gone too soon - female stars who died aged 17 to 41 years
female stars (actresses, models, singers, writers, socialites and others) who died too soon (aged 17 to 40)
- for the category of 1 - 16 and 41 - 72 see please my other list ->
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Kara Hamilton was born on 31 July 1975 in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. She was an actress, known for Just Like Heaven (2005), The Last Request (2006) and The Awakened (2012). She was married to Matthew Novotny. She died on 3 July 2017 in Tiburon, California, USA.- Actress
Lea De Mae was born on 26 December 1976 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress. She died on 9 December 2004 in Prague, Czech Republic.Andrea Absolonová (“Lea de Mae”) – 1976 – 2004 (age 27) – actress and adult model – brain tumour – Czech- Abigail Adams was born Margaret Thomas Adams on January 11, 1922. During her freshman year at the University of North Carolina she was discovered by modeling agent Harry Conover. She dropped out of school and moved to New York City to be a model. She made her film debut in the 1942 comedy Moonlight Masquerade. For a short time she used the stage name Tommye Adams. On January 22, 1942 she married 41-year-old actor Lyle Talbot; the marriage was annulled just eight months later. Abigail was romantically involved with Tony Martin, Mickey Rooney, and pianist Jose Iturbi. She began a turbulent romance with actor George Jessel in 1944; he was 23 year older and had three ex-wives. They broke up and got back together numerous times. Abigail had bit parts in more than a dozen films, including Bathing Beauty and Marriage Is A Private Affair. In March 1945 she was arrested for hit-and-run driving; the charges were dropped when George Jessel testified in her defense.
Abigail's apartment was destroyed in a fire in December 1947. By that time she had a serious drinking problem and her career was in trouble. Her last film was the 1948 comedy The Fuller Brush Man. George proposed to her with a heart-shaped diamond ring but refused to set a wedding date. They continued to have an on-again/off-again relationship. Abigail started singing in nightclubs and wrote a screenplay. She suffered from severe insomnia and began taking sleeping pills at night. In 1950 she attempted suicide by slashing her wrists. She was arrested on December 12, 1954 for public intoxication and ended up her relationship soon after. On February 13, 1955, at only 33 years old, she died after overdosing on sleeping pills. She was found in her bed wearing a blue nightgown. The police ruled her death as accidental but many believe she committed suicide. She was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina.Margaret Thomas Adams (“Abigail Adams”) – 1922 – 1955 (age 33) – actress – suicide – American - Costume Designer
- Production Manager
Aarti Agarwal is known for Hivade Me Fute Laadu (2016).Aarthi Agarwal – 1984 – 2015 (age 31) – actress – botched operation – Indian- Anny Ahlers was born December 21, 1907 in Germany. Operetta singer, she began her career at the age of 4 in the circus. She later took up singing and dancing. Her first appearance was at the Volksoper in Hamburg. From there, as an operetta diva she moved down to Krefeldand Breslau. In 1928 Eric Charell got her to play in the operettas in Berlin. She played also in the original operetta by Paul Abraham, "Die Blume von Hawaii". (The Flower from Hawaii) She also made six films from 1928 to 1931 and got an engagement for an operetta in London because of her beautiful voice. In London her best friend was Sir Merrick Burrell. However, alcohol, drugs and Tuberculosis ended her life on March 14, 1933 in England.Anny Ahlers – 1907 – 1933 (age 25) – actress – suicide – German
- Actress
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A very talented singer with a beautiful voice. She starred in two films, the first, Intisar al-chabab (1941), was with her older brother 'Farid Al Atrach' and the second Gharam wa intiqam (1944). Asmahane died in a car accident while filming 'Gharam wa intiqam', it is rumoured, through the war between the secret services in Cairo during World War II.Amal Al-Atrash (“Asamahan”) – 1917 – 1944 (age 26) – singer and actress – car accident – Syrian- Viridiana Alatriste was born on 17 January 1963 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Seduction (1981), La combi asesina (1982) and Mañana es primavera (1982). She died on 25 October 1982 in Mexico City, Mexico.Viridiana Alatriste Pinal – 1963 – 1982 (age 19) – actress – car accident – Mexican
- Alissa Alban was born on 22 May 1963 in Houston, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for Hope Floats (1998), Simple Men (1992) and Pendulum (2001). She was married to Peter Baquet and Richard Stephen McCurdy. She died on 23 March 2001.Alissa Alban – 1963 – 2001 (age 37) – actress – brain tumour – American
- Gia Allemand was born on 20 December 1983 in Howard Beach, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Ghost Trek: The Kinsey Report (2011), Ghost Trek: Goomba Body Snatchers Mortuary Lockdown (2013) and Bachelor Pad (2010). She died on 14 August 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.Gia Marie Allemand – 1983 – 2013 (age 29) – actress – suicide – American
- María José Alvarado was born on 19 July 1995 in Santa Bárbara, Honduras. She died on 13 November 2014 in Cablotales, Honduras.María José Alvarado Muñoz- 1995 – 2014 (age 19) – model – homicide – Honduran
- Actress
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Bridgette Andersen was born on July 11, 1975 to Frank Glass and Teresa Andersen in Inglewood, California and grew up in Malibu. She always considered it good luck to have her birthday read as 7-11 rather than as July 11th. She would always kiss the first two fingers on her right hand and then touch any digital clock that read 7:11. As a child star, she played in many films, most notably Savannah Smiles (1982). As a teenager, she became involved with drugs, and, tragically, died in May 1997, aged 21, after overdosing on alcohol and heroin.Marriah Bridget Andersen („Bridgette Andersen”) – 1975 – 1997 (age 21) – actress – drug overdose - American- Annie Anderson was born on 20 March 1940 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for OSS 117: Mission for a Killer (1965), Le Bossu (1959) and The Miracle of the Wolves (1961). She died on 5 March 1970 in Paris, France.Chantal Marguerite Andersson (“Annie Andersson”) – 1939 – 1970 (age 29) – actress – suicide – French
- Thaís de Andrade was born on 26 April 1958 in São Paulo, Brazil. She was an actress, known for Pai Herói (1979), Olhai os Lírios do Campo (1980) and Locomotivas (1977). She was married to Claudio Marzo. She died on 27 April 1996 in São Paulo, Brazil.Thaís Helena Andrade Pereira dos Santos – 1957 – 1996 (age 38) – actress – cancer – Brazilian
- Oksana Aplekaeva was born on 12 June 1977 in Ufa, Bashkir ASSR, RSFSR, USSR [now Bashkortostan, Russia]. She died on 1 September 2008 in Moscow, Russia.Oksana Aplekaeva – 1977 – 2008 (age 31) – Big Brother star – homicide – Russian
- Shauna Grant was born on 30 May 1963 in Farmington, Michigan, USA. She was an actress. She died on 21 March 1984 in Palm Springs, California, USA.Colleen Marie Applegate (“Shauna Grant”) – 1963 – 1984 (age 20) – pornographic actress – suicide – American
- Arabella Arbenz was born in 1940 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. She was an actress, known for Un alma pura (1965) and Tajimara (1965). She died on 5 October 1965 in Bogota, Colombia.Arabella Árbenz Vilanova – 1940 – 1965 (age 25) – model and actress – suicide – Guatemalan (daughter of toppled president Jacobo Árbenz)
- Mimi Forsythe was born on 13 December 1921 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Sensations of 1945 (1944) and Three Russian Girls (1943). She was married to James Parnell Turner, Warren Leslie McCanless and Benedict Bogeaus. She died on 17 August 1952 in Hollywood, California, USA.Marie G. Armstrong (“Mimi Forsythe”) – 1921 – 1952 (age 30) – actress – suicide – American
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Bianca Red Arrow was born on 30 June 1998 in Matthews, North Carolina, USA. She was an actress, known for Cross Wars (2017), Mr and Mrs Adams' Lovely Bed & Breakfast (2013) and Vice Principals (2016). She died on 6 November 2017 in Redondo Beach, California, USA.Bianca Celide Red Arrow – 1988 – 2017 (age 19) – actress – unknown – American- Ashleigh Aston Moore was born as Ashley MacMillan (first stage name Ashley Rogers) on September 30, 1981. Her parents were Maryanna Aston Moore, an interior designer, and Dennis MacMillan, who wasn't around for much of her life. She grew up in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Her first acting gig involved wearing a chicken suit for a White Spot restaurant commercial. From there she went on to film the Odyssey, other various commercials, TV and movies. Most notably, Ashleigh played the role of Chrissy in "Now and Then" with well known actors such as Demi Moore, Thora Birch, and Rosie O'Donnell. Her mother tutored her and helped her to pursue the dreams she'd had since she was four. Ashleigh's largest role was in Now and Then (1995), for which she had to pack on 20 pounds. This was a challenge for the 12-13 year old and caused life long self image issues. She had done a few more jobs since then, but after 1997, she decided to stop acting and remain in Vancouver, where many of her family members were located. In December 2007, Ashleigh passed away in British Columbia at the age of 26. It is rumored that it was an drug overdose, but it was actually from pneumonia and bronchitis.Ashleigh Aston Moore – 1981 – 2007 (age 26) – actress – drug overdoses – American
- Ann Atmar was born on 10 March 1939 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for Everglades! (1961), A Cold Wind in August (1961) and Street-Fighter (1959). She died on 14 October 1966 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.Dorothy Ann Atmar – 1939 – 1966 (age 27) – actress – suicide – American
- Jung Ayul was born on 3 February 1987 in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Pohang City, South Korea. She was an actress, known for 60-sai no rabu retâ (2009). She died on 12 June 2012 in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea.Jung Ayul – 1987 – 2012 (age 25) – actress – suicide – South Korean
- Viveka Babajee was born on 27 May 1973 in Port Louis, Mauritius. She was an actress, known for Yeh Kaisi Mohabbat (2002), Haaye Meri Billo (2002) and Miss Universe Pageant (1994). She died on 25 June 2010 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.Viveka Babajee – 1973 – 2010 (age 37) – actress and model – suicide – Mauritian
- Actress
Zorka Janu was born on 9 July 1921 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress, known for Cekanky (1940), Ohnivé léto (1939) and Minulost Jany Kosinové (1940). She died on 24 March 1946 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].Zora Babková (“Zorka Janů“) – 1921 – 1946 (age 24) – actress – suicide (sister was mistress of German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels) – Czech- Born Karen Bach outside of Lyons, France, Karen Lancaume came from a wealthy family. The bi-racial beauty (French father, Moroccan mother) married at 17 while she was attending college. Even though her husband was a disc jockey and she worked weekends at a nightclub to make ends meet, the couple was soon awash in debt. They saw an opportunity to make a good amount of money quickly by performing in porn films, and in 1996 they both entered the industry. Unfortunately, the marriage didn't last past their first film together, and while her ex-husband left the porn industry, she stayed in it. She soon divided her time between making porn films in Europe and the US. She appeared in a documentary about porn performers called Exhibition 99 (1998). It was while making this film that she began to have second thoughts about her chosen career, and after appearing in the controversial mainstream film Baise-moi (2000)--in which she performed hardcore sex scenes--she began to ease out of the industry, finally quitting altogether in 2002.
Karen Lancaume died in Paris, France, on January 28, 2005. She committed suicide by taking an overdose of prescription drugs in her boyfriend's apartment.Karen Bach (“Karen Lancaume”) – 1972 – 2005 (age 32) – pornographic actress – suicide– French - Actress
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Tall, regal, sultry, flame-haired (later blonde) Lynn Baggett is better remembered for her turbulent, unhappy private life than for her "B" level acting roles. Born Ruth Baggett in Wichita Falls, Texas, on May 10, 1923, her father, David L., was in the oil business and her mother, the former Ruth Simmons, was a stenographer. While in Dallas following her high school graduation, the pretty teenager was discovered by a Warner Bros. agent and signed. As a girl with no experience, Lynn (sometimes billed as Lynne) was promoted by the studio as a beauty queen and titleholder ("The Cobra Girl," "The Triple A Girl," etc.) while paying her dues in a slew of unbilled sexy starlet bits as chorines, nurses, waitresses, singers and party-girl types. For five long years she toiled obscurely in such WWII-era films as Manpower (1941), Air Force (1943), The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), Roughly Speaking (1945), Mildred Pierce (1945) and Night and Day (1946).
The studio did little to increase her stature in Hollywood, and she eventually was released from her contract in 1946. After signing with Universal, she finally received her first role of substance in The Time of Their Lives (1946), an above-average Abbott and Costello haunted-house comedy. Following her marriage to the Austro-Hungarian producer Sam Spiegel ("On the Waterfront") in 1948, she acted less frequently, showing up in a few secondary roles, that of a shady lady of mystery in the classic film noir D.O.A. (1949)) probably being her best-remembered one and those in The Flame and the Arrow (1950) and The Mob (1951) being her most prominent.
The Spiegel-Baggett marriage was quite stormy, marred by adultery and nasty fighting, and they separated in 1952. Three years later, she finally received a divorce. With her career now in shambles, Lynn found work as an Arthur Murray dance teacher. In 1954, she was the direct cause of a fatal two-car accident in which a 9-year-old boy, on his way home from a summer camping excursion, was killed. Another young boy in the same car was seriously injured. Overcome by fear and acute anguish, she "blacked out" and was later charged with leaving the scene of an accident and was convicted of felony hit-and-run.
