Dead Celebrity Alert

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — Margaret Truman, the only child of former President Harry S. Truman who became a concert singer, actress, radio and TV personality and mystery writer, died Tuesday. She was 83. … Read full obituary

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Former President Suharto, an army general who rose to power in Indonesia with the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people and ruled for 32 years over an era of rapid economic growth and extraordinary graft, died Sunday in Indonesia. He was 86. … Read full obituary

ATHENS, Greece: Hundreds of mourners, many sobbing, gathered Monday at Athens’ cathedral to file past the remains of Archbishop Christodoulos, the first leader of Greece’s powerful Orthodox Church to welcome a Catholic pope to Athens in 1,300 years. … Read full obituary

According to Utah newspaper Deseret News, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away this evening around 7pm. The initial reports say President Hinckley died of causes incident to age. He was 97 years old. …

President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was ordained and set apart as the 15th President of the Church on Sunday, March 12, 1995. … Read full obituary

TV actor Christopher Allport has been named as the third victim killed by the snowstorms roaring towards Southern California.

Skiing enthusiast Mr Allport, 60, was reported missing after a trio of “freak” avalanches. His body was found near the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood.

The veteran character actor had appeared on US shows including ER, Felicity, and Matlock. … Read full obituary

Christian Brando, the troubled eldest son of the late famed actor Marlon Brando, has died from pneumonia at a Los Angeles hospital, an attorney said Saturday. He was 49. …

Born May 11, 1958, the younger Brando had small roles in a handful of movies, including 1968’s “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!” but he was better known for his brushes with the law. … Read full obituary

Related:
Marlon Brando, 80

SAN DIEGO — John Stewart recorded some of pop music’s most acclaimed solo albums, helping create a style that came to be called Americana, but he was always best known for writing the Monkees’ enduring hit “Daydream Believer.”

Stewart, who came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of folk music’s Kingston Trio, died Saturday at a San Diego hospital after suffering a brain aneurism. He was 68. … Read full obituary

Lois Nettleton, an actress whose dramatic and comic dexterity in theater, film and television earned her wide public recognition and deep professional respect for more than a half century, died on Friday in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 80. The cause was complications of lung cancer…

Her extensive work in television included the role of Norma in “The Midnight Sun,” a 1961 episode of “The Twilight Zone” …

Ms. Nettleton was divorced from Jean Shepherd, the radio host and author; they met when she called his show. She left no immediate survivors. … Read full obituary

TMZ has learned that 2006 Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger has died in NY.

He was found dead in his bed in one of his residences in Soho by his housekeeper at 3:35 PM ET today. … Read full story

Georgia Frontiere, the owner of the National Football League’s Rams for nearly three decades and the first woman to take control of a league franchise, died Friday. She was 80. …

Frontiere, an occasional night-club singer and chorus line performer who hoped to become an opera star, was thrust into the pro football world in April 1979 when her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, the owner of the Los Angeles Rams, drowned in the ocean while swimming near his Florida home. … Read full obituary

RAF pilot who was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III …

Squadron Leader B. A. “Jimmy” James, MC, survivor of the Great Escape from Stalag Luft III, was born on April 17, 1915. He died on January 18, 2008, aged 92 … Read full obituary

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Desmond Plunkett

Allan Melvin, a character actor best known for playing Sam the Butcher on “The Brady Bunch,” has died. He was 84.

Melvin died of cancer Thursday at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, said Amalia Melvin, his wife of 64 years. … Read full obituary

Suzanne Pleshette has died.

Her attorney and family friend, Robert Finkelstein, says the husky-voiced actress died of respiratory failure at her home Los Angeles. She was 70.

The star of movies and Broadway found her greatest fame on TV’s long-running “The Bob Newhart Show,” portraying the comic’s witty, sarcastic wife. … Read full obituary

Related:
Comedic actor Tom Poston, 85

REYKJAVIK (AFP) — Bobby Fischer, who died on Thursday aged 64, was a high school dropout who may have been the greatest chess player of all time, but ended his life in eccentric seclusion.

The US-born player had lived for the last two years in Iceland, after serving eight months behind bars in Japan in a new twist to a life that had gone downhill ever since his moment of glory at age 29. … Read full obituary

PALM SPRINGS, California (AP) — Costume designer Bill Belew, who created Elvis Presley’s jumpsuits and the tight black leather outfit he wore on his 1968 television special, has died. He was 76.

Belew died January 7 at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs after battling diabetes, his longtime companion, Paul Dafelmair, told the Los Angeles Times. … Read full obituary

The 25-year-old actor was found dead at his Los Angeles home this morning. The cause of death has not been determined, however, Renfro had a history of drug abuse. …

Renfro had been filming a movie with Winona Ryder and Billy Bob Thornton. The movie, “The Informers,” just wrapped. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Maila Nurmi, whose “Vampira” TV persona pioneered the spooky-yet-sexy Goth aesthetic, has died, coroner’s officials said. She was 85. …

Among Nurmi’s scattered film appearances following her TV career was a cameo in Ed Wood’s 1959 cult classic, “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Nurmi was played by Lisa Marie in “Ed Wood,” Tim Burton’s 1994 tribute to the B-movie director. … Read full obituary

Johnny Podres, who became the most beloved ‘Bum’ of all pitching Brooklyn to its only World Series title before the team moved to LA, died Sunday at Glens Falls Hospital in upstate New York. He was 75. His wife, Joan, said he was being treated for heart and kidney problems and a leg infection. … Read full obituary

FULLERTON, Calif. — Carl Karcher, who turned a lone hot dog cart in Los Angeles into the Carl’s Jr. fast-food chain, died Friday at a Fullerton hospital, five days short of what would have been his 91st birthday, a spokeswoman said. … Read full obituary

Christopher Bowman, the former U.S. figure skating champion dubbed “Bowman the Showman” for his flair on the ice, died Thursday of a possible drug overdose, authorities said. He was 40. …

Bowman, a former child actor, was one of figure skating’s bigger personalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s. … Read full obituary

Sir Edmund Hillary, the beekeeper from Auckland who conquered Mount Everest and went on to become one of the greatest adventurers of the 20th century, has died at the age of 88. Hillary, who reached the peak of Everest in 1953, days before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, only admitted being the first man to reach the top of the world’s highest mountain after the death of his climbing companion, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, in 1986. … Read full obituary

Johnny Grant, the avuncular honorary mayor of Hollywood, died Wednesday at his suite in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. He was 84. … Read full obituary