Obituaries

Lana Peters, daughter of Joseph Stalin, died of colon cancer on November 22. She was 85.
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Journalist and columnist Tom Wicker, 85, has died of a heart attack, according to his wife.
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Controversial director Ken Russell has died at the age of 84.

The director of Tommy, Women in Love and Altered States was known for a florid adaptations of classic literature and over-the-top biopics that ranged from perverse to merely provocative — and an indelible nickname: "Kinky Ken Russell."

In the 1971 film The Devils, Vanessa Redgrave played a nun who is vividly tortured. The church objected, as did a legion of critics disgusted by the film's excesses and sadomasochism.

But Russell, a Catholic convert, defended his films.