A failed comeback attempt at acting led to severe depression, mental problems and acute substance abuse. She attempted suicide by pills in 1959 before succeeding a year later on March 22, 1960, dying of acute barbiturate intoxication. She had been released from a private sanitarium several weeks earlier. She was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Never close to showing her true potential, Lynn(e) Baggett became one of Hollywood's sadder statistics.Ruth Baggett (“Lynn Baggett”) – 1923 – 1960 (age 36) – actress – suicide – American- Actress
- Casting Director
- Producer
Noelle Balfour was born on 11 December 1984 in Reno, Nevada, USA. She was an actress and casting director, known for The Rite (2011), Exit Strategy (2012) and Banking on Love (2008). She died on 11 October 2017 in Escondido, California, USA.Noëlle Marie Balfour – 1984 – 2017 (age 32) – actress – car accident – American- Actress
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Suzan Ball, a second cousin of Lucille Ball, was born on March 3, 1934, in Jamestown, New York. She came to Hollywood with her family in 1941. She sang with the Mel Baker Orchestra from 1948-1953. Her first part in Hollywood was as a harem girl in Aladdin and His Lamp (1952) at Monogram. She got an interview with the talent department of Universal-International and signed a contract. In 1952 she was proclaimed "The New Cinderella Girl of 1952". She had a fleeting romance with Scott Brady, who she met on the set of Untamed Frontier (1952), and they planned to marry. She then filmed City Beneath the Sea (1953) and fell for Anthony Quinn, who was still married. Their romance lasted only a year because Quinn was still in love with his wife, Katherine DeMille. Suzan was proclaimed one of the most important "New Stars of 1953" by Hedda Hopper. On her next film, East of Sumatra (1953), she suffered an injury to her right leg during a dance number. Later in 1953, while filming War Arrow (1953), she was told by doctors that her leg had developed tumors. Later that year at home, she slipped on some spilled water and broke her leg. She was rushed to the hospital and operated on to remove the tumors. The operation was not a success and she was told that amputation of her right leg would be necessary. In December of 1953, she became engaged to Richard Long. On January 12, 1954, her leg was amputated. On April 4th, 1954, she was married to Long in Santa Barbara wearing an artificial limb. Some guests in attendance at her wedding were Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, David Janssen and Jeff Chandler. In May 1955 she embarked on a nightclub tour. In July, while rehearsing a scene for an episode of Climax! (1954), she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors found that the cancer had spread to her lungs. On August 5th, 1955, Suzan died of cancer, only six months after her 21st birthday. She fought her battle with cancer for 16 months and lost. She was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetary. Her husband Richard was always praised for his love and devotion to Suzan during her long illness.Susan Ball (“Suzan Ball”) – 1934 – 1955 (age 21) – actress – cancer – American- Fouzia Azeem (“Qandeel Baloch”) – 1990 – 2016 (aged 26) – activist, singer and model – homicide – Pakistani
- Pratyusha Banerjee was born on 10 August 1991 in Jamshedpur, Bihar, India. She was an actress, known for Child Bride (2008), Comedy Classes (2014) and Gulmohar Grand (2015). She died on 1 April 2016 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.Pratyusha Banerjee – 1991 – 2016 (age 24) – actress – suicide (homicide?) – Indian
- Stella Baranovskaya was born on 26 July 1987. She was an actress, known for Vnuk Gagarina (2007). She died on 4 September 2017 in Moscow, Russia.Stella Stanislavovna Baranovskaya – 1987 – 2017 (age 30) – actress – cancer – Russian
- Bhargavi – 1983 – 2008 (age 25) – actress – homicide – Indian
- Actress
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Silvana Bajraktarevic, known professionally as Silvana Armenulic, was a Yugoslav singer-songwriter and actress and one of the most prominent commercial folk music and traditional sevdalinka singers in Yugoslavia. She is called the "Queen of Sevdalinka". Her life was cut short when she died in a car crash at the age of 37, but she continues to be well regarded in the region and she is recognized for her unique singing style and voice. Armenulic's song "Sta ce mi zivot", written by her friend and contemporary Toma Zdravkovic, is one of the best-selling singles from the former Yugoslavia.Zilha Barjaktarević (“Silvana Armenulić“) – 1939 – 1976 (age 37) – actress and singer – car accident – Bosnian (former Yugoslavia)- Actress
- Writer
"Too Much, Too Soon" was the story of Diana's life, and the title of her autobiography. Her father was stage and screen legend John Barrymore and her mother was Blanche Oelrichs (who wrote under the masculine pseudonym Michael Strange), who had just divorced Mr. Thomas and had 2 children (Leonard and Robin) from that marriage. Diana's parents got married on August 15, 1920, and Diana was born 7 months later, on March 3, 1921.
At age 6, Diana was attending school in Paris and rarely saw her father as he was romancing Dolores Costello (whom he'd later marry) and divorcing Diana's mother. Next year, she was back in USA and by 1929, her mom had married Harrison Tweed. By age 14, she had already spent a few years in boarding school so she saw little of her mother and years had gone by without her meeting her father.
In 1934, when her father did come for one rare visit, he took Diana and an older schoolmate friend of hers to dinner and a movie and he got drunk and hit on Diana's 17-year-old schoolmate. In rebellion against years of getting no attention from her parents, Diana attended a dance wearing a "lurid red satin dress with a plunging neckline and hardly any back," and a pair of borrowed high heels. She had decided to stop feeling miserable and stop being a victim of her parents who had ignored her her entire life.
By 1937, Diana was enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York and vacationing summers in Europe on her $500 a month allowance (a fortune in those days). In November 1938, David Selznick gave Diana a screen test to play Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind' and although she didn't get the part, the following year Diana was doing summer stock in Maine for $10 a week. By 1940, her salary had increased to $150 per week when she appeared in "Outward Bound" in the Harris Theatre in Chicago, right next door to where John Barrymore was performing "My Dear Children" at the Selwyn Theatre, his first theatrical work in 15 years (he had exclusively made movies since 1925).
At 19 years of age, Diana made her Broadway debut playing Caroline Bronson in "Romantic Mr. Dickens." Later, helping the war effort, she also campaigned for "Bundles for Britain." In January 1942, Diana left the stage for Hollywood when producer Walter Wanger had promised to cast her in movies at $1,000 a week, and she would appear in two of his films: Eagle Squadron (1942) with screen legend Robert Stack and later Ladies Courageous (1944). Actor Van Heflin proposed to Diana, and introduced her to producer Joe Pasternak, who had collaborated with director Henry Koster on many films; Koster was set to direct Between Us Girls (1942). Diana got the role, but not Van Heflin, two days later he married Frances Neal.
Diana visited the hospital the night her father died on May 29, 1942 (of cirrhosis of the liver, from decades of too much alcohol). She let years of pent-up emotions out when she wrote, "Damn mother for her indifference and disdain of me, and damn daddy for the crazy, mixed-up life he led."
Diana quickly married Bramwell Fletcher, who was 18 years older than her, on July 30, 1942 (they would divorce in 1947). Diana gave a standout performance in the starring role in the film noir classic Nightmare (1942) costarring Oscar-nominated veteran actor Brian Donlevy but problems started with the filming of Fired Wife (1943); even though her salary was now raised to $2,000 per week, and Universal had advertised her as "1942's Most Sensational New Screen Personality"; it seemed it was all too much, too soon. The box office didn't deliver as they had counted on her Barrymore name so the studio had wanted to cash in on her instantly instead of grooming her for roles, and finding suitable projects. When Universal, clutching at straws, asked if she'd work with Abbott and Costello, Diana refused and was put on unpaid suspension. The suspension lasted 6 months and when Diana was cast in "Ladies Courageous" it was in a secondary role, the lead had been reassigned to Loretta Young.
December 1943, Diana and her husband headed back to New York and despite achieving some recognition in movies, her film career was over and Diana considered herself a has-been before her 23rd birthday. The couple took the Theatre Guild production of "Rebecca" on the road to Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinnati. By the summer of 1945, Diana returned to Hollywood she couldn't find any parts in movie but was instead offered $1,000 a week to be on Jack Carson's NBC radio show. In 1947, Diana divorced her husband and married again on the rebound. This time it was to a John R. Howard who was a 6'2" tennis pro (5th ranked in the nation) whom Diana met and married (January 17, 1947), and divorced after living with him as man and wife for 6 months; he was 2 years younger than her. John was broke, sponged off Diana's money and got them both arrested one night in June in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky for drunk driving and he'd assaulted the policemen. After only 6 months of marriage, Diana asked for a divorce but John would only agree to give it to her for a large sum of money. Diana refused to pay him and got the divorce after 3 years.
Diana went to Salem, MA, to do summer stock where the producer introduced her to actor Robert Wilcox, who would become husband number three. Wilcox had been in about 2 dozen B-movies, was 11 years older than Diana and was also a recovering alcoholic. They celebrated his release from the rehab clinic by drinking martinis. Summer stock became a winter tour in Atlanta, with Diana earning $750 a week and Wilcox $250 but Wilcox drank so heavily that soon nobody wanted to hire him but were forced to retain him as Diana refused to act without him. After summer stock in 1948, they returned to New York where the jobs soon ran out and they were forced to live on the trust fund John Barrymore had set up for her, becoming even more broke by the minute.
Early in 1950, CBS offered Diana a new opportunity: television. They offered her a live talk show, "The Diana Barrymore Show" at 11:00 p.m., and had guests like Earl "the Pearl" Wilson lined up. Diana showed up the first night, too drunk to work and the show was canceled before it aired. (To make matters worse, the show became "The Faye Emerson Show" which launched the former movie actress' television career into almost a dozen TV series).
When the FBI threw husband number two in jail (for white slavery), he no longer contested the divorce and Diana married Robert Wilcox on October 17, 1950 but her hopeful new start would soon come crashing down with the year ending with Diana's mother's death on November 5 1950. As the year 1951 started, Diana was at an all-time low point, she'd been drinking steadily for weeks, got the DTs and had gone through all her money ($250,000 from her Hollywood earnings, and almost $50,000 she'd inherited when her half-brother Robin had died). Diana pawned all her jewelry (diamond bracelets, pins, etc.) and took a job in Vaudeville which was considered demeaning but where she was at least earning a weekly salary again.
Rather than face humiliation in New York ("a Barrymore following a juggling act!"), Diana and Robert got booked for 3 weeks in the Celebrity Club in Sydney, Australia in the autumn of 1951--and stayed in Australia for 6 months, mainly doing stage performances at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. Whereas she'd been shunned in New York, she was a big celebrity in Australia, for a while but Diana's drinking got her in trouble, again and even got her fired for her drinking in Brisbane, while booked into a vaudeville house with a girlie show called "the Nudie-Cuties." By March 1952, Diana and Robert were working in half empty houses in Tasmania.
Back in Hollywood later that year, they were so flat broke they got locked out of their hotel room because the rent was 2 weeks overdue; Diana mooched money from old friends like Tyrone Powers. In November 1952 came the shocking news that her late mother's estate, the once Barrymore millions, came to a mere $8,000-- decades of lavish spending had spent it all. Diana and Robert tried to get help at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting; however, they "fortified" themselves with drinks before the meeting, and made straight for a bar after it was over. Wilcox never worked, he just sat around the hotel room all day getting drunk, and sponging off Diana. She, in turn, started a love affair with Tom Farrell. Before it was all over, Robert had cracked both their skulls, leaving them bloodied where Diana needed stitches from a doctor, and then announcing she was divorcing Robert. Even though Tom Farrell had been "the other man" only a few weeks before, when Tom spotted Diana having a drink with an old friend, he went berserk. In their hotel room, in a jealous rage, he beat Diana to a bloody pulp, breaking her nose while he hit her with fists until she fell, and then kicking her repeatedly when she was on the floor. This would be the second time in such a short time where a doctor would have to tend to her injuries caused by her problematic relationships. For the next 3 months, Diana kept herself sequestered in her apartment, drinking heavily and taking pills; her weight dropped from a healthy 130 pounds to a skeletal 97. Being close to death, with cirrhosis, Diana took Robert back. Diana, once from the enormously rich family, was so broke she shopped for supermarket sales, getting beef liver for 33 cents a pound. When the electricity was turned off in their apartment (they hadn't paid the electric bill in months), they didn't even have money to buy candles.
They finally got summer stock work, and then a 6-month tour but Robert caught another colic attack of pancreatitis, his fourth which proved to be fatal. In November 1954, when Diana was in a French bedroom farce "Pajama Tops," where they showed her posters showing her half naked. Humiliated, she carried on with the job as she needed the money and by that time, more than half of the theatres in the country had blacklisted her.
On June 11, 1955, after Diana told him in a phone conversation that she wanted a divorce, Robert spent the next few hours drinking at a bar and he eventually collapsed of a heart attack while he was on a train to Rochester.
