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Stan Bickman; Film Producer, Production Manager

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Stan Bickman, 66, producer and production manager for more than 50 motion pictures. A graduate of the USC film school, Bickman began his career working for Roger Corman on such films as “Machine-Gun Kelly,” starring Charles Bronson; “Wild in the Streets,” starring Richard Pryor; and “The Intruder,” with William Shatner. Bickman also worked on “The Cry Baby Killer,” which was Jack Nicholson’s debut film; “Beach Blanket Bingo” and others with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello; and “The Trip” and “The Wild Angels,” both starring Peter Fonda. On Saturday in New York City of emphysema.

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Helen Carter; Member of Country Music Family

Helen Carter, 70, member of country music’s Carter Family. She and her sisters, Anita and June, had performed for many years on the television show of June’s husband, Johnny Cash. They were the daughters of Mother Maybelle Carter, who with her cousin Sara Carter and Sara’s husband, A.P. Carter, helped launch the country music industry in the 1920s. Carter Family standards include country music classics “The Wabash Cannonball” and “Wildwood Flower.” Helen Carter, who played autoharp, guitar, accordion, piano and mandolin, also wrote songs. Her “Poor Old Heartsick Me” was a hit for Margie Bowes in 1959. On Tuesday in Nashville, Tenn., after suffering from stomach problems.

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Kendall O’Connor; Helped Develop Animation at Disney

Kendall O’Connor, 90, Disney pioneer who helped develop the art of animation. Born in Perth, Australia, he came to Los Angeles in 1930 and five years later joined Disney Studios as a layout artist for animation scenes. He worked on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Fantasia” and designed the coach for “Cinderella,” the marching cards for “Alice in Wonderland” and Skull Rock for “Peter Pan.” During World War II, O’Connor helped create a variety of training films and worked with Frank Capra for the Army Motion Picture Department. In the 1950s, he was art director for Disney television films about human space travel. After his official retirement in 1974, O’Connor worked on projects for Disney’s Epcot Center in Florida and taught at CalArts in Valencia. O’Connor’s accolades included an Annie Award, a Golden Award from the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists and a Disney Legends Award. A Ken O’Connor Animation Scholarship Fund has also been created in his honor. On May 27 in Burbank.

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Joseph ‘J.R.’ Russo; Reputed Organized Crime Figure

Joseph “J.R.” Russo, 67, reputed captain of the New England Mafia and convicted murderer. Russo was serving a 16-year prison sentence for gunning down hit-man-turned-FBI-informant Joseph “the Animal” Barbosa in San Francisco in 1976. He reportedly cut a deal with prosecutors that kept him from being prosecuted in the killing of Connecticut underboss William “Billy” Grasso, and the attempted murder of reputed mobster Francis P. “Cadillac Frank” Salemme. Reported Wednesday in a Springfield, Mo., federal prison of throat cancer.

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Sheik Saeed Shaaban; Sunni Muslim Leader

Sheik Saeed Shaaban, 69, the firebrand Sunni Muslim cleric who advocated Islamic rule in Lebanon. The white-bearded Shaaban, the emir of the Islamic Tawheed (Unification Movement), dominated the life of Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, in the early 1980s when the country was fractured into sectarian mini-states. He became a leading Sunni fundamentalist in the Muslim-Christian nation of 3.2 million. In 1983, he sided with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his PLO guerrillas, who made a last stand in Tripoli before evacuating by sea after a siege by Syrian-backed Lebanese leftist militias. Shaaban later denounced Arafat and mended fences with Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon. After the 1975-90 civil war, Shaaban opposed the consensus Christian-Muslim governments that ruled Lebanon and continued to preach Islamic power. On Monday in Beirut of a heart attack.

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