Polly Bergen (1930 - 2014)

Bergen was born in Knoxville, Tennessee to Lucy (née Lawhorn) and William Hugh Burgin, a construction engineer. “Bill Bergen”, as he was later known, had singing talent and appeared with his daughter in several episodes of her 18-episode NBC comedy/variety show, The Polly Bergen Show, which aired during the 1957-1958 television season.  Bergen appeared in […]

Elizabeth Pena (1959 - 2014)

Elizabeth Peña Peña was born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey on September 23, 1959 to Mario Peña, an actor, director, and writer who co-founded the Latin American Theatre Ensemble, and Estella Margarita (Toirac) Peña, an arts administrator and producer.  She was of Cuban descent and spent her early years in Cuba. At age 8, […]

Christine Cavanaugh (1963 - 2014)

Cavanaugh was born to Rheta Mason (née Sharky) and Waldo Eugene Sandberg. She graduated from Layton High School in 1981. She first attended Utah State University, then the University of Hawaii, where she met her future husband, Kevin Cavanaugh. The couple married in 1985 but divorced in 1988.  In 1991, Cavanaugh voiced Gosalyn Mallard, the […]

Edward Herrmann (1943 - 2014)

Edward Kirk Herrmann was born on July 21, 1943 in Washington, D.C., the son of Jean Eleanor (née O’Connor) and John Anthony Herrmann. Of German and Irish descent, Herrmann grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and graduated from Bucknell University in 1965, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi. He studied acting at […]

Little Jimmy Dickens (1920 - 2015)

Little Jimmy Dickens Toward the end of his life, Dickens made appearances in a number of music videos by fellow country musician and West Virginia native Brad Paisley. He was also featured on several of Paisley’s albums in bonus comedy tracks, along with other Opry mainstays such as George Jones and Bill Anderson. They were […]

Greg Page (1958 - 2009)

Greg Page Professional Boxer. He was the former WBA Heavyweight Champion from 1984 to 1985. He defeated Gerrie Coetzee to win the title and relinquished it to Tony Tubbs. Prior to turning professional, Page was a two-time National AAU Heavyweight Champion (1977 and 1978), and the National Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion in 1978. He compiled […]

Sheb Wooley (1921 - 2003)

Sheb Wooley Wooley was born in Erick, Oklahoma, and was raised on a farm. He learned to ride horses at an early age and was a working cowboy and rodeo rider. He also played in a country-western band. Wooley tried to enlist during World War II, but was turned down for military service because of his rodeo injuries. Instead, […]

Johnny Russell (1940 - 2001)

Johnny Russell Russell penned the country standard “Act Naturally,” which Buck Owens recorded in 1963 and took to No. 1. Two years later, the Beatles cut the song with Ringo Starr on vocals. Artists such as Burl Ives, George Strait, Bobby Vinton, Patti Page, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Del Reeves also recorded […]

Joe Louis (1914 - 1981)

Joe Louis Professional Boxer. Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1937 to 1949. He began his pro career in 1934, and by 1936 he had beaten such great heavyweights as Stanley Poreda, Natie Brown, and Rosco Toles. He was seemingly invincible, until his meeting with Max Schmeling on June 19, 1936. Schmeling was the underdog […]

Floyd Patterson (1935 - 2006)

Floyd Patterson He was a good guy in the bad world of boxing. He was mild, sweet, retiring, reclusive, impassive and ascetic. He spoke softly and never lost his boyhood shyness. Constantine (Cus) D’Amato, who died in 1985, trained Patterson throughout his professional career and called him “a kind of a stranger.” Red Smith, The […]

Freddy Fender (1937 - 2006)

Freddy Fender Country Singer, Musician. Born Baldemar Huerta Spouse Evangelina (Vangie) Huerta, his best known hit song was “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” a No. 1 hit on both Billboard magazine’s country and Hot 100 charts in 1975. The song sold one million copies and was awarded the Country Music Association’s Single of the Year […]

Hugo Chávez (1954 - 2013)

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈuɣo rafaˈel ˈtʃaβes ˈfɾi.as]; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician and the President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013. He was the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other […]

Eric Hill (1927 - 2014)

He was born in Holloway, London, and left school at 14. He first worked as an errand boy in an illustration studio where he was encouraged to draw cartoons and comic strips in his spare time. Following National Service, he produced sketches for magazines, and later worked as a freelance designer and illustrator in advertising. […]

Simone Battle (1989 - 2014)

Battle made her television debut in 2006, having small roles on shows including Zoey 101 and Everybody Hates Chris. In 2010, Battle was a background dancer in the Cali Swag District music video “Teach Me How to Dougie”.  In 2011, Battle auditioned for the American singing competition The X Factor in front of judges Simon […]

Dave Brockie (1963 - 2014)

