It's a sad day in Pine Valley. ABC has announced that Eileen Herlie, the Scottish stage star who played All My Children's Myrtle Fargate for approximately forever, has died.

The actress, who rose to fame trading iambic pentameter with the likes of Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton on the West End and Broadway, joined AMC in 1976 and played surrogate mother to Susan Lucci's Erica Kane up through the current season.

Herlie succumed to complications of pneumonia. She was 90.

Berkeley Breathed. Dist. By The Washington Post Writers Group

This penguin is about to be iced.

Berkeley Breathed has announced he is killing off his Opus and retiring from comic-strip writing effective Nov. 2.

The 51-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning Bloom County creator, who has spun off his beloved bird into cartoons and books, released the following statement: "30 years of cartooning to end. I'm destroying the village to save it. Opus would inevitably become a ranting mouthpiece in the coming wicked days, and I respect the other parts of him too much to see that happen. The Michael Moore part of me would kill the part of him that was important to his fans.

"With the crisis in Wall Street and Washington, I'm suspending my comic strip to assist the nation. The best way I can help is to leave politics permanently and write funny stories for America's kids. I call on John McCain to join me."

Rest in peace, little fellow.

In outer space, there was no blacklist.

Writer Oliver Crawford was among the Hollywood hundreds who found themselves unemployable during the Red Scare-marked 1940s and 1950s.

Fortunately for Crawford, the blacklist was not a career death sentence.

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AP Photo/Jim Cooper

Broadway is giving its regards to Paul Newman. Talk about a switcheroo.

The Great White Way will pay tribute to the late acting legend by dimming the lights on the marquees of all Broadway theaters on Friday night at 8 p.m. The venues will remain dark for one minute.

While most acclaimed for his screen work, Newman was no stranger to the boards, making his Broadway debut in 1953 in Picnic, where he met his future wife, Joanne Woodward.

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Twentieth Century Fox

Tom Hanks is the latest to offer a tribute to the late acting legend, recalling their work together on the Chicago-based gangster film The Road to Perdition:

"Paul Newman told me his hotel in Chicago was a room at the YMCA, which was not hard to imagine. He considered himself just another member of the acting company, who would call his wife during breaks and confess to feeling self-conscious on the first day of shooting. But he was Paul Newman, and could not mask the fact he was simply—yet elegantly—an extraordinary artist and man. How lucky we all have been..."

Hanks is also one of an A-list group of celebs set to take part in a reading of Ernest Hemingway's The World of Nick Adams, proceeds from which will benefit the Painted Turtle, one of the 11 free camps Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang opened for children suffering from life-threatening illnesses.

AP Photo/Jim Cooper

The Sundance Kid remembers his old partner as a man who "lived a life that really meant something."

In an interview with ABC News this morning, Robert Redford spoke candidly about his longtime costar and pal Paul Newman, including their decades-long battle for prank one-upmanship.

And while Redford praised his close pal's acting chops, he said he really admired the rarely seen private side of Newman, the generosity and loyalty.

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Courtesy of Showtime

With the coolest TV serial killer of all time, Dexter (Michael C. Hall), starting his third season tonight on Showtime, we got to wondering about movie mass murderers. Who would be most serious competition for this serial killer who kills serial killers?

We couldn't decide who was the best of these bad, bulk-rate butchers, so help us out. Vote your fear in the poll below, or weigh in with other options in comments section.

AP Photo/Jim Cooper

Butch Cassidy, Hud Bannon, icon. Paul Newman excelled in all those roles, and more.

Newman, the Academy Award-winning leading man who specialized in iconoclasts and outsiders, but whose aqua-blue eyes and box office prowess made him one of Hollywood's biggest stars, and whose eclectic interests saw him pursue car racing and salad dressing with equal vigor, died Friday of cancer. He was 83.

• Paul Newman, 1925-2008: Photo Gallery
  

Newman succumbed to the disease at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn., publicist Jeff Sanderson said.

In the end, he was, Sanderson said, surrounded by family and dear friends.

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With an actor as great as Paul Newman, it's easy to find clips that showcase his depth, range and artistry. Here are three among the hundreds out there that should have you running to the video store to plan your own Hunker Down at Home Paul Newman Film Festival.

Above, you'll find the "Smiles" montage from the classic Cool Hand Luke.

Below, Hud Gets Lenient: When it comes to the law, sometimes he leans one way, sometimes he leans the other...

And on the jump, check out the "justice in our hearts" summation scene from The Verdict. Awesome. And feel free to share your favorite Newman scenes in the comments section.

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AP Photo

More details have been released regarding the Friday night plane crash that left Travis Barker and DJ AM critically injured.

The local coroner today released the causes of death for both the pilot and copilot of the ill-fated Learjet, as well as the remaining two passengers on board the flight bound from Columbia, S.C., to Van Nuys, Calif.

Pilot Sarah Lemmon and copilot James Bland died of burns and smoke inhalation suffered in the crash, according to Harry Harman, the coroner for Lexington County, S.C.

Passengers Chris Baker and Charles Still, both friends and professional colleagues of Barker and Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein, were both said to have died as a result of impact-related injuries.

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Were it not for Frank Mundus, the chalkboards on Amity Island might have been a lot quieter.

Mundus was the inspiration for Quint, the fearless shark hunter in Jaws. So said Mundus. Now, as for Peter Benchley...

The late Benchley was the author who wrote the best-selling thriller that Steven Spielberg turned into a blockbuster movie. And, as the New York Times reported this week, Benchley long maintained that the flinty Quint, played by Robert Shaw in the 1975 film, was not based on Mundus.

As for Mundus...well, he was, as the Times put it, "clearly irked" at Benchley's denial.

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Marvin Gaye never would have heard it through the grapevine if Norman Whitfield hadn't first heard it in his soul.

Whitfield, the prolific, Grammy-winning composer who cowrote and produced numerous R&B hits in the 1960s and 1970s, from the Temptations' "I Can't Get Next to You" to Rose Royce's "Car Wash," died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 67 and had recently come out of a coma brought on by complications from diabetes.

In addition to his longtime work as the Temptations' go-to producer, a role he won in 1966 after his "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" performed better on the charts than the Smokey Robinson-penned "Get Ready," Whitfield also cowrote Motown's single biggest hit—"I Heard It Through the Grapevine."

The party staple was first recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1967 and became the legendary Detroit label's best-selling single of all time, only to be topped a year later by Gaye's version.