Bobby Murcer was 62. He was a five-time All-Star outfielder who spent nearly four decades with the New York Yankees as a player, executive and announcer.

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Larry Harmon was 83. He turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century.

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Dody Goodman was 93. She was the delightfully daffy comedian known for her television appearances on Jack Paar's late-night talk show and as the mother on the soap-opera parody "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman."

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George Carlin was 71. He was a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity.

I'll have more from one of my favourite comedians throughout the day.

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Cyd Charisse was 86. She was the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.

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Tim Russert was 58. He was the host of NBC's "Meet the Press" and the network's Washington bureau chief.

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Miroslav Dvorak was 56. He was a key defenceman for the Philadelphia Flyers for three seasons in the 1980s.

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Brian Budd was 56. He was the Canadian soccer player best known for winning ABC's World Superstars championship three years in a row from 1978 to 1980.

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Tyrone Jones was 46. He was the colourful and outspoken linebacker who helped the Winnipeg Blue Bombers capture two Grey Cup titles during his eight-year tenure with the CFL club.

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Jim McKay was 86. He elegantly covered competitions from badminton to barrel jumping. Yet he may best be remembered for that grim day at the Munich Olympics when he broke the news with three simple words: "They're all gone."

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Dwight White was 58. He was the Steel Curtain defensive end known as "Mad Dog" who helped lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl titles in the 1970s.

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Mel Ferrer was 90. He was the tall, darkly handsome star of such classic films as "Lili," "War and Peace" and "The Sun Also Rises," as well as producer and director of movies starring his wife, Audrey Hepburn.

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Sheela Basrur was 51. Her calm demeanour in the face of a terrifying crisis made her a trusted public figure during the deadly SARS outbreak in Toronto five years ago.

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Bo Diddley was 79. He was a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians.

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Yves Saint-Laurent was 71. He was the iconic French designer who revolutionized fashion by putting women in pants without sacrificing their femininity.

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Luc Bourdon was 21. He was a promising rookie defenseman with the Vancouver Canucks who played on the Canadian team that won the gold medal at the 2007 world junior hockey championship in Vancouver and made the tournament's all-star team.

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Harvey Korman was 81. He was the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show" and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in "Blazing Saddles."

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Sydney Pollack was 73. He was a Hollywood mainstay as director, producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like "The Way We Were," "Tootsie" and "Out of Africa" were among the most successful of the 1970s and 1980s.

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Dick Martin was 86. He was the zany half of the comedy team whose "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" took television by storm in the 1960s, making stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and creating such national catch-phrases as "Sock it to me!"

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Eddy Arnold was 89. His mellow baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" made him one of the most successful country singers in history.

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Albert Hofmann was 102. He was a Swiss scientist best known for synthesizing Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

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Al Wilson was 68. He was the R&B singer best known for his 1973 hit single "Show and Tell."

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Danny Federici was 58. He was the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising."

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Tommy Holmes was 91. He hit in 37 consecutive games for the Boston Braves in 1945 to set a modern National League record that stood until it was broken by Pete Rose.

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Charlton Heston was 84. He won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s.

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Chris "Punch" Andrews was 43. He was a disc jockey heard locally on Newstalk 1010 CFRB, 97.3 EZRock, and 99.9 MIX FM where his show aired on Saturday nights.

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Dith Pran was 65. He was the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country's murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film "The Killing Fields."

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George Gross was 85. He was the founding sports editor of the Toronto Sun.

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Paul Scofield was 86. He was the towering British stage actor who won international fame and an Academy Award for the film "A Man for All Seasons."

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Ivan Dixon was 76. He brought the problems and promise of contemporary blacks to life in the film "Nothing But a Man" and portrayed the levelheaded POW Kinchloe in TV's "Hogan's Heroes."

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Arthur C. Clarke was 90. He was a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future.

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Anthony Minghella was 54. He won an Oscar for directing "The English Patient," one of a series of literary adaptations that include "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain."

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Ola Brunkert was 62. He was a former session drummer with Swedish pop band Abba.

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Kenny Reardon was 86. He scored 122 points in 341 games with the Montreal Canadiens and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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J.I. Albrecht was 77. He had front-office stints with the Montreal Alouettes, Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Rough Riders and expansion Shreveport Pirates.

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Gary Gygax was 69. He co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon.

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Jeff Healey was 41. He was a legendary Juno-winning rock and jazz musician who taught himself to play guitar by laying the instrument across his lap.

Fourteen months ago I shared a little story about Jeff Healey after I read he had major surgery to remove cancerous tissue from both lungs. I'm sharing that story again here as I remember a fantastic musician and local legend.

I always liked Jeff Healey. I had the 45 single for "Confidence Man" and See the Light on cassette. It was a solid album with "Angel Eyes", one hell of a sweet tune. I liked Jeff Healey well before a priest told me we were related.

Apparently, I had a distant relative in Ireland who was a Roman Catholic priest. I met him in the early 90s when he was visiting my grandmother. He asked me if I knew the blind musician Jeff Healey. When I answered in the affirmative, he continued to tell me that Jeff Healey was a second cousin of mine. I thought that was pretty cool.

You'll be missed, cuz.

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William F. Buckley Jr. was 82. He was the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right's post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House.

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Robin Moore was 82. He was the author best known for writing "The French Connection" and "The Green Berets."

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Willie P. Bennett was 56. He was a revered singer-songwriter who was an integral part of Canada's folk music scene, starting in the 1970s, as he played at festivals across the country.

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Steve Fossett was 63. He was the self-made business tycoon whose thirst for adrenaline drove him to fly around the world solo in a balloon, climb mountains and aim for speed records.

