Death of Minor Celebrities

Claiborne Pell (November 22, 1918 – January 1, 2009) was a former United States Senator from Rhode Island, serving six terms from 1961 to 1997, and was best known as the sponsor of the Pell Grant, which provides financial aid funding to U.S. college students. A Democrat, he was that state's longest serving senator.

Death of Claiborne Pell
Claiborne Pell suffered from Parkinson's Disease. Pell died on January 1, 2009. He was 90 years old

Pell attended St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island, then received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Princeton University in 1940, and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1946. While in Princeton, he was a member of Colonial Club.

Pell was married to the former Nuala O'Donnell, a descendant of the Hartford family and, as such, one of the heirs to the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company fortune

Robert Graham (August 19, 1938 - December 27, 2008) was a sculptor based in the state of California in the United States of America. His monumental bronzes commemorate the human figure and are featured in public places across America.

Graham's work included statues of past presidents, Los Angeles Olympic Gateway, and countless more all over The United States.

Robert Graham died 70 years old, surrounded by his family, including Oscar winning actress Angelica Huston (married since 1992)

Ann Savage (February 19, 1921 - December 25, 2008) was a motion picture actress for over sixty years. She is mainly remembered as the cigarette-puffing femme fatale in Detour (1945) and other Hollywood B-movies and film noirs of the 1940s. Savage and Detour co-star Tom Neal made four movies (Klondike Kate, Two Man Submarine, Unwritten Code, and Detour) and one television show (Gangbusters) together.

Death of Ann Savage
Ann Savage died in her sleep on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008, from complications following a series of stroke. She is buried next to D'Armand at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in Los Angeles, California

William R. Finnegan (June 29, 1928 Kansas City Missouri - November 28, 2008 Sag Harbor, Suffolk County New York) was a five times Emmy nominated TV & film producer.

William Finnegan's credits include "Hawaii Five-0," "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" and "The Fabulous Baker Boys,"

He co-produced movies such as; "Support Your Local Gunfighter" (1971), "North Shore" (1987), "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989), "White Palace" (1990), "The Babe" (1992), "CrissCross" (1992), "Reality Bites" (1994) and "Ed" (1996).

Death of William Finnegan
William Finnegan died of parkinson's disease at his home in Sag Harbor, N.Y.
William Finnegan was 80 years old at the time of his death.

Jimmy Carl Black (born James Inkanish, Jr., February 1, 1938 – November 1, 2008) was a drummer and vocalist for The Mothers of Invention.

Born in El Paso, Texas, he was of Cheyenne heritage. His trademark line was "Hi Boys and Girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black, and I'm the Indian of the group." He has been credited on some Mothers albums as playing "drums, vocals, and poverty".

He appeared in the movie 200 Motels and sings the song Lonesome Cowboy Burt.

He worked as a guest vocalist with Muffin Men, a Frank Zappa tribute band based in Liverpool, England, and with Jon Larsen, on the surrealistic Strange News From Mars project, featuring several other Zappa alumni, such as Tommy Mars, Bruce Fowler, Arthur Barrow.

Black was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2008, and died on November 1st. A benefit will be held on 9 November 2008 at the Bridgehouse II in London.

Frank Lawrence "Lefty" Rosenthal (June 12, 1929 – October 13, 2008) was a sports handicapper and a former Las Vegas casino executive. He also hosted a television talk show in Las Vegas during the late 1970s.

The 1995 Martin Scorsese film Casino, based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi, was inspired by Rosenthal's career in Las Vegas. Rosenthal (re-named "Sam 'Ace' Rothstein") was played by Robert De Niro, and his Mafia associate Anthony Spilotro (re-named "Nicky Santoro") was played by Joe Pesci. Rosenthal's story was featured on The History Channel's, "True Crime Authors," as well.

Death of Frank Rosenthal
Frank Rosenthal died of a heart attack in his Florida home.
Frank Rosenthal was 79 years old at the time of his death

House Peters Jr., a TV actor who became the original Mr. Clean in Proctor & Gamble's commercials for household cleaners.

House Peters, Jr. (January 12, 1916 – October 1, 2008) was an American actor and the son of House Peters, Sr. He was born in New Rochelle, New York, as Robert House Peters, Jr. and died at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Los Angeles, California (age 92).

Peters died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Los Angeles.

In a career that spanned 1935-1967, Peters appeared in many films, primarily as the "heavy," or villain. He appeared in television series including Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone and Lassie.

From the late 1950s into the 1960s, Peters Jr. played Mr. Clean in television spots, advertising the eponymous cleaning product.

Norman Jesse Whitfield (943 – September 16, 2008) was an American songwriter and producer, best known for his work with Berry Gordy's Motown label during the 1960s.  He is credited as being one of the creators of the Motown Sound, as well as one of the major instrumental figures in the late-60s sub-genre of psychedelic soul.

