Free Republic

Mike Wallace, a pioneer of American broadcasting who confronted leaders and liars for the newsmagazine “60 Minutes” for four decades, has died, CBS News said. He was 94. His death was announced on CBS by the anchor of its Sunday morning program, Charles Osgood. The network did not immediately specify when or where he died. Mr. Wallace had been ill for several years.

Thomas Kinkade, the "Painter of Light" and one of most popular artists in America, died suddenly Friday at his Los Gatos home. He was 54. His family said in a statement that his death appeared to be from natural causes. "Thom provided a wonderful life for his family,'' his wife, Nanette, said in a statement. "We are shocked and saddened by his death.'' His paintings are hanging in an estimated 1 of every 20 homes in the United States. Fans cite the warm, familiar feeling of his mass-produced works of art, while it has become fashionable for art critics to...

BERLIN (AP) — John Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. autoworker who was convicted of being a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp despite steadfastly maintaining over three decades of legal battles that he had been mistaken for someone else, died Saturday, his son told The Associated Press. He was 91. Demjanjuk, convicted in May of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder and sentenced to five years in prison, died a free man in his own room in a nursing home in the southern Bavarian town of Bad Feilnbach. He had been released pending his appeal. John Demjanjuk Jr....

Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles. We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior. Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love. Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation: I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex...

Theologian William Hamilton, a member of the Death of God movement of the 1960s that reached its peak with a Time Magazine cover story, has died in Portland, Ore. He was 87. His family says Hamilton died Tuesday of complications from congestive heart failure.

Singer Davy Jones of The Monkees has died of a heart attack at 66, the medical examiner's office in Martin County, Fla., has confirmed to NBC News. The news was originally reported by TMZ. Jones was most famous for his role in the pop group The Monkees, which was put together in 1965 for the TV show of the same name. Their hits included "Daydream Believer," "Last Train to Clarksville," "I'm a Believer," and "Pleasant Valley Sunday." They also charted with the theme song from the show.

LONDON (AP) — She was instantly recognizable for the eye patch that hid a shrapnel injury – a testament to Marie Colvin’s courage, which took her behind the front lines of the world’s deadliest conflicts to write about the suffering of individuals trapped in war. After more than two decades of chronicling conflict, Colvin became a victim of it Wednesday, killed by shelling in the besieged Syrian city of Homs. Colvin, 56, died alongside French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, the French government announced. Freelance photographer Paul Conroy and journalist Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro were wounded.

Dory Previn, the lyricist for three Oscar-nominated songs who as a composer and performer mined her difficult childhood, bouts of mental illness and a very public divorce to create a potent and influential personal songbook, died on Tuesday at her home in Southfield, Mass. She was 86... Her early success came in Hollywood, writing songs for the movies, generally as a lyricist working with her husband, André Previn, who later earned fame as a classical composer and conductor...

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Etta James, whose assertive, earthy voice lit up such hits as "The Wallflower," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and the wedding favorite "At Last," has died, according to her longtime friend and manager, Lupe De Leon. She was 73. She died from complications from leukemia with her husband, Artis Mills, and her sons by her side, De Leon said. She was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, and also suffered from dementia and hepatitis C. James died at a hospital in Riverside, California. She would have turned 74 Wednesday. " This is a tremendous loss for the family, her friends...

Tony Blankely, a noted conservative author and commentator and former editorial page editor of The Washington Times, died Sunday morning, according to family sources. He was 63 and had been battling stomach cancer. Mr. Blankley was an executive vice president of the Edelman public-relations firm in Washington, a visiting senior fellow in national-security communications at the Heritage Foundation, a syndicated newspaper columnist and an on-air political commentator for CNN, NBC and NPR. He was also a regular weekly guest on “The McLaughlin Group.” Mr. Blankley was editorial page editor of The Times from 2002 to 2007, and from 1990 to...

MIAMI (AP) — Don Carter, the bowling great with the unorthodox style who flourished as a genuine sports celebrity during the game's golden age on TV, has died. He was 85. Carter died at his home in Miami on Thursday night, the Professional Bowlers Association said Friday. He recently was hospitalized with pneumonia complicated by emphysema. Carter, known as "Mr. Bowling," was the game's original superstar. He became his sport's most recognizable name at a time when alleys were thriving across the country and bowling was starting to assert itself as a fixture on television. Carter was a leading force...

Kevin Christopher Fitzgerald's life ended Saturday night on the cold asphalt of Highway 101 in Santa Rosa when the 57-year-old homeless man walked into the path of a southbound pickup truck. The driver, traveling at 65 mph, swerved and tried to brake, but had no chance to miss Fitzgerald, the CHP said. The man had lived on the streets and been to local hospitals so often in the last 25 years that paramedics immediately recognized him. Fitzgerald, the fifth homeless pedestrian killed by a vehicle this year in Santa Rosa, carried a secret that stunned most people who'd known the...

Kim Jong-il is dead

For Vaclav Havel, and for his people, everything changed in 1989, the year of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, when he led the extraordinary display of people power which toppled the ruling communist regime. The world watched with astonishment as, within weeks, the dissident playwright became president. Vaclav Havel was born in 1936. His father was a successful engineer and, by his own admission, young Vaclav was a pampered child from a wealthy family. *Drama critic* But when the communists came to power he saw his family lose everything. The new government decided the young Havel was "too bourgeois" to be allowed...

"English" Alan Styles, a one-time member of the Sausalito anchor-out community and former roadie for the British rock band Pink Floyd, died Thursday of pneumonia at Marin General Hospital. He was 75. While his long hair, beard and giving manner made him a familiar figure around Sausalito, Mr. Styles was better known to millions as the voice on ''Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast," the track on Pink Floyd's 1970 album ''Atom Heart Mother." Born in Cambridge, England on Oct. 5, 1936, Mr. Styles became acquainted with David Gilmour during his youth. Gilmour would later become a guitarist and songwriter for Pink Floyd....

'John Neville, the respected British-born actor and director who was artistic director of Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival 1985-89, died in Toronto on Nov. 19, surrounded by family, the festival announced Nov. 20. He was 86. A private funeral will take place immediately. Plans for a memorial will be announced in the New Year. Late in his career, Mr. Neville, who received the Order of the British Empire in the 1960s, starred in the motion picture "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," and he played The Well-Manicured-Man in TV's "The X-Files." Mr. Neville, however, was a man of theatre first. In the...

Harry Morgan, the prolific character actor best known for playing the acerbic but kindly Colonel Potter in the long-running television series “M*A*S*H,” died Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96. His son Charles confirmed his death. In more than 100 movies, Mr. Morgan played Western bad guys, characters with names like Rocky and Shorty, loyal sidekicks, judges, sheriffs, soldiers, thugs and police chiefs. On television, he played Officer Bill Gannon with a phlegmatic but light touch to Jack Webb’s always-by-the-book Sgt. Joe Friday in the updated “Dragnet,” from 1967 to 1970. He starred as Pete Porter,...

Nov 25 (Reuters) - Former Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev, who won two Olympic and eight world super heavyweight titles and set 80 world records during his illustrious career, died on Friday following a long illness.

PHOENIX (AP) — For more than a half century, Bil Keane's clever "Family Circus" comics entertained readers with a mix of humor and traditional family values, intentionally simplistic because the author thought the American public needed that consistency.