Dead Celebrity Alert

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.

Renfro has had a rough time personally since moving from Tennessee to Los Angeles. … 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.

Nurmi died Thursday afternoon at her Hollywood home…

Nurmi created her Vampira character — reminiscent of Charles Addams’ spooky New Yorker cartoons — to host horror movie broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in 1954.

With darkly mascaraed eyes and blood-red lipstick, Nurmi appeared each week in her revealing black dress and slinky fishnets to introduce such films as “Revenge of the Zombies” and “Devil Bat’s Daughter.” …

But Nurmi’s cultural resonance did not translate into long-term wealth. In 1989, she lost a $10 million lawsuit that contended Cassandra Peterson’s late-night horror hostess Elvira pirated her character. …

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. …

The stocky south-paw was a elected to four All-Star games and was the first MVP in World Series history, becoming a hero to every fan in Brooklyn when the Dodgers ended decades of frustration by finally beating their cross town rivals after, losing five consecutive years to win the 1955 World Series. … 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.

Karcher was admitted to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton on New Year’s Day, suffering from Parkinson’s-related pneumonia.

Born Jan. 16, 1917, in Sandusky, Ohio, Karcher moved to Anaheim where his uncle ran a small business. In 1941, Karcher and his wife Margaret, started their first business, a hot dog cart, in Los Angeles, borrowing $311 against their Plymouth and adding the $15 from Margaret’s purse, according to the 2002 book “Fast Food Nation.”

In 1945, they opened their first restaurant, Carl’s Drive-In Barbecue in Anaheim. … 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 was pronounced dead at 12:06 p.m., said Coroner’s Lt. Joe Bale, who wasn’t immediately able to provide more details about the possible drug overdose. Bowman’s body was found at a motel in the North Hills section of Los Angeles, and an autopsy was planned for this weekend, Bale said. …

Bowman, a former child actor, was one of figure skating’s bigger personalities in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Immensely talented, with a gift for performance that few others could match, he won the U.S. men’s figure skating titles in 1989 and 1992, and was runner-up in 1987 and 1991.

He also won a silver medal at the 1989 world championships, and a bronze the next year. He skated in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh in 1988 and fourth in 1992. … 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.

It was May 29 1953 when he and Norgay scaled the peak. He later told his fellow explorer at base camp, “Well George, we knocked the bastard off.”

A quiet man whose laid-back demeanor seemed at odds with his risky explorations, Hillary led numerous other explorations over the next two decades, including journeys to the South Pole, six Himalayan ascents, a search for the fabled Yeti and the source of the Yangtze river. He led the New Zealand section of the Trans-Antarctic expedition from 1955 to 1958 and in 1958 participated in the first mechanised expedition to the South Pole. … Read full obituary

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

Grant, who died of apparently natural causes, was perhaps best known as the jolly host of the ceremonies in which he inducted more than 500 celebrities into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The lifelong bachelor lived in a 14th-floor suite at the hotel.

Grant’s mission in life was bringing the Hollywood story to everyone. He hosted red-carpet Oscar arrivals and Walk of Fame festivities, appeared in bit parts in movies and produced Hollywood’s annual Christmas Parade. …

Over the years he emceed numerous premieres with Daily Variety’s Army Archerd, and he presented Archerd with his own star in front of the Chinese Theater in 1984. On Jan. 3, he told Archerd that he recently helped arrange a star ceremony for Suzanne Pleshette, skedded for Jan. 31. … Read full obituary