AP - Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho’s Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.
AP - Richard Leigh, a writer of alternative history who unsuccessfully sued for plagiarism over themes in Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel “The Da Vinci Code,” has died, his agent said Friday. He was 64.
AP - Ralph Beard
Reuters - Former U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, an
ardent opponent of abortion who presided over the House of
Representatives impeachment of President Bill Clinton, died on
Thursday after heart bypass surgery earlier this year,
Republican leaders said.
AP - Former Rep. Henry Hyde, the Illinois Republican who steered the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton and championed government restrictions on the funding of abortions, has died. He was 83.
AP - Elaine Lorillard, the socialite who encouraged a club owner to start the Newport Jazz Festival, died this week of an infection, nursing home officials said. She was 93.
AP - Gudrun Wagner, wife of the Bayreuth Opera Festival’s director and a key figure in the family battle over control of the arts institution that was founded by composer Richard Wagner, died Wednesday. She was 63.
AP - Dr. J. Robert Cade, who invented the sports drink Gatorade and launched a multibillion-dollar industry that the beverage continues to dominate, died Tuesday of kidney failure. He was 80.
AP - Mel Tolkin, the head writer for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows,” which defined the art of sketch comedy during television’s Golden Age, has died. He was 94.
AP - Kevin Dubrow, lead singer for the 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot that scored a hit with “Cum on Feel the Noize,” was found dead in a Las Vegas home. He was 52. The cause was not immediately known.