Mahmoud Darwish (67) Palestinian poet whose prose expressed the Palestinian experience of exile, occupation, and infighting. Darwish's work has been translated into more than 20 languages and has won international awards. He died after open heart surgery in Houston, Texas on August 9, 2008.

Simon Gray (71) British writer, author of plays and diaries. Gray wrote bitingly comic plays like Butley, Otherwise Engaged, and Quartermaine's Terms about the educated British middle class. In his confessional late-in-life memoirs, he claimed to have consumed three bottles of champagne a day for years and never kicked a three-packs-a-day cigarette habit. He had had prostate cancer and learned in 2007 that he had lung cancer. He died in London, England on August 6, 2008.

Michael Silberkleit (76) chairman and publisher of Archie Comics who tried to keep the comic rooted in a clean-cut past while allowing it to reflect contemporary pop culture. Silberkleit's father, Louis Silberkleit, founded the company in 1941 with John Goldwater, who thought up the "everyteen" character of Archie Andrews during a time when superheroes reigned. They hired illustrator Bob Montana (d. 1975) to draw the carrot-topped Archie and his 17-year-old high school friends in the mythical town of Riverdale. Michael Silberkleit died of cancer in New York City on August 5, 2008.

Theodore ("Ted") Solotaroff (80) literary editor who in 1967 started the New American Review as a showcase for a rising generation of writers, including Philip Roth, William H. Gass, and Mordechai Richler in just the first issue. Solotaroff died of pneumonia in East Quogue, New York on August 8, 2008.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (89) 1970 Nobel Prize-winning author whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system. Solzhenitsyn's accounts of torment and survival in the Soviet Union's slave labor camps riveted his countrymen but earned him 20 years of exile, international renown, and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Beginning with the 1962 short novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn described the human "meat grinder" that had caught him and millions of other Soviet citizens: arbitrary arrests, often for trifling and absurd reasons, followed by sentences to slave labor camps where cold, starvation, and punishing work crushed inmates physically and spiritually. His Gulag Archipelago trilogy of the '70s shocked readers by describing the savagery of the Soviet state under dictator Josef Stalin but helped to destroy sympathy for the Soviet Union among many leftist intellectuals. The West offered him shelter and praise, but Solzhenitsyn criticized Western culture for what he considered its weakness and decadence. Despite living in Vermont for 18 years, he returned to Russia in 1994 after the Soviet regime crumbled. He died of heart failure in Moscow, Russia on August 3, 2008.

Robert N. Beck (80) scientist who did early work on using radioactive materials for medical imaging. Beck died of myelodysplasia, a blood disorder, in Chicago, Illinois on August 6, 2008.

Jean Dent (101) former public health nurse who started the first clinic in Triana, Alabama and was considered a medical savior for many blacks in north Alabama during the segregated '40s and '50s. Dent also had a rare gift—giving shots to children without hurting them. She died in her sleep in Huntsville, Alabama on August 6, 2008.

Hortense Miller (99) environmentalist who created one of the best private gardens in the country. Miller's knowledge of plants was sought by leading horticulturists. Protective of her 2-1/2-acre property in Laguna Beach's Boat Canyon, she gave the land to the city in 1976. She wanted the public to continue to see it the way she liked it, as a wild mix of native coastal scrub, tropical succulents, blooming perennials, and exotics such as towering puya stalks from Chile. She died in Mission Viejo, California on August 4, 2008.

John W. Nichols (93) cofounder and chairman emeritus of Devon Energy Corp. Nichols registered the world's first public oil and gas drilling fund with the Securities & Exchange Commission. He and F. G. ("Blackie") Blackwood later built one of Oklahoma's largest oil and natural gas companies. In 1971, Nichols founded Devon, today the nation's largest independent oil and natural gas producer with operations that stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Artic and to China, Brazil, and Azerbaijan. He died in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on August 3, 2008.

Andrea Pininfarina (51) chairman and chief executive of the Italian company founded in 1930 by his grandfather that designs Ferraris and other cars. In its first year Pininfarina designed cars for Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and other Italian manufacturers. Andrea Pininfarina was killed instantly when a car struck his Vespa scooter in Trofarello, seven miles south of Turin, Italy and close to Pininfarina's headquarters, on August 7, 2008.

Vivian W. Yen (95) "Iron Lady" of Taiwan's motor industry as chairwoman of the Yulon Group and one of the island's wealthiest women. Yen died of heart and lung failure in Taipei, Taiwan on August 9, 2008.

