Notable deaths last week

• Rod Taylor, the suave Australian actor whose brawny good looks made him a leading man for films ranging from thrillers to Westerns, has died. He was 84.

His breakthrough came in 1960 with "The Time Machine," George Pal's special effects marvel in which Taylor's dogged British inventor transports himself into a future where he witnesses world wars, nuclear annihilation and, finally, the rise of a new society. His other films included Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "The Train Robbers" with John Wayne.

Taylor later voiced Pongo in "101 Dalmatians" and played Winston Churchill in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds."

• Bess Myerson, the first Jewish Miss America and a New York political force until a series of scandals dubbed the "Bess Mess" forced her into obscurity, has died. She was 90.

The Bronx-born Myerson was hailed as a Jewish, feminist Jackie Robinson - a groundbreaker for her religion and sex - after parlaying her stunning 1945 Miss America victory into national celebrity.

The 5-foot-10 dark-haired beauty, unlike her predecessors, accentuated her intelligence. Myerson landed a series of television jobs, from game show hostess to on-air reporter, before her appointment as New York City's chief consumer watchdog in 1969.

The popular Myerson helped Ed Koch win the 1977 mayoral race, deflecting rumors of the bachelor candidate's homosexuality - which he neither confirmed nor denied - with her constant presence at his side. "The immaculate deception," cynics called it after the couple shared an election night victory kiss.

She made her own bid for office in 1980: an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for U.S. Senate. Three years later, Koch appointed her Cultural Affairs commissioner - an $83,000-a-year post as the city's liaison to the arts.

• Roy Tarpley, the former Dallas Mavericks star center whose NBA career was cut short by drug abuse, died Friday. He was 50.

According to a Tarrant County medical examiner's report, Tarpley died at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington, near Dallas. No cause of death was given in the online report.

"If Roy had stayed healthy, he could have been one of the top-50 players ever," Brad Davis, the Mavericks' radio analyst and player-development coach who played with Tarpley, told The Dallas Morning News. "He could do it all - shoot, score, rebound, pass and defend. We're all sorry to hear of his passing."

The 7-foot Tarpley was the seventh overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft out of Michigan. He played for the Mavericks until October 1991, when he was kicked out of the NBA for using cocaine.

In September 2007, Tarpley sued the NBA and the Mavericks, alleging they discriminated against him on the basis of his disability as a recovering drug and alcohol abuser. Tarpley argued his ban should have been lifted because he had successfully completed the one year of drug and alcohol testing the league requested.

The lawsuit was settled in January 2009, but terms were not disclosed.

• Samuel Goldwyn Jr., a champion of the independent film movement and son to one of the founding fathers of Hollywood cinema, has died. He was 88.

Goldwyn produced low-budget hits like "Mystic Pizza" starring Julia Roberts and "Cotton Comes to Harlem" in the 1970s and 1980s. His company was one of the largest indie film operations. As a producer, he was nominated for a best picture Academy Award in 2004 for "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." His final production credit was for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" in 2013.

Goldwyn's father was one of the founders of Paramount Studios and his production company became part of one Hollywood's largest studios, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). The Hollywood dynasty extends to the third generation: Goldwyn's son John was vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, and another son, actor Tony Goldwyn, stars in the ABC drama "Scandal."

• Dorothy "Dottie" Thomas, the research partner and wife of the Nobel laureate who pioneered the bone marrow transplant, has died in her Seattle-area home at 92.

Dottie Thomas was known as "the mother of bone marrow transplantation" because of the years she spent working with her husband.

• Robert Stone, the award-winning novelist known for "A Flag for Sunrise" and "Dog Soldiers," has died. He was 77.

• Italian director and screenwriter Francesco Rosi, whose films took on corruption in postwar Italy, winning top honors at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, has died. He was 92.

Rosi's most famous works include "Hands over the City," a film about political corruption that won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1963, and "The Mattei Affair," which dealt with the mysterious death of an oil tycoon. It won the Golden Palm at Cannes in 1972.

Italian filmmakers, from Oscar-winner Paolo Sorrentino to long-time friend and collaborator Franco Zeffirelli, mourned Rosi's death on Saturday.

Zeffirelli said in a statement that Rosi was for him "a friend, a lifetime companion and brother," and that the loss was "like experiencing a mutilation." Zeffirelli, 92, and Rosi started out together as assistants to Luchino Visconti, becoming collaborators and life-long friends.

• Willie "Popsy" Dixon, longtime drummer and vocalist for the soul and blues band The Holmes Brothers, has died in Virginia.

Alligator Records said Dixon died after a recent diagnosis of stage four bladder cancer. He was 72.

