NOTEWORTHY DEATHS

— Bee Gees singer, songwriter

Robin Gibb, a singer and songwriter who joined two of his brothers in forming the Bee Gees pop group that helped define the sound of the disco era with the bestselling 1977 soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, has died. He was 62.

Gibb died Sunday after battling cancer and while recuperating from intestinal surgery, family spokesman Doug Wright announced.

This spring, Gibb had been hospitalized in London with advanced colorectal cancer. He had intestinal surgery in March and, after contracting pneumonia, was unable to attend the April 10 premiere in London of The Titanic Requiem, a classical composition he wrote with his son, Robin-John, to coincide with the 100th anniversary observance of the luxury ocean liner’s sinking.He later fell into a coma but awoke April 21 after his family spent days singing to him at his bedside.

The Bee Gees - fraternal twins Robin and Maurice and their older brother, Barry - energized the discocraze of the 1970s with such falsetto-laced hits as “Stayin’ Alive,” “Night Fever” and “How Deep Is Your Love?”

The Bee Gees had nine No. 1 U.S. singles in the 1970s, won six Grammy Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Their youngest brother, Andy, who had a solo career apart from the Bee Gees, died of a heart condition at age 30 in 1988 after struggling with addiction. Maurice also died prematurely, at 53 in 2003, of a heart attack while awaiting surgery for a blocked intestine.Robin survived a train wreck in 1967 and later battled amphetamine dependence.

Robin and Maurice were born Dec. 22, 1949, on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. Besides his brother Barry, sister Lesley Evans and mother, Barbara, Gibb is survived by his second wife, Dwina, and their son, Robin-John; two children from his marriage to Molly Hullis that ended in divorce, Spencer and Melissa; and another daughter, Snow Robin, from a 2008 relationship.

Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/22/2012

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