Recent Deaths
Re: Recent Deaths
J. Craig Venter, Scientist Who Decoded the Human Genome, Dies at 79
A risk-taking outsider, he brought speed, competition and controversy to one of science’s biggest races.
Updated May 1, 2026
J. Craig Venter, a scientist and entrepreneur who raced to decode the human genome, died on Wednesday in San Diego. He was 79.
His death was announced by the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit research organization founded by Dr. Venter and based in San Diego and Rockville, Md. The institute said in a statement that Dr. Venter had been hospitalized recently for side effects from cancer treatment.
In the 1990s, Dr. Venter, a risk taker and intense competitor, made a bold move when he decided that the Human Genome Project, a $3 billion government program for decoding the human genome, was moving slowly enough that he could enter the race late and beat it with a much faster method.
His gamble paid off. In 2000, his company, Celera, made a joint announcement with a rival group saying that they had assembled the first human genomes, a landmark step toward uncovering the genetic basis of human disease and origins.
Dr. Venter had a powerful ego. That was clear when he let slip that the anonymous donor whose genome Celera had sequenced was none other than his own.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/scie ... -dead.html
A risk-taking outsider, he brought speed, competition and controversy to one of science’s biggest races.
Updated May 1, 2026
J. Craig Venter, a scientist and entrepreneur who raced to decode the human genome, died on Wednesday in San Diego. He was 79.
His death was announced by the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit research organization founded by Dr. Venter and based in San Diego and Rockville, Md. The institute said in a statement that Dr. Venter had been hospitalized recently for side effects from cancer treatment.
In the 1990s, Dr. Venter, a risk taker and intense competitor, made a bold move when he decided that the Human Genome Project, a $3 billion government program for decoding the human genome, was moving slowly enough that he could enter the race late and beat it with a much faster method.
His gamble paid off. In 2000, his company, Celera, made a joint announcement with a rival group saying that they had assembled the first human genomes, a landmark step toward uncovering the genetic basis of human disease and origins.
Dr. Venter had a powerful ego. That was clear when he let slip that the anonymous donor whose genome Celera had sequenced was none other than his own.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/scie ... -dead.html
Re: Recent Deaths
CNN Founder Ted Turner, a Pioneer of Cable TV News, Dies at 87
By Brian Stelter and Ann O’Neill
Updated May 6, 2026
Introduction:
By Brian Stelter and Ann O’Neill
Updated May 6, 2026
Introduction:
Read more here (12 minute read): https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death(CNN) Ted Turner, the media maverick and philanthropist who founded CNN, a pioneering 24-hour network that revolutionized television news, died peacefully Wednesday, surrounded by his family, according to a news release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.
The Ohio-born Atlanta businessman, nicknamed “The Mouth of the South” for his outspoken nature, built a media empire that encompassed cable’s first superstation and popular channels for movies and cartoons, plus professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves.
Turner was also an internationally known yachtsman; a philanthropist who founded the United Nations Foundation; an activist who sought the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons; and a conservationist who became one of the foremost landowners in the United States. He played a crucial role in reintroducing bison to the American west. He even created the Captain Planet cartoon to educate kids about the environment.
But it was his audacious vision to deliver news from around the world in real time, at all hours, that really made him famous – once his idea finally took off.
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill
Re: Recent Deaths
Artist David Hockney dies aged 88
12 June 2026
— David Hockney has died at the age of 88, his publicist says
— He passed away at home on Thursday, she says, "one month short of his 89th birthday"
— The British artist is one of the most influential of the modern era and was one of the leaders of the 1960s pop art movement
— In 2018, one of his swimming pool paintings sold for nearly £70 million at auction - a record for a living artist
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4gye2zk29zt
12 June 2026
— David Hockney has died at the age of 88, his publicist says
— He passed away at home on Thursday, she says, "one month short of his 89th birthday"
— The British artist is one of the most influential of the modern era and was one of the leaders of the 1960s pop art movement
— In 2018, one of his swimming pool paintings sold for nearly £70 million at auction - a record for a living artist
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4gye2zk29zt
Re: Recent Deaths
Actress Daveigh Chase Dead at 35 ... Starred in 'The Ring,' Voiced Lilo in 'Lilo & Stitch'
June 17, 2026 7:17 PM PDT
Daveigh Chase -- the former child actress -- is dead ... TMZ has learned.
