Died. Hal March, 49, Broadway actor, onetime quizmaster on the infamous TV giveaway show The $64,000 Question; of pneumonia following the removal of a cancerous lung; in Los Angeles. A journeyman actor when he took over Question in 1955, March stayed with the show for three years before quitting in favor of a Broadway career. He had no connection with the 1959 quiz scandals, and went on to success as the star of the 1961 comedy Come Blow Your Horn.
Died. James B. Donovan, 53, New York lawyer who negotiated the trade of convicted Soviet Spy Rudolf Abel for U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers; of a heart attack; in Brooklyn. Appointed to defend Abel at his 1957 trial, Donovan convinced U.S. authorities it was in their interest to spare the agent’s life and use him as trade bait; after Powers was captured, his proposition paid off. During 1962-63 he also negotiated the release of 9,700 Bay of Pigs prisoners, their relatives and other political hostages.
Died. Don Carlos de Beistegui, 75, Spanish playboy and jet set superhost; of a heart disease; in Montfort-l’Amaury, France. Heir to ever-producing Mexican silver mines, Beistegui squandered fortunes on incredibly lavish parties —most notably in 1951, when at a cost of $750,000 he restored Venice’s 89-room Palazzo Labia, gilded it with an estimated $3,000,000 worth of period trappings, then treated 1,500 friends to a stupendous all-night bash.
Died. George M. Humphrey, 79, onetime board chairman of M. A. Hanna Co. and Eisenhower’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1953 to 1957; of a heart attack; in Cleveland. Conservative in economics as well as politics, Humphrey, upon taking office, demanded and won the right to review all federal projects, then labored to implement Republican promises of a balanced budget by paring spending. He also made comprehensive tax cuts totaling $7.4 billion in the first year alone.
Died. Odie R. Seagraves, 83, big-time wheeler-dealer, even by Texas standards; by defenestration; from an eighth-floor hotel room; in Dallas. Seagraves spent his life putting together deals, borrowing millions to make millions, then trading it all to cover overborrowing on other deals. By 1929 he had made and lost $20 million in natural gas speculation, subsequently ran up fortunes in oil and sulphur. But in the end he lost it all (an estimated $150 million), and died virtually broke.
Died. David O. McKay, 96, supreme spiritual leader of the world’s 3,000,000 Mormons (see RELIGION).
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