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Actor Buddy Ebsen, best known for his role as Jed Clampett on the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies, dies at age 95. Ebsen, who started his career as a dancer on Broadway shows and MGM musicals in the 1930s, also starred as a private investigator in the 1970s TV show Barnaby Jones. NPR's Bob Edwards has a remembrance.

College baseball players and fans head to Omaha, Neb., for the NCAA 2003 Men's College World Series. Organizers expect to sell more than 250,000 tickets as the country's top eight college baseball teams compete for the national championship. Hear Deborah Van Fleet.

Barry White, the honey-voiced baritone known for his sultry, romantic songs, dies at a hospital in Los Angeles. White, 58, had been in poor health for several years and died while awaiting a kidney transplant. The soul singer became a star during the disco era, but had a resurgence in popularity in recent years. He won two Grammies for his 1999 album, "Staying Power." NPR's Scott Simon has a remembrance.

Gregory Peck, one of the enduring stars of Hollywood's golden age, dies at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87. More often than not, Peck played the hero. He won an Oscar for his 1963 role as the quietly courageous defense lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird. Pat Dowell offers a remembrance. (Please note this correction: "Listeners to the first feed of our program last Thursday may have heard an error in our obituary for Gregory Peck. Pat Dowell placed the story of To Kill a Mockingbird in Mississippi. That led Chuck Bearman, chief of staff in the office of Mississippi's secretary of state, to write. As he pointed out -- It was not set in Mississippi, but in Alabama.")

An original, annotated manuscript of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony fetches $3.5 million in a Sotheby's auction. NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr looks at the place that this symphony, with its "Ode to Joy," holds in Western culture.

A new reality TV show aims to promote fashion and understanding between gay men and their straight counterparts. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy features a group of five gay men, experts in food, fashion and culture, who come to the rescue of straight men in need of a makeover. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with David Collins, the show's executive producer.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is presenting a two-play cycle called Continental Divide. The David Edgar production portrays a governor's race from the separate perspectives of the Republican and Democratic parties. Dmae Roberts reports.

May 25 marks what would be the 200th birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a philospher, poet and essayist who helped define the Transcendentalist movement. NPR's Liane Hansen talks to historian Kenneth Sacks about Emerson's influence in the fields of writing, public speaking and pragmatic thought.

The new animated movie Finding Nemo tells the story of a fish family learning life's lessons. The computer-generated film is from Pixar Animation, the pioneering force behind Toy Story, A Bug's Life and Monsters, Inc. Film critic Ken Turan of the Los Angeles Times offers a review.

Actor Gregory Peck electrified Hollywood with his 1962 portrayal of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Peck died in his sleep Thursday at his Los Angeles home. NPR's Renee Montagne talks about Peck's career with film historian Damien Bona.