Jennifer Aniston may feel, in "Rumor Has It," that writing obituaries is a humiliating rung at the bottom of journalism. But she wasn't working in Hollywood this year. How could she get bored writing about Will Eisner? The Frankenstein angle alone: He was the man who created the Spirit, a comic book character that was brought to life from the body of a deceased coroner. And think of the tragedy in show business obits: June Haver, who was told she would be the next Betty Grable, but wasn't, not that she didn't retain her own charm in "Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!" and other all-American Technicolor flicks. And there was Thelma White, the stalwart star of a slew of pictures in the 1930s but remembered mainly, to her great regret, for her starring role in the comically inept propaganda film "Reefer Madness." Aniston could have wrung a tear from Gray Lady readers with that one, or the tale of Sheree North, who could never forget that her ticket to the Bigs was her resemblance to Marilyn Monroe. So many sad stories: Simone Simon, a leading lady in France, still praised mainly for her haunting role in "Cat People" more than 60 years previously. Yet there were triumphs even in death: Hunter S. Thompson rose to his grave in orbit on a glorious column of fire. Father Gene Scott will probably never leave his pulpit on late-night TV reruns. And musicians such as Percy Heath, Jimmy Smith, Johnnie Johnson and Shirley Horn have left their own memorials here below in the music they made. Such may be said, too, of Robert Wise, who directed the immortal musicals "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music." In an analogous way, John Raitt, who sang at length of his prospective son Bill in "Carousel," has left his image behind in the person of his daughter, Bonnie Raitt. Herb Sargent's legacy also is in perpetual reruns, and his name will be remembered as long as his Saturday night remains live. (Tony Gieske)

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JANUARY

"All of us who came after him are pretenders," David Letterman said when Johnny Carson died in January at 79. During his 30-year reign as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," he set the standard by which all TV hosts who followed him have been judged. The audience for his final "Tonight" telecast on May 22, 1992, was estimated at more than 50 million as Carson, along with longtime sidekick Ed McMahon and bandleader Doc Severinsen, replayed highlights from past shows. When the King of Late Night Television relinquished his throne, frequent guest Bob Hope said it was like "a head falling off Mount Rushmore. He's had a profound impact on millions of lives. He changed people's sleeping habits, sex habits and their midnight eating habits." More on Johnny Carson

Virginia Mayo, 84, a leggy former Goldwyn Girl who became one of the biggest movie stars of the 1940s and '50s. Mayo played musical comedy, straight comedy and drama in more than 50 movies and kept busy with such television shows as "Murder, She Wrote," "The Love Boat," "Wagon Train," "Police Story" and "Remington Steele," as well as performing in live theater in such works as "No, No, Nanette," "Barefoot in the Park," "Forty Carats" and "Butterflies Are Free." But she made her name in movies: as the tough gun moll in "White Heat" with James Cagney; a burlesque queen in the musical comedy "She's Working Her Way Through College" with Ronald Reagan; Lady Barbara Wellesley in the sea drama "Captain Horatio Hornblower" with Gregory Peck; and the young wife who goes wrong in Samuel Goldwyn's 1946 drama "The Best Years of Our Lives," which won seven Academy Awards.

Paul Manning, 45, an Emmy-winning writer-producer whose credits include NBC's "ER" and "L.A. Law" and CBS' "Clubhouse." Manning was one of the original Emmy-winning writer/supervising producers on "ER." He left the show after its third seasons to write and produce for Warner Bros. Television.

Thelma White, 94, an actress who hated the fact that her reputation rested on playing a drug addict in "Reefer Madness." In the 1936 anti-marijuana propaganda film that has become a camp classic, White played a hard-boiled blonde named Mae who peddles "demon weed" to unsuspecting youths. In fact, she was an established musical and comedy actress who made more than 40 movies with such stars as W.C. Fields and Will Rogers. White was horrified when RKO studios picked her for "Reefer Madness." "I'm ashamed to say that it's the only one of my films that's become a classic," White said. "I hide my head when I think about it."

Will Eisner, 87, an artist who revolutionized comic books with his pioneering newspaper supplement "The Spirit." Run as a weekly stand-alone in 20 Sunday newspapers in the 1940s, "The Spirit" reached a circulation of 5 million. Its hero marshaled no superpowers; he had been a coroner named Denny Colt, believed murdered by a mad scientist's potion but actually buried alive. Cartoonists such as Batman creator Bob Kane, Jack Kirby, Jack Cole and Jules Feiffer worked in Eisner's studio, and in 1987 the industry named its annual accolades the Eisners. In 1978, Eisner published "A Contract With God," the first comic to appear in novel form. In 2000, DC Comics started publishing "The Spirit Archives," a multivolume edition of the full run of the comic.

Jimmy Griffin, 61, a founder of the soft-rock group Bread who co-wrote the Oscar-winning song "For All We Know." Through former Memphis neighbors Dorsey and Johnny Burnette, Griffin secured a recording contract of his own with Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records when he reached Los Angeles. In 1963 he released an album of cover tunes, "Summer Holiday," and in 1965 he played Private Dexter in the film "None but the Brave," which Sinatra directed. Bread originally was a trio with David Gates, Robb Royer and Griffin. Mike Botts joined for the second album, which included the No. 1 Billboard single "Make It With You" (1970). Griffin and Royer teamed with Fred Karlin to write "For All We Know" for the film "Lovers and Other Strangers." It won the 1970 Academy Award for best song.

William Boyett, 77, a veteran stage and television actor best known for playing Sgt. "Mac" MacDonald on the police drama "Adam-12." Boyett appeared on episodes of "Dragnet" before the show's actor-producer Jack Webb cast him as the low-key but authoritative MacDonald on "Adam-12." He worked regularly on television in the 1950s and '60s, including roles on "Perry Mason," "My Three Sons" and "General Hospital." His film credits include "The Rocketeer" and "The Hidden."

Howard Feuer, 56, a busy casting director for scores of Hollywood movies and Broadway shows. Feuer's movie credits include "Moonstruck," "The Silence of the Lambs," "Philadelphia" and "The Truman Show." He worked with directors Jonathan Demme and Bernardo Bertolucci, among others. On Broadway, he was credited with numerous major productions, many of them cast collaboratively with Jeremy Ritzer. Among them are three plays by Michael Frayn -- "Noises Off," "Benefactors" and "Wild Honey" -- presented in the 1980s, as well as "42nd Street," "Barnum" and "Oh! Calcutta!"

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FEBRUARY

Arthur Miller, 89, who wrote the landmark drama "Death of a Salesman," was married for a time to Marilyn Monroe and who defied the House Un-American Activities Committee in the McCarthy era. "Salesman" won the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Tony in 1949, a year in which Miller was only 33. Salesman Willy Loman rode into America's mythology on "a smile and a shoeshine." "The Crucible" (1953) compared the agony of McCarthyism to the Salem witch hunts, and "A View From the Bridge" (1955) became another stage classic. More on Arthur Miller

Ossie Davis, 87, an actor, writer and director whose dignified bearing and commanding voice served him well as a force in the arts and within the civil rights movement. From the beginning of his career in 1939, when he joined the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem, Davis came to know such black leaders and performers as W.E.B. DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson. More on Ossie Davis

George Herman, 85, a former CBS News correspondent and "Face the Nation" moderator who had a 43-year career at CBS News. He covered the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Watergate and the Korean War. It was his voice on the network in August 1945 that reported the surrender of the Japanese to end World War II for what he later said was "ad-libbing for 20 nervous minutes" before veteran broadcaster Robert Trout took over.

