John Berry (1962 - 2016)

John Berry John Berry, an original member of hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, died Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. at a hospice in Danvers, Massachusetts. He was 52. John Berry III, Berry’s father, confirmed his death Thursday afternoon to Rolling Stone. He said his son suffered from frontal lobe dementia, which had worsened in recent months. […]

John Biddle (1792 - 1859)

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, John Biddle enlisted in the U.S. Army and was appointed a second lieutenant in the Third Artillery on July 6, 1812 and promoted to first lieutenant March 13, 1813. He was attached to the staff of General Winfield Scott on the Niagara Frontier for most of the […]

John Bigler (1805 - 1871)

John Bigler was born in early 1805 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to parents of German ancestry. Beginning work in the printing trade at an early age, Bigler, as well as his younger brother, William, never received a formal education, yet Bigler took it upon himself to educate his younger brother. In 1831, both brothers moved to […]

John Bindon (1943 - 1993)

John Bindon was born in Fulham, London, and was the son of Dennis Bindon, a merchant seaman and engineer, turned cab driver. The second eldest in a working-class family of three children, Bindon went to St Mark’s Church School in Fulham where he became a noted rugby union junior, but left at the age of […]

John Blair Jr. (1731 - 1800)

Born in Williamsburg, Virginia, Blair was a member of a prominent Virginia family. His father served on the Virginia Council and was for a time acting Royal governor. His granduncle, James Blair, was founder and first president of the College of William & Mary. Blair attended William & Mary, receiving an A.B. in 1754. In […]

John Bleifer (1901 - 1992)

Actor. Prolific film and television character actor who enjoyed a six decade career starting in 1927. He worked in both the silent and sound eras, in productions including We Americans (1928), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), Les Misérables (1935) as Chenildieu, Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937), The Mark of Zorro […]

John Blewett III (1973 - 2007)

Blewett started racing go karts at the age of 10. In 1996, at age 22, he won the coveted NASCAR’s Northeast Regional Championship, falling only a few points shy of the National Title. During his career he recorded 96 wins between 1993 and 2007, including track championships at Flemington Speedway, Wall Township Speedway, New Egypt, […]

John Bode (1816 - 1874)

John Ernest Bode (February 13, 1816 – October 6, 1874) was an Anglican priest, educator, poet, and hymnist. Born in London, John Bode was the son of William Bode. Married with three children. Educated at Eton, the Charter House, and then at Christ Church, Oxford where he received his B.A. in 1837 and a M.A. He […]

John Boles (1895 - 1969)

Boles was born in Greenville, Texas to a middle-class family. He graduated with honors from the University of Texas in 1917. He returned to Greenville, where he was selected by an out-of-town producer to act in an opera at the King Opera House. This experience convinced John that he preferred music and the stage to […]

John Bonham (1948 - 1980)

Bonham was born on 31 May 1948, in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, to Joan and Jack Bonham. He began learning to play at five, making a kit of containers and coffee tins, imitating his idols Max Roach, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. His mother gave him a snare drum at the age of ten. He received […]

John Botvid (1889 - 1964)

Swedish actor. Acted in nearly 100 films. He also made his name as a revue-actor. He started his career with producing his own revues at Folkteatern and Nya Teatern in Gothenburg, and wrote more than 1000 revue-sketches. (bio by: Peter Robsahm)

John Bowers (1885 - 1936)

Actor.  Real name John Bowersox.  The leading man in many silent movies, he began his screen career in 1916. He is featured in the movies “Richard the Lion-Hearted,” “Pals in Paradise,” and “Ragtime.” He had also appeared in three early talkies, but his career began to fail after the end of the silent era. Afterwards […]

John Boyle O’Reilly (1844 - 1890)

Social Reformer. Irish Republican Brotherhood member who enlisted in the British Army in Dublin in 1865 to recruit Irish rebels. Convicted of treason by a Dublin court martial in 1866, he was transported to Australia in 1867, in the last group of convicts sent there from England. He escaped on an American whaling ship to […]

John Brendan “Jack” Kelly, Sr (1889 - 1960)

Businessman, Olympic Athlete. He accumulated wealth as a successful Philadelphia, Pennsylvania building contractor. He was also an athlete, winning an Olympic Gold Medal as part of the 1920 United States Sculling team. He was the father of the movie actress and later Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly.  Family links:  Spouse:  Margaret Katherine Majer Kelly (1898 […]

John Brewster (1766 - 1854)

Artist. Born deaf, he was one of eight children of Dr. John Brewster and Mary Durkee Brewster of Hampton, Connecticut. He was apparently taught at an early age to communicate through signs and symbols. He received instruction in painting from the Reverend Joseph Steward and in the 1790s, Brewster traveled through the American Northeast in […]

