Equestrians of the northeast Valley will ride Sunday in memory of Bert Bonnett, a legend in the horsey communities of Shadow Hills and Sunland.
South Pasadena police say that artist Mike Kelley was found dead Tuesday night at home and may have killed himself.
Police responded this morning to his Mulholland Drive home and found Cornelius dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Friends of the environmental attorney Roger Carrick held a well-attended life celebration last night at Para Los Niños, the Downtown childrens' center where he was on the board and the former chairman.
The well-known criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles recently was directing attorney of the Post Conviction Assistance Center. She died last week.
Levy's clients included Cannonball Adderley, Betty Carter, Roberta Flack, Herbie Hancock, Shirley Horn, Freddie Hubbard, Ramsey Lewis, Herbie Mann, Les McCann, Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson and many others. In 2006 the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Levy's role in jazz.
Rep. Gabrielle Gifords to leave Congress, Simpson case detective Philip Vannatter dies and more.
The Penn State football legend who was fired last year over a child sex scandal involving an assistant died Sunday, his family announced. CBS Sports apologized for posting an erroneous news story about his death on Saturday.
Etta James, who was 73, is another of the great R&B figures to come out of the Los Angeles area. She died Friday in Riverside after suffering from ill health, including leukemia and dementia.
The 29-year-old freeskier from Canada who suffered a head injury and brain damage during a Jan. 10 training run on the superpipe at Park Mountain Resort in Utah, died this morning. Her organs and tissues were donated in accordance with her wishes.
Johnny Otis, the white songwriter and singer from the Bay Area who said he "chose" to live as a black man, died in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday.

They paddled out Sunday by the hundreds in Huntington Beach to chill for a few moments of silence in memory of pioneering wave forecaster Sean Collins — followed by a ritual splashing of water and cheering that could be heard from shore.

Tony Blankley, the former Reagan speechwriter and press secretary to Newt Gingrich in Congress who was the conservative presence on KCRW's Left, Right and Center, died Saturday after battling stomach cancer.
Eve Arnold was one of the first female photojournalists to join the Magnum Photos agency, in 1951. She did a book of her photos of Marilyn Monroe.
The Music Machine got a regular gig at Hollywood Legion Lanes bowling alley and in 1966 scored their only chart hit, "Talk Talk."
Rourke, familiar to many journalists as the head of Caltech's communications office from 1986 to 2009, died at home in Pasadena after battling pulmonary fibrosis.
Sean Collins, a self-taught wave forecaster who changed the way that surfers find out where to take their boards, died yesterday after collapsing of a heart attack while playing tennis in Orange County.
Death was attributed to a "severe myocardial infarction along with a heart attack" in the report on North Korea television in Pyongyang, delivered by a tearful woman dressed in black.
The author and Vanity Fair contributing editor has died of cancer at a hospital in Houston, the magazine announced.
The music industry veteran who was shot in his Mercedes by Tyler Brehm in Friday's rampage in Hollywood died of his injuries this afternoon, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center announced.
Barbara Orbison, who was 60, died here in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, the 23rd anniversary of the death of her husband Roy Orbison.
Wow, just take a look at Harry Morgan's career.
Mayor chooses distance from Housing Authority scandal, DWP approves water rate increase, more politics and media notes, plus the most powerful images of 2011.
Dobie Gray, born in Texas, moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s to be an actor but had greater success as a singer. (He did spend a couple of...
Voters want a do-over on high speed rail, DWP board takes up rate hike, a different Villaraigosa joins the Young Democrats, naming a Navy ship after Cesar Chavez and more.
Lumachi died early Saturday in a car accident in Florida, where he was attending a conference in St. Petersburg.
Media and politics notes, plus a Hollywood obituary and more.
High winds, Westwood loses four movie screens, an old local pol dies and more.
The co-host of the Korean-language Prime News on Los Angeles-area TV channel LA 18 was found dead in her Koreatown apartment last Monday after not reporting to work.
Dick Adler, who used to write the cheeky Page Two feature at the old Herald Examiner, and more recently a book reviewer and blogger, died on Nov. 11.
Lowering expectations on Natalie Wood case, tearing down the 6th Street bridge, media notes and a local sports death.
Mayor wants to trim trees too, the dangers of ignoring Mexico, Chelsea Clinton, Teresa Hughes and The Wave goes Christmas.
Sunday's New York Times print edition carries an obituary of Alan Mootnick, the founder and director of Santa Clarita's Gibbon Conservation Center who died Nov. 4.
Romenesko, the Geffen Playhouse, Evelyn Martinez, Haskell Wexler, Winston Doby and more.
The singer known as Heavy D collapsed this morning outside his home in Beverly Hills, and was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai.
Mayor appeals to car dealers, Madeline Janis steps down, Yaroslavsky takes a ride, Playboy moves back to Beverly Hills, Kirk Honeycutt out at THR and more.
Wilson, who pledged to plant five trees a day for the rest of his life, died after losing consciousness while taking clippings from a tree in hi sgarden.
Baca (and Lohan) and the jails, Durkee and the money, Jim Ladd gets to say goodbye, UCLA warns patients and more.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today announced the death of USC professor of public policy Harry Pachon, founding board member and past executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.
CBS News announced that Rooney died Friday night in a hospital in New York City of complications following minor surgery.
Gilbert Cates, the stage, film and TV producer and director and the producing director of the Geffen Playhouse, has died at age 77.
Former Press-Telegram executive editor has died, plus more news items.
Barbara Kent, a 1925 graduate of Hollywood High School, is being called the last living actress to have achieved stardom in silent films.
"The best radio writer-producer-director in the whole history of radio," said longtime friend Ray Bradbury.
Mengers' death was announced by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, who posted this afternoon on his blog that she died last night "at her home, a short walk from the Beverly Hills Hotel, and surrounded by three of her close friends, Ali MacGraw, Joanna Poitier, and Boaty Boatwright."
Margaret Tante Burk, a publicist and businesswoman here, co-founded Round Table West with Marylin Hudson at the Ambassador Hotel in 1977. The forum for authors grew into one of the...
Worst mass killing in OC history, new sheriff abuse report, feds to target media in pot war, Art Walk tonight and KCSN gets rock star support.
The last owner of an NFL team in Los Angeles died this morning at home in Oakland.
On life and death, among other topics.
Steve Jobs died today in Palo Alto of complications from pancreatic cancer.
Warning Obama about Solyndra, warning victims about clemency, Villaraigosa wrong on prisoners, new book from Jim Newton, Red Line turnstiles and remembering Gregg Miller and Amy Pressman.
Brian Alexik goes free, Kinde Durkee's lifestyle, Baca listens in the jail, Jerry Brown and running again, plus more HuffPost announcements and a local media death. And: is Henry's Tacos worthy of historic status?
More fundraising after Obama, what to make of Yaroslavsky, Feuer waits on Trutanich, City Hall staff moves, a newspaper here is hiring, and the Angels beat the Dodgers. Plus more for Monday.
Reiner never got to live there, but the home has become a modernist landmark considered one of John Lautner's masterpieces.
The widow of comedian Bob Hope died this morning.
Emmy winners, Durkee fallout on campaigns, some candidate chatter, getting longer yellow lights in L.A., media notes and two journalist obit notes.
The daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale died of brain cancer.
Back in May, New York Times bureau chief Adam Nagourney wrote about Lewis Brown, a homeless former star for Verbum Dei and UNLV who roamed the streets of Hollywood.
Robertson, an Oscar-winning actor whose credits span "Picnic" (1955) and "Spider-Man 3" (2007), died Saturday on Long Island at age 88.
Newcomb installed the first ski lift in Southern California, at Mt. Waterman.
Former Kings forward Pavol Demitra and former Ducks defenseman Ruslan Salei.were believed to be on the plane.
Councilman Jose Huizar tweeted tonight that Ezat Delijani, a leader in L.A.'s Persian Jewish community, died yesterday. No other details are immediately available.
Villaraigosa woos Hollywood, Feinstein doubts the subway money is there, S.A. Griffin and the Times on Scott Wannberg, CBS web writers sign a guild deal and most ridiculous parking sign ever?
Anyone who lived on the Westside of LA in the 80’s and 90’s and who read books knew Scott Wannberg, says Richard Rushfield.
Bad day for legendary songwriting teams. Nick Ashford, a prolific writer of hits for Motown with his partner and later wife Valerie Simpson, died in New York City.
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller met in Los Angeles in 1950 and teamed up to write dozens of early rock and roll hits, including many for Elvis Presley. Leiber died today at Cedars-Sinai.
Scott Wannberg, a member of the traveling poet troupe known as the “Carma Bums” and a 23-year employee of the late Dutton's Brentwood Books, died Friday of an apparent heart attack in his recent hometown of Florence, Oregon.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa goes with the end-of-an-era theme.
Edie Wasserman was called the first lady of Hollywood and with her late husband, the studio powerhouse Lew Wasserman, was a major donor to local institutions. She died today in...
A stadium endorsement, Howard Berman vs. Brad Sherman, Rainey on Schwada, Ross Porter gets a gig and more media and politics notes.
No official word on cause of death, but police believe it was natural causes.
Authorities are investigating Hideki Irabu's death as an apparent suicide and hanging.
The body of Ramos, the former L.A. Times staff writer and editor, was found in his Morro Bay home after he did not respond to calls from colleagues at CalCoastNews.com.
Chuck Manatt was co-founder in Los Angeles of the law firm now called Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and served as national (and California) chairman of the Democratic Party and co-chair of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign for president. Manatt died Friday night at a Richmond, Va., hospital of complications from a stroke.
The British soul singer with a drug and alcohol problem was found dead in her London apartment on Saturday afternoon local time. An autopsy is pending.
City Council hopefuls get a date, Garcetti gets an NYT story, Cenk Uygur gets mad and Katzenberg says the movies "suck." Plus more.
New deputy mayor, new library hours, a new rainbow for Sony and a vote for Bill Simmons' Grantland.
"Born of the motorcycle and hot rod culture of Burbank California in the early 1970s, the Travis Bean guitar was fused from gear head sensibility and rock and roll creativity," says a website.
Television writer and producer created Gilligan and "The Brady Bunch," TV sitcom milestones from the 1960s that remain popular in syndication.
She was the mother of political writer and former U.S. Senate candidate Mickey Kaus and the widow of the late California Supreme Court Justice Otto Kaus.
Ramona Hahn, the mother of Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Superior Court Judge James Hahn, the former mayor, died today.
The author and granddaughter of one of Los Angeles' most discussed historical figures, the water legend William Mulholland, died today of natural causes at her home in Camarillo.
Jean Harris. a former Deputy Mayor of San Francisco and an icon of the lesbian political community in California, died Sunday in Palm Springs.
Topics include L.A.'s children's museum, LudoBites, Westside Pavilion parking, the 405, Los Angeles magazine and more.
California Republicans favor Mitt Romney so far, Villaraigosa takes a stand on wars, LAT backs AEG's stadium, plus more politics and media notes from the weekend.
Clemons, a beloved member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band since 1972, couldn't survive the massive stroke he suffered a week ago. He died Saturday at a hospital in Palm Beach, Florida.
Lawrence Wayne Fischer, known for a long time as Wild Man, was a musical partner of Frank Zappa until the two had a falling out, and the "spiritual godfather" of Rhino Records.
Carl Gardner was singing in the Los Angeles R&B group The Robins in 1955 when he and other musicians formed The Coasters, the first vocal group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Tonight's weekly column features obits: Laura Ziskin, Joan Luther, Allen Levy.
Ziskin died at home tonight after a long and public battle with breast cancer.
Levy was working for CBS Newspath out of Los Angeles covering the Arizona wildfires when he failed to show up this morning to produce a live shot for "The Early Show." He was found dead in his hotel room, apparently of natural causes.
Joan Luther, called by some the first lady of restaurant PR in Los Angeles, died yesterday.
Andrew Gold, who died Friday at home in Encino, had serious roots in the Los Angeles music scene. His father, Ernest Gold, won an Oscar for his score on the...
Mayor names new DOT head, stadium suspect stays in custody, Greuel on TV, James Arness dies and more.
John Edwards indicted, Jack Kevorkian dies, Tim Leiweke threatens, Hector Tobar columnizes, Denise Hamilton reviews and more.
Elmer G. "Geronimo" Pratt, the former Los Angeles Black Panther Party leader who spent 27 years in prison before his 1972 murder conviction was overturned, died today in a small village in Tanzania.
Matt Fong, a Republican who served as California's elected Treasurer for a term in the 1990s, died today of skin cancer at home in Pasadena.
Gil Scott-Heron, Jeff Conaway, Margo Dydek, Irene Gilbert, Don Kubly, Dana Brand, Tom West.
At the end of the news at 11, Channel 2 anchor Pat Harvey's voice was thick with emotion as she announced the unexpected death of colleague James Kang.
Andrew Garton, 44, a seven-year veteran of the Hawthorne Police Department, was escorting the procession for Manhattan Beach officer Mark Vasquez when his motorcycle was involved in a crash with another officer.
Stuart worked in episodic television during almost the entire run of the genre, starting with "I Led Three Lives" in 1954 and concluding with the Showtime series "Huff" in 2006.
