Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Kathleen Kingsbury, Julie Norwell, Logan Orlando

ORDERED DEPORTED. JOHN DEMJANJUK, 85, retired autoworker accused of being a Nazi concentration-camp guard; in a decision that could end a court battle dating back to the 1970s; by a federal judge who rejected his claim that he would be tortured if sent back to his native Ukraine; in Cleveland, Ohio. Demjanjuk was convicted in 1988 by an Israeli court of being "Ivan the Terrible," but was cleared and had his U.S. citizenship restored. His citizenship was again withdrawn when, in 2002, new evidence convinced a federal court that he was a different camp guard.

GRANTED. JOHN HINCKLEY JR., 50, psychiatric inmate who shot Ronald Reagan in 1981 in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster; rights to stay overnight on visits with his parents in southeastern Virginia without supervision from hospital staff, a measure long opposed by the Reagan family; in Washington. Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity and whose illness, doctors say, is in remission, had hitherto been permitted only monitored outings in the capital.

DIED. VINCENT SCHIAVELLI, 57, ubiquitous, droopy-eyed actor who appeared in minor-but-unforgettable roles in some 150 film and TV productions; of lung cancer; in Sicily, Italy. Among the amateur chef's memorable parts: a subway apparition in Ghost, a clueless teacher in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Frederickson, an asylum inmate, in the Oscar-winning 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

DIED. RONA JAFFE, 74, novelist best known for The Best of Everything, published in 1958 and quickly turned into a movie by 20th Century Fox; of cancer, in London. Written with a canny eye to film adaptation, the book followed the fortunes of four beautiful stenographers torn between love and ambition, a pre-feminist precursor of Sex and the City.

DIED. VINCENT (CHIN) GIGANTE, 77, Mafia boss who feigned mental illness for decades to avoid jail; in prison in Springfield, Mo., on Dec. 19. The empire of the pompadoured head of New York's Genovese crime family once ranged from Little Italy's street fairs to Miami's shipping docks. The "Oddfather" sometimes wandered about Greenwich Village in a tattered bathrobe muttering incoherently, and was once discovered naked in the shower with an umbrella by federal agents delivering a subpoena. The ex-boxer was convicted in 1997 on racketeering charges. He later admitted his deception.

DIED. JOHN DIEBOLD, 79, technology prophet whose 1952 book, Automation, argued that programmable devices would become vital everyday tools for businesses; in Bedford Hills, N.Y. An adviser to AT&T and IBM, he came up with his then-radical idea while serving as a World War II merchant marine, by observing the primitive self-correcting technology of antiaircraft control systems on ships.

DIED. MICHAEL VALE, 83, mustached actor who endeared himself to millions of TV viewers--and helped make Dunkin' Donuts a major brand--as the diminutive, sleepy Fred the Baker, with the trademark line "Time to make the doughnuts," in commercials for 15 years; in New York City.

DIED. WILLIAM HOWELLS, 97, anthropologist who, by using cranial measurements on 3,000 human skulls from around the world, provided the first objective grounds for the conclusion that humans are of one species--a critical finding during the mid-'60s, when racial differences were being vigorously debated; in Kittery Point, Maine.

DIED. NORMAN VAUGHAN, 100, dog sledder, explorer and the last surviving member of Admiral Richard Byrd's historic 1928 expedition to Antarctica; in Anchorage. As a mushing-obsessed Harvard student, he persuaded Byrd to bring him along as a dog driver. Affectionately dubbed "the Colonel" in his adopted home state of Alaska, he climbed the 10,302-ft. Mount Vaughan (named for him by Byrd) to celebrate his 89th birthday. His motto: "Dream big, and dare to fail!"