Milestones Oct. 2, 2006

RESIGNED. Patricia Dunn, 53, as chairwoman and board member of Hewlett-Packard; in the wake of a massive scandal stemming from Dunn's approval of shady investigations into the source of media leaks on HP's board; in Palo Alto, Calif. The media-leak probe--which involved, among other things, impersonating employees and journalists covering the company to obtain their phone records--has prompted criminal and congressional investigations. Dunn was succeeded by HP CEO Mark Hurd, who in a news conference offered an apology to "those journalists who were investigated and to everyone who was impacted."

DIED. Pham Xuan An, 79, Viet Cong colonel who worked during the Vietnam War as a highly respected journalist for TIME while acting as a spy for the communists--a double life kept secret until the mid-'80s; in Ho Chi Minh City. The first Vietnamese to become a staff correspondent for a major U.S. news outlet, he said he served as an "honest reporter" who did not spread misinformation. From his unique perch at TIME's Saigon bureau, the popular, plugged-in An was able to achieve feats for both sides, including alerting the Viet Cong to the impending buildup of U.S. troops in the mid-'60s and secretly arranging for the release of American journalist Robert Sam Anson, who had been captured in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge.

DIED. Mickey Hargitay, 80, hunky Budapest-born athlete who immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1940s and rose to fame as a champion bodybuilder and actor whose films included Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, co-starring his then wife, screen siren Jayne Mansfield (together, at left); in Los Angeles. In the mid-'50s the newly anointed Mr. Universe--whose daughter Mariska tearily thanked her dad onstage last month when accepting an Emmy for her role on NBC's Law & Order: SVU--caught the eye of an aging Mae West, who hired him as one of eight loincloth-clad musclemen in her popular nightclub revue. He met Mansfield at a performance, where the impressed star is said to have told a waiter, "I'll have a steak and the man on the left."

DIED. Sven Nykvist, 83, cinematographer whose subtle, naturalistic shaping of light over six decades and more than 100 films produced gems for directors from longtime colleague Ingmar Bergman (Cries and Whispers; Fanny and Alexander--both of which won Oscars for Nykvist ) to Woody Allen (Crimes and Misdemeanors); in Stockholm.

DIED. Henri Jayer, 84, retired vintner whose crisply balanced, intensely flavorful Pinot Noirs influenced and inspired connoisseurs, who pronounced him the best ever Burgundy maker; in Dijon, France. Blessed with a keen viticultural instinct and reluctant to intervene too heavily for fear of hiding a grape's flavor, the unpretentious Jayer never cultivated more than 17 acres at a time. Of critics' impassioned, intellectual analyses of his bottles, he said, "That's all fine and good. But do you like it?"

DIED. Robert Earl Jones, 96, veteran actor of stage and screen who famously played Robert Redford's con-man mentor in the Oscar-winning The Sting; in Englewood, N.J. The Mississippi native and onetime prizefighter lent his mellifluous voice and astute, low-key style to such Broadway shows as The Gospel at Colonus and All God's Chillun Got Wings and won acclaim off-Broadway for Moon on a Rainbow Shawl in 1962--which co-starred his son and fellow baritone, James Earl Jones.