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Akira Toriyama, Creator Of The Hugely Popular Comic And Anime Dragon Ball, Has Died At 68

Dragon Ball got its start in 1984, and “to many fans, Son Goku's journey from a kid who fumbles his martial arts training to a high-flying hero who can shoot bolts of electricity from his hands mirrors their own struggles against self-doubt as they grew into adulthood.” - BBC

Petra Mathers, Author And Illustrator Of Many Children’s Books, Has Died At 78

"Mathers’s stories — whose subjects included a soulful museum guard (an alligator) who falls in love with the subject in a painting (another alligator) and a warmhearted chicken named Lottie and her best friend, Herbie, a duck — were … imbued with sly humor and wit.” - The New York Times

Juliette Binoche On Turning Spielberg Down Multiple Times, And That Oscar

"My mind wasn’t working when I went up to receive my Oscar . You’re in a space of awe, in this surprising state of not really knowing why it’s happening. … It was the surprise of my life." - The Guardian (UK)

Akira Toriyama, Legend Of Manga And Anime, Dead At 68

"There is hardly a space in pop culture today that hasn’t been touched by Akira Toriyama’s art. … He brought manga and anime into the global mainstream and broke down the walls that had once sealed off Japanese storytelling." - The Washington Post (MSN)

Steve Lawrence, Half Of Popular Jazz-Pop Duo Steve And Eydie, Is Dead At 88

"As a solo performer and with his wife, Eydie Gormé, (he) kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era. … Steve & Eydie were known for their frequent appearances on talk shows, in night clubs and (in) Las Vegas, (singing) George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and other songwriters." - AP

The Making Of Keith Haring

Even as his fame grew, Haring remained dedicated to grass-roots activism: designing posters for anti-nuke rallies, anti-apartheid protests, safe sex promotions, and events for a myriad of LGBTQ causes. - ArtsFuse

The Oldest Oscar Nominee: John Williams And His 54 Nominations

Even though he’s not ready to surrender the staff-lined paper and pencil with which he’s written his scores, Williams, 92, is also the oldest person to be nominated for an Oscar. Ask Williams what the 54 nominations mean to him, and he says, “Well, I’ve lost 49 of ’em, or something like that.” - Variety

Guy Wildenstein, Of The Art-Dealer Dynasty, Convicted Of Tax Fraud In France

"The 78-year-old billionaire ... has been found guilty of money laundering and tax fraud, following a years-long saga seeking his prosecution." He was fined €1 million in addition to the back taxes he owes, authorities have seized €3.4 million in assets, and he will serve two years under house arrest. - Artnet

Architect Antoine Predock, 87

In a 65-plus-year career, he sought to create buildings that were, as he often put it, “grounded in the earth yet soaring toward the sky.” - Architectural Record

Texas Public Radio Pioneering Leader Dies At 66

Joyce Slocum was instrumental in TPR’s growth from an organization of modest size and ambition to one whose reach and influence is recognized nationwide, with a deep passion for storytelling rooted in South Texas. - Texas Public Radio

Playwright Edward Bond, Who Helped End Censorship Of Theatre In Britain, Is Dead At 89

"The battle to remove censorship from the British stage was fought primarily at the Royal Court Theatre in London during the mid-1960s. The plays of Edward Bond, one of the most important British dramatists of the 20th century, … were an essential part of that story and that struggle." - The Guardian

Canada’s First Lady Of Jazz, Eleanor Collins, Has Died At 104

"A luminous singer who performed with jazz legends including Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson, Ms. Collins spent her entire career in Canada. … (Said one jazz scholar), Eleanor Collins, if she was American, would be mentioned in the same breath as Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald.'" - The Washington Post (MSN)

Composer Christian Wolff, Still Going Strong At 90

Wolff "is the last living representative of what’s known as the New York School of composition, a group that included John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown and David Tudor. Their tight-knit circle shifted midcentury American music away from classic European models. And it radiated out." - The New York Times

Iris Apfel, Iconic Designer And Maker Of Her Own Legend, Has Died At 102

Apfel was "a soaring free spirit known in society and to the fashion cognoscenti for ignoring the dictates of the runway in favor of her own artfully clashing styles” whose personal show at the Metropolitan Museum changed her life, and perhaps the image of the Met as well. - The New York Times

Filmmaker Paolo Taviani Has Died At 92

"For more than three decades Taviani and his brother Vittorio formed one of cinema’s greatest directorial duos. … (Their) film Padre Padrone won top prize at Cannes (in 1977, and in 2012 they received) the Golden Bear in Berlin for Caesar Must Die." - Euronews

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