Enciklopedija mrtvih

[Meho Krljic]

Ja za njega tripujem da je mrtav dobrih 15 godina. I taman kad sam zapamtio da je čovek živ - on umre.  RIP.

[ginger toxiqo 2 gafotas]

Preminuo Artur Pen

Reditelj kultnog filma "Boni i Klajd" Artur Pen preminuo u 89. godini. Nije želeo da pravi ustupke tipičnim američkim "blokbaster" filmovima, već je unosio evropski duh u komercijalnu holivudsku produkciju.

Artur Pen, režiser filmskih klasika kakvi su "Potera bez milosti", "Boni i Klajd" i "Mali veliki čovek", umro je u 89. godini.


Penov prijatelj i menadžer Juan Bel rekao je da je Pen umro u utorak uveče, dan posle 88. rođendana i da je bolovao godinu dana.

Posle rada na televiziji kao asistent režisera, Pen se prvo proslavio kao reditelj na Brodveju, a potom 1960-ih godina i kao filmski režiser, inspirisan političkim i društvenim previranjima u toj deceniji.

Svojim stvaralaštvom predstavljao je alternativu ustaljenoj komercijalnoj holivudskoj produkciji. Iako je bio bliži evropskom poimanju filmske umetnosti, u osnovi se bavio američkim likovima i američkim kulturnim i društvenim miljeom.

U centru njegovih filmova je tamna strana u pojedincima suočenim sa životom.

Radnja njegovih filmova smeštena je u okvir političke situacije konkretne epohe, čime je Pen doprineo identifikaciji gledalaca sa likovima. Njegovi junaci najčešće su ljudi odbačeni od društva čije psihološko i emotivno stanje film prati.


Primeri surovog sveta u kojem junaci žive jesu filmovi "Potera bez milosti", "Boni i Klajd" i "Noćna kretanja".

Film "Boni i Klajd" (1967) sa poznatim holivudskim glumačkim parom Borenom Bitijem i Fej Danavej dobitinik je dva Oskara.

Filmovi koje je Pen snimio 1970-ih godina bili su komercijalno neuspešni. Posle kraće pauze, vratio se 1980-ih godina filmom o rušenju američkog sna "Četiri prijatelja".

Posle komercijalnog neuspeha tog filma, u poslednjoj fazi karijere napravio je kompromis i snimio nekoliko trilera namenjenih široj publici, kakvi su "Meta" i "Ledena smrt".

Uprkos tome, Pen je vršio minimalne ustupke filmskoj industriji, snimajući značajne filmove namenjene gledaocima zasićenim visokobudžetnim pričama.

Zbog toga su ga veoma cenili pripadnici francuskog "novog talasa", pre svih Žan-Lik Godar.

Publika pamti i njegove filmove "Čudotvorka" (1962), "Jedan Miki" (1965), "Alisin restoran" (1969), "Vizije osmorice" (1973) i "Dvoboj u Misuriju" (1976).

[pokojni Steva]

Bernard Schwartz, a.k.a. Tony Curtis, R.I.P.

[Mark]

SOLOMON BURKE

On October 10, 2010, he was reported to have died at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, on or immediately after a flight from Los Angeles to Amsterdam, where he had been due to perform with De Dijk on October 12.  The cause of death was not immediately clear.  According to his family, Burke died of natural causes.

[Meho Krljic]

E, da, umro Solomon. Neka mu je laka zemlja...

[Plottz]

Baš tako neka mu je laka....

Solomon Burke - Everybody Needs Somebody To Love [totp2]

[ginger toxiqo 2 gafotas]

A Night to Remember director Roy Ward Baker dies
Roy Ward Baker, pictured in 2005 Baker cut his teeth at Gainsborough Studios before heading to Hollywood

British director Roy Ward Baker, whose 1958 film A Night to Remember memorably recreated the sinking of the Titanic, has died in London at the age of 93.

Born in 1916, he began as a teaboy at Gainsborough Studios before going on to work as an assistant director on Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.

