RIP James Earl Jone

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James Earl Jones, Storied Actor Who Voiced Darth Vader and Mufasa in ‘Lion King,’ Dead at 93 - Click
James Earl Jones, Authoritative Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies at 93

Dom DeLuise has died

LOS ANGELES - Dom DeLuise, the portly entertainer and chef whose affable nature made him a popular character actor for decades with movie and TV audiences as well as directors and fellow actors, has died. He was 75.

Agent Robert Malcolm said DeLuise died about 6 p.m. Monday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica. Malcolm said the family did not release the cause of death.

"He had high blood pressure, he had diabetes, he had lots of things," but seemed fine as recently as two weeks ago, he said.

DeLuise entered the hospital on Friday and his wife and all three sons were there when he died "peacefully," Malcolm said.

A family statement said, "It's easy to mourn his death but easier to remember a time when he made you laugh."

The actor, who loved to cook and eat almost as much as he enjoyed acting, also carved out a formidable second career later in life as a chef of fine cuisine. He authored two cookbooks and would appear often on morning TV shows to whip up his favorite recipes.

As an actor, he was incredibly prolific, appearing in scores of movies and TV shows, in Broadway plays and voicing characters for numerous cartoon shows.

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Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian and chef, dies at 75

Voice of Palestine Silenced

Darwish, poet of the Palestinian cause, dies after surgery
By Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah
Monday, 11 August 2008

Mahmoud Darwish, whose poetry encapsulated the Palestinian cause, is to get the equivalent of a state funeral in the West Bank following his death this weekend – an honour only previously accorded to the PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

Tributes for Darwish poured in yesterday, a day after he died, at the age of 67, from complications following heart surgery in a hospital in Houston, Texas.

"He translated the pain of the Palestinians in a magical way," said Egypt's vernacular poet Ahmed Fouad Negm. "He made us cry and made us happy and shook our emotions. Apart from being the poet of the Palestinian wound, which is hurting all Arabs and all honest people in the world, he is a master poet."

Darwish's funeral in Ramallah tomorrow will be the first sponsored by the Palestinian Authority since Arafat died in 2004. The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of national mourning. People gathered on Saturday night in the darkened streets of Ramallah, holding candles and weeping.

May he rest in peace. And, may his people find peace and freedom.