Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — UCLA fired Ben Howland on Sunday night after 10 seasons as Bruins coach that included three Final Four appearances, but culminated with another early-round exit from the NCAA tournament.

LOS ANGELES — Michael Clarke Duncan, the hulking, prolific character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in “The Green Mile” and such other box office hits as “Armageddon,” “Planet of the Apes” and “Kung Fu Panda,” is dead at age 54.

Duncan died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancee, reality TV personality Rev. Omarosa Manigault, in a statement released by publicist Joy Fehily.

The muscular, 6-foot-4 Duncan, a former bodyguard who turned to acting in his 30s, “suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered,” the statement said. “Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date.”

LOS ANGELES-Federal agents have arrested a man suspected of issuing death threats to a slew of business titans, including film mogul Harvey Weinstein, and demanding that they send millions to an offshore bank account.

The news was first reported by The Smoking Gun website.

The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Vivek Shah, an actor living in West Hollywood, was arrested on Aug. 10 at his parents’ house in Illinois.

LOS ANGELES — Phyllis Diller, the housewife turned humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with her trademark cackle, died Monday morning in her Los Angeles home at age 95.

“She died peacefully in her sleep and with a smile on her face,” her longtime manager, Milton Suchin, told The Associated Press.

Diller, who suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1999, was found by her son, Perry Diller. The cause of her death has not been released.

LOS ANGELES - Ann Rutherford, an actress whose small role as Scarlett's younger sister Carreen in the 1939 film "Gone With the Wind" was her most enduring, has died. She was 94.

Rutherford, who also portrayed Mickey Rooney's teenage girlfriend in the Andy Hardy movies, died Monday evening at her home in Beverly Hills, said her close friend and fellow actress Anne Jeffreys. Rutherford had been in declining health with heart problems.

As she became one of the last surviving cast members of "Gone With the Wind," Rutherford made a second career out of attending festivals featuring the beloved Civil War epic.