Dead Celebrity Alert

Born: San Francisco, 1917

Educated: Harvard

Military: Entered U.S. Army in 1941

Politics: Became chair of California Republican Party in 1962

Washington: Headed Federal Trade Commission, Office of Management and Budget, Health, Education and Welfare Department, and Defense Department. Backed President Reagan’s “Star Wars” defense initiative

Highs and lows: Knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II for his support during the Falklands War; indicted over the Iran-Contra affair and was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush before a trial.

Source: U.S. Defense Department

Caspar Weinberger, defense secretary under President Ronald Reagan, died Tuesday at age 88, his family said.

Weinberger died about 5 a.m. in a hospital near his home in Mount Desert, Maine.

He had recently been treated for pneumonia. …

Weinberger, who presided over an unprecedented peacetime military buildup costing more than $1 trillion, began his government career as a cost-cutter. … Read full obituary

Lyn Nofziger, the cigar-chomping former newspaperman who served as spokesman and strategist for Ronald Reagan in Sacramento and Washington, died of cancer on Monday at his home in Falls Church, Va. He was 81. …

Nancy Reagan, the former first lady, said: “Lyn was with us from the gubernatorial campaign in 1965 through the early White House days, and Ronnie valued his advice — and good humor — as much as anyone’s. …”

Mr. Nofziger was at the hospital with Reagan after he was shot in March 1981 and relayed to the press the president’s memorable, if perhaps apocryphal, line to Mrs. Reagan at the hospital: “Honey, I forgot to duck.” …

Mr. Nofziger wrote four western novels and a political autobiography, “Nofziger.”

But those who know him remember not his serious writings but his puns and quips and bits of doggerel. Among them is a limerick that he penned after the doomed nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court last year, which appears on his Web site, www.lynnofziger.com:

Conservatives are fearful that Harriet
Will be George Bush’s Iscariot.
They have little doubt
That she’d sell them out
For a ride in a liberal’s chariot.

Read full obituary

Richard Fleischer, a film director who never became a household name despite working with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars on hits like “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and “Fantastic Voyage,” died early Saturday at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 89. …

After directing a string of B-movie thrillers and “The Happy Time,” a 1952 comedy about coming of age in Quebec, Mr. Fleischer was asked by Walt Disney to direct a big-budget movie based on Jules Verne’s novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”

The decision was not a simple one. Mr. Fleischer’s father, Max Fleischer, and Max’s siblings were pioneers in the early days of animation, gaining fame with their Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor shorts in the 1930’s. Disney, their main rival, was not a popular name in the Fleischer household, and Mr. Fleischer told Disney he would have to ask his father’s permission first. His father told him that he should of course take the job. …

Though his movies were often hits, they were not always so popular with critics. … Read full obituary

Outback artist Pro Hart has died at his Broken Hill home after battling motor neurone disease.

The 77-year-old was diagnosed with the debilitating disease that causes muscle wastage late last year but his condition began to worsen last week.

His family decided to cease his medication on Friday and the legendary artist died at 2.45am today, Hart’s family said.

Pro Hart became a household name for his unconventional and diverse art works — which at one time featured in a popular carpet-cleaning advertisement.

He was “a truly remarkable Australian and one that will be sadly missed,” his family said. … Read full obituary

Paul Dana was an up-and-coming rookie driver living his dream, a former motorsports journalist who was hours away Sunday from beginning his most promising season yet.

Then, before the green flag flew, something went terribly, inexplicably wrong.

While streaking around the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval during a warmup session, Dana failed to notice that another car had spun to a stop, slamming into it at close to 200 mph. Two hours after his shattered car came to a rest, the 30-year-old Dana was pronounced dead at a hospital. …

[T]he wreck might have been the result of a rookie mistake by Dana, whose previous IRL experience included just three races last season. … Read full story

It is with great sadness that the Office of U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd announces that Senator Byrd’s wife of nearly 69 years, Erma Ora James Byrd, passed away after battling a long illness.

Born in Floyd County, Virginia, Erma Ora James moved to the West Virginia coalfields with her family. She met her future husband while both were students at Mark Twain Grade School in Raleigh County. Erma and Robert Byrd were married when they both were just 19 years old. The small ceremony, attended only by their parents, was at the home of the Reverend U. G. Nichols on May 29, 1937. …

Mrs. Byrd never sought the limelight. She did not give her first media interview until 1982 — 30 years after her husband was first elected to the Congress. In that interview with the Charleston Daily Mail, she said, “I leave the politics to Robert. The people elected him, not me.” …

Mrs. Byrd was a member of the Senate Wives’ Club and has been involved in Senate Wives’ Red Cross projects since 1958. In 1990, Mrs. Byrd was selected Daughter of the Year by the West Virginia Society of Washington, D.C. … Read full obituary

Singer Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like “Act Naturally” and brought the genre to TV on the long-running “Hee Haw,” died Saturday. He was 76.

Owens died at his home in Bakersfield, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997.

His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

They were recorded with a honky-tonk twang that came to be known throughout California as the “Bakersfield Sound,” named for the town 100 miles north of Los Angeles that Owens called home. …

“I’d like to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs and had a hell of a time,” he said in 1992. …

In addition to music, Owens had a highly visible TV career as co-host of “Hee Haw” from 1969 to 1986. With guitarist Roy Clark, he led viewers through a potpourri of country music and hayseed humor. … Read full obituary

Paul A. Flaherty, a computer engineer who helped create the pioneering AltaVista online search engine, has died. He was 42.

Flaherty died March 16 of a heart attack at his home in Belmont, about 20 miles south of San Francisco, family members said Friday.

