Dead Celebrity Alert

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.

Dardis died Tuesday at a Palm City nursing home from a vascular condition, his daughter, Erin Dardis told The Associated Press.

Martin Dardis traced money found on the Watergate burglars to the Committee to Re-elect the President. The 1972 discovery led to further misdeeds, which ultimately forced the resignation of Nixon. …

Dardis later said he was misrepresented in Carl Bernstein and Woodward’s book and subsequent movie, “All The President’s Men,” in which he was portrayed by Ned Beatty. He told the Herald last year the movie made him seemed like a shabbily dressed “buffoon.” … Read full obituary

The play was called “Short 60 Y Option X Smash” and the Bengals’ offense ran it to near perfection during the 1981 season.

Tight end Dan Ross, who represented the “Y,” would run 10 yards downfield and pivot to catch an already airborne pass from quarterback Ken Anderson. …

Ross led the Bengals with 71 receptions during the 1981 season — a team record that stood until 1995.

He also set a Super Bowl record with 11 catches in Cincinnati’s championship-game loss to the 49ers on Jan. 24, 1982, at the Pontiac Silverdome. …

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.

Mr Forth, who had been battling with the disease for some time, died last night in London`s Charing Cross Hospital. …

A hardline right-winger, Mr Forth was a minister in the governments of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

He was renowned as an eloquent speaker with a forensic understanding of parliamentary procedures and a deep commitment to the Commons.

But those qualities also made him unpopular on the numerous occasions when he used them to block other backbenchers’ bills. … 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.

The musician and actor died Sunday in Hawthorne of complications of prostate cancer, said his son, Christopher Anderson.

Long mute as Clarabell, Anderson broke the clown’s silence in the show’s final episode in 1960. With trembling lips and a visible tear in his eye, he spoke the show’s final words: “Goodbye, kids.”

Though Anderson was not the only man to play “Buffalo Bob” Smith’s mute sidekick, he was the best, Smith said in his memoir. … 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.

Crile worked more than 25 years as a producer and correspondent for CBS News and would occasionally appear in pieces he reported and produced. At first, he worked for the documentary unit “CBS Reports” but in 1985, began producing for 60 Minutes. “Charlie Wilson’s War”, Crile’s 2003 book that spent months on the New York Times’ best seller list, began with a 60 Minutes profile in 1988 of a Texas congressman named Charlie Wilson. … 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.

He died in his sleep early Sunday at his home in Manhattan, said his publisher, W.W. Norton.

Kunitz had just turned 95 when appointed poet laureate in 2000, capping a career that began 70 years earlier with the collection “Intellectual Things” and later included a Pulitzer, a National Medal of the Arts and — at age 90 — a National Book Award. … 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.

She died in a Miami hospital, said Lorena Oriani, a spokeswoman for her record label, EMI Latin.

She was born in New Jersey to Colombian parents in 1969 and was found to have breast cancer in 2000.

Her greatest hits were “Solo Por Ti” (”Only for You”) and “Casi” (”Almost”), both released in 2003 on the album “Soraya.” She was well known for integrating cumbia and flamenco music with her own style of pop-rock. … 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.

Boos, an original member of the show’s cast, appraised thousands of mainly silver antiques as the show toured American cities for the past decade. …

Boos died in his sleep Tuesday morning at his home in Bloomfield Hills from complications from vascular disease, his son Jonathan said Friday. … 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.

Patterson’s career was marked by historic highs and humiliating lows. He won the title twice, but took a beating from Muhammad Ali in a title fight and was knocked out twice in the first round by Sonny Liston.

Patterson, who weighed only 189 pounds for the first fight, was a tenacious boxer who often fought bigger opponents and almost as often found himself on the canvas. He was down a total of 19 times in his career, getting up 17 of them. … Read full obituary

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. A former major league baseball player who is best-known for serving once as a pinch runner for a midget has died. Jim Delsing played outfield for the St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees in his career. …

Delsing died of cancer last week at his home in Chesterfield, Missouri. He was 80 years old. … Read full obituary

The last American to remember seeing hundreds of fellow passengers drown in the icy North Atlantic when the Titanic sank 94 years ago has died at age 99, a funeral home spokesman said on Sunday.

Lillian Gertrud Asplund was returning home to the United States from Sweden with her parents and four brothers when the ship, believed to be “unsinkable,” struck an iceberg on April 12, 1912. …

A lifetime resident of Massachusetts, Asplund was an intensely private person who shunned all publicity surrounding the disaster…

The funeral home spokesman said she instructed relatives to keep quiet about what she saw and even asked that the disaster not be mentioned in her obituary.

The two last Titanic survivors are said to be living in England but both women were infants when they were rescued and have no memories of that disastrous night, Titanic experts say.

Asplund lost more than half her family in the accident when her father and three brothers stayed behind as crewmen rushed the young girl, her younger brother and their mother into a lifeboat. … Read full obituary

Veteran Nine Network reporter Richard Carleton has died after suffering a suspected heart attack at Tasmania’s Beaconsfield gold mine this afternoon.

Carleton collapsed shortly after asking a question at a news conference about 1pm. Members of the media began performing chest compressions as an ambulance crew arrived.

Carleton, who reports for the network’s flagship 60 Minutes program, has a history of heart problems. …

Prior to Carleton’s collapse, children had gathered to collect autographs from some of the high-profile television personalities covering the mine drama.

One little girl’s mother said that Carleton wrote on her daughter’s piece of paper: “Have a healthy life”. … Read full obituary

Jay Presson Allen, a famed adapter of novels for stage and screen who stood out in an era when few women worked in that field, died Monday at her home in Manhattan after suffering a stroke. She was 84. …

Her work was credited with bringing out the best in several female actresses, including Vanessa Redgrave, Maggie Smith and Liza Minnelli.

In the 1960s, Redgrave and Smith, as well as Zoe Caldwell, portrayed a liberated schoolteacher in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which Allen adapted for both the theater and film from Muriel Spark’s novel. … Read full obituary

Earl Woods, who raised perhaps the most recognizable athlete on the planet, golfer Tiger Woods, died Wednesday at his family home in Southern California after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 74.

Woods, a feisty former Green Beret colonel, did two tours of duty in Vietnam and battled heart and cancer woes for most of the past decade. His tenacity is perhaps the most noticeable asset passed down to his son, 30, who already has won 10 major golf championships.

“My dad was my best friend and greatest role model, and I will miss him deeply,” Tiger Woods said in a statement. “I’m overwhelmed when I think of all of the great things he accomplished in his life.” … Read full obituary