Lucy Gordon, considered one of Britain’s most promising young film stars, was found dead in her Paris apartment after apparently killing herself, say French police.

Gordon, 28, had a dozen screen roles to her credit, including that of British reporter Jennifer Dugan in Spider-Man 3. In the upcoming biopic Serge Gainsbourg (a heroic life), about the late French singer-songwriter-actor, she plays the real-life British actress-singer Jane Birkin.

Gordon was discovered in her apartment, Paris police tell the London Times, which also quotes a news source as saying the actress’s boyfriend was asleep in the residence when she hanged herself. An autopsy has been ordered.

Gordon, who had worked as a model, made her movie debut in 2001’s Perfume. The next year, she starred in the war drama The Four Feathers, which also starred Heath Ledger.

Friday would have marked her 29th birthday.

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Bea Arthur, best known for her role as Dorothy Zbornak on the sitcom The Golden Girls, has died.

She was 86.

Dan Watt, her spokesman and former assistant, told the Associated Press the actress passed away at her home early Saturday after a battle with cancer. He declined to give further details.

“She was a brilliant and witty woman,” said Watt. “Bea will always have a special place in my heart.”

The actress — whose Golden Girls costar Estelle Getty died last year — won a Tony Award in 1966 for the musical Mame.

She also picked up Emmy Awards for Maude and The Golden Girls.

Her domineering on Maude was much like her role on The Golden Girls — but Arthur said she never worried about typecasting.

“Look – I’m 5-feet-9, I have a deep voice and I have a way with a line,” she once said. “What can I do about it? I can’t stay home waiting for something different. I think it’s a total waste of energy worrying about typecasting.”

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British reality star Jade Goody died in her sleep early Sunday after a seven-month battle with cervical cancer. She was 27.

Surrounded by her family at her home in Essex, southeast England, she passed away at 3:14 a.m., her publicist, Max Clifford tells Usmagazine.com.

“She had been asleep the past 24 hours and it happened very peacefully,” he told Us. “Everyone is, of course, devastated, but we knew this was coming. I’m just glad people are remembering her as a brave girl who took on this battle with courage and gusto. She’s inspired a lot of people.”

Her mother Jackiey Budden, who was at her side as she died, told BBC News, “My beautiful daughter is at peace.”

Added British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, “She will be remembered fondly by all who knew her and her family can be extremely proud of the work she has done to raise awareness of cervical cancer, which will benefit thousands of women across the UK.”

Goody was a dental assistant who rose to fame as a loud and brash contestant on the reality show Big Brother in 2002. She was often ridiculed by fans for her lack of education (she thought Saddam Hussein was a boxer).

She stirred controversy on a follow-up show in 2007 when she referred to another contestant, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, as “Shilpa Poppadom.” She also complained about Shetty’s cooking of Indian food and mocked her accent. (more…)

Dakota Culkin, who died after being accidentally struck by a car Dec. 9 in Los Angeles, was “more than likely impaired due to alcohol,” Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner tells PEOPLE.

Culkin, 29, had traces of alcohol in her system, Corral said, although it wasn’t immediately known what her blood alcohol level was. Culkin, who had recently moved to L.A. to pursue a career in film production, had reportedly just left a Marina Del Rey bar before she crossed the street and was hit.

Culkin’s family also indicated to investigators that she’d been going to therapy for alcohol addiction, Corral said.

Shortly after her death, a manager for siblings Macaulay, Rory and Kieran Culkin told PEOPLE that the brothers were “absolutely heartbroken” over their sister’s passing.

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Mexican actor Ricardo Montalban died Wednesday. He died of natural causes, reports Radar.

Known for his role as Mr. Roarke on the TV series, Fantasy Island, Montalban’s career in film spanned decades and included a 1978 Emmy award for his performance in How the West Was Won as well as a Tony award nomination in 1958 for the musical, Jamaica.

Most recently, he gave his voice to Disney’s Kim Possible animated series and to an episode of Family Guy. He had also appeared in Bonanza, Star Trek and Murder, She Wrote.

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Groundbreaking actress and the sultry singer of the stylishly sexy Christmas standard “Santa Baby,” Eartha Kitt, died on Christmas Day in New York City, her publicist confirmed to CNN.

Kitt, 81, had been treated for colon cancer. Her daughter Kitt Shapiro was by her side at the time of her death.

Known primarily for singing in her distinctively raspy voice and purring like a cat as Catwoman on the ’60s TV series Batman, Kitt was a star of stage, the small and big screen and music. She was nominated for three Tony awards, two Grammy awards and two Emmys, according to her official Web site.

A performer to the very end, Kitt taped a PBS special in Chicago six weeks ago that is set to air in February, CNN reports.

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Bettie Page, the ever-smiling, zaftig brunette with trademark bangs who became one of America’s most famous and notorious pin-up girls in the 1950s, died in Los Angeles Thursday after having her life support removed following a heart attack. She was 85.

“She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality,” her agent, Mark Roesler, said. “She is the embodiment of beauty.”

Page was a 27-year-old secretary when a photographer on the beach at Coney Island discovered her in 1950. She went on to star in a series of sensual and nude photographs, including a Playboy centerfold and some that featured her in sadomasochistic poses.

After disappearing from public view for decades in which she became a devout Christian and was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia, Page re-emerged again in recent years, even becoming the subject of a 2005 feature film, The Notorious Bettie Page, in which she was portrayed by actress Gretchen Mol.

Page’s three marriages all ended in divorce.

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