Obituaries - Oct. 3, 1999

* Pietro Maria Bardi; Italian Art Expert

Pietro Maria Bardi, 99, an Italian art expert who built the Sao Paulo Art Museum into one of the most important in South America. Bardi, along with his wife, the architect Lina Bo Bardi, moved to Brazil in 1946. In 1958, the Sao Paulo Museum of Art, designed by Lina Bo Bardi, was completed. It was her main work. Meanwhile, Pietro Bardi was amassing a collection for the museum that has been valued at well over $1 billion. It includes works by Velasquez, Rafael, Matisse, Renoir, Cezanne and Van Gogh. Failing health forced Bardi to step down as director of the museum in 1990. His wife died in 1994. On Friday in Sao Paulo.

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Pat Davis; Political Broadcast Journalist

Pat Davis, 58, a broadcast journalist who covered California politics and other news subjects for nearly three decades. Born in Wichita, Kan., Davis worked as a television anchor in Bakersfield and a radio reporter in Fresno before moving to Sacramento. His radio reports were heard regularly on KFBK-AM in Sacramento, his home station, as well as KNX-AM (1070) in Los Angeles, KGO in San Francisco and on CBS and Associated Press radio nationally. Since the 1970s, he covered virtually every major national news story in Northern and Central California, as well as presidential, gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns. On Friday of a heart attack while on his weekly 20-mile bicycle ride.

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Joan Korda; Former

Actress, Volunteer

Joan Korda, 84, former actress and the widow of Hollywood director Zoltan Korda. Born Joan Gardner in Chesham, England, she began her acting career under contract to Alexander Korda’s London Films, appearing in such films as “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” “The Private Life of Don Juan” and “The Rise of Catherine the Great.” In Austria in the mid-1930s, she married Korda’s brother, Zoltan. In 1940, they moved to Hollywood and she ceased her career as her husband became increasingly successful. After her husband’s death in 1961, Joan Korda became an active volunteer at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. On Sept. 17 in her Beverly Hills home of cancer.

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Franklyn Phillips; Press Agent, Magazine Editor

Franklyn Phillips, 84, early Hollywood press agent and movie magazine editor. Born in Philadelphia and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, Phillips gravitated to Hollywood in the late 1930s and joined the publicity department of Hal Roach Studios. He helped publicize such films as “One Million B.C.,” which introduced the late actor Victor Mature, and the “Topper” series, starring Cary Grant. Phillips’ career in publicity took him to Warner Bros. and Paramount Studios and fund-raising campaigns for the March of Dimes. He also worked as editor of Pic and Modern Screen magazines and became a vice president of the New York-based public relations firm Robert S. Taplinger Associates. For a time, he managed Los Angeles-area restaurants, including the Saloon, the Bullfrog, Trancas, Cesar’s and Paco’s. On Aug. 30 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills.

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Dr. David Rall; Environmental Health Researcher

Dr. David Platt Rall, 73, a cancer searcher and expert in environmental health research. Before retiring in 1990, Rall headed the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, for 19 years. During that time he was also an assistant surgeon general in the Public Health Service. He was formerly in charge of the National Toxicology Program. Born in Naperville, Ill., Rall received his medical degree and a doctorate in pharmacology at Northwestern University. In 1954, he joined the National Cancer Institute and his research resulted in methods for preventing the spread of leukemia to the brain. Rall became increasingly interested in the toxicity of anti-cancer drugs, especially when used in doses strong enough to destroy cancer cells. That led him to study the impact of chemicals in the environment on people’s health. In recent years, Rall worked for the World Health Organization as chairman of its Program on Chemical Safety. On Tuesday in Bordeaux, France, of injuries sustained in an automobile accident 10 days earlier.