Dale Olson, publicity agent for Rock Hudson and other stars, dies

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The onetime headmistress of an elite girls’ school fatally shot Dr. Herman Tarnower, her lover and the creator of the famous “Scarsdale Diet.” The killing generated front-page headlines and national debates about whether she was a feminist martyr or vengeful murderer. She was 89. Full obituary
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Often called “Stormin’ Norman” for his legendary temper, the former four-star general is best known as the commander of 1991’s Operation Desert Storm, which quickly drove an invading Iraq out of Kuwait. He reminded America what it was like to win a war and defined the nation’s renewed sense of military pride. He was 78. Full obituary

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Bork was the conservative legal champion whose bitter defeat for a Supreme Court seat in 1987 politicized the confirmation process and changed the court’s direction for decades. He was 85. Full obituary | Photos
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The Hawaii Democrat was the second-longest-serving senator in U.S. history. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his World War II combat heroics. He was 88. Full obituary
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Shankar was already revered as a master of the sitar in 1966 when he met George Harrison, the Beatle who became his most famous disciple and gave the Indian musician-composer unexpected pop-culture cachet. He was 92. Full obituary | Photos
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Rivera defied the limits of genre and used her personal struggles in her songs, becoming a hero among Latin women in the U.S. and Mexico and a powerful player in a field dominated by machismo. She was 43. Full obituary | Photos
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Niemeyer, who loved curves in design and disliked right angles, shared architecture’s Pritzker Prize in 1988. He designed the major buildings that form the heart of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia. He was 104. Full obituary | Photos

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The New Hampshire senator co-authored a groundbreaking budget-balancing law, championed ethics and led a commission that predicted the danger of terrorist attacks years before 9/11. He was 82. Full obituary
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Though already a television star for his role on 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie,” Hagman is best known for playing villainous patriarch J.R. Ewing in the TV soap “Dallas.” In 1980, an estimated 300 million viewers in 57 countries saw J.R. get shot. Hagman was 81. Full obituary
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Former boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho fought a who’s who of legendary opponents stretching from Ray Mancini to Oscar De La Hoya. Known for flamboyance in the ring, he showed he understood the importance of selling a fight and employing some mental warfare. He was 50. Full obituary
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The inventive American composer whose music celebrated the intricacies of modern life helped define the American sound in the 20th century. He received two Pulitzer Prizes, the Sibelius Medal and the National Medal of the Arts. He was 103. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2012 (Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times)

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The etiquette maven served as social secretary to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and later wrote books and a syndicated column advising readers on good manners. Time magazine described her as “a superbly energetic amalgam of feminist and Tasteful Lady.” She was 86. Full obituary
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A three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, McGovern won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. Though he lost in a landslide against Richard M. Nixon, his campaign left a significant legacy, including his proposals, since fulfilled, that women be appointed to the Supreme Court and nominated for the vice presidency. He was 90. Full obituary
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The self-proclaimed Messiah from South Korea led the Unification Church, one of the most controversial religious movements to sweep America in the 1970s. Moon’s unorthodox movement was labeled a cult and featured mass marriage ceremonies. He was 92. Full obituary

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Best known for adrenaline-filled movies including “Top Gun” and “Man on Fire,” the British director-producer made films centered on alpha-male action heroes. Scott died Aug. 19 after leaping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro. He was 68. Full obituary

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Writer of the bestselling 1962 book “Sex and the Single Girl,” Brown broke ground by discussing the sex life of single women. The book led to led to a syndicated newspaper column, a movie of the same name and, in 1965, to Brown’s role as editor of Cosmopolitan. She was 90. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2012 (Santi Visalli / Getty Images)

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One of the notorious murderers whose 1963 slaying of an LAPD officer near Bakersfield was chronicled in Joseph Wambaugh’s book “The Onion Field,” Powell spent the rest of his life in prison for the crime. The incident shattered the image of the invincible cop and changed police practices. He was 79. Full obituary

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The prolific composer won three Academy Awards for “The Way We Were” and “The Sting,” a Tony and a Pulitzer for “A Chorus Line” and four Emmys. Charming audiences with his improvisational agility, he was principal pops conductor for several major symphonies, including the Pasadena Symphony and Pops and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He was 68. Full obituary

