Celebrity Deaths | featured news

A spokesman for The Discovery Channel says the captain of the "Deadliest Catch" fishing vessel Cornelia Marie has died. Capt. Phil Harris suffered what his family described as a massive stroke on Jan. 29 while the boat was in port at St. Paul Island, Alaska. He was flown to Anchorage for surgery.

The doctor, Conrad Murray, provided Mr. Jackson with a powerful anesthetic that was ruled a major factor in his death.

A Los Angeles County coroner spokesman said the primary cause of Brittany Murphy's death was pneumonia, with secondary factors of iron-deficiency anemia and multiple drug intoxication, all of which were prescription medications.

An actor who appeared on the TV show "Boston Legal" has been killed in an automobile crash in Wisconsin. The Iowa County Sheriff's Department says Justin Mentell was killed when his Sport Utility Vehicle went down an embankment and hit two trees.

The news flashed across the wire in an appropriately enigmatic style: "Catcher in the Rye" author J.D. Salinger has died at age 91 in New Hampshire. No date of death, no cause of death, and it all came from a statement from the author's literary representative, quoting a surviving son.

James Mitchell, who for nearly three decades played gruff patriarch Palmer Cortland on the ABC soap opera "All My Children," has died, his longtime partner said Sunday night.

Casey Johnson, the heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune who recently made tabloid headlines with a purported engagement to reality star Tila Tequila, has died at age 30.

Avenged Sevenfold drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan was found dead at his home in Huntington Beach, California, yesterday. He was 28. Preliminary police reports indicate Sullivan died of natural causes, but the Orange County Coroner’s Office is investigating his death, the OC Register reports. Sullivan helped found Avenged Sevenfold in 1999 ...

Star, 32, of "Clueless," "8 Mile," "Don't Say a Word" dies from what appears to be natural causes.

A newspaper says Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney who became a powerful behind-the-scenes influence on the family business, has died. He was 79.