Obituaries

Manuel Solis Panamanian President

Manuel Solis, 91, who served briefly as Panama's president during Manuel Noriega's military regime, died of respiratory failure Nov. 6 at his home in Panama City.

Mr. Solis served as education minister before being named acting president in February 1988 after President Eric Arturo Del Valle was fired. He served until Sept. 1, 1989.

Mitchell Doens, the secretary general of the Democratic Revolutionary Party to which Solis belonged, said Mr. Solis fought for Panama's sovereignty and led the movement in the 1940s against U.S. military presence in the Central American country, where the U.S. built and ran the Panama Canal for generations.

His brief term as president ended a few months before the U.S. invasion that ousted Noriega. Mr. Solis went on to serve as education minister from 2004 to 2009 in Martin Torrijos's administration.

Lou Filippo Hall of Fame Boxer

Lou Filippo, 83, a World Boxing Hall of Famer who judged 85 world champion fights and had small roles in the "Rocky" movies, died Nov. 2 at a hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey after a stroke.

Mr. Filippo was the hall's former president. He had more than 250 amateur fights and a professional record of 28 wins, nine losses and three draws before retiring in 1957.

Mr. Filippo later became a referee and judge. In 1987, he favored Marvin Hagler in a controversial championship fight that Sugar Ray Leonard won by split decision.

Mr. Filippo played the fight announcer or referee in five "Rocky" films.

Carl Ballantine 'McHale's Navy' Actor

Carl Ballantine, 92, the comedy magician and character actor who was part of the World War II P.T. boat crew on the 1960s sit-com "McHale's Navy," died Nov. 3 at his home in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. No cause of death was reported.

As an actor, Mr. Ballantine was best known for playing the supporting role of crew member Lester Gruber on "McHale's Navy," the popular 1962-66 series that starred Ernest Borgnine.

Earlier in Mr. Ballantine's career, he performed as a comically inept magician variously billed as "The Amazing Ballantine," ''The Great Ballantine" and "Ballantine: The World's Greatest Magician." It was a routine that influenced later entertainers such as Steve Martin and magician David Copperfield.

Mr. Ballantine was born Meyer Kessler in Chicago. He got his start in nightclubs in the early 1940s. He would walk out on stage in top hat, white tie and tails. "If the act dies, I'm dressed for it," he would tell his audience, and he was off and running with a magic act that conjured up laughs rather than amazing feats of sleight of hand.

At one point in his act, he would tear a newspaper page into strips, boldly claiming that he would restore the paper to its original state. Then he would stop to read the want ads.

Thomas O'Malley University President

Thomas P. O'Malley, 79, who served as president of two Jesuit universities, Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles and John Carroll in Cleveland, died Nov. 4 after a suspected heart attack.

Father O'Malley was president of Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles from 1991 to 1999. He led John Carroll University in Cleveland from 1980 to 1988. He had taught at Boston College for the past decade.

The Milton, Mass., native was ordained as a priest in 1961. He had degrees from Boston College and Fordham University and had a doctorate in early Christian literature and theology from Nijmegan University in the Netherlands.

-- From News Services