Julius Fast (89) winner of the first Edgar Award given by the Mystery Writers of America who later published popular books on body language, the Beatles, and human relationships. The younger brother of novelist Howard Fast (d. 2003), Julius Fast won first acclaim as a mystery writer for his Watchful at Night (1945) before branching out into pop culture and psychology. His most successful book, Body Language (1970), analyzed the unconscious messages sent out by the human body and inspired several sequels. He suffered a stroke 18 months ago and died in Kingston, New York on December 16, 2008.

Adrian Mitchell (76) British poet whose passionate works about nuclear war, Vietnam, and racism were often sung at left-wing rallies. One of Mitchell's best-known poems, "Human Beings," was voted the poem people would most like to see launched into space in a 2005 poll by the writing charity The Poetry Society. Also a successful playwright, novelist, and children's writer, Mitchell died in his sleep of a suspected heart attack after suffering from pneumonia for two months, in London, England on December 20, 2008.

Willoughby Sharp (72) conceptual artist known for three notorious artistic "performances": a gestational spin in a clothes dryer; a curious affair involving talcum powder, a teddy bear, and a tablet of LSD; and the infamous Oklahoma Gun Incident, which members of the art world still discuss with a mixture of horror and awe more than 30 years later. Sharp died of cancer in New York City on December 17, 2008.

A. Carl Kotchian (94) former head of Lockheed Aircraft Corp. who admitted in the '70s to paying millions in bribes in an international scandal that brought down Japan's prime minister. Kotchian died in Redwood City, California on December 14, 2008.

Jack D. Kuehler (76) electrical engineer who became the highest-ranking technologist at IBM and guided strategy as president and later vice chairman while the company dominated the world's computing landscape in the '80s. Kuehler died of complications from Parkinson's disease in Rancho Santa Fe, California on December 20, 2008.

Harold Snyder (86) founder of Biocraft Laboratories in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, an early and highly successful manufacturer of generic equivalents for brand-name pharmaceuticals. Snyder died of respiratory failure in New York City on December 18, 2008.

Carol Chomsky (78) linguist and education specialist whose work helped to shed light on the ways children learn language. A nationally recognized authority on the acquisition of spoken and written language, Chomsky was on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1972-97) until her retirement, after which she was a frequent traveling companion of her husband, linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky, as he delivered public lectures. Carol Chomsky died of cancer in Lexington, Massachusetts on December 19, 2008.

Frederick Dumas (92) school administrator who in the '60s was the first director of Operation Head Start in Los Angeles County and cofounded an organization to push for equal treatment of minority teachers and students in LA schools. Dumas died of complications related to Alzheimer's disease, in Los Angeles, California on December 15, 2008.

Joe L. Kincheloe (58) professor of critical pedagogy at Montreal's McGill University. Kincheloe wrote more than 45 books, numerous chapters for anthologies, and hundreds of journal articles on issues including but not limited to critical pedagogy, educational research, urban studies, cognition, curriculum, and cultural studies. He died of a heart attack in Montreal, Canada on December 19, 2008.

Henry Ashby Turner Jr. (76) leading historian whose book German Big Business & the Rise of Hitler (1985) challenged the widely held theory that German industrialists were the Nazi Party's most influential supporters and embroiled its author in a fierce scholarly debate. A longtime professor at Yale University, Turner died of melanoma in New Haven, Connecticut on December 17, 2008.

Mike ("Mad Dog") Bell (37) former professional wrestler whose struggle with substance abuse was featured in the documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster. Bell wrestled on World Wrestling Entertainment's Monday Night Raw as a "jobber," a fighter who takes falls to promote others. He was found dead at a live-in rehabilitation facility in Costa Mesa, California on December 14, 2008.

Valentin Berlinsky (83) Russian cellist, longest-serving (1945-2007) member of the Borodin Quartet, one of the most renowned string quartets in the world and the longest continuously performing one. Named for Russian Romantic composer Alexander Borodin, the ensemble is in fact most closely associated with the music of 20th-century composer Dmitri Shostakovich. Berlinsky died in Moscow, Russia on December 15, 2008.

Sam Bottoms (53) film and TV actor, third in a family of four acting brothers. With his older brothers Timothy and Joseph and his younger brother, Ben, Sam Bottoms was a regular presence on the large and small screens in the '70s and afterward. He was perhaps best known for his performance as Lance Johnson, the surfer turned Vietnam patrol-boat gunner in Apocalypse Now (1979). He died of a brain tumor in Los Angeles, California on December 16, 2008.

