Notable deaths last week
• Roberto Gomez Bolanos, the iconic Mexican comedian who wrote and played the boy television character "El Chavo del Ocho" that defined a generation for millions of Latin American children, has died at age 85.
Known as "Chespirito", he changed comedy in Latin America, taking his inspiration from Laurel and Hardy as well as Mexico's other transcendent comedian who eventually made it to Hollywood, Cantinflas.
His two most famous characters were "El Chavo del Ocho," who lived in the homes of Latin America and beyond with his barrel, freckles, striped shirt and frayed cap, and the naive superhero "El Chapulin Colorado," or "The Crimson Grasshopper." His morning show was a staple for preschoolers, much like "Captain Kangaroo" in the United States.
He warmed the hearts of millions with a clean comedy style far removed from the sexual innuendo and obscenity-laced jokes popular today. In a career that started in the 1950s, he wrote hundreds of television episodes, 20 films and theater productions that drew record-breaking audiences.
Proof of his wide popularity came when he opened a Twitter account in 2011 with a simple message: "Hello. I'm Chespirito. I'm 82-years-old and this is the first time I tweet. This is my debut. All the good people, follow me!"
In less than two months, he had 1 million followers. By the time of his death, there were 6.6 million.
• Divisive and flamboyant, maddening and beloved, Marion Barry outshone every politician in the 40-year history of District of Columbia self-rule. But for many, his legacy was not defined by the accomplishments and failures of his four terms as mayor and long service on the D.C. Council.
Instead, Barry will be remembered for a single night in a downtown Washington hotel room and the grainy video that showed him lighting a crack pipe in the company of a much-younger woman. When FBI agents burst in, he referred to her with an expletive. She "set me up," Barry said.
Barry has died at 78.
• Bob Baker, the founder of one of America's oldest puppet theaters, has died at age 90.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater captivated children and adults with its ornate wooden puppets and props. The theater was a vestige of the days when marionettes were widely used on stage and television and playhouses dotted the streets of downtown Los Angeles.
• Jack Kyle, the dashing flyhalf for Ireland in the 1940s and '50s and one of rugby's greatest players, has died. He was 88.
Kyle played 46 times for Ireland during an 11-year international career, scoring seven tries.
• Saeed Akl, Lebanon's leading poet whose fame spread throughout the Arab world, has died. He was 102.
The ultra-nationalist Akl wrote his poems in classical Arabic as well as the Lebanese dialect, which he referred to as "the Lebanese language."
• Frank Yablans, a former president of Paramount Pictures in the 1970s who oversaw the release of several groundbreaking pictures, has died at 79.
• Pat Quinn, a former defenseman and longtime NHL coach and executive who brought a gruff and passionate presence to hockey across the decades, has died at 71.
Quinn played parts of nine seasons in the NHL and went on to coach the Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs. Quinn guided Canada to the championship at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, the country's first gold medal in men's hockey in 50 years. He was behind the bench when Canada won the World Cup of Hockey in 2004.
• P.D. James took the classic British detective story into tough modern terrain, complete with troubled relationships and brutal violence, and never accepted that crime writing was second-class literature.
James, who has died at age 94, is best known as the creator of sensitive Scotland Yard sleuth Adam Dalgliesh. But her wickedly acute imagination ranged widely, inserting a murder into the mannered world of Jane Austen in "Death Comes to Pemberley" and creating a bleak dystopian future in "The Children of Men."
• Juan Carlos Llorca, a veteran Associated Press journalist who covered immigration and the drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border, and whose reporting on illegal international adoptions helped prompt national reforms in Guatemala, has died at age 40.
• Phillip Hughes won admirers across the cricket spectrum, from the most elite players to the everyday fan for an unorthodox batting style honed on the family banana plantation and a never-give-in attitude despite being dropped a handful of times from Australia's test team.
Hughes died Thursday, two days after undergoing emergency surgery for a bleeding of the brain that occurred after he was struck on the head by a cricket ball in a match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He was 25, just three days short of his next birthday.
• Viktor Tikhonov, the Soviet hockey coach whose teams won three Olympic gold medals but fell to the United States in the "Miracle on Ice," died after a long illness. He was 84.
While a successful player, winning four Soviet titles as a defenseman, Tikhonov came into his own during 14 years in charge of the Soviet national team.