Joan Weidman, president of production at International Film Guarantors. Weidman oversaw all production and financial aspects of completion bonding for IFG, the completion-bond company that was acquired by Fireman's Fund. She served as a production exec at IFG from 1994-96. In 1996, she joined Live Entertainment as head of physical production, rejoining IFG in 1998 as senior vp production. She was promoted to president of production in 2002. At IFG, she was involved most recently in bonding "The Aviator," "Ray" and "Downfall." Weidman was a pioneering cinematographer of documentaries, working on "The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir," a documentary of the first American women's delegation to China in 1973, led and directed by Shirley MacLaine and Claudia Weill.

Jimmy Smith, in his late 70s, whose hard bop style on the Hammond B-3 organ popularized the instrument in jazz. Until Smith's arrival, the instrument had been used little in jazz, though talents as prominent as Fats Waller and Count Basie had employed it as a novelty. But his dense, hardhitting fusion of bop and R&B elements created a sensation and presaged a wave of soul-jazz organ combos starring such keyboardists as Brother Jack McDuff, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Big John Patton and Baby Face Willette. Smith made his mark with a run of albums for Blue Note Records beginning in 1956. He often was recorded in a trio format; his regular drummer was Donald Bailey, and Kenny Burrell, Eddie McFadden and Quentin Warren were among his guitarists. His sessions also featured such hard bop-oriented collaborators as trumpeter Lee Morgan and saxophonists Lou Donaldson and Stanley Turrentine. Albums including "The Sermon," "House Party," "Midnight Special" and "Back at the Chicken Shack" established him commercially.

Sandra Dee, 62, an actress who personified the 1950s notion of the ideal teen in her title role in the original "Gidget" film and whose marriage to Bobby Darin was splashed across the covers of fan magazines of the day. Her most memorable movies were lighthearted teen romps, often dubbed "bubblegum" movies. In 1960, Dee married her frequent co-star, teen singing idol Darin, after a brief courtship. Darin died of congestive heart failure in 1973 at age 37. The career of his devastated ex-wife took a precipitous downslide from that point on.

Hunter S. Thompson, 67, the gonzo journalism marksman. In addition to his acclaimed writings for magazines and newspapers, Thompson produced a dozen books, including "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," his best-known work, which was made into movie in 1998 starring Johnny Depp. Among his other books were "Hell's Angels," "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72," "The Great Shark Hunt," "Generation of Swine" and "Songs for the Doomed." Up against a deadline while writing a story about the Kentucky Derby for Scanlan's magazine, he got stuck. "So finally I just started jerking pages out of my notebook and numbering them and sending them to the printer," he said. "I was sure it was the last article I was ever going to do for anybody." Instead, the story brought him a flood of praise, with people calling it "a breakthrough in journalism." It was like "falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool of mermaids," the quotable countercultural hero recalled later.

John Raitt, 88, a baritone who had come to fame as Billy Bigelow in the original production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel" in 1945 and who was the father of Bonnie Raitt. Fathering a daughter was ironic enough since his seven-minute signature number in "Carousel," "Soliloquy," had a reiterative chorus about the upcoming birth of his character's son, Bill. Raitt's role as a cocky carnival barker in a fishing village was said to have foreshadowed the sweaty blue-collar characters that later brought fame to Marlon Brando and James Dean. He was promoted to a pajama factory executive, Sid Sorokin, in "The Pajama Game," the 1954 Broadway musical and 1957 movie starring Doris Day. The ascendancy of rock found him working on television in "The Bell Telephone Hour" and on variety shows with Dinah Shore and Jack Benny as host. In 1957 he played opposite Mary Martin in a television production of "Annie Get Your Gun."

Daniel O'Herlihy, 85, an Oscar-nominated character actor whose 50-year career extended from the Irish stage to television and Hollywood movies including "Fail-Safe" and "RoboCop." O'Herlihy was nominated for a best actor Academy Award in 1954 for his starring role in "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." Marlon Brando won for "On the Waterfront" that year. Born in Wexford, Ireland, O'Herlihy was playing minor roles at Dublin's Abbey Theatre when he was spotted by the great British director Carol Reed, who cast him in the 1946 thriller "Odd Man Out." O'Herlihy went on to appear in more than 70 plays in Dublin and the U.S. After moving to Hollywood, he played Macduff in Orson Welles' 1948 film version of "Macbeth" and began a career that included roles as Brig. Gen. Warren Black in "Fail-Safe" (1964), President Roosevelt in "MacArthur" (1977) and the mysterious cyborg firm executive in "RoboCop" (1987).

Simone Simon, 93, a French actress remembered for her haunting role in the 1942 RKO horror film "Cat People." She played a Serbian-born wife who fears that when her passions are aroused she will turn into a panther that kills. Earlier, she played the devil's emissary in "All That Money Can Buy" (1941), an adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster," in which Simon's character steals a good man from his wife. Simon had made a dozen films in France before she was brought to Hollywood by Darryl Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox. But she failed to connect with a mass audience and returned to Europe in 1950.

Jewel Smith, 61, a country singer known as Sammi whose trademark ballad was "Help Me Make It Through the Night." Smith won a Grammy for best female country vocal performance in 1971 for the song, written by Kris Kristofferson. She produced her first hit, "So Long Charlie Brown," in 1967. Six years later, she moved to Dallas, joining the "outlaw movement" with Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.

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MARCH

Debra Hill, 54, one of Hollywood's best-known female producers. One of the few female producers who embraced movies in the horror and action genres, Hill had been closely involved in writing and casting the 2005 movie "The Fog," Rupert Wainwright's $17 million remake of the 1980 ghost tale. Hill co-wrote the original version of "The Fog" with Carpenter. "She was a pioneer and opened the road for women to follow her," said Carpenter, who also worked with Hill on the classic 1978 horror film "Halloween," which the two co-wrote. After serving as a television script supervisor on "The Streets of San Francisco" and the film "Assault on Precinct 13," Hill's breakout came when she co-wrote and produced "Halloween." The film starred 20-year-old rookie Jamie Lee Curtis as a babysitter under attack by a knife-wielding psycho. When the $300,000 "Halloween" grossed an indie-record $60 million worldwide, it launched a series of lucrative sequels. She recently was partnered with Carpenter and Russell in developing video games, an anime movie, comic books, book tie-ins and action figures for Russell's Snake Plissken character. In 1986, Hill formed Hill/Obst Prods. with producer Lynda Obst. The partnership yielded two Chris Columbus features, "Adventures in Babysitting" and "Heartbreak Hotel," as well as Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King" with Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges. She also fought the proliferation of producers credits as an active member of the Producers Guild of America and the executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' producers branch.

George Scott, 75, a founding member of the vocal group the Blind Boys of Alabama. One of the longest-lived of all classic gospel acts with a career spanning more than 60 years, the Blind Boys -- which today retains original members Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter -- have won four consecutive Grammys for best traditional gospel album. With their 2001 Real World set "Spirit of the Century," the Blind Boys took their music to mainstream listeners via gospel-skewed pop repertoire and collaborations with well-known rock and R&B talents. But the singers always maintained their fidelity to sacred music. Born in Notasulga, Ala., Scott met the other members of the Blind Boys as a youth at the Talladega (Ala.) Institute for the Negro Deaf and Blind. The group began performing professionally as the Happy Land Jubilee Singers when its members were only 14. They recorded from 1948 on, waxing sides for such noted R&B-oriented labels as Specialty and Vee Jay, and they toured extensively.

Paul Henning, 93, a radio and TV writer-producer who created the 1960s silly-sitcom trilogy "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Petticoat Junction" and "Green Acres." Henning's broad comedy farces for CBS, starting in 1962 with the debut of "Hillbillies," have endured as icons of their era and remained popular in reruns in syndication and on cable. Henning created "Hillbillies" based on his encounters with residents during camping trips in the Ozarks with the Boy Scouts, his daughter said. Henning also penned its memorable theme song, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," which was sung by Jerry Scoggins and performed by Nashville bluegrass stars Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs on guitar and banjo. He worked in radio in Chicago, writing for NBC's hit "Fibber McGee and Molly." In the early 1940s, he moved to Los Angeles to work as a writer for Rudy Vallee, George Burns and Gracie Allen, among others. He segued into television in 1955 with "The Bob Cummings Show," which had a four-year run on NBC and CBS. Henning also worked in films, writing the 1964 film "Bedtime Story," starring Marlon Brando and David Niven.

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APRIL

Prince Rainier III of Monaco, 81, who spent more than half a century on the throne. Rainier was Europe's longest-reigning monarch, coming to the throne in 1950. He brought glamour to the tiny principality by marrying Hollywood actress Grace Kelly in 1956. Princess Grace died in a 1982 car crash, and the prince never remarried. During his reign, Rainier turned Monaco into a playground for the rich and famous and made it home to many events on the international calendar, including a Grand Prix car race and the Monte Carlo Television Festival, which takes place at the end of June.

Johnnie Johnson, 80, a nimble pianist on Chuck Berry's 1950s and '60s classics and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee in his own right. Born in Fairmont, W.Va., in 1924, Johnson began playing piano as a child; he was influenced by such jazzmen as Art Tatum, Earl "Fatha" Hines and Count Basie. After the war, he played the Chicago clubs in the blues bands of Muddy Waters and Albert King. In St. Louis in 1952, Johnson began a musical partnership with Berry that ran for two decades. He can be heard on "Maybellene," which became the singer-guitarist's first national hit for Chess Records in 1955. The pianist's rolling, playful accompaniment, redolent of Basie's influence, ornamented such later teen-savvy Berry hits as "Sweet Little Sixteen," "School Days," "Roll Over Beethoven," "No Particular Place to Go" and "Johnny B. Goode," which was dedicated to Johnson.

John Mills, 97, an Academy Award-winning actor who embodied the sage Englishman over a 70-year film career. Mills won a best supporting actor Oscar in 1971 for his portrayal of a mute village idiot in "Ryan's Daughter." He made his name in patriotic films during and after World War II, including "The October Man," "Scott of the Antarctic," "Dunkirk" and "Ice Cold in Alex." His first big break came in 1946, when he played Pip in David Lean's film version of "Great Expectations." Richard Attenborough cast Mills in several of his movies, including "Young Winston," "Oh What a Lovely War" and "Gandhi." His output in the 1940s and 1950s was prolific. During his long career he appeared in more than 100 films.

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MAY

Artie Shaw, 94, the intermittent monarch of the big-band era who turned his back on fame in the 1950s but managed somehow to keep from being forgotten for another half-century. A 78 rpm record titled "Begin the Beguine," played by his big band from an arrangement of the Cole Porter classic by Jerry Gray and released in 1938, was the ignition point of his dozen-year arc of fame, the first of the eight million-selling records he was to make. Shaw called it "a Latin beat to a swing time," but it was originally a dance in the French West Indies called the Bel-Air, devised to celebrate the freeing of the slaves. More on Artie Shaw

Eddie Albert, 99, whose homespun manner and talents made him a household name while he starred as the befuddled city slicker-turned-farmer in the hit CBS series "Green Acres." The longtime actor played Oliver Wendell Douglas, a New York lawyer who settles in a rural town with his glamorous wife, played by Eva Gabor, and finds himself perplexed by the antics of a host of eccentrics, including a pig named Arnold Ziffel. More on Eddie Albert

Ismail Merchant, 68, the film producer whose adaptations of classic novels produced in collaboration with director James Ivory became virtually synonymous with literate, sumptuously appointed costume drama. Merchant, a native of Bombay, India, was partnered with Ivory in Merchant Ivory Prods. for more than 44 years, making theirs one of the longest-running partnerships in independent cinema. More on Ismail Merchant

Percy Heath, 81, a bassist for the famed chamber jazz combo the Modern Jazz Quartet. Born in Wilmington, N.C., he was the eldest of jazz's three Heath brothers; drummer Al "Tootie" Heath and saxophonist Jimmy Heath gained renown as leaders and sidemen in their own right. The brothers were raised in Philadelphia, where they attracted regional attention. In 1947, Percy and Jimmy moved to New York to join bop trumpeter Howard McGhee's group. After backing Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie, Heath Percy became a member of vibraphonist Milt Jackson's band, which morphed into the Modern Jazz Quartet. The MJQ, which also featured pianist and musical director John Lewis and drummer Connie Kay, was one of the most highly prized small groups of the '50s and '60s. In 1959, the band contributed the score to director Robert Wise's caper film "Odds Against Tomorrow."

Herb Sargent, 81, president of the WGA East for the past 14 years and a veteran television scribe whose career spanned "The Victor Borge Show" to "Saturday Night Live." The six-time Emmy winner started in radio in the 1940s before shifting to the emerging medium of TV. Shows he wrote for included "The Colgate Comedy Hour," "The Tonight Show," "The Perry Como Show" and "That Was the Week That Was." As a writer-producer on "Saturday Night Live" for more than 20 years, Sargent was noted for having inspired and mentored generations of comedy writers. Sargent wrote the screenplay for "Bye Bye Braverman" and worked on TV specials for Bing Crosby, Milton Berle, Perry Como, Sammy Davis Jr., Alan King, Paul McCartney, Lily Tomlin and Burt Bacharach. He also contributed to such specials as "The 43rd Annual Emmy Awards" and "NBC's 75th Anniversary." Sargent received six WGA Awards as well as the WGAE's Richard B. Jablow Award for service to the guild. In the months before his death, Sargent had been leading the WGAE in its bitter fight with the WGA West over jurisdiction and dues.

Jimmy Martin, 77, one of the greatest vocalists in bluegrass. Martin replaced Mac Wiseman in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, the premier bluegrass group, in 1949, and served as the group's guitarist and lead vocalist until 1954. His tenor vocals were featured on many of the Monroe band's recordings for Decca -- perhaps most memorably on the gospel sides collected in 1969 on "A Voice From on High." After recording with the Osborne Brothers in the mid-'50s, Martin founded his own group, the Sunny Mountain Boys. This band, which included such leaders in their own right as J.D. Crowe and Doyle Lawson, recorded such bluegrass standards as "Rock Hearts," "Widow Maker" and "The Sunny Side of the Mountain." In 1972, Martin joined such fellow country and bluegrass legends as Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Roy Acuff and Earl Scruggs on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's album "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," a landmark merger of rock and country talent. In the early '80s, Martin founded his own label, King of Bluegrass.

Thurl Ravenscroft, 91, a voice-over artist whose booming baritone was a distinctive component of so many Walt Disney Co. creations. Ravenscroft had been a voice at Disneyland since 1955, when he was one of the park's opening-day announcers. The Nebraska native also had given voice to Tony the Tiger ever since the Kellogg's mascot was first heard in 1952. His deep, mellifluous voice lives on throughout Disneyland to this day. He can be heard as Fritz the parrot in the Tiki Room, on the Mark Twain riverboat, as the dog with the keys and a drunken pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean and singing "Grim, Grinning Ghosts" in the Haunted Mansion, among many other places. Disneyland acknowledged Ravenscroft by modeling one of the singing busts in the Haunted Mansion after him. Ravenscroft can be heard in such films as "Lady and the Tramp," "The Sword in the Stone," "Walt Disney's 101 Dalmatians," "Sleeping Beauty," "Peter Pan," "Alice in Wonderland" and elsewhere, sometimes not credited but always recognizable. He also sang "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" for the 1966 animated television classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"

