appearances on TV and in films, notably Get Carter (1971). Sewell played principal stage roles in Oliver!, Fings Ain’t Wot They Used to Be and Oh! What a Lovely War in the ’60s. He died of cancer in London, England on April 1, 2007.

Neal Shine (76) newspaper executive who began as a copy boy for the Detroit Free Press and worked his way up to become its managing editor and later its publisher. Shine was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1993 and overcame it, but recent tests found it had returned. He also had pneumonia and died of respiratory failure in Detroit, Michigan on April 3, 2007.

Mark St. John (51) former Kiss guitarist. St. John was Kiss’s third official guitarist, having replaced Vinnie Vincent—substitute for Ace Frehley—in 1984. The lone Kiss album on which St. John appeared, Animalize, reestablished the group as one of the world’s top arena metal bands. He died of an apparent brain hemorrhage in New York City on April 5, 2007.

Erika Strong (24) model who posed nude and appeared in numerous gothic soft-core pin-up-style photos on the popular alt-porn website SuicideGirls.com, respectively under the name Benni. Strong died of a reported drug overdose in Dayton, Minnesot on April 3, 2007.

John Winter (39) meteorologist for NBC affiliate WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida. Winter also co-owned an advertising firm, Big U Media. Suffering from severe depression, he shot himself to death at his home hours after admitting to his wife that he had an affair with a Big U Media employee, in the Tampa suburb of Lithia, Florida on April 5, 2007.

Belinda Wright (78) British ballerina who toured the world and excelled in the 19th-century Romantic and classical repertory. Wright died of a coronary ailment in Zürich, Switzerland on April 1, 2007.

Edgar B. Young (98) behind-the-scenes administrator who smoothed the way for the construction of New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the ’60s by juggling the demands of government agencies, donors, architects, and artistic organizations. Young died three weeks before his 99th birthday, in Medford, New Jersey on April 6, 2007.

Jagjit Singh Chauhan (80) Sikh leader who led a violent separatist campaign in India’s northern Punjab state. A dentist by training, Chauhan was active in state politics and became a lawmaker in 1967. In 1970, he launched a campaign for a separate state called Khalistan, or Land of the Pure, for India’s Sikh minority. Thousands were killed before the insurrection was crushed in the early ’90s. Chauhan died of a heart attack in Tanda, 65 miles east of Amritsar, India, on April 4, 2007.

Dorothy Enzi (83) mother of US Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and a leader of the National Miss Indian America Pageant. Dorothy Enzi was the first woman president of the Sheridan (Wyo.) Chamber of Commerce and directed the National Miss Indian America Pageant for 12 years. She died in Sheridan, Wyoming on April 2, 2007.

Hans Filbinger (93) former governor of Germany’s Baden-Wuerttemberg state who resigned amid revelations about his past as a Nazi-era naval judge. Filbinger governed Baden-Wuerttemberg, a prosperous region in Germany’s southwest, from 1966 until his past emerged as an issue in ’78, prompting his resignation. He died in Freiburg, Gemany on April 1, 2007.

Abigail Holman (45) first-term state legislator, long a familiar figure in the Maine State House. Holman was killed in a skiing accident at Sugarloaf USA, where she was participating in an annual fund-raising ski race. She had just completed a run and was skiing out of the finish corral when she struck a tree, in Carrabassett Valley, Maine on April 7, 2007.

Raymond ("Jerry") Murphy (77) winner of a Congressional Medal of Honor for his service during the Korean War. Murphy retired in 1997 from a 23-year career as director of veteran services in the Albuquerque Veterans Affairs regional office. He died of a form of dementia related to Alzheimer’s disease, in Pueblo, Colorado on April 6, 2007.

John Peyton (62) former Hawaii state official and federal prosecutor who also helped to establish a new legal system for war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina. The last permanent head of Hawaii’s Department of Public Safety, Peyton had been working for the US Agency for International Development to help improve the legal system in Malawi. He was killed in a car crash while vacationing in Zimbabwe on April 4, 2007.

Maj. Gen. Antonin Spacek (89) Czech World War II veteran who fought the Nazis in the French and British armies. Back at home after the war, Spacek was arrested for alleged high treason by the Communist regime in 1949, spent five years in prison, and for another 13 years was forced to work in a uranium mine. His reputation was fully rehabilitated after the 1989 collapse of the Communist regime. He died in Prague, Czech Republic on April 3, 2007.

