Dead Celebrity Alert

Gerry E. Studds, who championed environmental, maritime, and fisheries issues during 24 years in the US House and lent an eloquent voice to health and human rights matters, died early Saturday.

First elected in 1972, Mr. Studds entered politics as part of a generation emboldened by its opposition to the Vietnam War and turned his focus in Congress to issues close to the hearts of his constituents. A Democrat, Mr. Studds had been re-elected five times when in 1983 he became the first member of Congress to openly acknowledge he was gay.

Subsequently he became the first openly gay candidate elected to Congress and was re-elected five more times before announcing in October 1995 that he would not seek a 13th term representing the 10th Congressional District, which includes New Bedford, the South Shore, Cape Cod, and the Islands.

He publicly disclosed his sexual orientation after a former congressional page, then 27, said in 1983 that he and the congressman had a sexual relationship a decade earlier, when the page was 17. The House censured Mr. Studds for sexual misconduct.

Mr. Studds, 69, had been hospitalized after falling while walking his dog several days ago. He died in Boston Medical Center of complications from vascular disease, according to his husband, Dean T. Hara.

“Gerry’s leadership changed Massachusetts forever and we’ll never forget him,” US Senator Edward M. Kennedy said in a statement. … Read full obituary

Freddy Fender, the “Bebop Kid” of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” died Saturday. He was 69.

Fender, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2006, died at noon at his Corpus Christi home with his family at his bedside, said Ron Rogers, a family spokesman.

Over the years, he grappled with drug and alcohol abuse, was treated for diabetes and underwent a kidney transplant.

Fender hit it big in 1975 after some regional success, years of struggling — and a stint in prison — when “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” climbed to No. 1 on the pop and country charts.

“Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” rose to No. 1 on the country chart and top 10 on the pop chart that same year, while “Secret Love” and “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” also hit No. 1 in the country charts. … Read full obituary

Johnny Callison, Philadelphia Phillies outfielder; hit winning homer in ninth inning of 1964 All-Star game; Thursday, in Philadelphia.

ROME (Reuters) — Gillo Pontecorvo, the Italian film director famous for “The Battle of Algiers,” a starkly realistic depiction of Algeria’s war of independence from France, has died in Rome, aged 86.

Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Pisa, Pontecorvo worked in journalism before making his first films in the 1950s and is regarded as one of Italian cinema’s greatest film-makers despite making relatively few movies. …

The Battle of Algiers, which Pontecorvo co-wrote and directed in 1966, won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion and was nominated for three Oscars: best director, best screenplay and best foreign language film. … Read full obituary

A small plane with New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle aboard crashed into a 50-story condominium tower today on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, killing at least two people — including Lidle — and raining flaming debris on sidewalks, authorities said.

Federal Aviation Administration records show the single-engine plane was registered to Lidle, and FBI reports show that Lidle’s passport was found at the scene. The FBI believed Lidle was the only person aboard the plane and the other three deaths occurred inside the building.

The twin-engine plane came through a hazy, cloudy sky and hit the 20th floor of the Belaire — a red-brick tower overlooking the East River, about 5 miles from the World Trade Center site — with a loud bang, touching off a raging fire that cast a pillar of black smoke over the city and sent flames shooting from four windows on two adjoining floors. … Read full story

…in NYC plane crash. Details to come.

Buck O’Neil, Negro Leagues goodwill ambassador; Friday night at a Kansas City hospital.

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) — Tamara Dobson, the tall, stunning model-turned-actress who portrayed a strong female role as Cleopatra Jones in two “blaxploitation” films, has died.

Dobson, 59, died Monday of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis at the Keswick Multi-Care Center, where she had lived for the past two years, her publicist said.

At 6 feet, 2 inches tall, Dobson was striking as the kung-fu fighting government agent Cleopatra Jones in 1973. She reprised the role in 1975’s “Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold.” …

Dobson also appeared in “Come Back, Charleston Blue,” “Norman, Is That You?” “Murder at the World Series” and “Chained Heat.” … Read full obituary

R. W. Apple Jr., who in more than 40 years as a correspondent and editor at The New York Times wrote about war and revolution, politics and government, food and drink, and the revenge of living well from more than 100 countries, died early this morning in Washington. He was 71. …

With his Dickensian byline, Churchillian brio and Falstaffian appetites, Mr. Apple, who was known as Johnny, was a singular presence at The Times almost from the moment he joined the metropolitan staff in 1963. … Read full obituary

Numerous reports out now; not mentioned in this one: Her daughter-in-law was driving; Chenoweth was not wearing a seatbelt, despite holding her 5-month-old grandchild on her lap; both Chenoweth and the baby were thrown from the car but the baby survived with only minor injuries. The three were on their way to Tonopah from Chenoweth’s Monitor Valley ranch via Hwy 376 when the SUV they were in “drifted” left; the driver overcompensated, swerved right, and flipped the vehicle. — JR

Former U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, who held “endangered salmon bakes” and once accused federal agents of using black helicopter gunships, died Monday in a car crash, her daughter said. She was 68.

Chenoweth-Hage, whose arch-conservative, often libertarian and sometimes extreme views made her popular with militia movements, was the passenger in a one-car crash near Tonopah, Nev., 172 miles northwest of Las Vegas, said her daughter Meg Chenoweth Keenan. No one else was seriously hurt, she said. …

She ran for Congress in 1994 against Idaho incumbent Democrat Larry LaRocco and gained national attention when she held “endangered salmon bakes,” serving canned salmon and ridiculing the listing of Idaho salmon as an endangered species during fundraisers. …

Chenoweth-Hage called for the disarming of federal resource agents in 1995 after claiming that they had landed black helicopters on private land in eastern Idaho to enforce the Endangered Species Act. … Read full obituary

See also:
Helen Chenoweth at Conservative Babylon

Veteran Dobro musician Burkett Howard Graves, known as country music’s “Uncle Josh,” has died at 79, his family said Monday.

A member of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Honor, Graves played with the Earl Scruggs Revue in the 1970s and contributed to albums by Kris Kristofferson, John Hiatt, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. … Read full obituary