Dead Celebrity Alert

The last surviving hero of the Titanic, Herbert Johnston has died in hospital at Port Shepstone on KwaZulu-Natal South Coast at the age of 104 years. The man dubbed as “Pops” was a crewmember of the Carpathia, the first ship to arrive, after the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.

Johnstone lived to tell detailed stories of the fateful night in 1912 when the so-called unsinkable Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. He was a 15-year old crewmember of the Carpathia that was bound for the Italian port of Genoa when the SOS came through. … Read full obituary

Genichi Kawakami, who built the Yamaha empire of pianos and motorcycles that exemplified Japan’s post-war revival, has died.

Known as the “emperor” of the Yamaha company, Mr Kawakami died at the weekend from natural causes, aged 90. Despite his success, Mr Kawakami shied away from publicity.

He died where he had lived his life, in the town of Hamamatsu, west of Tokyo, where the Yamaha organisation is based.

Under Mr Kawakami, the Yamaha group succeeded in two different markets — musical instruments and motorcycles. … Read full obituary

Jack Lockett, Australia’s oldest man, marched off to join his World War I comrades when he died peacefully in a Bendigo hospital at 111.

Victoria lost its last fighting soldier of the 1914-1918 conflict at 11.15pm on Saturday. Political, civic and RSL leaders leaders described the passing of the pioneer Mallee settler as the end of an era.

Premier Steve Bracks offered his family a state funeral. …

John Henry Lockett is the third World War I veteran to die in the past 11 days, following the last Gallipoli Anzac, Alec Campbell, and Raymond Durston.

Only 14 World War I veterans are left in Australia, two of them in Victoria. … Read full obituary

Related:
Alec Campbell, last Gallipoli Anzac, 103

SANTA ANA, Calif., May 24 (AP) — Joe Cobb, who played a cheerful, chubby boy named Joe in dozens of the “Our Gang” comedy films of the 1920’s, died on Tuesday at a convalescent home here, said his sister, Lucile Frank. He was 85. …

Mr. Cobb, who was also cast in other silent movies, appeared in the “Our Gang” series’s last silent film, “Saturday’s Lesson,” and its first talking short, “Small Talk,” both in 1929. …

Mr. Cobb never lost his rotund stature, or his sense of humor, his sister said. She recalled that he liked to say: “Children in my day were either cornfed or milk-fed. I was both.” … Read full obituary

RIVERSIDE, Calif., May 24 (AP) — Darwood Smith, who played Waldo in the “Our Gang” film series, died on May 15 after he was struck by a passing truck while taking a daily walk. He was 72. …

Mr. Smith was known as Darwood Kaye when he was a child. He appeared in 22 of the “Our Gang” comedies…

When Mr. Smith was a teenager, he stopped acting. He later became a Seventh-day Adventist pastor and worked as a missionary in Thailand. … Read full obituary

Dave Berg, who affectionately spoofed what he called “the human condition” in the pages of Mad magazine for more than 40 years, died on May 16 at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 81.

Mr. Berg created the magazine’s enduring “The Lighter Side of” comic strip. He began working for Mad as a freelancer in 1956, introducing “The Lighter Side of” in 1961. …

Born in New York City, Mr. Berg attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, landing a job inking backgrounds for the newspaper comic strip “The Spirit” when he was 20.

Later, Mr. Berg worked for Stan Lee at Timely Comics (now Marvel Comics)…

His final “Lighter Side” comic strip is scheduled for the September issue of Mad, which observes the magazine’s 50th anniversary. … Read full obituary

Sam Snead, who used golf’s smoothest swing to win a record 81 PGA Tour events and about 70 other tournaments, died yesterday at his home in Hot Springs, Va. He was 89.

Snead had a series of small strokes during the past two months, his daughter-in-law Ann Snead said.

In the major tournaments, Snead won three Masters, three Professional Golfers Association Championships and one British Open, but never the United States Open, losing it once with a disastrous triple-bogey 8 on the final hole that left him two strokes back. It was the only blemish in an enduring career that awed other touring pros, past and present. …

In a career that spanned nearly five decades, Snead became famous for his talent, his straw hat and a backwoods philosophy honed during the Depression. … Read full obituary

Alan P. Bell, a Kinsey Institute researcher who helped conduct a pioneering large-scale study that countered the notion that homosexuals were maladjusted, died on May 13 in Bloomington, Ind., where he lived. He was 70.

The cause was a stroke, his wife, Shirley, said.

In 1968, Dr. Bell and a colleague, Martin S. Weinberg, began surveying nearly 1,000 gays in San Francisco to assess their mental health and to try to determine what, if anything, in their lives had influenced their sexual orientation.

“It was the most ambitious study of male homosexuality ever attempted,” said Martin B. Duberman, a history professor at the City University of New York who has written on gay issues. The resulting books, “Homosexualities” (1978) and “Sexual Preference” (1981), “refuted a large number of previous studies that gay men were social misfits,” Professor Duberman said.

