ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Doug Wickenheiser, a hockey player who played  
10 seasons in the National Hockey League and scored a dramatic 
overtime goal for the St. Louis Blues in the 1986 playoffs, died 
Tuesday(Jan12) of lung cancer. He was 37. 

     Wickenheiser, who played for St. Louis from 1983 to 1987,  
completed the Blues' rally from a 5-2 deficit to beat the Calgary 
Flames 6-5 in Game 6 of the Campbell Conference finals on May 12, 
1986. The Blues trailed by three goals with 11:52 to go but scored 
three goals to force overtime, and Wickenheiser got the game-winner 
at 7:30 of the extra period.  The victory forced Game 7, which Calgary
won 2-1 two nights later to advance to the Stanley Cup finals. 

     Wickenheiser totaled 111 goals and 156 assists in 556 games in  
career that also had stops at Montreal, Vancouver, the New York 
Rangers and Washington from 1980-90. 

     NEW YORK (AP) -- Sarah "Sadie" Delany, who became a  
best-selling author at 104 with her and her sister's reminiscences 
of a century of achievement as black women, has died. She was 109. 

     The two spry and witty women were celebrated as independent and  
educated, with the gumption and humor to sustain them during the 
early days of the century in their native North Carolina to Harlem 
and beyond. They wrote "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100  
Years" with journalist Amy Hill Hearth. Published in 1993, in 
includes matter-of-fact references to the degradation they 
witnessed: the post-slavery years, segregation laws and violent 
racism. Bessie was nearly lynched once, as a young woman, after a 
run-in with a white at a railroad station.

     Ms. Delany died in her sleep Monday(Jan25) at the suburban New 
York City home she had shared with her sister, said her nephew, Harry 
Delany. Bessie Delany died in 1995 at the age of 104.

     AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Through a half-century of turmoil, 
Hussein bin Talal of Jordan grew from boy king to elder 
statesman, a symbol of endurance and a voice for peace 
in a landscape of crisis and war. He died Sunday of 
cancer at the age of 63. 

     Crowned at age 17 as monarch of a poor desert realm, 
King Hussein grew to command the attention of the world,
as he did when he interceded, gray and stricken from cancer,
at a crucial moment in the 1998 Middle East peace talks at
the Wye Plantation to help break an Israeli-Palestinian deadlock. 

     LONDON, March 3 (UPI) -- British pop singer Dusty Springfield has died  
after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. She was 59. 
Her agent, Paul Fenn, said today she passed away Tuesday night at her  
Henley-on-Thames home in Oxfordshire, some 30 miles west of London. 

     Born in north London as Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien,  
Springfield won early fame for her 1964 Motown-influenced hit "I Only 
Want To Be With You."  Among her other hit records during the 1960s were
"Wishin and Hopin," and "Son of a Preacher Man."   Her agent Paul Finn 
told the British Broadcasting Corp. "She was one of the icons of the 
music industry. She was one of the most talented female singers of 
this century."

     WASHINGTON, March 4th (CNN) -- Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice 
Harry Blackmun, author of the controversial Roe vs. Wade decision that 
legalized abortion in 1973, died Thursday at a Virginia hospital 
following complications from hip surgery,  officials told CNN. 

     Blackmun, 90, had fallen and broken his hip at his home 10 days ago and
underwent hip-replacement surgery the following day. He died at Arlington
Hospital in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, officials said. 

     HOLLYWOOD, Fla., March 8 (UPI) -- Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio has  
died at the age of 84 after a long battle with lung cancer and pneumonia. 
DiMaggio was the symbol of the New York Yankees' power and class both  
on and off the field during a career which lasted from 1936 through 
1951. 

     A Hall of Famer, he was three times the American League's most  
valuable player and twice its batting champion. In 1941, He set an 
incredible 56-game hitting streak which most baseball experts expect to 
last for all time.  DiMaggio, who was born Nov. 25, 1914, had a .325 
lifetime batting average and hit 361 homers. 

