NOTABLE DEATHS
Juanita Castro, 90, the anti-communist sister of Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro, died in Miami, nearly 60 years after she fled their communist revolution. She had originally supported her older brothers’ efforts to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista, raising money and buying weapons. She said in her 2009 book that she became disillusioned when Fidel Castro became a hard-line communist after taking power in 1959 and pushed those who disagreed out of his government. She then fled Cuba in 1964 after secretly working with the CIA. She went to Mexico, then arrived in the U.S. a year later. She wasn’t initially accepted among Miami’s Cuban exile community, which viewed her with suspicion. But she mostly lived quietly and eventually became a respected member of the Cuban-American community, running a Little Havana pharmacy until 2007. She became a U.S. citizen in 1984.
Glenys Kinnock, 79, a former British Cabinet minister, member of the European Parliament and wife of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock. Kinnock went from being a schoolteacher to an outspoken politician to Cabinet minister under former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and was known for her work to reduce poverty and starvation in Africa and other parts of the world.
Juanita Castro, the anti-communist sister of Cuban rulers Fidel and Raul Castro who worked with the CIA against their government, died in Miami at age 90.
79, a British singer, songwriter and guitarist who performed in an early, pop-oriented version of the Moody Blues and was later Paul McCartney’s longtime sideman in the ex-Beatle’s band Wings. Laine sang lead on the Moody Blues’ breakthrough hit “Go Now” and with Wings performed on such hits as “Band on the Run” and “My Love.”
Norman Lear, 101, the producer who made TV topical in the 1970s with the sitcom “All in the Family.” “All in the
Family” starred Carroll O’Connor as die-hard conservative Archie Bunker, who clashed with his liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner) over racism, feminism and the Vietnam War. JIt was one of a string of TV hits for Lear and then-partner Bud Yorkin that also included “Maude” and “The Jeffersons.” Lear and Yorkin also created “Good Times,” about a working class Black family in Chicago; “Sanford & Son,” a showcase for Redd Foxx as junkyard dealer Fred Sanford; and “One Day at a
Time,” starring Bonnie Franklin as a single mother and Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her daughters. In the 1974-75 season, Lear and Yorkin produced five of the top 10 shows. Ryan O’Neal, 82, an actor who was nominated for an Oscar for the tearjerker “Love Story” and played opposite his precocious daughter Tatum in “Paper Moon.” “Love Story,” co-starring Ali MacGraw, about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer, was the film that made him a star. The romantic melodrama was the highest-grossing film of 1970, became one of Paramount Pictures’ biggest hits and collected seven Oscar nominations, including one for best picture. In other 1970s films such as “Paper Moon” and Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon,” the actor used his boyish, blond good looks to play men who hid shadowy backgrounds. Before “Paper Moon,”
Benjamin Zephaniah, 65, a British poet, political activist, musician and actor. Zephaniah was born in Birmingham and is best known for his work on racism, refugees and healthy eating. He often drew inspiration from his Caribbean roots. Equally at home performing in school classrooms or at big political rallies, he was arguably the most wellknown poet in Britain of his time. He also appeared on the popular BBC television show “Peaky Blinders.”