Mitzi Gaynor, star of 1950s big-screen musicals including “South Pacific” and “Les Girls” and a series of beloved variety specials in the 1970s, died on Thursday. She was 93. Gaynor’s management team, Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda, confirmed to Variety that she died of natural causes. “For eight decades she entertained audiences in films, on […]

Libby Titus, a singer who recorded two albums in the late 1960s and ’70s before retiring from the music scene, later becoming the wife of Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, died Sunday at age 77. No cause of death was given. Fagen announced her death on Steely Dan’s website. “My beautiful wife, Libby Titus Fagen, passed […]

Arlene Winnick, a veteran publicist in Hollywood for over 30 years and an integral part of Solters & Digney and its successor Digney & Co. Public Relations, died in Beverly Hills on Oct. 1 from an extended illness. A native of Great Neck, N.Y., Winnick helped pioneer marketing and publicity campaigns for one of the […]

Richard “Dick” Block, the former president of Kaiser Broadcasting who went on to found Block Communications and teach at USC, died Sept. 30. He was 97. As president of Kaiser Broadcasting, he built independent TV stations in top markets including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco. As executive VP of the […]

Peter E. Strauss, the film executive behind projects such as “The Jacket” and “Air,” died Oct. 6 at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 83.  Strauss held a number of roles over the course of his five-decade career, including most recently, executive vice president of Mandalay Pictures and previously president of Lions Gate Entertainment. […]

Nicholas Pryor, who played a father to both Tom Cruise and to Robert Downey Jr. in “Risky Business” and “Less Than Zero,” died Oct. 7 of cancer in Wilmington, N.C. He was 89. His agent, Susan Tolar Walters, said, “He was one of the nicest people I have ever met and he will be missed.” […]

Ken Page, a theater icon who brought Old Deuteronomy to life in the Broadway debut of “Cats” and delighted children everywhere by voicing Oogie Boogie from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” has died. He was 70. Page died Monday, Sept. 30, at home in St. Louis, Mo. His talent agent, Todd M. Eskin, announced the news Tuesday; […]