Dead Celebrity Alert

Raymond “Cowboy Ray” Hofstatter, a recurring character on “Mancow’s Morning Madhouse” radio show, died Tuesday night as a result of lingering injuries from a hit-and-run auto accident last fall, WGN-Ch. 9 reported.

The 45-year-old Hofstatter had just left the Bohica Bar & Grill, 5518 S. Archer Ave. on Chicago’s Southwest Side, and was crossing the street the early morning of Nov. 20 when he was hit. Three friends with him at the time were not hurt.

The impact threw Hofstatter 20 feet. … Read full obituary

Eric Namesnik, who won silver medals in swimming at the 1992 and ‘96 Olympics, died Wednesday following a car accident last week. He was 35.

Namesnik was critically injured in the Jan. 7 accident, which was caused by icy conditions in Pittsfield Township, according to USA Swimming. He had been in a medically induced coma to reduce swelling around his brain before he died at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.

Namesnik won silver medals in the 400-meter individual medley at the ‘92 Barcelona Games and four years later in Atlanta. He became the first American to swim under 4 minutes, 15 seconds in the four-stroke IM event and lowered the American record four times. He was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1991 and ‘93. … Read full obituary

U.S. District Court Senior Judge Jack Tanner — known for his sometimes controversial decisions, his civil rights activism and his outspoken belief that the courts ought to be a place where people of any color, gender or class could find a measure of justice and equality — died peacefully at his home with family Tuesday night.

He was 86. …

In 1989 he became eligible to retire from the bench but when he heard that he would not be replaced by another African-American vowed to remain on it “until rigor mortis set in.” …

Tanner, who marched in Mississippi during the civil rights movement, was involved in the NAACP and worked on Senator Henry M. Jackson’s presidential campaign, didn’t believe people should be treated differently, paid differently or given different opportunities on the basis of their race, gender or class… Read full obituary

Birgit Nilsson, the farmer’s daughter who became renown in the world’s great opera houses for her dazzling voice and among colleagues for her playful sense of humor, has died at age 87.

She died on Christmas Day, the Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet reported.

As word spread of her death two decades after she retired, the Swedish singer was remembered as one of the world’s top Wagnerian sopranos.

“With Birgit Nilsson’s passing, Sweden has lost one of its greatest artists,” King Carl XVI Gustaf said in a rare statement. …

A funeral was held Wednesday at a church in her native town Vastra Karup in southern Sweden, with only her closest relatives attending, said Fredrik Westerlund, the church’s vicar. He did not know when she died or the cause of death, but Nilsson was said to have had heart trouble in recent years. … Read full obituary

The controversial mountaineering legend, Heinrich Harrer, died peacefully over the weekend; he was in his nineties. Harrer is likely most known by younger climbers through the film, Seven Years in Tibet, which was based on his life.

In 1938, Harrer joined the German-Austrian climbing expedition that conquered Eiger’s North Face. The following year he was part of a disasterous expedition by a German Nazi team trying to climb Nanga Parbat, according to Deutsche Welle. The team did not summit and was arrested by British forces. These were the early days of WWII.

Rumors swirled around Harrer’s involvement with the Nazis. Sixty years later, Harrer confirmed that he had been part of the Nazi expedition and was an officer in the paramilitary group, the Schutzstaffel, a post he was given after meeting Hitler and, he said, that was due to the Eiger feat. Harrer claimed that his involvement with the Nazis was solely based on the Nanga Parbat expedition and that he had a “clear conscience” as to his role with the organization. … Read full obituary

A former Southern Baptist leader who was known to stress that racism was sinful has died of a heart attack.

A memorial service is tomorrow in Dallas for Foy Valentine.

Valentine died Saturday at a Dallas hospital. He was 82.

Valentine was executive director of the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission.

It’s now called the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the denomination’s public policy panel. … Read full obituary

Jamie Hodgson, the photographer whose haunting images of jazz musicians helped immortalise its greatest stars, has died at the age of 76.

The former fashion photographer, who died of cancer on Sunday, took his stark black and white pictures of musicians including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong during the 1950s and 1960s.

