Bobby Schiffman, Guiding Force of the Apollo Theater, Dies at 94
“The big stars would say, ‘We love you, Bobby, but we can play the Apollo and sell 1,500 tickets or play Madison Square Garden and sell 18,000,’” Howard Schiffman said.…
Richard Davis, Gifted Bassist Who Crossed Genres, Dies at 93
Richard Davis, an esteemed bassist who played not just with some of the biggest names in jazz but also with major figures in the classical, pop and rock worlds, died…
Marc Bohan, Head Designer for Dior for Three Decades, Dies at 97
Marc Bohan, the longest-serving creative director at Christian Dior, who spent nearly 30 years spinning out classically attuned looks with a touch of whimsy that, however resplendent, were meant to…
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Zulu Nationalist and a Mandela Rival, Dies at 98
Controlling the police, the legislature, the courts and other levers of power, he repressed anti-apartheid groups with policies critics said were remarkably like those of Pretoria: ordering arrests, disrupting protests,…
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Zulu Chief, Dies at 95
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the Zulu nationalist who positioned himself as Nelson Mandela’s most powerful Black rival in South Africa’s tortuous transformation from a white segregationist society to a multiracial democracy in…
Gary Wright, Who Had a ’70s Hit With ‘Dream Weaver,’ Dies at 80
Gary Wright, a spiritually-minded singer-songwriter who helped modernize the sound of pop music with his pioneering use of synthesizers while crafting infectious and seemingly inescapable hits of the 1970s like…
Bill Richardson, Champion of Americans Held Overseas, Dies at 75
Bill Richardson, who served two terms as governor of New Mexico and 14 years as a congressman before devoting himself to the cause of Americans who were being held hostage…
Bill Pinkney, Globe-Circling Sailor Who Set a Racial Mark, Dies at 87
He was the first Black person to sail alone by way of the arduous southern route, rounding the perilous Cape Horn and withstanding storms and loneliness. NAISTHE NAIS IS OFFICIAL…
Nicholas Hitchon, Who Aged 7 Years at a Time in ‘Up’ Films, Dies at 65
Nicholas Hitchon, whose life was chronicled in the acclaimed “Up” series of British documentaries, beginning when he was a boy in the English countryside in 1964 and continuing through the…
Samuel Wurzelbacher, Celebrated as ‘Joe the Plumber,’ Dies at 49
Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who briefly became “Joe the Plumber,” the metaphorical American middle-class Everyman, by injecting himself into the 2008 presidential campaign in an impromptu nationally-televised face-off with Barack Obama…
Bob Barker, Longtime Host of ‘The Price Is Right,’ Dies at 99
Bob Barker, the consistently good-natured host of “The Price Is Right,” the longest-running game show in American television history, and one of the country’s best-known advocates for animal rights, died…
Betty Tyson, Who Was Wrongfully Imprisoned for Murder, Dies at 75
Betty Tyson, who spent half her life in prison for the brutal murder of a businessman in a gloomy alleyway in Rochester, N.Y., before a judge ruled that she had…
Isabel Crook, 107, Dies; Her Life in China Spanned a Century of Change
Isabel Crook, a China-born daughter of Canadian missionaries who became one of her adopted country’s most celebrated foreign residents, beloved as an educator, anthropologist and articulate advocate for the Communist…
David Jacobs, ‘Dallas’ and ‘Knots Landing’ Creator, Dies at 84
David Jacobs, who more than anyone invented the modern prime-time soap opera when he created “Dallas,” the long-running CBS series about an amoral oil baron and his feuding family, and…