     BALTIMORE, March 26 (AP) -- Cal Ripken Sr., whose contributions 
to the Baltimore Orioles extend well beyond fathering and tutoring 
of one of the best players in the history of the franchise, died 
Thursday of lung cancer.  He was 63. He died around 4:15 p.m. EST
at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, the hospital said.  His family 
was by his bedside. 

     Ripken spent 36 years in the Orioles organization as a player, 
scout, coach and manager. He also found time to raise a family that 
included future Hall of Fame member Cal Ripken Jr., a star with the 
Orioles since 1982, and former major-league infielder Bill Ripken, 
who also played in Baltimore. 

     BRANSON, Mo., April 12 (AP) -- BoxCar Willie, whose gentle country  
voice and songs of life on the road evoked memories of a time when hobos 
watched America pass by from the door of a freight car, died Monday 
of leukemia. He was 67.

     Born Lecil Martin in Sterrett, Texas, in 1931, BoxCar Willie was  
the son of a railroad man who used to play his fiddle on the porch 
while his son sat in on guitar. By his teens he had graduated to 
playing in jamborees all over the state, but he gave up show business 
to enlist in the Air Force.  He spent 22 years there, logging some 
10,000 hours as a flier. 

     After retiring from the service he returned to performing, and  
by the 1970s he had developed the singing hobo persona, complete 
with overalls, a battered old hat, worn suit jacket and two days' 
growth of beard.  Although he never had a hit single, his albums sold 
well over the years and he built a loyal following that would later 
make him one of the most popular performers in Branson, where he operated
a motel and train museum as well as his theater.

     STUART, Fla., April 14 (AP) -- British entertainer Anthony Newley, 
known for the stage hit "Stop the World -- I Want To Get Off" and the 
1967 film version of the children's classic "Doctor Doolittle," died 
Wednesday of cancer. He was 67.  The actor, playwright, author, composer,
lyricist and singer was first diagnosed in 1985 with renal cell cancer 
and had one kidney removed. After years of good health, the cancer 
returned in 1997. 

     Newley had lived in Surrey, England, about 35 miles outside of  
London, for years and moved to Florida permanently in December. 
The former husband of actress Joan Collins, Newley shot to fame  
as the Artful Dodger in the 1948 film version of "Oliver Twist." 
He became an international star and during his heyday had a  
series of hit records, appeared in a string of films and was a 
major live performer in Las Vegas. 

	Newley co-wrote the score for the hit musicals "Stop The World  
-- I Want To Get Off," "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory" 
and "The Roar of The Greasepaint -- The Smell of the Crowd." 
He also wrote a number of best-selling hit singles, including  
"What Kind Of Fool Am I?", "The Candy Man" and "Goldfinger." 

 				 
     LOS ANGELES, April 16 (UPI) -- Actress Ellen Corby, who was best known  
for her role as Grandma Walton on the long-running TV show "The Waltons," 
has died at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Los Angeles. She was 87.
Corby won three Emmy Awards in 1973, 1975 and 1976 and a Golden Globe  
Award in 1974 for best supporting actress for her role as the beloved 
matriarch of the Walton family. 

     She was on the hit CBS show for most of its nine-year run, though she  
suffered a stroke in 1976 that incapacitated her for 18 months. She 
returned to the show for the 1977-78 season and made her last appearance 
on the 1997 TV special "A Walton Easter." 

     Corby was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the 1947  
movie "I Remember Mama."   Among her TV and movie roles were Mother Lurch 
in the original "The Addams Family," the thief who sold Barney Fife a bad 
car on "The Andy Griffith Show," acting teacher Miss Hanna on "I Love Lucy"
and the beleagured woman who withdrew a small amount of money from the Bailey 
Building and Loan in "It's A Wonderful Life."  She also appeared in the movies
"Vertigo," "Sabrina," "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte" and "Please Don't Eat 
The Daisies" and the TV Westerns "The Virginian," "The Rifleman" and "Wagon Train." 
  	   	