Diana checked herself into rehab at Towns Hospital in New York for 8 weeks, to get treatment for her alcoholism and barbiturate dependence. She returned to work on the stage sober. In 1957, Diana wrote her autobiography (along with Gerold Frank), and the 300+ page book was turned into a whitewashed, vague movie Too Much, Too Soon (1958). Diana finally took her own life on January 25, 1960 at only 38 years old. In her book, she had lamented: "So much has been dreamed, so little done; there was so much promise and so much waste."Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe – 1921 – 1960 (age 38) – actress – drug overdoses – American- Skye Bassett was born on 10 June 1973 in New York, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Dangerous Minds (1995), Sister Act (1992) and Law & Order (1990). She died on 21 April 1997 in New York City, New York, USA.Skye Bassett – 1973 – 1997 (age 23) – actress – disease – American
- Born near Mumbai, 19-year-old Maple Batalia was an aspiring actress and attending Simon Fraser University in Surrey (B.C. Canada) when she was shot and killed as she walked to her car in the parkade at SFU Surrey Campus. She had previously graduated from Enver Creek Secondary and was hoping to be a doctor.
A documentary, named "Maple", was made shortly after which followed the events before and after her death.
Her father (Harkirat Batalia) chose her unusual name of Maple when he had visited the U.S. in the autumn, and fell in love with the maple leaf. When his daughter was born, he and his wife, Sarbjit, agreed to call her 'Maple.'
Maple had just been named a finalist in the Central City Model Search, and was to attend auditions in Alberta, at the time of her demise.Maple Batalia – 1992 – 2011 (age 19) – actress – homicide - Canadian-Indian - Actress
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Athena Baumeister was born on 2 September 1997 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Seventy-Nine (2013), Monster & Me (2013) and Hollywood Halloween (2011). She died on 14 April 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Athena Baumeister – 1997 – 2014 (age 16) – actress – drug overdoses – American- Ena Begovic was a prominent Croatian film actress. She is regarded as one of the best and most beautiful actresses in former Yugoslavia. Begovic began acting early, making her first screen appearance at the age of 18 through a small part in Occupation in 26 Pictures (1978), a 1978 film directed by Lordan Zafranovic. She made her breakthrough role in Zafranovic's next film, The Fall of Italy (1981), where she played Veronika, the daughter of a wealthy local from the Dalmatian coast who sided with occupying Italian Fascists. This debut established Begovic as one of the sex symbols of 1980s Yugoslav cinema, a status that she later successfully maintained despite appearing in relatively few films as her acting career shifted towards theater.
On 15 August 2000, in the Postira village on the island of Brac, a few months after marrying the Croatian businessman, Josip Radeljak, and a month and a half after giving birth to their daughter, Lana, she was involved, as a passenger, in a traffic accident, a rollover, which claimed her life.Ena Begovic – 1960 – 2000 (age 40) – actress – car accident – Croatian (sister of actress Mia Begovic) - Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Arguably the most beautiful artiste to ever grace the Indian screen, Madhubala rose from humble beginnings to become the most captivating star India has ever produced. Madhubala was born Mumtaz Jehan Begum on Valentine's Day 1933, in a poor, conservative family of Pathan Muslims in Delhi, a part of a prolific brood of sisters, and entered the world of films at the tender age of eight. After about five years of playing child roles, Madhubala got her first break in a lead role in Neel Kamal (1947), produced anddirected by her mentor, veteran filmmaker Kidar Sharma. At the age of 14, she played a romantic lead against another fledgling star, Raj Kapoor, and Madhubala had finally arrived on the Indian screen. Over the next two years she had blossomed into a truly rapturous beauty (which earned her the sobriquet of the Venus Of the Indian Screen) and with the movie Mahal (1949), literally overnight, she was a superstar.
It has been often said that her beauty overshadowed her acting talents, which to an extent is true; however this was more due to poor judgement than lack of talent. Being encumbered by a large family to support, and forever living under the domination of an imperious father who, she made several poor choices in movies which seriously undermined her credibility as a serious performer, to the extent of being labelled "box-office poison". However, her more or less dismal repertoire in the 50s was marked by spots of true brilliance - movies like Tarana (1951), Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955) and of course her swansong Mughal-E-Azam (1960) showcased her remarkable talents as a serious artiste across several genres and revealed what this ethereal beauty was truly capable of.
Sadly, she was plagued by a persistent heart disease that confined her to a bed for almost nine torturous years, and eventually claimed her life on February 23 1969, nine days after her 36th birthday. In this short life, she had made over 70 movies, and to this day remains one of the most enduring legends of Indian cinema.Mumtaz Jehan Begum (“Madhubālā“) – 1933 – 1969 (age 36) – actress – prolonged illness of heart – Indian- Wilhelmina Cooper was born on 1 May 1939 in Culemborg, Gelderland, Netherlands. She died on 1 March 1980 in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA.Gertrude Behmenburg (“Wilhelmina Cooper”) – 1940 – 1980 (age 40) – model – lung cancer – Dutch-American
- Buxom and shapely brunette knockout Yurizan Beltran was born on November 2, 1986 in Long Beach, California. Of Mexican descent, Beltran was raised by a single mother in Long Beach, attended college in Los Angeles, California; and worked as a waitress at a Hooters restaurant prior to her involvement in the adult entertainment industry. Yurizan was hired by Penthouse for a nude photo shoot after she appeared on the cover of Lowrider magazine at age 18 and launched her first official racy webpage in 2005. Among the many notable adult websites and companies that Beltran worked for are Brazzers, BangBros, Mofos, Hustler, Kink.com, 3rd Degree, Mile High, Digital Sin, Girlfriends Films, Evil Angel, Reality Kings, Naughty America, Bang Productions, New Sensations, Zero Tolerance, and Juicy Entertainment. She was nominated for AVN Awards for Web Starlet of the Year in 2009, Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene in 2010, Best Web Star in 2011, and Unsung Starlet of the Year in both 2012 and 2014. Beltran died of an apparent drug overdose at age 31 on December 13, 2017.Yurizan Beltran (“Yuri Luv”) – 1986 – 2017 (age 31) – pornographic actress – drug overdose – American
- Mélodie Berenfeld was born on 7 January 1981 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France. She was an actress, known for Marie Antoinette (2006), The Affair of the Necklace (2001) and Affaires familiales (2000). She died on 27 February 2007 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France.Mélodie Berenfeld – 1981 – 2007 (age 26) – actress – train accident – French
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- Soundtrack
Sylvia Lopez was born on 10 November 1933 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Son of the Red Corsair (1959), Tabarin (1958) and Baratin (1956). She was married to Francis Lopez. She died on 20 November 1959 in Paris, France.Tatjana Bernt (“Silvia Lopez”) – 1933 – 1959 (age 26) – actress – cancer – Austrian- Divya was born on February 25, 1974 to Meeta and Om Prakash Bharti.
Opting for acting, she quit college, & landed a role in 'Bobbili Raja' (Telegu) in 1990 at just 16 years of age. This movie became a hit, and was dubbed into Hindi and released as 'Raampur Ka Raja'.
Divya made her debut in Bollywood in 1992 'Dil Hi To Hai', then in a musical romance 'Dil Ka Kya Kasoor', but it was the multi-starer 'Vishwatma' that really got her noticed. Thereafter she acted in 13 more movies amidst speculations that she would be the next Sridevi.
Her personal life was not as well chartered as her tinsel one, for she fell in love with Sajid Nadiadwala, married him secretly as her parents strongly disapproved, changed her religion from Hindu to Islam, and her name to Sana.
Her life tragically came to an end on April 5, 1993 when she fell from the balcony of her 5th floor flat in Yari Road, Versova.
Two of her movies 'Rang' and 'Shatranj' were released after her passing, and were dedicated to her memory. Her film-maker husband has also dedicated several of his films to her name.Divya Om Prakash Bharti – 1974 – 1993 (age 19) – actress – suicide (homicide?) – Indian - Derya Arbas was born on 17 June 1968 in Santa Monica, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Beyaz Bisiklet (1986), Bitmeyen Sevda (1986) and The Night, Angel and Our Children (1994). She was married to Nihat Polat. She died on 22 October 2003 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.Derya Zerrin Berti ("Derya Arbaş") – 1968 – 2003 (age 35) – actress – heart insufficiency – Turkish
- Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy was born on 7 January 1966 in White Plains, New York, USA. She was married to John Kennedy Jr.. She died on 16 July 1999 in Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.Carolyn Jeanne Bessette-Kennedy – 1966 – 1999 (age 33) – publicist and wife of John F. Kennedy Jr. – accident (plane crash) – American
- Brenda Benet, born Brenda Ann Nelson in Los Angeles, California, on August 14, 1945, was a classic example of the modern-day Hollywood tragedy. As a television actress with good dramatic scope, she managed to piece together a wide and impressive portfolio of guest shots in a career spanning just over 16 years before taking her life at the age of 36. She spent her childhood and early teenage years feeling awkward and self-conscious because her complexion was darker than those of her siblings. Because of this, she felt that she did not fit in with her family, and often fantasized about being adopted.
Brenda attended UCLA for a brief time, majoring in languages. In 1962 she entered show business; her breakthrough role came in 1964 when she was selected to play the part of Jill McComb in The Young Marrieds (1964). After that came stints on various comedy and drama series in the '60s and '70s, usually playing ethnic, exotic types. She was probably best known for her role as the kind-hearted prostitute in Walking Tall (1973). During this time she married and divorced actor Paul Petersen. She began a relationship with Bill Bixby and moved in with him in 1969, and they married in 1971. By the late '70s, however, they were divorced.
Brenda retired from the business in the mid-'70s to raise a family, and in late 1974 she gave birth to a boy, Christopher Sean Bixby. Tragically, Christopher died in 1981 during a winter ski vacation in California. It was believed that this and her divorce from Bixby were the events which caused Brenda's life to spin out of control. On April 7, 1982, Brenda went into the bathroom of her West Los Angeles home, lit and arranged some candles in a circle on the floor and lay down. She then placed a Colt .38-cal. revolver into her mouth and pulled the trigger. She died instantly.Brenda Ann Benet – 1945 – 1982 (age 36) – actress – suicide – American - Lyric Marie Benson was born on 20 September 1980 in Overland Park, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) and Chappelle's Show (2003). She died on 25 April 2003 in Soho, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Lyric Marie Benson – 1980 – 2003 (age 22) – actress – homicide – American
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- Producer
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Brittany Murphy was born Brittany Anne Bertolotti on November 10, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia, to Sharon Kathleen Murphy and Angelo Joseph Bertolotti. Her father's ancestry is Italian, and her mother is of Irish and Slovak descent. Her father moved the family back to Edison, New Jersey as a native New Yorker and to be closer to other siblings from previous marriages. While dining out one night in the presence of Hollywood royalty, Brittany at the age of 5 approached an adjoining table when Academy Award nominee Burt Reynolds and George Segal were seated. Brittany introduced herself to the Hollywood legends and confidently told them that someday she too would be a star.
She comes from a long line of international musicians and performers with three half-brothers and a sister. Angelo Bertolotti was torn from their tight-knit family as a made-man with the Italian Mafia. The Senior Bertolotti, who coined the nickname of "Britt" for his daughter, was also an entrepreneur and diplomat for organized crime families and one of the first to be subjected to a RICO prosecution. Brittany's interests and well-being were always her father's first goal and objective. To distance his talented daughter from his infamous past, Angelo allowed Sharon to use her maiden name for Brittany's, so that her shining star would not be overshadowed by a father's past, with the couple divorcing thereafter.
Brittany began receiving accolades and applause in regional theater at the early age of 9. At the age of 13, she landed several national commercials. She appeared on television and caught the attention of a personal manager and an agent. Soon, Brittany's mother Sharon turned full-time to being a "Stage Mom" where Angelo provided financial support throughout and their relationship is memorialized with a long and close history in pictures. The hopeful daughter and mother moved to Burbank, CA, where Brittany landed her first television role on Blossom (1990). Hearts and doors opened up for a starring role on Drexell's Class (1991), a short lived TV series.
Brittany's big screen movie debut started with Clueless (1995), where she was co-starring with Alicia Silverstone. Britt soared, demonstrating her musical and artistic talents with dramatic and comedic roles landing a nomination for best leading female performance in the Young Artist Awards for her role in the television film David and Lisa (1998). She garnered tremendous attention for her role in Girl, Interrupted (1999) with Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie. Brittany's band, "Blessed Soul" was growing with her as lead singer and Britt lent her vocal talents to the TV hit, cartoon sensation, King of the Hill (1997) as the voice of Luanne.
She is alleged to have been a witness in the case of the former Department of Homeland Security employee and persecuted whistleblower Julia Davis. According to Davis, Brittany and her fiancée Simon Monjack were then targeted for retaliation that included land and aerial surveillance and a threatened prosecution. Monjack was arrested and detained by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Brittany and Simon confided in Alex Ben Block of the Hollywood Reporter, telling him in an interview that they were under surveillance by helicopters and their telephones have been wiretapped. This information was published by THR posthumously, in an article entitled "The Last Difficult Days of Brittany Murphy."
