Obituaries in the news

Milan Djukic

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) _ Milan Djukic, a prominent leader of Croatia's minority Serbs and a former deputy parliament speaker, has died. He was 61.

He died Monday of an illness in his home village, Donji Lapac, in central Croatia, his family said, without elaborating.

Djukic led the Serb People's Party since the early 1990s, representing Croatian Serbs who did not join their compatriots' armed rebellion against Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia, which triggered a six-month war.

As a representative of a minority, he was deputy parliament speaker in 1992-1996 and a lawmaker from 1992 until 2004.

Djukic often was targeted by both Serbs and Croatians. Many Serbs disliked him because he was part of Croatia's political establishment at times when rebels fought against it, while many Croatians disliked him because of his continuous criticism of Croatia's treatment of its minority Serbs.

His influence diminished, with other ethnic Serb leaders attracting more minority votes.

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Bud Ekins

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Bud Ekins, a renowned off-road racer and stuntman who performed the famous motorcycle jump over barbed wire in "The Great Escape," has died. He was 77.

Ekins died Saturday of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, family spokesman Paul Bloch said.

Ekins, a friend and mentor of fellow biker Steve McQueen, had a stunt career that lasted for 30 years and appeared in dozens of movies, including "Diamonds Are Forever," "Earthquake" and "The Blues Brothers." He also had bit parts in about a dozen films.

Born in 1930 to a working class family in Hollywood, Ekins fell in love with motorcycles at an early age. In the 1950s, he was one of the first U.S. competitors in world-class motocross events in Europe.

His friendship with McQueen grew out of their love of motorcycles. Ekins owned a Triumph dealership in the 1960s. McQueen would hang out there and Ekins taught him about off-road racing.

Ekins, his brother, David, and McQueen raced as a team in the 1964 International Six Day Trials in Germany, although McQueen crashed and Ekins broke his leg, Bloch said.

Overall, Ekins won four gold medals and a silver medal at the international trials in the 1960s.

Ekins got into stunt work when McQueen asked him to work on "The Great Escape" in 1962 in Germany. While McQueen did some of the motorcycle stunts, it was Ekins, uncredited, who doubled in the scene where McQueen's prisoner-of-war character jumps a motorcycle over a barbed-wire fence.

It is considered one of the most famous motorcycle movie stunts ever performed.

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Robert "Red" Shipley

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Robert "Red" Shipley, a longtime radio host who specialized in country, Southern gospel and bluegrass music, has died. He was 70.

Shipley died Saturday of cancer at the University of Virginia Medical Center, said Kay Summers, director of public information at WAMU-FM.

The Tennessee native was a fixture of the Washington region's airwaves for four decades, and until last month hosted WAMU-FM's "Stained Glass Bluegrass" Sunday program for 25 years.

The International Bluegrass Music Association named him the 2006 Broadcaster of the Year, based on voting by his peers.

Bob Webster, who succeeded Shipley on "Stained Glass Bluegrass," said Shipley advocated for nontraditional bluegrass sounds and could determine which musicians had staying power.

In the mid-1980s, for instance, Shipley promoted the Isaacs, a band that plays contemporary bluegrass gospel, when few saw them as fitting easily into the bluegrass mainstream. One of the performers, Sonya Isaacs, was an International Bluegrass Music Association finalist for best female vocalist last year.

On the air, Shipley was known for a succinct baritone. He once told The Washington Post that his listeners did not care for windy introductions to the music.