Hortense Calisher, Author, Dies at 97
By HOLCOMB B. NOBLE
Miss Calisher’s unpredictable turns of phrase, intellectually challenging fictional situations and complex plots captivated and puzzled readers for a half-century.
Ricardo Montalbán, Star of ‘Fantasy Island,’ Dies at 88
By CLAIRE DEDERER and BRUCE WEBER
Mr. Montalbán, one of Hollywood’s first Latino leading men, had a long career as a television and movie actor but is perhaps best remembered as the as the debonair concierge of “Fantasy Island.”
Patrick McGoohan, Star of ‘The Prisoner,’ Dies at 80
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Mr. McGoohan was a multifaceted actor who spun television legend by creating and starring in the 1960s program “The Prisoner.”
W.D. Snodgrass, 83, a Poet of Intensely Autobiographical Themes, Is Dead
By WILLIAM MCDONALD
Mr. Snodgrass found the stuff of poetry in the raw material of his emotional life and forged a bold, self-analytical poetic style in postwar America.
Arne Naess, Norwegian Philosopher, Dies at 96
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Mr. Naess’s ideas about promoting an intimate and all-embracing relationship between the earth and the human species inspired environmentalists and Green political activists around the world.
Preston Gómez, Native of Cuba Who Managed in Major Leagues, Dies at 85
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Gómez, the second Latin manager in major league baseball, had a career that spanned 65 seasons.
John DeFrancis, Chinese Language Scholar, Is Dead at 97
By EDWARD WONG
Few scholars of Chinese wrote more probingly about the language than Mr. DeFrancis, and fewer still created teaching materials that had so widespread an impact on generations of students.
Gage Bush Englund, Ballet Mistress and Dancer, Dies at 77
By JACK ANDERSON
Ms. Englund was a ballet mistress of ABT II, a former dancer with American Ballet Theater and the Joffrey Ballet and a former ballet mistress of the Joffrey II Dancers.
Coosje van Bruggen, Sculptor, Dies at 66
By CAROL KINO
Ms. van Bruggen was a critic, art historian and artist known for the colorful public sculptures she created around the world with her husband, the Pop artist Claes Oldenburg.
Pio Laghi, Papal Envoy, Dies at 86
By RACHEL DONADIO
Cardinal Laghi served as the Vatican’s first papal nuncio to Washington until 1990, and in 2003 urged President Bush not to start the war in Iraq.
Sidney Wood, Winner of Wimbledon by Default, Dies at 97
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Wood was the only player to win a Wimbledon championship without having to show up for the final match.
Harold Snyder, Generic Drug Pioneer, Is Dead at 86
By JEREMY PEARCE
Mr. Snyder started Biocraft Laboratories in Elmwood Park, N.J., an early and highly successful manufacturer of generic equivalents for brand-name pharmaceuticals.
Friaca, Scored Brazil’s Lone Goal in 1950 World Cup Loss, Is Dead at 84
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friaca scored for Brazil in its 2-1 loss to Uruguay in the final game of the 1950 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.
Harold A. Ellis Dies at 77; Started Realty Chain
By DENNIS HEVESI
Mr. Ellis was a founder of the international real estate company Grubb & Ellis and a leader in the consolidation of small neighborhood brokerage companies into major national chains.
Tom O’Horgan, 84, Director of ‘Hair,’ Is Dead
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Mr. O'Horgan was a famously innovative director who brought a Downtown, countercultural sensibility to Uptown theater.
Claude Berri, French Filmmaker of Sweep and Charm, Dies at 74
By BRUCE WEBER
Mr. Berri was involved in every aspect of French cinema over more than a half-century as an actor, writer, director and producer.
Leonard E. B. Andrews, Buyer of Wyeth Art, Dies at 83
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Mr. Andrews rocked the art world when he bought 240 previously unknown Andrew Wyeth works depicting a mysterious, sometimes nude woman known as Helga.
Don Callender, 81, Food Entrepreneur, Is Dead
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mr. Callender was an entrepreneur with a passion for pies who built the home-based baking business of his mother, Marie Callender, into a popular brand.
Multimedia
Photographs: Notable Deaths of 2008
Those who passed from the scene last year included the folk singer Odetta, the actors Heath Ledger and Charlton Heston, and the writers David Foster Wallace and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Notable Deaths of 2007
Remembering those who passed from the scene, including, clockwise from top left: Anna Nicole Smith, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Lady Bird Johnson and Beverly Sills.
The Magazine
The Lives They Lived
For 2008, an unabashedly idiosyncratic collection of profiles of 24 very different lives, all memorably lived.
The Music They MadeMultimedia
Video: Last Word: Odetta
Odetta became a force of the folk music revival in the 1950s. In the 1960s her renditions of spirituals and blues became part of the soundtrack of the civil rights movement.
- Obituary
- More Last Word Videos: Art Buchwald | Stewart Mott | Dith Pran
Talk to the Newsroom
Obituary Writer
Bruce Weber answered questions about the pleasures and difficulties of covering death.
From the Archives
Helen Wills Moody, Tennis Champion, Dies at 92
(Jan. 3, 1998)
Calvin Coolidge, 30th President, Dies at 61
(Jan. 6, 1933)
Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz Giant, Dies at 75
(Jan. 7, 1993)
Hirohito, Japan's Emperor, Dies at 87
(Jan. 7, 1989)
Emily Greene Balch, Pacifist, Dies at 94
(Jan. 11, 1961)
Coco Chanel, the Couturier, Dies at 87
(Jan. 11, 1971)
Ray Kroc, Man Behind McDonald's, Dies at 81
(Jan. 15, 1984)
Ida Tarbell, Who Exposed Standard Oil Trust, Dies at 86
(Jan. 17, 1944)
Cecil De Mille, Movie Pioneer, Dies at 77
(Jan. 22, 1959)
Johnny Weissmuller, Athlete and Movie Tarzan, Dies at 79
(Jan. 22, 1984)
Lyndon Johnson, 36th President, Dies at 64
(Jan. 23, 1973)
Queen Victoria, Who Reigned for Six Decades, Dies at 82
(Jan. 23, 1901)
Al Capone, Gangster, Dies at 48
(Jan. 26, 1947)
Nellie Bly, Journalist, Dies at 56
(Jan. 28, 1922)
Mahalia Jackson, Singer and Civil Rights Symbol, Dies at 60
(Jan. 28, 1972)
Robert Frost, Poet, Dies at 88
(Jan. 30, 1963)
William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet and Playwright, Dies at 73
(Jan. 30, 1939)
Mohandas Gandhi, Hindu Reformer and Leader, Dies at 80
(Jan. 31, 1948)
Death Notices
Search Legacy.com for all paid death notices from The New York Times.
