Obituaries

Singer-actor Al Martino dies at 82

Al Martino, the Italian-American singer who made a splash on the big screen in the role of Johnny Fontane in The Godfather, has died. He was 82. Martino died Tuesday at his childhood home in the Philadelphia suburb of Springfield, in Delaware County, according to publicist Sandy Friedman, of the Rogers & Cowan public relations firm. No cause of death was given. Martino had a 50-year career as a singer, with hits such as Volare, Can't Help Falling in Love and Spanish

Bruce Wasserstein dies at 61; prominent Wall Street deal maker

Bruce Wasserstein, chief executive of investment bank Lazard Ltd. and a prominent Wall Street deal maker, died Wednesday after being hospitalized earlier this week with an irregular heartbeat, a company spokeswoman said. He was 61. In a statement Wednesday, Lazard's board said the cause of death had not yet been determined. It didn't say where Wasserstein died. Steven J. Golub, vice chairman of Lazard, was named interim chief executive, effective immediately, the statem

Nan Robertson, Who Chronicled Discrimination Suit at The Times, Is Dead at 83

Nan Robertson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times who was widely known for her book “The Girls in the Balcony,” which chronicled the fight for workplace parity by female employees of The Times, and for writing candidly about her alcoholism and battle with toxic shock syndrome, died on Tuesday in Rockville, Md. She was 83 and lived in Bethesda, Md. The apparent cause was heart disease, said Jane Freundel Levey, Ms. Robertson’s stepdaughter-in-law. After retiring

He Sparked Supersonic Flight With a Coke Bottle and File

Richard T. Whitcomb dreamed up techniques that made supersonic flight possible and innovations that endure on passenger jets today. Mr. Whitcomb, who died Oct. 13 at age 88, solved a problem that had bedeviled aviation engineers, whose designs couldn't achieve supersonic flight even though they seemed to have enough power. Increased wind resistance at speeds approaching the speed of sound was the problem. Engineers took to calling it the "sound barrier." Mr. W

Prominent N.J. attorney, civil-rights leader Ray Brown dies at age 94

Ray Brown's client list reads like a Who’s Who of historical New Jersey figures: Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, Mario “Dr. X” Jascalevich, bookmaker Joseph ”News boy’’ Moriarty and cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. During a 59-year law career that began with a defense of civil rights workers and progressed to include some of New Jersey’s highest profile cases, Brown became known for his unflagging work ethic and dominating courtroom presence. He also inspired a generation of African-American attorn

Larry Jansen, Giants Pitcher, Dies at 89

Larry Jansen, the right-handed pitcher whose 23 victories helped propel the New York Giants to their storied 1951 National League championship, died Saturday in Verboort, Ore. He was 89. The cause was congestive heart failure and pneumonia, his daughter Darlene Greene said. On the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1951, Jansen pitched the top of the ninth inning against the Brooklyn Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in the climactic Game 3 of their pennant playoff, relieving Sal Maglie.

Richard Sonnenfeldt, 86, Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, became principal interpreter for American prosecutors

Among the 21 men he questioned were Hermann Goering, commander of the Luftwaffe and Hitler's designated successor; Albert Speer, who ran Germany's war machine as armaments minister; and Rudolf Hess, who had been Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party. All bar Hess were convicted of war crimes. Sonnenfeldt's selection for this role was entirely fortuitous. As a private in the US Army, he had fought at the Battle of the Bulge and was working in a vehicle maintenance pool, greasing an armou

Raymond Federman, Avant-Garde Novelist and Beckett Scholar, Dies at 81

Raymond Federman, a French-born scholar, critic and avant-garde novelist whose work sought to straddle the boundary between fiction and reality — and in so doing to emphasize the inadequacy of language to capture either one completely — died last Tuesday in San Diego. He was 81 and lived in San Diego. The cause was cancer, his daughter, Simone Federman, said. At his death, Mr. Federman was a SUNY distinguished professor emeritus of English at the State University at Buf

Lionel Pincus, Who Helped Bring Investors to Private Equity, Dies at 78

Lionel Irwin Pincus, who built Warburg Pincus into a leading Wall Street firm and played a role in changing federal regulations on investing, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 78. In the 1960s, Mr. Pincus opened Lionel I. Pincus & Company, his own financial consultancy. Soon after, he and Eric Warburg, who had set up the merchant bank E. M. Warburg & Company, merged their firms, and over the years, they made hundreds of successful investments in companies, inclu

Elizabeth Rickey, GOP activist who denounced David Duke, dies at age 53

Elizabeth "Beth" Rickey, a longtime Republican activist best known for denouncing David Duke when he started campaigning for his House seat in the late 1980s, died Saturday in a motel room in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 53. No cause of death was available Monday. However, Mary Olivea, a friend in Santa Fe, said Ms. Rickey had moved to New Mexico because she suffered from several health problems, including an immune-system disorder, Crohn's disease and high blood pressure.

