In Remembrance---2009

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Screenwriter Millard Kaufman, who co-created the cartoon character Mr. Magoo and was nominated for Oscars for Take the High Ground! and Bad Day At Black Rock, died last Saturday. He was 92.

After 50 years as a screenwriter, Kaufman wrote his first novel, Bowl of Cherries, two years ago.

 

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Playwright Milan Stitt died March 12 of liver cancer. He was 68.

Stitt wrote 17 plays for theater and television, most notably The Runner Stumbles. He was also founder and director of the play development program at the Circle Reppertory Theater, which helped to establish playwrights like David Mamet and Tennessee Williams.

 

[Ghostwind]

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

The news is just breaking that actress Natasha Richardson has died from the head injury she sustained in a skiing accident.

 

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Anne Brown, the first soprano to play Bess in George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess, died last Friday in Oslo, Norway. She was 96.

 

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Actress Betsy Blair, best known for playing Clara Snyder in Marty (for which she won a BAFTA and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar), died last Friday. She was 85.

 

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Jack Lawrence, who wrote songs for Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, and Bobby Darin, and was nominated for an Oscar, died Sunday from complications from a fall. He was 96.

One of Lawrence's best-known achievements was writing English lyrics to a French song called "La Mer"; the new version became "Beyond the Sea".

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In more notorious notification...

William “Jeff” Komlo, a former (1979-83) NFL quarterback who failed to show for sentencing on drunken driving charges nearly four years ago was killed in a car crash in Greece, authorities said, leaving behind an unsolved mystery involving two suspicious fires and years spent on the lam.

 

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Eddie Bo, an accomplished singer-pianist from New Orleans, with a career spanning five decades, died Wednesday of a heart attack. He was 79.

 

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Whitey Lockman, a baseball player for the New York Giants, died last Tuesday. He was 82.

Lockman's career spanned over 50 years; he spent 15 seasons as a player, then as a manager, coach, front-office executive, and scout. He played in two World Series and helped Bobby Thomson score his pennant winning home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951.

 

[GrayLinnorm]

Jade Goody, who parlayed a stint on the British version of Big Brother into a successful career and raised debates about race, class, and celebrity in Great Britain, died today of cervical cancer. She was 27.