Whitfield died on September 16, 2008 after a long bout with diabetes, among other illnesses.

Charlie Walker (November 2, 1926 - September 12, 2008) was a country musician. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1967.

Born in Copeville, Texas, Walker worked as a DJ in the early 1950s before signing with Decca Records. His first hit, "Only You, Only You," was co-written with Jack Newman and reached #9 on the country chart in January 1956. Walker later signed with Columbia and reached #2 with a Harlan Howard song, "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down." His other hits include "Who Will Buy the Wine," "Wild as a Wildcat," "Don't Squeeze My Charmin," and "I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dog Fight Even If I Thought That She Could Win." Walker died in Nashville on September 12, 2008.

José Cuauhtemoc "Bill" Meléndez (November 15, 1916 - September 2, 2008) is a Mexican-born American character animator, film director, and film producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers and the Peanuts series. Meléndez provided the voice of Snoopy and Woodstock in the latter as well.

Death of Bill Meléndez
Bill Meléndez's cause of death is unknown but he died peacefully
Bill Meléndez was 91 years old at the time of his death.

In 1938, Meléndez was hired by Walt Disney to work on animated short films and feature-length films such as Bambi, Fantasia, and Dumbo.

After a decade Meléndez founded his own production company in 1964. Bill Melendez Productions helped produce the annually broadcast Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas, for which he won an Emmy Award and the George Foster Peabody Award despite having to work on short notice and with a tight budget. Meléndez performed the voice of Snoopy, who normally in the specials does not talk.

Meléndez has gone on to do over 75 half-hour Peanuts specials, including the 1989 miniseries This is America, Charlie Brown, as well as four feature-length motion pictures – all with partner Lee Mendelson.

Hazel Warp (1914 – August 26, 2008) was an American stuntwoman. She was Vivien Leigh's stunt double in Gone with the Wind. Warp rode and trained horses in the film, was a Leigh's stand-in in all of her horseback-riding scenes. She also tumbled down the stairs in the famous scene near the end of the film where Scarlett O'Hara loses her balance and falls. Other films she appeared in included Wuthering Heights, Ben-Hur and National Velvet. She was born in Harlowton, Montana and was twice married. She died August 26, 2008 in Livingston Memorial Hospital, Montana aged 93

LeRoi Moore (September 7, 1961 - August 19, 2008) was an American saxophonist best known as a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band. Moore often arranged music for the songs written by frontman Dave Matthews. Moore also co-wrote many of the band's songs, notably "Too Much" and "Stay".

Death of LeRoi Moor:
LeRoi Moor died of complications from his injuries in the ATV accident.
LeRoi Moor was 46 years old at the time of his death

ATV accident and death:
Moore was injured on June 30, 2008 in an ATV accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia, breaking several ribs and puncturing a lung, and was hospitalized at UVA for several days. Jeff Coffin, the saxophonist from Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, stood in for Moore on subsequent tour dates. Though released several days later, Moore was re-hospitalized in mid-July for complications related to the accident.

Last living partner of Atlantic Records

Gerald "Jerry" Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s. He coined the term "Rhythm & Blues", and was integral in signing and/or producing many of the biggest acts of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield and Bob Dylan. Wexler was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Death of Jerry Wexler
Wexler died at a hospice in Sarasota, Florida on August 15, 2008 from congenital heart disease according to his son, Paul.  Jerry Wexler was 91 years old of age at the time of his death.

George Furth (December 14, 1932 - August 11, 2008) was a Tony Award-winning American librettist, playwright, and actor.

Furth won both the Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Book of a Musical for Company, and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play for Precious Sons.

Death of George Furth
Not much detail is available on George Furth's death.

Frequently cast as a bespectacled, nerdish, ineffectual type, Furth appeared in such films as Blazing Saddles, The Best Man, Myra Breckinridge, Oh God!, Hooper, The Cannonball Run, Young Doctors in Love, Doctor Detroit, Bulworth, and in perhaps his best remembered role, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which he portrayed Woodcock, the railroad guard robbed twice by the titular pair. His many television credits include Tammy, McHale's Navy, F Troop, Ironside, I Dream of Jeannie, That Girl, Green Acres, The Monkees, The Odd Couple, Bonanza, Happy Days, All in the Family, Murphy Brown, L.A. Law, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Murder, She Wrote, and the made-for-TV movie The Scarlett O'Hara War, in which he portrayed famed film director George Cukor. He adapted Twigs for a 1975 television production starring Carol Burnett.

Howard G Minsky (January 21, 1914 - August 10, 2008) is the producer of the blockbuster film Love Story which when released in 1970 was widely thought to have saved Paramount Pictures during a financially strained time. He later produced Jory in 1973.