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JUNE

Anne Bancroft, 73, who won a best actress Oscar for playing Helen Keller's resourceful teacher in "The Miracle Worker" and went on to create an iconic screen character, the seductive Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate," to her subsequent dismay. Although she was just six years older than Dustin Hoffman when the two starred together in 1967's "The Graduate," Bancroft's portrait of a world-weary suburban housewife who seduces her daughter's boyfriend, seemingly with a flick of her smoldering cigarette ash, left an indelible impact on a generation of moviegoers and earned her one of her five best actress Academy Award nominations. More on Anne Bancroft

Simon "Si" Waronker, 90, founder of Liberty Records, one of the top indie labels of the 1950s and early '60s. He had been a child prodigy on violin and studied in Philadelphia and France. He attempted to establish a music career in Germany but fled the country after the rise of the Nazis. From 1939-55, he worked at 20th Century Fox, playing on countless scores for the studio. He founded Liberty in 1955. The company's initial single was "The Girl Upstairs," a side by Lionel Newman, a longtime power in the Fox music department; the label's early releases focused on film and orchestral music. Liberty's first big hit was by an actress, Julie London, whose torchy "Cry Me a River" led to a run of popular albums on the label. The company's diverse roster included Ross Bagdasarian's novelty act the Chipmunks, the young Henry Mancini, R&B veterans the Dominoes and exotica bandleader Martin Denny. In 1957, Liberty acquired Dick Bock's label Pacific Jazz. During the rock 'n' roll era, Liberty was the home of singer-guitarist-producer Eddie Cochran, teen idol Bobby Vee, rocker-turned-pop vocalist Johnny Burnette and surf duo Jan & Dean. Waronker sold Liberty in 1963 to electronics company Avnet for $12 million.

Domino Harvey, 35, a model-turned-bounty hunter who was the daughter of the late British actor Laurence Harvey. The British-born Harvey gave up a lucrative Ford modeling career and the life of a socialite to hunt for fugitives in South Central Los Angeles. After modeling, designing T-shirts and a serving a stint with the San Diego Fire Department, Harvey went to work for a bail bond agency in South Central Los Angeles in 1994. According to the London Times, she regretted selling the filmmakers the rights to her life story, the topic of this year's "Domino," starring Keira Knightley and Mickey Rourke and directed by Tony Scott.

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JULY

Ernest Lehman, 89, a screenwriter whose adaptations of such high-profile Broadway plays and musicals as "West Side Story," "The Sound of Music" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" dominated movie screens during the 1960s. Lehman received six Academy Award nominations -- four for his screenplays and two in the best picture category -- and also earned nine WGA award nominations, winning the guild's top honor five times. In 2001, Lehman was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when he became the first screenwriter to be awarded an honorary Oscar, for his "varied and enduring work." He took home WGA Awards for "Sabrina," "The King and I," "West Side Story," "The Sound of Music" and "Virginia Woolf." More on Ernest Lehman

Luther Vandross, 54, a great R&B balladeer. Despite his debilitating illness in the wake of a stroke, Vandross -- who is credited with selling more than 30 million albums during a solo career that began in 1981 -- enjoyed his greatest commercial and artistic triumph with his 2003 J Records release, "Dance With My Father." It became his first No. 1 pop album and collected four Grammys last year, including one for song of the year, for the poignant title track co-authored by Richard Marx. Vandross maintained a solid-platinum track record and a strong black following throughout his career, soul music authority David Nathan said. Inspired at an early age by female soul singers, Vandross began a nearly decade-long behind-the-scenes apprenticeship in the early 1970s, working prolifically as a background vocalist and commercial jingle singer. He contributed the song "Everybody Rejoice (Brand New Day)" to the Broadway musical "The Wiz." In 1976, Vandross' group Luther became the first act signed to the Atlantic Records subsidiary Cotillion. The group produced three low-charting R&B singles. Intent on a solo career, Vandross poured his money into a home studio, where he cut the tracks that appeared on his 1981 Epic debut, "Never Too Much." The title song became a No. 1 R&B hit, and the album was a platinum smash. Vandross became the voice of soulful romance, charting 24 singles in the R&B top 10 through the mid-'90s. His No. 1 hits included 1986's "Stop to Love," 1987's "There's Nothing Better Than Love" (a duet with Gregory Hines), 1988's "Any Love," the 1989 wedding chapel staple "Here and Now" (his first crossover pop hit) and 1991's "The Power of Love." His 1992 duet with Janet Jackson, "The Best Things in Life Are Free," and the 1994 pairing with Mariah Carey, "Endless Love," were big on the pop and R&B charts. Moving to Clive Davis' J imprint in 2001, Vandross capped his career with the triumph of "Dance With My Father."

June Haver, 79, a sunny blond star of 1940s musicals who once was promoted as the next Betty Grable by Darryl Zanuck, who had seen her in "Home in Indiana" in 1944. The wholesome, vivacious actress did co-star with Grable in "The Dolly Sisters" (1945) before appearing in a series of other frothy wartime musicals. They included "Three Little Girls in Blue," "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" and "Oh, You Beautiful Doll." She also appeared with Fred MacMurray, her future husband, in "Where Do We Go from Here?" in 1945. The studio lent her to Warner Bros. for two of her most popular musicals, "Look for the Silver Lining" (1949), in which she played Broadway star Marilyn Miller, and "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady" (1950). But Haver's chances of succeeding Grable diminished when Fox discovered another promising blonde, Marilyn Monroe, and Haver's personal life was becoming mired in turmoil. A marriage to trumpet player Jimmy Zito fell apart after just six weeks. She reunited with a previous fiance, studio dentist John Duzik, but he died of complications from what was supposed to have been routine surgery. Devastated, Haver turned to the Roman Catholic Church for solace, and in 1953 she gave up her $3,500-a-week contract to become a novice nun at the Sisters of Charity convent in Kansas. Her last film, "The Girl Next Door," was released that same year. Just eight months later Haver left the convent to return to Hollywood. Soon after leaving, she bumped into a recently widowed MacMurray at a party, and they were married six months later.

Geraldine Fitzgerald, 91, who received a 1940 Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for "Wuthering Heights." Her performance as the lovelorn Isabella in that film is her best-remembered role. An imposing character actress, Fitzgerald had a notable career on Broadway. She made her U.S. stage debut opposite Orson Welles in 1938 in the Mercury Theatre's production of George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House." In 1971, Fitzgerald's performance in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" was acclaimed and launched a second start in her career. On Broadway, she performed in such estimable productions as O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness," and Arthur Miller's "Danger: Memory," in which she starred with Jason Robards. Fitzgerald was known for playing strong women. Impressed by her performance in "Heartbreak House," producer Hal Wallis signed Fitzgerald in 1939 to a seven-year contract at Warner Bros. Her debut for the studio was "Dark Victory," starring Bette Davis. She brought her dark-haired beauty and forceful manner to such films as "Watch on the Rhine," "Three Strangers" and "Nobody Lives Forever." As first lady Edith Wilson in "Wilson," Fitzgerald appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1945. After a series of meaty roles in the 1940s, Fitzgerald retreated from the screen. In constant battle with Jack Warner over the studio's choice of roles for her, Fitzgerald frequently was under suspension. After a hiatus from the screen in the early 1950s, she returned to deliver three of her most powerful performances. She played a strong-willed woman who maneuvers her husband into running for political office in 1958's "Ten North Frederick." She starred along with Rod Steiger in 1964's "The Pawnbroker" and co-starred in 1968's "Rachel, Rachel," starring Joanne Woodward and directed by Paul Newman. Later roles included "Poltergeist II: The Other Side" and "Easy Money," as well as "Arthur" and "Arthur 2: On the Rocks." From the 1950s through 1991's "Bump in the Night," she had numerous television roles, including "Echoes of a Summer" and "Kennedy," in which she played matriarch Rose Kennedy.