A quick roundup this morning.
Laurents wrote the books for "West Side Story" and "Gypsy" and the screenplay (from his own novel) for "The Way We Were."
Denise Hamilton's Native Intelligence tribute to the late journalist Terry McGarry will air this weekend on KPCC's Off-Ramp, noon Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. Off-Ramp blog Police are preparing...
A round-up of news, politics and media notes and other observations to get the week started.
We have Eldon Davis to thank for many of those Googie-style coffee shops that sprouted along Southern California boulevards in the 1950s, then spread across the country.
Bluegrass legend Hazel Dickens used her music to tell people about the plight of coal miners and working women in the South, and inspired the work of Emmylou Harris and others.
Davis and her writing partner Bob Carroll Jr. were writing for Lucille Ball on radio when they collaborated on a TV pilot. The rest was television history. Also: Kevin Jarre.
A year later in the Gulf, Bell's whistleblower, Villaraigosa's budget, when Obama moved to Indonesia and Grete Waitz.
Geoff Miller was the first editor of Los Angeles, starting in 1960 when it was called The Prompter, and in 1990 became the magazine's publisher. He died Saturday at home in L.A.
No Dodger Stadium arrests, Trutanich endorses Hahn, former Daily News editor dies and public radio stations raise money for Japan. Plus more.
The son of Grouch Marx, he's known mostly for two books on his dad, sitcom work and the unauthorized and unflattering biography of Bob Hope.
Sidney Harman died last night in Washington of complications from acute myeloid leukemia, a disease he was diagnosed with a month ago.
Kam Kuwata, a Democratic campaign strategist in California for at least 25 years, was found dead in his Venice condo Monday.
Sidney Lumet debuted in 1957 with "12 Angry Men," directed "Dog Day Afternoon," "Serpico" and "Network" later in his career, and was nominated four times for Oscars.
BNill Boyarsky remembers the founder of the Los Angeles Tribune.
Veteran L.A. journalist and author Al Martinez has been keeping readers up to date on his daughter Cinthia's cancer in his Daily News columns.
Smithsonian withdraws bid for historic murals, LAUSD's Deasy won't take $55,000 raise, a City Hall exit, art and books notes and a local media obituary.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist "rose to fame for his plays that explored such themes as contemporary gay identity, youthful angst and modern anomie."
Taylor died early today of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She entered the hospital six weeks ago. Taylor won two best actress Oscars, for "Who's Afraid of Virginia...
Pat Casey, the former managing editor at Channel 2 in Los Angeles, died Saturday in Cincinnati after a year-long battle with brain cancer.
The Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration and longtime Los Angeles civic leader and Democratic politics figure died Friday at home of complications from bladder and kidney cancer,
The Long Beach-raised rap music star Nathaniel D. Hale, known in the music industry as Nate Dogg, died today, his family told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
David S. Broder, 81, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post often called the dean of the Washington press corps, died Wednesday in Arlington, Va. of complications from diabetes.
Satellite launch from Vandenberg fails, Trutanich dismisses charges against protesters, city campaign notes, NYT editor on L.A. radio and the last founding member of The Mattachine Society dies.
Rodney King day, more community college waste, DA Cooley promotes a key aide, rave review for "The Hollywood Sign" and more.
Jane Russell is probably best known as the busty actress whose cleavage Howard Hughes exploited so flagrantly in "The Outlaw." Her life story, though, runs through several other prominent Los Angeles threads.
Tulin was the bassist for the 1960s psychedelic garage band The Electric Prunes (formed in the Valley) and had been playing recently with the Smashing Pumkins and with Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan.
Jeremy Bernard, Darryl Morden, Cardinal Mahony and more.
Brown to get support of L.A. Chamber for taxes, Tom Campbell to run Chapman Law, Villaraigosa wants higher wall around Getty House, plus Charlie Sheen, Cardinal Mahony, Frank McCourt, Chris Erskine, "Glee" and more.
Politics and media notes, plus obituaries.
Glenn Allen had been with the Los Angeles Fire Department for 38 years and had been contemplating retirement. He died after noon today of injuries incurred while battling a house fire in the Hollywood Hills on Thursday.
Veteran firefighter battling for his life, Jerry West statue unveiled and the mayor's stadium committee meets.
Rebecca Wells, 51, was found slumped over on her desk in the L.A. County Department of Internal Services in Downey by a security guard on Saturday.
No knives at the Grammys, Patsaouras writing memoir, Saenz on short list for state Supreme Court and city election endorsements.
Lowriders from around the West caravanned through East Los Angeles on Saturday in a funeral procession for Jesse Valadez, co-founder 45 years ago of The Imperials car club. His red...
Media and politics notes from around L.A. and the web.
Downtown stadium, City Hall, Egypt and more.
Charles Brittin was a beat-era photographer whose best-known work captured Los Angeles and the avant-garde artists of the decades when the Ferus Gallery was big. His photos from the streets...
Long before Jack LaLanne became an infomercial pitchman, he was America's best-known health and fitness advocate.
Sargent Shriver, a close confidante of brother-in-law John F. Kennedy and first director of the Peace Corps, died today in Bethesda, Maryland. Also: Dale Fetherling, Tom Ferguson.
Jerry Brown, more Golden Globes reaction and fallout, showbiz numbers down, Regis Philbin retires, Dodgers add another cheap alternative and much more.
Kay Mills, the former Los Angeles Times editorial writer who authored five books, died Thursday at age 69.
Giffords prognosis improves, wounded deputy identified, AP and Shepard Fairey reach settlement over the Obama Hope poster, plus Mark Kriski and a bunch of media notes.
Sylvia Bursztyn created Sunday crossword puzzles for the Los Angeles Times for 30 years. She was found dead of natural causes in her Granada Hills home on Dec. 30, according...
"It's hard to imagine San Pedro without John Olguin," says City Councilwoman Janice Hahn. "He was like a grandfather to everyone."
Riordan to close two restaurants, Zine recuses over girlfriend, Yvonne Burke and Matt Toledo get state appointments and is Hollywood L.A. neighborhood of the year?
Joe Lumer is the name behind the Joe's Auto Parks lots so ubiquitous in Downtown Los Angeles.
Denis Dutton in 1998 created the well-read Arts & Letters Daily, which the New Yorker's Blake Eskin today calls "the first and foremost aggregator of well-written and well-argued book reviews, essays, and other articles in the realm of ideas. Denis was the intellectual’s Matt Drudge."
Oscar ballots go out, the falling murder rate, new execs at KCET and more.
The Kings' press box crowd is mourning the death of their friend Graig Woodburn, a Los Angeles attorney who by night covered the Kings and Ducks for the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Associated Press and The Sporting News.
Mike Tetreault was the longtime letters editor at the Daily News. He died last night after a long battle with cancer.
Carter, a longtime specialist in labor relations for the LAPD, was off-duty when his motorcycle collided with another bike Sunday on Santiago Canyon Road in Santa Ana. He was struck by a car and died at the scene.
Frank Emi worked in his family's Los Angeles market before being interned at the start of World II at Heart Mountain in Wyoming.
Various media are reporting that Elizabeth Edwards has died of complications from breast cancer.
Spirit Award nominations are out, Maxine Waters could face trial by the Republicans, Caruso expands again, Ryan Seacrest has a deal, Michael Douglas seeks to quash the rumors and the Dodgers sign Uribe.
Back from some holiday travel and going through the piles on my desk.
The Canadian actor who had a long dramatic career before he was cast in "Airplane!" and as LAPD Lt. Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun movies died near his home in Fort Lauderdale.
Jose Rodriguez, Harold Katz and Danny McDevitt.
LA's beach curfew, Ronni Chasen murder, redistricting panel, McCourts back before a judge, Villaraigosa to Mexico and a media person death. Plus more.
Jerry Brown at work, L.A. ballot measures, Katz resigns from high speed rail board and those new Lakers books by Jeanie Buss and Phil Jackson.
De Laurentiis died Wednesday at home in Beverly Hills. Not many Hollywood producers have this range of credits, both hits and flops.
Anderson was the first baseball manager to win World Series titles in both leagues, with the Reds and Tigers. He played ball at Dorsey High School.
Whitman and Brown donors are hedging their bets, the day's local campaign events, Brown denies he has tapped Gray Davis to run his transition, a possible new editor for Bon Appetit and and trouble again at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.
Meg Whitman's bus pulled into the Burbank Marriott (after circling Bob Hope Airport) for a quick rally this afternoon before a few hundred supporters. Plus more notes.
Sheriff's watchdog won't investigate Baca's help for a donor, but wait until you see why. Plus women prefer Brown and Boxer, Whitman goes the litmus test route, Soros to help Prop. 19 and the county's new bike-commuting health director.
Guccione, the onetime New Jersey artist who gave the world Penthouse, the movie "Caligula" and the late Omni magazine, died Wednesday in Plano, Texas after a long battle with cancer.
City traffic officials promise there will be fewer jams with Friday's campaign visit by President Obama, plus more inside.
Cullins, 28, was a Marine reservist with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment in Marja, in Afghanistan's Helmand province. He was killed Monday by a roadside bomb.
Kholos began volunteering with Tom Bradley's campaign for mayor in 1969 and became the first press secretary after Bradley was elected in 1973.
Weekend campaigning in the state races, last day to register to vote, Yaroslavsky will only say he's thinking about a run for mayor, Neon Tommy on NPR and the new Hollywood Reporter website launches.
Brown and the death penalty, Whitman on KABC, Props. 23 and 26, lowest homicide rate since 1975, and rough sex in the Jewish Journal. More inside.
Taix ran the Taix French Restaurant in Echo Park, started Downtown by his father in 1927 and among the oldest family-owned restaurants in Los Angeles.
Frank Bourgholtzer was the first full time White House correspondent for NBC News and retired from the network's Los Angeles bureau.
Burke died Sunday on board a flight from Los Angeles that had landed at Amsterdam, where he was due to play a concert. His family — which includes 21 children, 90 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren — posted the news on his website.
Brown apologizes for underling's Whitman slur, she has now spent $121 million of her own money to become governor, an LAPD officer convicted, plus book and media notes.
Shumate, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Pete Wilson, was advising both Carly Fiorina and Steve Cooley in this year's election cycle.
Cannell wrote best-selling novels and for TV shows like "Adam-12" and "Mission Impossible," then went on to produce series such as ""The Rockford Files," "The A-Team" and "21 Jump Street." He died Thursday at home in Pasadena from complications associated with melanoma.
What the Whitman-housekeeper boomlet means, Whitman and Brown tied in another poll, the FBI and LAPD collaborate to solve a whole bunch of homicides, almost half don't pay their red-light camera tickets, plus one ex-councilman gets a job and another one passes on.
Tony Curtis starred opposite Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon in "Some Like it Hot" — which the American Film Institute named the best comedy of the 20th century.— and got an Oscar nomination for "The Defiant Ones."
Art Gilmore narrated hundreds of movie trailers, television episodes and radio shows. He also worked back in the day as a news announcer at KFWB and KNX.
Arthur Penn, the director of "Bonnie and Clyde," The Miracle Worker" and "Alice's Restaurant," died Tuesday in New York a day after turning 88.
The body of a hiker reported missing yesterday in Griffith Park has been located at the bottom of a ravine. Law-enforcement sources say it's Sally Menke, Quentin Tarantino's editor on...
Patty Fox, a longtime media commentator on fashion and the former fashion director of Divine Design, died Sunday of ovarian canc
Buddy Collette, the legendary jazz musician and Los Angeles native who died here on Sunday at 89, "both profited from and contributed to the rich midcentury jazz scene along Los...
Bacon and Mann both made their names interviewing movie stars and other Hollywood celebrities.
Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere," a forthcoming film set mostly at the Chateau Marmont, won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival. LAPD chief Charlie Beck said the...
For decades, Paul Conrad's cartoons in the Los Angeles Times were conversation starters, debate shapers and eyeball attractors. He was one of the paper's best known journalists, the one sure to draw the longest lines at book signings and other public appearances.
Ackerman, chairman of the Community Redevelopment Agency board of commissioners, died today of cancer.
A round-up from the weekend's email and media.
Obledo, a co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and sometimes called the "Godfather of the Latino Movement," was Gov. Jerry Brown's health and welfare secretary from 1975 to 1982.
You may remember last week's item on Edwards needing help for a medical airlift home from Denver. He got home to Santa Barbara and died there yesterday.
"Scar" Lopez co-founded Cannibal and the Headhunters at Lincoln High School, helping give birth to the distinctive Eastside sound.
Carolyn Jensen Chadwick, who died here yesterday, "created sound-rich, evocative stories that once defined the NPR listening experience," writes Current. org. She also was NPR's first employee and the husband of former host Alex Chadwick.
Dan Avey, a longtime KFWB anchor, co-host of the KABC morning show with Ken Minyard, professor at USC and Cal State Northridge and former radio voice of the Los Angeles Kings, died over the weekend at Cedars Sinai.
Chase, the author of several books on urbanism and Los Angeles, died Friday of an apparent heart attack. He was the godfather to the daughter of Frances Anderton, host of...