Born in Virginia Beach, Dixon met brothers Sherman and Wendell Holmes at a New York gig in 1967. They played the bar circuit until 1979 when they officially formed The Holmes Brothers.

• Ben Bolton, who covered the Second Vatican Council and two papacies for The Associated Press, has died, his family said Friday. He was 82.

Bolton arrived in Rome at age 29 and soon found himself immersed in the transformative meetings that became known as Vatican II, which took place over three years and helped modernize the Catholic Church. The young reporter later covered the death of the man who presided over the start of those talks, Pope John XXIII and the election of Pope Paul VI, who closed the sessions.

• Jozef Oleksy, a communist-era party leader who in democratic Poland served as a left-wing prime minister until he was forced to resign over unproven accusations of spying for Russia,has died at 68.

Raised as a Roman Catholic, Oleksy was a prominent communist party leader and briefly served as minister for contacts with the trade unions. He took part in the 1989 Round Table talks with Solidarity that peacefully ended communist rule in Poland. He co-founded a now-defunct party and was prime minister from 1995-96. He resigned amid unconfirmed accusations of spying for Russia which were made by the right-wing interior minister of the time, Andrzej Milczanowski.

Former President Lech Walesa, who at the time believed the accusations and played a role in his ouster, said Friday that he no longer believes that Oleksy was a spy.

"Today I publicly apologize to him and ask his forgiveness," said Walesa, who won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for founding and leading Solidarity.

• Andrae Crouch, a legendary gospel performer, songwriter and choir director whose work graced songs by Michael Jackson and Madonna and movies such as "The Lion King," has died. He was 72.

Crouch died Thursday afternoo, five days after suffering a heart attack.

The Recording Academy, which awarded seven Grammys to Crouch during a career that spanned more than a half-century, said in a statement that he was "a remarkable musician and legendary figure" who was "fiercely devoted to evolving the sound of contemporary, urban gospel music."

Crouch and his twin sister, Sandra Crouch, also a singer, lived in the Pacoima area of Los Angeles. They were pastors at the New Christ Memorial Church in the Los Angeles suburb of San Fernando.

Crouch wrote dozens of songs, including gospel favorites such as "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power," "My Tribute (To God Be the Glory)" and "Soon and Very Soon," which was sung at a public memorial to Jackson.

• J.P. Parise, a Minnesota North Stars standout who helped Canada beat the Soviet Union in the landmark Summit Series in 1972, has died. He was 73.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer a year ago and was in hospice care.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman issued a statement calling Parise "a consummate player, teacher and administrator in the game" and recognizing Parise's "commitment and passion for the NHL" living on through son Zach, a star for the Minnesota Wild.

• William E. Boeing Jr., a son of aerospace pioneer William Boeing Sr. who championed and remained fascinated by flight throughout his life, has died at age 92.

Boeing Jr. did not work at his father's company; he pursued a career in commercial real estate. But he nevertheless witnessed how the airplane maker helped transform Seattle from a backwater frontier town to an aerospace hub in the early part of the 20th century, and he became a champion of the industry and aerospace education.

• Former West Virginia Gov. Arch Alfred Moore Jr. possessed personal charisma, strong oratory gifts and an uncanny ability to recall names - attributes that helped him score important political victories and establish himself as the most successful Republican of his era in a Democrat-dominated state.

But his successes were also deeply tainted by his guilty plea to federal corruption charges.

The three-term governor, congressman, state legislator has died at 91.

• Tadeusz Konwicki, a prominent Polish writer and filmmaker whose works during the communist era lampooned the authoritarian Soviet-imposed system, has died. He was 88.

Konwicki is best known for his novels "A Minor Apocalypse," a satire of life in a totalitarian state, and "The Polish Complex," a polemic on a national historical condition tragically defined by military defeats and foreign occupation. Both were published in the 1970s by the country's underground press, bypassing the state censors.

• Jethro Pugh played alongside Hall of Famers Bob Lilly and Randy White in a long career as a defensive tackle for the Dallas Cowboys, which may explain why he was among the most unsung Super Bowl winners in the franchise's storied history.

Pugh, who played in the first four Super Bowls for Dallas and was part of a "Doomsday Defense" that won two of them, has died at age 70.

• Chitresh Das, a renowned practitioner and teacher of the kathak form of Indian classical dance, has died. He was 70.

Das brought kathak to the United States in the 1970s around the same time that Indian classical music was gaining popularity in the country thanks to the likes of Ravi Shankar.

• One of Mexico's most important and influential journalists of the past half century, Julio Scherer Garcia, has died at the age of 88.

Scherer helped expose many of Mexico's greatest scandals for decades, probing a secret army unit to combat guerrillas, a multimillion-dollar Swiss bank account of a president's brother and official involvement in the assassination of a journalist.

