Terry Gross

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Styron died Wednesday of pneumonia at the age of 81. Styron's books include Lie Down in Darkness, The Confessions of Nat Turner (which won the Pulitzer) and Sophie's Choice, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Meryl Streep. His memoir Darkness Visible detailed his struggles with depression and suicidal impulses. This interview originally aired on Sept. 19, 1990.

Richard Gilman, who died Saturday at age 83, was a writer and professor at the Yale School of Drama. Ben Brantley of The New York Times writes, "Mr. Gilman was one of a breed of philosopher-critics... who came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. They located in modern drama the elements of abstraction, alienation and absurdity that had long been at the core of discussions of other forms of art and literature." In this archive interview from 1987, Gilman recounts his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism and then to atheism.

Texas and country music legend Freddy Fender, 69, died Saturday of lung cancer. Fender's big hit was "Before the Next Teardrop Falls."

We remember country music singer and yodeler Don Walser, who died Wednesday at the age of 72 of complications from diabetes. Walser was a country music icon in Austin, Texas, where he lived and played at clubs, VFW halls, and honkytonks. He's best remembered for his series of records in the 1990s, produced with Asleep at the Wheel's Ray Benson. This interview originally aired Dec. 13, 1994.

Bruno Kirby died Monday at the age of 57 from complications of leukemia. Kirby played the would-be comedian in Good Morning, Vietnam and Carrie Fisher's boyfriend in When Harry Met Sally. Over the years Kirby played in dozens of movies, TV shows and on Broadway. This interview originally aired on July 27, 1990.

Crime writer Mickey Spillane died Monday at age 88. Spillane was most famous for his sex- and violence-drenched Mike Hammer detective novels. His titles include Kiss Me Deadly and I the Jury. While critics rarely praised Spillane, his books were bestsellers. This interview originally aired on Nov. 22, 1989.

We rebroadcast an interview with late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt. She had been called the "reigning Handel diva of our day." She appeared in Peter Sellars' productions of Handel and Mozart. This interview originally aired on April 8, 1996.

We remember author and TV host Louis Rukeyser, who died Tuesday from a rare cancer of the bone marrow. He was 73. Rukeyser hosted Wall $treet Week With Louis Rukeyser on PBS from 1970-2002. We listen back to a 1984 interview with him.

William Gottlieb died of a stroke last Sunday at the age of 89. In the '40s, Gottlieb learned photography and took hundreds of shots of the jazz greats of the time. Many of those shots are now well known through album covers, books, and posters. 200 of those photos appear in Gottlieb's book, The Golden Age of Jazz.

Rev. William Sloane Coffin, who died Wednesday at the age of 81 of congestive heart failure, was known as a civil rights activist and outspoken critic of the Vietnam War.