Dead Celebrity Alert

A man hailed as one of Britain’s greatest polar explorers has died. Sir Wally Herbert became the first person to reach the North Pole on foot without motorised transport in 1969.

The 72-year-old, from Laggan near Aviemore, had suffered from diabetes and heart trouble and died in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. …

Sir Wally, who was knighted in 1999, was an author and artist.

The adventurer completed his epic 15-month, 3,800-mile (6,115km) journey, with three colleagues and four dog-sled teams. … Read full obituary

Don Herbert, who explained the wonderful world of science to young baby boomers on television in the 1950s and ’60s as “Mr Wizard” and did the same for a later generation of youngsters on the Nickelodeon cable TV channel in the 1980s, died today. He was 89.

Herbert died at his home in Bell Canyon after a long battle with multiple myeloma, said Tom Nikosey, Herbert’s son-in-law. …

The show won a Peabody Award, three Thomas Alva Edison Awards, four Ohio State University awards and two Emmy nominations. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actress Mala Powers has died of complications from leukemia. She was 76.

Powers played Roxanne to Jose Ferrer’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” and starred in other films of the 1940s and 1950s. …

She was born Mary Ellen Powers in San Francisco to journalist parents who moved to Hollywood after losing their jobs. The girl began training as an actress at an early age and at eleven played in a Bowery Boys movie, “Tough as They Come.”

At 19, Powers appeared opposite Ferrer in “Cyrano de Bergerac,” which won him an Oscar. Also in 1950 she starred as a rape victim in “Outrage,” directed by Ida Lupino. … Read full obituary

New Zealand’s oldest surviving film star, Witarina Harris, has died at the age of 101.

In 1928, aged 22, she was picked by Universal Pictures to play the starring role of Princess Miro in the silent movie Under The Southern Cross, later known as The Devil’s Pit. … Read full obituary

The former leader of the Warumpi Band, for cultural reasons now only referred to as George Burrarrawanga, is being remembered in a traditional Gumatj ceremony on Elcho Island off the Northern Territory.

He had been gravely ill for a number of months and flew to his home of Elcho Island in the eastern Arnhem Region in March this year. …

The singer toured nationally and internationally after recording his first rock song in Aboriginal language in 1983. … Read full obituary

Lynne Randell, the Mod from Mordialloc who scored a top 10 hit in 1967 with Ciao Baby, has died.

Friends say Randell, 57, was found dead at her home on Friday morning after a four-year battle against an illness that had affected her nervous system. There were no suspicious circumstances. A note was reportedly found nearby.

Randell, 57, had spent years battling addiction to diet pills. …

At 14 Randell was working sweeping hair in Lillian Frank’s hairdressing salon. At 15 she was discovered by Carol West, who would become her agent. After Ciao Baby, she toured the US with the Monkees and performed on stage with Ike and Tina Turner and Jimi Hendrix. … Read full obituary

Playwright Lee Nagrin, whose new work Behind the Lid will debut in New York City next week, succumbed to complications from advanced colon cancer this morning in New York City. She was 78.

In addition to being a playwright, Nagrin, who was originally from Seattle, was a visual artist, performer, singer, choreographer, and director. She moved to New York in 1950 and was instrumental in the development of several Off-Broadway theaters, including the Sullivan Street Playhouse, the Bridge Theatre, and the Downtown Theatre. … Read full obituary

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William Silver, who unsuccessfully sought to be ordained by the Presbyterian Church in 1975, died at 59 of AIDS complications on May 26, the New York Times reported. He graduated from the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan in 1969 and came out in 1973. When he applied to work as an assistant pastor at the Central Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue, “he shocked committee members interviewing him by saying he was gay,” the newspaper reported. They sought guidance from the national Church and in 1978 its general assembly banned “unrepentant” gays from ministry. … Read full obituary

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Samuel A. Garrison III, a congressional lawyer who argued against the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon, has died in Virginia at age 65.

Garrison, the chief Republican counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation in 1974, died of leukemia May 27, The New York Times reported.

He was chosen to replace the former counsel, Albert Jenner, who had recommended Nixon’s impeachment. …

Before working for the House of Representatives, Garrison was a state prosecutor and a liaison to Congress for Vice President Spiro Agnew. …

Garrison later announced he was gay and became active in gay rights issues, the Times reported. … Read full obituary

Wallace Seawell, a top Hollywood portrait and glamour photographer during the heyday of movie stars including Sophia Loren, Tony Curtis and Gregory Peck, has died. He was 90.

Seawell died Tuesday of age-related causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his friend, publicist Alan Eichler.

During his more than 60-year career, Seawell shot portraits of a range of luminaries from Ronald and Nancy Reagan and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to the Harlem Globetrotters and the Gabor sisters.

President Lyndon Johnson, the Shah of Iran and the King and Queen of Siam were among world leaders who posed for Seawell.

But Hollywood stars were his specialty, and he did work for movie studios and fan magazines. … Read full obituary

WACO, Texas (AP) — Tony Thompson, who sang on the 1990s R & B hits “I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)” and “She’s Playing Hard to Get” as part of the group Hi-Five, has died. He was 31.

Friends told the Waco Tribune-Herald that Thompson was found dead last night of an apparent drug overdose. … Read full obituary

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Mark Harris, best known for baseball novels that included “Bang the Drum Slowly,” narrated by the fictional Henry Wiggen, has died. He was 84. …

Harris had Alzheimer’s disease…

Harris wrote five nonfiction books and 13 novels, including the baseball books “The Southpaw” (1953), “Bang the Drum Slowly” (1956), “A Ticket for a Seamstitch” (1957) and “It Looked Like Forever” (1979).

“Bang the Drum Slowly,” which he also adapted for the 1973 movie starring Michael Moriarty and Robert De Niro, was the most popular of the four, and it was named one of the top 100 sports books of all time by Sports Illustrated. … Read full obituary

BRISTOW — A Bristow native considered the father of modern hot-air ballooning died Thursday.

Paul “Ed” Yost perfected the concept of using propane heat to fill a balloon to make it fly and be maneuverable. He died of natural causes at this home in Taos, N.M. He was 87.

Bristow celebrated Yost’s accomplishments in 2002 during a Veterans’ Aviation and Hot Air Balloon Weekend. A monument was erected in Yost’s honor. He was a World War II veteran.

The aviation pioneer refined the modern-day balloon. This included using nonporous heat-resistant synthetic fabrics, maneuvering vents and deflation systems for landings that made untethered balloon flight possible. He made the first free flight in 1960, and he piloted the first balloon flight across the English Channel three years later. … Read full obituary