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PART TWO
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of TheColumnists.com
When I had counted past 50 show business and sports celebrities that died during hte past year, I began to realize that 2009 was a landmark year in terms of the enormous number of treasured stars we lost in one 12-month period.
In order to pay our respects to a respectable number of them, we've even had to break our annual tribute to the "passing parade" of stars into two parts just to give us the time to research and illustrate their careers.
As we've pointed out before, TheColumnists.com normally salutes major celebrities juste a few days after reports of their death. Those who write about them are either writers who had met and talked with them over the years or at least had a special interest in their careers and felt some emotional attachment to them.
Our special focus in our year-end tributes is to shine a final spotlight on those celebrities who have become a little more obscure than others since their time of fame had been past for many years. These aren't the people whose deaths made major headlines during 2009. In fact, you may be surprised to even learn they're no longer with us.
As we did last week, we're dividing the group into a few special categories of celebrity to better help you find those you will miss the most.
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Died May 13, Age 83  |
FRANK ALETTER came to Hollywood from Broadway where he appeared in two popular musical comedies--"Bells Are Ringing" and "Wish You Were Here." In Hollywood, he was mostly known for his TV work, including the series "Bringing Up Buddy" (CBS) in 1960-61, in which he played a bachelor stockbroker. In 1964-65, he starred as the male lead in "The Cara Williams Show," in which he and Williams played a husband and wife trying to conceal their marital status from their employer. Then in 1966-67, he starred in the CBS sitcom "It's About Time" as an astronaut who crosses the time barrier and winds up back in the stone age. In 1970, he played a supporting role in the sitcom "Nancy." He was married twice, the first time to 1955 Miss America Lee Meriwether with whom he had two daughters, who both became actresses. |
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Died May 21, Age 94  |
JOAN ALEXANDER was the voice of plucky female reporter Lois Lane to millions of kids for more than 11 years and 1,600 episodes of radio's "Adventures of Superman" from 1940-51. She also voiced Lois in all those amazing Max Fleischer Superman cartoons of the early 1940s, then reprised the role in the 1966 animated TV version of "The New Adventures ofSuperman." She also was a panelist on ABC's TV game show "The Name's the Same" (1951-55). She was married three times, the last to millionaire Volkswagen distributor Arthur Stanton and became a pillar of New York society. She died from an intestinal blockage. |
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Died Oct. 6, Age 94  PAMELA BLAKE (Adele Pearce) with John Wayne in "Wyoming Outlaw" (1939) |
PAMELA BLAKE began her movie career in the early 1930s under her real name, Adelle Pearce, and worked her way up from uncredited bit roles to leading lady parts in mostly "B" movies. She became Pamela Blake in 1942, but under her real name already had co-starred with western heroes Tex Ritter and John Wayne. In 1947 she co-starred with Buster Crabbe in the serial "The Sea Hound." She retired from acting in 1954. Married three times, she had one son. Blake died in a convalescent care home in Las Vegas, NV. |
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Died Sept. 13, Age 83  PAUL BURKE in TV's "Twelve O'Clock High." |
PAUL
BURKE is best remembered as NYPD detective Adam Flint in the
ABC TV series "Naked City" from 1960-63, but he also
had key roles in a number of other TV series, including Dr. Noah
McCann in "Noah's Ark" (1956-58) Jeff Kittridge on "Harbourmaster" (1957-58), Robertson in "Five Fingers" (1959-60), Joe Gallagher in "Twelve O'Clock High" (1964-67), Congressman Neal McVane on "Dynasty" (1982-87) and Nicholas Broderick in "Hot Shots" (1986-87). His father, Marty Burke, was a prizefighter who once fought Gene Tunney and later ran a popular New Orleans night club. Burke's movie career was secondary to his TV career, but he made his film debut in Sam Fuller's 1951 Korean war drama "Fixed Bayonets!," and appeared in featured roles in the original "Valley of the Dolls" (1967) and the original "Thomas Crown Affair" (1968). He died from leukemia and lymphoma. |
