Milestones, Oct. 30, 1978

MARRIED. Benjamin C. Bradlee, 57, executive editor of the Washington Post; and Sally Quinn, 37, staff writer for the Post style section who briefly co-hosted the CBS Morning News; he for the third time, she for the first; in Washington.

DIED. W. Eugene Smith, 59, renowned photojournalist whose work strongly reflected his own compassionate nature; after falling and striking his head while recovering from a stroke; in Tucson, Ariz. A native Kansan who began his career at age 14 on Wichita's newspapers, Smith was critically injured on Okinawa in 1944 while on wartime assignment for LIFE magazine. After 32 operations and two years of convalescence, Smith returned to work on a series of memorable LIFE photo essays, including "Country Doctor," "Spanish Village" and "Nurse-Midwife." In 1971 Smith moved to the Japanese fishing village of Minamata to begin a three-year task of recording the anguish of townspeople poisoned by mercury dumped into local waters by a chemical company. Although he was severely beaten and nearly blinded by goons, he documented the tragedy in his book Minamata, published in 1975. An intense, uncompromising craftsman, Smith strove to make timeless, pointed statements about the human condition. "Photography is not just a job to me," he once explained. "I'm carrying a torch with a camera."

DIED. Gig Young, 60, handsome, smoothtongued actor whose portrayal of a cynical, whisky-voiced dance M.C. in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? earned him an Oscar in 1970; by his own hand, after apparently shooting and killing his fifth wife, Kim Schmidt, 31, three weeks after their marriage; in Manhattan. Typecast as a second leading man who never won the girl, Young was acclaimed for his roles in Come Fill the Cup (1951) and Teacher's Pet (1958).

DIED. Dan Dailey, 61, lanky, affable actor and song-and-dance star; of anemia, after an artificial hip inserted last year became infected; in Hollywood. A teen-age vaudevillian, Dailey appeared on the Broadway musical stage before making such movies as Mother Wore Tights (1947) and When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948). From 1969 to '71 he starred in the TV series The Governor and J.J.

DIED. Willard F. Rockwell, 90, honorary chairman of Rockwell International Corp.; of a stroke; in Pittsburgh. An engineer and inventor, Rockwell strung together a chain of companies, specializing in auto parts, from the 1920s through the 1950s. He gradually turned the business over to his son, who merged Rockwell-Standard with North American Aviation in 1967 and six years later assembled his companies into the current conglomerate.