Died. Joseph Kasavubu, 56, President of the Congo Republic in the stormy first years of nationhood; of a brain hemorrhage; in Boma, Lower Congo. Kasavubu took office in 1960 at a time of total chaos: the army began to mutiny, mineral-rich Katanga was threatening to secede, Premier Patrice Lumumba seemed bent on turning the country Communist. What saved Kasavubu was an Army coup by Colonel Joseph Mobutu, who thereafter largely held the power while allowing Kasavubu to administer, until Mobutu deposed him in 1965 to assume the presidency himself.

Died. Alan Mowbray, 72, British-born character actor whose career spanned some 300 films; of a heart disease; in Hollywood. It pained Mowbray to be typecast as the perfect butler, which he played in 1937's Tapper and only four other films. In fact, he was so much at home in such roles (the tax-tortured tailor in The Boys from Syracuse, 1940; the lacy interior decorator in Jackpot, 1950) that the late John Barrymore could call him "a worthy adversary."

Died. Traven Torsvan, 79, known by his pen name, "B. Traven," reclusive author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and some 15 other novels; of a kidney disease; in Mexico City. Traven shrouded his life in such secrecy that no one could even be sure where he was born (among the theories: Chicago, San Francisco, Germany). "Of an artist or writer, one should never ask an autobiography," he once said, "because he is bound to lie. If a writer, who he is and what he is, cannot be recognized by his work, either his books are worthless or he himself is."

Died. Max Eastman, 86, lusty lion of the left until the late 1930s when he became disenchanted and turned his literary talents to exposing Communism; of a stroke; in Bridgetown, Barbados. Tall, handsome and charming, Eastman captivated women (three marriages, numerous self-publicized affairs), yet nothing equaled his youthful love match with radicalism. In World War I, as editor of The Masses, he preached so violently against U.S. involvement that he was indicted (but not convicted) for sedition. In the 1920s, he traveled to Russia, where he became an intimate of Trotsky, but disillusionment came with Stalin's terrorism and the 1939 pact with Hitler. Eastman's books, Stalin's Russia and the Crisis in Socialism (1939) and Marxism: Is It Science? (1940) are still regarded as among the most damning analyses of Communism. He also proved himself a considerable poet and turned out an autobiography, about which one critic wrote: "It has the egalitarian earnestness of a Tom Paine, the lighthearted sexual adventures of a Casanova, the self-preoccupation of a Cellini."

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