Mike Ditka, 86, an NFL legend who won titles as a player and coach with the Chicago Bears, has died, his family announced Friday. Ditka was tough and gruff, the quintessential Chicago Bear, and his adopted hometown reveled in every minute.

Nana Patekar, 75, an acclaimed Indian actor and filmmaker whose career spanned nearly five decades and included filmmaker Mira Nair’s Oscar-nominated “Salaam Bombay!”, died Thursday of suspected cardiac arrest.

María del Carmen Abascal, 87, whose eviction from her home of seven decades sparked protests across Spain and unleashed a political crisis, died Wednesday in a Madrid hospital. Known widely as “Maricarmen,” she had become a symbol for renters struggling with Spain’s housing affordability crisis.

Upon eviction, she was taken to a hospital because of her fragile health. An agreement was reached that would have allowed her to return home, but “this solution came too late,” the Madrid Tenants’ Union said.

Eva Marie Saint, 102, who starred opposite Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest” and then acted well into her 90s, died Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Saint had one of the most spectacular debuts in Hollywood history, winning an Academy Award as Marlon Brando’s love interest in “On the Waterfront.” Her first trip to the Academy Awards was memorable, too: A pregnant Saint accepted her Oscar from Frank Sinatra and smilingly murmured a unique winner’s speech: “I think I may have the baby right here.” (Her son, Darrell, was born two days later.)

Saint’s long acting career spanned film and TV, including the hit sitcom “Moonlighting” and such 21st-century movies as “Because of Winn-Dixie” and “Superman Returns.”

Bruiser, Whidbey Island’s only resident elk and a “true island legend,” died Tuesday. He was about 17 to 19 years old. It is unknown how he died, but there appeared to be no human cause.

Neighbors loved the 6-foot, 1,000-pound elk, feeding him apples, corn and potatoes when he wandered through their yards, and some even sported T-shirts bearing his likeness.

Jim Bakker, 86, a TV evangelist who lost his prosperous ministry in a 1980s sex scandal and then was imprisoned for defrauding his many followers, died Monday.

“Excess and success are close together,” he once said. “Anyone who is successful has got to be excessive” — and he and his first wife Tammy Faye Bakker were, with their six-figure salaries, 55-foot houseboat, mini-fleet of Mercedes-Benzes and Rolls-Royces, diamonds and gold jewelry and more.

Freddie Jackson, 70, Grammy-nominated R&B singer known for smooth ’80s hits, including “You Are My Lady,” died Monday. Jackson, who had kidney disease, was a mainstay of Billboard charts and contemporary urban radio throughout the ’80s and early ’90s.

Dennis Hastert, 84, whose congressional legacy as the longest-serving Republican House speaker was later fouled by allegations that he had molested high school athletes during his previous career as a teacher and wrestling coach, died Oct. 3 of natural causes.

Robert Kelker-Kelly, 62, prolific soap opera actor best known for playing Bo Brady on nearly 600 episodes of “Days of Our Lives,” died Oct. 3 in Missouri after complaining of chest pain. He had also appeared on “General Hospital” and “Another World.”

Sass Jordan, 65, a Canadian rock star known for hits such as “Make You a Believer” and “Tell Somebody,” died Oct. 2 after canceling performances due to an undisclosed medical condition.

Jordan called herself “an expert in rebellion.” She toured alongside Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Van Halen, and also recorded a duet with Joe Cocker, “Trust in Me,” for the 1992 film “The Bodyguard.”

Margaret Hamilton, 90, who led the 100-person team that wrote the software for the Apollo missions, guiding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to a safe landing on the moon, died Sept. 30 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reggie McFadden, 57, a comic actor who appeared on HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam” and “In Living Color,” died in Tanzania, where he had lived for nearly 20 years. His date and cause of death weren’t announced.