Milestones Aug. 21, 1995

ARRESTED. JAMIL ABDULLAH AL-AMIN, 51, ex-Black Panther leader formerly known as H. Rap Brown; on weapons and assault charges; in Atlanta. The leader of Atlanta’s Community Mosque, Al-Amin was identified as the gunman in a shooting outside a grocery he owns. He pleaded not guilty.

DIED. DAVID BEGELMAN, 73, film producer; of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound; in Los Angeles. Though Begelman was president of Columbia Pictures during a flush period in the ’70s (his tenure produced hits like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Shampoo), he risked it all by becoming a check forger. Yet such was Hollywood’s awe of his golden touch that Begelman’s career barely suffered when his larceny was revealed. His most recent venture, Gladden Entertainment, went bankrupt last year, and Begelman was reported to be deeply depressed by the failure–a transgression, after all, that his peers take more seriously than forgery.

DIED. J. HOWARD MARSHALL, 90, oil magnate; in Houston. Marshall’s admirers were hoping last week that he would not be remembered primarily for last year’s May-December 31st marriage to Texas-size model Anna Nicole Smith. His previous, more substantial career began with a position in the Interior Department drafting New Deal oil regulations. Armed with his knowledge of the field, he went on to amass a fortune–$725 million at its peak–that made him Houston’s wealthiest citizen. His marriage to Smith was his third.

DIED. PHIL HARRIS, 91, singer, bandleader, comic, of heart failure; in Rancho Mirage, California. Harris’ hepcat persona was a fixture on radio in the ’40s on the Jack Benny show and, for a time, in partnership with his wife Alice Faye. In 1947 he had a hit song with Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette). Today, he’s known to the vcr generation as the voice of Baloo the Bear in Disney’s animated Jungle Book.