Dead Celebrity Alert

Michelangelo Antonioni, the Italian director whose chilly canticles of alienation were cornerstones of international filmmaking in the 1960s, inspiring intense measures of admiration, denunciation and confusion, died on Monday at his home in Rome, Italian news media reported today. He was 94. He died on the same day as Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish filmmaker who died at his home in Sweden earlier Monday. … Read full obituary

Bill Walsh, former head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, died Monday following a battle with leukemia, a source told KCRA 3.

Walsh died at about 11 a.m. at home, officials said.

Walsh was head coach with the 49ers from 1979 to 1988, where he won three Super Bowl championships and perfected the schemes that became known as the West Coast offense during his Hall of Fame career. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Veteran talk show host Tom Snyder, whose idiosyncratic interviewing style bemused and annoyed late-night TV viewers during three decades, has died after a long battle with leukemia, associates said on Monday. He was 71. … Read full obituary

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, an iconoclastic filmmaker widely regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema, died Monday, the president of his foundation said. He was 89. … Read full obituary

Former EastEnders actor Mike Reid has died at the age of 67 after suffering a suspected heart attack, his agent said. … Read full obituary

French actor Michel Serrault, best known internationally for the 1978 comedy La Cage aux Folles, has died after a long illness, his family announced late Sunday.

Serrault, 79, one of the great names of French cinema, made 135 films in a career covering more than 50 years … Read full obituary

Bill Flemming, one of the original announcers on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” who was also known for his Olympics, college football and golf broadcasts, died July 20 in Petoskey, Michigan He was 80. … Read full obituary

Former Hamer government minister Walter Jona, credited with saving thousands of lives by ushering in compulsory seatbelt laws in Victoria, has died after a long fight with cancer. … Read full obituary

Laszlo Kovacs, one of Hollywood’s most influential and respected directors of photography, died Saturday night in his sleep. He was 74.

Kovacs lensed the landmark cinematic achievement “Easy Rider” and compiled about 60 credits including “Five Easy Pieces,” “Shampoo,” “Paper Moon,” “New York, New York,” “What’s Up, Doc,” “Ghostbusters,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Miss Congeniality.” … Read full obituary

SAN FRANCISCO — The Bay Area news community is mourning the loss of beloved veteran television and radio news anchor Pete Wilson.

Wilson, 62, died Friday night of a massive heart attack suffered during hip replacement surgery at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, according to KGO-TV, ABC-7. …

Wilson received a number of broadcast journalism honors, including the Peabody Award, several Emmy Awards and many local and national awards. … Read full obituary

(CNN) — Tammy Faye Messner, the former televangelist and Christian singer who battled drug addiction and later inoperable cancer, died Friday morning, CNN’s Larry King said Saturday night. He said the family had asked him to make the delayed announcement. She was 65. … Read full obituary

WASHINGTON, July 18 — Gen. Wayne A. Downing, who fought in jungles and deserts and commanded American Special Operations forces before becoming a senior adviser to President Bush for counterterrorism, died Wednesday in Peoria, Ill., where he was born and returned to live in retirement. He was 67. … Read full obituary

Jerry Hadley’s attractive lyric tenor voice, all-American good looks and exceptional acting ability carried him from a humble farm upbringing in northern Illinois to the world’s major opera houses, including a distinguished career with Lyric Opera of Chicago for nearly two decades. … Read full obituary

Jack Odell, a self-trained engineer whose daughter’s mischievous habit of taking spiders to school in a matchbox prompted him to make her a tiny steamroller as a substitute — an invention that led to Matchbox Toys, maker of 3 billion Lilliputian vehicles in 12,000 models — died on July 7 in London. He was 87. … Read full obituary

Former NSW player and Test umpire, Tom Brooks OAM, passed away on Monday after a short illness, aged 88, Cricket NSW announced. … Read full obituary

SANTA ROSA — Jim Mitchell, the porn czar who co-founded the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre and who later shot his brother to death, died Thursday night at his Sonoma County home. He was 63. … Read full obituary

Film director Richard Franklin, known for the thrillers Patrick and Roadgames, and more recently the compelling dramas Hotel Sorrento and Brilliant Lies, has died in Melbourne aged 58. …” Read full obituary

Whether as a television beast or a radio shock-jock, Stan Zemanek was a professional stirrer. The Sydney broadcaster, who died today aged 60 of a brain tumour, wore political incorrectness like a badge of honour and bragged about being radio’s most complained-about personality. … Read full obituary

AUSTIN, Texas — Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94. … Read full obituary

Obit to come.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Charles Lane, the prolific character actor whose name was little known but whose crotchety persona and roles in hundreds of films made him instantly recognizable to generations of moviegoers, has died. He was 102. … Read full obituary

Doug Marlette, the North Carolina-born cartoonist who won a Pulitzer Prize and created the popular strip ”Kudzu,” was killed in a car accident Tuesday morning in Mississippi, authorities said. He was 57. … Read full obituary

Lady Nancy Fairfax died on Saturday, aged 90, after a long illness.

Lady Fairfax was the wife of late businessman, pastoralist, benefactor and charitable worker Sir Vincent, and mother of John B. Fairfax, a director of Fairfax Media. … Read full obituary

Australia’s oldest Olympian Eileen Wearne died last week aged 95, the Australian Olympic Committee announced today.

Wearne, who died on Friday, competed in athletics at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. … Read full obituary

Beverly Sills, the acclaimed Brooklyn-born coloratura soprano who was more popular with the American public than any opera singer since Enrico Caruso, even among people who never set foot in an opera house, died Monday night at her home in Manhattan. She was 78. … Read full obituary