 				 
     NEW YORK, Apr 20 (AP) -- Senor Wences, the master ventriloquist who  
delighted "Ed Sullivan Show" audiences with his puppet-head-in-a-box, Pedro,
and his falsetto-voiced hand-puppet, Johnny, died Tuesday at 103. 
The Spanish-born Wences, whose real name was Wenceslao Moreno,  died
at his home in New York City.  During the Golden Age of television, Wences
bickered and bantered with his puppets while he drank, smoked and juggled. 

     He conversed with Pedro, a head in a box ("S'OK?"  "S'AWRIGHT"). 
and he was defeated by Johnny, who boasted, "Deefeecult for you; easy for me."
Wences created Johnny by scrunching up his fist, drawing a mouth  
where thumb and index finger met, and draping a blond wig over the top. 
  	   	

 				 
     RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif., April 21 (UPI) -- Charles "Buddy" Rogers, who
began his movie career during the silent picture era and became the matinee
idol of millions of American girls in the 1930s, has died. He was 94 years old. 
A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television Fund said Rogers  
died of natural causes this morning at his Rancho Mirage home in 
Southern California. Funeral services were pending. 

     Rogers became a star after appearing in the 1927 silent World War I  
movie, "Wings," which won the first Academy Award for Best Picture. 
The marriage of Rogers and movie queen Mary Pickford in 1937 was one  
of the top Hollywood stories of the year, joining "America's boyfriend" 
with "America's sweetheart." They were married until Pickford died in 
1979. 

     Rogers, born the son of a newspaper editor in Olathe, Kan., on Aug.  
13, 1904, quit the movies for several years to try to rid himself of the 
nickname Buddy and his film roles as the ideal of American youth. 
Rogers played the perennial handsome college boy in nearly all of his  
50 screen roles.  Some of Rogers' film roles were in "My Best Girl," 
"Abie's Irish Rose," "Working Girls," "Old Man Rhythm," "Once In a Million," 
"Don't Trust Your Husband," "Dance Band" and "Get Your Man." 
  	   	

     	  				 
     LONDON (AP) -- Sir Dirk Bogarde, the British actor who starred in  
more than 70 films and captured the hearts of many women in the 
1950s, died Saturday, his nephew said. He was 78.The British film star,
who achieved his greatest fame in "Death in Venice," died of a heart 
attack at his London home, said Brock Van den Bogaerde. He suffered 
a damaging stroke in 1996 and had been under 24-hour nursing care 
since last May.  The actor was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992.  

     Born in London on March 28, 1921, Dirk Niven Van den Bogaerde  
was the son of a former actress and a photograph editor of The 
Times.  He began his career as a scene designer and commercial artist,  
but always dreamed of acting. In the late 1930s, Bogarde joined the 
British army as an officer in Air Photographic Intelligence, serving
in World War II.  As soon as he returned to England from military 
service, Bogarde joined a small theater group. Soon, he landed roles in the 
lighthearted "Doctor in the House" series, and by the 1950s, the 
actor with the boyish good looks had become a matinee idol. 

     Screaming audiences mobbed him at public appearances. The  
attention soon led to bigger roles in movies such as "A Tale of 
Two Cities," in which he played Sidney Carton, and other films 
such as "Darling" and "The Servant." 

     	  				 
     May 13, 1999 (CNN) -Gene Sarazen, one of only four men to win all 
four of golf's major professional championships, died today in Naples, 
Fla., at age 97.  Sarazen died at Naples Community Hospital shortly after
9 a.m. from complications of pneumonia, said his lawyer, John Cardillo.
Sarazen had been hospitalized for several days.