Wolper also produced "L.A. Confidential" and the children's classic "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," as well as the opening and closing ceremonies at the 1984 Olympic Games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Broadway theaters in WSJ, McCourts try to settle, Bell's $1.5 million city manager, Pau Gasol in scubs and more.
What Maxine Waters had to say, what Jerry Brown did say, what legal analysts are saying about the Prop. 8 ruling, Jack Shafer's advice on what Sidney Harman shouldn't say...
The president and partner of The Rogers Group died last night. Eric Moses, president of the Public Relations of Society L.A. chapter, has put out a nice statement to his board.
KCET's financial struggles, Prop. 8 ruling's timing, Tribune troubles redux, Tim Rutten on Anne Rice quitting the Christians, and will Los Angeles County cost the Democrats the election?
An important figure in the Los Angeles book world has died. Marylin Hudson co-founded the legendary and long-running Round Table West book and author program.
Bobby Hebb, who wrote the 1966 hit "Sunny," died today in Nashville at age 72.
Greuel on a jury, Garcetti for Echo Park lake crackdown, Whitman's amazing spending, Lakers playoff tickets for lawmakers and more.
In the San Fernando Valley secession election in 2002, state Assemblyman Keith Richman received the most votes and would have become the first mayor of the newly formed sixth-most populous U.S. city if voters had allowed the split.
Eric Malnic was a longtime mainstay of the Los Angeles Times Metro staff, as an assistant city editor and rewrite man on big stories, and late in his career as the paper's specialist on airplane crashes.
Kevin Jolly, 45, left as superintendent of the Burbank schools a few weeks ago to take over a troubled school district in Mendocino County.
Schorr joined NPR as senior news analyst after being let go by CNN in 1985.
Gammon's first television credits were in the 1960s in westerns such as "The Wild, Wild West," "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke" — though he also showed up on "Batman," "Charlie's Angels" and...
Whitman's investment in Mike Murphy's movie career, Andrew Malcolm's flakkery again, LAT staffers warned about tweets, Polanski's victim still wants it to end, White House press secretaries in town, an arts blog dies and a books blog begins. Plus more, inside.
A tribute that Westwood restaurateur and community leader Steven Sann wrote about architect Stephen Kanner, who died Friday of cancer at 54, shows how one architect can freshen and re-shape a place like Westwood (itself planned in the 1920s) while honoring its past.
Soon-Shiong buys up Brentwood, a Manson girl comes up for parole again, what to do about L.A.'s watering rules, the jury deliberates in Oscar Grant killing and an architecture obituary. Plus more as we return from the long holiday weekend.
Johnson had been battling brain cancer and underwent surgery in January. He died Tuesday evening at age 75.
The California Highway Patrol is confirming for media that Officer Ortiz died at 5:50 p.m.
Cardinal Mahony's deposition, the Obamas see the Getty, the City Council delays on Arizona, Gov. Schwarzenegger comes to the Press Club Awards, plus Joel Kotkin, Jeanie Buss, Glenn Beck and more.
Ernest Fleischmann, who died Sunday, ran the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra from 1969 to 1998.
After an All-Pro career in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams, Richter went on to run Riverside International Raceway and Auto Club Speedw
The Getty has just announced the death of James N. Wood, the institution's president and CEO.
Longtime political activist and Hollywood public relations strategist Stephen Rivers died Monday after a long battle with cancer.
Marvin Isley was the youngest member of the Isley Brothers — he came along in 1973 after his brothers had been performing since 1954.
Caffie Greene was part of a group of Watts mothers who became a formidable community force after the Watts riots in 1965, and a former deputy to Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.
I noticed quite an outpouring of grief and and surprise on Facebook from friends, labor activists and colleagues on today's death of John Delloro, reportedly of a heart attack.
UCLA's legendary coach dies of natural causes at age 99.
Joseph Strick brought James Joyce's "Ulysses" to the big screen, won an Oscar for his documentary on My Lai veterans, made noteworthy documentaries on L.A.'s Muscle Beach in 1948 and an L.A. divorcee's life in 1960, and also commissioned a Santa Monica Canyon home that is the only North American residence by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
Friends of longtime Los Angeles journalist Jerry Clark are saying he died yesterday, possibly of a heart attack
On my trip to Bilbao in 2007, one of the more unforgettable visual aspects to the Guggenheim Museum (other than seeing a replica of Walt Disney Hall beside the xx river in Spain) was Louise Bourgeois' sculpture of a giant spider.
Dennis Hopper died this morning at home in Venice, likely from complications of advanced prostate cancer.
Coleman, the child star of the hit sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," died at a hospital in Provo, Utah after suffering a brain hemorrhage at home earlier this week.
Art Linkletter, who died today at home in Bel-Air, was a ubiquitous broadcast presence from the 1940s through the 1960s, and a voice and emcee at Los Angeles events for long after.
Sarah Ferguson and Bruce Beresford-Redman skulk into town, though not necessarily together. Plus a Monday assortment of media, politics and news notes.
An LAFD crew answering a 911 call pronounced screenwriter Simon Monjack dead at his home in the Hollywood Hills.
Lima died today at home in Los Angeles, reportedly of a heart attack. A native of the Dominican Republic, Lima won 89 games in thirteen seasons as a pitcher, including in 2004 the Dodgers' first port-season win in more than a decade.
Schwarzenegger's onus, Mozingo's series, neglected ponies, a chef in trouble with the law, the Lakers begin round three and a blogger's photo gets picked up. Plus the death of Ronnie James Dio.
Tam Ngoc Tran of Orange County and Cinthya Felix of Los Angeles had been activists for the DREAM Act, the proposed law to grant citizenship to undocumented students like themselves.
New website for Sheriff Baca, boycotting Arizona, Jewish Journal up, Sarah Silverman down, and perhaps the last great newspaper novel.
Microsoft to convene in L.A., no Times endorsements for Whitman, Ponzer, Brown or Boxer, the return of Al Checchi and more bankruptcy talk from Dick Riordan.
Lena Horne was the first black performer signed to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio — MGM, for whom she appeared in “Panama Hattie” in 1942 — and by the end of World War II was being called the country's top black entertainer.
A public memorial for music critic Alan Rich has been set for Tuesday, May 25th in Zipper Hall at the Colburn School on Bunker Hill in Downtown
Max Palevsky sold Scientific Data Systems to Xerox in 1969 for $1 billion, then used his money to collect art and to finance liberal causes and campaigns, including those of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter and Tom Bradley for mayor.
Redgrave died last night after a lengthy fight against breast cancer.
Lopez, a name partner at Century City's Kleinberg Lopez Lange Cuddy & Klein, has represented Michael Jackson and members of the Eagles, and had been a producer on "Selena." He...
Mike Silverman was one of L.A.'s "realtors to the stars" before he retired in 2001. He used to say he got his start when when he sold Frank Sinatra's house...
Friends and admirers are passing around on line the news that longtime Los Angeles music critic Alan Rich died yesterday. He would have been about 85.
Alicia Parlette was diagnosed at 23 with a rare form of cancer in her hip and a breast. The copy editor's 17-part series in the San Francisco Chronicle under the Alicia's Story banner told of her experiences undergoing chemotherapy and coming to grips with her fate.

Gates was chief of police in Los Angeles from 1978 to 1992, his tenure ending shortly after the riots that followed the jury verdicts exonerating officers in the Rodney King...
Garfield High to name auditorium for Jaime Escalante, more on last night's DWP rates vote, big Bev Hills fundraiser for Meg Whitman, an anniversary for Larry Mantle and more.
Dixon was on the air in Los Angeles for a half century. He died March 13 at a rehabilitation facility in Burbank.

Jay Mathews used to be Los Angeles bureau chief of the Washington Post and now writes the paper's education blog. In 1988 he authored a biography of Garfield High teacher...
Friends of Jamie Escalante are reporting that the retired Garfield High School teacher died this afternoon in Reno, where he was seeking treatment for bladder cancer.
Robert J. Cottle, a member of the LAPD's SWAT unit, is the first active Los Angeles police officer to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Cottle, 45, was a Sergeant Major with a United States Marine Corps Reserve battalion from Camp Pendleton. He was in the Marja region on Wednesday when a roadside bomb killed him and another Marine.
Marshall had the inside access and the eye to shoot some of the most iconic images of rock and roll musicians
City Council asserts itself on the DWP rates, California's algebra experiment not working, The Standard pays for pouring pool chemicals down the drain, plus Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown, Lee Baca, Walter Karabian and more.
Baca goes right back at it after D.C. dustup, Whitman's spending, Jerry Brown's old apartment, LAist's owner close to sale and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards. Plus more, of course.
Ferber, the Hollywood Bowl's longtime production supervisor and special events manager, provided the voice that greeted concert-goers: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hollywood Bowl."
Fess Parker's first credit was in the 1950 film "Harvey," but he became widely known as Disney's Davy Crockett later that decade and as Daniel Boone. More recently Parker has...
The musician who began as the lead singer for the Box Tops in the 1960s died in New Orleans.
Graves was found dead Sunday at home in Pacific Palisades.
When the Rams were a big deal in Los Angeles, Olsen anchored their Fearsome Foursome defensive line. He went on to be longtime color commentator for NBC’s pro football and Rose Bowl telecasts, and a television actor on “Little House on the Prairie” and in his own series, “Father Murphy.”
Gavin Newsom chatter, Cooley calls out his deputies, National Magazine Award finalists, another AOL Patch in South Bay, the death of Corey Haim and more.
Willie Davis, the Dodgers centerfielder through most of the 1960s who came out of Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights, was found dead today at home in Burbank.
Sheriff Baca releases inmates early, Joel Grover goes after bogus disabled parking, Arnold and Maria get paid to promote California, editor hospitalized after meeting with New Times' Mike Lacey, and more...after the jump.
Raimund Abraham, a visiting faculty member at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, died in a Downtown crash hours after giving a lecture at the school.
I posted about Serchia in January, when I was introduced to his blog Thinking Positive, where he wrote with humor and insight about his life as a cancer and AIDS patient.
Villaraigosa wants another new fee on DWP customers, AP covers L.A's budget problems, Speaker Perez's influence issues, the Rafu Shimpo in big trouble and Ban Ki-moon comes to town.
Montalvo, an 11-year-veteran of the LAPD's Hollywood division, was the officer who died in an off-duty crash in Diamond Bar on Thursday.
The running back died at a hospital in Attleboro, Mass., on Tuesday. The cause of death has not been reported.
Los Angeles writer Mary Susan Herczog wrote first-person stories about her experiences with breast cancer in the L.A. Times during the late 1990s and again in 2002.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (at the home of attorney Bruce Broillet and his wife Norah) and Sen. Mark Warner are among the Democrats holding L.A. area fundraisers during the congressional recess.
City Councilman Herb Wesson's chief of staff died this morning in Las Vegas, where she had suffered an aneurysm while visiting a week ago, Wesson's spokesman announced this afternoon.
Blanchard opened the Hollywood agency that bore her name in 1961 and represented, among others, Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Shari Belafonte, Rene Russo and Cristina Ferrare.
Wendy Greuel, Steve Bing, Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Jonathan Gold and Laurie Ochoa, James Rainey and more.
Jay Leno slinks out of prime-time, expect the Hollywood sign to be covered with a banner, more City Council drama over the budget and more.
NBC makes Conan disappear online, feuding over Conrad Murray, the gay judge hearing the Prop. 8 case and plenty of politics notes for a Monday.
Bryant scored 44 tonight in Memphis to take over the franchise lead from West, but the Lakers lost by two.
Salinger died Wednesday at the home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. From the New York Times: Mr. Salinger’s literary reputation rests...
I have to wonder if the Times' near-total surrender of its award-winning tradition of covering a major local industry — cutting-edge science — helps explain why the New York Times beat the locals on the apparent suicide of a world-class Caltech scientist.
Couple of LAPD Metro officers busted, Prop. 8 testimony ends, why the mud didn't flow and how movie portrayals of female journalists are always so lame (Maggie Gyllenhaal edition.)
Zinn died today of a heart attack while traveling in Santa Monica.
More rain today, the inmate release plan kicks in, Inglewood's mayor pleads out and resigns, plus a couple of local obituaries — and more.
Day co-founded the Chiat-Day advertising agency. McCabe started McCabe's Guitar Shop, the Santa Monica landmark.
Bell had opened a few fast food chains around Southern California after World War II, starting with a rival to McDonald's in San Bernardino. He also started Der Wienerschnitzel, but...
Henck was known in the San Bernardino Mountains as the builder and manager of the Santa's Village amusement park in Skyforest, and as a keeper of the mountain communities' past.
Genser, in his third stint as mayor over 21 years on the Santa Monica City Council, had been ill since October and died on Saturday.
Everyone in the flamenco community in Los Angeles knew Ben Bradley made a wicked tortilla Espanola.
Channel 11's news at 10 p.m. opened tonight with five minutes of reporting and personal commentary about Rory Markas, the station's sportscaster who was discovered dead at home in Palmdale...
At least 2,500 people, and perhaps as many as 5,000, attended last night's event in the stadium at Mountain View High School for El Monte school board member Agustin Roberto...
Team spokesman Tim Mead says the voice of the Angels was found dead at his Palmdale home on Monday.