Dave Brockie Brockie portrayed Oderus Urungus, Gwar’s lead singer, from Gwar’s inception in 1982 until his death. Oderus appeared as an intergalactic humanoid barbarian with devil horns and a meaty-looking face, and carried a long sword named “Unt Lick” and a cuttlefish around his loins.  In 1990, Brockie was arrested by police for “obscenity” after […]

Marian Seldes (1928 - 2014)

Seldes was born in Manhattan, the daughter of Alice Wadhams Hall, a socialite, and Gilbert Seldes, a journalist, author and editor. Her uncle was journalist George Seldes. Seldes’s paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and her mother was from a “prominent WASP family,” the “Episcopalian blue-blooded Halls.” She had a brother, Timothy, and grew up […]

Luise Rainer (1910 - 2014)

Luise Rainer (12 January 1910 – 30 December 2014) was a German-born Austrian and American film actress. She was the first person to win multiple Academy Awards and the first person to win them consecutively. At the time of her death, she was the longest-lived actress ever to have received an Academy Award. Rainer began […]

Paco de Lucia (1947 - 2014)

Francisco Gustavo Sánchez Gomes (21 December 1947 – 25 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía [ˈpako ðe luˈθia], was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer and producer. A leading proponent of the New Flamenco style, he helped legitimize flamenco among the establishment in Spain, and was one of the first flamenco guitarists to have […]

Jamie Coots (1971 - 2014)

Coots grew up in Middlesboro, Ky. He was a third-generation snake handler. He was the pastor of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, a church founded by his grandfather, Tommy Coots, in 1978. He began handling snakes at age 23. His son, Cody “Little Cody” Coots, is also active in his father’s church. Coots primarily […]

Sid Caesar (1922 - 2014)

Sid Caesar Isaac Sidney “Sid” Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor and writer, best known for the pioneering 1950s live television series Your Show of Shows, a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people, and its successor Caesar’s Hour, both of which influenced later generations of comedians. […]

Bob Casale (1952 - 2014)

Casale was originally trained as a medical radiation technologist, but was recruited by his brother Gerald Casale to join his band. After a few line-up changes, Bob Casale would be part of the most popular five-piece incarnation, which included the Casale brothers: Jerry and Bob (“Bob 2”), and the Mothersbaugh brothers: Mark and Bob (“Bob […]

Peter Seeger (1919 - 2014)

Peter “Pete” Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene”, which topped the […]

Jerry Coleman (1924 - 2014)

Born in San Jose, California, Coleman graduated from Lowell High School, then spent his entire playing career with the New York Yankees. He played six years in the Yankees’ minor league system before reaching the big club in 1949. Coleman hit .275 in his first year and led all second basemen in fielding percentage. He […]

Richard Attenborough (1923 - 2014)

Attenborough was born on 29 August 1923 in Cambridge, the eldest of three sons of Mary Attenborough (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and wrote a standard text on Anglo-Saxon law. Attenborough was educated […]

Andy Whitfield (1971 - 2011)

Whitfield was born in Amlwch, Anglesey, Wales. He studied construction at Sheffield Hallam University in England. He moved to Australia from Britain in 1999 to work as an engineer in Lidcombe, before later settling in Sydney. He appeared in several Australian television series, such as Opening Up, All Saints, The Strip, Packed to the Rafters, […]

Nate Dogg (1969 - 2011)

Nate Dogg was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi on August 19, 1969. He moved to Long Beach, California when he was 14, following his parents’ divorce. He was friends with rappers Warren G, RBX, and Daz Dillinger and cousin of Butch Cassidy, Snoop Dogg, and Lil’ ½ Dead. He began singing as a child in the […]

Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011)

Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs (/ˈdʒɒbz/; February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, marketer, and inventor, who was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he is widely recognized as a charismatic and design-driven pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and […]

Ryan Dunn (1977 - 2011)

Ryan Dunn Dunn took part in the characteristic stunts that made Jackass famous, and featured in all three released films, Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two and Jackass 3D.  In 2006, Dunn and Bam Margera participated in the Gumball 3000 road rally in Margera’s Lamborghini Gallardo. He later went on a tour with Don Vito […]

Martin Litton (1917 - 2014)

Clyde Martin Litton (February 13, 1917 – November 30, 2014) was a Grand Canyon river runner and a longtime conservationist, best known as a staunch opponent of the construction of Glen Canyon Dam and other dams on the Colorado River.  Litton grew up in Gardena, California. Although not a well-known environmental activist until the 1950s, […]

Ian McLagan (1945 - 2014)

McLagan first started playing in bands in the early 1960s, initially using the Hohner Cembalet before switching to the Hammond Organ and Wurlitzer electric piano, as well as occasional guitar. He was influenced by Cyril Davies’ All Stars, and his first professional group was the Muleskinners, followed by the Boz People with future King Crimson […]