Andre Cassagnes, the inventor of the Etch A Sketch, the toy that spanned generations upon generations of kids and kids at heart which enabled them to draw and then “shake the image away” creating a clean slate and enabling the toy to be used again and again, has died at the age of 86 in France, says Ohio Art, the company that manufactures the famed unit and has done so since 1960.

At first a staple for kids of the baby boomer generation, and then having enough of a popularity to endure strongly today, even in the midst of electronic devices like iPads and the like, which can emulate everything about the toy but its overall charm, the Etch A Sketch in essence enabled the user to be a budding artist. There were no messy paints or myriads of crayons to be used, and the format was relatively simple, utilizing a black line stylus which displaced aluminum powder onto a back of a gray screen either in a horizontal or vertical fashion, as noted by the left and right white knobs on the bottom of the red unit itself. The fun and the trick was seeing what could be done with it. There wasn’t a way to make circular imagery unless one used a certain amount of physics involved to it, and since the line never technically broke and just kept going on the screen, there was the challenge for some to see what kind of realistic, surrealistic, or basically any type of art one could muster up.

Conrad Bain, the character actor best remembered for his role as the wealthy patriarch with a heart of gold on the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, died on Monday in Livermore, CA, according to Bain’s family via TMZ. No cause of death was given. He was 89.

Born on February 4, 1923, in Alberta, Canada, Conrad Bain studied acting at the esteemed American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York (comedian Don Rickles was a classmate). After becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen a few years later, Bain took his acting skills and kicked around Broadway theatrical productions for a while before landing successful roles in the 1970s. After appearing in a few comedies like Woody Allen’s Bananas and the film Lovers and Other Strangers, he found success as the erudite rich doctor, who was the constant thorn in Bea Arthur’s side in the sitcom Maude. That adult-themed sitcom was a smash hit for CBS during 1972 to 1978, and Bain was a constant and consistent highlight of the program.

A terminally ill fan who was granted his dying wish to see the not-yet-released Star Trek sequel, died yesterday, according to the New York Asian Film Festival, who posted the news to their Facebook.

41-year-old Dan Craft, an avid fan of film and of Star Trek, was given an advanced screening of an unfinished version of Star Trek Into Darkness after a friend’s post about his situation on Reddit got the attention of the film’s director J.J. Abrams [read J.J. Abrams Shows Unfinished Cut Of “˜Star Trek Into Darkness’ To Man Weeks From Death]. The film is schedule for release in the U.S. on May 17, 2013.

Just before he died yesterday, Craft told his wife, “I’m going…into the future.”

Jack Klugman, the irrepressible character actor best remembered as the craggy, charismatically unkempt, skirt-chasing and reckless sportswriter Oscar Madison in the television adaptation of the Broadway play and theatrical film The Odd Couple, has died at the age of 90, reports the Associated Press. The cause of death is yet to be determined, but his son Adam said he had died suddenly.

Klugman’s portrayal of Oscar Madison in the The Odd Couple from 1970 to 1975 on ABC television (winning two Emmy awards) in which he pretty much morphed himself into the character with such aplomb that everything he did after it and his public persona became more associated with the character of Oscar than Jack the man. Klugman has many traits ala Oscar, he loved to gamble, he was also a gregarious low rent playboy in the coolest sense of the word. It was the likeable, everyman man-about-town style he parlayed into the role that made it so memorable. Playing against the late Tony Randall’s neat freak and neurotic Felix Unger, the two men created a television program that while may not have been a success in its original run, soon found its voice and influence in the syndicated reruns market and became one of the most loved television sitcoms of all time, especially in big city markets, where sometimes the program was rerun three times a day. The two men also created a classic comedy team, ala Jackie Gleason and Art Carney, or Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis on their television appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour in the 1950s.

Ravi Shankar, who in essence almost singlehandedly brought Eastern “raga” music to the American shores and wound up influencing scores of famous musicians and bands, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles to name two, passed away in San Diego, CA, on December 11, 2012, reports The New York Times. He was 92. Shankar had suffered from heart ailments and underwent heart valve replacement surgery it was reported in a statement released by Shankar’s family.

Excelling on the sitar, an eclectic string instrument in which neighboring strings on the neck in essence resonate when a melody string is played, gave off a sound that was instantaneously connected with Shankar’s style and musical language. Shankar played like an extension of his personality, soft spoken, well mannered, respectful, yet with an attitude and a verve almost akin to a Jimi Hendrix.