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Tupac Shakur: 'Gangsta' rap artist
1971-1996
"All good niggers, all the niggers who change the world, die in violence. They don't die in regular ways."
A short and turbulent life ended violently in September when rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The September 7 attack was the second time Shakur had been shot in less than two years. He died September 13 from respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest after having one lung removed.
Born Tupac Amaru Shakur but known simply as 2Pac, with "Thug Life" tattooed across his stomach, Shakur embodied the extremes of pop culture. Fans loved him, buying millions of his records, while politicians and others denounced him and his lyrics for glorifying violence and drugs and degrading women. Shakur also made a film appearance in 1992's "Poetic Justice," and finished filming his role as a detective in the yet-to-be-released "Gang Related."
But Shakur seemed to spend as much time in courtrooms and jail cells as he did on movie sets and concert stages. Charges were dropped after a 1993 confrontation with two off-duty police officers in Atlanta, but 1994 assault and battery charges led to jail time, and Shakur was awaiting appeal of a 1995 sexual assault conviction and a 120-day sentence for a 1996 probation violation at the time of his death.
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McLean Stevenson: M*A*S*H star
1929-1996
McLean Stevenson, best remembered for his role as the womanizing, clumsy Lt. Col. Henry Blake in the hit television series "M*A*S*H," died of a heart attack February 16. He was 66.
Stevenson commanded the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the first three seasons of the CBS series from 1972 to 1975. The role won him a Golden Globe award in 1973 and an Emmy nomination the following year. The popular show was based on the 1970 Robert Altman movie of the same name about an Army field hospital. Stevenson left M*A*S*H for his own short-lived situation comedy.
The son of a cardiologist, Stevenson held various jobs before he broke into acting at age 31, only to spend over three decades in television's tinsel town. Besides M*A*S*H, he appeared in several other shows, including "The Tim Conway Hour," "The Doris Day Show," and "Diff'rent Strokes." He also worked on the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of his cousin and Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956.
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Tiny Tim: Singer, pop-culture icon
1929-1996
"In this business, you're as good as your last hit record, and mine was more than 26 years ago. Next year will be my 27th comeback."
Born Herbert Khaury, Tiny Tim was an unlikely hit in the era of Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and Janis Joplin. His 1968 song, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," was a cover version of a popular song from the 1920s. Khaury's version, delivered in a thin, warbling falsetto, was a comic counterpoint to earnest protest songs and increasingly abrasive hard rock.
Khaury's formidible talent for campy self-promotion helped him parlay his one hit into pop-culture icon status. His 1969 wedding to Miss Vicki Budinger was held on "The Tonight Show," and drew an audience of 40 million viewers.
Already suffering from congestive heart disease, diabetes and other health problems, Khaury collapsed at a ukelele festival in Massachusetts September 28. He died of apparent heart failure December 1, at age 64.
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