Company spokeswoman Samantha Garrett said McQueen’s body was discovered in the morning but that she had no information “in terms of circumstances.” Police did not directly comment when asked about how McQueen died, but said the death was not being treated as suspicious.

Known for his dramatic statement pieces and impeccable tailoring, McQueen received recognition from Queen Elizabeth II in 2003, when she made him a Commander of the British Empire for his fashion leadership.

“McQueen influenced a whole generation of designers. His brilliant imagination knew no bounds as he conjured up collection after collection of extraordinary designs,” said Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue.

“At one level he was a master of the fantastic, creating astounding fashions shows that mixed design, technology and performance and on another he was a modern day genius whose gothic aesthetic was adopted by women the world over.”

He received his training at the Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, long recognized for its fashion-forward approach and encouragement of young designers.

McQueen worked for traditional Savile Row tailors Anderson and Sheppard and also Gieves and Hawkes before branching out into his own more theatrical designs.

He became chief designer at the renowned Givenchy house in 1996 and moved to Gucci as creative director in 2001.

His runway shows – more often like performance pieces because they were so dramatic, and sometimes, bizarre – were always a highlight during the Paris ready-to-wear fashion week.

One of his previous collections included a show built around the concept of recycling, with models donning extravagance headwear made out of trash. His last collection, shown in October in Paris, featured extravagant and highly structured cocktail dresses.

His edgy creations have been seen on numerous red carpets, worn by celebrities including Lady Gaga, Sandra Bullock, and Cameron Diaz.

His work was widely praised in New York City on Thursday by fashion writers leaving the BCBG show, the opener at New York Fashion Week at Bryant Park.

Hal Rubenstein, a fashion director for InStyle magazine, said McQueen started out tough and angry – in his work and attitude – but softened over time as he felt more appreciated by the industry. McQueen, he said, was a master of integration of technology into fashion.

“He changed the way so many of us see shows,” said Rubenstein.

Cindy Weber Cleary, another of the magazine’s fashion directors, said of McQueen: “He was a huge talent, a master of tailoring and always willing to push the envelope. He was forward thinking.”

Cindi Leive, editor in chief of Glamour magazine, said: “Everyone in this tent is shocked. … He was obviously incredibly talented and had a creative energy. There was a real sense of energy in everything he did.”

Leive said he was “always extreme” in his collections.

McQueen’s death came days before London Fashion Week, although McQueen was not scheduled to show in the British capital.

Fashion guru Isabella Blow, who helped launch McQueen’s career, committed suicide almost three years ago.

He didn’t co-sponsor a bill repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Murtha’s views were still evolving. He had refused to sponsor ENDA, the hate crimes prevention act – and refused to sign a voluntary statement saying he would not discriminate in hiring – as recently as 2002. And this past year, he came out against tax equity for same-sex domestic partners and the Uniting American Families Act, which would allow US citizens to sponsor their foreign national gay partners for citizenship.

Associated Press obit below.

(Harrisburg, Penn.) Rep. John Murtha, a retired Marine Corps officer who became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress and later an outspoken and influential critic of the Iraq War, died Monday. He was 77.

The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.

Murtha was an officer in the Marine Reserves when he was elected in 1974. Ethical questions often shadowed his congressional service, but he was best known for being among Congress’ most hawkish Democrats. He wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.

Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but his growing frustration over the administration’s handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion,” he said.

Murtha’s opposition to the Iraq war rattled Washington, where the tall, gruff-mannered congressman enjoyed bipartisan respect for his work on military issues. On Capitol Hill, Murtha was seen as speaking for those in uniform when it came to military matters.

William Russell, Murtha’s GOP opponent in the 2008 election, who was planning to challenge him again in November, asked in a statement Monday that people pray for the Murtha family and said his campaign would suspend activity for a few days.

“Regardless of your political position, you always knew Jack had an immense love and loyalty to his family and the residents of the 12th Congressional District,” Russell said.

Born June 17, 1932, John Patrick Murtha delivered newspapers and worked at a gas station before graduating from Ramsay High School in Mount Pleasant, Pa.

Military service was in Murtha’s blood. He said his great-grandfather served in the Civil War, his father and three uncles in World War II, and his brothers in the Marine Corps.

He left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division.

Murtha moved back to Johnstown and remained with the Marine Reserves until he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He served as an intelligence officer there from 1966 to 1967 and received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

After his discharge from the Marines, Murtha ran a small business in Johnstown. He went to the University of Pittsburgh on the GI Bill of rights, graduating in 1962 with a degree in economics.

He served in the Pennsylvania House in Harrisburg from 1969 until he was elected to Congress in a special election in 1974. In 1990, he retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel.

“Ever since I was a young boy, I had two goals in life – I wanted to be a colonel in the Marine Corps and a member of Congress,” Murtha wrote in his 2004 book, “From Vietnam to 9/11.”

Murtha’s criticism of the Iraq war intensified in 2006, when he accused Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians “in cold blood” at Haditha, Iraq, after one Marine died and two were wounded by a roadside bomb.

Critics said Murtha unfairly held the Marines responsible before an investigation was concluded and fueled enemy retaliation. He said that the war couldn’t be won militarily and that such incidents dimmed the prospect for a political solution.

“This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people,” Murtha said. “And we’re set back every time something like this happens.”

In 2008, the Republican Party used Murtha’s words against him in TV ads aired less than a month before the election. The ads cited his criticism of the Haditha incident, as well as his comment about “racist” voting tendencies of many western Pennsylvania residents. Still, Murtha handily won his 18th full term.

Murtha was a perennial target of critics of so-called pay-to-play politics. He routinely drew the attention of ethical watchdogs with off-the-floor activities, from his entanglement in the Abscam corruption probe three decades ago to the more recent scrutiny of the connection between special-interest spending known as earmarks and the raising of cash for campaigns.