The actress' boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, tells TMZ ... Daveigh died Tuesday from meningitis and an infection in her blood, which caused her to have septic issues and led to her body shutting down.
We're told Daveigh had been admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles earlier this month because of malnutrition.
Daveigh caught her big break in Hollywood early on ... voicing Lilo in the hit Disney film "Lilo & Stitch" back in 2002 and the follow-up TV show. She also voiced Chihiro Ogino in the American dub of "Spirited Away."
Horror movie fans will recognize her from her haunting performance as Samara Morgan ... the main antagonist in the hit 2002 film "The Ring" ... for which she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.
https://www.tmz.com/2026/06/17/daveigh-chase-dead/
June 17, 2026 7:17 PM PDT
Daveigh Chase -- the former child actress -- is dead ... TMZ has learned.
The actress' boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, tells TMZ ... Daveigh died Tuesday from meningitis and an infection in her blood, which caused her to have septic issues and led to her body shutting down.
We're told Daveigh had been admitted to a hospital in Los Angeles earlier this month because of malnutrition.
Daveigh caught her big break in Hollywood early on ... voicing Lilo in the hit Disney film "Lilo & Stitch" back in 2002 and the follow-up TV show. She also voiced Chihiro Ogino in the American dub of "Spirited Away."
Horror movie fans will recognize her from her haunting performance as Samara Morgan ... the main antagonist in the hit 2002 film "The Ring" ... for which she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.
https://www.tmz.com/2026/06/17/daveigh-chase-dead/
Re: Recent Deaths
R.I.P. Alan Greenspan: You Were Charming, Thoughtful, Powerful, and Wrong
By Robert Reich
June 22, 2026
Introduction:
By Robert Reich
June 22, 2026
Introduction:
Read more here: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/rip ... eenspanFriends,
Alan Greenspan has died at the age of 100.
My students don’t recognize his name but you probably do. When he was chairman of the Federal Reserve — for more than 18 years, from August 11, 1987 to January 31, 2006 — he not only ran the U.S. (and most of the world’s) economy but was also in many ways the most powerful person in America.
He maintained an iron grip over the Fed, and almost single-handedly decided on interest rates. But that was just the start of his power. He essentially fired George H. W. Bush by raising interest rates so high (ostensibly to ward off the inflation then threatening the economy) that the economy took a dive, and voters blamed Bush.
This was enough to convince my boss, Bill Clinton, to do exactly what Greenspan wanted — which was to reduce the federal budget deficit and thereby destroy much of the agenda Clinton ran on (and I helped create). As I wrote in my memoir of those years, Locked in the Cabinet, “Greenspan has the most important grip in town: Bill’s balls, in the palm of his hand."
Read more here (or watch the relevant video): https://www.democracynow.org/2007/9/24/ ... i_klein_onThat time Amy Goodman and I (Naomi Klein) interviewed Alan Greenspan about the failure of trickle down economics, his role creating the 2008 financial collapse and the oligarch class, as well as his support for the invasion of Iraq and of shock therapy in Russia. He was mad.
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill
-Joe Hill
Re: Recent Deaths
Michael Byrne, ‘Indiana Jones’ And ‘Harry Potter’ Actor, Dies At 82
Jun 30, 2026, 02:13pm EDT
Michael Byrne, a prolific British actor who played Nazi Col. Ernst Vogel in the 1989 Harrison Ford classic Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Gellert Grindelwald in 2010’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I, has died.
Bryne died on June 20, according to UK’s The Guardian. He was 82. His cause of death was not given.
A star of stage and screen, Byrne’s other film roles over the years included turns in Mel Gibson’s Best Picture Oscar winner Braveheart (1995), the Pierce Brosnan James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002) and The Sum of All Fears (2002), which starred Ben Affleck as the Tom Clancy hero Jack Ryan.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers ... ies-at-82/
Jun 30, 2026, 02:13pm EDT
Michael Byrne, a prolific British actor who played Nazi Col. Ernst Vogel in the 1989 Harrison Ford classic Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Gellert Grindelwald in 2010’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I, has died.
