Dead Celebrity Alert

LOS ANGELES — Buddy Hackett, the squat, round, rubbery-faced funnyman who appeared for more than 50 years as a top act in nightclubs, Broadway shows, on television and in such movies as The Music Man, The Love Bug and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, has died, his son confirmed Monday night. He was 79. … Read full obituary

SAN ANTONIO — Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. James Burwell, one of the first military aviators to fly using cockpit instruments, died recently at age 100.

Burwell was trained in instrument flying at the Army Air Corps’ Kelly Field, later Kelly Air Force Base, and he later devised courses to teach others. …

A native of Tarboro, N.C., Burwell died on June 25, less than two weeks before his 101st birthday. His wife, Marcine, said he was alert and in good health until he suffered a stroke three months ago. … Read full obituary

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. — Katharine Hepburn, an icon of feminist strength and spirit who brought a chiseled beauty and patrician bearing to such films as “The Philadelphia Story” and “The African Queen,” died Sunday, her executor and town authorities said. She was 96.

Town authorities and the executor of Hepburn’s estate, Cynthia McFadden, said Hepburn died Sunday at 2:50 p.m. at her home in Old Saybrook. She had been in declining health in recent years.

During her 60-year career, she won a record four Academy Awards and was nominated 12 times, which stood as a record until Meryl Streep surpassed her nomination total in 2003. Her Oscars were for “Morning Glory,” 1933; “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” 1967; “A Lion in Winter,” 1968; and “On Golden Pond,” 1981. …

In a 1990 interview, she told The Associated Press: “I’m what is known as gradually disintegrating. I don’t fear the next world, or anything. I don’t fear hell, and I don’t look forward to heaven.” … Read full obituary

Obit to come.

Died June 24, 2003. No links; profile from The Astounding B Monster Archive:

He’s a producer, screenwriter, publicist and film preservationist. But more importantly, Alex Gordon is a fan. His legendary B-movie productions, his years as cowboy legend Gene Autry’s publicist, and his tireless work in film restoration reflect the fact that his love for movies is unabashed. Growing up in Hampstead, London, Alex was hooked early on. “My brother and I and Bill Everson [the noted film historian] used to go to all the matinees and see all the westerns. I guess that stuck with me.” Following service in the second world war, Alex and his brother Richard, an esteemed B-movie producer in his own right, headed for the states with film careers in mind. “We arrived in New York in 1947,” Gordon remembers. “I moved to Hollywood permanently in 1952.”

Notes Wikipedia:

He produced 18 films, among these the American International Pictures films Day the World ended (1955) and The She-Creature (1956), and he wrote the script for 3 — notably 2 together with Edward D. Wood Jr.: Jail Bait and Bride of the Monster.

WACO, Texas (AP) — Police have been questioning Baylor University basketball players in the disappearance of a teammate, who authorities fear may be a victim of homicide.

No body has been found, but authorities say Patrick James Dennehy, 21, hasn’t been heard from in more than two weeks, and his sport utility vehicle turned up abandoned in a parking lot last week in Virginia with its license plates missing. …

Investigators believe the 6-10, 230-pound center may have been killed in the Waco area, though authorities wouldn’t say what led them to that conclusion. … Read full story

Sara Ann Freed, who was the editor in chief of Mysterious Press, died on Wednesday after having received treatment for leukemia. She was 57.

She was also senior editor at Warner Books and edited writers including Marcia Muller, Margaret Maron, and Michael Walsh. She won an Ellery Queen Award in 1999 from the Mystery Writers of America.

Born in Souderton, Pa., Freed began in the publishing business by working for a religious publishing house. … Read full obituary

Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a central figure in the political transformation of the South and the longest-serving senator in American history, died yesterday in Edgefield, S.C. He was 100. …

Mr. Thurmond first came to national attention in 1948 as the States’ Rights candidate after Southerners walked out of the Democratic convention to protest the party’s new commitment to civil rights. Mr. Thurmond finished a distant third to President Harry S. Truman that year, but his million votes cracked the once-solid Democratic South and helped set the stage for political realignment.

In 1964, Mr. Thurmond switched parties to back the Republican nominee for president, Senator Barry M. Goldwater. Four years later Mr. Thurmond held the South for Richard M. Nixon’s nomination and election, after assuring Southerners that Mr. Nixon, as president, would go easy on civil rights. … Read full obituary

Sir Denis Thatcher, husband of former prime minister Lady Thatcher, died today.

The 88-year old former oil businessman passed away in the Lister Hospital, London, a spokesman for the family said. …

Although a non-political figure in public, Sir Denis was thought to harbour hard-right views. In 1984 he told the Swiss president at a dinner: “Keep Switzerland white.”

