Died. Anatole Litvak, 72, Russian-born film director best known for the original version of Mayerling (1936), starring Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux, and The Snake Pit (TIME cover, Dec. 20, 1948), starring Olivia de Havilland, which was acclaimed as Hollywood's first realistic examination of insanity; in Neuilly, France. -

Died. Dr. Kurt Hahn, 88, stern, idealistic German educator for whom moral and physical fitness were as important as academic prowess; in Hermannsburg, West Germany. Hahn's pedagogical plan called for cold showers, periods of silence, and exacting physical trials to harden bodies and toughen minds in the struggle for survival during perilous times. Hahn founded his first school in 1920 at Germany's Salem Castle. When the Nazis forced him to flee 13 years later, he went to the bleak northeast coast of Scotland and started the Gordonstoun School, where Britain's Princes Philip, Charles and Andrew, along with laborers' sons, submitted to Hahn's austere regimen. In 1941 Hahn went to Wales to help set up the first Outward Bound School, where merchant seamen were taught how to survive the physical and psychological hardships of combat convoy duty. Since the end of World War II, 32 Outward Bound schools (six of them in the U.S.) based on Hahn's original have been established in 17 nations.

Died. Harry Hershfield, 89, perennial master of ceremonies, raconteur, columnist and cartoonist; in Manhattan. Hershfield first exercised his wit as the cartoonist-creator of the Desperate Desmond and Abie the Agent comic strips. In the 1940s he gained a wide following as one of the three gagmen who tried to tell funnier stories than the radio audience of Can You Top This? A leading light on the "rubber chicken circuit" for more than 50 years, Hershfield was famous for such sententiae as: "A conscience cannot prevent sin. It only prevents you from enjoying it."

Died. Edward Allen Pierce, 100, last surviving founder of the nation's largest stockbrokerage house, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith; in Manhattan. In 1901 Pierce left his job as manager of a lumber business for a $20-a-week clerkship with the prestigious brokerage house of A.A. Housman on Wall Street. Twenty-six years later, the company's name became E.A. Pierce & Co. In 1940 E.A. Pierce & Co. merged with the investment banking firm Merrill Lynch; a year later Fenner joined, followed by Smith in 1958. Pierce continued actively to govern his empire until well into his 90s.

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