Jones, whose career spanned more than six decades and included hits such as “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “Window Up Above,” died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He had been hospitalized since April 18 with fever and irregular blood pressure, spokesman Kirt Webster said.

Like his idol, Hank Williams, Jones battled addiction. Alcohol and cocaine frequently derailed his career and at one point his reputation for canceling performances earned him the nickname No-Show Jones.

But when Jones did show up and was in good form, listeners were treated to a powerful and evocative voice. Jones was at his best with cry-in-your-beer songs and his masterful phrasing made them extra mournful.

As his late contemporary Waylon Jennings put it, “If we could all sound like we wanted to, then we’d all sound like George Jones.”

Born in Saratoga, Texas, on September 12, 1931, Jones first began performing for spare change as a boy on the streets of nearby Beaumont. Under the influence of Williams, Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell, he graduated to the rough roadhouses of East Texas.

Jones had an early marriage, a divorce and a stint in the Marines before his first hit, “Why Baby Why” in 1955. His first No. 1 song, “White Lightning,” came in 1959, followed by “Tender Years” in 1961.

The next two decades brought a string of top 10 songs – “If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will),” “Window Up Above,” “She Thinks I Still Care,” “Good Year for the Roses, “The Race Is On” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” which Jones said was his favorite. He also had a successful run of duets with Melba Montgomery.

Jones, who was known as “The Possum,” divorced his second wife in 1968 and the next year married one of country’s most popular singers, Tammy Wynette. The pairing was an enormous professional success for both as they recorded and toured together and Jones also began working with Billy Sherrill, Wynette’s producer.

During his time with Sherrill, Jones refined his honky-tonk voice and sang more ballads, often with the lush string accompaniment that had become a trend in the country music capital of Nashville.

The marriage to Wynette went bad as Jones’ addiction problem escalated and Wynette claimed he once came at her with a gun. They divorced in 1975 but later resumed recording together.

Jones continued to put out hit songs in the early 1980s, even as cocaine compounded his personal tumult. Amid a string of hospitalizations and arrests, he disappeared for days at a time, missed shows and recording sessions and took police on a drunken chase through Nashville.

Jones credited fourth wife Nancy, who he married in 1983, with helping him clean up. But in 1999 he was seriously injured after driving drunk and crashing into a bridge, leading to another stay in rehab.

At one point Jones was so incorrigible that one of his four wives cleared the liquor from their home and hid all the car keys so he could not go for more. Jones responded by cranking up his riding lawn mower and driving it to a bar – an escapade he chronicled in “Honky Tonk Song.”

Although he was heard infrequently on mainstream country radio in the later years of his career, Jones was a sought-after duet partner and won a Grammy for the song “Choices” in 1999. He also won a Grammy for best country performance in 1980 for “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”

Jones was still touring last year, although an upper respiratory infection and other health problems forced him to postpone shows.

(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Jones, whose career spanned more than six decades and
included hits such as “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “Window
Up Above,” died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He had been hospitalized since April 18 with fever and
irregular blood pressure, spokesman Kirt Webster said.

Like his idol, Hank Williams, Jones battled addiction.
Alcohol and cocaine frequently derailed his career and at one
point his reputation for canceling performances earned him the
nickname No-Show Jones.

But when Jones did show up and was in good form, listeners
were treated to a powerful and evocative voice. Jones was at his
best with cry-in-your-beer songs and his masterful phrasing made
them extra mournful.

As his late contemporary Waylon Jennings put it, “If we
could all sound like we wanted to, then we’d all sound like
George Jones.”

Born in Saratoga, Texas, on Sept. 12, 1931, Jones first
began performing for spare change as a boy on the streets of
nearby Beaumont. Under the influence of Williams, Ernest Tubb
and Lefty Frizzell, he graduated to the rough roadhouses of East
Texas.

Jones had an early marriage, a divorce and a stint in the
Marines before his first hit, “Why Baby Why” in 1955. His first
No. 1 song, “White Lightning,” came in 1959, followed by “Tender
Years” in 1961.

The next two decades brought a string of top 10 songs – “If
Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will),” “Window Up Above,”
“She Thinks I Still Care,” “Good Year for the Roses, “The Race
Is On” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” which Jones said was
his favorite. He also had a successful run of duets with Melba
Montgomery.