Murtha defended the practice of earmarking. The money, he said, benefited his constituents.

Murtha became chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee in 1989. The same year Paul Magliocchetti, a former subcommittee staffer, left Capitol Hill to found the now-defunct PMA Group. The lobbying firm, which specialized in obtaining earmarks for defense contractors, was one Murtha’s biggest sources of campaign cash.

In 2007 and 2008, Murtha and two fellow Democrats on the subcommittee directed $137 million to defense contractors who were paying PMA to get them government business. Between 1989 and 2009, Murtha collected more than $2.3 million in campaign contributions from PMA’s lobbyists and corporate clients, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political money.

Shortly after the 2008 election, the FBI raided PMA’s offices as part of a criminal investigation. In a separate development in January 2009, FBI agents raided the offices of a defense contractor from Murtha’s district – Windber-based Kuchera Defense Systems Inc. – that had received millions of dollars in earmarks sponsored by Murtha while contributing tens of thousands to his campaigns.

A year later, Kuchera was suspended from bidding on government contracts because of allegations that it paid more than $200,000 in kickbacks to another defense contractor.

Around the same time, the House ethics committee was investigating the link between PMA-related campaign contributions and earmarks, but it had not named a subcommittee to look into possible violations by individual lawmakers.

Murtha’s critics recall the Abscam corruption probe, in which the FBI caught him on videotape in a 1980 sting operation turning down a $50,000 bribe offer while holding out the possibility that he might take money in the future.

“We do business for a while, maybe I’ll be interested and maybe I won’t,” Murtha said on the tape.

Six congressmen and one senator were convicted in that case. Murtha was not charged, but the government named him as an unindicted co-conspirator and he testified against two other congressmen.

Murtha’s district encompasses all or part of nine counties in southwestern Pennsylvania and embodies the region’s stereotypes of coal mines, steel mills and blue-collar values.

Constituents credited Murtha with bringing jobs and health care to the region, delivering hundreds of millions of dollars for local industry, hospitals and tourism. Critics derisively nicknamed Murtha the “king of pork” and said he used his position on the defense subcommittee to win favors.

Murtha often delivered Democratic votes to Republican leaders in exchange for the funding of pet projects. He wasn’t shy about such deals, once saying that “dealmaking is what Congress is all about.”

In 2006, when the Democrats captured control of the House for the first time in 12 years, Rep. Nancy Pelosi endorsed Murtha to become majority leader. Pelosi, D-Calif., went on to be elected as the first female House speaker, but caucus members picked Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., as their leader.

The 21-year-old Burke died after his car slid sideways into the path of another car on a snowy Indiana road on Friday. Burke’s friend, 18-year-old Mark Reedy of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., also died in the accident.

“It’s just a terrible tragedy,” said Red Wings forward Todd Bertuzzi, who spent one season with Anaheim while Burke was GM for the Ducks. “I think anyone with kids kind of rethinks everything. I happened to be a pretty good friend of Brian’s. What can you say? Your heart goes out to their family.”

Maple Leafs players found out about the accident after a loss in New Jersey on Friday night.

Toronto’s Francois Beauchemin also played for Burke in Anaheim and recalled celebrating the Ducks’ 2007 Stanley Cup win at a gathering with Brendan.

“You never think, ‘that’s going to happen to me,’” Beauchemin said after Saturday’s pregame skate. “But when it happens to somebody really close, like Brian, you kind of do think about it. It can happen any time, and it’s really tough.”

Brian Burke is also the general manager of the U.S. Olympic team that will begin play in Vancouver on Feb. 16.

“It’s the worst news you could ever receive,” Leafs forward Christian Hanson said. “I don’t think there’s anything that can be worse than losing a family member.”

The driver of the truck was reportedly uninjured.

Brendan Burke attended Miami of Ohio and was a manager for the school’s top-ranked hockey team. The team was told of Burke’s death as it left the ice following a game on Friday.

“There were a lot of tears shed,” said Jim Stephan, assistant media relations director in the school’s athletic department. “I really feel like they lost a teammate. Burkie, to them, was not just a student manager, or somebody who was around the locker room. He was a real friend to them.”

Burke made news last year after ESPN.com ran a story about his decision to tell his father he was gay.

“I had a million good reasons to love and admire Brendan,” Brian Burke said in the story. “This news didn’t alter any of them.”

Irene Miller, a member of the board of directors for the Toronto chapter of PFLAG – Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays – said she began using the article as a teaching tool.

“He came across as a well-adjusted, confident, happy-in-himself, courageous and brave young man,” Miller said. “I felt that story would change so many families across Canada, particularly because so many young boys are expected to grow up playing with a hockey stick and make their dads happy.”

Father and son discussed the news during a joint appearance on Canadian television station TSN last year. Brendan Burke said while he was initially nervous about coming out to his father, he knew he would find support.

“I was surprised, but Brendan’s a wonderful kid,” Brian Burke said in the interview. “He’s been a joy since the day he came home from the hospital, and I support him. I’m very proud of him.”

Burke said he told his son he loved him.

“He’s supported me with everything I’ve done in the past,” Brendan Burke said during the interview. “I knew he would support me on this, too, and it really meant a lot. My whole family has been there for me, and been behind me 100 percent.”

Both men said the positive feedback overwhelmed any of the negative they might have received.

“Pioneers are often misunderstood,” Brian Burke told TSN. “You don’t wish this on your son, you wish that someone else carries that burden first, and then he can grab it and help. But this is what he wanted to do, and we support him.”

Leafs goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere also played for Burke in Anaheim and knew his son.

