Dead Celebrity Alert

Science fiction writer and poet Thomas Disch has committed suicide. Disch died July 4 and his body was discovered July 5, according to the New York City Police Department. He was 68.

The author of popular sci-fi novels Camp Concentration and 334, Disch had been openly gay since 1968. Following the 2004 death of his partner, poet Charles Naylor, Disch reportedly began suffering from depression.

Awarded many honors for his fiction, including two O. Henry awards, the genre-bending Disch also published more than a half dozen books of poetry, a whimsical Child’s Garden of Grammar (1997); a history of speculative fiction, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of (1998); and the Brave Little Toaster series for children. … Read full obituary

Nuala O’Faolain, journalist and writer, was born on March 1, 1940. She died of cancer on May 9, 2008, aged 68

Nuala O’Faolain, then 55, had been writing a current affairs column on The Irish Times for almost ten years and was rather feeling that life had passed her by when, in 1995, a publisher offered to make a book out of the best of her articles. To show where she was coming from, she decided to write a short introduction about her own life.

It ended up as a book of more than 200 pages entitled Are You Somebody? — The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman, spilling the beans on her dysfunctional background and her rather disordered love life. She revealed a 15-year lesbian affair with her fellow-columnist Nell McCafferty that had just ended, like her previous romances with men, in tears. …Read full obituary

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg’s mediums knew few bounds.

One of his most famous works or “combines” was “Bed,” created when he woke up in the mood to paint but had no money for a canvas. His solution was to take the quilt off his bed and use paint, toothpaste and fingernail polish for his creation. He was also a sculptor and a choreographer.

Rauschenberg died Monday of heart failure at 82, it was announced Tuesday by Jennifer Joy, his representative at PaceWildenstein gallery in New York. His use of odd and everyday articles earned him regard as a pioneer in pop art, first gaining fame in the 1950s. …

Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes, in his book “American Visions,” called Rauschenberg “a protean genius who showed America that all of life could be open to art. … Rauschenberg didn’t give a fig for consistency, or curating his reputation; his taste was always facile, omnivorous, and hit-or-miss, yet he had a bigness of soul and a richness of temperament that recalled Walt Whitman.” … Read full obituary

Actor who was an energetic champion of Gaelic culture in Scotland

The actor Simon MacKenzie was best known for his leading role in the long-running Gaelic television soap, Machair, in which he played the dignified head of a further education college.

He had been a BBC broadcaster on the Gaelic radio news services and went on to become Scotland’s most prolific Gaelic arts activist, appearing almost constantly in films, videos, plays and live events for nearly 30 years. …

He is survived by his long-term partner, Charlie Curran.

Simon MacKenzie, actor and activist for the Gaelic culture, was born on December 4, 1949. He died of cancer on April 8, 2008, aged 58 … Read full obituary

An active opponent of apartheid, Dr Ivan Toms went on to campaign against conscription and homophobic discrimination in South Africa.

Born in Cape Town in 1953 Toms completed his medical degree at the University of Cape Town in 1976 and two years later was conscripted into the South African Defence Force (SADF). … In the end he served as a non-combatant doctor in Namibia.

A passionate Christian, Toms set up a clinic in the Crossroads squatter camp, peopled by penniless African migrants from the Eastern Cape in 1979. He was the only doctor serving 60,000 people. …

The openly gay Toms, whose three weeks’ fast in St George’s Cathedral as a protest against the deployment of the SADF in the townships cost him his gall bladder, was the target of dirty tricks campaigns, including posters lewdly denouncing his homosexuality. …

Dr Ivan Toms, physician and activist, was born on July 11, 1953, and was found dead on March 25, 2008, aged 54 … Read full obituary

DJ who helped to open the closet door of the 1960s and led London’s gay club scene for more than 40 years

DJ Tallulah was at the heart of London’s gay club scene for more than 40 years. His extraordinary life linked the closeted 1960s world of such figures as Joe Orton and Kenneth Williams with the anything goes Soho of today. He ended up as the “First Lady” of London’s gay clubland, by way of such venues as Studio 54, Heaven and the Shadow Lounge. …

Martyn Allam, known as DJ Tallulah, was born on October 2, 1948. He died after a heart attack on March 25, 2008, aged 59 … 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

Thomas Morgan III, 56, a former reporter and editor at the New York Times, died Monday of AIDS complications.

According to an obituary in the Times, Morgan’s accomplishments were great: He served as the first openly gay president of the National Association of Black Journalists from 1989 to 1991, received a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 1990, and was inducted into the hall of fame of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association in 2005. … Read full obituary

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

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

Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony Award winner who later became known for his ribald appearances on the “Tonight Show” and various game shows, has died. He was 76.

Reilly died Friday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times.

Reilly began his career in New York City…

After moving to Hollywood in 1960s he appeared as the nervous Claymore Gregg on TV’s “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” and as a featured guest on “The Dean Martin Show.”

He gained fame by becoming what he described as a “game show fixture” in the 1970s and 80s. He was a regular on programs like “Match Game” and “Hollywood Squares,” often wearing giant glasses and colorful suits with ascots. … Read full obituary

BOSTON (AP) — Martha B. Sosman, one of three Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court judges who voted against the landmark decision legalizing gay marriage in the state, has died, the court said Sunday. She was 56.

Family members said the cause of death Saturday night was respiratory failure, according to a statement from Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall. …

In 2003, when a high court ruling made Massachusetts the first state in the nation to legalize gay marriage, Sosman wrote a strenuous dissent for the court’s minority. In her opinion, she belittled the majority’s advisory opinion, saying that it “merely repeats the impassioned rhetoric” of gay marriage advocates. …

In the majority opinion, Marshall chided Sosman, writing that she “so clearly misses the point that further discussion appears to be useless.” … Read full obituary

Actor John Inman, most famous for the comedy Are You Being Served?, has died in London aged 71, his spokesman said.

Inman made his name in the 1970s show as Mr Humphries, whose catchphrase “I’m free!” entered popular culture.

In recent years he was a pantomime regular, most often taking the role of the dame. He also made appearances in BBC comedy show Revolver in 2004.

The Preston-born actor died in hospital and had been suffering from a Hepatitis A infection for some time.

The infection, usually caused by eating contaminated food, forced him to cancel the opening of a pantomime in London in December 2004. …

Inman’s Are You Being Served? co-star Wendy Richard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “John was one of the wittiest and most inventive actors I’ve ever worked with. …

Are You Being Served? ran on the BBC from 1972 to 1985 and depicted the antics of the staff of Grace Brothers, an old-fashioned department store.

Mr Humphries became one of TV’s best known characters, and in 1976 Inman was voted funniest man on television by TV Times readers. He was declared BBC TV’s personality of the year the same year. …

Inman’s long-term partner, Ron Lynch, is said to be “devastated” at his death. … Read full obituary

Gay rights pioneer Barbara Gittings has died at the age of 75 from a lengthy and brave battle with breast cancer, Philadelphia Gay News publisher and friend Mark Segal announced today.

Gittings first came to the public spotlight in 1965 when she and a handful of gay men and lesbians held demonstrations outside the White House and Independence Hall seeking equal rights for homosexuals. These were the first such demonstrations in American history and began an era of gays coming out of the closet. Gittings’ involvement in the gay rights movement started in the late 1950s when she helped organize the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (D.O.B.). It was there she met her life partner Kay Lahausen, who has been by her side for 46 years.

Gittings’ other accomplishments include head of the American Library Association’s Gay Task Force. In 2003 The American Library Association presented Gittings with it’s highest honor, a lifetime membership. She was an active cornerstone in the campaign that led to the American Psychiatric Association dropping its categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973. … Read full obituary

Gerry E. Studds, who championed environmental, maritime, and fisheries issues during 24 years in the US House and lent an eloquent voice to health and human rights matters, died early Saturday.

First elected in 1972, Mr. Studds entered politics as part of a generation emboldened by its opposition to the Vietnam War and turned his focus in Congress to issues close to the hearts of his constituents. A Democrat, Mr. Studds had been re-elected five times when in 1983 he became the first member of Congress to openly acknowledge he was gay.

Subsequently he became the first openly gay candidate elected to Congress and was re-elected five more times before announcing in October 1995 that he would not seek a 13th term representing the 10th Congressional District, which includes New Bedford, the South Shore, Cape Cod, and the Islands.

He publicly disclosed his sexual orientation after a former congressional page, then 27, said in 1983 that he and the congressman had a sexual relationship a decade earlier, when the page was 17. The House censured Mr. Studds for sexual misconduct.

Mr. Studds, 69, had been hospitalized after falling while walking his dog several days ago. He died in Boston Medical Center of complications from vascular disease, according to his husband, Dean T. Hara.

“Gerry’s leadership changed Massachusetts forever and we’ll never forget him,” US Senator Edward M. Kennedy said in a statement. … Read full obituary