/ Stars that died in 2023

Monday, April 29, 2013

Ramiz Alia, Albanian politician, First Secretary of the Party of Labour (1985–1991), President (1991–1992), died from lung disease he was 85.


Ramiz Tafë Alia  was the second and last communist leader of Albania from 1985 to 1991, and the President of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania from 1991 to 1992, and also the first President of the post communist Albania elected in 1991–92. He had been designated as successor by Enver Hoxha and took power after Hoxha died. Alia died on 7 October 2011 in Tirana due to lung disease, aged 85.[1]

(18 October 1925 – 7 October 2011) 

Early life and politics

Alia was born in 1925. In the early part of World War II he was a member of a Fascist youth organization but joined the underground Albanian Communist Youth Organization in 1941.[2][3] In 1943, he became member of the Albanian Communist Party.[3] He had risen rapidly under Hoxha's patronage and by 1961 was a full member of the ruling Political Bureau (Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania).[citation needed]
Hoxha chose Alia for several reasons. First, Alia had long been a militant follower of Marxism-Leninism and supported Hoxha's policy of national self-reliance. Alia also was favored by Hoxha's wife Nexhmije, who had once been his instructor at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. His political experience was similar to that of Hoxha; and inasmuch as he appeared to share Hoxha's views on most foreign and domestic issues, he accommodated himself to the totalitarian mode of ruling.[citation needed]

Political career

First Secretary of the Albanian Labor Party

After World War II, Alia resumed his duties in the Communist Youth Organization, and at the First Congress of the Albanian Party of Labor in November 1948, he was elected to its Central Committee and was assigned in the department of agitation and propaganda.[2] When he succeeded Hoxha in 1985, the country was in grave difficulty. Political apathy and cynicism were pervasive, with large segments of the population having rejected the government's values. The economy, which suffered from low productivity and permanent shortages of the most basic foodstuffs, showed no sign of improvement. Social controls and self-discipline had eroded. The intelligentsia was beginning to resist strict party controls and to criticize the government's failure to observe international standards of human rights. Apparently recognizing the depth and extent of the societal malaise, Alia cautiously and slowly began to make changes in the system. His first target was the economic system. In an effort to improve economic efficiency, Alia introduced some economic decentralization and price reform in specific sectors.[citation needed]
Alia did not relax censorship, but he did allow public discussions of Albania's societal problems and encouraged debates among writers and artists on cultural issues. In response to international criticism of Albania's record on human rights, the new leadership loosened some political controls and ceased to apply repression on a mass scale. In 1989, general amnesties brought about the release of many long-term prisoners. He strengthened ties with Greece, Italy, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. A loosening of restrictions on travel and tourism resulted in a more promising outlook for Albania's tourist trade.[citation needed]

Transition to multi-party system and presidency

Despite Alia's efforts to proceed with change on a limited, cautious basis, reform from above threatened to turn into reform from below, largely because of the increasingly vocal demands of Albania's youth. On 9 December 1990, student demonstrators marched from the Enver Hoxha University (now University of Tirana) at Tirana through the streets of the capital shouting slogans and demanding a reforms. By December 11, the number of participants had reached almost 3,000. In an effort to quell the student unrest, which had led to clashes with riot police, Alia met with the students and agreed to take further steps toward democratization. The students informed Alia that they wanted to create an independent political organization of students and youth. Alia's response was that such an organization had to be registered with the Ministry of Justice.[citation needed]
In his traditional New Year's message to the Albanian people, Alia welcomed the changes that had been occurring in the country and claimed that 1991 would be a turning point in terms of the economy. Despite positive signs of change, many Albanians were still trying to leave their country. At the end of 1990, as many as 5,000 Albanians crossed over the mountainous border into Greece. Young people motivated by economic dissatisfaction made up the bulk of the refugees.[citation needed]
Alia was a crucial figure in the peaceful political transition of the early 1990s as many believe that he helped rise to power the anti communist opposition forces thus eliminating a possible bloodshed.
Alia managed to remain a key political figure throughout several political crises. Nonetheless, with Albania in the throes of a grave economic crisis, Alia had to face challenges that he could not surmount. After the collapse of a coalition government in December 1991 and the Democratic Party of Albania's (DPA) landslide victory in the spring 1992 general election, he resigned as president on 3 April 1992.[2] On 9 April the People's Assembly elected DPA leader Sali Berisha as Albania's new head of state.

