Milestones, Mar. 18, 1974

Died. Dr. Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., 58, American biochemist whose research into the chemical transmission of hormonal messages between individual cells won him the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 1971; following a brief illness; in Miami.

Died. Billy DeWolfe, 67, veteran stage and screen comedian who started out in show biz as a theater usher; of cancer; in Los Angeles. DeWolfe and his drooping mustache appeared in numerous vapid Hollywood comedies (the first: Dixie, in 1943) before hitting the big time with an impersonation of Mrs. Murgatroyd, a matronly tippler, in Blue Skies (1946) and later with a performance as a stuffy diplomat in Call Me Madam (1953). His successes on the stage included his role as J.B. Biggley in the London production and New York revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Died. Adolph Gottlieb, 70, one of the founders of the abstract expressionist school of painting along with Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning; after a long illness; in New York City. Rebelling against the social realism that dominated painting in the ’40s, Gottlieb created “pictographs”—checkerboard patterns of squares filled with hieroglyphic-like imagery. In the late ’50s he began a series of what he called “Bursts,” huge canvases with floating blobs of color that sometimes resemble suns poised over jagged horizons. Gottlieb, whose works have sold for as much as $30,000, is represented in most major collections of American paintings.

Died. Lewis Williams Douglas, 79, former Democratic Congressman from Arizona and Ambassador to Great Britain from 1947 to 1950, following a long illness; in Tucson, Ariz. Born in a frontier mining camp, Douglas went East to be educated and then worked briefly in his father’s copper mine before entering politics. Douglas served in the House from 1928 until President Roosevelt appointed him Director of the Budget in 1933. After 18 months, Douglas resigned in protest against New Deal fiscal policies but continued to commute freely between a lucrative business career in New York and Arizona and Government service. A tall, rangy man who had to wear an eye patch because of a fishing accident in 1949, Douglas helped shape, and as ambassador helped carry out, the Marshall Plan to reconstruct postwar Western Europe.

Died. Solomon Isaievich (Sol) Hurok, 85, colorful, Russian-born impresario who for six decades introduced American audiences to first-rate talent from all over the world (see Music).