Dead Celebrity Alert

Last of the Summer Wine and Porridge actor Brian Wilde has died aged 80.

Wilde played Foggy in the long-running comedy series Last of The Summer Wine and Barraclough in prison sitcom Porridge, alongside Ronnie Barker.

Wilde died in his sleep on Thursday. Last of the Summer Wine creator Roy Clarke said he was “a wonderful actor”. …

Wilde’s son Andrew told the Press Association news agency his father suffered a fall about seven weeks ago and had not recovered. …

He also appeared in 1970s children’s series The Ghosts of Motley Hall and 1980s TV comedy Kit Curran. … Read full obituary

Paul Scofield, one of Britain’s most acclaimed Shakespearean actors and an Academy Award winner, has died at the age of 86, his agent has said.

Scofield won the Oscar for best actor in 1967 for A Man for All Seasons, and was also nominated in 1995 for best supporting actor for Quiz Show. …

The British-born actor started his stage career in 1940. … Read full obituary

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Writer Hugo Claus — an artist, poet, playwright and novelist whose books painted a scathing picture of repression and hypocrisy in bourgeois Flanders — died Wednesday by euthanasia, his wife said. He was 78.

Claus, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died at Middelheim Hospital in Antwerp. “He himself picked the moment of his death and asked for euthanasia,” not wanting to extend his suffering, his wife, Veerle De Wit, said in a statement. …

Claus produced some 200 works during his career but was best known for his classic, “The Sorrow of Belgium” — a scathing attack on social injustice, stifling family relationships and Roman Catholic repression in his native Flanders in northern Belgium.

The partly autobiographical work defined his career and shot him to prominence on the international scene. … Read full obituary

LONDON (AP) — Philip Jones Griffiths, a photojournalist who spent years traveling across Vietnam to capture the effects of the war on its people, died Wednesday. He was 72. …

Jones Griffiths was perhaps best known for his book “Vietnam Inc.” — described as one of the most detailed studies of any conflict.

In one of the book’s most haunting photos, he captured the image of a naked, young boy cowering and covering his ears to drown out the sound of a passing U.S. helicopter. He wrote that the unnamed boy went mad after witnessing his mother killed by a helicopter gunship. … Read full obituary

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Ivan Dixon, an actor, director and producer best known for his role as Kinchloe on the 1960s television series “Hogan’s Heroes,” has died. He was 76.

Dixon died Sunday at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte after a hemorrhage and of complications from kidney failure, said his daughter, Doris Nomathande Dixon of Charlotte. …

Dixon began his acting career on Broadway in plays including “The Cave Dwellers” and “A Raisin in the Sun.” On film, he appeared in “Something of Value,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “A Patch of Blue,” “Nothing But a Man” and the cult favorite “Car Wash.”

But he was probably best known for the role of U.S. Staff Sgt. James Kinchloe on “Hogan’s Heroes” … Read full obituary

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Vicki Van Meter, celebrated for piloting a plane across the country at age 11 and from the U.S. to Europe at age 12, has died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Crawford County coroner said. She was 26.

Van Meter died Saturday and her body was found in her Meadville home on Sunday.

Her brother said she battled depression and opposed medication, but her family thought she had been dealing with her problems. …

Van Meter made national headlines in 1993 and 1994 when she made her cross-country and trans-Atlantic flights accompanied only by a flight instructor. Her instructors said she was at the controls during the entirety of both flights.

As a sixth-grader in September 1993, Van Meter flew from Augusta, Maine, to San Diego over five days. She had to fight strong headwinds and turbulence that bounced her single-engine Cessna 172 and made her sick. … Read full obituary

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and a man considered one of the world’s top science fiction writers, has died.

He was 90. An aide announced his death Tuesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. …

Clarke had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair. …

A scientist whose work helped lead to the creation of modern satellite systems and early space exploration, his work bridged art and science. …

With Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein, he was considered one of the “Big Three” of science fiction.

