Remembrance: Richard Eberhart, 101, Poet Who Wed Sense and Intellect, Is Dead

With their concern for the natural world, and their persistent exploration of the tension between spirit and matter, Mr. Eberhart’s poems hark back to the Romantic tradition of Blake and Wordsworth. (He parted company with full-blown Romanticism through his use of short lines and irregular rhythms.) His style typically married an almost naïve description of sensory images with an erudite intellectualism. Though some critics found this marriage forced, for others it succeeded far more often than not.

By MARGALIT FOX
New York Times
Published: June 14, 2005

Remembrance: Pamela May, Ballerina Who Created Roles in Britain, Is Dead at 88

Pamela May, a leading British dancer in the early years of the Royal Ballet who helped that company, then called Sadler’s Wells Ballet, take New York by storm in 1949, died on Monday, the Royal Ballet announced in London. She was 88.

By ANNA KISSELGOFF
New York Times
Published: June 11, 2005

Missing: My Father

When a parent dies, as I have lately learned, you are at first flooded with emotion and memory. I reveled in this reassuring presence, rising up to fill the hole left by my father’s disappearance. But as the weeks go by the bite of grief recedes and you forget the little things you took for granted – the shape of his face, the sound of his voice, the timbre of his laugh – and you begin to fear the loss is permanent, a loss beyond recovery.

By ADAM BELLOW
New York Times
Published: June 10, 2005

Remembrance: Anne Bancroft, Stage and Film Star in Voracious and Vulnerable Roles, Dies at 73

Anne Bancroft, the stage and film star whose signature triumphs in a 50-year career ranged from the courageous Annie Sullivan in “The Miracle Worker” to the hungrily seductive Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate,” died on Monday at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. She was 73 and had homes in Manhattan and Los Angeles. The cause was uterine cancer, said John Barlow, a spokesman for Ms. Bancroft’s husband, Mel Brooks.

By ROBERT BERKVIST
New York Times
Published: June 7, 2005

Remembrance: Leslie Smith, 87, a Matchbox Car Creator, Dies

Leslie Smith, who for several decades after World War II was the world’s largest automaker, at least in part because he made the world’s smallest autos, died on May 26 at his home in North London. Mr. Smith, a founder, president and longtime chief executive of Matchbox Toys, was 87.

By MARGALIT FOX
New York Times
Published: June 4, 2005

Remembrance: Eddie Albert, Character Actor, Dies at 99

Eddie Albert, a film and television actor known for his evocative portrayals of characters who ranged from the avuncular to the befuddled to the monomaniacal, died on Thursday at his home near Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 99.

By MARGALIT FOX
New York Times
Published: May 28, 2005

Remembrance: Ismail Merchant, Producer of Sumptuous and Literate Films, Dies at 68

Ismail Merchant, whose filmmaking collaboration with James Ivory created a genre of films with visually sumptuous settings that told literate tales of individuals trying to adapt to shifting societal values, died yesterday in a London hospital. He was 68.

By WARREN HOGE
New York Times
Published: May 26, 2005

Remembrance: Henry Corden, 85, Dies; Voiced Fred Flintstone

Henry Corden, the voice of the cartoon caveman Fred Flintstone, with his “Yabba dabba doo!,” for more than two decades, died on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 85.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 21, 2005

Frank Gorshin, ‘Batman’ Riddler, Dies at 72

Frank Gorshin, a prolific actor and impressionist whose career was long identified with a questionable character, the Riddler on television’s original “Batman,” but later highlighted by his Broadway impersonation of a more amiable one, George Burns, died on Tuesday in Burbank, Calif. He was 72.

By JESSE McKINLEY
New York Times
Published: May 19, 2005

Remembrance: James D. Houston, Writer On Eskimo Life

Confessions of an Igloo Dweller
by James Houston

From 1948 to 1962, Canadian artist-writer James Houston lived among Inuit residents of Arctic Quebec. (He uses the term Inuit rather than Eskimo, which has recently fallen out of favor.) He was one of the first white men to appreciate the value of Inuit carvings and initiated a program to gather, sell, and display in galleries the ivory, antler, whalebone, and stone artifacts.

Sprinkled in the text are 40 of his drawings, which illustrate such commonly used items as a seal-oil lamp, copper-mine ulu, and goose-wing brush. Reading Houston’s memoirs, you become inspired by his joy at living in and learning about the Canadian Arctic.