     Sarazen was just another promising young golfer when he won the 1922
U.S. Open at the age of 20, shooting a final-round 68 to defeat Bobby
Jones and Walter Hagen.  He also won the PGA Championship that year 
and in 1923, won his second consecutive PGA by defeating Hagen in 
the finals, giving Sarazen three major championship before he was 22. 

     Sarazen won the PGA Championship three times, the U.S. Open twice 
and the Masters and British Open once each. Only Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack
Nicklaus and Gary Player won all four majors at least once in their careers. 
His best year was 1932, when he won the British Open with a then-record
283 and captured the U.S. Open by shooting a final-round 66. Jones called
Sarazen's late charge, "the finest competitive round ever played." 

     	  				 
     LOS ANGELES (CNN) June 5, 1999 -- Jazz singer and actor Mel Torme, dubbed
"The Velvet Fog" for the versatility of his voice, died Saturday.  Torme, who 
suffered a stroke in 1996, was rushed from his Beverly Hills home to the UCLA 
Medical Center at 1 a.m. PDT after having breathing problems.  The 73-year-old
Torme was pronounced dead 45 minutes later. His family, his wife Ali, his 5 
children -- Steve, Melissa, Traci, Daisy and James -- were at his side. 

     Torme's singing and acting career spanned 70 years. He began singing on a
local Chicago radio broadcast in 1929.  Among the songs Torme is best remembered
for are "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire ..."), written
by Torme and first recorded by Nat King Cole, then Torme; "Blue Moon," which he 
sang in MGM's 1948 "Words and Music;" "Sunday in New York;" "Comin' Home Baby;" 
and "Where or When." 

     WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., June 11 (UPI) -- Actor DeForest Kelley, known
best as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy on the "Star Trek" TV series and
movies, has died at a Southern California hospital. He was 79.
Carol Pfannkuche, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television
Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, would only say Kelley died today after
an extended illness. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Carolyn.

     Although he appeared in dozens of films, Kelley will surely be
remembered best for his role on the original "Star Trek" television
series. The show ran for three years on NBC, from Sept. 8, 1966 to Sept.
2, 1969.On the show, Kelley's character was a surgeon and diagnostician known
for his sarcastic sense of humor and loyalty to Capt. James T. Kirk,
played by William Shatner.

     Born Jan. 20, 1920, in Atlanta, Ga., Kelley began his acting career
in the late 1940s, playing supporting roles in movies. He appeared in
such classics as "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" and "Raintree County."
He moved into television in the 1950s, appearing on "You Are There,"
"Navy Log," "Matinee Theatre," and "Silent Service," among others.

     SANIBEL ISLAND, Florida (AP) -- Clifton Fadiman, a writer, book editor,
radio and television entertainer who was host of the popular radio show
"Information Please" in the 1930s, died Sunday(Jun 21). He was 95.  Fadiman, 
who died at his son's home, was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer last
October, said his wife, Annalee Whitmore Fadiman.

     The two lived on Captiva Island, Florida, off Florida's Gulf Coast.
Fadiman most recently served as general editor on several publications,
including "World Poetry" and the fourth edition of one of his own works,
"The Lifetime Reading Plan."

      He penned more than 65 introductions to a wide range of editions 
including "War and Peace," "The Martian Chronicles" and "Six by Seuss."
He was awarded the National Book Award for Distinguished Contribution to
American Letters in 1993.

     NEW YORK (AP) -- Sylvia Sidney, the waiflike star of the 1930s who
specialized in playing victims and got an Oscar nomination in 1973 for a
comeback role in "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams," died Thursday of
throat cancer. She was 88. 

     Miss Sidney made her professional theater debut at 16 and was still 
acting 70 years later, with a brief appearance in the 1988 hit "Beetlejuice"
and a small role in "Mars Attacks" in 1996. She had recently signed a
seven-year contract for a recurring role on the TV series "Fantasy
Island." 

