Latest in Obituaries

Lou Ottens, the Dutch engineer who invented the cassette tape and helped develop the compact disc decades later, has died. He was 94. Amsterdam-based news outlet NRC Handelsblad confirmed the news but didn’t provide details. Working to alleviate the challenge of huge reel-to-reel decks and the portability of…

Norton Juster, author of the acclaimed modern classic children’s books The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line, died last night. He was 91. His death was confirmed by Penguin Random House. Additional details were not immediately available. Both of Juster’s most well-known works of the early 1960s were adapted…

Trevor Peacock, who starred in Richard Curtis’ iconic UK comedy The Vicar of Dibley, has died. He was 89. Per the BBC, his family said in a statement: “Trevor Peacock, actor, writer and song-writer, died aged 89 on the morning of March 8th from a dementia-related illness.” Peacock played the stammering Jim Trott in…

Leon Gast, the veteran filmmaker who won a Documentary Feature Oscar for helming the 1996 “Rumble in the Jungle” pic When We Were Kings, died Monday. He was 85. The news was confirmed by the Woodstock Film Festival, of which Gast was a founding advisory board member and a 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree. Gast…

Frank Lupo, the partner of Stephen J. Cannell on many popular 1980s action shows, died Feb. 17 at his home in Florida, according to his sister and social media. He was 66, and no cause of death was given. Lupo was part of the creative engine that served up the crime drama television shows The A-Team, Hunter and Wisegu…

Michael Wolf Snyder, the sound mixer for a number of film titles, including Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland and The Rider, has died by suicide, according to a Facebook post from his aunt. He was 35. Snyder’s aunt, Cathy Snyder, shared a post from the sound mixer’s father, David Snyder, in which he details finding his son’s…

Tony Hendra, the British humorist and National Lampoon alumnus who played the blundering This Is Spinal Tap band manager responsible for delivering both the tiny Stonehenge and one of the film’s greatest sight gags, died Thursday of Lou Gehrig’s disease in Yonkers, NY. He was 79. Hendra’s wife Carla confirmed his…

Lance Waldroup, a bootlegger featured on the early seasons of Discovery’s reality series Moonshiners, died Feb. 25 at his home in Robbinsville, NC.  He was 30. His father, Jeff, who also appeared on the show, confirmed the news but did not disclose a cause of death. “We are saddened to hear about the loss of Lance…

Josh Humiston, a music agent and partner at Agency for the Performing Arts, died Wednesday after a stroke, the agency said. He was 48. APA said Humiston was the first agent in its 59-year history to rise from the mailroom to partner. His clients have included Dionne Warwick, Smokey Robinson, Judas Priest, X, Andrew…

Joan Weldon, stage actress and a Warner Bros. contract player in the 1950s who achieved lasting sci-fi fame in the creature feature giant ant classic Them!, died Feb. 11 at her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She was 90. Her death was only recently <a…

Bill C. Davis, whose 1981 Broadway hit play Mass Appeal was adapted for a 1984 feature film starring Jack Lemmon and Željko Ivanek, died Feb. 26 of complications from Covid-19, his family announced. He was 69. Born in Ellenville, NY, and raised in the state’s Hudson Valley, Davis attended Catholic schools and, after…

Jahmil French, known for his role as Dave Turner in the hit Canadian series Degrassi: The Next Generation, has died, his representative Gabrielle Kachman confirmed to Deadline. He was 29. “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of a dear friend and client Jahmil French,” Kachman said in a statement. “He…