Michael Cox (60) British editor and novelist, an authority on the Victorian ghost story who in 2004 wrote a 700-page Gothic novel that had been haunting him for 30 years: The Meaning of Night (2006), a widely praised narrative of intrigue and murder. The manuscript was sold at auction for an advance of £430,000 (about US$800,000 at the time), a figure widely reported as a record for a British first novel. Cox died of hemangiopericytoma, a rare vascular cancer, in Kettering, England on March 31, 2009.

Helen Levitt (95) major photographer of the 20th century who caught fleeting moments of life on the streets of her native New York, first in black and white and later in color. Since 2001, several volumes of her work have been published. Levitt died in her sleep in New York City on March 29, 2009.

David W. Scott (92) artist and art historian, a founding director of the National Museum of American Art who played a key role in expanding the National Gallery of Art and led the Corcoran Gallery of Art through a difficult time in 1990 after its controversial exhibit of homoerotic photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe was canceled. Scott died of multiple organ failure in Austin, Texas on March 30, 2009.

James Griffin Boswell 2nd (86) businessman who built (1952-84) the cotton company that bears his name into California’s first giant agribusiness and one of the nation’s great farming empires. The company farms 150,000 acres of Pima cotton, tomatoes, and other commodities on land mostly in Kings County in the San Joaquin Valley. Boswell died in Indian Wells, California on April 3, 2009.

Carl Wilson Gregory (68) member of a pioneering Fullerton family and chief executive of Fullerton Community Bank. Gregory died of cancer in Fullerton, California on March 30, 2009.

Jim Guinan (83) founder of Guinan’s Country Store & Pub in suburban Garrison, New York, 50 miles north of Manhattan, which became the subject of a memoir by Wall Street Journal columnist Gwendolyn Bounds. The store closed in early 2008 after nearly 50 years in business, and Guinan moved to Florida. The pub became nationally known when Bounds wrote about Guinan’s in her book Little Chapel on the River (2005). Guinan died of heart failure in Tampa, Florida on April 1, 2009.

Frederick Gulden (86) architect called “the last American in Vietnam” when stranded in that country for 15 months after the US military left in 1975. Gulden had established a Saigon office for the architectural firm DeLeuw Cather International in 1972. He was actually among about 60 US civilians remaining, including journalists, social workers, and American men married to Vietnamese women. He died of esophageal cancer in Washington, DC on April 4, 2009.

Ernest Lieblich (94) Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist who financed the restoration of a valuable ‘30s-era floor-to-ceiling mural at the City of Hope medical center in Duarte. Lieblich was founder and president of FoodCraft, a company that provides commercial coffee and snack service to offices throughout LA and Orange counties. He died in Los Feliz, California on April 4, 2009.

Dr. I. Herbert Scheinberg (89) specialist in rare hereditary diseases who helped to develop a diagnostic test and treatment for Wilson disease, a potentially fatal buildup of copper in the body. Scheinberg died of pneumonia in Elizabethtown, New York on April 4, 2009.

George E. Stoddard (92) pioneer in the use of real estate transactions known as sale-leasebacks to provide financing for companies having trouble gaining access to traditional sources of capital. Until his retirement in 2005, Stoddard was chairman of W. P. Carey & Co., a New York investment and management firm that specializes in buying property from corporations, which then continue to occupy the space as tenants. He died in Oren, Utah on March 30, 2009.

John Edward Blankenchip (89) theater designer and director, an emeritus professor of the USC School of Theatre and founder of Festival Theatre USC-USA. What was then known as USC’s Department of Drama was only 10 years old when Blankenchip joined the faculty in 1955. He continued to teach classes in directing and experimental theater at USC until a month before he died in Los Angeles, California on April 1, 2009.

Emory Elliott (66) University of California at Riverside professor and leading scholar of American literature from Puritanism to Postmodernism. Elliott was found dead of an apparent heart attack at his home in Riverside, California on March 31, 2009.

