Passings

Good actress. Nice Gams.

Gary Brooker, who sang ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale,’ dead at 76

Howard Hesseman, Dr. Johnny Fever on ‘WKRP in Cincinnati,’ Dies at 81

Fans will know Meat Loaf, or Michael Lee Aday, best for his hugely successful Bat Out Of Hell album which was released in 1977.

Ronnie Spector, whose hard-edged yet tremulous voice soared on the Ronettes’ girl-group hits of the early ‘60s, died on Wednesday of cancer. She was 78.

Bob Saget, a stand-up comedian and actor beloved for his role as Danny Tanner on the 1990s sitcom “Full House,” died Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Orlando, Fla., police confirmed to Variety. He was 65.

Beloved actress, comedian and American icon Betty White has died, just weeks before a milestone birthday.

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid died Tuesday after a battle with cancer. He was 82 years old.

John Madden, legendary NFL coach and broadcaster, dead at 85

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died Sunday at the age of 90, was the moral compass of his beloved “Rainbow Nation”, never afraid to speak truth to power, whatever its creed or colour.

Ted Byfield, who has died aged 93, was a firebrand magazine publisher who harnessed the ideologies of Western Canadian alienation into a viable political movement that, for a time, was the bright future of Canadian conservatism.

The author died from complications of a stroke, her son Christopher Rice, himself a writer, announced on her Facebook page and his Twitter page.

Lestat will live forever.

The quartet rose to fame with a string of hit songs and starred in their own popular TV sitcom.

Bob Dole tried and failed to reach the White House several times, but he leaves a powerful legacy as a war hero and senator who served the United States with honor, sacrifice, and humor.

Dole was born in Russell, Kansas, in 1923. He was a star basketball player in his youth and served in the Army in World War II. He was grievously wounded in combat in Italy in 1945, hit by a German shell in the upper back and right arm and not expected to recover. But he did, through grit and determination, though he permanently lost the use of his right arm. He would forevermore shake hands with his left, something he learned to do so as not to make the people he met uncomfortable.

WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Colin Powell, the first Black U.S. secretary of state and top military officer, died on Monday at the age of 84 due to complications from COVID-19. He was fully vaccinated, his family said in a statement on Facebook.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” his family said.

Powell was one of America’s foremost Black figures for decades. He was named to senior posts by three Republican presidents and reached the top of the U.S. military as it was regaining its vigor after the trauma of the Vietnam War.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who sketched the Prophet Muhammad’s head on a dog’s body, has died in a traffic accident.

Vilks was reported to be travelling in a civilian police vehicle which collided with a truck near the town of Markaryd in southern Sweden.

Two police officers were also killed and the truck driver was injured.

The 75-year-old artist had been living under police protection after being subjected to death threats over the cartoon.