Sandy Dennis, 54, veteran character actress who won an Academy Award in 1966 for her performance as the whimpering young faculty wife in ”Who`s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”; she made her film debut in a supporting role in Elia Kazan`s ”Splendor in the Grass” (1961) and then emerged as a star on Broadway, winning two Tony awards in succession for ”A Thousand Clowns” and ”Any Wednesday”; as a teacher in a tough New York school in ”Up the Down Staircase” (1967), she won the Moscow Film Festival`s prize for best actress; March 2, of cancer, in her home in Westport, Conn.
Pare Lorentz, 86, writer, critic and filmmaker credited with helping raise the social documentary to an art form in the Great Depression; he recently completed the autobiography ”FDR`s Movie Maker,” to be published next month; he was a film critic for the New York Evening Journal, Vanity Fair magazine and King Features Syndicate in the early 1930s; he earned a reputation as a chronicler of President Franklin Roosevelt`s New Deal programs; his best-known film was ”The River” (1937), on the uncontrolled flooding and soil erosion along the Mississippi; March 4, in Armonk, N.Y.
Edward Sagendorph Mason, 93, noted economist, former Harvard dean and frequent government adviser; a native of Clinton, Iowa, he taught at Harvard for 46 years, retiring in 1969 with the title of university professor; until recently, he remained in contact with development programs he had founded at Harvard to benefit Third World countries; in 1963 he founded the Development Advisory Service, now known as the Harvard Institute for International Development; Feb. 29, in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Nestor Almendros, 61, Spanish-born cinematographer who helped change the look of Hollywood films with his concept of light and who filmed such movies as ”Sophie`s Choice” and ”Kramer vs. Kramer”; he won an Oscar for cinematography in 1979 for ”Days of Heaven,” directed by Terrence Malick and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard; in that film, he perfected his technique of relying on available light-what he called ”natural light”-unencumbered by the ubiquitous flood lights of most Hollywood films;
he was nominated for Oscars for other Hollywood films in subsequent years, and won a Cesar award-the French equivalent of the Oscar-for his cinematography of ”The Last Metro” in 1981; March 4, of lymphoma, in New York.
Earl A. Scheib, 85, gravel-voiced television entrepreneur who promised to paint ”any car, any color” for a price calculated to make the competition wince; the discount paint operation became a chain of more than 200 shops in about 40 states, including Illinois, and his quirky late-night TV commercials made him a folk figure in car-crazy Southern California; he determined early on that Southern Californians would welcome a discount means of sprucing up their cars; he also recognized the potential of late-night TV and starred in his own commercials; he and his company, based in Beverly Hills, were hounded by county district attorneys and the Federal Trade Commission, who doubted the veracity of his claims; only a few colors were available for the special price, they said; Feb. 29, in his Beverly Hills, Calif., home.
Porter McKeever, 76, executive director of the Chicago Council of Foreign Relations in the 1950s who also was a biographer of Adlai E. Stevenson, a close associate of John D. Rockefeller III and founding president of the United Nations Association of the United States; an advocate of the UN from its origin in 1945, he served six years as director of information for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations; he resigned in 1952, attacking the Truman administration for bypassing the UN and reducing what had been a cornerstone of U.S. policy to ”the size of a pebble”; he then became executive director of the Chicago Council of Foreign Relations; in 1953, the newly established Ford Foundation named him director of public information, and he later served in a similar capacity with the Council for Economic Development; he joined Stevenson`s campaign for the presidency in 1952 as a national publicity director; he wrote ”Adlai Stevenson: His Life and Legacy” (1989); March 2, of cancer, in New York.
Milton Leonard Fisher, 70, a retired partner in the law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt, and former chairman of the Chicago Bar Association Committee on Bankruptcy; he served as chief fundraiser and political consultant to former U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson III through four state and two U.S. Senate campaigns; he earned his law degree in 1949 from Northwestern University Law School and joined the firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt, becoming a partner in 1960; March 1, of an asthma attack, on vacation in Aspen, Colo.
Ted Liss, 72, an actor, director and acting coach, had a theatrical career that began as a child on the radio in 1931 and included nine feature films; he was considered a legendary coach to people who became top professional actors and actresses; for many years he operated the Ted Liss Studio Actors Workshop at 1529 N. Wells St., where he coached such actors as Robert Urich, Mike Nussbaum, Tom Bosley, Lois Nettleton and Geraldine Page;
March 4, at his North Lake Shore Drive home.
Richard C. Niblack, 63, the high-rise architect who helped design the fourth Madison Square Garden in New York and NASA`s Johnson Space Center in Houston; he joined the firm of Pereira & Luckman, which became The Luckman Partnership in 1977; during his 24 years with the firm, he built a design team that received 98 awards for design excellence; Feb. 14, of cancer, in La Jolla, Calif.
Bernard M. Shanley, 88, White House aide to President Dwight Eisenhower and a New Jersey lawyer and politician; he ran twice for the U.S. Senate and continued in politics until last month, when he resigned as a Republican national committeeman; he was also the senior partner of Shanley and Fisher, the law firm he founded 59 years ago; for five years he was a key White House official, serving as a liaison to Congress, the State Department and the military, recommending legislation and helping draft State of the Union addresses in the Eisenhower administration; in late February, after a brief illness, at home in Bernardsville, N.J.
Chester H. Schultz, 79, past president of Schultz, Rosky & Block, a wholesale menswear firm; he was a longtime fundraiser and worker for community and Jewish organizations; his firm, founded by his father, William, sold menswear under the label Sarby; March 3, at his Near North Side home.
Edward J. Devitt, 80, U.S. district judge who was believed to be one of the nation`s longest-serving living judges; President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him to the federal bench in December 1954; he retired from regular service in May 1981 but continued to hear cases, often on a full-time basis, as a senior judge; among the high-profile cases over which he presided was the trial last year of Walter Moody, who was convicted of killing a federal judge with a mail bomb; March 2, of cancer, in St. Paul.
Lawrence Westerberg, 93, a retired direct-sale business executive, was co-founder with his wife, Mabel, of Queen`s Way To Fashion and later became chairman of Aparacor Inc.; in 1926, he came to Chicago to get a job in advertising; his wife wanted to start a small retail store in 1949, but they decided instead to let people buy the way the queen of England does by having the merchant come to them; they named their venture accordingly; sales were made through home parties similar to ones held for Tupperware products; March 3, in the Presbyterian Home in Evanston.
Jam Saddiq Ali, 57, the flamboyant leader of the violent Sindh province in Pakistan and archenemy of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto; during Bhutto`s 20-month government he was an adviser but eventually resigned because of differences; after Bhutto was forced to step down in August 1990 on corruption charges, he was named chief minister of Sindh; however, during his time in power, the U.S. State Department criticized the Sindh government for intimidating, torturing and jailing political opponents; March 5, of cirrhosis of the liver, in Karachi.
Chon In Chol, 68, North Korea`s vice foreign minister; he had headed North Korea`s delegation to talks with Japan on establishing diplomatic relations; March 2, in North Korea, of cancer.
Lalla Abla, mother of King Hassan II of Morocco; she was the wife of King Mohammed V, Hassan`s father; March 1, in Rabat, Morocco.