His pictures, which amounted to a hall of fame of American jazz greats from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Charles, was all the more remarkable given that Hodgson took none of them in the United States. The shots were all taken by the photographer, a jazz fanatic, during live performances by the stars in London. …

He also set up the Kinnerton Street Studio in Knightsbridge where he made his living photographing models such as Jean Shrimpton, Tania Mallet and the wife of the former Conservative leader Michael Howard, then known as Sandra Paul. … Read full obituary

Jack Snow could always be counted on to make big receptions for the Los Angeles Rams. Over the middle, down the sideline or in the open field, Snow simply had a knack for catching the football. …

Snow, a star wide receiver for the Rams from 1965-75 and a longtime team broadcaster, died Monday night, the club said. He was 62.

Snow had been hospitalized on and off for the past two months with a staph infection. His family was with him when he died at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, said Duane Lewis, a team spokesman. …

Snow, the father of Gold Glove first baseman J.T. Snow, was an analyst on the Rams’ radio broadcasts, moving to St. Louis with the team 10 years ago. His last game in the booth was Nov. 20 during the Rams’ home loss to Arizona. … Read full obituary

Justice James D. Taylor, of the B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo, has died. He was 64.

Taylor, well-respected and well-known on Vancouver Island, died suddenly Sunday while at his cabin on Mount Washington, apparently of a heart attack.

His death was called a big loss for the B.C. justice system. … Read full obituary

A Belfast-born former cabinet minister who supported moves for a national stadium in Northern Ireland died last night after suffering a stroke.

Former Sports Minister Tony Banks suffered the stroke last Thursday while on holiday in Florida and died as he was being moved to a hospice.

He has been a keen advocate of Ulster sports provision and voiced support for a stadium as early as 1999.

The 62-year-old former Labour MP, who became Lord Stratford when he accepted a peerage last year, collapsed over lunch. … Read full obituary

FRESNO, Calif. — Stuart Quan, an award-winning martial artist and movie stuntman, has died. He was 43.

Quan died of unknown causes Sunday, according to his sister Kathryn Doi.

Friends said Quan lost consciousness during the car ride back from a snowboarding trip in the Sierra, television station KFSN-TV reported.

Quan’s stunt and acting credits covered more than a dozen movies, including “Rent,” “Hulk” and “Big Trouble in Little China,” according to the Internet Movie Database. He also appeared on episodes of the television shows “Home Improvement” and “Seinfeld.” … Read full obituary

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.

Eric Anthony Beard, 47, of Auburn died Friday night in a crash of his twin-engine Piper aircraft near Skagit Regional Airport, the Skagit County Sheriff’s Department said. His name was released Saturday by deputy coroner Bob Clark.

Beard, who learned to fly at 14 by taking lessons at a Georgia crop-dusting strip, died in what apparently was a routine flight for Seattle-based Airpac Airlines. … 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. …

Caldecott’s beacon alerted the rally headquarters at 11:31am local time that there was an emergency situation. The medical helicopter landed at 11:55am at the location but the doctors were only able to pronounce him dead at the tragic scene due to a neck injury. Caldecott died instantly; he is survived by his wife and child. …

Almost one year to the date and on the way to Kiffa, Caldecott died at nearly the same timeframe and on the fast portion of the route, as did [Fabrizio] Meoni… 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. He had undergone surgery Saturday at Howard University Hospital in an effort to relieve pressure on his brain, said his brother, Marcus Rosenbaum.

Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile said police found Rosenbaum after being called to the scene about 9:20 p.m. Friday and that the victim’s wallet was missing. …

“He wanted some fresh air and decided to take a walk,” Rosenbaum’s brother, Marcus Rosenbaum, told The Washington Post. … 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.

Thompson, whose role in the 1968 massacre did not become widely known until decades later, died at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Alexandria, hospital spokesman Jay DeWorth said. …

Early in the morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson, door-gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta came upon U.S. ground troops killing Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai.

They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their own guns at the U.S. soldiers to prevent more killings. … Read full obituary