Reginald H. Fuller (92) prominent British-born New Testament scholar who used his knowledge of Hebrew and Greek to hunt for the historical Jesus and his fluency in German to debate the nuances with theologians. Fuller died of complications from surgery for a broken hip, in Richmond, Virginia on April 4, 2007.

Rebecca Griego (26) researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle who called her violent alcoholic ex-boyfriend Jonathan Rowan, who had been stalking her for months and threatening her family, “a psycho from the past.’’ Griego obtained a domestic-violence protection order March 6, changed addresses and phone numbers, and asked coworkers to watch out for him. But he found her alone in her office and shot her to death, then committed suicide, in Seattle, Washington on April 2, 2007.

Lois Jones (110) oldest person in South Carolina, believed to be one of the state’s oldest residents. Jones outlived her husband and all four of her children. She died in Heath Springs, South Carolina on April 7, 2007.

Jonathan Rowan (41) Washington man who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Griego (26), in her office on the fourth floor of Gould Hall at the University of Washington after Griego filed a restraining order against him last month in King County Superior Court. Rowan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound (suicide) in Seattle, Washington on April 2, 2007.

Jimmy Lee Smith (76) convicted murderer sentenced to life in prison in the 1963 kidnapping and killing of police officer Ian Campbell. The crime inspired Joseph Wambaugh’s true-life crime novel The Onion Field (1973), made into a movie in 1979. Paroled in 1982, Smith was in jail on a parole violation when he was found dead in his cell in Castaic, California on April 6, 2007.

Nina Wang (69) Hong Kong’s richest woman, best known for a legal battle with her father-in-law over her missing husband’s estate. Teddy Wang was kidnapped in 1990 and declared dead in ’99; his body was never found. Nina Wang, whom Forbes magazine in 2007 ranked as the world’s 204th richest person with a fortune of $4.2 billion, reportedly suffered from ovarian cancer that had spread to her liver and other organs. She died in Hong Kong on April 3, 2007.

Herb Carneal (83) Hall of Famer who broadcast Minnesota Twins games for the past 45 seasons in a fluid and soothing baritone. Carneal was part of the club’s radio play-by-play team for all but the first year of the team’s existence in Minnesota. He called Athletics and Phillies games in Philadelphia and Orioles games in Baltimore before going to Minnesota in 1962—a year after the Washington Senators became the Twins. He died of congestive heart failure in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 1, 2007.

Nadja Therese Carr (4) daughter of former Timberwolves guard Chris Carr, who played for the Wolves (1996-99) and five other teams in a seven-year NBA career. Nadja Carr died unexpectedly of flulike symptoms in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 7, 2007.

Carl Earn (86) one-time Los Angeles-area tennis great who later taught the game to such Hollywood stars as Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Dinah Shore, and Gene Hackman. A left-handed tennis player known for his blistering topspin forehand, Earn was head pro at the Hillcrest Country Club in Beverly Hills for 25 years and at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club for five. He died in Los Angeles, California on April 4, 2007.

Morgan Innes (14) up-and-coming figure skater who won the 2006 Queensland Intermediate Ladies Championships. Innes came in seventh in the novice-level ladies' division at the 2006 Australian Championships, becoming one of the top dozen members of Australia's ice-skating community. She had been missing since March 28 after a fiery boat accident, when the 10-meter motor cruiser she was riding in with her teammates collided with a ferry. Her body was recovered from Sidney Harbour on April 3, 2007.

Brian Miller (70) former professional British footballer and England international who played as a wing back. Miller played only for Burnley during his career. He twice managed the Clarets (1979-83, ’86-89) and helped them to win the Third Division title during his first stint. He died in Burnley, England on April 7, 2007.

Ladislav Pataki (60) standout track-and-field thrower and sports scientist who defected from the Soviet Union in 1985 to Silicon Valley and helped to train America’s elite track and field athletes. Pataki died of brain cancer in San Jose, California on April 5, 2007.

Eddie Robinson (88) former Grambling State University football coach who sent more than 200 players to the NFL and won 408 games during a 57-year career. Robinson had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, diagnosed shortly after he was forced to retire following the 1997 season, in which he won only three games. He died in Ruston, Louisiana on April 3, 2007.

Darryl Stingley (55) former star receiver with the New England Patriots, paralyzed after a vicious hit during an NFL exhibition game. Stingley was left a quadriplegic after he collided with Oakland’s Jack Tatum while trying to catch a pass in the game on April 12, 1978. He was found unresponsive at his home and died in a hospital of bronchial pneumonia, quadriplegia, spinal cord injury, and coronary atherosclerosis, in Chicago, Illinois on April 5, 2007.