Notable passings: 2008

The president-prophet moved the church closer to the religious mainstream, offering a media-friendly face.

The body of the 28-year-old Oscar-nominated actor is discovered in his New York apartment. A cause of death has not been determined, officials say.

Suzanne Pleshette, the dark-haired, smoky-voiced actress who played Bob Newhart’s confident and sexy wife, Emily Hartley, for six years on the popular 1970s sitcom “The Bob Newhart Show,” has died.

Georgia Frontiere, a former entertainer and socialite who inherited the Los Angeles Rams pro football team and then infuriated many Southern Californians when she moved the club to Anaheim in 1980 and then to St.

Bobby Fischer, the enigmatic American chess genius who became a Cold War hero with his 1972 defeat of Soviet champion Boris Spassky but fell from grace in later decades when he became a recluse and fugitive known for his hate-filled rants, has died.

Carl Karcher, who parlayed a single hot dog pushcart into a chain of more than 1,000 fast-food restaurants bearing his name, died Friday.

His exploit brought him worldwide fame and a lifelong fealty to Nepal.

The Walk of Fame host and honorary mayor loved an audience.