Final Chapters for March 4, 2018: Lewis Gilbert, Sridevi Kapoor, Bud Luckey

Lewis Gilbert was the director of dozens of movies, including three James Bond thrillers. He died Feb. 23 in Monaco, according to his son. He was 97. Gilbert’s first Bond film was “You Only Live Twice” with Sean Connery in 1967. He returned a decade later to direct Roger Moore as 007 in “The Spy Who Loved Me” and “Moonraker.” He directed a young Michael Caine in “Alfie” in 1966, and in the 1980s he directed “Educating Rita” and “Shirley Valentine.” His last film was “Before You Go” in 2002.

Sridevi Kapoor was Bollywood’s leading lady of the 1980s and ’90s and redefined stardom for actresses in India. She died Feb. 24 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after accidentally drowning in a hotel bathtub, an autopsy report said. She was 54. Sridevi, who went by a single name professionally, was described as the first female superstar in India’s male-dominated film industry. She was known for her comic timing and her dancing skills, a great asset in the song-and-dance melodramas that are a staple of mainstream Indian cinema.

Bud Luckey was an Oscar-nominated animator who created Woody, the pull-string star of Pixar’s “Toy Story.” He died Feb. 24 at a hospice center in Newtown, Conn. He was 83. Luckey animated the original Alvin and the Chipmunks television series, collaborated with “Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schulz on advertisements for Dolly Madison snack cakes, and devised entire segments for “Sesame Street.” He helped shape the whimsical worlds and characters of Pixar movies such as “A Bug’s Life” (1998), “Toy Story 2” (1999), “Monsters, Inc.” (2001), “Cars” (2006) and “Ratatouille” (2007). He also provided the voices of government agent Rick Dicker in “The Incredibles” (2004), the despondent clown Chuckles in “Toy Story 3” (2010) and Eeyore in the 2011 adaptation of “Winnie the Pooh.”

Harvey Schmidt was the co-creator of “The Fantasticks,” the off-Broadway romance that became the world’s longest running musical. He died Feb. 28 in Tomball, Texas. He was 88. Schmidt wrote the music for “The Fantasticks,” a love story about a boy and a girl and their feuding fathers that opened in 1960 at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village and ran for 17,162 performances. A revival that began in 2006 ran 4,390 more times. He and his partner, Tom Jones, also produced the Broadway musicals “110 in the Shade” (1963) and “I Do! I Do!” (1966).

Michael O’Brien was a former naval aviator who later served as a top NASA liaison to foreign space agencies and led the team that secured agreements for the establishment of the International Space Station. He died Feb. 19 of cancer at his home in Springfield, Va. He was 72. O’Brien joined NASA in 1994 after a nearly three-decade military career. He worked with European, Japanese, Canadian and Russian space agencies on the International Space Station, the first component of which launched into orbit in 1998. He also negotiated with foreign partners on other projects, including the Mars rover Curiosity.

Jack Hamilton was a former major-league pitcher who was probably best known for an errant inside pitch that damaged the eyesight of Boston’s Tony Conigliaro in 1967 and caused a premature end to the career of the Red Sox star. He died Feb. 22 in Branson, Mo. He was 79. Hamilton was 32-40 with a 4.53 ERA during 1962-69 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, California Angels, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox.

Luciano Benjamín Menéndez was a former general who was one of the most notorious oppressors during Argentina’s era of brutal dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. He died Feb 27 in Córdoba, Argentina. He was 90. Menéndez had received 14 life sentences – the most of any military leader from that era – for crimes that included homicide, torture, forced disappearances and the kidnapping of a newborn. Human rights groups say that some 30,000 people were killed or forcibly “disappeared” under the military junta that ran the country in those years.

This story was originally published March 7, 2018 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Final Chapters for March 4, 2018: Lewis Gilbert, Sridevi Kapoor, Bud Luckey."