NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Actor Hoskins dies at 71

LONDON

Bob Hoskins never lost his Cockney accent, even as he became a global star who charmed and alarmed audiences in a vast range of roles.

Short and bald, with a face he once compared to “a squashed cabbage,” Hoskins was a remarkably versatile performer. As a London gangster in “The Long Good Friday,” he moved from bravura bluster to tragic understatement. In “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” he cavorted with a cast of animated characters, making technological trickery seem seamless and natural.

A family statement released Wednesday said Hoskins had died in a hospital the night before after a bout of pneumonia. He was 71 and had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012.

The 5-foot 6-inch Hoskins, who was built like a bullet, specialized in tough guys with a soft center, including the ex-con who chaperones Cathy Tyson’s escort in Neil Jordan’s 1986 film “Mona Lisa.” Hoskins was nominated for a best-actor Academy Award for the role.

Born in 1942 in eastern England, where his mother had moved to escape wartime bombing, Hoskins was raised in a working-class part of north London. He left school at 15, worked at odd jobs including circus fire-eater and claimed he got his break as an actor by accident — while watching a friend audition, he was handed a script and asked to read.

He is survived by his wife, Linda, and children Alex, Sarah, Rosa and Jack.

Mad magazine’s Al Feldstein dies at 88

NEW YORK

Before “The Simpsons” or even “The Daily Show,” Al Feldstein showed America how to laugh at itself and giggle at popular culture.

Millions of young baby boomers looked forward to that day when the new issue of Mad magazine, which Feldstein ran for 28 years, arrived in the mail or on newsstands. Thanks in part to Feldstein, who died Tuesday at his home in Montana at age 88, comics were more than escapes into alternate worlds of superheroes and clean-cut children. They were a funhouse tour of current events and the latest crazes.

Feldstein’s reign at Mad, which began in 1956, was historic and unplanned.

Associated Press