Obituaries

Gurkha hero and activist Tul Bahadur Pun dies in Nepal

A former Gurkha soldier who won the Victoria Cross and later became the figurehead for a campaign on Gurkha's rights to settle in the UK has died. Tul Bahadur Pun died in his home village of Myagdi, in Nepal, aged 88. He received the Victoria Cross for saving the lives of dozens of his comrades in Burma during WWII. In 2009 he campaigned for Gurkhas' rights alongside actress Joanna Lumley, who credited him as having saved her own soldier father's life in 1944. Although Mr Pun was listed as 88 years old when he died it i

India: Last Jaipur Maharajah Sawai Bhawani Singh dies

Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh, the last Maharajah of Jaipur, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, has died.Brigadier Singh, who continued to be revered as a social and cultural icon after India abolished royal titles, died after a long illness. He was 79.He took over as the Maharajah after the death of his father in 1970, but royal titles were abolished shortly after.Former royals are still associated with the wealth and glamour of the past and attract a lot of interest in India.

Sidney Lumet, 1924-2011: A Director of Classics, Focused on Conscience

Sidney Lumet, a director who preferred the streets of New York to the back lots of Hollywood and whose stories of conscience — “12 Angry Men,” “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Verdict,” “Network” — became modern American film classics, died Saturday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 86. His stepdaughter, Leslie Gimbel, said the cause was lymphoma. “While the goal of all movies is to entertain,” Mr. Lumet once wrote, “the kind of film in which I believe goes o

Geraldine A. Ferraro, 1935-2011; She Ended the Men’s Club of National Politics

Geraldine A. Ferraro, the former Queens congresswoman who strode onto a podium in 1984 to accept the Democratic nomination for vice president and to take her place in American history as the first woman nominated for national office by a major party, died Saturday in Boston. She was 75 and lived in Manhattan. The cause was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for 12 years, her family said in a statement. She died at Massachusetts Gene

Elizabeth Taylor, A Lustrous Pinnacle of Hollywood Glamour

Elizabeth Taylor, the actress who dazzled generations of moviegoers with her stunning beauty and whose name was synonymous with Hollywood glamour, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 79. A spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said Ms. Taylor died at 1:28 a.m. Pacific time. Her publicist, Sally Morrison, said the cause was complications of congestive heart failure. Ms. Taylor had had a series of medical setbacks over the years and was hospitalized six weeks ago with heart

Warren Christopher, Lawyer, Negotiator and Adviser to Presidents, Dies at 85

Warren M. Christopher, the courtly and reserved secretary of state in President Bill Clinton’s first term and the chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, died on Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85 and lived in Los Angeles. O’Melveny & Myers, the law firm where Mr. Christopher was a senior partner, announced his death, saying he had been ill with kidney and bladder cancer. Methodical and self-effacing, Mr. Christopher alternated for ne

Pinetop Perkins, Delta Boogie-Woogie Master, Dies at 97

Pinetop Perkins, the boogie-woogie piano player who worked in Muddy Waters’s last great band and was among the last surviving members of the first generation of Delta bluesmen, died on Monday at his home in Austin, Tex. He was 97. His death was confirmed by Hugh Southard, his agent for the last 15 years. From his days in the groups of Waters and the slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk to the vigorous solo career he fashioned over the last 20 years, Mr. Perkins’s accomplish

Donny George, Protector of Iraq’s Ancient Riches, Dies at 60

Donny George, an esteemed Iraqi archaeologist who tried to stop the looters ransacking the Iraq National Museum after the invasion of 2003, then led in recovering thousands of stolen artifacts in the ensuing years, died on Friday in Toronto. He was 60. His friend Gwendolen Cates said he had a heart attack in the Toronto airport. Dr. George fled Iraq in 2006 because of threats to his family. He was also angry that Iraq’s post-invasion politicians seemed interested mainly

David Broder, Political Journalist and Pundit, Dies at 81

David S. Broder, who skillfully straddled the line between commentary and reportage for more than four decades as a political correspondent and columnist for The Washington Post and who spread his influence on television as a Sunday morning pundit, died on Wednesday in Arlington, Va. He was 81. The cause was complications of diabetes, The Post reported. Mr. Broder, whose last column was published on Feb. 6, was often called the dean of the Washington press corps and just as often de

Alberto Granado, 88, Friend of Che, Dies

HAVANA — Alberto Granado Jiménez, the Argentine biochemist who accompanied the young Che Guevara on his formative odyssey across South America, died here on Saturday. He was 88. Mr. Granado, who settled in Cuba in 1961, died of natural causes, according to Cuban state television. His ashes were to be scattered in Argentina, Cuba and Venezuela, a state newscast said. Mr. Granado was born in the Argentine town of Hernando on Aug. 8, 1922. One of three sons of a Spanish é

