Moshe Landau, 99, the presiding judge in the war-crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, died Sunday at his home in Jerusalem.
His death came nearly 50 years after he told Eichmann in December 1961, “The court finds you guilty.” Eichmann was hanged the next year.
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Landau was the head of a three-judge panel overseeing the trial, which ran from April through August 1961. In later years, Landau was involved in several high-profile judicial inquiries, including investigations into Israel’s preparedness for the Yom Kippur War and the use of excessive physical force by Shin Bet, the country’s internal security agency.
Thanassis Vengos, 84, a Greek popular comic actor, died Tuesday in Athens following a series of strokes, said officials at a state hospital. Vengos, once imprisoned for his left-wing sympathies, made his name in slapstick comedies in the 1960s but also earned respect from his peers while working under the country’s leading directors. In 1995, he starred in Theo Angelopoulos’ “Ulysses Gaze” along with U.S. actor Harvey Keitel.
Marie-France Pisier, 66, a French actress who was discovered as a teenager by New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut and went on to star in such movies as “Cousin, Cousine” and Truffaut’s “Love on the Run,” died April 24 in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, France, according to the French news agency Agence France-Presse.
Her career also included roles with renowned filmmakers including Luis Bunuel in 1974’s “The Phantom of Liberty” and Andre Techine, including 1976’s “Barocco.” She also wrote and directed.
