Dead Celebrity Alert

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) — George Osmond, father of the famous singing family The Osmond Brothers, has died. He was 90. … Read full obituary

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Olive Osmond, Osmond Brothers’ mother, 79

Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in “Camelot” launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73. …

He had been awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after being found last month to have a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis. … Read full obituary

Country music icon Porter Wagoner has died in Tennessee at 80, days after he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Wagoner was hospitalized Oct. 15, and was transferred Friday from the hospital to hospice care. He died Sunday night, The Nashville Tennessean reported. … Read full obituary

Singer Teresa Brewer, an Ohio native who topped the charts in the 1950s with such hits as “Till I Waltz Again with You” and performed with jazz legends Count Basie and Duke Ellington, died Wednesday. She was 76. … Read full obituary

Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C’s and ebullient showmanship made him one of the world’s most beloved tenors, has died, his manager told The Associated Press. He was 71. … Read full obituary

Obit to come.

Hilly Kristal, whose dank Bowery rock club CBGB served as the birthplace of the punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands like the Ramones, Blondie and the Talking Heads, has died. He was 75. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES — Merv Griffin, the entertainer turned impresario who parlayed his “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune” game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire, has died. He was 82. … Read full obituary

The man who gave us the song “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” has died.

Singer-songwriter Lee Hazlewood died of kidney cancer at his home outside Las Vegas on Saturday evening, according to the Clark County coroner’s office. He was 78. … 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

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

Hank Medress, whose vocals with the doo wop group the Tokens helped propel their irrepressible single “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” to the top of the charts and who produced hits with other groups, has died of lung cancer. He was 68. … Read full obituary

Oskar Morawetz, one of Canada’s best-known and frequently performed classical composers, died Wednesday in Toronto at age 90.

Winner of two Juno awards for classical music, Morawetz was known for lyrical melody, lively rhythm and innovative exploitation of instrumental colour. … Read full obituary

The former leader of the Warumpi Band, for cultural reasons now only referred to as George Burrarrawanga, is being remembered in a traditional Gumatj ceremony on Elcho Island off the Northern Territory. … Read full obituary

Lynne Randell, the Mod from Mordialloc who scored a top 10 hit in 1967 with Ciao Baby, has died.

Friends say Randell, 57, was found dead at her home on Friday morning after a four-year battle against an illness that had affected her nervous system. There were no suspicious circumstances. A note was reportedly found nearby. … Read full obituary

WACO, Texas (AP) — Tony Thompson, who sang on the 1990s R & B hits “I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)” and “She’s Playing Hard to Get” as part of the group Hi-Five, has died. He was 31.

Friends told the Waco Tribune-Herald that Thompson was found dead last night of an apparent drug overdose. … Read full obituary

Zola Taylor, who broke gender barriers in the 1950s as a member of The Platters, harmonizing with her male colleagues on hits like “The Great Pretender,” has died, her nephew said Tuesday. She was 69. … Read full obituary

Tommy Newsom, the former backup bandleader on “The Tonight Show” whose “Mr. Excitement” nickname was a running joke for Johnny Carson, has died. He was 78. … Read full obituary

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russian cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, who became an international symbol of the fight for artistic freedom under Soviet rule, died on Friday aged 80. … Read full obituary

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NEW YORK — He does the “Monster Mash” no more. Bobby “Boris” Pickett, whose dead-on Boris Karloff impression propelled the Halloween anthem to the top of the charts in 1962, making him one of pop music’s most enduring one-hit wonders, has died of leukemia. He was 69. … Read full obituary

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill, one of the most vital and groundbreaking artists in jazz’s post-bop movement during a career that spanned a half-century, died early Friday after a three-year struggle with lung cancer, his record label announced. He was 69. … Read full obituary

All Things Considered, April 14, 2007 — The jazz vocalist Dakota Staton passed away this week at the age of 76. Staton received critical acclaim for more than two-dozen albums. She was best known for her 1957 hit song “The Late, Late Show.” … Listen to NPR obituary

Colin Graham, longtime artistic director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and a celebrated opera director, whose productions found acclaim in North American and European opera houses, has died at the age of seventy-five. A spokeswoman for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis reported that Graham died on Friday of respiratory and cardiac arrest at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur, Missouri. … Read full obituary

Former Kiss guitarist Mark St. John died Thursday morning from an apparent brain hemorrhage. He was 51. … Read full obituary