John D. Loori, 78, Zen Abbot and Photographer, Dies

John Daido Loori, a photographer who found that snapping a picture mirrored the instant of spiritual enlightenment, inspiring him to start an influential Zen monastery in the Catskills, died on Friday in Mount Tremper, N.Y. He was 78. The cause was complications of lung cancer, Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, his assistant, said. In addition to being abbot of the monastery he started, Abbot Loori founded a worldwide Zen order, was a respected photographer and teacher and wrote

Charles Seliger, Abstract Expressionist, Dies at 83

Charles Seliger, whose small-scale, jewel-like paintings of imaginary natural forms made him the most idiosyncratic of the first-generation Abstract Expressionists, died in Manhattan on Oct. 1. He was 83 and lived in Westchester County, N.Y. The cause was a stroke, said his son Robert. While fellow artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning created high drama with drips and bravura brushwork on billboard-size canvases, Mr. Seliger conjured up his own private wor

Photographer Irving Penn Dies at 92

NEW YORK -- Irving Penn, whose photographs revealed a taste for stark simplicity whether he was shooting celebrity portraits, fashion, still life or remote places of the world, died Wednesday at his Manhattan home. He was 92. The death was announced by his photo assistant, Roger Krueger. "He never stopped working," said Peter MacGill, a longtime friend whose Pace-MacGill Galleries in Manhattan represented Mr. Penn's work. "He would go back to similar subj

Josef Burg, Who Wrote About Jewish Life, Dies at 97

Josef Burg, who as one of the last Yiddish authors in Eastern Europe preserved vestiges of a once-vibrant culture in fictional reflections on Jewish life, from the ghettos of the cities to the remote shtetl villages of the Carpathian Mountains, died on Aug. 10 in Chernovitsi, the city where he grew up in what is now Ukraine. He was 97. His death, which was not widely reported in English until last week, was confirmed by Itzik Gottesman, associate editor of The Forward, a weekly publ

Mercedes Sosa, Who Sang of Argentina’s Turmoil, Dies at 74

Mercedes Sosa, the Argentine folk singer whose politically charged repertory, sung in a powerful, earthy and impassioned alto voice, led her to be known throughout Latin America as “the voice of the voiceless,” died early Sunday in Buenos Aires. She was 74. Ms. Sosa had been admitted to a hospital in the Argentine capital two weeks ago, suffering from kidney disease and with liver and lung problems. Her death was announced on her Web site and by her son, Fabián Matus, who said: “Me

Reinhard Mohn, 88, Of Bertelsmann, Dies

Bertelsmann AG patriarch Reinhard Mohn, a towering figure in Germany's postwar economic revival who created Europe's biggest media company from the ashes of a wartime propaganda publisher, died on Saturday. He was 88 years old. During a career that spanned more than a half-century, Mr. Mohn oversaw the expansion of his family's company away from its core book printing and publishing business into magazines, music and television. He leaves behind a company that straddles a broad swat

Frank Coghlan Jr., Child Actor of Silent Era, Dies at 93

Frank Coghlan Jr., a freckle-faced child actor of silent movies who in the sound era thrilled Saturday matinee audiences by shouting “Shazam!” and mutating into the superhero Captain Marvel, died on Sept. 7 at his home in Saugus, Calif. He was 93. He died of natural causes, his son, Patrick, said. Junior Coghlan, as he was usually billed, did not actually become Captain Marvel in the 12-part serial “Adventures of Captain Marvel,” which Republic Pictures released in 1941

Marek Edelman, Commander in Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Dies at 90

Marek Edelman, a cardiologist who was the last surviving commander of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Germans, died Friday in Warsaw. He was 90. A friend, Paula Sawicka, told The Associated Press that Dr. Edelman had died “among friends, among his close people,” at her home, where he had lived for the past two years. For many years he lived in Lodz, Poland’s second largest city. Dr. Edelman was one of a handful of young leaders who in April 1943 led a force

Douglas Watt, New York Theater Critic, Dies at 95

Douglas Watt, whose well-informed theater reporting and stylish criticism for The Daily News in New York were fixtures in an era when theater was king and critics were legion, died Tuesday in Southampton, N.Y. He was 95 and lived in Southampton and Manhattan. He died after a bout with pneumonia, his daughter Patricia said. As a newspaperman, Mr. Watt had remarkable longevity. He started at The News in 1934 as a copy boy in the drama department, and he retired in 1993 as

Henry Bellmon, former Oklahoma governor and US senator, dies at 88

Henry Louis Bellmon, who in 1963 became Oklahoma's first GOP governor since statehood and is known as the father of the state's modern Republican party, died Tuesday. He was 88. Bellmon, who also served two terms in the U.S. Senate, died shortly before 11 a.m. after a long battle with Parkinson's disease, said Andrew Tevington, Bellmon's former chief of staff and general counsel. Bellmon died at St. Mary's Mercy Hospital in Enid, where he had been hospitalized since Sunday morning,