Milestones

By Harriet Barovick, Tam M. Gray, Daniel S. Levy, Lina Lofaro, Michele L. Orecklin, Alain L. Sanders and Joel Stein

AILING. DARRYL STRAWBERRY, 36, former high-living New York Mets fence buster turned born-again New York Yankees slugger; with colon cancer.

DIED. DAN QUISENBERRY, 45, relief pitcher for the Kansas City Royals whose wit was as devastating as his sinkerball; of brain cancer; in Kansas City, Mo. Confounding batters with his underhand pitches, Quisenberry was a three-time All-Star who led the American League in saves from 1980 through 1985.

DIED. RODDY MCDOWALL, 70, child star who went on to become a Hollywood fixture and one of the industry's more versatile actors; of cancer; in Los Angeles. He survived a run of sensitive-boy roles in the '40s (including Lassie Come Home and How Green Was My Valley) to appear in adult parts ranging from Octavian in Cleopatra (with close friend Elizabeth Taylor) to the chimpanzee Cornelius in the Planet of the Apes film series.

DIED. TOM BRADLEY, 80, quietly commanding five-term former mayor of the nation's second largest city; in Los Angeles. First elected in 1973, Bradley, a former police officer, became Los Angeles' first black mayor, triumphing with such projects as the 1984 Olympic Games but faltering in the aftermath of the 1992 riots (see Eulogy, below).

DIED. GENE AUTRY, 91, Hollywood's first singing cowboy; in Los Angeles. The Texas-born, Oklahoma-raised crooner planned to play baseball (he later settled for owning the California Angels). Instead he entered show business, heeding the advice of Will Rogers, who recommended a radio career after hearing Autry, on break from a job as a telegrapher at a train station, sing and play his guitar. His first hit, 1931's That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine, was followed by TV and radio shows, almost 100 films and 635 recordings--including his signature Back in the Saddle Again. "I got better as I went along," said the self-effacing star. "I couldn't get any worse."