A tuba player and the leader of the Hot 8, one of New Orleans’s high-profile brass bands, he brought music to his fellow citizens in the difficult days after the storm.
Tag Archives: Deaths (Obituaries)
Joan Washington, Dialect Coach to the Stars, Dies at 74
She taught Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain and countless other performers how to sound like someone else.
Jane Powell, Hollywood’s Girl Next Door, Is Dead at 92
Typecast from the outset, she was a star of movie musicals before she was out of her teens. But her big-screen career peaked when she was in her 20s.
Jean-Claude van Itallie, ‘America Hurrah’ Playwright, Dies at 85
He was a central figure in the experimental theater movement for decades. His best-known work, a trilogy of one-acts, opened in 1966 and ran for more than 630 performances.
Ida Nudel, ‘Angel’ to Soviet Jews Seeking to Flee, Dies at 90
During the Cold War, she fought for the rights of others and waged a 16-year fight of her own for an exit visa to Israel. She finally won in 1987.
Cho Yong-gi, South Korean Megachurch Leader, Dies at 85
His mammoth Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul symbolized the explosive growth of the religion in the once war-torn country.
Kaycee Moore, Actress in Black Directors’ Seminal Films, Dies at 77
She explored her characters’ inner lives in movies like “Killer of Sheep” and “Bless Their Little Hearts,” independent works that grew out of the L.A. Rebellion movement.
Norm Macdonald, ‘Saturday Night Live’ Comedian, Dies at 61
Acerbic, sometimes controversial, he became familiar to millions as the show’s “Weekend Update” anchor from 1994 to 1998.
George Wein, Jazz Festival Trailblazer, Is Dead at 95
He brought jazz (and later folk music) to Newport, R.I., and made festivals as important as nightclubs and concert halls on jazz musicians’ itineraries.
Abimael Guzmán, Leader of Guerrilla Group That Terrorized Peru, Dies at 86
Mr. Guzmán, whose Maoist movement, Shining Path, killed tens of thousands in the 1980s and ’90s, sought to bring the world to a “higher stage of Marxism.”
Carl Bean, Gay Singer Who Turned to Preaching, Dies at 77
After recording “I Was Born This Way,” a club favorite, he entered the ministry and founded a church for the L.G.B.T.Q. community.
Elizabeth I. McCann, Tony-Winning Broadway Producer, Is Dead at 90
In a career that began in 1976, she brought more than 60 productions to the New York stage, including “Equus,” “Amadeus” and the work of Edward Albee.
Michel Laclotte, Who ‘Created the Modern Louvre,’ Dies at 91
He championed two of the most debated architectural projects in recent Paris history: the Musée D’Orsay (in a former train station) and the Louvre pyramid.
Sri Lanka Baila Star Sunil Perera is Dead at 68
The frontman of his family’s popular band combined the country’s unique, Latin-influenced sound with politically biting lyrics.
Michael Constantine, Dad in ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’ Dies at 94
He won an Emmy for his role in the TV series “Room 222” and played many characters over the years before becoming known as the hit film’s patriarch.
Phil Schaap, Grammy-Winning Jazz D.J. and Historian, Dies at 70
His radio programs, most notably on Columbia University’s WKCR, were full of minutiae he had accumulated during a lifetime immersed in the genre.
Joseph I. Kramer, the ‘Country Doctor’ of Avenue D, Dies at 96
Shunning the New Jersey suburbs in 1969, he set up a pay-what-you-can practice on the blighted Lower East Side and for three decades was a hero to the poor.
Igor Oistrakh, Soviet-Era Violinist (and a Son of One), Dies at 90
His father, David, was one of the 20th century’s finest violinists, but Igor more than held his own as a musician and interpreter performing throughout the West.
Michael K. Williams, Omar From ‘The Wire,’ Is Dead at 54
Mr. Williams, who also starred in “Boardwalk Empire” and “Lovecraft Country,” was best known for his role as Omar Little in the David Simon HBO series.
Stephen Vizinczey, ‘In Praise of Older Women’ Author, Dies at 88
His best-known work, somewhat scandalous for the mid-1960s, treated sex frankly and sold millions of copies.
Willard Scott, Longtime ‘Today’ Weatherman, Dies at 87
Mr. Scott, who played both Bozo the Clown and the original Ronald McDonald on television, was a longtime weather forecaster on the “Today” show who emphasized showmanship over science.
Keith McCants, Football Star Laid Low by Drugs, Dies at 53
At one time the N.F.L.’s highest-paid defensive player, he left the league after six seasons and fell into a spiral of addiction, homelessness and desolation.
Patricia Maginnis, Pioneering Abortion-Rights Activist, Dies at 93
In the years before Roe v. Wade, she helped shift the debate away from the rules governing abortion providers to women’s right to control their bodies.
Delores Custer, 79, Dies; Gave Star Turns to Cornflakes and Noodles
A longtime food stylist for big-name companies, she was a master of the craft and taught students all over the world how to sweat a glass or perfect the pizza cheese pull.
