Jeff Belker; Senior Producer at E! Cable Channel

Jeff Belker, 42, senior producer of the cable channel “E! News Daily.” Belker had worked with the cable group for several years, beginning when it was known as Movietime. He helped develop many of the network’s entertainment series, including the early “Double Features” and the network’s first daily talk show, “The Inside World.” Belker also created the network’s trademark “Swamp Concerts” in its newsroom, featuring live performances of such bands as Cheap Trick and Blues Traveler. Belker had recently produced a one-hour special on rock artist Sting, taped in Vietnam. On Friday in Pasadena of viral meningitis.

Anthony “Tony” Valdez Cordero; Perino’s Restaurant Host

Anthony “Tony” Valdez Cordero, 85, well-known host of the historic Los Angeles restaurant Perino’s and organizer of Dodger Stadium food services. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, Cordero came to California as a child and served in the military during World War II. He worked for the now-closed Wilshire Boulevard gourmet restaurant Perino’s for 40 years, greeting and seating a stream of Hollywood stars, politicians and U.S. presidents. In its heyday, the restaurant was the posh supper club for wealthy residents of nearby Hancock Park. In 1962, Cordero took a six-month leave of absence from Perino’s to organize catering and food services at the new Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. He began his restaurant career as a waiter, bartender and host at the old Brown Derby. A popular raconteur, Cordero also was an accomplished bartender. He was inducted into the Bartenders Guild Hall of Fame and named its champion in 1973. In recognition of Cordero’s work for Dodger Stadium and in hosting prominent politicians visiting the city, the Los Angeles City Council awarded him a certificate for outstanding civic service in 1973. On Friday in Los Angeles of complications of a stroke.

Marjory Bridge Farquhar; Mountaineer, Sierra Club Leader

Marjory Bridge Farquhar, 95, conservationist and Sierra Club board member who led early rope climbs in Yosemite. In the 1930s, when rope-climbing techniques were still new, Farquhar became the first woman to climb Yosemite’s Higher Cathedral Spire and the difficult east face of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States. A San Francisco native, she graduated from UC Berkeley and worked as a photographer. She led Sierra Club hikes into Yosemite’s high country for many years. Farquhar served on the Sierra Club board and worked with her late husband, Francis, who was Sierra Club president and author of “The History of the Sierra Nevada.” Marjory Farquhar dictated her own oral history for UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. A historian introducing that narration commented that the Farquhars’ “living room was ground zero of the conservation movement in California.” On Friday in San Francisco.

Magdalene “Maggie” Maskel Ferguson; Early Publicist

Magdalene “Maggie” Maskel Ferguson, 91, early Hollywood publicist who worked on such films as “The African Queen.” A native of Winnipeg, Canada, Ferguson moved to Hollywood in 1928 as a young woman. She went to work as a $30-a-week secretary in the legal department of Paramount Studios, and in the 1960s continued to advise women who wanted a career in public relations to begin as secretaries. She went on to become a researcher for Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and later joined veteran publicist Bill Blowitz to create the public relations firm Blowitz-Maskel. She helped publicize classic films including “The African Queen,” “On the Waterfront,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Judgment at Nuremberg” and “Lillies of the Field.” Although the credit has been disputed, Ferguson is believed by many to have set up the Life magazine cover photo of Rita Hayworth kneeling on a bed in a black lace nightgown that became a World War II pinup poster. The publicist was an active member of the Hollywood Women’s Press Club and a generous supporter of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation. On Sunday in Toluca Lake.

Elie Kagan; Journalist Reported Slaying of Algerians

Elie Kagan, 70, Parisian photojournalist who recorded 1961 slayings of Algerians in Paris. Kagan’s widely published photographs of the victims, including people lying in pools of blood, were among the few sources of independent information available concerning the Oct. 17, 1961, incident. The killings occurred when up to 25,000 Algerians, responding to a call by Algeria’s National Liberation Front, demonstrated for Algerian independence and in protest of a curfew on their community in Paris. French authorities hid the scope of the crackdown, which involved beating and shooting Algerians and throwing many bodies into the river. Initially, officials insisted that only seven people were killed, but a French Interior Ministry report released in 1998 said dozens of people probably died. Some historians have put the number of dead as high as 300. Algeria won independence from France in 1962. On Monday in Paris.

Margaret Owings; Environmentalist, Parks Official

Margaret Owings, 85, a staunch environmentalist who served on the state parks commission and helped start groups concerned with the preservation of the sea otter and mountain lion. A native of Berkeley who was married to architect Nathaniel Owings, she began her quest to protect seagoing mammals in 1957. Over the next four decades, she fought for laws to protect the state’s sea mammal population and was a co-founder of Friends of the Sea Otter in 1969. She fought for years to eliminate California’s bounty on mountain lions and founded the California Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation in 1987. In her role as one of the nine state parks commissioners, she battled the state Department of Transportation over plans to pave areas where old-growth redwoods flourished and helped block a plan to straighten California 1 and turn it into a four-lane road. “If not for the efforts she led . . . Highway 1 would be a freeway, the California sea otter might well be extinct,” said Zad Leavy, executive director of the Big Sur Land Trust. On Jan. 20 in Big Sur of heart failure.

Charles Gordon Zubrod; Physician, Chemotherapy Pioneer

Charles Gordon Zubrod, 84, a retired physician who pioneered the use of chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in Baldwin, N.Y., he served in the Army Medical Corps during World War II. He was part of a team that developed a substitute for quinine for the treatment of malaria. After military service he was the clinical director of the National Institutes of Health and scientific director of the National Cancer Institute. In the latter capacity, he began using chemotherapy to treat cancer, starting with acute leukemia in children. The approach proved successful and led to the establishment of chemotherapy as a standard treatment for cancers. In 1972, Zubrod received the Lasker Award for his work in cancer research. He was also a past president of the American Assn. of Cancer Researchers. Survivors include five children, 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. On Jan. 19 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., of respiratory failure complicated by spinal meningitis.