Several noticed cultural figures have passed away in the last few days. Poltical activist and cultural critic Susan Sontag, actor Jerry Orbach, and baseball player Rod Kanehl have all passed away.

Intellectual by Nature, Activist by Prediliction

Susan Sontag, who passed away at the age of 71 from leukemia, examined the world of "camp" as a vibrant subject of discourse. She looked at wretched, pornographic, and/or hyperbolic films and explored how they changed the way we examine gender, sexuality, and the structure of monogamy. She was also very critical of white, rich, male supremacy and called "the white race is the cancer of human history."

She wrote such influential works as "Illness as Metaphor," in which she examined how disease had been alternately romanticized and demonized, and "On Photography," in which she argued pictures sometimes distance viewers from the subject matter. "On Photography" received a National Book Critics Circle award in 1978. "Regarding the Pain of Others," a partial refutation of "On Photography," was an NBCC finalist in 2004.

Sontag had an insatiable passion for literature, with thousands of books _ arranged by chronology and language _ occupying, and defining, her New York apartment. She read writers from all over the world and is credited with introducing such European intellectuals as Roland Barthes and Elias Canetti to American readers.

"One of the things so sad about her death is she represents something that I'm afraid that's passing," said fellow author Francine Prose. "I don't think that many people these days say, `Oh, I want to be an intellectual when I grow up."

"No One Backs Baby Into a Corner"

Jerry Orbach, actor on television's Law and Order, died of prostate cancer at the age of 69. He was an accomplished Broadway actor and stared in several Tony Award winning productions. He became a fixture on NBC's Law and Order, but had left the series to occasionally appear on the spin-off Trial by Jury.

After appearing in "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight," Mr. Orbach received a call from Gallo. "A cop that he knew had met us and told him that he'd met the guy who supposedly played him in the movie, that he was a nice guy, not like an actor," Marta Orbach recalled shortly after Gallo was gunned down in 1972. Through the Orbachs, Gallo briefly became one of the stranger fixtures of the show-biz social scene in Manhattan and was working on a memoir with Marta Orbach at the time of his death. Gallo lived in the Orbachs' Chelsea brownstone for a month and was married there a month before his murder.

With his portrayal of Lennie Briscoe on "Law and Order," Mr. Orbach achieved a worldwide fame that had previously eluded him. He became the face and frame of a typical New York cop, and the police liked what they saw. Mr. Orbach took the role seriously, so much so that he appeared in 2001 at a demonstration where police demanded higher wages from the Giuliani administration.

"All I can do is try and represent you guys on a TV screen and make you look as good as I can," Mr. Orbach was quoted as saying in Newsday. "I could never go out and not know if I'm coming home that night the way you do."

Back When the Mets Were Great(er)

The very first New York Mets player to hit a Grand Slam, Rod Kanehl, died at the age of 70 of a heart attack. He was with the Mets for three seasons and played every position "but pitcher and catcher."

He hit .241 with 23 doubles, three triples, six home runs and 47 RBIS and hit that first grand slam at the old Polo Grounds on July 6, 1962, in a 10-3 win over St. Louis. He had 17 stolen bases in three seasons, although it seemed like more -- he ran the bases with the same abandon with which he chased balls in the outfield.

Viola

SUICIDEGIRL

North Carolina, USA

DEC 29, 2004 04:19 PM

Oh my God. I can't believe Susan Sontag died. That's so sad.

bayouradio

I'm lost

October 2003

DEC 29, 2004 05:12 PM

Jerry Orbach was a class act and I'll miss him very much. I love those old school, no bullshit New York Actors.

irishinch

Forestdale, MA

August 2003

DEC 29, 2004 05:16 PM

what about reggie white?

crispy

NEWSWIRE

Philadelphia, PA

DEC 29, 2004 05:20 PM

I'm a pretty big baseball fan and I've never even heard of that guy who played for the Mets.