JESSICA TANDY, 85, actress: "She was totally genuine. She had a deceptively simple style. She had a girlish sparkle right till the end of her life. Directing her was like dealing with a teenager. You never thought of her as being old. Now that she's gone, there's no one with that class and graciousness."—director Bruce Beresford
JOHN CANDY, 42, actor: "John was a wonderful person in almost every way. He just exuded sweetness. He was so generous as an actor; he always tried to make the other fellow look good. I felt the was always looking out for me in a scene, and it made me want to look out for him. He Was so companionable".—actor and director Harold Ramis
JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS, 64, First Lady: "The memory of Jackie does not fade. To those of us who shared that long-ago time, she was the essence of beauty. There really is no end to missing her—it's a sadness not to have her someplace in this world."—Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson
RICHARD NIXON, 81, 37th President: "He achieved greatly and suffered deeply. But he never gave up. He envisaged a new international order that would reduce lingering enmities, strengthen historic friendships and give new hope to mankind—a vision where dreams and possibilities conjoined. In this manner, he ended a war and advanced the vision of peace of his Quaker youth."—former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
PETER CUSHING, 81, actor: "He will go down in history, along with Vincent Price and Christopher Lee, as one of the great macabre masters of cinema. His will be a hard cape to fill."—horror hostess Elvira
DINAH SHORE, 76, singer: "She was a model of decency, intelligence and taste—one of the truly great, truly wise, truly fun women. She made everyone who knew her feel better about themselves. One of the great mistakes of my life was not marrying her. When she died, Hollywood didn't just lose a legend, it lost a touch of class."—actor Burt Reynolds
MELINA MERCOURI, 68, Greek actress and politician: "The word 'mercurial' perfectly describes Melina, who was a person of extraordinarily quick reactions, able to play Greek tragedies or the brightest comedy. Her verve must have enlivened many cabinet meetings."—actor Peter Ustinov
HARRY NILSSON, 52, composer: "He had a big heart in addition to being an extremely creative artist. He used to always just kind of drop in. He was that kind of friend. He was very sensitive to issues and politically correct before that phrase existed. He was very warm and understanding, and I miss him."—composer Yoko Ono
RAUL JULIA, 54, actor: "He was an inspired clown and a dashing, exuberantly sexy leading man. Raul was up for anything; he fenced, tangoed, climbed walls and somehow made Gomez Addams an ideal dad and a deliciously passionate husband."—Addams Family Values screenwriter Paul Rudnick
JAMES CLAVELL, 69, author: "With his mysterious limp and dashing dueling scar on his cheek, he was sometimes known as the last of the buccaneers. For me and most of the country, he illuminated Japan's veil of inscrutability in Shogun. While he royally entertained us, he taught us well."—actor Richard Chamberlain
BURT LANCASTER, 80, actor: "He had a sense of what was bull and what wasn't. You could see it in his choice of the people whom he spent time with and his lack of participation in the silliness of Hollywood. He was involved in causes long before it was chic for actors to be politically active."—director Sydney Pollack
CAB CALLOWAY, 86, jazz musician: "Cab and I were contemporaries, and he was an inspiration to me. When I first heard Cab's 'Minnie the Moocher,' with his 'Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-ho,' I knew I needed something like that for my band. So I came up with 'Hey Bob a Ree Bop.' It was one of my first hits."—musician Lionel Hampton
CESAR ROMERO, 86, actor: "The prominence he achieved as a Hispanic actor brought me great joy. He was thoroughly professional and always a gentleman. He had a tremendous respect for the acting profession. He came totally prepared."—actor Ricardo Montalban
HENRY MANCINI, 70, composer and conductor: "As a composer he was one of the greatest of this century. And as a performer, he was just magic. He had a way with musicians that had them giving their best all the time."—flutist James Galway
WILLIAM CONRAD, 73, actor: "He was a real man's man. That stuck with me. He just told it like it was. He was an emotional guy, but I think he guarded himself, as most of us do. Beneath his rough exterior he had a lot of heart and was just a teddy bear."—actor Joe Penny