His tough independence stood out at a time when independent reporting critical of the government was rare in Mexico and he inspired and trained a new generation of the country's journalists.

As editor of Excelsior, then Mexico's leading newspaper, from 1968 to 1976, Scherer took on the omnipotent ruling party over corruption and human rights abuses, and questioned the government's version of an army massacre of students. He so irked President Luis Echeverria that the government maneuvered to push him out of the newspaper in 1976.

Scherer wrote nearly two-dozen books, often analyzing the terms of Mexico's presidents. In 1971, he won the Maria Moors Cabot award, the oldest international journalism prize.

• The fifth-oldest person in the world and Massachusetts's oldest resident has died.

Bernice Emerson Madigan, of Cheshire, died at a Williamstown nursing center. She was 115.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, she was the fifth-oldest person in the world.

Madigan had said her secrets to a long life included a positive attitude, no children, a hot breakfast, glass of wine, and a spoonful of honey every day.

• Dr. Maher Hathout, a prominent interfaith leader hailed as the father of the Muslim American identity, has died. He was 79.

Hathout, also a practicing cardiologist, spoke passionately of the need for Muslim Americans to create an identity that did not rely on Middle Eastern cultural interpretations of Islam. He encouraged Muslims in the U.S. to embrace their dual identity and advocated participation in American politics, volunteerism and interfaith work. Deeply religious and deeply patriotic, he often reminded colleagues that "home is not where my grandparents are buried, but where my grandchildren will be raised."

• Michele Serros, a short story writer, essayist and poet whose wry and witty observations on growing up Mexican-American in Southern California became required reading in many ethnic studies courses, has died at age 48.

Serros died Sunday at her home in Berkeley, California, after a 20-month battle with a rare form of oral cancer, said her husband, Antonio Magana.

Serros was a community college student when she burst on the literary scene in 1994 with the publication of "Chicana Falsa and Other Stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard," a collection of stories and poems inspired by her family life and childhood in a majority Hispanic coastal community. A fourth-generation Californian who did not learn to speak Spanish well until she was an adult, she gave voice to the struggle for belonging girls like her faced while straddling cultures.

• Francesca Hilton, the only child of sexy 1950s movie star and perennial celebrity Zsa Zsa Gabor, has died at 67.

Hilton, whose father was hotel founder Conrad Hilton, died Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles following an apparent heart attack or stroke, said her publicist, Edward Lozzi.

• Allie Sherman, the player-friendly coach who led the New York Giants to NFL championship games in his first three seasons with a star-studded but aging roster, has died. He was 91.

"Allie was a great coach and an even better man," John Mara, Giants' president and chief executive officer, said. "He was a special friend, and I will miss him dearly."

Sherman's Giants lost to the Green Bay Packers in the 1961 and 1962 championship games and to the Chicago Bears in the 1963 title game. He was the NFL Coach of the Year in 1961 and 1962 and finished 57-51-4 in eight seasons with the Giants.

• Fidel Mendoza Carrasquilla, a former International Olympic Committee member from Colombia, has died. He was 89.

• Martin Anderson, a top domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and author of several books about his life and legacy, has died. He was 78.

Anderson combined an academic and writing career with work in the political campaigns and presidential administrations of several Republican presidents, including Reagan, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.

In 1967, he began advising presidential candidate Richard Nixon on domestic policy and especially on ending the military draft and moving to an all-volunteer armed force.

He grew close to Reagan and in 1980 became senior policy adviser during his first presidential campaign. He served Reagan as assistant for policy development and was a major contributor to his economic and missile defense plans.

• Stu Miller, the former Giants pitcher who committed perhaps the most famous balk in All-Star game history, has died. He was 87.

Miller played 16 years in the majors for the Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Baltimore and Atlanta. He led the National League in ERA in 1958, had the most saves in the NL in 1961 and the American League in 1963 and won a World Series title with Baltimore in 1966.

But he is most remembered for his All-Star game performance at windy Candlestick Park in 1961. He was called for a balk in the ninth inning which helped the AL score the tying run. Miller got the win in extra innings but the headlines the next day proclaimed "Miller Blown off Mound."

• Robert Wolfe, who for more than 30 years served as a specialist in Nazi Germany at the National Archives and Records Administration, has died. He was 93.

• Jean-Pierre Beltoise, a former Formula One driver who won the Monaco Grand Prix in 1972, has died after a double stroke. He was 77.

• Italian singer, songwriter and guitarist Pino Daniele, whose fusion of blues, jazz, rock and traditional Neapolitan music was heavily inspired by both the beauty and ugliness of his native Naples, has died. He was 59.

• He Zhenliang, a former International Olympic Committee vice president who was instrumental in Beijing winning the 2008 Summer Olympics, has died. He was 85.