2015 Celebrity Death List
This is a list of celebrities that passed away during 2015. List is in chronological order by the date of death and also gives age at death and cause of death.
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- Mario Cuomo was born to Andrea and Immaculata Cuomo on June 15th, 1932, in Queens, New York. He was the son of Italian immigrants. In Cuomo's early years he attended Saint John's University, summa cum laude in 1953. He then attended St. John's School of Law, and graduated tied for the top of his class in 1956. Cuomo became an advisor to Judge Adrian P. Burke that same year and then entered private practice in 1958. Cuomo also was a professor at St. John's law school throughout the sixties, and chaired the University Alumni Federation.
Cuomo was becoming a well known political figure and liberal in the state of New York about this time. In 1974, Cuomo was the Lieutenant Governor nominee on the Democratic ballot alongside Howard Samuels, but his ticket lost to the winners of the Democratic Nomination, Hugh Carey. Governor Hugh Carey was so impressed with Cuomo, Carey appointed him to Secretary of State.
In 1977 Cuomo ran for Mayor of New York, but lost in the primary to the eventual winner of the race Edward Koch. However Cuomo was elected to Lieutenant Governor in 1978. In 1982 Hugh Carey stepped down as Governor, and Cuomo won the primary over rival Ed Koch, and went on to defeat Republican Louis Lehrman. In his campaign, Cuomo's theme was the theme from Rocky, and his campaign can be detailed in the book Diaries of Mario M. Cuomo, about his rise to the Governor's office. Cuomo almost immediately became a national figure in Democratic Politics. A strong liberal who was against the death penalty, and for effective gun control, he was quite the contrast to the strong right values of Ronald Reagan.
In 1986 and 1990 Cuomo won the highest Margin ever for re-election to a second and third four year term. Cuomo became an extremely popular political figure. Cuomo made New York nationally known for progressive legislation. In his tenure Cuomo improved roads, revitalized education and infrastructure of New York City. Cuomo also created a large homeless assistance program, created investment in many high tech facilities, created programs to deal with AIDS and the mentally ill.
Cuomo was a devout Roman Catholic, and while he was opposed to abortion he felt the state had no right to ban it. As the decade progressed Cuomo focused attention on children's issues, and created 300,000 jobs for New Yorkers, and defied two Republican-led recessions. Mario Cuomo also created the first major ethics law for public officials and gave New York the largest tax cut in the states history.
Cuomo also created the nations first seat belt law. Cuomo also appointed all of the judges to the state's court of appeals. To add to his large list of accomplishments he appointed the first African-American, Hispanic, and the First two women. Cuomo's strong progressive record made him a rallying point for liberals all across the nation. He was a favorite to run for president in 1988 and 1992. Cuomo refused to run either year. He was the Keynote Speaker at the 1984 Democratic Convention. Rumours were abound as to why he didn't run, the most notable of which was supposed ties to the Mafia, which were never confirmed. Cuomo gave the nominating speech to Bill Clinton in 1992. That year there was a movement to write him in to become president. However Mario Cuomo's strong record could not defy the Republican Revolution. Cuomo looked good for re-election in 1994. He had the endorsement of much of the Democratic top brass in the state, and a good part of the top Republicans, including the newly elected New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Critics of his campaign said that against conservative George Pataki he did not give a strong campaign, and lost narrowly to the novice former Peekskill Mayor.
Part of Pataki's victory could be attributed to the powerful Senator Alfonse D'Amato, who helped his campaign considerably. D'Amato lost heavily in 1998, but Pataki was re-elected. Since September 11th Pataki has become viewed as a strong leader. Before September 11th, his two Democratic rivals, Carl McCall, and Cuomo's son Andrew looked to have a shot at the Governor's seat. Mario Cuomo's political legacy looks to rest to a certain degree on the potential career of his son. However Cuomo will be forever remembered as a champion of progressive ideas that are still being hailed as some of the best in the nation.
Cuomo's post political career has been quite impressive too. Cuomo has written many essays and books, speaks at many functions across the country and at one point hosted a nationally syndicated talk show. Mario is married to Matilda Cuomo and had five children: Margaret, Andrew, Maria, Madeline and Christopher. He has six grand children.82, heart failure - Actress
- Soundtrack
An honest-to-goodness Southern Belle, similar to her most famous character role, "Elly May Clampett" on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Donna Douglas grew up in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area, loving "critters". She got married soon after high school, had a son, divorced and won a couple of beauty contests, all within the span of a few years. She moved to New York and soon appeared on television series, including a well-remembered guest-star shot on The Twilight Zone (1959) in one of the series' most famous episodes, Eye of the Beholder (1960), in which she plays a woman who tries to undergo a series of experimental treatments to make her beautiful, only for the treatments to fail. The twist was she was beautiful, at least to the viewers, but considered hideous to the pig people of the planet, she was on. She immediately won the character role of "Elly May Clampett" on one of the greatest situation comedies of all time, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). This extremely comical series debuted with The Clampetts Strike Oil (1962), on her 30th birthday, Wednesday, September 26th, 1962, which is among the narrowest & sheerest coincidences, that are hardest to believe.82, pancreatic cancer- Stuart Scott was born on 19 July 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Kid (2000), The Game Plan (2007) and Drumline (2002). He was married to Kimberley Alice Emmons. He died on 4 January 2015 in Avon, Connecticut, USA.49, appendiceal cancer
- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Suave and handsome Australian actor arrived in Hollywood in the 1950s, and built himself up from a supporting actor into taking the lead in several well-remembered movies. Arguably his most fondly remembered role was that as George (Herbert George Wells), the inventor, in George Pal's spectacular The Time Machine (1960). As the movie finished with George, and his best friend Filby Alan Young seemingly parting forever, both actors were brought back together in 1993 to film a 30-minute epilogue to the original movie! Taylor's virile, matinée idol looks also assisted him in scoring the lead of Mitch Brenner in Alfred Hitchcock's creepy thriller The Birds (1963), the role of Jane Fonda's love interest in Sunday in New York (1963), the title role in John Ford's biopic of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey in Young Cassidy (1965), and a co-starring role in The Train Robbers (1973) with John Wayne. Taylor also appeared as Bette Davis future son-in-law in the well-received film The Catered Affair (1956). He also gave a sterling performance as the German-American Nazi Major trying to fool James Garner in 36 Hours (1964). Later, Taylor made many westerns and action movies during the 1960s and 1970s; however, none of these were much better than "B" pictures and failed to push his star to the next level. Additionally, Taylor was cast as the lead in several TV series including Bearcats! (1971), Masquerade (1983), and Outlaws (1986); however, none of them truly ignited viewer interest, and they were cancelled after only one or two seasons. Most fans would agree that Rod Taylor's last great role was in the wonderful Australian film The Picture Show Man (1977), about a travelling sideshow bringing "moving pictures" to remote towns in the Australian outback.84, heart attack- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Samuel Goldwyn Jr. was born on 7 September 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) and Mystic Pizza (1988). He was married to Patricia Strawn, Peggy Elliott and Jennifer Howard. He died on 9 January 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.88, congestive heart failure- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Taylor Negron was born Brad Stephen Negron in Glendale, California, to Lucy (Rosario) and Conrad Negron, who was mayor of Indian Wells, CA. His parents were both of Puerto Rican descent. Negron attended UCLA, studied acting with Lee Strasberg, and studied comedy at a private seminar taught by Lucille Ball. He went on to join the cast of an improvisational comedy group, whose ranks included talents like Robin Williams, Martin Short and Betty Thomas. In 1982 Negron made his motion-picture debut as a love-struck, pill-popping, dancing intern in Young Doctors in Love (1982) and as the obviously peeved Mr. Pizza Guy in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). He also played Rodney Dangerfield's son-in-law in Easy Money (1983).
Negron was honored with the distinction of being asked to teach one of the first comedy courses offered at UCLA.
Negron died of cancer on January 10, 2015.57, liver cancer- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Donald Harron was born on 19 September 1924 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for The Time Tunnel (1966), The Spy with My Face (1965) and The Hospital (1971). He was married to Claudette Gareau, Catherine McKinnon, Virginia Leith and Gloria Fisher. He died on 17 January 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.90, undisclosed cancer- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
The pioneering German collective Tangerine Dream has been delivering their distinctive style of ambient music for nearly three decades, laying down a foundation of sound textures and sonic imagery that has influenced many of today's electronic musicians. Founded in 1967 by fine art aficionado Edgar Froese the group released their first album, "Electronic Meditation" in 1970, and, through many different line-ups in proceeding years, delivered a unique brand of space-rock, making use of electronic instruments like synths and Mellotron, along traditional instruments like rock guitar and blues harmonica. Their work on William Friedkin's Sorcerer (1977) was the beginning of many film projects that the group would undertake throughout the 1980s, including Thief (1981) and The Keep (1983), both directed by Michael Mann, Legend (1985) by Ridley Scott, Near Dark (1987) by Kathryn Bigelow and the box-office hit Risky Business (1983) with Tom Cruise. Throughout the 1990s, the group has been as active as ever, releasing as many as five albums a year, including remastered versions of early material.70, pulmonary embolism- Actor
- Soundtrack
Barrie Ingham was born on 10 February 1932 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Great Mouse Detective (1986), The Day of the Jackal (1973) and Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965). He was married to Tarne Phillips. He died on 23 January 2015 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA.82, undisclosed cause- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Stunts
Richard Bonehill was born in 1949 in the UK. He was an actor, known for Rob Roy (1995), Top Secret! (1984) and George and the Dragon (2004). He was married to Lynne Gillian Bradshaw. He died on 29 January 2015 in Truro, Cornwall, England, UK.67, heart complications (had an enlarged heart and had been having serious heart ailments for over a year prior to his death)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Geraldine McEwan was born in Old Windsor, England and made her theatre debut at the age of 14 at the Theatre Royal in Windsor. By the age of 18 she was starring in London's West End in several long-running popular productions. During the 1950s she acted with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1961.
She had leading roles as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing with Christopher Plummer, Ophelia in Hamlet, The Princess of France in Love's Labour's Lost, Marina in Pericles and played opposite Dorothy Tutin in Twelfth Night which also toured Moscow and Leningrad.
Miss McEwan originated the female lead role in Joe Orton's Loot, captivated Broadway with productions of The School for Scandal, The Private Ear and the Public Eye, and most recently, The Chairs, earning her a Tony nomination for best actress.
As a member of the Royal National Theatre, acting along side Albert Finney, and Laurence Olivier, Geraldine spent the 1960s and 70s with memorable roles including The Dance of Death, Love for Love, A Flea in Her Ear, Chez Nous, Home and Beauty, The Browning Version, Harlequinade and The White Devil. In 1976 she had the distinction of being nominated for an Olivier Award in two separate categories.
In 1983 she won the Evening Standard Best Actress Award for The Rivals. In 1991 she won the BAFTA Best Actress Award for her intense and powerful performance as the Mother in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989) and in 1995 she won the Evening Standard Best Actress Award for her performance of Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World.
In 1998, McEwan was nominated for a Tony Award in the Best Actress Category for The Chairs. Her numerous television credits include the highly acclaimed The Barchester Chronicles (1982) with Alan Rickman, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1978), Mulberry (1992), and the immensely popular Mapp & Lucia (1985). Her film work includes The Dance of Death (1969) with Laurence Olivier, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) with Alan Rickman, Henry V (1989) and Love's Labour's Lost (2000), both with Kenneth Branagh, and most recently The Magdalene Sisters (2002), The Lazarus Child (2004), Vanity Fair (2004) and Carrie's War (2004). In 2003, Geraldine was chosen to play Agatha Christie's Jane Marple. She recently retired from that role after completing 12 hugely popular two-hour mysteries for ITV/PBS.82, complications from a stroke she had 3 months prior to her death- Producer
- Director
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Ed Sabol was born on 11 September 1916 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. He was a producer and director, known for NFL Monday Night Matchup (1985), The Football Follies (1968) and The Son of the Football Follies (1976). He was married to Audrey Sabol. He died on 9 February 2015 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.98, undisclosed cause- Producer
- Writer
Bob Simon was born on 29 May 1941 in Bronx, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for 60 Minutes (1968), 60 Minutes II (1999) and CSI: NY (2004). He was married to Françoise. He died on 11 February 2015 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.73, automobile accident- Actor
- Additional Crew
Gary Owens was an American voice actor, radio announcer and narrator who was known for being the original voice actor of Hanna-Barbera's Space Ghost, Powdered Toast Man from The Ren & Stimpy Show and Blue Falcon from Dynomutt, Dog Wonder. George Lowe became Owens' successor as the voice of Space Ghost since 1994. He passed away from diabetes complications in February 2015.80, complications from type-1 diabetes- Stan Chambers was born on 11 August 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991), Zarkorr! The Invader (1996) and War of the Colossal Beast (1958). He was married to Gege Elder and Beverly Jane McLoughlin. He died on 13 February 2015 in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.91, undisclosed cause
- Actor
- Production Manager
- Soundtrack
Louis Jourdan was born Louis Robert Gendre in Marseille, France to Yvonne (née Jourdan) and hotel owner Henry Gendre. He was educated in France, Britain, and Turkey. He trained as an actor with René Simon at the École Dramatique. He debuted on screen in 1939, going on to play cultivated, polished, dashing lead roles in a number of French romantic comedies and dramas.
After his father, the manager of the Cannes Grand Hôtel, was arrested by the Gestapo during World War II, Louis and his two brothers (Pierre Jourdan and Robert Gendre, both of whom became film directors) joined the French underground; his film career came to a halt when he refused to act in Nazi propaganda films.
In 1948, David O. Selznick invited him to Hollywood to appear in The Paradine Case (1947); he remained in the USA and went on to star in a number of Hollywood films. After 1953, he appeared in international productions and, in 1958, appeared in Gigi (1958), his best-known film by American audiences. He also made numerous appearances on American television.
Jourdan died at his home in Beverly Hills, California in 2015, at age 93.93, natural causes- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Harve Bennett was born on 17 August 1930 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). He was married to Carole Patricia Oettinger and Jani. He died on 25 February 2015 in Medford, Oregon, USA.84, complications from a pulmonary embolism and intestinal ischemia- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit part in Queen for a Day (1951) and another as a ballplayer in the perennial Rhubarb (1951). After two years in the United States Army, he was still getting small, often uncredited parts, like an Army telex operator in Them! (1954). His part as Narab, a Martian finally friendly to Earth, in the closing scene in the corny Republic serial Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952), somewhat foreshadowed the role which would make him a household name: Mr. Spock, the half-human/half-Vulcan science officer on Star Trek (1966) one of television's all-time most successful series. His performance won him three Emmy nominations and launched his career as a writer and director, notably of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), the story of a humpback whale rescue that proved the most successful of the Star Trek movies. Stage credits have included "Fiddler on the Roof", "Oliver", "Camelot" and "Equus". He has hosted the well-known television series In Search of... (1977) and Ancient Mysteries (1994), authored several volumes of poetry and guest-starred on two episodes of The Simpsons (1989). In the latter years of his career, he played Mustafa Mond in NBC's telling of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1998), voiced Sentinel Prime in the blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), and played Spock again in two new Star Trek films, Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).
Leonard Nimoy died on February 27, 2015 in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 83.83, complications from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Richard Bakalyan was born on 29 January 1931 in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Chinatown (1974), The Fox and the Hound (1981) and Von Ryan's Express (1965). He was married to Elizabeth Lena (Betty Lee) Baumann. He died on 27 February 2015 in Elmira, New York, USA.84, stroke- Actor
- Soundtrack
A character actor who seems to pop up everywhere as the stereotypical cop, military officer and/or tough guy, von Bargen could turn in performances of stunning complexity when given the chance.
