Once upon a time we used to spend an inordinate amount of time after school sitting on the floor of the Hudson News on Broadway and Eighth Street reading any and every magazine we could grab before buying one (maybe) and heading home. That adolescent magazine habit would have been much harder for us to foster had Hudson News and its ilk not existed, and for that reason we mourn Robert B. Cohen, the former president of that chain who helped change the way travelers buy magazines. Cohen died last week at the age of 86. more ›

Danny Evins, the lightning-rod founder of the down-home restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, died on Sunday of bladder cancer at age 76. While his chicken and dumplings will live on in Interstate rest stops across the country, here in New York City, he might be best remembered for some less savory offerings. more ›

Jerry Robinson, the legendary comic book artist who created Batman's nemesis The Joker, among other characters in the comic book "Golden Age," died in his sleep last night in New York. He was 89. more ›

George Kuchar, a prolific filmmaker whose campy yet heartfelt low-budget films inspired legions of followers like John Waters, died in San Francisco. His twin brother Mike confirmed the news last night, saying the cause was prostate cancer. Kuchar was 69. more ›

Tenor singer Salvatore Licitra, who made a splash at the Metropolitan Opera by filling in for Luciano Pavarotti, has died in Italy following a severe motorscooter accident last month. The death was announced on Licitra's website, which said that Licitra has been in a coma since sustaining severe head and chest injuries during an August 27th accident in Sicily. He was 43. more ›

Fred Newman passed away last week in Manhattan at age 76. Who is Fred Newman? According to his website, "Fred Newman is the public philosopher who for 30 years has translated the most progressive ideals of the 1960s into effective instruments of social and personal transformation," but the NY Times' obituary sums it up more elegantly: "Fred Newman’s influential role in New York life and politics defied easy description." more ›

Trouble Helmsley, a white Maltese once owned by infamous hotelier Leona Helmsley, died last year, but the pooch's death was only announced this week. This is but one of many odd facets of Trouble's life, which included being given $12 million in Helmsley's 2007 will. more ›

Dr. Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian, a Michigan medical pathologist who assisted in 130 suicides, died at the age of 83 at a hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. He had been there for treatment of kidney and heart problems, and the Detroit Free-Press reports, "His attorney, Mayer Morganroth, said it appears Kevorkian suffered a pulmonary thrombosis when a blood clot from his leg broke free and lodged in his heart." Morganroth said, "It was peaceful, he didn’t feel a thing." more ›

Joseph Brooks, the 73-year-old Academy Award-winning songwriter accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday, police said. Brooks was found with a plastic dry-cleaning bag around his head and a towel wrapped around his neck, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A hose attached to a helium tank was hooked up to the bag. more ›

Perry Moore, an executive producer of the Chronicles of Narnia trilogy as well as an author and director, was found dead yesterday in the apartment he shared with his boyfriend. Initial reports indicate the 39-year-old died of an oxycontin overdose. more ›

Robert Sargent Shriver, the founding director of the Peace Corps, died today at age 95. However the Peace Corps isn't his only legacy by any means. The influential public servant—a member of the Kennedy clan who suffered from Alzheimer's in recent years—also helped in the creation of Head Start, VISTA and the Job Corps while running the War on Poverty for President Johnson and acted as Ambassador to France. To name a few of his credits. more ›

Theodore Kheel, lawyer and labor negotiator once called "the most influential peacemaker in New York City in the last half-century," passed away last Friday at age 96. The NY Times' obituary explains, "Mr. Kheel, who played a pivotal role in ending newspaper, teacher and subway strikes in New York, was the go-to guy for mayors, labor leaders and business executives during the post-World War II era, when unions were far more powerful than they are now and a savvy, respected ringmaster was often needed to pressure and cajole all sides to reach a settlement." And, in recent years, the Brooklyn-born Kheel advocated that subways and buses be free. more ›

Iconic Hollywood actor Tony Curtis, who starred in Spartacus, Some Like It Hot, and The Sweet Smell of Success, has passed away at age 85. He died after suffering cardiac arrested in his Las Vegas area home. In the NY Times' obituary, Dave Kehr writes a thorough examination of Curtis' career—acting and heartthrob/heartbreaker status alike ("Mr. Curtis embodied a new kind of feminized male beauty that came into vogue in the early 1950s")—as well as his upbringing in New York City: more ›

Jazz singer-songwriter Abbey Lincoln died yesterday at age 80 in Manhattan. According to the NY Times, her "dramatic vocal command and tersely poetic songs made her a singular figure in jazz... Long recognized as one of jazz’s most arresting and uncompromising singers, Ms. Lincoln gained similar stature as a songwriter only over the last two decades... Her singing style was unique, a combined result of bold projection and expressive restraint." NPR's profile of Lincoln features Lincoln discussing her upbringing, work during the civil rights movement, and career and you can hear some of her music at the Verve Music website. more ›

Robert Byrd, the Democratic Senator from West Virginia who first entered the Senate in 1959, died earlier this morning at age 92. His office released a statement, "I am saddened that the family of U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., tearfully announces the passing of the longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history." Byrd had been hospitalized a few days ago for heat exhaustion, but "more serious issues were discovered." Byrd had been in poor health in recent years. more ›

Louise Bourgeois, the influential sculptor, died at Beth Israel Hospital yesterday at age 98. The managing director of her studio said Bourgeois had suffered a heart attack two days earlier. In its obituary, the NY Times wrote that Bourgeois, "the French-born American artist...gained fame only late in a long career, when her psychologically charged abstract sculptures, drawings and prints had a galvanizing effect on the work of younger artists, particularly women." more ›

