Gena Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft and a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director-husband, John Cassavetes, and who later charmed audiences in her son's tear-jerker “The Notebook,” has died. She was 94. Rowlands' death was confirmed Wednesday by representatives for her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes.
He revealed earlier this year that his mother had Alzheimer’s disease. TMZ reported that Rowlands died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, California. FILE - Actor Gena Rowlands poses for a portrait at the London West Hollywood hotel in West Hollywood, Calif.
, on Dec. 4, 2014. Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft and a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and later charmed audiences in her son's tear-jerker “The Notebook,” has died at age 94.
Operating outside the studio system, the husband-and-wife team of John Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of working-class strivers and small-timers in such films as “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Gloria” and “Faces.” Rowlands made 10 films across four decades with Cassavetes, including “Minnie and Moskowitz” in 1971, “Opening Night” in 1977 and “Love Streams” in 1984. She earned two Oscar nods: 1974's “A Woman Under the Influence,” in which she played a wife and mother cracking under the burden of domestic harmony, and “Gloria” in 1980, about a woman who helps a young boy escape the mob.
“He had a particular sympathetic interest in women and their problems in society, how they were treated and how they solved and overcame what they needed to, so all his movies have some interesting women, and you don’t need many,” she told the AP in 2015. FILE - U.S.
director Nick Cassavetes, son of director John Cassavetes, center back, poses with his sister Xan Cassavetes, from left, his daughter Gena Cassavetes, his mother Gena Rowlands, and his sister Zoe, before the screening of his film "The Notebook" on Sept. 5, 2004, at the 30th American film Festival of Deauville, in Normandy. In addition to the Oscar nominations, Rowlands earned three Primetime Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy and two Golden Globes.
She was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2015 in recognition of her work and legacy in Hollywood. “You know what’s wonderful about being an actress? You don’t just live one life,” she said at the podium. “You live many lives.
” A new generation was introduced to Rowlands in her son's blockbuster “The Notebook,” in which she played a woman whose memory is ravaged, looking back on a romance for the ages. Her younger self was portrayed by Rachel McAdams. (She also appeared in Nick Cassavetes' "Unhook the Stars" in 1996.
) In her later years, Rowlands made several appearances in films and TV, including in “The Skeleton Key” and the detective series “Monk.” Her last appearance in a movie was in 2014, playing a retiree who befriends her gay dance instructor in “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.” FILE - Actress Gena Rowlands attends the world premiere of 'My Sister's Keeper' on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 in New York.
Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft and a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and later charmed audiences in her son's tear-jerker “The Notebook,” has died at age 94. One of her career triumphs was 1974's "Woman Under the Influence," playing a lower middle-class housewife who, the actor said, "was totally vulnerable and giving; she had no sense of her own worth." In "Gloria" (1980) she portrayed a faded showgirl menaced by her ex-boyfriend, a mobster boss.
She was Oscar nominated as best actress for both performances. She and Cassavetes met at the American School of Dramatic Arts when both their careers were beginning. They married four months later.
In 1960 Cassavetes used his earnings from the TV series "Johnny Stacatto" to finance his first film, "Shadows." Partly improvised, shot with natural light on New York locations with a $40,000 budget, it was applauded by critics for its stark realism. Gena (pronounced Jenna) Rowlands became a seasoned actor through live television drama and tours in "The Seven Year Itch" and "Time for Ginger" as well as off-Broadway.
Her big break came when Josh Logan cast her opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s play “Middle of the Night.” Her role as a young woman in love with her much older boss brought reviews hailing her as a new star.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts FILE - Actress Gena Rowlands and actor Beau Bridges hold up their Emmys for Best Actress and Best Actor for Miniseries or Special during the 44th Annual Emmy Awards in Pasadena, Calif., Aug. 30, 1992.
Rowlands received the Emmy for "Face Of A Stranger" and Bridges for "Without Warning: The James Brady Story." MGM offered her a contract for two pictures a year. Her first film, a comedy directed by and costarring Jose Ferrer, “The High Cost of Loving,” brought Rowlands comparisons to one of the great 1930s stars, Carole Lombard.
But she asked to be released from her contract because she was expecting a baby. Often during her career she would absent herself from the screen for long stretches to attend to family matters. In addition to Nick, she and Cassavetes had two daughters, Alexandra and Zoe, who also pursued acting careers.
John Cassavetes died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1989, and Rowlands returned to acting to assuage her grief. Between assignments she sometimes attended film festivals and societies for Cassavetes screenings. FILE - Gena Rowlands, left, and Robert Forrest attend the Governors Ball after the Oscars on Sunday, Feb.
28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. “I want everyone to see his films,” she said at the San Sebastian Festival in 1992. “John was one of a kind, the most totally fearless person I’ve ever known.
He had a very specific view of life and the individuality of people.” Virginia Cathryn Rowlands was born in 1930 (some sources give a later date) in Cambria, Wisconsin, where her Welsh ancestors had settled in the early 19th century. Her father was a banker and state senator.
She was a withdrawn child who loved books and make-believe. Her mother encouraged the girl’s ambition to become an actor. FILE - U.
S. actress Gena Rowlands waves to the crowd as she arrives at the Festival Palace in Cannes Tuesday May 23, 1995, to attend the screening of Terence Davies' "The Neon Bible" for the 48th International Film Festival. Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft and a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and later charmed audiences in her son's tear-jerker “The Notebook,” has died at age 94.
Rowlands quit the University of Wisconsin in her junior year to pursue an acting career in New York. Like other actors of her generation, she gained invaluable experience in the thriving field of television drama in the 1950s, appearing on all the major series. After leaving her MGM contract, she was able to choose her film roles.
When nothing attracted her, she appeared in TV series such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Bonanza,” “Dr. Kildare” and “The Virginian.” One of her career delights was co-starring with her icon Bette Davis on the TV movie “Strangers” in 1979.
Her other movies included “Lonely Are the Brave” with Kirk Douglas, “The Spiral Road” (Rock Hudson), “A Child Is Waiting” (with Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland, directed by Cassavetes), “Two Minute Warning” (Charlton Heston), “Tempest” (co-starring with Cassavetes and Molly Ringwald, in her screen debut) and the mother who wants to do right by her children in Paul Schrader’s 1987 study of a blue-collar family “Light of Day.” FILE - Actor Gena Rowlands poses for a photo in Los Angeles on Sept. 21, 1957.
Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft and a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and later charmed audiences in her son's tear-jerker "The Notebook," has died at age 94. In middle age and beyond, Rowlands continued playing demanding roles. In Woody Allen’s austere drama, “Another Woman,” she was cast as a writer whose life has been shielded from emotion until dire incidents force her to deal with her feelings.
