Deaths (Obituaries)

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      Leonard Hayflick, Who Discovered Why No One Lives Forever, Dies at 96

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      A biomedical researcher, he found that normal cells can divide only a certain number of times before they age — which, he said, explained aging on a cellular level.Leonard Hayflick, a biomedical researcher who discovered that normal cells can divide only a certain number of times — setting a limit on the human life span and frustrating would-be-immortalists everywhere — died on Aug. 1 at his home in Sea Ranch, Calif. He was 96.His son, Joel Hayflick, said the cause was pancreatic cancer.Like many great scientific findings, Dr. Hayflick’s came somewhat by accident. As a young scientist in the early 1960s at the Wistar Institute, a research organization at the University of Pennsylvania, he was trying to develop healthy embryonic cell lines in order to study whether viruses can cause certain types of cancer.He and a colleague, Paul Moorhead, soon noticed that somatic — that is, nonreproductive — cells went through a phase of division, splitting between 40 and 60 times, before lapsing into what he called senescence.As senescent cells accumulate, he posited, the body itself begins to age and decline. The only cells that do not go into senescence, he added, are cancer cells.As a result of this cellular clock, he said, no amount of diet or exercise or genetic tweaking will push the human species past a life span of about 125 years.This finding, which the Nobel-winning virologist Macfarlane Burnet later called the Hayflick limit, ran counter to everything scientists believed about cells and aging — especially the thesis that cells themselves are immortal, and that aging is a result of external causes, like disease, diet and solar radiation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Maurice Williams, Whose ‘Stay’ Was a Hit for Him and Others, Dies at 86

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      A chart topper in 1960 for him and his doo-wop group the Zodiacs, it inspired several notable cover versions and was heard in the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing.”Maurice Williams, the singer and songwriter whose 1960 single “Stay,” recorded with his doo-wop group the Zodiacs, shot to No. 1 and became a cover-song staple for a long line of musical acts, including the Four Seasons, the Hollies and Jackson Browne, died on Aug. 6 in Charlotte, N.C. He was 86.His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by Ron Henderson, a former member of the Zodiacs.Mr. Williams owed a considerable career debt to a girl he dated when he was 15. She provided the inspiration for his two biggest hits: “Little Darlin’,” recorded when his group was called the Gladiolas, which hit No. 41 on the Billboard pop chart in 1957; and “Stay,” which briefly topped the chart in 1960.Mr. Williams recalled the origins of “Stay,” his only chart-topping single, in a 2018 video interview. “This young lady I was going with, she was over to my house, and this particular night, her brother was supposed to pick her up at 10,” he said. “So he came, and I said, ‘Well, you can stay a little longer.’ And she said, ‘No, I gotta go.’”The next morning he woke up and wove that and other snippets from their conversation — “Now, your daddy don’t mind/And your mommy don’t mind” — into song form, building to its indelible signature line, which, seven years later, the Zodiacs’ Henry Gaston would render in a celestial falsetto: “Oh, won’t you stay, just a little bit longer.”Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs’ recording of the song stood out not only for its infectious hooks but also for its eye-blink length — slightly over 90 seconds.“We wanted to make it short so it would get more airplay,” Mr. Williams said. And, he added, “It worked.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Gena Rowlands, Actress Who Brought Raw Drama to Her Roles, Dies at 94

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      Gena Rowlands, the intense, elegant dramatic actress who, often in collaboration with her husband, John Cassavetes, starred in a series of introspective independent films, has died. She was 94.The death was confirmed by the office of Daniel Greenberg, a representative for Ms. Rowlands’s son, the director Nick Cassavetes. No other details were given.In June, her family said that she had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for five years.Ms. Rowlands, who often played intoxicated, deranged or otherwise on-the-verge characters, was nominated twice for best actress Oscars in performances directed by Mr. Cassavetes. The first was the title role in “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), in which her desperate, insecure character is institutionalized by her blue-collar husband (Peter Falk) because he doesn’t know what else to do. The critic Roger Ebert wrote in The Chicago Sun-Times that Ms. Rowlands was “so touchingly vulnerable to every kind of influence around her that we don’t want to tap her because she might fall apart.”Her second nomination was for “Gloria” (1980), in which she starred as a gangster’s moll on the run with an orphaned boy.Ms. Rowlands and John Marley in “Faces,” which Renata Adler of The New York Times called “a really important movie” about “the way things are.” Like many of her movies, it was directed by Ms. Rowland’s husband, John Cassavetes.United Archives, via Getty ImagesBut it was “Faces” (1968), in which she starred as a young prostitute opposite John Marley, that first brought the Cassavetes-Rowlands partnership to moviegoers’ attention. Critics spread the word; Renata Adler described the film in The New York Times as “a really important movie” about “the way things are,” and Mr. Ebert called it “astonishing.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Rachael Lillis, Who Voiced Popular ‘Pokémon’ Characters, Dies at 55

