Milestones

By Melissa August, Val Castronovo, Fiona Carruthers, Matthew Cooper, Daniel Levy, Ellin Martens, Julie Rawe and Josh Tyrangiel

DIED. CHARLES SCHULZ, 77, creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the gang of little losers at Peanuts, perhaps the world's most beloved cartoon; of colon cancer on the eve of the publication of the final Sunday strip; in San Francisco. At the news of his retirement in December, TIME's James Poniewozik wrote, "His lifework is a reminder that self-awareness and a refined sense of irony do not mean affectlessness, that being a loser does not mean being defeated."

DIED. DERRICK THOMAS, 33, Kansas City Chiefs' nine-time Pro Bowl linebacker who was one of President Bush's "thousand points of light" for his charity work; from a blood clot following a car accident last month that left him paralyzed; in Miami.

DIED. JIM VARNEY, 50, rubber-faced comic who made hundreds of commercials and nine movies as the dimwitted Ernest P. Worrell, a cult figure in the 1980s famous for the catchphrase "KnowhutImean?"; of lung cancer; in White House, Tenn.

DIED. DOUG HENNING, 52, tie-dyed, Emmy-winning magician who in the '70s used Broadway rock musicals to revive famous illusions and later performed Houdini's water-torture escape on live TV; of liver cancer; in Los Angeles.

DIED. SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS, 70, wildly theatrical rock singer; after surgery to treat an aneurysm; in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. He was best known for his drunken rendition of I Put a Spell on You (1956), an underground classic replete with screams, grunts and gurgles.

DIED. ROGER VADIM, 72, French filmmaker whose 1956 directorial debut, And God Created Woman, launched wife Brigitte Bardot in films; of cancer; in Paris. In more than two dozen movies, Vadim won a reputation for making stars out of the stunning women he married, including Jane Fonda. Vadim, who once lived with Catherine Deneuve between marriages, explained his need for feminine beauty in his life and work as "my style, my nature."

DIED. TOM LANDRY, 75, legendary football coach of the Dallas Cowboys; of leukemia; in Dallas (see appreciation).