In the groundbreaking TV movie “An Early Frost,” she appeared as a mother confronting her son’s AIDS. Rowlands commented in 1992 that her roles remained in her memory. “Sometimes, those white nights when I have no sleep and a lot of time to think about everything, I’ll examine different possibilities of different characters and what they might be doing now,” she said.
Film Writer Jake Coyle in New York contributed to this report. The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas contributed biographical material to this report. Photos: Notable deaths in 2024 Lefty Driesell Lefty Driesell, the coach whose folksy drawl belied a fiery on-court demeanor that put Maryland on the college basketball map and enabled him to rebuild several struggling programs, died Feb.
17, 2024, at age 92. AP File Andreas Brehme Germany players celebrate after Andreas Brehme, left on ground, scores the winning goal in the World Cup soccer final match against Argentina, in the Olympic Stadium, in Rome, July 8, 1990. Andreas Brehme, who scored the only goal as West Germany beat Argentina to win the 1990 World Cup final, died Feb.
20, 2024. He was 63. AP Photo/Carlo Fumagalli, File Golden Richards Despite the effort of Denver Broncos defensive back Steve Foley (43), Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Golden Richards hauls in a touchdown pass during NFL football's Super Bowl 12 in New Orleans on Jan 15, 1978.
Richards died Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, of congestive heart failure at his home in Murray, Utah. He was 73.
Richards' nephew Lance Richards confirmed his death in a post on his Facebook page. AP File Richard Lewis Comedian Richard Lewis attends an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles on Dec. 25, 2012.
Lewis, an acclaimed comedian known for exploring his neuroses in frantic, stream-of-consciousness diatribes while dressed in all-black, leading to his nickname “The Prince of Pain,” died Feb. 27, 2024. He was 76.
He died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after suffering a heart attack, according to his publicist Jeff Abraham. Alex Gallardo, Associated Press Nikolai Ryzhkov Former Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov attends a session of the Federation Council, Russian parliament's upper house, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 25, 2014. Ryzhkov, former Soviet prime minister who presided over failed efforts to shore up the crumbling economy in the final years before the collapse of the USSR, died Feb.
28, 2024, at age 94. Alexander Zemlianichenko - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Brian Mulroney Brian Mulroney, the former prime minister of Canada, listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Canada-U.S.
-Mexico relationship, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Mulroney died at the age of 84 on Feb.
29, 2024. Jacquelyn Martin Akira Toriyama Akira Toriyama is pictured in 1982. Toriyama, the creator of one of Japan's best-selling “Dragon Ball” and other popular anime who influenced Japanese comics, died March 1, 2024.
He was 68. Uncredited - foreign subscriber, ASSOCIATED PRESS Iris Apfel Iris Apfel, a textile expert, interior designer and fashion celebrity known for her eccentric style, died March 1, 2024, at 102. Evan Agostini, Invision/AP Andy Russell Andy Russell, the standout linebacker who was an integral part of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ evolution from perennial losers to champions, died Feb.
29, 2024. He was 82. Russell won two Super Bowls during a 12-year NFL career between 1963-76 that was briefly interrupted by a stint in the military.
Russell played in 168 consecutive games and spent 10 years as a team captain. He was named to the Pro Bowl seven times. Russell remained active in the Pittsburgh community after retiring, writing several books and launching the Andy Russell Charitable Foundation.
AP photo Ed Ott Pittsburgh Pirates' Ed Ott slides across home late out of reach of Orioles catcher Rick Dempsey to score the winning run in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the World Series at Baltimore, Oct. 11, 1979. Ott, a former major league catcher and coach who helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win the 1979 World Series, died March 3, 2024.
He was 72. He batted .259 with 33 homers and 195 RBIs in 567 major league games.
Ott and Steve Nicosia were the main catchers when the Pirates won it all in 1979. AP photo Chris Mortensen In a photo supplied by ESPN, Chris Mortensen appears on the set of Sunday NFL Countdown at ESPN's studios in Bristol, Conn., on Sept.
22, 2019. Mortensen, the award-winning journalist who covered the NFL for close to four decades, including 32 as a senior analyst at ESPN, died March 3, 2024. He was 72.
Mortensen announced in 2016 that he he had been diagnosed with throat cancer. Even while undergoing treatment, he was the first to confirm the retirement of Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. Mortensen announced his retirement after the NFL draft last year so that he could “focus on my health, family and faith.
” ESPN via AP Steve Lawrence Singer Steve Lawrence, left, and his wife Eydie Gorme arrive at a black-tie gala called honoring Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas on May 30, 1998. Lawrence, a singer and top stage act who as a solo performer and in tandem with his wife Gorme kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era, died Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at age 88. Gorme died on Aug.
10, 2013. Lennox McLendon - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Naomi Barber King Martin Luther King III, right, the son of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
, walks with his daughter Yolanda, and Naomi Barber King, left, the wife of Rev. King's brother, A.D.
, through an exhibition devoted to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to King at the Martin Luther King Jr. Historical Site, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, in Atlanta.
Civil rights activist Naomi Barber King died Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Atlanta, according to family members. She was 92. David Goldman - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Paul Alexander A Texas man who spent decades using an iron lung after contracting polio as a child died March 11, 2024, at the age of 78.
Paul Alexander's longtime friend Daniel Spinks says Alexander died Monday at a Dallas hospital. Spinks called his friend one of the "bright stars of the world.” Friends of Alexander, who graduated from law school and had a career as an attorney, say he was a man who had a great joy for life.
Alexander was a child when he began using an iron lung, a cylinder that encased his body as the air pressure in the chamber forced air in and out of his lungs. Smiley N. Pool, The Dallas Morning News Thomas P.
Stafford Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford stands near the NASA Motor Vessel Retriever during training Aug. 23, 1965, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Stafford, who commanded a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died March 18, 2024, at 93.
NASA via AP Chris Simon New York Rangers' Chris Simon celebrates his second-period goal against the New York Islanders, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004, at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.
Former NHL enforcer Chris Simon has died. He was 52. Simon died March 18, 2024, according to a spokesperson for the NHL Players' Association.
ED BETZ - stringer, ASSOCIATED PRESS M. Emmet Walsh M. Emmet Walsh arrives at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards, March 1, 2014, in Santa Monica, Calif.
