Career

When I think of actress Lupe Ontiveros, who passed away from liver cancer at 69 Thursday night, what stays with me most is her strength. Her women tended to be strong and resilient, no-nonsense types, whether they were running a theater company as she did in "Chuck & Buck," dealing with a rebellious daughter in "Real Women Have Curves," or picking up after some well-heeled white family, as she did in"The Goonies. "There was a "I have seen it all" quality that danced in her eyes, more bemused by the frailties of the human race than bitter about them.

Isabel Benham, whose deep knowledge of the railroad industry made her an influential bond analyst at a time when few women held positions of authority on Wall Street, has died. She was 103. She died May 18 in her New York City apartment, according to a death notice in the New York Times. No cause was given. Benham started working on Wall Street during the Great Depression. In 1964, after almost 30 years with R.W. Pressprich & Co., she became the first female partner in the firm's 55-year history.

The gig: Gwynne Shotwell, 49, is president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, the Hawthorne company that builds rockets and space capsules to resupply the International Space Station for NASA. Shotwell is No. 2 at the pioneering company behind founder and chief executive Elon Musk. She is responsible for day-to-day operations and managing customer relationships and company growth. Shotwell, with a sunny demeanor and a blunt way of speaking, is often responsible for updating the media on SpaceX's missions while they're happening.

The three players who lost playoff majors to Tiger Woods share the bond of taking the world's best golfer to the very brink. They remain cherished memories for the three…and belt notches for Tiger. Bob May, Chris DiMarco and Rocco Mediate can go to their resting bunkers knowing they made Woods work overtime on the course of his insatiable quest toward Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors. Woods enters this week's U.S. Open at Merion still stuck on No. 14 at the fifth anniversary of his epic Torrey Pines win over Mediate.

"Oh, you mean the guy with the 70-year-old head and the 20-year-old body-builder body? That picture has got to be Photoshopped." Dr. Jeffry Life smiles when I tell him about the general reaction I get about the famous picture of him with his shirt off, the shot that turned a mild-mannered doctor in his mid-60s into a poster boy for super-fit aging and controversial hormone replacement Appearing in medical-clinic ads in airline magazines and...

As lifeguards begin their busy summer season, the bronzed guardians of California's beaches find themselves at the unlikely center of the battle over costly public pensions. The six-figure salaries of some full-time municipal lifeguards have fueled talk radio segments and blog comments in recent weeks, with some commentators expressing surprise at the pay for those who patrol the beaches. For local government, the larger concern is over the pensions that lifeguards receive when they retire.

SAN DIEGO - A veteran teacher at a Catholic school has lost her job because school officials are worried her ex-husband, now serving a jail sentence for domestic abuse and stalking, will pose a danger to students and teachers when he is released. When Martin Charlesworth, 41, showed up at Holy Trinity School in El Cajon in January, school officials put the school on lockdown and called police. By coming to the school, he was in violation of a restraining order, court records indicate.

The water, Esther Williams once quipped, was her favorite costar. With her beauty, sunny personality and background as a champion swimmer, Williams shot to stardom in the 1940s in the "aqua musical," an odd sub-genre of films that became an enormous hit with the moviegoing mainstream, fanned popular interest in synchronized swimming and turned Williams into Hollywood's Million Dollar Mermaid. The MGM bathing beauty, whose underwater extravaganzas made her one of the most popular actresses of the era, an idol in competitive swimming and a fashion force, died in her sleep early Thursday in Beverly Hills, said her publicist, Harlan Boll.

Carrie Underwood may not see her hockey-playing husband as often as she'd like, but she's still gushing about their "sweet and sexy" wedded bliss. "You see each other when you can and you talk to each other as much as you can," the singer told People, whose cover she graces this week. "You just have to commit and make it work. " She and Mike Fisher married in July 2010 but are still juggling their busy schedules despite him moving from Canada to Tennessee to be closer to his wife.

Former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders talks about the much-discussed issue of his early retirement on the new NFL Network documentary "Barry Sanders: A Football Life. " Sanders said he thought long and hard about retiring before the 1999 season. "Over the next few years it looked like we would probably be rebuilding and we had gotten rid of some good players,” Sanders said. “I just felt like it was time to make a change. "I knew going into the final game of the season before that was pretty much it, so I remember after the game I just broke down.