After World War II he went to Hollywood where he directed Marilyn Monroe in the 1952 thriller Don't Bother to Knock.

Back in the UK he made several Hammer horrors and episodes of The Saint.

The Avengers, The Persuaders and Jason King were among other classic TV shows on which he worked.

According to his son Nicholas, Baker died peacefully in his sleep at a London hospital on Tuesday.

Having retired in 1992, his most recent appearance was as an interviewee on the BBC Two documentary series British Film Forever in 2007.
A Night to Remember (still) Kenneth More and Honor Blackman were among the cast of A Night to Remember

Quatermass and the Pit, Scars of Dracula and The Vampire Lovers were among the titles he made for horror studio Hammer.

He also directed Bette Davis in 1968 movie The Anniversary and Hayley Mills in 1981 mini-series The Flame Trees of Thika.

But his defining work was A Night to Remember.

Prior to James Cameron's Oscar-winning Titanic, the film was considered the definitive big-screen depiction of the 1912 disaster.

[dejann]

Publisher Bob Guccione (b.1930) died on October 20. Guccione is best known for founding Penthouse magazine and his funding for the 1979 film Caligula, but in the science fiction world he will be best remembered for founding Omni Magazine (and later Omni Online), which ran plenty of original science fiction under the editorships of Ben Bova and Ellen Datlow.

[Mark]

The Slits' frontwomen Ari Up has died at the age of 48. Ari Up, real name Arianna Forster, passed away on wednesday October 20. The news of her death was confirmed on the website of John Lydon (Sex Pistols, PiL) who is married to Forster's mother. Arianna died after a serious illness.

The Slits were a British punk rock band. The quartet was formed in 1976 by members of the bands The Flowers of Romance and The Castrators. The members were Ari Up (then 14) and Palmolive (Paloma Romero, who later left to join The Raincoats), with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members, Kate Korus and Suzy Gutsy. Palmolive was replaced by the drummer Budgie (aka Peter Clarke), formerly of The Spitfire Boys and later of Siouxsie and the Banshees. The group supported fellow punk band The Clash on their 1977 "White Riot" tour along with the Buzzcocks and the Subway Sect.

Although not all line-ups were exclusively female, the three main female members appeared on most record covers and publicity photos, and the group was generally presented as a female band.

The Slits released two albums, 1979's "Cut" and 1981's "Return Of The Giant Slits", before splitting up. She later went on to release a solo album called "Dread More Dan Dead" in 2005, among other projects, before reforming The Slits later that year.

[raindelay]

Auu, jbg-a, baš šteta. Ari-Up je bila baš super lik. Inače, u jednom trenutku, kao članica Rip, Rig and Panic, kao druga pevačica, pevala je Bebi Dol koju je zamenila Nene Čeri. RIP

[Meho Krljic]

Baš. RIP.

[Plottz]

E da laka joj bila!
Zato idem na M.Ramona,da ne bude mogo sam,a nisam pa mi posle .....

[---]

VESNA PARUN

U Stubičkim Toplicama proslavila je zadnjih nekoliko rođendana i napisala nekoliko knjiga. Samoću i "otpadništvo" od sadašnje kulture izabrala je sama, ne želeći se nikome klanjati. Neizvjesna i nesigurna sudbina velike poetese u 80-om godinama života sigurno nam ne služi na čast. Možda bismo odgovor na takvu nepravdu mogli pronaći u Vesninoj tvrdnji da se "u školi moglo naučiti mnogo, i u osnovnoj i, kasnije, u srednjoj, i o gramatici i o prirodopisu; manje o povijesti i o zvijezdama na nebu, a o čovjeku i životu - gotovo ništa". Sve u svemu, po njenim vlastitim riječima, provela je vrlo težak život, od djetinjstva nadalje, te je okušala više patnje i stradanja nego radosti. Vesna Parun potpuno se predala književnom radu postavši prva žena u hrvatskoj književnosti koja živi isključivo od književnosti i za književnost. Umrla je 25. listopada 2010. u Stubičkim Toplicama u 88. godini života.

