National Obituaries

DENVER (AP) — Joe Collier, the former Buffalo Bills head coach and architect of the Denver Broncos' famed “Orange Crush” defense, has died. He was 91.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jeannie Epper, a groundbreaking performer who did stunts for many of the most important women of film and television action of the 1970s and '80s, including star Lynda Carter on TV's “Wonder Woman,” has died. She was 83.

Cecil “Hootie” Ingram, a former Alabama football star and athletic director, died Monday. He was 90.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — César Luis Menotti, the charismatic coach who led Argentina to its first World Cup title in 1978, has died, the Argentine Football Association said Sunday. He was 85.

LONDON (AP) — Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and went down with the ship as the captain in “Titanic,” has died.

CHICAGO (AP) — Bob Avellini, the former Chicago quarterback who teamed with Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton to lead the Bears to the 1977 playoffs, died Saturday. He was 70. The Bears said Avellini died after a battle with cancer.

TOKYO (AP) — Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan’s postwar avant-garde theater, defiantly yet playfully transforming the essence of Kabuki aesthetics into modern storytelling, has died. He was 84.

MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — Burt Rutan was alarmed to see the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wing tips started dragging along the ground as it taxied down the runway.

NEW YORK (AP) — Frank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Aaron Thomas, one of the most prolific receiving tight ends in the history of the New York Giants, died last week at his home in Corvallis, Oregon, following a lengthy illness. He was 86.