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      Ms. Lillis voiced the characters of Misty and Jessie in the animated series based on a video game. She was diagnosed with breast cancer this year.Rachael Lillis, an actress who voiced the original English versions of Misty and Jessie, popular characters in the 1990s “Pokémon” anime television series, and later in the franchise’s movies and games as well, died on Saturday in Los Angeles. She was 55.The cause was breast cancer, according to Laurie Orr, one of her sisters. Ms. Lillis had been diagnosed earlier this year.Ms. Lillis started voice acting in the 1980s, according to her IMDB page, but her big break came in the late 1990s when she was cast in the English version of the “Pokémon” TV series, a popular Japanese anime based on the “Pokémon” video games. In hundreds of episodes over eight years, Ms. Lillis voiced the characters Misty, a trusted friend of the main character, Ash Ketchum, and Jessie, one of the show’s villains.She also voiced those characters in “Pokemon” movies as the cultural phenomenon grew.Ms. Lillis, who lived in Los Angeles, also was the voice of Jigglypuff, whose fairy song put listeners to sleep and was one of the creatures the characters pursue.Ms. Lillis, who had dozens of other voice credits to her name, had a strong sense of humor and a talent for voice acting, said Eric Stuart, who voiced James, the other member of Team Rocket in the “Pokémon” series, and worked with Ms. Lillis for many years.“If you met her, you’d not say this was so natural for her,” Mr. Stuart said in a phone interview. “Rachael in real life was pretty low key, kind of quiet and sweet,” Mr. Stuart added. “The minute she stepped in that booth it was like this whole other energy came out.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Eddie Canales, 76, Dies; Gave Migrants Water, and Dignity

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      After a long career as a union organizer, he came out of retirement in 2013 to form the South Texas Human Rights Center and provide lifesaving aid.Eddie Canales, a human rights advocate who fought to save migrants trekking through the harsh terrain of South Texas, died on July 30 at his home in Corpus Christi. He was 76.The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Nancy Vera, his associate at the South Texas Human Rights Center, the nonprofit rescue organization that Mr. Canales founded in Falfurrias, Texas.For over a decade, Mr. Canales placed dozens of water stations — giant blue plastic barrels marked “Agua” filled with gallon water jugs — along the region’s routes for migrants evading a checkpoint on U.S. Route 281, about 70 miles north of the border with Mexico. The migrants, who are usually led (and sometimes abandoned) by smugglers, known as “coyotes,” leave the main road and undertake a perilous journey through featureless scrub and bush to evade the Border Patrol.Some don’t make it. Those who fail succumb to severe dehydration, hunger and exposure to the unforgiving elements in a semi-desert where temperatures can easily reach 100 degrees in the summer and drop below freezing during the winter. Mr. Canales led a campaign to recover, identify and ensure proper burials for the migrants’ remains.The mission required forcefulness and tact. The land is private and belongs to South Texas ranchers, many indifferent or hostile. Some have created armed posses dressed in military gear to hunt up the migrants and turn them over to the authorities, as shown in a trenchant 2021 documentary about Mr. Canales’s work, “Missing in Brooks County.”The migrants “go through the ranches,” Mr. Canales said in a 2015 oral history interview for the University of North Texas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Chi Chi Rodriguez, the Golf World’s Swashbuckling Champion, Dies at 88

