ROME (AP) – Italian film star Nino Manfredi died Friday after suffering a stroke months ago, the Italian government announced. He was 83.

Manfredi worked with some of the greatest Italian directors and appeared in more than 100 productions during his 54-year screen career.

In 1968, he starred in “Straziami, Ma di Baci Saziami” (“Torture Me But Kill Me with Kisses”) by Risi; and a year later in “Nell’Anno del Signore” (“The Conspirators”) by Luigi Magni. In 1973, he played an Italian immigrant in “Pane e Cioccolata” (“Bread and Chocolate”).

One of his greatest successes came a year later with “C’eravamo Tanto Amati” (“We All Loved Each Other So Much”).

He started his career as a stage actor, but soon shifted to the big screen, where he became a mainstay in many “commedia all’italiana” films.

In the early 1970s, Manfredi won a place in the heart of many Italians with a TV performance as Geppetto, the puppetmaker who creates Pinocchio.

Manfredi also directed, winning the award for best first work at the Cannes Film Festival for his 1971 film “Per Grazia Ricevuta” (“Between Miracles”). In 2003, the Venice Film Festival gave him a lifetime achievement award, but Manfredi – already ailing – could not go to the Lido.

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Victor Reuther

DETROIT (AP) – Victor Reuther, who along with his brothers Walter and Roy helped make the United Auto Workers union a powerful force in the American labor movement, died Thursday, a UAW spokesman said. He was 92.

The three brothers moved to Detroit in the 1930s to lead a changing American labor movement. Walter became UAW president, while Roy served as the union’s legislative director.

Victor Reuther joined Kelsey Hayes Wheel Co. in 1936 as an assembly line worker and became a member of UAW Local 174, serving as a strike leader. He went on to lead the UAW’s education department and, in 1955, was appointed director of the union’s international affairs department.

Reuther retired from the UAW in 1972 and received its Social Justice Award, the union’s highest honor.

Many historians consider his memoir, “The Brothers Reuther,” to be among the most lively tales ever written about the American labor movement.

But the Reuther brothers paid for their commitment to the labor cause. Walter and Victor were both victims of assassination attempts. In 1949, Victor was sitting in his Detroit home when a shotgun blast fired through a window hit him in the face, throat and shoulder.

Roy Reuther died in 1968, and Walter Reuther died in a plane crash in 1970.

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Loyd Sigmon

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) – Loyd Sigmon, who invented the SigAlerts messages that warn Southern California motorists about freeway traffic jams, died Wednesday while suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He was 95.

As a radio station executive, Sigmon invented the system in 1955, hoping to get more listeners by broadcasting traffic information. His device, using a tape recorder and shortwave radio receiver, allowed station engineers to broadcast traffic messages in seconds.

The police department accepted the device on condition that it be available to all interested stations.

The first SigAlert was broadcast Sept. 5, 1955, and urged doctors and nurses to respond to a train derailment outside downtown’s Union Station. The system also was used to report rabid dogs, a ship collision and the impending collapse of the Baldwin Hills Dam in 1963.

The California Highway Patrol later took over freeway traffic duties and handles SigAlerts, which now are computerized.

During World War II, Sigmon was head of noncombat radio communications on Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s staff.

Sigmon also was a partner with Gene Autry in KMPC’s parent company, Golden West Broadcasting. He retired in 1969.

AP-ES-06-04-04 1841EDT