Arrest

On 21 May 1994, senior officials from the communist regime, including Ramiz Alia, went to trial. Alia was charged with abuse of power and misappropriation of state funds, as was Adil Carçani, the former prime minister, Manush Myftiu, his deputy, and Rito Marko, a former vice-president.
Alia had been placed under house arrest in August 1992 and his detention was converted into imprisonment in August 1993.[2] In court he claimed he was the victim of a political show trial and demanded that the trial be broadcast on television, a request denied by the presiding judge. The trial was monitored by a Human Rights Watch/Helsinki representative and proceeded with only minor due process irregularities. The ten defendants were found guilty as charged and sentenced to between three and nine years in prison; Alia received a nine-year sentence.
A court of appeals subsequently reduced some of the sentences, notably Alia's to five years. Alia, Myftiu, Carçani, Stefani and Isai were also ordered to repay various sums to the state. On 30 November, the Court of Cassation reduced Alia's term by an additional three years. On 7 July 1995, Ramiz Alia was freed from jail. However, his freedom was short-lived and in 1996 he was charged with committing crimes against humanity during his term, and was imprisoned anew in March. The trial against him began on 18 February 1997, but he escaped from the prison following the unrest in the country and the desertion of the guards.[2] Amid the unrest he appeared on State TV in an exclusive interview with Blendi Fevziu. In the late 2000s he was seen traveling seldom to Albania from Dubai by giving interviews or publishing personal books.[4]

Death

Ramiz Alia died on 7 October 2011 in Tiranë from lung disease, shortly before his 86th birthday, according to a spokesman for President Bamir Topi.[1]



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Julien Bailleul, French footballer, died he was 23.

Julien Bailleul was a French footballer who played for RAEC Mons and Sporting Lokeren.[1]

(15 February 1988 – 7 October 2011) 

Career

Born in the Lille region, Bailleul began playing football with the Lille OSC youth academy. He also played youth football for CS Sedan Ardennes and AC Cambrai. He played amateur football for SC Feignies from 2007 to 2009 before signing a professional contract with Belgian Second Division side R.A.E.C. Mons.[2]
The following season, Bailleul transferred to Belgian Pro League side Sporting Lokeren but returned on loan to Mons in January 2011. Two months later he was forced to stop playing after suffering from an illness. After battling the disease for several months, he died at age 23 in October 2011.[2]


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Birgit Rosengren, Swedish actress, died she was 98.


Birgit Rosengren  was a Swedish film actress most active from the 1930s to the early 1960s.

(November 27, 1912 – October 6, 2011)

Rosengren made her film debut in 1934's Flickorna från Gamla Sta'n, directed by Schamyl Bauman.[1] She was widowed twice.[2] Her first husband was actor and film director Elof Ahrle, who died in 1965. Her second husband was Swedish actor Eric Gustafson.[1] She lived in retirement at her home in Bromma, Stockholm.[1] She remained active, giving a full interview to the Swedish newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, shortly before her 98th birthday in 2010.[2]
Her closest friends included Lasse Lönndahl and Göte Wilhelmsson.[2] Rosengren died from complications of a fracture on October 6, 2011, at the age of 98.[1]

Filmography




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Marilyn Nash, American actress (Monsieur Verdoux, Unknown World), died she was 84.