Tom Wardell Braden (92) former CIA agent who helped to launch CNN’s political debate show Crossfire. Braden also was known for writing Eight Is Enough, a 1975 book about his eight children that inspired a TV show. He died in Denver, Colorado on April 3, 2009.

Eva Evdokimova (60) internationally known ballerina lauded for her stage presence and eloquent dancing. Evdokimova began her performing career in 1966 with the Royal Danish Ballet but became a star at the Berlin Opera Ballet, joining the company in '69 and reigning as prima ballerina there (1973-85). She was also a guest star with the Kirov Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, and other companies. One of her most frequent partners was Rudolf Nureyev. Evdokimova died of cancer in New York City on April 3, 2009.

Jim Gasser (46) stage and screen actor best known for his familiar performances as the Barbarian, the 6-foot-4 sword-wielding, bearskin-clad warrior, at Kansas City's annual Renaissance Festival. Gasser was killed in a car accident in New Mexico on March 30, 2009.

Frederic J. Gaynor (74) former rosy-cheeked boy in rolled-up jeans carrying the popular Daisy air rifle in advertisements on the back covers of Boys’ Life magazine, comic books, and other publications in the '50s. As an adult, Gaynor worked for the US Foreign Service. He died of cancer in Sarasota, Florida on March 29, 2009.

Maxine Cooper Gomberg (84) actress best known for playing the secretary in the 1955 film noir classic Kiss Me Deadly, loosely based on the Mickey Spillane novel. The widow of screenwriter and producer Sy Gomberg (d. 2001), Maxine Gomberg died in Los Angeles, California on April 4, 2009.

Monte Hale (89) one of the last of Hollywood's celluloid "singing cowboys" whose tall frame, strong voice, and handsome looks led to dozens of film roles in Westerns during the '40s. Hale was also a founder of what is now the Autry National Center of the American West. He died in Studio City, California on March 29, 2009.

Andy Hallett (33) actor who played green-skinned, good-guy demon Lorne on the TV series Angel (1999-2004). Hallett was diagnosed with his heart condition at the end of the show and had been in and out of hospitals ever since. He was hospitalized after having problems breathing and died after a five-year battle with congestive heart disease, in Los Angeles, California on March 29, 2009.

Pedro Infante Jr. (59) country music singer, actor, and son of the late iconic Mexican stage and screen actor-singer Pedro Infante. The younger Infante had studied architecture at the University of La Salle, where he worked as an architect for a short time before embarking on a music and acting career of his own. He died of pneumonia in Los Angeles, California on April 1, 2009.

Maurice Jarre (84) French-born Oscar-winning film composer. Jarre was best known for writing the haunting song "Lara's Theme" from the film Doctor Zhivago (1965). He won Oscars for his music for that film and for Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Passage to India (1984) and was nominated for another six Oscars. A California resident for decades, he died in Los Angeles, California on March 29, 2009.

Duane Jarvis (51) veteran of the Los Angeles roots music scene whose lead guitar work landed him stints playing with Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Michelle Shocked, and others when he wasn’t recording and touring as a respected singer-songwriter in his own right. Jarvis died of colon cancer in Marina del Rey, Calif., where he was receiving hospice care after stopping treatment that in recent months had included two major surgeries and three rounds of chemotherapy, on April 1, 2009.

Joanna Jones (27) free-lance music teacher, a founding member and lead vocalist of the British six-piece indie pop-rock band Chasing Ora with her sister Natalie. The band had performed at several gigs in a handful of local venues on the East and North London-area circuit and recently released its debut single "Here & Winning." Jones was killed in a two-car accident in Crawley, West Sussex, England on March 31, 2009.

Charlie Kennedy (81) alto saxophonist best known for his association (1945-48) with drummer Gene Krupa’s big band. Kennedy was later an active film studio musician, playing on the soundtracks of popular musical movies, including My Fair Lady and West Side Story. He died of pulmonary disease in Ventura, California on April 3, 2009.