Daniel von Bargen was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 5, 1950 to Juanita (Bustle) and Donald L. von Bargen. Of German and English descent, he grew up in Cincinnati for most of his childhood before moving with his family to Southern California. He attended Purdue University, majoring in drama. He joined the Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island, after graduation and worked with them for many years. A breakthrough role in Mastergate (1992) by Larry Gelbart launched him onto Broadway. He starred in off-Broadway productions of "Beggars in the House of Plenty", "Macbeth", "The Cherry Orchard", "Hurlyburly", and "Uncle Vanya." On TV, he was best-known for his roles in Malcolm in the Middle (2000) and The West Wing (1999).
His role in The Postman (1997) as the Pineview sheriff who suspects Kevin Costner's character of being a fraud, was a stand-out as von Bargen infused the role with the pathos of a man caught between just trying to survive and wanting to believe in the hope the Postman represents. In an otherwise mediocre film, audiences were moved to tear up as his character shouts, "Ride Postman! Ride!", just before being put to death for assisting in the rebellion. His more evil side was brought out in Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions (1995) as he played Nix, an older, wiser, more magical and supernaturally gifted type of Charles Manson character rising from the dead to "murder the world".64, complications from diabetes and declining health (suffered a leg amputation and a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head in a botched suicide attempt a few years prior)- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Windell Middlebrooks was born on 8 January 1979 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Scrubs (2001), Body of Proof (2011) and The Suite Life on Deck (2008). He died on 9 March 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.36, pulmonary embolism- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Gregory Walcott grew up in North Carolina and went into the Army just after the end of World War II. After leaving the service, he grew restless on the East Coast and, with $100 in his pocket, thumbed his way west to pursue an acting career. An agent who spotted him in a little theater play helped Walcott land his debut movie role in Red Skies of Montana (1952). Two years later, on the strength of his performance as a drill instructor in the Marine Corps movie Battle Cry (1955), he was placed under contract at Warner Brothers. He co-starred (as a drill instructor again) in another Marine Corps story, The Outsider (1961), which earned him a Universal contract and his own TV series, 87th Precinct (1961) (1961-62) with Robert Lansing.87, natural causes- Anne James was born on 15 April 1932 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Sound Off (1952), Pecos River (1951) and Barbed Wire (1952). She was married to Donald E Sheehan. She died on 25 March 2015 in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, USA.83, undisclosed cause
- Bek Nelson was born on 8 May 1927 in Goin, Tennessee, USA. She was an actress, known for Bell Book and Candle (1958), Lawman (1958) and Burke's Law (1963). She was married to Don Gordon. She died on 28 March 2015 in Watsonville, California, USA.88, undisclosed cause
- Actor
- Producer
Robert Z'Dar was born Robert James Zdarsky on June 3, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois. He caught the acting bug while attending Proviso West High School in Hillside. He received a BFA from Arizona State University. Prior to acting Z'Dar was a singer/keyboardist/guitar player for the Chicago-based rock band Nova Express, which performed as an opening act for such groups as Jefferson Airplane, The Who, and The Electric Prunes. Other early jobs included a jingle writer for the Leo Burnett and J. Walter Thompson ad agencies, a Chicago police officer, and even a brief stint as a Chippendales dancer.
Big, brawny and imposing, with an enormous face, gigantic jaw, and a massive, muscular physique, the hulking 6'2" Z'Dar projected a strong, aggressive, and intimidating screen presence that was ideally suited for the steady succession of mean, nasty, and extremely scary larger-than-life villains he often portrayed throughout a career that spanned over three decades. Z'Dar acted in his film debut in the mid-1980's. He achieved his greatest and most enduring cult movie fame as the vengeful, relentless, and seemingly indestructible undead New York City police officer Matt Cordell in the immensely entertaining "Maniac Cop" pictures. Among Z'Dar's other memorable roles were a prison guard in the enjoyably sleazy "Hellhole," a crazed prostitute-murdering serial killer in "The Night Stalker" (this part directly led to Z'Dar being cast as Matt Cordell), a vicious criminal who savagely beats up Sylvestor Stallone in "Tango and Cash," the Angel of Death in "Soultaker," a smooth drug dealer in the delightfully outrageous "The Divine Enforcer," and Linnea Quigley's abusive husband in "The Rockville Slayer."
A popular frequent guest at horror film conventions, Z'Dar also produced several movies and continued to act with pleasing regularity in a slew of features up until his death from cardiac arrest at age 64 on March 30, 2015.64, cardiac arrest (had suffered a major heart ailment a month prior to his death)- Wally Cassell was born on 3 March 1912 in Agrigento, Sicily, Italy. He was an actor, known for White Heat (1949), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Story of G.I. Joe (1945). He was married to Marcy McGuire. He died on 2 April 2015 in Palm Desert, California, USA.103, natural causes
- Tom Towles was a character player, often cast as scumbags or obnoxious men, who worked for more than a decade in Chicago theatre, before establishing himself in films and TV beginning in the late 80s - often in lower-budget fare. Towles drifted into acting after serving in the Marine Corps. Although he made an isolated appearance in a bit role in Dog Day Afternoon (1975) with Al Pacino, he returned to Chicago and became a member of the Organic Theatre Company appearing in numerous productions and often collaborating on the writing as well. Towles also acted with the prestigious Goodman Theatre there. It was 1985 before Towles was again in front of the cameras, this time as a lounge lizard in Pink Nights (1985). The next year, he was the despicable, loathsome Otis in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986). In 1990, Towles played Harry Cooper, the guy everyone else trapped in the farmhouse would most like to sacrifice to the zombies in the remake of Night of the Living Dead (1990). Towles' TV work has been ongoing since he appeared as J.J., the hunted killer in Pilot (1987), the two-hour pilot for a Robert Conrad series. He was Norman Stoneface, true to his name, in the 1994 Showtime movie Girls in Prison (1994), and also appeared in numerous TV episodes.
Other films includes Mad Dog and Glory (1993), Fortress (1992), Blood In, Blood Out (1993), The Rock (1996), Doctor Dolittle (1998) and Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses (2003).65, complications from a stroke - Richard Dysart served for four years in the Air Force during the Korean War. He was a founding member of the American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco. He received the Drama Desk Award in 1972 and a Emmy Award in 1992. He was good friends with Diana Muldaur, who played Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law.86, unspecified cancer
- Actor
- Director
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American character actor and teacher. Born Jewel Guy in Powderly, Kentucky, on July 26, 1926, he was orphaned at three and adopted by Armen and Essa Knowland Best, who renamed him James Knowland Best and raised him in Corydon, Indiana. Following high school he worked briefly as a metalworker before joining the Army during World War II in July 1944. The majority of his service was as an MP in Wiesbaden, Germany just after the end of the war. While still in Germany, Best was transferred to Special Services and began his acting career. According to Best, he first acted in a European tour of "My Sister Eileen" directed by Arthur Penn. Upon his return to the U.S., he toured in road and stock companies in plays and musicals, and was finally spotted by a scout from Universal Pictures, who put him under contract. A handsome young man, his rural inflections perhaps kept him from frequent leading man roles. During the 1950s and '60s, he was a familiar face in movies and television in a wide range of roles, from Western bad guys to craven cowards and country bumpkins. Physical ailments curtailed his work for a long period late in his career, and he established a well-respected acting workshop in Los Angeles. He also served as artist-in-residence at the University of Mississippi, teaching and directing. He worked in both acting and producing capacities for Burt Reynolds on several of the latter's films in the late 1970s, before taking on his greatest commercial success. Although the The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) TV series was far beneath his talents, his role as Sheriff Rosco Coltrane was the part that gave him his greatest fame. He continued teaching, both in Hollywood and later in Florida (at the University of Central Florida). Semi-retired, he makes personal appearances and exhibits his paintings. James Best starred in the 2007 feature film, Moondance Alexander (2007), along with Don Johnson, Lori Loughlin, Kay Panabaker, Sasha Cohen and Whitney Sloan.88, pneumonia- Actor
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Stan Freberg grew up in Los Angeles, California. From an early age he was a big fan of radio and sound. He was blessed with the double abilities of being an amazing mimic and possessing a razor-sharp satirical mind. In the early 1940s he began to do voice work for both the Warner Brothers' cartoons (some of his characters included Junyer Bear and one half of the Goofy Gophers) and radio (he worked on both "The Jack Benny Show" and "Suspense"). When Robert Clampett left Warners, he worked with Freberg to co-create the puppet show Time for Beany (1949). In the early 1950s Freberg began making a series of satirical records, mostly aimed at the still-new genre of rock and roll. He became one of the first comedians to produce an album.
As non-music radio began dying off in popularity at the end of the 1950s, Freberg found a new niche in the world of advertising. He wrote, performed and produced a series of radio spots that are still talked about today; several of his commercials have been enshrined in both the Museum of Radio & Television and the Smithsonian.
Freberg continued being an active force in radio and satire, and was a living inspiration to many modern comics ('Weird Al' Yankovic credits Freberg as the main reason he got into comedy). For example, Freberg was the voice of the syndicated radio program "When Radio Was" from 1995 until October 6, 2006 when Chuck Schaden took over as host.88, pneumonia- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Talented and highly capable character actor Geoffrey Lewis, with rustic (sometimes sour-faced) looks, grew up in Rhode Island but was moved out to California at the age of ten. Lewis was very keen on the dramatic arts at high school, but often preferred to put on his own one-man shows rather than participate in larger school productions. His drama teacher took note of his growing talent and referred him to the Plymouth Theater in Massachusetts, where he appeared in summer stock. Afterwards he appeared in several off-Broadway productions in New York City. After spending considerable time traveling, in both the United States and abroad, Lewis turned his attention back to his love of the dramatic arts, and scored his first minor movie role in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972) as a somewhat jovial but deadly cowhand. He then cropped up as gangster Harry Pierpont in Dillinger (1973) before beginning a long association with Clint Eastwood, starting off with High Plains Drifter (1973), then as kind-hearted thief Eddie Goody in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), as Clint's buddy Orville Boggs in Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980), then as a henpecked husband in Bronco Billy (1980), as Ricky Z in Pink Cadillac (1989), and in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) also as patient Michael Kahn in Disturbed (1990).
Equally busy on the small screen, he has guest-starred in dozens of episodes of high profile TV series. Additionally, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the series Flo (1980). Apart from his extensive film and TV exposure, Lewis is also a member of the rather unique musical/storytelling "Celestial Navigations," along with award-winning composer songwriter Geoff Levin. Their performances have received terrific reviews from some of Hollywood's top actors and noted musicians, including Chick Corea. As Geoffrey Lewis approaches his seventh decade, nothing seems likely to slow down this multi-talented actor, storyteller and engaging entertainer!79, heart attack- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Alabama-born Percy Sledge had a somewhat unusual introduction to the music business. Working as an orderly in a local hospital, he was touring with a local band called the Esquires Combo on weekends and working at the hospital during the week. A former patient at the hospital who knew both Sledge and local record producer Quin Ivy introduced them to each other. Ivy was impressed with Sledge's emotional style of singing and signed him to a recording contract. Sledge hit it big with his first record, the classic "When a Man Loves a Woman", released by Atlantic Records, which went on to become a worldwide hit (and, incidentally, the first Atlantic record to go gold). Although Sledge never had another hit as big as "When a Man Loves a Woman," he did manage to place several follow-up records on the charts. He still tours today, and has an especially large following in Europe.74, liver cancer- Actress
- Writer
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One of four children (two older brothers, one younger sister) born to American missionaries, Jayne Meadows (née Jane Cotter) was born September 27, 1919, in China. The family returned to the US in the early 1930s wherein Jayne was forced to learn the English language, speaking Chinese and other foreign languages at the time before learning English. She settled in Sharon, Connecticut with her parents, Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter (who was appointed rector of the town's Christ Church), and Ida Miller (Taylor) Cotter.
She developed an early interest in acting and studied at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. She made her Broadway debut with the comedy "Spring Again" (1941), followed by "Another Love Story" (1943), "The Odds on Mrs. Oakley" (1944), "Many Happy Returns" and "Kiss Them for Me" (1945). This led to a post-WWII, MGM contract in which her icy glare and imposing stance frequently made her the perfect manipulating "other woman" in such "B" heavy drama as Undercurrent (1946), Lady in the Lake (1946), Dark Delusion (1947), Enchantment (1948), The Fat Man (1951) and as Michal in the biblical film David and Bathsheba (1951). She occasionally was featured in lighter feature film fare as well, including Song of the Thin Man (1947) and The Luck of the Irish (1948).
Not satisfactorily moving up the credits ladder in films as she hoped, she sought work elsewhere in the early 1950's, especially in the new medium of TV. She became one of Hollywood's more glittery personalities on TV and variety programs, and a sparkling guest panelist on such popular TV game shows as "The Name's the Same, "Masquerade Party, "What's My Line," "To Tell the Truth" and "Password." At one point, she was a regular member of the celebrity panel on I've Got a Secret (1952).
Divorced from film and TV writer Milton Krims after six years, Jayne met her witty match when she married actor/comedian Steve Allen in 1954. They formed an extremely strong personal and professional relationship which would encompass stage ("Love Letters", in which they co-starred on and off for 11 years), film (College Confidential (1960), and especially TV (Meeting of Minds (1977)). Jayne supported Steve as a regular/guest on many of his comedy series ventures, including The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1956), The New Steve Allen Show (1961), The Steve Allen Playhouse (1962) and The Steve Allen Comedy Hour (1967). They appeared as themselves in the film The Player (1992) they did not appear as themselves in the amusing TV movie Now You See It, Now You Don't (1968) and the all-star TV version of Alice in Wonderland (1985).
Jayne's solo work took a deliberate back seat. Usually playing elegant sophisticates, she cameoed in such films as the ribald comedy Norman... Is That You? (1976); the crime thriller Murder by Numbers (1989); as Billy Crystal's mother in the comedies City Slickers (1991) and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994); and made an appearance in what would become her last feature film The Story of Us (1999).
Over a three-decade period, Jayne appeared in a number of TV movies, including James Dean (1976), Sex and the Married Woman (1977), Miss All-American Beauty (1982), A Masterpiece of Murder (1986) and Parent Trap: Hawaiian Honeymoon (1989). She also guested on numerous established programs as well -- "Here Comes the Bride," "Here's Lucy," "Adam-12," "Switch," "Hawaii 5-O," "Matt Houston," "Fantasy Island," "Murder, She Wrote," "The Love Boat," "St. Elsewhere," "The Bold and the Beautiful," "The Nanny" and "Diagnosis Murder." Steady roles on prime-time TV series would include a recurring part as Nurse Chambers on the medical program Medical Center (1969), as well as regular roles on the sitcoms It's Not Easy (1982) and High Society (1995), the latter for which she earned an Emmy nomination for "Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy."
Known for her infectious laugh and joie de vivre, Jayne's confidence grew to include writing stage plays, teleplays, books, and columns. For the most part, however, she was Allen's creative and dedicated business partner for 46 years until his death in 2000. Younger sister Audrey Meadows, of The Honeymooners (1955) TV fame, died in 1996.