Jones, who was known as “The Possum,” divorced his second
wife in 1968 and the next year married one of country’s most
popular singers, Tammy Wynette. The pairing was an enormous
professional success for both as they recorded and toured
together and Jones also began working with Billy Sherrill,
Wynette’s producer.

During his time with Sherrill, Jones refined his honky-tonk
voice and sang more ballads, often with the lush string
accompaniment that had become a trend in the country music
capital of Nashville.

The marriage to Wynette went bad as Jones’ addiction problem
escalated and Wynette claimed he once came at her with a gun.
They divorced in 1975 but later resumed recording together.

Jones continued to put out hit songs in the early 1980s,
even as cocaine compounded his personal tumult. Amid a string of
hospitalizations and arrests, he disappeared for days at a time,
missed shows and recording sessions and took police on a drunken
chase through Nashville.

Jones credited fourth wife Nancy, who he married in 1983,
with helping him clean up. But in 1999 he was seriously injured
after driving drunk and crashing into a bridge, leading to
another stay in rehab.

At one point Jones was so incorrigible that one of his four
wives cleared the liquor from their home and hid all the car
keys so he could not go for more. Jones responded by cranking up
his riding lawn mower and driving it to a bar – an escapade he
chronicled in “Honky Tonk Song.”

Although he was heard infrequently on mainstream country
radio in the later years of his career, Jones was a sought-after
duet partner and won a Grammy for the song “Choices” in 1999. He
also won a Grammy for best country performance in 1980 for “He
Stopped Loving Her Today.”

Jones was still touring last year, although an upper
respiratory infection and other health problems forced him to
postpone shows.

(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Rodman appeared on ABC’s “This Week” program a few days after an unlikely meeting with Kim in the North Korea capital Pyongyang, where Rodman was working on a documentary about basketball.

With the international community concerned about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and continued belligerence, Kim and Rodman attended a game, where they were seen laughing and talking, and had dinner together.

“He wants Obama to do one thing – call him,” Rodman said. “He said, ‘If you can, Dennis – I don’t want (to) do war. I don’t want to do war.’ He said that to me.”

Rodman said he told Kim, who followed his father and grandfather as leader of the totalitarian nation in December 2011, that his love of basketball could serve as a foundation of a relationship with the U.S. president, who also is a basketball fan and plays regularly.

“(Kim) loves basketball. And I said the same thing. I said, ‘Obama loves basketball.’ Let’s start there,” Rodman said.

The U.S. government has disavowed any connection with Rodman’s trip.

Last week, Rodman spoke warmly of Kim, 30, and described him as “an awesome kid.”

On “This Week,” he defended his new friendship with a man considered a violator of human rights and a threat to world peace by saying, “I’m not apologizing for him. You know, he’s a good guy to me. Guess what? He’s my friend. I don’t condone what he does … (but) as a person to person – he’s my friend.”

When pressed on North Korea’s human rights record, Rodman said, “But as far as what he does, you deal with it.”

Rodman, appearing in the interview wearing a jacket covered with images of U.S. dollars, a baseball cap and big sunglasses, dismissed Kim’s comments about wanting to destroy the United States as rhetoric stemming from his father.

He called him a strong and “very humble” man who “loves power, he loves control.”

Rodman said he intends to return to North Korea someday.

Rodman played on five NBA championship teams during his basketball career, which ran from 1986 to 2000. He played for five teams and in his peak years he was the league’s top rebounder and one of its best defenders. He was chosen for the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.

Rodman’s basketball skills were matched by his flamboyance – party lifestyle, multi-colored hair, blankets of tattoos, piercings in his ears, nose, lips and eyebrows and showing up in a wedding gown, complete with veil, to promote his autobiography.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

Hagman died at a Dallas hospital of complications from his
battle with throat cancer, the newspaper said, quoting a
statement from his family. He had suffered from liver cancer and
cirrhosis of the liver in the 1990s after decades of drinking.

Hagman’s mother was stage and movie star Mary Martin and he
became a star himself in 1965 on “I Dream of Jeannie,” a popular
television sitcom in which he played Major Anthony Nelson, an
astronaut who discovers a beautiful genie in a bottle.

“Dallas,” which made its premiere on the CBS network in
1978, made Hagman a superstar. The show quickly became one of
the network’s top-rated programs, built an international
following and inspired a spin-off, imitators and a revival in
2012.

