Obituary - Current Affairs for March, 2016

Duke (born Anna Marie Patty Duke) who an Oscar for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker in 1963, has died aged 69. As well as a best supporting actress Oscar, Duke won an Emmy in 1980 for playing Helen Keller’s teacher in a TV movie version.

• She also started in the Patty Duke Show in the 1960s.
• She is the mother of actor Sean Astin who played Sam in the Lord of the Rings trilogy
• She has undergone a heart bypass in 2004 and died from sepsis of a ruptured intestine.

Ex State minister and MP Pusapagi Anand Gajapathi Raju has passed away at 65 and is survived by a wife and daughter. His younger brother Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju condoled his death. He was suffering from respiratory ailments.

Legendary Dutch football striker and coach, Johan Cryuff has died of lung cancer at the age of 68. Cry embodied Dutch total football which focuses on fluid play style involving ball possession and rapid massing, involving members in either attack or defence. He helped Alex Amsterdam win the European Cup three consecutive years from 1971 to 1973. He was also named European Footballer of the Year in 1971, 1973 and 1974. He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.

The ex prime minister of Denmark Anker Jorgensen passed away on March 20th 2016 in Copenhagen at the age of 93. He served as a PM of the country from 1972 to 1973 and from 1975 to 1982. In 1950, he became member of the trade unions. He has been two time PM of Denmark.

2 time Emmy Award winning actor Larry Drake who played Benny on LA Law has passed away at the age of 66 on 17th March 2016 in California. Drake was known for the portrayal of developmentally disabled Benny on the show LA Law from 1987 to 1994. He was also part of the movie version of the show released in 2002. Drake has also provided voice acting for Johnny Bravo’s Pops.

Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father’s legacy with his own music career and whose kidnapping as a young man added a bizarre chapter to his father’s legendary life, died on 16th March at the age 72. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. He was the middle child.

Meir Dagan, a former Israeli general and long-time director of its spy agency Mossad, has died at age 71. He carried put cover attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists and unleashed cyber-attacks, including the Stuxnet virus that delayed the Iranian nuclear program. He also opposed a military strike on Iran. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan, one of the best-known players of the instrument after the legendary Bismillah Khan, passed away in Kolkata following prolonged illness at 77 and is survived by his five sons, five daughters and a number of grandchildren. Ustad Khan was felicitated with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his musical contributions. He was from a well known family of Shehnai exponents from Banaras and also featured in AIR and Doordarshan.

He died on 12 March 2016. He was 92. A veteran in mathematical economics and especially game theory, he won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2012. He made fundamental contributions to economic theory and game theory and the Bondareva-Shapley theorem. This work introduced the notion of “balanced,” a key notion to this day for understanding when games have nonempty cores.Other than the Nobel, he won innumerable awards and honours that include John von Neumann Theory Prize and Golden Goose Award in 1981 and 2013 respectively.

Rock legend and keyboardist Keith Emerson is no more. He passed away at the age of 71 and was co founder of British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer considered one of the top keyboard players of his times. The British musician and composer born in Yorkshire in 1944 was also known for his role in The Nice formed in 1967.

Well known Brazilian percussionist and 8 time Grammy award winner Vasconcelos died of lung cancer in the northeastern city of Recife where he was born. He played the single-string percussion instrument known in Portuguese as the berimbao. He was also named Percussionist of the year for over a decade by Downbeat Magazine.

The producer who guided the transformation of the band has died on March 9th at the age of 90. George Martin, the Beatles’ urbane producer who quietly guided the band’s swift, historic transformation from rowdy club act to musical and cultural revolutionaries, has died, his management said Wednesday. He was 90. Martin was influential for albums of modern times “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Revolver,” “Rubber Soul,” “Abbey Road” elevating rock LPs from ways to cash in on hit singles to art forms, “concepts.” He won six Grammys and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1999. In 1996, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

American novelist Pat Conroy who penned the Oscar nominated Prince of Tides and The Great Santini has passed away due to pancreatic cancer at the age of 70. He was also known for many other interesting books like The Boo and Beach Music.