     She married three times, to publisher Bennett Cerf, actor Luther Adler
and publicist Carlton Alsop. All three marriages ended in divorce. Jacob Adler,
her only child, died in the mid-1980s of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or
Lou Gehrig's disease. After he fell ill, Miss Sidney became a volunteer for
the National ALS Foundation.  She has no survivors. A memorial service was 
scheduled for Aug. 9 at the National Arts Club in New York. 

     Reuters Wednesday, July 7, 1999 (MADRID) Joaquin Rodrigo, 97, 
the composer whose "Concierto de Aranjuez" for guitar and orchestra 
became one of the 20th century's best-known pieces of classical music,
died July 6 at his home in Madrid.

     The composer, who had been blind since childhood, wrote the concerto in
1939. Its romantic tunes reminiscent of Spain's Arabic past have made it a
favorite among concert-goers ever since.  Jazz legend Miles Davis included
a version of the "Concierto de Aranjuez" in his "Sketches of Spain" recording
nearly 40 years ago, giving the composition a vast new audience.

     After living in Paris and Germany during the Spanish civil war, Rodrigo
returned to Madrid. He was hailed as the country's leading composer of the time, 
thanks to the success of the concerto.  Other well-known works by Mr. Rodrigo 
include "Fantasia para un Gentilhombre," also for guitar and orchestra.
His wife, Turkish pianist Victoria Kamhi, died in 1997. 

     RABAT, Morocco  -- Morocco's King Hassan II, whose 
health had been fragile in recent years, died Friday at a 
hospital in the capital of Rabat.  The all-powerful monarch,
who had been an important unifying force in his North African
nation, was 70.  In a statement Friday, the Royal Palace 
medical staff announced that the king had been admitted to
Avicennes Hospital with "acute pneumonia, which requires a
cardiac and respiratory surveillance."

     Hassan, the longest serving monarch in the Arab world, 
ascended to the throne in 1961. He once told his friend, 
Spanish King Juan Carlos, that many people thought he 
wouldn't last six months.  But Hassan ruled for more than 
38 years, surviving military coups, leftist plots and 
Islamic-based opposition. His personal popularity among 
Morocco's 29 million people was acknowledged even by political 
foes, who called him "the great survivor."

     August 14, 1999 08:42 PM  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Pee Wee Reese, the
Hall of Fame shortstop and Brooklyn Dodgers captain who smoothed Jackie
Robinson's entry into major league baseball as its first black player, 
died Saturday. He was 81. The Los Angeles Dodgers confirmed Reese's death.
He died at his home in Louisville, Ky.  The cause was not immediately known. 
Flags at Dodger Stadium were flown at half-staff for Saturday night's game against
Atlanta. 

     Reese, who overcame prostate cancer years ago, underwent radiation treatment 
for lung cancer in March 1997 after doctors removed a malignant tumor. He also was
recovering from a broken hip at the time. An eight-time All-Star, Reese sparked the
Dodgers to seven National League pennants. He led Brooklyn to its only World Series
championship in 1955, fielding the final ball in a 2-0 victory in Game 7 at Yankee 
Stadium. 

     "He loved the Dodgers, he always respected the Dodgers and the people who owned
the Dodgers," pitcher Don Newcombe, who played eight years with Reese, said Saturday
night. "The Dodgers were his life."

     LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Allen Funt, who created and hosted the hit
television show "Candid Camera" and built it into a nearly 50-year
career in Hollywood, has died at age 84, family members said Monday.

     Funt, who gained fame as host of "Candid Radio" in 1947 and was still
hosting "Candid Camera" until he suffered a serious stroke in 1993,
died Sunday of complications of that stroke at his home in Pebble Beach,
California.

     (AP) Jim "Catfish" Hunter, the Hall of Fame pitcher who ushered in 
baseball's era of big bucks for free agents, died today at age 53 after 
battling the disease named after another New York Yankees great, Lou Gehrig.
Hunter died at his home in Hertford, N.C., according to George Byrum of 
Swindell Funeral Home in Hertford. 

