A & E briefs: Producer, director Dan Curtis dies at 78

LOS ANGELES — Dan Curtis, a producer and director who brought the epic miniseries "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" to television and created the offbeat soap opera "Dark Shadows," died Monday. He was 78.

Mr. Curtis, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor four months ago, died at his Brentwood area home, said Jim Pierson, a spokesman for Dan Curtis Productions.

Mr. Curtis' varied, five-decade TV career included the 1960s show "Challenge Golf" featuring Gary Player and Arnold Palmer and continued through 2005 with two made-for-TV movies, "Saving Milly" and "Our Fathers."

His pitch to ABC for a Gothic-flavored soap opera led to the creation of the 1966 series "Dark Shadows," which became a cult favorite.

Stanislaw Lem, 84, "Solaris" author

WARSAW, Poland — Stanislaw Lem, a science-fiction writer whose novel "Solaris" was made into a movie starring George Clooney, died Monday in his native Poland, his secretary said. He was 84.

Mr. Lem, whose books sold more than 27 million copies, died in a Krakow hospital from heart failure according to Wojciech Zemek.

His best-known work, "Solaris," was adapted into films by director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and by Steven Soderbergh in 2002. That version starred Clooney.

His novel, "Hospital of the Transfiguration," was censored by communist authorities for eight years before its release in 1956.

Other works include "The Invincible," "The Cyberiad," "His Master's Voice," "The Star Diaries," "The Futurological Congress" and "Tales of Prix the Pilot."

The Associated Press