The study found that homosexuals were as well adjusted and as satisfied in their relationships as heterosexuals. … Read full obituary

Sihung Lung, the Taiwanese actor best known to Western audiences for deft portrayals of conflicted fathers in the Ang Lee films “Pushing Hands,” “The Wedding Banquet” and “Eat Drink Man Woman,” died on May 2 in Taipei. He was 72.

The cause was liver failure, The Taipei Times reported.

Mr. Lung became known in the United States for playing traditional fathers struggling with modernity and adult children in the movies known to some fans as the “Father Knows Best” trilogy.

… He won Taiwan’s Golden Horse award for best actor for “Pushing Hands” and for best supporting actor for “The Wedding Banquet.”

He also played Sir Te, a court official entrusted with a powerful 400-year-old sword, in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” … Read full obituary

Jack Kruschen, a versatile character actor whose six decades in movies and television included an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his 1960 role in “The Apartment,” died on April 2. He was 80.

He had been ill for several years, his family said, and died while traveling. News of his death, which was reported by the show business publication Variety, did not appear in major newspapers at the time.

Known to many television viewers as Papa Papadapolis in the 1980’s series “Webster,” he was one of the stalwarts of radio, television and the movies, often playing tough guys early in his career and irascible but lovable neighbors later on. … Read full obituary

Pop artist Niki de Saint Phalle, best known for her brightly coloured and voluptuous figures of women that gained her a reputation as a leading contemporary artist in France, has died. She was 71.

Saint Phalle died on Tuesday in San Diego, California, after a long illness, according to a statement issued by the city of Hanover, Germany, where the artist was an honorary citizen. It did not elaborate. …

Born in the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine on November 29, 1930 as Catherine Marie-Agnes Fal de Saint Phalle, she moved with her parents to New York in 1937, where she grew up visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art. … Read full obituary

The skeletal remains found this morning in Rock Creek Park have been identified as those of missing intern Chandra Levy, D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey announced this evening.

Ramsey said Jonathan Arden, the D.C. medical examiner, established the identity through the analysis of dental records.

“There certainly is more work to be done at the medical examiner’s. But they did in fact verify that it is Ms. Levy.” …

The announcement this evening officially reclassifies the Levy investigation from a missing persons case to a “death” inquiry. …

The Levy case drew national attention when investigators learned that the former intern was having an affair with Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-Calif.). … Read full story

The former Northern Ireland prime minister James Chichester-Clark has died.

The 79-year-old, who later became Lord Moyola, died after a short illness.

He was Prime Minister of Northern Ireland in 1969 when rioting on the streets of Belfast and Londonderry forced his administration to ask the government of Harold Wilson to send in troops to help maintain order. … Read full obituary

The girlfriend of Eddie Cochran who survived the crash that killed him has died aged 62.

Sharon Sheeley died in hospital in Los Angeles after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

She was best known for writing Rick Nelson’s 1958 hit Poor Little Fool. … Read full obituary

Stephen Jay Gould, the paleontologist and author who eloquently demystified science for the public and challenged his colleagues with revolutionary ideas about evolution, died Monday of cancer.

He was 60, and died at his home in New York City, according to his assistant, Stephanie Schur. …

Gould became one of America’s most recognizable scientists for his voluminous and accessible writings and his participation in public debates with creationists. He also aired his disagreements with other evolutionary theorists in publications such as the New York Review of Books, bringing evolutionary theory to a wider intellectual audience during an era of increasing scientific specialization.

“He really was paleontology’s public intellectual,” said Andrew Knoll, a colleague of Gould’s at Harvard University for 20 years. … Read full obituary

Former prime minister Sir John Grey Gorton has died at the age of 90.

Sir John, who had been gravely ill for some time with pneumonia, died about 7.30pm last night in a Sydney hospice. …

Sir John, who served as a fighter pilot in World War II and was severely wounded, came to office when Australians were still stunned by the 1967 Portsea drowning of Harold Holt. But Sir John was too much his own man and internal wrangling continued until the day his own casting vote put him out of office on March 10, 1971.

His term dismayed the establishment, entertained the public and thrilled the media. Sir John even made it worse by adopting Frank Sinatra’s theme song I Did It My Way. … Read full obituary

Alec Campbell, the last of the Gallipoli Anzacs, has died at the age of 103.

His death yesterday marks the passing of a generation who fought in the Dardanelles campaign.

Mr Campbell suffered a chest infection earlier this week and his condition deteriorated rapidly yesterday. He died at his Hobart nursing home about 6pm.