Actor, director and counterculture icon Dennis Hopper, known for roles in such films as Easy Rider (which he co-wrote and directed), Cool Hand Luke, Blue Velvet, True Romance and Speed died today in his home in Venice, California from complications of prostate cancer. He made one of his last public appearances in March, when he was awarded a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. He was extremely frail at the time, but told the crowd, "I just want to thank you, and that's all I can do." Producer Mark Canton once called Hopper "the coolest guy on the planet." more ›

Lena Horne, the legendary singer who broke racial barriers in the entertainment industry, died yesterday in Manhattan at age 92. The Brooklyn-born Horne once said, "I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked." more ›

Lynn Redgrave, part of the Redgrave acting dynasty, died at age 67 yesterday. According to the AP, "Her publicist Rick Miramontez, speaking on behalf of her children, said Redgrave died Sunday night at her Manhattan apartment. In 2003, Redgrave had been treated for breast cancer." Redgrave performed in film (earning Oscar nominations for her acting in Georgy Girl and Gods and Monsters), on TV and on stage. Earlier this year, she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. more ›

The dashing actor John Forsythe, who played Blake Carrington on Dynasty and was Charlie's voice on Charlie's Angels, passed away yesterday at age 92, after a battle with cancer. The NY Times reports that Forsythe (born John Lincoln Freund) "graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn" and dropped out of UNC Chapel Hill "after three years because of a particularly successful summer job as an announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. People liked his voice so much that he easily moved into radio acting." He also was an original members of the Actors Studio and performed on Broadway as well as TV, but chose to concentrate on TV: "I’ve had a good time. But if I had been willing to starve so that I could play Hamlet, I might have been a better actor than I am today," he once said. more ›

NYC’s oldest citizen died yesterday, after telling the Post last month, she “wouldn’t want to do this again.” In her 111 years, Jane Gilsenan, known as Jenny to friends, lived through the Depression, saw her brothers fight in WWII and—most amazingly—paid $16/ month in rent on the Upper West Side! Aging experts are baffled by Gilsenan and her fellow centenarians. One said she “inherited a lucky set of genes” just like her mother who lived to be 99 and her older sister who died at 102. Besides daily doses of vitamins A and D and the occasional glass of cream sherry, Gilsenan denied having any aging secrets. "I have none, and I wouldn't give them away because I wouldn't wish it on anybody," she said. Unlike another recently deceased old-timer, she had no kids. more ›

Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book A People’s History of the United States taught millions of teenagers how to infuriate their parents during dinner, died yesterday of a heart attack in in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling. Zinn was born in NYC in 1922; the son of Jewish immigrants, he was educated in public schools and worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After serving as a bombardier in WWII, Zinn attended NYU on the GI Bill while working in warehouses, then earned doctoral degrees in history from Columbia, going on to be a political science professor at Boston University. In the '70s, university president John Silber accused Zinn of arson (later retracting the charge) and cited him as a prime example of teachers "who poison the well of academe." more ›

The city's flags are at half mast today, in honor of activist, politician and business Percy Sutton who died on December 26 at age 89. President Obama said in a statement, "Percy Sutton was a true hero to African Americans in New York City and around the country. We will remember him for his service to the country as a Tuskegee Airman, to New York State as a state assemblyman, to New York City as Manhattan Borough President, and to the community of Harlem in leading the effort to revitalize the world renowned Apollo Theater. His life-long dedication to the fight for civil rights and his career as an entrepreneur and public servant made the rise of countless young African Americans possible." more ›

Clothing retailer and Brooklyn native Sy Syms passed away at age 83 from heart failure yesterday in Manhattan. According to the NY Times' obituary, he "pioneered selling off-price clothing and built his retail chain, the Syms Corporation, into a national brand." more ›

William Safire, the former Nixon speechwriter and Pultizer Prize-winning NY Times columnist, died at 79 today. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. The Times notes, "There may be many sides in a genteel debate, but in the Safire world of politics and journalism it was simpler: there was his own unambiguous wit and wisdom on one hand and, on the other, the blubber of fools he called 'nattering nabobs of negativism' and 'hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.'" Safire, a college dropout, also called Hillary Clinton a "congenital liar." You can read his columns here. more ›

Actor Patrick Swayze, who had been battling pancreatic cancer, died today in Los Angeles; he was 57. His family issued a statement, "Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months." Variety writes, "Trained as a dancer, the half-Apache actor started out in teen heartthrob roles and segued into romantic leads, while also appearing onstage and weathering injuries and accidents. Swayze was raised in Houston, Texas, and his mother was a choreographer and ballet school owner. He trained with the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey Ballet Schools in New York, starting his career dancing for Disney on Parade." Swayze appeared in a number of films, such as The Outsiders and Red Dawn, but his breakout role was in Dirty Dancing, and stole hearts when he co-starred with Demi Moore in the blockbuster paranormal romance Ghost. Earlier this year, Swayze admitted he was afraid of his illness to Barbara Walters and said, "I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking. Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it." After the jump, the Saturday Night Live skit featuring Swayze with Hans & Franz. more ›

Author and journalist Dominick Dunne, who wrote covered high society crime trials and wrote novels about high society crime, died at age 83 in Manhattan. His son Griffin Dunne said the cause was bladder cancer. Dunne was a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, which notes he "famously covered the trials of O. J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, Michael Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, and Phil Spector, as well as the impeachment of President Bill Clinton... His first article for the magazine appeared in March 1984—an account of the trial of the man who murdered his daughter Dominique. Throughout his life, Dunne was a vocal advocate for victims’ rights." Vanity Fair has an archive of Dunne's articles and profiles; for instance, writing about meeting Claus von Bulow, Dunne observes, "On that May Sunday of the seventh week of his second trial, the Danish society figure was dressed in tight blue jeans and a black leather jacket." more ›