Jayne Meadows Allen lived the rest of her life quietly, occasionally granting interviews, until her death on April 26, 2015 in Los Angeles, aged 95.95, natural causes- Music Artist
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Ben E. King was born on 28 September 1938 in Henderson, North Carolina, USA. He was a music artist and composer, known for Stand by Me (1986), Love and Monsters (2020) and Cloverfield (2008). He was married to Betty Nelson. He died on 30 April 2015 in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA.76, natural causes (health had been deteriorating for a few years prior)- Actress
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Grace Lee Whitney was a versatile actress and vocalist born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Beginning as a "girl singer" on Detroit's WJR radio, she soon opened in nightclubs for Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich, and toured with the Spike Jones and Fred Waring Bands. Grace debuted on Broadway in "Top Banana", and subsequently appeared in the United Artists film Top Banana (1954). Grace is probably best known for her portrayal of Yeoman Janice Rand on the original Star Trek (1966) series. She later reprised her role for a string of successful Star Trek films: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Grace continued to delight fans in personal appearances at conventions and events throughout North America and Europe. In 1998, she appeared in an episode of Diagnosis Murder (1993) with her Star Trek castmates George Takei, Walter Koenig and Majel Barrett. Grace Lee Whitney died at age 85 of natural causes in her home in Coarsegold, California on May 1, 2015.85, natural causes- Actress
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The multifaceted Ellen Albertini was a student of dance and piano at the age of five, and obtained a B.A. and M.A. in theater from Cornell University. She moved to New York, and studied and worked with the legendary likes of Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Michael Shurtleff, Uta Hagen, Marcel Marceau, and Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She was an acting coach before she made her debut film appearance in American Drive-in (1985), and later became memorable as the rapping grandmother in The Wedding Singer (1998), "Disco Dottie" in 54 (1998) and the homophobic grandmother in Wedding Crashers (2005).101, pneumonia- Actor
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Gilbert Lewis was born on 6 April 1941 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Don Juan DeMarco (1994), Candyman (1992) and Across 110th Street (1972). He died on 7 May 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.79, undisclosed cause- Elizabeth Wilson was born April 4, 1921, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Marie Ethel and Dunning Wilson. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Elizabeth's film debut was in Notorious (1946) in an uncredited role. She later appeared in Patterns (1956), and her performance was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Film. With over 70 film and television appearances, we should acknowledge her work in The Graduate (1967), 9 to 5 (1980), The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), The Addams Family (1991), and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001).94, natural causes
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Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 - May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato and staccato picking that influenced many later blues electric guitar players. AllMusic recognized King as "the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century".
King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of the Blues", and is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and Freddie King, none of whom are related). King performed tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing on average at more than 200 concerts per year into his 70s. In 1956 alone, he appeared at 342 shows.
King was born on a cotton plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, and later worked at a cotton gin in Indianola, Mississippi. He was attracted to music and the guitar in church, and he began his career in Juke joints and local radio. He later lived in Memphis and Chicago; then, as his fame grew, toured the world extensively. King died at the age of 89 in Las Vegas on May 14, 2015.89, vascular dementia caused by a series of small strokes as a consequence of his type 2 diabetes- Actor
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A 1941 graduate of Mary D. Bradford High School in Kenosha, where he served on the student council and participated in forensics under dramatic coach John Davies, he took second place in the National Forensics League national contest in Lexington, Kentucky in dramatic declaration and oratorical declamation. (The Kenosha team won the meet that year over 800-plus contestants.) By 1948, he was working in radio and joined television in its infancy, becoming the commercial announcer for "I Love Lucy" in 1951. He was married for sixty years.92, Alzheimer's disease- Actress
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Mary Ellen Trainor was born in Chicago, Illinois. She appeared in many feature-films of the 1980s, notable characters include, Elaine, the kidnapped sister of Kathleen Turner and the catalyst for the entire plot in Romancing the Stone (1984), Dr. Stephanie Woods (LA Police Psychiatrist) in in all four Lethal Weapon (1987) films, Mrs. Walsh Mikey and Brand's (Sean Astinand Josh Brolin) mom in The Goonies (1985), news reporter Gail Wallens in Die Hard (1988) and Ricochet (1991).62, pancreatic cancer- Actor
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John Carter was born on 26 November 1927 in Center Ridge, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Andromeda Strain (1971), Celebrity (1998) and Badlands (1973). He was married to Kendall Thompson Friede (Fewel) and Barbara Jane Williams. He died on 23 May 2015 in New York City, New York, USA.87, pneumonia- Actress
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The incredibly gifted comedienne-actress Anne Meara is known for her comedic efforts alongside husband-comedian, Jerry Stiller; together, they were 'Stiller and Meara'; they were original members of the improvisational company, the Compass Players, which later evolved as the Second City Theater. They gained popularity with their skits on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948), but the act dissolved following the demise of variety television. Meara went on to offer her talents to a variety of television roles, notably the Golden Globe-winning Sally Gallagher in Rhoda (1974), and Veronica Rooney, an outspoken Irish cook in the hit sitcom Archie Bunker's Place (1979). In later years, Meara played reoccurring characters in Sex and the City (1998) and The King of Queens (1998).85, multiple strokes- John Nash was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, differential geometry, and the study of partial differential equations. Nash's work has provided insight into the factors that govern chance and decision-making inside complex systems found in everyday life.
His theories are widely used in economics. Serving as a Senior Research Mathematician at Princeton University during the latter part of his life, he shared the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi. In 2015, he also shared the Abel Prize with Louis Nirenberg for his work on nonlinear partial differential equations.
Nash's mental illness first began to manifest in the form of paranoia; his wife later describing his behavior as erratic. Nash seemed to believe that all men who wore red ties were part of a communist conspiracy against him; Nash mailed letters to embassies in Washington, D.C., declaring that they were establishing a government. Nash's psychological issues crossed into his professional life when he gave an American Mathematical Society lecture at Columbia University in 1959. Originally intended to present proof of the Riemann hypothesis, the lecture was incomprehensible. Colleagues in the audience immediately realized that something was wrong.
He was admitted to McLean Hospital in April 1959, staying through May of the same year. There, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, a person suffering from the disorder is typically dominated by relatively stable, often paranoid, fixed beliefs that are either false, over-imaginative or unrealistic, and usually accompanied by experiences of seemingly real perception of something not actually present. Further signs are marked particularly by auditory and perceptional disturbances, a lack of motivation for life, and mild clinical depression.
In 1961, Nash was admitted to the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton. Over the next nine years, he spent periods in psychiatric hospitals, where he received both antipsychotic medications and insulin shock therapy.
His struggles with his illness and his recovery became the basis for Sylvia Nasar's biography, A Beautiful Mind, as well as a film of the same name starring Russell Crowe.
On May 23, 2015, Nash and his wife, Alicia Nash, were killed in a car crash while riding in a taxi on the New Jersey Turnpike.86, automobile accident - William Newman made his film debut in the Stuart Rosenberg film Brubaker (1980), starring Robert Redford, and followed this up with The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) opposite Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange.
Acting roles continued through out the 1980s with roles in the Stephen King horror film Silver Bullet (1985) alongside Gary Busey and Corey Haim, the drama The Mosquito Coast (1986) with Harrison Ford and River Phoenix, and the Chevy Chase comedy Funny Farm (1988). He played a sheriff in the The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James (1986) and appeared in George A. Romero's Monkey Shines (1988) proving that, as a character actor, he has the ability to adapt to various genres.
During the 1990s, work for Newman did not slow down. He appeared in: Leprechaun (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Stephen King's The Stand (1994) opposite Rob Lowe, The Craft (1996) and Touch (1997), the latter two films with Skeet Ulrich.
Newman has since worked steady in film, but is also a familiar face on TV, his roles including Eerie, Indiana (1991) episode 'Mr Chaney', Picket Fences (1992), and My Name Is Earl (2005).80, vascular dementia - Actress
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Betsy Palmer was probably best known for playing Jason Voorhees' mother in the horror film Friday the 13th (1980), but her career as an actress began many years before.
Palmer was born Patricia Betsy Hrunek in East Chicago, Indiana, to Marie (née Love), who launched the Chicago Business College, and Rudolph Vincent Hrunek, a Czech-born industrial chemist. Palmer played a young female officer opposite Jack Lemmon in Mister Roberts (1955), and appeared in another war film the same year, The Long Gray Line (1955). Throughout the late 1950s, Palmer was recognized as a news reporter on Today (1952) on NBC, then became largely involved in television. She remained in made-for-TV films and notable guest appearances, before playing the murderous avenging mother, Mrs. Voorhees, in the horror film Friday the 13th (1980). She also continued working in television, and appearing in low-budget films like The Fear: Resurrection (1999). Palmer spent her later years between her home in New York City and Sedona, Arizona.
Betsy Palmer died of natural causes on a Friday, May 29, 2015, at a hospice care center in Danbury, Connecticut.88, natural causes- Actor
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Jim Bailey started out in the 1950s in the Nationally Syndicated show The Children's hour. By the early 1960s he turned to Theater on and Off Broadway and in Summer Stock acting and singing. His first break was being cast in the 1962 Off Broadway musical Fly Blackbird, co-starring Robert Guillaume . It was nominated for two Obie Awards. He went on to perform in other plays and musicals such as The Diary of Anne Frank, The Boyfriend, Wildcat, The Bells are Ringing and Calamity Jane with Ginger Rogers.
He would go onto a career in Television, Movies and theater and headline some of the Worlds major concert venues. He had several appearances at New York's Carnegie Hall (which was recorded and released in 1973) London's Palladium, Los Angeles' Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, Shubert Theater and Hollywood Bowl , Toronto's O'Keefe Center and Boston's Symphony Hall and most of the main showrooms in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. He has also performed in Europe, Australia, Canada, South America and South Africa.
Among the high points of his career are televised performances for the The Queen of England and Prince Phillip in 1973 and Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1992. He also did performances for American Presidents. He appeared at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid in 1981 and Super Night at the Super-bowl in New Orleans in 1978. Both of these performances had a worldwide audience. Most of these performances are online.
In 1970 Army Archerd said in his column " Jim Bailey is responsible for bringing the art of female impersonation onto mainstream television." His appearance as Judy Garland on the Ed Sullivan Show was such a phenomenon he was asked back In January 1971 to perform again and was booked onto The Carol Burnett Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. In 1972 Here's Lucy and What's my line followed and then went onto some of the hottest Variety shows of the 1970s' such as The Dean Martin Show, The Merv Griffin Show and The Mike Douglas Show. In the United Kingdom he performed on David Frosts show and Russell Hartys show. .
In his nationally syndicated newspaper column Earl Wilson said 'Jim bailey is the hottest thing in show business.." By the mid 1970s he turned to acting roles on such shows as Switch, The Rockford Files and Vegas. By the 1980s he was in the Emmy nominated episode of Night Court playing the Transexual Chip/ Charlene.
A character actor, singer and comedian, he has long specialized in bringing to life some of America's most revered female performers, including Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand Phyllis Diller and Peggy Lee. An accomplished singer in his own right with an operatic background and a degree from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, Jim also performs as himself and has several recordings.
Among his other career highlights was performing with Judy Garland in Los Angeles in 1964. The recreation with Liza Minnelli of the famous " Judy and Liza at the London Palladium" in Las Vegas in 1972 . He also performed a concert for Barbra Streisand and other Hollywood heavyweights like Clint Eastwood and Warren Beatty in Los Angeles in 1995.
Later theater credits included "Tallulah and Tennessee" co-starring screen icon Bette Garett, "Mae West at the club El Fey" , "Me and Jezebel". "Fragile Fire", (directed by the late Paul Winfield), "Nightclub Confidential" and his last acting role was Ally Mcbeal playing Harold Dale in 2001. By the time of his death in 2015 his varied career had lasted 60 years.
He also had The Jim Bailey Theater in Palm Springs, CA.77, complications from pneumonia- Actor
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Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).
Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.
After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948). He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.
Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking. However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions.
Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends. Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).
Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).
By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.
Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family.93, respiratory problems and heart failure- Actor
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Equipped with a crooked, leering smirk and devilish gleam in his eye, actor Ron Moody will be most assuredly remembered for one signature role, despite the fact that the talented comedian had much, much more to offer. Carol Channing may have had her Dolly Levi and Yul Brynner his King of Siam, but Moody would become the most delightfully mischievous, engagingly musical villain of all time.
The son of a plasterer born in London in 1924, Ron never gave much of a look at pursuing the acting field until age 29. Prior to that he had entertained thoughts of becoming an economist or sociologist (trained at the London School of Economics). But, changing his destiny on the way, he became a top stand-up and improv revue artist in England (from 1952), making an inauspicious film bow in 1957 in an unbilled bit. It was the British musical stage that offered him his first taste of stardom with the London company of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" in 1959. Although it was not a great success, however, it did lead to the role of a lifetime the following year as Fagin, the loveable, rapscallious pickpocket in the musical version of "Oliver Twist" simply entitled Oliver!.
Moody later bandied about in other roguish roles too in such TV series as The Avengers (1961) and in the comedies The Mouse on the Moon (1963) and Murder Most Foul (1964), both starring Margaret Rutherford. But in 1968, Ron was given the opportunity to transfer his Dickensian stage thief to film. Oliver! (1968) allowed him to steal a well-deserved Golden Globe trophy and Oscar nomination in the process, not to mention Hollywood interest. Although he never again matched the success of Oliver! (1968), Moody's portrayal of Uriah Heep in a TV version of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield (1970) became another a great success. Other offbeat cinematic roles, both dramatic and sharply comic, included such films as The Twelve Chairs (1970), Flight of the Doves (1971), Legend of the Werewolf (1975), Dogpound Shuffle (1975), Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979) (aka: Unidentified Flying Oddball, as Merlin), Wrong Is Right (1982), Where Is Parsifal? (1984), Emily's Ghost (1992), A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995) (as Merlin), The 3 Kings (2000), Revelation (2001), Paradise Grove (2003) and Lost Dogs (2005).
Despite his fine work elsewhere, the role of Fagin would be Moody's long-lasting claim to fame. He reprised the part at a 1985 in a Royal Variety Performance at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, before Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Throughout his TV career, Moody's presence and/or voice graced several children's series including the adaptations of Into the Labyrinth (1981) and The Telebugs (1986), and he was occasionally on TV here in the U.S., including 80s episodes of "Hart to Hart," "Highway to Heaven" and "Murder, She Wrote."
The endearing Ron Moody died at age 91 in London.91, natural causes- Actor
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"The American Dream" has been one of the most popular and colorful professional wrestlers in history. Rhodes began wrestling in the 1960s and gained a reputation as a fast-talking, hard-rocking wrestler. He teamed early in his career with fellow Texan, the late Dick Murdoch, and, for more than 20 years, they wreaked havoc in on- and off-again tag team appearances. Rhodes, always a tough brawler with a few "scientific" moves, finally won his first NWA World heavyweight championship by beating "Handsome" Harley Race in 1979. Although his first title reign would last less than a week, Rhodes managed to capture the NWA title on two more occasions. Today, Rhodes runs a small promotion called "Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling" and continues to wrestle. His son, Dustin Rhodes, appears as "Golddust" on Spike TV's WWE Raw (1993) series.69, kidney failure- Actor
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Once an overweight comic from Canada, Rick Ducommun slimmed down in the late 1980s and went on to tackle solid co-starring roles in feature films and TV, as well as headline several HBO and other pay-cable specials.
Ducommun grew up on a farm, the son of an entrepreneur father with whom he did not get along. Running away from home at age 14, he hitchhiked around the northern U.S., often living in communes, until returning to Canada at age 17, this time to Vancouver.
