January 20, 2007–Allan Melvin, a character actor known for appearances in such TV shows as “The Phil Silvers Show,” “All in the Family” and “The Brady Bunch,” has died of cancer. He was 84.

January 20, 2008–Suzanne Pleshette, the dark-haired, throaty-voiced actress who played Bob Newhart's sexy wife, Emily Hartley, for 6 years on the 1970s sitcom “The Bob Newhart Show,” has died. She was 70.

January 15, 2008–Brad Renfro, the young gifted American actor who appeared in The Client, Sleepers, and Bully, was found dead. He was 25. The cause of death was not immediately known. Renfro had battled problems of drug and alcohol use in the past.

For Wim Wenders, a leading representative of the young German cinema of the 1970s, anxiety, alienation, and male wanderlust are frequent themes. The most visually oriented of the younger German directors, Wenders brings to his work a painter's eye for composition and unusually telling details. Some view his recurrent themes as quintessentially German, and he's widely praised for his haunting visual representation of the aimlessness and superficiality of contemporary urban life.