Walsh, the character actor who brought his unmistakable face and unsettling presence to films including “Blood Simple” and “Blade Runner,” died March 19, 2024, at age 88, his manager said Wednesday. John Shearer - invision linkable, John Shearer/Invision/AP Laurent de Brunhoff "Babar" author Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his father's popular picture book series about an elephant-king, has died at 98 after being in hospice care for two weeks. De Brunhoff was a Paris native who moved to the U.
S. in the 1980s. He died March 22, 2024, at his home in Key West, Florida.
Just 12 years old when his father, Jean de Brunhoff, died of tuberculosis, Laurent drew upon his own gifts as a painter and storyteller and as an adult released dozens of books about the elephant who reigns over Celesteville, among them "Babar at the Circus" and "Babar's Yoga for Elephants." NATHAN DENETTE, The Canadian Press Peter Angelos Longtime Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos has died at the age of 94. His family announced in a statement that Angelos, who had been ill for several years, died March 23, 2024.
Angelos was owner of an Orioles team that endured long losing stretches and shrewd proprietor of a law firm that won high-profile cases against industry titans such as tobacco giant Philip Morris. Angelos’ death came as his son, John, was in the process of selling the Orioles to a group headed by Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein.
Peter Angelos purchased the team for $173 million in 1993, at the time the highest for a sports franchise. His public role diminished significantly in his final years. AP File Photo Joe Lieberman Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, left, and his running mate, vice presidential candidate Sen.
Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, wave to supporters Oct. 25, 2000, at a campaign rally in Jackson, Tenn. Lieberman died March 27, 2024.
He was 82 and died Wednesday of complications from a fall. Lieberman nearly won the vice presidency on Democrat Al Gore's ticket in the disputed 2000 White House race. Eight years later, he came close to joining the GOP ticket as John McCain’s running mate.
The Democrat-turned-independent stepped down from the Senate in January 2013 after 24 years. His independent streak often irked Senate Democrats he aligned with. Yet his support for gay rights, civil rights, abortion rights and environmental causes at times won him the praise of many liberals over the years.
Stephan Savoia, Associated Press Louis Gossett Jr. Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” died March 28, 2024.
He was 87. Gossett always thought of his early career as a reverse Cinderella story, with success finding him from an early age and propelling him forward, toward his Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman.” He also was a star on Broadway, replacing Billy Daniels in “Golden Boy” with Sammy Davis Jr.
in 1964 and recently played an obstinate patriarch in the 2023 remake of “The Color Purple.” Richard Shotwell Joe Flaherty Former cast members of SCTV, from left, Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, foreground, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy and Martin Short, pose at the U.S.
Comedy Arts Festival on March 6, 1999, in Aspen, Colo. Flaherty, a founding member of the Canadian sketch series “SCTV,” died Monday, April 1, 2024 at age 82. E Pablo Kosmicki - stringer, ASSOCIATED PRESS John Sinclair John Sinclair talks at the John Sinclair Foundation Café and Coffeeshop, Dec.
26, 2018, in Detroit. Sinclair, a poet, music producer and counterculture figure whose lengthy prison sentence after a series of small-time pot busts inspired a John Lennon song and a star-studded 1971 concert to free him, has died at age 82. Sinclair died Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at Detroit Receiving Hospital of congestive heart failure following an illness, his publicist Matt Lee said.
Junfu Han - member, ASSOCIATED PRESS Larry Lucchino Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino, right, tips his cap to fans as majority owner John Henry holds the 2013 World Series championship trophy during a parade in celebration of the baseball team's win, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, in Boston. Larry Lucchino, the force behind baseball’s retro ballpark revolution and the transformation of the Boston Red Sox from cursed losers to World Series champions, has died.
He was 78. Lucchino had suffered from cancer. The Triple-A Worcester Red Sox, his last project in a career that also included three major league baseball franchises and one in the NFL, confirmed his death on Tuesday, April 2, 2024.
Charles Krupa - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Christopher Durang Playwright Christopher Durang appears on stage with producers to accept the award for best play for "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" at the 67th Annual Tony Awards, on June 9, 2013 in New York. Also on stage are actors, background from left, Shalita Grant, Kristine Nielsen and Billy Magnussen. Durang died Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at his home in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, of complications from logopenic primary progressive aphasia.
He was 75. Evan Agostini - invision linkable, Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Jerry Grote In this Oct. 16, 1969 file photo, New York Mets catcher Jerry Grote, right, embraces pitcher Jerry Koosman as Ed Charles, left, joins the celebration after the Mets defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the Game 5 to win the baseball World Series at New York's Shea Stadium.
Grote, the catcher who helped transform the New York Mets from a perennial loser into the 1969 World Series champion, died Sunday, April 7, 2024. He was 81. AP Photo, File Schappell Twins In this July 8, 2003 photo, Lori, left, and George Schappell, conjoined twins, are photographed in their Reading, Pa.
, apartment. Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died April 7, 2024, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. They were 62.
(John A. Secoges/Reading Eagle via AP, File Peter Higgs The University of Edinburgh says Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of a sub-atomic particle that came to be known as the Higgs boson, died April 8, 2024, at 94. Higgs predicted the existence of the particle in 1964.
But it would be almost 50 years before the its existence could be confirmed at a particle collider in Switzerland called the Large Hadron Collider. Higgs’ work helps scientists understand of the most fundamental riddles of the universe: how the Big Bang created something out of nothing 13.7 billion years ago.
Higgs won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work, alongside Francois Englert of Belgium. Scott Heppell, Associated Press Ralph Puckett Jr. A retired U.
S. Army colonel who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Korean War died April 8, 2024, at age 97. A funeral home says that Ralph Puckett Jr.
died Monday at his home in Columbus, Georgia. President Joe Biden presented Puckett with the Medal of Honor in 2021, more than seven decades after Puckett was seriously wounded leading an outnumbered company of Army Rangers in battle. Puckett refused a medical discharge and served as an Army officer for another 20 years before retiring in 1971.
Puckett received the U.S. military's highest honor from President Joe Biden on May 21, 2021, following a policy change that lifted a requirement for medals to be given within five years of a valorous act.
Alex Brandon, Associated Press O.J. Simpson O.
J. Simpson, left, grimaces June 15, 1995, in a Los Angeles courtroom as he famously tries on one of the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered. Simpson, the decorated football star who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but wound up in prison years later in an unrelated case, died April 10, 2024.
He was 76. His family made an announcement Thursday in a statement on Simpson's X account. Simpson said last year that he was battling prostate cancer.
Simpson’s gridiron legacy was forever overshadowed by the 1994 knife slayings of Brown Simpson and Goldman. A criminal court jury found him not guilty of murder, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable. Simpson's nine-year prison stint in Nevada was for the armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers.