Marilyn Nash  was an American actress and casting director. She was best known for starring in the 1947 Charlie Chaplin film, Monsieur Verdoux.[1]

(October 26, 1926 – October 6, 2011)
 
Nash was born in Flint, Michigan, and attended the University of Arizona with the intention of pursuing medicine as her chosen career.[1] However, her professional career path changed when she traveled to Los Angeles with her mother while attending Arizona.[1] By chance, Nash met actor and director Charlie Chaplin while playing tennis at the Beverly Hills Hotel.[1] Chaplin quickly signed Nash as an actress in his Charlie Chaplin Studios.[1] He then cast her in his black comedy, Monsieur Verdoux, which was released in 1947.[1]
Nash appeared in just one other film during her career, the 1951 science fiction adventure picture, Unknown World.[1] She portrayed a doctor in the film. She then switched to television and stage roles during the 1950s. Her television credits including Hopalong Cassidy in 1952 and Medic in 1955.[1]
She moved to Oroville, located in northern California, with her second husband, Dr. Donald P. Franks. There Nash worked as a casting director, specializing specifically in films shot in the region surrounding Oroville.[1] Her casting credits included The Great Smokey Roadblock, The Klansman and The Outlaw Josey Wales.[1]
Nash was married three times. Her first husband was screenwriter, Philip Yordan, who introduced her to Hollywood's highest echelons.[1] Nash's marriage to Yordan ended in divorce in the early 1950s.[1] Her second marriage was to Dr. Donald P. Franks, with whom she moved to Oroville. Nash's third husband, Mack Hill, ended with Hill's death.[1]
Nash was interviewed in the 2007 documentary, Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, directed by Jeffrey Schwarz, which focused on the life of her longtime friend, William Castle.[1] Her first husband, Philip Yordan, had introduced Nash to Castle during the 1950s.[1]
Marilyn Nash died on October 6, 2011, at the age of 84.[1] She was survived by four sons and six grandchildren. Her memorial service was held at the St. Augustine of Canterbury Anglican Church in Chico, California.[1]


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William S. Dietrich II, American industrialist and philanthropist, died he was 73.


William S. Dietrich II  was the successful industrialist who grew Dietrich Industries (later bought by Worthington Industries) and late in life made two of the largest charitable contributions in higher education history to the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.[1]

(May 13, 1938 – October 6, 2011)

Life

Dietrich was born in Pittsburgh in 1938 and spent much of his youth in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania, graduating from Conneaut Lake High School in 1955. He then majored in history while attending Princeton University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1960. He then served in the United States Marines. Following his military service, he returned to Pittsburgh to work at his father's company, originally a small lumber company that eventually grew into Dietrich Industries, which specialized in purchasing and repurposing scrap steel.[2] Dietrich rose from salesman to president and eventually chairman and CEO and Dietrich Industries eventually grew into the United State's largest manufacture of light-metal framing for the construction industry with more than 1,800 employees at 19 plants in 17 different states.[3] He sold Dietrich Industries in 1996 and used the proceeds to fund a charitable trust, which grew substantially from investments and from which he made his future gifts.
At the age of 40, while running his family's company, Dietrich entered the University of Pittsburgh's graduate program in political science, earning a masters in 1980 in and his PhD in 1984.[3] He later authored a book in political science and was in the process of writing another at his death.[4]
Dietrich served on the University of Pittsburgh's board of trustees, serving as chairman from 2001–2003, as well as the boards of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham University, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, the Greater Pittsburgh Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Pittsburgh Symphony Society, the Pittsburgh Ballet, the Southwest Pennsylvania Growth Alliance, and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.[4]