Charles Jarrott, 83, Director of Period Movies, Dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charles Jarrott, the veteran British film and television director best known for the acclaimed costume dramas “Anne of the Thousand Days” and “Mary, Queen of Scots,” died here on Friday. He was 83. His death was announced by a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement community where he had been living. He had been suffering from prostate cancer. Born in London in 1927, Mr. Jarrott served in the Royal Navy during World War II

Carl B. Hess, Pioneer of Private Equity, Dies at 98

Carl B. Hess, the founding chairman and longtime leader of AEA Investors, a pioneer private equity company and a precursor to the leveraged-buyout giants of the 1980s, died on Feb. 15 at his home in Manhattan. He was 98. His death was confirmed by his wife, Ludmila Schwarzenberg Hess. AEA was founded in 1968 as American European Associates with $15.4 million in start-up capital from the Rockefellers, Mellons and Harrimans and S. G. Warburg & Company, Siegmund Warbu

Necmettin Erbakan, a Turkish Prime Minister, Dies at 84

Necmettin Erbakan, the first Islamist prime minister of Turkey, whose attempt to turn his country away from the West led the military to depose him in 1997, died on Sunday in Ankara. He was 84. The cause was heart failure, said Dr. Tevfik Ali Kucukbas of Guven Hospital, where Mr. Erbakan had been in intensive care since mid-January. During his turbulent year as prime minister, Mr. Erbakan boldly challenged Turkey’s secular dogma, vowing to create a pan-Islamic currency

Frank Buckles, Last World War I Doughboy, Is Dead at 110

Frank Buckles, who drove an Army ambulance in France in 1918 and came to symbolize a generation of embattled young Americans as the last of the World War I doughboys, died on Sunday at his home in Charles Town, W.Va. He was 110. His death was announced on his Web site. He was only a corporal and he never got closer than 30 or so miles to the Western Front trenches, but Mr. Buckles became something of a national treasure as the last living link to the two million men who

Jane Russell, Sultry Star of 1940s and ’50s, Dies at 89

Jane Russell, the voluptuous actress at the center of one of the most highly publicized censorship episodes in movie history, the long-delayed release of the 1940s western “The Outlaw,” died on Monday at her home in Santa Maria, Calif. She was 89. The cause was a respiratory-related illness, her daughter-in-law, Etta Waterfield, said. Ms. Russell was 19 and working in a doctor’s office when Howard Hughes, returning to movie production after his aviation successes, cast

Suze Rotolo, a Face, With Bob Dylan, of ’60s Music, Is Dead at 67

Suze Rotolo, who became widely known for her romance with Bob Dylan in the early 1960s, strongly influenced his early songwriting and, in one of the decade’s signature images, walked with him arm-in-arm for the cover photo of his breakthrough album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” died on Friday at her home in Manhattan. She was 67. The cause was lung cancer, her husband, Enzo Bartoccioli, said. Ms. Rotolo (she pronounced her name SU-zee ROTE-olo) met Mr. Dylan in Manhat

Raymond D’Addario, Photographer of Nazis, Dies at 90

Raymond D’Addario, an Army photographer whose images of Hitler’s top henchmen during the Nuremberg war crimes trials put their faces before the world as it became increasingly aware of Nazi atrocities, died Sunday in Holyoke, Mass., his hometown. He was 90. The cause was a stroke, his daughter Linda Salmon said. Mr. D’Addario was one of about a dozen still and motion-picture photographers assigned by the Army Pictorial Service in November 1945 to document the Internatio

Barney Hajiro, Medal of Honor Recipient, Dies at 94

After Barney Hajiro, an Army private, single-handedly wiped out two German machine gun nests and killed two snipers in a gallant charge in World War II, his superiors recommended him for the Medal of Honor. As part of a regiment composed entirely of Japanese-Americans below the officers’ ranks, Private Hajiro epitomized the unit’s brash motto, “Go for Broke!” His commanding officer’s report said that in October 1944 in eastern France, he had run 100 yards through a stream of bullet

Daniel Bell, Ardent Appraiser of Politics, Economics and Culture, Dies at 91

Daniel Bell, the writer, editor, sociologist and teacher who over seven decades came to epitomize the engaged intellectual as he struggled to reveal the past, comprehend the present and anticipate the future, died on Tuesday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 91. His daughter, Jordy Bell, confirmed the death. Mr. Bell’s output was prodigious and his range enormous. His major lines of inquiry included the failures of socialism in America, the exhaustion of modern cul

Dagmar Wilson, Anti-Nuclear Leader, Dies at 94

Dagmar Wilson, the founder of Women Strike for Peace, a cold war movement that helped organize demonstrations around the world calling for nuclear disarmament, died Jan. 6 in Washington. She was 94 and lived in Leesburg, Va. Her daughter, Sally Ballin, confirmed the death. On Nov. 1, 1961, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace marched in 60 cities in the United States and abroad demanding an end to atomic testing. As about 1,500 women led by Ms.