RIP 2013
by mjm2273 | created - 15 Dec 2013 | updated - 02 Jan 2014 | Publicentertainment notables who passed on in 2013
1. Peter O'Toole
Actor | Lawrence of Arabia
A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a...
2. Paul Walker
Actor | The Fast and the Furious
Paul William Walker IV was born in Glendale, California. He grew up together with his brothers, Caleb and Cody, and sisters, Ashlie and Amie. Their parents, Paul William Walker III, a sewer contractor, and Cheryl (Crabtree) Walker, a model, separated around September 2004. His grandfather, William ...
3. Esther Williams
Actress | Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Esther Jane Williams was born on August 8, 1921 in Inglewood, California. Her youth was spent as a teenage swimming champion and she won three United States National championships. She eventually was spotted by a MGM talent scout while working in a Los Angeles department store. She made her film ...
4. Julie Harris
Actress | The Haunting
One of the finest classical and contemporary leading ladies ever to grace the 20th century American stage, five-time Tony Award winner Julie Harris was rather remote and reserved on camera, finding her true glow in front of the theatre lights. The freckled, red-haired actress not only was nominated...
5. Cory Monteith
Actor | Glee
Cory Monteith was born on May 11, 1982 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada as Cory Allan Michael Monteith. He was an actor, known for playing the singing jock Finn on the American TV show Glee (2009) and films such as Monte Carlo (2011), and Final Destination 3 (2006). He died on July 13, 2013 in Vancouver...
6. Jean Stapleton
Actress | All in the Family
Jean Stapleton was born Jeanne Murray in Manhattan, New York City, to Marie A. (Stapleton), an opera singer, and Joseph Edward Murray, a billboard advertising salesman. Her paternal grandparents were Irish. She was a cousin of actress Betty Jane Watson. Other relatives in show business were her ...
7. Jonathan Winters
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Jonathan Harshman Winters III was born on November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio. His father, Jonathan Harshman Winters II, was a banker who became an alcoholic after being crushed in the Great Depression. His parents divorced in 1932. Jonathan and his mother then moved to Springfield to live with his ...
8. Deanna Durbin
Actress | It Started with Eve
The girl who one day would be known as "Winnipeg's Sweetheart" was born at Grace Hospital on December 4, 1921, as Edna Mae Durbin. In her early childhood there were no obvious signs that one day she would be a bigger box office attraction than Shirley Temple. Renamed Deanna Durbin for show business...
9. Charles Durning
Actor | Dog Day Afternoon
WWII veteran, dance instructor and diversely talented stage & screen actor were all inclusions on the resume of this perpetually busy US actor who didn't get in front of the cameras until around the time of his fortieth birthday. The stockily built Charles Durning was one of Hollywood's most ...
10. Annette Funicello
Actress | Muscle Beach Party
Annette Joanne Funicello achieved teenage popularity starting in October 1955 after she debuted as a Mouseketeer. Born on October 22, 1942 in Utica, New York, the family had moved to California when she was still young. Walt Disney himself saw her performing the lead role in "Swan Lake" at her ...
11. Karen Black
Actress | Five Easy Pieces
Karen entered Northwestern University at 18 and left two years later. She studied under Lee Strasberg in New York and worked in a number of off-Broadway roles. She made a critically acclaimed debut on Broadway in 1965 in "The Playroom". Her first big film role was in You're a Big Boy Now (1966), ...
12. Eileen Brennan
Actress | Clue
A supremely gifted, versatile player who could reach dramatic depths, as exemplified in her weary-eyed, good-hearted waitress in The Last Picture Show (1971), or comedy heights, as in her sadistic drill captain in Private Benjamin (1980), Eileen Brennan managed to transition from lovely Broadway ...
13. Eleanor Parker
Actress | The Sound of Music
Eleanor Jean Parker was born on June 26, 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio, the last of three children born to a mathematics teacher and his wife. Eleanor caught the acting bug early and began performing in school plays. She was was so serious about becoming an actor, that she attended the Rice Summer ...
14. Audrey Totter
Actress | The Unsuspected
One is certainly hard-pressed to think of another true "bad girl" representative so closely identifiable with film noir than hard-looking blonde actress Audrey Totter. While she remained a "B"-tier actress for most her career, she was an "A" quality actress and one of filmdom's most intriguing ...