Fossett disappeared September 3, 2007 but was only legally declared dead yesterday. This answers a question I once posed.

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Roy Scheider was 75. He was a one-time boxer whose broken nose and pugnacious acting style made him a star in "The French Connection" and who later uttered one of cinematic history's most memorable roles in "Jaws."

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Barry Morse was 89. A longtime Canadian resident, he was most famous for his portrayal of the cold-hearted detective who relentlessly pursues the wrongly convicted Richard Kimble for four seasons in The Fugitive.

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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was 91. He was a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation.

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Suharto was 86. He was the former Indonesian President and U.S. Cold War ally who led one of the 20th century's most brutal dictatorships over 32 years that saw up to a million political opponents killed.

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Talivaldis Kenins was 88. He was the pioneering Canadian composer known for masterful works such as his Second Piano Quartet, Concerto for 14 Instruments and Symphony No. 4 for percussion and ensemble.

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Heath Ledger was 28. He was the Australian-born actor nominated for an Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain."

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Suzanne Pleshette was 70. She was the husky-voiced star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show."

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Allan Melvin was 84. He was a character actor with countless credits best known for playing Sam the Butcher on "The Brady Bunch."

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Don Wittman was 71. He did the play-by-play for Grey Cups and Stanley Cups, plus covered curling, golf and track and field.

I remember him best for his call of Ben Johnson's 100m Olympic final in 1988 and Donovan Bailey's gold medal triumph in the same event in 1996.

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Bobby Fischer was 64. He was the reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War icon by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship.

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Brad Renfro was 25. He was the actor whose career began promisingly with a childhood role in "The Client" but rapidly faded as he struggled with drugs and alcohol.

I thought he was pretty good in "Bully".

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Johnny Podres was 75. He pitched the Brooklyn Dodgers to their only World Series title in 1955.

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Murray 'Dusty' Cohl was 78. He was credited with taking the Toronto International Film Festival to the international level it now holds.

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Christopher Bowman was 40. He was the U.S figure skating champion who pleased fans and fellow skaters with his flair on the ice.

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Edmund Hillary was 88. He was the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century's greatest adventurers.

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Milt Dunnell was 102. He was a Canadian sportswriter, known chiefly for his work at the Toronto Star.

I grew up reading Milt Dunnell in the Star. For a taste of his greatness, here's an article of his from May 18, 1983 entitled "Gretzky class his trademark win or lose".

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Benazir Bhutto was 54. She was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.

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Oscar Peterson was 82. He was the the Canadian known globally as one of the most spectacularly talented musicians ever to play jazz piano.

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Don Chevrier was 69. He was a popular sports announcer best known as the original television voice of the Toronto Blue Jays.

I haven't thought about Don Chevrier in a while but hearing this news makes me very sad. He was a fixture on Blue Jays telecasts from 1977 to 1997 and that means I spent many an afternoon and night listening to the man's voice while I watched the birds of summer.

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Dan Fogelberg was 56. He was the singer-songwriter famed for the soaring vocals and elegant instrumentation of tunes such as "Leader of the Band", "Longer" and "A Love Like This."

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Floyd Red Crow Westerman was 71. He was a Dakota musician, activist and actor who appeared in "The Doors", "Dances With Wolves", was "Albert Hosteen" on the X-Files and most recently the face of "Lakota" brand topical pain reliever.

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Ike Turner was 76. His role as one of rock's critical architects was overshadowed by his ogrelike image as the man who brutally abused former wife Tina Turner.

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Evel Knievel was 69. He was the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s.

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Kevin DuBrow was 52. He was lead singer of the popular 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot.

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Joe Kennedy was 28. He compiled a 43-61 record in seven major league seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks and Toronto Blue Jays.

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Tom Johnson was 79. He spent 15 of his 17 NHL seasons with the Montreal Canadiens and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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Don Metz was 91. He was the right winger who helped the Toronto Maple Leafs win five Stanley Cups in the 1940s.

Don Metz played a significant role in our 1942 comeback from a 3-0 deficit against the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup finals. In Game Five, he scored three goals and two assists to lead the Leafs to a 9-3 victory. He also scored the game-winning goal in Game Six. What makes his accomplishment more successful is that he was not put in the lineup until the Leafs were down 3-0; the Leafs won all four games in which he was dressed.

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Joe Nuxhall was 78. He was the youngest player in major league history and the beloved "old left-hander" on Cincinnati Reds radio broadcasts.

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Ira Levin was 78. He was the author of bestsellers such as Rosemary's Baby, The Boys from Brazil and The Stepford Wives.

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Norman Mailer was 84. He was the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as "The Naked and the Dead" and "The Executioner's Song".

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Lillian "The Fabulous Moolah" Ellison was 84. She was the most famous and recognized women's wrestler.

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Robert Goulet was 73. He was the singer whose rich baritone voice and classic tall, dark, dashing good looks made him a star on stage and television.

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Porter Wagoner was 80. He was a a Grand Ole Opry institution and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

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Steve Rodehutskors was 43. He was a CFL offensive lineman who won two Grey Cups with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

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Joey Bishop was 89. He was the stone-faced comedian who found success in nightclubs, television and movies but became most famous as a member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack.

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Kenneth "Big Moe" Moore was 33. He was a Houston rapper whose 2002 album Purple World reached number 3 on Billboard's hip hop charts.

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Lois Maxwell was 80. She was the Canadian-born actress who starred as Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies.

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Bill Wirtz was 77. He was the longtime owner of the Chicago Blackhawks notorious for driving a hard bargain.

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Ken Danby was 67. He was recognized as one of the world's foremost realist artists and is best-known in Canada for his iconic hockey painting, "At The Crease."