Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Ellin Martens, Clayton Neuman, Kate Stinchfield

SUSPENDED. Zinedine Zidane, 34, retired captain of France's soccer team; for three games, for head butting Italy's Marco Materazzi in the chest during the World Cup final in Berlin, which Italy won; by FIFA, soccer's governing body; in Zurich. Materazzi, who Zidane said provoked him repeatedly, was suspended for two games. Because Zidane retired immediately after the final, he agreed to perform community service for three days in lieu of his suspension.

DIED. Robert Brooks, 69, canny businessman who, as chairman of Hooters, turned the bar-restaurant chain, famed for buxom waitresses in orange hot pants, into an international success; of unspecified natural causes; in Myrtle Beach, S.C. A marketing guru who placed the Hooters name on a magazine, an airline and a pro-golf tour, he expanded the chain to 46 states and 20 countries. "Good food, cold beer and pretty girls never go out of style," he said.

DIED. Sam Myers, 70, Delta bluesman and master harmonica player whose 1956 single Sleeping in the Ground was later covered by musicians from Robert Cray to Eric Clapton; of throat cancer; in East Dallas, Texas. In 1986, Myers revived his career as front man for Dallas-based Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets, considered among the U.S.'s best blues ensembles and the winner of nine W.C. Handy awards--the blues' Grammys.

DIED. Arthur Haggerty, 74, former Army captain who parlayed his military credentials and tough-love tactics into a career as the go-to dog trainer for America's elite; of cancer; in West Palm Beach, Fla. A favorite of David Letterman's--Haggerty appeared on his show more than 20 times--he ran Captain Haggerty's School for Dogs, whose graduates performed on TV soaps and in 150 films and worked as bomb sniffers and emergency rescuers.

DIED. Ta Mok, 80, last chief of the Khmer Rouge, nicknamed "the Butcher" for his role in the death of nearly 2 million Cambodians during the communist group's rule in the late 1970s; in Phnom Penh. The only Khmer Rouge leader who refused to strike a deal to defect or surrender to the government, Ta Mok was facing trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity when he died.

DIED. Jack Warden, 85, prizefighter turned tough guy of stage and screen who appeared in nearly 100 films over five decades, including 12 Angry Men, All the President's Men and The Verdict, and won an Emmy for playing Chicago Bears coach George Halas in the TV movie Brian's Song; in New York City. An Army paratrooper in World War II, Warden fell in love with drama after a fellow soldier gave him a play to read. He moved to New York City after the war to take acting lessons and pursue a career that eventually led to two Oscar nominations (for Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait).

DIED. Mickey Spillane, 88, scribe behind the gory, hard-boiled Mike Hammer detective novels , which appalled critics with their stilted prose ("Her eyes were a symphony of incredulity," Spillane wrote of a victim whom Hammer had romanced, then shot) but enthralled readers, who bought more than 100 million copies over six decades; in Murrells Inlet, S.C. Spillane's anticommunist bent and good-vs.-evil plots in such yarns as My Gun Is Quick, One Lonely Night and I, the Jury resonated with weary postwar Americans. He also built a multimedia juggernaut: the hard-drinking, gleefully sadistic Hammer inspired film noir (Kiss Me, Deadly), made-for-TV movies and three TV series. The author, who got his start in comic books, bore similarities to his cavalier hero ("I don't give a hoot about ... reviews. What I want to read are royalty checks," he liked to say) but revealed a softer, subtler side in the '70s and '80s, writing two well-received children's books and parodying his macho image in TV ads for Miller Lite beer.