Walter Cronkite, legendary US newsreader, dies aged 92

Walter Cronkite, the baritone-voiced US television news anchorman known as "the most trusted man in America", has died aged 92 at home in New York.

As the authoritative face of the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, Cronkite covered events during a tumultuous era that included the assassination of President John F Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the Iranian hostage crisis.

He died on Friday night, just three days before the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, another moment of history linked inexorably for Americans with his reporting. "Look a those pictures, wow," he declared as Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.
His passing provoked a remarkable outpouring from fellow professionals and figures in public life. Katie Couric, the current CBS News star, said simply: "He was the personification of excellence."
In a statement from the White House, President Barack Obama called him the "voice of certainty in an uncertain world". He continued: "He invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down. This country has lost an icon and a dear friend, and he will be truly missed."
Cronkite was a stickler for journalistic neutrality. But in 1963, as he announced Mr Kennedy's death, he slowly removed his heavy black glasses and fought back tears – a gesture that captured the nation's mood.
And he famously discarded that independent stance following a reporting trip to Vietnam in 1968 when he declared that the US was "mired in stalemate".
Those three words were seen by many as a turning point for American public opinion of the war. President Lyndon Johnson reportedly told aides after the broadcast: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."
To viewers, he was "Uncle Walter", with his jowls and grainy voice, his warm, direct expression and his clipped moustache. When he summed up the news each evening with his trademark assertion "and THAT's the way it is", millions agreed.
He was the top newsman during the peak era for the networks, with as many as 18 million households tuning in to his programme each evening.
Indeed, he was the broadcaster to whom the title "anchorman" was first applied, and he became so identified in that role that eventually his own name was adapted as the term for the job in other languages (Swedish anchors are known as Kronkiters; in Holland, they are Cronkiters).
He joined CBS in 1950, after a decade with United Press, during which he covered World War II and the Nuremberg trials, and a brief stint with a regional radio group. In 1940, he married Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Maxwell, with whom he had three children. Mrs Cronkite died in 2005.

Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden dies at 97

Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden, known for his distinctive nose and roles opposite Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront, has died. He was 97.
Malden's passing was announced on Wednesday by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), where he served as president from 1989 to 1992.
A statement distributed by the Academy said the actor died at home surrounded by family members. No cause of death was disclosed.
Born Mladen Sekulovich in Chicago in 1912 to a Serbian father and Czech mother, Malden was the eldest of three sons and grew up in Gary, Indiana.
He developed a love of acting after appearing regularly in school plays and in productions organised by his father at a local church.
Malden worked in Gary's steel mills for three years from 1931 until 1934 before accepting a scholarship to Chicago's Goodman Theatre.
Another scholarship student, Mona Greenberg, became his wife in 1938. The couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last year.
After tying the knot Malden forged a successful Broadway career, appearing in landmark productions such as Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire.
During this time he developed working relationships and lifelong friendships with director Elia Kazan and co-star Brando.
Malden's recreation of the role of Mitch in Streetcar earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1951, and he scored another nod in that category for playing Father John in On the Waterfront.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1959 to pursue his film career, Malden landed roles in films including One-Eyed Jacks, The Cincinnati Kid, Birdman of Alcatraz, and Patton.
In the 1970s, Malden made a transition to television, starring in the popular series The Streets of San Francisco, which introduced Michael Douglas. Douglas credited Malden as his mentor ever since.
"I'm a workaholic," Malden once said. "I love every movie I've been in, even the bad ones, every TV series, every play, because I love to work. It's what keeps me going."

Actor Mollie Sugden dies at 86

Mollie Sugden, the television actor who played the cat-obsessed Betty Slocombe in Are You Being Served?, has died age 86.
Sugden, born in 1922 in Keighley, West Yorkshire, became a household name after appearing in brightly coloured wigs as the social-climbing matriarch in the comedy series between 1972 and 1975.
She also portrayed Mrs Hutchinson, another battleaxe, in The Liver Birds.
Joan Reddin, Sugden's agent, said that her twin sons, Robin and Simon Moore, were at her bedside when she died at the Royal Surrey Hospital on Tuesday after a long illness, The Times Online reported.
"She was a lovely, lovely person and I never had any trouble with her. She was a great professional," said Reddin, who represented Sugden for 30 years.
Sugden, who lived in Surrey, never recovered from the death of her husband, William Moore, who was also an actor, Reddin said.
"They were very much in love. She started to go down when he died."
Sugden starred in many other comedies, including Come Back Mrs Noah, That's My Boy and My Husband And I, which she made with Moore.
She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Her early career was spent in repertory theatre, where in Swansea in 1956 she met Moore, who she married two years later.