John King (55) classical ukulele player who resurrected a guitar technique from the time of Bach to play a piece almost certainly never before tried on a ukulele, Bach’s Partita No. 3, and later played other difficult classical works with dazzling mastery. King died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack in St. Petersburg, Florida on April 3, 2009.

Jody McCrea (74) son of actor Joel McCrea (d. 1990) who appeared in several westerns in the ‘50s and ‘60s but was best known for his comedy work as a regular cast member of the popular “Beach Party” movies. Beginning with Beach Party, the 1963 comedy starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, the younger McCrea also appeared in Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Pajama Party, Beach Blanket Bingo, and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. He later became a cattle rancher and died of cardiac arrest in Roswell, New Mexico on April 4, 2009.

Elaine Orbach (69) stage actress and dancer, the widow of veteran Broadway and TV actor and singer Jerry Orbach, perhaps best known for his starring role as wise-cracking Detective Lennie Briscoe in the long-running TV series Law & Order. The former Elaine Cancilla had appeared on and off-Broadway in such productions as Fiorello!, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Flora the Red Menace, Sweet Charity, and the original 1975 production of Chicago. Since her husband's death in 2004, she fought to have a section of 53rd Street at Eighth Avenue renamed Jerry Orbach Way. The street was rechristened in 2007. Elaine Orbach died of pneumonia in New York City on April 1, 2009.

Lou Perryman (67) character actor, probably best remembered for his familiar cameo roles in a handful of feature films and TV programs, including The Blues Brothers, Poltergeist, Boys Don't Cry (as the Sheriff), and When Zachary Beaver Came to Town; cult favorites like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; and most recently TV's Walker, Texas Ranger. Perryman was found stabbed to death at his home in Austin, Texas on April 1, 2009. Police arrested suspect Seth Christopher Tatum (26), who confessed to killing Perryman while stealing his car.

Bud Shank (82) flutist and alto saxophonist, a key figure on the West Coast jazz scene of the '50s, who worked with such famous acts as the Mamas & the Papas. Shank died of pulmonary failure in Tucson, Arizona on April 2, 2009.

Miguelangel Suarez (69) Puerto Rican actor whose career included minor roles in the epic Che (2008) and Woody Allen’s Bananas (1971). Suarez appeared in some 30 films, mostly in Spanish, but was in several Hollywood productions as well. He suffered from esophageal cancer and died in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, a San Juan suburb, on April 1, 2009.

Charles Teitel (93) operator of one of the first foreign art film houses in Chicago, screening such seminal films as The Bicycle Thief, Z, and later movies that city censors tried to ban for their racy content. In the years after World War II, Teitel exposed film buffs to works by directors Vittorio De Sica, Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, and Akira Kurosawa. He died of congestive heart failure in Laguna Woods, California on April 4, 2009.

Raul Alfonsin (82) former Argentine leader whose presidency (1983-89) came to symbolize the return of democracy across Latin America from an era of military dictatorships. Alfonsin's inauguration ended more than seven years of a repressive military regime that left at least 12,000 missing, and he made a daring decision to try the leaders of the dictatorship for human rights violations. He died of lung cancer in Buenos Aires, Argentina on March 31, 2009.

Netherwood Hughes (108) one of the last three surviving World War I veterans in Great Britain. In 2008, Hughes was revealed as one of the last living World War I veterans after enlisting in the British Army in 1918, although he spent limited time in the army and did not see any combat. The Ministry of Defence has not officially confirmed his war service, but many World War I service records were destroyed in the Blitz during World War II. Hughes died in Clayton-el-Moors, Lancashire, England on April 4, 2009.

Richard J. O'Neill (85) prominent landowner and Democrat Party activist who helped to develop his family’s (since 1882) vast Rancho Mission Viejo into some of Orange County's first coastal suburbs. O’Neill was California Democrat Party chairman (1979-81). He died at his ranch home east of San Juan Capistrano, California on April 4, 2009.