15. Richard Griffiths
Actor | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The avuncular star character actor Richard Griffiths grew up in a council flat in less than prosperous conditions, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. According to an article in the Telegraph newspaper, his father Thomas was a steelworker 'who fought in pubs for ...
16. Dennis Farina
Actor | Get Shorty
Dennis Farina was one of Hollywood's busiest actors and a familiar face to moviegoers and television viewers alike. Recently, he appeared in the feature films, "The Grand," a comedy about a Vegas poker tournament with Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines and Ray Romano; "Bottle Shock," also starring Alan ...
17. Ray Harryhausen
Actor | Spies Like Us
When it comes to motion-picture special effects, there is only one name that personifies movie magic: Ray Harryhausen. From his debut films with George Pal to his final film, Harryhausen imbued magic and visual strength to motion-picture special effects as no other technician has, before or since.
...
18. Roger Ebert
Cinematographer | Siskel & Ebert & the Movies
Roger Joseph Ebert was the all-time best-known, most successful movie critic in cinema history, when one thinks of his establishing a rapport with both serious cineastes and the movie-going public and reaching more movie fans via television and print than any other critic. He became the first and ...
19. Tom Clancy
Writer | The Hunt for Red October
Tom Clancy became one of the best-selling writers of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, starting with the publication of his 1984 thriller, The Hunt for Red October (1990). Born in Baltimore to a U.S. Post Office employee and his wife on April 12, 1947, Clancy graduated from Loyola Blakefield,...
20. Cliff Osmond
Writer | The Streets of San Francisco
Cliff Osmond was born on February 26, 1937 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Streets of San Francisco (1972), The Front Page (1974) and The Penitent (1988). He was married to Gretchen Lee Petty. He died on December 22, 2012 in Pacific Palisades, California, ...
21. Bryan Forbes
Actor | The Guns of Navarone
Bryan Forbes was born on July 22, 1926 in Stratford, London, England as John Theobald Clarke. He was an actor, writer, and director, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Whisperers (1967) and Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964). He was married to Nanette Newman and Constance Smith. He died on ...
22. Sara Montiel
Actress | La violetera
Sara Montiel was born in the village of Campo de Criptana, province of Ciudad Real, in the region of Castille-La Mancha, Spain. Her parents were Isidoro Abad, a peasant, and Maria Vicenta Fernández, a door-to-door beautician. The future star was christened Maria Antonia Alejandra Abad Fernández. ...
23. Elliott Reid
Actor | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Elliott Reid was born on January 16, 1920 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Inherit the Wind (1960) and Vicki (1953). He died on June 21, 2013 in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA.
24. Dale Robertson
Actor | Son of Sinbad
Dale Robertson, the actor who made his name in television Westerns in the 1950s and '60s, was born on July 14, 1923, in Harrah, Oklahoma. After serving in a tank crew and in the combat engineers in North Africa and Europe during World War II, the twice-wounded Robertson started his acting career ...
25. Patti Page
Soundtrack | Die Hard 2
Patti Page was born Clara Ann Fowler in Oklahoma in 1927. She began her professional singing career at KTUL, a Tulsa radio station. Since the program was sponsored by Page Milk, she adopted the moniker Patti Page, and it stuck. Patti toured the US in the late 1940s with Jimmy Joy, and notably sang ...
26. Jim Kelly
Actor | Enter the Dragon
With his funky Afro hairstyle, super cool attitude and superb karate skills, Jim Kelly was instantly identifiable, and one of the top martial arts film stars of the early 1970s. After appearing in a minor film role, Kelly's second screen effort was as one of the invited guests to the deadly Han's ...
27. Robert Nichols
Actor | The Thing from Another World
A native of Oakland, California, Robert Nichols got his start as an entertainer in the Army during World War II. After his discharge, he attended London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art while working as a song-and-dance man at the Players Theater (Victorian music hall). Hollywood director Howard ...
28. Marcia Wallace
Actress | The Simpsons
Born on November 1, 1942, the eldest of three born to an Iowa general storeowner, Marcia Wallace endured a troubled childhood (alcoholism, physical abuse). Performing in high school plays as a teenager, she studied at Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa, where she majored in English and theatre.
