In Passing

Pasadena, Calif.

Seymour Benzer, biologist

Seymour Benzer, a groundbreaking biologist whose work linking behavior and genes laid the foundation for modern neuroscience, has died.

Benzer, 86, died of a stroke Friday at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, said Jill Perry, a spokeswoman for California Institute of Technology, where Benzer was professor emeritus.

“Seymour was one of the great scientists of our era,” said Elliot Meyerowitz, chairman of Caltech’s biology department.

Benzer’s research in the 1960s countered the common belief that human behavior was shaped primarily by environment, giving genes a far bigger role than they were previously assigned.

His research led to major discoveries in the exploration of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In April 2006, Benzer was awarded the nation’s richest prize in medicine and biomedical research, the $500,000 Albany Medical Center prize.

Bayreuth, Germany

Gudrun Wagner, opera figure

Gudrun Wagner, wife of the Bayreuth Opera Festival’s director and a key figure in the family battle over control of the arts institution that was founded by composer Richard Wagner, died Wednesday.

Wagner, 63, died unexpectedly at a Bayreuth hospital. No cause of death was given.

Her death comes amid the feud over who will succeed Wolfgang Wagner – a grandson of the composer – as festival director.

Wagner, 88, had long insisted that his second wife and partner in directing and staging the annual festival was the only person capable of taking over.

But recently, Wagner has indicated that he would be prepared to step aside in favor of the couple’s 29-year-old daughter, Katharina.

Los Angeles

Mel Tolkin, comedy writer

Mel Tolkin, an award-winning television comedy writer who served as head writer for Sid Caesar’s legendary “Your Show of Shows” and “Caesar’s Hour” in the 1950s, died Monday.

Tolkin, 94, died of age-related causes at his home in L.A.’s Century City neighborhood, said his son, writer Michael Tolkin.

In a nearly 50-year show-business career that began in Montreal in the 1930s when he wrote revues and played piano in jazz clubs, Tolkin wrote comedy for Danny Kaye, Danny Thomas, Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis and was a story editor for Norman Lear’s landmark program “All in the Family.”

But it is his many years writing sketches for Caesar that Tolkin is best known. As head writer on the live, 90-minute “Your Show of Shows,” Tolkin led a pack of writers that included Lucille Kallen, Mel Brooks, Tony Webster and Neil and Danny Simon, among others.

Glendale, Ariz.

Silvestre Herrera, World War II hero

Silvestre Herrera, a Mexican-born World War II Medal of Honor recipient who captured eight German soldiers after single-handedly assaulting a machine-gun nest and continued to fight after losing both of his feet in a minefield during a second solo assault on another enemy position, has died.

Herrera, 90, died Monday of age-related causes at his home in Glendale, Ariz.

Herrera was the first Arizonan to receive the Medal of Honor during World War II; President Truman presented him with the nation’s highest award for military valor during a ceremony at the White House in August 1945.

“He told me he would rather be awarded the Medal of Honor than be president of the United States,” Herrera recalled in a 2005 interview. “That made me even more proud.”

Of the 464 Medal of Honor recipients during World War II, 32 are still living, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.