Edgar Froese, the founding member of the German electronic group Tangerine Dream, has died in Vienna, aged 70. Froese died unexpectedly on Friday after a pulmonary embolism, his son, Jerome, said. Tangerine Dream's psychedelic and trance-like use of synthesiser sound was a significant influence on the development of electronic music. Froese once said that "there is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address".

A woman has died at the age of 127 in western Mexico, a government agency that verified her age said on Friday. Leandra Becerra was born in the northern border state of Tamaulipas on Aug. 31, 1887, and died on Thursday morning at her home in Zapopan in the western state of Jalisco, Mexico's National System for Integral Family Development, or DIF, said. Becerra has not been included on lists of the world's oldest people because she had not previously had official documentation.

It was a craze to rival the Hula-Hoop, and even less explicable. For a mere three dollars and 95 cents, a consumer could buy ... a rock — a plain, ordinary, egg-shaped rock of the kind one could dig up in almost any backyard. The wonder of it was, for a few frenzied months in 1975, more than a million consumers did, becoming the proud if slightly abashed owners of Pet Rocks, the fad that Newsweek later called “one of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes ever.”

R&B and soul singer Ben E King, best known for the classic song Stand By Me, has died at the age of 76. King started his career in the late 1950s with The Drifters, singing hits including There Goes My Baby and Save The Last Dance For Me. After going solo, he hit the US top five with Stand By Me in 1961.

Burt Shavitz, t he reclusive beekeeper who co-founded Burt's Bees, and whose face and wild beard appeared on labels for the natural cosmetics, has died.

George Coe, an actor with extensive credits and a longtime activist in the Screen Actors Guild, died Saturday in Santa Monica, Calif., after battling a long illness. He was 86. Coe acted for more t...

Artist Tom Moore, who gave life to the teen angst of Archie and his Riverdale pals from 1953 to the late 1980s, has died of lung cancer in El Paso, Texas. According to his hometown paper, the El Paso Times, Moore began his cartooning career while serving in the U.S. Navy. Moore got caught drawing a caricature of his captain, but instead of getting in trouble, he got an assignment as staff cartoonist.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist who studied the intricacies of the brain and wrote eloquently about them in books such as Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, died on Sunday at the age of 82, the New York Times reported. The British-born Sacks, who announced in February 2015 that he had terminal liver cancer, died at his home in New York City, his longtime personal assistant Kate Edgar told the Times.

Fred DeLuca, cofounder of one of the world’s most well known brands, died Monday evening at the age of 67, just weeks after celebrating the business’s 50th anniversary. DeLuca and his business partner, Dr. Peter Buck, opened their submarine sandwich in Connecticut in 1965 when DeLuca was only 17 years old. In 2013, while traveling around to visit with franchisees, DeLuca fell ill and was ultimately diagnosed with Leukemia.

C. K. Williams, whose morally impassioned poems addressing war, poverty and climate change, as well as the imponderable mysteries of the psyche, won him a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, died on Sunday at his home in Hopewell. N.J. He was 78. The cause was multiple myeloma, his wife, Catherine Mauger Williams, said.

Jackass star Vincent “Don Vito” Margera has passed away, according to TMZ. Famous for pulling off pranks with his nephew Bam Margera on the popular television show, Don Vito had been struggling with kidney and liver failure for years. The site reports: Vincent became famous for pranks he pulled off with Bam on the TV show and later the “Jackass” movies as well as “Viva La Bam”. It’s a double blow for Bam, who lost his best friend and co-star Ryan Dunn who was killed in a car crash.

Melvin Williams, whose life as a West Baltimore drug kingpin in the 1960s and post-prison redemption earned him a place on HBO’s “The Wire,” died Dec. 3 at a hospital in the city. He was 73. Citing friends of Mr. Williams, the Baltimore Sun reported the cause was cancer. Known as “Little Melvin” — or Slim or Black, the latter for his preference for dark clothing — he once ruled the illegal drug trade along the city’s Pennsylvania Avenue that prosecutors said grossed $1 million a day.

Amir D. Aczel, a science writer who took readers on a mathematical mystery tour in “Fermat’s Last Theorem,” his account of how a famous 300-year-old problem in number theory was finally solved in the 1990s, and went on to write more than a dozen popular books on intriguing scientific ideas and discoveries, died on Nov. 26 in Nîmes, in the south of France. He was 65. The cause was cancer, his wife, Debra Gross Aczel, said.

Singer Scott Weiland died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and drugs, the Hennepin County (Minnesota) Medical Examiner's Office said Friday. The Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman died December 3 while on tour with his band the Wildabouts. He was 48. The toxicology test results indicate that his death was caused by a mixture of alcohol, cocaine and MDA, a drug similar to MDMA or ecstasy. Weiland's history of drug abuse was...

John "Brad" Bradbury, drummer with The Specials, has died at the age of 62. The ska group tweeted the news: "It is with deep regret that we say goodbye to our great friend, the world's greatest drummer, our beloved Brad. RIP." Bradbury joined The Specials in 1979, and continued with the reversioned band The Special AKA, who had a top 10 hit with Free Nelson Mandela. Bradbury took part in The Specials reunion tour in 2009. He also headed up a band called JB Allstars.

Marvin Minsky, who combined a scientist’s thirst for knowledge with a philosopher’s quest for truth as a pioneering explorer of artificial intelligence, work that helped inspire the creation of the personal computer and the Internet, died on Sunday night in Boston. He was 88. His family said the cause was a cerebral hemorrhage. Well before the advent of the microprocessor and the supercomputer, Professor Minsky, a revered computer science educator at M.I.T...

Maurice White, the founder and leader of the legendary R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire, has died. He was 74. White died at home in Los Angeles on Wednesday, his brother, group bassist Verdine White, told the Associated Press. In 2000, just before EW&F was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, White disclosed to Rolling Stone that he had Parkinson's disease. He was then 58 and had been diagnosed with the degenerative neurological disease eight years before but opted to keep it secret.

A well-known professional mixed Martial Arts fighter has died in San Diego, the San Diego County Medical Examiner's office said. Kevin Christopher "The Monster" Randleman, 45, of Las Vegas, was in the San Diego area training and attending an event, the ME's office said late Saturday.

Tony Burton, who appeared in six Rocky films opposite Sylvester Stallone, has died at the age of 78. His cause of death is not known but his sister, Loretta Kelly, said he had regularly been in hospital over the past year. She added he had not received a diagnosis in that time but his health was so poor he had not been able to see recent spin-off film Creed. Burton played Tony "Duke" Evers, who trained both Rocky and Apollo Creed.

George Kennedy, who won a supporting actor Oscar for his role alongside Paul Newman in the beloved film “Cool Hand Luke,” and was also a fixture of 1970s disaster movies including the “Airport” franchise and “Earthquake,” died Sunday in Boise, Idaho. He was 91. His grandson Cory Schenkel reported the death on his Facebook page. While Kennedy largely played gruff, blue-collar characters in dramas and genre films, he allowed a comedic...