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The iconoclastic author, savvy analyst and glorious gadfly of the national conscience was a literary juggernaut who wrote novels including “Lincoln” and the satirical “Myra Breckinridge.” His essays are considered among the most elegant in the English language. He was 86. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2012 (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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The onetime underground Jewish fighter served four terms as Israeli prime minister in the 1980s and early ‘90s. His unyielding belief in the right of Jews to all of the biblical land of Israel often exasperated U.S. policymakers. He was 96. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2012 (Jim Hollander / EPA)

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A rare author and screenwriter whose works appealed to highbrow readers and mainstream movie-goers, Ephron wrote fiction that was distinguished by characters who seemed simultaneously normal and extraordinary. Her hit movies include “Sleepless in Seattle,” “When Harry Met Sally...” and “Julie & Julia.” She was 71. Full obituary

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Known for his colorful portraits of athletes in motion, the wildly successful American artist became an artistic fixture at such major sporting events as the Olympics and the Super Bowl. Neiman was also a longtime contributor to Playboy magazine. He was 91. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2012 (Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press)

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The tape of King’s 1991 beating and the upheaval that followed in 1992 opened the door to widespread police reform. King, who became an icon of the civil rights movement, was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool in Rialto. Authorities are investigating his death as an accidental drowning. He was 47. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2012 (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Best known for her Oscar-nominated supporting role as a blowsy barfly in the 1972 movie “Fat City,” Tyrrell’s film credits also included “Islands in the Stream,” “Angel,” and “Cry-Baby.” Critics “hailed her as one of the best screen drunks they’d ever seen,” Roderick Mann later wrote in The Times. She was 67. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2012 (George Wilhelm / Los Angeles Times)

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The Nobel Prize-winning chemist, left, helped solve a longstanding problem in the manufacture of medicines. He led development of a chemical catalyst to create safe compounds for producing L-Dopa, a drug for treating Parkinson’s disease. He was 95. Full obituary

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The former head of Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry was an authoritarian who cracked down on political dissent. After a series of attacks inside the kingdom, he became a close Washington ally against Al Qaeda. He died just months after he was named heir apparent in the world’s leading oil power. He was 78. Full obituary

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Dubbed “one of the true powerhouses of the pop music business” by Fortune magazine in 1986, the year she became BMI’s president and chief executive, Frances Williams Preston was a key figure in Nashville’s growth as a major music center, and nurtured the careers of numerous songwriters. She was 83. Full obituary

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The onetime member of the Lucchese crime family turned government informant became the subject of the film classic “Goodfellas.” His crimes included participating in the largest single cash robbery in U.S. history and helping fix Boston College basketball games. He was 69. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2012 (Nati Harnik / Associated Press)

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The South African paleoanthropologist, nominated three times for a Nobel Prize, excavated the Sterkfontein Caves, one of his nation’s most important fossil sites. He was also part of the research on hominids in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, collaborating with a British archaeologist on the identification of one the early hominids, Homo habilis, in 1964. Tobias was 86. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2012 (Alexander Joe / AFP / Getty Images)

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The Fleetwood Mac guitarist and singer was with the band in the early 1970s when it was making the transition from British blues rock band to commercial powerhouse. His work on early albums such as “Future Games,” “Bare Trees” and “Heroes Are Hard to Find” with band mates who included Mick Fleetwood and John and Christie McVie set the tone for what was to come. He was 66. Full obituary

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With more than 27 novels and 600 short stories, the sci-fi writer’s vividly rendered space-scapes provided the world with one of the most enduring speculative blueprints for the future. In “The Martian Chronicles” and other works, the L.A.-based Bradbury mixed small-town familiarity with otherworldly settings. He was 91. Full obituary

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The World Savings Bank executive was one of the first women on Wall Street. She and husband Herbert spent 43 years building Oakland’s World Savings Bank into a major -- and ultimately controversial -- adjustable mortgage lender. She was 81. Full obituary

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The in-your-face rapper and bass player Adam Yauch, center, found fame in the transgressive, boundary-breaking trio the Beastie Boys. In later years, Yauch became a leading advocate for Tibetan independence. He was 47. Full obituary

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The star linebacker at USC and for his hometown San Diego Chargers made the Pro Bowl 12 years in a row and was voted All-Pro 10 times. He apparently ended his life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 43. Full obituary

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Born Thomas Austin Preston Jr., the colorful and quotable Amarillo Slim won the World Series of Poker in 1972 and began promoting the game on TV and in books. He brought the game “out of the back alleys,” one expert said. He was 83. Full obituary

Notable deaths of 2011 (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times

Aug. 10, 2012 12 AM PT

Dale Olson, an elder statesman of the Hollywood publicity corps whose assignments over a four-decade career included representing Rock Hudson during the last months of the actor’s struggle with AIDS, died Thursday of complications of liver cancer. He was 78.

