>The movie and theater director Arthur Penn, best known as the director of "Bonnie and Clyde," has died at 88.
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>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/movies/30penn.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=obituaries
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>Nobody does better obituaries than the Times, especially the longer ones. You may not even have known who the person was, or very little about them. Or maybe it's someone you were familiar with. I always learn some things I didn't know about them, too. It's always fascinating to read about the choices these people made, the different stages of their lives. Back in the old days writing obits was considered the most lowly beat for a newspaper reporter, the equivalent of writing parking tickets. That certainly is not the case with these. They are often the best thing in the paper.

I'm sure you realize that the obits for famous folks are written years in advance and updated until the person passes....In order to judge the Times does the obits better than any other paper (not denying as I can not qualify any of them) you'd have to read other papers...