Died. Sal Mineo, 37, babyfaced, onetime teen-age idol who earned the nickname "The Switchblade Kid" for his stage and cinema characterizations of young toughs on the rocky road to manhood; after being stabbed; in an alleyway outside his West Hollywood apartment, where he died gasping, unable to identify his assailant. The son of a Bronx coffin maker, Mineo started his career on Broadway at age eleven in The Rose Tattoo. In 1956 he won an Oscar nomination for Rebel Without a Cause, and an Emmy nomination for Dino. A second Oscar nomination came for his 1960 performance as the psychotic youth in Exodus. At the time of his death, Mineo was rehearsing for the play P.S. Your Cat Is Dead; it was to open this week. At week's end, police were seeking a blond man seen running from the alley.

Died. Lee J. Cobb, 64, growly, explosive actor who triumphed on Broadway as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and in over 40 years appeared in more than 80 films; of an apparent heart attack; in Los Angeles. Born Leo Jacoby in New York City, in 1935 Cobb joined Manhattan's Group Theater where he appeared in Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy. Cobb was acting in Hollywood films when Director Elia Kazan sent him a copy of a new Arthur Miller play, Death of a Salesman, and an offer of the starring role. He accepted and in 1949 gave a landmark performance. After a decade of moviemaking and four years as Judge Garth in TV's The Virginian, Cobb in 1968 again scaled theatrical heights as the blind, ravaged monarch in King Lear.

Died. Percy Faith, 67, Canadian-born conductor-composer-arranger whose soothing sounds comforted the generation brought up on quiet evenings at home with live radio music; of cancer; in Los Angeles.

Died. Lily Pons, 701sh, tiny coloratura soprano whose trilling delighted audiences worldwide for more than 30 years; of cancer; in Dallas. A prizewinning pianist at the Paris Conservatory, Pons switched to singing when she discovered she had perfect pitch and extraordinary vocal cords. In 1929 at the Opera House in Mulhouse, Alsace, she debuted in Lakme, a role in which she later daringly appeared, navel exposed, in costume sans midriff. One of her most famous performances was at the Metropolitan Opera in 1931: she sang the difficult "Mad Scene" in Lucia di Lammermoor in the key of F, an entire tone higher than the original score. Married to Conductor Andre Kostelanetz from 1938 until their divorce in 1958, Pons moved to Dallas in 1961 and remained active in local opera.

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