Isabelle Caro (1980 - 2010)

Isabelle Caro (13 September 1980 – 17 November 2010) was a French model and actress from Marseille, France, who became well known after appearing in a controversial advertising campaign “No Anorexia” which showed Caro with vertebrae and facial bones showing under her skin in a picture by photographer Oliviero Toscani.  Caro suffered from severe anorexia […]

Eliana Ramos (1988 - 2007)

Ramos was a fashion model in Latin America and was signed to Dotto Models, a prestigious modeling agency based in Argentina. Outside of South America, Eliana also worked in Mexico and stayed in Japan for 3 months in early 2006 with her sister Luisel.  On February 13, 2007, Eliana Ramos was found dead at her […]

Karen Carpenter (1950 - 1983)

Karen Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Agnes Reuwer (née Tatum) and Harold Bertram Carpenter. When she was young, she enjoyed playing baseball with other children on the street. On the TV program This Is Your Life, she stated that she liked pitching. Later, in the early 1970s, she would become […]

Susan Peters (1921 - 1952)

Peters was born Suzanne Carnahan in Spokane, Washington, the elder of two children born to Robert and Abby Carnahan. Her father was a civil engineer of Irish descent while her mother was of French descent. Shortly after her birth, the Carnahan family moved to Portland, Oregon. In 1933, Robert Carnahan was killed in a car […]

Renée Vivien (1877 - 1909)

Vivien was born in London, England to a wealthy British father and an American mother from Jackson, Michigan. She grew up in Paris and London. Upon inheriting her father’s fortune at 21, she emigrated permanently to France.  In Paris, Vivien’s dress and lifestyle were as notorious among the bohemian set as was her verse. She […]

Eileen Brennan (1932 - 2013)

Eileen Brennan American actress of film, television, and theater. Brennan was known for her role as Doreen Lewis in Private Benjamin, for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role for the TV adaptation, winning both a Golden Globe and Emmy for her performance. She received Emmy nominations for […]

James Brown (1933 - 2006)

James Brown Brown’s personal life was marred by several brushes with the law. At the age of 16, he was convicted of theft and served three years in juvenile prison. On July 16, 1978, after performing at the Apollo, Brown was arrested for reportedly failing to turn in records from one of his radio stations […]

Phil Silvers (1911 - 1985)

Phil Silvers Silvers became a household name in 1955 when he starred as Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko in You’ll Never Get Rich, later retitled The Phil Silvers Show. The military comedy became a television hit, with the opportunistic Bilko fast-talking his way through one obstacle after another. In 1958 CBS switched the show to be […]

David Brenner (1936 - 2014)

David Brenner Brenner was a writer, director or producer of 115 television documentaries and headed the documentary units of Westinghouse Broadcasting and Metromedia, winning nearly 30 awards including an Emmy, before moving to comedy. His first paid gig was at The Improv in June 1969, and following that he frequently performed at clubs in Greenwich […]

Bobby Womack (1944 - 2014)

Bobby Womack Singer, Songwriter, Musician. He was born Robert Dwayne Womack. He began his career as lead singer with his family musical group The Valentinos (Friendly Womack, Jr., Curtis Womack, Harry Womack and Cecil Womack). In the 1960’s the group was discovered by Sam Cooke, who later signed the group to his SAR label, they […]

Johnny Winter (1944 - 2014)

Johnny Winter American Musician and Producer. Winter released nearly 20 albums and earned seven Grammy nominations in his career as an iconic blues musician. When he was ten years old, he and his younger brother Edgar, who were both born with albinism, appeared on a local children’s show, playing ukulele and singing Everly Brothers songs. […]

James Garner (1928 - 2014)

James Garner Garner, who had a long and storied career that spanned almost 60 years, first found success playing Bret Maverick in the ABC western ‘Maverick’ from 1957 to 1960. Born James Scott Bumgarner, he moved to Los Angeles as a teenager with his family, and joined the Merchant Marines, later joining the National Guard. […]

James Brady (1940 - 2014)

James Brady Former White House Press Secretary, Gun Control Advocate. On March 30, 1981, Brady suffered a serious head wound when he was among four people shot during an assassination attempt on then President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley. Although he survived, the wound left him with slurred speech and partial paralysis that required the […]

Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014)

Joan Rivers Rivers was a member of the Reform synagogue Temple Emanu-El in New York and said she “love[d] Israel.” Rivers’ first marriage was in 1955 to James Sanger, the son of a Bond Clothing Stores merchandise manager. The marriage lasted six months and was annulled on the basis that Sanger did not want children […]

Selena (1971 - 1995)

Selena Mexican actress Salma Hayek was originally asked to play the role of Selena in a biopic film produced by the Quintanilla family and Warner Bros. Hayek turned the role down, feeling that it was “too early” to base a movie on Selena and that it would be too emotional since Selena’s death was still […]