“Dallas” was the night-time soap-opera story of a Texas
family, fabulously wealthy from oil and cattle, and its plot
brimmed with back-stabbing, double-dealing, family feuds,
violence, adultery and other bad behavior.

In the middle of it all stood Hagman’s black-hearted J.R.
Ewing – grinning wickedly in a broad cowboy hat and boots,
plotting how to cheat his business competitors and cheat on his
wife. He was the villain TV viewers loved to despise during the
show’s 356-episode run from 1978 to 1991.

“I really can’t remember half of the people I’ve slept with,
stabbed in the back or driven to suicide,” Hagman said of his
character in Time magazine.

In his autobiography, “Hello Darlin’: Tall (and Absolutely
True) Tales About My Life,” Hagman wrote that J.R. originally
was not to be the focus of “Dallas” but that changed when he
began ad-libbing on the set to make his character more
outrageous and compelling.

‘WHO SHOT J.R.?’

To conclude its second season, the “Dallas” producers put
together one of U.S. television’s most memorable episodes in
which Ewing was shot by an unseen assailant. That gave fans
months to fret over whether J.R. would survive and who had
pulled the trigger. In the show’s opening the following season,
it was revealed that J.R.’s sister-in-law, Kristin, with whom he
had been having an affair, was behind the gun.

Hagman said an international publisher offered him $250,000
to reveal who had shot J.R. and he considered giving the wrong
information and taking the money, but in the end, “I decided not
to be so like J.R. in real life.”

The popularity of “Dallas” made Hagman one of the best-paid
actors in television and earned him a fortune that even a Ewing
would have coveted. He lost some of it, however, in bad oil
investments before turning to real estate.

“I have an apartment in New York, a ranch in Santa Fe, a
castle in Ojai outside of L.A., a beach house in Malibu and
thinking of buying a place in Santa Monica,” Hagman said in a
Chicago Tribune interview.

An updated “Dallas” series began in June 2012 on the TNT
network with Hagman reprising his J.R. role with original cast
members Linda Gray, who played J.R.’s long-suffering wife, Sue
Ellen, and Patrick Duffy, who was his brother Bobby. The show
was to focus on the sons of J.R. and Bobby.

Hagman had a wide eccentric streak. When he first met
actress Lauren Bacall, he licked her arm because he had been
told she did not like to be touched and he was known for leading
parades on the Malibu beach and showing up at a grocery store in
a gorilla suit. Above his Malibu home flew a flag with the credo
“Vita Celebratio Est (Life Is a Celebration)” and he lived hard
for many years.

In 1967, rock musician David Crosby turned him on to LSD,
which Hagman said took away his fear of death, and Jack
Nicholson introduced him to marijuana because Nicholson thought
he was drinking too much.

Hagman had started drinking as a teenager and said he did
not stop until the moment in 1992 when his doctor told him he
had cirrhosis of the liver and could die within six months.
Hagman wrote that for the past 15 years he had been drinking
about four bottles of champagne a day, including while on the
“Dallas” set.

LIVER TRANSPLANT

In July 1995, he was diagnosed with liver cancer, which led
him to quit smoking, and a month later he underwent a liver
transplant.

After giving up his vices, Hagman said he did not lose his
zest for life.

“It’s the same old Larry Hagman,” he told a reporter. “He’s
just a littler sober-er.”

Hagman was born on Sept. 21, 1931, in Weatherford, Texas,
and his father was a lawyer who dealt with the Texas oil barons
Hagman would later come to portray. He was still a boy when his
parents divorced and he went to Los Angeles with Martin, who
would become a Broadway and Hollywood musical star.

Hagman eventually landed in New York to pursue acting,
making his stage debut there in “The Taming of the Shrew.” In
New York, he married Maj Axelsson in 1954 while they were in a
production of “South Pacific. The marriage produced two
children, Heidi and Preston.

Hagman served in the Air Force, spending five years in
Europe as the director of USO shows, and on his return to New
York he took a starring role in the daytime soap “The Edge of
Night.” His breakthrough came in 1965 when he landed the “I
Dream of Jeannie” role opposite Barbara Eden.

