Michael Crichton (66) million-selling US author who wrote such technological thrillers as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park and created the popular TV drama ER. A medical doctor turned novelist and filmmaker whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, Crichton stood 6 feet, 9 inches tall. His books dominated best-seller lists for decades and were translated into Hollywood blockbusters. He died of cancer in Los Angeles, California on November 4, 2008.

John Leonard (69) influential literary and cultural critic. Among other venues, Leonard was a TV critic for New York magazine, a columnist for Newsday, a commentator for CBS Sunday Morning, and, in the '70s, editor of the New York Times "Book Review." The author of several books of criticism, he died of lung cancer in New York City on November 5, 2008.

Dr. Ronald Davis (52) longtime public health and antitobacco advocate, a former president of the American Medical Association. A specialist in preventive medicine, Davis urged his fellow doctors to raise awareness about pancreatic cancer, which afflicts 37,000 Americans a year and kills 34,000. He died of pancreatic cancer near East Lansing, Michigan on November 6, 2008.

Jay Fiondella (82) owner of Chez Jay, the restaurant-bar he opened in 1959 that became a Santa Monica landmark and a shrine to his exploits as an adventurer. Fiondella died of complications from Parkinson's disease in Santa Monica, California on November 6, 2008.

Florence S. Wald (91) former dean (1959-66) of the Yale University School of Nursing whose vision of bringing the terminally ill peace of mind and some freedom from pain led to the opening of the first palliative care hospice in the US. Wald was the prime mover, in 1974, in starting the Connecticut Hospice, the nation's first home-care program for the terminally ill. In 1980, a 44-patient hospice—where the dying could be comforted by their loved ones around the clock and where the staff would do what it could to alleviate suffering—opened in Branford. Wald died in Branford, Connecticut on November 8, 2008.

Dr. I. Bernard Weinstein (78) researcher and top administrator at Columbia University who advanced the study of how pollutants and other environmental factors can cause cancer. At Columbia, where he headed the Comprehensive Cancer Center (1985-96), Weinstein investigated chemical sources of cancer and how tumors can progress in stages and over time at the molecular and cellular levels. He died of kidney disease in New York City on November 3, 2008.

David Shayt (56) associate curator at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History, Work & Industries Division, whose many interests included yo-yos, sundials, the development of the ivory trade, and the work of cymbal-makers. Shayt curated exhibitions that focused on tool chests, lunch boxes, and the only known 1958 64-crayon Crayola box in existence, complete with its original crayons. He died of multiple myeloma in Gaithersburg, Maryland on November 4, 2008.

Amy Leigh Barnes (19) aspiring British model and actress, signed by the Nemesis casting and model agency. Barnes made her debut appearances in several glossy magazines including Nuts, Playboy, and Cosmopolitan in recent months. She was found stabbed to death at her home in Farnworth, Bolton, England on November 8, 2008. A former boyfriend, Ricardo Morrison (21), was charged with her murder

Jheryl Busby (59) former president and chief executive (1988-95) of Motown Records who helped to foster the careers of Boyz II Men, Johnny Gill, and Queen Latifah. After his Motown tenure, Busby was head of the urban division at DreamWorks Records (1998-2001) and later worked at Def Soul Classics, a division of Def Jam Records. He was found dead in a hot tub at his home in Malibu, California on November 4, 2008.

B. R. Chopra (94) veteran Indian filmmaker whose Bollywood career spanned 50 years. Chopra was known for tackling socially relevant themes in Hindi language films. Although his movies were peppered with regular Bollywood plots of mistaken identity or families driven apart by natural disasters, he also took on issues considered taboo in a conservative India, such as a woman’s rape and extramarital affairs. He died in Mumbai, India on November 5, 2008.

David Thomas Crowe (45) stage and film actor who had just received his Actors' Equity card this year after his recent performances in the ballet/dance movie parody The Butt Cracker at the American Theater of Actors. Crowe's New York stage credits include Feste in Twelfth Night, Roger Sherman in 1776, and the title role in Bullshot Crummond. He had also made his one and only credited film appearance as the newspaper clerk in director David Giardina's independent thriller Taffy Was Born (2004). Crowe died of a heart attack in The Bronx, New York on November 7, 2008.

