This week: actress known for Town Without Pity, heroic soldier who became victim of racism, and the star of What's Eating Gilbert Grape

CHRISTINE Kaufmann, who has died aged 72, was an actress who won a Golden Globe for her 1961 Hollywood debut, Town Without Pity, in which she played alongside Kirk Douglas as a German girl raped by American soldiers. She was also know for being married to Tony Curtis after he split up from Janet Leigh.

Born in Austria in 1945, Kaufmann began acting in 1952 and made her debut in Town Without Pity when she was still 16 years old. She met Curtis, who was 20 years her senior, the following while filming Taras Bulba. They were married in 1963 when Kaufman was 18 and Curtis 38. The Some Like It Hot star had split from first wife, actress Janet Leigh, the year before after an 11-year marriage and two children: actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Christine and Tony went on to have two children of their own: Alexandra, now 52, and Allegra, now 50.

The couple divorced in 1968, after which Curtis went on to marry four more times, while Kaufman was just one behind with three more.

She was wed to television director Achim Lenz from 1974 to 1976, musician and actor Reno Eckstein from 1979 to 1982, and illustrator Klaus Zey from 1997 to 2011.

Following her split from Curtis, she also resumed her acting career, which she had put on hiatus during the five year marriage; her final role was in a 2014 adaptation of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn.

She was also a businesswoman, promoting her own successful line of cosmetics, and wrote several books on beauty and health, as well as two autobiographies.

CARL Clark, who has died aged 100, was an American soldier who was recognized six decades after his bravery during the Second World War with a medal of honour that had been denied because he was black.

Clark, who received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal in 2012, died March 16 at a Veteran's Administration hospital in Menlo Park, his daughter, Karen Clark Collins, said Tuesday.

"He didn't consider himself a hero, he never talked about it," Clark Collins said. "But after he left the Navy, he helped start the Boys and Girls Club in Menlo Park and did a lot for his community. He was a compassionate and sharing man."

Clark was serving as a Steward First Class aboard the USS Aaron Ward when Japanese kamikazes attacked the destroyer near Okinawa in May 1945. Six kamikazes hit the destroyer, with the blast from one plane so powerful that it blew him all the way across the ship.

Though he suffered a broken collarbone in the attack, Clark was credited with saving the lives of several men by dragging them to safety. He also put out a fire in an ammunition locker that would have cracked the vessel in half.

Even though the destroyer's captain acknowledged that Clark had saved the ship, it took more than six decades to be recognized for his actions, according to Clark, because of "bigotry." "It wouldn't look good to say one black man saved the ship," he said in 2011.

The captain of the destroyer tried to make up for the slight by giving him extra leave and making sure that he was not sent back to sea, Clark said. It took until 2012 for Clark to receive a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal.

DARLENE Cates, who has died aged 69 was an actress best known for playing the housebound mother in the 1993 film What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Cates was cast in the film as the morbidly obese mother of Johnny Depp, in the title role, and his younger brother, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. She had been spotted by the film's screenwriter, Peter Hedges, while appearing on the Sally Jessy Raphael talk show, where she discussed her struggles with her weight.

The film, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, won acclaim for its sensitive portrayal of a troubled but loving family in a small Iowa town.

Cates later appeared on episodes of the series Picket Fences and Touched By an Angel.

Leonardo DiCaprio has hailed actress Darlene Cates as his "best acting mom" following her death.

In an interview in 2012, Cates revealed she had lost more than 17 stone after her weight had peaked at 41 stone. Her other acting work included appearances in TV series Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel.