obituaries

Michael Lang, co-creator of the Woodstock Music & Art Festival

Music & Culture

Michael Lang, a co-creator of the Woodstock festival, has died at 77

11:52am January 09, 2022

by Hazel Cills

Lang helped make Woodstock a defining moment of the 1960s. He once called it "a test of whether people of our generation really believed in one another and the world we were struggling to create."

Remembering Sidney Poitier

6:11pm January 08, 2022

by Walter Ray Watson

Sidney Poitier, the great actor, director and activist who died this week at age 94, was revered for his magnetic presence, and for showing the humanity in ambitious, hopeful Black characters.

Politics & Government

The legacy of Lani Guinier

6:10pm January 08, 2022

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Spencer Overton, law professor at George Washington University Law School, about the legacy of Lani Guinier, a legal scholar in the field of voting rights.

Marilyn Bergman (L) with her husband and partner in lyric-writing, Alan Bergman (R)

Oscar-winning lyricist Marilyn Bergman has died at 93

5:05pm January 08, 2022

by Elizabeth Blair

Alongside her husband, Alan, she won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song for "The Windmills of Your Mind" and "The Way We Were."

Sidney Poitier won his first Oscar in 1964 for his role as Homer, the reluctant handyman in Lilies of the Field.

Arts

Sir, we loved you: Sidney Poitier dies at 94

5:35pm January 07, 2022

by Walter Ray Watson

Poitier was the first Black actor to win a Best Actor Oscar, for 1963's Lilies of the Field. His good looks and smooth, commanding presence made him an icon to generations of moviegoers.

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Sidney Poitier was far more than just a symbol of racial progress

2:20pm January 07, 2022

by Aisha Harris

For much of his career, the actor represented many different things to many people, but a constant was his sheer artistry.

Peter Bogdanovich, director of 'The Last Picture Show,' has died at 82

12:11pm January 07, 2022

by Bob Mondello

Known as a maverick filmmaker, Peter Bogdanovich made movies that ran the gamut from the bleak, coming-of-age drama The Last Picture Show to zany comedies like What's Up Doc.

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Arts

'The Last Picture Show' director Peter Bogdanovich has died at 82

5:36pm January 06, 2022

by Elizabeth Blair

Writer, director, actor and lifelong cinephile Peter Bogdanovich has died. He directed the Oscar-nominated movie The Last Picture Show, along with Paper Moon, They All Laughed and What's Up Doc.

World War II veteran Lawrence Brooks, pictured holding a photo of himself as a soldier in 1943, died on Wednesday at age 112.

National

The oldest living American veteran of World War II dies at 112

9:41pm January 05, 2022

by Vanessa Romo

Lawrence Brooks served in the U.S. Army when the military was still racially segregated. But the Black soldier's deployment to Australia offered a reprieve from the racism of Jim Crow laws at home.

Richard Leakey, whose discoveries helped prove mankind began in Africa, is dead at 77

1:50pm January 04, 2022

by Jackie Northam

Famed Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter Richard Leakey has died at age 77. His discoveries helped prove Africa was the cradle of civilization.

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