Oprah keeps on giving and giving

Oprah Winfrey is the lone living entertainer to make the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of the 60 most generous Americans.

Winfrey, ranked 35th, gave $58.3 million in 2006, according to the Chronicle, all but $2.4 million of it going to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation and Oprah’s Angel Network. It was her fourth consecutive showing on the list.

“Hawaii Five-O” star Jack Lord, who died in 1998, and his wife, Marie, who died in 2005, made the list by bequeathing their $40-million estate to the Hawaii Community Foundation.

Three California donors known as patrons of the arts were among the 60: Eli and Edythe Broad, ranked 13th, gave $137.6 million to the Broad Foundations, backing education and scientific research as well as the arts, from which they donated $6 million to Los Angeles Opera for a production of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle planned for 2008 to 2010. It was the Broads’ eighth appearance on the list since 1998, and their seventh consecutive year donating $100 million or more.

Irwin and Joan Jacobs of San Diego donated $62 million, all but $2 million of it to establish technology fellowships at Cornell and in Israel. Construction heiress Jeannik Mequet Littlefield pledged $35 million to San Francisco Opera, tying her for the year’s biggest arts donation with Gilbert and Jaylee Mead, who gave to Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.