Sam Mircovich, Associated Press Eleanor Coppola Francis Coppola and wife, Eleanor, pose July 16, 1991, in Los Angeles. Eleanor Coppola, who documented the making of some of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic films, including the infamously tortured production of “Apocalypse Now,” and who raised a family of filmmakers, has died. She was 87.
Coppola died April 12, 2024, at home in Rutherford, California, her family announced in a statement. Eleanor, who grew in Orange County, California, met Francis while working as an assistant art director on his directorial debut, the Roger Corman-produced 1963 horror film “Dementia 13.” Their first-born, Gian-Carlo, quickly became a regular presence in his father’s films, as did their subsequent children, Roman, and Sofia.
After acting in their father’s films and growing up on sets, all would go into the movies. Chris Martinez - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Robert MacNeil Robert MacNeil, seen in February 1978, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died April 12, 2024, at age 93. Associated Press Faith Ringgold Artist Faith Ringgold poses for a portrait in front of a painted self-portrait during a press preview of her exhibition, "American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold's Paintings of the 1960s" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, June 19, 2013.
Ringgold, an award-winning author and artist who broke down barriers for Black female artists and became famous for her richly colored and detailed quilts combining painting, textiles and storytelling, died Friday, April 12, 2024, at her home in Englewood, N.J. She was 93.
Jacquelyn Martin - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Steve Sloan Alabama coach Bear Bryant, left, talks with his former star quarterback Steve Sloan, right, after practice in Miami for the Orange Bowl game New Years' night against Nebraska, Dec. 29, 1968. Former college coach and administrator Sloan, who played quarterback and served as athletic director at Alabama.
has passed away. He was 79. Sloan died Sunday, April 14, 2024, after three months of memory care at Orlando Health Dr.
P. Phillips Hospital, according to an obituary from former Alabama sports information director Wayne Atcheson. Harold Valentine - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Ken Holtzman Oakland A's pitcher Ken Holtzman poses for a photo in March 1975.
Holtzman, who pitched two no-hitters for the Chicago Cubs and helped the Oakland Athletics win three straight World Series championships in the 1970s, died April 14, 2024. He finished with a career record of 174-150 over 15 season with four teams and was the winningest Jewish pitcher in baseball history. Robert H.
Houston - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Carl Erskine Carl Erskine, center, pictured with teammate Duke Snider, left, and manager Charley Dressen in 1952, after beating the Yankees 6-5 in Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York, Oct. 5, 1952. Erskine, who pitched two no-hitters for the Brooklyn Dodgers and was a 20-game winner in 1953 when he struck out a then-record 14 in the World Series, has died.
Among the last survivors from the celebrated Brooklyn teams of the 1950s, Erskine spent his entire major league career with the Dodgers. He helped them win five National League pennants from 1948-59. Erskine won Game 3 of the 1953 World Series, beating the Yankees 3-2.
He appeared in five World Series, with the Dodgers beating the Yankees in 1955 for their only championship in Brooklyn. Erksine died April 16 in his hometown of Anderson, Indiana, according to a hospital official. He was 97.
AP photo Whitey Herzog St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog lets umpire John Shulock, right, know how he feels about Shulock's call on the tag attempt on Kansas City Royals Jim Sundberg by Cardinals catcher Tom Nieto, second from left, in the second inning of Game 5 of the 1985 World Series in St. Louis.
Herzog, the gruff and ingenious Hall of Fame manager who guided the St. Louis Cardinals to three pennants and a World Series title and perfected an intricate, nail-biting strategy known as “Whiteyball,” has died. Herzog, affectionately nicknamed “The White Rat,” was a manager for 18 seasons, compiling an overall record of 1,281 wins and 1,125 losses.
He was named Manager of the Year in 1985. Under Herzog, the Cardinals won pennants in 1982, 1985 and 1987 and won the World Series in 1982, when they edged the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games. He died April 15, 2024, and was 92.
AP File Photo Bob Graham Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., gestures as he answers questions regarding the ongoing security hearing on Capitol Hill, June 18, 2002, in Washington.
Graham, who chaired the Intelligence Committee following the 2001 terrorist attacks and opposed the Iraq invasion, died April 16, 2024. He was 87. His family announced the death Tuesday in a statement posted on X by his daughter Gwen Graham.
Graham served three terms in the Senate and two terms as Florida's governor. He made an unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, emphasizing his opposition to the Iraq invasion. But that bid was delayed by heart surgery in January 2003, and he was never able to gain enough traction with voters to catch up.
He didn’t seek re-election in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez. PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Dickey Betts Guitar legend and Allman Brothers Band co-founder Dickey Betts died April 18, 2024, at age 80. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer wrote the band's biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man.
” Manager David Spero told The Associated Press that Betts died early Thursday at his home in Osprey, Florida. He says Betts had been battling cancer for more than a year and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Betts shared lead guitar duties with Duane Allman in the original Allman Brothers Band to help give the group its distinctive sound and create a new genre: Southern rock.
Acts ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Kid Rock were influenced by the Allmans’ music, which combined blues, country, R&B and jazz with ’60s rock. Jason Vorhees, The Macon Telegraph via AP Mandisa Contemporary Christian singer Mandisa, who appeared on “American Idol” and won a Grammy for her 2013 album “Overcomer,” died April 18, 2024. She was 47.
Mandisa gained stardom after finishing ninth on “American Idol” in 2006. In 2014, she won a Grammy for best contemporary Christian music album for “Overcomer,” her fifth album. She spoke openly about her struggles with depression, releasing a memoir that detailed her experiences with severe depression, weight-related challenges, the coronavirus pandemic and her faith.
Mark Humphrey, Associated Press David Pryor David Pryor, a former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator who was one of the state’s most beloved and active political figures, died April 20, 2024, at the age of 89.
His son, former two-term Democratic U.S. Sen.
Mark Pryor, says the Democrat died Saturday of natural causes in Little Rock surrounded by family. David Pryor was considered one of the Democratic party’s giants in Arkansas and remained active in public life after he left office, including serving on the University of Arkansas’s Board of Trustees. DANNY JOHNSTON - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Roman Gabriel Roman Gabriel was known for his big size and big arm.
He was the first Filipino-American quarterback in the NFL. And he still holds the Los Angeles Rams record for touchdown passes. Gabriel died April 20, 2024, at age 83.
His son posted the news on social media. He says Gabriel died at home of natural causes. Gabriel starred at North Carolina State and was the No.
2 pick by the Rams in the 1962 draft. The Oakland Raider of the rival AFL made him the No. 1 pick.