Jerome Waldie (84) former US congressman (D-Calif.) and state lawmaker instrumental in the downfall of President Richard Nixon. Three days after Nixon fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox in what became known as the Friday Night Massacre, Waldie introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of the President. Waldie was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which voted to impeach Nixon in July 1974; Nixon resigned two weeks later. Waldie died in Placerville, California, about 40 miles east of Sacramento, on April 3, 2009.

Emilie Lavoie (110) Canadian supercentenarian, believed to be the second-oldest person in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and one of the country's oldest citizens. Lavoie died just a week short of her 111th birthday, in Minto, New Brunswick, Canada, on April 2, 2009.

Father John D. McAnulty (88) founder of a retreat center in Los Angeles for Catholic priests and its director for more than 25 years. The Cardinal Timothy Manning House of Prayer for Priests provides a sanctuary for priests, who are encouraged to get away to pray, confer with spiritual directors, and share their lives and concerns with other priests. McAnulty died in Los Gatos, California on April 4, 2009.

Daniel J. O'Hern (78) longtime (1981-2000) associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court whose 231 majority opinions helped to define state policies on issues like the death penalty, law enforcement, and homelessness. O'Hern died of metastatic melanoma of the brain in Little Silver, New Jersey on April 1, 2009.

Earl Paulk (81) evangelical pastor whose leadership of an Atlanta-area megachurch ended in a sex scandal. Paulk cofounded the Cathedral at Chapel Hill in Decatur and helped to grow it to a peak membership of about 10,000 in the early '90s. A lawsuit by a female employee sparked a chain of events that ended in Paulk pleading guilty in January 2008 to lying under oath by denying affairs with other women. A paternity test revealed he was the father of his nephew, now leader of the church. Paulk died of cancer in Atlanta, Georgia on March 29, 2009.

Matthew Porter (92) retired farmer and former mayor of Donnan, Iowa. With a population of 7 people, it was for many years Iowa's smallest incorporated town, until the town's seven residents, including Porter and his wife, Elinor, voted to disincorporate in 1990. Porter was killed after a fire broke out in his rural farmhouse in Fayette, Iowa on April 3, 2009.

Frances ("Fran") Ruggles (67) longtime member of Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in northern Maine, one of several parishioners who drank arsenic-tainted coffee during a church gathering on April 27, 2003. One person died and 15 others were sickened after drinking the coffee. Days later, a church member killed himself and took responsibility for the incident in a suicide note. Ruggles had suffered from long-term health problems related to the arsenic poisoning and died in New Sweden, Maine on April 4, 2009.

Sir Reresby Sitwell (81) Briton who restored the stately home of his famously eccentric family to its former glory. In 1965, Reresby Sitwell inherited Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire, the family seat since 1625. He was the elder son of Sacheverell Sitwell, who with his brother Osbert and sister Dame Edith were famed for their literary talent and their quirks. Reresby Sitwell had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2005 and died in London, England on March 31, 2009.

Bishop Loras Joseph Watters (93) prelate who led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona, Minn. (1969-87). Watters was named the fifth bishop of Winona by Pope Paul VI shortly after Vatican II and led his diocese into celebrating Mass in English rather than Latin, among other changes. He died in Winona, Minnesota on March 30, 2009.

Randy White (32) Texas police officer killed when a speeding sport utility vehicle rear-ended his patrol car as he was trying to direct traffic away from the oncoming highway chase. White had waved over a pickup hauling a trailer on Texas 114 and was seated in his cruiser when the SUV, driven by the pursued hit-and-run suspect, rammed his car. The impact shoved the cruiser into the back of the trailer, killing White, in Bridgeport, Texas on April 2, 2009.

Jiverly Wong (41) Vietnamese immigrant believed to be the gunman in a violent shooting incident that left 13 people dead and four others critically wounded at the American Civic Association immigration services center outside New York City, in one of the nation's six recent fatal mass shootings that have killed approximately 48 people across the US in the past month. Investigators said Wong had been living in New York for 28 years and held American citizenship but was upset about losing his job as a deliveryman for a catering company owing to his poor English. He had recently gone through a bitter divorce. He was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head inside an office in Binghamton, New York on April 3, 2009.

