Final Exits, 22-28 October 2011

Jiří Gruša, Czech writer and politician, at the Book Fair in Ostrava, Czech Republic, 17 June 2011. Photo courtesy of Packa.

Obituaries for 22-28 October 2011

22
* Jan Boye, 49, Danish politician, complications from brain hemorrhage. (Danish)
* Antonio Cassese, 74, Italian international law expert, Yugoslavian war crimes judge, cancer.
* Peter Goldie, 64, British philosopher.
* Barbara König, 86, German writer. (German)
* Cathal O'Shannon, 83, Irish journalist and television presenter.
* Robert Pierpoint, 86, American broadcast journalist, complications from surgery.
* Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, 83, Saudi royal, Minister of Defense and Aviation (since 1962) and Crown Prince (since 2005).
* Roy Smalley, Jr., 85, American baseball player (Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Braves, Philadelphia Phillies).
* Ed Thompson, 66, American politician, Mayor of Tomah, Wisconsin (2008–2010), and gubernatorial candidate, pancreatic cancer.

23
* Nusrat Bhutto, 82, Iranian-born Pakistani First Lady, widow of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and mother of Benazir Bhutto.
* Amílcar Brusa, 89, Argentine boxing trainer, natural causes.
* Joseph Dao, 75, Burkinabé-born Malian Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Kayes (1978–2011).
* Oscar Stanley Dawson, 87, Indian admiral, Chief of the Naval Staff (1982–1984), brain haemorrhage.
* Herbert A. Hauptman, 94, American Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1985).
* Florence Parry Heide, 92, American children's author.
* Sir Frank Holmes, 87, New Zealand economist and government advisor.
* Gene Kurtz, 69, American bassist and songwriter ("Treat Her Right").
* William Franklin Lee III, 82, American music educator, Dean of University of Miami School of Music (1964–1982).
* Bronislovas Lubys, 73, Lithuanian entrepreneur and politician, Prime Minister of Lithuania (1992–1993), heart attack. (Lithuanian)
* John McCarthy, 84, American computer scientist, creator of LISP and the term AI, heart disease.
* Antoine Montant, 30, French extreme skier, BASE jumping accident.
* Henk Pleket, 74, Dutch singer. (Dutch)
* Amnon Salomon, 71, Israeli cinematographer.
* Marco Simoncelli, 24, Italian motorcycle racer, race crash.

24
* Margit Brandt, 66, Danish fashion designer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (Danish)
* Robert Bropho, 81, Australian indigenous rights activist and convicted criminal, natural causes.
* Liviu Ciulei, 88, Romanian actor, writer and director, after long illness.
* Kjell Johansson, 65, Swedish table tennis player.
* Morio Kita, 84, Japanese novelist, essayist and psychiatrist.
* Sarantis Michalopoulos, 72, Greek journalist and news anchorman. (Greek)
* Alan Morgan, 71, British Anglican prelate, Bishop of Sherwood (1989–2004).
* Peter Rhodes, 90, British football referee, Parkinson's disease. (death announced on this date)
* Crescênzio Rinaldini, 85, Italian-born Brazilian Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Araçuaí (1982–2001).
* Kirtanananda Swami, 74, American excommunicated Hare Krishna leader and convicted felon, kidney failure.
* Oleh Vitovych, 44, Ukrainian politician, MP (1994–1998) and Leader of UNA-UNSO (1994–1999). (Ukrainian)
* Bruno Weber, 80, Swiss artist and architect. (German)

25
* Leonidas Andrianopoulos, 100, Greek footballer (Olympiacos F.C.). (Greek)
* Perkins Bass, 99, American politician, U.S. Representative from New Hampshire (1955–1963).
* Bert Cueto, 74, Cuban baseball player (Minnesota Twins).
* Héctor López, 44, Mexican boxer, Olympic silver medal-winner (1984), heart attack. (Spanish)
* Tom McNeeley, 75, American boxer.
* Howard Wolpe, 71, American politician, U.S. Representative from Michigan (1979–1993).
* Norrie Woodhall, 105, British stage actress.

26
* Salvador Bernal, 66, Filipino designer, National Artist of the Philippines.
* Daniel Burke, 82, American television executive, President of ABC (1986–1994), complications of diabetes.
* Dave Cole, 81, American baseball player (Braves, Cubs, Phillies).
* Yaropolk Lapshyn, 91, Ukrainian-born Russian film director, long illness. (Russian)
* Janko Messner, 89, Austrian writer, pulmonary infarction. (German)
* William A. Niskanen, 78, American economist, member of the Council of Economic Advisors (1981–1985), chairman of the Cato Institute (1985–2008).