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Feb. 6, Age 83  |
PHILIP CAREY was one of the many tall, good-looking young leading men who turned up in Hollywood in the early 1950s, but never quite established himself as a leading player. Instead, Carey settled into a career based on secondary leading roles and heavies in television dramas. He played Raymond Chandler's famous private eye "Philip Marlowe" in a 1959 ABC-TV series and was Capt. Edward Parmalee in NBC's 1967 western series "Laredo." Ultimately, he spent most of his career in daytime soaps, especially in his most famous role as Texas patriarch Asa Buchanan in ABC's "One Life To Live" from 1979-2007. He also played a key role in CBS' landmark sitcom "All in the Family" as a former professional football player who announces he's gay. Married twice, he fathered two sons and three daughters. He died from lung cancer. |
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Died June 3, Age 72  |
DAVID CARRADINE had a turbulent youth, a chaotic career filled with highs and lows and ended his life in a swarm of controversy. But, along the way, he won considerable respect for his skills as a dramatic actor. He was the son of renowned character actor John Carradine and, in fact, was born John Arthur Carradine and later changed his first name to David to avoid confusion with his father. He was the half brother of actors Keith and Robert Carradine and uncle to actresses Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton. He had done some stage acting before he broke into television on an episode of the anthology drama show "Armstrong Circle Theater" in 1963. This led to a number of solid character parts in TV dramas. In 1964, he made his movie debut in "Taggart," a western, then scored big on Broadway in "The Royal Hunt of the Sun," Peter Shaffer's play about the fall on the Inca empire. In 1966, he landed the lead role in the TV series version of "Shane" and in 1972 starred in Martin Scorsese's film "Boxcar Bertha" opposite future romantic interest Barbara Hershey. But it was the TV series "Kung Fu" (1972-75) that made Carradine a genuine star, playing a Eurasian monk named Kwai Chang Caine. He was forever after identified with martial arts. In one of his last great roles, he played the bete noir of the two-part "Kill Bill" feature film by Quentin Tarantino. Carradine's personal life was a shambles, including a youthful suicide attempt, drug and alcohol abuse and complex marital arrangements with five marriages and divorces as well as many liasions. He was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand, hanging by the neck in his closet. Rather than a repeat of his youthful attempt at suicide by hanging, authorities finally assumed he was involved in an auto-erotic act that resulted in his accidental asphyxiation.
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Died Sept. 7, Age 93  Frank Coghlan Jr. in his silent movie days as a child performer. |
"JUNIOR COGHLAN" was one of the busiest child performers in movies in the late 1920s and 1930s. He started appearing on camera at age three. His debut film may have been the silent picture "Daredevil Jack" (1920), which starred heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey. Freckle-faced and wistful, he was used in lots of films and was for a time under contract to director Cecil B. DeMille. When talking pictures arrived, Junior played James Cagney as a boy in "The Public Enemy" (1931) and workedin the Our Gang comedies. He was also "Sam" in the 1931 film of Book Tarkington's "Penrod and Sam" In 1933-34, he co-starred with Shirley Temple in a series of short subjects. But the role he's remembered for most was young Billy Batson, a radio reporter who spoke the magic word "Shazam" and was transformed into comic book superhero Captain Marvel. The 1941 "Adventures of Captain Marvel" serial is still considered one of the best ever made. During World War II, Coghlan became a Navy pilot and achieved the rank of lieutenant commander during his 23 years in the Navy. He returned to acting after the war, but never became a leading player. He died at an assisted living home in Saugus, Calif. |
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Died Nov. 15, Age 69  |
DENNIS
COLE was a male model who made it into a fairly robust TV acting
career on the strength of his good looks and a modicum of talent.
