Albert S Ruddy, a colourful, Canadian-born producer and writer who won Oscars for The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, developed the raucous prison-sports comedy The Longest Yard and helped create the hit sitcom Hogan's Heroes, has died at age 94.
Ruddy died "peacefully" Saturday at the UCLA Medical Center, according to a spokesperson, who added that among his final words were, "The game is over, but we won the game."
Tall and muscular, with a raspy voice and a city kid's swagger, Ruddy produced more than 30 movies and was on hand for the very top and very bottom, from The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby to Cannonball Run II and Megaforce, nominees for Golden Raspberry awards for worst movie of the year.
Born in Montreal in 1930, Albert Stotland Ruddy moved to the US as a child and was raised in New York City. After graduating from the University of Southern California, he was working as an architect when he met TV actor Bernard Fein in the early 1960s.
The two developed Hogan's Heroes together before Ruddy pivoted to film.
During production of The Godfather, Ruddy personally undertook the studio's diplomatic overtures to organised crime, who were furious about the production. He ultimately received approval from underworld boss Joe Colombo after agreeing to remove the word "mafia" from the film.
Ruddy was married to Wanda McDaniel, a sales executive and liaison for Giorgio Armani who helped make the brand omnipresent in Hollywood, whether in movies or at promotional events. They had two children.
Arthur L. Irving, one of Canada's richest people and the son of Canadian industrialist KC Irving, has died at the age of 93 after a life spent growing the oil business his father founded.
Irving Oil has announced Arthur's death in a statement, saying he died on Monday, May 13 while with his wife Sandra, and daughter Sarah.
Forbes Magazine listed Arthur Irving as being among the top 10 richest Canadians in 2023.
At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of US$6.4 billion ($9.7 billion), which includes a refinery in New Brunswick that is Canada's largest, along with the Whitegate refinery in Ireland.
Bestselling UK author CJ Sansom has died aged 71 after a years-long battle with cancer.
Sansom is best known for his historical crime novels featuring the Tudor-era lawyer and investigator Matthew Shardlake, of which seven have been published.
"An intensely private person, Chris wished from the very start only to be published quietly and without fanfare," his editor and publisher, Maria Rejt, said.
"But he always took immense pleasure in the public's enthusiastic responses to his novels and worked tirelessly on each book, never wanting to disappoint a single reader."
Sansom was born in 1952 in Edinburgh. He had a doctorate in history and trained as a solicitor before becoming a full-time writer.
In 2022 he won the Crime Writers' Association's Diamond Dagger Award for his outstanding contribution to the genre. The association called him the "modern master of the historical thriller, regardless of periods".
Sansom's death comes just days before the May premiere of a Disney+ television adaptation of his first Shardlake novel, Dissolution. Titled Shardlake, the show stars Arthur Hughes as the eponymous lawyer, and Sean Bean as historical figure Thomas Cromwell.
Former Australian rugby league international Terry Hill died from a sudden heart attack at the age of 52 on April 24.
In a career that ran from 1990 to 2003, Hill played 246 first-grade games for Manly, South Sydney, Easts, and the Wests Tigers.
He also represented both his state and country, playing in 14 State of Origin matches for NSW and nine Tests for Australia.
After retiring, Hill continued to be one of the game's more prominent colourful characters, starring in The Footy Show on Channel Nine.
Hill is understood to have suffered a massive heart attack in the Philippines while raising money for an orphanage.
Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the so-called "God particle" that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, died at the age of 94, on April 8.
The University of Edinburgh in Scotland,, where Higgs was emeritus professor, said he "peacefully at home following a short illness."
Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle — the so-called Higgs boson — in 1964. But it would be almost 50 years before the particle's existence could be confirmed at the Large Hadron Collider.
Higgs' theory related to how subatomic particles that are the building blocks of matter get their mass. This theoretical understanding is a central part of the so-called Standard Model, which describes the physics of how the world is constructed.
He won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work, alongside Francois Englert of Belgium, who independently came up with the same theory.
Playwright Christopher Durang, a master of satire and black comedy who won a Tony Award for "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist with "Miss Witherspoon," has died. He was 75.
Durang died Tuesday at his home in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, of complications from logopenic primary progressive aphasia, said his agent, Patrick Herold. In 2022, it was revealed Durang had been diagnosed in 2016 with the disorder, a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.
"Durang was not only a giant in our field, but a guiding light whose daring works illuminated the stage with brilliance and wit," the Dramatists Guild said in a statement.
Durang's plays were infused with a smart, high-octane sense of absurdism. His works include "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You," ″Baby with the Bathwater," ″The Marriage of Bette and Boo," "Betty's Summer Vacation" and ″Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge."
Zong Qinghou, the founder of China's drinks giant Hangzhou Wahaha Group, has died February 25 aged 79, according to a company statement.
Born to a poor family, he started off as a salesman before rising to become one of the country's largest beverage makers.
With a fortune of US$13.1 billion ($AUD20 billion), he ranked 31st on the Hurun Research Institute's China Rich List last year.
In September 2013, Zong captured media attention when he was attacked by a lone knife-wielding assailant.
The man allegedly targeted him after being rejected for a job opportunity.