“It’s really sad,” Giguere said. “I don’t think we can even comprehend what Burkie is going through at this point. I think, right now, it’s best to just let him grieve and make sure that we do our job here at the rink to make sure he doesn’t have to worry about that.

Mosbacher died after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer, family spokesman Jim McGrath.

The Texan was a powerful Republican fundraiser who served at the top echelons of Bush’s presidential campaigns and most recently served as a general campaign chairman for 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

As commerce secretary, Mosbacher helped lay the foundation for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

But what many did not know is that Mosbacher also walked a “delicate line” between the GOP’s right wing views on gays and his own personal views, which were shaped when his daughter Diane, known as Dee, came out as a lesbian.

Said the Washington Post:

At the Republican National Convention [in 1992], conservative television pundit Pat Buchanan declared “cultural war” on homosexuals and delegates waved placards reading “Family Rights Forever/Gay Rights Never.”

In support of his daughter, Mr. Mosbacher agreed to meet with gay leaders, reportedly making the Bush administration the first to be briefed on gay issues.The party’s evangelical right pilloried Mr. Mosbacher. His daughter told The Post, “Dad said … he didn’t know what else family values is if it’s not supporting your kids and who they are.”

Mosbacher was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y. and grew up in White Plains. He graduated from the Choate School and earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Washington and Lee University in 1947.

The following year, he moved to Houston and built a highly successful oil and gas company that would have interests in U.S. and international markets. Bush described Mosbacher as “an honorable and a first-rate businessman, and perhaps the shrewdest dealmaker I ever knew.”

Mosbacher got into politics in the early 1960s, working as a fundraiser for various Republican candidates in southeast Texas and also managing then Vice President Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign in Harris County, which includes Houston.

Mosbacher was chief fundraiser of Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign, and after Bush’s victory, was appointed commerce secretary. He was the main official responsible for promoting NAFTA, which was later signed into law during the Clinton administration.

In 1995, Mosbacher supported efforts to eliminate the Commerce Department, saying it was no longer necessary and a “prime example of how the federal bureaucracy has gotten too big and too expensive.”

In his political career, Mosbacher managed the national fundraising operations of five different GOP presidential campaigns – from Gerald Ford in 1976 to McCain.

Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker worked with Mosbacher on several campaigns and in Bush’s cabinet and was a friend.

“He always provided candor, intelligence, and a special sense of joy for life that was Texas-sized in its grandness,” Baker said in a statement. “My wife Susan and I are saddened by his death. We have lost a special friend, and our prayers are with his family.”

Mosbacher was also an accomplished sailor, amassing numerous titles in New York and Texas. He was involved in charitable projects, helping start the Odyssey Academy Charter School in Galveston and supporting the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said Bush, who borrowed a phrase from his 1989 inaugural address in describing Mosbacher as “a true Point of Light.”

Mosbacher was married four times, including to Georgette Mosbacher, a flashy socialite and cosmetics entrepreneur whose animated personality and red hair made her a popular subject of gossip columnists when the couple was in Washington, D.C. The couple divorced in 1998.

Archerd’s wife, Selma, said he died Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs strongly tied to asbestos exposure. She said the cancer was the result of his time spent in shipyards while serving in the Navy during World War II. She said he had become very ill over the last two years, especially in the last two weeks.

“He was the love of my life,” said Selma.

Over the years, Archerd won praise from the Hollywood establishment for always checking the accuracy of his news tips before printing them. He had an extensive phone directory of much-guarded private numbers that he would use to call movie stars and studio bosses directly to ferret out which rumors were true and which were not.

His biggest scoop came in 1985 when he was first to report that veteran leading man Rock Hudson had AIDS. It was the first time a major Hollywood star was disclosed to be an AIDS victim, and it helped break down some of the secrecy surrounding the disease.

Archerd – born Armand Archerd in New York in 1922 – also broke the story that Julia Roberts had jilted fiance Keifer Sutherland in 1991 and that longtime bachelor Warren Beatty had married Annette Bening in 1992. His source for the Beatty-Bening story was Beatty himself.

“I know it sounds like a cliche,” said Selma, “but the time we spent together, it was just an outstanding life of knowing the most gorgeous people in the world, being very well accepted by them, traveling all over the world like millionaires, even though we were poor.”

For more than 50 years, Archerd also served as the greeter-interviewer at the Academy Awards. Acting nominees and other celebrities were conducted to a platform alongside the red carpet for a brief chat with Archerd that was heard by the thousands of fans gathered outside the theater.

“I try to give the nominees a little moment in the sun, maybe their last,” he explained in 2002.

Archerd’s columns were generally mild-mannered, although he could lash out at what he considered wrongdoing. After he excoriated Michael Jackson for including anti-Semitic remarks in his “HIStory” album, the entertainer apologized and took them out.

Archerd’s first brush with the studios came in the early 1940s when he worked in the Paramount mailroom while a student at the University of California, Los Angeles.

After wartime service in the Navy, he returned to Los Angeles and began his news career working with longtime entertainment reporter Bob Thomas on a daily Hollywood column for The Associated Press.

Three years later he became an aide to Harrison Carroll, the gossip columnist for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

In 1953 he was chosen to write Daily Variety’s “Just for Variety” column, which was required morning reading for Hollywood’s movers and shakers. He later went on to become one of the first journalists to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His marriage to Joan Archerd, which produced two children, Amanda and Evan, ended in divorce in 1969 after 25 years. He married his second wife, Selma, in 1970.

Archerd is survived by his wife, his son and two stepsons.

The son of the country’s most famous Catholic family defied church teachings when he divorced his first wife, then was granted an annulment only after he admitted he wasn’t being honest when he promised her he’d be faithful. His most significant and public break with the church came with his support for abortion rights.

