[Leslie Buck, the designer of the iconic Anthora coffee cup, died on Monday. His simple graphic became as potent a New York icon as Milton Glaser's "I Love New York" or the "Law & Order sound." Image via dblue's Flickr]

Guru, the monotone-voiced MC in the classic hip hop group Gang Starr, died yesterday after an extended battle with cancer. He was 43. He and DJ Premier were one of East Coast hip hop's most consistently respected duos. Highlights below.

Edwin Valero was one of the most promising boxers on the planet, and a national hero in Venezuela. But last weekend he killed his wife. And this morning he killed himself.

Benjamin Hooks, who became the head of the NAACP in 1977 and spent 15 years adding hundreds of thousands of members to the flagging civil rights group, has died at the age of 85.

As a teenager in Iowa in 1930, George Nissen built the first trampoline. He later perfected it, and came to be recognized as the father of trampolining. He died last week at age 96. Mighty healthy. [NYT. Pic via]

Malcolm McClaren, manager for the Sex Pistols, punk rock pioneer, composer, and fascinating character, died in New York today. He was 64. Attached, Malcolm takes (far, far too much) credit for inventing punk rock and The Sex Pistols.

Forsythe, who played the quintessential '80s role as Blake Carrington on Dynasty and provided the voice of Charlie on Charlie's Angels died today after a struggle with cancer. He was 92. [Getty]

Just weeks before his latest show Treme debuts on HBO, TV writer and producer David Mills has died of a brain aneurysm in New Orleans at the age of 49.

Jaime Escalante, the teacher who inspired Stand and Deliver, has died at 79.

Johnny Maestro, the doo wop singer who led the group Brooklyn Bridge, died yesterday at the age of 70. His biggest hit was "16 Candles," when he was singing with The Crests in the 1950s. That was the jam.

Vivian Blake—founder of the Shower Posse, the Jamaican coke-dealing gang that terrorized great swaths of cokey America in the 1980s, and got its name from "showering" people with bullets—died Sunday in Jamaica at age 53. So young!

Alex Chilton, singer and guitarist for Big Star, has died. He was 59.

He Pingping, the world's shortest man, died today. He was 21 years old and 29 inches tall. Pingping was from Inner Mongolia and was very short. Here he is with the world's tallest man. RIP, tiny dancer. [Telegraph] [h/t Jbing]

Peter Graves, who starred in the original Mission: Impossible series, is dead. He was 83.

Corey Haim, the 80s teen movie idol who grew into a cautionary tale of the perils of childhood fame, has been found dead of an apparent drug overdose at the age of 38.

Police arrested Andrew Grande (porn name Dustin Michaels) with a bag of weed in his possession, which he apparently tried to swallow. When he resisted arrest, they tased him, and he choked on the bag. A reality cameraman filmed it.

Indie musician Mark Linkous—psych-folk pioneer of acclaimed band Sparklehorse—committed suicide last night, his second known attempt and the second time he has been legally dead. He was in his forties.

Nodar Muaritashvili, a luger from Georgia (the country, not the state) died after flying off the track during a training run today. Several other athletes were also injured on the track today. This does not bode well for competition. [AP]

The creator of the Frisbee, Fred Morrison, is dead at age 90.

Phil Harris, who captained the crab fishing boat Cornelia Marie through its star turn on Discovery's Deadliest Catch, has died at the age of 53 as the result of a stroke he suffered last month. Fish in peace. [Discovery]