Departures

Lane Adams, 82, March 18-pastor, associate evangelist with the Billy Graham organization for 10 years, and executive director of Lloyd Ogilvie Ministries.

Robert Adler, 93, Feb. 15-physicist who invented the first wireless television remote control in 1956.

Momofuku Ando, 96, Jan. 5-Japanese inventor of ramen noodles (in 1958), victuals for an estimated 100 million people a day worldwide.

Edmund C. Arnold, 93, Feb. 2-a Michigan editor and prominent journalism educator widely deemed "the father of modern newspaper design."

Brooke Astor, 105, Aug. 13-New York socialite and prominent philanthropist named as a victim of elder abuse in a U.S. Senate hearing last year.

Hank Bauer, 84, Feb. 9-New York Yankees All-Star outfielder who later managed Baltimore to its first pennant and World Series championship in 1966.

Roger Bennett, 48, March 17-Southern Gospel music great, pianist for the legendary Cathedral Quartet and Legacy Five.

Ingmar Bergman, 89, July 30-internationally acclaimed Swedish director of more than 50 films (Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal).

Joey Bishop, 89, Oct. 17-deadpan comedian, TV host, and last of the team of big-name performers known as the Rat Pack, led by Frank Sinatra.

Jane Bolin, 98, Jan. 8-the nation's first black female judge (1939) and first black woman to graduate from Yale Law School.

Harold O.J. Brown, 74 , July 8-evangelical theologian and seminary professor, author, and early intellectual activist in the pro-life movement; he founded the Christian Action Council (now Care Net, with nearly 1,100 crisis pregnancy centers) in 1975 to work for legal and political solutions against abortion.

Art Buchwald, 81, Jan. 17-humorist and renowned syndicated columnist for The Washington Post.

Lew Burdette, 90, Feb. 6-right-handed Milwaukee Braves pitching ace who won three complete games against the Yankees in the 1957 World Series.

J. Robert Cade, 80, Nov. 27-University of Florida medicine professor who invented Gatorade.

Liz Claiborne, 78, June 25-Belgian-born New York fashion designer who offered working women coordinated outfits at once serious, stylish, and affordable.

Darlene Conley, 72, Jan. 14-veteran stage and TV soap opera actress who for two decades played the feisty fashion mogul Sally Spectra on The Bold and the Beautiful.

John H. Cross Jr., 82, Nov. 15-pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, when four girls at his church were killed in a bombing that became a turning point in the civil-rights movement.

Laraine Day, 87, Nov. 10-actress in nearly 50 films and one of the first female TV talk-show hosts.

Michael Deaver, 69, Aug. 18-President Ronald Reagan's image-burnishing aide.

Yvonne De Carlo, 84, Jan. 8-beautiful star who played Moses' wife in The Ten Commandments but achieved her greatest popularity on TV's The Munsters.

Calvert DeForest, 85, March 19-actor and comedian who played the white-haired, bespectacled oddball Larry "Bud" Melman on David Letterman's TV shows.

Bob Evans, 89, June 21-sausage maker who turned his 12-stool restaurant for truckers in southeast Ohio into a chain that boasts nearly 600 restaurants in 18 states.

Ray Evans, 92, Feb. 15-Oscar-winning songwriter who with Jay Livingston produced such enduring standards as "Mona Lisa," "Buttons and Bows," "Silver Bells," and "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)."

Jerry Falwell, 73, May 15-Virginia megachurch pastor and co-founder of Liberty University who launched the Moral Majority to help make the religious right a powerful force in American politics.

Dan Fogelberg, 56, Dec. 16-singer and songwriter whose hits "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne" helped define the soft-rock era.

Ernest Gallo, 97, March 6-California vintner who with his brother Julio parlayed $5,900 and a wine recipe from a public library into the world's largest winemaking empire.

Alice Ghostley, 81, Sept. 21-television's Esmeralda on Bewitched and Bernice on Designing Women.

Robert Goulet, 73, Oct. 30-handsome, rich-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in Camelot launched an award-winning stage and recording career.

Ruth Bell Graham, 87, June 14-China-born wife, confidante, and editorial advisor to evangelist Billy Graham; she was a life-long Presbyterian who mostly stayed home to raise their five children while he was on the road, but went on to become an author or co-author of 15 books.

Merv Griffin, 82, Aug. 12-singer, actor, and talk-show host who made his fortune inventing and producing the Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune TV game shows.

David Halberstam, 73, April 23-author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times, known for his controversial coverage of the Vietnam War.

Johnny Hart, 76, April 7-cartoonist, creator of the comic strip B.C., who often wove Christian themes into his work.

Kitty Carlisle Hart, 96, April 17-singer and actress on Broadway, television, and film, and long-time panelist on the popular game show To Tell the Truth.

Leona Helmsley, 87, Aug. 20-New York billionaire hotel and real-estate magnate who sealed her reputation as the "queen of mean" during her 1989 trial for tax evasion.

Don Ho, 76, April 14-Hawaii's most famous entertainer.

