Voice actor Walker Edmiston died of complications from cancer on Thursday, February 15, in his Woodland Hills, California home. He was born Feb. 6, 1926, in St. Louis and moved to L.A. in 1947. Edmiston hosted a children's show on local television during the 1950s and 60s, and gained further success during the 1970s voicing numerous characters in Sid and Marty Krofft shows like H.R. Pufnstuf and Bugaloos. His vocal talents were also showcased in commercials, most famously as the voice of advertising icon Ernie the Keebler elf. Keebler, the second-largest cookie and cracker manufacturer in the country, was purchased by Kelloggs in March 2001. Edmiston also acted in television programs including episodes of Batman, Green Acres, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Dallas, and The Dukes of Hazzard, and was the voice of Balok on the original Star Trek series. Edmiston was 81.

Sources: Associated Press, kelloggs.com, IMDB.com

CIA official Richard Lehman died Feb. 17 at Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association Hospice House in New Hampshire. Lehman is recognized as one of the fifty people who formed the Central Intelligence Agency. He worked for the agency from 1949 to 1982 and received two Distinguished Intelligence Medals, the agency's highest honor. Lehman created the President's Intelligence Checklist (nicknamed "pickle" because of the acronym PICL) in June 1961 after then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed that President John F. Kennedy had been blindsided after missing pieces of intelligence. The checklist was later renamed the President's Daily Brief. Later, Lehman became a CIA transition liaison for new presidents, until 1979, when he became chairman of the National Intelligence Council for two years. After retiring from the CIA, Lehman advised George H. W. Bush's administration during their transition in 1988. Bush Sr. had briefly been Director of Central Intelligence in the mid-Seventies. Following the transition, Lehman helped start a consulting business of retired intelligence officers. He was 83.

Sources: Yahoo! News, whitehouse.gov, cia.gov

Dancer and choreographer Alfred Desio died Wednesday, February 14, of complications of bladder cancer at Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles. Desio grew up performing and studying acting, dancing, and singing in high school. He was an original cast member of the Broadway hit "West Side Story," and also had roles in "Fiddler On the Roof" and "Man of La Mancha." During the 1970s, he focused on producing tap performances and teaching at a number of universities. In the 1980s, Desio invented Tap-Tronics, a concept that allows tap dancers to make their own music by embedding microphones in their shoes, the sounds then relayed to transmitters, receivers, or synthesizers. Electronic tap was featured in the 1989 movie Tap, starring Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr., and Savion Glover. Later, Desio helped his wife run the Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers dance company. Helen Peppard of Daily Variety: "Desio, a Broadway vet, is probably the most inventive tapper in the business... One of Desio's most appealing attributes is the pleasure he seems to get from his dancing... Everyone feels a little better about things after sharing one of his performances." Desio was 74.

Sources: tapdance.org, Associated Press, usc.edu

Ray Evans died late Thursday, February 15, of heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital. Lyricist Evans collaborated with melody writer Jay Livingston for more than six decades, earning seven Academy Award nominations and winning three—in 1948 for "Buttons and Bows" in the film The Paleface, in 1950 for "Mona Lisa" in the movie Captain Carey, USA, and in 1956 for "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from The Man Who Knew Too Much. The duo wrote songs for dozens of movies and two Broadway musicals, as well as the theme songs for Bonanza and Mister Ed, and the Christmas standard "Silver Bells." Evans changed the title of his most-beloved creation from "Prima Donna" to "Mona Lisa" on the advice of his art-loving wife, Wyn. Jay Livingston died in 2001 at age 86. Ray Evans was 92.

Sources: Yahoo! News, IMDB.com

Comics artist Joe Edwards died Feb. 8 at his home after years of treatment for heart problems. Edwards was born in Manhatten and learned to draw at the Hastings Animation School and the Rome Academy of Art. He illustrated training manuals while serving in the Army during World War II and, while in Italy, he drew animated cartoons warning of minefields around Naples. Following his service, Edwards worked for Demby Studios, Dell Comics, and Timely Comices, then went to work for MLJ Comics, the precursor to Archie Comics. He worked on the December 1941 debut of Archie, Jughead, Betty, and the rest of the gang in issue #22 of Pep Comics. Edwards also worked on Super Duck, Squoimy the Woim, Captain Sprocket, and in 1947 created Li'l Jinx, a troublesome scamp whose stories were based on Edwards' experiences with his three children. Li'l Jinx stories could be found in the back pages of Pep Comics, and she briefly had her own title from 1956-57, but the comic was discontinued in the late 1970s. Edwards was also a member of the Berndt Toast Gang, the nickname for the Long Island chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. He was 85.

