April 4, 2013

2013Bengt Blomgren, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1923)^[†]

Bengt Bertil Blomgren was a Swedish actor, film director and screenwriter, born in Stockholm.

2013Roger Ebert, American journalist, critic, and screenwriter (born 1942)^[†]

Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. Ebert was known for his intimate, Midwestern writing style and critical views informed by values of populism and humanism. Writing in a prose style intended to be entertaining and direct, he made sophisticated cinematic and analytical ideas more accessible to non-specialist audiences. Ebert endorsed foreign and independent films he believed would be appreciated by mainstream viewers, championing filmmakers like Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Spike Lee, as well as Martin Scorsese, whose first published review he wrote. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic," and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best-known film critic in America." Per The New York Times, "The force and grace of his opinions propelled film criticism into the mainstream of American culture. Not only did he advise moviegoers about what to see, but also how to think about what they saw."

2013Carmine Infantino, American illustrator (born 1925)^[†]

Carmine Infantino was an American comics artist and editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creations are the Black Canary and the Silver Age version of the Flash with writer Robert Kanigher, Elongated Man with John Broome, the Barbara Gordon incarnation of Batgirl with writer Gardner Fox, Deadman with writer Arnold Drake, and Christopher Chance, the second iteration of the Human Target, with Len Wein.

2013Tommy Tycho, Hungarian-Australian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1928)^[†]

Thomas Tycho AM MBE DMus was a Hungarian-born Australian pianist, conductor, composer and arranger. He was active in both classical music and pop.

2013Ian Walsh, Australian rugby player and coach (born 1933)^[†]

Ian John Walsh was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach. He was a hooker with the St. George Dragons from 1962 to 1967 and played in the last five of the Dragons' historic 11 consecutive premiership winning teams. He captained St. George in the last of its 11 successive Grand Final wins in 1966 and led The Saints again when their premiership winning streak ended in 1967. He was a representative for Australia and captained them in 10 Test matches from 1963 to 1966.

2013Noboru Yamaguchi, Japanese author (born 1972)^[†]

Noboru Yamaguchi was a Japanese light novel and game scenario author from Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. He was well known for being the author of The Familiar of Zero light novels and visual novels by Frontwing.