Dead Celebrity Alert

The scrappy dog known as Eddie on TV’s “Frasier” has died.

The 16-year-old Jack Russell terrier, whose real name was Moose, passed away of old age Thursday at the Los Angeles home of trainer Mathilde Halberg, Halberg told People magazine.

The canine character Eddie drove Kelsey Grammer’s lead character crazy for 10 years on the show. …

Moose, who also played the older dog Skip in the 2000 film “My Dog Skip,” was retired in recent years. … Read full obituary

DENVER — Patsy Ramsey, the mother of slain 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, died Saturday morning after a recurrence of ovarian cancer, her lawyer L. Lin Wood told MSNBC. She was 49.

Ramsey had been battling ovarian cancer since 1993 and suffered a recurrence three years ago, Wood said. Ramsey died around 3:30 a.m. at her father’s home in the Atlanta area. Her husband, John, was with her at the time of her death. …

JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in her parents’ Boulder, Colo., basement on Dec. 26, 1996. A grand jury investigation ended with no indictments, and no arrests have been made.

The Ramseys said an intruder killed their daughter but a cloud of suspicion hung over the couple. The district attorney and a federal judge in Colorado have said it is likelier that an intruder was responsible. … Read full obituary

Dallas, TX (AHN) — E. Pierce Marshall, who battled former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith for his father’s oil fortune for years, died unexpectedly Tuesday.

Marshall, 67 died of an aggressive infection on Tuesday but the family spokesperson would not release any further details, asking that the family receive the privacy they deserve. …

Marshall and Smith have been battled in court after oil tycoon, J. Howard Marshall II died in 1995. He married Smith the year before. … Read full obituary

Aaron Spelling, the most prolific producer in American television, whose company generated hit shows over five decades, including “The Mod Squad,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Love Boat,” “Dynasty,” “Beverly Hills, 90210,” and “7th Heaven,” died Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 83.

The cause was complications from a stroke Mr. Spelling suffered last Sunday, his publicist, Kevin Sasaki, said.

Known as much for the wealth he accumulated in grinding out more than 200 television series and movies in his career, Mr. Spelling became a legendary figure in show business, a onetime bit actor who built one of the most successful production companies ever created, as well one of the most famously enormous mansions in Hollywood.

Mr. Spelling’s career was defined by size and volume. He carved a place for himself in the Guinness Book of Records for the most hours of television produced: more than 3,000. At one time, in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, Mr. Spelling produced seven hours of programming a week on ABC, a third of that network’s total prime-time schedule. … Read full obituary

Former Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey has died at his Dublin home at the age of 80 after a long illness.

Mr Haughey had been suffering from prostate cancer and associated complications for a number of years.

Premier for three separate terms between 1979 and 1992, he was widely considered to be the most controversial Irish politician of his generation. …

A son-in-law of former Taoiseach Sean Lemass, he first hit the headlines in 1970 when he was dismissed from the cabinet over allegations that he attempted to import arms for the Provisional IRA.

He was later cleared of the charge in court. … Read full obituary

Hiroyuki Iwaki, the Japanese conductor who led the Melbourne Symphony for more than three decades and wielded the baton from a wheelchair as his health declined, died Tuesday at a Tokyo hospital. He was 73.

Iwaki, who also conducted the NHK Symphony and major orchestras in Europe and the United States, died of heart failure at the hospital where he had been treated for an unspecified illness since late May, said Yuko Isaka of Iwaki’s office, May Corp.

Iwaki maintained a passion for work despite nearly 30 surgical operations he received over years on his illnesses, including lung cancer and pharynx cancer, the national Asahi newspaper said.

Just a month before his final hospitalization, he conducted — from a wheelchair — an anniversary concert for the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus. … Read full obituary

Robert Donner, a comedian and character actor known for his roles in TV’s “Mork and Mindy” and “The Waltons” and movies including “Cool Hand Luke,” has died. He was 75.

Donner died on June 8 at his Sherman Oaks home of a heart attack, according to his former agent, Michael Belson.

Donner played Exidor on “Mork and Mindy” and Yancy Tucker on “The Waltons.” …

In addition to “Cool Hand Luke,” his film credits included “Bite the Bullet,” “Vanishing Point” and John Wayne westerns including “El Dorado” and “Chisum.” … Read full obituary

A former Tasmanian cabinet minister and Labor member for Braddon has died at his home in Devonport.

Geoffrey Donald Chisholm died in his sleep overnight, aged 76.

Mr Chisholm was born at Smithton in 1929 and worked in the forestry industry before being elected to Parliament in May 1964. … Read full obituary

Composer Gyorgy Ligeti, who fled Hungary after the 1956 revolution and gained fame for his opera “Le Grand Macabre” and his work on the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died Monday. He was 83.