On December 20, 2009, Brittany Murphy died an untimely death. The LAPD and Los Angeles County Coroner closed the case within one hour, attributing her death to pneumonia and anemia. Five months after Brittany's unexpected demise, her husband Simon Monjack was found dead in the house he shared with Brittany. The chief/spokesperson at the Los Angeles County Dept of Coroner, Craig Harvey, stated that Simon also died from the same exact causes as his wife, namely pneumonia and anemia. Neither Brittany, nor Simon, were given a thorough and complete forensic autopsy for poisons. Brittany's father, Angelo "AJ" Bertolotti, is pursuing the investigation of the true reasons behind Brittany's and Simon's sudden demise, as he believes that the two were murdered. Abnormally high levels of heavy metals and poisons were discovered in Brittany's hair, tested by two other independent forensic labs with famed Pathologist, attorney Cyril Wecht concluded from the appearances, Brittany could have been murdered and should be exhumed. Her father Angelo is preparing court actions to ensure she obtains justice.Brittany Anne Bertolotti (“Brittany Murphy”) – 1977 – 2009 (age 32) – actress (“Clueless”) – drug overdoses – American- Federica Gori was born on 6 August 1969 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress. She died on 7 February 2008 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.Maria Federica Besesti (“Lollipop” or “Federica Gori”) – 1970 – 2008 (age 38) – pornographic actress and TV personality – heart attack – Italian
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Gilda was born on 11 October 1961 in Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is known for Sos mi vida (2006), El resultado del amor (2007) and Muñeca brava (1998). She was married to Raúl Magnín and Carlos Giménez. She died on 7 September 1996.Miriam Alejandra Bianchi Scioli (“Gilda”) – 1961 – 1996 (age 34) – singer – car accident – Argentine- Actress
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Soundtrack
Laurie Bird was a cute and charming actress who appeared in only three pictures during her regrettably short-lived career. Bird was born on September 26, 1953 in Long Island, New York. Laurie was working as a model when she was chosen by director Monte Hellman, from nearly 500 women, to portray "The Girl" in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971). Bird gave a fine and impressively natural performance in her film debut as the chatty and rootless hippie wanderer, "The Girl", in Hellman's extraordinary road movie masterpiece. She was likewise excellent as Harry Dean Stanton's snippy young wife, "Dody Burke White", in Hellman's bleakly fascinating character study Cockfighter (1974). Following her small role as Paul Simon's L.A. girlfriend in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977), Laurie quit acting, altogether, and became a photographer. Bird committed suicide in boyfriend Art Garfunkel's Manhattan penthouse, at the tragically young age of 25, on June 15, 1979. Garfunkel dedicated his album, "Scissors Cut", to Laurie. The album features a partial photograph of Laurie Bird on its back cover.Laurie Bird – 1953 – 1979 (age 25) – actress – suicide – American- Actress
- Writer
Andrea Albani was born on 13 October 1960 in Catalonia, Spain. She was an actress and writer, known for El pico (1983), Mad Foxes (1981) and La desnuda chica del relax (1981). She died on 18 January 1994 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.Eulalia Espinet Borràs („Andrea Albani“) – 1960 – 1994 (age 33) – actress – acute meningoencephalitis – Spanish- Sally-Anne Bowman was born on 11 September 1987 in Surrey, England, UK. She died on 25 September 2005 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK.Sally Anne Bowman – 1987 – 2005 (age 18) – singer and model – homicide – British
- Cheyenne Brando was a Tahitian model and the daughter of Marlon Brando by his third wife Tarita Teriipaia, a former Tahitian actress whom he met while filming Mutiny on the Bounty in 1962.
Cheyenne was raised in the island of Tahiti, south of Papeete. Her parents divorced in 1972.
As a child, Cheyenne reportedly adored her father and bragged about him. As she entered her teenage years, her feelings towards her father changed.
Cheyenne eventually dropped out of high school and began taking drugs including LSD, PCP, marijuana, and tranquilizers. During this time, she began a modeling career.
In May 1987, Cheyenne began dating 23-year-old Dag Drollet. His father, Jacques Drollet, was a member of Tahiti's parliament. The pair were introduced through a get together, as the Brandos and Drollets had been longtime friends. In 1989, Cheyenne became pregnant with their child. At Marlon Brando's request, the couple moved to the United States and into Marlon's Mulholland Drive home to await the birth of their child.
On 16 May 1990, Drollet was fatally shot by Cheyenne's elder half-brother Christian at their father's home. Christian Brando maintained that the shooting was accidental. He stated that earlier in the evening, Cheyenne told him that Drollet was physically abusing her. Later that night, Christian confronted Drollet about the abuse. Christian claimed that the gun went off after Drollet tried to take the gun away from him.
Christian Brando was immediately arrested and charged with first-degree murder two days later. The prosecutors of the case attempted to subpoena Cheyenne to testify at Christian's trial as they felt her account of the night's event was crucial in proving the shooting was premeditated. However, she refused to testify and fled to Tahiti. On 26 June 1990, she gave birth to a son she named Tuki Brando. Soon after Tuki's birth, Cheyenne attempted suicide twice and was hospitalized for drug detoxification in a psychiatric hospital. On 22 December 1990, Cheyenne was declared "mentally disabled" by a French judge and was deemed unable to testify in her brother's trial.
Without Cheyenne's testimony, prosecutors felt they could no longer prove that Drollet's death was premeditated. They presented Christian Brando with a plea deal. Christian took the deal and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. He served a total of five years and was placed on three years probation. In an interview given after his release, Christian stated that he doubted Cheyenne's accusations of physical abuse against Drollet due to her mental instability. "I feel like a complete chump for believing her," he said.
In the years following Drollet's death and her half brother Christian's trial, Cheyenne Brando's mental health steadily declined. She repeatedly entered drug rehab and psychiatric hospitals.
Cheyenne Brando was later formally diagnosed with schizophrenia, became isolated from her former friends, and lost custody of her son to her mother (who raised him in Tahiti).
On 16 April 1995, Cheyenne hanged herself at her mother's house in Punaauia, Tahiti.Tarita Cheyenne Brando – 1970 – 1995 (age 25) – model – suicide – American/French (Tahitian -> daughter of famous actor Marlon Brando) - Patti Brill was born on 8 March 1923 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Live Wires (1946), Music in Manhattan (1944) and Sing Your Way Home (1945). She was married to Perry Rigsby Osborne, Max Egbert Albright, Hugo Edward Fredlund and Red Knight. She died on 18 January 1963 in North Hollywood, California, USA.Patricia Brilhante ("Patti Brill") – 1923 – 1963 (age 39) – actress – cancer – American
- The daughter of actress Billie Brockwell, Brockwell first appeared on the stage at the age of three. She made her screen debut in Philadelphia for the Lubin Company in 1913, later working with D.W. Griffith. Joining Fox Studios, Brockwell was one of the busiest actresses in town and easily made the transition to sound films. Married to director Robert Broadwell, she was also married for a brief period to Harry Edwards, former husband of actress Louise Glaum. On June 27, Brockwell was a passenger in a car with her boyfriend, advertising man Thomas Stanley Brennan, when the car plunged over a 75 foot embankment in Calabasas. Brockwell was pinned under the car and sustained compound fractures to her jaw, a fractured skull and several other serious injuries Brennan was seriously hurt and survived his injuries. While hospitalized, Brockwell received four blood transfusions and died from peritonitis which developed as a result of her several injuries. Brennan stated that dust and cinders blew into his eyes causing him to lose control of the vehicle, he was exonerated of blame by the coroner's jury.Gladys Lindeman ("Gladys Brockwell") – 1894 – 1929 (age 34) – actress – car accident – American
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Diem Brown was a hostess, actress and producer, known for The Challenge (1998), Hollywood Hangover (2008) and E! True Hollywood Story (1996).
Best-known for battling ovarian cancer twice on national television, Diem has become a correspondent for patients on The Doctors (2008), Dr. Drew on Call (2011), Makers, Oprah's Real Beauty. Her avocation for patients lead her to create an online support system, a "patient gift registry" called MedGift.com.
Diem's People Magazine weekly blog gained national attention, when she documented her hair loss due to chemotherapy, as well as her out-spoken struggle with fertility desires.
She died on Friday, 14 November 2014 in a hospital in New York City, New York, USA.Danielle Michelle "Diem" Brown (“Diem Brown”) – 1980 – 2014 (age 34) – television personality, philanthropist, and entertainment reporter – cancer – American- Nicole Brown Simpson was born on 19 May 1959 in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. She was an actress, known for Infamous Crime Scenes: OJ. She was married to O.J. Simpson. She died on 12 June 1994 in Brentwood, California, USA.Nicole Brown Baur (“Nicole Brown Simpson”) – waitress and actress – 1959 – 1994 (age 35) – homicide – American (wife of O. J. Simpson)
- Actress
- Additional Crew
The daughter of Sara Elizabeth Baxter and Edwin Harry Bradbury, Sara Alexander Bradbury was born in New Bern, North Carolina. She is known for her role in the movie The Turning Point (1977) and Appointment with Destiny (1971). Tragically, she died in a plane crash in Arizona just one month after she completed filming The Turning Point. The pilot of the four seat Cessna was unlicensed. Growing up, she went by "Sara Alex," but began using the nickname "Saax" after studying at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Her memory is honored to this day through the Saax Bradbury Players, the youth of New Bern and the surrounding area who perform in local plays. She is buried in New Bern Memorial Cemetery in Trent Woods, North Carolina.Sara Bradbury (“Saax Bradbury”) – 1943 – 1976 (age 33) – actress – plane crash – American- Tiny (5'0") but slim, sexy, and adorable brunette knockout Elisa Rebeca Bridges was born on May 24, 1973, in Miami, Florida, and raised in Houston, Texas. Her father worked as an architect for oil companies and her mother was a travel agent. She had an older brother and a younger sister. Elisa graduated from Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas.
She was the Playmate of the Month in the December, 1994 issue of "Playboy." Bridges appeared in several "Playboy" videos and numerous "Playboy" special edition publications. Elisa was "Playboy"'s Video Playmate of the Month for September 1996. She had a small part as a bikini-clad beauty in both the blockbuster hit comedy The Birdcage (1996) and the family comedy Skippy (2001). Bridges was still modeling for "Playboy" when she died suddenly of a drug overdose at age 28 at the Beverly Hills mansion of longtime Hugh Hefner acquaintance Edward Nahem on February 7, 2002.Elisa Rebeca Bridges – 1973 – 2002 (age 28) – adult film actress and model – drug overdoses – American - Susana Brunetti was born on 25 October 1941 in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina. She was an actress, known for Las píldoras (1972), El caradura y la millonaria (1971) and La fin del mundo (1963). She died on 20 June 1974 in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina.Susana Brunetti – 1941 – 1974 (age 32) – actress – cancer – Argentine
- Young and full of promise, Paramount contract player Helen Burgess possessed a lovely, sweet-faced quality, but made only four films during her lifetime. Born April 26, 1916, the rather demure Portland, Oregon beauty was given an auspicious debut in Cecil B. DeMille's epic bio-western The Plainsman (1936). Discovered by DeMille himself with only brief stage experience behind her, the film starred Gary Cooper as Wild Bill Hickok and Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane. Helen was fifth billed as Louisa Frederici Cody, the young bride of Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody, played by James Ellison.
Helen went on to co-star in lesser "B" pictures, one opposite George Bancroft in the drama A Doctor's Diary (1937), and a second femme lead in King of Gamblers (1937) supporting Claire Trevor. She was busy filming her fourth movie Night of Mystery (1937) when she caught a chill that resulted in a serious cold. This, in turn, developed into lobar pneumonia. Helen died in Beverly Hills on April 7, 1937, weeks before reaching her 21st birthday, and only months after the release of her first and best known film "The Plainsman." One can only wonder what was in store for this future star. She was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.Helen Margarite Burgess – 1916 – 1937 (age 20) – actress – pneumonia – American - Actress
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- Music Department
The Empress of Indian Cinema!
A Sweetheart of 1950s, & The Undisputed Goddess of 1960s Bollywood, Meena Kumari bestrode the movies like few women in history have!
Combing enchanting grace, amazingly heart-melting expression, & consistently solid progressive content base, this Giant of Cinema will remain immortal as perhaps the greatest feminine incarnation of filmdom!
Born in 1933 into a poor Parsee theatre family of Ali Bux and actor-dancer Prabhavati Devi (converted to Iqbal Begum) (Prabhavati's mother's first husband till death, incidentally, being the cousin of Rabindranath Tagore, Prabhavati in turn borne of her second husband, a very famous Urdu poet of Meerut, from where she migrated to pursue a career in music) in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, she entered films to support her family in difficult times.
She was six when hired for Leatherface (1939) in 1939 by Vijay Bhatt and named Baby Meena. Later she became Meena Kumari when cast for Bhatt's Baiju Bawra (1952).
She did mythological films with Homi Wadia and then comedies like Miss Mary (1957). She became personified as the archetypal good Hindu wife through many roles, long suffering and always true to the man. She excelled at tragedy and was often shown in a white sari carrying the film with her emotive acting. She was also thought to be the only actress who could sell a film on the strength of her name alone. Her major films are Daaera (1953), Baiju Bawra (1952), 0046164, and of course her most well known film, Pakeezah (1972). She was married to Kamal Amrohi with whom she started making "Pakeezah". They separated in 1964.