In his later years, Hagman became an advocate for organ
transplants and an anti-smoking campaigner. He also was devoted
to solar energy, telling the New York Times he had a $750,000
solar panel system at his Ojai estate, and made a commercial in
which he portrayed a J.R. Ewing who had forsaken oil for solar
power. He was a longtime member of the Peace and Freedom Party,
a minor leftist organization in California.

Hagman told the Times that after death he wanted his remains
to be “spread over a field and have marijuana and wheat planted
and harvest it in a couple of years and then have a big
marijuana cake, enough for 200 to 300 people. People would eat a
little of Larry.”

(Writing by Bill Trott in Washington; Additional reporting by
Alex Dobuszinkis in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney)

The quintessential junk food treat – a cream-filled, 150-calorie sponge cake – has been called the “cream puff of the proletariat” and the “snack with a snack in the middle.” It faces extinction now that its maker, Hostess Brands, announced plans to liquidate amid a dispute with striking bakers.

Here are some facts about Twinkies:

* James A. Dewar, a manager for the Continental Baking Co, came up with the idea in 1930 after seeing the machines that made shortcakes with strawberry filling sit idle at the bakery when strawberries were out of season. He injected the elongated sponge cake with banana filling – vanilla would be used later – and called it a Twinkie after seeing a billboard for the Twinkle Toe Shoe Company. Dewar, who died in 1985 at age 88, said he ate at least two packets of Twinkies a week.

* Twinkies were scorned by nutritionists as the archetypal unhealthy snack and became a comic’s punch line, but somebody is eating them. Hostess was able to manufacture 1,000 a minute at its bakeries and in 2005 the Washington Post said Americans had bought $47 million worth of Twinkies in the previous year.

* Many jokes about Twinkies play off their longevity thanks to their ample chemical preservatives. There has been much speculation about how many decades a Twinkie can sit on a shelf before being eaten. For the sake of freshness, Theresa Cogswell of the Twinkies’ parent company Hostess, has said that no more than 25 days was ideal but a Maine college professor gained notoriety by keeping one atop his blackboard for 30 years. He said it still looked good.

* In 2000 President Bill Clinton’s White House Millennium Council put together a time capsule in order to give people in 2100 an idea of how we lived. Its contents included historic items such as a piece of the Berlin Wall, film of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, a U.S. World War Two soldier’s helmet, a photo of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks and a Twinkie.

* The trial of San Francisco city supervisor Dan White, who fatally shot the mayor and another supervisor in 1978, gave rise to what came to be known as the “Twinkie defense.” The defense said White was suffering mental problems, as evidenced by the way he had given up his healthy lifestyle and started eating junk food. The defense argued that this behavior was an indication of his instability. White ended up serving five years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.

* Twinkies’ surge in popularity in the 1950s was partially attributed to its ads on “The Howdy Doody Show” directed at kids, who demanded the desserts in their lunch boxes.

* Hostess collected recipes from connoisseurs to publish the “The Twinkies Cookbook” in 2006. The 50 recipes included Twinkie-based burritos, lasagna, tiramisu, milkshakes and sushi (with dried fruit rather than fish). Deep-fried Twinkies have been a staple at U.S. state fairs.

* The Twinkie has a long list of television and movie credits. Archie Bunker always had one in his lunch on the sitcom “All in the Family” and they have been featured in the animated series “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons.” A character in “The Deer Hunter” eats Twinkies dipped in mustard. In the wacky comedy “Ghostbusters” a scientist tracking demons calculates that the level of “psychokinetic energy” in New York City could normally be as big as a Twinkie but things had become so bad that that Twinkie would now be 35 feet long and weigh 600 pounds (about 270 kg).

* Twinkies are just part of the Hostess snack food family. Other well-known treats from the company include Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Suzy Q’s, Sno Balls, Zingers and Drake’s cakes.

* Twitter and other social media were filled with laments about a Twinkie-less world on Friday. Entrepreneurs and speculators turned to eBay. A box of 10 Twinkies was being offered on the online auction site for a starting bid of $500. “What better way to say, ‘I love you’ than with the gift of an American icon that will be gone soon,” the seller said.