Tuohy won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1969 for his coverage of the Vietnam War for the Los Angeles Times.
He drew more than 3,800 caricatures and other pieces for the New York Review of Books.
If I were doing an end-of-year roundup of obits, Schiller would be in it. Her husband opened the Pink Pussycat in an old Hollywood jazz club on Santa Monica Boulevard,...
The actress died this morning of cardiac arrest at Cedars-Sinai, after being found in the shower at home by her mother, according to TMZ, citing reports from the LAFD and...
Getting rid of teachers who don't work out, the city's plans for Owens Lake and just how much Supervisor Molina meddled in the building of the Gold Line — plus...
Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt Disney and a director emeritus of the family studio, died Wednesday morning after battling stomach cancer. His name is on REDCAT downtown. Roundup of...
Larry Sultan, who died Sunday of cancer at his home up in Greenbrae, grew up in the San Fernando Valley and in 2004 came out with a large-format book called...
Krekorian goes back to Sacramento, Art Torres gets a raise, another reporter move at the Times and City Hall's beacon shone last night. More news and notes after the jump....
More excessive radiation from CT scans, delays on the Expo Line, surviving six months on a bus bench in the Valley, and voting ends today in the 2nd district —...
Looking at all the labor money in the CD 2 race, old LAPD riot helmets headed to Washington state, and artist Richard Ankrom's guerrilla freeway sign has been found. Plus...
Carlos Valdez Lozano, an assistant city editor at the Los Angeles Times, offers up a personal Op-Ed tribute to his friend Alice McGrath, a longtime union and left-wing activist in...
Officer Aragon was off-duty when his motorcycle crashed around 2:15 a.m. at Fletcher Drive and Larga Avenue, according to the L.A. Times and CBS 2. He was pronounced dead at...
Retired Los Angeles Fire Department captain Jim Perry was killed today in a crash on U.S. 395 near Reno. Perry was well known to local media and was editor of...
Redondo Beach Police officer Ken Greenleaf had to make the tough call yesterday and put down his dog. Valor, a 5-year-old black-and-gray German shepherd, had been in the hospital with...
Schwarzenegger years labeled a disappointment, a newspaper calls for getting rid of the lieutenant governor, and you can now get Reagan on your iPhone. Plus more after the jump. Quick...
Sportswriter Scott French was at the World Cup match in Pasadena in 1994 where Mike Penner first discovered soccer. The late L.A. Times sports writer bought a ball, started kicking...
Unofficial word from a former Del-Fi employee on Facebook is that Bob Keane, the record producer who signed Ritchie Valens out of Pacoima in 1958, died over the weekend. Keane...
Kevin Bronson, the music writer formerly with the L.A. Times, remembers Mike Penner for more than his sports writing or his sexuality. They bonded over rock and roll. Penner was...
Sad news at the Los Angeles Times website about one of their own. Mike Penner, the veteran sportswriter who in 2007 and '08 was known publicly as Christine Daniels, was...
News is spreading fast via email and Facebook that Avery Clayton died of a heart attack on Thanksgiving. He was an artist and executive director of Western States Black Research...
Author and Jewish Journal book editor Jonathan Kirsch blogs that his "very first experiment in the deconstruction and interpretation of sexual imagery" took place when, as a child, he found...
Quick roundup for getaway day: Roman Polanski was granted bail and possibly house arrest in Switzerland, but an appeal is pending. L.A. Now Pot dispensaries could continue to accept cash...
Color commentary all around on yesterday's LAPD brass shake-up, Schwarzenegger parks in the red, Sarah Palin and Latinos and Supervisor Ridley-Thomas dodges the media. Those and more after the jump....
Beck's popular first order, Leiweke calls Trutanich's bluff, what it's like to be 33, gay and a deputy mayor, and the LAT's Rainey weighs in on Ruth Seymour. Plus a...
Beck's confirmation vote, Villaraigosa gets a Thai massage, Broad still talking museum with Beverly Hills and much, much more in today's catch-up buzz. Tucked neatly after the jump,. as usual....
LA Observed columnist Bill Boyarsky was a friend of the late Doug Ring and describes his role in preparing Bill to be an effective ethics commissioner in City Hall, and...
From the mayor's office: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued the following statement regarding the death of Douglas R. Ring: “I am deeply saddened by the death of my friend Doug Ring,...
Developer, lawyer and philanthropist Doug Ring was discovered at the Brentwood home he shares with his wife, former City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the L.A. Times' news blog says. Ring and...
Back from the holiday with a reading of the Jerry Brown tapes, a conspiracy theory about Charlie Beck, big layoffs at Current TV in L.A. and more after the jump...
West Hollywood City Councilmember Jeff Prang announced the death of his former deputy this morning. Karen Ocamb has more....
More on that secret taping of reporters by a Jerry Brown aide, Beck moves forward and the City Council is gone to Texas. Plus more, of course, after the jump....
More analysis of Charlie Beck, plus the state's big water deal, blacks and pot in Pasadena, Andrew Breitbart and more after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at...
Bad circulation numbers for the L.A. Times, the mayor steps out with Lu Parker, new controversy around David Lizarraga and a media apology — plus more after the jump, of...
Born Milton Supman, Soupy Sales became one of the enduring comic faces of 1950s and '60s television. His show, first in Detroit then in Los Angeles, was a hit with...
Friends and family of the late philanthropist and civic leader Nancy Daly heard heaps of praise last night at a memorial gathering in UCLA's Royce Hall. Times columnist Patt Morrison,...
Jack Nelson led the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau during much of the time that the paper's reputation for national reporting was growing, and before that was known for his...
Blogger offers three finalists for LAPD chief, Polanski staying put and more. After the jump....
Falcon and the snow job, interviewing begins for LAPD chief and more news and notes after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and...
Anschutz, Schwarzenegger, Nahai and more, after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Former president Bill Clinton wrote this week that "Lili Smith was a beautiful girl...taken from her family and friends far too soon." Smith is the daughter of political consultant Ace...
When Brendan Mullen came to Portland last year for a book event at Powell's, Nancy Rommelmann threw a party and introduced him around. She remembers her friend, who passed away...
Brendan Mullen, author and the founder in 1977 of local punk rock club the Masque, died today after suffering a stroke while celebrating his birthday on the road with his...
The iconic fashion and portrait photographer — most notably for Vogue — died this morning at his home in Manhattan. His death was announced by Peter MacGill, his friend and...
Clinton in town to endorse Newsom, H1N1 vaccine is coming and Adam Carolla's podcast, plus the return of Frosty, Heidi and Frank to the airwaves. Those and more are below...
Nancy Daly, who helped found United Friends of the Children after being disturbed by what she saw at MacLaren Children's Center, died of pancreatic cancer while riding back to Los...
The New York Times columnist of three decades died today of pancreatic cancer at a hospice. Safire had been a speech writer for President Richard Nixon and an influential conservative...
In the morning news: a couple of local genius grant winners, a big gang raid, voting in the Valley and a bunch more notes. Also see Mark Lacter morning headlines...
The star of "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost" had been battling pancreatic cancer. He was 57. (AP)...
Pang is the Newport Beach financier accused by federal regulators of a massive fraud in which millions of dollars were re-directed for his personal use. He had been taken from...
Here's an extended excerpt from a series of interviews he did in 1998 for the Archive of American Television. He talks about working with Bob Hope, Carl Reiner, Sid...
One of the greatest comedy writers - ever. He's probably best known for the TV series "MASH," but there also was "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the...
Gertrude Baines was 115, the world's oldest person. She died in her sleep at Western Convalescent Hospital. Baines was a native of Shellman, Ga., and her father was believed to...
It's the 8-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and while the memorial at Ground Zero remains mired in money woes and petty (are there any other kind?) politics,...
The long-time education writer at the LAT was 80. From the Times obit: At The Times, where he was a reporter for nearly 30 years starting in 1964, Trombley was...
Army Archerd was a Variety columnist for 52 years, a fixture on the red carpet and at Hollywood parties — and he liked to say that his style made him...
The two firefighters killed in a vehicle accident Sunday on Mount Gleason above Acton were identified by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Tedmund Hall, who lived in San Bernardino...
Steve Greenberg's take on the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. See more by Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive....
For those who keep score, we have our third newsworthy passing of the last 24 hours. Greenwich collaborated with Phil Spector and Jeff Barry on a bunch of hit songs...
Dunne is the father of actor Griffin Dunne and wrote extensively about the Los Angeles murder of his daughter, the actress Dominique Dunne. He also wrote best-selling books and produced...
Add Cardinal Roger Mahony to the legions releasing official condolences and praise on last night's death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. From the Archdiocese of Los Angeles: Cardinal Roger M. Mahony...
Mark's mother Helen Lacter passed away Tuesday evening in Plantation, FL. She was 96. Posting at LA Biz Observed will be intermittent over the next week or so while Mark...
The New York Times obituary says Hewitt "changed the course of broadcast news by creating the television magazine '60 Minutes,' fusing journalism and show business as never before, and who...
News and notes are hidden after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Donna Myrow, the founder and publisher of LA Youth, met the novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg soon after he launched the Watts Writers Workshop following the 1965 riots. He became...
"It’s safe to say that rock and roll as we know it would not exist without his invention," says the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That invention? The solid-body...
Roger Wetherington, who died July 26, had been the adviser to the student newspapers at Cal States Northridge and Long Beach. As such, he worked closely with a number of...
The president of Phoenix Books in Beverly Hills was 65. He died of cancer over the weekend. Viner has published or tried to publish several controversial books, including in 2003...
Today's news and notes, hidden after the jump, were delayed by a computer crash. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin...
Today's Buzz is tucked away after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
The screenwriter and director known for the films "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" among others died today while walking in Manhattan. A...
Today's news and notes are after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
News and notes are hidden after the jump. Also see today's Mark Lacter morning headlines at LA Biz Observed, and follow Mark and Kevin on Twitter....
Some week-starting news and notes for today are after the jump. For a quick look back at the past week at LA Observed, click here. Also see today's Mark Lacter...
City Council President Eric Garcetti grabs Wendy Greuel's old suite on the fourth floor where they keep the elected inmates. Same square footage but more windows, says Rick Orlov at...
The daughter of Los Angeles journalist Greg Burk and Southwestern Law adjunct professor Deborah Drooz was found slain this morning in her car near Alameda and Fourth Street downtown. A...
The best-selling writer of gay black fiction fell ill yesterday at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. He lived in Atlanta. LAT...
Whoa, the news and notes run a bit long today — that's what happens when you take the night off. The buzz is after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's...
News, notes and observations are after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed and follow us on Twitter....
Nice photograph by Juergen Nogai of Julius Shulman at John Lautner's Chemosphere house. Nogai, Frank Gehry, Dion Neutra and others, including Shulman himself, talk during a radio documentary on the...
Media sites are saying that the longtime CBS News anchor has died, according to his family. Cronkite announcing the assassination of President John Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963:...
In today's LA Observed segment on KCRW, I honor Julius Shulman as a foremost chronicler and interpreter of Los Angeles and get personal on behalf of my wife, who has...
Julius Shulman, the dean of Los Angeles photographers, died Wednesday at home in Laurel Canyon. He was 98 years old. “He led a charmed life right up to the...
Quick first read of the day's news and notes is after the jump. Also see Mark Lacter's morning headlines at LA Biz Observed and follow us on Twitter....
A quick first look at today's items on politics and the city, with a media obit. Inside after the jump....
The real estate developer who may have had a hand in 100,000 new homes was a condo and strip mall pioneer in Southern California and built office towers in Century...
Cynthia Littleton at Variety reports that Brennan, a longtime reporter and editor for The Hollywood Reporter, died today at Cedars-Sinai after a yearlong struggle with cancer. "He was my friend,...
California's $24 billion budget deficit is bigger than the budgets of some states, and Sacramento looks no closer to resolving the problem as IOUs are prepared. Rough & Tumble...
Levin was a familiar sight around the Westside signing up voters — which Bob Pool at the Times says she did six days a week for 36 years. Levin's son...
Today's Michael Jackson mourners in Hollywood are able to get to his actual Walk of Fame star instead of radio host Jackson's star, where they gathered yesterday. Gatherings also...
Jackson died this afternoon at UCLA Medical Center after suffering cardiac arrest at home in Holmby Hills, the Los Angeles Times and TMZ are reporting. Jackson is survived by his...
Farrah Fawcett died at 9:28 AM at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, according to TMZ. Ryan O'Neal and Alana Stewart were at her bedside....
Mayor Villaraigosa plans to appear on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" at 1 p.m. PDT and make some kind of statement about his plans on running for...
Nic Fiore taught skiing at Badger Pass in Yosemite National Park for more than 50 years, but Scott McAuley of Angel City Press remembers his friend as the summer impresario...
Sheryl Flowers was the executive producer of Tavis Smiley's shows on National Public Radio and Public Radio International and his Director of Communications. "When I left NPR, Sheryl was the...
Cardinal Mahony wagers a case of wine on the Lakers, a councilman resigns in disgrace, David Carradine is found hanged and more, including the local gay Asian-American mayor. Mark Lacter's...
Wow, it's June already. Today's Morning Buzz has much talk about Antonio Villaraigosa and his intentions, more questioning of the Los Angeles magazine failure cover, plus some other politics and...
Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed cutting deeply into health and welfare, letting non-violent felons out of prison a year early and closing most state parks as a start on closing the...
Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein says he'll miss the occasional calls from the longtime publicist, "one of the last remaining links to the Damon Runyon-esque era where you could...
Solters at various times represented Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson and other celebrity clients, says Nikki Finke. She reports that Solters died in his sleep at home, and gets...
Former Speaker Willie Brown says Sacramento is in "total panic" believing the tax props will lose on Tuesday's ballot, and he blames years of bad decisions by the governor...
The Daily Breeze education reporter died Friday night after being taken off life support with his family by his side. Here's the Daily Breeze story and blog post by his...
This cartoon was created by Steve Greenberg several weeks ago when the Los Angeles City Council was still debating whether to finish the elephant enclosure at the L.A. Zoo....
The celebrity news site says that the comic actor died in his sleep last night at a Los Angeles hospital. TMZ The French Mistake scene in "Blazing Saddles" with DeLuise...
That Long Beach State student and two other L.A. County residents are confirmed cases of the new H1N1 or swine flu. More local cases are expected, but the outbreak appears...
At least seven May Day marches are scheduled today around L.A., including four in Downtown. LAT, DN Only 14 percent of registered voters approve of the California Legislature's performance,...
A Mexican child who died in Texas [fixed] is the first confirmed U.S. death from swine flu, and a Marine at Twentynine Palms may have swine flu and has...
The longtime sports beat byline for the Examiner, Herald Examiner and L.A. Times died Monday at home in Baldwin Hills of age-related causes. Oates served on the original pro football...
Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman caused a stir Sunday night at Disney Hall by announcing from the stage it would be his last U.S. performance because of the nation's military...
Menza, the circulation director of the LA Weekly, died last night after battling cancer. Steven Mikulan, speaking for the staff in a story on the Weekly website, says the news...
Longtime Los Angeles Times journalist Annette Haddad has died of cancer. Here's the newsroom announcement by editor Russ Stanton: From: Stanton, RussSent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 10:57 AMTo: yyeditallSubject: Annette...
Gustkey's byline appeared in the L.A. Times sports section for more than three decades, most notably on stories about boxing, the outdoors and the WNBA. "He was a sports editor's...
The Los Angeles pop culture photographer died last night, according to several websites. SuperTouch, Daily Swarm, ThaIndian News...
West Hollywood mayor Jeffrey Prang announced the death of the city's long-serving councilman, and one of the oldest elected officials in the state. From Prang's statement: He died peacefully this...
Taplin, who was involved with the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council from its inception in 2002, was killed Tuesday in a freeway car accident. Blogdowntown says that Taplin and her...
Jerry Gillam covered California government and politics for 40 years, most of that time in the Sacramento bureau of the Los Angeles Times. He left the Times in 1995. Gillam...
A memorial service is scheduled Tuesday for the baby of Heather and Mike Spohr, who live in Brentwood. Maddie, as she is known to many across the blogosphere, was born...
The team released a statement on the death of pitcher Nick Adenhart, and a statement from his family. Tonight's game was cancelled at the family's request. KPCC's Steve Julian talks...
Dan Miller anchored at Channel 2 in the 1980s and was the sidekick on Pat Sajak's late-night show, as well as a frequent guest host for Tom Snyder on radio....
The rookie started last night, then was among three people in a Mitsubishi who died when a red-light runner hit the car in Fullerton. Adenhart, who was 22, threw six...
Over two and a half decades, Steve Plesa was the Orange County Register's features editor, cities editor and special sections editor overseeing coverage for the Food, Travel and Home &...
Mayor Villaraigosa told city unions that to avoid layoffs, workers need to defer raises, cut work hours and pay more for retirement benefits. The Times editorialized for the plan....
Mayor Villaraigosa has called an 11 a.m. news conference to announce steps to avert thousands of city layoffs. "The City currently faces a Fiscal Year 2009-10 deficit of $530...
L.A. Times writer Thomas Curwen's and photographer Allen J. Schaben's series on Ana Rodarte, 3½ years in the making, has award contender all over it: "Ana Rodarte had given...
Sommer died in a trauma helicopter en route to UCLA after being hit by a car in an Agoura Hills parking lot last week. His mother Ann, 98, also suffered...
Steven Bach was the executive at United Artists who took the fall for "Heaven’s Gate" and went on to write "Final Cut," which William Grimes in the New York Times...
Jarre won Oscars for the scores of "Lawrence of Arabia," " Doctor Zhivago" and "A Passage to India," and composed music for more than 150 other films. He died in...
Briggs was known around Los Angeles police headquarters at Parker Center as Dr. Dave, Minister of Leather. He shined shoes in the lobby for 21 years and on Monday he...
Mary Anne Dolan was hired at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner by Jim Bellows and followed him as editor. Below are her remarks at last Friday's memorial service for Bellows,...
The British-born actress, 45, is survived by her husband Liam Neeson, mother Vanessa Redgrave, sister Joely Richardson, aunt Lynn Redgrave and two children. Richardson won a Tony in 1998 as...
James Caughey "Coy" Watson, Jr. was the eldest of the Watson offspring — six boys and three girls — who made a mark in Los Angeles first as child actors,...
Friends of the late jazz and fashion photographer William Claxton are gathering this evening at LACMA's Bing Theater to celebrate his life. Scheduled speakers include his wife, the actress and...
Silver had been undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer for two years. He died today at home in New York. Silver won a best actor Tony in 1988 for "Speed-the-Plow" and...
Hedges died Tuesday morning at home in South Pasadena of melanoma. He was 57. He was a leading Hollywood lawyer and also made a name for himself as an archaeologist....
I haven't gotten to all the Jim Bellows appreciatons that have been posted or published, but today's by columnist Jon Carroll in the San Francisco Chronicle is a bit different...
Bellows died Friday at a nursing home in Santa Monica after suffering from Alzheimer's. He had been an editor in New York, then the overseer of the features sections at...
Nothing posted yet at the Los Angeles Police Department newsroom or blog, but the officers' union has issued a statement mourning the death at home this morning of South bureau...
Celeste Fremon writes at Witness LA that Ridgway, a supervising deputy probation officer for Los Angeles County, "changed�and in many cases, saved�more lives than anyone can adequately count." Ridgway died...
Soto, who left office last year after missing significant amounts of time in Sacramento due to illness, apparently died today. She was at least 82. A statement from Speaker Karen...
Architectural photographer Marvin Rand was 84 when he died on Feb. 14. Along Abbot Kinney Boulevard, where he kept his studio, Rand is being called one of them — a...
Is Kenneth Turan rebutting critics within the L.A. Times in his column praising the revamped Oscars show? Patrick Goldstein and Mary McNamara go unnamed by him, but readers reject...
Senate Republicans dumped their leader overnight because he dared to support the Democrats' plan for ending the embarrassment in Sacramento. LAT, Bee, APPlus: Gov. Schwarzenegger returns to Los Angeles....
James Whitmore, the award-winning actor who died of lung cancer on Feb. 6, wanted to be wakened to see the inauguration of Barack Obama. He wasn't always lucid by then,...
Estelle Bennett, original Ronette and sister of Ronnie Spector, died this week at her home in Englewood, N.J. She was 67. They're forever young on YouTube, especially in the...
The Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor died today at home in Malibu. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer a week before Thanksgiving, said his son Steve Whitmore, a Los...
Tim Rutten suggests an anti-trust exemption to let newspapers collude on charging for web content. LAT Op-Ed A string of street robberies and attacks in Silver Lake and environs...
The Culver City Police Department is mourning the death of Sgt. Curt Massey in this morning's wrong-way crash on the Santa Monica Freeway. He was a 17-year veteran and recipient...
Brady did the celebrity profiles for Parade magazine for nearly 25 years — his last, of actor Kevin Bacon, runs February 15. Before that he was a Washington reporter for...
Business writer Jennifer Pendleton died yesterday after a fifteen-month battle with cancer, according to a friend. Pendleton specialized in advertising, entertainment and entrepreneurship and her work appeared in Fortune, Essence,...
John Updike released more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s. He won two Pulitzer Prizes, for ''Rabbit Is Rich'' and ''Rabbit at Rest,'' two National...
Because the desk is flowing over, and I have a few minutes... Film critic John Anderson repeatedly punched veteran publicist Jeff Dowd over a disagreement at Sundance about "Dirt! The...
An airline pilot uses his 40 years experience to bring his stricken jetliner down safely in the Hudson River, and the governor of New York dismisses it as "a...
City Council President Eric Garcetti announced this morning that actor Ricardo Montalb�n died today at home in his district, surrounded by family. Montalban was 88, according to Garcetti, who made...
LAFD inspector Dennis Archie was arrested and accused of taking a $500 bribe from a board and care facility operator. L.A. Now So-called moderates on the Screen Actors Guild...
If anyone remembers the 2009 Golden Globes, it will be for "Slumdog Millionaire" and Kate Winslet. Variety, NYT, LAT, winners list "It's a completely meaningless awards show by a...
Santa Ana winds are back and the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning effective from noon today until 4 p.m. Sunday. Wires Mayor Villaraigosa's pro-Israel comments have...
The son of former LAPD spokesman and Fox 11 reporter Rod Bernsen died of cancer. The family suggests donations be made to the Memorial Hospital Cancer Center's Circle of Hope,...
The city of Santa Monica website says that Katz, a member of the City Council, died today with family and close friends by his side. The family appreciates everyone�s prayers...
Some top LAPD officials pushed hard, but unsuccessfully, to get the coroner to change the finding that a SWAT bullet killed 19-month-old Suzie Pe�a in 2005. LAT, Witness LA...
The longtime L.A. music critic blogs about this week's death and the legacy of arts patron Betty Freeman. (Here's my news post from yesterday.) Rich: She insisted on facing death...
Variety reports that Ned Tanen, who served as president of Universal and Paramount and produced three popular "Brat Pack" films in the 1980s, died today in Santa Monica. He was...
Betty Freeman, who died at her home in Los Angeles on Sunday, was a leading patron of the arts and new music. That's her in David Hockney's Beverly Hills Housewife,...
Gene Parrish was from 1984 to 1996 a host and producer on classical music station KUSC-FM. Its website says that Parrish passed away after a long illness and most recently...
Goldman died today of pancreatic cancer, a disease that was just recently diagnosed. He leaves two teenage sons. As I posted earlier today, Goldman and staffers at the Sunset Strip...
Noting the deaths of prominent, newsworthy or interesting Los Angeles figures and of LA Observed's colleagues in the media is a regular thing we do here. There seems to be...
Bob Benoit, photographer Mr. Blackwell, fashion figure Manuel Bogran, Breeze carrier Bernie Boston, photographer P.J. Corkery, editor Elmer Dills, TV restaurant critic Bill Drake, radio executive Clay Felker, editor...
Art Aragon, boxer Buzzie Bavasi, baseball man John Buttera, hot rodder Billy Consolo, player Dock Ellis, pitcher Craig Fertig, USC star Georgia Frontiere, owner Ed Justice Sr., motors Pete...
Ron Boltz, announcer Bernie Brillstein, manager Bud Browne, filmmaker George Carlin, comedian Warren Cowan, publicist Gene Evans, fireworks showman Johnny Grant, honorary mayor Charlton Heston, actor Bobbi Holtzman, director...
Forrest J Ackerman, archivist Tina Allen, artist Arthur C. Clarke, author Philip Conisbee, curator Michael Crichton, author Bo Diddley, rocker Elaine Dundy, author Patricia Faure, art dealer Robert Graham,...
Randal Simmons, LAPD SWAT "It wasn't until I saw the 10 o'clock news that I fully appreciated how many people lined Vermont and Slauson to greet the procession escorting...
Jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who played with John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock and other legends, died today at Sherman Oaks Hospital. He was 70 and had suffered a heart...
The Venice sculptor Robert Graham died Saturday at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center after being ill for six months. Born in Mexico City on Aug. 19, 1938, Graham moved to...
Arthur Spiegelman, called by Reuters one of the wire's "finest writers and longest-serving correspondents," died at home in Los Angeles on Saturday. He was 68. From the Reuters story: He...
The former FBI official who secretly confirmed reporting by the Washington Post's Bob Woodward during the Watergate scandal of the Nixon Administration died Thursday afternoon up in Santa Rosa. From...
Officer Sanders was killed this morning on the eastbound 60 Freeway in Hacienda Heights when struck by a car while he was tending to a traffic accident. Sanders leaves a...
Page never recovered from the heart attack she suffered earlier this month and died today in Los Angeles. Louis Sahagun in the LAT: Bettie Page, the brunet pinup queen with...
Here's how AP announces the news: Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with...
There was a big turnout Sunday outside Chabad House in Westwood for a memorial to Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, who were killed in the Mumbai attacks....
The wife of the late Tom Bradley died of pneumonia today at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center. She lived for many years in the View Park neighborhood after...
As general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers from 1972 to 1976, Pete Newell made the trade that brought Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from the Milwaukee Bucks. Newell's mark on basketball also...