She was also an accomplished Urdu writer and had several poems published by Gulzar after her death. She battled alcoholism and loneliness and finally died, alone, in 1972.Mahjabeen Bux (“Meena Kumari”) – 1932 – 1972 (age 38) – actress – liver cirrhosis – Indian- Ashley Callie was born on 30 December 1976 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was an actress, known for Isidingo (1998), The Uninvited Guest (1995) and Homeland (1996). She died on 15 February 2008 in Johannesburg, South Africa.Ashley Callie – 1976 – 2008 (age 31) – actress – car accident – South African
- Adriana Campos was born on 27 February 1979 in Chaparral, Tolima, Colombia. She was an actress, known for Learning to Love (2004), Beautiful But Unlucky (2009) and Tempo final (2007). She was married to Carlos Rincon. She died on 3 November 2015 in Peñalisa, Salgar, Antioquia, Colombia.Adriana Campos – 1979 – 2015 (age 36) – actress – car accident – Colombian
- Actress
- Producer
Fanny Cano was born on 28 February 1944 in Huetamo, Michoacan, Mexico. She was an actress and producer, known for Yesenia (1970), Rubi (1968) and Frente al destino (1964). She was married to Sergio Luis Cano. She died on 7 December 1983 in Madrid, Spain.Fanny Cano Damián -1944 – 1983 (age 39) – actress – plane crash – Mexican- Feri Cansel was born on 7 June 1944 in Nicosia, Cyprus. She was an actress, known for Son Söz Benim (1970), Yilan soyu (1969) and Jilet Kazim (1971). She was married to ???. She died on 2 September 1983 in Izmir, Turkey.Feriha Cansel (“Feri Cansel”) – 1944 – 1983 (age 39) – actress – homicide – Turkish-Cypriot
- Gia Carangi was born on 29 January 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Blondie: Atomic (1980). She died on 18 November 1986 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.Gia Marie Carangi – 1960 – 1986 (age 26) – model – HIV/AIDS – American
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- Soundtrack
War-era MGM had a lovely, luminous star in the making with Susan Peters. She possessed a creative talent and innate sensitivity that would surely have reigned as a leading Hollywood player for years to come had not a tragic and cruel twist of fate taken everything away from her.
She was born Suzanne Carnahan in Spokane, Washington on July 3, 1921, the eldest of two children. Her father, Robert, a construction engineer, was killed in an automobile accident in 1928, and the remaining family relocated to Los Angeles to live with Susan's grandmother. Attending various schools growing up, she excelled in athletics and studied drama in her senior year at Hollywood High School where she was spotted by a talent scout. Following graduation, she found an agent and enrolled at Max Reinhardt's School of Dramatic Arts. While performing in a showcase, she was spotted by a Warner Bros. casting agent, tested and signed to the studio in 1940.
Making her debut as an extra Susan and God (1940), she saw little progress and eventually became frustrated at the many bit parts thrown her way. Billed by her given name Suzanne Carnahan (known for possessing a zesty stubborn streak, she had refused to use the studio's made-up stage name of Sharon O'Keefe), Susan was barely given a line in many of her early movies. She did test for a lead role in Kings Row (1942) but lost out to Betty Field. Susan's first big break came with the Humphrey Bogart potboiler The Big Shot (1942), where she was fourth-billed and had the second female lead. Dropped by Warners, MGM picked up her contract and adopted a new stage name for her, Susan Peters. In the Marjorie Main vehicle Tish (1942), Susan earned a co-starring part and met actor Richard Quine on the set. Quine played her husband in the film. The couple also appeared together in the film Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942), and married in real life in November of 1943.
Susan won the role of Ronald Colman's sister's teenage stepdaughter (and a potential love interest of the Colman character) in the profoundly moving film Random Harvest (1942) and earned an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress" for her efforts. Her potential in that film was quickly discovered and she continued to offer fine work in lesser movies such as the WWII spy tale Assignment in Brittany (1943), the slight comedy Young Ideas (1943) and the romantic war drama Song of Russia (1944), in which she touchingly played Nadya, a young Soviet pianist who falls for Robert Taylor. For these performances, Susan was named "Star of Tomorrow" along with Van Johnson and others.
Then tragedy struck a little more than a year after her wedding day. While on a 1945 New Year's Day duck-hunting trip in the San Diego area with her husband and friends, one of the hunting rifles accidentally discharged when Susan went to retrieve it. The bullet lodged in her spine. Permanently paralyzed from the waist down, MGM paid for her bills but was eventually forced to settle her contract. Susan valiantly forged on with frequent work on radio. In 1946 Susan and Richard happily adopted a son, Timothy Richard, but two years later she divorced Quine -- some say she felt she was too much of a burden.
Appearing with Lana Turner as a demure soldier's wife in Keep Your Powder Dry (1945), which was filmed before but released a year after her accident, Susan made a film "comeback" with The Sign of the Ram (1948), the melodramatic tale of an embittered, manipulative, wheelchair-bound woman who tries to destroy the happiness of all around her, but audiences were not all that receptive. She also turned to the stage with tours of "The Glass Menagerie," in which she played the crippled daughter Laura from a wheelchair (with permission from playwright Tennessee Williams), and "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" opposite Tom Poston, wherein she performed the role of poet and chronic invalid Elizabeth Barrett Browning entirely from a couch.
In March of 1951 she portrayed an Ironside-like lawyer in the TV series Miss Susan (1951) but the show ran for less than one season, folding in December of that year. After this, the increasingly frail actress, who was constantly racked with pain, went into virtual seclusion. Suffering from acute depression and plagued by kidney problems and pneumonia, she finally lost her will to live and died at the age of 31 on October 23, 1952, of kidney failure and starvation, prompted by a developing eating disorder (anorexia nervosa). It was a profoundly sad and most unfortunate end to such a beautiful, courageous spirit and promising talent.Suzanne Carnahan (“Susan Peters”) – 1921 – 1952 (age 31) – actress – suicide – American- Actress
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Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Karen Carpenter moved with her family to Downey, California, in 1963. Karen's older brother, Richard Carpenter, decided to put together an instrumental trio with him on the piano, Karen on the drums and their friend Wes Jacobs on the bass and tuba. In a battle of the bands at the Hollywood Bowl in 1966, the group won first place and landed a contract with RCA Records. However, RCA did not see a future in jazz tuba, and the contract was short-lived.
Karen and Richard formed another band, Spectrum, with four other fellow students from California State University at Long Beach that played several gigs before disbanding. In 1969, Karen and Richard made several demo music tapes and shopped them around to different record companies; they were eventually offered a contract with A&M Records. Their first hit was a reworking of The Beatles hit "Ticket to Ride", followed by a re-recorded version of Burt Bacharach's "Close to You", which sold a million copies.
Soon Richard and Karen became one of the most successful groups of the early 1970s, with Karen on the drums and lead vocals and Richard on the piano with backup vocals. They won three Grammy Awards, embarked on a world tour, and landed their own TV variety series in 1971, titled Make Your Own Kind of Music! (1971).
In 1975 the story came out when The Carpenters were forced to cancel a European tour because the gaunt Karen was too weak to perform. Nobody knew that Karen was at the time suffering from anorexia nervosa, a mental illness characterized by obsessive dieting to a point of starvation. In 1976 she moved out of her parents' house to a condo of her own.
While her brother Richard was recovering from his Quaalude addiction, Karen decided to record a solo album in New York City in 1979 with producer Phil Ramone. Encouraged by the positive reaction to it in New York, Karen was eager to show it to Richard and the record company in California, who were nonplussed. The album was shelved.
In 1980, she married real estate developer Thomas J. Burris. However, the unhappy marriage really only lasted a year before they separated. (Karen was to sign the divorce papers the day she died).
Shortly afterward, she and brother Richard were back in the recording studio, where they recorded their hit single "Touch Me When We're Dancing". However, Karen was unable to shake her depression as well as her eating disorder, and after realizing she needed help, she spent most of 1982 in New York City undergoing treatment. By 1983, Karen was starting to take control of her life and planning to return to the recording studio and to make public appearances again. In February of 1983, she went to her parents' house to sort through some old clothes she kept there when she collapsed in a walk-in closet from cardiac arrest. She was only 32. Doctors revealed that her long battle with anorexia nervosa had stressed her heart to the breaking point.Karen Anne Carpenter – 1950 – 1983 (age 32) – singer – heart failure – American- Actress
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Leslie Barbara Carter was born on June 6, 1986, in Tampa, Florida, into the family of Robert Gene Carter (aka Robert Carter) and his wife Jane Elizabeth Carter (née Spaulding) and become the third of their five children. Her parents were divorced in 2003 after more than 20 years of marriage. Leslie had older brother Nick Carter (b. 1980), older sister Bobbie Jean Carter (b. 1982), and twin younger brother and sister Aaron Carter and Angel Carter (b. 1987). With her four siblings she participated in the family rally show House of Carters (2006). Also had three half-siblings: sister Virginia Marie (b. 1972, from her father's first marriage) and brother Kaden (b. 2005) and sister Taelyn (from her father's third and current marriage to Ginger Carter).
In September 2008, Leslie married her longtime boyfriend Mike Ashton, and in April 2011 they gave birth to their only child, a daughter named Alyssa Jane Ashton. She died at age 25 on January 31, 2012, from an accidental prescription drug overdose in the home her father, stepmother and half-brother and sister in Westfield, New York. She was survived by her father, mother, stepmother, seven siblings, husband of almost four years and 10-month-old daughter.Leslie Barbara Carter – 1986 – 2012 (age 25) – actress – accidental prescription drug overdoses – American- Music Artist
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Eva Marie Cassidy was born on 2nd February, 1963 in Washington Hospital Center in the United States to Barbara and Hugh Cassidy. Eva grew up with her siblings, Anette, Margaret and Dan, in Bowie, Maryland. The Cassidy family was very musical. From an early age, Eva could master harmonies and first learned the auto-harp but later went on to learn the acoustic guitar. It wasn't just music at which she excelled, she was also a very talented artist. Through her teens, alongside her brother, Eva performed in a high school band called "Stonehenge". Some of the members from "Stonehenge" later worked with her on her later recordings. Though an musician, Eva also worked at a tree nursery, called Behnke's. While recording an album in 1987, alongside ex-Stonehenge musician, Ned Judy, Eva sang vocals for Method Actor. Songs written by David Christopher (formerly known as David Lourim). It was through these recording sessions that she met music producer, Chris Biondo. She made eight albums in total. The Other Side (Duet With Chuck Brown), Live At Blues Alley, Eva By Heart, Songbird, Time After Time, Imagine, American Tune and Method Actor. But tragedy struck on November 2nd, 1996, when she died of melanoma (skin cancer) after a long battle with the disease.
It was after Eva's death that her albums became really successful. It was in 1997, that Paul Walters, a producer for BBC Radio 2 discovered her, and it was "Over The Rainbow" that was played on Terry Wogan's show and ultimately led to the release of the "Songbird" album, which by late 2000 achieved Gold and, by 2001, platinum. Eva's songs have brought solace to those who have lost loved ones, and her songs have been used for cancer research adverts and have been used in Love Actually (2003) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).Eva Marie Cassidy – 1963 – 1996 (age 33) – singer – cancer – American- Tamara Castro was born on 4 December 1972 in Ensenada, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She died on 8 December 2006 in Humberto Primo, Santa Fe, Argentina.María Tamara Castro – 1972 – 2006 (age 34) – singer – car accident – Argentine
- Sita Chan was an actress, known for Dang ngo oi nei (2012) and Lan Kwai Fong 2 (2012). She died on 17 April 2013 in Hoi Po Road, Kong Kong, China.Sita Chan – 1987 – 2013 (age 26) – actress and singer – car accident – Chinese (from Hong Kong)
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Born in Shanghai, China, as Chen Baolian, Pauline Chan emigrated to Hong Kong at age 12 with her mother when her parents divorced. A beautiful young girl, it didn't take long for photographers and agents to notice her and she began modeling at 15. In 1990 she entered the Miss Asia beauty pageant. She didn't win, but her striking looks, lithe body and classy bearing attracted the attention of several producers in Hong Kong's adult film industry. At age 18 she made her adult-film debut and her enthusiastic performances shot her to the top of the Chinese porn field. In 1997 she hooked up with a much older man, a Taiwanese millionaire, and they had a short (two-year) but stormy relationship. After their break-up in 1999, Chan's personal and professional lives began to unravel. She had had a drug problem for several years and it got worse--during one television interview in which she was apparently high on drugs she actually tried to commit suicide. A series of brushes with the law ensued, resulting in her being deported from several countries, and she was briefly sent to prison in the UK for assault. These and other incidents pretty much pulled the plug on her film career.
She moved back to her hometown of Shanghai and in July of 2002 gave birth to a baby boy. Motherhood didn't solve her problems, however, and on July 31, 2002, she leaped out of the window of her 24th-floor apartment and plunged to her death.Pauline Chan Bo-Lin – 1973 – 2002 (age 29) – actress – suicide – Chinese- Rani Chandra was born in 1949 in Fort Kochi, Travancore-Cochin, India. She was an actress, known for Chemparathy (1972), Nellu (1974) and Ladies Hostel (1973). She died on 12 October 1976 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India.Rani Chandra – 1949 – 1976 (age 26-27) – actress – plane crash – Indian
- Liza Chapman appeared on television and the stage, served as a lieutenant in the Women's Army Corps from 1948 to 1952 and was reported to be the youngest commissioned officer in the corps at the time.
A veteran of television melodrama, Miss Chapman was known to daytime viewers for her portrayal of Janet Mathews on NBC's "Another World." She also appeared in two episodes of CBS's "The Secret Storm" in a minor role as Barbara Bradford.
