Notable deaths last week

From the swelling-sea songs of "Titanic" to the space symphonies of "Apollo 13" to the bagpipes of "Braveheart," James Horner's singular sound graced some of the biggest moments in the history of movies.

It showed in the two Oscars he won and the 10 he was nominated for, and in the status of the Hollywood luminaries who were mourning his death in a California plane crash.

Agents Michael Gorfaine and Sam Schwartz issued a statement Tuesday saying Horner was the pilot killed in the single-engine plane that crashed in a remote area about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, although official confirmation could take several days while the Ventura County coroner works to identify the remains.

James Cameron, who directed "Titanic," the 1997 best picture that earned Horner his two Oscars, used terms from another of his Horner collaborations, "Avatar," to describe the composer's work.

"James' music was the air under the banshees' wings, the ancient song of the forest," Cameron said in a joint statement with producing partner Jon Landau. "James' music affected the heart because his heart was so big, it infused every cue with deep emotional resonance, whether soaring in majesty through the floating mountains, or crying for the loss of nature's innocence under bulldozer treads."

• Patrick Macnee, the British-born actor best known as dapper secret agent John Steed in the long-running 1960s TV series "The Avengers," has died. He was 93.

The clever spy drama, which began in 1961 in Britain, debuted in the United States in 1966. It ran for eight seasons and continued in syndication for decades afterward.

Macnee's umbrella-wielding character appeared in all but two episodes, accompanied by a string of beautiful women who were his sidekicks.

"We were in our own mad, crazy world," Macnee told the Wichita Eagle in 2003 when "The New Avengers" was being issued on DVD. "We were the TV Beatles. We even filmed in the same studio."

• Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, whose career included desperate but unsuccessful diplomatic efforts to avert wars in Iraq and NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, has died. He was 85.

President Vladimir Putin on Friday offered condolences to Primakov's family, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added that the president saw Primakov as "a statesman, an academic and a politician who has left a very big heritage" and that he always wanted to hear Primakov's view on global issues.

• Harvey Pollack, the last original employee of the NBA's inaugural season to still be working in the league, died on Tuesday. He was 93.

Pollack worked for the Philadelphia 76ers at the time of his death, spending the past 28 years as the team's director of statistical information.

Pollack was awarded the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. It is the highest honor bestowed to an individual outside of enshrinement.

• Dick Stanfel, a five-time Pro Bowl guard with the Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins and a longtime offensive line coach with the Chicago Bears, has died.

The Bears announced Thursday he passed away at his home in suburban Libertyville this week after a long illness. He was 87.

Stanfel played seven seasons in the 1950s and starred with both Detroit and Washington. He helped the Lions win NFL titles in 1952 and 1953. He was the Bears' offensive line coach from 1981-92, serving most of that time under Mike Ditka and overseeing a group that helped the 1985 team win the Super Bowl.

• Don Featherstone was a classically trained painter, a talented sculptor and artist who became famous for creating the pink plastic lawn flamingo - the ultimate piece of American suburban kitsch.

And it didn't bother him a bit.

Featherstone, who died Monday at 79, embraced the fame the invention brought him.

He died at an elder care facility in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, after a long battle with Lewy body dementia, his wife of 40 years, Nancy, said on Tuesday.

"He was the nicest guy in the world," Nancy Featherstone said. "He didn't have a selfish bone in his body. He was funny and had a wonderful sense of humor and he made me so happy for 40 years."

Featherstone, who studied art at the Worcester Art Museum, created the ornamental flamingo in 1957 for plastics company Union Products Inc., of Leominster, modeling it after photos of the birds he saw in National Geographic.

Featherstone worked at Union for 43 years, inventing hundreds of products in that time and rising to the position of president before his retirement in 1999.

"People say they're tacky, but all great art began as tacky," Featherstone said in a 1997 interview.

The flamingo even made an appearance on the silver screen. A pink flamingo, dubbed Featherstone of course, was a major character in the 2011 animated movie "Gnomeo & Juliet."

• Dick Van Patten, the genial, round-faced comic actor who premiered on Broadway as a child, starred on television in its infancy and then, in middle age, found lasting fame as the patriarch on TV's "Eight is Enough," has died.

Van Patten died Tuesday in Santa Monica, California, of complications from diabetes, said his publicist, Jeffrey Ballard. He was 86.

Born in New York, the veteran entertainer began his career as a model and child actor, making his Broadway debut in 1935 at the age of seven, billed as "Dickie Van Patten." He would go on to appear in 27 other Broadway plays, acting alongside such giants as Melvyn Douglas, Tallulah Bankhead and, for three years, as the son of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in "O Mistress Mine."

In 1949, he began a seven-year run on one of TV's earliest series, the CBS comedy "Mama," playing one of the sons of a Norwegian-American family in early 1900s San Francisco.

Van Patten's greatest TV success was as Tom Bradford, a widower and father of eight who met and married Abby (played by Betty Buckley), with whom he set up a loving if chaotic household. The ABC comedy-drama aired from 1977-1981.

"Every day on set he was a happy, jovial person, always generous and ready to play, tease and always keep us all laughing," said Buckley. "He was the consummate professional, a wonderful actor, master of comedy, and a kind and generous human being."

"He was truly a gem and will be missed," tweeted Willie Aames, who, now 54, played the Bradford son Tommy on the series, which launched him as a teen heart-throb. "As Dick always said: Remember our time together gang... Cause these ARE the good ole' days."

• Mario Biaggi, a former 19-year congressman whose career ended in disgrace after a pair of corruption convictions, died Wednesday. He was 97.

A highly decorated New York City police officer prior to his political career, Biaggi was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1968 from a Bronx district later redrawn to include a portion of Yonkers.

He was easily re-elected nine times, but his political career began unraveling in the mid-1980s amid corruption allegations.

The final blow came in 1988 when he was convicted of extorting $3.5 million in cash and stock from Wedtech Corp., a machine shop that had obtained millions of dollars in no-bid defense contracts.

Biaggi was sentenced to eight years in prison, and ended up serving a little over two. He tried to get his House seat back in 1992, but was unsuccessful.

For Biaggi, the descent into disgrace was rapid and painful after a long career as a popular public servant.

Wedtech was Biaggi's second felony conviction, coming about a year after his conviction for obstructing justice and accepting an illegal gratuity in the form of a paid Florida vacation.