Bernie Brillstein (77) Hollywood talent manager and producer who guided the careers of such performers as John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Muppets creator Jim Henson and helped to bring Saturday Night Live and other shows to TV. Brillstein died of chronic pulmonary disease in Los Angeles, California on August 7, 2008.

Erik Darling (74) guitarist and banjo player who stepped in when Pete Seeger left the pioneering folk music group The Weavers. Darling was perhaps best known for his hit "Walk Right In" and for his arrangement of the Southern true-crime ballad "Tom Dooley," which inspired The Kingston Trio's recording of the song that topped the charts in 1958. He died of lymphoma in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on August 3, 2008.

Frank H. Delaplane (79) former news editor for the Gannett News Service who also worked for newspapers in San Francisco and Reno. Delaplane suffered from multiple sclerosis for 23 years. He died in Reno, Nevada on August 4, 2008.

Robert Hazard (59) songwriter and musician who wrote the 1983 Cyndi Lauper hit, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Hazard led the band Robert Hazard & the Heroes, a fixture in Philadelphia clubs through the mid-'80s. He died unexpectedly after surgery in Boston, Massachusetts on August 5, 2008.

Helene Indenbirken (93) Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio's grandmother. Indenbirken was born in Oer-Erkenschwick but immigrated to the US—returning to that western German town only in 1983. Her daughter, Irmeline, is DiCaprio's mother. Indenbirken died in Recklinghausen, Germany on August 4, 2008.

Peter Kass (85) theater actor and director whose influence as a teacher was felt by several generations of performers. Kass inspired hundreds of actors, including Olympia Dukakis, Faye Dunaway, John Cazale, Maureen Stapleton, and, more recently, Val Kilmer. He died of heart failure in New York City on August 4, 2008.

Eri Kawai (43) Japanese pop and classical singer and songwriter who worked in all aspects of music from singing and composing her own songs to arranging and performing other people's works. Kawai's music can be heard on the soundtracks for the Air movie, Aria the Animation, and its sequels, Crayon Shin-Chan, Bamboo Blade, Romeo X Juliet, Strange Dawn, and Tales of Symphonia. She died of liver cancer in Tokyo, Japan on August 4, 2008.

Eric Lewis Liebowitz (35) one of the "Jesus Twins" who performed several times on the syndicated TV Howard Stern Show who reportedly suffered from bipolar disorder and was off his medication. Liebowitz had been hospitalized a couple of times in between appearances on the show. He was shot and killed during a police confrontation outside his home in Encino, California on August 5, 2008.

Bernie Mac (50) comedian and actor who starred in one of US TV's few black sitcoms, The Bernie Mac Show, and appeared in films including the casino heist caper Ocean's Eleven. Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He died of complications from pneumonia in Chicago, Illinois on August 9, 2008.

Eleo Pomare (70) modern-dance choreographer whose wit tempered his angry social-protest pieces about the human condition and the plight of blacks. As a dancer, choreographer, and activist, Pomare first stunned audiences in the '60s with works of originality and forcefulness. Many were performed on flatbed trucks in the streets as part of the Harlem Cultural Council's Dancemobile project, of which Pomare was the first artistic director. He died of cancer in New York City on August 8, 2008.

Nicola Rescigno (92) cofounder of the Dallas Opera. Rescigno and the late Lawrence V. Kelly founded the Dallas Opera in 1957. The pair attracted well-known performers such as soprano Maria Callas. Rescigno had been hospitalized for surgery for a broken leg. He went to sleep and didn't wake up, in Viterbo, Italy on August 4, 2008.

Chester Smith (78) country music singer, radio broadcaster, television empire-builder, and owner of Eureka Television Group, a media empire that spanned from Bakersfield to Oregon and included local Fox, Univision, CW, My Network, and CBS stations. Smith died of a heart attack at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California on August 7, 2008.

Jud Taylor (76) past president of the Directors Guild of America, well known for directing TV movies. Taylor earned an Emmy nomination for directing the 1977 TV movie Tail Gunner Joe. His other directing credits include the TV movies The Old Man & the Sea, Out of Darkness, A Question of Honor, and Flesh & Blood and episodes of TV series, including Star Trek and The Fugitive. He died in New York City on August 6, 2008.

Lou Teicher (83) half of a duo that produced and performed popular theatrical recordings of big Hollywood movie themes. Teicher and Art Ferrante were first dubbed "The Movie Theme Team" in 1961, acclaimed for their rapid-fire twin-piano and orchestral performances. For 40 years they performed theatrical recordings of themes from such movies as The Apartment, Exodus, and "Tonight" from West Side Story. Teicher died of heart failure three weeks short of his 84th birthday, in Highlands, North Carolina on August 3, 2008.