Her husband, pianist and conductor Andrew Heath, served as chairman of the music department at Fairfield University. Both studied at Yale University from 1953 to 1955, when he was working on a master's degree in music and she was taking courses in the drama school.
Mrs. Heath, a student of Eva Le Gallienne at the White Barn in Westport in 1957, conducted story-telling hours at the Hans Christian Anderson statue in New York's Central Park early in her acting career. Her brilliance in story telling led to an invitation by the Baroness Alma Dahlerup of the Danish Arts Council for her to conduct story telling hours in New York.
She appeared in the New York production of "Lysistrata" and off Broadway in "Paris Impromptu" and a revival of "Anna Christie." A graduate of Yale Drama School, she portrayed Regina in the world premiere of Miss Le Gallienne's translation of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts," which was produced by Lucille Lortel at the White Barn theater. Mrs. Heath also appeared many times on the same stage with her husband, doing narratives as he played the piano. She occasionally accompanied her husband on European concert tours.
A drama student from New Haven, the then Liza Chapman first met her future husband when he gave a concert at Quinnipiac College. He was a Harvard undergraduate at the time. They continued their friendship in the summers of 1947 and 1948 at Tanglewood, Mass., where Mr. Heath was a student at the music center and Miss Chapman was director of a summer stock theatrical group. Following several years at Harvard and abroad, Mr. Heath entered the Army in 1951. He and Miss Chapman were reunited in New York where she was serving as a lieutenant in the WACs. They were married in New Haven. After release from military service, the couple spent several years studying at Yale and then settled in Westport, Connecticut.
Liza Chapman Heath was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery following services in Connecticut in 1967. Andrew Heath died on February 15, 2005 in New Haven, Connecticut and is buried alongside his wife at Arlington. The couple had three sons, Dana, Duncan and David, and a daughter, Honor.Betty Ann Chapman (“Liza Chapman”) – 1929 – 1967 (age 37) – actress – car accident – American - Sonika Chouhan is known for Dangar Doctor Jelly (2017) and Nahin Jana Meri Maaye (2022).Sonika Simone Singh Chauhan – 1989 – 2017 (age 27) – actress and model – car accident – Indian
- One could have thought Lyne Chardonnet had been blessed by the gods and would live a long successful happy life. For she really had everything to make it. A wasp-waisted blond-haired girl of radiant beauty, with a good drama training, she should have become a movie star and she would have been one if she had been born twenty years before, that is before the French New Wave set new standards, when ingénues like her were still in demand. Well, she WAS given one or two parts which gave her the opportunity to shine, such as the Jacotte she nicely portrayed in Michel Deville's elegant 'Benjamin' alongside Pierre Clémenti as virgin Benjamin and Michel Piccoli as his mentor (1967), or tragic Marie Vetsera's younger sister in Terence Young's version of 'Mayerling' (1968). However, despite this encouraging debut, roles soon dwindled to next to nothing: a few brief appearances as a blond hostess, a blond secretary or even as a (blond?) nun! Lyne Chardonnet sure deserved better. She had born in Paris in the last years of World War II to a fakir, Léopold Chardonnet, and his wife, Ellen Shapiro, of Irish origin. At the age of five, Lyne was already taking dancing lessons. After graduating from high school she studied drama at the Conservatoire de Paris, with prestigious teachers (Henri Rollan, Fernand Ledoux and Robert Manuel). She left the place equipped with a classic comedy and a modern comedy prize. She started her acting career in 1965 in front of the cameras of Alain Resnais, for whom she played a role she would later have to repeat over and over again, that of the pretty blonde. From then on she was busy working hard in the movies, on television (her best part being Herminie in the series 'Les gens de Mogador') and at the theater (where contrary to the cinema, she was always given rewarding parts in plays by Musset, Rostand, Labiche and many others). She married twice, once (very very briefly) with Paul-Loup Sulitzer, the best-seller writer, and the second time (more happily) with writer-actor-director Jacques Cortal. They had a daughter together, Léa, born in 1974. Lyne worked and worked and she was doing fine (at least on TV and on the boards) when the gods decided to abandon her. In 1980, whereas she was only 36 she suddenly died of liver cancer. Two months beforehand, she was still active, completing her scenes in the TV movie 'Le mystère de Saint Charlu'. Léa was only six and Jacques, her faithful life companion, was annihilated. He later devoted two films to her memory, a short 'Le dernier jour' and much later (2002), a feature-length fictionalized version of her final days 'Quand je vois le soleil'.Lyne Catherine Jeanne Chardonnet – 1943 – 1980 (age 37) – actress – cancer – French
- Born Mary Eileen "Mimi" Chesterton (nicknamed Mimi by her friends and family) in St. Paul, Minnesota, titian beauty Claudia Jennings was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1966, she moved to Evanston, Illinois, the first suburb north of Chicago just south of the Wisconsin state line, where she graduated high school in 1968.
After joining the Hull House theater company in Chicago, she took a job as a receptionist at the offices of Playboy magazine in September 1968. Photographer Pompeo Posar asked her to test, and with a potential $5,000 check at stake -- enough for a ticket to Hollywood -- she agreed. She eventually appeared as a Playmate in November 1969, and later as 1970 Playmate of the Year. Re-naming herself Claudia Jennings to avoid family embarrassment due to posing in the nude, she became the most perennially popular Playmate of the 1970s, as well as the number one female star of "Drive-In" movies such as The Unholy Rollers (1972) and 'Gator Bait (1973). Her first film role was with the film Jud (1971), a low-budget, socially conscious, independent film about a Vietnam soldier's return home. While the film came and went without much notice, it encouraged Claudia to go into the acting business full time.
From 1970 to 1975, she lived with songwriter/producer Bobby Hart but, after their split, her personal life began to spiral. She began using drugs and soon got a reputation for being unreliable. As her cocaine use began to escalate, her career from this point began to flounder.
One of her last theatrical film roles was a co-starring part in the little-seen Canadian racetrack drama Fast Company (1979). After narrowly missing the role of Kate Jackson's replacement on Charlie's Angels (1976) to Shelley Hack in May 1979, she began a tumultuous relationship with Beverly Hills realtor Stan Herman. Following their split later that summer, Jennings turned her life around and tried to quit drugs and drinking, but sadly died before she could continue performing in better films. On the morning of October 3, 1979, she was at the wheel of her VW convertible in Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway, and drifted across the center divider, colliding head-on with a pickup truck near the intersection of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. She died a few minutes later before paramedics could arrive and get her to a nearby hospital. She was 29.Mary Eileen Chesterton (“Claudia Jennings”) – 1949 – 1979 (age 29) – model – car accident – American - Christine Christian was born on 23 September 1979 in Carmel, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Starved (2005) and Post Modern Ophelia (2014). She was married to John Christian. She died on 4 July 2015 in Mahopac, New York, USA.Christine Christian – 1979 – 2015 (age 35) – actress – unknown – American
- Christine Chubbuck was born on 24 August 1944 in Hudson, Ohio, USA. She died on 15 July 1974 in Sarasota, Florida, USA.Christine Chubbuck – 1944 – 1974 (age 29) – TV news reporter – suicide (first ever on live TV seen by millions of people at that time but the record of her suicide is lost) – American
- Graciela Cimer was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1962. She made her debut in television in the show Jacinta Pichimauida se enamora (1977) in the 70s. Since then, she kept working in a lot of soap operas on television. In fact, she took the lead in 3 of them in the 80s, "No es u juego vivir", Dos para una mentira (1986) and Ese nombre prohibido (1986).
At the age of 27, she committed suicide at her parents' house, jumping from her first floor balcony in July 1989.Graciela Cimer – 1963 – 1989 (age 26) – actress – drug overdoses – Argentine - Actress
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This beautiful, long-legged blonde actress was known to be a kind, intelligent and dependable actor with a comedic talent as well. She appeared in many American TV hits of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Three's Company (1976), The Jeffersons (1975), The New Mike Hammer (1984), Riptide (1984), Knight Rider (1982), Who's the Boss? (1984), The A-Team (1983), Night Court (1984), Wings (1990) and Silk Stalkings (1991), among others. Her big-screen debut came in the 1982 Amy Heckerling film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), as the character Mrs. Vargas. This film starred Sean Penn and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Lana then landed a role in the Roger Corman fantasy epic Deathstalker (1983). This led to her being offered the title role in Corman's next film, the cult classic Barbarian Queen (1985). It was this association with the legendary Corman that really put Lana on the B-movie map. After starring in "Barbarian Queen" as the sword-wielding lead, a character Corman fondly refers to as "the original Xena," Lana then reprised the role in the sequel Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back (1990).
Lana's larger-than-life personality and striking beauty, along with several of the movie roles she chose, inspired a cult fan following. This warm fanfare was further cemented by her work in the John Landis spoof Amazon Women on the Moon (1987). She was always a favorite at the ever-growing comic book conventions, where she happily signed autographs and was known to be friendly and accessible to all of her loyal fans, both young and old alike.
Lana also did stunt work in Retroactive (1997). Her last film was March (2001), as Dr. Ellen Taylor. Even though she did not do many movies toward the end of her life, she found success working in television commercials, for such products as Mercedes-Benz, Nike, Anheiser Busch, Playtex bras, Kmart and Mattel. She had been spending her time creating comedic characters for many of these companies. While working for the KMART Corp., Lana made personal appearances as the character she created for the Route 66 clothing campaign, Katie Earline Wilson. She was an actress who had more to offer Hollywood in the future, had her life not been cut so tragically short.Lana Jean Clarkson – 1962 – 2003 (age 40) – actress – homicide – American- Juanita Coco was born on 10 December 1975 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She died on 2 May 1993 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Juanita Suzanne Coco – 1975 – 1993 (age 17) – singer and actress – car accident – Australian
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Born in Madrid, Spain to two hard-working military parents, William and Elizabeth Schoen. Her family has lived in New Orleans, La since the 1800s. Graduated from LSU with a double major in German and Performing Arts. Studied at The Atlantic Theatre Company in New York, and has performed in many different stage plays. Has a huge respect for method actors...prefers to use the Sanford Meisner technique. Was on Season 8 of Food Network Star (2005).Cristie Shoen Codd – 1976 – 2015 (age 38) – actress – homicide – American- Actress
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Alma Cogan was born on 19 May 1932 in Whitechapel, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Tank 432 (2015), The End of the F***ing World (2017) and En aftenstund med - (1965). She died on 26 October 1966 in London, England, UK.Angela Alma Cohen (”Alma Cogan”) – 1932 – 1966 (age 34) – singer – cancer – British- Actress
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Cass Elliot was born Ellen Naomi Cohen on September 19, 1941, in Baltimore, Maryland. She grew up in the Washington D.C. environs and in her senior year of high school, performed in a summer stock production of "The Boyfriend" at the Owings Mills Playhouse, where she played the French nurse who sings "It's Nicer, Much Nicer in Nice." After this experience, even though her family anticipated her seeking a college education in pursuit of a career, Cass forged ahead in the performing arts. She made a splash in New York and began an acting career, competing with Barbra Streisand for the Miss Marmelstein part in "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" in 1962.
She toured in a production of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man." Elliot also produced a play at Cafe La Mama in New York. However, by early 1963 she had met up with Tim Rose and John Brown and formed a folk trio initially dubbed The Triumvirate, but later known as The Big 3 when Brown was replaced by James Hendricks. The Big 3 were a progressive and innovative folk trio who recorded two albums and made appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), Hootenanny (1963) and The Danny Kaye Show (1963). In 1964 the group had begun to fall apart and it metamorphosized into a foursome called "Cass Elliot and The Big Three" which included Canadians Denny Doherty and Zal Yanovsky (Rose had left at this point). Soon this foursome became The Mugwumps who operated out of The Shadows nightclub in Washington. They released a single for Warner Brothers and stayed together through the end of 1964, until they, too, began to disintegrate. Cass began to work as a solo single in Washington, D.C.
At this point Doherty had joined John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and the three were performing as The New Journeymen. Soon they left for the Virgin Islands, where Cass subsequently joined them, and the four began to sing together in mid-1965--thus, the superstar group The Mamas and The Papas was born. From 1965 to 1968 the Mamas and Papas recorded a series of top-ten hits including "Monday, Monday," "California Dreamin'," "I Saw Her Again," and "Dedicated to the One I Love."
The group's last hit was a launching number for Cass Elliot. "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" became her theme song and, beginning in 1968, she embarked on her own short-lived but solid solo career. Her distinct voice had always emerged from the groups in which she sang. In 1969 she scored big with "It's Getting Better" and 1970 yielded the hits "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and "New World Coming." In 1970, Elliot also appeared in the film Pufnstuf (1970) and recorded an album with rock singer Dave Mason. Recently, the issue of the soundtrack of Monte Walsh (1970) turned up four different versions of her theme song, "The Good Times Are Coming", composed by John Barry and Hal David.
Elliot had two prime-time television specials of her own in 1969 and 1973, but most people remember her scores of television appearances throughout the early 1970s with Mike Douglas, Julie Andrews, Andy Williams, Johnny Cash, Red Skelton, Ed Sullivan, Tom Jones, Carol Burnett and others. She guest-hosted "The Tonight Show", had successful stints in Las Vegas and continued to record for RCA during these years, too. Cass had one daughter, Owen Vanessa, in April 1967 and she was married twice, first (1963-68) to fellow Big Three and Mugwumps member Jim Hendricks and second to Baron Donald von Wiedenman (1971). In 1974, she traveled to London where she had a two-week engagement at the London Palladium. After performing to sellout crowds and basking in repeated ovations, Cass tragically succumbed to a heart attack on July 29, 1974 in London, following this successful concert tour (and NOT, as is commonly believed, from choking on a sandwich).