Jay Fiondella moved to Los Angeles to act, roomed with Leonard Nimoy, and opened Chez Jay near the beach in Santa Monica in 1959. It became a showbiz hangout for...
The author and creator of "ER" died yesterday in Los Angeles "after a courageous and private battle against cancer," his website announced. His books included "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost...
You've got to hear Peruvian-born singer Yma Sumac go from baritone to super high notes in this clip from last night's report on NPR's All Things Considered. Sumac was a...
Word from Sacramento is that Bill Stall, the Los Angeles Times' Pulitzer-winning editorial writer, died today after suffering from emphysema. The Times is working on an obituary, and colleague Karin...
The Chicago Tribune summarizes Studs Terkel as "author-radio host-actor-activist and Chicago symbol." He died today at home there, with his book scheduled for release next month, "P.S. Further Thoughts From...
Delmar Watson came from a family of nine children that supplied kids to the movies — he was in more than 300 during his youth — and later became a...
Deanne Stillman posts at Native Intelligence about Tony Hillerman, her former professor who died yesterday and who provided inspiration for her own writing about the West. I can't remember any...
Tony Hillerman introduced readers to the Navajo culture of the Southwest through his series of mystery novels centered on Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn and officer Jim Chee. Hillerman...
An item in last Wednesday's Morning Buzz out of the paid obits in the Times mentioned the passing of Marie Dey, who was 107 and worked at Douglas Aircraft during...
Patricia Faure ran the gallery that bore her name at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, and other notable Los Angeles galleries before that: Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Asher/Faure Gallery. Times art...
Richard Blackwell was an obscure dress designer who became a media star of sorts after issuing his celebrity worst-dressed list starting in 1960. He died Sunday of complications from an...
Carmen Rocha waited tables at the original El Cholo on Western Avenue for nearly four decades and in El Cholo lore gets credit for introducing patrons to nachos. From Mary...
The current president of Heal the Bay posted a personal tribute to the death earlier today of the organization's founder and inspiration. Mark Gold calls his blog post "the passing...
Heal the Bay founder Dorothy Green has passed away, according to a release from Mayor Antonio Villarigosa's office. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued the following statement today on the passing of...
A friend of longtime Los Angeles sportscaster Gil Stratton emailed the news that Stratton died this morning at home in Toluca Lake. He was 86 and had suffered heart problems....
Another familiar figure from 1950s and '60s TV in Los Angeles has died, the L.A. Times reports. Charles Runyon portrayed Chucko the Birthday Clown on Channel 7 from 1955 to...
Lloyd Thaxton created and hosted a popular dance show for teenagers in the 1960s, later produced segments for NBC's "Today" and directed �Fight Back! With David Horowitz,� and most recently...
The Angels stayed alive in the American League playoffs, dropping the Red Sox 5-4 in 12 innings. ESPN Update: The Dodgers open against the Phillies Thursday in Philadelphia, play...
The Hollywood legend died yesterday at home near Westport, Connecticut, according to his publicist, Jeff Sanderson at Warren Cowan and Associates. Newman had been battling cancer for years and recently...
The Legislature finally passed a state budget, throwing the political hot potato into the hands of Gov. Schwarzenegger, who is threatening veto. LAT, Dan Walters Times columnist Sandy Banks...
Novelist David Foster Wallace, best known for "Infinite Jest" and other books, hanged himself at home in Claremont, police said in the city east of Los Angeles. He had been...
The Los Angeles Police Department officer who died in the Chatsworth train collision was identified by the LAPD as Spree Desha, a seven-year veteran who worked in the Office of...
L.A. Radio.com reports that George Putnam died this morning, citing Putnam's long-time friend and producer Chuck Wilder. Putnam moved to Los Angeles in 1951 and quickly became the city's dominant...
Every big newspaper used to have a bar nearby where reporters stayed too late, editors brought new hires to get acquainted over drinks, and Pulitzers were celebrated. For the L.A....
Word was circulated tonight at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism that senior scholar Edwin O. Guthman has died. Guthman served as president of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission...
Starr, the makeup artist for Angelina Jolie and other celebrities, was found deceased inside his Silver Lake Elysian Heights apartment. He was described variously as 48 or 51. Police forced...
Leroy Sievers is the former "Nightline" executive producer who has been commenting on the air and blogging about his cancer for National Public Radio. Sievers had previously been the CBS...
A generation of Los Angeles kids grew up watching cartoons on Channel 9 and drinking their milk when Engineer Bill or his announcer said "green light" — and stopping...
LA Observed author David Rensin was on a book tour-vacation when Hollywood manager and producer Bernie Brillstein ">died, but I for one have been anticipating David's reaction. He helped Brillstein...
Darren "Bo" Taylor was co-founder with USC Trojans coach Pete Carroll of A Better LA and ran Unity One. The Coach Pete Carroll website posts: There are superheroes. And then...
Photographer and music journalist Rena Kosnett thinks she got one of, if not the, final interview with the singer, songwriter, musician and former "South Park" voice who died Sunday. Hayes,...
Bernie Brillstein, the successful Hollywood manager and producer, died last night after suffering from complications following double-bypass heart surgery in February. Here's a snip from Cynthia Littleton's story on the...
Back in 2005 we told you about Gene Hughes, creator of the bible of police scanner frequencies. He also volunteered at the desk at the LAPD's Wilshire division. His real...
Juan Abel Escalante, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy assigned to the Men's Central Jail, was shot and killed outside his Cypress Park home as he left for work about...
Matt McHale, the former assistant sports editor at the Daily News and longtime Dodgers beat writer for the Daily News, Pasadena Star News and Orange County Register, died today in...
Tokyo-born Rocky Aoki was 69 when he died last night in New York, Bloomberg reports. The Benihana version of Japanese teppanyaki cooking began in New York, but of course they...
Boxer Mando Ramos, who died Sunday at age 59, fought 27 of his 49 matches in the Olympic Auditorium and also got into the ring at the Coliseum and the...
It's not clear who was putting out the Los Angeles Times this afternoon, since the top editors attended the service for retired reporter Ken Reich. No hard feelings about his...
Tygiel, a professor at San Francisco State, was the author of "The Great Los Angeles Swindle: Oil, Stocks and Scandal in the Roaring Twenties," the fascinating story of C.C Julian...
An obituary going around says that business entrepreneur and philanthropist Pete Kameron died peacefully on June 29th at the age of 87 at his home in Beverly Hills. He was...
The founder of New York as a Sunday supplement to the New York Herald-Tribune, and later as a standlone glossy weekly, changed the face of American magazines. He also edited...
Don White, a longtime Los Angeles political, social and labor activist, died in his Los Angeles apartment and was discovered on June 20. White had been a Los Angeles Unified...
Oakley's Barber Shop is the last of the original businesses in Westwood Village, dating to 1929. It started on Vermont, near the original UCLA campus that now houses Los Angeles...
Kathy Reich, who is familiar to many on the California politics scene, posts at Take Back the Times: I am deeply saddened to write that my father, Ken Reich, died...
Word at the Los Angeles Times is that retired reporter Ken Reich, 70, died in his sleep. He was found this morning. Friend and former Tom Bradley deputy mayor Anton...
From the Long Beach Press-Telegram website: The sudden death of James Melroy, 36, whose byline has graced these pages both as a prep editor and a keen chronicler of MMA,...
The once-edgy comic who played on his counter-culture roots died about 6 pm at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. He was admitted in the afternoon for chest pains,...
The longtime moderator of "Meet the Press" and chief of NBC's Washington bureau collapsed this afternoon in the bureau and could not be resuscitated. He was 58. Here are links...
Patricia Tobin, co-founder of the National Black Public Relations Society, died today at Cedars-Sinai. She had been treated for colon cancer. The Black Journalists Association of Southern California reported on...
Heart failure in Florida. Here's the lede of the New York Times obituary: Bo Diddley, a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat...
Jon Thurber, the LAT's obits editor, gets some ink on Claire Hoffman's religion blog for Newsweek and the Washington Post. To me, one of the most desirable jobs in newspapers...
Cancer claimed Oscar winning director, producer and actor Sydney Pollack Monday at his home in Pacific Palisades. Pollack won his Academy Awards for best director and best picture for "Out...
Appropos of not much, when my daughter was about nine months old Robert Mondavi stopped by our table at Mustard's, beside his winery in the Napa Valley, and offered to...
Variety calls Cowan the "father of Hollywood press agents" and his firm, Rogers and Cowan, at one time "the biggest entertainment PR firm in the world, with a list of...
Council happy with Lindsey Councilwoman Janice Hahn says, "We have great confidence in Gina Marie Lindsey," but acknowledges the way contracts are issued at LAX could be better. LAT, DN...
E.J. Bavasi was the last general manager of the Dodgers in Brooklyn (and their first in Los Angeles), then created the San Diego Padres and later presided over the California...
In the early 1990s, my beat at the Times was to rove California's small towns and far-flung regions and cover stories that needed telling. Just about every time I would...
Animation specialist Charles Solomon writes in the LAT obituary: Oliver Martin "Ollie" Johnston Jr., the last living member of the celebrated "Nine Old Men" of Disney animation whose work set...
Real name: John Charles Carter. Passing: Saturday at home in Beverly Hills. Previous diagnosis: Neurological symptoms "consistent with Alzheimer�s disease." IMDb credits: 1941-2007. Selected films: Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, The...
Spens reported in the 1990s for KNBC, KCBS and KNX Newsradio and was known for wearing a trench coat and walking while delivering his televised field reports. Pete Noyes, managing...
Brent Lovrien, 35, was remembered Friday as a hero during emotional services downtown that were carried live on some Los Angeles TV stations. Lovie, as he was known at...
Dith Pran was the Cambodian journalist whose ordeal in the Khmer Rouge death regime was depicted in the 1984 film "The Killing Fields" and, earlier, described in the book by...
The firefighter who suffered fatal injuries today in Westchester was identified this evening as Brent A. Lovrien. He was a 10-year veteran assigned to the 'A' Platoon at Fire Station...
Back when boxing was a big spectator sport in Los Angeles, Art Aragon fought major bouts at the Olympic Auditorium, Wrigley Field and Hollywood's Legion Stadium. He was "the top...
Contents of SWAT report Reporter Eric Leonard obtained a copy from outside the LAPD, posts the PDF file and summarizes the conclusions, including a relaxation of physical standards so that...
The English-born writer of science fiction died in Sri Lanka, his home since 1956. NYT, BBC, AP...
Director Anthony Minghella dies after surgery The Oscar winner, who directed "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain," died this morning in a London hospital of complications...
Mark over at LA Biz Observed hopped quickly on the death today of Roland Arnall, founder of subprime loan giant Ameriquest. Arnall has been a major money guy for Republicans...
Latest round of Chick v. Cardenas Exchange of letters yesterday afternoon with City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo over gang programs. WitnessLA Jane Usher email invites suits against the city The president...
Not too many musicians follow this particular career arc. Buddy Miles, who died yesterday in Austin of congestive heart failure, began as a session player with the Delfonics and on...
Variety for sale Reed Elsevier wants to sell Reed Business Information and get far away from the advertising-driven market. In addition to Variety, this puts Broadcasting and Cable, Publishers Weekly...
Holiday hours today so no Morning Buzz, but stuff has still been piling up on my desk. City Council members are lining up to object to Controller Laura Chick's move...
Randal Simmons funeral and burial See last night's post for details and street closures. Burke makes Parks endorsement official Retiring Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said at a Thursday news conference,...
Rep. Tom Lantos dies The Northern California congressman, who was 80, said recently he wouldn;t run again due to cancer of the esophagus. He passed away at Bethesda Naval Medical...
Leo Greene chronicled his fight with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for more than a year in the pages of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, where he was a reporter, columnist and...
The LAT's Al Seib captures the memorable image of a sad day for the LAPD. It's posted on the Times website, along with a profile of slain officer Randal Simmons...
SWAT team veteran Randal Simmons, left, was killed this morning during a shootout with a suspect in the Valley community of Winnetka. He is the first member of the Special...
The bad run continues for founders of Southern California's fast-food icons. Yancey, who died Jan. 26 at age 96, and a partner reportedly used scrap materials to build a three-stool...
Schwed spent 11 years as a writer and columnist at TV Guide, based in Hollywood, as well as working on-air on E! and the TV Guide Channel. Before that he...
Russell �Rusty� Hammer, the former president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, died Monday evening after a long battle with a rare form of leukemia. Hammer came south...
Alumni of the old Herald-Examiner received word this weekend that photographer Steve Grayson passed away. I have no details, but someone who knew him circled Grayson in the front of...
Snow and record rain Snow closed I-5 and the California 58 dodge around the Grapevine, while four inches of rain fell at Santa Barbara in 24 hours. Streets through Sepulveda...
Fran Lewine covered the White House for Associated Press from Eisenhower to Carter. After a stop as deputy director of public affairs at Transportation under Carter, she went to CNN...
Dubious media events most likely to make tonight's local news At 8 am, the media masses are invited to Burbank to observe the casting of actor statuettes for the SAG...
Let's have a round of applause for Richard Knerr, a USC graduate whose Pasadena company of fun brought the world the Frisbee, the Hula Hoop, the Superball, the Slip 'N...
