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rtie Shaw, the jazz clarinetist and big-band leader who successfully challenged Benny Goodman's reign as the King of Swing with his recordings of "Begin the Beguine," "Lady Be Good" and "Star Dust" in the late 1930's, died yesterday at his home in Newbury Park, Calif. He was 94. He apparently died of natural causes, his lawyer, Eddie Ezor, told The Associated Press. In the Royalty of Swing By JOHN S. WILSON Artie Shaw's virtuosity on his instrument, his groups' highly original arrangements and his explosively romantic showmanship made him one of the most danced-to bandleaders of swing and one of...

Larry Buchanan, the filmmaker who has died aged 81, specialised in the niche market for what he called "guerrilla filmmaking" - truly dreadful B-movies with such names as Zontar, the Thing from Venus; Curse of the Swamp Creature; Naughty Dallas and Mars Needs Women, a film which reputedly features in every list of the worst movies ever made. But even this last title found a market, and reached its widest audiences in a version dubbed into Yiddish. Buchanan combined the roles of producer, director, screenwriter, editor and, where appropriate, voice-over narrator. He was unashamed, even proud, of tacky production values,...

NEW YORK -- Susan Sontag, the author, activist and self-defined "zealot of seriousness" whose voracious mind and provocative prose made her a leading intellectual of the past half century, died Tuesday. She was 71. Sontag died Tuesday morning, officials at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center said. She had been treated for breast cancer in the 1970s. Sontag called herself a "besotted aesthete," an "obsessed moralist" and a "zealot of seriousness."

Ronald Reagan changed history with his tough-minded stance on the Soviets and his insistence on the importance of tax cuts. His influence rings throughout the White House, the Congress and the nation's state capitals, and seemed to sound even louder this election year. Yasser Arafat was a hero to the Palestinian people, bringing their cause to the world stage, but was a terrorist to many. It could be years before we learn whether his long-term influence will be for the good or ill. They are two notables who died in 2004 who profoundly influenced world history. Francis Crick helped alter...

Don Miller Stroud DON MILLER STROUD, 82, died Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004 at his home. A native of San Marcos, Texas he lived in Houston for the last 53, years. Don was of the Baptist faith. He was a member of Pearl Harbor Survivors, USS Laws Association, Windsor Village Little League, and was a Veteran of WWII. Survivors include 4 daughters, Shirley Mathews and husband Henry, Donna Van Arsdall and husband Dale, Cindy Whomes and husband Jeff and Mary Thurman, 3 sons, Patrick Stroud, Eddie Stroud and wife Carolyn and Ron Stroud and wife Sandra, 8 grandchildren, Marty, Shannon, April,...

Stephen Byrne (NOTE: MY EMPHASIS BELOW)Stephen James BYRNE Steve, who lived in Edmonds, savored life. He has left us now, in a struggle to find peace, and we will miss him. But we will remember that savoring of life, his love of sailing, biking, cross country skiing, diving, hiking. His love of an incredible mountain vista, how the leaves turned gold in the fall, a great bottle of wine and a wonderful meal with friends, a long ride around Lake Washington or up Washington Pass, completing the STP bike ride for the first time, and the second. He loved his...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Russ Meyer, who helped spawn the "skin flick" with such films as "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" and "Vixen," has died. He was 82. Meyer died Saturday at his home in the Hollywood Hills, according to his company, RM Films International Inc. Spokeswoman Janice Cowart said Meyer had suffered from dementia and died of complications of pneumonia. Meyer's films were considered pornographic in their time but are less shocking by today's standards, with their focus on violence and large-busted women but little graphic sex.

Johnny Ramone, member of punk legends ’The Ramones,’ dies at 55 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band “The Ramones,” has died. He was 55. Ramone died in his sleep Wednesday afternoon at his Los Angeles home surrounded by friends and family, his publicist said. He had battled prostate cancer for five years, and was hospitalized in June at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Ramone, born John Cummings, was one of the original members of the Ramones, whose hit songs “I Wanna be sedated” and “Blitzkrieg Bop,” among others, earned the band induction into the...

Posted as breaking on Fox News ...Nothing follows

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Alberta Martin, the last widow of a Civil War veteran, died Monday, ending an unlikely ascent from poor sharecropper's daughter to the belle of 21st century Confederate history buffs who paraded her across the South. She was 97.

TORONTO - David Reimer, a Canadian who was born as a boy but raised as a girl after a botched circumcision, has committed suicide after failed investments drove him into poverty. He was 38. Reimer died in Winnipeg, Manitoba on May 4, according to Canadian media reports. The family has not released the cause of death. Friends said an anguished Reimer had told them he had lost at least $47,500 last year in a shady pro golf shop investment. Reimer gained fame in the mid-1990s when he went public with his ordeal. It was published in the book "As Nature...

FOX news reporting.

John "Jack" Lundberg - Obituary AP Mar. 10, 2004 WATERTOWN, Wis. (AP) - John "Jack" Lundberg, believed to be one of the last surviving steelworkers who built New York's Empire State Building, died Wednesday. He was 97. The Empire State Building, at 102 stories, was completed in 1931 and for years stood as the world's tallest skyscraper before other structures surpassed it. Lundberg, whose death was confirmed Friday by the Pederson Funeral Home, also worked on the Chrysler building and Rockefeller Center in New York and the John Hancock Tower in Boston. The Discovery Channel and the BBC both interviewed...

<p>NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Dave Blood, bassist for defunct Philadelphia rock act the Dead Milkmen, committed suicide Wednesday, according to a post by his sister on the band's official message board (http://deadmilkmen.com).</p> <p>In a subsequent post, Milkmen drummer Dean Clean confirmed the news.</p>

Hollywood — Robert Pastorelli (search), who played the screwball housepainter Eldin on "Murphy Brown," (search) was found dead in his Hollywood Hills home in what the coroner's office said may have been a drug overdose. He was 49. Coroner's office Lt. Ed Winter (search) said Pastorelli's body was found by his assistant Monday in a bathroom. An autopsy was done, but the cause of death won't be released pending the results of toxicology tests, which could take eight to ten weeks, Lt. Fred Corral said. "It's a possible accidental death," Winter said, adding, "There was drug paraphernalia found." On CBS'...

Monologist Spalding Gray, known to most normal people chiefly for his appearance in David Byrne's 1986 True Stories, has been found dead in the East River at lower Manhattan. Gray disappeared two months ago; speculation at the time was that he was a suicide and had leapt from the Staten Island Ferry.

The man who entertained generations of Chicago children with Chelveston the Duck, Cuddley Duddley and morning turtle races is dead. Ray Rayner, who hosted the morning kid show “Ray Rayner and Friends” on WGN for nearly 20 years, and also played clown Oliver O’Oliver on the Bozo Show, died this morning of pneumonia in a hospital in Fort Myers, Fla., where he had been living in retirement, according to his daughter, Christina Miller. He was 84. Known at one time as the busiest man in Chicago television, during one period in the 1960s, Mr. Rayner performed in three live television...