Betty Luster Prentis

Dancer and singer -- via Satellite News. She is best remembered for her starring role in the 1956 short promotional film "Mr. B Natural," which later became a camp classic thanks to the TV/movie comedy show "Mystery Science Theater 3000." She passed away on May 25, 2011, but her death was not generally reported until recently.

Peter Sykes

Guitarist for band This Many Boyfriends -- via NME.

Maple Batalia

Actress and model - via globaltvbc.com.

Denise Gence

Actress -- via voy.com.
http://www.ina.fr/art-et-culture/arts-du-spectacle/video/CAC92055513/denise-gence-oh-les-beaux-jours-de-samuel-beckett.fr.html

Clarence Johnson

Singer and record producer; an early member of the Chi-Lites -- via the Chicago Sun-Times.

Hella Haasse

Writer -- via the Washington Post.

Peter Gent

Athlete and writer -- via the L.A. Times.

Gaspar Henaine Perez aka Capulina

Comic -- via the Associated Press.

Roger G. Kennedy

Director of the National Park Service, leader of the Smithsonian, scholar and author -- via the New York Times.

Bettye Fitzpatrick

Actress -- via the Houston Chronicle.

Pierre Dansereau

Ecologist -- via Radio Canada.

Tatyana Lioznova

Film director -- via the Telegraph.

Ida Landau Fink

Writer -- via the Jewish Women's Archive.

Harry "Cuby" Muskee

Blues singer -- via nrc.nl.

Vasillaq Vangjeli

Actor and comedian -- via top-channel.tv.

Emanuel Litvinoff

Poet and memoirist -- via the Telegraph. He notably stood up to the horrible anti-Semitism of T.S. Eliot.

Micky Correa

Jazzman -- via bluerhythm.wordpress.com.

Knut Steen

Sculptor -- via christinaskreiberg.blogspot.com.

Peter Newmark

Scholar of the art and science of translation -- via the Guardian.

Wes Blomster

Classical music critic -- via the Boulder Daily Camera.

Dragan Klaic

Theatre scholar and cultural commentator -- via the Guardian.

Ian Kemp

Musicologist and scholar -- via the Telegraph.

Paul Kirby

Nashville guitarist and singer -- via Billboard.

Brooke Ostrander

Keyboardist -- via samessenger.com. He started the band Rainbow with Chaim Witz and Stanley Eisen; later they became Wicked Lester. Finally Ostrander quit, becoming a studio musician and music educator. His bandmates? They changed their names to Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, and the band changed its name to Kiss.

"Country" Johnny Mathis

Singer and songwriter -- via the Tennessean.

Marv Tarplin

Guitarist and songwriter -- via the Detroit News. A great American musician, he also wrote or co-wrote such classics as "The Tracks of My Tears," "Ain't That Peculiar," "I'll Be Doggone," and "Being with You."

Bill Taylor

Former MLB outfielder -- via Bill Schenley and groups.google.com/group/alt.obituaries.

Jiri Hubac

Dramatist and screenwriter -- via radio.cz.

Wilson Greatbatch

Inventor and engineer, best known for creating the first practical, implantable pacemaker, as well as the lithium battery -- via the New York Times.

Sylvia Robinson

Singer, songwriter and music producer; the "Mother of Hip-Hop" -- via the New York Times. Half of the vocal duo Mickey and Sylvia, she later produced the pioneering rap tracks -- "Raper's Delight" and "The Message."

Leonard Dillon

Ska, rocksteady and reggae vocalist, and co-founder of the Ethiopians -- via the Jamaica Observer.

Shirley Chambers

Actress -- via voy.com. Almost forgotten, she had small parts in a number of highly significant films -- "Gone with the Wind," "The Women," "Nothing Sacred," "Viva Villa!" and Lubitsch's "Merry Widow." She worked with the Three Stooges, Eddie Cantor and Wheeler and Woolsey.

Jerry Haynes aka Mr. Peppermint

Childrens' show host, announcer and character actor -- via WFAA.

Johnnie Wright

Country singer and bandleader -- via the New York Times.

Sara Douglass aka Sara Warneke

Fantasy author -- via the Herald Sun.

Sergio Bonelli

Comic-book author and publisher -- via bigshinyrobot.com.

Maria Elizabeth Macias

Murdered journalist -- via MSNBC.

Arch West

Doritos creator -- via the New York Times.

Surinder Kapoor

Film producer -- via the Times of India.

Jose Miguel Varas

Author, journalist and dissident -- via the Santiago Times.

Robert Whitaker

Photographer -- via the Telegraph.

David Zelag Goodman

Don't let the sour look fool you. Out of the frame, he is making Sam Peckinpaugh hold his leg ala Harpo Marx.

Screenwriter -- via the L.A Times. One of the classically underesteemed Hollywood scribes, he wrote or co-wrote many memorable films in almost every film genre, including the original "Straw Dogs," "Lovers and Other Strangers," "Monte Walsh," "Logan's Run," and the Robert Mitchum adaptation of "Farewell, My Lovely."