Gabriel signed with the Rams and later played with the Philadelphia Eagles. Rusty Kennedy - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Andrew Davis Andrew Davis, an acclaimed British conductor who was music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and orchestras on three continents, died April 20, 2024. He was 80.
Davis died Saturday at Rusk Institute in Chicago from leukemia. That is according to his manager, Jonathan Brill of Opus 3 Artists. Davis had been managing the disease for 1 1/2 to 2 years but it became acute shortly after his 80th birthday on Feb.
2. Davis was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1975-88, Britain’s Glyndebourne Festival from 1988-2000, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1989-2000, then was music director of the Lyric Opera from 2000-21. Richard Drew - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Terry Anderson Former hostage Terry Anderson waves to the crowd as he rides in a parade in Lorain, Ohio, June 22, 1992.
Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America’s longest-held hostages, died April 21, 2024. Anderson was snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years. Anderson, who was tortured and chained to a wall, wrote about his experiences in the best-selling memoir, “Den of Lions.
” After returning to the United States in 1991, Anderson gave public speeches, taught journalism and, at various times, operated a blues bar, Cajun restaurant, horse ranch and gourmet restaurant. He also struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. Mark Duncan - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Duane Eddy Duane Eddy, a pioneering guitar hero whose reverberating electric sound on instrumentals such as “Rebel Rouser,” “Forty Miles of Bad Road" and “Cannonball” helped put the twang in early rock ‘n’ roll and influenced George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen and countless other musicians, died April 30 at age 86.
With his raucous rhythms, and backing hollers and hand claps, Eddy sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and mastered a distinctive sound based on the premise that a guitar’s bass strings sounded better on tape than the high ones. Chris Pizzello, Invision/AP, File Paul Auster Author Paul Auster has died at age 77. Auster was a prolific, prize-winning man of letters and filmmaker known for such inventive narratives and meta-narratives as “The New York Trilogy” and “4 3 2 1.
" Auster’s death on April 30 was confirmed by his literary representatives. Auster completed more than 30 books, translated into dozens of languages. He never achieved major commercial success in the U.
S., but he was widely admired overseas for his cosmopolitan worldview and erudite and introspective style. Auster’s novels were a mix of history, politics, genre experiments, existential quests and self-conscious references to writers and writing.
Bebeto Matthews - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Dick Rutan Co-pilots Dick Rutan, right, and Jeana Yeager, no relationship to test pilot Chuck Yeager, pose for a photo after a test flight over the Mojave Desert, Dec. 19, 1985. Rutan, a decorated Vietnam War pilot, who along with copilot Yeager completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling, died late Friday, May 3, 2024.
He was 85. Doug Pizac - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Steve Albini Music producer Steve Albini, seen in his Chicago studio in 2014, produced albums by Nirvana, the Pixies and PJ Harvey. Albini died at 61.
Brian Fox, an engineer at Albini’s studio, Electrical Audio, says Albini died after a heart attack May 7. In addition to his work on canonized rock albums such as Nirvana‘s “In Utero,” the Pixies’ breakthrough “Surfer Rosa,” and PJ Harvey’s “Rid of Me,” Albini was the frontman of the underground bands Big Black and Shellac. He dismissed the term “producer” and requested he be credited with “Recorded by Steve Albini.
" Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune Jimmy Johnson San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame football player Jimmy Johnson, left, is honored by owner Jed York before a 2011 game between against the St. Louis Rams in San Francisco. Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Jimmy Johnson, a three-time All-Pro and member of the All-Decade Team of the 1970s, has died.
He was 86. Johnson's family told the Pro Football Hall of Fame that he died May 8. Johnson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.
He played his entire 16-year pro career with San Francisco. He played in 213 games, more than any other 49ers player at the time of his retirement. AP File Photo Sean Burroughs San Diego Padres third baseman Sean Burroughs fires a throw to first from his knees but is unable to get Los Angeles Dodgers' D.
J. Houlton at first during the third inning of a baseball game June 22, 2005, in San Diego. Burroughs, a two-time Little League World Series champion who won an Olympic gold medal and went on to a major league career that was interrupted by substance abuse, has died.
He was 43. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s online records said Burroughs died Thursday, May 9, 2024, with the cause of death deferred. LENNY IGNELZI Roger Corman Producer Roger Corman poses in his Los Angeles office, May 8, 2013.
Corman, the Oscar-winning “King of the Bs” who helped turn out such low-budget classics as “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters” and gave many of Hollywood's most famous actors and directors an early break, died Thursday, May 9, 2024. He was 98. Reed Saxon - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS A.
J. Smith A.J.
Smith, a longtime NFL executive who was the winningest general manager in Chargers history, has died. He was 75. His son, Atlanta assistant general manager Kyle Smith, announced in a statement released by the Falcons that his father died May 12.
Kyle Smith said his father had been battling prostate cancer for seven years. The Chargers won five division titles during Smith’s 10 seasons as GM. The franchise’s 98 wins, including the playoffs, were the sixth most in the league from 2003-12.
LENNY IGNELZI David Sanborn Saxophone player David Sanborn performs during his concert at the Stravinski hall at the "Colours of Music night" during the 34th Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland on July 10, 2000. Sanborn, the Grammy-winning saxophonist who played lively solos on such hits as David Bowie's “Young Americans” and James Taylor's “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” and enjoyed his own highly successful recording career as a leading performer of contemporary jazz, died Sunday, May 12, 2024, at age 78. Laurent Gillieron - foreign subscriber, ASSOCIATED PRESS Obit Alice Munro Nobel laureate Alice Munro has died.
The Canadian literary giant who became one of the world’s most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history’s most honored short story writers was 92. Munro achieved stature rare for an art form traditionally placed beneath the novel. She was the first lifelong Canadian to win the Nobel and the first recipient cited exclusively for short fiction.
Munro was little known beyond Canada until her late 30s but became one of the few short story writers to enjoy ongoing commercial success. A spokesperson for publisher Penguin Random House Canada said Munro died May 13 at home in Port Hope, Ontario. Dabney Coleman Dabney Coleman, the mustachioed character actor who specialized in smarmy villains like the chauvinist boss in “9 to 5” and the nasty TV director in “Tootsie,” died May 16.
He was 92. For two decades Coleman labored in movies and TV shows as a talented but largely unnoticed performer. That changed abruptly in 1976 when he was cast as the incorrigibly corrupt mayor of the hamlet of Fernwood in “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” a satirical soap opera.
