Jack Davis, the prolific Mad magazine illustrator, cartoonist and movie poster artist, has died at age 91.

In 1950, he scored the first of many sales of his artwork to EC Comics, which published a line of horror titles including “Tales from the Crypt.”

He stuck with its editors — William M. Gaines, Albert B. Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman — when they launched the pioneering satire magazine Mad in 1952. He remained a member of “The Usual Gang of Idiots” (as the magazine billed them) for the next six decades. His far-flung illustrations poked fun at politicians and celebrities along with countless portraits of the magazine’s perpetually grinning mascot, Alfred E. Neuman.

Along the way, Davis also created numerous covers for TV Guide and Time, and provided artwork for books, record jackets, and posters for films including “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” ‘’American Graffiti” and Woody Allen’s “Bananas.”

In 1961, he wrote, drew, and edited his own comic book, “Yak Yak,” for Dell Comics.

• Sam Wheeler, a renowned land speed motorcycle racer, is dead after the high-performance bike he was testing at Utah’s famed Bonneville Salt Flats fishtailed, went airborne and crashed at 200 mph. He was 72.

Wheeler, an engineer from Arcadia, California, was known as an innovator and pioneer in the sport. He spent more than two decades building, fine-tuning and racing a motorcycle on which he reached speeds exceeding 300 mph, said Pat McDowell, a fellow racer and friend. At one time, he held the land speed record for motorcycles, he said.

• The Rev. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the “Left Behind” series, a multimillion-selling literary juggernaut that brought end-times prophecy into mainstream bookstores, has died at age 90.

Co-authored with Jerry B. Jenkins, the 16-volume “Left Behind” series of novels published by Tyndale House Publishers sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, Moore said, and popularized a Bible interpretation that said born-again Christians will be instantly taken to God in the rapture, while those left behind on earth endure seven years of tribulation.

• A co-founder of the advocacy group Autism Speaks has died after helping build it into one of the leading voices for people with the developmental disorder. Suzanne Wright was 69.

She and her husband, former NBC Universal CEO Bob Wright, founded Autism Speaks in 2005 after their grandson’s diagnosis. The New York-based organization funds research, raises awareness and spotlights the needs of people with autism and their families.

• Ken Barrie, who provided the voice of affable animated letter-carrier Postman Pat, has died. He was 83.

“Postman Pat” premiered on British television in 1981 and was broadcast around the world. It followed the mailman’s gentle adventures in fictional Greendale village.

• Italian stylist and fashion muse Marta Marzotto has died following a brief illness at the age of 85.

A former model, she designed a clothing line in the 1990s for the Standa department store.

Marzotto was the muse of the painter Renato Guttuso in the 1960s.

• Forrest E. Mars Jr., who helped shape Mars Inc. into a multibillion dollar confectionary empire with beloved brands such as M&M’s and Snickers bars, has died. He was 84.

With his brother and sister in 1973, Mars inherited the company from their father Forrest E. Mars Sr. Their grandfather started the company more than a century ago, making and selling butter cream candy from his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington.

From the time Mars became co-president with his brother John in 1975 and until his retirement 1999, he helped grow the company into a global enterprise selling diverse products including Pedigree pet food, Skittles candy, Uncle Ben’s Rice and Flavia beverage. He later served as a board member until 2006.

Born in 1931 in Oak Park, Illinois, Mars attended Fay and Hotchkiss private schools.

• Actor and syndicated conservative talk show host Gerard “Jerry” Doyle has died in Las Vegas at age 60.

Clark County coroner John Fudenberg said Thursday that an autopsy was scheduled, and it will take several weeks and toxicology tests to determine a cause of death.

As an actor, Doyle was best-known as Michael Garibaldi in the 1990s science-fiction television show “Babylon 5.”

• James Alan McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning story collection “Elbow Room” and a longtime faculty member at the University of Iowa’s prestigious Writers’ Workshop, has died at 72.

“Elbow Room” was praised by The New York Times for the “fine control of language and story,” “depth in his characters” and “humane values” and made McPherson the first African-American to win the fiction Pulitzer.