Flaherty came up with the idea of indexing Web pages that made the AltaVista search engine one of the most popular Internet search tools in the mid-1990s. …

Flaherty was working as a research engineer at Digital Equipment Corp. in Palo Alto when he teamed up with two other staff researchers in 1995 to develop AltaVista’s technology.

The Web site was made public in December 1995 and within weeks was processing several million searches a day. It was spun off from Digital Equipment as a private company in 1999. … Read full obituary

KOLKATA [Calcutta]: A giant aldabra tortoise thought to be around 250 years old has died in the Kolkata zoo of liver failure, zoo authorities said on Thursday.

The tortoise had been the pet of Robert Clive, the famous British military officer in colonial India around the middle of the 18th century, a local minister in West Bengal state said.

Local authorities say the tortoise, named “Addwaitya” meaning the “The One and Only” in Bengali, was the oldest tortoise in the world but they have not presented scientific proof to back up their claim.

“Historical records show he was a pet of British general Robert Clive of the East India Company and had spent several years in his sprawling estate before he was brought to the zoo about 130 years ago,” West Bengal Forest Minister Jogesh Barman said. … Read full obituary

Bill Beutel, the longtime television news anchor and host of the show that became ABC’s “Good Morning America,” has died, the network announced. He was 75.

Beutel, whose trademark signoff “Good luck and be well” closed WABC’s nightly local newscast for more than 30 years, died Saturday at his home in Pinehurst, N.C., the network said. The cause of death was not disclosed.

In 1975, Beutel hosted “AM America,” the network’s national morning news show. … Read full obituary

Oleg Cassini, 92, the dapper descendant of Russian aristocrats who married a movie star, designed clothes for a first lady and was the first to license his name to products from perfume to luggage, died March 17 at a hospital on New York’s Long Island. His third wife, Marianne, said the designer suffered a broken blood vessel in his head.

Mr. Cassini was best known as Jacqueline Kennedy’s couturier, creating 300 elegant outfits from simple A-line dresses to her iconic pillbox hats. Her Inauguration Day outfit, a pillbox hat and a fawn-colored wool coat with a sable collar over a matching wool dress, dazzled women around the globe, who rushed to find copies. …

Mr. Cassini designed with the panache of Hollywood, where he worked in his early years outfitting such stars as Betty Grable, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. The small, debonair playboy, whose Old World manners, pencil-thin mustache and athletic prowess charmed the ladies, had many romances with famous actresses — Anita Ekberg, Linda Evans, Jill St. John — and dozens of models. Others he simply named “Monday” or “Tuesday,” referring to the days of the week when he wooed them.

He was married four times, first to cough-syrup heiress Merry Fahrney and twice to Hollywood star Gene Tierney, with whom he had two children. After his third divorce, he was engaged to Grace Kelly, until she dumped him to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco. … Read full obituary

Robert C. Baker, an agricultural scientist who looked at chickens and envisioned chicken nuggets, not to mention chicken hotdogs, helping transform what is now a $29 billion poultry industry, died on Monday at his home in North Lansing, N.Y. He was 84. …

Cornell University hired Dr. Baker in 1957 as a professor and as a liaison to growers and marketers. His mission was to find ways to persuade people to eat more poultry, rather than viewing chickens as just egg-laying machines or Sunday luxuries. He took them to places no bird had been before, including the sausage department.

It was part of a fundamental transformation of the poultry business. … Read full obituary

Ann Calvello, a grand doyenne of roller derby and a Bay Area icon, died Tuesday in a Peninsula hospital after a brief battle with cancer.

She was 76.

Calvello had been diagnosed with liver cancer just a week ago and had been given four to six months to live, said Bill Prieto, Calvello’s life partner of 30 years. …

Calvello enjoyed fame as a star on the San Francisco Bay Bombers after helping introduce the rough-and-tumble spectator sport to the country decades ago. Calvello joined her first roller derby team in 1948 when she was only 18.

Her looks earned her the nickname “Banana Nose,” and she quickly garnered a reputation as a bad girl because of her splashy clothing and the ever-changing color of her hair. She was called everything from the “Demon of the Derby” to the “Meanest Mama on Skates.” … Read full obituary

John M. Falotico, the detective who arrested David R. Berkowitz, the notorious “Son of Sam” killer, died on Saturday at his home in North Brunswick, N.J. He was 82. …

Mr. Falotico’s date with destiny came around 10 p.m. on Aug. 10, 1977. … With summer heat still hanging in the evening air, Detective Falotico approached the driver’s side of a car parked in front of 35 Pine Street in Yonkers.

He thrust his pistol inches from the temple of a young man who had just gotten into the car, a cream-colored Ford Galaxie, while Detective Sgt. William Gardella pointed his gun from the passenger’s side.

Next to the man in the car was a paper bag later found to contain a .44-caliber revolver of the type used in the shootings. As described in “Son of Sam” (1981), by Lawrence D. Klausner, what Detective Falotico (pronounced fa-LAH-tik-o) could never forget was the big, inexplicable smile on the man’s face.

“Now that I’ve got you,” Detective Falotico said to the suspect, “who have I got?” … Read full obituary

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — A former TV game show host and his wife were killed Monday morning when their small plane crashed into Santa Monica Bay shortly after takeoff on a volunteer flight for a medical charity, authorities said.

Divers called off a search for a third person late Monday after authorities concluded only two people were on board.

The bodies of Peter Tomarken, 63, host of the hit 1980s game show “Press Your Luck,” and his wife, Kathleen Abigail Tomarken, 41, were identified by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

The plane was on its way to San Diego to ferry a medical patient to the UCLA Medical Center, said Doug Griffith, a spokesman for Angel Flight West, a nonprofit which provides free air transportation for needy patients.

Tomarken, the pilot, was a volunteer for the group. … Read full obituary