Celebrity Deaths | featured news

Anne McCaffrey, whose vision of an interstellar alliance between humans and dragons spawned two dozen "Dragonriders of Pern" novels, has died in Ireland aged 85, her publisher and family announced Wednesday....

An agent for Heavy D says the 44-year-old rapper has died. Andrew Weitz of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment confirmed the rapper's death in an email Tuesday, without giving a cause of death or saying where he died.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier died Monday, after he was diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said in a statement. Frazier was 67. "We The Family of ... Smokin' Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing," the statement said. "He transitioned from this life as 'One of God's Men,' on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

Andy Rooney so dreaded the day he had to end his signature "60 Minutes" commentaries about life's large and small absurdities that he kept going until he was 92 years old. Just a month ago, Rooney delivered his last regular essay on the CBS newsmagazine. CBS said he died Friday night in New York from complications from a recent surgery.

Wyatt Knight, who starred in the 1980s "Porky's" films, has been found dead in Hawaii with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 56....

British singer Beryl Davis, who sang with Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman, dies aged 87.

Singer Amy Winehouse's death this summer was the result of alcohol poisoning, an inquest ruled, as it reached a verdict of "death by misadventure." A pathologist told a coroner's court in north London that alcohol toxicity was the cause of the 27-year-old's death, with her blood-alcohol levels measured at more than five times the legal limit for driving.

A cardiologist who reviewed Dr. Conrad Murray’s care of Michael Jackson for the California Medical Board testified Wednesday that the physician’s treatment was riddled with egregious deviations from standard of care that contributed directly to the singer’s death.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died of respiratory arrest brought on by a pancreatic tumor, a public health official said Monday.

As Weezer fans know by now, the band's former bassist Mikey Welsh was found dead in a Chicago hotel this weekend from unexplained circumstances, though authorities have ruled out foul...