Gunnar Hansen died on November 7 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Maine, his agent said. He was 68.
The Icelandic-born actor was best known for playing terrifying villain Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The 1974 movie depicts how five friends visiting their grandfather’s country house are hunted by Leatherface and his family of grave-robbing cannibals.
Gunnar Hansen’s character is “one of the most iconic evil figures in the history of cinema,” said agent Mike Eisenstadt.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed and co-written by Tobe Hooper, went on to become a classic slasher movie, which features a psychopath murdering several victims.
Six sequels were made, most recently in 2013 with Texas Chainsaw 3D.
Reykjavik-born Gunnar Hansen moved to the US when he studied English and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Texas.
His agent said that the actor published his book, Chain Saw Confidential, in 2013, detailing behind-the-scenes information on how the movie was made. In the book Gunnar Hansen revealed that the inspirations behind the movie had included the fairytale Hansel and Gretel.
A keen naturalist, Gunnar Hansenalso published Islands at the Edge of Time in 1993, depicting his journey along America’s barrier islands from Texas to North Carolina.
Gunnar Hansen is survived by his partner of 13 years, Betty Tower.
Scientists from the UK and Spain have developed a simple urine test that could detect pancreatic cancer much earlier than at present.
They found a protein “signature” only present in people with the disease.
Pancreatic cancer is often very advanced by the time it is diagnosed – and only 3% of patients are alive five years after diagnosis.
The disease has the lowest five-year survival rate of any common cancer and one that has barely improved in 40 years.
More than 80% of people with the disease are diagnosed when it has already spread, so they are not eligible for surgery to remove the tumor – currently the only potential cure.
Those at higher risk include people with a family history of the cancer, heavy smokers, obese people and people over 50 who are newly diagnosed with diabetes.
The scientists who developed the test hope that if its early promise is realized then it could be possible to diagnose patients much earlier and offer them treatment.
The study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, looked at almost 500 urine samples. Just under 200 were from patients with pancreatic cancer, 92 from patients with chronic pancreatitis and 87 from healthy volunteers.
The rest of the samples were from patients with benign and cancerous liver and gall bladder conditions.
Out of 1,500 proteins found in the urine samples, three – LYVE1, REG1A and TFF1 – were seen to be at much higher levels in the pancreatic cancer patients, providing a “protein signature” that could identify the most common form of the disease.
The signature was found to be 90% accurate.
Patients with chronic pancreatitis were found to have lower levels of the same three proteins.
More research is now planned, and scientists will focus particularly on people whose genes put them at particular risk of pancreatic cancer.
Oscar-nominated actor John Hurt has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
John Hurt, 75, said he would continue working despite the diagnosis.
The veteran actor was Oscar-nominated for his role in 1980’s The Elephant Man.
John Hurt, who starred as the War Doctor in Doctor Who in 2013 told the Press Association: “I am undergoing treatment and am more than optimistic about a satisfactory outcome, as indeed is the medical team.”
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The actor said wanted to announce his diagnosis to the press because he had “always been open about the way in which I conduct my life and in that spirit I would like to make a statement”.
John Hurt is due to be seen on the small screen in November in new Sky Atlantic drama The Last Panthers, opposite Samantha Morton.
According to IMDB, the veteran actor also has roles in some seven other projects, including the upcoming Tarzan film, due for release in 2016.
Sir John Hurt was knighted earlier this year for his services to drama.
Actress Mary Ellen Trainor was best-known for playing Irene Walsh in The Goonies and police psychiatrist Dr. Stephanie Woods in all four Lethal Weapon movies.
She was married to director Robert Zemeckis for 20 years and appeared in several of his films including Forrest Gump and Back to the Future Part II.
Mary Ellen Trainor died last month of complications from pancreatic cancer.
She began her Hollywood career as a producer’s assistant on movies including Steven Spielberg’s 1979 film 1941, which Robert Zemeckis wrote.
Mary Ellen Trainor and Robert Zemeckis married the following year and Zemeckis cast his wife as the kidnapped sister of Kathleen Turner’s character in 1984’s Romancing the Stone.
She went on to win parts in other classic 1980s movies like Die Hard, Scrooged and Ghostbusters II.
On TV, Mary Ellen Trainor had regular roles in sitcom Parker Lewis Can’t Lose and the dramas Relativity and Roswell.
Recent reports claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be suffering from either spine or pancreas cancer.
Rumors regarding Vladimir Putin’s health have continued to swirl in various groups of media abroad over the past years.
The most recent rumor has spawned in New York Post’s Page Six which suggests that Vladimir Putin eagerness to invade Ukraine is reasoned by his sickness.
It also took note of Vladimir Putin’s changes in his physical appearance.
A week ago, Vladimir Putin, 62, aimed some criticism at US foreign policies that, from his point of view, place the whole world at risk and in global security alert.
Recent reports claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be suffering from either spine or pancreas cancer
However, President Barack Obama’s wimpy reactions as defined by experts on national security to Russia’s aggressive moves give Vladimir Putin the confidence to do what he wishes to do.
Richard Johnson wrote on Page Six: “Others say Putin has three years to live and wants to leave a legacy of expanding the Russian borders just like Peter the Great or Stalin,” in reference to Vladimir Putin’s conqueror’s ambitions.
On the rumors that Vladimir Putin has cancer, Richard Johnson also wrote that: “News outlets from Belarus to Poland have reported for months that the Russian strongman has cancer of the spinal cord. But my sources say it’s pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal forms of the disease. Putin is allegedly being treated by an elderly doctor from the old East Germany whom Putin met decades ago while serving in Dresden for the KGB. The doctor has been trying various treatments including steroid shots, which would explain Putin’s puffy appearance….”