Sources: ArchieComics.com, Associated Press, Don Markstein's Toonopedia, berndttoastgang.com/

Barbara Gittings died after a lengthy fight with breast cancer on Sunday, February 18. Gittings was born on July 31, 1932, in Vienna, Austria, where her father was a diplomat. She returned to the U.S. with her family in the 1940s. Gittings helped organize the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, an early lesbian rights organization, in the 1950s and edited the group's publication from 1963 to 1966. Gittings met Kay Lahusen at a 1961 Daughters of Bilitis picnic and they soon became partners for life. In 1965, she helped organize gay-rights demonstrations at the White House, the Pentagon, and Independence Hall. Gittings was a major force in the campaign that led the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 to drop homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. She was a charter member of the Boards of Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, founded in 1973, and the Gay Rights National Lobby, a forerunner of the Human Rights Campaign founded in 1976. During her life, Gittings has also served as head of the American Library Association's Gay Task Force until 1986, and in 2003 received a lifetime membership, the organization's highest honor. Gittings was 75.

Sources: glbtq.com, Associated Press, queertheory.com

Robert Adler, co-inventor of the remote control, died Thursday, February 15, of heart failure at a Boise nursing home. Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 and specialized in military communications equipment during World War II. He also developed sensitive amplifiers for ultra high frequency signals used by the U.S. Air Force for long-range missile detection. Zenith credits Adler and fellow engineer Eugene Polley for inventing the remote control. Polley created a wireless remote introduced in 1955 called the Flashmatic, and Adler added high-frequency sound to make the device more efficient the following year. Adler was named the company's associate director in November 1952, vice president in 1959, and vice president and director of research in 1963. In 1982, Adler retired, but continued to serve as a technical consultant. Adler and Polley received an Emmy in 1997 for inventing the remote control. Adler also pioneered research in surface acoustic waves in color television sets and touch screens. His most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, was submitted on February 1. Adler was 93.

Sources: Zenith.com, Associated Press

Visual effects pioneer Peter Ellenshaw died Monday, February 12, of natural causes at his Santa Barbara home, according to The Walt Disney Co. Ellenshaw was born in England in 1913 and served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. 1947, Walt Disney hand-picked Ellenshaw to paint mattes for the feature film Treasure Island (1950). Ellenshaw created mattes for 34 motion pictures including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Love Bug. Ellenshaw was nominated for four Academy Awards and won for the matte paintings used in Mary Poppins. Ellenshaw retired from Disney in 1979, following his work on The Black Hole, but returned to paint several mattes for 1990's Dick Tracy. Roy E. Disney on Ellenshaw.com: "Peter was a Disney legend in every sense of the word and played a vital role in the creation of many of the Studio's greatest live-action films from the very beginning. He was a brilliant and innovative visual effects pioneer who was able to consistently please my Uncle Walt, and push the boundaries of the medium to fantastic new heights." Ellenshaw was 93.

Sources: ellenshaw.com, Associated Press

Charles Langford, former Alabama state senator and civil rights activist, died Sunday, February 11, in his sleep. Langford passed the Alabama State Bar exam in 1953 and opened an office in Montgomery. In 1955, he represented Rosa Parks after she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her arrest prompted the Montgomery bus boycott led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. which led to desegregation on public transportation. Langford represented Arlam Carr Jr. in a 1964 suit that desegregated Montgomery's public schools. Langford was elected to the Alabama House in 1976 and the Senate in 1982, where he served five terms before retiring in 2002. In 1993, he represented black legislators in a lawsuit that ended the flying of the Confederate battle flag on the state Capitol dome. Langford was 84.

International Herald Tribune, Associated Press

Donfeld, a four-time Oscar nominee for costume design, died on Saturday, February 3. Born Donald Lee Feld in Los Angeles on July 3, 1934, Donfeld attended Chouinard Art Institute, then designed album covers for Capitol Records at age 19. In the late 1950s, Donfeld (who changed his name due to chronic misspellings) created costumes for Academy Award show production numbers. His designs were soon worn by Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Natalie Wood, and Jack Nicholson, among others. For over thirty years he designed costumes for such movies as State Fair; Days of Wine and Roses; Viva Las Vegas; They Shoot Horses, Don't They?; Diamonds are Forever; The China Syndrome; and Prizzi's Honor. Donfeld was nominated for an Emmy in 1978 for his work on the television show Wonder Women. He was 72.

Sources: IMDB, Associated Press