On a dare, Ducommun tried to do stand-up comedy at a Vancouver club. He was not only asked back, but bitten by the show business bug. He began playing clubs in Canada, hosted his own children's show, "ZigZag," and was put on TV by Alan Thicke, who was then hosting a talk show out of Vancouver.
When Thicke made his deal to do Thicke of the Night (1983), a late-night talk show from L.A., he brought Ducommun down to be announcer and a performer. When the show flopped, Ducommun began performing at L.A. clubs and acting in sitcoms. He was one of the zany cops on The Last Precinct (1986) -- a short-lived NBC show, and Mahler on Max Headroom (1987). Ducommun also played small parts in films, beginning with No Small Affair (1984) but found himself limited by a frame carrying 426 lb. He slimmed down more than 200 lb., and won the role of Art Weingartner, the dumb lug nosy neighbor to Tom Hanks in The 'Burbs (1989).
Despite good reaction to his work, the film was not a success, and Ducommun found himself mixing live performances in with his occasional film work, including an appearance in Blank Check (1994).
HBO did a special with Ducommun in 1989 called Rick Ducommun: Piece of Mind (1989), which was well received, as was the follow-up, "Hit and Run" in 1992. Ducommun frequently hosted pay and cable programs featuring stand-up comedy and was an regular performer on the Comedy Channel, later renamed, Comedy Central.62, complications from diabetes- Actress
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For almost two decades, Monica Lewis was the idealized, wholesomely sexy sound and image of apple-pie America, lending a curvaceous, dimpled smile and melodious voice of hope to thousands of U.S. troops through two of the 20th century's greatest wars. She starred on the very first "Ed Sullivan Show" telecast, had numerous hit records including "Put the Blame on Mame", "A Tree in the Meadow", "A Kiss to Build a Dream On", "Autumn Leaves" and "I Wish You Love", and provided the memorable singing voice for the popular cartoon character, "Miss Chiquita Banana".
Monica's course to classic song-styling was set as a child. She was born May Bloom in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of three children of musical parents, Jessie H. (Lewis) and Abe Leon Bloom, both of Russian Jewish descent. Her father was a symphonic composer and pianist, and her mother sang with the Chicago Opera Company. After the Great Depression forced the Lewis clan to relocate from Chicago to New York City, there was no shortage of sibling rivalry: Monica's sister, Barbara Lewis, established herself as an accomplished concert pianist, while her brother, Marlo Lewis, co-created Ed Sullivan's landmark television show, The Ed Sullivan Show (1948).
Having studied voice with her mother since a mere toddler, Monica quit junior college at 17 to work as a radio vocalist. In the mid-1940s, she had her own program on WMCA. This and other early airwaves successes led to her debut at Manhattan's legendary Stork Club and subsequent discovery by the "King of Swing", Benny Goodman, who signed her to appear with his popular band. She quickly ascended as a radio vocalist and co-host on programs including "Beat the Band", "The Revere Camera Hour" and "The Chesterfield Show", sharing the microphone with Frank Sinatra. She became one of the country's highest-flying songbirds, working with record labels such as Signature, Decca, Jubilee, Capitol and Verve to create numerous timeless hits and classic albums.
Her TV appearances included Ed Sullivan's very first broadcast in 1948 and every major variety show opposite legends, including Bob Hope, Danny Thomas and the comedy duo of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, with whom she first appeared at New York's Copacabana.
Records and television led to movies and, in 1950, MGM signed Monica to an exclusive multimedia contract. She was groomed in true MGM style - given singing and romantic roles in such films as The Strip (1951) with Mickey Rooney, Inside Straight (1951) with Barry Sullivan and Excuse My Dust (1951) with Red Skelton. She also sang the title song in the Marge Champion and Gower Champion musical, Everything I Have Is Yours (1952), in which she became the only woman other than Marge to ever dance on screen with Gower. Additional appearances followed in Affair with a Stranger (1953), starring Victor Mature and Jean Simmons, and The D.I. (1957) with Jack Webb.
Monica eagerly volunteered her talent for the war effort, becoming the darling of U.S. servicemen worldwide through the war bond drive, military radio broadcasts and a 1951 USO tour of South Korea with celebrated entertainer Danny Kaye. Back at home, she delighted the masses as a chart-topping jukebox chanteuse and Burlington Mills hosiery's "Miss Leg-O-Genic". Piel's Light Beer, Camel Cigarettes, Pepsi-Cola and General Electric were among the many other major companies which sold their products with Monica's visage and, for 14 years, she provided the tuneful voice of the animated "Miss Chiquita Banana" in a series of classic cartoon shorts which were shown in movie theaters.
When she married colorful and innovative MCA/Universal Studios production executive Jennings Lang in 1956, she not only became his partner but the mother of his young children: Michael Lang, now a jazz pianist, and Robert, an attorney. Monica and Jennings had a third child together, Rocky Lang, now a noted Hollywood writer, director and producer. She was a featured player in several of her husband's blockbuster Universal movies, including Charley Varrick (1973), Rollercoaster (1977), Airport '77 (1977), The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979), and the Top 100 box-office hit, Earthquake (1974). In the 1980s and 1990s, Monica made a few choice cabaret appearances and recorded several new albums, among them "My Favorite Things", "Monica Lewis Swings Jule Styne" and "Why Did I Choose You?", a tribute to her 40-year marriage to Lang. Monica wrote a photo-filled memoir, "Hollywood Through My Eyes", which is available from Cable Publishing.
Monica Lewis died on June 12, 2015, in Woodland Hills, California.93, natural causes- Kirk Kerkorian was born on 6 June 1917 in Fresno, California, USA. He was a producer, known for The Promise (2016) and Where I Stand: The Hank Greenspun Story (2008). He was married to Una Davis, Lisa Bonder, Jean Maree Hardy and Hilda Schmidt. He died on 15 June 2015 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.98, undisclosed cause
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Tony Longo was a working character actor for more than three decades. Born in New Jersey, he moved out to Los Angeles and within the first few weeks landed a recurring role on the hit TV series "Alice". In that same year he did his first 3 films, "16 Candles", "Splash" and "Fletch". Next he was cast as a series regular in "Helltown", his first of 6 television series over the 30 year span. Others included "1st & Ten" (HBO's first successful series), "Police Academy", "Shakey Ground". He made more than 100 guest spots on every type of show. Playing the Big Guy, Big and Dumb, Big and Bad, or Big Bad and Dumb. All which seem to work in both comedies and dramas, because of the innocence and realism he brings to roles. Longo seemed to find his home in feature films. His wide range got him cast in "Angels in the Outfield", "HouseGuest", Flinstones-Viva Rock Vegas" and "How 2 Lose a Guy in 10 Days". He also co-starred in suspense action films, "Eraser", "Last Boyscout", "Rapid Fire". He completed "Jake's Corner", "Fall of Night" and "Pete Smalls is Dead" before his death.53, congestive heart failure and kidney complications- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
James Horner began studying piano at the age of five, and trained at the Royal College of Music in London, England, before moving to California in the 1970s. After receiving a bachelor's degree in music at USC, he would go on to earn his master's degree at UCLA and teach music theory there. He later completed his Ph.D. in Music Composition and Theory at UCLA. Horner began scoring student films for the American Film Institute in the late 1970s, which paved the way for scoring assignments on a number of small-scale films. His first large, high-profile project was composing music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), which would lead to numerous other film offers and opportunities to work with world-class performers such as the London Symphony Orchestra. With over 75 projects to his name, and work with people such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Oliver Stone, and Ron Howard, Horner firmly established himself as a strong voice in the world of film scoring. In addition, Horner composed a classical concert piece in the 1980s, called "Spectral Shimmers", which was world premiered by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Horner passed away in a plane crash on June 22, 2015, two months short of his 62nd birthday.61, airplane crash- Dick Van Patten began acting as a child. He made his first of 27 Broadway appearances at age seven in "Tapestry in Grey." After, he appeared in numerous films, including Freaky Friday (1976), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and Spaceballs (1987). His television credits include his best-known role on the 1980s comedy-drama Eight Is Enough (1977), on which he played Tom Bradford, the patriarchal head of the pack.
Van Patten authored several bestselling books, including "How To Get Your Child Into Show Business" and his autobiography, "Eighty Is Not Enough." He was also known for lending his name to "Natural Balance," a line of high-end dog food that is intended to be indistinguishable from stews and other dishes, that are normally intended for human consumption. He was married to Pat Poole (née Patricia Poole) for 61 years; the union produced three sons: Nels Van Patten, James Van Patten, and Vincent Van Patten.86, complications from type-2 diabetes - Actor
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Producer
British actor Patrick Macnee was born on February 6, 1922 in London, England into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her partner. Shortly after graduating from Eton (from which he was almost expelled for running a gambling ring), Macnee first appeared on stage and made his film debut as an extra in Pygmalion (1938). His career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Royal Navy. After military service, Macnee attended the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art in London on scholarship. He also resumed his stage and film career, with bit parts such as Young Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol (1951). Disappointed with his limited roles, Macnee left England for Canada and the United States.
In 1954, he went to Broadway with an Old Vic troupe and later moved on to Hollywood, where he made occasional television and film appearances until returning to England in 1959. Once back home, he took advantage of his producing experience in Canada to become co-producer of the British television series Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (1960). Shortly thereafter, Macnee landed the role that brought him worldwide fame and popularity in the part of John Steed, in the classic British television series The Avengers (1961). His close identification with this character limited his career choices after the cancellation of the series in 1969, prompting him to reprise the role in The New Avengers (1976), which, though popular, failed to recapture the magic of the original series. During the 1980s and 1990s, Macnee became a familiar face on American television in such series as Gavilan (1982), Empire (1984), Thunder in Paradise (1994) and NightMan (1997). In the past decade, Macnee has also made several audio recordings of book fiction.93, natural causes- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Jack Carter was born on 24 June 1922 in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for History of the World: Part I (1981), Alligator (1980) and Amazing Stories (1985). He was married to Roxanne Wander, Paula Stewart and Joan Mann. He died on 28 June 2015 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.93, respiratory failure- Amanda Peterson was born on July 8, in Greeley, Colorado. With a natural beauty, powerful charm and a strong personality this talented and truly gifted actress began her career in film industry at age 9, with the feature film Annie (1982), directed by Academy Award-winner John Huston. To participate in "Annie", she had to persuade her mother and then compete in a casting which included more than 8000 girls. She is the youngest of three children, she has a sister, Ann-Marie Peterson, and a brother, Rev. Jim Peterson. Her mother, Sylvia Peterson, is a full-time mother and housewife and her father, James Peterson, is a doctor. Starting in 1981, Amanda had guest starring roles in television series such as Father Murphy (1981), Silver Spoons (1982) and Boone (1983). In 1985, she played alongside with Oscar nominee River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke, a four-time Oscar nominee, in Joe Dante fantasy-fable Explorers (1985). At 14 years of age this precocious young actress, had already participated in over 50 television commercials, three television series and four movies. She was also an active member of the Greeley Saddle Club, and horse riding was one of her passions since childhood. She met her greatest international success in 1987 with the comedy movie Can't Buy Me Love (1987), directed by Steve Rash. Amanda received critical praise worldwide and demonstrated that her skills were maturing into older roles. In 1987, in Chile, Amanda acted with her elder sister, Ann-Marie Peterson, Jsu Garcia and Xander Berkeley in the post-apocalyptic movie The Lawless Land (1988), directed by Jon Hess and produced by Academy Award-winner Roger Corman. In 1988, for her outstanding acting in the Emmy Award-winning television series A Year in the Life (1986), Amanda Peterson won the Young Artist Award in the category of Best Young Actress Starring in a Television Drama Series. These awards are often referred to as the Young Oscars. A year later she acted opposite Roy Scheider, two-time Oscar nominee, in the profound and moving drama Listen to Me (1989), directed by Oscar nominee Douglas Day Stewart. She also drew praise for is her performance in the excellent thriller Fatal Charm (1990), directed by Fritz Kiersch. In 1994, after participating in the memorable contemporary drama film Windrunner (1994), she decided to leave the entertainment industry. Amanda's work involves several genres, from western to romance, science fiction to thrillers, and from dramas to comedies.
Amanda found admirers on a global scale, with her delightful work. With her strong presence and dedication, she demonstrated a gift for portraying emotion and vulnerability, while immersing herself in here roles, while bringing here unique personality, an attribute that only the best actors have. In a Perfect World Amanda would have delivered many more quality character interpretations, whether in film or on television. With her movies she achieved immortality in the hearts of all who witnessed her work since her childhood. As Leonard Maltin, the most respected and recognized historian and film critic in America, once said - "Amanda Peterson is excellent". There is no doubt about that. After all, Amanda Peterson is one of the most talented and beautiful actress of her time and considered by many a legend. On July 3, 2015, Amanda Peterson died at her home in Greeley, Colorado, at the age 43 from an accidental morphine overdose.43, accidental drug overdose - Actress
- Additional Crew
Diana Douglas was born on 22 January 1923 in Devonshire, Bermuda. She was an actress, known for Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Remington Steele (1982) and The Whistle at Eaton Falls (1951). She was married to Donald Albert Webster, Bill Darrid and Kirk Douglas. She died on 3 July 2015 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.92, undisclosed cancer- Visual Effects
- Animation Department
- Additional Crew
Blaine Gibson was born on 11 February 1918 in Rocky Ford, Colorado, USA. He is known for Sleeping Beauty (1959), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He was married to Coral Estelle Comstock. He died on 5 July 2015 in Montecito, California, USA.97, heart failure- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Large (6'1"), affable, and commanding character actor Irwin Keyes was born on March 16, 1952 in New York City. Keyes grew up in Amityville, New York and graduated from Amityville Memorial High School in 1970. He acted in his first play "The Lower Depths" by Maxim Grody while attending college. Frequently cast as likable lugs, brutish goons, and imposing authority figures, Irwin acted in a diverse array of movies in such genres as horror ("Friday the 13th," "Guilty as Charged," "House of 1000 Corpses"), comedy ("The Private Eyes," "Zapped!;" hilarious as Wheezy Joe in "Intolerable Cruelty"), thriller ("Dream Lover"), science fiction (both "Oblivion" pictures), and action ("The Warriors," "The Exterminator" and its sequel). Keyes achieved his greatest enduring popularity with his recurring role as endearingly oafish bodyguard Hugo Majelewski on the hit sitcom "The Jeffersons." Among the TV shows that Irwin made guest appearances on are "Laverne & Shirley," "Police Squad!," "Moonlighting," "Married with Children," "thirtysomething," "Growing Pains," "Tales from the Crypt," and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Moreover, Keyes not only acted in TV commercials and music videos (he was very touching as a struggling down on his luck actor in the music video for "Good Enough" by Prozak), but also did voice overs for video games. Irwin lived in Los Angeles, California and continued to act with pleasing regularity right up until his death at age 63 on July 8, 2015.63, complications from acromegaly- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor best known for playing Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the title role in Doctor Zhivago (1965), was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub on April 10, 1932 in Alexandria, Egypt to Joseph Shalhoub, a lumber merchant, and his wife, Claire (Saada). Of Lebanese and Syrian extraction, the young Michel was raised Catholic. He was educated at Victoria College in Alexandria and took a degree in mathematics and physics from Cairo University with a major. Afterward graduating from university, he entered the family lumber business.