Ligeti, celebrated as one of the world’s leading 20th-century musical pioneers, died in Vienna after a long illness, said Christiane Krauscheid, a spokeswoman for his publisher, Germany-based Schott Music. Details were unavailable, but Austrian media said he spent the last three years in a wheelchair.

Ligeti was born in 1923 to Hungarian parents in the predominantly ethnic Hungarian part of Romania’s Transylvania region. His father and brother later were murdered by the Nazis. He took Austrian citizenship after fleeing his ex-communist homeland and became known for “Macabre,” which he wrote in 1978. … Read full obituary

Could be another false alarm, folks, but it’s breaking all over the TV news, and just starting to hit the wires…

Iraqi PM: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Killed

00:48 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked militant who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, has been killed in a U.S. air raid north of Baghdad, Iraq’s prime minister said Thursday.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed Wednesday evening along with seven aides.

The Jordanian-born militant, who was believed to have personally beheaded at least two American hostages, became Iraq’s most wanted militant, as notorious as Osama bin Laden, to whom he swore allegiance in 2004. The United States had put a $25 million bounty on al-Zarqawi, the same as bin Laden. … Read full story

Dr. Harley Rutledge, 80, former chairman of the physics department at Southeast Missouri State University and UFO expert, died Monday at the Missouri Veterans Home. …

Rutledge first gained national notoriety through an organization he launched in 1973 called “Project Identification.” The project was a response to a flurry of UFO sightings near Piedmont, Mo. Over the next six years, Rutledge and crews of students, scientists and amateur enthusiasts spent 150 nights scanning the skies in Franklin County with cameras, audio recorders, telescopes and tools measuring electromagnetic field disturbances. …

In 1980 he published a book also called “Project Identification,” which took a scientific approach to cataloguing the UFO activity. He tracked the velocity, distance and size of the objects he caught on video and said he was careful not to let his own hypotheses get in the way of the data. … Read full obituary

Eric Gregg, who umpired in the major leagues for more than two decades while battling a craving for food and drink that spotlighted health concerns surrounding overweight umpires, died yesterday in Philadelphia. He was 55.

His death was announced by his son Kevin, who said he had a stroke on Sunday, The Associated Press reported.

Gregg was a full-time National League umpire from 1978 to 1999 and worked the 1989 World Series, four League Championship Series, two Division Series and an All-Star Game. He was the third black umpire in the major leagues…

One of Gregg’s best-remembered moments came in Game 5 of the 1997 National League Championship Series, when his generous strike zone helped the Florida Marlins’ Liván Hernández strike out 15 Atlanta batters. Braves players were angry, but Gregg maintained that his strike zone was in line with the way he always judged pitches. … Read full obituary

PHOENIX — Billy Preston, the exuberant keyboardist who landed dream gigs with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and enjoyed his own hit singles including “Outta Space” and “Nothing From Nothing,” died Tuesday at 59.

His longtime manager, Joyce Moore, said a heart infection in November left him in a coma, and he never regained consciousness; he was taken to a Scottsdale hospital Saturday after his condition deteriorated.

Preston had battled chronic kidney failure and received a kidney transplant in 2002. But the kidney failed and he was on dialysis ever since.

Known for his big gap-toothed smile and towering Afro, Preston was a teen prodigy on the piano and organ, and lent his gospel-tinged touch to classics such as the Beatles’ “Get Back” and the Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?”

He broke out as a solo artist in the 1970s, winning a best instrumental Grammy in 1973 for “Outta Space,” and scoring other hits with “Will It Go ‘Round In Circles,” “Nothing From Nothing” and “With You I’m Born Again,” a duet with Syreeta Wright that became a favorite at weddings. He also wrote Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful.” … Read full obituary

Arthur Widmer, who developed some of the most widely used special effects technology in films and earned an Academy Award last year for lifetime achievement, has died. He was 92.

Widmer died of cancer on May 28, his publicist Jane Ayer told the Los Angeles Times for a story published Sunday.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Widmer the award for his work in developing Ultra Violet and “blue screen” special effects processes. …

Working for Warner Bros. in the 1950s, Widmer developed the Ultra Violet Traveling Matte process, an early version of what would become known as blue screen, in which two different images shot at different times and places could be combined into one. … Read full obituary

Vince Welnick, the Grateful Dead’s last keyboard player and a veteran of several other bands, including the Tubes and Missing Man Formation, has died at age 51, the Grateful Dead’s longtime publicist confirmed Saturday.

Welnick died Friday, said Dennis McNally, who declined to release the cause. …

Welnick was the last in a long line of Grateful Dead keyboardists, several of whom died prematurely, leading some of the group’s fans to conclude that the position came with a curse.

Welnick had replaced Brent Mydland, who died of a drug overdose in 1990. Mydland had followed Keith Godchaux, who died in a car crash shortly after leaving the band. And Godchaux had replaced the band’s original keyboard player, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who died at age 27 in 1973. … Read full obituary