Victoria Hopper, 97, Jan. 22-actress and singer at her peak in the 1930s in such films as Lorna Doone and The Mill on the Floss.

E. Howard Hunt, 88, Jan. 23-legendary CIA spy and Watergate conspirator in the political scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation.

Rex Humbard, 88, Sept. 21-Pentecostal preacher and pioneer in religious television in the 1950s.

Betty Hutton, 86, March 12-the high-energy "blonde bombshell" singer-actress who brought a brassy vitality to Hollywood musicals like Annie Get Your Gun.

Henry Hyde, 83, Nov. 29-Illinois Republican congressman (1974-2007) who championed government restrictions on the funding of abortions and steered the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.

Molly Ivins, 62, Jan. 31-syndicated liberal Texas newspaper columnist and author whose acerbic prose skewered the political establishment.

Lady Bird [Claudia] Johnson, 94, June 11-quietly steady and reassuring first lady to the embattled 36th U.S. president, Lyndon Johnson.

Arthur Jones, 80, Aug. 28-entrepreneur best known for inventing the Nautilus fitness machines in the 1960s that helped to spark the health club business.

Bruce R. Kennedy, 68, June 28-CEO of Alaska Airlines who also devoted himself to missionary and humanitarian endeavors, chairing Idaho-based Mission Aviation Fellowship for eight years; killed in a private plane crash.

D. James Kennedy, 76, Sept. 5-a Florida megachurch pastor and broadcaster who majored in evangelism and Christian education but was known best nationally for helping to fuel the rise of the religious right in American politics.

Deborah Kerr, 86, Oct. 16-Scottish actress who starred in The King and I but is perhaps best remembered for her kiss with Burt Lancaster as waves crashed over them on a Hawaiian beach in the wartime drama From Here to Eternity.

Meredith G. Kline, 84, April 14-noted theologian and scholar who taught at Westminster and Gordon-Conwell seminaries.

Evel Knievel, 69, Nov. 30-soaring motorcycle daredevil whose feats (flight across 13 buses) and failures (rocket-powered Snake River Canyon crash) made him an international icon in the 1970s.

Arthur Kornberg, 89, Oct. 26-Stanford Nobel Prize--winning biochemist who discovered how DNA is assembled, an essential step leading to advances in genetic engineering and development of life-saving miracle drugs.

Bowie Kuhn, 80, March 15-Major League Baseball commissioner 1969-1984.

Frankie Laine, 93, Feb. 6-big-voiced popular singer of the 1950s.

Madeleine L'Engle, 88, Sept. 6-author whose novel A Wrinkle in Time has been enjoyed by generations of schoolchildren and adults since the 1960s.

Samuel Leonard, 101, Nov. 12-a Cornell University professor whose pioneering work in reproductive endocrinology in the 1930s led to development of the birth-control pill.

Barbara McNair, 72, Feb. 4-black singer and actress who hosted her own TV variety show and co-starred with Sidney Poitier in the 1970 film They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!

Norman Mailer, 84, Nov. 10-contentious, hard-living Pulitzer Prize-winning author (The Armies of the Night, The Executioner's Song, The Naked and the Dead) and cofounder of The Village Voice.

Theodore Harold Maiman, 79, May 5-inventor who in 1960 built the prototype of the ruby laser, used widely in surgery, industry, military devices (range finders), and business (from bar code scanners to compact disc players).

Marcel Marceau, 84, Sept. 22-French-born mime artist who changed his name to hide his Jewishness in World War II and went on to create the alter ego "Bip" the clown.

Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, 65, July 20-gospel singer and entertainer whose flamboyant style and makeup marked her identity as co-host, with former husband Jim Bakker, of the popular PTL Club Christian TV show of the 1970s and 1980s.

Bruce Metzger, 93, Feb. 13-biblical scholar, modern-English Bible translator, and long-time professor of New Testament at Princeton Seminary.

Jim Nesbitt, 75, Nov. 29-country music songwriter ("Looking for More in '64") and reputed "King of Country Comedy" in the 1960s.

Jack Odell, 87, July 7-British engineer who invented Matchbox cars in 1952; at least 3 billion of the die-cast miniature vehicles in 12,000 models have sold since then.

Raymond C. Ortlund, 84, July 22-internationally known pastor of influential Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena, Calif., for 20 years, former speaker on the "Haven of Rest" worldwide radio broadcast, and head of Renewal Ministries to pastors for the past 25 years.

George Osmond, 90, Nov. 6-patriarch and manager of the Osmond Brothers family singing group and performers Donny and Marie Osmond.

Gilbert E. Patterson, 67, March 20-Memphis pastor and presiding bishop of the fast-growing Church of God in Christ, a predominantly black Pentecostal denomination with a stated membership of 5.5 million.

Benny Parsons, 65, Jan. 16-speedy Detroit cabbie who became a popular NASCAR champion, winning 21 races.

Luciano Pavarotti, 71, Sept. 6-booming Italian "king of the high Cs" tenor, the most famous opera singer in the world, whose recordings sold more than 100 million albums.