Bryne died on June 20, according to UK’s The Guardian. He was 82. His cause of death was not given.
A star of stage and screen, Byrne’s other film roles over the years included turns in Mel Gibson’s Best Picture Oscar winner Braveheart (1995), the Pierce Brosnan James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002) and The Sum of All Fears (2002), which starred Ben Affleck as the Tom Clancy hero Jack Ryan.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers ... ies-at-82/
Re: Recent Deaths
Bonnie Tyler, singer of Total Eclipse of the Heart, dies aged 75
Singer Bonnie Tyler - known for a series of hits in the 1970s and 80s, including Total Eclipse of the Heart - has died at the age of 75
A statement on her website says she died "unexpectedly" last night in a Portuguese hopsital "as a result of the illness that she was being treated for"
Total Eclipse of the Heart was her biggest hit, writes Mark Savage - but after a string of flops, it almost didn't happen
The song passed a billion streams on Spotify earlier this year. As it was written by someone else, Tyler said she earned "just about nothing" from it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9326rq1509t
Singer Bonnie Tyler - known for a series of hits in the 1970s and 80s, including Total Eclipse of the Heart - has died at the age of 75
A statement on her website says she died "unexpectedly" last night in a Portuguese hopsital "as a result of the illness that she was being treated for"
Total Eclipse of the Heart was her biggest hit, writes Mark Savage - but after a string of flops, it almost didn't happen
The song passed a billion streams on Spotify earlier this year. As it was written by someone else, Tyler said she earned "just about nothing" from it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9326rq1509t
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Re: Recent Deaths
Ann Widdecombe killing was 'targeted attack' - Counter Terrorism Policing
16:09
Breaking
The killing of Ann Widdecombe was a "targeted attack” and detectives are still working to understand the motive, counter terrorism police say.
Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, gave an update on the Ann Widdecombe investigation at New Scotland Yard this afternoon.
He said there is a “limit” to the details he can provide given it is a live murder investigation but “it is clear this was a targeted attack”.
He added: "We are working to understand the planning and preparation and the motivation that sits behind the attack".
He said detectives have obtained a warrant of further detention and can now hold the suspect for up to seven days under the Terrorism Act.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c05y579 ... 1ca66#post
16:09
Breaking
The killing of Ann Widdecombe was a "targeted attack” and detectives are still working to understand the motive, counter terrorism police say.
Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, gave an update on the Ann Widdecombe investigation at New Scotland Yard this afternoon.
He said there is a “limit” to the details he can provide given it is a live murder investigation but “it is clear this was a targeted attack”.
He added: "We are working to understand the planning and preparation and the motivation that sits behind the attack".
He said detectives have obtained a warrant of further detention and can now hold the suspect for up to seven days under the Terrorism Act.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c05y579 ... 1ca66#post
Re: Recent Deaths
I haven't watched Neighbours on a regular basis since about the year 2000, but I remember his character (Doug Willis).
I didn't know he was Jason Donovan's father.
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Neighbours actor Terence Donovan dies aged 90
5 hours ago
British-Australian actor Terence Donovan - known for his roles on Neighbours and Home and Away - has died aged 90, his family has said.
His son, the actor Jason Donovan, confirmed his father died peacefully in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday night.
"Our Dad was a huge character, larger than life. He was our best friend ... our world! We will desperately miss him but we take comfort knowing we were all here by his side in his final days," the post said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmrznw82j4o
I didn't know he was Jason Donovan's father.
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Neighbours actor Terence Donovan dies aged 90
5 hours ago
British-Australian actor Terence Donovan - known for his roles on Neighbours and Home and Away - has died aged 90, his family has said.
His son, the actor Jason Donovan, confirmed his father died peacefully in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday night.
"Our Dad was a huge character, larger than life. He was our best friend ... our world! We will desperately miss him but we take comfort knowing we were all here by his side in his final days," the post said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmrznw82j4o