* Hugh Benson; Screenwriter, Actor, Producer

Hugh Benson, 82, a television and film producer who also was an actor and a screenwriter. Born in New York City, Benson served in the Army during World War II. In 1955, he moved with this wife and children to Los Angeles, where he became an executive for Warner Bros. television. During his lengthy career, Benson also worked for Screen Gems Television, MGM Television and Columbia Television before becoming an independent producer of series, miniseries and movies for TV. His credits include “The Blue and the Gray,” “Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story,” “Danielle Steele’s Message From Nam,” “Changes” and “Fine Things.” He appeared in the TV movie “Sex and the Married Woman” in 1977. On Thursday, of cancer, in Reseda.

* Minoru Chiaki; Starred in Kurosawa Films

Minoru Chiaki, 82, the last surviving actor among the title characters in Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece “Seven Samurai.” Born Katsuji Sasaki, Chiaki also played major roles in the director’s “Hidden Fortress” and “Rashomon.” Chiaki joined a theater group in 1936 and started acting in movies in 1949 at Kurosawa’s suggestion. He made his screen debut in Kurosawa’s “Norainu” (“Stray Dog”). He eventually appeared in 11 movies directed by Kurosawa, who died in 1998. Chiaki suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1975, but recovered and continued working in television dramas. On Monday in Tokyo of acute respiratory and coronary failure.

* David M. Cooney; Goodwill Industries Executive

David M. Cooney, 69, former head of Goodwill Industries International. Born and reared in Alhambra, Cooney graduated from USC on a debate scholarship and captained the university’s national championship debate team. As an officer in the Navy, he later earned a master’s degree in international relations from George Washington University. Cooney served in the Mediterranean and Atlantic fleets and then joined the Navy’s information office in the Pentagon. He retired from the Navy in 1981 after five years as chief of information. Cooney then joined Goodwill Industries, where he directed overseas expansion, particularly in eastern Europe, which had no tradition of training the disabled. Cooney also served on the President’s Commission on the Employment of People with Disabilities and the Social Security Quadrennial Review for Disability Programs, chaired the advisory committee on special wages for the secretary of labor, and served as treasurer of the United Nations Agency for Disability Issues. Cooney, who retired from Goodwill in 1995, was a member of the board of directors of the Naval Institute Foundation and was a consultant on organizational planning and training. He was a member of Boy Scouts of America’s national council. On Oct. 24 in Virginia Beach, Va., of a heart attack.

* Immanuel Jakobovits; Britain’s Former Chief Rabbi

Immanuel Jakobovits, 78, former chief rabbi of Britain. He had fled Nazi Germany and became the first Jewish religious leader appointed to a seat in the House of Lords. Lord Jakobovits was chief rabbi of Britain and the 54-nation commonwealth of ex-colonies from 1967 to 1991. Earlier, he served as chief rabbi of Ireland and first rabbi at New York’s 5th Avenue Synagogue before returning to Britain at the age of 46. The son and grandson of rabbis, Jakobovits left Germany for Britain in 1936 and swore he would never return. He was knighted in 1981 and was given a peerage by the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1988. Jakobovits was an outspoken opponent of homosexuality, a believer in duties as well as rights, and one of Thatcher’s staunchest defenders. “Making the richer less rich,” he said, “doesn’t make the poor less poor.” On Sunday in London of a brain hemorrhage.