     Hunter was one of baseball's most dominant pitchers during a 15-year 
career that brought him five World Series rings with the Oakland Athletics
and the Yankees. He strung together five straight 20-victory seasons, 
pitched a perfect game and won a Cy Young Award. He became the first 
multimillionaire player when he was declared a free agent on a technicality 
after the 1974 season, then became the Yankees' workhorse the following 
two years, completing 51 of 75 starts and leading them to their first 
pennant in 12 seasons.  "I was probably the first player who broke it 
open for other players to be paid what they're worth," he said in 1987, 
a few hours after he was elected to the Hall of Fame. 

     He was a player's player, fiercely competitive on the field, a prankster 
who loved to have fun with teammates after the game. He grew a mustache and
wore his hair long like them in the fashion of the late '60s and early '70s, 
but he retained his farmboy values and spun stories with a country drawl.  
In September 1998, Hunter learned he had amyothropic lateral sclerosis (ALS),
a neurological disease that attacks nerves in the spinal cord and brain that 
control muscle movement, causing progressive paralysis and leading to death. 
There is no cure for the condition, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

     WESTLAKE VILLAGE, California (CNN) -- Veteran actor 
George C. Scott died of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, 
the Ventura County Coroner's office said Thursday. He was 71. 
Scott, who commanded starring roles in movies like "Dr. Strangelove"
and "Patton," was found "unresponsive" by a family friend at his home
in Westlake Village at about 3 p.m. Wednesday. He was pronounced dead
about 3:15 p.m. by emergency medical personnel.

     Born on October 18, 1927, George Campbell Scott abandoned his goal
of having a writing career -- he said he didn't have enough talent for it --
and instead, tried out for a college play.  That was enough to convince him 
he'd found his career niche. Scott made his mark on the theater, especially 
through his standout performance as salesman Willy Lomanin "Death of a 
Salesman." He brought that talent to television, remembered early on for 
his definitive portrayal of Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol." 

     His film debut came in 1959, as a charismatic loony who stirs up a lynch
mob against Gary Cooper in "The Hanging Tree." Scott won his first Oscar award
for "Patton" -- and promptly refused it. He was the first actor to turn down 
the honor.  Scott would continue making movies through 1993, when "Malice" 
was released. He also had a lengthy TV roster, which included a starring 
role in the highly acclaimed but short-lived TV series "East Side/West Side"
in 1963.

     (UPI) Judith Exner, whose love affairs with President Kennedy and mob 
boss Sam Giancanno fed speculation of organized crime's influence on Camelot,
has died at the age of 65.  Although she had kept a low profile in the 1960s,
Exner has been seen by Kennedy historians as a link between the Kennedy White
House and Giancana's Chicago mob. 

     The dark-eyed New York native's short-lived marriage to actor William  
Campbell led into a dizzying world of glamour that included dating Frank 
Sinatra, running with his legendary "rat pack" in Las Vegas and, 
eventually, Giancana, a former associate of Al Capone who went on to 
lead Chicago's notorious "outfit." 

     It was through Sinatra and that she met Kennedy, who was then a  
Senator running for president. They became involved in a romantic 
relationship that continued to varying degrees until Kennedy's 
assassination in 1962(sic - JG). 

     LOS ANGELES (AP) - Donald Mills, the last surviving member of the Mills
Brothers singers, who broke racial barriers in radio, society and the movies,
died Saturday of complications from pneumonia. He was 84.  Mills had performed
for seven decades and last year accepted the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement
for the singing group.  He died at a Los Angeles hospital Saturday, family friend 
and publicist Bernie Roswig said Sunday.

     The Mills Brothers started performing in 1922 in Piqua, Ohio, when Donald 
Mills was 7. The group scored its first hit a few years later with "Tiger Rag."
In all, the Mills Brothers sold an estimated 50 million records and even
performed for the British royal family during an overseas tour in the 1930s,
said Daniel R. Clemson, president of The Mills Brothers Society and a
biographer.

