This week: a motorcycling champion, Stalin's grandson, and a Black Panther who became an award-winning photographer

THE motorcycle racer Nicky Hayden, who has died aged 35 after a cycling accident, began racing at the age of five when he won national titles in American dirt track events before moving to Europe to chase world championship glory.

His greatest success came in 2006 when he won the 2006 MotoGP world championship with the Repsol Honda team in a memorable showdown in which he defeated the reigning champion Valentino Rossi.

Born in Kentucky, Hayden came from a racing family and was spotted by Honda in the early 1990s. He went on to win the 1999 600cc US Supersport championship and the 2002 1000cc US Superbike title.

He won his first MotoGP race in 2005 and later also competed in the MotoGP series for Italian manufacturer Ducati before renewing his association with Honda.

This season he had been competing in the World Superbike Championship for the Red Bull Honda team and most recently raced on May 14 at the Imola circuit in Italy.

Hayden was injured in Italy in a collision with a car and never regained consciousness. He is survived by his fiancee Jackie Marin.

THE celebrated Russian theatre director Alexander Burdonsky, who has died aged 68, had quite a family history: he was the grandson of Josef Stalin but later took his mother's name to escape association with his infamous relative.

Burdonsky was the son of Vasily Stalin, Stalin's youngest son, and Galina Burdonskaya. After Stalin's death in 1953, Vasily, who had been a pilot in the Soviet Air Force, was sentenced to eight years in prison for criticising the Soviet leadership.

Burdonsky started using his mother's name when he was a teenager and wanted to work in the theatre. "I immediately switched to mum's surname," he said, "because I planned to work in the theatre and what does that surname have to do with the arts?

He worked at the Central Theatre of the Russian Army in Moscow for 45 years, directing many plays there. In 1996, he was awarded the People's Artist of Russian award, one of the country's highest national accolades.

THE award-winning photographer Stanley Greene, who has died aged 68, was a former member of the Black Panthers revolutionary movement who became known for his photography of conflict, disasters and humanitarian crises around the world.

He was five times recognised in the World Press Photo awards , in 1994, 2001, 2004 and 2008.

Born in New York, Greene documented San Francisco's punk scene in the 1970s and '80s, before moving to Paris in 1986. He covered events across the globe and, from 1994 to 2001, extensively covered the conflict in Chechnya.

A member of the Paris-based photo agency Agence Vu from 1991 to 2007, his work included assignments for Liberation, Paris Match, Time, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and many other international news magazines.