In 1998, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Cass Elliot and her fellow band-mates from The Mamas and The Papas into that institution. Her daughter Owen represented her mother and accepted her award.Ellen Naomi Cohen (“Cass Elliot” or “Mama Cass”) – 1941 – 1974 (age 32) – singer (“The Mamas and the Papas”) – heart failure – American- Camelia was born on 13 December 1919 in Alexandria, Egypt. She was an actress, known for Shari al-bahlawan (1949), Akher kedba (1950) and Waladi (1949). She died on 31 August 1950 in El Buhayra, Egypt.Lilian Victor Cohen (“Camelia”) – 1919 – 1950 (age 30) – actress – plane crash – French-Italian (Jewish) born and died in Egypt
- Natasha Collins was born on 7 July 1976 in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The 10th Kingdom (2000), Real Women (1998) and See It Saw It (1999). She died on 3 January 2008 in St John's Wood, London, England, UK.Natasha Louise Collins – 1976 – 2008 (age 31) – actress and model – drug overdoses – British
- After making her film debut in "The Crossing", Megan was one of the leading soap stars in Australia. After her role in Paradise Beach ended in 1994, she co-hosted the morning kids show "The Zone" for a year. In late 1995 she hosted the Foxtel's fitness show "Body Corp" for cable television, before moving on to become a V-Jay for Foxtel's music channel V until early 1997. During this time she starred in the stage show Resurrected!. In mid-1998 she returned to soaps, first with a role in Home & Away and then Breakers. Following her stint on Breakers she took a hiatus from the entertainment industry. Sadly however, at the age of 27, she was found dead from a drug overdose while staying at a relative's home.Megan Jennifer Connolly – 1974 – 2001 (age 27) – actress – drug overdose – Australian
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Virginia Lee Corbin was born on 5 December 1910 in Prescott, Arizona, USA. She was an actress, known for Bare Knees (1928), Hands Up! (1926) and The Forbidden Room (1919). She was married to Theodore Elwood Krol and Charles Jacobson. She died on 5 June 1942 in Winfield, Illinois, USA.Virginia Lee Corbin – 1910 – 1942 (age 31) – actress – tuberculosis – American- Carolyn Craig was born Adele Ruth Crago on October 27, 1934, in Green Acres, New York. Her father, Clarence, was an engineer and her mother, Ruth, was a housewife. The family moved to Santa Barbara, California, when she was child. Carolyn started her career acting at the Santa Barbara Community playhouse. In 1955 she appeared in the television movie Edgar Allan Poe At West Point. The beautiful brunette also modeled for series of photos where she portrayed a "healthy housewife". Her big break came when she played Elizabeth Taylor's sister in the 1956 drama Giant. Then she had the leading role in the film noir Portland Expose. On September 30, 1957 she married businessman Charles Graham. The couple had a son named Charles Edward. Carolyn costarred with Vincent Price in the 1959 horror film House On Haunted Hill.
She also appeared on numerous television shows including Perry Mason, The Rifleman, and The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp. Because she looked so young she was often cast as teenagers. Her marriage to Charles ended in 1961. Although many of her performances got good reviews, she never became an A-list star. She joined the cast of the soap opera General Hospital in 1963. The following year Carolyn married Arthur France Bryden, the manager of a car dealership. Her final acting role was in a 1967 episode of the TV show T.H.E. Cat. She divorced Arthur in the spring of 1970 and fell into a deep depression. On December 12, 1970, she committed suicide by shooting herself in her Culver City home. She was thirty-six years old. Carolyn was buried in an unmarked grave at Inglewood Cemetery in Inglewood, California.Adele Ruth Crago (“Carolyn Craig”) – 1934 – 1970 (age 36) – actress – suicide – American - Actress
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Susanne apparently had a tumultuous private life. She married actor Hermann Nehlsen in 1956. Apparently that did not go well, as she tried to commit suicide twice in 1957 and was soon divorced. In 1958, she married actor Helmuth Lohner and was divorced five months later. She married Helmut a second time, which produced a child, daughter Konstanze Lohner. But a second divorce soon followed. In 1966, she married actor Kevin Hagen. Soon after, she left for Munich, Germany to visit her friend, Renate Ewert, whom she found dead. Reports were anywhere from six days to three weeks. In late 1968, she entered a private clinic in Hollywood, never to emerge, as she died on January 7, 1969. There were reports of a medical malpractice.Susanne Cramer (“Susan Cramer”, “Suzanne Cramer”) – actress – 1936 – 1969 (age 32) – pneumonia (official version, rumoured to have commited suicide because she couldn’t handle the suicide of her actress colleague Renate Ewert whose dead body she found upon a visit) – German- Music Department
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Raised in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, Linda Creed's contribution to the Philly Soul Sound of the 1970s through the 1980s is undeniable. Her talents as a lyricist were teamed with Philadelphia International Records most noted composer-producer-arranger Thom Bell in 1971. The Creed and Bell collaboration produced an impressive array of Top 40 hits.
For the vocal group The Stylistics, this songwriting team penned "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" (their first collaboration & first Top 40 Hit), "You Are Everything", "Betcha By Golly, Wow", "I'm Stone In Love With You", and "You're As Right As Rain." For The Spinners, they penned "Ghetto Child", "The Rubberband Man" and "I'm Coming Home." Creed's sensitive lyrics meshed with Bell's signature classical-cum-soul sound also produced one of Johnny Mathis's signature albums. Mathis' 1973 LP "I'm Coming Home" included the first recorded versions of "A Baby's Born", "I'd Rather Be Here With You", "Sweet Child" and "Life Is A Song Worth Singing", the latter becoming one of Mathis' most requested songs and a hit single for singer Teddy Pendergrass.
Although Creed was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 26, she continued to work. With composer Michael Masser, she wrote the poignant lyrics to "The Greatest Love of All" for the Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest (1977); this Creed-Masser composition would become a No. 1 hit for singer Whitney Houston in 1986, the same year Creed lost her battle with breast cancer at age 37.
In 1987 her family and friends established The Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation in Philadelphia to provided free mammographies to uninsured and underinsured women. As one half of one of the most commercially and critically acclaimed songwriting teams, she was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992.Linda Diane Creed (Epstein) – 1949 – 1986 (age 36) – singer-songwriter and lyricist– cancer – American- Pamela Susan Courson was born December 22, 1946 in Weed California. She was daughter of Columbus "Corky" Brimer Courson and Pearl "Penny" Courson. She had an elder sister, Judy.
In the book "Angels Dance and Angels die" by Patricia Butler it says: "Kindergarten, the first day of school at Cambridge Elementary in Orange, California. [...] One little girl with carrot red hair and freckles was running away from the door where the teacher stood, but she didn't escape. She fell down and scraped her knee. It started to bleed, but she didn't cry. She kind of yelled, no tears, just bellowed. That little girl was Pamela Courson". This is Charlene Estes Enzler's written account of her first day of kindergarten. By the time Pam reached high school in 1960, she had no close friends. Fashion seemed to he a big part of Pam's life. Preach Lyrela recalls: "Pamela, at a social event - she would stop the party! People would just look at her because she was wearing the type of clothing that nobody else would dare to. She was always two or three years ahead of what was coming out in Orange County. She was very white and she wore stark white makeup, with the sorrowful stress on the eyes. She certainly had a mind of her own and was very different." Annette Burden liked Pam for the very fact she wasn't a typical teen: "Everyone else I knew was just Orange County, run-of-the-mill people, but I thought Pamela was absolutely great! She was a wild one and just had a wonderful sense of style and adventure, with this spark that was so exciting and fun. I thought she was really smart, but maybe other people didn't because she had that kind of mysterious thing about her. But I knew she was smart because she was so funny, her humor was so wry. Charlene Enzler remembers Pam in high school (ca.1962): "We all wore pastels and plaids, with full skirts and starched petticoats, but suddenly in our junior year, here was Pamela dressed all in black, her once-red hair dyed jet black as well." While beatniks may have been prowling New York's East Village for years by that time, they hadn't yet made it to Orange County. Pamela Courson was their first. In 1963 Charlene saw Pam for the last time and she realized Pam was different from the most of the kids in Orange, but was also quite nice. Pam was wearing her beatnik outfit and her hair (by this time back to her natural color) was worn long and parted straight down the middle "like a hippie". Pam left Orange High School in her junior year and transferred out of the district to Capistrano Union High School about twenty miles south of Orange.
In any event, Jim Morrison called Pam his "cosmic mate" and dedicated his self-published books of poetry to her, as well as songs such as "Love Street". Although they were deeply in love, their relationship was tumultuous and they also fought and abused each other. She was the one and only woman who could and would stand up to Jim, for she could dish it out to him as well as he could to her. They both had flings on the side with other people but still they came back to each other in the end. Although they never married, Pam took the name Morrison later on in their relationship.
Pam arrived in Los Angeles in 1966 when she was 19 and she met Mirandi Babitz, who became and important role model and a friend. According to Ray Manzarek, Pam met the Doors at the Sunset Strip club The London Fog early 1966: "Pam walked into the Fog and john Densmore certainly put the make on her and for the next week or so continued to put the make on her. I don't know what happened with that; I'm certain he would have loved to consummate the relationship, though I don't think they ever did. Whithin about one or two-week period Jim and Pam had looked into each other's eyes and realized that it wasn't going to be John Densmore at all, it was going to be Jim and Pam." The same striking looks that had made Pam an outcast in Orange served her well in Los Angeles. Ray Manzarek remembers Pam bringing a hot rod magazine into the London Fog one day shortly after she and Jim had started seeing each other. "She'd been coming to the club on sort of a relatively frequent basis, and the relationship was blossoming, and she brought a magazine in and was rather proud to show everybody that she was indeed on the cover of a magazine. She was a babe, a hot babe on a red car. As I recall she had on a two-piece bathing suit. It didn't do Pam justice, that's for sure. Didn't capture the sweetness of her." Mirandi recalls the meeting of Pam in the fall of 1966. "Pam and I were both taking art classes at Los Angeles City College. We were the two obviously hippie girls in this class - I had long straight brown hair with bangs and she had long straight red hair with bangs. She was real cute, a darling little thing. so we started sitting together and talking to each other and we became friends." The photographer Paul Ferrara remembers Pam as having "a fairy-tale quality, she had that persona. I think that's what Jim liked about her. she was like one of those people who's so blessed to begin with, whether it's beauty or whatever inside her, I think they're impervious and nothing really hurts them. they kind of walk around with a glowing shield. Pam was one of those."
In early 1967, when The Doors returned from New York, Jim and Pam decided to take the next logical step in their relationship by moving together.The couple moved into one of three small apartments in a house on Rothdell Trail, perced on a hillside just adobe the Country Store. A number of other stars of the music scene lived in the neighborhood as well, such as David Crosby, John and Michelle Phillips, Cass Elliot and Frank Zappa. There was a feeling of community and creativity that flowed through the area. Pam testified, in writing: "Jim and I had discussed marriage on several occasions before this trip [Colorado tour, 1967], bu felt, as did his managers, that the attendant publicity to a publicly registered marriage would have a detrimental effect upon the image they were trying to develop on him".
On Wednesday, June 26, 1968, Jim Morrison and Pamela Courson went to Los Angeles City Hall and took out what was rumored to be their second marriage license, though the first one, said to have been picked up in Mexico shortly after the couple first met, no one remembers ever actually seeing. But any thoughts of a June wedding expired along with the marriage license, which was allowed to languish and die, unused. That year, Pam met Christopher Jones, an actor who had lots of similarities with Jim Morrison and had just starred in the youth-oriented film "Wild in the Strets" and they dated for a short time during June and July 1968. When The Doors went to tour Europe Pam came along, choosing mostly to stay in Londonwhile the band toured. Jim and Pam seemed content enough together there. Ray was impressed by the domestic bliss the couple seemed to have fallen into at their furnished flat on London's Eton Square. "We visited them before we left London," says Manzarek, speaking of himself and his wife, Dorothy. "Jim and Pam made us a wonderful breakfast, a full English breakfast [...] It was the most domestic I'd ever seen them. And I thought, This is going to work out! This could work out! This is good!" But it wasn't good for long. Back in the States, Jim began rehearsals for the group's new album The Soft Parade, and Pam once again began seeing Christopher Jones, who went to London with her for the filming of Looking glass with Anthony Hopkins. they stayed at the London Hilton and for weeks everything was good until Christopher Jones wrote a letter to his ex-wife and a furious Pam left him. By November the Doors embarked a tour in the States and Pam hadn't come home yet. Without telling anyone where he was going, Jim went to London to get Pam back. When he located her, the couple reconciled on at least a provisional basis.
