Passages

Adrienne Barbeau, 51, who played Bea Arthur’s daughter on the popular ’70s sitcom Maude, and her husband, television writer and producer Billy Van Zandt, 39, welcomed identical twins, 5-lb., 9-oz. Walker Steven and 5-lb., 2-oz. William Dalton, on March 17 in Los Angeles. The actress has another son, Cody, 12, from a previous marriage.

Actor-director Albert Brooks, 49, married Kimberly Shlain, 31, creative director of an L.A.-based multimedia company, on March 15 in San Francisco. It is the first marriage for both.

Director Fred Zinnemann, 89, whose 22 films included High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons, died of undisclosed causes on March 14 in London. The winner of four Academy Awards, Zinnemann started out as an assistant cameraman on silent films and went on to direct the film debuts of Marlon Brando and Meryl Streep….

Willem de Kooning, 92, one of the premier abstract expressionist painters of this century, died on March 19 in East Hampton, N.Y. after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He rose to fame in the 1950s with his Woman series, a group of violent, brightly-colored paintings loosely based on the female form….

Actress Gail Davis, 71, best known as the title character in the ’50s TV series Annie Oakley, died of cancer on March 15 in Burbank.

Mother Teresa, 86, has been replaced by Sister Nirmala, 63, as head of the Missionaries of Charity. Catholic Church officials say that Teresa, who stepped down because of poor health, will remain at the forefront of the humanitarian order.

Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones, 84, whose creations include Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, was released in good condition March 17 from a Newport Beach, Calif., hospital where he was recuperating from a heart attack he suffered earlier this month….

Olympic gold medal-winning skater Scott Hamilton was diagnosed with testicular cancer last week. Hamilton, 38, who had been suffering from severe stomach pains, will receive chemotherapy and hopes to return to the ice after several months.

Rip Torn, 66, of HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show, won a $475,000 judgment in a defamation of character suit against actor Dennis Hopper, 60, Jan. 21 in L.A. superior court. Torn filed suit in 1994 after Hopper, appearing on The Tonight Show, said Torn had pulled a knife upon hearing that his part in the 1969 Hopper-directed film Easy Rider would be cut. Witnesses supported Torn’s claim that Hopper had pulled the knife on him….

Kevin Costner, 42, filed a libel suit March 18 in L.A. against Hello! magazine, accusing the London-based publication of running a Costner interview that never took place in the March 8 issue. The Q&A has the actor making negative comments about his ex-wife, Cindy, as well as about Bridget Rooney, mother of his 3-month-old son, Liam….

On March 18, an L.A. court commissioner ordered former Wiseguy star Ken Wahl to enter a live-in alcohol rehabilitation program after Wahl pleaded no contest to charges of vandalism and disturbing the peace. Wahl, 40, was arrested on Dec. 28 after threatening a bartender who refused to serve the actor, whom he considered inebriated.