Michael Higgins (88) Obie-winning actor, for decades a familiar presence on New York's off-and-on-Broadway stages. Higgins was best known for the role of Frank Strang, father of the disturbed youth who blinds horses, in the original Broadway production of Peter Shaffer's play Equus (1974). Higgins won two Obies, the off-Broadway theater award presented annually by the Village Voice: the first was for his performance as John Proctor in The Crucible (1958) by Arthur Miller; the second was for the role of the father in David Mamet’s Reunion (1980). Higgins died of heart failure in New York City on November 5, 2008.

Rosella Hightower (88) Oklahoma-born ballerina who followed up a celebrated international career by founding the Centre de Danse Classique in Cannes, France, one of the world's leading ballet schools. Hightower was one of five Oklahoma-born American Indian ballerinas whose careers began in the '40s; the others were Yvonne Chouteau, Moscelyne Larkin, and sisters Maria and Marjorie Tallchief. Hightower died in her sleep after suffering several strokes, in Cannes, France on November 3, 2008.

Joe Hyams (85) former Hollywood columnist and best-selling author of more than 25 books ranging from biographies of actors Humphrey Bogart and James Dean to a popular tome on Eastern philosophy. Once married to actress Elke Sommer, Hyams covered Hollywood as a syndicated columnist (1951-64), then continued chronicling the film capital for the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and other magazines for several more years. He died of coronary artery disease in Denver, Colorado on November 8, 2008.

Ken Johnson (74) former Dallas Times Herald executive editor who transformed the afternoon daily into a Pulitzer Prize-winner. Johnson died of a heart infection in Dallas, Texas on November 2, 2008.

Wik Jongsma (65) Dutch TV actor best known for the role of Govert Harmsen in the long-running Dutch soap opera Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (Good Times, Bad Times; 1991-2005). Jongsma died of cancer in Amsterdam, Netherlands on November 7, 2008.

Byron Lee (73) bandleader who helped to introduce Jamaican music to an international audience and founded one of Jamaica's first ska bands, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, in 1956 at age 20. The band recorded several ska and calypso songs, including "Tiny Winey," and signed with the West Indies Recording Limited label owned by future Prime Minister Edward Seaga. Lee bought the label in 1964. His Kingston studio later attracted musicians including the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. Lee died of cancer in Kingston, Jamaica on November 4, 2008.

Henry Loomis (89) former director of the Voice of America in the late '50s and early '60s who expanded its reach and defended its independence before resigning in a clash with President Lyndon B. Johnson over reporting of the growing US military involvement in Southeast Asia. Loomis died of complications from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Pick's diseases in Jacksonville, Florida on November 2, 2008.

Mary Katherine Marion (67) theatrical producer who founded and directed the theater organization Mystery Productions, which featured members of the audience as participants in over 500 productions of interactive murder mysteries in the late '80s in Houston and elsewhere in Texas. Marion had appeared in bit parts in the long-running TV series Dallas. She died of colon cancer in Houston, Texas on November 8, 2008.

Heather Pick (38) Columbus TV news anchor who waged a long and public fight with breast cancer. Pick was morning coanchor on WBNS Channel 10. She was found to have breast cancer in 1999 and learned in 2004 that the disease had spread to her spine and pelvis. She continued to work and was outspoken on behalf of breast cancer awareness and education. Her last TV appearance was in early October 2008, wearing a pink wig to promote Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She died in Columbus, Ohio on November 7, 2008.

Jody Reynolds (75) '50s rockabilly singer and songwriter whose one and only Top 10 hit, "Endless Sleep," was the first of a wave of melodramatic "teen tragedy" tales. "Endless Sleep," which peaked at No. 5 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart in 1958, opened the door for a string of similarly tragic pop hits including Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel," Ray Peterson's "Tell Laura I Love Her," Johnny Preston's "Running Bear," the Everly Brothers' "Ebony Eyes," Dickey Lee's "Patches," and the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack." Reynolds died of liver cancer in Palm Desert, California on November 7, 2008.

Edward R. F. Sheehan (78) author and free-lance foreign correspondent whose dispatches from the Middle East, Africa, and Central America explored political machinations and the misery of poverty in Third World countries. Sheehan gravitated toward war zones, trouble spots, and states dealing with regime change. He died from an allergic reaction to medication, in Boston, Massachusetts on November 3, 2008.

William R. Stall (71) Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Los Angeles Times and a former press secretary to Gov. Jerry Brown. Stall covered California politics and the environment for the Times and won a Pulitzer in 2004 for a series of editorials entitled "Reinventing California," which described how newly elected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should address problems facing the state. Stall died of pulmonary disease in Sacramento, California on November 2, 2008.