He starred first in TV's "Felony Squad" (1966-69),
then played a stunt man in "Bracken's World" (1969-70)
and did a third series "Bearcats!) (1971) co-starring with
Rod Taylor. From 1981-82 he played Lance Prentiss on the soap
"The Young and the Restless," but wasn't getting much
regular work after that gig ended. He was married three times--the
second time to "Charlie's Angels" star Jaclyn Smtih--and
had gone into real estate sales with his third wife in Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida, in recent years. He died from kidney failure. |
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Died Jan. 8, Age 71  |
DON GALLOWAY is best remembered as Sgt. Ed Brown, sidekick to Raymond Burr in TV's "Ironside" (1967-75), a role he reprised in a "reunion" movie in 1993. He was one of many actors who migrated from daytime soap operas to prime time, starting his TV career as a regular on "The Secret Storm." Ironically, once his prime time career cooled he returned to daytime on ABC's "General Hospital" from 1985-87. Once he retired from acting, Galloway became a columnist for The Manchester Union Leader in Manchester, N.H. He died after suffering a stroke in Reno, NV. He's survived by his wife, two daughters and two stepchildren. |
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Died Sept. 14, Age 73.  |
HENRY GIBSON kept re-inventing himself all through his career, possibly starting at an early age when he gave up his real name of James Bateman and adopted Henry Gibson because it sounded like the playwright Henrik Ibsen if he said it real fast. He is probably best remembered as a member of TV's "Laugh-In" cast, where his specialty was The Poet, who would recite poems while holding a flower and wearing a Nehru jacket. He drew critic's raves for his performance of fictional country singing legend Haven Hamilton in Robert Altman's "Nashville" (1975). His last great role was that of recurring character Judge Clark Brown on TV's "Boston Legal." He died of cancer at his home in Malibu, Calif. |
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Died Sept. 20, Age 91  JOHN HART in his one-year reign as TV's The Lone Ranger. He died last year at 91. |
JOHN HART was the son of the drama critic for the Pasadena Star-News who made his film debut in a bit role in Cecil B. DeMIlle's "The Buccaneer" in 1938. He first attracted attention in the title role of the movie serial based on the famous hero of radio and boy's fiction--"Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy" in 1947. In the early days of television, he starred in the series "Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans" with Lon Chaney Jr., then in 1952, Clayton Moore left the role of TV's "The Lone Ranger" in a contract dispute and Hart took over, playing the famous Masked Man in 52 episodes before Moore retunred to the role. In later years, Hart did "Lone Ranger" cameos in a number of TV programs. He was survived by his wife of 52 years and a daughter. |
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Dec. 18, Age 78  CONNIE HINES with Alan Young and "Mr. Ed" |
CONNIE HINES was a model and occasional radio and stage actress whose main claim to fame was playing the wife of Alan Young on the popular TV series "Mr. Ed" (CBS, 1961-65). She played a few guest roles in other TV shows, but retired in 1971, making only occasional returns to the stage or TV. She was married twice, the second time to entertainment lawyer Lee Savin. She was widowed in 1995 and never remarried She died from heart problems at her home in Beverly Hills. |
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Jan. 3, Age 84.  |
Beefy PAT HINGLE was one of the most familiar character actors in movies for more than half a century. The current generation probably knows him best as Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 "Batman" and its first three sequels. But his credits stretch back to the late 1940s and such major films as "On the Waterfront" (1954), "Splendor in the Grass" (1961), "Norma Rae" (1979) and "Sudden Impact" (1983), usually playing authority figures. He was in the original Broadway cast of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" (as Gooper) and Arthur Miller's "The Price" (as Victor Franz). He died at his home in North Carolina from cancer. |
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Died June 23, Age 86.  |
ED McMAHON became famous as a permanent second banana in show business. He was the television talk show equivalent of Gabby Hayes in westerns--the ideal sidekick. He'll forever be remembered as Johnny Carson's sidekick/announcer during Carson's long run as host of "The Tonight Show" (1962-92). McMahon began his professional career as a "bingo caller" in Maine at age 15, went on to be a carnival barker and pitchman on the Atlantic City boardwalk, oddly all precursors to his ultimate show business destiny. He was trained as a fighter pilot for the U.S. Marines in World War II and was a flying artillery spotter during the Korean War, flew 85 combat missions and earned six Air Medals. He remained in the Marines as a reserve officer, attaining the rank of colonel. Later he was commissioned as a brigadier general in the California National Guard. He got into broadcasting early on local stations and in 1957 was the announcer for the daytime game show "Who Do You Trust?" when Carson was its host. After Carson retired, McMahon went on to his many other pursuits, which over the years had included hosting games shows and the original "Star Search" program. In person, McMahon was a glad-handing and genial guy, but had a troubled private life with two divorces and a host of lawsuits relating to his finances and his health. He fathered three daughters and three sons. No cause of death was announced, but reports said he was suffering both from bone cancer and from pneumonia. |
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Died Dec. 20, Age 32.  |
The
death of BRITTANY MURPHY was one of the rude shocks of 2009.
