Milestones

DIED

HIS FILMS, WHICH vividly illustrate the friction between old and new in a rapidly changing Taiwan, put his country on the cinematic map. Director Edward Yang, a leader of Taiwan's 1980s new-wave movement, told rich stories, set in modern Taipei, of teenage gangs and empowered girls coming of age. He was best known for Yi-Yi, a family saga told from numerous points of view that won him the 2000 Best Director award at Cannes. Yang was 59 and had colon cancer.

FOR A FIRST-EVER on-air review--of Magic, starring Anthony Hopkins as a creepy ventriloquist--Emmy- winning Joel Siegel, the longtime movie critic and entertainment editor for ABC's Good Morning America, argued with a surly puppet. The bit went well and reminded him over the next three decades that "every day is an on-air audition." Siegel guided viewers with his encyclopedic knowledge and wit, enthusiastically hailing the films he liked as "Great!" and injecting pans with New York City--style humor (of Players, he said some whitefish he had eaten "showed more emotion than Ali MacGraw does"). He was 63 and had colon cancer.

THE IMAGE MANY AMERICANS have of dovish former Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa is unfortunate: it's of him cradling a flu-stricken George H.W. Bush in 1992 after the President vomited on him during a dinner. Yet the former Foreign Minister advised policymakers in boosting Japan's economy after World War II; helped plan a bailout of Japan's failed banking system in the '90s; and as the country's leader for two years, sought to restore ties with wartime enemies in Asia. In 1992 he was the first Japanese PM to acknowledge the role of Japanese soldiers in forcing Asian women to serve as sex slaves during the war. He was 87.

MANY JAZZ EXPERTS CREDIT Bill Barber as creator of the modern jazz tuba. While playing "cool" Big Band music for Claude Thornhill, Barber impressed pioneering arranger Gil Evans with his mastery of the tuba, a background staple of early jazz bands that had become practically obsolete by the '30s. Convinced the instrument could be a tonal force in its own right, Evans included the tuba in his innovative arrangements for a nine-piece band--a body of work, featuring Barber, that became Miles Davis' legendary 1957 Birth of the Cool album. He was 87.

HIS NICKNAME, THE GALLOPing Ghost, recalled comic-book superheroes--a fitting image for one of the greatest naval commanders of World War II. As the daring skipper of the U.S.S. Barb, Rear Admiral Eugene Fluckey led missions that even his jaded bosses called "epic": nighttime raids that downed a stunning 29 Japanese ships, among them an aircraft carrier, destroyer and cruiser. Credited with destroying more tonnage than any other skipper, Fluckey was awarded the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses. He was 93.

FOR unchained melody, one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century and one inextricably linked to the growing pains of baby boomers everywhere, listeners can tip their hats to its lyricist, Hy Zaret. The tale of a forlorn lover was recorded by more than 300 artists, most famously the Righteous Brothers in the mid '60s. Zaret was 99.

APPRECIATION

An American Opera Queen

Before a Brooklynite became the most popular opera singer of her era, aspiring divas tended to hail from Europe, where they were expected to train, then seek the attention of the major opera houses. Beverly Sills, the redheaded child radio star whose mother dreamed she'd be the "Jewish Shirley Temple," stayed home, loyally working her way up through New York's "second" City Opera and drawing raves as a brilliant coloratura soprano in shows from Manon to Cleopatra. Though she guested around the globe, the Met's Rudolf Bing, who scoffed at U.S.-trained artists, refused her a major role. (Sills' belated 1975 Met premiere, following Bing's retirement, earned a 20-minute standing ovation.) Her rise seemed inevitable. Witty, smart, tough and down-to-earth, the ebullient performer--nicknamed Bubbles--became a fine-arts ambassador, guest-hosting the Tonight Show and performing with the Muppets. She also raised funds for special-needs kids (her son is autistic, her daughter deaf). After retiring from the stage in 1980, she led such institutions as City Opera and the Met, democratizing opera by staging contemporary productions and introducing supertitles. Sills, who was told in June she had lung cancer, was 78.

With reporting by Camille Agon, Harriet Barovick, David Bjerklie, Laura Fitzpatrick, Meg Massey, Elisabeth Salemme, Kate Stinchfield, Ishaan Tharoor, Lon Tweeten