John Byrne (61) Irish-born rock 'n' roll musician who wrote and sang "Psychotic Reaction," the only hit of the San Jose garage band Count Five. With its fuzz guitar and harmonica riff echoing the sound of the Yardbirds, "Psychotic Reaction" reached No. 5 on the Billboard charts in 1966; it has been immortalized by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as one of 500 songs that shaped rock music. Byrne died of kidney and liver failure in San Jose, California on December 15, 2008.

Carlos Caracciolo (83) leading Italian publisher, a cofounder of the influential La Repubblica, a left-leaning newspaper that today has a daily circulation of nearly 600,000. Caracciolo was known as "the editor prince," a nod to his aristocratic birth and elegant manner. The son of a Neapolitan prince, he died of cancer in Rome, Italy on December 15, 2008.

Page Cavanaugh (86) veteran pianist-singer whose trio was a popular nightclub and recording group in the late '40s and '50s. Cavanaugh became one of southern California's most enduring lounge jazz artists. During the early days with his trio, Cavanaugh appeared with Frank Sinatra at the Waldorf-Astoria and elsewhere, played for NBC Radio's The Jack Paar Show, and appeared in movies such as A Song Is Born, Big City, and two early Doris Day vehicles, Romance on the High Seas (1948) and Lullaby of Broadway (1951). He died of kidney failure in Granada Hills, California on December 19, 2008.

Celine Cawley (46) former actress who appeared in an uncredited role in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985) before she became an award-winning advertising executive and a filmmaker. Cawley was well known in media and advertising circles in Ireland after she established and operated Toytown Films, one of the country's most prominent production houses, where she worked with leading advertising agencies and had clients such as Coca Cola, McDonald's, Heineken, the National Lottery, Guinness, and Carlsberg. She was found bludgeoned to death at her home after an apparent burglary in Howth, a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, on December 15, 2008. A week later police charged her husband, Eamonn Lillis, with her murder.

John Costelloe (47) former New York firefighter, a stage, film, and TV actor best known for his role as Jim ("Johnny Cakes") Witowski, the gay short-order cook lover of closeted mobster Vito Spatafore (played by Joseph Gannascoli) on the hit HBO TV series The Sopranos. Costelloe was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound two days after an apparent suicide in his apartment in Brooklyn, New York on December 16, 2008.

Sahar Daftary (24) British-born model and actress who won the Face of Asia competition in 2007 and signed several major modeling contracts before she discovered that her "husband" of six months, businessman Rashid Jamil (33), was already married to his third wife and had three children. Daftary fell from the 12th floor of an apartment building in a suspected suicide in Manchester, England on December 20, 2008.

Davy Graham (68) virtuoso guitarist, a leading figure in Britain's '60s folk music revival. Graham's innovative tuning and dexterity on the acoustic guitar inspired other artists. His 1962 song "Angi" became a folk classic and was covered, among others, by Simon and Garfunkel on their 1966 album Sounds of Silence. Graham drew on jazz, classical, Indian, and Arabic music for inspiration. He had long suffered from lung cancer but died of a seizure in London, England on December 15, 2008.

Todd Homme (23) aspiring make-up artist and cosmetics expert who starred in the season finale of the Lifetime Channel's new reality hit Blush: The Search for the Next Make-Up Artist, on which nine contestants from around the country competed for a professional artist contract with Max Factor, a cash prize of $100,000, and the opportunity to be makeup artist for an upcoming InStyle photo shoot. Homme was found dead of unspecified causes at his home in New York City on December 15, 2008.

Neal Kenyon (79) actor, dancer, singer, teacher, and award-winning director and choreographer, a former director of the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory’s graduate program in theater arts. In 1968, at age 39, Kenyon won a Drama Desk Award for directing and choreographing the musical Dames at Sea off-Broadway, starring a promising young talent named Bernadette Peters. He suffered a debilitating stroke in 2007 and died in Sarasota, Florida on December 19, 2008.

Park Kwang-jung (46) South Korean actor and theater director best known for his supporting performances in various films and TV dramas. Park won the Best Actor award at the First International Emerging Talent Film Festival in Monaco for his performance in his debut film in a leading role as a man obsessed with his wife's affair in Driving with My Wife's Lover (2006). He died of lung cancer in Seoul, South Korea on December 15, 2008.

