Rick James (1948 - 2004)

Rick James The start of the 1990s brought with it a string of bizarre and sometimes horrific incidents for Rick James. His drug use was by this time public knowledge, as he was mainly addicted to cocaine; he later admitted to spending about US$7,000 per week on drugs for five years straight. In 1993, he […]

Dudley Moore (1935 - 2002)

Dudley Moore He is most remembered for his roles in the films “10” and “Arthur.” In June 2001, he was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE). Born in Dagenham, east London, England, he became a comedian because of his short height (5 feet, 2 inches) and a defective left foot (a birth defect, […]

Linda Gary (1944 - 1995)

Linda Gary Voice Actress. Best known as the voices of ‘Teela’, ‘Sorceress’ and ‘Evil-Lyn’ on the cartoon “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” (1983). Other cartoons she did voice work for include “The Smurfs” (1981), “Transformers” (1984), “She-Ra: Princess of Power” (1985), “The Land Before Time” and “Spider-Man” (1994). Linda Gary was born on […]

Phil Harris (1904 - 1995)

Phil Harris Phil Harris was a versatile performer excelling on many levels as a performer. After settling in California at an early age, he formed the Phil Harris Band which performed in the late twenties and early thirties while recording many novelty songs…”Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette,” “Up A Lazy River,” “Stars Fell on Alabama,” “Row, […]

Jerry Garcia (1942 - 1995)

Jerry Garcia Legendary Singer of the Grateful Dead, Musician, Song Writer, Artist, Cultural Icon. Jose Ramon Garcia emigrated from Spain in 1919 and later married Ruth Marie Clifford, a registered nurse. The Garcia’s had two sons, Clifford “Tiff” and Jerome John which they raised in San Francisco, California. Jerome John was named after composer Jerome […]

Patsy Ruth Miller (1904 - 1995)

Patsy Ruth Miller After being discovered by the actress Alla Nazimova at a Hollywood party, Patsy Ruth Miller got her first break with a small role in Camille, which starred Rudolph Valentino. Her roles gradually improved, and she was chosen as a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1922. In 1923, she was acclaimed for her performance […]

Wolfman Jack (1938 - 1995)

Wolfman Jack Wolfman Jack, the rock-and-roll disk jockey whose unmistakable raspy voice and on-the-air howls brought him something of a cult following as one of America’s best-known radio personalities, died yesterday at his home in Belvidere, N.C. He was 57. The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter, Joy Renee Smith. He was a […]

Gale Gordon (1906 - 1995)

Gale Gordon Gale Gordon is one of the most recognized supporting actors in show business most notably working with Lucille Ball on all of her shows.  What is not so well known among the general public is that Gordon had a long and extensive career in radio, even becoming radio’s highest paid actor at one […]

Lana Turner (1921 - 1995)

Lana Turner Turner was well known inside Hollywood circles for dating often, changing partners often, and for never shying away from the topic of how many lovers she had in her lifetime. However, she claimed that sex was not important to her and that she was more of a romantic, stating: “All those years that […]

Elizabeth Montgomery (1933 - 1995)

Elizabeth Montgomery Montgomery played the central role of lovable witch Samantha Stephens with Dick York (and later with Dick Sargent) as her husband in the ABC situation comedy Bewitched. Starting in the second season of the series, she also played the role of Samantha’s mischievous cousin, Serena, under the pseudonym Pandora Spocks. Bewitched became a […]

Ginger Rogers (1911 - 1995)

Ginger Rogers Rogers was an only child, and she maintained a close relationship with her mother throughout her life. Lela Rogers (1891–1977) was a newspaper reporter, scriptwriter, and movie producer. She was also one of the first women to enlist in the Marine Corps, was a founder of the successful “Hollywood Playhouse” for aspiring actors […]

Howard Cosell (1918 - 1995)

Howard Cosell Television Sportscaster. He gained wide fame and acclaim during his tenure as a football commentator on ABC’s “Monday Night Football”. Born Howard William Cohen in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he attended New York University, where he received a degree in law and was admitted to the New York […]

Burl Ives (1909 - 1995)

Burl Ives Burl Ives was one of six children born to a Scottish-Irish farming family. He first sang in public for a soldiers’ reunion when he was age 4. In high school, he learned the banjo and played fullback, intending to become a football coach when he enrolled at Eastern Illinois State Teacher’s College in […]

Priscilla Lane (1915 - 1995)

Priscilla Lane Priscilla Mullican was born on June 12, 1915, in Indianola, Iowa, a small college town south of Des Moines. She was the youngest of five daughters of Dr. Lorenzo Mullican, DDS, and his wife, Cora Bell Hicks. Dr. Mullican had a dental practice in Indianola. The family owned a large house with 22 […]

Doug McClure (1935 - 1995)

Doug McClure McClure had a minor part in 1957 as an Army officer in “California Gold Rush in Reverse” on the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days. The episode is a dramatization of the race in 1848 between the Army and the Navy to be the first to deliver gold nuggets from California to Washington, […]