Skye McCole Bartusiak (1992 - 2014)

Skye McCole Bartusiak was born in Houston, Texas, where she lived until her death with her parents Donald and Helen Bartusiak (née McCole).  McCole Bartusiak first starred in Stephen King’s Storm of the Century as young Pippa Hatcher. She then starred in The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson, in 2000. She played the young Marilyn Monroe […]

Heather O’Rourke (1975 - 1988)

O’Rourke was born in San Diego, California to Kathleen and Michael O’Rourke. Her mother worked as a seamstress and her father was a construction worker. She had an older sister, Tammy. Kathleen and Michael divorced in 1981, and O’Rourke’s mother married truck driver James A. “Jim” Peele in 1984. After her parents’ divorce, O’Rourke rarely […]

Henry II of England (1133 - 1189)

Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (French: Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, ruled as Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Nantes, King of England (1154–89) and Lord of Ireland; at various times, he also controlled Wales, Scotland and […]

Empress Matilda (1102 - 1167)

Empress Matilda (c. 7 February 1102 – 10 September 1167), also known as the Empress Maude, was the claimant to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I of England, she moved to Germany as a child when she married the future Holy Roman Emperor Henry […]

Billy Walker (1929 - 2006)

Billy Walker American country music singer and guitarist best known for his 1962 hit, “(I’d Like to Be In) Charlie’s Shoes“. Nicknamed The Tall Texan, Walker had more than 30 charted records during a nearly 60-year career; and was a longtime member of the Grand Ole Opry. After a brief attempt at rock ‘n’ roll, […]

Phil Hartman (1948 - 1998)

Phil Hartman Philip Edward “Phil” Hartman (September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998; born Hartmann) was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10. After graduating from California State University, Northridge, with a degree in graphic arts, he […]

Bessie Smith (1894 - 1937)

Bessie Smith Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists. On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along […]

Salvador Sánchez (1959 - 1982)

Salvador Sánchez Mexican boxer born in the town of Santiago Tianguistenco, Estado de México. Sanchez was the World Boxing Council featherweight champion from 1980 to 1982. Many of his contemporaries as well as boxing writers believe that, had it not been for his premature death, Sanchez could have gone on to become the greatest Featherweight […]

Dottie Rambo (1934 - 2008)

Dottie Rambo Throughout her career, beginning with the 1960s “Gospel Singing Jubilee”, Rambo appeared on numerous television programs on virtually every Christian network as well as the TNN, PAX, and GMT Women’s Entertainment channels. She had her own series, “Dottie Rambo Magazine” in the 1980s on TBN which was the No. 1 rated program on […]

Lisa Lopes (1971 - 2002)

Lisa Lopes On April 25, 2002, in La Ceiba, Honduras, while driving a rented Mitsubishi Pajero around a bend in the road, Lopes swerved to the right slightly then again to the left as she tried to avoid a collision with another vehicle that was in her lane ahead of her (it is not clear […]

Sam Kinison (1953 - 1992)

Sam Kinison Kinison acquired much of his material from his difficult first two marriages, to Patricia Adkins (1975-1980) and Terry Marze (1981-1989). Kinison began a relationship with dancer Malika Souiri towards the end of his marriage with Marze. In 1990, Souiri alleged she was raped by a man Kinison hired as a bodyguard that same […]

Johnny Horton (1925 - 1960)

Johnny Horton Although he is better-remembered for his historical songs, Johnny Horton was one of the best and most popular honky tonk singers of the late ’50s. Horton managed to infuse honky tonk with an urgent rockabilly underpinning. His career may have been cut short by a fatal car crash in 1960, but his music […]

Richie Evans (1941 - 1985)

Richie Evans An American racing driver who won nine NASCAR National Modified Championships, including eight in a row from 1978 to 1985. The International Motorsports Hall of Fame lists this achievement as “one of the supreme accomplishments in motorsports”. Evans won virtually every major race for asphalt modifieds, most of them more than once, including […]

Clifford Allison (1964 - 1992)

Clifford Allison Was an American stock car racing driver. Son of NASCAR champion Bobby Allison, he was a member of the “Alabama Gang“. He was killed in a crash during practice for a NASCAR Busch Series race at Michigan International Speedway in 1992. Son of the legendary Bobby Allison, nephew of Donnie and brother to […]

Ennis Cosby (1969 - 1997)

Cosby was born in Los Angeles, the third of five children (and the only son) of Bill and Camille Cosby. On his 1969 television special, Bill Cosby had joked to his then-pregnant wife that the baby “had better be a boy, you hear, Camille?” The character of Theo Huxtable, portrayed by Malcolm Jamal Warner on […]