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.

Mizerak died Monday in Palm Beach County from complications stemming from gall bladder surgery, Karen Mizerak told The Associated Press. Mizerak had not returned home since entering the hospital in January, she said.

Known by his nickname “The Miz,” Mizerak won four U.S. Open Championships and dozens of other billiards tournaments in his professional career, which began when he was 13. He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America’s Hall of Fame in 1980. … Read full obituary

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

Berkman died May 12 of cancer in Santa Barbara, said his nephew, Joel Blau.

Berkman worked as a photo assignment editor at the New York Mirror, Middle East chief of the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service and as an ABC radio correspondent in the Middle East.

In 1962, he wrote “Cast a Giant Shadow: The Story of Mickey Marcus, Who Died to Save Jerusalem,” a best-selling biography of the West Point graduate who was a military adviser to Israel during the 1948 War of Independence. Kirk Douglas starred in a 1966 film based on the book. … 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.

Given the severity and aggressiveness of Heyward’s tumor, known as a chordoma, and the inability of surgeons to completely remove it during two operations, his death was not unexpected. Heyward also suffered a stroke a few years ago that left him partially paralyzed. …

Hebert told ESPN.com two weeks ago that he was apprised that the tumor had wrapped itself around Heyward’s brain, that further surgical attempts were not planned, and that the once-mighty fullback would likely survive another three to five years. … 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. …

Through his career, Gleason appeared in over 60 movies that included “Die Hard,” “Johnny Be Good,” “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder,” and “Not Another Teen Movie.” Most recently, Gleason made a handful of television appearances in hit shows such as “Friends” and “Seinfeld.” … 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.

Copeland died Tuesday of melanoma, said Amy Grey, a family spokeswoman.

Copeland was one of three brothers in the family who became prominent figures in the music industry. Younger brother Stewart was the drummer for The Police. Older sibling Miles founded record label International Records Syndicate. … 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.

Bentsen had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 1999, his son said.

Bentsen served as President Clinton’s first treasury secretary.

As the Democratic 1988 vice presidential nominee, Bentsen was perhaps best known for his curt dismissal during a debate against Republican candidate Dan Quayle, who had compared himself to former President John Kennedy.

“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy,” Bentsen said. “I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” … 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.

Dunham died Sunday at the Manhattan assisted living facility where she lived, said Charlotte Ottley, executive liaison for the organization that preserves her artistic estate. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Dunham was perhaps best known for bringing African and Caribbean influences to the European-dominated dance world. In the late 1930s, she established the nation’s first self-supporting all-black modern dance group.

“We weren’t pushing ‘Black is Beautiful,’ we just showed it,” she later wrote. … 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. …

Lee, who took over as director-general of WHO in 2003 as the agency battled the SARS outbreak in Asia, worked for WHO for 23 years, including time served in regional posts. He was the first South Korean to head a U.N. agency, after winning praise for his low-key but efficient management style as head of the agency’s tuberculosis program.

TIME magazine named Lee one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2004. … 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.

Guest died of prostate cancer on May 10 in a Palm Desert hospice, said his wife, actress Yolande Donlan. …

After becoming a director in the 1940s, Guest made comedies, thrillers and musicals, but he was best known for his science-fiction works.

The Quatermass Xperiment was a 1955 science-fiction horror thriller with a semi-documentary feel about an experimental rocket ship that crashes in rural England with only one surviving crewmember. …

In the 1961 film The Day the Earth Caught Fire, simultaneous nuclear explosions by the United States and the Soviet Union knock Earth off its axis and send it hurtling toward the sun. … Read full obituary

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

Mr. Skolnick died at his home. 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, in a corruption scandal that led to the indictment of former Gov. Otto Kerner. … 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.

Walker was killed with three others when a van they were riding in ran off Interstate 65 south of Montgomery and overturned, state troopers said. …

According to the Opry’s Web site, Billy Walker was born in Ralls, Texas, and built an early career as the “Traveling Texan, the Masked Singer of Country Songs,” and later shared the stage with Elvis Presley. … 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.

Andrew Martinez, 33, whose stripped-down strolls at the University of California, Berkeley, got him expelled and prompted the city to adopt a strict anti-nudity ordinance, was found unconscious Thursday in a Santa Clara County jail, said jail spokesman Mark Cursi. …

He had been in custody since January 10 on charges of battery and assault with a deadly weapon, 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.

Hecht’s death was confirmed by longtime family friend Francine Pulliam. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer a year ago, she said.

The conservative Hecht was praised by former U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev., as “one of the gutsiest politicians I’ve ever encountered.”

Laxalt recalled thinking that Hecht was “half-crazy” when the one-time Las Vegas clothing store owner ran for a state Senate seat in a heavily Democratic district in 1966. … Read full obituary