Jerry Blackwell (1949 - 1995)

Jerry Blackwell Jerry Blackwell began his career in the 1970s. Despite his considerable bulk, Blackwell was quite nimble and a gifted worker, able to throw a standing dropkick and take bumps in the ring. In 1976, he wrestled in Pennsylvania, where he faced such wrestlers as Dominic DeNucci and Ivan Putski; in the latter match, […]

Nancy Kelly (1921 - 1995)

Nancy Kelly Nancy Kelly was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, into a theatrical family. Her mother was silent film actress Nan Kelly, who coached her and managed her career. As a child actress, Kelly appeared in 52 films made on the East Coast by the age of 17. Her younger brother was actor Jack Kelly. As […]

Buster West (1901 - 1966)

Buster West American dancer and actor who was a featured performer in vaudeville, the Broadway stage, motion pictures and television. West was one of those performers who was “born in a suitcase”, as his father John West and mother were both vaudeville performers and he performed with them as a child. Buster West achieved success […]

Hurd Hatfield (1917 - 1970)

Hurd Hatfield He is best remembered for his role as the title character in the Oscar winning movie “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945), which was his second movie. Born William Rukard Hurd Hatfield, his father was an attorney who once served as deputy attorney general for the state of New York. He received his […]

Irene Dunne (1902 - 1973)

Irene Dunne Born on December 20, 1898 in Louisville, Kentucky, she was named Irene Marie Dunne. Early in life took an interest in singing and went to New York City aspiring to be a part of the Metropolitan Opera. This did not work out as she planned but she went on to Chicago where she […]

Norman Fell (1924 - 1998)

Norman Fell Norman Fell, who had a 50-year acting career but was best known as the irritable landlord Stanley Roper on the television sitcom Three’s Company, has died of cancer. He was 74.Fell died Monday at the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s retirement home in Woodland Hills, said Stan Schneider, his business manager.Fell appeared in […]

Dixie Carter (1939 - 2010)

Carter was born in McLemoresville, Tennessee, and spent many of her early years in Memphis. She attended college at the University of Memphis and Rhodes College.  In college, she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. In 1959, Carter competed in the Miss Tennessee pageant, where she placed first runner-up to Mickie Weyland. […]

Wilma Mankiller (1945 - 2010)

Wilma Pearl Mankiller was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the sixth of eleven children, to Charley Mankiller (November 15, 1914 – February 20, 1971) and Clara Irene Sitton (born September 18, 1921). Her father was a full-blooded Cherokee and her mother was a Caucasian woman of Dutch and Irish descent who acculturated herself to Cherokee life. […]

John Forsythe (1918 - 2010)

The eldest of three children, Forsythe was born as Jacob Lincoln Freund on January 29, 1918, in Penns Grove, New Jersey, to Blanche Materson (née Blohm) and Samuel Jeremiah Freund. Blanche was born in Pennsylvania, to David Hyat Blohm, a Russian Jewish immigrant, and to Mary S. Materson, who was born in Maryland, to Jewish […]

Jaime Escalante (1930 - 2010)

Escalante was born to two teachers of Aymara ancestry  on December 31, 1930 in La Paz, Bolivia. He was proud of his Aymara heritage and as an adult would proudly proclaim “The Aymara knew math before the Greeks and Egyptians”. He taught mathematics and physics for 12 years in his mother country before immigrating to […]

Robert Culp (1930 - 2010)

Culp was born in Oakland, California to Crozier Cordell Culp, an attorney, and his wife, Bethel Martin (Collins) Culp. He graduated from Berkeley High School, where he was a pole vaulter and took second place at the 1947 CIF California State Meet. He attended the College of the Pacific, Washington University in St. Louis, San […]

Flip Wilson (1933 - 1998)

Flip Wilson He is remembered for his NBC variety television series “The Flip Wilson Show” that aired from September 1970 until June 1974, as well as his character ‘Geraldine Jones’. Born Clerow Wilson, Jr., one of ten children, his father worked as a handyman during the Great Depression. When he was seven years old, his […]

Esther Rolle (1920 - 1998)

Esther Rolle She is best known for her role as Florida Evans, a no-nonsense wife and mother on the CBS television sitcom Maude for two seasons (1972-1974) and its spin-off series Good Times for five seasons Rolle is best known for her television role as Florida Evans, the character she played on two 1970s sitcoms. […]

Richard Denning (1914 - 1998)

Richard Denning Originally studied business management in Los Angeles but decided to break into acting instead. He won a radio contest called “Do You Want to Be an Actor”, and was awarded a Warner Bros. screen test. Warner rejected him, but Paramount took him on the condition that he change his name to Denning. (Studio […]

Mark Belanger (1944 - 1998)

Mark Belanger Belanger was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he attended Pittsfield High at which he played baseball and basketball. Where he became one of the first 1,000 point scorers He was recruited by the Orioles as an amateur in 1962, and made his debut with the club on August 7, 1965. He took over […]