She died of cardiac arrest after being rushed to the hospital
after collapsing at home. A full report on the cause of death
is still pending. Murphy began her career in TV's "Drexel's
Class" at age 14 and had recurring roles in a number of
teen-oriented TV shows, inclduing "Party of Five" and
"Boy Meetes World." She attracted considerable attention in the 1995 movie "Clueless" and had begun to move up with roles of importance in "Girl Interrupted" (1999), "8 Mile" (2002), "Sin City" (2005) and as the voice of Gloria the penguin in "Happy Feet" (2006). She was married to screenwriter Simon Moonjack at the time of her death. |
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Died Sept. 30, Age 89  |
BYRON PALMER was a handsome leading man-type in the 1940s and 1950s and appeared in several movies, but is probably best remembered as the host of TV's "Bride and Groom" TV series and as the star of the syndicated TV musical series "This is Your Music" in 1955. He was the son of the publisher of the Hollywood Citizen-News and began his career a radio announcer for both CBS and NBC. He was a featured performer in Ray Bolger's Breoadway hit "Where's Charley?" and made his screen debut playing a singer in "Tonight We Sing" (1953) with Ezio Pinza. Though Palmer was himself a singer, his voice was dubbed by opera star Jan Peerce. He appeared in such "B" pictures as 1954's "Man in the Attic" (as a Scotland Yard detective), "Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki" (1955) and as Margaret O'Brien's leading man in "Glory" (1956). He had a singing role in "The Best Things in Life Are Free" (1956), featuring his own voice. His third wife, Georgine Darcy, was the would-be ballerina known as "Miss Torso" in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window." They were married 30 years, until she died in 2004. |
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Feb. 26, Age 65.  |
WENDY RICHARD is best known in the U.S. as Cockney sales rep Shirley Brahms in the hit British comedy series "Are You Being Served?" (1972-85), but she went on to play another long-running role, Pauline Fowler, in the British soap "Eastenders" (1985-2006), leaving when her character died. She earned a British Soap Award for Life Achievement for her performance in "Eastenders." She had a long battle with breast cancer, the disease that finally took her life. |
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Died July 13, Age 95   BEVERLY ROBERTS with Al Jolson in her first movie, "The Singing Kid" (1936). |
BEVERLY ROBERTS had a very curious Hollywood career, starting as a singer when a Warners talent scout saw her in a nightclub in 1935 and she wound up being cast as Al Jolson's leading lady in "The Singing Kid" (1936). The studio must have thought she was go'ng places fast because they cast her opposite Bogart in "Two Against the World" (1936) and opposite George Brent in the studio's first color movie, "God's Country and the Woman" (1937). Between 1937-39, she starred in 16 films, but finally gave up after losing too many parts to the studio's two favored leading ladies--Bette Davis and Olivia DeHavilland. Roberts returned to stage and club work until 1954 when she made a big transition into becoming an administrator of the Theater Authority, which monitored performers in charity events and telethons. She lived most of her adult life with actress Wynne Gibson, whom she met when both worked on "Flirting with Fate" (1938). She never married. She was honored in 2002 at the reopening of the Del MarTheater in Santa Cruz, Calif. She had starred in "China Clipper" (1936), the first movie ever shown at the theater. |
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Died Oct. 22, Age 83.  |
SOUPY SALES (Milton Supman) was a legendary children's TV icon whose specialty was having pies splat him in the face. After military service in World War II, Sales earned a master's degree in journalism and worked as a radio scriptwriter and disc jockey at a hometown station in Huntington, West Virginia. He migrated to WXYZ-TV in Detroit, where he began his "Lunch with Soupy" program. He had a brief run on the ABC network, but worked mainly on lcoal stations until "The New Soupy Sales Show" was syndicated from Los Angeles in 1978 for one season of 65 episodes. Among his many incarnations, Sales was a panelist on the revived "What's My Line?" game show from 1968-75. He died from cancer. |
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Died Jan. 3, Age 81  |
OLGA SAN JUAN's time was the 1940s when she was known as "The Puerto Rican Pepperpot," a vivacious singer and dancer who appeared in many lighthearted films of the period, including "Duffy's Tavern" (1945), "Blue Skies" (1946) with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, "Variety Girl" (1947) and "One Touch of Venus" (1948). She also starred on Broadway in "Paint Your Wagon" in 1951. She was married to Oscar-winning actor Edmond O'Brien from 1948-76. She died from kidney disease. |
