Dead Celebrity Alert

Fannie Lee Chaney, a $28-a-week bakery worker who became a target of racial hatred herself after her son James Chaney and two other civil rights workers were killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964, died last week in Willingboro, N.J. She was 84.

Her son Ben, James’ younger brother, confirmed the May 22 death in a telephone interview. …

Four decades after losing her son, Chaney drew national attention in June 2005 when she testified for the state of Mississippi in the murder case against one of the killers.

James Chaney, a black man from Meridian, and two white civil rights workers from the North, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, disappeared in Neshoba County on June 21, 1964, at the onset of a summer-long drive by an umbrella group of civil rights organizations to register black Mississippians to vote. … Read full obituary

Gretchen Wyler, a veteran Broadway actress who enjoyed a second career in films and television and went on to become a leading animal-rights activist, has died. She was 75.

Wyler died Sunday at her home in Camarillo, Calif., of complications from breast cancer, the Humane Society of the United States said.

Wyler’s theatrical career spanned 50 years, including parts on Broadway in the original “Guys and Dolls,” “Silk Stockings,” “Damn Yankees,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Sly Fox” with George C. Scott.

She was a regular on the CBS television series “On Our Own,” spent a season on “Dallas” and made guest appearances on such shows as “Friends,” “Judging Amy” and “Providence.”

Wyler made her film debut with “The Devil’s Brigade” in 1968 as a Lady of Joy and went on to play Goldie Hawn’s aunt in “Private Benjamin.” … Read full obituary

Former Australian Test all-rounder Ron Archer has died of lung cancer at the age of 73.

Archer was a talented all-round athlete who made his A grade club debut at 15 and played his first Test while still a teenager.

His death comes just two days after his former team-mate and Invincibles fast bowler Bill Johnston died at the age of 85. … Read full obituary

Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony Award winner who later became known for his ribald appearances on the “Tonight Show” and various game shows, has died. He was 76.

Reilly died Friday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times.

Reilly began his career in New York City…

After moving to Hollywood in 1960s he appeared as the nervous Claymore Gregg on TV’s “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” and as a featured guest on “The Dean Martin Show.”

He gained fame by becoming what he described as a “game show fixture” in the 1970s and 80s. He was a regular on programs like “Match Game” and “Hollywood Squares,” often wearing giant glasses and colorful suits with ascots. … Read full obituary

International Cricket Council president Percy Sonn died in a Cape Town hospital on Sunday at the age of 57.

The SAPA news agency said Sonn had developed complications after a colon operation.

Sonn, a major figure in the racial reunification of South African cricket, succeeded Ehsan Mani as head of the world governing body in June 2006. … Read full obituary

Harold Froehlich, the innovative Minnesota engineer who helped design the deep-diving mini-sub used to explore the Titanic, has died at the age of 84.

Froehlich died of heart failure in his home state of Minnesota on May 19, The New York Times reported.

Froehlich was an engineer who helped design the Alvin, a deep-diving exploratory submarine developed in the 1960s to recover hydrogen bombs for the military and later used to explore shipwrecks, including the Titanic. … Read full obituary

The roll call of Don Bradman’s 1948 “Invincibles” cricket team is down to five following the death of Bill Johnston at the age of 85.

Johnston, a left-arm fast-medium bowler from Victoria, died peacefully in a Sydney nursing home overnight. The only survivors of the famous side that toured England undefeated in 1948 are Arthur Morris, Neil Harvey, Sam Loxton, Bill Brown and Ron Hamence. …

Johnston played 40 Tests between 1947 and 1955, taking 160 wickets at less than 24 runs apiece. … Read full obituary

Stanley L. Miller, a scientist whose spectacular discovery as a young graduate student pioneered the study of the origin of life on earth, died Sunday at a hospital near his home in National City, Calif. He was 77.

The cause was heart failure, said his brother, Donald Miller.

Dr. Miller was known for a classic experiment that he performed as a graduate student and published in 1953. The experiment showed how amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, could easily be generated from the simple chemicals assumed to have been present on the primitive earth.

The finding caught the imagination of scientists everywhere by suggesting that it might soon be possible to reconstruct the emergence of the first living cells from the soup of chemicals generated by natural conditions on the early earth. Dr. Miller had opened an experimental approach toward one of the hardest remaining problems in biology. … Read full obituary

Roy DeForest, a nationally renowned artist and professor who was a founding member of what was described as the “California funk” art movement, has died. He was 77.

DeForest, whose work was exhibited throughout the United States, disliked the “California funk” term coined by Washington Post art critic Sidney Lawrence, who called it a Northern California style in which “counterculture thinking fused with an anything-goes, anti-art attitude.” … Read full obituary

Prominent Melbourne lawyer Peter Hayes, QC, has died in an Adelaide hospital, 11 days after being found unconscious in an Adelaide hotel room.

The high flying QC, who represented Steve Vizard’s former bookkeeper Roy Hilliard, had been in a coma in the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s intensive care unit after being found unconscious in a hotel on May 11.

A 28-year-old Kilburn woman has been summonsed to appear in court for allegedly administering a drug of dependence to Mr Hayes. …

Mr Hayes was discovered naked and unconscious in his Stamford Plaza Hotel room by his client, former bikie gang member Tony Sobey. … Read full obituary

Movie actor Carl Wright, who began his career as a tap dancer and comedian, has died of cancer at age 75, his family confirmed on Sunday.

Wright died at his home Saturday in the Maple Park neighborhood of Chicago, according to his daughter, Kia Wright.

Wright’s film credits include “Barbershop,” “Soul Food” and “Big Momma’s House.” … Read full obituary

Australian golf has lost its godfather after fiery trailblazer Norman Von Nida passed away peacefully aged 93 at his Gold Coast nursing home.

The Von, as he was affectionately known, had been ill for the past two months. …

A charismatic little man, Von Nida was the Don Bradman of golf.

He was known for his quick temper as player but would be more fondly remembered for the kindness he showed any young aspiring golfer who approached him for help or advice. … Read full obituary

A minute’s silence was held this morning at the Le Mans circuit in memory of Australian Jack Findlay, who passed away last night.

Findlay set several world championship landmarks in a distinguished career that spanned 21 years from 1958 to 1978.

He was the first rider to take a premier class victory on a two-stroke machine in the 1971 Ulster GP. And he was the first rider to claim victory on Michelin tyres and he also won Suzuki’s first 500cc race. … Read full obituary

DEFIANCE, Ohio — Terry Ryan, who wrote the book “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio” that later became a movie about how her mother kept the family financially afloat by winning jingle contests, has died.

Ryan, 60, died on Wednesday at her home in San Francisco, her family said. The cause of death was cancer, said Pat Holt, her longtime partner.

Ryan was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2004 just after filming of the movie was completed. The DreamWorks film starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson was released in 2005.

Ryan, the sixth of the family’s 10 children, told the story of how her mother, Evelyn, won cars, refrigerators, televisions and money in commercial jingle contests during the 1950s and ’60s in this town about 50 miles southwest of Toledo. … Read full obituary

The Reverend Martin Luther King’s eldest child has died.

Yolanda King was a stage and television actress. She died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, California.

A spokesman for the King Center in Atlanta says the family doesn’t know for sure what caused her death but relatives think it might have been a heart problem. … Read full obituary