Canadian actor Kenneth Mitchell who appeared in the series Star Trek: Discovery and Marvel's Captain Marvel, died on February 24 at the age of 49.
He died more than five years after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS.
Mitchell acquired more than 50 film and television credits over the course of his acting career.
He played the father of Carol Danvers in Marvel's 2019 Captain Marvel, and an Olympic hopeful in the 2004 hockey film Miracle.
Mitchell appeared in dozens of TV series, including The Astronaut Wives Club and Switched at Birth.
From 2017 to 2021, Mitchell played the Klingons Kol, Kol-Sha, and Tenavik, as well as Aurellio, in Star Trek: Discovery.
- Reported with CNN
Mike Procter, a fearsome pace bowler and powerful batter whose cricket career was restricted by an international ban on South Africa because of apartheid, died on February 17.
Procter was the first man to coach his country after the post-apartheid return to international cricket for South Africa.
He had been considered one of the most gifted players of his generation but was restricted to just seven test appearances — where he took 41 wickets at an average of just 15 — due to South Africa's political isolation.
Instead, he had the chance to showcase his abilities in English county cricket, where his exploits for Gloucestershire saw the club affectionately nicknamed "Proctershire" in his honour.
- AP
US country singer Toby Keith died in early February at the age of 62 after a battle with stomach cancer.
"Toby Keith passed peacefully last night on February 5, surrounded by his family. He fought his fight with grace and courage. Please respect the privacy of his family at this time," a statement posted to Keith's website and social media said.
He leaves behind his wife, Tricia, and three children, Shelley, Krystal and Stelen, his publicist told CNN. His mother and two siblings survive him.
Keith revealed his stomach cancer diagnosis in 2022.
He continued performing, recently playing shows in Las Vegas.
Keith released his debut album in 1993 and is known for hits including "Red Solo Cup" and "I Wanna Talk About Me." His 2002 song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," released in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, made him a household name.
Keith performed hundreds of shows for US service members abroad, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as at events for Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W Bush.
He sometimes gifted wounded veterans with wheelchairs at his concerts.
In 2021, then-President Trump awarded Keith the National Medal of Arts, which the National Endowment for the Arts describes as "the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government."
British actor Ian Lavender, centre, who played Private Pike in the hit television comedy series Dad's Army died on February 2.
Lavender's character was a dim-witted mother's boy in a unit of over-the-hill army veterans based on Britain's Home Guard formed during World War II.
The show enjoyed immense success during the 1970s and was broadcast across the world.
Lavender was the last surviving member of the main cast.
Disgraced Australian former detective and convicted murderer Roger Rogerson died aged 83 on January 21.
The former Sydney detective and killer cop died days after suffering a brain aneurysm in his cell at Long Bay prison in Sydney.
During a notorious career spanning decades, Rogerson lived a double life as a police officer and a deadly criminal.
Rogerson's career became a symbol of the corruption in the NSW police force during the 1970s and 1980s.
He was depicted in the 1995 television mini-series Blue Murder, with Richard Roxburgh the star as the crooked cop.
Welsh rugby legend JPR Williams has died at the age of 74, after a brief fight with bacterial meningitis.
The fullback made 55 appearances for his country and eight with the British & Irish Lions throughout the 1970s. He was regarded as an icon of Welsh rugby during his time, known for his distinctive sideburns, socks, and running style.
The British & Irish Lions described Williams as "one of the greatest ever Lions" and "a man who inspired so many".
His death was confirmed in a statement from his family on January 9.
A FIFA World Cup great who "inspired generations", West German national soccer team captain Franz Beckenbauer, died on January 7 aged 78.
Beckenbauer helped West Germany win the FIFA World Cup both as player and coach and became one of Germany's most beloved personalities with his easygoing charm.
Beckenbauer's passing was announced in a statement from his family on January 8.
The former Bayern Munich great, who became affectionately known as the "Kaiser" - or "Emperor" - had struggled with health problems in recent years.
Actor-singer David Soul, a 1970s heartthrob who co-starred as the blond half of the TV crime-fighting duo Starsky & Hutch and topped the music charts with the ballad Don't Give Up on Us, died at the age of 80 on January 4.
Soul portrayed detective Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson alongside dark-haired Paul Michael Glaser as detective David Starsky in Starsky & Hutch, which ran from 1975 to 1979 and grew so popular it spawned a line of children's toys.
He also had success as a singer, starting in 1976 with Don't Give Up on Us and followed with such hits as Silver Lady.
- AP
British actress Glynis Johns, best known for her role as the suffragette wife and mother in the 1964 Disney smash-hit Mary Poppins, died on January 4, 2024.
She was 100 years old.
Johns' longtime manager Mitch Clem said she died "peacefully" in Los Angeles at an assisted living home, where she's lived for the past several years.
Johns' career as a film, TV and stage actor spanned nearly nine decades, after starting out as a teenager in the 1930s.
In 1964, she starred alongside Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and David Tomlinson in Mary Poppins.
Johns played Mrs Banks, a vibrant and upbeat feminist character who sang "Sister Suffragette" in the Oscar-winning film.
"Her light shined very brightly for 100 years," her manager Clem said in his statement.
"She had a wit that could stop you in your tracks powered by a heart that loved deeply and purely."