The Smiths’ Bass Player, dies at 59!

Andy Rourke, the bass player for the Smiths, one of the most influential bands of the 1980s, died early Friday in New York. He was 59.

His death from pancreatic cancer, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, was confirmed by a representative.

Mr. Rourke’s former bandmate Johnny Marr, the Smiths’s guitarist, also announced Mr. Rourke’s death on social media.

“Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul,” Mr. Marr said, “and as a supremely gifted musician.”