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2004  ACQUANETTA, the "Venezuelan Volcano," died in obscurity of Alzheimer's disease in 2004. See below for her most famous role. |
Did you know all these
favorites passed away?
of TheColumnists.com
Once again a year has gone by, sweeping away scores of our favorite film and TV stars that somehow we never knew had left us. If you live in a smaller American town, don't watch the show biz tabloid shows or read USA Today, you're just not likely to find their names on the obituary pages these days.
For example, we all knew that Christopher Reeve and Peter Ustinov and Ray Charles and Janet Leigh and Tony Randall died in 2004, but did you know Jan Sterling and Carrie Snodgress and Paul Winfield and John Randolph had died? Or, for that matter, do you even know who those people were?
Chances are, you didn't--but
would sure recognize their faces. So, here are my memories of
some of the people we lost in 2004 that I'll bet you'll remember
once you see their faces one more time:
FRANCES RAFFERTY,
71
 Frances Rafferty in her MGM starlet days |
 Rafferty, right, with Spring Byington in the "December Bride" TV series |
| Frances Rafferty was one of those leggy, pretty girls that movie studios used to sign to "starlet" contracts. She languished at MGM in the early 1940s. For instance, she was the leading lady in "Abbott and Costello in Hollywood" in 1945. Not a sign of rapid career growth. But she became very popular in CBS' 1954-60 sitcom "December Bride," in which she played Spring Byington's married daughter, Ruth. She went on to the spinoff, "Pete and Gladys," in a supporting role in 1961-62. After that, nothing major really happened for her again. But she was a charmer while she lasted. |
JOHN RANDOLPH, 88
 JOHN RANDOLPH |
John Randolph was one of the last holdovers of the Hollywood left wing. Blacklisted when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he still managed to build a decent career in films and television. You will remember him best for his "dad" roles--to Jack Nicholson in "Prizzi's Honor" and to Roseanne Barr in her hit "Roseanne" series on ABC. I'll best remember him as the man who wants a second chance in life and gets one when a secret group gives him a total makeover--turning him into Rock Hudson for the remainder of John Frankenheimer's amazing 1966 film "Seconds." |
ACQUANETTA, 83
 Acquanetta as Paula, the Ape-Woman in 'Captive Wild Woman' (1943) |
Acquanetta Burnu, who was called the "Venezuelan Volcano" by some publicists and a Cheyenne Indian by others, was a striking dark-skinned beauty who played in "Arabian Nights" films, jungle movies and, most notably, in two Universal horror films of the early 1940s--"Captive Wild Woman" (1943) and "Jungle Woman" (1944)--in which they tried to turn her into Universal's first female monster sensation--Paula, the were-ape. Didn't happen. She disappeared from films and surfaced as a talk show host in Scottsdale, Ariz. She died last August from Alzheimer's disease. |
JAN STERLING, 82
 JAN STERLING |
When I met Jan Sterling in the 1960s, she was doing regional theater and having a hard time finding regular film and TV roles. I expected to meet the tough, "I've been-around" girl she had played in such noir classics as Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole," "The Human Jungle," "The Harder They Fall" and so many others. Instead, she was a warm, witty and incredibly sexy woman of taste and sophistication. She'll be remembered best for her role in "The High and the Mighty" (1954), in which she stripped off all her makeup on camera--and earned an Oscar nomination for the sacrifice of her glamour. A lovely woman, makeup or not, in my opinion. |
PAUL WINFIELD,
62
 PAUL WINFIELD |
Paul Winfield first attracted my attention with his searing performance as the sharecropper husband of Cicely Tyson in the acclaimed 1972 film "Sounder." I got to know him when he played the greatest role of his career, The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in NBC's 1978 miniseries "King." It was a low-rated program, so he never had the benefit of what should have been a star-making role. He was a fine, good-natured man and one of the most capable film actors of his time. |
PEGGY RYAN,
80
 PEGGY RYAN |
