1980s carmaker DeLorean dies at 80

(CNN) -- John DeLorean, developer of a futuristic sportscar that captured the country's attention in the 1980s, has died. He was 80.

DeLorean died Saturday at the Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey, from complications from a stroke, said Paul Connell, owner of Desmond and Sons funeral home in Michigan.

DeLorean's stainless-steel, gull-winged car, which bore his name, became more engrained in American culture after director Robert Zemeckis used a DeLorean as a time machine in the 1985 film "Back to the Future" and its two sequels.



Car Mogul John DeLorean Dies

Eric Malnic
Los Angeles Times

John Zachary DeLorean, the dashing former General Motors executive whose flamboyant lifestyle faded into obscurity after charges that he tried to use drug money to salvage his own fledgling car company DeLorean Motor Car Co., has died. He was 80.

DeLorean, the innovative car maker-tall, handsome, charismatic, known for his flashy clothes, his lavish tastes and the beautiful women who accompanied him-was acquitted in 1984 of the drug and conspiracy counts against him, but his DeLorean Motor Co. had been fatally wounded.

Despite being videotaped in the act of apparently buying cocaine-and pronouncing it "better than gold," DeLorean never admitted guilt in the case that led to his arrest in a Los Angeles hotel room on Oct. 19, 1982.