27
* Sergei Govorukhin, 50, Ukrainian-born Russian film director, brain hemorrhage. (Russian)
* James Hillman, 85, American psychologist, proponent of archetypal psychology.
* Ron Holmes, 48, American football player (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos).
* Sirazhudin Israfilov, 57, Russian Islamic leader, shot. (Russian)
* Eduard Kojnok, 78, Slovak Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Rožňava (1990–2008). (Slovakian)
* Robert Pritzker, 85, American billionaire industrialist, Parkinson's disease.

28
* Ricky Adams, 52, American baseball player (California Angels), cancer.
* Campbell Christie, 74, Scottish trade unionist.
* Willy De Clercq, 84, Belgian politician. (Dutch)
* Jiří Gruša, 72, Czech dissident, diplomat and writer. (German)
* Bernardo Jablonski, 59, Brazilian actor, theatre director and writer. (Portuguese)
* Roger Kerr, 66, New Zealand public policy and business leader, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, metastatic melanoma.

British Artist Lucian Freud Dies at 88

Lucien Freud, 2005 (Photo: procsilas)

British Artist Lucian Freud Dies at 88
Thursday, 21 July 2011

British artist Lucian Freud, grandson of the founder of modern psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, has died. He was 88 years old.

The painter's New York art dealer, William Acquavella, says Freud passed away Wednesday night at his home in London after an unspecified illness.

Lucian Freud was famous for his dramatic self-portraits and paintings of nude women. He also was commissioned to paint a portrait of Britain's Queen Elizabeth.

In recent years, his paintings have sold for huge sums. In 2008, his portrait of a civil servant, entitled “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping,” fetched close to $34 million at Christie's auction house in New York. It was a record price paid for a painting by a living artist.

The buyer was later reported to be Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Freud was born in 1922 in Berlin, and his family moved to Britain in 1933 to escape the rise of Nazism in Germany. After a brief stint as a seaman in the British Navy in 1941, he devoted himself to art.

Known for such paintings as “The Painter's Room,” “Girl With a White Dog,” and “Self-Portrait With a Black Eye,” Freud is considered to be one of the most significant painters of his time.

Final Exits, 1-7 May 2011

Dana Wynter in the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956.

Obituaries for 1-7 May 2011

1
* Alex, 52, Indian actor and magician, after short illness.
* Spyrydon Babskyi, 52, Ukrainian Orthodox hierarch, Archbishop of Vinnytsya in UOC-KP (1992–1993). (Russian)
* Sir Henry Cooper, 76, British Olympic heavyweight boxer.
* Agustín García-Gasco Vicente, 80, Spanish Roman Catholic cardinal, Archbishop of Valencia (1992–2009), cardiac arrest.
* Moshe Landau, 99, Israeli jurist, Chief Justice (1980–1982), presided over Adolf Eichmann's trial (1961).
* Ted Lowe, 90, British snooker commentator.
* Steven Orszag, 68, American mathematician, chronic lymphomic leukemia.
* Ivan Slavkov, 70, Bulgarian sports official.
* William O. Taylor II, 78, American journalist and publisher (The Boston Globe), brain tumor.
* Reynaldo Uy, 59, Filipino politician, Mayor of Calbayog, shot.
* J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr., 87, American mathematician and nuclear scientist.

2
* Leonid Abalkin, 80, Russian economist.
* Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, 46, Kuwaiti Al-Qaeda computer expert, shot.
* Danny Kassap, 28, Congolese-born Canadian long-distance runner.
* Osama bin Laden, 54, Saudi founder of Al-Qaeda, planned September 11 attacks, shot.
* Alexander Lazarev, 73, Russian actor. (Russian)
* Eddie Lewis, 76, English footballer (Manchester United, West Ham United), cancer. (death announced on this date)
* Ernest Mothle, 69, South African jazz musician.
* René Emilio Ponce, 64, Salvadoran general and defence minister, army chief of staff during the Civil War.
* David Sencer, 86, American public health official, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1966–1977), heart disease.
* Shigeo Yaegashi, 78, Japanese footballer. (Japanese)

3
* Paul Ackerley, 61, New Zealand hockey player and coach, skin cancer.
* Jackie Cooper, 88, American actor (Skippy, Our Gang, Superman) and director (M*A*S*H).
* Sergo Kotrikadze, 74, Georgian football player and coach, heart attack. (Russian)
* Mildred Robbins Leet, 88, American philanthropist, co-founder of Trickle Up, complications of a fall.
* Patrick Roy, 53, French politician, pancreatic cancer. (French)
* Thanasis Veggos, 83, Greek actor, stroke.