Olga Lepeshinskaya (92) the Bolshoi Ballet's prima ballerina for 30 years during Soviet times. Reportedly dictator Josef Stalin's favorite ballerina, Lepeshinskaya danced Kitri in Don Quixote, Tao Hoa in The Red Poppy, Jeanne in The Flame of Paris, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, and Masha in The Nutcracker, among other roles. During World War II, she was a member of the Bolshoi's traveling company, which performed before Red Army soldiers on the front line. She died in her sleep in Moscow, Russia on December 20, 2008.

Robert Mulligan (83) film director nominated for an Oscar for directing the 1962 film classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Mulligan was the elder brother of comic actor Richard Mulligan (d. 2000). Robert Mulligan suffered from heart disease and died in Lyme, Connecticut on December 20, 2008.

John W. Powell (89) American journalist who in 1959 was tried for sedition—inciting resistance to the government—in a rare and highly public case after he asserted in print that the US had used biological weapons in the Korean War. Although the government eventually dropped all charges against him, Powell's case dragged on for five years and became a cause cél�èbre. His accusations have never been proved. He died of pneumonia in San Francisco, California on December 15, 2008.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry (76) actress and widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (d. 1991) who nurtured the legacy of the seminal science fiction TV series after his death. Majel Roddenberry was involved in the Star Trek universe for more than 40 years. She played the dark-haired No. One in the original pilot but metamorphosed into blonde, miniskirted Nurse Christine Chapel in the original 1966-69 show and frequently was the voice of the ship's computer. She died of leukemia in Bel-Air, California on December 18, 2008.

G. Franco Romagnoli (82) Italian-born cameraman turned chef who, with his American wife, Margaret (d.1995), helped to introduce the US to authentic Italian home cooking on the '70s PBS-TV series The Romagnolis' Table and in a series of best-selling cookbooks. Romagnoli died in Boston, Massachusetts on December 15, 2008.

Dorothy Sarnoff (94) former opera singer and Broadway star who had a much bigger second career as one of the first and most influential image consultants, coaxing stageworthy performances from business executives preparing a big speech, ambassadors on their way to foreign assignments, and writers heading out on book tours. Sarnoff dazzled the critics as Lady Thiang, the king's head wife, in the original Broadway production of The King & I (1951), but she won her most devoted following as founder and motivating force behind Speech Dynamics, an image-consulting company that helped its clients to shine on talk shows, behind the lectern, or in intimidating social settings. She died in New York City on December 20, 2008.

Feliciano ("Flash") Vierra Tavares (88) longtime musician and patriarch of the successful Grammy-winning Tavares Brothers musical group whose five members achieved international fame in the '70s and '80s and recorded several rhythm-and-blues songs, including "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel" and "More Than a Woman," now classics. The elder Tavares was considered an influential cultural figure within the Cape Verdean American community in Rhode Island and Massachusetts but remained active within the musical community and continued to perform solo well into his 80s in spite of an early diagnosis of prostate cancer. He died in Hyannis, Massachusetts on December 17, 2008.

Rashit Yangirov (54) historian of the Soviet cinema whose works saved many pre-World War II émigré filmmakers from oblivion. Yangirov wrote Slaves of the Silent (2008), a groundbreaking book on pioneers of Russian cinema who left their homeland after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. His research tracked the lives of émigré actors and directors who became stars or extras in Hollywood, Berlin, and Paris and helped to shape the prewar film industry worldwide. He died of cancer in Moscow, Russia on December 14, 2008.

Sir Bernard Crick (79) British democratic socialist and political theorist who in 1980 published the first complete biography of George Orwell, author of 1984 (1948), one of his heroes. A moderate socialist, Sir Bernard believed in gradual reform, social equality, and the importance of citizen participation in politics. He often was an adviser to top Labour politicians and in recent years devised the civics exam that new arrivals to Britain must pass before becoming citizens or permanent residents. He died of cancer in Edinburgh, Scotland on December 19, 2008.

Conor Cruise O'Brien (91) Irish iconoclast who had several careers as a diplomat, government minister, author, and newspaper editor. Cruise O'Brien first gained fame in his early 40s when he was a senior United Nations diplomat seeking a solution to civil war in the Congo in 1961. He resigned within the year—after repeatedly clashing on policy issues with his UN superiors—to write To Katanga & Back, a classic exposé of UN bureaucracy and weakness. Cruise O'Brien had faded from public life since suffering a stroke in 1998 and several broken bones from a fall in 2007. He died in Dublin, Ireland on December 18, 2008.