Before making his English-language film debut with "Lawrence of Arabia", for which he earned a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination and international fame, Sharif became a star in Egyptian cinema. His first movie was the Egyptian film The Blazing Sun (1954) ("The Blazing Sun") in 1953, opposite the renowned Egyptian actress Faten Hamamah whom he married in 1955. He converted to Islam to marry Hamama and took the name Omar al-Sharif. The couple had one child (Tarek Sharif, who was born in 1957 and portrayed the young Zhivago in the eponymous picture) and divorced in 1974. Sharif never remarried.
Beginning in the 1960s, Sharif earned a reputation as one of the world's best known contract bridge players. In the 1970s and 1980s, he co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune. Sharif also wrote several books on bridge and has licensed his name to a bridge computer game, "Omar Sharif Bridge", which has been marketed since 1992. Sharif told the press in 2006 that he no longer played bridge, explaining, "I decided I didn't want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work. I had too many passions, bridge, horses, gambling. I want to live a different kind of life, be with my family more because I didn't give them enough time.".
As an actor, Sharif had made a comeback in 2003 playing the title role of an elderly Muslim shopkeeper in the French film Monsieur Ibrahim (2003). For his performance, he won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Actor César, France's equivalent of the Oscar, from the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2012, Sharif died of a heart attack on July 10, 2015, in Cairo, Egypt.83, heart attack- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Like a number of British actors of the same generation (John Hurt and Alan Rickman, to name two), Roger Rees originally trained for the visual arts. He was born on May 5 1944 in Aberystwyth, Wales, and acted in church and Boy Scouts stage productions while growing up in South London, but studied painting and lithography at the Slade School of Art. He had to quit his studies, however, when his father died and he had to help support the family. His first paying jobs in show business were as a scenery painter. He was painting scenery, in fact, when he was asked to sub in for a part and made his acting debut. He put away his brushes for good after this.
He turned to acting on a full-time basis in the mid-1960s and appeared on both the London and Scottish stages. After his fourth audition, the Royal Shakespeare Company finally hired him as a walk-on, sword carrier and bit player in 1968. He then worked his way up through the RSC's ranks, finally achieving stardom in the early 1980s in the 8-1/2 hour stage adaptation of "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby", which had a cast of 40 actors, and for which he won both an Olivier Award and a Tony Award. Rees was also nominated for an Emmy Award for the television version of the play. By this time, he had several TV movies to his name, but he did not make his big-screen debut until Star 80 (1983).
Living in the United States since 1989, Roger made a name for himself in America when he joined the cast of the TV hit comedy Cheers (1982) as the priggish Britisher Robin Colcord and later the glib British ambassador Lord John Marbury on the series The West Wing (1999). More recently, he appeared as a frequent guest in several British and American television series and in a number of independent films.
However, Roger Rees remained primarily a man of the theatre with secondary careers as a playwright and stage director. Married to theatre collaborator Rick Elice since 2011, Roger was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. Performing on Broadway in the musical "The Visit" starring Chita Rivera, he was forced to quit the show in late May of 2015. The 71-year-old actor died on July 10, 2015.71, brain cancer- He was one of those delightful, typically British actors with a penchant for playing eccentrics. Early in his career, Jeremy Brett once quaintly introduced Aubrey Morris to Noël Coward as "the finest small-part player in London". Born Aubrey Steinberg of Jewish-Ukrainian ancestry, he was one of several siblings with artistic inclinations (his brother Wolfe Morris was also a noted character player). Aubrey studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London on a scholarship and made his stage debut in 1944. During the 1950s, he acted regularly on the West End stage, at the Old Vic, and on Broadway.
In addition to making excellent use of his Shakespearean-trained voice, his diminutive stature and beaming, toothy countenance proved a significant asset to a remarkable versatility on screen. Morris was adept at conveying unctuousness, cunning, duplicity, civility, or obsession with equal ease and in a wide variety of roles and genres. His many memorable performances include: the Freud-fixated writer Mr. Mybug in Cold Comfort Farm (1968); the sleazy probation officer Mr. Deltoid in A Clockwork Orange (1971); a sinister gravedigger in The Wicker Man (1973); the oily manservant Grosvenor, asking Michael Palin for the use of the 'naughty books', in "The Curse of the Claw" episode of Ripping Yarns (1976); the jolly captain of the 'B-Ark' (filled with such folk as telephone sanitizers), spending years luxuriating in his bubble-bath in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981); and last, but not least, the ancient thespian Chesterton, shuffling off this mortal coil while being read quotes from King Lear in HBO's Deadwood (2004).
Residing in the U.S. since the mid-1980s, Aubrey Morris continued to ply his trade right up until his death at the venerable age of 89.89, respiratory failure - Actor
- Producer
- Director
George Coe was born on 10 May 1929 in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and The Stepford Wives (1975). He was married to Karen Foray, Nancy Baker and Susan Allsopp Massaron. He died on 18 July 2015 in Santa Monica, California, USA.86, complications from lymphoma- Tough, gruff, thick-browed, volatile-looking character actor Alex Rocco was born Alessandro Federico Petricone, Jr. on February 29, 1936, to Italian immigrants in Cambridge, Mass. He grew up a member of Boston's Winter Hill gang (his nickname was "Bobo") and was briefly detained regarding a murder at one point after an alleged personal incident triggered the Boston Irish Gang War (1961-1967). Rocco decided to straighten his life and relocated to Hollywood in 1962 following his detainment and release.
Developing an interest in acting, Alex initially trained with such notable teachers as Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Corey in order to curb his thick Boston accent. Working as a bartender during the lean years, his film and TV career finally kick-started in 1965, immediately relying on his sly, lethal menace, toothy toughness, and prior gangland past to realistically portray gritty anti-heroes and villains. He made an effective movie debut, co-starring as a vengeful veterinarian and Vietnam vet who goes after motorcycle "bad boys" following his wife's beating and rape in the exploitation flick Motorpsycho! (1965) directed by Russ Meyer. Despite this bold beginning, it was followed by a disappointing gangster bit in The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) and a nothing role as a police Lieutenant in The Boston Strangler (1968). On TV, he found sporadic work playing thugs and other unsavory types on such TV shows as "Run for Your Life," "Batman" and "Get Smart."
Rocco came into his own in the early 1970s. After featured roles in such violent exploitation like Blood Mania (1970) and Brute Corps (1971), he received a huge boost in an Oscar-winning "A" film. He made a brief but potent impact essaying the role of Las Vegas syndicate boss Moe Green who gets a bullet in the eye during the violently explosive "christening sequence" of Mario Puzo's The Godfather (1972). From there he found a comfortable supporting niche playing various swarthy-looking cronies, hoods and cops in such crime films as The Outside Man (1972), Slither (1973), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) (in which he made good use of his Boston criminal past), Freebie and the Bean (1974), Three the Hard Way (1974) and A Woman for All Men (1975). Similar urban roles followed him on TV with yeoman work on such 1970s cop shows as "The Rookies", "Get Christie Love", "Kojak", "Cannon", "The Blue Knight", "Police Story", "The Rockford Files", "Barnaby Jones", "Dog and Cat", "Baretta", "Starsky and Hutch", "Delvecchio", "CHiPs", "Matt Houston", "Hardcastle and McCormick", and "Simon & Simon", along with the TV movies or miniseries A Question of Guilt (1978), The Gangster Chronicles (1981) and Badge of the Assassin (1985).
In the midst of all this, Alex was handed the starring role of his own series Three for the Road (1975) in which he played a new widower photographer with two teenage sons (played by Vincent Van Patten and Leif Garrett) who assuage their grief by leaving town and "discovering America" together. Although well-received, it was short-lived (13 episodes) as a result of poor scheduling. The actor returned to series TV in the late 1980s and was much more successful as a slick Hollywood agent in The Famous Teddy Z (1989) for which he won a "Supporting Actor" Emmy Award. Other regular comedy series work, such as Sibs (1991), The George Carlin Show (1994), The Division (2001) and Magic City (2012), added to his healthy resume over the years, with over 400 TV appearances racked up in all. Recurring roles on such programs as The Simpsons (1989) and The Facts of Life (1979) (as Nancy McKeon's father) also kept his career going at a steady pace. Other memorably flashy film roles include Freebie and the Bean (1974), The Stunt Man (1980), Lady in White (1988), Get Shorty (1995) and Just Write (1997).
Twice married, Rocco's first wife, Sandra Garrett, a nightclub performer and screenwriter, died of cancer in 2002. He married actress Shannon Wilcox in 2005 and together they appeared in the film Scammerhead (2014). Rocco appeared in two films helmed by his adopted son, screenwriter and director Marc Rocco: Scenes from the Goldmine (1987) and Dream a Little Dream (1989), who died in 2009. Two other children by his first wife were Lucian, a poet, and Jennifer, an attorney. Alex Rocco died of pancreatic cancer on July 18, 2015 at age 79.79, pancreatic cancer - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Theodore Bikel is one of the most versatile and respected actors and performers of his generation. A master of languages, dialects and accents, he has played every sort of film villain and semi-bad guy imaginable, and always adds depth, dimension and even sympathy to characters that would end up as cardboard cutouts in the hands of lesser actors. His memorable supporting roles include a German naval officer in The African Queen (1951), the king of Serbia in Moulin Rouge (1952) and a German submarine officer in The Enemy Below (1957). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Defiant Ones (1958). Equally at home on the stage, Bikel is remembered for creating the role of Captain Von Trapp in the original Broadway cast of "The Sound of Music" opposite Mary Martin. He also appeared on stage in "Tonight in Samarkand", "The Lark" and "The Rope Dancers". Bikel is fluent in more than half a dozen European and Middle Eastern languages, and sings folk songs in nearly 20 languages, skillfully accompanying himself on guitar, mandolin, balalaika and harmonica. He was a regular on the early 1960s TV show Hootenanny (1963), a weekly cavalcade of folk music. Over the years he has performed on college campuses and in concert halls all over the country, and has recorded a number of record albums of folk music from around the world.91, natural causes- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Lynn Rene Anderson was a multi-award-winning American country music singer known for a string of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s, most notably her country-pop, worldwide mega-hit "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden". She charted 12 No. 1, 18 Top-10, and more than 50 Top-40 hits. Anderson's crossover appeal and regular exposure on national television helped her become one of the most popular and successful country singers of the 1970s. In addition to being named "Top Female Vocalist" by the Academy of Country Music (ACM) twice and "Female Vocalist of the Year" by the Country Music Association (CMA), she had won a Grammy Award, People's Choice Award and an American Music Award (AMA). She was named Record World Magazine's and Billboard Magazine's Female Artist of the Decade (1970-1980). Because of her mainstream success, Anderson was the first female country artist to be invited as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) in late 1971 (the first of several appearances she would make with Carson at the helm). Anderson was also the first female country artist to win the American Music Award in 1974, as well as the first to headline and sellout Madison Square Garden that same year.67, heart attack (had contracted pneumonia after vacationing in Italy and was hospitalized before her death)- Actor
- Producer
Roddy Piper was born Roderick George Toombs on April 17, 1954 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a pro wrestler from 1973-1987 in the NWA, Pacific Northwest, California. He was a longtime mainstay in the WWF, and was one of the biggest "bad guys" in the WWF during the early '80s, before becoming a fan favorite in the late '80s. He became infamous for his mouth as much as his skills in the ring. He hosted Pipers Pit, which saluted the bad guys of professional wrestling, the most famous of which involved him smashing Jimmy Superfly Snuka over the head with a coconut. He was wrestling's most popular villain because of his feud with Hulk Hogan that culminated at Wrestlemania I. He went into semi-retirement after Wrestlemania III, when he beat and shaved the late Adrian Adonis.
He continued to wrestle into the '90s, but spent much of his time doing color commentary for WWF TV. In January 1992, he won the WWF Intercontinental Title from "The Mountie", the only title he would ever hold in his storied WWF career. After losing the title three months later, he left the WWF, and only made the occasional appearance in the ring over the next few years. In 1995, he had a stint as the WWF's interim president. He later resurfaced in WCW during the late '90s to continue his feud with "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, until the company's demise in 2001.
Roddy Piper appeared in many action films. He died of a heart attack on July 31, 2015, in Hollywood, California.61, pulmonary embolism and complications from hypertension- Actor
- Director
Short, dark, rough-looking and-tough-talking Irish-American character actor Gerald Stewart O'Loughlin was born on December 23, 1921, in New York City. Graduating from college with a degree in mechanical engineering, he turned to the stage, however, after contemplating a possible law career. After a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, he used the GI bill instead to train in New York at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Throughout the early 1950s O'Loughlin regularly performed in stock and repertory plays. He highlighted his stage career playing Stanley in a national tour of "A Streetcar Named Desire" opposite the incomparable legend Tallulah Bankhead as Blanche. He later impressed once again as mental patient Cheswick opposite Kirk Douglas's Randle McMurphy in 1963's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" on Broadway.
Gerald made a very little dent in films at the beginning, what with an offbeat romantic lead role in the low-budget Lovers and Lollipops (1956) and a small role in the more impressive A Hatful of Rain (1957). He later toughened things up with sturdy parts in In Cold Blood (1967), Ice Station Zebra (1968) and, especially, Desperate Characters (1971).
Appearing in dramatic anthology programs from the early 1950's and on such 60's programs as "Ben Casey," "Naked City," "Dr. Kildare," "Run for Your Life" and "The Green Hornet," things finally clicked for him on 1970s TV when he nabbed the role of Lt. Ryker in the TV cop series The Rookies (1972) replacing Darren McGavin, who played the same role in the pilot. He went on to play his usual stern self in other less successful TV series -- Automan (1983) and Our House (1986)
O'Loughlin was highly affecting in TV movies as well, especially as the patriarch in the tearjerker Something for Joey (1977) with Geraldine Page. He continued to impress with strong, authoritarian roles in A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story (1978), Women in White (1979), Child's Cry (1986), Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun (1986) and Crime of the Century (1996). He also had sturdy roles in several acclaimed mini-series (Wheels (1978), Roots: The Next Generations (1979), Blind Ambition (1979) and A Matter of Life and Death (1981)), and was spotted over the years in a slew of guest parts on such established programming as "M*A*S*H," "Fame," "Matt Houston," "Riptide," "Murder, She Wrote," "Too Close for Comfort," "Highway to Heaven," "ER, "The Division," "Titans" and "Judging Amy."
86-year-old Gerald made his last appearance in the short film Destinesia (2008) portraying an elderly man desperate to escape the confines of his nursing home. He died of natural causes in Los Angeles on July 31, 2015. His long-time wife, Meryl Abeles O'Loughlin (1933-2007), a casting agent, predeceased him. They had two children. One son, Chris, was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic épée fencing team.93, natural causes- Actor
- Additional Crew
Frank Gifford was born on 16 August 1930 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Jerry Maguire (1996), Viva Knievel! (1977) and Spin City (1996). He was married to Kathie Lee Gifford, Astrid Gifford and Maxine Avis Ewart. He died on 9 August 2015 in Riverside, Connecticut, USA.84, natural causes- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Yvonne Joyce Craig was born on May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young teenager, Yvonne showed such promise as a dancer that she was accepted to Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her training progressed until she left the company in 1957 over a disagreement on casting changes. She moved to Los Angeles hoping to continue her dancing, but was soon cast in movies. At first, Yvonne had small roles in movies such as Gidget (1959) and The Gene Krupa Story (1959). After that, her film career just bumped along. As Yvonne was dating Elvis Presley at the time, she did have a supporting role in the two Elvis movies, It Happened at the World's Fair (1963) and Kissin' Cousins (1964).