Losartan, a commonly used blood pressure drug, could help fight pancreatic cancer by opening up blood vessels in solid tumors.
Used beside conventional cancer-fighting drugs, losartan could improve life expectancy, experts believe.
Following successful testing in mice, doctors plan to give losartan to patients with pancreatic cancer to see if it can tackle this hard-to-treat disease, Nature Communications reports.
Currently, only 5% of pancreatic cancer patients survive for at least 5 years.
This is partly because only one in 10 people with the disease has a tumor that is operable.
Losartan, a commonly used blood pressure drug, could help fight pancreatic cancer by opening up blood vessels in solid tumors
Investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the US are currently recruiting volunteer patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer to test out the new drug combination of chemotherapy plus losartan.
Although the treatment will not cure them, the researchers hope it will give the patients more months or years of life than they might otherwise get.
Losartan has been used for more than a decade as a safe blood pressure medication.
It works by making the blood vessels relax or dilate so that they can carry more blood, easing pressure.
The Massachusetts team found that losartan was beneficial in mice with breast and pancreatic cancer.
Losartan improved blood flow in and around the tumors allowing more of the chemotherapy drugs to be delivered to their target.
Mice given this treatment, rather than standard chemotherapy alone, survived for longer.
Former Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson has been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.
Wilko Johnson, 65, has vowed to honor his touring commitments and keep playing as long as he can.
His manager posted a statement on the star’s official Facebook page, adding he had declined chemotherapy.
Manager Robert Hoy said: “He said he wants to make the very best of the time he has left, playing and partying when he can.
“He is currently in good spirits and is not yet suffering any physical effects and can expect to enjoy at least another few months of reasonable health and activity.
“Wilko wishes to offer his sincere thanks for all the support he has had over his long career.
“From those who have worked with him to, above all, those devoted fans and admirers who have attended his live gigs, bought his recordings and generally made his life such an extraordinarily full and eventful experience.”
Former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson has been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer
Following his diagnosis, Wilko Johnson decided to fly first class to Japan, where he has several scheduled tour dates.
He also intends to complete a new album, a mini French tour and play some farewell gigs in his native Britain.
Wilko Johnson is also planning to release a live DVD, which was filmed on his last UK tour.
His diagnosis in the new year comes after he was forced to cancel a gig in Canvey Island, Essex, in November after falling ill.
Wilko Johnson was known for his unique, choppy guitar style, having learned to play right-handed, despite being left-handed.
He played and wrote with Dr. Feelgood in the mid 1970s, on albums including Down by the Jetty, Malpractice, Stupidity and Sneakin’ Suspicion.
After founding the band Solid Senders in 1977, he went on to join Ian Dury’s The Blockheads in 1980.
In recent years, Wilko Johnson has played a mute executioner in Game Of Thrones.
Wilko Johnson, who lives in his home county of Essex, was left widowed when his wife Irene lost her battle with cancer in 2004.
Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel into space, has died aged 61, 17 months after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“Sally’s historic flight into space captured the nation’s imagination and made her a household name,” Sally Ride Science foundation said in a statement.
She blasted off in the US space shuttle Challenger in June 1983.
Sally Ride was not the first woman in space – that was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in June 1963.
Since her first mission in 1983, more than 45 women from the US and other countries have flown in space, including two as shuttle commander.
Sally Ride died on Monday in La Jolla, California.
Sally Ride, the first American woman to travel into space, has died aged 61
Once an aspiring tennis player, she went on to earn no fewer than four university degrees including a doctorate in physics.
In a statement, President Barack Obama said he was “deeply saddened” to hear about her death.
“As the first American woman to travel into space, Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model,” the US president said in a statement.
Sally Ride was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California, attending Stanford University for master’s and doctorate degrees in physics.
According to her foundation, Sally Ride applied to NASA after seeing an ad in the Stanford student newspaper, calling for scientists and engineers, including women to apply to the astronaut corps.
Sally Ride joined NASA in 1978 – one of 35 people selected as astronauts from a field of more than 8,000 who applied.
She went on her first space shuttle mission on board the Challenger in 1983.
As well as being the first American woman in space, she was also – at the age of 32 – the youngest person in America at the time to go into orbit.
As part of that mission she used a robotic arm which she had helped develop to retrieve a satellite.
Sally Ride reached space again the following year, and was scheduled for a third trip when the Challenger space shuttle exploded in 1986.
The shuttle broke apart just over a minute into its mission, killing all seven of the crew members, and prompting an almost three-year hiatus in the American space programme.
Following the disaster, she served as a member of the presidential commission that investigated the causes of the fatal accident. She also served on a similar board following the Columbia space shuttle, which broke apart during its re-entry to Earth in 2003.
“Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism – and literally changed the face of America’s space program,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.
“She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly.”
After leaving NASA, Sally Ride became a professor at University of California, San Diego, and served as a science fellow at Stanford University.
She launched Sally Ride Science, which created science programmes and publications for young students, in 2001. She also wrote five children’s science books.
“The fact that I was going to be the first American woman to go into space carried huge expectations along with it,” Sally Ride said in a 2008 interview.
“I didn’t really think about it that much at the time – but I came to appreciate what an honour it was to be selected,” she said.
Sally Ride is survived by her mother and partner Tam O’Shaughnessy.
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