Notable deaths last week

Helen Gurley Brown, the longtime editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and an author who encouraged women not to save it for the wedding night, has died in New Yorkat age 90.

“Sex and the Single Girl,” her million-selling grab-bag book of advice, opinion and anecdote on why being single shouldn’t mean being sexless, made a celebrity of the 40-year-old advertising copywriter in 1962 and made her a foil for feminists who believed that women’s rights meant more than sleeping around.

Three years later, she was hired by Hearst Magazines to turn around the languishing Cosmopolitan, and it became her playtime pulpit for the next 32 years.

“You can’t be sexual at 60 if you’re fat,” she observed on her 60th birthday. She also championed cosmetic surgery, speaking easily of her own nose job, facelifts and silicone injections.

Ron Palillo, the actor best known as the nerdy high school student Arnold Horshack on the 1970s sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter,” has died at 63.

Palillo went on to get a host of bit parts in shows from “The Love Boat” to “Cagney and Lacey” to “The A-Team,” and played himself for a time on the series “Ellen.” But he remained best-known for his role on “Kotter,” and focused in his later years onstage directing and writing.

Patrick Ricard, who transformed a small firm based on his father’s anis-flavored liquor into a global entity with some of the most famous names in alcohol, has died. He was 67.

Ricard’s father founded Pernod Ricard in 1932 and developed pastis, beloved in France as an aperitif but relatively unknown outside the country. His son joined the company in 1967 and became chairman and CEO in 1978, turning Pernod Ricard into a global brand with the acquisition of some of the world’s best-known liquors, including Absolut Vodka, Jameson Irish Whisky and Perrier-Jouet champagne.

American author Harry Harrison, whose space-age spoofs delighted generations of science fiction fans, has died at age 87.

Harrison was best known for his “The Stainless Steel Rat” series, starring the free-spirited anti-hero Slippery Jim DiGriz, a quick-witted con man who travels the universe swindling humans, aliens and robots alike. His 1966 work, “Make Room! Make Room!” — a sci-fi take on the horrors of overpopulation — inspired the 1973 film “Soylent Green” starring Charlton Heston.

Phyllis Thaxter, an actress best known for her role as Clark Kent’s adoptive mother in the 1978 film “Superman,” has died in Florida. She was 92.

Nellie Gray, who left a government career to start the March for Life, the annual anti-abortion demonstration that for nearly four decades has drawn tens of thousands of activists to Washington to speak out on one of the most polarizing of American social issues, has died. She was 88.

Saxophonist and National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master Von Freeman, 88,is being remembered as a jazz great who made every song his own.

Freeman never became of a major star, but he was highly regarded as a musician by other practitioners of jazz. Miles Davis reportedly wanted him in the 1950s as a replacement for John Coltrane. But he refused to leave Chicago for most of his career, taking only the briefest trips out of the city to perform.

Jimmy Carr, who won an NFL championship in 1960 with the Philadelphia Eagles, has died in Indiana. He was 79.

Carr played nine NFL seasons with the Chicago Cardinals, Eagles and Washington Redskins. He was the starting left cornerback on the 1960 title team and had 13 of his 15 career interceptions with the Eagles.

Svetozar Gligoric, a legendary Serbian and Yugoslav chess grandmaster who was the national champion 12 times and one of the world’s top players in the 20th century has died in Belgrade. He was 89.

Irving Fein, a producer and manager who steered the careers of comedy greats George Burns and Jack Benny and named actress Lana Turner the “Sweater Girl,” has died at age 101.

Johnny Pesky, the former Boston Red Sox shortstop and manager whose name was given to the right field foul pole at Fenway Park, has died at 92.

Michael Dokes, a former World Boxing Association heavyweight champion, has died at age 54 of liver cancer.

Gregory Powell, who was convicted of killing a Los Angeles police officer during an infamous kidnapping that inspired the true crime book and movie “The Onion Field,” has died in prison at age 79.

Bloomington, Ind., police say the wife of former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton has died after being run over by her own car. Police said 82-year-old Nancy Hamilton had arrived with a pet for a veterinary visit but her car was not set in the parking gear and it rolled over her as she walked behind the vehicle.

Albert Freeman Jr., the veteran actor who played Elijah Muhammad in Spike Lee’s epic film, “Malcolm X,” has died. He was 78.