4
* Lázaro Blanco, 73, Mexican photographer, cancer. (Spanish)
* Velzoe Brown, 101, American jazz pianist.
* Frans de Kok, 87, Dutch conductor. (Dutch)
* Néstor Groppa, Argentine poet. (Spanish)
* Jacques Georges Habib Hafouri, 94, Syrian Catholic hierarch, Archbishop of Hassaké-Nisibi (1982–1996).
* Jagdish Khebudkar, 77, Indian writer, renal failure.
* Sammy McCrory, 86, Northern Irish footballer.
* Thomas G. Nelson, 74, American federal judge, complications from declining health.
* Françoise Olivier-Coupeau, 51, French politician, cancer. (French)
* Frans Sammut, 66, Maltese writer, natural causes.
* Bernard Stasi, 80, French politician, Minister for Overseas Departments and Territories (1973–1974), Alzheimer's disease. (French)
* Louis Stumberg, 87, American businessman, introduced Tex Mex TV dinners, after long illness.
* Sada Thompson, 83, American actress (Family), lung disease.

5
* Halit Çelenk, 89, Turkish lawyer and socialist activist, cancer and asthma.
* Claude Choules, 110, British-born Australian veteran, last combat veteran of World War I.
* Thomas Compaoré, 23, Burkinabé basketball player, heart attack. (German)
* Salomón Hakim, 91, Colombian neurosurgeon, researcher and inventor.
* Arthur Laurents, 93, American playwright, librettist, stage director, and screenwriter (Anastasia, Rope, West Side Story).
* Dougie McCracken, 46, Scottish football player (Ayr United), suspected suicide.
* Yosale Merimovich, 86, Israeli football player and manager. (Hebrew).
* Nigel Pickering, 81, American guitarist (Spanky and Our Gang), liver cancer.
* Rolo Puente, 71, Argentine actor, pulmonary emphysema.
* Dana Wynter, 79, German-born British actress (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), heart failure.

6
* Barry Connolly, 72, Australian football player.
* Quazi Nuruzzaman, 86, Bangladeshi veteran of the Liberation War, natural causes.
* Duane Pillette, 88, American baseball player (Yankees, Browns, Orioles, Phillies).
* Mike Spoerndle, 59, American music club founder (Toad's Place). (body discovered on this date)
* Yoon Ki-Won, 24, South Korean football player, suicide by inhaling toxic fumes.

7
* Seve Ballesteros, 54, Spanish golfer, brain cancer.
* Willard Boyle, 86, Canadian physicist, Nobel laureate (2009).
* Jack Gordon, 66, American politician, member of the Mississippi House of Representatives (1972–1980), State Senator (1980–1992; 1996–2011), brain cancer.
* Allyson Hennessy, 63, Trinidadian broadcaster.
* Gunter Sachs, 78, German mathematician, photographer, author and multi-millionaire industrialist, suicide by gunshot.
* John Walker, 67, American musician (The Walker Brothers), liver cancer.
* George Webley, 53, British broadcaster and music arranger.
* Doric Wilson, 72, American playwright and gay activist.

Legendary Greek Resistance Fighter Apostolos Santas, Who Defied Nazis, Dies at 89

Photo: The German War Flag is raised on the Acropolis of Athens, April 1941. (Photo by Scheerer, from Deutsches Bundesarchiv / German Federal Archive)   

Monday, 2 May 2011

Legendary Greek resistance fighter Apostolos Santas, who secretly scrambled to the top of the Acropolis in 1941 to tear down a Nazi flag, has died.

Greek officials say he died Saturday in Athens at 89. No cause of death was announced.

On May 31, 1941, the teenage Santas and another young resistance fighter, Manolis Glezos, secretly climbed to the top of the Acropolis and tore down the swastika. It was the first symbolic act of resistance against the Nazi occupation of Greece.

Santas joined the Greek underground and fought against both the Germans and Italian fascists.

Santas later joined a left-wing resistance group and was forced into exile during the civil war that broke out in Greece following the end of World War Two. He returned to Greece in 1963.

In 2008, the Greek parliament formally honored Santas and Glezos for their bravery in seizing the Nazi flag.