Dead Celebrity Alert

Film critic Joel Siegel has died Friday in New York at the age of 63, WCBS-TV New York reports.

Siegel, best known as the resident movie critic on ABC’s “Good Morning America” for 25 years, was surrounded by family and friends as he passed away after a long battle with colon cancer. …

Siegel was born on July 7, 1943 in Los Angeles where he grew up and graduated cum laude from UCLA. He started his career as a radio newscaster and reviewed books for the Los Angeles Times. He also worked as a freelance writer for Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated and as a joke writer for Senator Robert Kennedy. Siegel worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency where he actually invented ice cream flavors for Baskin-Robbins. … Read full obituary

Liz Claiborne, the designer of indefatigable career clothes for professional women entering the workforce en masse beginning in the 1970s, died Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 78.

Her death, at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, was caused by complications of cancer, said Arthur Ortenberg, her husband. Ms. Claiborne learned in 1997 that she had a rare form of cancer that affects the lining of the abdomen. …

Before she became the most successful women’s apparel designer in America, Ms. Claiborne had worked for 20 years in the backrooms of Seventh Avenue sportswear houses like Youth Guild and Juniorite, making peppy dresses.

A strong-willed designer with an acute sense for business, she defied the male-dominated ranks of the fashion industry by starting her own company in 1976 with Mr. Ortenberg, a textiles executive. In an apt reversal of roles, she gave him the corporate title of secretary. … Read full obituary

Obit to come.

MILWAUKEE, June 26 (AP) — Ralph F. Stayer, the founder of a Wisconsin sausage company that helped popularize bratwurst in the United States, died Sunday in Florida. He was 92.

He died in his sleep at a nursing home, his family said.

Mr. Stayer bought a butcher shop in 1945 and turned it into the million-dollar Johnsonville Sausage Company, said his son, Ralph C. Stayer, the company’s current chief executive. … Read full obituary

Hank Medress, whose vocals with the doo wop group the Tokens helped propel their irrepressible single “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” to the top of the charts and who produced hits with other groups, has died of lung cancer. He was 68.

Medress died Monday at his Manhattan home, relatives said.

He was a teenager at Brooklyn’s Lincoln High School when he launched his vocal quartet in 1955 with Neil Sedaka, performing as the Linc-Tones. When Sedaka departed for a successful solo career, lead singer Jay Siegel joined brothers Mitch and Phil Margo and Medress to become the Tokens.

It wasn’t until 1961 that the group scored its singular smash, its hypnotic “Wimowehs” derived from a traditional Zulu melody. The Weavers had made the song a folk staple in the ’50s, but the Tokens brought their version to No. 1 on the pop charts.

The band had other minor Top 40 hits, including “I Hear the Trumpets Blow” in 1966 and “Portrait of My Love” in 1967 — but never recaptured the success of its enduring single. … Read full obituary

Kenneth L. Franklin, long the Hayden Planetarium’s top astronomer, whose accomplishments included helping pinpoint the first noise known to have come from another planet and inventing a watch for use on the moon, died in Boulder, Colo., on Monday when the sun rose in New York at 5:07 a.m. He was 84, and had for years provided astronomical information to this newspaper, including the hour of sunrise. …

When people celebrated, cowered or yawned at the dawn of a new millennium on Jan. 1, 2000, Dr. Franklin wrote a paper strongly explaining that the new millennium would not properly begin until a year later.

He ended with a point that seems indisputable: “Whenever you note the time on the clock, realize that it is now — right now — later than it has ever been.” … Read full obituary

Gianfranco Ferre, the Italian designer known as the “architect of fashion” for his structured, sculpted shapes and for his groundbreaking tenure at Christian Dior, has died. He was 62.

Ferre was taken to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan on Friday after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. The hospital, in a statement authorised by Ferre’s family, said he died at 9pm last night. …

He started his company in the mid-1970s, but his major leap came in 1989, when he was tapped by Bernard Arnault to be the top designer for Christian Dior. At the time, it was almost unheard of for a non-French designer to take the reins of the venerable Parisian house. … Read full obituary

Charles Lee Remington, the intellectual patriarch of modern American lepidopterology, the scientific study of butterflies and moths, died on May 31 in Hamden, Conn. He was 85. …

Dr. Remington, a professor at Yale University for more than four decades, co-founded the field’s scientific organization, the Lepidopterists’ Society, while still a graduate student. Later, as a professor, he shaped the field by recruiting and serving as a mentor to several generations of the discipline’s leading scientists. Dr. Remington also helped the discipline grow outside the walls of the academy, working with serious amateur collectors, most famously with Vladimir Nabokov.

“When you wanted to know anything about butterflies, you went to him,” said Naomi Pierce, Hessel professor of biology at Harvard University and former student of Dr. Remington’s. … Read full obituary

June 16, 2007 — Claudia Cohen, a high-profile gossip reporter for television and newspapers who was a frequent subject of the gossip columns herself, partly because of her marriage to, and remunerative divorce from, the billionaire businessman Ronald O. Perelman, died yesterday in Manhattan. She was 56 and had homes in Manhattan and Easthampton, N.Y.

The cause was ovarian cancer, said Chris Taylor, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perelman.