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      He won eight PGA Tour tournaments and two senior majors — but it was his flair on the greens that made him one of the sport’s most popular players.Chi Chi Rodriguez, whose flamboyance on the course and passion for the game of golf transformed him into one of its most popular players through his more than three decades on the pro tours, has died . He was 88.His death was announced by Carmelo Javier Ríos Santiago, a member of the Puerto Rican Senate, and the PGA Tour. No cause of death or other details were given.In a sport played out at lush country clubs where respectful crowds idolize often bland players with comfortable roots, Rodriguez broke the mold.Growing up in a poor family in Puerto Rico, he almost died at age 4 from vitamin deficiencies. At age 7, he helped out in the sugar cane fields where his father, Juan Sr., whacked away with a machete for a few dollars a day.The boy who would be known as Chi Chi also began caddying at a course that drew affluent tourists. He taught himself to play using limbs from guava trees to propel crushed tin cans into holes he had dug on baseball fields, and at age 12 he shot a 67 in a real game of golf. After playing in Puerto Rican tournaments, he joined the PGA Tour in 1960.Rodriguez was 5 feet 7 and 120 pounds or so. But he used his strong hands and wrists to get off long low drives, and he was an outstanding wedge player, offsetting his sometimes balky putting game. “For a little man, he sure can hit it,” Jack Nicklaus told Sports Illustrated in 1964, relating how Rodriguez often out-distanced him off the tee on flat, into-the-wind fairways.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tom Korologos, Sherpa of Republican Nominees, Dies at 91

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      As a White House official and later as a lobbyist, he guided about 300 nominees through their confirmation hearings, including Supreme Court justices.Tom Korologos, an influential Republican lobbyist and adviser whose specialty was shepherding presidential nominees through their Senate confirmation hearings, died on July 26 at his home in Washington. He was 91.His son, Philip, confirmed the death.Mr. Korologos (pronounced core-a-LOW-gus) was a strategist, hand-holder and stage manager for about 300 nominees to the United States Supreme Court, the cabinet and other positions in the federal government. He coached them in the politics of the confirmation process, which grew more contentious over the course of his lifetime; squired them to meetings with senators; counseled them to speak with caution; and conducted tough mock hearings that he called “murder boards.”“I fire the rottenest, most insulting questions in the world at them,” he told The New York Times in 1986.He was the successful sherpa for major figures like William H. Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia when they were nominated to the Supreme Court, and once again for Judge Rehnquist when he was named chief justice; Nelson A. Rockefeller as vice president; Edwin Meese III as attorney general; Alexander M. Haig Jr. as secretary of state; and Donald H. Rumsfeld both times he was nominated for secretary of defense.Mr. Korologos developed his expertise in Senate confirmations while working from 1971 to 1975 as special assistant to President Richard M. Nixon, and later as deputy assistant for legislative affairs under both Mr. Nixon and President Gerald R. Ford. He continued that work, without pay, as the president of Timmons & Company, a lobbying firm he helped start, whose clients included Eastern Airlines, Major League Baseball and Anheuser-Busch.Mr. Korologos, right, conferred with Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, President Gerald R. Ford’s running mate, at a platform committee meeting in advance of the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Mo.George Tames/The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ina Jaffe, Dogged and Award-Winning NPR Reporter, Dies at 75

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      Ms. Jaffe spent decades covering politics and aging in America, and she was the first editor of the NPR program “Weekend Edition Saturday.”Ina Jaffe, an NPR correspondent for roughly 40 years who was known for her unflinching approach to journalism and was the first editor of the network’s initial iteration of the weekly national news show “Weekend Edition Saturday,” died on Thursday. She was 75.Ms. Jaffe, who had been living with metastatic breast cancer for several years, died at a nursing home in Los Angeles, said her husband, Lenny Kleinfeld.Often described by her colleagues at NPR as a “reporter’s reporter,” Ms. Jaffe had a keen sense of the line separating the equitable and the unjust. The breadth of her journalistic expertise grew over the decades, beginning with the politics beat and evolving in later years to analyses that chronicled what it means to grow older in America.In addition to “Weekend Edition,” she contributed stories for the daily afternoon news program “All Things Considered.”In 2012, Ms. Jaffe reported on the Department of Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles leasing large areas of its campus that had been intended to house homeless veterans to unrelated businesses. In part because of a series of stories that she reported, the administration slated more land to be developed to provide housing for homeless veterans. In 2018, two men involved in the lease deals were sentenced on fraud charges.The series won an award from the Society of Professional Journalists and a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More