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Died March 15, Age 62.  |
RON SILVER was a durable second lead in movies and television for nearly 40 years. Best remembered roles: Anne Bancroft's son in :Garbo Talks" (1984); the lead in Paul Mazursky's 1989 "Enemies: A Love Story"; the downstairs neighbor to Valerie Harper in TV's "Rhoda" (1976-78); real-life attorney Alan Dershowitz in "Reversal of Fortune" (1990); trainer Angelo Dundee in "Ali" (2001); campaign adviser Bruno Gianelli in TV's "The West Wing" (2001-06); tennis star Bobby Riggs in "When Billy Beat Bobby." A Democrat-turned-Republican, Silver campaigned for Pres. George W. Bush, but voted for Barack Obama last year. A complex guy, Silver spoke fluent Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. He died from esophageal cancer. |
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No, GALE STORM wasn't her real name. But since her real name was Josephine Cottle, one can understand why she agreed to adopt such a silly name when she came to Hollywood at age 17 after winning a radio talent contest that promised a movie contract. She got one with RKO and played in a number of their pictures, starting with "Tom Brown's School Days" (1940). Released by the studio, she was signed by "poverty row" studio Monogram and put into a number of starring roles in musicals and other kinds of pictures, including even "soundies" that allowed her to perform short musical numbers in the 1940s equivalent of MTV tunes. But Storm's real fame came from the TV shows she starred in later: "My Little Margie" (1952-55) and "The Gale Storm Show" ("Oh, Susanna!"), which ran from 1956-60. During this time she also launched a successful recording career with such hit records as "I Hear You Knockin'" and "Dark Moon," which led to Las Vegas bookings as a musical performer. Storm was widowed twice and had four children. She has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recordings, radio and television. She died in a Northern California convalescent home. |
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Died July 1, Age 86.  |
MOLLIE SUGDEN was one of England's most beloved comedy players and created one of the most unique characters in TV history--snobbish Mrs. Slocombe, the department store saleswoman in the long-running "Are You Being Served?" (1972-85) and its sequel "Are You Being Served? Again!" Her bouffant wildly colored hair-do was her trademark look. Sugden, who suffered from polymyalgia and other maladies, died at age 86, just a few months after the death of co-star Wendy Richard from "Are You Being Served?" |
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Died Sept. 14, Age 57.  |
PATRICK SWAYZE's long battle with pancreatic cancer was one of the big taloid stories of 2009 as millions of his fans rooted for him to beat the disease. He managed to beat it back enough to film a new TV series, "The Beast," for cable television, but the cancer had spread to his liver and he died 20 months after his public fight began. Trained as a dancer, appeared in Broadway's "Grease," but really made his breakthrough in dramatic roles in films, starting with "The Outsiders" (1983) as the older brother of C.Thomas Howell and Rob Lowe. That led to his showcase leading role in TV's costly miniseries "North and South" (1985) and its two sequels. In 1987 he starred in the enormous hit movie "Dirty Dancing," which made him a major star name in Hollywood. He had trouble finding roles of equal power after that, except for the lead role in "Ghost" (1990), another box office dynamo. He's survived by his wife, Lisa, whom he married in 1975. |
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Died Dec. 3, Age 90  |
RICHARD TODD was a real life hero, serving as a British paratrooper in World War II. Capt. Todd was one of the first British officers to land in Normandy on D-Day. In real life, he met British Major John Howard when they were assaulting the Pegasus Bridge near Caen, Later, Todd played Maj. Howard in "The Longest Day" (1962). In 1948, Todd played the leading role in "The Hasty Heart" on the London stage, then was cast in the same role in the American film version in 1949. He received an Oscar nomination for his star-making performance. He worked back and forth between England and America, starring in Disney's "The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men" (1952), then the British film "The Dam Busters" (1955) and America's "A Man Called Peter" the same year. He was author Ian Fleming's first choice to play James Bond in "Dr. No," but a scheduling conflict spoiled that and Sean Connery landed the role that made him a star. Todd continued to act in films into the 1980s, but gradually withdrew from active performing. He died after a long bout with cancer. |