Ms. Cohen was known for her aggressive pursuit of celebrity news and her ability to handicap the Academy Awards. She first came to public attention in the late 1970s as a reporter and editor for Page Six, the well-thumbed column of The New York Post. In the early ’80s, she wrote a gossip column, “I, Claudia,” for The Daily News of New York.

In recent years, Ms. Cohen was a regular correspondent, covering entertainment, for the syndicated talk show “Live With Regis and Kelly” and its predecessor, “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.” She was previously an entertainment reporter for “The Morning Show” on WABC-TV. … Read full obituary

Oskar Morawetz, one of Canada’s best-known and frequently performed classical composers, died Wednesday in Toronto at age 90.

Winner of two Juno awards for classical music, Morawetz was known for lyrical melody, lively rhythm and innovative exploitation of instrumental colour.

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Morawetz wrote over 100 orchestral and chamber works, including Carnival Overture, Memorial to Martin Luther King and Prayer for Freedom. … Read full obituary

WWE is saddened to learn of the death of WWE Hall of Famer “Sensational” Sherri. She was 49.

She passed away at her mother’s home in Birmingham, Ala. Friday morning, according to her husband of 10 years, Robert Schrull. …

In the early 1980s, Sherri began her career in the AWA. In 1985, she defeated Candi Devine to become the AWA Women’s Champion. Their rivalry lasted more than a year, with the championship trading hands on several occasions. …

On July 24, 1987, “Sensational” Sherri debuted in WWE, pinning her trainer and mentor the Fabulous Moolah to become Women’s Champion. Sherri defended the gold against Debbie Combs, Velvet McIntyre, and Desiree Peterson. … Read full obituary

Ruth Graham, who surrendered dreams of missionary work in Tibet to marry a suitor who became the world’s most renowned evangelist, died Thursday. She was 87. Graham died at 5:05 p.m. at her home at Little Piney Cove, surrounded by her husband and all five of their children, said a statement released by Larry Ross, Billy Graham’s spokesman.

“Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team,” Billy Graham said in a statement. “No one else could have borne the load that she carried. She was a vital and integral part of our ministry, and my work through the years would have been impossible without her encouragement and support. …

Ruth Graham had been bedridden for months with degenerative osteoarthritis of the back and neck — the result of a serious fall from a tree in 1974 while fixing a swing for grandchildren -—and underwent treatment for pneumonia two weeks ago. At her request, and in consultation with her family, she had stopped receiving nutrients through a feeding tube for the last few days, Ross said. … Read full obituary

Kurt Waldheim, 88, a seemingly colorless diplomat who became secretary general of the United Nations and president of his native Austria only to be barred from the United States for suspected involvement in Nazi war crimes, died today at a Vienna hospital. He had been treated for an infection since last month.

When Waldheim was put on the Justice Department’s “watch list” of prohibited persons in 1987, it was the first time in U.S. history that the head of a friendly country had been branded an undesirable alien suspected of war crimes with the German army in World War II.

He would remain on the “watch list” for the rest of his life — which made him an international pariah despite his denials of Nazi sympathies and the high positions he had held in Austria and at the United Nations. For most of his six years in the largely ceremonial Austrian presidency, Waldheim was a virtual prisoner within his country, shunned by all but a handful of other countries.

The facts about what Waldheim did during the war years were never clearly established, and there was no clear-cut proof that he participated personally in murder or other war crimes. But there was strong evidence that he had concealed his role as a lieutenant between 1942 and 1945 with Nazi Army units involved in atrocities against Yugoslav partisans and had lied about his whereabouts during that period. … Read full obituary

Frankie Abernathy, a cast member on The Real World: San Diego in 2004, died Saturday night at her mother’s Shorewood, Wisconsin, home.

An official cause of death is yet to be determined, but the 25-year-old had suffered from cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease that causes a buildup of mucus in the lungs and pancreas and inhibits the body’s ability to move water and salt in and out of cells.

Abernathy was diagnosed with her illness when she was three and discussed it openly during her stint on the Real World’s 14th season, in which she and six others lived in a tricked-out converted restaurant and pulled duty as tour guides for a company that organized cruises around San Diego Bay. … Read full obituary

Senegalese movie icon, Ousmane Sembene, died on Saturday evening in Dakar at the age of 84, following a protracted illness. Sembene, who will long be remembered as the “father of the African cinema”, adapted most of his novels for the movie. Some of the novels include: ‘Borom Saret’ in 1963, ‘La Noire de …’ (1966), ‘Le Mandat’ (1968), ‘Xala’ (1974), ‘Guelawar’ in 1992 and his last feature-length film ‘Molade’ in 2004.

His produced 14 movies most of which, have received international awards. They were seen as a fascinating portrayal of post-colonial Africa, with a mixture of tradition and conflicts that broke out on the continent.

During his almost 50-year career, the self-taught man, who left primary school at 13 in his hometown of Ziguinchor (South of Senegal), embarked on a writing career during which he published ‘Le Docker Noir’ (The Black Docker), ‘Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu’ (God’s Bits of Wood)’, ‘l’Harmattan”, and ‘Le Mandat’. … Read full obituary