But her fame would come with the cult television series Batman (1966) in which she played Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara. Her secret identity was Batgirl and as the Commissioner's daughter, she had access to all the calls of trouble taking place in Gotham City. Her character, Batgirl, was part of the 1967-68 season, which was the end of the run for the series. After Batman (1966), she also appeared on other television series such as Star Trek (1966) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). As her career wound down, Yvonne went into the real estate business. Yvonne Craig died at age 78 of breast cancer at her home in Pacific Palisades, California on August 17, 2015.78, breast and liver cancer- Writer
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Wes Craven has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold vision.
Wesley Earl Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Caroline (Miller) and Paul Eugene Craven. He had a midwestern suburban upbringing. His first feature film was The Last House on the Left (1972), which he wrote, directed, and edited. Craven reinvented the youth horror genre again in 1984 with the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), a film he wrote and directed. And though he did not direct any of its five sequels, he deconstructed the genre a decade later, writing and directing the audacious New Nightmare (1994), which was nominated as Best Feature at the 1995 Independent Spirit Awards, and introduced the concept of self-reflexive genre films to the world.
In 1996 Craven reached a new level of success with the release of Scream (1996). The film, which sparked the phenomenal trilogy, was the winner of MTV's 1996 Best Movie Award and grossed more than $100 million domestically, as did Scream 2 (1997). Between Scream 2 and Scream 3 (2000), Craven, offered the opportunity to direct a non-genre film for Miramax, helmed Music of the Heart (1999), a film that earned Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That same year, in the midst of directing, Craven completed his first novel, "The Fountain Society," published by Simon & Shuster. Recent works include the 2005 psychological thriller Red Eye (2005), and a short rom-com segment for the ensemble product, Paris, I Love You (2006).
In later years, Craven also produced remakes of two of his earlier films for his genre fans, The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House on the Left (2009). Craven has always had an eye for discovering fresh talent, something that contributes to the success of his films. While casting A Nightmare on Elm Street, Craven discovered the then unknown Johnny Depp. Craven later cast Sharon Stone in her first starring role for his film Deadly Blessing. He even gave Bruce Willis his first featured role in an episode of TV's mid-80's edition of The Twilight Zone. In My Soul to Take (2010), Craven once again brought together a cast of up-and-coming young teens, including Max Thieriot, in whom he saw the spark of stardom. The film marked Craven's first collaboration with wife and producer Iya Labunka, who also produced with him the highly anticipated production of Scream 4.
Craven's Scream 4 (2011) reunited the director with Dimension Films and Kevin Williamson, as well as with stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, to re-boot the beloved franchise. Craven again exhibited his knack for spotting important talent, with a cast of young actors bringing us a totally new breed of Woodsboro high schoolers, including Emma Robert and Hayden Pannetierre.76, brain cancer- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in Decatur, Alabama and christened Dean Carroll Jones, the actor's father worked for a railroad company and the family moved often, living in Washington, DC, Nashville, and New Orleans. "It was in New Orleans I really learned how to sing", Jones told the Pittsburgh Press in 1969. Dropping out of school at 15, he worked for a short time singing in a club in that city, but when the club closed, he returned to Decatur and got his degree but Jones had gotten the show business bug.
After serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, Jones got a job acting in a melodrama at Knott's Berry Farm. He was spotted by veteran composer Vernon Duke, who was planning a musical. The musical project fell through, but Duke enabled Jones an audition with Arthur Freed, the famous producer of MGM feature film musicals such as "Singin' In the Rain". It did not go as planned. "He's an actor, not singer!", Freed exclaimed as related by Jones in a 1966 L.A. Times interview.
Still, the studio signed Jones, and in his first credited role, he found himself acting opposite James Cagney in the 1956 drama "These Wilder Years." The veteran actor helped him through their scene. "There I was, just out of the U.S. Navy without an acting lesson to my name," Jones told the Christianity Today. "In walks Cagney and says, 'Walk to your mark and remember your lines.' That's all I've been doing for 50 years."
Jones had mostly small roles of a far grittier nature than his later Disney fare. "I played drug addicts, pimps, hard-cased killers, ex-cons and angry young men," he told The Times in 1995. And he reveled in the movie life. In a 2007 interview with the Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois, he recalled being on the MGM Culver City studio back-lot, with "Liz Taylor yelling, 'Hey Dean-O, let's go down to Stage 22 and watch Bing and Frank sing!'" Jones would appear with Elvis Presley in 1957 in "Jailhouse Rock".
He made his debut on Broadway in 1960 opposite Jane Fonda in "There Was a Little Girl", which flopped. Jones went on to the more successful "Under the Yum-Yum Tree" later that same year. He appeared in the title role of the Disney television series "Ensign O'Toole", a military comedy, which debuted in 1962 on NBC on Sunday evenings. The show was followed by Disney's anthology television show, so Disney caught the end of some episodes of Jones series, and liked what he saw.
Beginning in 1965 with "That Darn Cat!", Jones became closely identified with Disney family fare. In addition to the "Love Bug" and "The Ugly Dachshund", he was the leading man in "Monkeys, Go Home", "The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit", "The Million Dollar Duck", "The Shaggy D.A.", "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo", and other Disney feature films.
But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was leading an off-screen life contrary to his wholesome image. He had numerous affairs and was drinking heavily. "I had thought if I became a star I'd be happy," he said in a 1976 L.A. Times interview. "I had thought if I had a fairly large amount of money I'd be happy. I thought if I had a house on a hill I'd be happy. I thought if I had a Ferrari I'd be happy. One goal after another was accomplished. And with no fulfillment." Jones was able to keep his torment largely separated from his work life. Even the head of the studio was fooled. "I remember having lunch with Walt one day, and he told me, 'Dean, you're a perfect fit for these pictures. You're such a good family man!'" Jones told the Pantagraph. "I wasn't a good family man", Jones acknowledged. "I was showing up at home smelling of perfume that wasn't my wife's".
Jones' first marriage to Mae Inez Entwisle ended in divorce in 1970. They had two daughters. He was married to actress Lory Patrick from 1973 until his death in 2015. Lory had a son, Michael Patrick, whom Jones adopted.84, Parkinson's disease- Actress
- Soundtrack
Trained in music and dance, tiny-framed, pixie-like Judy Carne was born Joyce Botterill in Northampton, England on April 27, 1939, the daughter of a grocer. Trained in dance, she appeared in music revues as a teenager and changed her name at the advice of a dance teacher.
Slowly building up a career on British TV, she arrived in America in 1962, the eve of the mid-60s "British invasion," and appeared to good advantage on the TV series Fair Exchange (1962). Beginning unobtrusively in film, she developed enough as a light comedienne to score well on the smaller screen and won a regular role on the sitcom The Baileys of Balboa (1964). Stardom came with her own romantic comedy series Love on a Rooftop (1966) opposite the late Pete Duel. The latter series, though short-lived, was quite popular and showcased Carne's appeal to maximum advantage. She found herself embraced by America as a cute, pert-nosed Cockney lass with a Peter Pan-like effervescence.
It was no surprise when a couple of years later she soared to "flower power" stardom on the hip and highly irreverent TV cult variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), where she introduced the phrase "Sock it to me!" to the American vernacular. As the plucky brunette, she always seemed to be on the receiving end of a slapstick prank, but the audiences loved her for it. The show also made instant household names out of fellow Laugh-In comrades Arte Johnson, Ruth Buzzi, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley, Lily Tomlin, and, notably, Goldie Hawn, who managed to out-perk even Judy and grab the lion's share of attention. Judy proved herself a game sport for a while, but made the decision to leave the series after only two seasons-- tired of the grind, the typecast, and the disappointment of having her singing/dancing skills undermined.
In the long run it probably was a major career mistake. With the exception of her role as Polly (the Julie Andrews roles) in a Broadway revival of "The Boy Friend" that also featured Sandy Duncan, Judy's post "Laugh-In" professional life was unexceptional with a surprising quick descent. There were a couple of mini-movies, a failed TV idea for a sitcom called "Poor Judy", a failed Las Vegas music act, and the TV talk show circuit. Nothing panned out. Despite an innocent, bubbly, cheery exterior, her private life was anything but. Her 1963 marriage to rising star Burt Reynolds was over within a couple of years. The divorce was acrimonious, to say the least, with nasty, below-the-belt accusations being flung from both sides and feeding the tabloid sheets. A second marriage to TV producer Robert Bergman in 1970 lasted even less than that. More problematic, however, was Judy's escalating financial problems and a drug problem which started with marijuana and hallucinogens and developed into a full-fledged heroin addiction.
In the late 60s and 70s she tried to maintain somewhat with scattered appearances on the musical and comedy stage with roles in "Cabaret" (as Sally Bowles), "Absurd Person Singular," "There's a Girl in My Soup", "The Owl and the Pussycat" and "Blithe Spirit". Her career pretty much in shambles, she fell quickly into the lifestyle of a junkie and began living in squalor. For the next decade, she literally dropped out of sight. The only time she was heard from was when she was busted for a drug arrest or when she made unhappy headlines for a near-fatal 1978 car crash (her ex-husband Robert was driving) that left her with a broken neck.
Judy's tell-all 1985 autobiography, "Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside", was a harrowing and heart-wrenching read with explicit detailing of her descent into degradation. Despite the book, the adorable English girl who captured America's heart in the late 1960s failed to win back a now-disinterested audience. She remains a prime example of what the flip side of a glamorous Hollywood can turn out to be.
In later years, Judy lived and was not heard of much since the publishing of the book. She has allegedly been married twice more since then. She was also in attendance for the televised 25th anniversary of "Laugh-In" and a televised "Laugh-In" Christmas show both in 1993. Out of the picture since the early 1980's, she was a 1990 guest for talk show hosts Geraldo Rivera and Howard Stern and made an isolated appearance as a homeless person in the downbeat urban movie drama What About Me (1993), written and directed by the film's star Rachel Amodeo.
Living quietly in the village of Pitsford for two decades, she died from pneumonia on September 3, 2015, at a hospital in Northampton.76, pneumonia- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Martin Sam Milner was born December 28, 1931 in Detroit, Michigan. His mother, Jerre Martin, originally from Oregon, was a dancer with the Paramount Theater circuit. His father, Sam Gordon Milner, a Polish Jewish immigrant, was a film distributor. The Milners moved to Seattle when Martin was a baby and to Los Angeles soon after. At age 15, Martin's father got him an agent and he was chosen to play the role of "John Day" in Life with Father (1947), Warner Bros.' version of Clarence Day, Jr.'s popular Broadway play. Milner contracted polio shortly after filming was completed and his career was put on hold for a year as he recovered from the illness. After graduating from North Hollywood High School and studying for one year at the University of Southern California, Milner worked steadily in films during the years 1949-1960. He appeared in films such as Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Marjorie Morningstar (1958) and Sweet Smell of Success (1957). He put his career on hold again when he was inducted into the Army in 1952 for two years. Shortly after joining the Army, he was assigned to the Human Research Division, where he directed military training films and served as Master of Ceremonies for a touring show based at Fort Ord, California. Milner married television actress and singer Judy Jones in 1957 and they have four children--Amy, Molly, Stuart, and Andrew.
Milner met Jack Webb during the filming of Halls of Montezuma (1951) and later worked with him on his "Dragnet" radio show as well as the TV series Dragnet (1951). Milner appeared as 17-year-old high school student "Stephen Banner" in the episode "The Big Producer" in 1952. According to Webb's biography "Just the Facts, Ma'am", Webb owed Milner money from a card game. When Webb called him to the studio to pay him back, he offered Milner a role in the "Dragnet" radio show. After that, Webb continued to find roles for Milner until he offered him the role of "Pete Malloy" on Adam-12 (1968). Milner continued to appear in films throughout the 1970s and 1980s and made many guest appearances on television shows such as Murder, She Wrote (1984), the "Columbo" made-for-TV movies, MacGyver (1985), and Diagnosis Murder (1993). Milner was an avid fisherman and has been co-host of the syndicated radio talk show "Let's Talk Hook-up" since 1993. He also hosts fishing trips through "Let's Talk Hook-Up."
Apart from the Webb connection, Milner starred as "Tod Stiles" in his own groundbreaking CBS-TV series, Route 66 (1960). The series was notable for its coast-to-coast location shooting, eloquent scripts by co-creator Stirling Silliphant and others, impressive guest casts, and a distinctive theme song by Nelson Riddle. The series allowed Milner to explore a range of characterizations as his nomadic travels in a Corvette convertible took him from job to job all over the United States, where he dug deeply into the lives of the people he encountered there -- with traveling companions "Buz Murdock" (George Maharis) and, after Maharis left the show, "Lincoln Case" (Glenn Corbett).83, heart failure- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Dickie Moore made his acting and screen debut at the age of 18 months in the 1927 John Barrymore film The Beloved Rogue (1927) as a baby, and by the time he had turned 10 he was a popular child star and had appeared in 52 films. He continued as a child star for many more years, and became the answer to the trivia question, "Who was the first actor to kiss Shirley Temple on screen?" when that honor was bestowed upon him in 1942's Miss Annie Rooney (1942). As with many child actors, once Dickie got older the roles began to dry up. He made his last film in 1952, but was still in the public eye with the 1949 to 1955 TV series Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949). He then retired from acting for a new career in publicity. He later produced industrial shows.89, complications from dementia- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Jackie Collins was born on 4 October 1937 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Danger Man (1960), The Saint (1962) and The Stud (1978). She was married to Oscar Lerman and Wallace Austin. She died on 19 September 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.77, breast cancer- Actor
- Additional Crew
One of baseball's greatest catchers of all time, Yogi Berra appeared in a record 14 World Series while calling the games for the New York Yankees. Berra proved invaluable to the Yankees as evidenced by his three American League Most Valuable Player awards. Berra was also one of the game's best-hitting catchers, hitting 358 homers and hitting a crisp .285 in his career. Berra also proved his worth as one of the smartest men in the game, managing the Yankees and later the New York Mets. He took both teams to the World Series. Lately however, Berra is more known for his fractured witticisms "It ain't over till it's over." Still, if you were to start an all-star baseball team, Berra would be one of top picks for catcher.90, natural causes- Andrew Harold Rubin was born in the seaport town of New Bedford, Massachusetts. His father, Simon, owned a furniture and bedding factory and his mother, Leona (nee Greenstone) was an artist and international travel writer.
Andy, as he was called then, began performing and acting at the age of 10. He wrote and starred in skits and plays at the Jewish Community Center. Afterward, he continued acting the leads in plays while attending New Bedford High School. He won a college acting scholarship from the high school in his senior year.
School didn't make a lot of sense to him and as a result he only got into one college that he applied to. Wagner College, a Lutheran School, was located on Staten Island and as a concession to his parents Rubin agreed to go there. By the end of the school year Rubin's parents had received 24 letters from the Dean of Men listing various infractions by their son. His college career came rapidly to a close.
With his heart in acting, he auditioned for the famed American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. The Academy was like an embryo for him: an amazing training ground to eat and breathe acting daily for two years. After graduation he got a job as a page at NBC 30 Rock rising rapidly in the ranks to become the youngest full time writer in the history of the NBC Publicity Department. Going on auditions while at NBC landed him his first big time job. He was cast from hundreds of hopefuls to play the character of Cosmo in a guy/girl duo in a national commercial campaign (6 TV and 5 radio) for Sprite soda.
