Ads by Google Ads by Google

Final goodbye: Roll call of some who died in 2014

(AP) — They each turned a moment of violence into a call to action. For James Brady, that moment came when he was shot and wounded by a would-be presidential assassin. For Chung Eun-yong, it was the killings of his two children during the Korean War.Brady took up a personal campaign for increased gun control after surviving a head wound when a man tried unsuccessfully to kill President Ronald Reagan, for whom Brady was press secretary. Chung began a years-long quest for justice, which eventually prompted the U.S. Army to acknowledge having killed civilian refugees at No Gun Ri.Brady and Chung, who died within days of each other in August, are among the notables who left the world in 2014.Others included political figures who catalyzed war and peace and scientists who changed our lives. And we lost beloved entertainers, some remembered for bringing audiences decades of smiles and tears and others who left the stage long before their time.Among the political figures who died in 2014 was Ariel Sharon a hard-charging Israeli general and prime minister whose efforts to reshape the Middle East caused some to call him a war hero and others a war criminal. Another was Marion Barry, the former Washington, D.C., mayor whose accomplishments were often overshadowed by his arrest for drug use.British politician Tony Benn, former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski and former Georgia president Eduard Shevardnadze also died this year.Among scientists and innovators was Rostislav Belyakov, the chief designer of the Russian MiG fighter jets, Nobel Prize winner Martin Perl, who discovered a subatomic particle, and S. Donald Stookey, the inventor of Corningware.A feeling of untimeliness defined several of the deaths in the entertainment arena in 2014.The suicide of actor and comedian Robin Williams touched off a national conversation about depression. The overdose deaths of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, model Peaches Geldof and heavy metal frontman Dave Brockie were reminders of the scourge of drug use.Other artists and entertainers included: actors Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney, Suchitra Sen, Harold Ramis, Lauren Bacall, Ken Takakura and Eli Wallach; musicians Pete Seeger, Sabah, Tommy Ramone, Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Cerati and Big Bank Hank; filmmakers Mike Nichols and Run Run Shaw; radio host Casey Kasem; comedian Joan Rivers and writers Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka.Here is a roll call of some of the people who died in 2014. (Cause of death cited for younger people, if available.)JANUARY:Saul Zaentz, 92. Music producer whose second career as a filmmaker brought him best-picture Academy Awards for \One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest