MILOS FORMAN

FILE - "Hustler" Magazine publisher Larry Flynt signs a copy of "The People Vs. Larry Flynt" in his downtown Cincinnati "Hustler" store on April 30, 1998. Flynt, who turned "Hustler" magazine into an adult entertainment empire while championing First Amendment rights, has died at age 78. His nephew, Jimmy Flynt Jr., told The Associated Press that Flynt died Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021, of heart failure at his Hollywood Hills home in Los Angeles. In an effort to drum up business, he published a newsletter that became Hustler magazine. He and his fourth wife, Althea, moved to Los Angeles and spent most of their time behind their mansion’s 5,000-pound steel door.

The world also said goodbye to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who died in July. Other former political figures who died this year include Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, New York Mayor David Dinkins, Arizona Gov. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2020 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___David Stern, 77. The guitarist who supplied the scratching, seething sound that fueled the highly influential British punk band Gang of Four. He fused African rhythms with funk to become one of the most influential musicians in world dance music.

PRAGUE Jiri Menzel, a Czech director whose 1966 movie Closely Watched Trains won the Academy Award for the best foreign language film has died. Three years ago, Menzel underwent a brain operation and was kept in an artificially induced coma for several weeks after it. Unlike colleagues such as Milos Forman, Jan Nemec and Ivan Passer, Menzel didnt emigrate after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. Closely Watched Trains was his first feature movie. His 1985 comedy My Sweet Little Village was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign film.