Carly Bragnalo (27) fiancée of Canadian professional Vancouver Canucks ice hockey forward Taylor Pyatt. The couple had been in a long-term relationship for more than 11 years and were scheduled to be married this summer. Bragnalo was killed in a car accident while vacationing with her family in Jamaica on April 2, 2009.

Paul Davis (87) former Mississippi State University head football coach who led the Bulldogs (1962-66). In 1963, Davis’s Mississippi State team went 7-2-2 and battled North Carolina State University and frigid temperatures to capture the Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia. He was later an assistant coach at Auburn University and the University of Alabama. During his 17-year career at Auburn, Davis coached seven All-Americans and participated in nine bowl games. He died in Auburn, Alabama on March 31, 2009.

Herman Franks (95) former major league baseball player and manager who coached greats like Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda. After playing as a catcher for the Cardinals, Dodgers, Athletics, and Giants over six seasons, Franks managed the San Francisco Giants (1965-68), a run of four straight second-place finishes. He was 605-521 as a manager, going 367-280 with the Giants and 238-241 with the Chicago Cubs (1977-79). He died of congestive heart failure in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 30, 2009.

Irvin ("Zabo") Koszewski (84) former Muscle Beach bodybuilder noted for his impressive set of abs. Koszewski won the Amateur Athletic Union’s Mr. Pacific Coast title in 1953 and the AAU Mr. California title in ‘54 and several best abdominal titles in 30 years of bodybuilding competitions. He was the manager of Joe Gold’s gym and the World Gym in Santa Monica and was still working when he contracted pneumonia early this year and moved east to be near his daughter. He died of pneumonia in Doylestown, Pennsylvania on March 29, 2009.

Andrea Mead Lawrence (76) competitive skier who in 1952 became the only American skier to win two gold medals in a single Winter Olympics. Lawrence competed in three Winter games, her first when she was just 15, and was captain of the women’s team during the games in Oslo, Norway, where she won the gold medals in the slalom and giant slalom. She had suffered from cancer since 2000 and died in Mammoth Lakes, California on March 30, 2009.

Richard Matlow (66) longtime thoroughbred trainer who won his only graded stakes race in November 2008 at Hollywood Park. Matlow retired in January, only weeks after Jack O’Lantern, a 19-1 shot, won the $103,700 Hollywood Prevue race. He had been training horses since 1968. He died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the progressive neurodegenerative disease commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in Monrovia, California on March 31, 2009.

John Oros (87) jockey who became for a time the US's winningest jockey. In 1939 Oros was just 17 and in only his second year of professional racing when he rode an astonishing 105 winners at Aurora Downs and other Chicago-area tracks, at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, and at the race course in Bowie, Md. He rode a total of 966 races that year, winning 162 times and earning $162,676 in purses. He died of congestive heart failure in Palm Harbor, Florida on April 3, 2009.

Lou Saban (87) football coach who guided O. J. Simpson in the National Football League and ran the New York Yankees for George Steinbrenner during a career that spanned 50 years and included stints with the Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills of the old American Football League and the NFL's Denver Broncos. Saban had heart problems for years and recently suffered a fall that required hospitalization. He died in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on March 29, 2009.

Armand Tanny (90) pioneering figure in bodybuilding who won national titles (1949-50) and was a popular figure on Muscle Beach in Santa Monica during its heyday in the ‘40s. During the ‘50s, Tanny was one of the original nine bodybuilders from Muscle Beach who were part of Mae West’s traveling nightclub act. He was the younger brother of gym pioneer Vic Tanny (d. 1985). Armand Tanny died in Westlake Village, California on April 4, 2009.

Kyle Woods (49) former Baylor defensive back, paralyzed from the neck down during a practice in 1979. Woods had a heart attack on Mar. 22 and never regained consciousness. He died in Mansfield, Texas on April 2, 2009.