[ginger toxiqo 2 gafotas]

Filmmaker Hickenlooper dies in Denver at 47
Reuters - October 31, 2010 2:21 AM PDT

Filmmaker Hickenlooper dies in Denver at 47U.S. director George Hickenlooper points at a documentary camera crew as he arrives at the gala presentation for the film 'Casino Jack' during the 35th Toronto International Film Festival, September 16.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Filmmaker George Hickenlooper has died at age 47, just before the premiere of his new film "Casino Jack" at the Starz Denver Film Festival, the Denver Post newspaper reported on Saturday.

"We are devastated," John Hickenlooper, his cousin and the mayor of Denver, said in a statement. "His passion for life, zeal for people and unquenchable curiosity enriched everyone who had the fortune to know him."

The filmmaker appears to have died from natural causes and no foul play was suspected, the Denver Post said, quoting a statement from the mayor's office.

"Casino Jack," starring Kevin Spacey as jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, was set to premiere on Thursday, it said.

The film festival, which starts on Wednesday, "will be dedicated in its entirety to our friend George Hickenlooper," festival director Britta Erickson said.

Hickenlooper's other films include "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmakers Apocalypse" in 1991 and "The Mayor of Sunset Strip" in 2003.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382584/

[scallop]

Nisam ni čuo za njega, a već umro!

[Cornelius]

Nisam ni čuo za njega, a već umro!

To što nisi čuo za njega, sjebalo ga je na smrt. Nažalost, čuo si za Sarkozija. 

[Lord Kufer]

Sharkozy 

[---]

umro aleksandar flaker...

http://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandar_Flaker

[Mme Chauchat]

E, jebiga. Ostade samo Žmegač Meni su njih dvojica sa Škrebom najbolji hrvatski teoretičari književnosti.

[ginger toxiqo 2 gafotas]

Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh dies at 66

Jill Clayburgh, whose Broadway and Hollywood acting career stretched through the decades, highlighted by her Oscar-nominated portrayal of a divorcee exploring her sexuality in the 1978 film "An Unmarried Woman," died Friday. She was 66.

Her husband, Tony Award-winning playwright David Rabe, said she died after a 21-year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She was surrounded by her family and brother when she died at her home in Lakeville, Conn., he said.

She dealt with the disease courageously, quietly and privately, Rabe said, and conducted herself with enormous grace "and made it into an opportunity for her children to grow and be human."

Clayburgh, alongside peers such as Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine and Jane Fonda, helped to usher in a new era for actresses in Hollywood by playing women who were confident and capable yet not completely flawless. Her turn as a mother dealing with life after 16 years of marriage in "An Unmarried Woman" earned Clayburgh her first Oscar nod.

"There was practically nothing for women to do on the screen in the 1950s and 1960s," Clayburgh said in an interview with The Associated Press while promoting "An Unmarried Woman" in 1978. "Sure, Marilyn Monroe was great, but she had to play a one-sided character, a vulnerable sex object. It was a real fantasy."

The next year, Clayburgh was again nominated for an Academy Award for "Starting Over," a comedy about a divorced man, played by Burt Reynolds, who falls in love but can't get over his ex-wife.

Clayburgh came from a privileged New York family. Her father was vice president of two large companies, and her mother was a secretary for Broadway producer David Merrick. Her grandmother, Alma Clayburgh, was an opera singer and New York socialite.

Growing up in a such a rich cultural mix, she could easily have been overwhelmed. Instead, as she said in interviews, she asserted herself with willful and destructive behavior — so much so that her parents took her to a psychiatrist when she was 9.

She escaped into a fantasy world of her own devising. She was entranced by seeing Jean Arthur play "Peter Pan" on Broadway, and she and a school chum concocted their own dramatics every day at home. She became serious-minded at Sarah Lawrence College, concentrating on religion, philosophy and literature.

Clayburgh also took drama classes at Sarah Lawrence. She and her friend Robert De Niro acted in a film, "The Wedding Party," directed by a Sarah Lawrence graduate, Brian DePalma. After graduating with a bachelor of arts degree, she began performing in repertory and in Broadway musicals such as "The Rothschilds" and "Pippin."

