The Marquess of Bath, 87, the first British aristocrat to...

The Marquess of Bath, 87, the first British aristocrat to turn his stately home into a tourist attraction, died of cancer Tuesday at Longleat, his home 90 miles west of London. Henry Frederic Thynne became the sixth marquess in 1946 when his father died. Reeling from taxes after inheriting the estate, Lord Bath opened Longleat to the public in 1949. The house was built by his ancestor, Sir John Thynne, in 1580. The estate's park was designed by Britain's premier 18th-century landscape designer, Lancelot "Capability" Brown. Lord Bath's eldest son, Viscount Weymouth, becomes the seventh Marquess of Bath.

Howard Roberts, 62, a virtuoso jazz guitarist who backed stars from Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley to the Beach Boys and the Monkees in studio recordings, died Sunday in a Seattle hospital of prostate cancer. He was one of the world's most widely recorded musicians, with more than 50,000 recordings to his credit and a repertoire that ranged from Bach to rock.

Hugh P. Kelly, 60, an atomic physicist and a former provost of the University of Virginia, died in Charlottesville Monday. A faculty member since 1965, he became provost in 1989 and stepped down in 1991, citing health problems.

Helen Olheim, 87, a mezzo-soprano who sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1935 to 1944, died Friday in Sarasota, Fla. Among her roles were Mercedes in "Carmen" and Siebel in "Faust." After retiring from the Met, she taught for 10 years at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts before moving to Sarasota.

Richard Fontana, 40, a star of the Comedie Francaise and a leading stage actor in France, died Friday in Paris following a long illness. Among his memorable roles was Hamlet, which he said he preferred to play without intermission: a five-hour tour de force. In 1981, he won the Gerard Philipe acting prize awarded by the City of Paris.