• Gilles Tremblay, a former Montreal Canadiens forward who played on four Stanley Cup-winning teams in the 1960s, has died. He was 75.
He played his entire nine-year career with the Canadiens.
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s, scoring 168 goals and adding 162 assists over 509 regular-season games.
• "Mad" Frankie Fraser, an old-school London criminal who spent more than 40 years in prison and became an underworld celebrity, has died. He was 90.
Fraser was among the last survivors of a generation of sharp-suited Cockney gangsters that included the Kray twins, Reggie and Ronnie, who moved between London's East End dives and the society pages in the 1960s.
Fraser worked as a gangland enforcer for the South London-based Richardsons, and earned a fearsome reputation for violence. He was known as "The Dentist," for allegedly pulling out his victims' teeth with pliers.
He served a total of 42 years in prison for a variety of crimes - though never murder - and was sent to psychiatric facilities several times after being declared insane.
• A Pennsylvania banker and philanthropist who said the key to his longevity was having an unlisted phone number has died at age 109.
Leo Moskovitz would have turned 110 on Dec. 8.
Moskovitz founded First National Bank of Jermyn and served as its president until 1993. The University of Scranton commemorated Moskovitz's support by naming a theater for him and wife Ann.
• Beloved for her powerful voice and brazen in the conservative Arab world for her multiple marriages, Lebanese singer, actress and entertainer Sabah never seemed far from the limelight during her six-decade career.
And even while playfully mocked in her later years for clinging to youth through plastic surgeries, flings with far-younger men and garish outfits, Sabah remained cherished for her love of life and positive outlook even into old age.
"I'm proud that I'm a village girl but I had a lot of ambition," Sabah once said in 2008.
Sabah, whose real name was Jeanette Feghali, has died at age 87.
• The International Tennis Hall of Fame says Dorothy "Dodo" Cheney, a member of the Hall and the first American woman to win the tournament now known as the Australian Open, has died at age 98.
She was inducted in 2004, and was introduced at the ceremony by fellow member John McEnroe.
In addition to her 1938 singles title at the Australian Championships, Cheney reached the semifinals at least once at each of the other three Grand Slam tournaments and was ranked in the top 10 in the 1930s and 1940s.
• Dr. Denham Harman, a renowned scientist who developed a prominent theory on aging that's now used to study cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other illnesses, has died in Nebraska at age 98.
Harman developed the "Free Radical Theory of Aging" in 1954, though it took years for additional research to prove its importance. The theory holds that one of the byproducts of oxygen utilization is adverse chemical reactions in cells, which results in aging and, ultimately, death.
The medical community initially scoffed at the theory proposed by Harman, who also contributed to nearly three dozen patents between earning his doctorate in chemistry at the University of California in Berkeley in 1943 and his medical degree from Stanford in 1954.
But by the 1980s, free radicals had become part of research into cancer, cardiovascular disease and strokes. Free radicals have since been linked to Alzheimer's disease.
• Ray Sadecki, who pitched in the major leagues for 18 seasons and won 20 games for the 1964 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, has died from complications of blood cancer, his son, Steve, said. Sadecki was 73.
Sadecki made his major league debut at age 19 with the Cardinals in 1960. In 1964, he went 20-11 and helped St. Louis win the National League pennant. The Cardinals beat the New York Yankees in the World Series in seven games.
Sadecki was traded to the San Francisco Giants in 1966 for Orlando Cepeda.
The left-hander had a 135-131 career record with a 3.78 ERA with St. Louis, San Francisco, the New York Mets, Atlanta, Kansas City and Milwaukee.
• Michael Shanahan, a veteran Washington political reporter for The Associated Press and Newhouse Newspapers who used that experience to teach new generations of students at George Washington University about the business he loved, has died at age 71.
• The founder of Coffee House Press, described as one of the premier nonprofit literary publishers in the nation, has died at age 65.
Allan Kornblum was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006 and died at his home in St. Paul, according to his family.
• Larry Kelm, a linebacker on Texas A&M's Wrecking Crew defense who went on to play in the NFL, has died. He was 49.
The university said Monday he died this weekend in an accident while hunting.
Kelm was a linebacker for the Aggies from 1983-86. He was drafted in the fourth round in 1987 and played with the Los Angeles Rams from 1987-92. He finished his career with the San Francisco 49ers in 1993.