After being flown to California to shoot for two weeks on location, Rubin decided to move to California to seek work. He met with success almost immediately, guest starring in various television dramatic series including "Ironside", "The Streets of San Francisco", "Cannon" and dozens of others. He also scored recurring roles on well known comedies of the day such as "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman", "The Jeffersons", and "The Odd Couple".
Rubin's big break came when he was tapped by director Martin Ritt ('Hud','Sounder') to star as Walter Matthau's eldest son, Buddy, in the horse-racing picture "Casey's Shadow". Although the film and he got terrific reviews it was not a box office success because it conflicted with another Matthau film, "House Calls" (with Glenda Jackson) which was released the same day.
He followed "Casey's Shadow" with the iconic film, "Police Academy", playing the character of George Martin, the suave Lothario pretending to be Hispanic so he "could get the girls". Rubin then went on to star in three television series, "Jessica Novak" (with Helen Shaver), "Hometown" (TV version of "The Big Chill") and "Joe Bash", an offbeat comedy starring him and Peter Boyle as two lower Manhattan beat cops created and produced by Danny Arnold ("Barney Miller").
Rubin continued to work in TV doing films and mini-series ("Roughnecks", "Deadline: Madrid") and in movies ("Nuts"- playing Barbra Streisand's ex-husband, "Sunnyside", "Little Miss Marker", "Tell Me That You Love Me"). He also was a regular on the Los Angeles theater scene starring in the Company Theater's "James Joyce Memorial Liquid Theater", Sam Shepard's "The Unseen Hand" at the Odyssey, "Hopscotch" at LAAT and "The Passing Game", produced by Tom Hanks, at the Gene Dynarski.
It was about this time that Rubin went on what he calls a "walkabout" traveling the world. During that time he explored the pyramids of Egypt, the temples of India and the outback of Australia where he and his wife, Lauren, lived with an Aboriginal tribe in a remote region of the country. He would also return to work occasionally, playing Jules Bergman, ABC's Science correspondent in "From the Earth to the Moon", and also writing and starring in "Men and Their Fathers", a well received short film.
He recently completed filming for a documentary, "The CURE Is U", set for release in 2012. No longer on a 'walkabout', he lives with his wife, Dr. Lauren Rubin, two dogs and five cats in Pacific Palisades. His passion for and love of acting has never dimmed.69, lung cancer - Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Actor
- Producer
Kevin Corcoran was born on 10 June 1949 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He was an assistant director and actor, known for Old Yeller (1957), Swiss Family Robinson (1960) and Pollyanna (1960). He was married to Laura Soltwedel. He died on 6 October 2015 in Burbank, California, USA.66, colon cancer- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Martin Ingerman was born on March 6, 1936 in New York City. He had an older brother named Arthur. He had a rough childhood and was often picked on. After he finished school, he went into the army. Later, he appeared in a couple of game shows and won. He wanted to be an actor so he went to California. He lived with another guy and actually ended up dating and eventually marrying his roommate's girlfriend.
Marty made a couple of movies, but made it big when he starred with John Astin in I'm Dickens, He's Fenster (1962). Soon after the show went off the air, he and his wife divorced.
He met and married Shirley Jones and became stepfather to Shaun, Ryan, and Patrick Cassidy, sons of Jones from her marriage to Jack Cassidy. He worked some, but Shirley was primarily the breadwinner. Eventually he started putting some money away and in a couple of years was able to accumulate over a million dollars. In 1999, he and Shirley separated for six months, but then got back together. They live in Encino, California, with three dogs.79, stroke- Actress
- Soundtrack
In America, the early performing arts accomplishments of young Maureen FitzSimons (who we know as Maureen O'Hara) would definitely have put her in the child prodigy category. However, for a child of Irish heritage surrounded by gifted parents and family, these were very natural traits. Maureen made her entrance into this caring haven on August 17, 1920, in Ranelagh (a suburb of Dublin), Ireland. Her mother, Marguerita Lilburn FitzSimons, was an accomplished contralto. Her father, Charles FitzSimons, managed a business in Dublin and also owned part of the renowned Irish soccer team "The Shamrock Rovers." Maureen was the second of six FitzSimons children - Peggy, Florrie, Charles B. Fitzsimons, Margot Fitzsimons and James O'Hara completed this beautiful family.
Maureen loved playing rough athletic games as a child and excelled in sports. She combined this interest with an equally natural gift for performing. This was demonstrated by her winning pretty much every Feis award for drama and theatrical performing her country offered. By age 14 she was accepted to the prestigious Abbey Theater and pursued her dream of classical theater and operatic singing. This course was to be altered, however, when Charles Laughton, after seeing a screen test of Maureen, became mesmerized by her hauntingly beautiful eyes. Before casting her to star in Jamaica Inn (1939), Laughton and his partner, Erich Pommer, changed her name from Maureen FitzSimons to "Maureen O'Hara" - a bit shorter last name for the marquee.
Under contract to Laughton, Maureen's next picture was to be filmed in America (The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)) at RKO Pictures. The epic film was an extraordinary success and Maureen's contract was eventually bought from Laughton by RKO. At 19, Maureen had already starred in two major motion pictures with Laughton. Unlike most stars of her era, she started at the top, and remained there - with her skills and talents only getting better and better with the passing years.
Maureen has an enviable string of all-time classics to her credit that include the aforementioned "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," How Green Was My Valley (1941), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Sitting Pretty (1948), The Quiet Man (1952), and The Parent Trap (1961). Add to this the distinction of being voted one of the five most beautiful women in the world and you have a film star who was as gorgeous as she was talented.
Although at times early in her career Hollywood didn't seem to notice, there was much more to Maureen O'Hara than her dynamic beauty. She not only had a wonderful lyric soprano voice, but she could use her inherent athletic ability to perform physical feats that most actresses couldn't begin to attempt, from fencing to fisticuffs. She was a natural athlete.
In her career Maureen starred with some of Hollywood's most dashing leading men, including Tyrone Power, John Payne, Rex Harrison, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Brian Keith, Sir Alec Guinness and, of course, her famed pairings with "The Duke" himself, John Wayne. She starred in five films with Wayne, the most beloved being The Quiet Man (1952).
In addition to famed director John Ford, Maureen was also fortunate to have worked for some other great directors in the business: Alfred Hitchcock, William Dieterle, Henry Hathaway, Henry King, Jean Renoir, John M. Stahl, William A. Wellman, Frank Borzage, Walter Lang, George Seaton, George Sherman, Carol Reed, Delmer Daves, David Swift, Andrew V. McLaglen and Chris Columbus.
In 1968 Maureen found much deserved personal happiness when she married Charles Blair. Gen. Blair was a famous aviator whom she had known as a friend of her family for many years. A new career began for Maureen, that of a full-time wife. Her marriage to Blair, however, was again far from typical. Blair was the real-life version of what John Wayne had been on the screen. He had been a Brigadier General in the Air Force, a Senior Pilot with Pan American, and held many incredible record-breaking aeronautic achievements. Maureen happily retired from films in 1973 after making the TV movie The Red Pony (1973) (which on the prestigious Peabody Award for Excellence) with Henry Fonda. With Blair, Maureen managed Antilles Airboats, a commuter sea plane service in the Caribbean. She not only made trips around the world with her pilot husband, but owned and published a magazine, "The Virgin Islander," writing a monthly column called "Maureen O'Hara Says."
Tragically, Charles Blair died in a plane crash in 1978. Though completely devastated, Maureen pulled herself together and, with memories of ten of the happiest years of her life, continued on. She was elected President and CEO of Antilles Airboats, which brought her the distinction of being the first woman president of a scheduled airline in the United States.
Fortunately, she was coaxed out of retirement several times - once in 1991 to star with John Candy in Only the Lonely (1991) and again, in 1995, in a made-for-TV movie, The Christmas Box (1995) on CBS. In the spring of 1998, Maureen accepted the second of what would be three projects for Polson Productions and CBS: Cab to Canada (1998) - and, in October, 2000, The Last Dance (2000).
On St. Patrick's Day in 2004, she published her New York Times bestselling memoir, 'Tis Herself, co-authored with her longtime biographer and manager Johnny Nicoletti.
On November 4, 2014 Maureen was honored by a long overdue Oscar for "Lifetime Achievement" at the annual Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Governors Awards.
Maureen O'Hara was absolutely stunning, with that trademark red hair, dazzling smile and those huge, expressive eyes. She has fans from all over the world of all ages who are utterly devoted to her legacy of films and her persona as a strong, courageous and intelligent woman.95, natural causes- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Albert was born on June 24, 1919 to Raffaele Molinaro and Teresa Marrone. His father was born in Calabria, Italy and immigrated to the US when he was 15 years old and worked as a water boy with a railroad crew going west from New York. He ended up in Kenosha Wisconsin where he met and married Albert's mother Teresa on December 22, 1901. His father named Albert after his favorite Italian Prince, Umberto II who was born 15 years earlier. A school teacher later suggested that "Albert" might be more suitable. His mother chose his middle name Fransico after Santo Francisco since he was born on Saint Francis Day. The midwife who's English was only slightly better than Albert's parents spelled his middle name with a feminine "A" at the end which was never corrected. His legal named remained Umberto Francisca Molinaro. He was the ninth child of what would later become a family of ten children, eight boys and 2 girls. At 19 years of age Albert became a union leader at the Vincent-McCall furniture spring factory after working there for only 4 months. He later became the special assistant to the Kenosha City Manager when he was 20. At this time Albert's best friend from Kenosha, Mills Tenuta, who had moved to Southern California to work in an aircraft plant, began harassing him to come out to Hollywood. He was sure that Albert could be a movie star. Albert left a promising career with the city after only a year to head to Hollywood to become an actor. Albert had many jobs while pursuing his acting career. His first job was at Reginald Denny's Hobby shop in Hollywood. He spent 2 years as a live action animator at George Pal's studios. If Technicolor hadn't gone on a sympathy strike with the Studio Carpenters union he might have spent his career as an animator. He managed the M&G Grand Variety Store for a year and then became a bill collector for the "Collection Agency of America" in downtown LA. He quickly learned the art of bill collecting and was able to become a salesman who procured collection accounts for another agency which he later purchased. This gave him flexible hours and a steady income so he could focus again on his dreams of Hollywood. Even after his acting career took off he kept his Bill Collection business until he retired. Albert married Jacqueline Martin in 1948. They moved into a home in Granada Hills, CA and adopted their son Michael Molinaro. Albert and Jacqueline were divorced in 1980. Albert then married Betty Sedillos in 1981 and they lived in Glendale CA until his death in 2015. Albert had two step children, Jim Sedillos & Victoria Sedillos and a total of 6 grandchildren and 2 great-grand children. Albert's movie debut happened when he was 25 years old. After appearing as the lead in a Chekhov play called "The Bear" at the old Sartu Theater that used to be on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and La Brea Ave. A movie producer saw the performance and cast him in a picture that had three separate stories, one of the stories was Chekhov's play "The Bear" but changed from a Russian setting to a Spanish locale. The movie was titled "Love Me Madly". Albert was not told that some of the scenes they shot without him were R rated in today's standards but X rated for 1954's standards. He was surprised and upset during the movies premiere and vowed to never again be in a film that his mother couldn't watch. During the early 1950's Albert began producing live television shows for local televisions stations channel 5 KTLA, channel 9 KHJ & channel 11 KTTV. He Co-created "Insomnia" a late night live show and a "Ski Show" in which Warren Miller allowed him to use some of his skiing footage. He created "Star Finder" a pre-teen amateur show, "Square Dance Party" and "The Tiny Late Show" which was his own late night one man show that filled the few minutes of time between the end of the late night movie and the station signing off for the night.
All the time Albert was working to pay his bills he was also acting in small plays in theaters all over Hollywood. After 25 years of theater acting he was convinced to play a small part in a play directed by his friend, Leo Matranga, at the Hollywood Horseshoe Theater. After the show, a commercial agent named Don Schwartz offered to represent him. Albert swore off acting and never called Don. One year later, Don called Albert telling him that he already set up an appointment for him and convinced him to audition for a national commercial. Albert got the commercial for the Volvo 140. You can see his commercial debut on youtube "Volvo 140 advertising". It's 3 min. & 30 seconds into the video (they have strung many vintage Volvo ads together). Take a look at his first commercial and you will see the face that went on to land over 100 commercials. 42 of them were nationals. He also landed a 10 year deal with "Encore" frozen dinners becoming their spokesperson. A friend from George Pal's Studios named Glenn Grossman cast Albert whenever he could in the industrial films that he would make from time to time. It was while working on one of Glenn's films that Albert met another working actor named Harvey Lembeck. When Harvey wasn't acting he ran an actor's workshop. Harvey convinced Albert that he could help him with his comedy timing. Gary Marshall's sister Penny was also a member of Harvey's workshop. One night Penny asked her brother to come down and see Albert. Gary was in the process of producing a movie starring Jacquiline Bissett called "The Grasshopper" and wanted Al to play the part of a truck driver. Albert did not play the part because the shooting dates conflicted with a Pepto-Bismol commercial he was scheduled to shoot in Phoenix. A year later, when Albert learned from his writer friend, John Rappaport, that Garry Marshall was casting for The Odd Couple TV show, John convinced him that he would be perfect to play one of the poker players. Albert first refused to call Gary but John badgered him enough to finally make him call. Albert made numerous phone calls but got no response so he decided to dress up like a delivery man and deliver a 2'x3' card with many pictures of himself glued to it stating that "Al Molinaro is a Poker Player. ...Assorted Poker Faces ... More faces available upon demand. Just Call (his Phone #) Dear Gary, If you don't call me for an audition, I'll put a curse on you to make you sterile for life. Sincerely, Al Molinaro. The delivery outfit did not get him past the guard at the Paramount gate but it did get the card delivered and Albert got an audition and landed the part of Murray the Cop. Later, Gary stated that, "Although we thought Albert was wrong for the part, we decided to take a chance on Al because of all the men who we auditioned, he was the funniest. Albert spent 5 years on The Odd Couple and when it finished, due to the fact that Jack Klugman wanted to do drama, he was offered the roll of the Malt Shop Owner on Gary's new show "Happy Days". Albert turned down the role feeling he did not want to work with a "bunch of kids". After the first season of Happy Days, Pat Morita, who was cast in the role of the malt shop owner, was offered his own show so Gary once again asked Albert to work on the show. Albert asked Gary that if he didn't like working on the show, could he quit whenever he wanted. Gary said he couldn't put that in writing but that they would shake on it. Albert enjoyed 10 years on "Happy Days" from 1974 to 1984 and 1 more year on "Joanie Loves Chachi. He guest starred on many television shows during and after the filming of the Odd Couple and Happy Days. He also worked on a short lived sitcom called "The Family Man" from 1990-1991 but decided to stop taking roles by the mid 90's. He completed his 10 year contract with Encore Frozen Foods and as his last job he surprisingly accepted an offer to be in a music video with Wheezer.
