Dead Celebrity Alert

NEW YORK — Federal Judge Constance Baker Motley, who as a young lawyer represented Martin Luther King Jr. and played a pivotal role in the nation’s civil rights struggle, has died. She was 84.

Motley died Tuesday, said Chief Judge Michael Mukasey in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where she served. She had been working on cases last week before she was hospitalized.

Motley’s career found her fighting in many of the nation’s landmark segregation cases. After a brief political career, she became the first black woman appointed to the federal bench in 1966. …

Her interest in civil rights grew after she was turned away at age 15 from a public beach because she was black. …

In the late 1950s, Motley took an interest in politics and by 1964 had left the NAACP and become the first black woman to serve in the New York State Senate.

In 1965, she became the first woman president of the borough of Manhattan, where she worked to decrease racial segregation in public schools.

In 1966, President Johnson nominated her to the federal bench in Manhattan. She was confirmed nine months later, though her appointment was opposed by conservative federal judges and southern politicians. … Read full obituary

Producer Sid Luft, who is credited with reviving the career of then-wife Judy Garland in the 1950s, died Sept. 15. He was 89.

Mr. Luft, whose credits include “Kilroy Was Here” (1947), “French Leave” (1948) and “A Star Is Born” (1954), died in Santa Monica of an apparent heart attack, John Kimble, a longtime friend and business partner, said yesterday.

Mr. Luft and Garland were married in 1952 and divorced a tumultuous 13 years later. The marriage was Garland’s third and Mr. Luft’s second.

They had two children together: Lorna, in 1952, and Joey, in 1955. Mr. Luft also was stepfather to singer-actress Liza Minnelli, daughter of Garland’s second husband, Vincente Minnelli. …

Mr. Luft’s marriage to Garland was marked by numerous separations. During their divorce hearing in 1965, Garland told a judge that Mr. Luft was abusive.

In 1993, when Mr. Luft tried to auction off the Best Juvenile Actress Oscar that Garland won for “The Wizard of Oz,” the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences sued and won. The academy claimed it had the right to buy the Oscar — for $10.

After he and Garland divorced, Mr. Luft married Patti Hemingway in 1970. That union ended in divorce. He married actress Camille Keaton in 1993. His first wife was Lynn Bari, whom he married in 1943. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES — Don Adams, the wry-voiced comedian who starred as the fumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s TV spoof of James Bond movies, “Get Smart,” has died. He was 82.

Adams died of a lung infection late Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, his friend and former agent Bruce Tufeld said Monday, adding that the actor broke his hip a year ago and had been in ill health since.

As the inept Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency CONTROL, Adams captured TV viewers with his antics in combatting the evil agents of KAOS. When his explanations failed to convince the villains or his boss, he tried another tack:

“Would you believe … ?”

It became a national catchphrase. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES — Thomas Ross Bond, who played Butch the bully in the “Our Gang” and “The Little Rascals” serials of the 1930s, has died. He was 79.

Bond died Saturday of complications from heart disease at Northridge Hospital, said his manager, Frank Marks.

Bond played a member of the Gang named Tommy. After his first year he was dropped from the cast but returned later in the role of Butch, the archenemy of Alfalfa. …

Born Sept. 16, 1926 in Dallas, Bond got his start at the age of 5 when a talent scout for Hal Roach studios approached him as he was leaving a movie theater with his mother. …

In the 1940s, Bond played Jimmy Olsen in two Superman movies and appeared as Joey Pepper in several installments of the “Five Little Peppers” serial. … Read full obituary

 
LOS ANGELES — Joel Hirschhorn, the songwriter who shared Academy Awards for theme songs in two catastrophe-oriented motion pictures, “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno,” has died. He was 67.

Mr. Hirschhorn, who lived in Agoura Hills, northwest of Los Angeles, died early Sunday, apparently of a heart attack, at Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, his wife, Jennifer Carter Hirschhorn, a documentary producer, said Monday. She said Mr. Hirschhorn had fallen Friday night and had broken his shoulder.

His songs, recorded by artists including Elvis Presley, have sold more than 90 million records, and his music was used for a score of motion pictures.