Yet Kennedy also advocated for signature Catholic causes, such as help for the poor, health care and immigration reform, and opposition to the Iraq war. His faith remained a regular part of his life until it ended this week with a priest at his bedside.

The apparently conflicting portrait of a man loyal to the church despite widening disagreement on key issues “almost perfectly represents” the views of most American Catholics, said Boston College professor Alan Wolfe.

“He’s an effect of a process that’s been going on for a very long time that started long before Teddy Kennedy was born and will continue long after Teddy Kennedy is dead,” Wolfe said.

Kennedy’s mother, Rose Kennedy, set the roots of his faith, emphasizing Christ’s teaching in the Gospels that “to whom much is given, much will be required.” When her kids were teens, she made sure they went to a weekend religious camp every year, even if they’d rather be sailing, said Adam Clymer, who worked with Kennedy on his biography. She took them to church during the week, so they knew church wasn’t just for Sundays.

In his eulogy during her 1995 funeral, Kennedy called his mother’s faith “the greatest gift she gave us.”

A commitment to Catholicism was not always evident in Kennedy’s personal life, which was marred by problems with alcohol and philandering. In 1983, he was forbidden from receiving communion after his divorce – which the church forbids – from his first wife, Joan.

The public learned more than a decade later that he’d been granted an annulment after he was seen accepting Communion at his mother’s funeral. Joan later said that Kennedy requested the annulment, which she did not oppose, on grounds that his marriage vow to be faithful had not been honestly made, Clymer said.

Kennedy never discussed his annulment and also rarely spoke publicly of his Catholicism.

“I think faith oftentimes is deeply felt in the marrow of your bones, it’s a matter of the heart,” said Kennedy’s friend, the Rev. Gerry Creedon, a Washington-area priest. “He had trouble articulating his inner feelings, his deepest conviction and matters of emotion, the heart.”

One of Kennedy’s longest discussions of his faith came in 1983 in an unlikely place – political foe Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University:

“I am an American and a Catholic; I love my country and treasure my faith,” Kennedy said. “But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct, or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society. I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it?”

In the same speech, Kennedy referred to abortion, criticizing some religious people for wanting government to “tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives.” His pro-abortion rights stance was a flip from early in his career and tough for many Catholics to accept, even those who admire his other work in other areas they consider “pro-life” – such as anti-war, anti-poverty and anti-death penalty causes.

“There’s this big, ‘What if?’” said Catholic author Michael Sean Winters. “If Ted Kennedy had stuck to his pro-life position, would both the (Democratic) party and the country have embraced the abortion on demand policies that we have now? And I don’t think so.”

Russell Shaw, former spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said when Kennedy defied the church on issues such as abortion and later, gay marriage, he reinforced a corrosive belief among Catholics that they can simply ignore teachings they don’t agree with.

Kennedy’s differences with the church never kept him from Mass. When he was in Washington, Kennedy would attend Blessed Sacrament Church in Chevy Chase, Md., and sometimes stop in at St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill, said Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the Washington Archdiocese. In his last days, Kennedy leaned hard on his faith. Creedon said he visited with Kennedy last Friday, offering him a blessing and praying the Lord’s Prayer with him.

“He just was a man of deep piety and devotion, as well as public commitments in the area of the Gospel,” Creedon said.

Kennedy’s relationship with the Catholic church was rocky, Shaw said, but there’s no doubt it was enduring. Judging the quality of Kennedy’s faith isn’t for him, he said.

“Now it’s up to God,” he said.

Dunne’s son, Griffin Dunne, said in a statement released by Vanity Fair magazine that his father had been battling bladder cancer. But the cancer had not prevented Dunne from working and socializing, his twin passions.

In September 2008, against his doctor’s orders and his family’s wishes, Dunne flew to Las Vegas to attend Simpson’s kidnap-robbery trial, a postscript to his coverage of the football great’s 1995 murder trial, which spiked Dunne’s considerable fame.

In the past year, Dunne had traveled to Germany and the Dominican Republic for experimental stem cell treatments to fight his cancer. He wrote that he and actress Farrah Fawcett were in the same clinic in Bavaria but didn’t see each other. Fawcett, a 1970s sex symbol and TV star of “Charlie’s Angels,” died in June at age 62.

Dunne discontinued his Vanity Fair column to concentrate on finishing another novel, “Too Much Money,” which is to come out in December. He also made a number of appearances to promote a documentary film about his life, “After the Party,” which was being released on DVD.

Dunne, who lived in Manhattan, was beginning to write his memoirs and until recently had posted messages on his Web site commenting on events in his life and thanking his fans for their support.

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter praised Dunne as a gifted reporter who proved as fascinating as the people he wrote about.

“Anyone who remembers the sight of O.J. Simpson trying on the famous glove probably remembers a bespectacled Dunne, resplendent in his trademark Turnbull & Asser monogrammed shirt, on the court bench behind him,” Carter wrote in a statement released Wednesday. “It is fair to say that the halls of Vanity Fair will be lonelier without him and that, indeed, we will not see his like anytime soon, if ever again.”

Earlier this summer, Dunne was well enough to attend a Manhattan party hosted by Tina Brown. Chatting with an Associated Press reporter, he spoke of Michael Jackson, who recently had died, and remembered lunching with the singer and Elizabeth Taylor. Jackson was so excited to see her, Dunne said, he presented her with a diamond necklace just for the occasion.

Dunne was part of a famous family that also included his brother, novelist and screenwriter John Gregory Dunne; his brother’s wife, author Joan Didion; and his son Griffin.

A one-time movie producer, Dunne carved a new career starting in the 1980s as a chronicler of the problems of the wealthy and powerful.