Albert was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the mid 90's and lived with the illness for 20 years. Early diagnosis and careful medication allowed Albert to enjoy life until he had a small heart attack in May of 2015. He was a wonderfully kind man. He taught himself to play the piano, clarinet and ukulele and even had a few real gigs in Reno playing the clarinet in his youth. His family believes that his improvisational skills allowed him to mask his Alzheimer's disease from most people until just before he died. He continued to personally answer his fan mail until his health did not allow it. In June he celebrated his 96th birthday but he was declining quickly. He developed a gall stones and due to his age and the recent heart attack, surgery was not recommended. Albert died on October 30th 2015.96, complications from an infected gallbladder- Fred Thompson was born on 19 August 1942 in Sheffield, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for The Hunt for Red October (1990), No Way Out (1987) and Baby's Day Out (1994). He was married to Jeri Kehn Thompson and Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey. He died on 1 November 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.73, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
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Melissa Mathison was born on 3 June 1950 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The BFG (2016) and Kundun (1997). She was married to Harrison Ford. She died on 4 November 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.65, neuroendocrine cancer- Actor
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Ritch Brinkley was born on 18 March 1944 in Colorado City, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Breakdown (1997), Cabin Boy (1994) and The Man with One Red Shoe (1985). He died on 5 November 2015 in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.71, undisclosed cause- He was born in Reykjavik, Iceland and moved to the United States at the age of 5. Gunnar lived in Maine till he was 11, his family then moving to Texas, where he went to high school before attending the University of Texas. At the university, he did some theater work and majored in English and mathematics before going on to graduate in English and Scandinavian Studies. Despite graduating in the aforementioned fields, his first job out of high school was as a computer operator.
In the summer of 1973, he heard that Tobe Hooper and others were in town to work on a movie and decided to try out for a part. After interviewing with Tobe Hooper and the writer of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Kim Henkel, he was cast in the role of the disturbed, mentally handicapped killer, Leatherface.
After Chainsaw, Hansen went on to work as a freelance writer for magazines for several years before going on to write books, one later being set in Iceland about purported serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas. He has gone on to write multiple screenplays - one co-written with his partner Gary Jones, director of Mosquito (1994)).
Gunnar also directed a documentary on Greenland and had a stint designing web pages for GTE.68, pancreatic cancer - David Canary was born on 25 August 1938 in Elwood, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for All My Children (1970), One Life to Live (1968) and Hombre (1967). He was married to Maureen Maloney and Julie M. Anderson. He died on 16 November 2015 in Wilton, Connecticut, USA.77, complications from Alzheimer's disease
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Keith Michell was an Emmy Award-winning Australian stage, television, and film actor. Born 1 December 1926 in Adelaide, South Australia, he was brought up some 150 miles away, in Warnertown, on the Augusta Highway between Crystal Brook and Port Pirie. He taught art until he made his debut on the Adelaide stage in 1947, following that up with his first appearance in London in 1951.
Michell was a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company. From 1974-77, he was the artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre. He has starred in several musicals, including the first London production of Man of La Mancha (1972). In addition to his stage work, he appeared extensively in film and television in Australia and the UK, most notably as King Henry VIII in the six-part 1970 BBC series The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), for which he won an Emmy Award. A movie version was made in 1972. On US television, he appeared in various episodes of Murder, She Wrote (1984). In addition to acting, he wrote a musical adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 'Peer Gynt', called "Pete McGynty and the Dreamtime". He also paints and illustrates books, as well as written and illustrated cookbooks.
Michell married the Anglo-Czech actress Jeanette Sterke in 1957; they had two children: actor Paul Michell and actress Helena Michell. He died on 20 November 2015, aged 88, in Hampstead, London, England. A theater in Port Pirie, the Keith Mitchell Theatre-Northern Festival Centre, was founded in his honor.88, undisclosed cause- Actress
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Poised and lovely Marjorie Lord started her long and varied career on the Broadway stage and in "B" films as a sweet-natured ingénue. Born Marjorie F. Wollenberg, of German and Czech heritage, on July 26, 1918 in San Francisco, California, her family transported themselves to New York City when she was 15. Here she enrolled in both acting and ballet at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Chaliff School of Dance, respectively.
Marjorie's first job (billed as Marjorie Lord) was as a 17-year-old replacement on Broadway in "The Old Maid" starring Judith Anderson in 1935. Film parts from recently-signed RKO Studio started coming her way in 1937 with the Harry Carey western Border Cafe (1937); the murder mystery Forty Naughty Girls (1937); the Wheeler & Woolsey musical comedy High Flyers (1937); and a top role in the family drama The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939).
She met actor John Archer after they appeared together in the stage production of "The Male Animal" and married at the end of 1941, they settled in Hollywood after playing Los Angeles in a stage tour of "Springtime for Henry" with Edward Everett Horton in 1942. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1953. Son Gregg avoided show business and became an airline pilot while daughter Anne Archer followed in her parents' footsteps as an actress.
Marjorie earned a Universal contract in the process and throughout the 1940s and 1950s and would alternate between theater and film assignments. She returned to Broadway with the plays "Signature" in 1945 and "Little Brown Jug" a year later, returning a decade later as a replacement in the popular Moss Hart comedy "Anniversary Waltz" in the mid-1950s. Most of Marjorie's films were inconsequential and set her up as a pretty diversion -- Escape from Hong Kong (1942), Moonlight in Havana (1942) and The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1943). Some of her better films of that period included a loan-out, Johnny Come Lately (1943), with James Cagney, and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) starring the irrepressible sleuthing team of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
Freelancing from the late 1940s on, Marjorie was the co-star or second lead in such films as the jazzy musical drama New Orleans (1947) for Hal Roach Studios; the Universal crimers The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948) and The Argyle Secrets (1948) as a femme fatale; the Columbia action adventure Air Hostess (1949); the Tim Holt RKO western Masked Raiders (1949) in an interesting shady role; Monogram's Bomba the Jungle Boy offering The Lost Volcano (1950); the Columbia action drama Chain Gang (1950); and the amusing crime comedy Stop That Cab (1951).
Moving more into the new 1950s medium of TV, Marjorie had guest parts on such shows as "Racket Squad," "The Adventures of Kit Carson," "China Smith," "Ramar of the Jungle," "Hopalong Cassidy," "The Loretta Young Show" and "Wagon Train," along with the anthology series "Four Star Playhouse," "Schlitz Playhouse," "Fireside Theatre," and "'Cavalcade of America." Marjorie greatest exposure, however, came in 1957 when she was cast as the second wife of widower/entertainer Danny Thomas in the long-established comedy hit The Danny Thomas Show (1953). She lucked into the role when Danny's "first wife" (played by actress Jean Hagen, best known for her classic role as screechy "Lina Lamont" in Singin' in the Rain (1952)) asked to leave the series and the writer had her character "die." Marjorie proved an able sparring partner for the comedian for seven more seasons, but was unsparingly typecast as the wholesome wife thereafter.
Following this Marjorie appeared in a number of dinner theater productions for work, but would indelibly remain Kathy ("Clancy") Williams in the public eye and appeared very sparsely on TV ("Love, American Style") and film (fifth billed as the wife of Bob Hope in the comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)). As a result, she graciously returned to Danny Thomas and her famous TV wife role in the sequel series Make Room for Granddaddy (1970).
Marjorie gently phased her career out for the most part after her third marriage in 1977, but could be seen from time to time in such programs as "Fantasy Island" and "The Love Boat." In 1987, she returned for a short-lived run on the domestic sitcom Sweet Surrender (1987) starring Dana Delany and Mark Blum, as the latter's mother. Her last camera appearance was a featured part in the "grumpy old men"-styled TV movie Side by Side (1988) starring Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and her TV husband Danny Thomas.
Made a widow by her second and third husbands, Marjorie published her memoir, "A Dance and a Hug," in 2005. She died on November 28, 2015, age 97, in Beverly Hills, California, of natural causes.97, natural causes- Actor
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Scott Weiland was born on 27 October 1967 in Santa Cruz, California, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Tank Girl (1995), Battleship (2012) and Hulk (2003). He was married to Jamie Wachtel, Mary Forsberg and Janina Castenada. He died on 3 December 2015 in Bloomington, Minnesota, USA.48, accidental drug overdose (also suffered from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a long history of asthma and prolonged substance abuse; all which also contributed to his death)- Actor
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Born and raised in New York City, Robert Loggia studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving back to New York to pursue acting. He trained at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. From the late 1950s he was a familiar face on TV, usually as authoritative figures. Loggia also found work in movies such as The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Scarface (1983) and Big (1988). Always in demand, Loggia worked until his death, at 85, from complications of Alzheimer's.85, Alzheimer's disease- Martin E. Brooks was born on 30 November 1925 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), The Bionic Woman (1976) and Bionic Ever After? (1994). He died on 7 December 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.90, natural causes
- Patricia Elliott was born on 21 July 1938 in Gunnison, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for One Life to Live (1968), St. Elsewhere (1982) and The Quinns (1977). She was married to Peter Heath. She died on 20 December 2015 in Manhattan, New York, USA.77, leiomyosarcoma (muscle cancer)
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Character actor Jason Wingreen was born on October 9, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York City. The son of a Jewish tailor father, Wingreen grew up in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens. Jason attended John Adams High School and majored in English and Speech at Brooklyn College (he initially planned on being a sportswriter and wrote about high school sporting events for the daily newspaper the Brooklyn Eagle during his high school years). While at Brooklyn College Wingreen caught the acting bug after taking a mandatory speech course and joined the undergraduate theater group the Masquers, which he became president of in his senior year at college. Following graduation from Brooklyn College in June, 1941, Jason got his first show business job with a marionette company.
Wingreen went on to serve in the armed forces during World War II as a member of the 81st Fighter Squadron, 50th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force. In the wake of his tour of duty, Jason returned to Howard Beach and went to the New School on the G.I. Bill. Wingreen helped to found the famed Circle in the Square Theatre company in Greenwich Village in the early 1950's and in 1954 acted for the first time on Broadway in the plays "Fragile Fox" and "The Girl on the Via Flaminia." Jason acted on his first TV show in 1955 and acted in his first movie shortly thereafter. In addition, Wingreen was a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since the early 1960's. Jason died at age 95 at his home in Los Angeles, California on December 25, 2015. He's survived by his son Ned, two grandchildren, and his sister Harriett Wingreen, who was the orchestra pianist for the New York Philharmonic for several decades.95, natural causes- Actor
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Lemmy was born on 24 December 1945 in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Airheads (1994) and Smokin' Aces (2006). He died on 28 December 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.70, complications from prostate cancer, cardiac arrhythmia and congestive heart failure- Actress
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Growing up and living under the huge, daunting shadow of a singing icon can intimidate a son or daughter enough to want to look anywhere else to find their station in life. Those who dared to try to follow in their footsteps, such as Frank Sinatra Jr., found success branching out in other areas of music; others like the Crosby brothers, suffered from perpetual self esteem issues that led to personal tragedy; still others, like Liza Minnelli found meteoric success on their own and emulated/paralleled their famous parent's own star achievements.
"Sophisticated Lady" Natalie Cole fits into the last-mentioned category. Moreover, she ended up living a dream by dueting with her father, the late and great Nat 'King' Cole, through the use of modern technology, to multiple Grammy-winning glory. This would become the pinnacle of her musical success. Unlike Minnelli, however, her famous crooning parent, who broke many racial barriers during his way-too-short life in the limelight, did not live long enough to enjoy his daughter's rise to stardom, dying of lung cancer a little more than a week after Natalie's 15th birthday.
Stephanie Natalie Maria Cole was born on February 6, 1950, and grew up in a heavily musical atmosphere in Los Angeles' exclusive Hancock Park area. In addition to her father, mother Maria had been a background vocalist with the Duke Ellington outfit. Natalie herself grew up surrounded by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and, Frank Sinatra, who were considered family. Singing on one of her dad's Christmas albums, and performing by age 11, her father's early death brought emotional scars and perhaps induced a self-imposed lack of musical focus. The family relocated to Massachusetts and Natalie eventually took off to college, first attending and majoring in child psychology at the University of Massachusetts. The transferred to the University of Southern California before returning to her first campus and graduating in 1972. At this point, however, she decided to live her music a go again and began performing at various night spots. It was at this juncture that she gradually fell into drug addiction, including heroin use.
A breakthrough for Natalie came via her early 70s association with Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy, who once worked with one of Natalie's real-life idols, Aretha Franklin. A debut album in the form of "Inseparable" came out in 1975, which included her bit hit "This Will Be" (#6 on the pop charts and a multiple Grammy winner for best R&B female vocals and "best newcomer". In 1976 producer Yancy became her husband but they divorced after only a few years and following the birth of their only child, Robert Adam Yancy. Her ex-husband died in 1985.
During the "disco era", milder hits with "Sophisticated Lady," "Mr. Melody," "I've Got Love on My Mind," "Our Love," "Stand By," "What You Won't Do for Love," and "Hold On" and "Nothing But a Fool" arrived, along with more platinum and gold albums. Acute drug problems, however, continued to hinder her progress and she eventually took time off time for recovery. In 1985, Natalie released, in what was the start of a comeback, her album "Dangerous" for Modern Records; she later lost her contract. Such as late 80s pop singles included "Jump Start My Heart," "Miss You Like Crazy", "Pink Cadillac" and "I Live for Your Love" kept her visible and on the charts.
In the midst of her ebb-and-flow R&B success, Natalie decided in 1991 to record a new CD, "Unforgettable...with Love," paying homage to her late father. With the help and encouragement of family, she re-arranged and re-recorded some of his greatest songs in the same studio that he recorded (Capitol Studios), used some of the same musicians and even recreated one of his signature songs, the title tune "Unforgettable," with a technological effect that appeared as if they were dueting together. Never before or since has this been pulled off and marketed so successfully. The CD, which met with some derision (some critics felt she was grasping for straws in a career that was going backwards), was an instant "easy listening" sensation. Not only did it sell well over 30 million copies, it would become an eight-time over platinum winner. It earned a armload of awards on Grammy night -- including "Album of the Year" and "Record of the Year".
Over time Natalie began covering jazz standards. A jazz CD in 1994 also captured a Grammy (she has racked up a total of eight Grammy awards thus far). Like her Dad, she has become a fond Christmas commodity both on TV and in the record stores. In addition, she branched out into occasional acting roles, including the social drama Lily in Winter (1994) and the autobiographical feature film Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story (2000) in which she herself played the ups and downs of her own turbulent life. She has also made infrequent acting appearances on such shows as "I'll Fly Away," "Law & Order," "Touched by an Angel" and "Grey's Anatomy".
Natalie's private life, however, continued to show vulnerability. A second marriage to drummer Andre Fisher of Rufus fame also ended in divorce and she later married and divorced a third time to Kenneth H. Dupree, a church bishop. Natalie's older adopted sister, Carol Cole earned a modicum of distinction as an actress and celebrity for a time, but her adopted brother, Nat Kelly Cole, briefly an actor, died in 1995 at age 36 of AIDS-related complications.
Firmly content wrapping her glorious vocals around yesteryear's standards, Natalie's star contained the warm, fuzzy glow and velvet-like smoothness so reminiscent of her famous dad. She continued to shine with her CD "Still Unforgettable, in which she nursed the classics as only she can and "dueted" once again with her father on "Walking My Baby Back Home"
In July of 2008, Natalie was diagnosed with a life-threatening liver virus, Hepatitis C, which had laid dormant for decades from her early days of hard drug and alcohol use. It progressed to the point of her having a have a kidney transplant the following year. Although she continued to perform, she remained illness-prone up until her death on New Year's Eve 2015 of congestive heart failure induced by lung disease and pulmonary hypertension. Her 2000 memoir, Angel on My Shoulder, detailed much of her early addiction battles.65, congestive heart failure (health had been declining for years prior to her death after suffering from kidney failure after years of pro-longed drug abuse)- Actress
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Beth Howland was born on 28 May 1941 in Brighton, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Alice (1976), A Caribbean Mystery (1983) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970). She was married to Charles Kimbrough and Michael J. Pollard. She died on 31 December 2015 in Santa Monica, California, USA.76, lung cancer