Along with a longtime collaborator, Al Kasha, Mr. Hirschhorn earned his first Oscar in 1973 for “The Morning After,” from “Poseidon,” a movie about a luxury cruise ship capsized by a huge wave.

The duo received a second statuette two years later for their song “We May Never Love Like This Again” from “The Towering Inferno,” a film about a fire in a high-rise building. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES — Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who helped track down numerous Nazi war criminals following World War II then spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people, died Tuesday. He was 96.

Wiesenthal died in his sleep at his home in Vienna, Austria, according to Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. …

Wiesenthal, who had been an architect before World War II, changed his life’s mission after the war, dedicating himself to trying to track down Nazi war criminals and to being a voice for the 6 million Jews who died during the onslaught. He himself lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust. … Read full obituary

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Donn Clendenon, the power-hitting first baseman who was the most valuable player in the New York Mets’ 1969 World Series victory, died Saturday after a long fight with leukemia. He was 70. …

Clendenon hit three home runs and had four RBI in the Mets’ five-game victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He hit .274 with 159 home runs and 682 RBI in 12 seasons in the major leagues with Pittsburgh, Montreal, the Mets and St. Louis. … Read full obituary

Robert Wise, who directed and produced two of the most beloved movie musicals of all time, “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music,” and was honored with four Oscars for his efforts, has died of heart failure at age 91.

Wise, who was also nominated for an Oscar for editing the Orson Welles classic “Citizen Kane,” died Wednesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, said family friend and longtime Los Angeles entertainment agent Lawrence Mirisch.

Wise was rushed to the hospital after he was stricken at his Century City home, Mirisch told The Associated Press late Wednesday. The director had appeared to be in good health Saturday when he celebrated his 91st birthday with friends.

Wise’s wife, Millicent Wise, learned of her husband’s death while she was in Spain to attend the inauguration ceremony of the San Sebastian film festival. A retrospective of Wise’s work is to run throughout the nine-day event that starts Thursday. …

[Julie] Andrews praised Wise in a statement Thursday.

“He was a dear friend, a true mentor and the epitome of a gentle man,” Andrews said. “His body of work set thresholds rarely achieved in the film industry and he certainly influenced this (then) young actress from England who was learning her craft on film.

“He will be forever missed.” … Read full obituary

INDIANAPOLIS — Sportscaster Chris Schenkel, whose easygoing baritone won over fans during a more than six-decade broadcasting career in which he covered everything from bowling to the Olympics, died Sunday following a long battle with emphysema. He was 82.

Schenkel’s wife, Fran, said she and the couple’s two sons were at her husband’s side when he passed away early Sunday at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., where he had been hospitalized for two weeks after undergoing surgery for a bleeding ulcer.

“He was a very, very sincere, loving man who loved what he did,” said Fran Schenkel, noting that they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in January. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy first mate Gilligan on the 1960s television show “Gilligan’s Island” made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died, his agent confirmed Tuesday. He was 70.

Denver, who underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery earlier this year, died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina, according to agent Mike Eisenstadt. …

Denver’s wife, Dreama, and children Patrick, Megan, Emily and Colin were with him when he died.

“He was my everything and I will love him forever,” Dreama Denver said in a statement. … Read full obituary

Washington Post — Sunday, September 4, 2005 —William Hubbs Rehnquist, the 16th chief justice of the United States, died last night at his home in Arlington. He was 80.

Rehnquist, who had been suffering from thyroid cancer since last October, had managed to lead the court through its last term, which ended in June. But he went through “a precipitous decline in his health in the last couple of days,” Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

Rehnquist’s death comes as the Senate is preparing for hearings on President Bush’s nomination of John G. Roberts Jr. to replace Sandra Day O’Connor as an associate justice. Those hearings are set to begin on Tuesday. O’Connor, 75, announced her retirement on July 1, effective upon the confirmation of a successor. …

A conservative stalwart appointed as associate Justice by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972, Rehnquist was elevated to chief justice in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. His 33-year tenure on the court was one of the longest and most influential in the institution’s history, as he spearheaded a rightward move at the court — first as a lone dissenter, then later as the leader of a five-justice conservative majority. … Read full obituary