NOTABLE DEATHS
Edward Bond, 89, a British playwright who shocked the British theater world with his explosive 1965 drama “Saved.” The Royal Court Theatre was prosecuted for staging “Saved,” a play about alienated urban youth that included a scene in which a gang of teenagers stone a baby to death in its crib. The scandal led to the abolition of theater censorship in Britain.
Naomi Barber King, 92, a civil rights activist who was married to the younger brother of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. She married the Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King, a Baptist minister and civil rights leader, in 1950. The couple often were at the side of Martin Luther King Jr., supporting him and his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement. A.D. King died in July 1969.
Steve Lawrence, 88, a singer and top stage act who as a solo performer and in tandem with his wife Eydie Gorme kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era. After several guest appearances on Steve Allen’s television show, Lawrence was hired as a regular. When the program became NBC’s “Tonight” in 1954, he went with it, singing and exchanging quips with Allen. The series set the pattern for the long-running “The Tonight Show.”
Chris Mortensen, 72, an award-winning journalist who covered the NFL for close to four decades, including 32 as a senior analyst at ESPN Mortensen joined ESPN in 1991, and for years helped shape the network’s coverage. He received the Dick McCann Award (later renamed the Bill Nunn Jr. Award) from the Professional Football Writers of America in 2016, recognizing long and distinguished contribution through coverage of the game.
Antoine Predock, 87, an internationally renowned architect and avid motorcyclist. Predock created buildings around the world – from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg to the College of Media and Communications in Qatar and public spaces like the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, the Padres baseball stadium in San Diego and the City Hall in Austin, Texas.
Akira Toriyama, 68, creator of the “Dragon Ball” manga series. The manga series started in 1984 and is an international million-seller that was turned into hugely popular anime series, video games and films. His Dr. Slump series, which started in 1980, was his first major hit. A new TV adaptation of Toriyama’s “Sand Land,” a desert adventure story released in 2000 and later adapted into a 2023 anime movie, is due to be released on Disney+ in the spring. Toriyama also designed characters for the video game series Dragon Quest. He received awards in the manga industry and beyond, including France’s Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.