(Editing by David Storey)

DAVID PETRAEUS

Petraeus, 60, had an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, that started in late 2011 and ended about four months ago, according to those close to Petraeus. Ambitious, intellectual and possessor of a steel will, he ended a 37-year Army career in 2011 as a four-star general and one of the most highly regarded soldiers of his time. As commander of multi-national forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was credited with turning around U.S. fortunes in both wars. He was chosen to head the Central Intelligence Agency despite previous tactical disagreements with President Barack Obama. He survived prostate cancer, being shot in a training accident and a parachute malfunction that resulted in a broken pelvis. Media savvy and articulate, he was seen by some as a possible presidential candidate.

PAULA BROADWELL

A West Point graduate and Army reserve officer, Broadwell, 40, met Petraeus in 2006, and had unprecedented access to him in writing her book: “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” published in January 2012. Their affair was uncovered by an FBI investigation into harassing emails she is alleged to have sent to military relations volunteer Jill Kelley, a long-time friend of the Petraeus family. Married to a radiologist and living in Charlotte, North Carolina, with their two small children, Broadwell has been in seclusion since the scandal broke. Neighbors describe her as a friendly, athletic soccer mom who worked on veterans’ causes. She hired Washington criminal lawyer Robert Muse, who represented White House intern Monica Lewinksy in the sex scandal involving President Bill Clinton.

JILL KELLEY

Kelley, 37, is a fixture in the military scene in Tampa, Florida, home of MacDill Air Force Base and U.S. Central Command headquarters, acting as an unpaid social liaison. Married to cancer surgeon Scott Kelley, she became a friend of the Petraeus family when the general was based there as head of U.S. Central Command. Her complaint of threatening emails brought the Petraeus affair to light, FBI sources say. She w a s not suspected of involvement with Petraeus herself. But she became more enmeshed in the scandal with the revelation of extensive email correspondence – some allegedly inappropriate – with General John Allen, Petraeus’ replacement as commander in Afghanistan. She hired high-profile Washington attorney Abbe Lowell, who defended former Senator John Edwards, whose career was also blighted by a sex scandal, and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

JOHN ALLEN

The 58-year-old U.S. Marine Corps general, now heading U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, seemed headed for easy Senate confirmation as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, but his nomination was put on hold after his emails with Kelley triggered an investigation. He served at the MacDill Air Force base from 2008 to 2011. While some officials described the emails between the married general and Kelley as flirtatious or affectionate, he denied having an affair.

HOLLY PETRAEUS

The daughter of a general who was superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, she married Petraeus two months after his graduation from the academy. Their relationship was seen by many as a model of how to maintain a military marriage despite deployment hardships. In addition to raising two children, she focused on the financial well-being of military families as an official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She testified before Congress about housing problems for military personnel. She was described as “wonderful” by Broadwell in book promotion interviews. She is “furious” with her husband, a family friend says.

NATALIE KHAWAM

Khawam is Jill Kelley’s twin sister who enlisted the support of her friends Petraeus and Allen in her bitter child custody dispute. Both generals wrote letters praising Khawam, a lawyer, as a mother and saying her son would benefit from more time with her. Petraeus said in his September 20 letter to the court that he had known Khawam for three years while serving in Tampa, through the friendship he and Holly have with Jill and Scott Kelley. Allen in his September 22 letter said he and his wife, Kathy, came to know Khawam through social functions while stationed at U.S. Central Command.

SHIRTLESS FBI AGENT

An unidentified FBI agent who is a friend of Jill Kelley triggered the FBI probe when he informed superiors of the threatening emails she told him she had received. The emails – warning Kelley to stay away from Petraeus – were sent by Broadwell. He was later removed from the FBI investigation because of concerns about his potential involvement with Kelley after he sent her a picture of himself without a shirt. It has been reported that he also told U.S. Representative Dave Reichert about the investigation. The agent is now the subject of an internal FBI investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported.

(Editing by David Storey and Philip Barbara)

DAVID PETRAEUS

Petraeus, 60, had an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, that started in late 2011 and ended about four months ago, according to those close to Petraeus. Ambitious, intellectual and possessor of a steel will, he ended a 37-year Army career in 2011 as a four-star general and one of the most highly regarded soldiers of his time. As commander of multi-national forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was credited with turning around U.S. fortunes in both wars. He was chosen to head the Central Intelligence Agency despite previous tactical disagreements with President Barack Obama. He survived prostate cancer, being shot in a training accident and a parachute malfunction that resulted in a broken pelvis. Media savvy and articulate, he was seen by some as a possible presidential candidate.

