Pink Floyd Musician Wright Dead at 65

Pink Floyd founding member and keyboardist Rick Wright has died of cancer at the age of 65, his family said Monday.

The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness that Richard died today after a short struggle with cancer, Wright's spokesman told Rolling Stone magazine. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time.

Wright was one of the rock band's original members, along with Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason.

The London-born musician played with the group until a falling out with Waters after The Wall in 1979. Wright later rejoined the band when David Gilmour took over after Waters departed in the early 1980s.

Wright also played with the band when it reunited in 2005 for the Live 8 concert in London and had recently performed with David Gilmour on his solo tour, Rolling Stone said.

NME.com noted he worked on all but one of the band's 14 studio releases, including The Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973.

He was such a lovely, gentle, genuine man and will be missed terribly by so many who loved him, the BBC said Gilmour wrote on his Web site. And that's a lot of people. Did he not get the loudest, longest round of applause at the end of every show in 2006?

Wright is survived by his wife Millie and three children, NME.com said.

Man Behind 'Jaws' Character Dead at 82

New York fisherman Frank Mundus, reputed to be the inspiration for a key character in the novel Jaws, has died at the age of 82, a business owner says.

Dick Gosman said he remembered operating Gosman's Dock in Montauk, N.Y., when the popularity of Jaws drew tourists to the town in hopes of meeting the alleged inspiration for the book's character Captain Quint, the New York Post reported Sunday.

I remember tourists running down to the boat ... when he'd come in with a shark, Gosman said of Mundus, who died Wednesday, five days after suffering a heart attack in Hawaii. It was a show every day.

While Jaws author Peter Benchley never officially credited Mundus with being the inspiration for the grizzled fisherman in his novel, Mundus repeatedly took credit. He mentioned on his Web site how he always saw part of himself in the character made famous by the 1974 novel and 1975 movie, the Post said.

He (Quint) knew how to handle the people the same way I did. He also used similar shark-fishing techniques based on my methods, wrote Mundus, who leaves no reported survivors.

Performer Jerry Reed Dead at 71

Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937-August 31, 2008), known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, country guitarist, session musician, songwriter, and actor who appeared in over a dozen films. As a singer, he may be best known for Amos Moses, and When You're Hot, You're Hot, for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 1972 and East Bound and Down, the theme song to the film Smokey and the Bandit in which he portrayed the Snowman, Cledus Snow.

Reed was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Robert and Cynthia Hubbard. Reed's grandparents lived in Rockmart, Ga. and he would visit them from there from time to time. He was quoted as saying as a small child, while running around strumming his guitar, "I am gonna be a star. I'm gonna go to Nashville and be a star." Reed's parents separated four months after his birth, and he and his sister spent seven years in foster homes or orphanages. Reed was reunited with his mother and stepfather in 1944. Music and impromptu performances helped ease the stressful times the new family was under.

By high school, (O'Keefe High School, Atlanta, Georgia) Reed was already writing and singing music, having picked up the guitar as a child. At age 18, he was signed by publisher and record producer Bill Lowery to cut his first record, "If the Good Lord's Willing and the Creeks Don't Rise." At Capitol Records, he recorded both country and rockabilly singles to little notice, until label mate Gene Vincent covered his "Crazy Legs" in 1958. By 1958, Lowery signed Reed to his National Recording Corporation, and he recorded for NRC as both artist and as a member of the staff band, which included other NRC artists Joe South and Ray Stevens.

Reed married Priscilla "Prissy" Mitchell in 1959. They have two daughters, Charlotte Elaine "Lottie" Reed Stewart, and Seidina Ann Reed Hinesley, born April 2, 1960.

Reed died at the age of 71 in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 31, 2008, of complications from emphysema. The Associated Press wire service and CNN, however, reported the date of his death as September 1.

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