John Trudeau (81) founder of the Britt Festival, first outdoor summer music festival in the Pacific Northwest, in Jacksonville, Oregon in 1963. Named for Peter Britt, who homesteaded the site in the 1850s, the Britt Festival over the years expanded to include jazz, folk, country, rock, and dance in a season that runs from early June to past Labor Day. Trudeau died of congestive heart failure in Portland, Oregon on November 3, 2008.

Ahmed al-Mirghani (67) Sudan's deposed former president. Al-Mirghani was removed from power in 1989 by a military coup that brought the current regime to power. He headed the last democratically elected government (1986-89) before a military coup led by current President Omar al-Bashir unseated him. Al-Mirghani was also deputy head of a prominent Sufi religious sect. He died in Alexandria, Egypt, where he had been recuperating after a stroke, on November 2, 2008.

William Doyle (75) US veteran who led an Army unit accused of killing hundreds of civilians during the Vietnam War. A staff sergeant, Doyle was a team leader in the 101st Airborne Division's elite Tiger Force. His team was accused of mutilating and killing hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers in 1967. Army investigators recommended charging Doyle and 17 others with war crimes, but no action was ever taken. Doyle died of chronic lung disease in Springfield, Missouri on November 6, 2008.

Madelyn Payne Dunham (86) maternal grandmother of Barack Obama, whose personality shaped much of the life of the Democrat President-elect. Dunham died of cancer in Honolulu, Hawaii on November 2, 2008.

Marshall Fritz (65) icon of the Libertarian movement who opposed state-run schools, unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1982, and created the World's Smallest Political Quiz, whose 10 questions help people to pinpoint their own political identity. Fritz founded the Advocates for Self-Government and the Alliance for Separation of School & State. He died of pancreatic cancer in Fresno, California on November 4, 2008.

Sydney Lucas (108) one of the last four known surviving veterans of World War I in Great Britain. Lucas joined the Sherwood Foresters regiment just three months before the end of the conflict in 1918, but his service records came to public attention only when relatives in Britain contacted Dennis Goodwin, founder of the World War One Veterans Association, after reading about a commemorative event attended by fellow veteran Henry Allingham. Lucas died in Melbourne, Australia on November 4, 2008.

Juan Camilo Mouriño (37) Mexico's interior minister, one of President Felipe Calderón's closest advisers and a rising star in the National Action Party. Mouriño was onboard a government jet when it crashed into a tony business district during rush hour, igniting cars and sending dozens of people to local hospitals. The plane had flown from San Luis Potosí, where Mouriño and four aides attended an official event, to Mexico City, where it was approaching the airport when it went down. Officials said the crash appeared to have been an accident and that there were no signs of foul play, in Mexico City, Mexico on November 4, 2008.

Mieczyslaw Rakowski (81) Poland’s last Communist-era party chairman and prime minister (1988-89). A historian and journalist, Rakowski was chairman of the Communist Polish United Workers’ Party from July 1989 until the party was dissolved at its January ‘90 congress during the country’s bloodless transition to democracy. He then retired from public life. He died of cancer in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 2008.

Philip Reed (59) former elevator salesman who became a champion of housing and health issues as an openly gay, HIV-positive member of the New York City Council (1997-2005). Reed died of pneumonia resulting from leukemia, in New York City on November 6, 2008.

Cecil Stoughton (88) White House photographer who shot the iconic image of Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office hours after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, on Nov. 22, 1963. The photo Stoughton took of the swearing-in ceremony aboard Air Force One, Johnson with his hand raised and a stunned Jacqueline Kennedy looking on, became the most famous in his five years (1961-65) as White House photographer. He died on Merritt Island, Florida on November 3, 2008.

Terence D. Tolbert (44) Nevada director of Barack Obama's Presidential campaign and a former top aide to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Tolbert was on leave from his job as chief lobbyist for NYC's public schools at the state capital in Albany to work for the Democrat Presidential nominee. He also worked on the campaigns of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, and former Presidential hopeful John Edwards. Tolbert died of a heart attack in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 2, 2008.

Lyle Williams (66) former US congressman (R-Ohio, 1980–84), a rare Republican politician in a heavily Democrat slice of eastern Ohio. Williams was the only Republican elected to Congress from the Mahoning Valley since 1936. In 1984 he was defeated by Jim Traficant, now serving eight years in federal prison on a public corruption conviction. Williams was most recently a Washington consultant. He collapsed and died at a private social club in Warren, Ohio on November 7, 2008.

