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Obituaries

Dmitri Nabokov dies at 77; only child of acclaimed novelist Vladimir Nabokov

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Often called “Stormin’ Norman” for his legendary temper, the former four-star general is best known as the commander of 1991’s Operation Desert Storm, which quickly drove an invading Iraq out of Kuwait. He reminded America what it was like to win a war and defined the nation’s renewed sense of military pride. He was 78. Full obituary


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The Hawaii Democrat was the second-longest-serving senator in U.S. history. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his World War II combat heroics. He was 88. Full obituary
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Niemeyer, who loved curves in design and disliked right angles, shared architecture’s Pritzker Prize in 1988. He designed the major buildings that form the heart of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia. He was 104. Full obituary | Photos


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The New Hampshire senator co-authored a groundbreaking budget-balancing law, championed ethics and led a commission that predicted the danger of terrorist attacks years before 9/11. He was 82. Full obituary
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Though already a television star for his role on 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie,” Hagman is best known for playing villainous patriarch J.R. Ewing in the TV soap “Dallas.” In 1980, an estimated 300 million viewers in 57 countries saw J.R. get shot. Hagman was 81. Full obituary
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Former boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho fought a who’s who of legendary opponents stretching from Ray Mancini to Oscar De La Hoya. Known for flamboyance in the ring, he showed he understood the importance of selling a fight and employing some mental warfare. He was 50. Full obituary
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The inventive American composer whose music celebrated the intricacies of modern life helped define the American sound in the 20th century. He received two Pulitzer Prizes, the Sibelius Medal and the National Medal of the Arts. He was 103. Full obituary
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With his silky voice and and casual style, the baritone most famous for his rendition of “Moon River” was one of America’s top vocalists from the 1950s into the 1970s. He was 84. Full obituary

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The self-proclaimed Messiah from South Korea led the Unification Church, one of the most controversial religious movements to sweep America in the 1970s. Moon’s unorthodox movement was labeled a cult and featured mass marriage ceremonies. He was 92. Full obituary

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Notable deaths of 2012  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
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Writer of the bestselling 1962 book “Sex and the Single Girl,” Brown broke ground by discussing the sex life of single women. The book led to led to a syndicated newspaper column, a movie of the same name and, in 1965, to Brown’s role as editor of Cosmopolitan. She was 90. Full obituary

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Notable deaths of 2012  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Notable deaths of 2012  (Jim Hollander / EPA)
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A rare author and screenwriter whose works appealed to highbrow readers and mainstream movie-goers, Ephron wrote fiction that was distinguished by characters who seemed simultaneously normal and extraordinary. Her hit movies include “Sleepless in Seattle,” “When Harry Met Sally...” and “Julie & Julia.” She was 71. Full obituary

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Notable deaths of 2012  (Nati Harnik / Associated Press)
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Notable deaths of 2012  (Jakub Mosur / For The Times)
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Notable deaths of 2011  (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
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Notable deaths of 2011  (Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images)
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Notable deaths of 2011  (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)
By Los Angeles Times staff and wire reports
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Dmitri Nabokov, the only child of acclaimed novelist Vladimir Nabokov who helped protect and translate his father’s work while pursuing careers as an opera singer and race car driver, has died. He was 77.

The younger Nabokov died Wednesday at a hospital in Vevey, Switzerland, after a long illness, said literary agent Andrew Wylie.

Dmitri spent much of his life trying to carve a life away from the shadow of his father, considered one of the premier writers of the 20th century for such books as “Lolita” and “Pale Fire.”

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FOR THE RECORD:
Dmitri Nabokov obituary: The obituary of Dmitri Nabokov in the Feb. 26 California section gave the title of his father Vladimir’s final novel as “The Origin of Laura.” The title is “The Original of Laura.” —

The tall, broad-shouldered son bore a striking resemblance to his father. Harvard-educated Dmitri was a playboy who began to race cars competitively in 1962 and maintained an active professional operatic career as a basso profundo until 1982.

But Dmitri always returned to protecting his father’s literary legacy, translating and editing his father’s plays, poems, stories, the novella “The Enchanter” and “Selected Letters.”

“My father is gradually marching — with his two favorite writers, Pushkin and Joyce — arm in arm into the pantheon to join the greatest of all, Shakespeare, who is waiting for them,” Dmitri told the Associated Press in 2009. “I like to think that I did my bit to keep things on track.”

After the success of “Lolita,” he translated his father’s “Invitation to a Beheading” from Russian and wrote the memoir “On Revisiting Father’s Room” after his father died in 1977. After his mother died in 1991, he sold the remainder of his father’s archive to the New York Public Library and attended conferences dedicated to him.

In 2009, Dmitri decided to publish his father’s final, fragmentary novel, “The Origin of Laura,” written on index cards during the last years of Vladimir’s life. It was a controversial act that his son said went against the wishes of his father, who had asked that “Laura” be burned.

Dmitri Nabokov was born in 1934 in Berlin and as a child lived “a real drifter’s life,” he later said. He was living in Paris with his father and Jewish mother, Vera, when the family fled the Nazis in 1940 and came to the U.S.

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Vladimir borrowed money to send his son to Harvard in 1951. He reported that Dmitri’s interests there were “mountaineering, girls, music, track, tennis and his studies, in that order.”

After graduating from college, Dmitri served in theU.S. Army, resuming his voice studies after his discharge in 1957.

The elder Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945 but returned to Europe in 1961, settling in Switzerland to be near his son, who was living in Italy.

Dmitri never married but believed he would have made a great father, much like his own was, he told The Times in 1989: “It was a very rich relationship. We were very good friends.... He made my life infinitely richer, more entertaining and equipped me for creative endeavors of my own.”

news.obits@latimes.com

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