Tragedy struck his life in 1982 when his actress daughter, Dominique Dunne, was slain – and that experience informed his later fiction and journalistic efforts.

“If you go through what I went through, losing my daughter, you have strong, strong feelings of revenge,” Dunne said in 1990 in discussing his novel “People Like Us,” in which the protagonist shoots the man convicted of killing his daughter.

“I intended for Gus (the character in the book) to kill the guy. But when I got to that part I couldn’t write it. He wounds him and goes to prison himself for a couple of years,” Dunne said.

He was as successful a journalist as he was a novelist and spent many of his later years in courtrooms covering high profile trials. Writing for Vanity Fair, he covered such cases as the William Kennedy Smith rape trial in 1991 and the trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez, accused of murdering their millionaire parents, in 1993.

As riveting as those trials were, they were far overshadowed in 1994, when Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. With a trial that stretched out over a year and cable TV outlets providing endless coverage, Dunne became a familiar face to millions.

“I especially like to watch the jurors,” Dunne explained to Fox TV during the trial. “I always pick out about four jurors who become my favorites. I sort of try to anticipate what they are thinking and how they are reacting.”

He called his book on the Simpson trial, “a novel in the form of a memoir.” It, too, became a best seller.

From the gritty world of the courtroom during the day, he would move into the glamorous realm of high society at night, dining with the rich and famous, charming them with his inside stories of the Simpson trial.

He was a colorful raconteur and his stories mesmerized listeners. He was a much sought after dinner guest on both coasts and in the glamour capitals of Europe, where he frequently traveled. He was a regular at the Cannes Film Festival, interviewing members of royalty and movie stars.

His assignments took him to London to cover the inquest into Princess Diana’s death and to Monaco to look into the mysterious death of billionaire Edmond Safra.

He continued appearing regularly on television, and in 2002 debuted a weekly program on Court TV, “Power, Privilege and Justice.” The show gave him an added dose of celebrity when it was distributed in foreign countries.

He had already been working on “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles,” a fictionalized retelling of a sensational 1950s society murder, when his 22-year-old daughter was strangled by her former boyfriend, John Sweeney, shortly after she had completed her first movie, “Poltergeist.”

Sweeney was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, not murder, and was freed after serving less than four years of a six-year sentence. The verdict was seen as a major victory for the defense, and Dunne bitterly told the judge in court, “you withheld important information from this jury about this man’s history of violent behavior.” He later told the Los Angeles Times the sentence was “a tap on the wrist.”

In a 1985 AP interview, Dunne said he nearly stopped writing when his daughter was slain because he didn’t want to do a book that dealt with murder, but his editor wouldn’t let him quit.

“She was incredibly sympathetic and lenient on time,” he said. “I’m glad now that she didn’t let me quit.”

Among his other books were the 1993 “A Season in Purgatory,” which helped revive interest in the 1975 slaying of teenager Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Conn. A Kennedy relative, Michael Skakel, was convicted in the killing in 2002.

Dunne also wrote “An Inconvenient Woman” and “The Mansions of Limbo.”

In 1999, Dunne published a memoir called “The Way We Lived Then,” a compilation of photographs of him and his family with famous people and his recollections of the glamour life he and his wife enjoyed for many years.

Dunne was born in 1925 in Hartford, Conn., to a wealthy Roman Catholic family and grew up in some of the same social circles as the Kennedys. The memoir traced his fascination with Hollywood to a childhood trip he took “out West” with an aunt. They took one of those homes of the stars bus tours and he vowed to come back and be part of the glamorous world he had glimpsed.

He served in the Army during World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism in 1944 for carrying two wounded men to safety at the Battle of Merz in Feisberg, Germany. “Winning a medal was the only thing I can ever remember doing that won any admiration from my father,” he later wrote.

At Williams College in Massachusetts, he and a fellow student, Stephen Sondheim, appeared in plays together. After graduating in 1949, he went to New York where he landed a job in the fledgling TV industry as stage manager of the “Howdy Doody” show. NBC took him to Hollywood to stage manage the TV version of “The Petrified Forest” with Humphrey Bogart.

Among his producer credits were the TV series “Adventures in Paradise” and “The Boys in the Band,” a pioneering 1970 drama about gay life. His brother and sister-in-law co-wrote two of his films, “The Panic in Needle Park” and “Play It As It Lays.”

Dunne and his wife, Ellen Griffin Dunne, known as Lenny, were married in 1954. They divorced in the 1960s but he wrote that afterward they remained close nonetheless. She died in 1997.

Beside Dominique, they had two sons, Alexander and Griffin. Griffin has acted in such films as “An American Werewolf in London” and “After Hours.” He branched into directing and producing, with “Fierce People” and “Practical Magic” among his credits.

Sen. Edward Kennedy died last night at 77, after a year-long struggle with brain cancer. This morning, several gay organizations released statements and a few bloggers commented. We’ll add more as they come in.

From HRC:

Human Rights Campaign Statement on the Passing of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, issued the following statement today on the passing of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA).

“The nation has lost its greatest champion and strongest voice for justice, fairness, and compassion,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.  “The loss to our community is immeasurable.  There was no greater hero for advocates of LGBT equality than Senator Ted Kennedy.  From the early days of the AIDS epidemic , to our current struggle for marriage equality he has been our protector, our leader, our friend.  He has been the core of the unfinished quest for civil rights in this country and there is now a very painful void.  Our hearts go out to the Kennedy family.”

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

From AfterElton:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy died late Tuesday night at the age of 77. His death is a particular sad loss for the GLBT community, because he was throughout his career a strong supporter of civil rights, including gay civil rights.

He fought DOMA, declaring his view that the legislation was unconstitutional. This year he introduced and fought for a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Bill (ENDA).

