Deathsofnote

Christopher Fry

LONDON - Playwright Christopher Fry, a Christian humanist whohelped T.S. Eliot revive verse drama in the 1940s and who was one ofthe people credited with helping to write the script for "Ben Hur,"died June 30 in Chichester, said his son, Tam Fry. He was 97.

A master of whimsical comic verse, Fry's best-known plays, "TheLady's Not for Burning" (1948) and "Venus Observed" (1949), have asense of benign providence and hope for humanity that struck a chordin a world still coming to terms with news of the Holocaust and theuse of the atom bomb.

Fry trained as a teacher and taught for a number of years beforequitting to found the Tunbridge Wells Repertory Players in 1932,directing the English premier of George Bernard Shaw's "VillageWooing."

Fame came with the staging of his 1948 play, "The Lady's Not ForBurning," which made it to London's West End with John Gielgudplaying the former soldier Thomas Mendip who longs for death, andPamela Brown as an alleged witch who is trying to escape beingburned. Claire Bloom and Richard Burton had supporting roles.

In 1950, Fry produced "Venus Observed" for Lawrence Olivier'sdebut as actor/manager at London's St. James's Theatre; it tells thetale of a duke who asks his son to choose a stepmother from hisfather's paramours.

In the late 1950s, Fry turned to film scripts, rewriting WilliamWyler's film of "Ben Hur" and scripting "Barabbas" for Dino DeLaurentis.

He continued to write plays, and in 2000 penned "A Ringing ofBells," which was later staged at the National Theatre in London. Hewas awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry in 1962.

Pierre Michelot

PARIS - Jazz bassist Pierre Michelot, who recorded with MilesDavis and arranged music for Chet Baker, has died, a fellow musiciansaid Monday. He was 77.

The bass player, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died inParis on Sunday, said pianist Rene Urtreger, a member of Michelot'slongtime jazz trio, HUM.

Michelot played with Davis on one of the great soundtracks of the1950s - Louis Malle's classic thriller "Ascenseur pour L'Echafaud"(Elevator to the Gallows). He recorded with artists including StanGetz, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and Django Reinhardt,and he arranged music for Baker's 1955-56 Barclay sessions in Paris.

Michelot was considered Europe's best jazz bassist in the secondhalf of the 1950s, Urtreger said.

"He had a magnificent natural sound, clear, deep and true,"Urtreger said.