Walter Mirisch, a film producer who with his two brothers ran a pioneering independent production company that helped bring to the screen a raft of classic films, including the Oscar best-picture winners “West Side Story,” “The Apartment,” and “In the Heat of the Night,” died Feb. 24 in Los Angeles, at 101. The Mirisch Company, which Mr. Mirisch founded in 1957, grew to be an industry powerhouse, greenlighting films by leading directors — including John [...]

Chaim Topol, best known for playing Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” and known by his surname throughout his acting career, died in Israel on March 9. He was 87. He began his career as an actor after being assigned to the entertainment troop while serving in the Israeli army. In his career, he won a number of international film awards, including two Golden Globes, one for “Sallah Shabati” and one for “Fiddler.” He [...]

Amy Schwartz, prolific author and illustrator of books for children, died Feb. 26 at her home in Brooklyn. She was 68. Her books included several on the theme of “100 things,” written in rhyme — 100 things That Make Me Happy, 100 Things I Love To Do With You, 100 Things I know how To Do. Among her most recent books was 13 Stories About Ayana, a follow-up to her 13 Stories About Harris from [...]

Judith Heumann, an activist who helped secure legislation protecting the rights of disabled people, died March 4 in Washington, DC. She was 75. Judith Heumann has been called “the mother of the disability rights movement” for her longtime advocacy on behalf of disabled people through protests and legal action, her website says. She lobbied for legislation that eventually led to the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, which was enacted in 1990, also the Individuals With [...]

Architect A. Eugene Kohn, co-founder of the design firm behind some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, died on March 9. He was 92. In a statement, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), whose best-known projects include New York’s One Vanderbilt and the Shanghai World Financial Center, described Kohn’s architectural legacy as “enduring...projects that have changed our cities around the world for the better.” Eugene Kohn, with William Pedersen and Sheldon Fox, established KPF in 1976 and [...]

Richard Rosenberg, a marketing whiz who transformed Bank of America into a national behemoth under his leadership, died on March 3 at his home in San Francisco. He was 92. He joined Bank of America in 1987and helped make the bank profitable again by creating new products and lines of business, like credit cards. He was named chief executive and chairman in 1990 and soon turned Bank of America into the nation’s second-largest bank through [...]

Public health advocate and Canyon Ranch founder Mel Zuckerman died March 18 at his home in Tucson, the University of Arizona announced. He was 94. Zuckerman turned his own health struggles into a strength for himself and others by founding Canyon Ranch on Tucson’s east side. Throughout his life, he worked to build the wellness resort into an iconic worldwide brand. Zuckerman has been described by his colleagues as “a visionary,” who saw years before [...]

Stuart Hodes, who danced with Martha Graham in the 1940s and ‘50s and who for the rest of his life served the field of dance as a performer, choreographer, educator, administrator and author, died on March 15 in Manhattan. He was 98. Mr. Hodes did not grow up as a dancer. When he took his first dance class, at the Martha Graham Studio in 1946, he was nearly 21 and fresh from flying B-17 bombers [...]