Deaths, Celebrity Deaths | featured news

Hair stylist Vidal Sassoon, who undid the beehive with his wash-and-wear cuts and went on to become an international name in hair care, died Wednesday. He was 84.

Maurice Sendak, the children's book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen," died early Tuesday. He was 83. Longtime friend and caretaker Lynn Caponera said she was with him when Sendak died at a hospital in Danbury, Conn. She said he had a stroke on Friday.

CBS newsman Mike Wallace, the dogged, merciless reporter and interviewer who took on politicians, celebrities and other public figures in a 60-year career highlighted by the on-air confrontations that helped make "60 Minutes" the most successful primetime television news program ever, has died. He was 93.

Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi, whose speeches helped inspire the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, has died aged 76, says a fellow activist.

Whitney Houston was found by an assistant "lying face down in the bathtub filled with water" in a hotel room the day she died, according to the full autopsy report. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that Houston's February 11 death was an accidental drowning with the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use" as contributing factors.

Mr. Glazer and his business partner gave the world Mr. Coffee, one of the first and best-selling automatic drip coffee makers in America.

Thai state media: Thai billionaire who created Red Bull energy drink dies at 89.

The last madam of the infamous Texas brothel that inspired the movie and Broadway show "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" has died in Phoenix. She was 84. Edna Milton Chadwell's nephew, Robert Kleffman, said Wednesday his aunt, the last owner of the Chicken Ranch brothel in La Grange, Texas, died Feb. 25. She had been in the hospital since a car accident in October.

Conservative media publisher and activist Andrew Breitbart, who was behind investigations that led to the resignations of former Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York and former U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, has died in Los Angeles. He was 43....

Los Angeles County coroner's officials said Monday they have not established a link between prescription drugs and the death of Whitney Houston, adding such a determination could only come after toxicology tests are completed.