Dead Celebrity Alert

Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose condition ignited a protracted legal struggle and a national debate over end-of-life issues, died today at a Florida hospice, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed under a court order.

Representatives of both sides in a dispute over her fate confirmed the death shortly before 10 a.m. EST.

The death of Schiavo, 41, ended the court battle that had pitted her husband, who wanted to take her off artificial life support, against her parents and siblings, who sought to keep her alive at all costs. But the death appeared unlikely to quell the broader controversy fueled by the Schiavo case, one that set right-to-life, antiabortion and conservative religious groups — with backing from President Bush and Republican leaders in Congress — against advocates of a “right to die” when the brain no longer functions. …

Her husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, was with her at her bedside when she died. …

The feud between Terri Schiavo’s husband and her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, persisted until the end. …

Schiavo’s death, at the Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., came 15 years after she suffered cardiac arrest, experienced a loss of oxygen to the brain and slipped into a coma as a result of an eating disorder. She later emerged from the coma, but she never regained consciousness and remained in what doctors said was a “persistent vegetative state.” … Read full story

Dr. Don Rose, the radio personality who entertained generations of listeners in the Bay Area, died in his sleep Wednesday.

Rose commanded the airwaves in the 1970s and 80s with his morning show on KFRC-AM. He came up with nicknames for many local cities, like “Pinhole” for Pinole, “Sacra-tomato” for Sacramento, and “Berserkly” for Berkeley. … Read full obituary

More on Dr. Don

Former U.S. Sen. Howell Heflin, a popular, joke-telling Alabama politician who served as chief justice before becoming an arbiter of senatorial behavior during three terms in Washington, has died, family and associates said Tuesday. He was 83. …

Heflin, a Democrat who spearheaded judicial reform in Alabama as chief justice, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 and retired after 18 years, serving on the Judiciary and Iran-Contra panels as well as chairing the ethics committee.

On the judiciary panel, he was remembered for joining in the bitterly contested votes that rejected the nominations of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court and Alabama federal prosecutor Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship. …

In the Senate, Heflin was something of an old-line southern Democrat and could be conservative on some issues and more liberal on others…

Heflin often found himself the subject of humor. While dinning with two female journalists from NBC on a hot summer day in 1994, he reached into his pocket for a handkerchief and pulled out a lady’s undergarments. … Read full obituary

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., the dynamic, eminently quotable attorney whose televised murder defense of O.J. Simpson made him a legal superstar died Tuesday. He was 67.

Cochran died of a brain tumor at his home in Los Angeles, his family said in a statement.

With his colorful suits and ties, his gift for courtroom oratory and a knack for coining memorable phrases, Cochran was a vivid addition to the pantheon of great American barristers.

His catch phrase in the Simpson trial, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” would be quoted and parodied for years afterward. It derived from a dramatic moment during which Simpson tried on a pair of bloodstained “murder gloves” to show jurors they did not fit. Some legal experts called it the turning point in the trial.

Soon after, jurors found the Hall of Fame football star not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. …

For Cochran, Simpson’s acquittal was the crowning achievement in a career notable for victories, often in cases with racial themes. He was a black man known for championing the causes of black defendants. Some of them, like Simpson, were famous, but more often than not they were unknowns. … Read full obituary

Paul Hester, the drummer from popular 1980s Australian rock band Crowded House, hanged himself in a park in southern Australia, an emergency services spokeswoman said Monday.

Hester, 46, had failed to return home after taking his two dogs for a walk on Friday night. The drummer’s body was later found in a park near his home in the southern city of Melbourne.

Ambulance officers arrived on the scene shortly after midday Saturday and tried to resuscitate him, but “he was dead when they arrived,” Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokeswoman Liraje Memishi said.

Memishi said he had “attempted suicide” and then suffered strangulation. She declined to confirm where Hester’s body was found. Reports have said he was discovered hanging from a tree.

Hester played in several small bands before joining the New Zealand group Split Enz in 1983. He and Split Enz singer Neil Finn formed Crowded House in 1985 with bass player Nick Seymour.

Crowded House was one of Australia’s most successful bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with international hits such as “Don’t Dream it’s Over” and “Weather with You.” …

He is survived by his girlfriend Mardi Sommerfield and their two daughters aged 8 and 10. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES — Barney Martin, a former New York City detective who went into show business and became best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld’s father Morty on the comedian’s hit television series, has died. He was 82.

Martin died of cancer Monday at his Studio City home, according to his publicist, Jennifer Glassman. …

Martin got his start in film when Mel Brooks featured him in “The Producers” in 1968. That role launched Martin into Broadway theater, where he appeared in several musicals, including “South Pacific,” “The Fantasticks,” All American” and “How Now Dow Jones.”

He is credited with creating the role of Roxy’s unappreciated husband, Amos Hart, in the musical “Chicago.” … Read full obituary

WILTON, New Hampshire — Guitarist Rod Price, founding member of the blues boogie band Foghat, died Tuesday after falling down a stairway at his home, a family friend said. He was 57.

