Rat Pack's Bishop, ex-joint chief's chairman
Joey Bishop, the stone-faced comedian who found success in nightclubs, television and movies but became most famous as a member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack, has died. He was 89.
Bishop died Wednesday night of multiple causes at his home in Newport Beach, publicist Warren Cowan said Thursday.
The Rat Pack became a show business sensation in the early 1960s, appearing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas in shows that combined music and comedy in a seemingly chaotic manner.
He was the group's last surviving member. Peter Lawford died in 1984, Sammy Davis Jr. in 1990, Dean Martin in 1995, and Sinatra in 1998.
Reviewers often claimed that Bishop played a minor role, but Sinatra knew otherwise. He termed the comedian "the Hub of the Big Wheel," with Bishop coming up with some of the best one-liners and beginning many jokes with his favorite phrase, "Son of a gun!"
Bishop starred in two TV series, both called "The Joey Bishop Show." The first, a sitcom, debuted on NBC in 1961 and was canceled in 1965. The second, a talk show, started on ABC in 1967 but was canceled after two seasons.
He also played character roles in such movies as "The Naked and the Dead," "Onion-head," "Johnny Cool," "Texas Across the River," "Who's Minding the Mint?" "Valley of the Dolls" and "The Delta Force."
William Crowe, a submarine officer who rose to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and served as ambassador to Great Britain, has died. He was 82.
The retired admiral died early Thursday at Bethesda Naval Hospital, the Navy announced. No cause of death was immediately released.
Crowe volunteered for duty in Vietnam at age 44. Years later, as only the third admiral to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Crowe presided over the military conflict with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, the Navy's protection of oil tankers in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war and a groundbreaking series of meetings with his Soviet counterpart as the Cold War thawed in the late 1980s.
President Reagan named Crowe the 11th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1985. He turned down President George H.W. Bush's offer of a third two-year term and retired from the military in 1989.
In 1992, he endorsed Democrat Bill Clinton for the presidency instead of Bush, saying he was upset with Republican campaign attacks on Clinton for not serving in Vietnam.
Two years later, President Clinton appointed him ambassador to the Court of St. James', where he served until 1997.
Deborah Kerr, who shared one of Hollywood's most famous kisses while portraying an Army officer's unhappy wife in "From Here to Eternity" and danced with the Siamese monarch in "The King and I," has died. She was 86.
Kerr, who had Parkinson's disease, died Tuesday in Suffolk, England, her agent, Anne Hutton, said Thursday.
For many she will be remembered best for her kiss with Burt Lancaster as waves crashed over them on a Hawaiian beach in the wartime drama "From Here to Eternity."
Kerr's roles as forceful, sometimes frustrated women pushed the limits of Hollywood's treatment of sex on the screen during the censor-bound 1950s. She played virtually every part imaginable from murderer to princess to a Roman Christian slave to a nun.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Kerr six times for best actress, but never gave her an Academy Award until it presented an honorary Oscar in 1994 for her distinguished career.
Former Rep. Robert Young III, one of the St. Louis area's most influential political voices, has died. He was 83.
Young died Wednesday at a nursing home, Colliers Funeral Home said.
The Democrat represented Missouri's 2nd Congressional District from the late 1970s through the 80s. He was also a Missouri state senator and state representative.
Singer Teresa Brewer, who topped the charts in the 1950s with such hits as "Till I Waltz Again with You" and performed with jazz legends Count Basie and Duke Ellington, died Wednesday. She was 76.
Brewer died at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y., of a neuromuscular disease, family spokesman Bill Munroe said.
Brewer had scores of hits in the 1950s and a burgeoning film career but pared down her public life to raise her children. She re-emerged a decade later to perform with jazz greats Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis.
Brewer had close to 40 songs that topped the charts, Munroe said, including "Dancin' with Someone," "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," "Ricochet" and "Let Me Go Lover."
Actress Carol Bruce, perhaps best known for her role as Mama Carlson on television's "WKRP in Cincinnati," has died. She was 87.
Bruce died Oct. 9 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in suburban Woodland Hills, Calif., spokeswoman Jaime Larkin said in a news release.
Bruce began her entertainment career as a Montreal nightclub singer and went on to captivate Broadway audiences with her sultry voice in the 1940 musical comedy "Louisiana Purchase."
She was nominated for a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway show "Do I Hear a Waltz?" in 1965.
In 1979, she took over the role that Sylvia Sidney had originated on "WKRP in Cincinnati" a year earlier as Mama Carlson, the tough-talking owner of a radio station managed by her son Arthur, played by Gordon Jump. Bruce kept the recurring role until the series ended in 1982.
Photographer Ernest Withers, who spent more than 60 years documenting history from the blues music of Beale Street to the civil rights movement, has died. He was 85.
Withers died Monday night at the Memphis Veterans Medical Center from complications of a stroke he suffered last month, said his son, Joshua 'Billy' Withers of Los Angeles.
As a freelance photographer for black newspapers, Withers traveled with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and other figures in the civil rights movement, capturing on film the momentous events of the 1950s and 60s.
Withers also photographed jazz and blues musicians who frequented Memphis' famed Beale Street, such as Rufus Thomas, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley.
Vernon Bellecourt, who fought the use of Indian nicknames for sports teams as a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement, has died. He was 75.
Bellecourt died Saturday at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis of complications from pneumonia, said his brother, Clyde Bellecourt, a founding member of the militant American Indian rights group.
Vernon Bellecourt -- whose Objibwe name, WaBun-Inini, means Man of Dawn -- was a member of Minnesota's White Earth band and was an international spokesman for the AIM Grand Governing Council, based in Minneapolis.
Countess Andree De Jongh, who set up an escape route that helped hundreds of British airmen flee the Nazi occupation of Belgium during World War II, has died. She was 90.
De Jongh died Saturday, a former resistance organization said. No cause of death was given.
De Jongh, a female nurse in a men's world of war resistance, helped found the Comet Line escape route while still in her 20s. After her arrest in 1943, she survived German camps before being liberated at the end of the war.
The escape route, known as "Comete" in French, was set up in 1940 to allow downed British airmen to return home and escape German imprisonment. The route went through Belgium, occupied France and over the Pyrenees into Spain's Basque country.
By the time she was arrested, she had already taken 118 people, including 80 downed pilots to safety. The Comet Line itself rescued over 700 pilots, according to verzet.org, a Web site for ex-resistance fights.