Writer, traveler, and kidnapper of Nazi generals, Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor -- Paddy to friends and fans -- is dead at 96. A silver lining: his biographer Artemis Cooper reports that the long-awaited final installment of his trilogy recounting a year-long walk across Europe as a young man in the 1930s, "has existed for some time, and will be published in due course."
posted by villanelles at dawn on Jun 10, 2011 - 41 comments

Portuguese writer and 1998's Nobel Prize for Literature recipient José Saramago has died, age 87. [News link in Portuguese] He died in Lanzarote, Spain, where he had lived since a bust-up in the early 1990s with Portugal's government over his controversial book, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. Saramago wrote nearly 30 books, and was cited for the Nobel as a writer "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality." No holiday for death, after all.
posted by chavenet on Jun 18, 2010 - 46 comments

Gordon Waller of British duo Peter and Gordon had died at 64 Gordon Waller, from the British duo Peter and Gordon has died of cardiac arrest in CT this past weekend. The songs I really like to listen to from them was the one Paul McCartney wrote "A World Without Love" and "True Love Ways". Sad to hear he's passed.
posted by garnetgirl on Jul 20, 2009 - 9 comments

Eartha Kitt, The Pur-r-rfect Woman dies at 81 The Real Catwoman once described as "The Most Exciting Woman in the World". And no Christmas mix is complete without her rendition of "Santa Baby". Thank you Miss Kitt .
posted by somnambulist on Dec 25, 2008 - 104 comments

Saddam's Confessions - Given Saddam Hussein's central place in the American Consciousness over the last couple decades and particularly in recent years, I found 60 minutes' interview with FBI interrogator George Piro pretty fascinating.
posted by kliuless on Jan 27, 2008 - 24 comments

OMG! ODB DOA. WTF?
posted by mr_crash_davis on Nov 13, 2004 - 56 comments

Harry Potter: RIP Private Harry Potter from the Worcestershire Regiment was killed in action at Hebron on 22/7/1939 aged 19 years, 10 months old. This is a genuine photo of the grave of a British soldier that died during the time of the “Arab Rebellion” and is buried in the British military cemetery in Ramla Israel.
posted by Postroad on Mar 3, 2004 - 17 comments

David Brinkley dead at 82. He was one third of the 'holy trinity' of network news in my youth, along with Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor. His career covered the White House from FDR to Bill Clinton. This Week With David Brinkley was one of my favorite things to watch on a Sunday. He'll be missed, and I reminisce on how much journalism, and not just on television, has changed since I was a child.
posted by WolfDaddy on Jun 12, 2003 - 8 comments

Gene Amole died yesterday. You may remember him from this thread. Read his final column. Have a tissue handy.
posted by mr_crash_davis on May 13, 2002 - 5 comments

Peter Gzowski, Canadian broadcaster, died a couple of days ago. Listen to an old interview with Stuart McLean on CBC Radio RealAudio at noon EST from Toronto, 1pm from Winnipeg, 2pm from Calgary or 3pm from Vancouver. Gzowski and McLean are the voice of the Canadian spirit.
posted by Geo on Jan 27, 2002 - 9 comments