Stroke, Celebrity Deaths | featured news

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.

Patricia Neal, the willowy, husky-voiced actress who won an Academy Award for 1963's "Hud" and then survived several strokes to continue acting, died on Sunday. She was 84.

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.