The London native’s solos drove Foghat to three platinum and eight gold records during the band’s quarter-century career. After many years of touring he settled in Wilton in 1994. …

Price had played with Champion Jack Dupree, Eddie Kirkland, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon and Honey Boy Edwards. … Read full obituary

John Z. DeLorean, 80, the brilliant but troubled automaker who arguably was as flamboyant as his car designs, died March 19 at a hospital in Summit, N.J., after a stroke.

Mr. DeLorean, the son of an autoworker, reached the executive ranks of General Motors Corp. with an astonishing series of successes that revolutionized the industry. …

He won acclaim by introducing sports-car sexiness to conservative Pontiac with his GTO muscle car in the 1960s. He also brought Pontiac its first compact vehicle, predicting a trend to more fuel-efficient models. Ceaselessly inventive, he was credited with creating the overhead-cam engine, concealed windshield wipers, the lane-change turn signal, vertically stacked headlights, racing stripes and an emphasis on cockpitlike driver consoles. …

With his overconfident, often dazzling demeanor and a string of innovations behind him, he widely had been expected to take over GM.

Instead, he left to form his own, eponymous company with the hope of creating an economical, “ethical” sports car. …

Mr. DeLorean’s dream was crusted with problems with the start, from undercapitalization to mechanical flaws in the car’s design. It took seven years to create the DeLorean DMC-12, a sleek sports car with a stainless-steel body, gull-winged doors and a rear-mounted, V-6 fuel-injected engine.

The cost overruns raised the sticker price to more than $25,000, well beyond the reach of most car-buyers in 1981. The British government, under Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, demanded that Mr. DeLorean raise more money to keep the project solvent. When he was unable to meet the price of business, the plant closed in late 1982, having produced about 9,000 cars. … Read full obituary

Bobby Short, the cherubic singer and pianist whose high-spirited but probing renditions of popular standards evoked the glamour and sophistication of Manhattan nightlife, died today at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He was 80, and had homes in Manhattan and southern France.

The cause was leukemia, said his press agent, Virginia Wicks, The Associated Press reported.

Mr. Short liked to call himself a saloon singer, and his “saloon,” since 1968, was one of the most elegant in the country, the intimate Cafe Carlyle tucked in the Hotel Carlyle on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. …

Over the years, Mr. Short transcended the role of cabaret entertainer to become a New York institution and a symbol of civilized Manhattan culture. In Woody Allen’s films, a visit to the Carlyle became an essential stop on his characters’ cultural tour. … Read full obituary

Obit to come.

An appointee of Mayor Anthony A. Williams who headed the city’s office of gay and lesbian issues was found slain late yesterday in her Northeast Washington home, police said, stunning city officials, activists and friends.

The body of Wanda R. Alston was found inside her home in the 3800 block of East Capitol Street, police said. Authorities said she apparently had been stabbed, but they were awaiting the medical examiner’s ruling on the cause of death.

Alston, 45, was found by her partner face down near the front door of the two-story brick rowhouse just before 6 p.m., officials said. No weapon was found. Police said her silver 2000 Nissan Sentra, with D.C. tags AZ9597, was missing. …

Williams named Alston his special assistant for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs in 2001. In September 2004, Williams turned her post into a Cabinet-level position, saying he wanted to raise the profile of the office. … Read full obituary

DAVIE, Florida (AP) — Danny Joe Brown, the lead singer of the Southern rock band Molly Hatchet, died of complications from diabetes, his family said Monday. He was 53.

Brown died Thursday at his home in Davie, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, his sister Lyndia Brown said.

“He had been in the hospital for about four weeks before he died, and he wanted to come home and he was home for 30 minutes when he died,” Lyndia Brown told The Associated Press. “He was surrounded by his children and his wife.”

In 1975, the Jacksonville native joined Molly Hatchet, named after a Southern prostitute who allegedly beheaded and mutilated her clients. Brown was frontman for its self-titled album in 1978, which went platinum. In 1979 the next album, “Flirtin’ With Disaster,” sold over 2 million copies.

Brown left the band in the early 1980s because of his diabetes.

After creating his own group, the Danny Joe Brown Band, he rejoined Molly Hatchet in 1982 to participate in the album “No Guts … No Glory.” … Read full obituary

WAUWATOSA, Wis. — The Rev. Walter H. Halloran, a priest who took part in an exorcism that spawned the book and movie “The Exorcist,” has died at age 83.

He was the last living Jesuit who assisted in the exorcism in 1949 at a psychiatric unit in St. Louis. He died Tuesday night at a Jesuit retirement home in suburban Milwaukee.

Halloran was a 27-year-old Jesuit scholastic at Saint Louis University when a priest called him to the psychiatric wing at Alexian Brothers Hospital. The Rev. William S. Bowdern was trying to help a 14-year-old boy who he believed was possessed by a demon, and he needed a strong man to help control the boy. A third Jesuit, the Rev. William Van Roo, also was there. …

Halloran said he saw streaks and arrows and words like “hell” on the boy’s skin.

A three-paragraph news account of the incident inspired William Peter Blatty to write his 1971 best seller, “The Exorcist,” which led to the movie a few years later. Blatty’s story featured a 12-year-old girl. … Read full obituary