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+20 +1
John Jakes, Who Hit the Jackpot With Historical Novels, Dies at 90
His sagas of the Revolution and the Civil War sold tens of millions of copies, were adapted for TV and put him in the pantheon of big-name authors.
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+23 +1
Charles Silverstein, a psychologist who helped destigmatize homosexuality, dies at 87
Charles Silverstein, a psychologist and therapist who played a key role in getting homosexuality declassified as a mental illness, died Jan. 30 at 87. He had lung cancer, according to his executor Aron Berlinger. "Before I came out, I was not very brave. When I came out, I came out all the way, not just sexually but politically," Silverstein told the Rutgers Oral History Archives in 2019.
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+4 +1
Melinda Dillon, Actress in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘A Christmas Story,’ Dies at 83
Melinda Dillon, who received supporting Oscar nominations for her turns in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice and portrayed the doting mom in the holiday perennial A Christmas Story, died Jan. 9, her family announced. She was 83. Right out of the gate, Dillon earned a Tony nomination and Theatre World award in 1963 for her debut performance on Broadway as the childlike wife Honey in the original production of Edward Albee‘s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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+20 +1
Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel dies aged 70
Dame Hilary Mantel, author of the best-selling Wolf Hall trilogy, has died aged 70, her publisher has confirmed. She won the Booker Prize twice, for 2009's Wolf Hall, the first in the Thomas Cromwell series, and its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies. In a statement, her publisher said: "We are heartbroken at the death of our beloved author, Dame Hilary Mantel.
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+15 +1
Bill Turnbull: Former BBC Breakfast presenter dies aged 66
Broadcaster Bill Turnbull has died at the age of 66, his representatives have confirmed. Turnbull hosted BBC Breakfast for 15 years, in both London and later Salford, and also fronted Songs of Praise and game show Think Tank. His family said: "Bill will be remembered by many as a remarkable broadcaster who brought warmth and humour into people's homes".
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+16 +1
Margaret Keane, Sad-Eyed Waifs Artist, Dead at 94
Artist Margaret Keane, famous for her “Big Eyes” paintings, died at the age of 94 due to heart failure, according to the New York Times. Born Peggy Doris Hawkins, Keane grew up unable to hear properly, causing her to focus on people’s eyes. In college, she worked with oil and acrylic paints, experimented with kitsch-style art, and painted big eyes in her schoolbooks.
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+21 +1
Rays: Bullpen catcher Jean Ramirez dies unexpectedly at 28
The Tampa Bay Rays say bullpen catcher Jean Ramirez died unexpectedly this week. He was 28. The team made the announcement on Twitter on Tuesday, with baseball operations president Erik Neander describing the former minor league player as a “caring teammate and friend” who “exuded so much joy in all he did.”
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+4 +1
Legendary actor Sidney Poitier, first Black man to win Best Actor Oscar, dies aged 94
Sidney Poitier has died, aged 94. The Hollywood star was known for films including Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and Lilies of the Field, for which he became the first Black and Bahamian man to win a Best Actor Oscar. The news was announced by the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, prompting tributes from the world of entertainment.
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+10 +1
Year in Review: The Television Stars We Said Goodbye to in 2021
As we reflect on 2021, we can’t help but think of all the TV greats who left us. The last 12 months have seen the deaths of several small-screen legends, including seven-time Emmy winner Ed Asner — the most honored male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards. We also said goodbye to fellow Mary Tyler Moore vets Cloris Leachman — who, at eight Emmys, is tied with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the most awarded performer in Emmy history — and Gavin MacLeod.
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+9 +1
Ron Popeil, Inventor and Ubiquitous Infomercial Pitchman, Dies at 86
Mr. Popeil became a well-known presence on TV, hawking products that people didn’t know they needed, including the Veg-O-Matic and the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler.