PAULA BROADWELL

A West Point graduate and Army reserve officer, Broadwell, 40, met Petraeus in 2006, and had unprecedented access to him in writing her book: “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” published in January 2012. Their affair was uncovered by an FBI investigation into harassing emails she is alleged to have sent to military relations volunteer Jill Kelley, a long-time friend of the Petraeus family. Married to a radiologist and living in Charlotte, North Carolina, with their two small children, Broadwell has been in seclusion since the scandal broke. Neighbors describe her as a friendly, athletic soccer mom who worked on veterans’ causes. She hired Washington criminal lawyer Robert Muse, who represented White House intern Monica Lewinksy in the sex scandal involving President Bill Clinton.

JILL KELLEY

Kelley, 37, is a fixture in the military scene in Tampa, Florida, home of MacDill Air Force Base and U.S. Central Command headquarters, acting as an unpaid social liaison. Married to cancer surgeon Scott Kelley, she became a friend of the Petraeus family when the general was based there as head of U.S. Central Command. Her complaint of threatening emails brought the Petraeus affair to light, FBI sources say. She was not suspected of involvement with Petraeus herself. But she became more enmeshed in the scandal with the revelation of extensive email correspondence – some allegedly inappropriate – with General John Allen, Petraeus’ replacement as commander in Afghanistan. She hired high-profile Washington attorney Abbe Lowell, who defended former Senator John Edwards, whose career was also blighted by a sex scandal, and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

JOHN ALLEN

The 58-year-old U.S. Marine Corps general, now heading U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, seemed headed for easy Senate confirmation as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, but his nomination was put on hold after his emails with Kelley triggered an investigation. He served at the MacDill Air Force base from 2008 to 2011. While some officials described the emails between the married general and Kelley as flirtatious or affectionate, he denied having an affair.

HOLLY PETRAEUS

The daughter of a general who was superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, she married Petraeus two months after his graduation from the academy. Their relationship was seen by many as a model of how to maintain a military marriage despite deployment hardships. In addition to raising two children, she focused on the financial well-being of military families as an official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She testified before Congress about housing problems for military personnel. She was described as “wonderful” by Broadwell in book promotion interviews. She is “furious” with her husband, a family friend says.

NATALIE KHAWAM

Khawam is Jill Kelley’s twin sister who enlisted the support of her friends Petraeus and Allen in her bitter child custody dispute. Both generals wrote letters praising Khawam, a lawyer, as a mother and saying her son would benefit from more time with her. Petraeus said in his September 20 letter to the court that he had known Khawam for three years while serving in Tampa, through the friendship he and Holly have with Jill and Scott Kelley. Allen in his September 22 letter said he and his wife, Kathy, came to know Khawam through social functions while stationed at U.S. Central Command.

SHIRTLESS FBI AGENT

An unidentified FBI agent who is a friend of Jill Kelley triggered the FBI probe when he informed superiors of the threatening emails she told him she had received. The emails – warning Kelley to stay away from Petraeus – were sent by Broadwell. He was later removed from the FBI investigation because of concerns about his potential involvement with Kelley after he sent her a picture of himself without a shirt. It has been reported that he also told U.S. Representative Dave Reichert about the investigation. The agent is now the subject of an internal FBI investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported.

(Editing by David Storey and Philip Barbara)

Karras had been suffering from kidney failure and dementia.

Earlier this year, Karras joined a class-action suit by
former National Football League players who said the NFL did not
do enough to protect them from head injuries. The suit said he
had sustained repeated head trauma.

Karras’ lawyer, Craig Mitnick, said Karras was surrounded by
family when died at his home in Los Angeles.

After an All-American career at the University of Iowa,
Karras joined the Lions in 1958 and became one of the best
defensive tackles in the NFL. He was an All-Pro selection four
times but his iconoclastic nature often led to conflicts with
his coaches. He missed the 1963 season when he was suspended for
gambling on NFL games.

After returning to football, Karras represented the Lions at
the pre-game coin flip to determine which team would kick off.
When the referee told him to call heads or tails, Karras
responded, “I’m sorry, sir, I’m not permitted to gamble.”

Karras was known to teammates as “The Godfather” – a glib,
wise-cracking figure who enjoyed big cigars, even in the shower.

