Science fiction writer and advocate A.C. Crispin, who contributed greatly to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, passed away today after a long battle with cancer. She was 63.

Crispin, who began her writing career in 1983, had 23 published novels, including her own original science fiction series called Starbridge. Along with her editions to the Star Wars universe, which included the well-received Han Solo Trilogy, the best-selling author also wrote the Star Trek novels Yesterday’s Son, Sarek, and Time for Yesterday. There were also the novelizations for the V miniseries and Alien Resurrection, as well as the adventure novel Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom that she did as a prequel for the Disney films which provided a backstory for Captain Jack Sparrow, popularized on screen by Johnny Depp.

Elmore Leonard, whose gift for penning memorable crime novels and pulpy Westerns, stories which became a sort of endless reservoir for Hollywood to make many adaptations of on the silver screen, has died at the age of 87 from complications of a stroke he recently suffered.

Leonard penned Get Shorty, which was made into a feature film starring John Travolta. The same with 3:10 to Yuma, the dark, noirish Western. He also wrote Rum Punch, which was adapted by Quentin Tarantino into his homage to blaxploitation films Jackie Brown. A most recent tie in to Leonard’s work is the FX program Justified, based on the American author’s short story, entitled Fire in the Hole.

Longtime Hollywood actress Karen Black, who appeared in some of the great films of what was coined “The New Hollywood,” which started with the counterculture movement of filmmaking in the late 1960s, has died at the age of 74, reports CBS News.

Black’s husband, Stephen Eckelberry, confirmed the news via a Facebook post on today. Black passed away from complications of cancer.

Black, with her piercing eyes, jet black hair, and thick lips, had the kind of visage and versatility which endeared to projects that were A-list, like Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces (in which she netted a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for her role in that picture as the ditzy and careless waitress girlfriend to Jack Nicholson’s character), and a country star with a mean streak in Robert Altman’s 1975 masterpiece Nashville (in which she, like the rest of the cast, actually sang their own songs), and also projects that were downright Z-list (Killer Fish, Channel Solitaire, Killing Heat, and other direct-to-video before the term existed cinematic flotsam and jetsam), and all in between.

Eileen Brennan, an actress who successfully was able to do musical theater and then land somewhat of a niche in comedic roles, and is probably most remembered for her portrayal of a ball busting Captain in Private Benjamin, has died at the age of 80 after a lengthy battle with bladder cancer reports USA Today.

Brennan first cut her teeth in the acting community with various Broadway stints, she had showcased a penchant for singing with light comedy, as evidenced by her Obie winning performance in the 1960 New York production of Little Mary Sunshine. Hello Dolly was also part of her resume, and she then rounded out the decade with some theatrical films and appearances on TV variety programs, mainly the smash hit Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. That led to more TV, programs as genre stretching as All in the Family, the gritty cop drama Kojak, the soppy nautical light fare The Love Boat and others. She exhibited a versatility, which kept her employed prolifically as a utility character actress in Hollywood.

Dennis Farina, one of the great modern tough guy character actors with the unmistakable mustache and Chicago accent, has passed away at the age of 69 at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona. The cause of death was a blood clot in his lung.

Farina was born on February 29, 1944 to Sicilian immigrant parents in Chicago, Illinois. From 1967 to 1985 he worked as a detective in the burglary division in the Chicago Police Department. It was through his work as a cop that Farina met director Michael Mann, who would cast Farina in a small role as a hood in his 1981 feature directorial debut Thief. Following his retirement from the Chicago Police in 1985 Farina began pursuing an acting career with some local theater work in Chicago and a small role in the Chuck Norris action film Code of Silence. Mann cast him as a mob boss on a episode of Miami Vice, and in 1986 Farina became the first actor to portray F.B.I. Agent Jack Crawford in Manhunter, an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ 1981 novel Red Dragon directed by Mann that is best known as featuring the first appearance of Dr. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter. The role was played in subsequent films by Scott Glenn (The Silence of the Lambs) and Harvey Keitel (2002’s Red Dragon, directed by Brett Ratner) and on television in the recent hit NBC series Hannibal by Laurence Fishburne.