He married the then Margaret Hilda Roberts in 1951 after having seen wartime service, and went on to become a director of Castrol.

Famously keen as a golf addict, he was best known to the public in the 1980s through the fictional parody alter-ego in Private Eye’s “Dear Bill” spoof letters to his real-life friend Lord Bill Deedes, former editor of the Daily Telegraph. …

He was famed for what his daughter Carol described as his “copious” intake of gin, and would regularly hobnob with reporters when he accompanied his wife on official visits abroad.

Other high profile instances of Sir Denis’ attitudes often leaked out, including referring to “fuzzy wuzzies in Brixton” and complaining that India was “high on the buggeration factor”. …

Sir Denis’s death would be a great blow to Lady Thatcher, said Sir Bernard. “A great deal will have been lost in her life. “She’s not all that well in herself in terms of loss of memory. Therefore, I don’t think she’s going to find it easy to recover. …

Neil Kinnock calles his former opponenet’s spouse “a decent old cove. He was always very mellow — whether that was through drink, I don’t know”.

“He was also a first class rugby referee. He was a total Tory.” … Read full obituary

Glen Grant, who told the ghost stories of Hawaii for more than 30 years, died Thursday after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 56. The storyteller and historian was best known for his collections of Hawaii’s obake, or ghost, stories. …

Grant wrote many books, including “Obake: Ghost Stories in Hawaii,” “McDougal’s Honolulu Mysteries: Case Studies in the Life of a Honolulu Detective” and the “Chicken Skin” series of ghostly tales. … Read full obituary

Lester Maddox, the restaurateur who became a symbol of segregationist defiance and then Georgia governor in a fluke election, died Wednesday, family members said. He was 87.

Maddox, who had battled cancer since 1983, cracked two ribs when he fell about 10 days ago at an assisted living home where he was recovering from intestinal surgery. He later developed pneumonia and was placed in an Atlanta hospice where he died, the family said. …

Maddox became famous in the 1960s when he closed and then sold his Pickrick fried chicken restaurant in Atlanta rather than serve blacks. But fears of racial strife during his 1967-71 governorship proved unfounded when Maddox pursued a policy of relative moderation on race. …

Later, he embarked on a short-lived nightclub comedy career with a black man he pardoned from jail while he was governor. They billed themselves as “The Governor and the Dishwasher.” … Read full obituary

ST. PETERSBURG — On a hot day in August 1952, George George climbed onto the roof of his downtown restaurant and wrote an invitation:

“Coffee Free Welcome Saucers”

It was a time of untold numbers of reported sightings of UFOs, and his amateur handiwork brought him worldwide publicity. His picture, standing on the roof of the Charcoal House restaurant, was printed and reprinted in newspapers and magazines. …

Newsweek ran it on the same page with an article featuring Albert Einstein and a discussion of space travel. The New York World Telegram & Sun published it on the front page.

Mr. George, whose St. Petersburg restaurant on First Street S was torn down in the early 1960s to make way for a federal office building, died Monday (June 23, 2003) at Mease Dunedin Hospital. He was 88. … Read full obituary

PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. — Former Negro Leagues pitcher Max Manning, who was once offered a major league tryout only to have it rescinded because of his race, died at 84.

He died Monday at Linwood Convalescent Center after a long illness.

A 6-foot-4-inch righthander with a sidearm delivery, Manning was a high school standout who went on to play for the Johnson Stars in nearby Atlantic City. … Read full obituary

Leon Uris, a longtime Aspen resident whose panoramic novels depicted determined individuals caught in the grips of history, died at his New York home Saturday of natural causes. He was 78. …

A prolific writer who drew from themes that echoed his own life, his best-known work was perhaps “Exodus,” the story of the struggle to establish and defend the state of Israel. Uris also authored “Trinity,” which depicted Ireland’s fierce struggle for independence.

Uris, who dropped out of school at 17 to join the U.S. Marines, served in the South Pacific from 1942-1945, an experience which provided the inspiration for his debut work in 1953, “Battle Cry,” a novel about a battalion of Marines during World War II.

In 1956, Uris, the son of Eastern-European Jewish immigrants, covered the Arab-Israeli wars as a correspondent. Two years later appeared “Exodus.” … Read full obituary

Vic Taylor, a singer who performed with the Jamaican bands Tommy McCook and the Skatalites and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, died Monday at age 56, his daughter Vanessa Taylor said.

Taylor, who lived in Uniondale, N.Y., died of cardiac arrest at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, N.Y., his daughter said.

Taylor was a lead singer with Byron Lee and the Dragonaires in the 1970s and ’80s, performing songs like “My Way” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” said Errol Gayle, a guitarist with the band. … Read full obituary