Obituaries in the news
The Associated PressBobby Frankel
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bobby Frankel, a gruff Hall of Fame trainer who possessed a gift for coaxing top performances out of ornery, high-strung thoroughbreds, died of cancer Monday at his home in Pacific Palisades, jockey agent Ron Anderson said. He was 68.
Frankel had been running his stable by phone for most of the year while undergoing treatment and concealing details of his illness from most of his colleagues, a remarkable feat in an industry fueled by gossip.
Frankel began his career at Belmont Park and Aqueduct in New York, one of the cheap hired hands who walk horses around the barn after morning workouts. He took out his trainer's license in 1966 and won his first race with Double Dash at Aqueduct that November.
He built an early reputation as "King of the Claimers," taking the cheapest horses and turning them into high-priced stakes winners.
Frankel saddled 3,654 winners and earned $227,949,775 during his 43-year career, according to Equibase. He was second only to D. Wayne Lukas in money won, and they were the only trainers to earn more than $200 million.
The Brooklyn-born Frankel oversaw a coast-to-coast string of horses, never losing his New York accent or brusque demeanor that came off as intimidating to most who sought him around the barn. He revealed a softer side only among his animals and close friends.
Frankel enjoyed his greatest success this decade, winning four consecutive Eclipse Awards (2000-03) as the nation's leading trainer and five overall.
___
Pavle
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Pavle, who called for peace and conciliation during the Balkan ethnic wars of the 1990s but failed to openly condemn extreme Serb nationalism, died Sunday. He was 95.
Pavle, a respected theologian and linguist known for personal humility and modesty, had been hospitalized for two years with heart and lung problems and died of cardiac arrest in his sleep, the church and the Belgrade Military Hospital said.
Pavle took over the seven-million member church in 1990 just as the collapse of communism ended years of state policy of repressing religion. He often spoke against violence in the ethnic wars Orthodox Serbs fought against Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims during the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.
The Serbian Church eventually broke with its tradition of formal neutrality in 2000, openly urging Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to step down. The church's demand for Milosevic's resignation helped lead to the popular revolt that ousted the autocratic president later that year.
The patriarch then tried to rally international support for protection of ancient Serbian churches and monasteries that came under attacks by Kosovo's mostly Muslim ethnic Albanians.
Critics, however, faulted him and other Serbian religious leaders for failing to be equally vocal when Serb troops previously destroyed Catholic churches and Muslim mosques in Croatia and Bosnia.
___
Paul Wendkos
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul Wendkos, who directed over 100 films and television shows during a 50-year career, including the 1959 surf movie "Gidget," has died. He was 84.
Family spokeswoman C. Christie Craig says Wendkos died Thursday in Malibu of a lung infection that followed a stroke.
"Gidget," starring Sandra Dee as an all-American surfer girl, was a hit and led to two sequels for Wendkos.
His other films include the 1957 drama "The Burglar," starring Jayne Mansfield, and 1969's "Guns of the Magnificent Seven."
For television, he directed series such as "The Rifleman" and "Hawaii Five-O." His made-for-TV movies include "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" and "The Ordeal of Patty Hearst."
Wendkos is survived by his wife Lin Bolen, a former NBC television producer, his son Jordan Wendkos, a granddaughter, niece and nephews.
___
Edward Woodward
LONDON (AP) — Edward Woodward, the star of films including "Breaker Morant" and "The Wicker Man," died Monday. He was 79.
Woodward, who starred at "The Equalizer" on television, died in a hospital in Cornwall after an illness, said Janet Glass of the Eric Glass Ltd. agency in London.
He won an Emmy Award in 1990 for "Remembering World War II" and a Golden Globe in 1987 for "The Equalizer," which ran for 88 episodes from 1985 to 1989 on the U.S. network CBS.
In a career that began in 1946 in a regional production of "A Kiss for Cinderella," Woodward played roles in productions ranging from the popular British soap opera "Eastenders" to productions of Shakespeare, and at least 40 films for theater or television.
His last film appearances were in "Hot Fuzz" in 2007 and "Congregation of Ghosts," now in post-production.
He also recorded several albums including "Love is the Key" in 1977 and "The Jewel that was Ours" in 1994.