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Died Feb. 6, Age 87  |
JAMES WHITMORE was one of America's busiest and most respected character actors and ended his career known to a new generation as a commercial spokesman for Miracle-Gro plant food. He was signed by MGM after his much praised performance in Broadway's "Command Decision," although Van Johnson played Whitmore's role when MGM filmed the play. His breakthrough role was in William Wellman's "Battleground" (1949), for which he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. In Wellman's "The Next Voice You Hear" (1950), Whitmore played one of his few leading roles as a man God speaks to over the radio. (His wife was played by Nancy Davis, later to become First Lady Nancy Reagan). He also played the lead in the classic 1954 sci-fi film "Them" about giant ants menacing Los Angeles. His stage career began with a Tony award for "best newcomer" in 1948's "Command Decision." He starred in two widely-praised one-man shows--"Will Rogers' USA" and "Give 'em Hell, Harry" (as Harry Truman). He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for the film version of the latter show. In 1999, he earned an Emmy fo;r a guest appearance on ABC's "The Practice." He was married four times, twice to first wife Nancy Mygatt. He died from lung cancer. |
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Jan. 12, Age 74  |
French filmmaker CLAUDE BERRI will be best remembered for his "Jean de Florette" (1986) and its sequel "Manon of the Spring" (1986) and perhaps his first film as a director, "The Two of Us" (1967). He was a man of many talents and had worked in films as an actor, writer, director, producer and distributor. He won England's BAFTA Best Film award for "Jean de Florette" and an American Oscar for his short film "Le Poulet" (1966). He also was nominated 12 times for France's Cesar award, but never won. He died after suffering a stroke. |
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Died April 22, Age 94  |
JACK CARDIFF was one of the giants of British cinema, starting as a child actor in silent movies in 1918 and becoming one of the most acclaimed cinematographers in film history before he turned to directing, showing great talent in that discipline, too. He filmed England's first Technicolor film, "Wings of the Morning" (1937) and later set a world standard for color cinematography with such classics as "Black Narcissus" (1947), "The Red Shoes" (1948), "The Africa. n Queen" (1951), "The Barefoot Contessa" (1954) and "War and Peace" (1956). His greatest achievement as a director probably was his version of D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers" (1960). In his later years, he flmed some major action pictures for other directors, including "Conan the Destroyer" (1984) and "Rambo: First Blood, Part II" (1985). In 2001, he earned an honorary Oscar for career achievement. |
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Died Sept. 11, Age 81.  |
LARRY GELBART was a television writer who really made it big, going on to film and Broadway success as well in his chosen field--comedy. He began as a radio writer for Danny Thomas at age 16 in the 1940s. Over the years he wrote for some of America's funniest comics from Bob Hope and Jack Paar to Red Buttons and Sid Caesar. He was the main creative force behind the TV series "MASH," winning both an Emmy and a Peabody award for his work during the first four seasons of the long-running CBS sitcom. In movies, Gelbart was Oscar-nominated for his work on "Tootsie" (1982) and "Oh, God!" (1977). His biggest Broadway hit was "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To The Forum." Later, he scripted several TV hits, including "Barbarians at the Gate" (1993). In person, he was a genial, witty man with a rosy outlook on life. He died at home in Beverly Hills from cancer. |
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Died Aug. 19, Age 86.  |
DON HEWITT was a familiar face to most TV columnists, though the public rarely saw him. He was one of the towering figures in the history of television news, the creator of CBS' "60 Minutes," the most popular prime time program in TV history, and the news magazine format it pioneered. He began his career at CBS in 1948 as an associate director on "Douglas Edwards with the News," the first national evening newscast for the network. He stayed with the evening news, becoming executive producer of Walter Cronkite's historic evening news show. He went on to win virtually every possible award a TV producer could win. Hewitt began his career in journalism as a copy boy for The New York Herald Tribune in 1942. |
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Died March 28, Age 84.  |