Léon Febres Cordero (77) former president (1984-88) of Ecuador, a colorful, right-wing leader who dominated Ecuadorean politics for decades and was dubbed the "owner" of the nation by his opponents. Febres Cordero—who survived five heart bypass operations, two bouts with cancer, and three bullet wounds—died of complications from pulmonary emphysema caused by a lifetime of chain-smoking, in Quito, Ecuador on December 15, 2008.

W. Mark Felt ("Deep Throat") (95) No. 2 official at the FBI when he helped to bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most famous anonymous source in American history. In 2005, Felt revealed that he was the one who had secretly supplied reporter Bob Woodward of the Washington Post with crucial leads in the Watergate affair in the early '70s. Felt's decision to unmask himself, in an article in Vanity Fair, ended a guessing game that had gone on for more than 30 years. His motive in leaking Watergate information apparently was revenge for Nixon's failure to name him head of the FBI after J. Edgar Hoover's death in 1972. Felt died in Santa Rosa, California on December 18, 2008.

Jennifer Gale (47) transgender would-be politician and perennial candidate, considered one of several well-known quirky Austin icons, who made a name for herself by repeatedly running—or attempting to run—for multiple public offices, including the US Congress, governor, mayor, city council, and the school board (2000-06). Gale appeared before the Austin City Council on Nov. 20 and warned about the number of homeless people who had died on the city's streets over the past several years. She had already filed her paperwork to run yet again for mayor of Austin in the May 2009 race. She was found dead outside a church in Austin, Texas on December 17, 2008. Police believed that Gale may have died of cardiac arrest as a result of sleeping outdoors in below-freezing temperatures.

Amanda Roberts Jones (110) slave's daughter who voted for the US's first black President. Jones became a local celebrity after she mailed in her ballot for President-elect Barack Obama in late October. When word of her vote spread, Jones was profiled on National Public Radio and ABC News. More than 200 people signed an online petition to send her to Obama's inauguration. She had voted actively for more than 70 years, even when it meant picking cotton to save money to pay a poll tax. She died two days after her 110th birthday, in Austin, Texas on December 18, 2008.

William W. Kaufmann (90) close adviser to seven US defense secretaries and a major proponent of a shift away from the early cold war strategy of mass nuclear retaliation against the Soviet Union. Kaufmann was a special assistant to every secretary of defense in the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, responsible for preparing the annual report to Congress on the Defense Department's overall military strategy and budget. He died of complications from Alzheimer's disease, in Woburn, Massachusetts on December 14, 2008.

Edwin Legarda (34) husband of Colombia's top indigenous Cauca Council leader Aida Quilcue who recently helped to organize antigovernment marches to demand justice for hundreds of killings of Colombian Indian activists blamed on illegal armed groups, and to insist on the return of allegedly stolen reserved lands. Legarda was shot and killed by Colombian soldiers while driving on a rural road near Bogata, Colombia on December 16, 2008.

Paul M. Weyrich (66) conservative activist who coined the phrase "moral majority" and helped to turn social conservatives into a powerful force in the Republican Party. Weyrich had many health problems, including diabetes. His legs were amputated at the knee in 2005, and he had broken his back in a fall some years earlier. He died in northern Virginia on December 18, 2008.

Caylee Anthony (2) Florida toddler missing since June. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony (22), was indicted in October on first-degree murder and other charges, even though no body was found. Casey insisted that she left the little girl with a baby sitter in June but didn’t report her missing until July. Remains found in a wooded area near the Anthony home on Dec. 11 were identified as Caylee’s, and her death was officially declared a homicide, in Orlando, Florida on December 19, 2008.

Rev. James L. Bevel (72) civil rights figure whose legacy was clouded by an incest conviction. Bevel was a top lieutenant to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and architect of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala. But in April 2008, a jury convicted him of incest for having sex more than 10 years earlier with a then-teenage daughter. Bevel served several months of his 15-year sentence before he was released in October on bond while appealing. Prosecutors opposed his release. He died of pancreatic cancer in Virginia on December 19, 2008.

Jeanmarie Geis (49) real estate manager and daughter of prominent Dallas state District Judge Mark Tolle (d. 2007). Geis had told police she was the victim of at least three violent attacks and attempted rape and kidnapping by two men in ski masks retaliating against her because of a criminal trial presided over by her late father. But doubts began to surface over the claims made earlier this month. Geis was found shot to death along with her two children, Matthew (8) and Sydney (4), in an apparent murder-suicide at their upscale home in Dallas, Texas on December 19, 2008.