Philanthropy

On September 7, 2011 Carnegie Mellon University announced a $265 million gift from Dietrich, the largest gift the university had received and one of the 10 largest by an individual to private higher education in the United States.[5] In honor of the gift, Carnegie Mellon renamed the university's College of Humanities and Social Sciences to the Marianna Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences after Mr. Dietrich's mother.[6]
Later that month, on September 22, 2011, the University of Pittsburgh, where Dietrich has earned two degrees and served on the board of trustees, announced it had received a $125 million gift from Dietrich. The gift was also the largest Pitt had received up until that time and 10th largest private gift to public higher education in the United States.[2] To commemorate the gift, the university officially renamed its School of Arts and Sciences to the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the Board of Trustees meeting on October 28, 2011.[4]
Prior to his death, Dietrich was reported to have said that he was "moved by the thought of his parents gazing eternally at each other across Panther Hollow through the two schools that now bear their names."[3]
Other significant contributions included $25 million Thiel College, $12.5 million to Duquesne University, $10.6 million to the Pittsburgh Foundation, $5 million to the Boy Scouts, $5 million to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, $5 million to the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, $5 million to Pittsburgh Symphony, $5 million to the Heinz History Center, $5 million to Chatham University, $5 million to the town of Greenville, Pennsylvania, and $2.5 million to the town of Conneaut Lake.[7][8]

Writing

Dietrich also was the author of two books: In the Shadow of the Rising Sun: The Political Roots of American Economic Decline, published in 1991 and Eminent Pittsburghers: Profiles of the City’s Founding Industrialists, a collection of biographical essays originally published in the Pittsburgh Quarterly but assembled into a book published in 2011. At his death, he was in the process of writing a third book, to which he had given the title American Recessional: The U.S. Decline and the Rise of China.[4]

Death

On October 6, 2011, Dietrich died from gallbladder cancer at the age of 73.[1]



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Diane Cilento, Australian actress (Tom Jones, The Wicker Man), died from cancer she was 76.


Diane Cilento [1] was an Australian theatre and film actress and author




(5 October 1933 – 6 October 2011)

 

Early life and education

Cilento's parents, Sir Raphael Cilento[3] and Lady Phyllis Cilento,[4] were both distinguished medical practitioners.[2]
At an early age she decided to follow a career as an actress and, after a period living with her father in New York, Cilento won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and moved to England in the early 1950s.[5]

Career

After graduation, Cilento found work on stage almost immediately and was signed to a five-year contract by Sir Alex Korda. Her first leading role in a movie was in Passage Home (1955), opposite fellow Australian Peter Finch.[6]
She soon secured roles in British films and worked steadily until the end of the decade. In 1956, Cilento was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for Helen of Troy in Jean Giraudoux's Tiger at the Gates.
She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Tom Jones in 1963[7] and appeared in The Third Secret the following year, but she allowed her film career to decline following her marriage to actor Sean Connery, the second of her three husbands, to whom she was married from 1962 to 1973. They had one son, the actor Jason Connery.
In Connery's James Bond film You Only Live Twice, she doubled for her husband's co-star Mie Hama in a diving scene because Hama was indisposed.[8]
She starred with Charlton Heston in the 1965 film The Agony and the Ecstasy, and with Paul Newman in the 1967 western film Hombre.
In 1985, Cilento married Anthony Shaffer, a playwright, who wrote the script of The Wicker Man; she met him when she appeared in the film in 1973, and he joined her when she returned to Queensland in 1975. During the 1970s, she studied Sufism under the British spiritual teacher John G. Bennett.[9]
Cilento continued working as an actress, both in films and in television and, in the 1980s, settled in Mossman, north of Cairns, where she built her own outdoor theatre, named "Karnak", in the rainforest. The venture allowed her to participate in experimental drama.[citation needed]
In 2006, Cilento released her autobiography, My Nine Lives.[10]
In 2001, she was awarded the Centenary Medal, for "distinguished service to the arts, especially theatre".[11]

Death

Diane Cilento died of cancer[12] at Cairns Base Hospital on 6 October 2011, the day after her 78th birthday.[13] She is survived by both her children.[12]

Filmography

Writings
  • 1968: Manipulator
  • 1972: Hybrid
  • 2006: My Nine Lives

Personal life

Family

Parents
Siblings
Diane Cilento was the fifth of six children, four of whom became medical practitioners, and the other, Margaret, was an artist.[5]
Husbands and children

 Husband Children
1956–1960 Andrea Volpe Giovanna (Gigi) (10 December 1957–)[14]
1962–1973[15] Sean Connery (1930–) Jason Connery (11 January 1963–)[16]
1985–2001 Anthony Shaffer
(1926–2001)		 In 1975, Shaffer made his home in Queensland with Cilento. They married in 1985.
Cilento was Shaffer's third wife; he had two daughters from a previous marriage.[17][18]


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Sarkis Soghanalian,Syrian-born Armenian arms dealer, died he was 82.

