Jim Abrahams, who with the brothers David and Jerry Zucker arguably comprised one of the funniest trios of comedy writers in film history, died on Nov. 26 at his home in Santa Monica, CA. He was 80. Mr. Abrahams and the Zucker brothers revolutionized film comedy with their straight-faced, fast-paced parodies of self-serious dramas like “Airplane” and “The Naked Gun.” “We like to think of our humor as innocent,” Mr. Abrahams told The Philadelphia Inquirer [...]

Marshall Brickman, a writer whose show business career ranged  across film, late-night television comedy and Broadway, but who may be best remembered for collaborating on three of Woodie Allen’s best known movies, including the Oscar-winning “Annie Hall,” died on Nov. 29 in Manhattan. He was 85. Mr. Brickman and Woodie Allen first teamed up on the script for “Sleeper” (1973) Later came “Annie Hall,” “Manhattan,” which won British and French film awards. Mr. Brickman wrote [...]

Rabbi Simcha Raz, who authored dozens of books about Shabbat, Jewish holidays, and great Jewish figures throughout the generations, died on Dec. 10. He was 93. At his funeral, his niece, the writer Hila Wolberstein, eulogized him: “Uncle Simcha wrote and edited many books in a rich and vibrant language. These books earned him a prominent place in Jewish literature. He succeeded in conveying the values of Judaism to readers and bringing them closer to [...]

Morton Abramowitz, a former American diplomat and conflict mediator whose efforts to end and avoid wars, included helping to arm anti-Soviet guerrillas in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and founding the International Crisis Group for peace in the 1990s, died Nov. 29 at home in Washington, D.C. He was 91. As an adviser, analyst and three-time ambassador, Mr. Abramowitz influenced U.S. policymaking in Europe and Asia, and helped forecast shifting priorities as the Cold War ended [...]

David Bonderman, a founder of the giant investment firm TPG, who helped transform private equity into a multitrillion-dollar industry that reshaped corporate America, died on Dec. 11. He was 82. Mr. Bonderman, a lawyer, took various legal paths over his career — law professor, civil rights lawyer, corporate lawyer — before becoming a financier. That led him to create what is now TPG, a $239 billion behemoth that buys companies, invests in start-ups, makes loans [...]

Art et Industrie was not a typical SoHo gallery. Nor was its proprietor, Rick Kaufmann, a typical SoHo gallerist. His wares were inscrutable objects that hinted at utility. Were they art or were they furniture? Mr. Kaufmann died on Nov. 2 in Carbondale, PA. He was 77. Mr. Kaufmann, an incubator of what might be called the New York chapter of the art furniture movement — that is furniture made by artists, in single [...]

Manfred Ohrenstein, a reformer who served in the New York State Senate for 34 years and successfully championed progressive legislation that safeguarded rent controls, legalized abortion, and repealed the death penalty, died on Nov. 18 at his home in Manhattan. He was 99. In addition to his government service, Mr. Ohrenstein was a founder of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan.

Richard Perry, a record producer who became one of the most sought-after figures behind the scenes of pop music in the 1970s and ‘80s through his work with Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, the Pointer Sisters and others, died on Dec. 24 in Los Angeles. He was 82. A trained oboist and drummer who had sung in a teenage doo-wop group, Mr. Perry had a deft ear for crafting the sharpest and most appealing performance of [...]