PASSINGS: Timothy White, Christopher Cazenove, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Peter Ramsbotham

Timothy White

Survivor of kidnapping

Timothy White, 35, the youngest victim and last survivor of a notorious California kidnapping saga whose rescue offered hope to parents of missing children, died April 1 of an apparent pulmonary embolism, said his stepfather, Roger Gitlin.

FOR THE RECORD:
Timothy White obituary: An obituary in Saturday’s LATExtra section on Timothy White, who survived a kidnapping when he was child, said he worked as a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in Newhall. He was assigned to the Pitchess Detention Center’s East Facility in Castaic. —

White was buried Thursday in Newhall, where he had worked as a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. He lived in the Kern County community of Pine Mountain with his wife and two children.

Timothy White was a 5-year-old kindergartner walking home from school in 1980 when he was kidnapped in Ukiah by child molester Kenneth Parnell. Two weeks later, fellow victim Steven Stayner, 14, fled with the boy, known as Timmy, and hitchhiked 40 miles from Parnell’s cabin in Manchester on the Mendocino coast to safety in Ukiah.

The dramatic story was told in the 1989 television movie, “I Know My First Name Is Steven.�

Parnell died in prison in 2008. Stayner, who was held captive by Parnell for seven years, died in a 1989 motorcycle crash at the age of 24.

Christopher Cazenove

Actor in TV’s ‘Dynasty’

Christopher Cazenove, 64, a British actor who played Ben Carrington in the prime-time TV soap opera “Dynasty,� died Wednesday of septicemia at St. Thomas’ hospital in London, his family said.

Cazenove appeared in 36 episodes of “Dynasty� in 1986-87. He portrayed the black sheep brother of Blake Carrington, played by John Forsythe, who died April 1. Cazenove also appeared as Charlie Tyrrell in the 1976 British miniseries “The Duchess of Duke Street.�

His film roles included “Eye of the Needle� (1981), “Three Men and a Little Lady� (1990) and “A Knight’s Tale� (2001).

Cazenove was born Dec. 17, 1945, in Winchester, England, into a family of bankers. He studied acting at the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England.

He married actress Angharad Rees in 1973, and they divorced after 21 years of marriage. The older of their two sons, Linford, was killed in a car wreck at the age of 25.

Bishop Abel Muzorewa

Zimbabwean legislator

Bishop Abel Muzorewa, 85, the first black prime minister of an interim white-dominated government before Zimbabwe’s independence, died Thursday at his Harare home, his family said. No cause was given.

Muzorewa, a Methodist bishop, joined the government of the short-lived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in a deal with Ian Smith, the last white prime minister, in 1978, two years ahead of the first all-race elections that swept President Robert Mugabe to power and dropped the name of Rhodesia, as the former British colony was known.

In those polls, Muzorewa’s party won just three of the 80 parliament seats against a landslide victory by Mugabe that ended a seven-year guerrilla war. Seen by some as a moderate leader able to stem Mugabe’s dominance in the fight for independence, Muzorewa opposed the armed conflict. Black militants saw him as a puppet of white politicians.

He served as a lawmaker for four years in the first Zimbabwe parliament.

Peter Ramsbotham

British envoy to U.S. in 1970s

Peter Ramsbotham, 90, who served as Britain’s ambassador to Washington during the Watergate era, died of pneumonia Friday at his home in the village of Ovington in southern England, said his wife, Zaida. He had been ill for a long time.

The Eton- and Oxford-educated son of the Viscount of Soulbury, Ramsbotham served in the British Intelligence Corps during World War II, ferreting out German spies and former Nazis. He joined Britain’s Foreign Office in 1948, serving in Berlin and at the United Nations in New York before being promoted to High Commissioner in Cyprus to 1969.

Ramsbotham served as ambassador to Iran from 1971 to 1974 before moving on to the United States, where Richard Nixon was already absorbed with the scandal that would eventually destroy his presidency.

The diplomat would go on to serve as governor of Bermuda before retiring.

-- times staff and wire reports

[email protected]