Li Ximing (82) Beijing's Communist Party boss during the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests. A longtime bureaucrat in the power and water conservancy fields, Li had been a leading member of the group of conservative veteran cadres who supported the military assault on the student-led protests in the capital's central Tiananmen Square on the night of June 3-4, 1989; hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed, most of them ordinary citizens seeking to block the troops' advance. Li died in Beijing, China on November 8, 2008.

Shelton Henderson Jr. (19) younger half-brother of Demario Atwater (21), one of two men charged with first-degree murder in the random abduction and slaying of Eve Carson (22), University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill student body president found shot to death in a wooded area near the campus on March 5, 2008. Henderson was one of two male teens found shot to death outside an apartment complex after a brief shootout in Durham, North Carolina on November 8, 2008. Police later arrested two suspects.

Sir John Hermon (79) Ulsterman who commanded Northern Ireland’s police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, through many of its worst years of conflict with the Irish Republican Army. During his command (1980-89), Hermon saw more than 120 of his officers killed by the IRA—and defended his own force’s controversial tactics in confronting the underground terrorists. He suffered for several years from Alzheimer’s disease and died in Bangor, a suburb of Belfast, Ireland, on November 6, 2008.

Rev. Abraham Woods (80) longtime Birmingham civil rights leader who stood behind Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during his “I Have a Dream” speech. Woods was a longtime president of the Birmingham chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He often led community marches to protest police shootings, slumlords, and neighborhood violence. He had been pastor of St. Joseph Baptist Church since 1967 and led the First Metropolitan Baptist Church in the early ‘60s. He died of cancer in Birmingham, Alabama on November 7, 2008.

Lennart Bergelin (83) Swedish tennis coach who guided Bjorn Borg for 12 years (1971-83), helping him to win 11 Grand Slam tournaments, and captained Sweden to its first Davis Cup title in 1975. Bergelin won nine Swedish championship singles titles (1945-55) and the French Open doubles title in 1948. He died of heart failure in Stockholm, Sweden on November 4, 2008.

Mike Davis (68) landlubber whose dream of one day manning a rowboat on the Hudson River inspired a movement to reclaim New York's waterways for recreational use. In March 1994 Davis, along with several other rowing enthusiasts, founded the nonprofit group Floating the Apple to build 25-foot-long wooden replicas of the Whitehall gig, a four-oared craft. Davis died in New York City on November 3, 2008.

Alan Ford (84) once the fastest swimmer in the world who in the '50s broke Johnny Weissmuller's 1920s speed record, 100 yards in 50 seconds, a barrier that some likened to the 4-minute mile. Ford died of emphysema in Sarasota, Florida on November 3, 2008.

Richard L. Fortman (93) internationally known authority on checkers, the sport of men and kings. For 70 years Fortman was considered one of the game's foremost players, analysts, and authors. A specialist in the slow art of checkers by mail, Fortman was a former world postal checkers champion; his series of handbooks, Basic Checkers, published privately in seven volumes in the '70s and '80s, is widely considered the Hoyle of checkers, required reading for students of the game. He died in Springfield, Illinois on November 8, 2008.

George Grant (102) celebrated fly fisherman and Montana conservationist who cherished the Big Hole River and successfully fought construction of a dam there in the '60s. Grant had an international reputation for fly tying, with a pattern called the Black Creeper perhaps his most famous. He died in Butte, Montana on November 2, 2008.

Steve Hodson (53) Southern Utah University’s women’s basketball coach. Hodson was a former player and assistant coach at Southern Utah. He took over the women’s basketball program in 2006 after a long and successful high school coaching career, guiding Canyon View High School to three boys’ state championships and a girls’ state title in '06. He died of cancer in Cedar City, Utah on November 3, 2008.

G. Larry James (61) athlete who won gold and silver medals in track in the 1968 Olympics. James was athletic director at Richard Stockton College in Pomona, New Jersey for 28 years. Nicknamed “The Mighty Burner,” he teamed with Vince Matthews, Ron Freeman, and Lee Evans on the US 4x400 relay team, which won gold in Mexico City. James also won an individual silver medal in the 400 meters. He died of cancer in Galloway Township, New Jersey on November 6, 2008.

Virgil Starks (46) Auburn University’s associate athletic director. Starks was in charge of student-athlete support services and had worked with Auburn’s athletic department for 10 years. He played a big role in helping Auburn student athletes to get their degrees and cared for Auburn athletes as if they were his own children. He died of a heart attack while returning home to Auburn, Alabama from a Saturday football game against Tennessee-Martin, on November 8, 2008.