Sarkis Garabet Soghanalian, nicknamed Merchant of Death, was an international private arms dealer who gained fame for being the "Cold War's largest arms merchant"[1] and the lead seller of firearms and weaponry to the former government of Iraq under Saddam Hussein during the 1980s.[2]

(February 6, 1929 – October 5, 2011)

Soghanalian, then a permanent resident living in Virginia Gardens, Florida, was hired on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency to sell arms to help Iraq in the midst of the Iran–Iraq War.[3] With the encouragement of the Reagan Administration and the backing of US intelligence agencies, he coordinated the transaction of several crucial arms deals, including the sale of artillery from France which cost an estimated $1.4 billion USD.[citation needed]
In addition to Iraq, he also sold weapons to other groups such as the Polisario forces in Mauritania, to Phalange militias during the Lebanese Civil War and to Latin American countries such as Nicaragua, Ecuador, and to Argentina during the Falklands War.[1] He extended his services to other regions of the world including Africa. Prior to the beginning of the Persian Gulf War, Soghanalian appeared in several television interviews, detailing the work he had done in Iraq along with naming several top US government officials who were involved in the arms transactions.
With this, the Justice Department charged Soghanalian for "conspiracy of shipping unauthorized weapons" to Iraq where he was found guilty and sentenced to jail.[4] He was released several years later when he helped the Clinton administration unsuccessfully break up a counterfeiting ring in Lebanon. He moved his office from the United States and opened up operations in France and Jordan. In 2001, was arrested once more by the US government on bank fraud charges but was released a year later after he revealed the weapons transactions deals that were going on between CIA and Peru, an account which arguably led to the collapse of the Alberto Fujimori government.[4]

Contents

Early life

Soghanalian was born to an Armenian family in what is now current-day Iskanderun, Turkey. In late 1939, his family moved to Lebanon. Due to the poor economic conditions his family lived in at the time, he decided to drop out of high school and joined the French Army and served in a tank division. It was from his experience in the military that brought him into the world of weaponry and in his words, he "adapted to it from childhood and kept going."[1]
Soghanalian later took up a job as a ski instructor in Lebanon, where he met and married his American wife.[citation needed]

Initial arms deals

Lebanon

With the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s, Soghanalian was introduced to the arms trade. He sold his first consignment of firearms in 1973, which was mostly American weaponry since the Lebanese military had largely been armed by the United States. However, he was soon able to procure weaponry from a multitude of Eastern bloc countries including Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland.[1] Among the factions he sold to was the Christian Phalange militia. The arms consisted largely of small arms and infantry weapons. After the civil war, he moved his arms operations to other countries, supplying various factions in Ecuador Mauritania and Nicaragua, Mobutu Sese Seko's Zaire, an American C-130 Hercules transport plane to Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi, Argentina in the 1982 Falklands War until moving on to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.[1]

