Ike Turner, the legendary musician and former husband of Tina Turner, has died at 76.

“He did pass away this morning” at his home near San Diego, said Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner’s career, according to the Associated Press.

No other details were immediately available. TMZ.com earlier broke the news on its Web site.

Born and raised in Clarksdale, Miss., Turner was inspired by the old blues artists and embarked on a musical career of his own in the late 1940s. He later met Anna Mae Bullock, aka Tina Turner, who would become his wife and his musical partner for many years.

The couple’s often-tempestuous relationship was detailed in Tina Turner’s biography, which was the basis for the movie What’s Love Got to Do with It? They split in the 1970s.

Speaking to PEOPLE in 1990, Turner admitted to being abusive in his marriage.

“All the fights Tina and I had were about her being sad about something,” he said. “I get real emotional if you’re worrying and don’t tell me what it is. Then I can’t think about nothing else. So I’d slap her or something like that.”

Earlier this year, Turner told Jet magazine that he regretted many of his actions as a husband. “If I owe anybody an apology, that would be Tina,” he said. “I put her through hell with other women. I regret it today, but I can’t undo it.”

Turner married four times and had four children: Ike Jr., Michael, Ronald and Mia. Alongside his former wife, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

Source

Soap star Hunter Tylo’s oldest son, Michael Tylo Jr., died Wednesday night in Henderson, Nevada. Sarah Mildebrandt, Investigative Supervisor at the Clark County Coronor’s office tells Usmagazine.com that “the cause of death was drowning due to seizure disorder,” and that the “manner of death was accident.”

On the topic of whether there will be a toxicology report, Mildebrandt says there will be no toxicology tests done on the body. “The doctor determined the final cause today,” Mildebrandt says.

Hunter Tylo, 45, currently stars on CBS soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, but she might be best known for a role she was fired from. Tylo once won a reported $5 million dollars in a lawsuit after Aaron Spelling fired her from Melrose Place after she got pregnant.

Tylo’s manager Marv Dauer tells the Associated Press of the actress, whose daughter Katya lost an eye due to cancer, “She’s had one tragedy in her life after another, more than her share.”

Source

British actress Deborah Kerr, who shared one of cinema’s most famous kisses with Burt Lancaster in “From Here to Eternity,” has died, her agent said Thursday. She was 86.

Kerr, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died Tuesday in Suffolk, eastern England, agent Anne Hutton said.

Born in Scotland in 1921, Kerr began her career in regional British theaters and entertained the troops during World War II. Her first major screen role was in “Major Barbara” in 1941.

For many she will be remembered best for her clinch in the surf with Lancaster in the wartime drama “From Here to Eternity” — regularly voted among the greatest screen kisses.

Other memorable roles included Anna Leonowens, the British governess who falls for the king of Siam in “The King and I.”

Kerr is survived by her husband, Peter Viertel, two daughters and three grandchildren.

Source

(CNN) — Reality TV star and former model Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced dead Thursday after being taken to a Florida hospital after being found unconscious in her hotel room, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case told CNN.

Smith, 39, collapsed at a south Florida hotel and was taken to a local hospital, according to news reports.

TMZ.com had reported that Smith collapsed at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, and was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood just after 2 p.m. ET.

According to reports, Smith was found unresponsive in her hotel room.

**I am really – really sad about this.  I’m a mom – and I don’t know how I would ever get over losing my son. My gut tells me that she killed herself.  She’s got a lot of controversy circulating around her right now.  With the death of her son, and then the DNA drama with her daughter. It can’t be a coincidence that she has died just days before a court ordered DNA test on her daughter.

Her poor daughter.  I mean seriously…this is a sad ending to an already tragic story.

Marcheline Bertrand, actress and mother of Angelina Jolie, died on Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Jolie said in a statement to the Associated Press.

The 56-year-old Bertrand, who battled cancer for over seven-and-a-half years, was surrounded by her children, Angelina and son James Haven, as well as Jolie’s partner, Brad Pitt.

“Marcheline was beautiful, caring and totally devoted to her children. I never saw her upset or sad, even after she was diagnosed with cancer,” Lea Hunter, who once dated Haven, tells PEOPLE. “She always treated me like a member of her family.”

Bertrand, who had small roles in movies including 1983’s The Man Who Loved Women, raised Jolie and brother Haven by herself after divorcing their father, Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight, when Jolie was a toddler.

When granddaughter Shiloh was born in May, Bertrand told PEOPLE: “My heart is overflowing with joy with the new arrival of Brad and Angelina’s third child. Maddox, Zahara and Shiloh are deeply loved children. They have very kind and caring parents who love and support each other in every way.”

“Godfather of Soul” James Brown died in Atlanta, Ga., early Christmas morning after being admitted to Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday with what his agent described as severe pneumonia. He was 73.

Brown died around 1:45 a.m. with his close friend, Charles Bobbit, at his bedside, according to his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music, reports the Associated Press.

Brown’s death comes just as Eddie Murphy plays a feverishly dancing, smooth-talking James Brown-type in the new movie Dreamgirls.

In real life the dynamic showbiz veteran, who was known as the hardest-working man in show business, inspired generations of artists, from David Bowie to Michael Jackson, in his 50 years in the music industry.

Born May 3, 1933 in South Carolina during the Great Depression, Brown fine tuned his music in jail as a juvenile offender. He eventually turned professional in 1953.

Brown produced more than 119 chart-topping singles, including such hits as “Please, Please, Please,” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Got You (I Feel Good),” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)” and “It’s a Man’s World,” and has sold over 500 million records over the years. He has received a Kennedy Center Honor, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a 1992 special Grammy for lifetime achievement, among his many achievements.

Taking a line from one of his signature refrains, the musician – whose rhythm-driven style connected gospel, soul, funk and hip-hop – told PEOPLE in 1994 that at 60 he still felt good. He also thanked God for making him “artist of the century.”

While he thrived professionally, Brown’s personal life was often tumultuous. He married for the first time in 1953, to Velma Warren, with whom he had two children. They divorced in 1969. In 1971 he married Deidre Jenkins. They had three children and divorced in 1981. Brown’s third wife (from 1984 until her death in 1996), Adrienne Rodriegues, had him arrested four times on charges of assault.

After brandishing a shotgun at a business symposium in his Augusta, Ga., offices and leading police on a 10-mile chase in 1988, Brown spent two years in a South Carolina prison.

Still, he claimed, his prison time wasn’t wasted. “It gave me time to get into the Bible,” Brown told PEOPLE a few years after his 1991 release. “Success doesn’t mean everything.”

Brown is survived by his fourth wife Tomi Rae, whom he wed in 2002 (and remarried in 2004 after a brief annulment). They have one child, a son James Jr.

“He was dramatic to the end – dying on Christmas Day,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of Brown’s since 1955, told the AP. “Almost a dramatic, poetic moment. He’ll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way.”

Source

Actor Peter Boyle, most recently seen as the father on “Everybody Loves Raymond, died at New York Presbyterian Hospital, his publicist said today. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease.

Boyle was nominated for seven Emmys for his work as Frank Barone on the hit CBS show, but never won. He won an Emmy in 1996 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for an appearance on “The X Files.” He most recently appeared in the Christmas comedy “The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause” playing Father Time.

According to IMDB, John Lennon was the best man at his wedding back in 1977. He is survived by his wife Loraine and two daughters, Lucy and Amy.

Source