Edward L. Masry, the crusty personal-injury lawyer portrayed by Albert Finney in the Oscar-winning movie “Erin Brockovich,” has died at 73 in Los Angeles.
Masry, who practiced law for more than 40 years, died Monday of complications of diabetes, said his son, Louis Masry.
Masry and Erin Brockovich, his legal assistant, gained fame when they won a $333 million settlement on behalf of more than 600 residents of the town of Hinkley, Calif. They claimed Pacific Gas &Electric Co. tanks leaked carcinogens into the groundwater.
Gregg Hoffman produced the ‘Saw’ horror films
Film producer Gregg Hoffman, who developed an eight-minute film into the horror hit “Saw” and its gory successor “Saw II,” died unexpectedly after complaining of pain. He was 42.
Hoffman died Sunday at a Hollywood, Calif., hospital, where he had been admitted after developing neck pain, his business partners said. He died of natural causes, according to a news release from Lions Gate Entertainment, which distributed his recent films. An autopsy was planned.
Ashworth aimed Nagasaki A-bomb
Frederick L. “Dick” Ashworth, the weaponeer aboard the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, has died at 94.
He died Saturday while undergoing heart surgery in Phoenix, family friend Glen Smith said.
Ashworth, who retired in 1968 as a Navy vice admiral, was assigned to the Los Alamos, N.M.-based Manhattan Project that built the A-bomb.
Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, he was aboard the bomber that dropped a weapon nicknamed Fat Man on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. Ashworth was assigned as the weaponeer, responsible for arming the bomb during the flight. Estimates of the death toll in Nagasaki range from 60,000 to 80,000.
William Lawrence was high-ranking POW
William P. Lawrence, a retired Navy vice admiral who was among the highest-ranking members of the armed forces held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and who later served three years as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., died Friday at his home in Crownsville. He had a stroke a decade ago. He was 75.
During the Vietnam War, he was shot down in June 1967 and held as a prisoner of war until March 1973. Among others in the prison were John McCain.
From Herald news services
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