John Bricker (1893 - 1986)

During World War I, John Bricker served as first lieutenant and chaplain in the United States Army in 1917 and 1918. He was subsequently the solicitor for Grandview Heights, Ohio, from 1920 to 1928, assistant Attorney General of Ohio from 1923 to 1927, a member of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio from 1929 to […]

John Brimhall (1928 - 2003)

John Brimhall (November 22, 1928 – December 2, 2003) was an American musical arranger and author of books on music composition, theory, and performance. Brimhall is perhaps best known for his easy arrangements of classical and American popular music for piano students. He studied at Loyola University, the University of San Francisco and Stanford University. Brimhall is […]

John Brinsmead (1970 - 1970)

Overtook Broadwood in 1900 as US’ largest piano manufacturer.  Family links:  Spouse:  Susan Ann Browne Brinsmead (1813 – 1907)*  Children:  John Brinsmead (1841 – 1863)*  Edgar William Brinsmead (1848 – 1907)*  Horace George Brinsmead (1854 – 1908)* *Calculated relationship

John Britton (1925 - 1994)

John Britton (May 6, 1925 – July 29, 1994) was an American physician. He was murdered in Pensacola, Florida, by anti-abortion extremist Paul Jennings Hill. Britton’s death was the second assassination of a Pensacola abortion provider in under a year and a half; he had replaced David Gunn after the latter’s 1993 murder by another […]

John Bromfield (1922 - 2005)

John Bromfield was born in South Bend, Indiana. He played football and was a boxing champion in college. He served in the United States Navy in World War II. In 1948, he twice harpooned a whale in the documentary film Harpoon. In 1948, he was cast as a detective in the film Sorry, Wrong Number, […]

John Brophy (1933 - 2016)

John Brophy was a tough defenceman who played 18 seasons in the Eastern Hockey League, racking up nearly 4,000 career penalty minutes between 1955 and 1973—the most in EHL history—playing parts of nine seasons with the Long Island Ducks and retiring at the age of 40. On August 5, 1967, Brophy was involved in a car […]

John Brown (1904 - 1957)

Actor. Born in Yorkshire, England, he began his career in America in the 1930s, as a narrator and a lead character in the theatre. During the 1940s, he was a popular radio figure performing as a regular in the roles of Gillis and Digby “Digger” O’Dell on the “The Life of Riley” series. He also […]

John Brown (1800 - 1859)

John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. During the 1856 conflict in Kansas, Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie. Brown’s followers killed five slavery […]

John Bubbles (1902 - 1986)

John Bubbles was born in Louisville, Kentucky on February 19, 1902, but soon moved with his family to Indianapolis. There, he formed a partnership with Ford L. “Buck” Washington known as “Buck and Bubbles,” with Buck playing stride piano and singing while Bubbles tapped, beginning in 1919. The two appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies of […]

John Buchan (1875 - 1940)

British Peer, Author. Born in Perth, Scotland, the eldest son of Reverend John Buchan and Helen Masterson. He attended the University of Glasgow on scholarship where he began writing both prose and poetry, and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize for poetry. He passed the bar in 1901 and worked on the […]

John Buckler (1906 - 1936)

Actor. Buckler appeared in the films, “Tarzan Escapes!” (1936), “The Unguarded Hour” (1936), “The Black Room” (1936), “Eight Bells” (1935), “The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation Of David Copperfield, The Younger” (1935), and “That’s Gratitude” (1934). He was killed in a road accident in Lake Malibu, California, on October 30, 1936, at the age […]

John Bunny (1863 - 1915)

John Bunny was born in New York City, Bunny was raised in Brooklyn where he attended high school and worked as a grocery clerk before joining a small minstrel show touring the East Coast. He went on to jobs as stage manager for various stock companies and performed in vaudeville before being drawn to the […]

John Bunyan (1628 - 1688)

Author, Nonconformist preacher. The son of a Bedfordshire tinker, John Bunyan had little education, and at first followed his father’s trade. He served for three years in the Parliamentary Army during the Puritan Revolution, but saw little fighting. In about 1649 he married a pious Anglican, and embraced her religion; soon he had an intense […]

John Butterfield, Sr (1801 - 1869)

He was a self-taught youngster born on a farm during the era of new technology which saw the first steamboat and the electric telegraph. At 18, he decided that he wanted to be a stagecoach driver.  He saved his money which resulted in the startup of his own delivery business.  Hardwork found him owner of […]

John C Cremony (1970 - 1879)

Civil War Union Army Officer, Author. A native of Maine, Cremony first saw military service with the coming of the Mexican War and served as a Lieutenant with the 1st Massachusetts Infantry. After the war he was hired as a journalist for the Boston Herald until 1849, when he was recruited to be an interpreter […]