Evan Hunter, 78, a best-selling cop novel author who sold more than 100 million books under his own name and the pseudonym Ed McBain. As Hunter, he published his first novel, "The Blackboard Jungle," in 1954. The harrowing tale of big-city school violence became a 1955 film starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier. Hunter, who wrote for eight hours a day during his 50-year career, followed "Jungle" with other best-selling novels, including "Mothers and Daughters" (1961) and "Last Summer" (1968). He adapted some of his novels for the movies, including "Fuzz," a 1972 film starring Burt Reynolds, and "Strangers When We Meet" (1960), starring Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak. But the most acclaimed of his 75 or so screenplays was the one for "The Birds," the classic 1963 film that he and Alfred Hitchcock adapted from a story by Daphne du Maurier. Starting in 1956, Hunter began writing as McBain. Under this pen name, he pioneered the police procedural with his best-selling "87th Precinct" series. During the course of 55 books, McBain chronicled the daily casework of the station's detective squad. His fast-paced novels were driven by dialogue, and his realistic plot lines combined modern investigative techniques with sardonic humor. The final "Precinct" book, "Fiddlers," was released in September.

James Doohan, 85, who played engineer Montgomery Scott, the scrappy Scotsman who repeatedly gave the Starship Enterprise "all she's got" on the original "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures. Almost every week, the frazzled Scott was asked to perform an engineering miracle with the warp drive, shields or phasers to save the ship from certain death at the hands of Romulans, Klingons or other malicious space aliens. It was Doohan who obeyed the order "Beam me up, Scotty." The Canadian-born Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for and won a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. "Star Trek" continued on syndicated TV in the U.S. and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated. The huge success of George Lucas' "Star Wars" in 1977 prompted Paramount Pictures, which produced "Star Trek" for TV, to plan a movie based on the series. The studio brought back the TV cast and hired a topflight director, Robert Wise. "Star Trek -- The Motion Picture" was successful.

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AUGUST

Peter Jennings, 67, the longtime anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight" was known for his "conscience and integrity." When ABC News installed Jennings, a 26-year-old Canadian with limited journalistic experience, as its primary anchor in February 1965, it was a fateful gamble by a network still struggling to compete with its more established rivals at CBS and NBC. More on Peter Jennings

Barbara Bel Geddes, 82, who won an Emmy for her performance as Miss Ellie on "Dallas." Nominated three times (1979-81) for her role as the matriarch of the Ewing family, Bel Geddes played a woman of rock-solid virtue amid a family of oil-obsessed vipers. Bel Geddes was nominated for a best supporting actress Academy Award for 1948's "I Remember Mama," in which she played an aspiring writer whose narration framed a Depression-set saga of a Norwegian-American family. It was one of her earliest films. But it was "Dallas" that earned Bel Geddes a popularity she had not previously known. Early on in the series, she underwent surgery for breast cancer, and it was written into the story line as Miss Ellie had the same operation. During the series' long run (1978-90), Bel Geddes left the show for health reasons during the 1984-85 season, and Donna Reed took over the role. Bel Geddes returned for the 1985-86 season and continued on "Dallas" until 1990. After that, she retired from acting and did not appear in either of the two "Dallas" reunion TV movies. Active on Broadway -- the theater was her first love -- Bel Geddes was nominated for a Tony as best dramatic actress for her portrayal of Maggie the Cat in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in 1956; five years later, she earned another Tony nomination for her performance in Jean Kerr's "Mary, Mary." Bel Geddes also co-starred in such classic films as Elia Kazan's "Panic in the Streets" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." She starred along with Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong in "The Five Pennies," the musical biopic of cornet player Red Nichols.

Carl Harms, 94, a longtime Actors' Equity Assn. board member who performed as an actor and puppeteer. Harms dedicated more than 50 years to the union, joining in 1946 and serving on numerous negotiating committees, including the historic first negotiation between the union and the League of Resident Theatres in 1966. He also helped establish a pension fund in 1960, a struggle that saw Broadway shut down for seven days. Harms also was a longtime member of Equity's governing body, the Council, as recording secretary for 12 years and as 1st vp. Born in Chicago, Harms learned to carve, make and use puppets in the 1930s. After World War II, in which he served in the Merchant Marine, Harms returned to acting in New York, including on the TV show "The Adventures of Snarky Parker." He later appeared on numerous Hallmark TV shows, including "The Tempest," "Barefoot in Athens" and "Howdy Doody." His long-running association with Bil Baird's theater company also led to appearances on such shows as "The Ed Sullivan Show," "Your Show of Shows" and in helping NBC illustrate NASA space missions using replicas of spacecraft. He made his Broadway debut in 1951 in "Flahooley" and appeared in such productions as "Much Ado About Nothing," with Clare Booth Luce, and "Man in the Moon."

Joe Ranft, 45, Pixar Animation Studios' head of story for more than a decade and a cornerstone of the company's creative team. Ranft was a co-writer on 1995's "Toy Story," for which he earned an Oscar nomination, and 1998's "A Bug's Life." Before Pixar, he was a leading member of the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was a writer on 1991's "Beauty and the Beast" and 1994's "The Lion King." In addition to his work as a writer, Ranft performed the voices for numerous characters in Pixar features, including Heimlich in "A Bug's Life" and Wheezy the Penguin in "Toy Story 2."

Tonino Delli Colli, 82, a legendary cinematographer who in the past six decades worked alongside such Italian helmers as Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sergio Leone, Roman Polanski and Roberto Benigni. Among the more than 130 films he worked on were Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West," Pasolini's "The Canterbury Tales," Fellini's "Ginger and Fred," Polanski's "Death and the Maiden," Jean-Jacques Annaud's "The Name of the Rose" and Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful," the cinematographer's final film.

Robert Moog, 71, whose name became synonymous with electronic music in the 1960s and '70s through the invention of his self-named synthesizers. Introduced in 1964, it was a versatile keyboard instrument that could electronically mimic a panoply of musical sounds, including horns and strings. As a youth, he was fascinated by the theremin, the pioneering electronic instrument invented by the Russian Leon Theremin. It is played by moving the hands up and down through an electronic field surrounding a metal column. Moog's first company marketed theremins, one of which was used in the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," and other electronic products. Moog's first voltage-controlled synthesizer unit was developed in 1964 with composer Herb Deutsch; the first commercial modular synthesizer hit the market the same year. The Moog synthesizer made its major breakthrough into mass culture in 1968 when keyboardist Wendy Carlos (then known as Walter Carlos) issued "Switched-On Bach," an album of synthesizer performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's works. The album won three Grammys, including classical album of the year, and unleashed a flood of albums featuring synthesizer music. (Carlos also famously deployed the synthesizer in the score for Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange.") Pop and rock performers rapidly adopted the technology; the Beatles, the Who and Stevie Wonder, among others, were early exponents of the Moog synthesizer. It became a key building block of '70s progressive rock in the hands of such practitioners as Yes, Manfred Mann and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

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SEPTEMBER

Robert Wise, 91, who directed and produced two of the most outstanding movie musicals in film history, "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music," and was honored with four Oscars for his efforts. Wise, who also was nominated for an Oscar for editing the Orson Welles classic "Citizen Kane," won the best director Oscar for 1961's "West Side Story" and for 1965's "The Sound of Music." More on Robert Wise

