2020 Deaths, Arts & Letters

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z  


— A —
Peter Alexander (age 81) - Alexander was a sculptor, part of Southern California's "Light and Space" movement during the 1960s. His early medium was resin, often translucent. His sculptures have appeared in several films. Alexander stopped sculpting with resin for more than thirty years, during which he painted. His work is shown in galleries and one of his murals is on display at teh Walt Disney Concert Hall. Alexander died May 26, 2020.

Rudolfo Anaya (age 82) - Best known for his Chicano coming-of-age novel  Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya was a native new Mexican who stayed in Albuquerque to teach at the University of New Mexico. Besides Ultima, which has been published in both Spanish (Benediceme, Ultima) and English, Anaya also wrote a series of mysteries about Latino private eye Sonny Baca. Anaya died June 28, 2020, after a long illness.

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— B —

Stanley Bing (age 68) - Bing, real name Gil Schwartz, split his time between two careers, that of an executive for CBS (VP of corporate communications) and a writer and humorist. In that latter vocation, Bing wrote for Esquire and Fortune magazines for a total of thirty years, chiefly business writing and satire of the business and political worlds. He published thirteen books. Bing died of a heart attack on May 2, 2020.

Patricia Bosworth (age 87) - Bosworth, born Patricia Crum, began modeling in college and segued to the stage. In the '50s and '60s, she had a brief career as an actress, appearing on television and in film (her most famous role was in the Audrey Hepburn vehicle, The Nun's Story). In the 1960s, she became a journalist and author, wiring tor Vanity Fair and editing Screen Stars. She wrote several biographies, including Montgomery Cift, Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, and Diane Arbus. Bosworth died of the COVID-19 virus on April 2, 2020.

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— C —

Laura Caldwell (age 52) - While being a trial lawyer and a law professor at Loyola of Chicago, Laura Caldwell also found the time to pen two non-fiction books and fourteen mystery novels. She was a dedicated friend of the wrongfully convicted, as evidenced by the organization she founded, Life After Innocence. Caldwell succumbed to breast cancer on March 1, 2020.

Mary Higgins Clark (age 92) - Clark was probably best known as an author of mystery novels, with more than 50 standalone novels published since 1968, as well as mystery series, plays, and television scripts. KNown as "the Queen of Suspense," Clark not only won writing awards but has one named after her, the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Clark died January 31, 2020.

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— D —

Tomie dePaola (age 85) - dePaola was a beloved children's author and illustrator and a media figure, known for his Strega Nona series and his hundreds of "legends, folktales, and stories." He was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1990 and was a multiple runner-up for the Caldecott and Newberry awards. He appeared multiple times on "Barney and Friends" and had his own television series, "Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola." He died March 30, 2020, of complications from a fall.

Mort Drucker (age 91) - Drucker was a cartoonist and caricaturist. His best-known works are most certainly the  satirical drawings he published in "Mad Magazine" for more than fifty years. Drucker also illustrated film posters, coloring books, and at least one comic strip ("Benchley"). He was a multiple award winner in the field of comics, including a Reuben Award and induction into the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame. Drucker died April 8, 2020.

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— F —

Bruce Jay Friedman (age 90) - Friedman wrote novels, plays, and screenplays; with a special emphasis on dark humor in a deadpan voice. He was most active in the early mid-century, including the screenplays for The Heartbreak Kid and Stir Crazy. He also published several novels and short-story collections, as well as non-fiction. Friedman died June 3, 2020.

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— G —
Milton Glaser (age 91) - Glaser was best known as a graphic designer who designed the logos for many well-known entities, including DC Comics, Stony Brook University, and a psychedelic Bob Dylan album cover. His best-known work is undoubtedly the logo I ♥ NY, which he designed in the 1970s. Glaser also teamed up with a friend to found New York magazine, and created his own font, Glaser Stencil. He died on his 91st birthday, June 26, 2020.

Glenna Goodacre (age 80) - Goodacre was a sculptor and artist-in-residence in Santa Fe, the mother of model/actress Jill Goodacre and mother-in-law of Harry Connick, Jr. Among Goodacre'd best-known works are the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, DC, and the face of Sacagewa on the dollar coin. Goodacre passed away April 13, 2020.

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— H —
A. E. Hotchner (age 102) - Hotchner was a novelist, biographer, and playwright; best known for biographies of Doris Day and Ernest Hemingway. He wrote the screenplay for King of the Hill and television treatements of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Fifth Column." In 1982, Hotchner and his friend and neighbor, Paul Newman, founded the food company Newman's Own. All profits from the company's sales go to charity. Hotchner died February 15, 2020.