Alongside Richard Thomas, she headed the 2005 Broadway cast of "A Naked Girl on the Appian Way," Richard Greenberg's comedy about one family's unusual domestic tribulations.

Director Doug Hughes, who directed her in a production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" at the Westport Country Playhouse two years ago, called her for "Naked Girl."

"That she has the time to do a run of a play is just an extraordinary boon because I've had the pleasure of seeing her play a bona fide tragic American role beautifully, and I have had the pleasure of directing her in a very, very smart light comedy and be utterly brilliant in that," he said in 2005.

During an interview that year, Clayburgh explained the unglamorous side of acting.

"One of the funny things about actors is that people look at their careers in retrospect, as if they have a plan," she said.

"Mostly, you just get a call. You're just sitting there going, 'Oh, my God. I'm never going to work again. Oh, God. I'm too old. Maybe I should go and work for Howard Dean.' And then it changes."

Besides appearing in such movies as "I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can," "Silver Streak" and "Running With Scissors," Clayburgh's Broadway credits include Noel Coward's "Design for Living," the original production of Tom Stoppard's "Jumpers," and the Tony Award-winning musicals "Pippin" and "The Rothschilds."

Clayburgh's work also stretched across TV. She most recently played the matriarch of the spoiled Darling family on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money." She was nominated for two Emmys: for best actress in 1975 for portraying a prostitute in the TV film "Hustling" and for her guest turn as a vengeful plastic surgery patient on "Nip/Tuck" on FX in 2005. She also had a recurring role on "Ally McBeal" as McBeal's mother.

Clayburgh will next be seen playing the mother of Jake Gyllenhaal's character in the upcoming film "Love and Other Drugs."

She is survived by three children, including actress Lily Rabe, Michael Rabe and stepson Jason Rabe.

There will be no funeral, Rabe said. The family will have a memorial in about six months, though plans have not been finalized.

[Cornelius]

Umro italijanski producent Dino de Laurentis (91).

[Meho Krljic]

Bogami... Dino je ostavio traga iza sebe. Neki od tih tragova smrde nečovještvom, naravno, ali ipak... Učinio je dosta za nas. RIP.

[Cornelius]

Gorki pirinač, La Strada, Pierrot le Fou, Stranac, Serpiko, Tri dana Kondora...

[Meho Krljic]

 

Death Wish, King Kong, Bound, Evil Dead 2, ali i Conan the Detroyer, Red Sonja, Flash Gordon. Dosta je kičerice Dino napravio, zaključno sa kasapljenjem Dine. 

[scallop]

Dinu nije kapasio Dino. Nož je držala njegova ćera.

[Alex]

Death Wish, King Kong, Bound, Evil Dead 2, ali i Conan the Detroyer, Red Sonja, Flash Gordon. Dosta je kičerice Dino napravio, zaključno sa kasapljenjem Dine.  

Bound je remek-delo, neumesno je pominjati Destroyera, a preskakati Conan the Barbarian, Evil Dead 2 je kao i Army of Darkness bio nominovan za Saturn - best horor (s tim što je Army osvojio), Death Wish je kultni klasik, King Kong je bio megahit, za Flasha je normalno da ima veze sa kičom, Dina je film koji je izdržao test vremena...

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Diabolik, Ulisse, The White Buffalo, Ragtime...

RIP

[pokojni Steva]

Rip

[Alex]

Kud zaboravih legendarni Blue Velvet i vrlo dobre Manhunter i Year of the Dragon.

[Cornelius]

Dosta je kičerice Dino napravio

Barbarela!! 

[Plottz]

NEk` mu je laka

[Васа С. Тајчић]

Жао ми је.

[Mark]

Umro italijanski producent Dino de Laurentis (91).

Naziveo se!

[Meho Krljic]

Death Wish, King Kong, Bound, Evil Dead 2, ali i Conan the Detroyer, Red Sonja, Flash Gordon. Dosta je kičerice Dino napravio, zaključno sa kasapljenjem Dine.  