He won a Golden Globe for “The Slap Maxwell Story” and an Emmy Award for best supporting actor in Peter Levin’s 1987 small screen legal drama “Sworn to Silence.” Nick Ut, Associated Press Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi listens to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, not in photo, during a joint news conference following their meeting at the Presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, Jan. 24, 2024.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others were found dead at the site of a helicopter crash site, state media reported Monday, May 20, 2024. Mert Gokhan Koc - foreign subscriber, ASSOCIATED PRESS Jim Otto Jim Otto, the Hall of Fame center known as Mr. Raider for his durability through a litany of injuries, died May 19.
He was 86. The cause of death was not immediately known. Otto joined the Raiders for their inaugural season in the American Football League in 1960 and was a fixture on the team for the next 15 years.
He never missed a game because of injuries and competed in 210 consecutive regular-season games and 308 straight total contests despite undergoing nine operations on his knees during his playing career. His right leg was amputated in 2007. AP File Photo Ivan Boesky Ivan F.
Boesky, the flamboyant stock trader whose cooperation with the government cracked open one of the largest insider trading scandals on Wall Street, has died at the age of 87. A representative at the Marianne Boesky Gallery, owned by his daughter, confirmed his death. The son of a Detroit delicatessen owner, Boesky was once considered one of the richest and most influential risk-takers on Wall Street.
He had parlayed $700,000 from his late mother-in-law’s estate into a fortune estimated at more than $200 million. Once implicated in insider trading, Boesky cooperated with a brash young U.S.
attorney named Rudolph Giuliani, uncovering a scandal that blemished some of the most respected U.S. investment brokerages.
Boesky died May 20. G. Paul Burnett - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Jan.
A.P. Kaczmarek Jan.
A.P. Kaczmarek poses with the Oscar for best original score for his work on "Finding Neverland" during the 77th Academy Awards, Feb.
27, 2005, in Los Angeles. Polish composer Kaczmarek, who won a 2005 Oscar for the movie “Finding Neverland,” has died on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at age 71. Kaczmarek’s death was announced by Poland’s Music Foundation.
Reed Saxon - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Carlie Colin Train bassist and founding member Charlie Colin has died at 58. Colin’s sister confirmed the musician's death Wednesday to The Associated Press. Variety reported Colin slipped and fell in the shower while house-sitting for a friend in Brussels.
Train formed in San Francisco in the early ’90s. Colin played on Train's first three records, 1998’s self-titled album, 2001’s “Drops of Jupiter” and 2003’s “My Private Nation.” The track “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” hit No.
5 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also earned two Grammys. Colin left the band in 2003.
He also worked with the Newport Beach Film Festival. Colin died May 22. Richard Shotwell - invision linkable, Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP Morgan Spurlock Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee whose most famous works skewered America’s food industry and who notably ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died of cancer.
He was 53. Spurlock made a splash in 2004 with his groundbreaking film “Super Size Me,” and returned in 2019 with “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” — a sober look at an industry that processes 9 billion animals a year in America. Spurlock was a gonzo-like filmmaker who leaned into the bizarre and ridiculous.
His stylistic touches included zippy graphics and amusing music. Spurlock died May 23. MARK J.
TERRILL, Associated Press Richard M. Sherman Richard M. Sherman, one half of the prolific, award-winning pair of brothers who helped form millions of childhoods by penning classic Disney tunes, has died.
He was 95. Sherman, along with his late brother Robert, wrote hundreds of songs together, including songs for “Mary Poppins,” “The Jungle Book” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” — as well as the most-played tune on Earth, “It’s a Small World (After All).” The Walt Disney Co.
announced that Sherman died Saturday due to age-related illness. The brothers won two Academy Awards for Walt Disney’s 1964 smash “Mary Poppins.” Robert Sherman died May 25 in London in 2012.
Willy Sanjuan, Invision Bill Walton Basketball Hall of Fame legend Bill Walton laughs during a practice session for the NBA All-Star basketball game in Cleveland, Feb. 19, 2022. Walton, who starred for John Wooden's UCLA Bruins before becoming a Basketball Hall of Famer and one of the biggest stars of basketball broadcasting, died Monday, May 27, 2024, the league announced on behalf of his family.
He was 71. Charles Krupa - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Albert Ruddy “The Godfather” producer Albert S. Ruddy died May 25 at 94.
The Canadian-born producer and writer won Oscars for “The Godfather” and “Million Dollar Baby,” developed the raucous prison-sports comedy “The Longest Yard” and helped create the hit sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes." A spokesperson says Ruddy died Saturday at the UCLA Medical Center. Ruddy produced more than 30 movies and was on hand for the very top and the very bottom.
“The Godfather” and “Million Dollar Baby” were box office hits and winners of best picture Oscars. But Ruddy also helped give us “Cannonball Run II” and “Megaforce,” nominees for Golden Raspberry awards for worst movie of the year. Associated Press Larry Allen Larry Allen, one of the most dominant offensive linemen in the NFL during a 12-year career spent mostly with the Dallas Cowboys, died June 2.
He was 52. The Cowboys say Allen died suddenly on Sunday while on vacation with his family in Mexico. Allen was named an All-Pro six consecutive years from 1996-2001 and was inducted into the Pro Football of Hall of Fame in 2013.
He said few words but let his blocking do the talking. Allen once bench-pressed 700 pounds and had the speed to chase down opposing running backs. Irwin Thompson, The Dallas Morning News via AP Janis Paige Bob Hope and Janis Paige hug during the annual Christmas show in Saigon, Vietnam, Dec.
25, 1964. Paige, a popular actor in Hollywood and in Broadway musicals and comedies who danced with Fred Astaire, toured with Bob Hope and continued to perform into her 80s, died Sunday, June 2, 2024, of natural causes at her Los Angeles home, longtime friend Stuart Lampert said Monday, June 3. Anonymous - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Parnelli Jones Parnelli Jones, the 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner, died June 4 at Torrance Memorial Medical Center after a battle with Parkinson’s disease, his son said.
Jones was 90. At the time of his death, Jones was the oldest living winner of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Rufus Parnell Jones was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, in 1933 but moved to Torrance as a young child and never left.
It was there that he became “Parnelli” because his given name of Rufus was too well known for him to compete without locals knowing that he wasn’t old enough to race. AP File Photo Chet Walker Boston Celtics' John Havlicek (17) is defended by Philadelphia 76ers' Chet Walker (25) during the first half of an NBA basketball playoff game April 14, 1968, in Boston. Walker, a seven-time All-Star forward who helped Wilt Chamberlain and the 76ers win the 1967 NBA title, died June 8.
