In passing
Brock Peters, 78, movie, TV actor
Los Angeles Brock Peters, who gave a heartbreaking performance as the black man falsely accused of rape in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” has died at age 78.
Peters had been receiving chemotherapy after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January.
Peters was born George Fisher on July 2, 1927, in New York. His long film career began in the 1950s; he appeared in “Carmen Jones” (1954) and in “Porgy and Bess” (1959). In recent years, he played Admiral Cartwright in two “Star Trek” films and appeared in many TV shows.
But he was perhaps best known for portraying accused rapist Tom Robinson, defended by Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch in the 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
His accolades include a National Film Society Award and a Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.
Gerry Fitt, 79, Catholic leader from Belfast
London Gerry Fitt, a leader of Catholic nationalists in Northern Ireland and a fierce critic of the Irish Republican Army, died Friday, his family said. He was 79.
Fitt was a leader of a Catholic civil rights march that confronted police near Londonderry on Oct. 5, 1968. Violence broke out, gaining worldwide television coverage, and effectively marked the start of three decades of violent “troubles” in Northern Ireland.
A former merchant seaman, Fitt represented West Belfast in the House of Commons for 17 years. He lost his Commons seat to Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party, in 1983, and subsequently was appointed to the House of Lords.
Robert A. Moog, 71, synthesizer innovator
Raleigh, N.C. Robert A. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound, revolutionizing music in the 1960s and opening the wave that became electronica, has died. He was 71.
Moog died last Sunday at his home in Asheville. He had suffered from an inoperable brain tumor, detected in April.
A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, would lead Moog to a create a career and business that tied the name Moog as tightly to synthesizers as the name Les Paul is to electric guitars.
The instrument allowed musicians, first in a studio and later on stage, to generate a range of sounds that could mimic nature or seem otherworldly by flipping a switch, twisting a dial, or sliding a knob.
Richard Kelly, 81, former congressman
Orlando, Fla. Former U.S. Rep. Richard Kelly, the Republican congressman caught in the 1980 Abscam corruption scandal, died Monday at a nursing home in Stevensville, Mont., where he retired. He was 81.
The former Orlando-area U.S. representative was one of several congressmen convicted of taking bribes from FBI agents posing as fronts for an Arab sheik seeking influence.
Kelly was convicted of accepting $25,000, but the decision was overturned in 1982 after a judge ruled the FBI’s persistence amounted to entrapment. However, a higher court reinstated the conviction in 1984, sentencing Kelly to six to 18 months in prison. He served 13 months.