Film composer MAURICE JARRE will be best remembered for the great scores he composed for the films of director David Lean, among them "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) and "A Passage To India" (1984), all of which won him Academy Awards. Jarre was born in Lyon, France, and started his search for a music career late after first studying engineering at the Sorbonne. He also was Oscar-nominated for his scores for "Sundays and Cybele" (1962), "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" (1972), "The Messenger" (1970), "Witness" (1985), "Gorillas in the Mist" (1988) and "Ghost" (1990). His score for "Dead Poets Society" (1989) won the British Academy Award. He also did several acclaimed TV scores, including those for the miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth" (1979) and "Shogun" (1980). He was divorced three times and was survived by his fourth wife. His youngest son, Kevin, is a screenwriter with credits that include "Glory" and "Tmbstone." |
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Died Nov. 12, Age 77.  |
PAUL
WENDKOS was an enormously talented director who began at Columbia
Pictures in the late 1950s and made the original "Gidget"
(1959) and its two sequels, all box office hits, but eventually
migrated to television where he directed episodic TV shows like
"Hawaii Five-O." "The Big Valley" and I Spy"
before becoming a specialist in made-for television movies. He
made some of the very best of that genre, including "Honor
Thy Father" (1973), "The Death of Richie" (1977),
"A Woman Called Moses" (1978), "The Ordeal of
Patty Hearst" (1979), "Celebrity" (1984). He suffered a stroke several years ago and never completely recovered. |
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Died Feb. 22, Age 81  |
HOWARD ZIEFF was trained as a photographer while in the U.S. Navy right after World WarII, then enhanced that training to become one of New York City's most in-demand commercial photographers. One of his most famous television ads was the one for Alka-Seltzer that went, "Mamma-Mia, that's a spicy meatball!" Along the way he discovered a gift for directing comedy and made his movie directing debut with "Slither" in 1973 and followed that up with several hit comedies, including "The Main Event" with Barbra Streisand, "Private Benjamin" with Goldie Hawn, "The Dream Team" with Michael Keaton and "My Girl" (1991) with Dan Aykroyd. He retired after "My Girl 2" (1994) because he was afflicted with Parkinson's Disease. |
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Feb. 7, Age. 69  |
MOLLY BEE was discovered by singing cowboy Rex Allen when she was just a 10-year-old who sang Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues" on his rado show. Her real name: Mollie Gene Beachboard. She became a teen recording sensation in the 1950s and, eventually, a reliable act in the country music world. She died after suffering a stroke. |
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Died Feb. 14, Age 84  |
LOUIE BELLSON was really Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, so it's no mystery why he decided to just go by Louis Bellson. One of the great drummers in jazz history, he pioneered the double bass drum setup as a 15-year-old musician and at 17 one the national Gene Krupa drumming contest. Between 1943-52, Bellson played with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Duke Ellington, four of the greatest bandleaders in jazz history. In 1952, he married singer Pearl Bailey and became her musical director. Divorced later, he married again to physicist Francine Wright, who survived him. In his long career, Bellson established himself as a jazz immortal. |
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MARY TRAVERS was an icon of the great American folk music boom of the 1960s as the female voice of Peter, Paul and Mary (with Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey). She was the daughter of newspaper union activists Robert Travers and Virginia Coigney. While still in high school, she became a member of The Song Swappers, the backup group to folk singer Pete Seeger and was on several of his albums. She was in the cast of the Broadway show "The Next President" and then, in 1961, formed Peter, Paul and Mary with her partners. They quickly became the biggest act in the folk boom with several hit records, including the classics "If I Had A Hammer," "Lemon Tree" and "Puff, the Magic Dragon." Their first album was a Grammy winner. In 1963, they had three albums among Billboard magazine's top six selling albums. The group broke up in 1970 and Travis went on recording as a single. Peter, Paul and Mary reformed in 1978 and went on tour. Travers' first three marriages ended in divorce, but she was survived by her fourth husband, restauranteur Ethan Robbins. She died of leukemia. |
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