In 1971, following the recording of L.A. Woman, Jim decided to take some time off and moved to Paris with Pam, in March. He had visited the city the previous summer and seemed content to write and explore the place. They took up residence in an apartment at 17 rue Beautreillis. Once in Paris, Morrison gained a great deal of weight and shaved off his beard. He admired the city's architecture and would go for long walks through the city. Once there, Pam encouraged him to write poetry. Paris was proving to be good for Jim, and in matter of weeks his physical appearance reflected that benefit. He and Pam were living without pressures, without schedules, traveling anywhere they liked, coming back only when it pleased them to do so. Later, remembering an excursion from Paris to Morocco, Pam said: "I woke up one morning and saw this handsome man by the pool, talking to two young American girls. I fell instantly in love with him. Then I realized it was Jim. I hadn't recognized him. He had got up early and shaved his beard, and he was so lean from losing so much weight, he seemed a new man. It was so nice to fall in love again with the man I was already in love with." Jim had also made the first tentative steps towards bridging the chasm that had so long existed between him and his parents. Alain Ronay, Jim's French-born friend from UCLA, stayed with Jim and Pam in Paris for a few weeks and remembers an evening Jim spent recounting affectionate, funny stories about his father. Pam used to call the Morrisons to let them know that she and Jim were looking forward to seeing them as soon as they got back to the States. For the first time, Jim began talking about having children. Pam loved to travel so while in Paris they went to Spain, Corsica and they planned to go to London and Switzerland. Sadly the excursion to London was cut short when Jim's asthma once again flared up. On July 2, 1971 Jim and Pam went to see a movie. After the movie, they returned to their apartment in Paris. Jim went to bed and awoke sometime later coughing and complaining of chest pains. He then decided to take a bath. At approximately 5:00 a.m. on July 3, 1971, Pam found Jim dead in their bathroom. Per the stipulation in his will, which stated that he was "an unmarried person", Courson inherited his entire fortune, yet lawsuits against the estate would tie up her quest for inheritance for the next two years. After Pamela received her share of Morrison's royalties, she never renewed contact with the remaining Doors members.
After Jim's passing, Pam returned to the States and went to live with her friend publicist Diane Gardiner who kept Pam out of the public eyes with the help of the journalist Ellen Sander. Ellen remembers Pam: "She had a very lyrical, high-pitched voice; she was pretty, she was sweet - I never heard her say any unkind word about anybody, which impressed me. sweet-needy. That's my description of her. She was sweet and needy." Pam told Ellen, who was seven months pregnant: "I wish we'd had a baby. I wish I was pregnant too". Ellen recalls: "She was devastated about what had happened and what was going to happen to her." Pam stayed with Ellen for weeks at her home in Sausalito, but then she moved with Diane Gardiner at Muir Woods and with Sage as well, the golden retriever she had shared with Jim and she usually visited her old friend January Jensen who lived near by. She stayed there over a year. January Jensen recalls: "Pam once told me "You know, I just have no desire to live without Jim; I can't live without him" and I said "C'mon now!" and I gave her a big hug, I knew what she was feeling". As a twenty-four-year-old in Paris, Pam had held the world in her hands, facing an ever brightening future with the man she loved. At twenty-five, she was back in California, alone, left with nothing but a dry handful of torturous memories and half live dreams. And regrets, so many regrets.
Randy Ralston was a twenty-three year old film student attending at UCLA who met Pam at Cafe Figaro in Beverly Hills. Randy Ralson Recalls: "As soon as we [Randy and his friend George] sat down at our table, I noticed a girl sitting alone, giving me some eye dalliance. So I immediately got up and went over and introduced myself and said, "would you like to join us?" She was the slender, attractive young woman with her vivid red hair cut just above her shoulders. Pam told them she had some films Jim did in their trips to Europe but she hadn't a projector, so Randy - with the projector in his hand- took Pam at her house. He recalls: "She had a lovely house, a big Spanish-style place. Not only is she beautiful, but a rich girl to boot." They spent long time watching the Super 8 films again and again and Pam invited Randy to stay all night at her home. The next morning seemed idyllic to Randy: "We woke up in the morning and she fixed breakfast. She fixed bacon and eggs and squeezed orange juice, and we sat and fed the birds outside the window." That day Pam went to live with Randy. "We had great time, we cooked, we sat in the backyard. We would eat gourmet food, we would go to the movies, we would walk Sage in the park. I like to do yoga, and she would encourage me to keep up my routine of morning and evening meditation, and going to play tennis and stuff like that. It was pretty idyllic." they spent great time together until one day they heard a song by The doors on the radio, then Pam got depressed and after that, Pam's mood would brighten temporarily, but then she would sink into depression once again. Randy Ralston didn't realized Pam was Jim Morrison's widow so he didn't understand her, but he got tired of her changing moods and they split up. Pam left home and went to live in an apartment she found on Sycamore. Pam call him and she asked him if he wanted to go with her to a concert at the Palladium. Randy Ralston went with Diane Gardiner to pick up Pam. Randy recalls: "She was all dressed up and looked unbelievably gorgeous. It was bizarre. Diane would be whispering in my ear as people came up to pay homage to Pamela, the rock and roll princess. She really wanted me to know who I'd thrown out of my house." Little by little Randy met again with Pam to see his and her films, to listen to the music, to parties... At one point Randy and Pam went to Las Vegas with an other couple and they talked about getting married: "We always were really very enamored of each other, but I don't think anybody could fill the boots of Jim Morrison. I don't think there was any guy who could do that in her life for her." In December 1973 Randy and Pam were preparing things to make a camping trip, they were very happy until Pam talked about her family. She had made a trip to Utah to meet her sister Judy and she had told to her parents bad things about Pam, Pam felt so hurt and she decides not to spent Christmas with her family, Randy tried to convince Pam to go with her family but she had made the decision of staying with him. Pam turned twenty-seven that month.
On April 25, 1974, Pam died of a heroin overdose at the Los Angeles apartment she shared with two male friends. She was twenty-seven, the same age at which Jim Morrison died. Her parents intended that she be buried next to Morrison at Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, and listed this location as the place of burial on her death certificate, but due to legal complications with transporting the body to France, her parents had her remains buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California, under the name "Pamela Susan Morrison". After her death, her parents Columbus and Penny inherited Morrison's entire fortune, but their executor ship of the estate was later contested by Morrison's parents, George and Clara Morrison. In her funeral, The Doors told that nobody wore black clothes. Ray Manzarek played some songs that Jim composed thinking about Pam such as "Orange Country Girl". Nobody commented any thing related to Jim or Pam's life and death, they just remain there, in silence.Pamela Susan Courson – 1946 – 1974 (age 27) – long-term companion of Doors singer Jim Morrison –drug overdose – American - Lou Gish was a bright and sassy actress of natural poise and comic edge. The daughter of the actors Roland Curram and Sheila Gish, she demonstrated her range in her last two stage roles.
At the tiny Gate Theatre in Notting Hill, west London, in January last year, she played General Pinochet's Spanish lawyer in Thea Sharrock's riveting promenade production of Fermín Cabal's Tejas Verdas (Green Gables), a moving memorial to Chilean torture victims. Last summer she took on the role of Goneril in Steven Pimlott's lucid version of King Lear, starring David Warner, in the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.
In the first, she was sleek, reasonable, assured. In the second, she tore up the stage, dashing to the floor the Bible proffered by a distraught Albany (Raad Rawi) and channelling her evil complots through a serpentine presence beautifully contrasted with Zoe Waites's choleric Regan. Her younger sister, Kay Curram, played Cordelia.
Lou and Kay were returning to Chichester in part to memorialise their mother's last stage performance there - as Arkadina in The Seagull in 2003 (a production in which Kay played Nina) - but also to get over it. Typically, they arranged company visits to the local bowling alley and teased their leading man by calling him "Dave" - "He's so not a Dave," they said. Warner himself described Lou as "a wonderful, positive presence, a superb actress whose spirit remained with us for the entire run". She had been forced to leave the production when her illness took hold again.
Lou Gish was born and raised in London. After Macaulay church school, Alleyn's in Dulwich, and Furzedown school, Wandsworth, she took a degree at Camberwell School of Art. She first thought of going into journalism; as a student she won a prize for an article she wrote for Harper's magazine, and the then editor, Beatrix Miller, said she would take her on after graduation.
But Lou decided to change direction and took an office job with the actors' agent Jeremy Conway, where she answered the telephone and served the tea, sometimes jokingly dressed in a waitress uniform. A role in a fringe production in Paddington led to the acquisition of an agent of her own, and a notable cameo in Sean Mathias's 1994 revival of Noel Coward's Design for Living at the Donmar Warehouse. Rachel Weisz was a sensational, sulky Gilda in this production, and Gish, no way fazed, played Helen Carver as a screeching socialite in a glittering sheath.
When her parents first separated (Sheila Gish later married the actor and director Denis Lawson), Roland Curram sombrely announced to his daughters that he was coming out as gay. No big surprise there, said Lou, "as he had brought us up on a diet of Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Barbra Streisand." Gish and Curram had met while working on the film Darling in the mid-1960s. The star and the director, Julie Christie and the late John Schlesinger, were Lou's godparents - the coolest, she said, in the world.
In a second collaboration with Mathias, Lou played a mannish playwright and adoring assistant to Sian Phillips's Marlene Dietrich in Pam Gems's Marlene. She specialised in such strong, but marginalised, romantic figures: at the Watford Palace in 1998, in Phyllis Nagy's skilful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, she played Marge as a hilarious piggy-in-the-middle. Later that year, she joined her stepfather Denis Lawson's production of Little Malcolm and his Struggle against the Eunuchs, starring Ewan McGregor, at the Hampstead Theatre, and subsequently in the West End. She played Ann, the object of the lads' fear and misogyny - and of a brutal attack - with devastating contempt.
In 1999, Michael Billington described how Lou - slim, green-eyed and dark-haired - lit up the Chichester stage as a rejected fiancée in Maria Aitken's revival of Noel Coward's underrated comedy Easy Virtue. She was the perfect, swish, middle-class Helena in Look Back in Anger at the Bristol Old Vic in 2001, and an effortlessly aristocratic Duchess of Malfi at the Salisbury Playhouse the following year. Of this latter performance, Alastair Macaulay wrote in the Financial Times that "she doesn't invite us into her tragedy; we are riveted by it from a distance."
Over the last 10 years of her life, Gish appeared regularly on television in such series as The Thin Blue Line (1995) EastEnders (1985), Casualty, Doctors (2000), Wire in the Blood, Coupling (2000) and Where the Heart Is.
She died of cancer at the age of 38 and was survived by her partner, the actor Nicholas Rowe, and her father, stepfather and sister.Louise Mikel Henrietta Marie Curram (“Lou Gish”) – 1967 – 2006 (age 38) – actress – cancer – British - Samantha D'Ambrosia was born on 5 June 1986 in Hampton, Virginia, USA. She was an actress, known for Now That's Sketchy! (2008). She died on 29 April 2011 in Burbank, California, USA.Samantha D’Ambrosia – 1986 – 2011 (age 24) – actress – asthma attack – American
- Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Jeong Da-bin, whose real name is Jung Hye-sun, was mostly known for playing ever cheerful and effervescent every girl roles. Known primarily for playing schoolgirl types, she gained quite a popular following in Taiwan as well particularly for her roles in numerous "Korean wave" miniseries. She attended Yongdok Girls High School and Gongguk University for two years where she majored in Drama.
Her first breakout role was in the Korean fantasy movie "Danjeogbiyeonsu" in 2000 where she played alongside Kim Yun-jin, the star of the miniseries "Lost".
In 2004, she starred in a Korean high school romantic comedy called "Geunomeun Meoshitosda", or 'He Was Cool'. In that movie, she played an outgoing, spunky, comical and animated -- yet very naive, awkward and infatuated -- schoolgirl named Han Ye-won -- which was to become her signature role.
She also garnered several Korean television awards for her roles in such sitcoms like "The Summer Typhoon" (SBS, 2005); "She is Nineteen (SBS,2004); "Attic Cat" (MBC, 2003); "New Nonstop 2 & 3" (MBC 2002-3); "Trio" (MBC 2002); "The Full Sun" (KBS, 2001); and "Taeyangun Gadukhe" (KBS, 2001).
Among her awards was the 2004 SBS Year-end Award for her role in "She is 19", as well as the 2004 New Star Award. In 2003, she was awarded the MBC Best Actress Award in a Miniseries for "Attic Cat". Jeong Da-bin also did numerous television commercials for Korean companies like DNS, BYC, LG Monitor, GS-25 Mart, CJ Jelly, Korea Telecom (KT), and GameTube, among others.
On the morning of Saturday, Februay 10, 2007, Jeong Da-bin committed suicide in the apartment of her boyfriend in Seoul. She was found by her boyfriend hanging in his bathroom with a towel wrapped around her neck. While no apparent suicide note was left behind, an entry in her on-line bog shortly before her death indicated she was suffering from depression.
Jeong, who has always been known for her outgoing, funny, cheerful and positive schoolgirl image, is survived by her father, mother and one younger brother in Seoul.Hye-sun Jung (“Da-bin Jeong”) – 1980 – 2007 (age 27) – actress – suicide – South Korean - Candice Daly was born on 4 January 1963 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Liquid Dreams (1991), Cover Up (1984) and Where Truth Lies (1996). She was married to Bertrand Triguer. She died on 14 December 2004 in Glendale, California, USA.Candice Mia Daly – 1966 – 2004 (age 38) – actress – drug overdoses?/foul play? – American