Obituaries

LONDON - British actress Wendy Richard, whose four-decade television career included roles as a sexy sitcom shop assistant and a working class matriarch on the soap opera "EastEnders," died Thursday after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 65.

NEW YORK - In a Feb. 9 obituary about the singer Blossom Dearie, The Associated Press erroneously reported her birthdate and age. She was born on April 28, 1924, not on April 29, 1926, and was 84, not 82.

NEW ORLEANS - Antoinette K-Doe, widow of New Orleans musician Ernie K-Doe, the self-styled "Emperor of the Universe" known for his 1961 No. 1 hit "Mother-in-Law," died Tuesday. She was 66.

LOS ANGELES - Howard Zieff, a film and television commercial director whose works included "Private Benjamin" and "My Girl," has died. He was 81.

Christopher Nolan

LONDON - Christopher Nolan, an Irish poet and novelist who refused to let cerebral palsy get in the way of his writing, has died. He was 43.

BALTIMORE - Socks, the White House cat during the Clinton administration who waged war on Buddy the pup, has died. He was around 18.

TAMPA, Fla. - Mary Jacobus, a veteran newspaper executive who in 2006 became president and chief operating officer of The New York Times Co.'s Regional Media Group, died Friday. She was 52.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Icelandic airline executive Sigurdur Helgason, who pioneered cheap flights that carried legions of backpackers between Europe and the United States in the 1960s and '70s, has died. He was 87.

NEW ORLEANS - In Feb. 18 and Feb. 19 obituaries for R&B singer and guitarist Snooks Eaglin, The Associated Press misspelled the first name of a pianist and composer who performed and recorded with Eaglin. His name is Allen Toussaint, not Allan.

LONDON - Kelly Groucutt, former bass player with 1970s rock hitmakers ELO, has died at age 63.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - The 93-year-old daughter of a survivor of an ill-fated 1912 voyage to the South Pole died Wednesday while retracing her father's voyage to Antarctica.

ROME - Oreste Lionello, an entertainer and film dubber who was Italy's "voice" of Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis and other comic stars, died in a Rome hospital Thursday.

NEW ORLEANS - R&B singer and guitarist Snooks Eaglin, a local legend who counted platinum-selling rockers among his fans, died Wednesday. He was 72.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Al-Tayeb Saleh, one of the Arab world's top novelists who excelled at portraying characters torn between East and West, died Wednesday in London, Sudan's official news agency said. He was 80.

LISBON, Portugal - Conchita Cintron, who broke into the male-dominated sport of bullfighting at age 13 and became one of the world's first famous woman matadors, has died. She was 86.

LONDON - Susan Hibbert, who typed the English version of the German surrender document and then messaged London when World War II ended in Europe in 1945, has died at age 84.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Konrad Dannenberg, a German rocket scientist who was part of the Wernher von Braun team that helped put the first American astronauts on the moon, has died. He was 96.

PORTLAND, Maine - Paul Schipper, an avid skier who obsessively hit the slopes every day of the season for more than 24 years, has died. He was 85.

LOS ANGELES - Big band and jazz drummer Louie Bellson, a master musician who performed with such greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and his late wife, Pearl Bailey, has died. He was 84.

LONDON - Sir Bernard Ashley, who teamed up with his wife to build the Laura Ashley fashion and home furnishing brand into a global business, has died. He was 82.

HARDIN, Mont. - Crow Tribal Chairman Carl Venne, praised by President Barack Obama as a leader who engaged in a "fervent quest for a better life for his people," has died. He was 62.

NEW YORK - Alfred A. Knopf Jr., son of publishing legends and an influential publisher in his own right, died Saturday. He was 90.

SEOUL, South Korea - Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, South Korea's first cardinal and a tireless advocate for democracy who stood up to a string of military dictators, died Monday. He was 86.

LOS ANGELES - Jack Cover, who invented the Taser stun gun now used by thousands of police agencies as a better way to subdue suspects, has died. He was 88.

NEW YORK - Alison Des Forges, who was among the first human rights activists to highlight the ethnic tensions that exploded into the 1994 Rwanda genocide, died in the fiery commuter plane crash outside Buffalo, N.Y. She was 66.

HAMBURG - Domenica Niehoff, a former prostitute known across Germany for campaigning to have the profession legalized and regulated, has died at age 63.

MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. - The man who led a Ku Klux Klan chapter in North Carolina that was involved in a deadly 1979 clash with members of the Communist Workers Party has died.

NEW YORK - Estelle Bennett, one of the Ronettes, the singing trio whose 1963 hit "Be My Baby" epitomized the famed "wall of sound" technique of its producer, Phil Spector, has died at her home in Englewood, N.J. She was 67.