His fiction predicted space travel before rockets were even test fired and foretold computers wreaking havoc with modern life. Clarke was a lone voice of dissent when the world feared that the Y2K bug would lead to mayhem in 2000. … Read full obituary

LONDON, England (AP) — Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as “The English Patient,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Cold Mountain” into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54.

Minghella’s death was confirmed Tuesday by his agent, Judy Daish. According to reports, Mingella died of a hemorrhage after a routine operation on his neck.

“The English Patient,” the 1996 World War II drama, won nine Academy Awards, including best director for Minghella, best picture and best supporting actress for Juliette Binoche. … Read full obituary

MADRID, Spain (CNN) — A drummer for the Swedish pop group ABBA has died after an apparent accident at his home in Spain, a Civil Guard spokeswoman said Monday.

Ola Brunkert was found dead late Sunday at his home in the town of Arta on Spain’s Mediterranean island of Mallorca, the spokeswoman said.

Police believe Brunkert may have fallen against a glass partition separating his home’s kitchen from the garden, and the glass broke and fatally cut his throat, she said.

He was found in the garden and is believed to have bled to death, she added. An official cause of death is pending until after an autopsy. …

He was not among the four best-known members of ABBA whose faces adorned the album covers — Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Faltskog — but he was a key supporting musician for the group as it achieved stardom. … Read full obituary

March 8, 2008 — Malvin Wald, a prolific writer for film and television best known for co-writing the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for the 1948 film “The Naked City,” died Thursday of age-related causes at Sherman Oaks Hospital, said his son, Alan. He was 90.

Wald wrote the story for the archetypal police drama, which ended with the now-famous line, “There are 8 million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.” He and writer Albert Maltz, one of the blacklisted Hollywood 10 who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, were credited with the screenplay, which was also nominated for a Writers Guild Award. …

Born Malvin Daniel Wald in 1917, he got his start in Hollywood by following in the footsteps of his older brother Jerry… Read full obituary

March 7, 2008 — John Lennon nicknamed him “Normal”, and under the name “Hurricane” Smith he enjoyed a one-off No1 hit, but it was as plain Norman Smith that he made his mark on the history of popular music.

As George Martin’s engineer and right-hand man, Smith twiddled the knobs, set up the microphones, checked the levels and acted as general factotum on all the Beatles’ recordings between 1962 and 1965, totalling some 150 songs from Love Me Do and She Loves You to Nowhere Man and Norwegian Wood.

Promoted from engineer to A&R man and producer, he then signed Pink Floyd to EMI and produced their first three albums. Smith’s own brief emergence from backroom wizard to unlikely singing star came when his composition Oh Babe What Would You Say? topped the charts in 1972. …

Smith worked with Martin on every Beatles single and album up until and including Rubber Soul (1965). … Read full obituary

Evan Mecham, the feisty, ultra-conservative Pontiac dealer whose turbulent tenure as governor deeply divided Arizona and prompted his impeachment in 1988, died [February 21] after a long illness. He was 83. …

Mecham, who served just 15 months as Arizona’s 17th governor, spent the last four years of his life in the dementia unit of the Arizona State Veteran Home, a spokesman for the home said. He was moved to the veteran’s hospital in mid-February, almost exactly 20 years from the date he was impeached by the Arizona House of Representatives. On the morning of his death, family members moved him to the hospice, his son said. …

His death closes a chapter of Arizona history that many members of the state’s political establishment would just as soon forget. … Read full obituary

Read full obituary

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and is widely seen as the father of the role-playing games, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69. He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies. …

Gygax also was a prolific writer and wrote dozens of fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels. … Read full obituary

Italy’s Giuseppe Di Stefano, one of the greatest tenors of the 20th century and celebrated singing partner of Maria Callas, has died.

Monika Curth says her 86-year-old husband died Monday morning at his home near Milan from injuries sustained when he was attacked in Kenya in 2004. …

From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, Di Stefano sang at the world’s top opera houses, including Milan’s La Scala and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and made frequent performances and recordings with Callas. … Read full obituary