His other works included the story collection “Hue and Cry” and the memoir “Crabcakes.” In 1981, McPherson was named a MacArthur fellow.

• Einojuhani Rautavaara, arguably Finland’s most famous classical composer since the era of Jean Sibelius, has died at the age of 87.

Rautavaara produced eight symphonies, seven operas, 14 concertos and dozens of other orchestral and vocal compositions.

He achieved international fame with his seventh symphony, “Angel of Light,” in 1994.

• Mahashweta Devi, a well-known Indian writer and social activist, who used her writing to give voice to the oppressed poor tribal and forest dwellers, has died. She was 90.

• Rudolph “Spider” Edwards, who with his dust mop and jaunty fedora shared the parquet floor with Celtics stars from Bill Russell to Larry Bird in the old Boston Garden and new, has died. He was 86.

• Sandy Pearlman, a pioneering rock critic who later produced and managed Blue Oyster Cult and worked with The Clash, Patti Smith and other punk artists, has died at age 72.

• Youree Dell Harris, 53, the actress who became famous playing the Jamaican psychic Miss Cleo, claiming to know callers’ futures in ubiquitous TV infomercials and commercials 15 years ago, has died of cancer.

The Los Angeles-born Harris was a struggling actress when the Psychic Readers Network hired her in the late 1990s to play Miss Cleo. She adopted her family’s Jamaican heritage for the role, persuading viewers to call for allegedly free psychic readings.

In one commercial, she is seen poring over tarot cards before telling a caller that the father of her baby is the “one who is very unpleasant and had another girlfriend while he was sleeping with you ... but you knew that.” The commercials ended with the tagline, “Call me now!”

The federal government said those “free” calls cost consumers about $1 billion.

• James M. Nederlander, who took over the fledgling Nederlander Organization from his father and built it into one of the largest producers of live entertainment and a dominant national theater chain that includes nine Broadway houses, has died. He was 94.

Known as Jimmy, the elder Nederlander produced or coproduced more than 100 shows including “Annie,” ‘’Copenhagen,” ‘’The Will Rogers Follies,” ‘’Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” ‘’La Cage aux Folles,” ‘’Nine,” ‘’Noises Off” and “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.”

He won a dozen Tony Awards as a producer or co-producer — including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2004 — and has presented operas, ballets, concerts and artists ranging from Rudolf Nureyev to Frank Sinatra to U2.

One of Nederlander’s most lucrative business collaborations is with the Walt Disney Co., which started in 1994 when Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” opened at the Palace Theatre. Since then, “Aida,” ‘’Tarzan,” ‘’The Little Mermaid” and “Newsies” all found a home at a Nederlander house.

• Dr. Luc Hoffmann, a Swiss ornithologist and naturalist with a passion for wetlands who helped create the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and many other conservation groups, has died, wildlife groups said. He was 93.

• JT McNamara, an Irish jockey who was paralyzed following a fall at the Cheltenham Festival in 2013, has died. He was 41.

• One of Egypt’s best-known film directors, Mohammed Khan, whose realism shed light on the country’s urban landscape since the 1980s, has died. He was 73.

• Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in such classic movie musicals as “West Side Story,” ‘’The King and I” and “My Fair Lady,” has died. She was 86.

• Thomas Sutherland, a teacher who was held captive in Lebanon for more than six years until he was freed in 1991 and returned home to become professor emeritus at Colorado State University, has died.

Sutherland died in Fort Collins on Friday at the age of 85, according to Colorado State University.

• Chris Costner Sizemore became one of the most famous Americans of the 1950s but under a disguised name, after the Georgia psychiatrists who had treated her multiple-personality disorder published her life story as the startling and best-selling “The Three Faces of Eve.”

The book, which paints Sizemore as an anguished Southern wife and mother who battles for control of her own mind, sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It inspired the 1957 film that earned Joanne Woodward an Oscar for playing the title role, a woman who veers from mousy housewife (Eve White) to reckless barfly (Eve Black) until a sympathetic psychiatrist helps her find her “true” self (Jane) through hypnosis.

Sizemore, who widely lectured on how those with mental illness could serve as functional members of families and communities, died at a hospice center at age 89.