    The group, with brothers Donald, Herbert, Harry and John, was known for its
tight harmony and uncanny ability to imitate instruments.  "Many people who only
knew them by radio thought there was an orchestra behind them," Clemson said.
John died in 1936. When Harry and Herbert decided to retire in 1982, Donald
Mills recruited the youngest of his six children, also named John, and they
sang as John and Donald Mills of the Mills Brothers.  "They were affable and
unassuming and in their own quiet way made it possible for black artists who 
followed them to reach for the stars and actually touch them," Clemson said.    

     Mabel King, an actress and singer best known for her portrayal of
Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the Broadway and
movie productions of "The Wiz" and her role as the mother in the
mid-'70s television comedy "What's Happening!" died on Nov. 9 at a
hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., where she lived. She was 66.
She died after a long illness and complications from diabetes, said a
friend, Vickie Chamberlain.

     Ms. King was born on Dec. 25, 1932, in Charleston, S.C., and grew up
in Harlem. She appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" early in her career
and later made guest appearances on many other television shows,
including "Barney Miller," "Fantasy Island," "The Jeffersons" and
"Wiseguy."  She appeared in nine movies, including "Scrooged" 
(1988); "The Jerk" (1979), in which she played Steve Martin's mother; 
"The Gong Show Movie" (1980); and "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars
and Motor Kings" (1976).  She is survived by her mother, Rosalee Washington,
and a sister, Rose Washington, both of Manhattan. Her son, Larry, died in 1996.

     TANGIERS, Morocco (AP) -- Paul Bowles, the American writer and composer best
known for his novels in exotic North African settings, died today in Tangiers, the
Italian Hospital said. He was 88.  Bowles had been hospitalized since Nov. 7 with 
serious cardiac problems. He died of a heart attack in the Mediterranean port where
he had lived for more than 50 years. 

     His most famous novel, "The Sheltering Sky," tells the story of young
Americans wandering through the cities and deserts of Morocco, in
confrontation with a complex culture they do not understand. 
Bowles' descriptions of burning sands, open skies and other lonely North
African landscapes, and his finesse in describing the psychological
unraveling of a character lost amid the sands, prompted Modern Library to
name "The Sheltering Sky" as one of the 100 best English-language novels of
the century. 

     Bowles was born Dec. 30, 1910, in New York. Despite his prolific writing 
career, his early talent was music and he built an impressive career for 
himself as a composer at a young age.  He studied with the modern American 
composer Aaron Copland and worked closely with other greats, including 
Leonard Bernstein.  Bowles had lived as a recluse in Tangiers for many years. 

     NY Times -- Gaby Casadesus, a pianist and teacher whose specialty was 
the 19th- and 20th-century French piano repertory, and who often performed 
in a piano duo with her husband, Robert Casadesus, died on Nov. 12 at her 
home in Paris.  She was 98.

     Mrs. Casadesus, whose name was originally Gaby L'Hôte, was born in
Marseilles in August 1901. She entered the Paris Conservatoire when she was
12, and became a student of Marguerite Long and Louis Diémer. She graduated
from the Conservatoire with first prize in piano when she was 16 and soon
established herself with performances of the piano works of Fauré, Ravel and
Milhaud, which she studied with the composers' guidance.  Her recitals also 
reached further back into the French keyboard literature to include music of
Rameau, Couperin and Chopin. She was known as an elegant Mozart interpreter,
and in 1923 she was awarded the Prix Pages, recognizing the achievement of 
female pianists in France.

     When she was still at the Conservatoire she met Robert Casadesus, another
student of Diémer, two years her senior. The two began giving performances
of duo piano works together, and they married in 1921. Robert Casadesus
wrote several works for the duo, including Six Pieces (1938), and a Concerto
for Two Pianos, which they first performed in Warsaw in 1934, and with the
New York Philharmonic in 1950.

