Milestones Apr. 11, 1994

DIED. ALBERT GOLDMAN, 66, author; of a heart attack; en route from Miami to London. After stints as an English professor at Columbia and a critic for Life magazine, Goldman found his calling as a merciless demythologizer of such pop icons as Lenny Bruce (in 1974's Ladies and Gentlemen -- Lenny Bruce!!), Elvis Presley (Elvis, 1981) and John Lennon (The Lives of John Lennon, 1988). No one would call these biographies "appreciations": the sordid side of his subjects -- from Presley's addictions and gluttony to Lennon's appetite for violence and sex -- fascinated Goldman. All of it was served up in high- voltage prose. Goldman was at work on a biography of rocker Jim Morrison at the time of his death.