R.L. Burnside, 78, one of the last great down-home bluesmen of Mississippi to achieve commercial prominence. Burnside's earthy, hypnotic brand of North Mississippi hill country blues gained widespread recognition -- and an audience of young punk rockers -- thanks to Fat Possum's series of releases, which began with "Bad Luck City" in 1993. "At the end, he was getting $10,000 a night; he was playing Richard Gere's birthday party," Born in Harmontown, Miss., Burnside worked as a farmhand, and as a youth learned the blues from such master practitioners as Joe Callicott and Fred McDowell, playing local juke joints. In 1967, folklorist George Mitchell was introduced to Burnside and made solo field recordings released by Arhoolie Records in 1968 and reissued in their entirety in 2004 by Fat Possum. With his band, Burnside also cut an album and singles for Memphis folklorist David Evans' label High Water Records. He toured Europe and recorded there during the '70s. After a long period of obscurity, Burnside was featured in Robert Mugge's 1991 documentary "Deep Blues" and its 1992 Atlantic soundtrack album. The first Fat Possum albums, produced by the late New York Times music critic Robert Palmer, ignited further interest in his sound. He toured widely with a band that included his grandson, drummer Cedric Burnside, and guitarist Kenny Brown. Burnside's shows began to draw a young punk-oriented crowd largely unfamiliar with primal blues. In 1996, his band collaborated with punk-blues act the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on the Matador album "A Ass Pocket of Whiskey." Two years later, Fat Possum issued a Burnside remix album, "Come on In." A track from that disc, "It's Bad You Know," was featured on the first-season finale of HBO's "The Sopranos" and the show's first soundtrack album. Burnside's last album, "A Bothered Mind," was issued last year; he also appeared in Mandy Stein's 2004 Fat Possum documentary, "You See Me Laughin'."

Patricia McQueeney, 77, Harrison Ford's longtime talent manager and a personality on NBC's "Today." McQueeney was Ford's manager for more than 30 years, until the time of her death. He was one of her original clients when she launched her management company, McQueeney Management Inc., in 1970, along with other actors including Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest. McQueeney's fledgling company experienced a windfall after many of those clients appeared in George Lucas' 1973 hit film "American Graffiti." But because of the success and demands of Ford's career in particular, McQueeney ultimately chose to represent him exclusively as his talent agent and manager. McQueeney got her start as a model using the name Patricia Scott and later became a television spokeswoman for such accounts as Revlon, AT&T and Eastman Kodak. In the late 1950s, she was hired as a co-host for "Today" alongside Dave Garroway. She wrote her own interviews and feature spots and did many of the commercials on the show, where she remained until 1964, when she headed to California to continue her career in TV commercials before launching her company six years later.

Don Adams, 82, a comedian who made an indelible mark on TV with his secret-agent spoof as the fumbling Maxwell Smart on "Get Smart." Adams won three consecutive Emmys for his work on the popular NBC comedy, created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, which lampooned the secret-agent craze in the era of James Bond. With his red Karmann Ghia and clipped vocal delivery, Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, was the TV equivalent of "The Pink Panther's" Inspector Clouseau and was especially popular with the college crowd during those counterculture times. Adams also wrote for the show. He was paid $4,000 a week, a top sum in those days. Adams shot off balmy directives to his beautiful colleague, Agent 99, played by Barbara Feldon, and his daft explanations to his gruff boss, Chief (Edward Platt), were often mimicked by fans of the show. "We didn't write 'Get Smart' for him, but as soon as we heard his voice, we knew he was perfect for the role," Henry said. "Get Smart" made Adams a household name, but it also typecast him for the rest of his career.

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OCTOBER

August Wilson, 60, a playwright whose epic 10-play cycle chronicling the black experience in 20th century America included such landmark dramas as "Fences" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Wilson's plays were big, often sprawling and poetic, dealing primarily with the effects of slavery on succeeding generations of black Americans: from turn-of-century characters who could remember the Civil War to a prosperous middle class at the end of the century who had forgotten the past. More on August Wilson

Harold Leventhal, 86, a promoter, manager and concert and film producer who was a key figure in the U.S. folk movement of the 1950s and '60s. Leventhal played a major role in the careers of such folk titans as Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. He co-produced "Bound for Glory," the 1976 Guthrie biographical film starring David Carradine, and was associate producer on "Alice's Restaurant," Arthur Penn's 1969 counterculture feature starring Guthrie's son, singer- songwriter Arlo Guthrie. Born in Ellenville, N.Y., in 1919, Leventhal was active as a teenager in left-wing political causes. He moved into the music business in 1939 as an office boy at the Irving Berlin Music Co. and later plugged the songwriter's compositions to the Dorsey Brothers and Benny Goodman. He met singer-banjoist Seeger and became manager of Seeger and his group, folk quartet the Weavers. As a manager and concert promoter, Leventhal worked with such talent as Odetta, Theodore Bikel, the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, Mahalia Jackson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Dave Van Ronk, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, Phil Ochs and Joan Baez. He presented Dylan's first New York concert hall performance at Town Hall in April 1963. In 1955, he began work with Woody Guthrie and his family; he mounted the famed Guthrie tribute concert at New York's Pythian Hall in 1956 and a subsequent memorial show -- which featured Dylan's first live appearance following his 1966 motorcycle crash -- at Carnegie Hall in 1968. He was Arlo Guthrie's manager for more than 30 years. In the '60s and '70s, Leventhal was a theatrical and film producer. On and off-Broadway, he helmed "Mark Twain's America," starring Will Geer; Joseph Heller's first play, "We Bombed in New Haven"; and Jules Feiffer's "The White House Murder Case."

Shirley Horn, 71, a pianist-vocalist whose series of 1980s and '90s albums for Verve elevated her into the top flight of jazz performers. Born and raised in Washington, Horn began playing piano at age 4 and attended Howard University in the capital city. She began leading her own trio in 1954. Her first recordings included three early-'60s albums for Mercury; those collections featured such players as guitarist Kenny Burrell, trumpeter Joe Newman, tenor saxophonist Frank Wess, pianist Hank Jones and the Quincy Jones orchestra. Horn also recorded for ABC/Paramount during the '60s. Choosing to remain in Washington and raise a family rather than tour, she continued to perform locally but didn't restart her recording career until the early '80s, when she cut a series of trio recordings for Steeplechase. However, she quickly rose to prominence through her association with Verve. Her debut album for the label, 1987's "I Thought About You," showcased her skill as a bop-grounded keyboardist and a sensitive interpreter of ballads and jazz standards. Succeeding Verve releases found Horn backed by such high-powered jazzmen as trumpeters Miles Davis (a friend and early sponsor), Wynton Marsalis and Roy Hargrove; saxophonists Joe Henderson and Gary Bartz; and drummer Elvin Jones. Notable releases included the 1993 Ray Charles salute "Light Out of Darkness" and the 1997 Davis homage "I Remember Miles."

Louis Nye, 92, a comedian who created a national catchphrase belting out "Hi, ho, Steverino!" as one of the players on Steve Allen's groundbreaking 1950s TV show. Nye worked regularly in nightclubs and on television until only a couple of years ago. He had a recurring role from 2000-02 in the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as the father of Jeff Garlin's character. When he joined Allen's show in 1956, he already was well established as one the era's hippest comics, appearing regularly on radio, in clubs and on early TV shows. On "The Steve Allen Show," which ran until 1961 under various names, he quickly endeared himself to audiences as Gordon Hathaway, the effete, country-club snob who would welcome Allen's arrival with the "Hi, ho, Steverino!" salutation. After the show's run ended, Nye often appeared on TV game shows, in films and as a regular on "The Ann Sothern Show."

Hamilton Camp, 70, a highly regarded 1960s folk musician in partnership with Bob Gibson who became a character actor in films and on Broadway. The pair worked folk clubs in New York and Chicago and became known for Gibson's 12-string guitar stylings and adventurous harmonies that influenced the folk music scene. Simon & Garfunkel recorded their "You Can Tell the World," and Peter, Paul & Mary covered "Well, Well, Well." After more than a year together, they broke up when Camp became one of the early members of Chicago's Second City theater troupe. He later became one of the original members of San Francisco's the Committee. Camp provided the voice of several Smurfs on the long-running Saturday-morning animated series and appeared in more than 100 films and made-for-TV movies as well as dozens of TV shows.

