Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Val Castronovo, Matthew Cooper, Tam Gray, Lina Lofaro, Desa Philadelphia and Chris Taylor

INJURED. DARREN ("Droz") DROZDOV, 30, professional wrestler known for his ubiquitous body decoration; with a neck fracture sustained during a match with rival D'Lo Brown; in Uniondale, N.Y. He is paralyzed below the waist.

DIED. ALEX LOWE, 40, perhaps the greatest American mountaineer in recent years; in a massive avalanche on Tibet's Shisha Pangma, the world's 14th highest peak. Lowe climbed the nose of El Capitan in 10 hrs. and made the first solo ascent of the north face of Wyoming's Grand Teton. He conquered Everest twice. Despite the superlatives regularly heaped on him by colleagues, he said, "I'm just the world's most dogmatic climber."

DIED. BERNARD BUFFET, 71, austere French painter whose dark landscapes and portraits (like the De Gaulle he did for Time, above) were inspired by postwar Paris; by his own hand, after a battle with Parkinson's disease; in southern France.

DIED. ART FARMER, 71, bebop and ballad trumpeter; of cardiac arrest; in New York City. During a 50-year career, Farmer, who also played the fluegelhorn (and a hybrid called the flumpet), founded the mainstream jazz sextet Jazztet and played with Johnny Otis and Lionel Hampton.

DIED. MARTIN DAVIS, 72, creator of Paramount Communications; of a heart attack; in New York City. Former boss to Hollywood heavyweights Michael Eisner, Barry Diller and the late Brandon Tartikoff, the famously temper-prone executive took over the company from Gulf & Western in 1983--and doubled its stock value in his 11 years at its helm. Among his better-known takeover attempts: an ultimately unsuccessful bid to wrest Time Inc. (parent company of TIME) from Warner Communications in 1989.

DIED. AKIO MORITA, 78, co-founder of Sony and the man most responsible for making "Made In Japan" a tribute; of pneumonia; in Tokyo (see EULOGY).