Deaths & Transitions

Goodbye, Peter Jennings. You were a good news reader.

You read the news from the teleprompter like almost no one else could.

Your skill at reading from a monitor and not moving your eyes will be missed.

Frank Gorshin, the man behind Batman foe The Riddler’s mask, has died at a medical centre in Burbank, California. He was 72. The actor and impressionist was Emmy nominated for his villainous role in the cult Batman TV series from 1966 to 1969. Gorshin earned another Emmy nomination for a guest appearance on another cult show, Star Trek, and won theatrical acclaim in 2002 by portraying late comedian George Burns on Broadway, New York, in bittersweet one-man show Say Goodnight Gracie. Gorshin’s final performance was in an upcoming episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

“Reach out to others in need, whoever they are, wherever they are.”

–Pope John Paul II

It is not yet clear whether Hunter S. Thompson left a suicide note. If not, his last written words may have been “So long and Mahalo” - which is Hawaiian for thank you.

The words appeared at the bottom of a column he wrote on February 15, just five days before he shot himself on Sunday.

Thompson, 67, whose death was announced yesterday, will be mourned by his family, but also by millions of readers who were hooked on his style, which came to be known as “New Journalism” or “Gonzo journalism”, where the writer became an important part of the story.

He was most famous for his 1971 masterpiece Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but there were many other books, all replete with fast and furious prose.

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By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press Writer

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve, who turned personal tragedy into a public crusade and from his wheelchair became the nation’s most recognizable spokesman for spinal cord research, has died. He was 52.

Reeve went into cardiac arrest Saturday while at his Pound Ridge home, then fell into a coma and died Sunday at a hospital surrounded by his family, his publicist said.

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Julia Child, the tall, gregarious chef who redefined the American culinary landscape with her landmark books and television shows, died Friday August 13, 2004 in Montecito, CA, after bouts with kidney failure; she was 91, two days shy of her 92nd birthday.

At a commanding height of 6 feet, 2 inches, Child preached a cooking style that reveled in the joys of good food and sharing it wholeheartedly, mixing French and American styles. Unpretentious in her cooking, she was an earthy and human role model for aspiring cooks, and was never afraid to make a mess or pick up dropped items without a care; her on-the-fly cooking style was parodied in a now-legendary Saturday Night Live skit in which Dan Aykroyd as Child merrily continued on with a recipe after slicing open numerous veins and spattering blood all over the kitchen.

Child, who never took a cooking lesson until she was in her 30s, embarked on her culinary career in Paris after World War II, co-authoring Mastering the Art of French Cooking. That book, still in print, led to her famous, long-running PBS show The French Chef, which ran from 1962-1973 and won both an Emmy and Peabody Award. Numerous books and television shows followed, and she worked well into her 80s. As a fitting tribute, her kitchen is now a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute. Child, who had no children and whose husband died in 1994, is survived by extended family.

Prepared by IMDb staff