MILESTONES

STEPPING DOWN. HELEN GURLEY BROWN, 73; as editor of Cosmopolitan magazine; in New York City. Brown boosted circulation from 800,000 in 1965 to its current 2.5 million by championing the sexually bold, if socially conventional, Cosmo Girl. She moves on next year to oversee the 27 global editions of the manhunter's bible.

RESIGNED. ANDREAS PAPANDREOU, 76, politician; as Prime Minister of Greece; in Athens. The Socialist leader weathered political scandal and serious illness--until his latest health problems, which have kept him in intensive care since November. Says a former Cabinet member: "Greece will now enter a period of political boredom."

DIED. DON SIMPSON, 52, one of Hollywood's most successful action-movie producers; of apparently natural causes; at his Bel Air home in Los Angeles. With former partner Jerry Bruckheimer, Simpson produced hits such as Top Gun and Dangerous Minds. Tales of drug-use dogged him for years and last year, a friend who was reportedly treating him for substance abuse was found dead of an overdose at Simpson's home.

DIED. BARBARA JORDAN, 59, ground-breaking Congresswoman; of pneumonia; in Austin, Texas. The first African-American woman from the South to serve in the House since Reconstruction, Jordan sat on the Judiciary Committee that weighed the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Her voice and eloquent reverence for the law lent an Old Testament gravitas to the proceedings--and made her a Democratic star. She left Congress after 1978 to devote the rest of her career to teaching.

DIED. "MINNESOTA FATS," in his 80s; pool pasha not unlike the character played by Jackie Gleason in the film The Hustler (1961), whose name he assumed--a catchier nom de cue than Rudolf Wanderone Jr.; in Nashville, Tennessee.