He was 84. The National Basketball Players Association confirmed Walker's death, according to NBA.com.
The 76ers, Chicago Bulls and National Basketball Retired Players Association also extended their condolences on social media on Saturday, June 8, 2024. A.E.
Maloof, Associated Press The Rev. James Lawson Jr. The Rev.
James Lawson Jr. speaks Sept. 17, 2015, in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Lawson Jr., an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the Civil Rights Movement gained traction, has died, his family said Monday. He was 95.
His family said Lawson died on Sunday after a short illness in Los Angeles, where he spent decades working as a pastor, labor movement organizer and university professor. Lawson was a close adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
, who called him “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” Lawson met King in 1957, after spending three years in India soaking up knowledge about Mohandas K. Gandhi’s independence movement.
King would travel to India himself two years later, but at the time, he had only read about Gandhi in books. Mark Humphrey, Associated Press Jerry West Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Jerry West, representing the 1960 USA Olympic Team, is seen Aug. 13, 2010, during the enshrinement news conference at the Hall of Fame Museum in Springfield, Mass.
Jerry West, who was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a storied career as a player and executive, and whose silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo, died June 12, the Los Angeles Clippers announced. He was 86. West, nicknamed “Mr.
Clutch” for his late-game exploits as a player, was an NBA champion who went into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1980 and again as a member of the gold medal-winning 1960 U.S. Olympic Team in 2010.
He will be enshrined for a third time later this year as a contributor, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called West “one of the greatest executives in sports history.” Elise Amendola, Associated Press Ron Simons Actor and director Ron Simons, seen Jan. 23, 2011, during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, died June 12.
Simons turned into a formidable screen and stage producer, winning four Tony Awards and having several films selected at the Sundance Film Festival. He won Tonys for producing “Porgy and Bess,” “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” and “Jitney.” He also co-produced “Hughie,” with Forest Whitaker, “The Gin Game,” starring Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” an all-Black production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the revival of "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf" and the original work “Thoughts of a Colored Man.
” He was in the films “27 Dresses” and “Mystery Team,” as well as on the small screen in “The Resident,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Law & Order: SVU.” Victoria Will, Associated Press Bob Schul Bob Schul of West Milton, Ohio, hits the tape Oct. 18, 1964, to win the 5,000 meter run at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Schul, the only American distance runner to win the 5,000 meters at the Olympics, died June 16. He was 86. His death was announced by Miami University in Ohio, where Schul shined on the track and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 1973.
Schul predicted gold leading into the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and followed through with his promise. On a rainy day in Japan, he finished the final lap in a blistering 54.8 seconds to sprint to the win.
His white shorts were covered in mud at the finish. He was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1991. He also helped write a book called “In the Long Run.
” Associated Press Willie Mays San Francisco Giants superstar Willie Mays poses for a photo during baseball spring training in 1972. Mays, the electrifying “Say Hey Kid” whose singular combination of talent, drive and exuberance made him one of baseball’s greatest and most beloved players, died June 18. He was 93.
The center fielder, who began his professional career in the Negro Leagues in 1948, had been baseball’s oldest living Hall of Famer. He was voted into the Hall in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News’ list of the game’s top stars. The Giants retired his uniform number, 24, and set their AT&T Park in San Francisco on Willie Mays Plaza.
Mays died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to honor the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Over 23 major league seasons, virtually all with the New York/San Francisco Giants but also including one in the Negro Leagues, Mays batted .
301, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,293 hits, scored more than 2,000 runs and won 12 Gold Gloves. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice was named the Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times. His lightning sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra base hit in the 1954 World Series remains the most celebrated defensive play in baseball history.
For millions in the 1950s and ’60s and after, the smiling ballplayer with the friendly, high-pitched voice was a signature athlete and showman during an era when baseball was still the signature pastime. Awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015, Mays left his fans with countless memories. But a single feat served to capture his magic — one so untoppable it was simply called “The Catch.
” Associated Press Donald Sutherland Actor Donald Sutherland appears Oct. 13, 2017, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif. Sutherland, the Canadian actor whose wry, arrestingly off-kilter screen presence spanned more than half a century of films from “M.
A.S.H.
” to “The Hunger Games,” died June 20. He was 88. Kiefer Sutherland said on X he believed his father was one of the most important actors in the history of film: “Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly.
He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that.” The tall and gaunt Sutherland, who flashed a grin that could be sweet or diabolical, was known for offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman's "M.A.
S.H.," the hippie tank commander in "Kelly's Heroes" and the stoned professor in "Animal House.
" Before transitioning into a long career as a respected character actor, Sutherland epitomized the unpredictable, antiestablishment cinema of the 1970s. He never stopped working, appearing in nearly 200 films and series. Over the decades, Sutherland showed his range in more buttoned-down — but still eccentric — roles in Robert Redford's "Ordinary People" and Oliver Stone's "JFK.
" More, recently, he starred in the “Hunger Games” films. A memoir, “Made Up, But Still True,” is due out in November. Chris Pizzello, Associated Press Bill Cobbs Actor Bill Cobbs, a cast member in "Get Low," arrives July 27, 2010, at the premiere of the film in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Cobbs, the veteran character actor who became a ubiquitous and sage screen presence as an older man, died June 25. He was 90. A Cleveland native, Cobbs acted in such films as “The Hudsucker Proxy,” “The Bodyguard” and “Night at the Museum.
” He made his first big-screen appearance in a fleeting role in 1974's “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three." He became a lifelong actor with some 200 film and TV credits. The lion share of those came in his 50s, 60s, and 70s, as filmmakers and TV producers turned to him again and again to imbue small but pivotal parts with a wizened and worn soulfulness.
Cobbs appeared on television shows including “The Sopranos," “The West Wing,” “Sesame Street” and “Good Times.” He was Whitney Houston's manager in “The Bodyguard” (1992), the mystical clock man of the Coen brothers' “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994) and the doctor of John Sayles' “Sunshine State” (2002). He played the coach in “Air Bud” (1997), the security guard in “Night at the Museum” (2006) and the father on “The Gregory Hines Show.
" Cobbs rarely got the kinds of major parts that stand out and win awards. Instead, Cobbs was a familiar and memorable everyman who left an impression on audiences, regardless of screen time. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding limited performance in a daytime program for the series “Dino Dana” in 2020.
Chris Pizzello, Associated Press Kinky Friedman Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman speaks with the media Nov. 7, 2009, at his campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas. The singer, songwriter, satirist and novelist, who led the alt-country band Texas Jewboys, toured with Bob Dylan, sang with Willie Nelson, and dabbled in politics with campaigns for Texas governor and other statewide offices, died June 27.