The lineup of must-see videos for the high school class on public speaking was notable: Hitler, Martin Luther King Jr., Mussolini, President Obama - and A.J. Duffy, the former president of the L.A. teachers union and also the instructor. The former, highly visible union leader returned to the classroom in fall 2011 almost as a last resort - landing in almost invisible Phoenix High School adjacent to Venice High in Mar Vista. There, Duffy, 69, retired Friday, after two years of working with students who needed a second chance.

The gig: Gwynne Shotwell, 49, is president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, the Hawthorne company that builds rockets and space capsules to resupply the International Space Station for NASA. Shotwell is No. 2 at the pioneering company behind founder and chief executive Elon Musk. She is responsible for day-to-day operations and managing customer relationships and company growth. Shotwell, with a sunny demeanor and a blunt way of speaking, is often responsible for updating the media on SpaceX's missions while they're happening.

Midnight was fast approaching when Tom Wilhelmsen and his girlfriend stumbled into Venice. The backpackers were tired and hungry and, truth be told, a little smelly. This was another new city on a trip full of them. They found a cheap room in a seedy hotel, a couple of slices of pizza and a bottle of wine. Then they crashed. "And then we woke up on the canal," he said. "You put your head out the window and, sure enough, there are all the gondolas and the clothes drying, just like in all the pictures.

John Pemberton reaches into his back pocket, pulls out a small broom, bends low and sweeps the dirt left and then right, manicuring the white strip of rubber in the middle of the pitcher's circle. Upright again, he lifts the bill of his dark blue cap and tilts his head for a final inspection. Satisfied, he breaks into a trot and hustles over to first base. For nearly half a century, Pemberton, 77, has operated in the organized mayhem of high school, college and professional sports.

Dr. Lewis Yocum, the longtime Angels team physician and nationally renowned orthopedic surgeon who saved or extended the careers of hundreds of major league baseball players, died Saturday after quietly battling liver cancer. He was 65. Yocum, who was in his 36th season with the Angels, consulted and operated on players throughout baseball. He was considered, with noted Alabama surgeon Dr. James Andrews, a leading expert on the elbow reconstruction procedure known as Tommy John surgery.

Smart and capable, City Controller Wendy Greuel has been a high-profile public servant who believes in Los Angeles and has devoted much of her career to improving it. But boy, did she run a lousy campaign for mayor. Eric Garcetti's sizable win might retroactively give his victory a glow of inevitability. But in fact it was Greuel who held the early advantage. She entered the race earlier, she held citywide office, and she ran the table with establishment endorsements, from former Democratic President Bill Clinton to former Republican Mayor Richard Riordan.

Frankel finished nearly two lengths ahead of Cirrus Des Aigles in the Champions Stakes at Ascot to cap his horse racing career with a 14th consecutive victory. The unbeaten 4-year-old colt, who had $4.85 million in earnings with his $1.19 payday Saturday in England, will retire to stud. "That is the end of it and he will retire," said owner Prince Khalid bin Abdullah. Frankel is expected to make more than $150 million as a sire, according to many analysts. Frankel went off a 2-11 favorite at Ascot, where Queen Elizabeth II was among the 32,000 spectators.

New career choice for Mark Fuhrman: talk show host. CHARLES T. FISCH Redondo Beach

There is no hesitation from Carson Palmer, no hedging when asked to characterize his career as an NFL quarterback. "Unfulfilled," he said by phone from Arizona Cardinals mini-camp last week. "I've had a ton of experience. I've played in every type of situation. But to not have one run in the playoffs where you just make one of those magical runs? That's what I want. I just want a chance to make one of those runs and see what happens. " In their not-too-distant past the Cardinals had one of those, a quarterback in the twilight of his career carrying the team deep into the postseason.

CANNES, France--Most of the attention at the Cannes Film Festival this week centers on the big names--Nicolas Refn, Alexander Payne, James Gray. But the springtime cinema gathering can sometimes makes room for someone a little different. Someone, say, like Jeremy Saulnier, a little-known director who, at 36, has used a little pluck and plenty of Kickstarter to defy the stereotypes of the world's most prestigious (and expensive) festival. CHEAT SHEET: Cannes Film Festival 2013 trailers Saulnier's new film, his follow-up to the modestly performing 2007 genre comedy “Murder Party,” premieres Saturday in the Director's Fortnight section, where it is expected to draw attention both for its unusual genesis and unlikely genre spin.