Bobby "Boris" Pickett, 69, April 25-singer of "Monster Mash," long-running one-hit wonder that sold millions and topped the charts between 1963 and 1973.

Tom Poston, 85, April 30-the tall, pasty-faced comic who found fame playing a clueless everyman on such hit TV shows as Newhart and Mork and Mindy.

Charles Nelson Reilly, 76, May 25-film actor and comedian best known as a wacky panelist on TV's Match Game, the top game show during much of the 1970s.

Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto, 89, Aug. 14-diminutive Hall of Fame shortstop during the Yankees' dynasty years, and later a sportscaster known for exclaiming "Holy cow!" at good plays and bad.

Eddie Robinson, 88, April 3-Grambling State football coach who in 1995 became the first college coach to win 400 games (408W-165L).

Mstislav Rostropovich, 80, April 27-master cellist, conductor, and music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., 1977-1994, who championed artistic freedom and human rights in his Soviet homeland during the last decades of the Cold War.

Walter Schirra, 84, May 3-the only astronaut to fly in all three of NASA's earliest manned space programs.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., 89, Feb. 28-bow-tied Pulitzer Prize--winning historian and liberal "court philosopher" of the Kennedy administration.

Sidney Sheldon, 89, Jan. 30-author who won awards in three careers (Broadway theater, movies, and TV) before turning to writing best-selling novels.

Joel Siegel, 63, June 29-Emmy Award-winning film critic for WABC-TV and Good Morning America, known for his thick mustache and glasses, sense of humor, movie acumen, and sharp judgment.

Beverly Sills, 78, July 2-one of America's greatest and most loved opera sopranos.

Ian Smith, 88, Nov. 20-Rhodesia's last white prime minister, whose attempts to resist black rule dragged the country now known as Zimbabwe into civil war.

Anna Nicole Smith, 39, Feb. 8-former Playboy centerfold who married an octogenarian billionaire and waged a legal battle for his fortune all the way to the Supreme Court.

Roger B. Smith, 82, Nov. 29-accountant who joined General Motors Corp. in 1949 and rose to chair and CEO of the world's largest automaker in 1981.

Tom Snyder, 71, July 29-TV and radio personality best known for late-night talk shows The Tomorrow Show in the 1970s and 1980s and The Late Late Show in the 1990s.

Brett Somers, 83, Sept. 15-actress and comedienne who amused fans with her quips on TV's Match Game.

Doug Sutphen, 70, May 8-Bible smuggling missionary known as "Brother David," famous for his exploits in trying to get Bibles past communist authorities in China in the early 1980s.

Sean Taylor, 24, Nov. 27-Washington Redskins free safety who helped lead the University of Miami Hurricanes to a national championship in 2001; shot by an intruder in his Miami home.

Hank Thompson, 82, Nov. 6-country singer who produced seven decades of songs fusing jazz, Western swing, and honky-tonk ("Humpty Dumpty Heart," 1948; "Gotta Sell Them Chickens," 1997).

Paul Tibbets, 92, Nov. 1-pilot of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Ike Turner, 76, Dec. 12-rock pioneer who with his ex-wife Tina Turner had hits with "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Proud Mary," and earlier this year won his first solo Grammy.

Jack Valenti, 85, April 26-aide to President Lyndon Johnson and head of the Motion Picture Association of America (1966-2004) who devised Hollywood's voluntary film-rating system to fend off censorship boards.

Werner von Trapp, 91, Oct. 11-member of the Austrian musical family made famous by the 1965 movie The Sound of Music (he was Kurt).

Kurt Vonnegut, 84, April 11-best-selling satirical novelist and social critic whose works dripped with cynicism and dark humor (Slaughterhouse-Five).

Porter Wagoner, 80, Oct. 28-pompadoured Hall of Fame country music RCA recording artist and Grand Ole Opry performer.

Kurt Waldheim, 88, June 14-UN secretary-general (1972-1981) and president of Austria who left public life under a cloud of suspicion about his German military past during World War II.

Bill Walsh, 75, July 30-Hall of Fame football coach who won three Super Bowls and built the San Francisco 49ers into the most successful team of the '80s.

Robert E. Webber, 73, April 27-firm advocate for the authority of Scripture who for 32 years taught theology at Wheaton College.

Dick Wilson, 91, Nov. 19-actor who played TV's uptight grocer Mr. Whipple in commercials, begging customers, "Please don't squeeze the Charmin."

Robert Anton Wilson, 74, Jan. 11-co-author of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, a science-fiction series about a conspiratorial secret global society.

John Woodruff, 92, Oct. 30-last surviving American Olympic gold medalist from the 1936 Berlin games.

Jane Wyman, 90, Sept. 10-actress who won an Oscar for her role as a deaf rape victim in the film Johnny Belinda but best remembered as the power-mad winery owner in TV's Falcon Crest (1981-1990) and as Ronald Reagan's first wife.

Boris Yeltsin, 76, April 23-contradiction-prone politician who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and bravely pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, only to fall short of his own goals as president.

-Compiled by Edward E. Plowman