He was 79 and had suffered from Parkinson's disease. Often called “The Kinkster" and sporting sideburns, a thick mustache and cowboy hat, Friedman earned a cult following and reputation as a provocateur throughout his career across musical and literary genres. In the 1970s, his satirical country band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys wrote songs with titles such as “They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in Bed.
” Friedman joined part of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1976. By the 1980s, Friedman was writing crime novels that often included a version of himself, and he wrote a column for Texas Monthly magazine in the 2000s. Friedman's run at politics brought his brand of irreverence to the serious world of public policy.
In 2006, Friedman ran for governor as an independent in a five-way race that included incumbent Republican Rick Perry. Friedman launched his campaign against the backdrop of the Alamo. Eric Gay, Associated Press Martin Mull Martin Mull participates in "The Cool Kids" panel during the Fox Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour on Aug.
2, 2018, at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” died June 28. He was 80.
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight." His first foray into show business was as a songwriter, penning the 1970 semi-hit “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” for singer Jane Morgan. He would combine music and comedy in an act that he brought to hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
Mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often smarmy characters as he did as Teri Garr's boss and Michael Keaton's foe in 1983's “Mr. Mom.” He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game “Clue,” which, like many things Mull appeared in, has become a cult classic.
The 1980s also brought what many thought was his best work, “A History of White People in America,” a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and starred as a “60 Minutes” style investigative reporter investigating all things milquetoast and mundane. Willard was again a co-star.
In the 1990s he was best known for his recurring role on several seasons on “Roseanne,” in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss to the title character, an openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, who died in 2020. Mull would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” a cult-classic character on a cult-classic show, and would be nominated for an Emmy, his first, in 2016 for a guest run on “Veep.” Willy Sanjuan, Invision Robert Towne Screenwriter Robert Towne poses at The Regency Hotel, March 7, 2006, in New York.
Towne, the Oscar-winning screenplay writer of "Shampoo," "The Last Detail" and other acclaimed films whose work on "Chinatown" became a model of the art form and helped define the jaded allure of his native Los Angeles, died Monday, July 1, 2024, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said publicist Carri McClure. She declined to comment on any cause of death. Jim Cooper - stringer, ASSOCIATED PRESS Vic Seixas Vic Seixas of the United States backhands a volley from Denmark's Jurgen Ulrich in the first round of men's singles match at Wimbledon, England, June 27, 1967.
Vic Seixas, a Wimbledon winner and tennis Hall of Famer who was the oldest living Grand Slam champion, has died July 5 at the age of 100. The International Tennis Hall of Fame announced Seixas’ death on Saturday July 6, 2024, based on confirmation from his daughter Tori. AP Photo/File Obit Jon Landau FILE - James Cameron, right, and Jon Landau hold the Oscars for Best Picture for the film "Titanic" at the 70th annual Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, March 23, 1998.
Landau, an Oscar-winning producer who worked closely with director Cameron on “Titanic" and the “Avatar” series, has died, announced in a statement Saturday, July 6, 2024. James Inhofe In this June 30, 2020, file photo, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
, speaks to reporters following a GOP policy meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. Former Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma died July 9.
He was 89. The family says in a statement that the Republican had a stroke during the July Fourth holiday and died Tuesday morning. Inhofe was a powerful fixture in state politics for decades.
He doubted that climate change was caused by human activity, calling the theory “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” As Oklahoma’s senior U.S.
senator, he was a staunch supporter of the state’s military installations. He was elected to a fifth Senate term in 2020 and stepped down in early 2023. Manuel Balce Ceneta Joe Bonsall The Oak Ridge Boys, from left, Joe Bonsall, Richard Sterban, Duane Allen and William Lee Golden hold their awards for Top Vocal Group and Best Album of the Year for "Ya'll Come Back Saloon", during the 14th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Los Angeles, Calif.
, May 3, 1979. Bonsall died on July 9, 2024, from complications of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Hendersonville, Tenn. He was 76.
A Philadelphia native and resident of Hendersonville, Tennessee, Bonsall joined the Oak Ridge Boys in 1973, which originally formed in the 1940s. He saw the band through its golden period in the '80s and beyond, which included their signature 1981 song “Elvira.” The hit marked a massive crossover moment for the group, reaching No.
1 on the country chart and No. 5 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100. The group is also known for such hits as 1982’s “Bobbie Sue.
" Lennox Mclendon - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Shelley Duvall Shelley Duvall poses for photographers at the 30th Cannes Film Festival in France, May 27, 1977. Duvall, whose wide-eyed, winsome presence was a mainstay in the films of Robert Altman and who co-starred in Stanley Kubrick's “The Shining,” died July 11. She was 75.
Jean-Jacques Levy - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Dr. Ruth Westheimer Dr. Ruth Westheimer holds a copy of her book "Sex for Dummies" at the International Frankfurt Book Fair 'Frankfurter Buchmesse' in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Oct.
11, 2007. Westheimer, the sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and best-selling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, died on July 12, 2024. She was 96.
Bernd Kammerer - stringer, ASSOCIATED PRESS Richard Simmons Richard Simmons sits for a portrait in Los Angeles, June 23, 1982. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died July 13 at the age of 76. Simmons was a court jester of physical fitness who built a mini-empire in his trademark tank tops and short shorts by urging the overweight to exercise and eat better.
Simmons was a former 268-pound teen who shared his hard-won weight loss tips as the host of the Emmy-winning daytime “Richard Simmons Show" and the “Sweatin' to the Oldies” line of exercise videos, which became a cultural phenomenon. Richard Drew - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS Jacoby Jones Former NFL receiver Jacoby Jones died July 14 at age 40. Jones' 108-yard kickoff return in 2013 remains the longest touchdown in Super Bowl history.
The Houston Texans were Jones’ team for the first five seasons of his career. They announced his death on Sunday. In a statement released by the NFL Players Association, his family said he died at his home in New Orleans.
A cause of death was not given. Jones played from 2007-15 for the Texans, Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers. He made several huge plays for the Ravens during their most recent Super Bowl title season, including that kick return.
AP File Photo Shannen Doherty The "Beverly Hills, 90210" star whose life and career were roiled by tabloid stories, Shannen Doherty died July 13 at 53. Doherty's publicist said the actor died Saturday following years with breast cancer. Catapulted to fame as Brenda in “Beverly Hills, 90210,” she worked in big-screen films including "Mallrats" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and in TV movies including "A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story," in which she played the "Gone with the Wind" author.
Doherty.
