Dead Celebrity Alert

James Conway Sr., an entrepreneur whose company has been delighting the taste buds, if not always the ears, at this season for the past half-century, died on Sunday at his home in Ocean City, N.J. Mr. Conway, a founder of the Mister Softee ice cream company, was 78. … Read full obituary

MIAMI (AP) — Steve Mizerak, winner of multiple pool championships who became one of the game’s more recognizable figures by appearing in training videos, beer commercials and a movie, has died at age 61, his wife said Tuesday. … Read full obituary

Screenwriter and author Ted Berkman, whose film credits include “Bedtime for Bonzo” and “Fear Strikes Out,” has died. He was 92. … Read full obituary

ATLANTA — Former NFL fullback Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, who played 11 seasons in the league with five different franchises, died here Saturday after a seven-year battle with a recurring brain tumor.

Heyward, who retired from the league following the 1998 season, was 39. … Read full obituary

BURBANK, California (AP) — Paul Gleason, who played the go-to bad guy in “Trading Places” and the angry high school principal in “The Breakfast Club,” has died. He was 67.

Gleason died at a local hospital Saturday of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to asbestos, said his wife, Susan Gleason. … Read full obituary

Ian Copeland, a rock music agent and entrepreneur who represented The Police, R.E.M., Adam Ant, The Go-Go’s and other seminal rock groups that emerged in the 1970s and 1980’s New Wave and Punk scenes, has died. He was 57. … Read full obituary

 
(CNN) — Lloyd Bentsen, a former congressman, senator and treasury secretary, is dead, his family told CNN on Tuesday.

The 85-year-old Texan died of natural causes at 8:45 a.m. (9:45 a.m. ET) at his home in Houston surrounded by family, son Lan Bentsen said. … Read full obituary

Obit to come.

Katherine Dunham, a pioneering dancer and choreographer, author and civil rights activist who left Broadway to teach culture in one of America’s poorest cities, has died. She was 96. … Read full obituary

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) — Dr. Lee Jong-wook, who spearheaded the World Health Organization’s successive battles against SARS and bird flu, died Monday after undergoing emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain, officials said. He was 61. … Read full obituary

PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) — Val Guest, the versatile British director and screenwriter best known for directing science-fiction classics The Quatermass Xperiment and The Day the Earth Caught Fire, has died. He was 94. … Read full obituary

CHICAGO — Community activist and cable television host Sherman Skolnick has died at the age of 73. …

Some dismissed Mr. Skolnick as a conspiracy theorist, but some have credited him with exposing a bribery scandal within the Illinois court system in the late 1960s and early 1970s… Read full obituary

FT. DEPOSIT, Alabama (AP) — Billy Walker, the Grand Ole Opry legend whose hits included “Charlie’s Shoes” and “Cross the Brazos at Waco” died in a wreck along an Alabama interstate Sunday. He was 77. … Read full obituary

SAN JOSE, California (AP) — The former college student known as the “Naked Guy,” who gained notoriety in the early 1990s for attending class in the buff, has died in jail, authorities said. … Read full obituary

Chic Hecht, a Republican known as much for his verbal miscues as his upset victory in a U.S. Senate race over two decades ago, died of cancer Monday in a Las Vegas hospital. He was 77. … Read full obituary

Martin F. Dardis, the chief investigator for the Dade County State Attorney who linked the Watergate burglars to President Nixon, has died. He was 83. … Read full obituary

A sure-handed receiver and a 2004 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, Ross collapsed at his Atkinson, N.H., home Tuesday evening and later died at Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill, Mass., according to the Associated Press. He was 49. … Read full obituary

Conservative MP Eric Forth, one of the most colourful characters in the Commons, has died from cancer aged 61. … Read full obituary

NEW YORK — Lew Anderson, who captivated young baby boomers as the Howdy Doody Show’s final Clarabell the Clown, has died at the age of 84. … Read full obituary

George Crile III, an award-winning CBS News journalist and best-selling author, died Monday. Crile, who lived in New York City, suffered from pancreatic cancer diagnosed in November 2005. He was 61. … Read full obituary

Stanley Kunitz, a former U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner whose expressive verse, social commitment and generosity to young writers spanned three-quarters of a century, has died. He was 100. … Read full obituary

MIAMI, Florida (AP) — Colombian-American singer Soraya, who won a Latin Grammy for best female album in 2004 and worked to educate Hispanic women about breast cancer, died Wednesday after battling the disease. She was 37. … Read full obituary

Obit to come.

Frank Boos, the bow-tied appraiser on the PBS program “Antiques Roadshow,” has died at his home near Detroit. He was 70. … Read full obituary

Floyd Patterson, an undersized champion who avenged an embarrassing loss to Ingemar Johansson by beating him a year later to become the first boxer to regain the heavyweight title, died Thursday. He was 71.

Patterson died at his home in New Paltz, N.Y. He had Alzheimer’s disease for about eight years and prostate cancer, nephew Sherman Patterson said. … Read full obituary