Poet and Songwriter Rod McKuen Dies

Poet, lyricist, and songwriter Rod McKuen died on Thursday in Beverly Hills, California. He was 81. McKuen, most famous for his work in the 1960s and ’70s, died at a rehabilitation center where he had been treated for pneumonia and had been ill for several weeks, his half-brother Edward McKuen Habib said. McKuen was a pop-culture force known for his prolific work on hundreds of poems, records, and songs, including “Birthday Boy,” “A Man Alone,” and “Seasons in the Sun.” He was nominated for Oscars for “Jean” from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and for “A Boy Named Charlie Brown,” the title song from the Peanuts movie. He is credited with more than 200 albums and more than 30 collections of poetry, while worldwide sales for his music top 100 million units and book sales that exceed 60 million copies.