• August 20, 1990
• Vol. 34
• No. 7

Passages

It seemed suspicious to some when Tyne Daly, 44, won her Tony award for Broadway's Gypsy this past June and, on national television, cryptically thanked her husband, TV and movie director Georg Stanford Brown (above), "for very, very private reasons." At the time the former Cagney & Lacey co-star fiercely denied reports there was trouble at home. However, after 24 years of marriage, she filed for divorce on Aug. 3, citing the usual "irreconcilable differences." In the divorce petition, Daly asks to reinstate her original name, Ellen Tyne Daly, requests that she and Brown, 47, share custody of their daughter, Alyxandra Beatris, 4, and that he pay both child and spousal support. Daly's press agent, Marilyn Reese, said she was caught off-guard by the news. "Their marriage came as close to perfect as anybody's," she said. The couple have two older daughters, Alisabeth, 22, and Kathryne, 20.

Al Rosen (below), 80, the raspyvoiced hat-wearing barfly on Cheers, died of natural causes on Aug. 2 in Los Angeles. Of Rosen, a boxer-turned-actor whose curmudgeonly Cheers character was a master of the well-timed wisecrack, Cheers's creator, James Burrows, says, "We'll miss him. He's irreplaceable."

Norman MacLean, 87, whose 1976 autobiographical story collection, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, died on Aug. 2 of natural causes in Chicago. A retired English professor, the Montana-raised author wrote with warmth and lyricism about nature and especially about fly-fishing. He began one story with the memorable recollection: "In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing." No wonder fishermen regard his work as a gospel of sorts.

Wynonna Judd (near right), 26, the junior half of the gorgeous mother-daughter country-singing duo, plans to marry. The lucky fella? Tony King, a Nashville-based songwriter who wrote Ricky Van Shelton"s recent No. 1 country single, "I've Cried My Last Tear for You." "Our first real date was dinner and a movie in the small town outside of Nashville where I live," says Wynonna. A year and a half later, after King, 33, popped the question, the tuneful couple dashed over to Wynonna's mom, Naomi (far right), to break the good news. No wedding date has been set.

Sunday Silence, 4, 1989's Horse of the Year and the third all-time money earner, retired on Aug. 2 while training for the Arlington Challenge Cup. The black colt, who won last year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeder's Cup, was found to be suffering from a torn ligament in his left foreleg and will be put to stud next year at Stone Farm in Paris, Ky. Ironically, Sunday Silence's chief rival, Easy Goer, retired on July 18 with a chipped ankle bone. Sunday Silence's trainer, Charlie Whittingham, said, "Horses arc like strawberries; you must enjoy them while you can, because they don't last long."

While recording a solo album in Italy, I rocker Sting, 38, took time out to welcome his newest songbird, 6-lb., 5-oz. Eliot Pauline Sumner, into the world. The baby girl, born near Pisa, is the third for the rocking Brit and his live-in love, actress Trudie Styler, 36....

And Big guy Tom Hanks, 34, and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, had a little guy of their own on Aug. 4 in Los Angeles. Weighing in at 6 lbs., 4 oz., the baby has yet to be named. Although Hanks has a son and daughter from his previous marriage to Samantha Lewes, this is a first for him and Wilson, his wife of two years.