Charles Rocket, 56, who played the "Weekend Update" anchor on "Saturday Night Live" in 1980-81 and was fired from the show after saying "fuck" on the air. He went on to make numerous appearances on TV shows and in features. Born Charles Claverie in Bangor, Maine, he attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where he formed the band the Fabulous Motels and then became a newscaster under the name Charles Kennedy. He worked on newscasts in Colorado Springs and Nashville before landing the much more irreverent "SNL" gig, where he also performed his own "Rocket Reports" skits. Rocket appeared in feature films including "Earth Girls Are Easy," "Dances With Wolves," "It's Pat" and "Dumb and Dumber." His last film role was in the 2003 Sylvester Stallone film "Shade." On TV, he appeared on shows including "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Cybill," "Touched by an Angel" and "thirtysomething."

Nipsey Russell, 80, who played the Tin Man alongside Diana Ross and Michael Jackson in "The Wiz" as part of a decades-long career in stage, television and film. Born in Atlanta, Russell launched his television career as Officer Anderson in the 1961 television series "Car 54, Where Are You?" He also appeared in the 1994 film version. He became a fixture on popular television game and talk shows, where he was welcomed for his poetic delivery that earned him the moniker the "poet laureate of television." He also took his signature four-line poetry on the road for readings and performances. Russell also appeared in the films "Nemo" in 1984, "Wildcats" in 1986 and "Posse" in 1993. Russell eschewed the baggy pants style of the Chit'lin Circuit and never came on as a black comedian. He wore a business suit and tie and took a literate approach, delivering his material in the form of aphorisms and rhymes. He had begun reading Shelley, Homer, Keats and Paul Laurence Dunbar when he was 10 and sometimes quoted from Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales." He became a standout attraction at the Baby Grand, Small's Paradise and other cabarets with quips like "America is the only place in the world where you can work in an Arab home in a Scandinavian neighborhood and find a Puerto Rican baby eating matzo balls with chopsticks." The Baby Grand gig led to guest spots on Jack Paar's "Tonight Show," and those national television appearances ignited his career in 1959.

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NOVEMBER

Lloyd Bochner, 81, a veteran television and film actor remembered for his performance in a 1962 episode of "The Twilight Zone" titled "To Serve Man." He played a government cryptographer who decides to visit the aliens who left behind a book he has been unable to decipher. Just as he boards their spaceship, an assistant appears crying, "It's a cookbook!" It was voted No. 11 in a TV Guide poll of the 100 best television episodes ever. Bochner also was remembered for his role in "Dynasty" as the scheming tycoon Cecil Colby. He moved to New York in 1951 and made his mark the following year playing a British army officer on the NBC serial drama "One Man's Family." Bochner went to Hollywood in 1960 and obtained good television parts, usually as a supporting actor. He was in the adventure series "Hong Kong" as the island's police chief with Rod Taylor as the journalist hero, and turned up in such other popular classics as "Dr. Kildare," "Perry Mason," "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "Mission: Impossible," "Columbo," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Battlestar Galactica."

Pat Morita, 73, whose portrayal of the wise and dry-witted Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid" earned him an Oscar nomination. In the 1984 film, he starred as Kesuke Miyagi, the mentor to Ralph Macchio's "Daniel-san," teaching karate while trying to catch flies with chopsticks and offering such advice as "wax on, wax off" to guide Daniel through chores to improve his skills. "Karate Kid" spawned three sequels, the last of which, 1994's "The Next Karate Kid," paired Morita with a young Hilary Swank. For years, He played small roles in such films as "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and TV series such as "The Odd Couple" and "Green Acres." His first breakthrough came playing Arnold on ABC's "Happy Days," and he followed with his own brief series, "Mr. T and Tina." Morita also appeared in the films "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Spy Hard," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and "The Center of the World" and provided the voice for a character in the 1998 animated film "Mulan."

Skitch Henderson, 87, the dapper, goateed musician who led the "Tonight Show" band for hosts Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson. Born Lyle Russell Cedric Henderson in Birmingham, England, he moved to the U.S. during the 1930s and worked the vaudeville and movie house circuit in the Midwest. In 1937, he got his break filling in for a sick pianist backing a tour by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. That job led to a trip to Hollywood, where he joined the MGM music department and played piano for Bob Hope's radio show. As an arranger, he became known as a quick study: Bing Crosby, his Hollywood mentor, urged him to adapt his nickname, "the Sketch Kid," to "Skitch." The nickname stuck. Henderson was the musical director for Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the postwar years and was hired as NBC's musical director when the radio network moved into TV. He developed his classical chops with training under Fritz Reiner, Arnold Schoenberg and Arturo Toscanini, who invited him to conduct the NBC Symphony. As conductor of the RCA Victor Orchestra and Chorus, Henderson was featured on "Great Scenes From Gershwin's Porgy and Bess." The album, with opera star Leontyne Price, won a Grammy in 1963 for best classical performance. Henderson also founded the New York Pops and enjoyed a long career supplying music for films and radio and TV shows.

Link Wray, 76, a pioneering rock 'n' roll guitarist whose dense, primitive style is seen as a prefiguration of rock power chording. His reputation was built on a series of menacing, potently chorded instrumentals: "Rumble" (1958), "Rawhide" (1959) and "Jack the Ripper" (1963). Boasting a sound in marked contrast to the cleaner, country-bred picking style of such '50s guitarists as Scotty Moore and Cliff Gallup, he became the model for the heavier approach of later hard rock, metal and punk guitarists. Wray cultivated a filthy sound -- produced by a Gibson Les Paul guitar and a tiny amp with holes knocked into it -- and a greasy look at D.C. sock hops. He cut the instrumental "Rumble" for Archie Bleyer's Cadence label. The song was banned in some cities because of its alleged potential to incite teen violence, but it established Wray's rep as a rock guitar hero for all time. In the early '70s, he flexed his do-it-yourself muscles with three albums of primal gutbucket country-rock, cut in his home studio, Wray's Shack Three Track, in Accokeek, Md. His reputation received a huge boost in the late '70s and early '80s when he toured and recorded with postpunk rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon. Wray later toured with members of Gordon's band and enjoyed a renewed recording career. He remained popular in England, where Ace Records released new albums by the guitarist in 1997 and 2000.

Sheree North, 72, a platinum blond bombshell in the 1950s who later became a prominent character actress on television series including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Seinfeld." North was groomed at first to be a glamour girl who could substitute for the often-unreliable Marilyn Monroe, whom she replaced in the 1955 film "How to Be Very, Very Popular." Her breakout role was in the 1953 Broadway musical "Hazel Flagg," for which she won a Theatre World Award. She repeated that performance in "Living It Up," the 1954 film version, with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. She achieved leading lady status after getting rave reviews in the first episode of "The Bing Crosby Show," and she appeared in popular stage musicals including "Can-Can" and "Bye Bye Birdie." Her film career included performances in "The Outfit" (1973), "The Shootist" (1976) and "Defenseless" (1991). But she might have best been known for her prolific television work, earning Emmy nominations for appearances on "Marcus Welby, M.D.," and "Archie Bunker's Place."

Jerry Juhl, 67, who was head writer for "The Muppet Show" before he co-created "Fraggle Rock." Juhl worked as a puppeteer on Jim Henson's first television show, "Sam and Friends," and later spent six years writing for "Sesame Street" after its 1969 premiere. Juhl was head writer for "The Muppet Show" from 1977-81, receiving two Emmys for his work.