He was known as the “Lion of the Senate” and was certainly the most influential liberal politician of our times. Arguably, his endorsement of Barack Obama was what allowed the President to defeat Hilary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

But he leaves with his greatest cause, the one for universal health care, still not answered.

Just my guess, but whatever health care legislation results this year, it will most likely be called the “Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Act.”

From the Victory Fund:

Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund President and CEO Chuck Wolfe issued the following statement today on the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy:

“Good men serve others but great men take care to serve the least fortunate.  Senator Kennedy was a great man.  He made a career of fighting for the poor, for women, for racial minorities, and for basic human rights for LGBT Americans.

“Senator Kennedy’s life was marked by generosity and a legendary tenacity that earned him the respect of his colleagues and the affection of the public he served.  But he will always occupy a special place in the hearts of LGBT Americans, who saw in him a fierce champion for their full equality.

“Senator Kennedy was a strong supporter of the work of the Victory Fund, offering his time and endorsing our mission to elect LGBT candidates to public office.  We mourn the loss of our friend and patron, and we urge good men and women who possess the passion and commitment of people like Senator Kennedy to follow him into public service and emulate his intense dedication to that profession.”

From Law Dork:

Tonight is a sad moment for progressive action in America. . .

I remember, more than a decade ago, working at various D.C. entities, and feeling the remarkable presence of Senator Kennedy throughout Democratic and liberal causes.  It always appeared that he or his spirit were motivating much if not all liberal successes of the day.

I later learned that it was not just the day, it was Kennedy.

He was not a perfect politician or a perfect person, but he taught — and often reminded — much of today’s Democratic party about our ideals — and the worthwhile struggles we all face to reach toward them.

One of the 14 Senators who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, Sen. Kennedy was a strong supporter of lesbian and gay equality before it was even vaguely popular — in any crowd — to do so.  Even earlier, in 1993, Kennedy replaced the retired California Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston as the chief sponsor of the “gay rights bill” that was then being introduced in the Senate.  Ted Kennedy was one of the stalwart — and much needed — voices of equality in our nation, and I particularly mourn for this loss….

In his struggle to do good by his brothers, and for our nation, Ted Kennedy has done well.

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In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy, a liberal Democrat, served alongside 10 presidents – his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy among them – compiling an impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more.

His only run for the White House ended in defeat in 1980. More than a quarter-century later, he handed then-Sen. Barack Obama an endorsement at a critical point in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, explicitly likening the young contender to President Kennedy.

To the American public, Kennedy was best known as the last surviving son of America’s most glamorous political family, father figure and, memorably, eulogist of an Irish-American clan plagued again and again by tragedy.

Kennedy’s death triggered an outpouring of superlatives, from Democrats and Republicans as well as foreign leaders.

“An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States senator of our time,” Obama said in a written statement.

“For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts,” said Obama, vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast.

Kennedy’s family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday.

“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” the statement said. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all.”

A few hours later, two vans left the family compound at Hyannis Port in pre-dawn darkness. Both bore hearse license plates – with the word “hearse” blacked out.

There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements. Two of Kennedy’s brothers, John and Robert, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada issued a statement that said, “It was the thrill of my lifetime to work with Ted Kennedy…..The liberal lion’s mighty roar may now fall silent, but his dream shall never die.”

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan said that her husband and Kennedy “could always find common ground, and they had great respect for one another.”

Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962, taking the seat that his brother John had occupied before winning the White House, and served longer than all but two senators in history.

His own hopes of reaching the White House were damaged – perhaps doomed – in 1969 by the scandal that came to be known as Chappaquiddick, an auto accident that left a young woman dead. He sought the White House more than a decade later, lost the Democratic nomination to President Jimmy Carter, and bowed out with a stirring valedictory that echoed across the decades: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”

Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent surgery and a grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.

He made a surprise return to the Capitol last summer to cast the decisive vote for the Democrats on Medicare. He made sure he was there again last January to see his former Senate colleague Barack Obama sworn in as the nation’s first black president, but suffered a seizure at a celebratory luncheon afterward.

He also made a surprise and forceful appearance at last summer’s Democratic National Convention, where he spoke of his own illness and said health care was the cause of his life. His death occurred precisely one year later, almost to the hour.

He was away from the Senate for much of this year, leaving Republicans and Democrats to speculate about the impact what his absence meant for the fate of Obama’s health care proposals.

Under state law, Kennedy’s successor will be chosen by special election. In his last known public act, the senator urged state officials to give Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick the power to name an interim replacement. But that appears unlikely, leaving Democrats in Washington with one less vote for the next several months as they struggle to pass Obama’s health care legislation.

His death came less than two weeks after that of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver on Aug. 11. Kennedy was not present for the funeral, an indication of the precariousness of his own health.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy’s son Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., said his father had defied the predictions of doctors by surviving more than a year with his fight against brain cancer.

The younger Kennedy said that gave family members a surprise blessing, as they were able to spend more time with the senator and to tell him how much he had meant to their lives.

“There are very few people who have touched the life of this nation in the same breadth and the same order of magnitude,” Obama said in April as he signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law.

Kennedy arrived at his place in the Senate after a string of family tragedies. He was the only one of the four Kennedy brothers to die of natural causes.

Kennedy’s eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a plane crash in World War II. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in Los Angeles as he campaigned for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. Years later, in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash at age 38 along with his wife.

It fell to Ted Kennedy to deliver the eulogies, to comfort his brothers’ widows, to mentor fatherless nieces and nephews. It was Ted Kennedy who walked JFK’s daughter, Caroline, down the aisle at her wedding.

Tragedy had a way of bringing out his eloquence.

Kennedy sketched a dream of a better future as he laid to rest his brother Robert in 1968: “My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”

After John Jr.’s death, the senator said: “We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But like his father, he had every gift but length of years.”

