Larry Dobkin, 83, a veteran character actor whose television and film career spanned seven decades, died Oct. 28 of heart failure. Mr. Dobkin appeared in more than 65 feature films including The Ten Commandments and Sweet Smell of Success.
Born in New York City, Mr. Dobkin began acting off-Broadway in his teens. In the 1950s, he turned to television, appearing in shows such as I Love Lucy and The Adventures of Superman. He also appeared in a number of TV westerns, including Gunsmoke and Rawhide.
Mr. Dobkin also directed episodes of The Donna Reed Show, Dr. Kildare, The Waltons, Barnaby Jones, Charlie's Angels, Dallas, Dynasty and The Fall Guy.
Most recently, Mr. Dobkin appeared in episodes of NYPD Blue and Judging Amy.
Bari Rolfe, 86, a dancer, choreographer, teacher and author who became an expert on the art of mime, died Oct. 19 of unspecified causes in Berkeley, Calif., where she had lived since 1976.
Dubbed "the grandmother of American mime" by her devotees, Ms. Rolfe wrote several books, including Behind the Mask and Commedia dell'Arte: A Scene Study Book, both in 1977; Movement for Period Plays in 1985; and History and Mystery of Mime in 1990. She edited other books, including Mime Directory Bibliography in 1978 and Mimes on Miming in 1980.
Although she had no college degree, she taught mime at several institutions of higher education, including the University of California at Los Angeles and Chabot College in Oakland, Calif., where she helped establish the Conservatory of Mime. She also conducted workshops in Europe and Canada and at the International Festival of Clowning at California State University, Sacramento.
Jeanne L. Noble, 76, a professor of education who in 1962 became one of the first African-American women to receive tenure at New York University, died Oct. 17 at New York University Medical Center of congestive heart failure.
Dr. Noble, who earned her undergraduate degree from Howard University and a doctorate in education from Columbia University, joined the NYU faculty in 1959. At the time of her death, she was professor emeritus at the City University of New York's Graduate Center and at Brooklyn College.
In 1963, she joined efforts to desegregate her hometown, Albany, Ga., as national president of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. In 1964, she was chosen by President Lyndon B. Johnson to help plan the Women's Job Corps, a component of his national plan to fight poverty.
Wallace C. Dayton, 81, a businessman, conservationist and environmental philanthropist, died Oct. 27 at his Wayzata, Minn., home. In 1950, Mr. Dayton and his four brothers inherited the family's department store in Minneapolis, and they added others. In the late 1960s, Mr. Dayton retired from business and became an enthusiastic conservationist.
He was on the Nature Conservancy's national board for 14 years and on its Minnesota board for 17 years. His family donated $1.5 million to the Nature Conservancy of Minnesota, and the money was used in 1999 to acquire almost 10,000 acres in northwestern Minnesota. The preserve has been named the Wallace C. Dayton Conservation and Wildlife Area.
Frank P. Rosenberg, 88, whose many projects during a six-decade Hollywood career included producing the only film directed by Marlon Brando, died Oct. 18 in Thousand Oaks, Calif., after a short illness.
Mr. Rosenberg produced One-Eyed Jacks, a 1961 psychological western in which Mr. Brando was the director and star. Mr. Rosenberg also was the producer of Madigan, the gritty 1968 New York police drama that starred Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda.