Obituaries in the news
Natalia BessmertnovaMOSCOW (AP) - Natalia Bessmertnova, a Soviet-era prima ballerina who danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for decades, died Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the ballet said. She was 66.The spokeswoman, Yekaterina Novikova, would not specify the cause of death. Russian media have reported that Bessmertnova had kidney trouble.She was named a People’s Artist of the U.S.S.R. in 1976 and was a laureate of the Soviet Union’s Lenin Prize and State Prize.She was a gold medalist at the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition in 1965 and was awarded France’s Pavlova Prize in 1970.Bessmertnova was a top dancer at the Bolshoi from 1961 until 1995, the year she and other performers staged a one-night strike after the ballet’s longtime artistic director Yuri Grigorovich, her husband, quit during a dispute with management amid plans for his replacement.The refusal to perform “Romeo and Juliet” prompted the first cancellation in the ballet’s more than two-century history.In addition to Juliet, Bessmertnova also danced the leading female roles in ballets such as “Giselle,” “Ivan the Terrible,” “The Angara” and “The Golden Age.”In recent years, Bessmertnova had worked with Grigorovich on projects such as the Benois de la Danse Prize, for which he was the chairman of the jury.—Grits GreshamNATCHITOCHES, La. (AP) - Grits Gresham, noted outdoorsman, writer and television personality, has died after a lengthy illness, his family said. He was 85.Gresham, who served as field host and producer for “The American Sportsman” television series on ABC, died Monday at his home on the banks of Cane River Lake.Gresham’s affable personality and love for the outdoors combined with his trademarks, a driftwood hat and white muttonchops, made him a recognizable figure around the world.Entertainers such as Bing Crosby, Burt Reynolds, Jonathan Winters and Andy Griffith joined him on hunting and fishing trips, as did Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bruce Jenner.—Alain Robbe-GrilletPARIS (AP) - Alain Robbe-Grillet, an avant-garde author who dispensed with conventional storytelling as a pioneer of the postwar “new novel” movement in France, has died. He was 85.Robbe-Grillet died Monday at Caen University Hospital in western France, where he had been admitted over the weekend for cardiac problems, hospital officials said.He was among the most prominent of France’s “new novelists” that emerged in the 1950s, which included Nobel Prize laureate Claude Simon, Michel Butor and Nathalie Sarraute. The group’s experimental works tossed aside traditional literary conventions like plot and character development, narrative and chronology, chapters and punctuation.A trained agronomist, Robbe-Grillet in the 1940s suddenly felt drawn to writing, he explained years later. He wanted to tell a story “beyond the norm, in which the hero struggles within unhinged space and time.” He also was a filmmaker.Robbe-Grillet’s best-known works of fiction included “Les Gommes” (The Erasers) of 1953, a novel about a detective investigating an apparent murder who ends up killing the victim - and seen as the debut of the “new novel.” Two years later, he won France’s Critics Prize with “Le Voyeur” (The Voyeur), about the world seen through the eyes of a sadistic killer.—Mickey RenaudWINDSOR, Ontario (AP) - Mickey Renaud, an ice hockey player with the junior league Windsor Spitfires, has died after collapsing at his home in Tecumseh, the team said. Renaud was 19.Renaud, a fifth-round draft pick by the NHL’s Calgary Flames, was taken to a hospital Monday with no vital signs and attempts at resuscitation were unsuccessful, team physician Dr. Roy Diklich said.Renaud was pronounced dead in the emergency room at Windsor Regional Hospital, the Ontario Hockey League team said on its Web site. An autopsy was scheduled Tuesday, police said.Renaud, the captain, was in his third year with the Spitfires and had 21 goals and 41 points in 56 games this season.The 6-foot-3, 220-pound center showed solid development last season, when he scored 22 goals and amassed 54 points in 68 OHL games.Mark Renaud, his father, played 142 NHL games with the Hartford Whalers from 1979-1980 through 1982-83, and 10 games with the Buffalo Sabres in 1983-84.
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