His own legacy was blighted on the night of July 18, 1969, when Kennedy drove his car off a bridge and into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, on Martha’s Vineyard. Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old worker with RFK’s campaign, was found dead in the submerged car’s back seat 10 hours later.

Kennedy, then 37, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence and a year’s probation. A judge eventually determined there was “probable cause to believe that Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently … and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.”

At the height of the scandal, Kennedy went on national television to explain himself in an extraordinary 13-minute address in which he denied driving drunk and rejected rumors of “immoral conduct” with Ms. Kopechne. He said he was haunted by “irrational” thoughts immediately after the accident, and wondered “whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys.” He said his failure to report the accident right away was “indefensible.”

After Chappaquiddick especially, Kennedy gained a reputation as a heavy drinker and a womanizer, a tragically flawed figure haunted by the fear that he did not quite measure up to his brothers. As his weight ballooned, he was lampooned by comics and cartoonists in the 1980s and ’90s as the very embodiment of government waste, bloat and decadence.

But in his later years, after he had remarried, he came to be regarded as a statesman on Capitol Hill, seen as one of the most effective, hardworking lawmakers Washington has ever seen.

A barrel-chested figure with a swath of white hair, a booming voice and a thick, widely imitated Boston accent, he coupled fist-pumping floor speeches with his well-honed Irish charm and formidable negotiating skills. He was both a passionate liberal and a clear-eyed pragmatist, willing to reach across the aisle to get things done.

Kennedy’s speech in accepting defeat to Carter electrified the Democratic convention and turned out to be a defining moment. At 48, he seemed liberated from the towering expectations and high hopes invested in him after the death of his brothers, and he plunged into his work in the Senate.

First elected to the Senate in 1962 to his brother John’s seat, easily re-elected in 2006, Kennedy served close to 47 years, longer than all but two senators in history: Robert Byrd of West Virginia (50 years and counting) and the late Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who died after a tenure of nearly 47 1/2 years. Kennedy’s career spanned 10 presidencies.

His legislative achievements included bills to provide health insurance for children of the working poor, the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Meals on Wheels for the elderly, abortion clinic access, family leave, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

He was also a key negotiator on legislation creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit for senior citizens and was a driving force for peace in Ireland and a persistent critic of the war in Iraq.

Kennedy did not always prevail. In late 2008, he unsuccessfully lobbied for niece Caroline’s appointment to the Senate from New York. New York Gov. David Paterson chose then-Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand instead.

Wildly popular among Democrats, Kennedy routinely won re-election by large margins. He grew comfortable in his role as Republican foil and leader of his party’s liberal wing.

President George W. Bush welcomed Kennedy to the Rose Garden on several occasions as he signed bills that the Democrat helped write.

“He’s the kind of person who will state his case, sometimes quite eloquently and vociferously, and then on another issue will come along and you can work with him,” Bush said shortly before his first term began in 2001.

But Bush was also the target of some of Kennedy’s sharpest attacks. Kennedy assailed the Iraq war as Bush’s Vietnam, a conflict “made up in Texas” and marketed by the Bush administration for political gain.

Kennedy and his niece Caroline shook up the Democratic establishment in January 2008 when they endorsed Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination for president.

After Obama won in November, Kennedy renewed words once spoken by his brother John, declaring: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do. … It is time for a new generation of leadership.”

Born in 1932, the youngest of Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s nine children, Edward Moore Kennedy was part of a family bristling with political ambition, beginning with maternal grandfather John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, a congressman and mayor of Boston.

Round-cheeked Teddy was thrown out of Harvard in 1951 for cheating, after arranging for a classmate to take a freshman Spanish exam for him. He eventually returned, earning his degree in 1956.

He went on to the University of Virginia Law School, and in 1962, while his brother John was president, announced plans to run for the Senate seat JFK had vacated in 1960. A family friend had held the seat in the interim because Kennedy was not yet 30, the minimum age for a senator.

Kennedy was immediately involved in a bruising primary campaign against state Attorney General Edward J. McCormack, a nephew of U.S. House Speaker John W. McCormack.

“If your name was simply Edward Moore, your candidacy would be a joke,” chided McCormack.

Kennedy won the primary by 300,000 votes and went on to overwhelmingly defeat Republican George Cabot Lodge, son of the late Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, in the general election.

Devastated by his brothers’ assassinations and injured in a 1964 plane crash that left him with back pain that would plague him for decades, Kennedy temporarily withdrew from public life in 1968. But he re-emerged in 1969 to be elected majority whip of the Senate.

Then came Chappaquiddick.

Kennedy still handily won re-election in 1970, but he lost his leadership job. He remained outspoken in his opposition to the Vietnam War and support of social programs but ruled out a 1976 presidential bid.

In the summer of 1978, a Gallup Poll showed that Democrats preferred Kennedy over President Carter 54 percent to 32 percent. A year later, Kennedy decided to run for the White House with a campaign that accused Carter of turning his back on the Democratic agenda.

The difficult task of dislodging a sitting president was compounded by Kennedy’s fumbling answer to a question posed by CBS’ Roger Mudd: Why do you want to be president?

“Well, it’s um, you know you have to come to grips with the different issues that, ah, we’re facing,” Kennedy said. “I mean, we can, we have to deal with each of the various questions of the economy, whether it’s in the area of energy …”

He bowed out of the race after getting roundly beaten by Carter in the primaries and losing a rules battle at the Democratic convention. Later, when asked to assess the campaign, he replied: “Well, I learned to lose, and for a Kennedy that’s hard.”