Ernst van de Wetering, Authority and Arbiter on Rembrandt, Dies at 83
His decisions on whether a painting was authentic, a copy or an outright fake could jolt the art market. “No one else alive knows as much as he did about Rembrandt.”
Edward J. Greenfield, Judge With a Writerly Touch, Dies at 98
He often luxuriated in the richness of the English language, going off on whimsical digressions and enlivening the law with colorful asides.
Edmond H. Fischer, 101, Who Helped Discover How Cells Talk, Dies
He and a colleague identified a mechanism by which cells communicate, a Nobel-winning breakthrough that paved the way for disease-fighting drugs.
Kashmir Separatist Leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani is Dead
Mr. Geelani was an uncompromising opponent of the Indian government’s control of the Kashmir valley and favored Pakistani sovereignty over the mostly Muslim region.
Mikis Theodorakis, Greek Composer and Marxist Rebel, Dies at 96
He waged a war of words and music against a military junta that banned his work and imprisoned him during its rule of Greece, from 1967 to 1974.
Carolyn Shoemaker, Hunter of Comets and Asteroids, Dies at 92
After her children left for college, she unexpectedly became astronomy’s record-setting spotter of unidentified objects hurtling through the cosmos.
Lee (Scratch) Perry, Bob Marley Mentor and Reggae Innovator, Dies at 85
With a four-track tape recorder in his Jamaican home studio, he opened surreal sonic vistas and cultivated the image of a mad genius.
Ed Asner, Star of ‘Lou Grant’ and ‘Up,’ Is Dead at 91
Best known as the gruff newsman he first played on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” he was also a busy character actor and a political activist.
Don Poynter, Who Made Toilets Talk and Golf Balls Walk, Dies at 96
His line of novelty items was wide-ranging. Jayne Mansfield posed for him so that he could make a shapely, sexy hot-water bottle.
Bob Diamond, the ‘Tunnel King’ of Brooklyn, Dies at 61
First he discovered a long-forgotten rail tunnel. Then he spent decades trying — in vain — to revive Brooklyn’s trolley system.
Jeanne Robertson, 77, Down-Home Humorist With a Pageant Past, Dies
She told family-friendly stories from everyday life, about things like family squabbles and sending a man to the grocery store. Her YouTube fans were legion.
Stephen B. Oates, Civil War Historian, Dies at 85
In a quartet of biographies, he explored how slavery and racial oppression could exist in a land based on the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
William G. Clotworthy, ‘Saturday Night Live’ Censor, Dies at 95
A self-described “professional square,” he fell in love with the show, and worked with its writers to tweak questionable material. Cast members called him “Dr. No.”
Lila Gleitman, Who Showed How Children Learn Language, Dies at 91
Building on the work of Noam Chomsky, she designed elegant experiments to show that syntax is hard-wired into the human brain.
Jerry Harkness, 81, Dies; Star of a Historic Integrated Basketball Team
He was an All-American forward for Loyola University Chicago, which started four Black players against an all-white Mississippi team in the 1963 N.C.A.A. tournament.
Donald Newlove, 93, Dies; Novelist Explored the Depths of Drink
His acclaimed fiction and a memoir had a common theme: alcoholism. After becoming sober, he called his former besotted muse “Drunkspeare.”
Larry Harlow, Influential Figure in Salsa, Dies at 82
He was born into a family of Jewish musicians, but he made his mark in Latin music, as a pianist, bandleader and producer.
Michael Morgan, Adventurous Oakland Maestro, Dies at 63
As music director of the Oakland Symphony, he sought diversity in his audiences as well as in his programming.
Inge Ginsberg, Holocaust Survivor With a Heavy Metal Coda, Dies at 99
Her rich life, spanning three continents and 11 decades, entailed wartime espionage, volumes of poetry, songwriting and a late-career turn as a rock band’s frontwoman.
Micki Grant, Groundbreaking Broadway Composer, Dies at 92
With “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope,” she became the first woman to write the book, music and lyrics of a Broadway musical.
David Roberts, Who Turned Adventure Writing Into Art, Dies at 78
He was an accomplished mountain climber with a literary gift to match, and the author of dozens of books.
Jean Breeze, First Woman of Dub Poetry, Dies at 65
She was known for the passion of her performances, the raw honesty of her stories and her use of Jamaica’s lyrical vernacular.
Rand V. Araskog, Former Chief of ITT Corp., Dies at 89
Over two decades, during a tumultuous time for American business, he winnowed an unwieldy corporation and fended off corporate raids.
Charlie Watts, Bedrock Drummer for the Rolling Stones, Dies at 80
Mr. Watts, who had no taste for the life of a pop idol, was an unflashy presence with the band and brought to it a swinging style.
Buckie Leach, Coach of U.S. Gold Medal Fencer in Tokyo, Dies at 62
Under his tutelage, Lee Kiefer became a first for the United States. Leach led the women’s national foil team in five Summer Olympics. He died in a motorcycle accident.
Hissène Habré, Ex-President of Chad, Dead at 79
Habré had been sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty of crimes against humanity, including torture and sex crimes.