Free Republic

<p>BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- William Steig, a prolific illustrator for The New Yorker known as the "King of Cartoons" for his award-winning, best-selling children's books including "Shrek," has died. He was 95.</p> <p>Steig died of natural causes of Friday night at his home in the Back Bay section of Boston, said his agent, Holly McGhee.</p>

LONDON (Reuters) - A British war hero, said to have been the inspiration behind secret agent James Bond, has died aged 90, British newspapers reported Wednesday. Former Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Patrick Dalzel-Job carried out a series of daring exploits behind enemy lines during the Second World War including some while serving under author Ian Fleming, who created the 007 character. Although he never claimed to be the real James Bond, Fleming had told him he was the model for the heroic spy, the Guardian newspaper said. Dalzel-Job's real life adventures certainly read like a James Bond novel. In one...

<p>At the height of Wally George's fame in the mid-1980s, fans of the conservative talk-show host with the shock of white hair would wait several weeks to secure one of 60 tickets to his "Hot Seat" television show, taped in Anaheim.</p>

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- James Forlong, a Sky News reporter who quit amid accusations that he faked a report during the war on Iraq, has been found dead, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported, citing local police. Forlong, 44, who had worked for Sky News for 10 years, was found dead at his home in Hove, southern England by local police in the early hours of Saturday morning, the BBC said. Police said the circumstances surrounding his death were not suspicious, the BBC reported. Forlong resigned from the satellite television news channel three months ago over allegations that he faked a...

When Elia Kazan was presented a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1999, he closed his speech - and the door to his confounding life - with the words "I think I can just slip away." And now he has. Kazan died Sunday in his Manhattan home at the age of 94. Besides his indelible work as a theater director, Kazan leaves behind conflicting legacies as one of postwar Hollywood's most important filmmakers and one of its biggest finks. A former member of the Communist Party USA, Kazan wilted before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952 and named names. Afterward, he...

NEW YORK -- Edward W. Said, a Columbia University professor, literary critic and leading spokesman in the United States for the Palestinian cause, has died, his editor at Knopf publishers said Thursday. He was 67. Said died at a New York hospital, said editor Shelly Wanger. He had suffered from leukemia at least since the early 1990s.

Robert H. Lochner, who as John F. Kennedy's interpreter helped the president practice his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in 1963, has died, his family said Monday. He was 84. A journalist by trade who helped revive free media in West Germany after World War II, Mr. Lochner died of a lung embolism early Sunday at his home in western Berlin, said his daughter Anita. Mr. Lochner was head of Radio in the American Sector, a radio station supported by the United States in West Berlin during Kennedy's triumphal visit to West Germany and the non-Communist half of the...

Sheb Wooley -- of “Purple People Eater” Fame -- Dead at 82 09/16/2003 Singer, songwriter and actor Sheb Wooley -- who also recorded a series of parody hits as Ben Colder -- died Tuesday (Sept. 16) at Skyline Medical Center in Nashville. He was 82. Wooley had suffered from leukemia for the past five years, his widow, Linda Dotson, told CMT.com. However, she said he had been strong enough to go with her to Johnny Cash’s wake on Sunday (Sept. 14). While there, she continued, he seemed to falter: “It was like God laid His hand on his shoulder and...

The three-day shoot for the video was about to wrap, and director Mark Romanek needed just one more shot from his singer star, Johnny Cash. As Romanek recalls, "I said to John, 'This is the last take. So if you want to get angry or smash something up, this is your last chance.'" Cash didn't get it. He thought Romanek meant this would be the final shot in the ailing star's life, so he had better make it good. Cash wouldn't, couldn't surrender to such defeatism. "I hope it's not the last take," he said in that baritone growl, which...

<p>Edward Teller, the man who played a key role in U.S. defense and energy policies for more than half a century and was dubbed the "Father of the H-bomb" for his enthusiastic pursuit of the powerful weapon, died Tuesday, a spokesman for Lawrence Livermore Laboratory confirmed. He was 95.</p>

BERLIN (AP) Leni Riefenstahl, best known for her Nazi-era propaganda films, has died at age 101, a German magazine reports, quoting a long-time friend.

That's it - just came in our newsroom

MUNDELEIN, Ill. -- A northern Illinois man who legally changed his name to Santa Claus in 1997 was found dead Tuesday in his Mundelein-area home. Born Robert Rion, he officially changed his name after decades of playing Santa. At 6 feet tall and 300 pounds, with a long white beard, the name fit him. Claus made Christmas appearances across Lake County and operated a year-round hotline so kids could talk to Santa.

August 23, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Bobby Bonds, one of the first major leaguers to blend home-run power with base-stealing speed and the father of one of baseball's greatest sluggers, died Saturday. He was 57. Barry Bonds' father had been ill for nearly a year with a brain tumor and lung cancer, but he never lost his love for baseball. He was at Pacific Bell Park as recently as Wednesday night, watching his superstar son and the San Francisco Giants. Bobby Bonds died shortly before 9 a.m. PDT, a Giants spokesman said. Barry Bonds will be away from the...

Herb Brooks, 66, former University of Minnesota hockey coach, was killing this afternoon in car crash near Forest Lake, Minn., on Interstate 35.....

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Sam Phillips, who discovered Elvis Presley and helped usher in the rock 'n' roll revolution, died Wednesday. He was 80. Phillips died at St. Francis Hospital, spokeswoman Gwendolyn McClain said. No details were immediately available about the cause of death or how long he had been hospitalized. Phillips founded Sun Records in Memphis in 1952 and helped launch the career of Presley, then a young singer who had moved from Tupelo, Miss. He produced Presley's first record, the 1954 single that featured ``That's All Right, Mama'' and ``Blue Moon of Kentucky.'' ``God only knows that we didn't...

Just heard from a friend, who heard it on the radio. I cannot find an article as of yet.

Bob Hope: 1903-200307/28/2003By PHILIP WUNTCH / The Dallas Morning News Bob Hope, the vaudeville jokester turned pop-culture giant whose ski-slope profile cast a wry shadow over the 20th century and into the 21st, died late Sunday night, just two months after his 100th birthday. He died late Sunday of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, with his family at his bedside, longtime publicist Ward Grant told the Associated Press on Monday. From vaudeville venues to wartime USO stages, from big-screen Road tales opposite Bing Crosby to small-screen holiday specials opposite Brooke Shields, he kept America chuckling for nearly...

<p>July 28, 2003 -- Jane Barbe, whose voice was familiar to millions of telephone users across the country who ever dialed a wrong number or had to "Please listen to the following options" in a voice-mail system, died July 18 in Roswell, Ga., of complications from cancer. She was 74.</p>