Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Roy B. White, Rebecca Winters

SENTENCED. ROBERT HANSSEN, 58, ex-FBI counterintelligence expert who pleaded guilty, in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, to providing thousands of classified U.S. intelligence documents to the Russians; to life in prison with no possibility of parole; in a federal court in Alexandria, Va. Believed to be one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history, Hanssen said: "I apologize for my behavior. I am shamed by it."

DIED. SEATTLE SLEW, 28, champion racehorse and the last surviving one to win the Triple Crown; 25 years to the day after his 1977 victory at the Kentucky Derby, which was followed that year by dramatic wins in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes; in his sleep; near Lexington, Ky. The noble Thoroughbred won 14 of 17 starts, made $1,208,726 and sired more than 100 stakes winners.

DIED. KEVYN AUCOIN, 40, celebrity makeup artist and advocate for gay youth, who sought to enhance the individuality of clients like Cher, Cindy Crawford, Courtney Love and Janet Jackson; of complications from a pituitary brain tumor; in Westchester County, N.Y. Through his makeup, he said, he aimed to boost clients' self-esteem.

DIED. OTIS BLACKWELL, 70, pioneer rock-'n'-roll tunesmith; of an apparent heart attack; in Nashville, Tenn. He wrote songs that helped define the careers of Elvis Presley (Don't Be Cruel, All Shook Up), Jerry Lee Lewis (Great Balls of Fire), Peggy Lee (Fever) and James Taylor (Handy Man). A modest man who never met most of the singers made famous by his songs and one of the few black composers of the proto-pop era, Blackwell blended country with rhythm and blues to make music the world still sings.

DIED. GEORGE SIDNEY, 85, self-effacing director of some of MGM's most famous musicals, including Annie Get Your Gun, Kiss Me Kate and Show Boat; of lymphoma; in Las Vegas. He was instrumental in founding the animation company Hanna-Barbera and directed 1945's Anchors Aweigh, in which the cartoon Jerry the Mouse danced alongside Gene Kelly.

DIED. LOU THESZ, 86, wrestling champion of the 1940s and '50s who competed in 6,000 matches over seven decades; in Orlando, Fla. Known as a hooker--a master of the sport's most complex and dangerous moves--Thesz was critical of gimmicky antics. "I'm a wrestler," he said, "not a wrassler, not a clown."

DIED. JAMES (BUSTER) BROWN, 88, tap dancer and teacher whose fast-paced rhythms influenced modern stars like Savion Glover; in New York City.

DIED. JOSEPH BONANNO, 97, inveterate godfather of organized crime, don of one of New York's five original Mafia families and self-admitted member of "the Commission," a ruling council of the criminal underground; in Tucson, Ariz. Born in Sicily, he made his start as an enforcer among the speakeasies of Brooklyn before becoming head of the Bonanno family at 26. He disliked his nickname in the press, "Joe Bananas," but he was one of the lords of the underworld from the 1930s until the "banana wars" of the '60s resulted in his exile to Arizona. He always denied that the Mafia existed and, in his autobiography, described himself as a "venture capitalist."