After 12 seasons of pro football, Karras starred in the
1980s sitcom “Webster,” joining his real-life wife, Susan Clark,
in playing a white couple who adopt a black child played by
Emmanuel Lewis.

Karras also had a small but well-remembered role in the Mel
Brooks comic Western film, “Blazing Saddles,” as Mongo, a
dull-witted brute who punched out a horse. He also played a
sheriff in “Porky’s” and a gay bodyguard in “Victor/Victoria.”

Before his NFL career and during his suspension, Karras was
also a professional wrestler.

After being cut by the Lions in 1971, he was a commentator
on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast for three years.

Karras wrote about his life in “Even Big Guys Cry” and “Alex
Karras: My Life in Football, Television & Movies.” He was a key
figure in “Paper Lion,” a look at the 1963 Detroit team by
writer George Plimpton, who tried out for the team to see what
it would be like for an average person.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

“Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills of
complications of pneumonia,” the newspaper said, quoting the
author’s nephew Burr Steers.

Vidal’s literary legacy includes a series of historical
novels — “Burr,” “1876,” “Lincoln” and “The Golden Age” among
them — as well as the campy transexual comedy “Myra
Breckenridge.”

He started writing as a 19-year-old soldier stationed in
Alaska, basing “Williwaw” on his World War Two experiences. His
third book, “The City and the Pillar,” created a sensation in
1948 because it was one of the first open portrayals of a
homosexual main character.

Vidal referred to himself as a “gentleman bitch” and was as
egotistical and caustic as he was elegant and brilliant.

In addition to rubbing shoulders with the great writers of
his time, he banged heads with many of them. Vidal considered
Ernest Hemingway a joke and compared Truman Capote to a “filthy
animal that has found its way into the house.”

His most famous literary enemies were conservative pundit
William F. Buckley Jr. and writer Norman Mailer, who Vidal once
likened to cult killer Charles Manson.

Mailer head-butted Vidal before a television appearance and
on another occasion knocked him to the ground.

Vidal and Buckley took their feud to live national
television while serving as commentators at the 1968 Democratic
National Convention. Vidal accused Buckley of being a
“pro-crypto-Nazi” while Buckley called Vidal a “queer” and
threatened to punch him.

Vidal seemed to make no effort to curb his abundant ego.

In a 2008 interview with Esquire magazine Vidal said people
were always seemed impressed that he had met so many famous
people, such as Jacqueline Kennedy and William Burroughs.

“People always put that sentence the wrong way around,” he
said. “I mean, why not put it the true way – that these people
got to meet me, and wanted to?”

NEPHEW OF SENATOR

Eugene Luther Vidal Jr. was born in West Point, New York,
and eventually took his mother’s surname as his first name. He
grew up in Washington, D.C., where his grandfather, Democratic
U.S. Sen. Thomas Gore of Oklahoma, had a strong influence on the
boy. The young Vidal developed an interest in politics as he
read to the blind senator and led him about town.

He went to exclusive private secondary schools but did not
attend college.

After his parents divorced, Vidal’s mother married Hugh
Auchincloss, who later also became the stepfather of Jacqueline
Kennedy. That connection gave Vidal access to the Kennedy White
House before a falling out with the family.

After early success, his literary career stalled – perhaps
because of the controversy of “The City and the Pillar” – and he
concentrated on television and movie scripts.

Vidal got back on track in the 1960s with “Julian,” about a
Roman emperor; “Washington, D.C.,” the tale of a political
family; and “Myra Breckenridge.” Bigger success followed with
recreations of historical U.S. figures – such as Aaron Burr and
Abraham Lincoln – that analyze where Vidal thought America fell
from grace.

Vidal also was known for his sharp essays on society, sex,
literature and politics. He was especially fervent about
politics and what he considered to be the death of “the American
Empire.”

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a
majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a
system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for
which they get nothing in return,” he once said.

In 1960 Vidal, a distant cousin of former vice president Al
Gore, ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in New York
and in 1982 failed in a bid for a California Senate seat.

He once described the United States as “the land of the dull
and the home of the literal” and starting in the 1960s lived
much of the time in a seaside Italian villa. He moved back
permanently in 2003, shortly before Howard Austen, his companion
of more than 50 years, died of cancer.

(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

(Reuters) – Actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a small-town sheriff made “The Andy Griffith Show” one of television’s most enduring programs, died on Tuesday at his North Carolina home at age 86.

