MILESTONES

BORN. To OLIVER STONE, 49, Vietnam veteran/conspiracy buff/filmmaker, and his wife CHONG SON CHONG, 36, a model: a girl, Tara; in Santa Monica, California.

RECOVERING. CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN, 49, New Jersey's Governor and rising G.O.P. star; from surgery to remove an ovarian cyst; in Morristown, New Jersey.

DIED. EDDIE EGAN, 65, police officer/actor; of cancer; in Miami. As a New York City detective in 1962, Egan oversaw the famed "French Connection" heroin bust, which inspired the 1971 movie. In it Egan, portraying his boss, was cast opposite Gene Hackman, who won an Oscar for playing Egan. The real cop went on to play a platoon's worth of the Hollywood sort.

DIED. PAUL EDDINGTON, 68, actor; of cancer; in London. Eddington enjoyed his best notices playing Jim Hacker, the full-voiced, empty-headed politician dominated by his staff in the popular British TV series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.

DIED. MELVIN ("Slappy") WHITE, 74, comedian; of a heart attack; in Brigantine, New Jersey. White was one of the first African-American nightclub comics to play major white venues. His self-deprecating humor became a fixture of film, TV and "roasts."

DIED. JOSE YGLESIAS, 75; writer; in New York City. The American-born author of Cuban-Spanish ancestry brought a reporter's sensibility to such enduring works as The Truth About Them (1971), a multi-generational novel tracing a Cuban family from Florida immigration to middle-class success, and The Franco Years (1977), an oral history of Spain's darkest days.

DIED. JOHN PATRICK, 90, author of the Pulitzer-prizewinning hit play The Teahouse of the August Moon (1953) and numerous screenplays; in Delray Beach, Florida.