Nicole von Ruden (40) TV producer and journalist who wrote and directed segments for CNN, Entertainment Tonight, and more recently The Dr. Phil Show. Von Ruden covered the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. In 2002, she was chosen to run with the Olympic torch through part of San Luis Obispo County before the Winter Games in Salt Lake City for facing her fight head-on against a brain tumor first diagnosed in 2000. She died of brain cancer in Pismo Beach, California on August 7, 2008.

Francine Navarro (58) wife of Serbian pretender-king Crown Prince Nikola II who married the monarch-in-exile in 1976 and led a successful private life in France ever since her husband's father and grandfather became prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II after refusing to return to the throne as a puppet King in an unsuccessful abdication. Francine Navarro later became a fashion designer for the France Petrovitch & Eva Robinson fashion house that she established in Paris. She died in Paris, France on August 6, 2008.

Anthony J. Russo (71) Rand Corp. researcher in the late '60s who encouraged Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and stood trial with him in the Vietnam War-era case that triggered debates over freedom of the press and hastened the fall of President Richard M. Nixon. Ellsberg later became an antiwar icon and sought-after lecturer and author, but Russo was relegated to a few lines in history books. He had a heart attack in 2005 and died in his native Suffolk, Virginia on August 6, 2008.

Denis Vetchinov (32) Russian army major posthumously honored with Russia's highest military award, Hero of the Russian Federation golden star, for courage and heroism while fulfilling his duty in saving the lives of a group of journalists in the North Caucasus region during the 2008 South Ossestia war. Vetchinov was shot and fatally wounded in action during an ambush by Georgian special forces on the outskirts of Tskhinvali, Georgia on August 9, 2008.

Alberto Achacaz Walakial (79) one of the last surviving members of the nomadic Kaweskar tribe that once plied the waters off Chile's Patagonian coast. Experts estimate that only about a dozen full-blooded Kaweskars—or Alacalufes—survive, and the group appears destined to disappear in the near future because there are no women of fertile age left. Achacaz was hospitalized at the end of June after appearing before doctors malnourished, dehydrated, and weighing under 130 pounds. Septic shock affected his lungs and gall bladder. He died of blood poisoning in Punta Arenas, 2,175 miles south of Chile's capital, Santiago, on August 4, 2008.

Heliberto Chi (29) Honduran-born convicted killer who shot and killed store manager Armand Paliotta (56) in the back during an after-hours robbery at an Arlington, Texas clothing store in 2001. Chi became the sixth inmate executed in Texas this year and the second in three days involving a foreign national. He was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on August 7, 2008.

Jesse W. Curtis (102) retired jurist who served nearly 40 years on the bench, including 28 years as a judge in the US District Court for Central California. During his federal career, among the many cases Curtis presided over was the first jury trial held in American Samoa. He died in Irvine, California on August 5, 2008.

William M. Goldstein (72) prominent tax lawyer, a partner in the Philadelphia law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP for 26 years, who argued an appeal of the definition of income in 1990 that is still cited in textbooks. Goldstein died of cancer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 6, 2008.

Robert A. Maheu (90) former Howard Hughes confidant and CIA operative once involved in a failed plot to poison Fidel Castro. Maheu was the public face of Hughes's massive corporate empire in the '60s, when the troubled aviator and one-time Hollywood playboy was increasingly reclusive and dogged by phobias. Maheu died of congestive heart failure in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 4, 2008.

José E. Medellín (33) Mexican-born killer, one of six former gang members convicted of the torture, rape, and strangulation of two teenage girls in Houston in 1993. Two other gang members were also sentenced to die; two had their sentences commuted to life in prison, and the sixth, Medellín's brother, Vernacio, was serving a 40-year prison sentence. Medellín was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas on August 5, 2008.

Robert Montgomery Jr. (78) Palm Beach attorney who represented the state of Florida in a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies. Montgomery was lead attorney for the state's lawsuit against American tobacco manufacturers, seeking reimbursement for Medicaid expenses related to health problems from smoking. He died at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota on August 3, 2008.

Aurelius H. Piper Sr. (92) hereditary chief of the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Tribe. Known as Big Eagle, Piper was named chief in 1959 by his mother, Chieftess Rising Star, and later took over residence and care of the tribe's one-quarter acre reservation in Trumbull, Connecticut, where he died on August 3, 2008.

Ingrid Rivera (24) ticket agent for British Airways at Kennedy Airport, reported missing for three days after she had attended a birthday party for rapper Li'l Kim at Spotlight Live karaoke nightclub in New York City's Times Square on Aug. 3. Investigators said Rivera was kicked out of the club for accidentally going into the men's restroom and was last seen with another partygoer on the rooftop trying to sneak back into the club. She was found beaten to death inside the utility closet on the club's rooftop, on August 6, 2008. Authorities arrested bar employee Syed Rahman (24) in connection with her murder.