Griffith died at about 7 a.m. at his home on Roanoke Island, Dare County Sheriff J.D. Doughtie said.

His wife of three decades, Cindi Griffith, was at his bedside and issued a statement saying: “I cannot imagine life without Andy, but I take comfort and strength in God’s Grace and in the knowledge that Andy is at peace and with God.”

The family said Griffith “has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island,” but did not elaborate.

Griffith created another memorable TV character, the folksy defense lawyer in “Matlock” in the 1980s and 1990s, but it was his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor on the “The Andy Griffith Show” in the 1960s that gave him a place in television history.

The show depicted life in the friendly, slow-moving fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, which was widely believed to have been based on Griffith’s own hometown, Mount Airy, in that state.

“North Carolina has lost its favorite son,” Governor Beverly Perdue said. “Andy Griffith graciously stepped into the living rooms of generations of Americans, always with the playful charm that made him the standard by which entertainers would be measured for decades … In an increasingly complicated world, we all yearn for the days of Mayberry.”

President Barack Obama said he was saddened to hear of Griffith’s death.

“A performer of extraordinary talent, Andy was beloved by generations of fans and revered by entertainers who followed in his footsteps,” Obama said in a statement.

There was little crime to fight in Mayberry so the stories centered on the sheriff and his interactions with the quirky townspeople.

“The basic theme of our show was love,” Griffith said in a 2003 interview with CNN. “All the characters loved each other. And all the actors loved each other, too.”

The show, a situation comedy, was an entertaining diversion for viewers to the social and political upheavals of the 1960s.

“It was at a point where America was really in turmoil,” executive producer John Watkin told USA Today. “‘The Andy Griffith Show’ and Mayberry represented in some sense this kind of idealized view of what America was. It contains such a heart, such a sense of community.”

Some said Griffith’s Mayberry was too sanitized, with none of the strife generated by the anti-war and civil rights protests of the time. In fact, there were no regular black characters on the show.

“We tried in every way to get that to happen but we were unable to do it,” Griffith told USA Today in discussing Mayberry’s all-white population.

Griffith was born June 1, 1926, and had ambitions of being a preacher. At the University of North Carolina he earned a degree in dramatic arts in 1949 and started performing in singing groups.

A RUBE WATCHING FOOTBALL

He first made a name with a comedy recording, “What It Was, Was Football,” a spoof of a rube trying to follow the action at his first football game. That led to an appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and from there Griffith starred in both the stage and film versions of “No Time for Sergeants.”

He made a big impact as a dramatic actor in his first movie, 1957′s “A Face in the Crowd,” playing a scheming drifter whose aw-shucks persona catapults him to success as a television show host until his dark side was exposed.

Griffith later played a small-town sheriff in a television episode of “The Danny Thomas Show,” which led to “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Don Knotts, who had appeared with Griffith in the stage and screen versions of “No Time for Sergeants,” had seen “The Danny Thomas Show” episode and suggested the sheriff would need a deputy in a full-fledged TV series. He came aboard and his portrayal of bungling and overeager Deputy Barney Fife won Knotts five Emmy awards.

“When Don joined the show, by the second episode, I knew that Don should be funny and I should play straight for him,” Griffith told CNN.

The Griffith-Knotts friendship endured until Knotts’ death in February 2006.

“The Andy Griffith Show” ran from 1960 until 1968, the year it reached No. 1 in television ratings. Griffith decided to leave that year, and the show continued without him using new characters and a new name, before being canceled in 1971.

But “The Andy Griffith Show” has lived on ever since in syndication and on cable television, creating a cottage industry of fan clubs, websites and memorabilia.

“I wanted to prove that I could play something else, but there were 249 episodes out there of ‘Mayberry,’ and it was aired every day. It was hard to escape,” movie database IMDb quoted him as saying.

On Broadway, Griffith was nominated for two Tony awards, in 1956 as a featured actor in “No Time for Sergeants” and in 1960 as an actor in the musical “Destry Rides Again.”

He often recorded and won a Grammy award for his 1996 gospel album “I Love To Tell The Story.”

Griffith spent most of his later years in the Atlantic Coast town of Manteo, North Carolina.

He was married and divorced twice before he wed Cindi Knight Griffith in 1983. He had two children.