Ernest J. Gaines, who wrote of the inner struggle for dignity among Southern black people before the civil rights era in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and other acclaimed novels, died Tuesday at his home in Oscar, Louisiana. He was 86.
Bernard Slade, a writer who created the enduring 1970s television series “The Partridge Family,” among other shows, and wrote one of the most successful plays in Broadway history, “Same Time, Next Year,” died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 89.
Meyer Ackerman, whose movie theaters brought hard-to-find films to audiences in and around New York City in the decades before home video and the internet made hidden cinematic gems easier to access, died on Oct. 21 in White Plains, New York. He was 96.
Harley Race, a professional wrestler who overcame serious injuries from a car accident to become a mainstay of the wrestling circuit, winning numerous individual and tag-team titles in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, died on Thursday. He was 76.
Agnes Heller, a prominent Hungarian philosopher and dissident who repeatedly found herself unwelcome in her own country, died on July 19 while vacationing on Lake Balaton in western Hungary. She was 90.
Rutger Hauer, the ruggedly handsome Dutch actor who brought a sinister intensity to villainous roles in “Blade Runner,” “Nighthawks,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and other movies, died Friday at his home in the Friesland province of the Netherlands. He was 75.
George Hodgman, a well-regarded book and magazine editor who had his own moment as a literary cause célèbre in 2015 when he published “Bettyville,” a memoir about caring for his aging mother that also delved into his growing up gay in a Midwestern town, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.
Art Neville, the oldest of the Neville Brothers, the seminal New Orleans band, and a fixture of the Louisiana music scene for 65 years, died on Monday at his home in New Orleans. He was 81.
L. Bruce Laingen, the highest-ranking American official held in Iran during the 444-day-long hostage ordeal that began there in November 1979, died Monday in Bethesda, Maryland. He was 96.
Aaron Rosand, a leading violinist who closed out an astonishingly long career with a dramatic, emotion-filled gesture, selling his beloved rare violin for some $10 million and donating $1.5 million of that to a music institute, died July 9 in White Plains, New York. He was 92.
Chuck Kinder, who turned his friendship with Raymond Carver into a roman à clef, and whose long struggle to birth that book inspired a novel by one of his former students, Michael Chabon, died on May 3 in South Miami, Florida. He was 76.
Giuliano Bugialli, who evangelized for traditional Italian cuisine with authoritative cookbooks and culinary schools that taught future chefs and the occasional celebrity how to prepare its classic dishes, died April 26 in Viareggio, Italy. He was 88.
Mavis Pusey, a painter and printmaker who drew on inspirations as varied as sunsets and scenes of urban demolition to create striking abstract works full of geometric forms, died April 20 in Falmouth, Virginia. She was 90.
Michael Fesco, whose trendsetting clubs on Fire Island, New York, and later in Manhattan gave gay men a place to gather, dance and explore sexually at a time when homosexuality was largely unwelcome in mainstream society, died April 11 in Palm Springs, California. He was 84.
Mark Medoff, whose acclaimed play “Children of a Lesser God,” featuring a deaf central character, won the Tony Award for best play in 1980 and was turned into a 1986 movie that won an Oscar for its female lead, Marlee Matlin, died Tuesday in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was 79.
Mark Medoff, whose acclaimed play “Children of a Lesser God,” featuring a deaf central character, won the Tony Award for best play in 1980 and was turned into a 1986 movie that won an Oscar for its female lead, Marlee Matlin, died Tuesday in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was 79.
Gene Wolfe, a prolific science fiction and fantasy writer whose best works, full of inventive language, mysteries and subtly conveyed themes, are considered to be among the genre’s finest, died Sunday in Peoria, Illinois. He was 87.
Joan Jones, a low-key but determined crusader for racial justice and equality in Nova Scotia, whose black population has faced discrimination and hostility for centuries, died on April 1 in Halifax, the capital of the province. She was 79.
Ralph Metzner, a psychotherapist who began his career working with Timothy Leary on controversial studies at Harvard involving LSD and other drugs, then spent a lifetime exploring and writing about expanded consciousness in all sorts of cultures and settings, died March 14 at his home in Sonoma, California. He was 82.
Michael Lynne, who helped engineer a bold expansion of the once tiny studio New Line Cinema that culminated in its release of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, one of the most successful movie franchises in history, died Monday in Manhattan. He was 77.
