Beloved French director; Junie B. Jones author
Director Georges Lautner, whose films from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are part of the French canon and still adored, has died at 87.
Of the dozens of films he made, “Les Tontons Flingeurs,” which appeared as “Monsieur Gangster” for Anglophone audiences, was perhaps the most beloved.
His films were often hilarious and wildly popular; lines from several have entered the popular imagination and quoted almost as if proverbs. His movies are still frequently screened on French television.
Barbara Park, a former class clown who channeled her irreverence into the million-selling mishaps of grade schooler Junie B. Jones, has died. She was 66.
Starting in 1992, Park wrote more than 30 illustrated chapter books about the smart-mouthed girl with an ungrammatical opinion of everybody — her parents, her teachers, her friends and her classmate and enemy for life, May, who is so mean she won’t even acknowledge Junie’s middle initial (which stands for Beatrice: “Only I don’t like Beatrice. I just like B and that’s all,” Junie warned).
The books’ titles alone were windows into Junie’s slangy mind: “Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth,” “Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus,” “Junie B. Jones and That Meanie Jim’s Birthday.” Junie was stuck in kindergarten for years before Park advanced her to the next class, starting with Book 18 and “Junie B., First Grader (at last!).”
Park’s books sold more than 55 million copies just in North America, according to Random House, and the series was adapted into a popular musical theater production. Junie B. inspired much laughter among families, and a few frowns. Parents and educators occasionally objected to Jones’ personalized language and cheeky ways, worrying that she was a bad influence on her fans. The series has appeared on the American Library Association’s list of “challenged” books.
Sylvia Browne once said she was just 3 when she discovered she could look into the future and know what was coming.
For the next 74 years, Browne claimed to do just that, predicting who would win elections, which celebrities would be getting married, splitting up or having babies, and whether people who had disappeared were alive or dead.
Sometimes she got it right and sometimes not. Among the predictions that misfired was one she made to talk-show host Larry King in 2003 that she would live to be 88.
Browne was 77 when she died Wednesday at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose.
One of the most well-known psychics of her generation, Browne often appeared on “The Montel Williams Show” and in interviews with King. She wrote dozens of books, including several best-sellers, and she sometimes offered her services to the FBI and police agencies.
Over the years she said she mingled with angels and ghosts, twice traveled through the tunnel of light during near-death experiences, and came face-to-face with extraterrestrials.
Vern Mikkelsen, a Hall of Fame basketball player who won four NBA titles with the Minneapolis Lakers, has died. He was 85.
He was a six-time All-Star during 10 years with the Lakers, teaming with George Mikan and Jim Pollard in a frontcourt that to this day is considered one of the best the league has ever seen.
Fred Kavli, who launched a foundation to support science research and award prizes of $1 million to scientists, has died in Santa Barbara. He was 86.
Kavli was a philanthropist, physicist and entrepreneur. In 2000, he created a foundation bearing his name that supported basic research in astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience and theoretical physics.
Michael Weiner, the plain-speaking, ever-positive labor lawyer who took over as head of the powerful baseball players’ union four years ago and smoothed its perennially contentious relationship with management, has died 15 months after announcing he had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He was 51.
“Michael Weiner worked even thru his sickness. He didn’t look at it as an excuse to quit,” tweeted Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen, the NL MVP. “He never gave up on us even when at his worst.”
At Weiner’s last public speaking engagement, a 25-minute meeting with baseball writers on the day of the All-Star game in July, he was confined to a wheelchair and unable to move his right side. Yet, he wanted to respond to questions about his illness and issues in the game, and did so with the grace and humor he was known for throughout his life.
Dante J. Orsini Sr., a former Marine who guarded President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his “Day of Infamy” speech after the Pearl Harbor attack, has died at age 93.
Herbert Mitgang, a longtime New York Times journalist and author, has died at age 93.
He also was the author of more than a dozen books, including one that looked at government files compiled on prominent authors such as Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. He also wrote a play about President Abraham Lincoln, “Mr. Lincoln,” which made it to Broadway in 1980.
Frederick Sanger, a British scientist who deciphered the structure of proteins and other chemical building blocks of life, achievements that helped lead to the mapping of the human genome and that were honored by two Nobel Prizes in chemistry, has died at a hospital in Cambridge, England. He was 95.
Sanger was one of four people in history to receive two Nobel Prizes, the others being the Polish-born French scientist Marie Curie, the American chemist Linus Pauling and the American physicist John Bardeen.
Sanger received his first Nobel Prize in 1958, at age 40, for “his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin.” He was credited with decoding the amino acids that make up insulin, which is secreted by the pancreas. That advance — the product of 10 years of research — helped lead to the unmasking of other, more complex proteins that help control the most basic functions of life.
Twenty-two years later, in 1980, he collected his second Nobel Prize, one that he shared with the American scientists Paul Berg and Walter Gilbert. Along with Gilbert, Sanger was honored for his “contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids” — which contain the basic hereditary material for living organisms.
Doris Lessing emerged from a black cab outside her home in London one day in 2007 and was confronted by a horde of reporters. When told she had won the Nobel Prize, she blinked and retorted “Oh Christ! ... I couldn’t care less.”
That was typical of the independent — and often irascible — author who died after a long career that included “The Golden Notebook,” a 1962 novel that made her an icon of the women’s movement.
Frank Lauterbur, who coached Toledo to two undefeated seasons in football, before leaving to take over at Iowa for three seasons in the early 1970s, has died. He was 88.
The Rockets won 23 consecutive games from 1969-70 under Lauterbur.
He coached eight seasons at Toledo before going to Iowa where he coached from 1971-73.
Diane Disney Miller, Walt Disney’s daughter and one of his inspirations for building the Disneyland theme park, has died at her Northern California home. She was 79.
Miller, the eldest daughter of Walt and Lillian Disney, was born Dec. 18, 1933. In later life, she remembered her father as a man who was caring and patient with his children.
“He’d take me and my sister Sharon to the merry-go-round at Griffith Park and stand there all day waiting until we were ready to go,” Miller told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1998. “As he stood there, he kept thinking there should be more for parents and children to do together, and the idea for Disneyland was born.”
The author of the screenplay manual that inspired James Cameron and Judd Apatow to make movies has died. A spokesman for Syd Field says the author died at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 77.
Syd Field’s book “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting” has been required reading in Hollywood since it was published in 1979.
It has been translated into 23 languages and used in universities around the world.
Aldo Coppola, a Milan hairstylist who helped merge hair styling with fashion, has died at the age of 73.
Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon, who wrestled for Canada in the 1948 Olympics before fighting in more than 13,000 bouts as a professional, has died at 84.
Edmund Reggie, who managed John F. Kennedy’s Louisiana campaign and whose daughter later married Sen. Edward Kennedy, has died at his home in Lafayette. He was 87.
Frank Chamberlin, an NFL linebacker who played with three teams from 2000 to 2005, has died from a rare form of brain cancer. He was 35.
Chamberlin was a fullback and linebacker at Boston College and was drafted by Tennessee in 2000. He spent three seasons with the Titans and later played with the Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Texans.
Billy Hardwick, a two-time Professional Bowlers Association player of the year and 18-time winner in his Hall of Fame career, died Saturday. He was 72.
Henry Lind, who as the U.S. Supreme Court’s reporter of decisions for eight years polished and published the high court’s legal opinions, has died in Springfield, Va. He was 92.