Ike Turner died of a cocaine overdose — rendered on the San Diego medical examiner's report as "cocaine toxicity." Turner was 76 when he succumbed in December in the suburbs...
The actor Brad Renfro was found dead at home on South Ogden Drive this morning by his girlfriend. Police said there was no suspicion of foul play, but a cause...
Johnny Podres was the most valuable player of the 1955 World Series that brought Brooklyn its first championship over the great Yankees teams, then went on to become a dependable...
Carl Karcher essentially grew a single hot dog cart in Los Angeles into the Carl's Jr. fast-food chain. He and his wife Margaret opened Carl's Drive-In Barbecue in Anaheim in...
It's the end of an era in Hollywood. Johnny Grant, the last of the "honorary mayors" for whom the ceremonial title still meant something, was found dead tonight in his...
State of Arnold's state Budget cuts to be proposed along with a hike in fees and a constitutional amendment that would impose a spending cap. LAT, DN, Register, Chronicle, Dan...
Noting the deaths of noteworthy Los Angeles figures and LAO's colleagues and friends in the media is just something we do here. Here are most of the passings that LA...
The Kings held a moment of silence before tonight's game to honor Stu Nahan, the former sportscaster at channels 4, 5 and 7 and sports talk host on KABC and...
Irv Letofsky, former editor of the L.A. Times Sunday Calendar section and a critic for the Hollywood Reporter, died Sunday of liver cancer at age 76. From the Reporter obituary:...
Tammara at Metroblogging Los Angeles posts about her connection to Laura Huxley, who she used to see around Hollywood Reservoir and who died on the blogger's birthday. Here's our post...
The author and widow of Aldous Huxley has died in Los Angeles, according to family friends. She was 96. She was born in Italy and became a top violinist at...
The ex-husband and abuser of Tina Turner died at home in suburban San Marcos in the San Diego area. Ike and Tina were a pretty successful act in the 1960s,...
The one-time vaudeville booker who became the agent for Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Barbra Streisand and other stars died of lung cancer Tuesday at home in Beverly Hills. Fields was...
Mayor Villaraigosa's office says that Carol Baker Tharp, general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, has died. The mayor just released this statement: �Carol Baker Tharp loved the City...
Mitch Harding co-created (with Mike Hodel in 1972) the long-running science fiction and writing show "Hour 25" on KPFK. Later at KCRW, he was the operations manager and afternoon voice...
Weekend catch-up edition... City Council is gone to New Orleans No meetings this week with so many members off to a League of Cities confab for panels and wining and...
Gus Hawkins was elected to the California legislature in 1934 [editor's note: !] and almost three decades later he became the first African American from California to be elected to...
Shav Glick covered auto racing for the L.A. Times for 37 years, until he was 85 years old, and earned legend status in the sport. He died Saturday of complications...
Nice post by Deanne Stillman at Native Intelligence on the passing of Tawn Mastrey, once "the voice of heavy metal" in Los Angeles on the old KNAC-FM. Deanne interviewed her...
L.A. broadcasting fixture Gary Franklin died at 79, at home in Chatsworth. He first became known as a street reporter on KFWB, ending his reports with a signature sign-off "Car...
Lauritzen died today of a brain tumor, according to the Board of Education and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He lost his reelection campaign for the board earlier this year. Lauritzen had...
The Oscar-winning actress and former Mrs. Ronald Reagan (when he was a SAG Democrat) never let her true age be pinned down. Katie Harris reports at Bloomberg that Wyman died...
Michael Deaver worked for Ronald Reagan in the governor's office and in the White House and was known both as a clever image shaper and one of the insiders who...
Ed Padgett, the blogging pressman at the Times' Olympic plant downtown, posted this morning that a coroner had just delivered the awful news that his son Bryan died in a...
KTLA's Prime News team remembered and praised their late anchor and managing editor Hal Fishman for the first half of the broadcast tonight. When they finally broke for the news,...
The face of KTLA news died this morning at home, the station announced. Fishman was 75 and had suffered from colon and liver cancer and an infection. He last anchored...
Jacob Adams, the man thought to have been mauled to death by dogs at the Brentwood home of Ving Rhames, is listed as the screenwriter of a current Rhames film...
The New York Police Department confirmed this afternoon that the body found by a New Jersey fisherman last month was that of missing artist Jeremy Blake. They're calling it a...
Editor and writer Glenn O'Brien pens a final entry at The Wit of the Staircase, adding photographs of Duncan and Jeremy Blake and some Steely Dan lyrics that were read...
Bergman, one of the greatest directors in motion picture history, died on the Swedish island of Faro. Nine Oscar nominations, but no statue. NYT obituary, IMDB bio Also: Tom Snyder,...
This has been a bad day for the Los Angeles Police Department. Detective George "Mike" Selleh of the Mission station was killed about 3:30 am while riding his motorcycle to...
Nice personal piece on Wen Roberts, the sports photographer who died this week, by David Davis at SoCal Sports Observed. Roberts was probably the photographer who captured Jerry West in...
Sherman Torgan's son posts on the theater's website that programming is cancelled until further notice: Sherman was my father and my best friend, and his passing has left me and...
A medical examiner in New York told perfumer Anya McCoy that the autopsy results will be known in about six weeks. McCoy says that Jeremy Blake, Duncan's longtime boyfriend, found...
Beckhams hit L.A., David Zahniser's first Times byline and more — just click below for the Morning Buzz....
While researching his forthcoming biography of the late California political leader Jess Unruh, Bill Boyarsky delved into the story of how reporter Paul Weeks covered the civil rights era at...
The actor whose familiar face graced these pages last year died Monday night at home in Brentwood. He was 102 years old. In January 2006, we and a couple of...
Geoff Kelly edited at the Daily News and Times and most recently was on the desk at the International Herald Tribune in Hong Kong. He died there last week after...
The founder of Langer's Deli died Sunday in Agoura from complications of being 94 years old. He is survived by his son Norm Langer, daughter Laurie Bernie and grandchildren. Previously:...
Anderson Jones, a freelance film critic who formerly reviewed for E! Online and made appearances on the "E! True Hollywood Story," died after suffering a heart attack at a promotional...
San Jose Mecury News veteran Richard Ramirez was found dead at his home in Livermore. Ramirez began at the paper as an intern in 1984 and held several positions, including...
Anzack's family in Torrance was notified by the Army that his body had been found floating in the Euphrates river near Baghdad. The 20-year-old was one of three soldiers who...
Retired L.A. Times Metropolitan Editor Dave Rosenzweig died last night after battling cancer. A longtime investigative reporter and editor, Rosenzweig most recently had covered the federal courts downtown. I believe...
Publicist and friend Warren Cowan made the announcement that Jack Valenti, the former head of the Motion Picture Association of America, died this afternoon. He had been in ill...
The author and journalist was involved in a three-car crash this morning near the Dumbarton Bridge in San Mateo County, according to AP stories out of Menlo Park and San...
Howard Larman and his wife Roz started their folk music show in 1970. Folkscene may be the oldest program on Los Angeles radio. Howard passed away over the weekend. Roz...
The race-track fixture handicapped most recently for the Long Beach Press-Telegram and other LA News Group papers. He had planned to retire yesterday, at the end of Santa Anita's season,...
Last week the staff of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald put out the word that she would take a leave of absence to recuperate from an unstated form of cancer. Now AP...
New LAUSD Supt. Supt. David L. Brewer has discovered what most of us knew — that things in his district are seriously awry. He releases a scathing 115-page report...
Tony Tranfa, web editor and jazz critic of the Daily Breeze, died today after collapsing in a hallway at Torrance Memorial, where he was admitted last week. �Tony�s death is...
Kurt Vonnegut died tonight in Manhattan, several weeks after suffering brain injuries in a fall. His wife, photographer Jill Krementz, confirmed the news for the Times. Elaine Woo's obituary calls...
Ariel Hanrath-Clark died with his father, producer Bob Clark, in last week's head-on crash with an unlicensed, undocumented suspected drunk driver on Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades. The father...
Bit of new formatting in today's Buzz. Check it out after the jump......
Petersen was a giant figure in Southern California car culture and created a large magazine and book empire, Petersen Publishing. He grew up around his dad's garage and in 1947,...
There will be a public funeral for Cathy Seipp at 10 am on Friday at Mt. Sinai Hollywood Hills on Forest Lawn Drive. Denise Hamilton at Native Intelligence: "It�s hard...
Cathy Seipp's public battle with lung cancer ended at 2:05 this afternoon. She was surrounded by family members and friends when she died at Cedars-Sinai. The Times' online obituary quotes...
First cut on Saturday afternoon...plus Sunday updates at the bottom. Richard Alarcon resigned from the Assembly in time to allow the special election to fill his vacancy to be held...
Mosey in for a look by clicking below......
Edgar Baitzel died Sunday of cancer. He joined LA Opera in 2001 and became Chief Operating Officer in February 2006. Placido Domingo, the opera company's general director, says in a...
Standup comedian Richard Jeni was found gravely injured from a gunshot wound Saturday morning inside his West Hollywood apartment. He died soon after at the hospital. His girlfriend told police...
Jim Beardsley, a local historian who is the archivist at Marymount High School, stopped by the old Marineland site on Palos Verdes Peninsula and found the demolition and clearing...
Latest L.A. city election results are here. In early results, Richard Alarcon was winning his race to rejoin the City Council and Mayor Villaraigosa was getting a split decision on...
Would you believe it's election day again? Los Angeles and some surrounding cities will vote. Go ahead, try it for a change — in L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa has relaxed parking...
Dennis Johnson grew up in Compton and played basketball for Pepperdine before winning NBA championships with the Seattle Supersonics and Boston Celtics. He collapsed today at a practice in Austin,...
Good day of items, including a new concept at county jail — those who are sentenced to 90 days have to stay more than a few hours. Click below for...
The Texas-based political humorist and syndicated columnist died Wednesday in Austin after a long and sometimes public battle with cancer. Ivins' death was announced by the Texas Observer, where she...
Sidney Sheldon had won a screenwriting Oscar (The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer), a Tony ("Redhead") and created TV sitcoms ("I Dream of Jeannie" and "Patty Duke") before beginning to write...
Bob Carroll Jr. worked with writing partner Madelyn Pugh Davis for more than 60 years, including on all the television series that Lucille Ball starred in. Carroll and and Pugh...
Later in life, Daniel Finegood became a husband, father, art lover and longtime member of the board of the Oakwood School. But on January 1, 1976, the Cal State Northridge...
The best-selling mystery author from Laguna Beach died yesterday in Cleveland while awaiting a liver transplant. She had received two livers in 2005 and spent much time since at USC's...
Doherty (next to Mama Cass at this 1966 performance in L.A.) was one quarter of the 1960s hitmakers the Mamas and Papas. His death today of kidney disease near Toronto...
Syndicated columnist Art Buchwald, who died last night, taped his own "obituary video" for the New York Times. It's up on the front page of their site and includes the...
Twice Updated: Eli Broad and Ron Burkle and the Chandlers are readying competing bids for all or part of the Tribune, Jim Rainey reports in the LAT He essentially confirms...
Government, schools, most banks and the U.S. Postal Service are closed for the Martin Luther King holiday. News, of course, continues. A scaled back but still pretty rich Morning Buzz...
Let's see — some more details on City Hall's alleged Red Light Bandits, reports from the jam-packed Dowie-Stodder sentencing hearing, a KNX anchor returns and a couple of L.A. obituaries....
Can't remember the last time we posted so much on the weekend, including Mark Lacter's exclusive memo from LAT publisher David Hiller on rethinking the Times website. The menu for...
Mayor Villaraigosa picks up another tribute from People en espa�ol, a strange phone call to Channel 2 about Jim Lampley's arrest, Pellicano's day in court and a flock of other...
Obituaries come in three varieties on LA Observed. Either the death is big news with a SoCal connection, the deceased is prominent in the fields that the site obsesses about,...
Ron Fineman lost his battle with colon cancer today. The founder of the television news website Ron Fineman's On the Record was taken off his respirator Dec. 21 and told...
Former president Gerald Ford died today, Betty Ford announced. No location was given, but the Fords were residing in Rancho Mirage on the desert near Palm Springs. Ford lived to...
James Brown died early Christmas Day in Atlanta after being admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. The Hardest Working Man in Show Business made one of his many comebacks from...
Warner Bros sends word that animation legend Joseph Barbera died today at home in Studio City. He and partner William Hanna, who died in 2001, had worked together at MGM,...
The founder of Atlantic Records died today in New York. Ertegun fell at an Oct. 29 concert by the Rolling Stones and later slipped into a coma. He will be...
Stromme died yesterday of cancer at the age of 59. She wrote the Echo Park novel Joe's Word and the Underground Gardener column for the old L.A. Alternative Press. Just...
The talker item around here yesterday was definitely 99-tuba salute, my post on Hollywood studio musician Tommy Johnson from Bill Booth's story in the Washington Post. Yesterday afternoon, NPR's "All...
Lippin had co-managed Brian Wilson and had been a PR rep for, among others, Prince, Eric Clapton and Stephen Stills. The Lippin Group, where she was president, said that she...