Iraq

According to Soghanalian, the United States was fully aware of his operations when he moved on to Iraq: "The Americans knew what I was doing, every minute, every hour. If I drank a glass of water, they were aware of it and what kind of water it was."[1] He had built a largely amiable relationship with the United States ever since it landed a contingent of Marines in Lebanon in 1958.[5] American intelligence officials had described him as a cooperative and reliable source in Lebanon, making him an ideal candidate to conduct the arms deal with Iraq.[6] With the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War in 1980, he began to sell weapons to Iraq with the backing of the United States. Since there was an embargo placed against Iraq, the weapons were funneled through various countries. His most significant deal came with the sale of several French 155mm self-propelled howitzers that cost an estimated $1.4 billion.[7]
Iraqi leaders had initially approached the Reagan administration on the purchase of American 175mm artillery, were turned down but then encouraged by American officials to procure the weapons through private arms dealers.[8] The Iraqis turned to Soghanalian, then based in Miami, Florida in 1981, who in turn approached several European governments. He found France's leader, François Mitterrand, open to the idea so long as the deal was kept secret since Iran was holding French hostages at the time and so did not wish to risk further worsening relations with it. The U.S. encouraged Mitterrand to move forward with the sale, which was entitled "Vulcan", as it passed through a complex set of transactions.[9]
Soghanalian defended the sales when they were revealed on the eve of the Persian Gulf War in January 1991. He stated that "We didn't give him those weapons to fight U.S. forces. The weapons were given to him to fight the common enemy at that time. Which he did. There was no need to have direct confrontation with him and endanger American troops."[1] His other transactions to Iraq also included artillery from South Africa, which he routed through Austria, acting as a "middle man" to bypass the United Nations' sanctions.[10] Soghanalian helped sell to the Iraqi army military uniforms worth $280,000,000 from Romania.[1]
In an interview on 60 Minutes, Soghanalian stated that top-level American officials were aware from the beginning of his deals in Iraq including former US President Richard Nixon, former Vice-President Spiro Agnew, Nixon's chief of staff Colonel Jack Brennan and attorney general John N. Mitchell. Encouraged by other senior officials, Nixon had written a letter on behalf of him to expedite the sale of the uniforms to Iraq. He continued on to say that "They were not only in the uniform business. They would sell their mothers if they could, just to make the money."[10] Soghanalian also predicted that the ensuing war between coalition troops and Iraq would become a lengthy and costly conflict much like the Iran–Iraq War because of the experience of Iraqi troops and the weapons it possessed; this assertion proved to be incorrect as the war "concluded within two months".[citation needed]

Arrest and conviction

Soghanalian's testimony damaged the reputation of many American government officials. The United States Congress however stated that his revelations had been found to be "extremely disturbing to every American. They are disturbing to Mr. Soghanalian. He gives a first-hand description of official and unofficial American involvement in the enormous buildup of arms to Saddam Hussein."[10]
His testimony lead to the George H. W. Bush administration open criminal charges in 1991 and convicted him on six counts for possession of armament and intent to sell to Iraq. The weapons included 103 helicopter gunships from the Hughes Helicopters corporation and two rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers from a 1983 deal.[citation needed] A year later, he was fined $20,000 and sentenced to six years in prison. However, in 1993 his sentence was reduced to two years; although the exact reasons remain unknown, his attorney stated that Soghanalian had given intelligence to US law-enforcement officials which led them to an unsuccessful attempt to break up a $100 billion counterfeiting operation in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon. In 1995, after he was released, he moved to France and opened offices there and in Amman, Jordan.[citation needed]

Peru

In 1999 Soghanalian arranged for an air drop of 10,000 AK-47 assault rifles, originally from East Germany and Jordan, intended for use by the Peruvian government but most of it fell into the possession of the Colombian leftist guerrilla organization FARC, which were opposed to the US-backed government of Colombia.[11] Soghanalian had been able to purchase the rifles for $55 apiece in addition to a $20 transportation, and "shipping and handling" fee. Several months later, it was revealed that the CIA had backed the deal to arm Peruvian intelligence head Vladimiro Montesinos.[1]

Inspiration for Lord of War

The main character of the 2005 film Lord of War was Yuri Orlov, a fictional international arms trader during the 1980s and 1990s. The character, a US-raised Ukrainian, was a composite of at least five real life arms dealers, including Soghanalian.[12]

Death

Soghanalian died on October 5, 2011 at the Hialeah Hospital in Hialeah, Florida.[13]


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Dickey Betts died he was 80

Early Career Forrest Richard Betts was also known as Dickey Betts Betts collaborated with  Duane Allman , introducing melodic twin guitar ha...