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+18 +1
Robert Downey Sr., Filmmaker, Actor and Father of Robert Downey Jr., Dead at 85
Iconic filmmaker and actor Robert Downey Sr. has died at the age of 85. Downey passed away early Wednesday morning in his sleep at his home in New York City following a more than five-year-long battle with Parkinson's disease. His wife confirmed his passing to the NY Daily News. Downey is the father of actor Robert Downey Jr. The Iron Man actor has not yet commented on his father's passing.
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+4 +1
Max Mosley: Privacy campaigner and ex-motorsport boss dies at 81
Ex-British racing driver Max Mosley, who went on to run motorsport's world governing body the FIA and become a privacy campaigner, has died aged 81. His death was confirmed by ex-Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. Mr Mosley served three terms as president of the FIA from 1993 to 2009.
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+22 +1
Sabine Schmitz Dies: Former ‘Top Gear’ Presenter Was 51
Sabine Schmitz, the German racing driver who served as a presenter on BBC hit Top Gear, has died at the age of 51. Schmitz revealed last year that she had been suffering from cancer since 2017. Known as the Queen of the Nurburgring, her death has prompted tributes from the BBC, the team behind Amazon’s The Grand Tour, and the motor racing world.
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+8 +1
Inventor of cassette tape Lou Ottens passed away
In the 1960s, Lou Ottens, then head of product development at the Belgian Hasselt branch of the Eindhoven company Philips, developed the cassette tape. In previous years, Ottens was annoyed with green and yellow tape recorders with the large reels and felt that something more user-friendly and especially something smaller should be replaced.
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+26 +1
Ben Bova, Science Fiction Editor and Author, Is Dead at 88
Ben Bova was a hard-science guy — and a passionate space program booster — and his visions of the future encompassed a dizzying array of technological advances (and resulting horrors or delights), including cloning, sex in space, climate change, the nuclear arms race, Martian colonies and the search for extraterrestrials. In newspaper articles, short stories and more than 100 books, he explored these and other knotty human problems.
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+22 +1
Charles Webb, who inspired a Hollywood classic with 'The Graduate,' dies at 81
The first $20,000 went quickly. Charles Webb simply just gave it all away, along with the VIP passes for the premiere of “The Graduate,” the soon-to-be Hollywood classic based on his book. Though Webb kept on writing — sometimes to acclaim, sometimes not — he lived in poverty, a life choice he made by giving away his earnings, his inheritance and the occasional house he bought. After giving away the $20,000 he received for the film rights to “The Graduate,” he gave the copyright for the novel to the Anti-Defamation League, only because he admired the group’s work.
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+26 +1
Thomas L. Miller Dies: Producer Of TV’s ‘Family Matters’, ‘Full House’ And More Was 79
Thomas L. Miller, who produced several hit TV comedies over many decades in the business, died April 5 of complications from heart disease in Salisbury, CT. He was 79. Through the years, Miller produced Full House, Bosom Buddies, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers and Step by Step as co-founder of Miller/Boyett Productions, Miller/Boyett/Warren Productions and Miller-Milkis Productions.
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+3 +1
Bill Withers Dead at 81
Bill Withers has died, The Associated Press reports. According to The AP, the legendary soul singer-songwriter, behind enduring hits like “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean on Me,” and “Lovely Day,” died from heart complications on Monday, March 30. He was 81 years old. Born in rural West Virginia, Bill Withers endured poverty and heartbreak from an early age, with his father dying when he was 13. After a stint in the Navy, Withers moved to the Bay Area, and in his late twenties he took up the guitar and began to make music.
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+16 +1
Neil Innes, 'Monty Python' collaborator, dead at 75
Neil Innes, a writer, musician and "Monty Python" collaborator, has died at the age of 75.
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+12 +1
Christopher Kraft, NASA’s Face and Voice of Mission Control, Dies at 95
Christopher C. Kraft Jr., the legendary founder of NASA’s mission control, who directed America’s first piloted orbital flights, oversaw the Apollo 11 lunar landing and was director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, died on Monday in Houston, two days after the 50th anniversary of that historic moment on the moon. He was 95.
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