Kennedy married Virginia Joan Bennett, known as Joan, in 1958. They divorced in 1982. In 1992, he married Washington lawyer Victoria Reggie. His survivors include a daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen; two sons, Edward Jr. and Patrick, a congressman from Rhode Island; and two stepchildren, Caroline and Curran Raclin.

In 1991, Kennedy roused his nephew William Kennedy Smith and his son Patrick from bed to go out for drinks while staying at the family’s Palm Beach, Fla., estate. Later that night, a woman Smith met at a bar accused him of raping her at the home.

Smith was acquitted, but the senator’s carousing – and testimony about him wandering about the house in his shirttails and no pants – further damaged his reputation.

Kennedy offered a mea culpa in a speech at Harvard that October, recognizing “my own shortcomings, the faults in the conduct of my private life.”

Later on, his second wife appeared to have a calming influence on him, helping him rehabilitate his image.

Kennedy’s family life has been marked by illness.

Edward Jr. lost a leg to bone cancer in 1973 at age 12. Kara had a cancerous tumor removed from her lung in 2003. In 1988, Patrick had a noncancerous tumor pressing on his spine removed. He has also struggled with depression and addiction and announced in June that he was re-entering rehab.

Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass,” is set to be published in the fall.

(Washington) Political columnist Robert Novak, a diehard conservative, pugilistic debater and proud owner of the “Prince of Darkness” moniker, has died after a battle with brain cancer.

His wife of 47 years, Geraldine Novak, told The Associated Press that he died at his home in Washington, D.C. early Tuesday. He was 78.

A household face as co-host of CNN’s “Crossfire,” Novak had been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor in July 2008, less than a week after he struck a pedestrian in downtown Washington with his Corvette and drove away.

“He was a Washington institution who could turn an idea into the most discussed story around kitchen tables, congressional offices, the White House, and everywhere in between,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement.

Said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio: “Bob made remarkable contributions in the field of journalism and to the American political landscape.”

In recent years, Novak ended up actually being a part of a big Washington story, in ways he likely never intended, becoming a central figure in the Valerie Plame CIA leak case.

Novak was the first to publish the name of CIA employee, and he came under withering criticism and abuse from many for that column, which Novak said began “a long and difficult episode” in his career.

“I had a terrific time fulfilling all my youthful dreams and at the same time making life miserable for hypocritical, posturing politicians and, I hope, performing a service for my country,” Novak wrote in his memoir, “The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years reporting in Washington.”

Actually Novak had been dubbed the “prince of darkness” by a journalist friend early in his career, and he embraced it. He wrote in that 2007 memoir that he became proud of the label derived from his “unsmiling pessimism about the prospects for America and Western civilization.”

“He loved being a journalist, he loved journalism, he loved his country and his family,” Geraldine Novak told The AP.

Novak, editor of the Evans-Novak Political Report, had been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He is perhaps best known as a co-host of several of CNN’s political talk shows, where he often jousted with liberal guests from 1980 to 2005. One of the best-known was “Crossfire.”

While he became known as a staunch conservative for his role on “Crossfire” and other CNN political shows like “The Capital Gang,” he differed with conservatives on many issues, expressing doubts about invading Afghanistan and frequently criticizing the war in Iraq.

Novak wrote in his book about often giving politicians the choice of being a source or a target, a strategy that often produced scoops for his column.

With a lengthy list of highly-placed sources, a high public profile and a relentless approach to reporting his column, Novak produced many scoops.

Among those scoops included a 2003 column in which he outed Plame as a CIA agent. The article was published eight days after Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, said the Bush administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat of nuclear weapons.

Citing two Bush administration officials, Novak revealed Plame worked for the CIA on weapons of mass destruction. That blew her cover as a CIA operative and led to the investigation of who leaked that information, and eventually to the conviction of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff. Libby’s prison sentence was later commuted by President Bush.

Born and raised in Joliet, Ill., Novak began his career in journalism in high school as a sports stringer for the Joliet Herald-News, then worked at the Champaign-Urbana Courier while attending the University of Illinois.

Following college, he served stateside in the U.S. Army as a lieutenant during the Korean War from 1952-54. He went on to work for The Associated Press in Omaha, Neb., and in Indianapolis, eventually working for the AP’s Washington bureau, where he covered congressional delegations for several Midwestern states.

In 1958, Novak joined the staff of the Wall Street Journal and soon became their chief congressional correspondent.

In 1963 he teamed up with the late Rowland Evans Jr. to pen a political column that lasted 30 years. They were journalism’s odd couple – Evans was polished and charming while Novak was often rumpled and grouchy.

Evans died in March 2001, and Novak continued to write the column until his brain tumor diagnosis in July.

From 1980 to 2005, Novak worked as a commentator for various political talk shows on CNN, with “Crossfire” one of the best known. His last CNN appearance in August 2005 was a memorable one: After swearing on the air, he walked off the set during a political debate with Democratic strategist James Carville. Novak quickly apologized, but CNN never let him back on the air.

Following that, he was an occasional contributor to Fox News.

Days before his tumor was discovered in mid-July, Novak was given a $50 citation after he struck a homeless man with his black Corvette in downtown Washington. He kept driving until he was stopped by a bicyclist, who said the man was splayed on Novak’s windshield.

Days later, Novak fell ill on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod while visiting his daughter, Zelda, and was rushed to the hospital, where the diagnosis was made. It was Novak’s third cancer diagnosis. He underwent surgery in 2003 to remove a cancerous growth on his kidney.

Novak had been diagnosed with cancer at least three times previously. He underwent surgery in 2003 to remove a cancerous growth on his kidney and was under medical observation for a possible recurrence.

A son of Jewish parents, he converted to Catholicism at age 67 after attending Catholic services for several years.

Novak is survived by his wife Geraldine, who was a secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, their daughter and a son, Alex.