Dead Celebrity Alert

BURLINGTON — The pilot of a plane that crashed in Skagit County over the weekend had been flying for 34 years and was known throughout the world for his aerobatic stunt flying. … Read full obituary

Today is a sad day in the 28th Edition of the Dakar cross-country rally, as Australian rider Andy Caldecott died from injuries sustained when he crashed, just 250km into the marathon stage nine, between Nouakchott and Kiffa in Mauritania, Africa. … Read full obituary

Washington (AP) — Veteran New York Times journalist David E. Rosenbaum, 63, died Sunday evening from injuries suffered in a street robbery while walking near his home two nights earlier, police said. … Read full obituary

NEW ORLEANS — Hugh Thompson Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians from his fellow GIs during the My Lai massacre, died early Friday. He was 62. … Read full obituary

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) — Barry Cowsill, a member of the popular 1960s singing family The Cowsills, was found dead on a wharf nearly four months after he disappeared when Hurricane Katrina flooded the city. He was 51.

Cowsill’s body, recovered December 28 from the Chartres Street Wharf, was identified with dental records Tuesday… Read full obituary

(CNN) — Lou Rawls, whose mellifluous baritone was featured on hits ranging from his own “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” to Sam Cooke’s “Bring It on Home to Me,” has died. He was 72.

Rawls died Friday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He was hospitalized last month for treatment of lung and brain cancer… Read full obituary

Australian television actress Sophie Heathcote has died in the American state of Connecticut, reportedly from an aneurism. The actress, who died yesterday, was also believed to have been suffering from skin cancer.

Melbourne-born Heathcote, 33, appeared in television shows including A Country Practice, Water Rats and Raw FM. … Read full obituary

Former Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Bill Skate, who once bragged of being a criminal godfather who could order gangs to kill people, will be given a state funeral after he suffered a stroke. … Read full obituary

The ruler of Dubai, United Arab Emirates Vice President Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid al-Maktoum, died yesterday on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

The UAE’s official news agency confirmed his death in Australia. He died at the Palazzo Versace resort from a suspected heart attack. … Read full obituary

Urbano Lazzaro, best known under his nom de guerre ‘Partisan Bill’, stormed into Italy’s history books on April 27, 1945, when he halted a Nazi truck in the village of Dongo and discovered Il Duce disguised as a Nazi soldier inside. … Read full obituary

Candy Barr, an exotic dancer whose hardscrabble life became Texas legend as she befriended Jack Ruby (who killed President John F. Kennedy’s assassin), dated a mobster, shot her husband went to prison for drug possession, and starred — unwillingly, she insisted — in a famous stag film, died on Friday in Victoria, Tex. She was 70. … Read full obituary

Dawn Lake and Bobby Limb. Bobby Limb and Dawn Lake. The names of two of Australia’s best-loved entertainers are almost always mentioned in the same breath, rarely separated.

Bobby died in 1999. On Sunday night, Dawn, his long-time wife and performing partner, followed him. She was 78. … Read full obituary

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