RALPH ELLISON, 80, author: "Ellison's Invisible Man made African-Americans' pain and passion visible and palpable for the first time to a large portion of American society. Many writers—I include myself—have traveled along the pathway he paved for us. Thank you, Ralph Ellison."—author Maya Angelou
BETTY FURNESS, 78, consumer activist: "She was the most modern woman I ever met. Even as a starlet in the '30s, she was cast as a smart girl of independent means. She was constantly reinventing herself. Betty was blessed with brains, beauty, talent and opportunity. She didn't squander any of it."—newswoman Jane Pauley
GEORGE PEPPARD, 65, actor: "He was a terrific actor with a wonderful, ironic sense of humor. He was very dedicated. When he had to work with actors who goofed, it upset him. He had been a Marine. That came through."—actor Rip Torn
JOSEPH COTTEN, 88, actor: "He was a Southern gentleman—self-effacing, quiet and courtly. I made The Last Sunset with him in 1961, and I don't remember any carrying-on or claims to fame. It was later on that I realized what a great actor he was."—actress Carol Lynley
TELLY SAVALAS, 72, actor: "He was my hero—a regular guy who made it big. He became the most recognizable personality on TV, and working with him, I had the privilege of seeing it happen. Hey, Telly, I loved ya, Baby!"—actor Kevin Dobson
DANITRA VANCE, 35, comedian: "Her manic energy was sublime: Chaplin meets Butterfly McQueen meets Harold Lloyd meets the Marx Brothers. She had genius comic timing, integrity and depth."—New York Shakespeare Festival producer George C. Wolfe
MARTHA RAYE, 78, comedian: "She was more popular with the GIs than a weekend pass. She was Florence Nightingale, Dear Abby and the only singer who could be heard over the artillery fire."—Comedian Bob Hope
KURT COBAIN, 27, rock star: "With Nirvana he restated rock's verities—joy, noise and anger—for a new generation. He touched people's hearts with observations from his own dilapidated childhood. He was the real thing—a John Lennon for a hype-battered, hope-starved age—and we haven't begun to realize how much he'll be missed."—MTV anchor Kurt Loder
ANITA MORRIS, 50, actress: "An extraordinary combination of sweetness and sex, that was Anita. She was one of the greatest dames of all time."—actress Elaine Stritch
EUGENE IONESCO, 84, playwright: "He took the absurdities of life and put them into the theater. And he was brilliant at it."—actor Eli Wallach
HENRY MORGAN, 79, comedian: "Fed by an exceptional mind, his wry and sardonic observations on the human comedy entertained and educated the lucky generation that was his."—newsman Walter Cronkite
THOMAS P. "TIP" O'NEILL, 81, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives: "Tip was a giant in every way—a giant of a man, a giant of a Speaker and a giant of a friend. He never lost the common touch, and Massachusetts has lost one of the greatest public servants it ever had."—Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
VITAS GERULAITIS, 40, tennis player: "He was one of the game's most engaging stars: quick, canny and full of laughter. He had finally come clean from drugs, reemerging as an astute broadcaster of the game he loved. The worst part of his passing is that he'd fought so hard to get to the second half of his life."—tennis commentator Mary Carillo
JERRY RUBIN, 56, political activist: "He was a keeper of the flame of American nonconformity. He revived the anti-authoritarian spirit that made America possible in the first place."—Tom Hayden, California state senator
WALTER LANTZ, 94, animator: "He was one of the few producers who could draw. He knew the value of the single pencil line and, equally well, the value of the most misunderstood tool—the eraser."—animator Chuck Jones
WILMA RUDOLPH, 54, Olympic gold medalist: "She has always been my No. 1 hero. She was in a class by herself, to have such excellence in athletics, to have the strength to overcome polio and to be a great leader. I don't think the footprints that Wilma laid could ever be filled."—Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Olympic gold medalist
ELIZABETH GLASER, 47, AIDS activist: "This disease caused all the greatness in her to rise to the surface. What I loved about her is that when somebody is so much on the edge of life, you only say the truth to them, and they only say the truth to you. I'd like to live as she did—diving at every day and grabbing pleasure when you can."—actress Mary Steenburgen
HARRIET NELSON, 85, actress: "People think of her as a wife and mom. But she was very cool. She was a self-made woman. She had incredible elegance and taste. I know that's how she would want to be remembered."—actress and granddaughter Tracy Nelson
DICK SARGENT, 64, actor: "He was my close friend—a remarkable, courageous man who had a sense of humor that knew no bounds."—actress Elizabeth Montgomery
Your Reaction