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— J —
John Seward Johnson II (age 89) - Johnson, grandson of a founder of Johnson & Johnson, was a sculptor who specialized in bronzes of people taking part in ordinary activities. His works include a "retelling" of the famous V-J Day photograph ("Unconditional Surrender") and a bronze hitchhiker "leaving" Hofstra University. Johnson was the cousin of actor Michael Douglas, whose mother was Johnson's mother's sister. Johnson died March 10, 2020.

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— K —

Roger Kahn (age 92) - Kahn was a newspaper reporter  in New York, covering the Brookly Dodgers. He rose through journalistic ranks to become sports editor at Newsweek and an editor at large for the Saturday Evening Post. In 1972 he published his biggest hit, the baseball-slash-male bonding book The Boys of Summer, named by Sports Illustrated as one of the best sports books of all time. Kahn passed away February 6, 2020.

Nick Kotz (age 87) - Nathan "Nick" Kotz was an journalist and author specializing in politcal science. He is best known for his book about the personalities involved in the passage of the civil rights laws in the 1960s, in particular President Johnson and the Reverend King. Kotz was killed in a freak auto accident on April 26, 2020.

Larry Kramer (age 84) - Kramer was a playwright and public health advocate, known mainly for founding the gay-rights organization Act Up in the 1980s to focus attention on the AIDS epidemic. He was a two-time Obie Award winner and a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for drama. Kramer died of pneumonia May 27, 2020.

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— M —

Michael McClure (age 87) - McClure was a multi-talented wordsmith; writing reportage, poetry, plays, novels, and song lyrics. He first became famous as a Beat Generation poet who hung around with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. He also appeared in a handful of films. McClure passed away after a stroke on May 4, 2020.

Ron McLarty (age 72) - McLarty may be familiar to fans of the '70s tlevision show "Spenser for Hire," where he played a Boston homicide cop. His voice, however, is more familiar to many fans of audiobooks for his narration of novels by such writers as David Baldacci and Danielle Steele. He even wrote (an narrated) his own novels, beginning with 2004's The Memory of Running. McLarty succumbed to dementia on February 8, 2020.

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— P —
David Perlman (age 101) - Perlman was a long-time journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle who took over the newspaper's science reporting in 1957. He remained with the Chronicle throughout his career, becoming science editor emeritus at the age of 98. The American Geological Union created an award in his honor in 2000, and he received awards from multiple societies and the USGS. Perlman died June 19, 2020.

Charles Portis (age 86) - Portis is probably best known as the author of True Grit, the western novel made into a motion picture - twice - as well as a sequel and a made-for-TV sequel. He also wrote Norwood, which was likewise made into a movie, albeit. more modern.  He was renowned as a chronicler of the American west and south and for his at times deadpan humor. Portis expired February 17, 2020.

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— R —

Richard Reeves (age 83) - Reeves was a writer,  a syndicated columnist for the UPI, and a travel writer for Travel and Leisure. He published some twenty non-fiction books, mainly on presidential politics. Over the years, Reeves collected a Peabody Award (984) an Emmy Award (1980), and the Lifetime Achievement Award from his fellow newspaper columnists. He died of heart failure on March 25, 2020.

Mike Resnick (age 77) - Resnick's long and varied career included stints as a writer and editor of "adult" material and a couple of movie scripts, but his first love and his main genre were fantasy and science fiction. Resnick holds the unofficial record for Hugo Award nominations at 37, with a total of five winners. Resnick died January 9, 2020.

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— S —

Matty Simmons (age 93) - Simmons, the one-time executive VP of Diner's Club, sidestepped into media as the CEO of Twenty-First Century Communications. He and a friend created the company to publish a humor magazine that eventually led to National Lampoon. The company also produced such films as Animal House and the National Lampoon franchise of comedies. Simmons passed away April 29, 2020.

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— W —

Charles Webb (age 81) - Webb was a novelist with some nine titles to his name. His second most famous might have been The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, but few who survived the sixties will forget his most famous work, The Graduate. Despite the success of his novel and the film based on it, Webb lived a blue-collar life working low-wage jobs. He died June 16, 2020.

Elizabeth Wurtzel (age 52) - Wurtzel was a lawyer and writer, famous for her suffering from depression throughout her teenage years and twenties, a period detailed in her memoir Prozac Nation. Her career both as author and lawyer were marred by controversy, including charges of fabricating sources. She died January 7, 2020, of breast cancer.

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