Jerry Adler was in his 60s and what he joked was the “twilight of a mediocre career,” as a stage manager and director on Broadway, when he fell by happenstance into a long and respected second act in show business as an actor of scene-stealing versatility. By the time he died on August 30 in Manhattan at 96, Mr. Adler had amassed 60 film and television credits as well as the acclaim of his peers. [...]

Marilyn Diamond, who with her husband at the time, Harvey Diamond, wrote a blockbuster 1985 diet book, Fit For Life, which attracted millions of adherents to their fruit-and-vegetable-based regimen but which also drew sharp criticism from the medical establishment, died on Sept. 7 in Roanoke, VA. She was 81. Fit For Life spent 35 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. The book presented ideas ahead of their time, like veganism, caloric restriction and [...]

Michael Seltzer, whose bedside vigil for a friend who was dying of AIDS, transformed him into a prodigious fundraiser for the disease. He rallied individuals, foundations and corporations to support prevention and treatment in the 1980s, when it was largely neglected at all levels of government. Mr. Seltzer died on July 31 while vacationing on Governor Island, near Branford, CT. He was 78. During Mr. Seltzer’s tenure as executive director of Funders Concerned About AIDS, [...]

Rosa Roisinblit, an Argentine human-rights activist who fought to establish the truth about the fate of her pregnant daughter and thousands of others who were kidnapped by security personnel and “disappeared” during the country’s 1976-83 military dictatorship, died on Sept. 6 in Buenos Aires. She was 106. Human rights groups have estimated that 30,000 Argentines were kidnapped, among them Mrs. Roisinblit’s 25-year-old daughter and her son-in-law, who were taken on Oct. 6 1978 when Patricia [...]