Dead Celebrity Alert

Tupou IV, the ruler of Tonga, who became the country’s king in 1967, was the fourth longest-reigning monarch in the world and, according to the record books, was at one stage the heaviest.

As King of Tonga, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV was the absolute ruler of more than 170 Polynesian islands which were brought together when their many different tribal groups united in 1845.

Though still the object of great reverence, the Tongan royal family has recently faced criticism for seemingly enriching itself while most of its subjects remained in poverty. … Read full obituary

HAMILTON, New Zealand, Aug. 16 (UPI) — A weeklong period of mourning has been declared in New Zealand for Maori Queen Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu who died at age 75.

Te Atairangikaahu, who reigned for 40 years as the sixth holder of the Maori Kingship established in 1858, died Tuesday at a hospital near Hamilton after being on dialysis for several months, reports Radio New Zealand.

Te Atairangikaahu’s body will lie in state for a week at Turangawaewae, the headquarters of her Kingitanga movement, in New Zealand’s North Island. She will be buried with her ancestors on the sacred mountain of Taupiri, says the report. Her successor is expected to be announced next week. … Read full obituary

A speeding teenager with a new license allegedly killed three people — two of them members of the Tongan royal family — in a horrific collision Wednesday night in Menlo Park.

The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office confirmed Thursday that the crash killed two members of the royal family from the tiny South Pacific country, a 55-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman. The coroner’s office still would not name them late Thursday because the Tongan government had yet to issue an official statement.

News reports from Tonga identified the victims as Prince Tu’ipelehake and his wife, Princess Kaimana. Tu’ipelehake, a nephew of 88-year-old King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, was a leading advocate for democratic reforms in Tonga. …

The teenager whose car clipped the Explorer, Edith Delgado, 18, of Redwood City, was booked into the San Mateo County jail on suspicion of three felony counts of vehicular manslaughter and one count of illegal speed contest. She had received her driver’s license Feb. 2, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. …

The prince, who would have turned 46 on Monday, was supposed to speak at … the First Tongan United Methodist Church in San Bruno, on Thursday night. But the event turned into a memorial service. … Read full obituary

A 15-year-old son of Bahrain’s king has been killed in an accident while driving a car, the Bahraini Royal Court says.

Prince Faisal, the sixth son of Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, died instantly after he lost control of the car he was driving and collided with a traffic light and billboard, said an official in the Ministry of Youth on Thursday.

A senior information ministry official confirmed the death. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release the news to the press.

State radio and television did not promptly announce the death, but they stopped their regular programmes and played readings from the Islamic holy book, the Quran — a sign of mourning. … It was not known how the prince came to be driving on a public road. Under Bahraini law, one has to be 18 years of age to apply for a driving licence. … Read full obituary

Prince Rainier III of Monaco, Europe’s longest-reigning monarch, died today at the age of 81 in a hospital overlooking the tiny state he turned into a billionaires’ paradise.

In a statement, his palace said he had been suffering heart, lung and kidney disorders. He died at 6.35am (0535 BST) with his son and heir, 47-year-old Prince Albert, at his side.

Prince Rainier, who had ruled Monaco since 1949, brought Hollywood glamour to the world’s second smallest state when he married the actress Grace Kelly and transformed the principality from a faded gambling centre into a playground for the rich.

Flags in Monaco were today already at half-mast in honour of Pope John Paul II, and the mood was sombre. “Everyone here feels orphaned,” Patrick Leclercq, Monaco’s minister of state, said in a statement broadcast on French television.

The prince is expected to be buried next to his wife, who died after a car crash in 1982, following at least a week of mourning in the principality. … Read full obituary

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — A German statesman, a Czech supermodel and a Swedish Olympic ski champion were among the vacationers whose search for peace and sun in tropical southern Asia was shattered by the tsunamis that spared neither rich nor poor. …

Troy Broadbridge, an Australian Rules soccer player, was on his honeymoon in Phuket when he and his bride were swamped as they strolled along a beach. Trisha Broadbridge was safe, but he was still missing Tuesday. …

Thailand’s royal family also were among the grieving. The Thai-American grandson of King Bhumipol Adulyadej, Poom Jensen, 21, was reportedly jet skiing when the tidal wave struck Phuket. His body was found later.

Hollywood actor-director Richard Attenborough’s family also suffered tragedy. His granddaughter, Lucy, 14, perished and his daughter, Jane, and her mother-in-law are missing in Phuket. Another granddaughter, Alice, 17, was being treated in a hospital. … Read full story

Princess Alice, aunt of Queen Elizabeth II and the oldest member of the British royal family, has died aged 102, Buckingham Palace said Saturday.

In a statement, the palace said Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, died quietly in her sleep at Kensington Palace with her immediate family around her. …

Princess Alice was the second member of the royal family to reach her centenary, after the Queen Mother Elizabeth, who died in March 2002 at the age of 101. … Read full obituary

Britain’s Queen Mother, Elizabeth, who won the country’s loyalty and admiration during World War II at the side of King George VI, died in her sleep Saturday, Buckingham Palace said. She was 101 years old.

Queen Elizabeth II was at her mother’s bedside when the matriarch of the royal family died at 3:15 p.m. (10:15 a.m. EST) at Royal Lodge in Windsor, said a Palace spokesman.

Her death came less than two months after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret, at age 71. …

She was best known to younger generations as the mother of the queen and grandmother of Prince Charles.

But those who were young when German bombs rained down on London and the country awaited Hitler’s invasion remembered her as the queen who stayed when she could have fled to Canada, who endured the blitz with them and visited their shattered homes and bomb shelters.

As queen consort to the monarch, George VI, she might have been expected to retire from public life at his death in 1952. But after their daughter’s succession to the throne, she took a new title, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and a full load of royal duties, which she carried into her 90s. … Read full obituary

See also: Princess Margaret

Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth, has died, Buckingham Palace announced Saturday. She was 71.

She died “peacefully in her sleep” at 6:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. ET) in King Edward VII Hospital, a statement from the palace said. Her children, Lord Linley, 40, and Lady Sarah Chatto, 37, were at her side.

The palace said Princess Margaret suffered a stroke Friday afternoon, and developed cardiac problems during the night. She was taken to the hospital at 2:30 a.m. (9:30 p.m. Friday ET).

. . .

Margaret suffered at least two strokes in recent years. Confined to a wheelchair and often donning heavy dark glasses, she was last seen in public before Christmas at the 100th birthday party for Princess Alice.

Princess Margaret’s death comes amid her sister’s Golden Jubilee, the 50th anniversary of her accession to Britain’s throne.

. . .

The younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the princess was born at Glamis, the Scottish home of her grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, August 21, 1930, and was christened Margaret Rose. … Read full obituary