Born near Thrissur, Mani began his career as a mimicry artist before leaping into the film industry and Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films. He was a popular singer of folk songs and won the special jury award for his performance in the Malayalam movie Vasanthiyum Lekshmiyum Pinne Njanum at the 47th National Film awards in 2000.

Raymond Tomlinson, inventor of modern email and technological leader passed away at the age of 74. Email existed in limited form before Tomlinson discovered the multiple electronic messaging system in 1971 comprising a network of person to person email for the first time. Tomlinson sent the first email on the ARPANET system. He also chose the @ symbol to connect user name with destination address and is now used in modern parlance widely. The symbol has become so vital in modern culture that MoMA's Department of Architecture and Design added the symbol into its collection in 2010, with credits to Tomlinson.

Former actress and First Lady of the US, Ms. Nancy Reagan has died at the age of 94. She was one of the most well known and influential first ladies during her husband’s tenure as president during the 7 years from 1981 to 1989. Reagan was affectionally called Mommie by Ronald Reagan who died in 2004 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s.

Sangma died of a heart attack at the age of 68 on Friday, 4th March. The House for that day was adjourned in his memory. He was a 9 time member of the LS. A Speaker in the 11th Lok Sabha, he also held important portfolios in Union Government. He was the CM of Meghalaya from 1988 to 1990 and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly from 1990 to 1991. He was a Congress leader who became one of the founding members of the NCP. He was expelled in 2012 when he refused to accept the party decision to quit the race for Indian President. In 2013, he formed the National People’s Party.

Veteran All India Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh has passed away in March 2016 at the age of 93. He headed the Bengal Unit of the Forward Bloc for over 60 years. Bloc was founded by Netaji Subas Chandra Bose on 3rd May 1939. He played a key role in the formation of the first Left front government in West Bengal.

P. K. Nair, founder director of the National Film Archive of India, Pune has passed away at the age of 86. Parmesh Krishnan Nair archived several well known Indian films such as Raja Harishchandra, Kalliya Mardan, Jeevan Naiya, Bandhan, Kalpana and Kismet. He started his career as a research assistant in FTII Pune and was appointed assistant curator of NFAI in 1965. He continued tilt 1990s and retired as NFAI director.

Khoman who helped build country’s close relations with the US at the time of the Vietnam war passed away at age 101. His death was attributed to natural causes. He is associated with the Rusk Thanat communique issued in 1962 with the then US Secretary of State Dean Rusk. the communique pledged that US would come to Thailand’s rescue in the event of any aggression. Khoman is also the major force behind the 1967 ASEAN grouping.

Martin Crowe, a former New Zealand captain has passed away due to cancer on March 3rd, 2016. He died at the age of 53 from cancer of the immune system or lymphoma. The Kiwi batsman is regarded as a cricketing legend and was named a Wisden Cricketer in 1985.

Tony Warren, creator of the longest running soap opera Coronation Street passed away following a short illness at the age of 79. He created the soap opera based in Greater Manchester. Born in the 1930s as Antony McVay Tony Simpson, he was also an actor and novelist. In 1994, he was awarded an MBE.

Oscar winning actor George Kennedy who won the award for the movie Cool Hand Luke has died on 28th February 2016 at the age of 91. He won the Oscar in 1968 as Best Supporting Actor for portraying a chain gang convict in the movie which won 4 Academy Award nominations. Other films he has been featured in include Airport, Don’t Come Knocking and Death on the Nile.

Nihal Ahmed Maulavi Mohammed Usman , Socialist leader of Maharashtra has passed away on 29th February 2016 at Nashik at the age of 90. Popularly known as Nihalbhai, he was the first mayor of Malegaon Municipal Corporation. He is also state president of Janata Dal Secular and was former minister of technical and higher education of Maharashtra. He was a State Assembly legislator for 3 decades and associated with veteran socialist leaders like VP Singh and Deve Gowda.

The actor passed away on 28th February 2016 at the age of 77. He served in politics as the celebrity face of Karunanidhi headed DMK party. He debuted in the field of acting in 1978. He has acted in more than 500 films in Kollywood and finished a variety of roles through humorous acts. His last movie was Villu in 2009.