Milestones

By Melissa August, Amanda Bower, Val Castronovo, Matthew Cooper, Randy Hartwell, Daniel S. Levy, Ellin Martens, Josh Tyrangiel and Rebecca Winters

DIED. TANAQUIL LE CLERCQ, 71, lithe-limbed ballerina who, while on tour in Copenhagen with husband George Balanchine in 1956, contracted polio, which left her paralyzed at 27 at the peak of her talent and fame; of pneumonia; in New York City. In an eerie foreshadow, Balanchine in 1944 had choreographed a ballet in which he cast himself as a character named Polio and his incomparably elegant muse Le Clercq as a victim who becomes paralyzed.

DIED. JOSE GRECO, 82, Italian-born Brooklyn-raised dancer who popularized Spanish dance--especially the showy, cape-snapping flamenco--for worldwide audiences in the 1950s and '60s; in Lancaster, Pa. A popular guest on such shows as Ed Sullivan, Greco drew 19,000 fans to a New York City stadium in 1953.

DIED. AL GROSS, 82, visionary gadgeteer whose inventions, including the walkie-talkie, presaged the wireless revolution; in Sun City, Ariz. Gross's two-way radio may have helped Allied agents gain strategic advantage during World War II. Later, he produced early-model cell phones, garage-door openers and pagers.

DIED. ALAN CRANSTON, 86, four-term California Democratic Senator whose career as a champion of nuclear disarmament was overshadowed by a 1991 Senate reprimand for his involvement in the savings and loan scandals; in Los Altos Hills, Calif. After an early career as a journalist, Cranston returned to the U.S. from Europe and was appalled in 1939 to find sanitized English versions of Hitler's Mein Kampf; he translated his own, unvarnished edition, prompting Hitler's publisher to sue to stop sales.

DIED. WILLIAM P. ROGERS, 87, Attorney General for Dwight Eisenhower and Secretary of State for Richard Nixon; in Bethesda, Md. Nixon kept his longtime friend in the dark about such initiatives as contact with Ho Chi Minh and relations with China, preferring to rely on Henry Kissinger. Nixon later admitted, "The way I treated Rogers was terrible."

DIED. JULIUS EPSTEIN, 91, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Casablanca and author of more than 50 produced screenplays; in Los Angeles. Epstein was the inspiration for the naive Julian Blumberg, whose stories are plagiarized by Sammy Glick in Budd Schulberg's Hollywood novel, What Makes Sammy Run?

DIED. RAY WALSTON, 86, master of quirkily cranky roles; in Beverly Hills, Calif. Walston, who won a Tony playing a stylish Satan in the Broadway musical Damn Yankees, made his own devil's pact by joining the sitcom My Favorite Martian strictly for the cash. Though he later took other roles, he was forever branded as extraterrestrial Uncle Martin. He was so closely identified with the role that in 1996, when NASA thought it had found life on Mars, CBS News wanted to use him in a segment with two astro-scientists.

DIED. ARNOLD HUTSCHNECKER, 102, psychotherapist to Richard Nixon whom the President consulted by phone and twice received at the White House; in Sherman, Conn. Nixon first visited the doctor in 1951 for back pain, after reading his book on psychosomatic illnesses. Hutschnecker spoke little of his patient until after Nixon's death. The President was not seriously disturbed, he said, but exhibited many "neurotic symptoms," acceptable qualities in a leader. Hutschnecker advocated "mental-health certificates" for politicians.