Irving Saraf, an Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary film director, editor, cinematographer and producer, died Saturday at his home in San Francisco.

He was 80 years old and had been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for three years.

Saraf helped start the Special Projects department at San Francisco public television station KQED and was tapped by Saul Zaentz to help form Fantasy Films. With his wife, Allie Light (photo), he made the Academy Award winning documentary, "In The Shadow of the Stars," and the Emmy Award-winning, "Dialogues With Mad Women."

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Harry Carey Jr., a character actor best known for Western roles in films directed by John Ford, died Thursday. He was 91.

The actor died of natural causes at a hospice facility in Santa Barbara, his daughter Melinda Carey told the Associated Press.

In a more than 50-year career, Carey made over 90 films and was a member of the John Ford Stock Company, making several films with the legendary director. Many of those starred John Wayne and included “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” “The Searchers,”  “3 Godfathers “ and “Rio Grande.” His other films with Wayne included “Red River” and “Cahill, U.S. Marshall.”

Other Ford films he appeared in...

Jack Klugman, the TV star beloved for playing the sloppy, working-guy half of “The Odd Couple” and a regular in American homes as the crime-solving coroner in “Quincy M.E.,” has died at age 90, his son said.

Adam Klugman told the AP, "He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it and he would encourage others to do the same.”

On "The Odd Couple," the gravel-voiced Klugman for years played the shleppy single guy  — sports writer Oscar Madison — as the counterpart to Tony Randall's effete, upscale photographer Felix Unger. The hit tv show about two incompatible divorcees sharing the same apartment...

Ravi Shankar, the legendary sitar player, died Monday, his family said in a statement. Dubbed the "Godfather of World Music," Shankar was 92 years old.

In a career that spanned six decades, Shankar served as a bridge between Eastern and Western music, collaborating with everyone from avant garde composer Philip Glass to rock star David Crosby. However, his greatest influence may have been on The Beatles, who inspired by his delicate playing, integrated the sitar into their seminal album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band."

Along with George Harrison, Shankar would launch star-studded benefit concerts to benefit  Indian refugees with Concert for Bangladesh. That concert...