Milestones

By Richard Zoglin; Melissa August, Elizabeth L. Bland, Kristen Bolt, Sean Gregory, Unmesh Kher, Kate Novack, Julie Rawe And Molly Worthen Sunday, June 15, 2003
    • DIED. DAVID BRINKLEY, 82, pioneering TV newsman whose clipped, sardonic voice was among the medium's most recognizable and respected for four decades; of complications from a fall at his home; in Houston. Born in North Carolina, he reported for United Press before moving to Washington in 1943 to work for NBC News. Teamed with the more somber Chet Huntley, first at the 1956 political conventions and then for a 14-year run on the nightly Huntley-Brinkley Report, he helped NBC surpass CBS in the ratings and ushered in a more easygoing, intimate style that contrasted with the increasingly pontifical delivery of Edward R. Murrow and his aging band at CBS. After Huntley retired in 1970, Brinkley carried on at NBC in various anchoring and commentary roles before ABC gave his career a new start in 1981, hiring him to host a revamped Sunday talk show, This Week with David Brinkley, which he led to ratings success before stepping down in 1997. "TV grew up, and I happened to be standing there," he once said. But it grew up faster because of him.

    DEFECTED. CARLOS MANUEL, 30, Cuban pop star; in Brownsville, Texas. The singer, who had been performing with his band in Mexico City, made his way to Matamoros and walked across a bridge into Brownsville with several family members. After saying his decision to leave Cuba was prompted by Fidel Castro's crackdown on dissidents, he was granted asylum.


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    DIED. ART COOPER, 65, former editor in chief of GQ, who during a 20-year tenure infused the men's fashion magazine with strong journalism and lively, elegant writing; of complications from a stroke; in New York City. After graduating from Penn State, he worked at TIME and Newsweek and as the editor of Penthouse and Family Weekly. In 1983 he took over GQ, where he provided a home for writers as diverse as David Halberstam, Peter Mayle and Michael Kelly before retiring this spring.

    DIED. DONALD REGAN, 84, former head of Merrill Lynch who left to become Ronald Reagan's Treasury Secretary and then chief of staff; of cancer; in Williamsburg, Va. The burly exMarine spent 35 years at Merrill Lynch before joining the Reagan team, where he was a prime mover behind the landmark 1986 tax reforms. When he became chief of staff, he ran into trouble; the Iran-contra scandal blew up on his watch, and he tangled with the First Lady, who helped speed his ouster after a year. He retaliated with a memoir, For the Record, that disclosed Nancy's reliance on an astrologer for advice, which she gave her beloved "Ronnie." Mrs. Reagan later responded with her own book, in which she labeled Regan "explosive" and sniffed that he "often acted as if he were the President."

    DIED. TONY ROMA, 78, restaurant magnate, who opened his first barbecue shop with his partner, chef David Smith, in North Miami, Fla., in the 1970s and expanded it into an international empire; of cancer; in Hemet, Calif. His enterprise went global after a Texas financier, on a jaunt to the Super Bowl, dropped by Roma's eatery for a meal and wound up buying into the business. Today there are more than 225 Famous for Ribs restaurants scattered over five continents.

    DIED. GREGORY PECK, 87, square-jawed Hollywood leading man and star of such films as Gentleman's Agreement and To Kill a Mockingbird; in Los Angeles. (See page 86.)