...
29. James Gandolfini
Actor | The Sopranos
James Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey, to Santa (Penna), a high school lunchlady, and James Joseph Gandolfini, Sr., a bricklayer and head school janitor. His parents were both of Italian origin. Gandolfini began acting in the New York theater. His Broadway debut was in the 1992 revival ...
30. Steve Forrest
Actor | Mommie Dearest
A ruggedly handsome action man of the 1960s and '70s, Steve Forrest was born William Forrest Andrews in Huntsville, Texas, the youngest of thirteen children of Annis (Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister. His brother was actor Dana Andrews. Forrest began his screen career as a ...
31. Mickey Knox
Actor | I Walk Alone
Mickey Knox was born on December 24, 1921 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for I Walk Alone (1947), The Godfather Part III (1990) and The 10th Victim (1965). He died on November 15, 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
32. Graham Stark
Actor | The Return of the Pink Panther
Graham Stark was born on January 20, 1922 in Wallasey, Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), A Shot in the Dark (1964) and Superman III (1983). He was married to Audrey Nicholson. He died on October 29, 2013 in London, England, UK.
33. Michael Ansara
Actor | The Message
Born in a small village in Syria, Michael Ansara came to the United States with his American parents at the age of two, living in New England, until the family's relocation to California ten years later. He entered Los Angeles City College with the intention of becoming a doctor, but got ...
34. Nigel Davenport
Actor | A Man for All Seasons
Nigel Davenport was born on May 23, 1928 in Shelford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Man for All Seasons (1966), Chariots of Fire (1981) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). He was married to Maria Aitken and Helena Margaret White. He died on October 25, 2013 ...
35. Haji
Actress | Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Haji was a Cando-American actress renowned for starring in Russ Meyer's sexploitation classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), in which she made her theatrical film debut. Barbarella Catton was born in Quebec City, Quebec on January 24, 1946, and at the age of 14, began dancing topless. The ...
36. Ed Lauter
Actor | Not Another Teen Movie
Edward Matthew Lauter II was born on October 30, 1938 in Long Beach, New York. In a film career that extended for over four decades, Lauter starred in a plethora of film and television productions since making his big screen debut in the western Dirty Little Billy (1972). He portrayed an eclectic ...
37. Matt Mattox
Actor | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Matt Mattox was born on August 18, 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), The United States Steel Hour (1953) and Hot Blood (1956). He was married to Martine Limeul and Jean Marie Caples. He died on February 18, 2013 in Perpignan, ...
38. Patty Andrews
Actress | The Phynx
She was born in Mound, Minnesota on 16 February 1918, the daughter of Peter Andreos (changed to 'Andrews' upon arriving in the US) and Olga Sollie. Her real name was Patricia Marie (Patty nickname). Her father was a Greek Catholic immigrant and her mother a Lutheran from Norway who ran the pure ...
39. Mindy McCready
Soundtrack | Switchback
Mindy McCready was born on November 30, 1975 in Fort Meyers, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Switchback (1997) and Mindy McCready: Ten Thousand Angels (1996). She died on February 17, 2013 in Heber Springs, Arkansas, USA.
40. Bonnie Franklin
Actress | One Day at a Time
Bonnie Franklin, of the freckled, fair-skinned, hazel-eyed, rosy-cheeked, carrot-haired variety, could light up a room with her buoyant, folksy personality, but she could be quite serious in a take-charge manner when it came to purposeful acting work. It took Norman Lear and a highly popular TV ...
41. Phil Ramone
Music_department | Flashdance
Phil Ramone was born on January 5, 1934 in South Africa. He was a producer, known for Flashdance (1983), Ghostbusters (1984) and Walkabout (1971). He was married to Karen Ichiuji-Ramone and Karen. He died on March 30, 2013 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
42. George Jones
Soundtrack | Ad Astra
George Jones was born on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, USA. He was a music artist and actor, known for Ad Astra (2019), Only the Brave (2017) and Crazy Heart (2009). He was married to Nancy Sepulveda, Tammy Wynette, Shirley Ann Corley and Dorothy Bonvillion. He died on April 26, 2013 in ...
