Milestones Feb. 2, 2004

SENTENCED. ANTHONY PELLICANO, 59, celebrity private investigator convicted of possessing plastic explosives and two illegal hand grenades; to 30 months in federal prison; in Los Angeles. Allegations that he conducted illegal wiretaps of celebrities on behalf of clients are still being investigated.

DIED. JERRY NACHMAN, 57, feisty New York City newsman; of gallbladder cancer; in Hoboken, N.J. He brought his quick wit, tabloid aggressiveness and (formerly) sizable girth to top news jobs at New York's WCBS-TV and WNBC-TV, the New York Post and most recently MSNBC, where he was editor in chief as well as the host of a weeknight talk show.

DIED. GEORGE WOODBRIDGE, 73, longtime illustrator for Mad magazine; of emphysema; on Staten Island, N.Y. Woodbridge, who had a second career as an illustrator of historically accurate military-history works, created witty, fine-grained caricatures of everyone from movie stars to anonymous, put-upon suburbanites for the humor magazine for nearly half a century.

DIED. BOB KEESHAN, 76, who played the beloved Captain Kangaroo on CBS-TV for 30 years; in Windsor, Vt. (See Appreciation, page 70.)

DIED. ANN MILLER, 81, leggy movie star who tapped up a storm in such MGM musicals as Easter Parade, On the Town and Kiss Me Kate; of lung cancer; in Los Angeles. As a girl in Houston, Miller danced to support her mother. In Hollywood she was a highenergy, if less than first-rank, musical star. On Broadway she got a chance to take center stage in her 50s, co-starring with Mickey Rooney in the 1979 musical Sugar Babies, which ran for nearly three years.

DIED. HARRY CLAIBORNE, 86, federal judge who was impeached in 1984 after being convicted of tax evasion; of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; in Las Vegas. Claiborne, who had cancer and Alzheimer's disease, was the first federal judge to be sent to prison, where he served 17 months of a two-year sentence. As an attorney, he was considered one of Nevada's top defense lawyers; his clients included Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland.

DIED. BILLY MAY, 87, bandleader, composer and arranger whose swinging Big Band sound helped define '50s pop music; in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. As a trumpeter in the 1940s, he played with the Glenn Miller band. Later he led his own orchestra and provided accompaniment for Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra on such signature hits as Come Fly with Me.

DIED. RAY STARK, 88, powerful Hollywood producer who had long associations with Barbra Streisand and Neil Simon; in West Hollywood. For his first film, Funny Girl, based on his real-life mother-in-law, Fanny Brice, he chose Streisand over established stars after hearing her sing in a New York City nightclub. His long career included more than 125 films, among them The Goodbye Girl, Annie and Steel Magnolias.

DIED. MERRILL CHASE, 98, immunologist who discovered a new branch of the immune system; in New York City. Working with white blood cells in the early 1940s, he stumbled on cell-mediated immunity; until then antibodies were thought to be the sole source of protection against infection.