Somehow Peggy Ryan never became the treasured icon of Hollywood musicals she deserved to be. She was the gawky, girlish dance partner of Donald O'Connor in all those Universal studios musicals of the 1940s, which are, sadly, seldom seen today. She was a lively one--and deserved better from Hollywood. |
CARRIE SNODGRESS, 57
 CARRIE SNODGRESS |
Sometimes a young, promising star will light up the screen so vividly the first time out that fame is instant and lasting. Carrie Snodgress certainly electrified us with her starring role in Frank Perry's 1970 feminist film "Diary Of A Mad Housewife," which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a big head start on her road to fame. But the non-conformist Snodgress didn't much care about all that. She left Hollywood to be with singer Neil Young and when that was over and she came back, her time was past. I met her when she was laboring in a Charles Bronson action picture, "Murphy's Law," in 1986, playing a psycho killer. A sad case. She died of heart failure this year while awaiting a liver transplant. |
FRANCES DEE, 96
 FRANCES DEE |
Frances Dee was one of the most beautiful women ever seen on the screen--and a much underrated actress. She was an extra who was discovered by Maurice Chevalier and given a role in his 1930 "Playboy of Paris." She played the society girl in the 1931 film of Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy"--the same role Elizabeth Taylor played in the 1951 remake, "A Place in the Sun." To see her at her glorious best, look at the early color film "Becky Sharp" (1935). She was married for 57 years to Joel McCrea. I used to see them both at the annual western awards in Studio City. Even in old age, she was still beautiful. I'll remember her best as the Jane Eyre-like heroine of Val Lewton's wonderfully scary "I Walked With A Zombie" (1943). |
VIRGINIA GREY, 87
 VIRGINIA GREY |
From the first time I saw her on screen in some forgotten B-movie, I was entranced by slender, exquisitely beautiful Virginia Grey. She had been acting since childhood, starting with the role of Little Eva in the 1927 silent movie version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." She never seemed to age, even after she slipped out of leading lady roles in films like "Idaho" (opposite Roy Rogers) and "Jungle Jim" (opposite Johnny Weissmuller. When she started playing the leading lady's mom, she looked like she'd be a lot more fun on a date than her daughter. But she never married. Perhaps she was saving herself for 10,000 other little twerps like me who fell for her in horny adolescence. |
And now for a few words about a couple of extraordinary ladies who didn't exactly escape public notice when they left us this year. They were personal favorites, so here we go:
JANET LEIGH,
76
 JANET LEIGH |
You'll notice we're not running a picture of Janet screaming in a shower. Yes, she earned an Oscar nomination for Hitchcock's "Psycho" and lived off that 1960 shocker for the rest of her career. I prefer to remember her as young Janet, the playful, vibrant girl who made her screen debut in "The Romance of Rosy Ridge" (1947), which was filmed in my hometown--Santa Cruz, Calif. I surprised her at a Hitchcock-related press conference once by asking her about her first film instead of "Psycho." She was delighted--and told me about the fun she had on the seashore with some of the guys in the cast while filming in Santa Cruz. I'll bet there was fun, all right, remembering how Janet looked in a bathing suit. To see Janet at her dramatic best, skip "Psycho" and try Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil." A great lady, she'll be missed by all who ever saw her on screen--and why the heck isn't "The Black Shield of Falworth" out on DVD yet? |
JULIA CHILD, 91
 JULIA CHILD |
Julia Child was one of the most amazing characters in TV history. The famous TV chef had a voice like fingernails on a blackboard, was tall enough to play in the NBA and was built like a linebacker. But what a marvelous personality! I met Julia late in her life and heard her tell the story of how she became a spy for the U.S. in France during the Nazi occupation. I'll bet she could have scrambled a few Nazis, too, if they had ever come to arrest her. There will never be anyone like this funny, engaging woman. PBS should be draped in black until at least 2050. |
©2004 by Ron Miller. The photos are from the author's personal photo files, supplemented from some internet sources.
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