Death of Howard Minsky
Howard Minsky died of natural causes at a hospital in Florida.  He was 94 years old at the time of his death.
Howard Minsky lived in Palm Beach, Florida. 

Howard Minsky started working from silent movie era.
Howard Minsky had married to his wife Sylvia for over 65 years until her death in 2002.

* America apologizes for not knowing such a legend, but some of us do.

Reg Lindsay (1929 - August 5, 2008) was a Australian Country and Western singer who won three Golden Guitar Awards and wrote more than five hundred songs in his fifty year music career.

Death of Reg Lindsay
Reg Lindsay died of pneumonia after a long battle with illness, surrounded by his wife Roslyn and three daughters. Red Lindsay was 75 years old at the time of his death.

Erik Darling (September 25, 1933 - August 3, 2008) was an American songwriter and a folk music artist. He was an important influence on the folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Inspired by the folk music group The Weavers, in the '50s, he formed The Tunetellers, later called The Tarriers with actor/singer Alan Arkin. Their version of the "Banana Boat Song" reached #4 on the Billboard charts.

Darling left that group to replace Pete Seeger in The Weavers, staying with them from 1958 through 1962. He then formed The Rooftop Singers, who had a number one single with the song "Walk Right In", and his solo album True Religion for Vanguard was influential on younger folkies of the day. In 1967, Darling and Paul Bennett were co-credited for writing the song "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," by Quicksilver Messenger Service, which appears to be a medley of Darling's 1958 song "St. John's River" and Joan Baez's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You".

He died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina from lymphoma. He was 74.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) was a Russian novelist, dramatist and historian. Through his writings, he made the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's labour camp system, and for these efforts, Solzhenitsyn was both awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 and exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974. He returned to Russia in 1994. That year, he was elected as a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Language and Literature. He was the father of Ignat Solzhenitsyn, a well-known conductor and pianist. He died at home after years of declining health on August 3, 2008

Not much informatioin on her death is available.

* Youssef Chahine is an important figure in world cinema history. But, he remains as a inor celebrity for people in Western nations.

Youssef Chahine (January 25, 1926 - July 27, 2008) was an Egyptian film director active in the Egyptian film industry since 1950. He was credited with launching the career of actor Omar Sharif.

Illness and death
Chahine was hospitalized at Ach-Chourouq hospital in Cairo in a coma following an apparent cerebral haemorrhage, on Sunday, June 15, 2008.

On Monday, June 16, 2008, Chahine was flown to Paris on an emergency flight and admitted to the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of Paris, where his niece told AFP his condition was "critical but stable."

Youssef Chahine died in his Cairo home on Sunday July 27, 2008

Randy Pausch (October 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) was a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States and a best-selling author, who achieved worldwide fame for his "The Last Lecture" speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon University.

Martinez's father, Pablo Jaime, died early Thursday at age 79 after battling a form of brain cancer for more than a year.
He is also a father of another Major League pitcher Ramon Martinez.

Sid Craig, the co-founder of Jenny Craig Inc., who built the weight loss company with his wife and was a prominent thoroughbred horse owner has died, the company said Tuesday.

Jerome Holtzman (December 11, 1926 - July 19, 2008 ) was an award-winning baseball writer and had been the official historian for Major League Baseball from 1999 until his death.

Death of Jerome Holtzman
On July 15th, 2008, Jerome Holtzman suffered a massive stroke in Evanston, Illinois. He died on July 19th, 2008 in Illinois.

Quick Biography:
Holtzman wrote for his hometown papers in Chicago for over 50 years. Beginning as a copyboy at the Chicago Daily News in 1943, Holtzman wrote for the paper through its merger with the Chicago Sun. In 1999, Holtzman retired as a newspaper writer and was named as the official historian of Major League Baseball. He wrote occasional columns on the mlb.com website. Holtzman has written or edited more than a dozen books, including the critically acclaimed No Cheering in the Press Box, a collection of interviews with 18 sportswriters that was published in 1974.

Larry Haines, born Larry Hecht (August 3, 1918 – July 17, 2008) was an American actor. He was born in Mount Vernon, New York.

Haines first became known in the 1930s as a voice actor on the radio crime series Gangbusters. Four decades later, he would return to radio, starring in many episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

His best-known role was that of next-door neighbor Stu Bergman on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow. He joined the show for its eleventh episode in 1951, and remained on the serial for the show's duration. In this role, which he played from 1951 to 1986, Haines became very popular. He won Daytime Emmy Awards in 1976 and 1981, and was First Lady Pat Nixon's favorite soap opera actor.

He also earned several Tony nominations for his work on Broadway, and appeared in the film version of The Odd Couple.

Death of Larry Haines
Haines died on July 17, 2008. He was predeceased by his former wives, Gertrude Haines and Jean Pearlman Haines as well as by his only daughter, Debora Haines. Larry Haines was 89 years old at the time of his death.