Prime Minister John Howard described Mr Campbell as the last living link to that group of Australians that established the Anzac legend. “It is a story of great valour under fire, unity of purpose and a willingness to fight against the odds that has helped to define what it means to be an Australian.” …

“Not only is he the last Australian Anzac, he is also the last known person anywhere in the world who served in that extraordinarily tragic campaign,” Mr Howard told parliament last night. … Read full obituary

Ruth Cracknell, one of Australia’s favourite actors, has died in Sydney after a long illness. She was 76.

Cracknell died of a respiratory illness in a nursing home shortly after a visit from her children, Anna Jeffery, Jane Moore and Jonathan Phillips.

While her career in radio, revue, theatre, television and film spanned 56 years, it was as Maggie Beare in Geoffrey Atherden’s Mother and Son that Cracknell established herself as a national figure. She was to become a TV personality and wear Maggie’s nighties and cardies for 10 years.

Variously known as Crackers, Dame Crackers, Ruth, St Ruth, and, more recently, Dame Ruth, Cracknell was blessed with what her admirers termed “the gift of pausation”. Her intelligence, grace and charm earned her widespread affection, and her natural talent commanded respect. …

Cracknell was named by Australia’s National Trust among its list of 100 living national treasures. … Read full obituary

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - An American man who ran a private animal sanctuary in remote northern Thailand was fatally shot by assailants who also killed a 3-year-old girl and three sanctuary employees, police said Saturday.

William Deters, 63, and the other victims, all Thai, were killed late Friday at Deters’ Highland Farm and Wildlife Refuge, police said, citing a Dutch visitor who said he hid from the attackers. They said the victims had bullet wounds in their foreheads, suggesting execution-style slayings.

The 35-acre farm is 27 miles south of Mae Sot, a major trading post town on Thailand’s border with Myanmar. The sanctuary was founded in 1991 and became a refuge for abandoned, mistreated or injured gibbons.

The border area has security problems because of guerrillas who cross over from Myanmar, but police speculated a personal dispute may have been the motive. … Read full obituary

Veteran French film supremo Yves Robert, who directed nostalgic classics which painted an idyllic picture of rural France, died aged 81 on Friday, French media said. …

He won international acclaim with “My Father’s Glory” and “My Mother’s Castle,” which were cheered by critics and cinemagoers alike for their charming, rose-tinted take on rural life in Provence, southern France.

Robert, born in July 1920 in Saumur, western France, began his career in the music hall. … Read full obituary

Scottish violinist and artist Gwen Sales has been killed in a car crash.

Sales appeared in the Michael Flatley touring show Lord Of The Dance and was a well-loved figured on the folk scene.

She died in Chicago, where she lived with her husband, American guitarist Dennis Cahill. … Read full obituary

Dr. Hugh Francis Hicks, the dentist whose Mount Vernon Place office was home to what is thought to be the world’s foremost collection of electric light bulbs, died yesterday of a heart attack at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Roland Park resident was 79.

His enthusiasm for glowing glass never exhausted, and through the years he amassed a collection that included a bulb from the original torch of the Statue of Liberty and headlamps from the Mercedes-Benz limousines of Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

Dr. Hicks regularly told visitors to his free, private museum that his was the only collection in the world containing an uninterrupted history of the light bulb, including 15 or 20 bulbs that Thomas Alva Edison probably held in his hands 122 years ago. … Read full obituary

Russian actor and film director Andrei Rostotsky has died after falling from a rope while performing a stunt on Russia’s Black Sea coast, news agencies say.

RIA Novosti said 45-year-old Rostotsky lost his grip on the rope during filming on Sunday near the resort of Sochi and plunged 30 metres (100 feet) to the ground. …

Rostotsky began his acting career in the mid-1970s and became an established figure in Russian film circles with roles in films such as “The Squadron of Flying Hussars” and “Days of the Turbins”. … Read full obituary

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Right-wing Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was shot six times and killed Monday, Dutch television reported.

Police had confirmed Fortuyn was shot in the head and gravely wounded. The television said he was shot six times in the head, neck and chest. The attack came nine days before national elections.

Fortuyn (pronounced fore-TOWN) was leaving a radio interview in Hilversum, about 10 miles southeast of Amsterdam, when he was attacked.

Dutch television said paramedics treated Fortuyn where he fell at the entrance to a building, and he was not taken to hospital.

Opinion polls predicted the 53-year-old politician, campaigning on an anti-immigrant platform, would lead one of the largest parties in parliament in the May 15 elections. … Read full obituary

Barbara Castle, the Labour firebrand and darling of the left who was once tipped as Britain’s first woman prime minister, died yesterday [May 4] aged 91.

A statement from her family said Baroness Castle died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Buckinghamshire. A major figure in the Labour movement for half a century, she served as an MP and a Member of the European Parliament, as minister and cabinet minister, and, after leaving politics, as a tireless campaigner for pensioners.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was frequently forced to listen to Baroness Castle’s impassioned attacks on his policies for the elderly from the platform at Labour conferences, led tributes from all parties to a “great heroine” of British politics. … Read full obituary