Bound je remek-delo, neumesno je pominjati Destroyera, a preskakati Conan the Barbarian, Evil Dead 2 je kao i Army of Darkness bio nominovan za Saturn - best horor (s tim što je Army osvojio), Death Wish je kultni klasik, King Kong je bio megahit, za Flasha je normalno da ima veze sa kičom, Dina je film koji je izdržao test vremena...

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Diabolik, Ulisse, The White Buffalo, Ragtime...

RIP

Ne, pa ja sam u prvom delu posta nabrajao non-kič filmove a u drugom kičerice. To je bila ideja. Da ne bude zabune, ja sam volio i Konan D Distrojer i Flaša Gordona itd. Nisam ja gadljiv na kič.

[Meho Krljic]

Umro Miloš Petrović:

Preminuo kompozitor Miloš Petrović
Kompozitor, pijanista i profesor na FMU, Miloš Petrović, preminuo je subotu u Beogradu u 58. godini, saopštila je njegova porodica.


Svestrane aktivnosti Miloša Petrovića na području interpretacije (čembalo, klavir, kamerna muzika) i kompozicije (elektroakustična, jazz, kamerna i multimedijalna) donele su mu istaknuto mesto među savremenim muzičkim umetnicima. Komponovao je niz kompozicija seriozne, kamerne, solističke, orkestarske, elektroakustičke i džez muzike. Autor je i dve kamerne opere: ,,Derlad"/"Les enfantes terribles"/ po romanu Žana Koktoa (1971), kao i opere (2002) i kantate "Mihailo iz Peći" (2009) po istoimenom autorovom romanu (2002).

Dela su mu izvođena i snimana u zemlji i inostranstvu: festivali "BEMUS", Zagrebački bijenale, Opatijska tribina, u Kanadi, Nemačkoj, Mađarskoj i Francuskoj.

Bio je profesor čembala i kamerne muzike na Fakultetu muzičke umetnosti u Beogradu.

Napisao je zbirku priča "Levant nad Levantom" (Beograd: Prosveta, 1996) i romane "Žitije Mardarija monaha" (Sorabia, 1992) i "Mihailo iz Peći" (LOM, 2002). Ovih dana objavljena je njegova zbirka recenzija džez-albuma i eseja o muzici, "Dlanom o stopalo".

Datum i mesto sahrane biće naknadno saopšteni.

[Shozo Hirono]

rip.

[sandjama]

ja sam tek danas video i totalno sam ubedacio. jedan od najvecih mi uzora i najmocnijih izvora inspiracije. Bog da ti dusu prosti milose...

[sandjama]

a u picku materinu vise! umro sleazy (coil,tg, soisong):

http://www.brainwashed.com/coil/

R.I.P.

[Meho Krljic]

Oh bože.................. Pa zar već............. ima jedva šest godina od kada je Balance poginuo.... RIP... 

Coil - Live in Berlin - 01 - Anarcadia - All Horned Animals

[Mark]

RIP Peter 'sleazy' Christopherson

[Lord Kufer]

Преминуо сликар Дадо Ђурић

Миодраг Дадо Ђурић, један од познатијих црногорских сликара, преминуо у Паризу, након тешке болести. Поред уља и цртежа, радио је графике, колаж, инсталације, асамблаж, а његова дела се налазе у многим музејима и галеријама.

http://www.rts.rs/page/stories/ci/story/8/%D0%9A%D1%83%D0%BB%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0/802144/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%83%D0%BE+%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80+%D0%94%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BE+%D0%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%9B.html

[Cornelius]

Dado je bio čudak, ali i veličanstven slikar. Njegov svet je istovremeno užasavajući, ali i neverovatno privlačan, jer u njemu nema neutralnosti, niti objektivnosti. Nalik čudesnom ogledalu, njegovo stvaralašto uzvraća nam uveličanu sliku emotivnih i duhovnih provalija i vrhunaca kroz koje prolazimo u dnevnom životu. Monstrumi na njegovim platnima simpatični su i svima bliski, a mučeno i nasečeno telo ne izaziva gadjenje, nego hrišćansko milosrdje.

