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Duvall Hecht, Pioneer Of Commercial Audiobooks, Dead At 91

As an Angeleno with an hour-long commute, he was desperate to escape the "bad music and worse news" on radio and started listening to books recorded for the blind. Thus was born the idea for his company, Books on Tape, founded in 1975. - MSN (The Washington Post)

Film Critic Sheila Benson, 91

Her time as film critic at The LA Times coincided with the rise of both the ‘80s Hollywood blockbuster and the American independent scene. - Los Angeles Times

Why Russian Artists Supporting Putin Are Paying A Price

To claim, as many do, that art should “transcend” politics — that it exists in a realm where the push and pull of human conflict have no relevance — represents an impoverished view of both politics and art. To the extent that art has any bearing on the world, it’s necessarily political. - San Francisco Chronicle

Zelensky’s Previous Career As A Performer Was Useful Preparation For His Current Role

Says one academic observer, "He's used to being in front of a camera. He's used to performing. While before this conflict his poll numbers were pretty low, they've skyrocketed. And that's because he’s been able to use his strengths during this conflict." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Iranian Director And Oscar Winner Asghar Farhadi Has A Rule

The director says he has no interest in making movies about the rich. "It is very valuable for me to always focus on ordinary people." Perhaps paradoxically, that has won him success and a following across the globe. - The New York Times

Actor Sally Kellerman, 84

Among her notable performances in film and television were Welcome to L.A., Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Brewster McCloud, and the third episode ever of Star Trek, but she's best remembered for her Oscar-nominated portrayal of Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in Robert Altman's M*A*S*H. - The Hollywood Reporter

Europe’s First-Ever Pop Star

"Charles Dibdin was no one-hit wonder, but a hugely prolific, extremely famous figure. He performed in operas and then wrote his own, composed more than a thousand songs, toured one-man shows around the country, and opened his own London theatre." - BBC

Henry Danton, Who Danced All Over The World And Still Taught Ballet At Age 100, Is Dead At 102

He started with Sadler's Wells Ballet in London in 1940, appeared with the Paris Opera Ballet and with touring companies across four continents, then taught the national ballets of Colombia and Venezuela as well as at Sarah Lawrence and Juilliard before not-retiring to Mississippi in his 70s. - AP

De Wain Valentine, Who Pioneered The Use Of Plastics As An Art Medium, Dead At 86

In particular, he was the first to use polyester resin and Plexiglas to make sculptures. (He learned how to shape and sand them in shop class.) His goal as an artist, he once said, was "to cut out large chunks of ocean or sky and say: 'Here it is.'" - ARTnews

Jim Broadbent On Being An Anti-Establishment Actor And Turning Down And OBE, An

"When Richard Eyre accepted his knighthood and I asked why, he said 'vanity.' If somebody asks me why I turned down an OBE, I’d say 'vanity' too. It wouldn’t suit me, like wearing a bobble hat or something." - The Guardian (UK)

William Kraft, Who Helped Make Los Angeles A Hotbed Of New Music, Dead At 98

At the L.A. Philharmonic, Kraft was principal timpanist, composer-in-residence, and associate conductor; he co-founded the L.A. Phil New Music Group, with which he started the orchestra's now-famous Green Umbrella concerts of contemporary music. (Kraft was also Stravinsky's preferred percussionist.) - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Paul Theroux Is (Re-)Figuring Out His Relationship With V.S. Naipaul

"More than fifty years of writing about Naipaul! Yet only in the last few years, the dust having settled"— Naipaul died in 2018, and, writes Theroux, was a far less difficult person in his final years — " I have seen how complex our relationship was." - London Review of Books

P.J. O’Rourke, Conservative Writer And Humorist, Dead At 74

"O'Rourke was one of the most quoted writers in America, dissecting US politics and culture with a withering disdain and a powerful line in put-downs – often laced with a warm, self-deprecating humanity." A frequent magazine contributor and talk-show guest, he was once Rolling Stone's foreign affairs correspondent. - The Guardian

Artist Carmen Herrera, Whose Big Break Came When She Was 89, Is Dead At 106

"Critics and collectors, once made aware that Ms. Herrera existed, were rapt by the intensity of her work, which she achieved by juxtaposing geometric shapes in contrasting colors." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Ghostbusters Director Ivan Reitman, 75

Born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Canada (where he first met such young comics as his later stars Dan Aykroyd and Rick Moranis), Reitman made his first major impression as the producer of “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (1978). - Variety

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