Niki Lauda was attempting to win his second Formula One world title when he was almost killed in one of the most famous accidents in the history of motor sport. As his Ferrari caught fire after hitting a bank at high speed during the 1976 German Grand Prix, Lauda lay unconscious in the cockpit. Other drivers stopped and tried to help. One, Arturo Merzario, plunged into the flames to unbuckle the Austrian’s safety harness. Eventually he was extricated and taken to hospital, where he was...

Dick Dale, the surf rock pioneer who took reverb to new levels, died on Saturday night. He was 81. The guitarist's health had declined over the past 20 years due to a number of illnesses, including diabetes, kidney disease and rectal cancer. The news was confirmed to NPR by Dusty Watson, a drummer who worked and toured with Dale between 1995 and 2006, who says he spoke with Dale's wife, Lana Dale. No cause was given. Dale, born Richard Anthony Monsour in 1937, changed the sound of...

Her glittering singing career included timeless classics like Whip Crack Away, Qué Será Será and Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps. On screen, the wholesome, girl-next-door never failed to find love. Off screen, she could not have had less luck: she married four times. One of them beat her and another one robbed her. Later in life, she suffered the agony of watching her beloved only child die of an untreatable tumour. She retreated to a house in California, surrounding...

Luke Perry, the actor famous for playing brooding outsiders in indelible pop-culture hits like Beverly Hills, 90210, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and more recently the CW’s Riverdale, died on Monday at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, California, after suffering a stroke last week. He was 52.  Born Coy Luther Perry III in Mansfield, Ohio, to a steelworker and a homemaker, Perry grew up in Fredericktown, about an hour outside Columbus. He auditioned for several roles before...

Peter Tork, a member of the 1960s moptopped TV rock quartet the Monkees, died Thursday. He was 77. His death was announced on his official Facebook page and website. "Peter succumbed to a 10 year bout with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer of the salivary glands," it read. The Monkees were a made-for-TV musical group whose comedic high jinks and misadventures were fashioned after the Beatles' classic films A Hard Day's Night and Help! Their show debuted in 1966 and...

The comic book writer Stan Lee, who has died aged 95, revolutionized his industry in the 1960s, when he created the mythic figures that are still inspiring new generations to flock to the cinema. Lee’s creations – Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, most of the Avengers (Hulk, Iron Man, Thor), Daredevil and Doctor Strange – helped to rescue the costumed superhero from obscurity and to usher in the silver age of American comic books. Superhero comics had collapsed in...

Burt Reynolds, the wryly appealing Hollywood heartthrob who carried on a long love affair with moviegoers even though his performances were often more memorable than the films that contained them, died on Thursday in Jupiter, Fla. He was 82. A spokeswoman for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said Mr. Reynolds died at the Jupiter Medical Center after being taken there by county Fire Rescue Department personnel from his home in nearby Hobe Sound. A caretaker at the home had...

LONDON (AP) — Icelandic actor Stefan Karl Stefansson, who played villain Robbie Rotten in the children’s TV series ‘‘LazyTown,’’ has died of cancer. He was 43. The actor’s wife, Steinunn Olina Thorsteinsdottir, announced on Facebook that he died Tuesday. Trained as a stage actor and puppeteer, Stefansson was best known for ‘‘LazyTown,’’ where his junk food-munching villain was pitted against child heroine Stephanie and...

Aretha Franklin, universally acclaimed as the “Queen of Soul” and one of America’s greatest singers in any style, died on Thursday at her home in Detroit. She was 76. The cause was advanced pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type, her publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, said. In her indelible late-1960s hits, Ms. Franklin brought the righteous fervor of gospel music to secular songs that were about much more than romance. Hits like “Do Right Woman — Do Right...

Anthony Bourdain, who has taken his own life aged 61, will be remembered by most as one of the world’s first and most influential celebrity chefs. It’s an inadequate description. Bourdain claimed he was a “competent line cook” rather than a chef during the two decades from 1978 in which he ran the kitchens of increasingly large New York restaurants. He published two creditable, tight, crime novels set in kitchens – Bone in the Throat (1995) and Gone Bamboo...