[Alexdelarge]

Umro glumac Lesli Nilsen
Lesli Nilsen, poznati glumac koji je svetsku slavu stekao igrajući u brojnim komedijama, preminuo je juče u 84. godini.

http://www.blic.rs/Kultura/Vesti/220449/Umro-glumac-Lesli-Nilsen

[Plottz]

[Cornelius]

Italijanski reditelj Mario Monicelli (95) izvrsio je samoubistvo bacivsi se kroz proz rimske bolnice u kojoj je bio lecen.

[Shozo Hirono]

vitalan deka beše mario.

[Lord Kufer]

Šta su mu davali, LSD?

[scallop]

Italijanski reditelj Mario Monicelli (95) izvrsio je samoubistvo bacivsi se kroz proz rimske bolnice u kojoj je bio lecen.

Uplašio se da će ga izlečiti.

[DeHickok]

Irvin Kershner, Director of Empire Strikes Back, Dies

How do you compete with Star Wars? Empire Strikes Back. Irvin Kershner, who directed the all-but-certified best of the Star Wars sequels and prequels, if not the best film of the series, has died. He was 87. "It is because of the emotions stirred in Empire that the entire series takes on a mythic quality that resonates back to the first [movie] and ahead to the third," critic Roger Ebert wrote in a four-star review, published upon the sequel's 1997 rerelease. "This is the heart." And, for what it's worth, Ebert judged Empire the finest of the original films....

[ginger toxiqo 2 gafotas]

Umrla Dubravka Vojvodić

Dugogodišnja filmska kritičarka i novinarka Radija 202 Dubravka Vojvodić umrla je 7.decembra u Beogradu, posle duge i teške bolesti.

Predsednik srpskog ogranka međunarodnog udruženja kritičara FIPRESCI Nenad Dukić saopštio je danas da će komemoracija povodom smrti Dubravke Vojvodić biti održana 10. decembra u prostorijama Radio Beograda.

Dubravka Vojvodić je rođena 1949. godine u Beogradu. Radila je kao filmski kritičar Radio Beograda, pisala je o filmu za mnogobrojne radio stanice, novine, internet portale i specijalizovane filmske magazine. Takođe, radila je i za istočno evropski ogranak BBC-a i srpsku redakciju australijskog SBS radija.

Vojvodić je bila predsednica srpskog ogranka FIPRESCI, članica domaćih i međunarodnih filmskih žirija i urednik Kataloga FEST-a.

[Meho Krljic]

Znam da će malo nas suzu za njim pustiti, ali da notiramo:

Umro Holbruk.

Holbrooke remembered as 'giant' of US diplomacy

WASHINGTON – Few U.S. diplomats had the breadth, depth or length of service of Richard Holbrooke, who wrote part of the Pentagon Papers, was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace accords and served as President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Holbrooke's unexpected death Monday at 69, following surgery for a tear in his aorta, marked the end of a storied career. He served through defining eras in U.S. diplomacy, witnessing the end of European colonialism and the Cold War and the rise of international terrorism as the greatest threat to America.

Calling Holbrooke "a true giant of American foreign policy," Obama paid homage to his crisis expert as "a truly unique figure who will be remembered for his tireless diplomacy, love of country and pursuit of peace." Holbrooke deserves credit for much of the hard-won progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the president said.

Holbrooke served under every Democratic president since John F. Kennedy. He brought a lion's appetite for difficult work, from Indochina and the Pacific to Europe, Africa and, in his last incarnation, South Asia.

Supremely self-confident, brash and instantly dismissive of critics, Holbrooke entered the foreign service in the early 1960s at the height of what critics called the State Department's "pale, male and Yale" phase.

It was a time when the dictum of former Secretary of State Henry Stimson — "Gentlemen don't read each other's mail" — still rang through the corridors of Foggy Bottom, the State Department's Washington neighborhood.