Olson, who lived in the Hollywood Hills, died at a nursing facility in Burbank, said his spouse, Eugene Harbin.

A savvy promoter of Oscar-worthy movies, Olson helped craft campaigns for stars such as Maggie Smith in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (1969), Shirley MacLaine in “Terms of Endearment” (1983) and Robert Duvall in “Tender Mercies” (1983).

During 18 years at Rogers and Cowan, he rose to head the agency’s motion pictures division, leaving to run his own Beverly Hills publicity firm, Dale C. Olson & Associates, in 1985.

That year, Olson found himself in the middle of a media storm when reporters began raising questions about Hudson’s health after the actor appeared shockingly gaunt at a public appearance with his former leading lady, Doris Day.

Initially, Hudson said he had liver cancer. The actor, who became a matinee idol in the 1950s with a boy-next-door image, feared the damage to his reputation if the public knew he had AIDS, which was then spreading through the gay community.

So when Olson, as Hudson’s spokesman, was asked about the star’s condition, “I had to alter the truth or try to change it sometimes,” Olson recalled in a 2001 interview with radio host Larry King.

When Hudson finally acknowledged that he had AIDS, Olson helped persuade him to turn his misfortune into an opportunity to educate the public about the disease.

“I spoke to him and said, ‘You have a terminal disease. This is going to affect a lot of people. And you can be the person who can make people aware of it,’ ” Olson said.

Hudson became the face of the dreaded malady. His message, written by Olson, stirred the audience at a 1985 Hollywood benefit for AIDS organized by actress Elizabeth Taylor.

In the letter read by fellow actor Burt Lancaster, Hudson said: “I am not happy that I am sick. I am not happy that I have AIDS, but if that is helping others, I can, at least, know that my own misfortune has had some positive worth.”

He died a few weeks later.

Olson was born Feb. 20, 1934, in Fargo, N.D. As a teenager in Portland, Ore., he worked for a newspaper chain and snared an interview with screen legend Mae West.

In 1951 he moved to Hollywood and joined the Mattachine Society, one of the country’s first gay-rights organizations, and served as its first national secretary. He wrote for Boxoffice magazine and Daily Variety before joining the Mirisch film production company as publicity director. His first major campaign was for the 1967 movie “In the Heat of the Night,” starring Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier; it won five Oscars.

In the 1970s he launched the publicity for a number of popular film franchises, including “Rocky,””Superman” and “Halloween.” He raised money for several charities, including the Actors Fund of America, of which he was a longtime trustee.

In 2008, he married Harbin. He has no other survivors.

Olson was known for his old Hollywood style. When he found out he had wrongfully suspected a colleague of feeding a story about a client to the National Enquirer, he apologized by buying the colleague a custom three-piece Italian suit.

He was also known for his parties, such as one he hosted in 1987 for the independent movie “Anna.”

The film, which starred his client Sally Kirkland, had disappeared from theaters after its distributor went out of business. There was no money for publicity, but Olson believed Kirkland’s performance was worthy of notice.

Although he risked breaking fairness rules governing the conduct of Oscar campaigns, he made 50 copies of the film and handed them out at a party at his home for a select group of entertainment journalists and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members, who included Shelley Winters, Lainie Kazan, Elliott Gould and Robert De Niro. Olson cooked the food himself — chicken cordon bleu.

The strategy worked. Kirkland received enthusiastic write-ups and was nominated for an Oscar (losing to Cher in “Moonstruck”).

Olson’s underdog campaign also garnered coverage, with an “Entertainment Tonight” crew “covering Dale promoting me,” Kirkland recalled in a recent interview.

She said the veteran publicist didn’t view his job as “just a gig to get someone an award. He really cared about actors and about the work.”

A memorial service will be announced later.

elaine.woo@latimes.com