PASSINGS: Ettore Scola, Derrick Todd Lee and Alfred James Peaches

Ettore Scola dies at 84; Italian film director

Ettore Scola, one of the last greats of Italian film, died late Tuesday at a Rome hospital after falling ill on Sunday, Italy’s RAI state radio and the ANSA news agency reported. He was 84.

Scola, who started out as a screenwriter, won best director in 1976 at the Cannes Film Festival for “Brutti, Sporchi, Cattivi” (“Ugly, Dirty and Bad”).

But he was perhaps best known for “We All Loved Each Other So Much,” his 1977 tableau about post-war Italy, and the Oscar-nominated “A Special Day” featuring Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren as neighbors who meet during Hitler’s visit to Italy in 1938.

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said Scola had an incomparable way of reading Italian society and said in a tweet that his death “leaves an enormous hole in Italian culture.”

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Derrick Todd Lee dies at 47; condemned Louisiana serial killer

Condemned serial killer Derrick Todd Lee, 47, died Thursday after being taken from prison to a Louisiana hospital early Saturday, a corrections spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

Lee had been sentenced to life for killing 21-year-old Geralyn DeSoto in January 2002 and to death for killing 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace four months later. DNA evidence linked him to at least five other killings, officials said.

Privacy laws mean the Department of Public Safety and Corrections cannot discuss why Lee was taken to a hospital Saturday for emergency treatment, officials said. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.

In September the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld Lee’s conviction in Pace’s killing, rejecting claims that his lawyer should have brought up more evidence of mental illness.

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Alfred James Peaches dies at 90; Navajo code talker

Navajo Code Talker Alfred James Peaches died Saturday at a Flagstaff, Ariz., hospital at age 90, Navajo Nation tribal officials said.

Tribal President Russell Begaye commended Peaches for defending the United States in World War II, using a code based on the Navajo language that stumped the Japanese.

Born in Shonto, Ariz., Peaches was among hundreds of Navajos who served as code talkers. He was part of the 6th Marine Division from 1943 to 1946. Peaches is survived by his wife, Jeanette, two sons, two daughters, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.