At the time of his death, Holbrooke — an Ivy League graduate of Brown University, not Yale — was serving a vastly different agency. The State Department in recent years has been led by an African-American man and three women, one of them African-American.

And, quite far from Stimson's admonition, the department instructed its diplomats to seek out personal information about foreign leaders and politicians, according to leaked classified documents released by the WikiLeaks website.

Holbrooke had a forceful style that earned him nicknames such as "The Bulldozer" and "Raging Bull."

His career began with a posting in Vietnam in 1962 and included time as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam.

His sizable ego, tenacity and willingness to push hard for results won him both admiration and animosity.

"If Richard calls you and asks you for something, just say yes," former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said. "If you say no, you'll eventually get to yes, but the journey will be very painful."

The bearish Holbrooke said he had no qualms about "negotiating with people who do immoral things."

"If you can prevent the deaths of people still alive, you're not doing a disservice to those already killed by trying to do so," he said in 1999.

Born in New York City on April 24, 1941, Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke had an interest in public service from early on. He was good friends in high school with a son of Dean Rusk and he grew close to the family of the man who would become secretary of state for Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

At the Johnson White House, he wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers, an internal government study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that was completed in 1967.

The study, leaked in 1971 by a former Defense Department aide, had many damaging revelations, including a memo that stated the reason for fighting in Vietnam was based far more on preserving U.S. prestige than preventing communism or helping the Vietnamese.

After stints in and out of government — including as Peace Corps director in Morocco, editing positions at Foreign Policy and Newsweek magazines and adviser to Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign, Holbrooke became assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs from 1977-81. He then shifted back to private life — and the financial world, at Lehman Brothers.

A lifelong Democrat, he returned to public service when Bill Clinton took the White House in 1993. Holbrooke was U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1993 to 1994 and then assistant secretary of state for European affairs.

"He could always be counted on for his imagination, dedication and forcefulness," Clinton-era Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Monday.

One of his signature achievements was brokering the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia.

Holbrooke's efforts would later lead to controversy when wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic told a war crimes tribunal in 2009 that Holbrooke had promised him immunity in return for leaving politics. Holbrooke denied it.

Holbrooke left the State Department in 1996 to take a Wall Street job with Credit Suisse First Boston, but was never far from the diplomatic fray, serving as a private citizen as a special envoy to Cyprus and then the Balkans.

In 1998, he negotiated an agreement with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw Yugoslav forces from Kosovo, where they were accused of conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign.

"I make no apologies for negotiating with Milosevic and even worse people, provided one doesn't lose one's point of view," he said later.

When the deal fell apart, Holbrooke went to Belgrade to deliver the final ultimatum to Milosevic to leave Kosovo or face NATO airstrikes, which ultimately rained down on the capital.

Holbrooke returned to public service in 1999, becoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

With his long-standing ties to Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Holbrooke was a strong supporter of her 2008 bid for the White House. He had been considered a favorite to become secretary of state if she had won.

"Richard Holbrooke saved lives, secured peace and restored hope for countless people around the world," Bill Clinton said in a statement. Hillary Clinton called him one of America's "fiercest champions and most dedicated public servants."

When her presidential campaign ran out of steam, Holbrooke began reaching out to Obama.

Reflecting on his role as Obama's special envoy, Holbrooke wrote in The Washington Post in March 2008 that "the conflict in Afghanistan will be far more costly and much, much longer than Americans realize. This war, already in its seventh year, will eventually become the longest in American history, surpassing even Vietnam."

Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, called Holbrooke "our diplomatic wingman" and said he was "a great American and a good friend." Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Holbrooke's "tireless efforts and dedication" had been instrumental in recent steady progress in the Afghanistan war.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Holbrooke's death "a big loss for the American people." In neighboring Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari said: "His services will be long remembered. The best tribute to him is to reiterate our resolve to root out extremism and usher in peace."

Holbrooke is survived by his wife, author Kati Marton, and two sons from a previous marriage, David Holbrooke and Anthony Holbrooke.