Dead Celebrity Alert

A young Brisbane athlete who was carving out a professional baseball career in the US has died suddenly from a heart condition.

Paul Mutch, 21, who was selected by the Minnesota Twins at the age of 17, was back in Brisbane training at the University of Queensland when he died.

Mutch was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White syndrome, an abnormality of the electrical pathways of the heart, in 2000 while undergoing a medical check by his new club’s doctors.

He opted not to have corrective surgery, which would have meant wearing a heart pacemaker.

Mutch died on June 5 when he collapsed suddenly at his Brisbane flat and could not be revived. …

He was expected to represent Australia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. … Read full obituary

Los Angeles police today arrested a man suspected of decapitating an elderly Hollywood screenwriter and taking his head as a grisly trophy before slaughtering his neighbour.

Officers said the 91-year-old scriptwriter was murdered in his home yesterday. His killer allegedly then leapt a garden fence with the severed head and claimed his next victim, a retired doctor.

Police said they had taken 27-year-old Kevin Graff into custody in connection with the grisly double murder just minutes after making a public appeal for information on his whereabouts. …

Mr Lees was a writer of movie and television scripts who was blacklisted by studios amid the anti-communist sweeps of Hollywood in the 1950s, making it hard for him to find work.

He wrote scripts for the US comedy show Abbott & Costello, for western series Rawhide and a number of B-movies. … Read full story

Robert Quine, a noted guitarist of the New York rock scene of the 1970’s and 80’s who played with Richard Hell, Lou Reed and others, died last week in his home in Manhattan. He was 61.

He was found dead by the police on Saturday, said James Marshall, a friend. The police found a note and said they believed the death was a suicide but are awaiting a medical examiner’s report. Mr. Marshall said he believed Mr. Quine died on May 31.

In the loud world of New York punk, where crude simplicity trumped most conventional notions of musical skill, Mr. Quine stood out as a stylish virtuoso. His guitar, first heard on “Blank Generation,” the 1977 album by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, borrowed equally from rockabilly, jazz and the Velvet Underground, giving the music a quick, agitated pulse and an explosive power. …

Mr. Quine’s wife, Alice, died last August. … Read full obituary

Eugene Raskin, a folk singer and architectural scholar who wrote the unusual 1968 hit “Those Were the Days,” died on Monday at his home in Manhattan, his son Michael said. He was 94.

Mr. Raskin, who performed with his wife, Francesca, as Gene & Francesca, wrote the lyrics and music for “Those Were the Days” in 1962, basing the tune on a Russian folk melody. Paul McCartney heard the Raskins sing the song at a London club in 1964 and remembered it four years later when he was looking for material for the Beatles’ newly formed label, Apple Records.

Mr. McCartney decided to give the song to Mary Hopkin, a Welsh teenage singer and multiple winner of the British television talent show “Opportunity Knocks,” who had been introduced to him by Twiggy, the fashion model. The song, with its catchy refrain — “Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end” — was one of the first four releases by Apple Records. It reached No. 2 on the American charts in the fall of 1968 and held the top position on the British charts for one week, edging out another of Apple’s first four releases, “Hey Jude.” … Read full obituary

ROME, June 11 (AP) — Egon von Furstenberg, a Swiss-born aristocrat who started his fashion career as a buyer for a New York department store and went on to be known as the “prince of high fashion,” died here on Friday. He was 57.

His fashion house said he had died in a hospital in Rome but declined to give the cause of death. A brief company statement spoke of the “premature death of our dear and most beloved Egon.”

He was considered both eccentric and elegant. During Rome’s High Fashion week, a glittering event that draws stars like Sophia Loren, his designs were worn by models whose “runway” was the Spanish Steps.

His creations included gowns or shorter dresses in bright hues like purples, yellows or reds, often with plunging necklines, slits or daring rear views. His signature symbol spoke of his noble blood and love for high society — a curvy crown with a star. … Read full obituary

The legendary R&B musician Ray Charles has died aged 73, in Los Angeles, his publicist has said.

Charles, who has been blind since the age of six, had been out of the public eye for almost a year.

Complications with his hip surgery forced him to call off a performance in New York last month. …

Charles is considered a pioneer of soul music with hits including Georgia on My Mind and I Can’t Stop Loving You. … Read full obituary

June 5, 2004 — Former President Ronald Reagan, the actor and politician whose conservative vision and sunny outlook transformed America, has died. He was 93.

Reagan, the nation’s 40th president, had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, a debilitating brain disorder diagnosed several years after he left office in 1989. The disease had grown progressively worse to the point where the former president could no longer speak, feed himself or recognize his family.

A journeyman actor, union president and California governor before he won the presidency in a landslide on his third try, Reagan became known as the Great Communicator. With movie-star charisma and a natural feel for television cameras, he rejuvenated the Republican Party, and along with it, the nation. …

Critics protested his cuts in social programs, his buildup in military spending and a hands-off management style that led to a series of scandals. But many Americans enjoyed an economic joyride during his eight years in office, once “Reaganomics” wrenched the country out of the stagnation and malaise of the Carter years. … Read full obituary