Actor and athlete Lee Reherman, who played Hawk on the competition series “American Gladiators,” died late on Monday in Manhattan Beach, Calif. He was 49. His rep and longtime friend Anthony Turk told Variety that Reherman’s death was completely unexpected, calling him the “epitome of health.” While the cause of death has not yet been revealed, Turk said Reherman underwent hip surgery about two months ago and had not been feeling well for the past few days.

Professor Tony Dyson, who built the original Star Wars droid R2-D2, dies at his home on the Maltese island of Gozo.

Ray Tomlinson, one of the early ARPAnet pioneers in the 1960s at engineering firm Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), died Saturday morning of a suspected heart attack. He was 74. Tomlinson was best known for choosing the @ symbol to indicate a message should be sent to a different computer on a network. He also led development of standards for the from, subject, and date fields found in every email message sent today.

Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father's legacy with his own music career and whose kidnapping as a young man added a bizarre chapter to his father's legendary life, died Wednesday. He was 72. The younger Sinatra died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest while on tour in Daytona Beach, Florida, the Sinatra family said in a statement to The Associated Press. The statement said the family mourns the untimely passing of their son...

Bob Ebeling spent a third of his life consumed with guilt about the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. But at the end of his life, his family says, he was finally able to find peace. "It was as if he got permission from the world," says his daughter Leslie Ebeling Serna. "He was able to let that part of his life go." Ebeling died Monday at age 89 at in Brigham City, Utah, after a long illness, according to his daughter Kathy Ebeling.

David Smyrl, the Emmy-winning actor best known for his role as Mr. Handford, the retired firefighter who ran Hooper's Store on Sesame Street, has died. He was 80. Smyrl was diagnosed with lung cancer in January, said his wife, Cheryl. He died on Tuesday at Lankenau Medical Center outside Philadelphia. "He was funny," Cheryl Smyrl said. "I could say so many good things about him. He was loved by so many people.

Stage and screen actor Douglas Wilmer, best known for portraying Sherlock Holmes in the 1960s BBC series, died today at Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, England following a short illness. He was 96. The Sherlock Holmes society made the news public. Born in London in 1920, Wilmer, trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, served in Africa during World War II prior to making his stage debut in 1945. His first major...

According to Crow tradition, a man must fulfill certain requirements to become chief of the tribe: command a war party successfully, enter an enemy camp at night and steal a horse, wrestle a weapon away from his enemy and touch the first enemy fallen, without killing him. Joe Medicine Crow was the last person to meet that code, though far from the windswept plains where his ancestors conceived it. During World War II, when he was a scout for the 103rd Infantry in Europe...

He also voiced Bib Fortuna in 1983's 'Return of the Jedi.' Erik Bauersfeld, who memorably voiced the Rebellion's Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has died. He was 93. The voice actor and radio drama producer passed away on Sunday morning at his home in Berkeley, Calif., his manager, Derek Maki, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bill Campbell — who garnered the name “The Coach” for the sage advice and counsel he gave numerous tech leaders from Apple’s Steve Jobs to Google’s Larry Page to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — has died. News of his passing popped up on Facebook early this morning and many prominent tech players also confirmed the death to me, which came after a long battle with cancer. It is a big loss for Silicon Valley, given the impact a man who said...

Comedian, singer and writer Victoria Wood has died after "a short but brave" battle with cancer aged 62. Her publicist said the star "died peacefully at her north London home with family" on Wednesday. Wood's long-time comedy partner Julie Walters said she was "too heart sore to comment - the loss of her is incalculable". Wood found fame in the 1980s and was best known for her BBC sketch Acorn Antiques and comedy Dinnerladies.

Frank Livingston, the oldest living man in the United States and the oldest verified surviving American World War II veteran, has died. He was 110. He was born in North Carolina, one of seven children. Levingston enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942. He served as a private during the war in the Allied invasion of Italy which lasted from September 1943 to January 1944.

The actor first starred alongside Peter Sellers in 1964 and the pair became famous for a running gag where he attacked Clouseau. Burt Kwouk, best known for playing Inspector Clouseau's manservant Cato Fong in the Pink Panther films, has died aged 85. A statement said: "Beloved actor Burt Kwouk has sadly passed peacefully away 24th May. "The family will be having a private funeral but there will be a memorial at a later date." Kwouk was born in Warrington, Cheshire, but lived in Shanghai until he was 17.

Chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who defected from Russia to the West in 1976, has died in Switzerland aged 85. Born in 1931 in what is now St Petersburg, Korchnoi survived the siege of Leningrad during World War Two and is seen as one of the best players never to be World Champion. He was a four-time USSR champion and ranked number one in the world in 1965. However, he became convinced he had to leave the Soviet Union after being banned from playing internationally.

Toffler was one of the world’s most famous futurists who foresaw how digital technology would transform the world Alvin Toffler, a guru of the post-industrial age whose books, including Future Shock, anticipated the transformation brought about by the rise of digital technology, has died. He was 87. Toffler died in his sleep at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, on Monday, said Yvonne Merkel, a spokeswoman for his Virginia-based consulting firm Toffler Associates.

Comedy writer and actress Caroline Aherne has died at the age of 52. Aherne, star and writer of The Royle Family and The Mrs Merton Show, had suffered from cancer, her publicist said. The actress said two years ago that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer, having previously had bladder and eye cancer. Aherne was also the narrator of Gogglebox and appeared in The Fast Show. Her publicist Neil Reading said on Saturday: "Caroline Aherne has sadly passed away, after a brave battle with cancer.

US journalist Sydney Schanberg, whose reporting inspired the Oscar-winning Hollywood film, The Killing Fields, has died at the age of 82, the New York Times reports. Schanberg worked for the Times and won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. His colleague, Dith Pran, was unable to leave and his four-year ordeal inspired Schanberg's work. Schanberg died in Poughkeepsie after a heart attack earlier in the week.

Timothy LaHaye, the evangelical minister and co-author of the "Left Behind" book series, died Monday in San Diego following a massive stroke. The 90-year-old minister, the son of a Detroit autoworker, had a stroke while walking down his driveway Thursday to retrieve a newspaper and did not regain consciousness, his son Larry LaHaye told CNN. LaHaye, along with Jerry B. Jenkins, wrote the blockbuster "Left Behind," a series of 16 novels dealing with Christian "end times" from an evangelical perspective. In the novels, which reportedly sold more than 65 million copies, true believers have been taken to heaven in the rapture...

Jerry Doyle -- best known for his role on "Babylon 5" -- died Wednesday ... TMZ has learned. Sources tell us ... a call was made to his Las Vegas home yesterday afternoon after he was found unresponsive. It's unclear how the political radio talk show host and actor died ... but we're told no foul play is suspected. An autopsy is pending. Jerry starred as security officer Michael Garibaldi from 1994 to 1998 and was married to co-star Andrea Thompson from 1995 to 1997. He worked on Wall Street before going into acting.

The former Academy president also helmed the classics 'The Out-of-Towners,' 'The In-Laws' and 'Plaza Suite' after making his mark in television. Arthur Hiller, the Oscar-nominated director who transitioned from television to helm such classic films as Love Story, The Out-of-Towners and The In-Laws before serving four terms as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has died. He was 92.