Latest in Obituaries

Cheng Pei-pei, who memorably starred in Ang Lee's Oscar-nominated film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, died Thursday at 78 in the San Francisco Bay Area from a degenerative brain disease. Cheng was born in Shanghai in 1946, moving to Hong Kong in 1962. There she began working with the iconic Shaw…

Chuck Lorre has paid tribute to Bob Newhart, his friend who also happened to play Arthur Jeffries aka Professor Proton, on The Big Bang Theory. In a statement released this afternoon, the uber-producer who co-created The Big Bang Theory with Bill Prady recalled what it took to get Newhart to star on…

Refresh for updates: Comedy icon Bob Newhart, who died today at the age of 94, is being remembered by coworkers, peers and fans as one of television’s all-time greats, a genius of understatement with an unfailing warm-hearted spirit. “I had the honor of doing a guest role on Newhart & got to spend…

Bob Newhart, an Emmy winner and nine-time nominee who helped launch the recorded comedy craze with two smash stand-up albums before starring in the revered TV shows The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, died today at his Los Angeles home. He was 94. His longtime publicist Jerry Digney said Newhart died…

As the world continues to mourn such late childhood legends as Shelley Duvall and Paul Reubens, Cinespia is paying tribute on the big screen. The Los Angeles outdoor screening series presented by Amazon MGM Studios announced The Shining (1980) and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) among its final films…

Nonce Paolini, the former Chairman and CEO of French broadcasting giant TF1 Group, died July 17. He was 75. Le Monde newspaper reported he had died due to cancer. The influential exec rose through the ranks at TF1, which is France’s largest commercial network, and became CEO in 2007 and added…

TV producer-writer Bob Booker, who spent 75 years working in television, radio, film and the recording industry, died July 12 at his home in Tiburon, CA, at age 92 from heart failure, according to his daughter, Laura Booker.   Booker was best known for the Grammy Award-winning comedy album, The First…

J. Michael Cline, a founding investor and former chairman of online ticketing service Fandango, died Tuesday after falling from the window of a high-rise hotel in midtown Manhattan.   The New York Post had the news first. The NYPD confirmed to Deadline that a man of that name and age, 64, fell from…

Evan Wright, a writer and journalist whose 2004 book on the Iraq War, Generation Kill, was adapted into an HBO miniseries, died July 12 in Los Angeles by suicide, his family confirmed.  Born in Ohio, Wright earned a degree from Vassar College before entering journalism. In the mid-'90s, Wright worked…

Eddie Rosenblatt, president of Geffen Records during its days as one of the hottest record labels in the music business, died Tuesday at a hospital in Santa Barbara of pneumonia at 89. Rosenblatt led Geffen in the 1980s and 1990s, helming a roster that included Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Whitesnake…

Anthony (Tony) Cianciotta, a Canadian film industry veteran of 50 years, has died. The well-regarded distribution and exhibition executive passed away peacefully on June 26. He was 85. Cianciotta started his career in the film industry in 1965, in Toronto, as a key film buyer for the J. Arthur Rank…

Naomi Pomeroy, the Portland-based Top Chef Masters contestant who was the recipient of the James Beard Award for Best Chef Pacific Northwest in 2014, died Saturday in an accident on the Willamette River, according to multiple reports. She was 49. Pomeroy was reportedly one of several people floating…