Rocky Aoki, 69, who sought to offer diners a sense of magic and entertainment at his Japanese steakhouse Benihana, died Thursday after complications from cancer in New York.
Aoki's Benihana empire includes more than 100 restaurants worldwide, including two in Minnesota.
Born Hiroaki Aoki, he worked in the family business, a coffee shop in Japan, and wanted to offer diners "something out of the ordinary" with their food.
He opened his first restaurant in New York in 1964, naming it Benihana, which means "red flower" -- the same name as his parents' coffee shop.
Evelyn Keyes, 91, who played Scarlett O'Hara's younger sister Suellen in "Gone With the Wind" and counted director John Huston and bandleader Artie Shaw among her famous husbands, died July 4 of uterine cancer in Montecito, Calif.
Keyes' personal life often overshadowed her acting career. Besides her often turbulent marriages to Shaw and directors Huston and Charles Vidor, she lived with producer Mike Todd for three years during his preparation and filming of "Around the World in 80 Days."
Among her notable roles: Robert Montgomery's lover in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941), Al Jolson's wife Ruby Keeler in "The Jolson Story" (1946), and Dick Powell's wife in "Mrs. Mike" (1949).
Terry DeVine, 62, a former news editor for the Associated Press and managing editor and columnist for the Forum in Fargo, N.D., died Thursday in Fargo, after a battle with cancer.
