Notable deaths in 2010

The trailblazing filmmaker who spent decades documenting the stories of Olympic athletes has died. Bud Greenspan was 84.  (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Actor Steve Landesberg, who played Detective Sgt. Arthur Dietrich in the long-running 1970s TV show “Barney Miller,” is died at age 65.   (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Blake Edwards, the veteran writer-director whose films include the “Pink Panther” comedies, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Days of Wine and Roses” and “10” and whose legendary disputes with studio chiefs inspired his scathing Hollywood satire “S.O.B.” has died. He was 88.   (Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

Veteran U.S. diplomat and Peace Corps official Richard Holbrooke passed away December 13, 2010, at the age of 69. Most recently, Holbrooke was a Special Representative under the Obama administration.  (ARMIN WEIGEL/AFP/Getty Images)

Movie producer Steven Reuther died June 5, from cancer. His credits include “Pretty Woman,” “Dirty Dancing,” “Face/Off” and “Pay It Forward” among others. Reuther was 58.  (Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)

Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame Pitcher Bob Feller died December 15, he was 92.   (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, died December 7, 2010, following a long battle with cancer. She was 61.   (Mark Hirsch/WireImage)

Former Dallas Cowboys and Southern Methodist quarterback Don Meredith died December 5, 2010, at 72. He was reportedly battling emphysema. Meredith also became a staple as a member of the Monday Night Football broadcast team before retiring in 1984.  (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Longtime Chicago Cubs third baseman and radio broadcaster Ron Santo died at the age of 70, after suffering complications due to bladder cancer.   (Photo by Louis Requena/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Leslie Nielsen, who went from drama to inspired bumbling as a hapless doctor in “Airplane!” and the accident-prone detective Frank Drebin in “The Naked Gun” comedies, died at the age of 84 on November 28.  (Lisa Lake/WireImage)

Five-time MLB All-Star Gil McDougald died November 28, 2010, following a battle with cancer. He was the 1951 AL Rookie of the Year and and was part of five World Series winning New York Yankees teams through ten seasons. McDougald was 82.   (Diamond Images/Getty Images)

Director Irvin Kershner died November 27, 2010, after a long illness. The film veteran directed “The Empire Strikes Back,” the Star Wars sequel many fans and critics agree on was the best of all the Star Wars films. Kershner also directed “Never Say Never Again” and “Robocop 2.” He was 87.   (JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP/Getty Images)

Silent-movie era child star Marie Osborne Yeats died November 11, 2010, after suffering a series of stroke. Billed as Baby Marie Osborne she appeared “Little Mary Sunshine” when she was just four years old. Yeats was 99.  (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Television producer Denise Cramsey, 41, died of a brain aneurysm on November 23, 2010. She produced the television series “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “True Beauty,” “School Pride” and “Trading Spaces.”  (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Pat Burns, who made an unconventional and accidental transition from police officer to hockey coach and was the only man voted the National Hockey League‘s coach of the year three times, died on Nov. 19 at a hospice in Sherbrooke, Canada. He was 58.  (Elsa/Getty Images/NHLI)

Chess grandmaster Larry Evans died November 15, 2010, reportedly from complications following a gallbladder operation. The five-time U.S. champion was also a prolific writer of the sport. Evans was 78.  (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Former MLB utility player Ed Kirkpatrick died November 15, 2010, after a long battle with throat cancer. He played 16 seasons in the big leagues with five teams: California Angels, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Texas Rangers and the Milwaukee Brewers. Kirkpatrick was 66.  (Rogers Photo Archive/Getty images)

Former NFL lineman, coach and executive Ken Iman died November 13, 2010. He played fifteen seasons split between the Green Bay Packers and the Los Angeles Rams. Iman was 71.   (Vic Stein/Getty Images)

Niehaus, who called the first pitch in Seattle Mariners history and described more than three decades of occasionally good and mostly bad baseball, died Wednesday after suffering a heart attack at his suburban Bellevue home, according to his family. He was 75.  (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Two-time best actress nominee Jill Clayburgh died November 6th following a decades-long battle with Leukemia. She was 66.  (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson has died. He was 76. A family spokesman says Anderson died from complications from dementia. Anderson guided the Cincinnati Reds to World Series championships in 1975 and 1976 and then led the Detroit Tigers to the 1984 title.  (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Three-time world champion surfer Andy Irons died November 3, after withdrawing from an event because of an illness. Irons returned to the tour this year after taking a year off. He was 32.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Former NBA player and coach Maurice Lucas died October 31, after a long bout with bladder cancer. The power forward helped lead the Portland Trail Blazers to their first NBA title in 1977. He played in the league for 12 seasons with Portland, New Jersey, New York, Phoenix, Los Angeles Lakers and Seattle. Lucas was 58.  (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)

Theodore C. Sorensen, John F. Kennedy‘s close adviser and writer-in-residence in the Senate in the 1950s, died Oct. 31. Sorenson would eventually become special counsel to the president and remained chief speechwriter during the Kennedy presidency, He was 82.  (Randy Brooke/WireImage)

Jim Hunter, a NASCAR executive who spent portions of six decades in the industry, first as a newspaper reporter and later as a public relations official, died after a battle with cancer on October 29. He was 71.  (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Emmy Award winning director George Hickenlooper died October 30, at age 47 of natural causes. Hickenlooper won an Emmy in 1992 for co-directing “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse,” a documentary about the making of the film “Apocalypse Now.”  (Photo by Sonia Recchia/Getty Images)

Academy Award winning actress Lisa Blount was found dead in her Arkansas home October 28, at the age of 53. Blount is best known for her role in the 1982 film ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ and 1987 film ‘Prince of Darkness’. She won an Oscar in 2001 for the short film ‘The Accountant’.  (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Getty Images)

Ari Up, real name Ariane Forster, died October 21, 2010. Up was the lead singer for the English punk band “The Slits” and was just 14 years old when she put the group together in 1976. Up was 48.  (Frank Mullen/WireImage)

Bob Guccione, who founded Penthouse magazine in 1965 in England to subsidize his art career, died on Oct. 20. He was 79.  (Photo by David Montgomery/Getty Images)

‘Happy Days’ actor Tom Bosley is dead after reportedly battling a staph infection. He was 83 years old.  (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Soul singer Solomon Burke has died at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. He was 70.   (MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Opera singing legend Joan Sutherland died October 10, 2010 following a series of health issues. Dubbed “La Stupenda” by her Italian fans, the Australian native is one of the most celebrated opera singers of all time. Sutherland was 83.   (Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

Grammy-winner Albertina Walker died October 8, 2010, after suffering respiratory failure. Known as the “Queen of Gospel,” she co-founded the Gospel Music Workshop of America. Walker was 81.  (Paul Natkin/WireImage)

Bandleader Buddy Morrow died September 27, 2010. The trombone-great was a member of The Tonight Show Band and hit the UK charts in 1953 with the single “Night Train.” In 1977 Morrow took over as the bandleader of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and played with the band as late as September of 2010. Morrow was 91.   (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Actor Tony Curtis died on September 29th. He was 85.  (Ron Galella/Contributor)

Director Arthur Penn died September 27 just two days after his 88th birthday. Penn, who directed the 1967 classic “Bonnie and Clyde,” is also a Tony Award winner and a former presidential adviser to President John F. Kennedy.  (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

Gloria Stuart, a 1930s Hollywood leading lady whose first significant role in nearly 60 years -- as the centenarian survivor of the Titanic in James Cameron‘s 1997 Oscar-winning film about the ill-fated ocean liner -- earned her an Academy Award nomination, has died. She was 100.   (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Harold Gould, a versatile actor who appeared in movies such as ‘The Sting’ and ‘Patch Adams’ and TV shows like ‘Rhoda’ and ‘The Golden Girls’ died on September 11, 2010 of prostate cancer.   (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

French director Claude Chabrol, one of the founders of the New Wave movement that revolutionized filmmaking in the late 1950s and ‘60s, died Sunday. He was 80.   (BERTRAND LANGLOIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Rich Cronin, lead singer for the 1990’s band ‘LFO’ died on September 8, 2010 after a long battle with cancer.  (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for LEVIEV)

Japanese motorcycle racer Shoya Tomizawa was killed in a Moto2 crash at San Marino Grand Prix on Sept. 5, 2010. He was 19.  (Photo by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images)

Two-time Tour de France champion Laurent Fignon (Left) has died after a battle with cancer. He was 50.   (Photo by: AFP/Getty Images)

A plane carrying former Sen. Ted Stevens and eight others crashed in remote southwest Alaska, killing the longtime Republican lawmaker and four other people.   (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Oscar winning actress Patricia Neal has died at the age of 84. The star of ‘Hud’ and ‘The Fountainhead’ suffered three strokes that put her to be in a coma in 1965. She eventually learned to walk and talk again.  (Photo by Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images)

Former NBA player Lorenzen Wright‘s body was found in a field near Memphis on July 28, days after he was reported missing. Wright played 13 seasons in the NBA with 5 teams including the Grizzlies, Clippers, Kings, Hawks and Cavs. He was 34.  (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Boxer Mac Foster died July 19. The Vietnam veteran won his first 24 fights by knockout and was the number one heavyweight contender in 1970 but never got a shot at the title. Foster was 68.  (Central Press/Getty Images)

Writer/producer/voice actor Peter Fernandez died July 15, after a fight with cancer. He helped popularize Japanese animation in the U.S. as the fast talking voice behind “Speed Racer” and also wrote the English lyrics to the theme song.. Fernandez was 83.   (Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)

Former Baltimore Ravens fullback Kenyon Cotton died following complications that possibly stemmed from surgery on his Achilles tendon. He played for the Ravens in 1997 and 1998 after starring at Southeast Louisiana. Cotton was 36.   (Andre F. Chung/Baltimore Sun/July 24, 1997)

Songwriter Hank Cochran died July 15, 2010, at his Tennessee home after a battle with cancer. He wrote or co-wrote hundreds of songs that were recorded by top artists including Elvis Presley, George Strait and Willie Nelson. But it may be Patsy Cline‘s version of “I Fall to Pieces” and Eddy Arnold’s take on “Make the World Go Away” that solidify his place in music history. Cochran was 74.   (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died after suffering a massive heart attack. He was 80 years old.  (Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images)

Grammy Award winning singer, composer, and pastor Walter Hawkins died on July 11 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Hawkins won a Grammy in 1980 for “The Lord’s Prayer”, and also performed it on the televised awards show that year. Other hit albums included “Love Alive III” (1990) and Love Alive IV” (1993).  (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)