TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) — Legendary jazz drummer Joe Morello, whose
virtuosity and command of odd time signatures made him an integral part of
the Dave Brubeck Quartet on such classic recordings as "Take Five" and
"Blue Rondo a la Turk," has died at age 82. Family members said Morello
died Saturday at his home in northern New Jersey. A cause of death was not 
immediately available. Brubeck said the loss of his friend "came as a complete 
shock to me."

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Jane Russell, the brunette who was discovered by Howard Hughes and went on to become one of the biggest stars of the 1940s and ’50s, has died at age 89.

Russell’s daughter-in-law Etta Waterfield says the actress died Monday at her home in Santa Maria of a respiratory-related illness.

Hughes, the eccentric billionaire, cast Russell in his sexy, and controversial, 1941 Western "The Outlaw," turning her into an overnight star.

She would go on to appear opposite such leading men as Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope, as well as fellow actress Marilyn Monroe.

Although her film career slowed in the 1960s, Russell remained active throughout her life.

Until her health began to decline a few weeks ago, Waterfield said she remained active singing and working for various causes.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Len Lesser, the veteran character actor best known
for his role as Uncle Leo on "Seinfeld," has died. He was 88. Lesser’s family
said in a statement that the actor died Wednesday in Burbank, California
from cancer-related pneumonia.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Betty Garrett, the vivacious Broadway star who played Frank Sinatra’s sweetheart in two MGM musicals before her career was hampered by the Hollywood blacklist, has died in Los Angeles, her son said Sunday.

Garrett was best known as the flirtatious girl in love with the shy Sinatra in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "On the Town," both in 1949, and later in life she became well-known to TV audiences with recurring roles in the 1970s sitcoms "All in the Family"
and "Laverne and Shirley." Garrett died Saturday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, most likely from an aortic aneurysm, said her son, Garrett Parks.

Maria Schneider (Above), the French actress who was Marlon Brando’s young co-star in the steamy 1972 film "Last Tango in Paris," has died, her talent agency said. She was 58.

A representative of the Act 1 agency said Schneider died in Paris on Thursday "following a long illness," but declined to provide details.

Schneider was 19 when she starred opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci’s racy "Last Tango in Paris." In it, she played a young Parisian woman who takes up with a middle-aged American businessman, played by Brando.

Throughout her career, Schneider appeared in more than two dozen films, most of them French. (AP)