43. Ray Manzarek
Soundtrack | Army of the Dead
Ray Manzarek was born on February 12, 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a director and composer, known for Army of the Dead (2021), Strange Days (1995) and The X Files (1998). He was married to Dorothy Manzarek. He died on May 20, 2013 in Rosenheim, Bavaria, Germany.
44. Slim Whitman
Soundtrack | Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Slim Whitman was born on January 20, 1923 in Tampa, Florida, USA. He was married to Geraldine "Jerry" Christ. He died on June 19, 2013 in Orange Park, Florida, USA.
45. Bobby Bland
Soundtrack | The Fugitive
Bobby Bland was born on January 27, 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee, USA. He is known for The Fugitive (1993), The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) and Fighting (2009). He was married to Willie Mae Bland. He died on June 23, 2013 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
46. J.J. Cale
Soundtrack | Watchmen
John Weldon Cale was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he graduated in 1956 from Tulsa Central High School. In the early 1960s he moved to Los Angeles, along with a number of other Tulsa musicians (known for their "Tulsa Sound"), where he worked as a studio ...
47. George Duke
Soundtrack | Spaceballs
George Duke is an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer.
He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a professor of music. He first made a name for himself with the album The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with ...
48. Eydie Gormé
Soundtrack | Nobody
Eydie Gorme was born in New York on August 16, 1928 to Sephardic Jewish parents. Her father, Nessim Gormezano, was a Turkish-born tailor who changed his last name when he arrived in the United States. She began singing straight out of high school, with various big bands. But her big break came ...
49. Marian McPartland
Soundtrack | The Human Stain
Marian McPartland was born on March 20, 1918 in Slough, Berkshire, England, UK. She was married to Jimmy McPartland. She died on August 20, 2013 in Port Washington, New York, USA.
50. Sid Bernstein
Actor | Good to Go
Sid Bernstein was born on August 12, 1918 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Good to Go (1986), Hullabaloo (1965) and Sid Bernstein Presents... (2010). He was married to Geraldine Bernstein. He died on August 21, 2013 in New York City, New York, USA.
51. Ramblin' Tommy Scott
Actor | The Hawk
Ramblin' "Doc" Tommy Scott's Last Real Old Time Medicine Show In 1936, Scott joined "Doc" Chamberlain's Medicine Show, founded in 1890, when it rolled through Toccoa, Ga. When Chamberlain retired, he gave Scott the medicine and the show. As one of country music's first generation of stars, he began...
52. Kim Hamilton
Actress | The Guiding Light
Kim Hamilton was born on September 12, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Guiding Light (1952), Body and Soul (1981) and Checkmate (1960). She was married to Werner Klemperer and Robert Henry Hamilton. She died on September 16, 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
53. Lou Reed
Soundtrack | V for Vendetta
He formed the group The Velvet Underground with Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, second guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Maureen Tucker in New York in 1965. The group soon became a part of Andy Warhol's Factory scene, which housed a great number of the most freaked and experimental ...
54. Tom Laughlin
Actor | Billy Jack
Tom Laughlin was born on August 10, 1931 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Billy Jack (1971), The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) and The Born Losers (1967). He was married to Delores Taylor. He died on December 12, 2013 in Thousand Oaks, California, USA.
55. Joan Fontaine
Actress | Suspicion
Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement, to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her paternal grandfather's family was ...
56. Ray Price
Soundtrack | The Guilt Trip
Ray Price was born on January 12, 1926 in Perryville, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Guilt Trip (2012), Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) and A Man of No Importance (1994). He was married to Janie Mae and Betty Berthena Greb (Linda Powers). He died on December 16, 2013 in Mount Pleasant, ...
57. Conrad Bain
Actor | Maude
Usually sized up as an erudite gent, advice-spouting father or uptight, pompous neighbor, the acting talents of Conrad Bain were best utilized on stage and on TV. Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, on February 4, 1923, Conrad Stafford Bain was a twin son (the other was named Bonar) born to Stafford ...
58. John Kerr
Actor | Tea and Sympathy
His father Geoffrey Kerr (b. 25 Jan 1895, London; d. 1971) and mother June Walker (b. 14 June 1904, New York City; d. 1966) were successful Broadway and, occasionally, film actors. He went into theatre as soon as he graduated from Harvard. He had an important role in the stage play "Bernadine" in ...
59. Van Cliburn
Self | Live from Lincoln Center
Van Cliburn was born Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Jr. on July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA. His mother, named Rildia Bee O'Bryan, had been taught piano by Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt. Cliburn began taking piano lessons at the age of three from his mother, who was strict and ...
60. Frank Thornton
Actor | Are You Being Served?
He was the third child of William Ernest Ball, a bank manager and Rosina whose other children were Marjorie, who died in 1980 and John, Thornton was his mother's maiden name and his middle name, He played the cello in his school's orchestra and was a corporal in the Officer's Training Corps which ...
61. Frank Bank
Actor | Leave It to Beaver
Frank Bank was born on April 12, 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Leave It to Beaver (1957), The New Leave It to Beaver (1983) and Life with Archie (1962). He was married to Rebecca Fink, Jeri Lynn Handelman and Marlene Kay Blau. He died on April 13, 2013 in Los ...
62. Richard LeParmentier
Actor | Star Wars
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was Richard LeParmentier's third film after moving to Britain from the United States in 1974. Richard has appeared in over fifty films and TV shows. He used to reside in Bath, UK, and worked as a screenwriter. He also developed a comedy-drama series for the...
63. Allan Arbus
Actor | M*A*S*H
Allan Arbus was born on February 15, 1918 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for M*A*S*H (1972), Coffy (1973) and Damien: Omen II (1978). He was married to Mariclare Costello and Diane Arbus. He died on April 19, 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
64. Richie Havens
Soundtrack | Green Lantern
Richie Havens was born on January 21, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Green Lantern (2011), I'm Not There (2007) and Collateral (2004). He was married to Nancy. He died on April 22, 2013 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA.
65. Jeanne Cooper
Actress | The Young and the Restless
Jeanne Cooper was born on October 25, 1928 in Taft, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Young and the Restless (1973), Ben Casey (1961) and Kansas City Bomber (1972). She was married to Harry Bernsen. She died on May 8, 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
66. Joe Conley
Actor | Cast Away
Joe Conley was born on March 3, 1928 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Cast Away (2000), The Waltons (1972) and Impure Thoughts (1986). He was married to Louise A. Teecher and Jacqueline Y. Stakes. He died on July 7, 2013 in Newbury Park, California, USA.
67. Margaret Pellegrini
Self | The Yellow Brick Road and Beyond
Margaret Pellegrini was born on September 23, 1923 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for The Yellow Brick Road and Beyond (2009), I Married a Munchkin (1994) and We're Off to See the Munchkins (1993). She was married to Willie Pellegrini. She died on August 7, 2013 in Glendale, ...
68. David Frost
Producer | Retreat
David's father was the Rev. W.J. Parradine Frost who died in 1967, his mother Mona, born in 1903, lived in Beccles, Suffolk. He had a sister, Mrs Margaret Bill who lived in Whitby. He owned 'Sweet Briar Cottage in Eastbridge near Theberton, Norfolk, a Georgian town house in Knightsbridge, London ...
69. Noel Harrison
Actor | The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
Noel Harrison was born on January 29, 1934 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and The Citadel (1960). He was married to Margaret Benson, Sara Lee Eberts Tufnell and Lori Chapman. He died on October 19, 2013 in Devon, ...
70. Don Mitchell
Actor | Ironside
Born March 17, 1943 in Houston, Texas, USA, Don left home to go to college at UCLA-Fine Arts to become an actor. Producer Collier Young spotted him and cast him in the TV series,Ironside (1967) as Mark Sanger. He enjoys music and also likes to go deep sea fishing and horse back riding. Don did not ...
71. James Avery
Actor | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Although known as the uncle/patriarch and judge "Philip Banks" on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), James Avery was a classically trained actor and scholar. A native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, he joined the US Navy after graduating high school and served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. Upon...
72. Joseph Ruskin
Actor | Smokin' Aces
Joseph Ruskin was born on April 14, 1924 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Smokin' Aces (2006), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and The Scorpion King (2002). He was married to Barbara Greene and Patricia Herd. He died on December 28, 2013 in Santa Monica, ...
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