Bebe Moore Campbell, a best-selling novelist "known for her empathetic treatment of the difficult, intertwined and occasionally surprising relationship between the races," has died at home in Los Angeles, the...
The director died last night in an undisclosed Los Angeles hospital. His production company hasn't yet released the cause of death. Altman directed critical favorites such as M-A-S-H, Nashville, The...
Longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley died today of complications from leukemia. The first black White House correspondent for CBS News, he reported on the network's Sunday night news franchise...
Colen reviewed restaurants for Los Angeles magazine for 21 years during the era when the city and figures like Wolfgang Puck emerged as culinary forces. He also had been an...
Friday's Times carries the obit on the paper's long-time and respected classical music reviewer, Daniel Cariaga, who died on Wednesday at age 71. His life path was not typical of...
The three-year veteran was killed Sunday morning during a routine traffic accident investigation at Riverside Drive and Hyperion Avenue. He was in the street when struck by a car traveling...
Ralph Story was a big deal on local television in the 1960s and 70s. He was the features reporter for "The Big News" on Channel 2 when the hour-long news...
John Meroney writes at the National Review Online that Brewer, who died Saturday, "never ran a movie studio or directed a picture, [but] for about a decade he had as...
The California Clean Money Campaign emailed supporters last night that co-founder and chairman Ted Williams died yesterday morning.. Funeral services will be Thursday at Mt. Sinai. An excerpt of the...
The Wave reports that the civil rights attorney and former police commissioner died last night when her car plummeted down a slope near her home in the Hollywood Hills. Lomax...
Hollywood lost another stalwart today. Actor Glenn Ford was found dead by paramedics called to his Beverly Hills home about 4 pm. Ford lived with his son Peter and his...
Raphael died in her sleep last Saturday in a hospice in Palm Desert, following what Todd Everett calls "a long and excruciating illness." She was a contributor in the early...
The Nguoi Viet Daily News in Orange County is the largest Vietnamese daily newspaper in the nation. Do started the paper in his Garden Grove garage as a four-page weekly...
The Los Angeles Daily Journal columnist died over the weekend after an eight-year battle with prostate cancer. He had previously worked as a feature writer at the Los Angeles Times....
An eagle-eyed (female) reader with a sense of Los Angeles history spotted a paid obit in the Times for Big John Mazmanian, a legend of Southern California car culture. (No...
Buttons began in burlesque, had his own TV show in the early 1950s and won a supporting actor Academy Award for the 1957 film Sayonara, which starred Marlon Brando. His...
Legendary television producer Aaron Spelling died this evening, five days after suffering a stroke. His wife Candy and son Randy were at his side, according to publicist Kevin Sasaki. Spelling's...
Two items: Josiah Beeman, the former aide to San Francisco politicians and Ambassador to New Zealand and Western Samoa for President Clinton, died at age 70. He ran three Jerry...
The Getty looks like it's ready to give back some disputed art to make the museum's Italian problem go away. Plus Antonio Villaraigosa, Jerry Perenchio and two local media obits...
Paul Gleason became an actor after watching Splendor in the Grass with Jack Kerouac. Sixty-some films later, plus Broadway and roles on "Seinfeld," "Friends" and dozens of other TV shows,...
Nice LAT obituary today on the entrepreneur who painted the giant Felix Chevrolet sign downtown and who also came up with the KFC bucket and the Winchell's Donut and Denny's...
From BillboardBiz.com via the Hollywood Reporter: One of the most colorful careers in music came to a close today as pioneering booking agent Ian Copeland died in Los Angeles of...
The founder, editor and publisher of The Argonaut—a useful and newsy community weekly centered in Marina del Rey—died yesterday at age 68. He had suffered from a rare blood disorder....
Does Anthony Pellicano want to bump off his former crony Alexander Proctor? The feds say yes. Dowie loses a round in court (but not that round), a City Hall communications...
Watching Antonio squirm—Dowie and Stodder too, and Dodgers fans, and the art experts at Cal State Northridge who OK'd some suspect Chinese antiquities. Plus a big win for the Mighty...
Antonio Villaraigosa's dapperness and his politics are in the news, as are Rocky Delgadillo's ambition, Michaela Pereira's sensitivity, Vanity Fair's accuracy and Fleishman-Hillard's billing practices. More when you turn the...
Former LAPD chief Ed Davis died tonight in San Luis Obispo after suffering a bout of pneumonia. He took over the department in 1969 when Tom Reddin stepped down to...
Media reaction to the Hiltzik blog disclosure, a city budget with money for more cops, some awards, some obits and General Zinni is in town. Much more after the jump......
Antonio plans to impose a trash fee as the build-up to The Big Speech continues...Monique Moret names names in the Fleishman-Hillard trial: recognizable names...plus racism in the LAFD, black market...
Caspar Weinberger, the former California legislator who served in the Cabinet for Presidents Nixon and Reagan, died at age 88. As Secretary of Defense for Reagan, he presided over the...
There were probably some good stories swapped tonight wherever politicos and journalists gather from Sacramento to Washington. Lyn Nofziger, the Copley reporter who became Ronald Reagan's spokesman and chief quipster—"irreverent...
♦ Saturday's downtown protest march against the Sensenbrenner bill to criminalize giving aid or jobs to illegal immigrants was really big. The LAPD, usually conservative on these things, estimated the crowd...
City News Service is reporting that Sam Chu Lin, a former CBS News correspondent who reported most recently for Fox 11, died Sunday in Burbank. Chu Lin began reporting in...
No obvious Los Angeles angle that I can think of, other than the delight that he gave to local baseball fans. Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett died today of the...
What is it the last couple of days? Add actor Dennis Weaver to the list of newly passed. Also, John Rabe did a piece today on KPCC about Eddie (Zachary...
The last family publisher of the Los Angeles Times died this morning at home in Ojai at age 78. Otis Chandler had suffered from a degenerative condition known as Lewy...
Author Steven Barnes is reporting on his blog (picked up by Boing Boing, where Cory Doctorow calls the news confirmed) that Octavia Butler has died in Seattle following a fall...
Eagle-eyed reader Doug Thomson spotted the paid obituary in Saturday's Los Angeles Times for Edward G. Nalbandian, better known as Eddie in TV commercials for his clothing store Zachary All....
The longtime comic actor, who lived here in West Los Angeles, died of lung cancer yesterday at UCLA. Knotts was best known as Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith...
Kyle Ballard was jogging with other Pasadena PD officers at the Rose Bowl Friday morning when he collapsed. The Pasadena Weekly has posted a web story saying that paramedics on...
I had not heard of Willie Grace Campbell until Karen Wada profiled her in Los Angeles Magazine in 2004, writing that she "has changed American politics, one cup of tea...
Playwright Wendy Wasserstein succumbed to cancer today in New York. "The Heidi Chronicles" won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony for best play in 1989. Her other works...
Some of you might remember last month's item about Peter Ladefoged inspiring the rare addition of an African sound—the labiodental flap—to the International Phonetic Alphabet. Professor Ladegofed died Tuesday in...
Fayard Nicholas, the Tony Award winner and Kennedy Center honoree who was half of the groundbreaking Nicholas Brothers tap dance team, died Tuesday at home in Burbank. Fayard and his...
The actor and younger brother of Sean Penn was discovered about 4 pm in his Ocean Avenue condo. Police aren't making any suggestions of foul play. Chris Penn's film credits...
Larry Davis, one of the L.A. Times' top photographers until he left on a buyout in 1995, killed himself in Seattle yesterday. His wife had died of cancer two years...
Rawls died of cancer this morning at Cedars, the LAT says. He had left Fremont Place for Scottsdale, Ariz in 2003. From the early Times obit: "After moving to Los...
The Trojans' baseball coach for forty-five years died today in Glendale from complications of a stroke. Born Raoul Martial Dedeaux, he coached at least sixty USC players who went to...
The LAT was right on top of this local obituary. Saxophone-playing, small-government maverick Ernani Bernardi died yesterday. He served eight terms from his beloved Van Nuys before leaving the city...
Judging by my email today, the L.A. Times' failure to get together an obit on Frank Wilkinson (while the New York Times did recognize his historic significance to Los Angeles...
Veteran actor John Spencer died today of a heart attack in a Los Angeles hospital. He plays Leo McGarry, the former White House chief of staff and current VP candidate...
Bill Robertson, the retired L.A. County Federation of Labor chief, was 89 and suffered from Alzheimer's: "...onetime bartender and bouncer who rose to become a major labor leader and power...
Services for former Los Angeles city councilman Marvin Braude will be held Monday at 11 am at University Synagogue on Sunset. Braude represented the Westside for thirty-two years. Statements released...
Gawker posts this regarding the weekend death of Brenda You, a freelance writer who had the unusual profile of having been a Playboy model, a protege of Bonnie Fuller at...
The "father of modern management" was a professor at Claremont Graduate University from 1971 to 2003. From the L.A. Times obituary: Drucker was called "the man who invented management," but...
Dennis B. Underwood, the CEO and general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California since April, passed away at age 60 after battling cancer. He was a nationally...
Mayor Villaraigosa scooped the local media with a statement on the passing of former councilman and congressman Edward Roybal. He was 89 and is the father of Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard....
Rosa Parks died today at home in Detroit at age 92. In Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, the granddaughter of slaves refused to give up her seat on a city bus...
Kennedy was a producer and writer for KCBS and KCET and started the program "Life & Times" at the latter station. He died Oct. 5 in Palo Alto of liver...
Don Adams, Agent 86 on the "Get Smart" TV show created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry in 1965, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai. He was 82 and had been ill...
Gail Diane Cox used to be the Los Angeles bureau chief for the National Law Journal. She also had worked for KPFK, and was living in Forest Falls in the...
Shanghai-born Esther Wong began booking punk and new wave bands into her Polynesian-themed Chinatown club in 1978, hoping to increase the meager crowds. It worked. Between there and Madame Wong's...
Erwin Baker used to be the Times' City Council reporter and by virtue of longevity was crowned the "dean of City Hall reporters" before that dubious label fell to either...
David Shaw won the Pulitzer prize for his media reporting in the L.A. Times. He died tonight of complications from a brain tumor that was first discovered in May. His...
The only screenwriter to receive an honorary Oscar died on Saturday at age 89. The news didn't get out until today. The Writers Guild website's obituary calls Lehman "one of...
The office of state Assemblyman Mike Gordon announced that he died today from the brain tumor that was diagnosed in February, shortly after he took office. Gordon was from El...
Obits are praising the accomplishments of Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1978-84. "We have lost one of the greatest musicians of our...
O'Leary, a former nun, ran the political consulting firm O'Leary and Associates in Los Angeles and served twelve years on the Democratic National Committee. She died of lung cancer in...
Organized labor's most influential Los Angeles leader apparently suffered a fatal heart attack late Friday. Contreras suffered from type 2 diabetes; most media sources put his age at 52, but...
Some of you might remember last year's exchanges in the old comments section here about Michel Thomas. He was the language teacher to the stars who claimed a number of...
From Rolling Stone's website this afternoon: Rock & roll manager and writer Danny Sugerman, best known as the manager of the Doors and the co-author of the best-selling Jim Morrison...
Sontag died today [Tuesday] of leukemia at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The L.A. Times online obituary by her good friend, Book Editor Steve Wasserman, calls Sontag...
The editor-in-chief in 1989 when the Herald Examiner folded died this week of cancer at age 76. His career included stints as managing editor of Chicago Today and the Chicago...
The Times' society editor for 14 years (1971-1985) chronicled the days when the Chandler family reigned over Hancock Park and the prominent names in Los Angeles society included the Reagans...
The dance pioneer suffered a stroke Tuesday and died in a Pasadena nursing facility yesterday. Born here, she formed her famous dance company in 1966. Her presence in the Los...
The founder of Gold's Gym, an L.A. institution of sorts since its founding in Venice in 1965, died over the weekend. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who worked out at Gold's when he...
My favorite obituaries are of people I never heard of but wished I had. Claudia Luther did a nice job in the Times today with Edna Lillich Davidson, who hosted...
Will Fowler was the first reporter on the scene of the Black Dahlia murder and kept a bottle of whiskey in his desk drawer at the Examiner, and also quit...
Architect Pierre Koenig died Sunday at his home in Brentwood. His Case Study houses #21 and #22 helped put Koenig among the elite modernist architects who gave Southern California a...
The former editor and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai after complications from intestinal surgery, the paper reports today. She had suffered from Parkinson's disease for...
Associate Editor Frank del Olmo suffered an apparent heart attack in the L.A. Times offices this morning and has died. Frank had been a member of the staff for more...
New: L.A. Times obituary by Bob Drogin Mark Fineman, one of the L.A. Times staff writers in Iraq, died this morning of an apparent heart attack suffered in Baghdad. He...
The Fairfax High dropout narrated Los Angeles in his music. He revealed last year that he had inoperable lung cancer, then completed a new album, The Wind, before he died...
Freddie Blassie entertained Los Angeles as the most hated villain of local "professional" wrestling in the 1950s and 60s, when wrestling and roller derby were first hugely popular on television....
Robinson had been the managing editor at KCBS-TV Channel 2 in the early 1990s and had also worked at KTTV/FOX-TV Channel 11. He won eight Emmy awards during a 22-year...