     BBC - With his mauve hair and flamboyant dress, Quentin Crisp was unmistakable. 
An openly gay man in a much less tolerant era, he became a best-selling author and 
a great British eccentric.  In 1976, the television film of his autobiography, 
'The Naked Civil Servant', in which he was portrayed by John Hurt, turned the 
68 year-old Crisp literally into an overnight celebrity. 

     He became a regular on chat shows and had a simple formula. "All you have to 
do is look pleased to bethere." he said, "It's like going to a party. All you have
to do is look as though as you're expected to enjoy yourself."  The stage beckoned.
In 1978 he made his off-Broadway debut in 'An Evening with Quentin Crisp' and 
followed this with his Lady Bracknell in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. 

     He moved to New York in the early 1980's and lived, as ever, alone in a one
room apartment which he famously never cleaned. "After four years," he quipped, 
"you don't notice the dust."  He continued to write, producing books like 'How 
to Have a Life-Style',  'Manners From Heaven', 'How to Be a Virgin' and 
'Resident Alien', his acclaimed New York diaries. 

     NEW YORK (AP) -- Gene Rayburn, the jocular host who winked at  
double entendres during TV's popular "Match Game," has died. He 
was 81.  Rayburn died Monday of congestive heart failure at his  
daughter's home in Gloucester, Mass. 

     The "Match Game" was the top game show during much of the  
1970s. Contestants would try to match answers to nonsense questions 
with a panel of celebrities; the references were often vaguely 
naughty for daytime TV.  Rayburn was nominated for five Daytime 
Emmy awards. He even invented the long thin microphone that he 
carried on the show. 

     ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) -- President Franjo Tudjman, who led his  
country to independence from former Yugoslavia but was assailed for 
his authoritarian rule as well as nationalist policies which helped 
fuel the war in Bosnia, has died, state television announced 
Saturday.  Tudjman leaves a mixed legacy.  

     Once the youngest general in communist Yugoslavia's army, he  
became the first president of independent Croatia, revered by many 
Croats for establishing statehood in 1991. But he displayed a 
disregard for democracy, a strong dislike of Muslims and Serbs, and 
a lust for power and Croat nationalism that led him to suppress 
dissent and opposition. 

     In striving to create an ethnically pure Croatia and to control  
the Croat part of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tudjman took 
actions that contributed to the 3 1-2 -year war in Bosnia. 
Nurturing his reputation as the father of the nation, Tudjman  
retained his virtual one-man rule to the end despite a reputation 
for corruption, cronyism and inefficiency that plagued his ruling 
Croatian Democratic Union. 

     (BBC) - Sunday, 19 December, 1999, 19:12 GMT  - Actor Desmond Llewelyn,
famous for his role as Q in the Bond films, has been killed in a head-on car
crash.  Mr Llewelyn, 85, from Bexhill, East Sussex, was killed in the crash 
on the A27, near Firle, East Sussex, police said. 

     The actor, as the caustic gadget-minded Q, featured in all but two of 
the Bond films.  With a 30-year history in the classic spy movies he had 
become one of its institutions and was immensely popular with Bond fans. 
Despite his advancing years, he was still proving a big crowd-puller after
completing his 17th Bond film The World is Not Enough. 

     LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Clayton Moore, the masked man who played the 
Lone Ranger on television and raced horseback to the "William Tell 
Overture" and the cry of "Hi-Yo, Silver!" died Tuesday. He was 85. 
Moore died of a heart attack in the emergency room at West Hills 
Hospital. 

     Moore's film career stretched back to the 1930s, but essentially
he was known only as "The Lone Ranger" in the TV Western series
of that name and a couple of movie spinoffs. He continued to appear 
in costume in personal appearances for decades after the show's heyday,
and even fought and eventually won a court battle over the rights to
the image. 

Last Modified 2/8/00