Died. Marilyn Maxwell, 49, statuesque blonde film fixture of the '40s and early '50s; of a heart attack; in Beverly Hills. After breaking into show business as a big-band singer, Maxwell found her forte as a straight-faced foil to movie comedians. Frequently cast as a slit-skirt and sweater type, she outlasted many of her Hollywood competitors and managed the transition to television with relative ease. She made many guest appearances on comedy and variety shows, got a regular role in the 1961 Bus Stop series, then successfully returned to cabaret singing. -

Death Revealed. Erich von dem Bach-Zelewsky, 73, the Nazi SS general responsible for crushing the Polish resistance; of heart disease; in Munich on March 8. A close aide to Adolf Hitler, Bach-Zelewsky rose to the wartime command of the German forces combatting resistance movements in Eastern Europe. When the Warsaw underground rose in revolt in 1944, Bach-Zelewsky's forces slaughtered over 100,000 Poles and leveled 90% of the city. He escaped punishment by becoming a prosecution witness at the Nuremberg trials and testifying against his former SS comrades. In 1962, however, he was convicted of the prewar political murder of three Germans and sentenced to life imprisonment. -

Died. Cristobal Balenciaga, 77, grand master of French haute couture; of a heart attack; in Valencia, Spain. The son of a Basque fisherman, Balenciaga was 42 before he left Spain to establish his Paris salon. For the next 31 years he combined his sense of Spanish simplicity and elegance into fashions that adorned the rich and the royal round the world. Considered by many to be the most influential designer of the postwar years, Balenciaga introduced the sack dress, the semifitted suit and the seven-eighths coat. While some Paris designers in recent years concentrated on ready-to-wear lines, Balenciaga remained a couturier to the private client until his retirement in 1968.

Died. Jeremiah Milbank, 85, financier and philanthropist; in Greenwich, Conn. A Wall Street banker and heir to a railroad, banking and manufacturing fortune, Milbank set up the Institute for the Crippled and Disabled after World War I to help train permanently injured veterans and civilians. In 1928 he established the original pilot study of poliomyelitis, which led to formation of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. A longtime friend of Herbert Hoover, Milbank was a large contributor to the Republican Party and served as eastern treasurer for the G.O.P. National Committee during the 1928 and 1932 elections.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.