Bob Denver, 70, who starred as the lovably nutty castaway Gilligan on the hit TV comedy "Gilligan's Island." Although it only ran from 1964-67, "Gilligan" has thrived in reruns. Its 98 episodes have attained a cult status, won new generations of fans and spawned a reality series. Denver reprised his fey Gilligan character in two animated series, as well as a sci-fi version of the same concept. He played Gilligan in an episode of "Baywatch" and starred in three telefilms based on "Gilligan." In the late '70s, he made his most auspicious transition from TV, succeeding Woody Allen as the lead in Allen's "Play It Again, Sam" on Broadway. Denver first became recognizable to TV audiences with his portrayal of the beatnik-type Maynard G. Krebs on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" (1959-63).

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DECEMBER

Richard Pryor, 65, who confronted racial and class taboos with edgy, brash humor in the 1970s and '80s. During a wildly up-and-down career, Pryor cut more than 20 comedy albums and enjoyed a movie career of nearly 40 films that included such boxoffice hits as "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "Greased Lightning," "Which Way Is Up?" and "Brewster's Millions" as well as the outspoken 1979 concert film "Richard Pryor: Live in Concert." More on Richard Pryor

Rodney Whitaker, 74, who wrote "The Eiger Sanction" and many other thrillers under one of his pen names, Trevanian. His 10 known published books sold more than 5 million copies and were translated into at least 14 languages. "The Eiger Sanction" (1972) was made into the film starring Clint Eastwood. Whitaker, who wrote under five pseudonyms on subjects including theology, law, aesthetics and film, was chairman of the radio, television and film department at the University of Texas when he wrote his first two books as satirical versions of James Bond. Under his own name, Whitaker wrote "The Language of Film" (1970).

John Spencer, 58, an Emmy-winning actor who played the White House chief of staff on the NBC drama "The West Wing." Spencer received Emmy nominations for his role every year from 1999-2004, winning as a best supporting actor in 2002. He made his breakthrough in the 1990 film "Presumed Innocent," playing the role of Detective Dan Lipranzer opposite Harrison Ford, and then took the roles of a stream of lawyers and government officials, including the fiery New York transplant Tommy Mullaney on "L.A. Law." In 1981 he won an Obie Award for his role as Mark in John Byrne's off-Broadway play "Still Life." He remained committed to live theater, appearing most recently as Martin Glimmer, a worn-out trumpeter in "Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine," in Los Angeles and New York.

Robert F. Newmyer, 49, a producer whose films include "sex, lies, and videotape," "Training Day" and "The Santa Clause." Newmyer was known for doing all he could to further a movie -- for example, he mortgaged his home in order to develop the film "Phat Girls," a move that paid off when Fox Searchlight bought the rights to the comedy in November. Among the other films Newmyer produced were "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead," "Mr. Baseball," "Don Juan DeMarco," "Addicted to Love" and "National Security."

Mary Jackson, 95, an actress who played Emily Baldwin on "The Waltons." Emily was her older sister Mamie's partner in brewing bootleg whisky to which they referred as "the Recipe." After a film debut in "Friendly Persuasion" (1956, the story of a Quaker family in 19th century Indiana), Jackson's big-screen roles included a nun in "Airport" (1970) and Jane Fonda's mother in "Fun With Dick and Jane" (1977). She took character roles in dozens of American television series, including "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1956), "My Three Sons" (1961), "Barnaby Jones" (three roles, 1973-77), "Hill Street Blues" (1987) and "L.A. Law" (1989).

Bob Enevoldsen, 85, a stalwart West Coast trombonist best known for his intelligent solos. In the 1950s, he worked with Shelly Manne at the Hermosa Beach jazz club the Lighthouse and performed with Bobby Troup's trio and Terry Gibbs' big band. He also played with Art Pepper, Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan and other leading West Coast figures. In recent years. Enevoldsen worked as a first call lead trombonist with numerous Los Angeles big bands, including those of Gerald Wilson, Clayton-Hamilton, Bill Holman and Jack Sheldon, in addition to a steady stream of recording dates.

Adrian Biddle, 54, a leading British cinematographer who worked on 25 feature films including 1991's "Thelma & Louise," which brought him nominations for an Oscar and a BAFTA award. His work on the Neil Jordan comedy-drama "The Butcher Boy" (1997) won him the European Film Award for best cinematographer. The "Alien" sequel "Aliens" (1986) was the first of the films on which he piloted the lensing. He followed it with the fantasies "The Princess Bride" (1987) and "Willow" (1988). He shot Ridley Scott's ill-fated epic "1492: Conquest of Paradise" (1992), before heading for the U.S. to shoot "City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold" (1994). He continued to build a reputation as one of Britain's foremost cinematographers with "Judge Dredd" (1995), "101 Dalmatians" (1996) and "Fierce Creatures" (1997). Other films include "The Mummy" (1999), "Shanghai Knights" (2003) and "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" (2004).

Gregg Hoffman, 42, producer of the "Saw" horror film franchise. A former Walt Disney Co. executive, Hoffman was at the peak of his career in Hollywood with the back-to-back successes of the low-budget horror films "Saw" and "Saw II." Hoffman and his partners at Twisted Pictures independently financed the films, from which they eventually reaped tens of millions of dollars. Hoffman had joined Disney in 1995, where he helped develop a roster of live-action children's films including "Inspector Gadget," "101 Dalmatians" and "The Parent Trap." He eventually became a senior vp production, also earning a producer credit on Disney's comedy "George of the Jungle." After leaving Disney, Hoffman came across a gory eight-minute short film, "Saw," that he was rightly convinced could make a fortune if produced as a full-length feature. Opening on Halloween 2004, "Saw" grossed more than $102 million in boxoffice and DVD revenue. That led to this year's sequel, "Saw II," a $4 million film that in six weeks has grossed more than $86 million at the North American boxoffice since its Oct. 30 release.

Mary Hayley Bell, 94, an actress and novelist who was the wife of actor John Mills. Her best-known work, the novel "Whistle Down the Wind," was turned into a successful 1961 film starring her daughter Hayley Mills as the eldest of three farm children who mistake an escaped murderer for Jesus Christ. Andrew Lloyd Webber later turned it into a stage musical, relocating it to the Deep South. She gave up the stage after marrying Mills in 1942 and took up writing. Her first play, "Men in Shadow," starred her husband as the leader of a group of British airmen shot down over occupied France.

Jack Colvin, 73, a character actor who co-starred as tabloid reporter Jack McGee in the 1970s television series "The Incredible Hulk." Colvin's television work included appearances on "The Rat Patrol," "Kojak," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "The Rockford Files," "Quincy, M.E." "Cagney and Lacey" and "Murder, She Wrote." On the big screen, he had minor roles in several films, including "Scorpio" and "Rooster Cogburn." He was an active member of Theatre East in Studio City for 20 years.

Vincent Schiavelli, 57, the droopy-eyed character actor who appeared in scores of movies, including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Ghost" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." The New York-born Schiavelli, whose gloomy look made him perfect to play creepy or eccentric characters, appeared in some 150 film and television productions. Schiavelli played the science teacher Mr. Vargas in "Fast Times," Salieri's valet in "Amadeus," patient Frederickson in "Cuckoo's Nest," the subway ghost in "Ghost," the organ grinder in "Batman Returns" and Chester in "The People vs. Larry Flynt." He was selected in 1997 by Vanity Fair as one of America's best character actors.

Kerry Packer, 68, head of Australia's Nine Network and the country's richest man. The Packer family is the controlling shareholder of Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd., owner of the top-rated Nine television network, the largest magazine publisher in the country ACP Magazines and gaming business Crown Casino. Packer's personal fortune has been estimated at AUS$8 billion ($6 billion) by ACPs' Business Review Weekly magazine. Packer inherited the family publishing business, Australian Consolidated Press, from his father Frank Packer in 1974, having joined the business in 1956. He famously sold the Nine Network to businessman Alan Bond for AUS$1 billion in 1987 and bought it back for AUS$250 million three years later -- a profit on which he built his current fortune.