Irma Mae Weule (109) oldest survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the most devastating quake in US history, which she experienced as a child in her hometown. Weule was one of a dozen survivors who attended a centennial commemoration in 2006 and was interviewed on national TV. She died in San Francisco, California on August 9, 2008.

Todd Bachman (62) chief executive of the Minneapolis-based gardening firm Bachman Inc. Bachman was the father of former Olympic volleyball player Elisabeth Bachman and father-in-law of Hugh McCutcheon, current head coach of the US men's national volleyball team. While sightseeing in China on the opening day of the 2008 Olympics, Todd Bachman was stabbed to death and his wife, Barbara (62), critically injured by a Chinese man, Tang Yongming (47), who then leaped to his death from a 130-foot high balcony on Drum Tower, popular tourist attraction, in Beijing, China on August 9, 2008.

Skip Caray (68) voice of the Atlanta Braves for 33 years and part of a family line of baseball broadcasters that included Hall of Famer Harry Caray (d. 1998). Skip Caray was drawn into broadcasting by his father, Harry, longtime voice of the Chicago Cubs and a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The family line has continued with two of Skip's sons: Chip Caray is part of the Braves broadcast team, and Josh Caray works on the radio for the Class A Rome Braves. Skip Caray died in Atlanta, Georgia on August 3, 2008.

Peter Coe (88) British father of two-time Olympic running champion Sebastian Coe. Peter Coe was an engineer who survived when his merchant navy ship was torpedoed in the Atlantic during World War II. Coached by his novice father, Sebastian burst onto the international scene as a 20-year-old in 1977 when he ran to victory in the European indoor championships. The elder Coe died in London, England on August 9, 2008.

Ken Going (66) former fullback with New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks, and a member of one of that country's most famous rugby families. With siblings Sid and Brian, Ken Going was one of a trio of brothers who represented New Zealand's Northland province, the New Zealand Maoris and the All Blacks through the '60s and '70s. He died of cancer in Wellington, New Zealand on August 6, 2008.

Anthony Hart (21) up-and-coming Grand Prix motorcycle racer and younger brother of former Motorcross free-style champion Carey Hart. Anthony Hart was also the brother-in-law of pop and rock singer-songwriter Pink (real name Alecia Beth Moore). He died of injuries suffered in a motorcyle wreck during a practice session in Stafford, Connecticut on August 9, 2008.

Ralph Klein (77) famed Israeli basketball coach. Klein played for and coached Maccabi Tel Aviv for decades. He was born in Germany, survived the Nazi Holocaust in Hungary, and went to Israel in 1951, joining perennial Israeli champions Maccabi Tel Aviv as a player. His high point came as the team's coach, leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to Israel's first European league championship in 1977. He died of cancer in Tel Aviv, Israel on August 7, 2008.

Karl Kuehl (70) baseball scout, coach, author, and player development specialist known for his contributions to the Oakland Athletics teams that won three pennants. Kuehl spent 12 years as head of player development and later assistant to the general manager of the As. Players that came out of the As farm system in those years included José Canseco, Mark McGwire, Walt Weiss, Terry Steinbach, Scott Brosius, Mike Bordick, Miguel Tejada, and Mike Gallego. Kuehl died of pulmonary fibrosis in Scottsdale, Arizona on August 6, 2008.

Orville Moody (74) golfer whose only PGA Tour victory of the 250 he entered was in an upset at the 1969 US Open at Champions Golf Club in Cypress Creek, Texas, a Houston suburb, when he came from three shots behind Miller Barber on the last day. Although Moody never won another PGA Tour event, he was more successful after turning 50 when he switched to a long-handled putter and won 11 times on the Senior PGA Tour, now called the Champions Tour. He died of multiple myeloma in Sulphur Springs, Texas on August 8, 2008.

Greg Weld (64) former race driver who won 21 US Auto Club sprint car races and was series national champion in 1967. Weld passed his Indianapolis 500 rookie test in 1965, when he was USAC sprint car runner-up to Johnny Rutherford, but his only start at the Speedway was in '70, when he finished 32nd. He died in Kansas City, Missouri, where his company, Weld Racing Wheels, is based, on August 4, 2008.

Joe Yonto (83) longtime Notre Dame assistant football coach who worked under Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, and Lou Holtz. Yonto died in South Bend, Indiana on August 4, 2008.