Janice Hamblin (58) Indiana woman who appeared in TV commercials for the American Family Publishers Sweepstakes after winning a $10-million prize. Hamblin and her husband, who was on disability, were living in a mobile home on a monthly $611 Social Security check when she won the sweepstakes in 1989, beating odds of 200-million-to-1. The money (amounting to $200,000 a year for 30 years after taxes) paid for a new home, new vehicles, and eye surgery for the couple's daughter, but Hamblin also had to contend with strangers calling or visiting her home to ask for money. She died of cancer in Attica, Indiana on December 14, 2008.

David Kagon (90) attorney who ultimately won the famous "palimony" case against his client, Oscar-winning actor Lee Marvin (d. 1987), after a 10-year legal battle. Kagon represented Marvin at the 1979 trial in which the actor's former live-in companion, Michelle Triola Marvin, sought half the $3.6 million the actor earned during their six-year relationship. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge awarded her $104,000 so she could learn new job skills, but Kagon took the case to the state Court of Appeal, which rescinded the award in 1981. He died in Malibu, California on December 20, 2008.

Rabbi David L. Lieber (83) president emeritus of what is now American Jewish University and guiding force behind a modern Torah commentary for Conservative Judaism. Lieber was president for 29 years of the University of Judaism, which in 2007 was renamed American Jewish University after merging its Bel-Air campus with Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley. He died of a lung ailment in Beverly Hills, California on December 15, 2008.

Nicholas Pari (71) associate of the Patriarca crime family who recently told police where the body of a man killed in a 1978 mob slaying was buried. Pari was sentenced to seven years in prison for the 1978 slaying of mob associate Joseph ("Joe Onions") Scanlon; it was the first case in Rhode Island in which prosecutors won a murder conviction without finding the victim's body. Pari died in Providence, Rhode Island on December 18, 2008.

Keri Shryock (23) aspiring stage actress and dancer, one of three cast members playing wise men on their way to Bethlehem in the opening performance of a Christmas pageant called "Awaited: A Christmas Show," characterized as a contemporary Nativity story at Cincinnati's Crossroads Community Church. Shryock died of injuries in a freak accident after falling 25 feet from an overhead cable during the show in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 17, 2008.

John E. Sprizzo (73) federal judge in the Southern District of New York known equally for his intellect and for a temper that once led him to accuse prosecutors of forcing him, through their incompetence, to release drug dealers onto the streets. Sprizzo died of organ failure one week before his 74th birthday, in New York City on December 16, 2008.

Sammy Baugh (94) former quarterback who set numerous passing records with the Washington Redskins (1937-52) in an era when NFL teams were running almost every down. Baugh was the last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class. He had battled Alzheimer's disease and dementia for several years and had been ill recently with kidney problems, low blood pressure, and double pneumonia. He died in Rotan, Texas on December 17, 2008.

Dock Ellis (63) former baseball player who infamously claimed that he pitched a no-hitter for Pittsburgh under the influence of LSD but later fiercely spoke out against drug and alcohol addiction. Ellis played on four Pirates teams (1968-79) that won the National League East and later pitched for the New York Yankees, Oakland, Texas, and the New York Mets. He died of a liver ailment in California on December 19, 2008.

Joe Krol (89) Canadian football player, winner of six Grey Cups and twice Canada's athlete of the year (1946-47). A triple threat, Krol won five of six Grey Cups with the Argonauts. He won his first with the Hamilton Wildcats in 1943 and consecutive Grey Cups (1945-47) with the Argonauts. He also won Cups in 1950 and '52. He had been hospitalized after a fall and died in Toronto, Canada on December 16, 2008.

Justin Levens (28) professional mixed martial arts fighter who had a career record of 9-8 wins and fought in several different MMA leagues, including the Southern California Condors of the International Fight League. Levens and his wife Sarah McLean-Levens were found shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide at their home in Laguna Niguel, California on December 17, 2008.

Dave Smith (53) former All-Star closer who held the Houston Astros record for games pitched. Smith was an All-Star with Houston (1986, '90) and had 216 saves in a 13-year career. He played with Houston (1980-90) before ending his career after two seasons with the Chicago Cubs. He died of an apparent heart attack in San Diego, California on December 16, 2008.

Nick Willhite (67) left-handed pitcher whose five-year baseball career was highlighted by the shutout he threw in his debut with the Dodgers in 1963. Willhite later became an addictions counselor. He died of cancer in Alpine, Utah on December 14, 2008.