OBITUARIES - May 21, 1999

St.Clair T. Bourne; Noted Black Journalist

St. Clair T. Bourne, 88, pioneering African American journalist and civil rights leader. A native New Yorker, Bourne was educated at City College of New York and Columbia University. He began his career during the Depression at the New York Age newspaper, then went to the New York bureau of the Baltimore Afro-American. In the 1940s, he became city editor of the New York Amsterdam News, then managing editor of the People’s Voice. Bourne gained national stature during World War II as the first chief information officer for the newly created U.S. Fair Employment Practices Committee, forerunner of the federal Equal Economic Opportunity Commission. He traveled the country organizing hearings on discrimination and talking with victims. He later became the first African American public relations director for New York state government departments in labor, workers’ compensation and housing. Bourne was also national vice chairman of the Public Relations Society of America. He frequently appeared in documentaries about Depression-era race relations. On May 11 in Brooklyn, N.Y., of cardiac arrest.

Bruce Fairbairn; Rock Music Producer

Bruce Fairbairn, 49, Vancouver record producer who produced hit albums for Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and Kiss. Fairbairn became known for a slick, heavy sound that dominated commercial rock music in the 1980s. His career in the music industry began as a trumpet player with Vancouver bands the Spectres and Sunshyne. His producing career was launched in 1977 when the cost-cutting manager of his band Prism fired the horn section. The band couldn’t afford a producer anymore, so Fairbairn jumped in. “You could say I became a producer by default,” he once said. In 1979 he won a Canadian Juno award as a producer. His big break came in 1980 when he began producing for a new Canadian band called Loverboy. The second album he produced for them, “Get Lucky,” sold 3 millions copies in the United States, earning him his first million dollars. By the end of the 1980s, the list of artists he produced read like a who’s who of classic rock, including Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Kiss. He produced Aerosmith’s 1993 release, “Get a Grip,” which went platinum seven times, as well as albums for Poison, AC/DC, Scorpions, Van Halen and Chicago. He also produced Kiss’ “Psycho Circus” album last year, which returned the reunited hard rock band to the charts. On Tuesday of unknown causes at his Vancouver home.

Alfredo Dias Gomes; Brazilian Screenwriter

Alfredo Dias Gomes, 77, screenwriter for the only Brazilian film to win the Cannes Film Festival’s top award. Dias Gomes wrote the screenplay for “O Pagador de Promessas (The Payer of Vows),” which in 1962 won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. He was also well known in Brazil for writing popular soap operas, including “Roque Santeiro.” That series was banned by Brazil’s military regime in the 1970s because it painted an unflattering picture of an army colonel. The country’s current president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, said at the screenwriter’s death: “Dias Gomes always depicted the best qualities of the Brazilian people.” On Tuesday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in a taxi-bus collision.

Paul Henniger; Former L.A. Times TV Writer

Paul Henniger, 78, former television writer for Los Angeles Times Syndicate and The Times. Born in San Francisco, Henniger moved to Los Angeles in 1946. He worked for The Times’ sister paper The Mirror from 1948 until it folded in 1961 and then for The Times in its television news section until his retirement in 1994. For many years, Henniger helped create the newspaper’s logs of television listings and wrote a weekly column about sport programs on television. Throughout his career, Henniger also wrote a television column and numerous features for the Times syndicate, which marketed the articles to newspapers throughout the country. On May 9 in Encino of pneumonia.

Jerry Wunderlich; Set Decorator in Films, TV

Jerry Wunderlich, 74, set decorator nominated for two Academy Awards. Wunderlich, who dressed motion picture and television sets for more than four decades, was nominated for best art direction and set decoration in 1974 for his work on “The Exorcist” and again in 1977 for “The Last Tycoon.” A nine-year member of the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Wunderlich frequently designed the look of the post-Oscar ceremony Governors Ball. He also donated his time to set the scene for such charity events as the Thalians Ball and the Petersen Automotive Museum Cars & Stars Gala. Among films with Wunderlich’s touch were “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” in 1960, “The Singing Nun” in 1966, “Junior Bonner” in 1972, “Ordinary People” in 1980, “War Games” in 1983, “Jagged Edge” in 1985 and “The Two Jakes” in 1990. Wunderlich worked extensively in television, dressing sets for specials and movies and the early 1990s series “Evening Shade.” On May 14 in North Hollywood.