Death Anniversary Thread

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Former professional boxer Emile Griffith died on this day in 2013  aged 75, spending his latter years suffering from dementia and with his adopted son being his main caregiver. 

Born in the US Virgin Islands  he won world boxing titles in three  different weight divisions,  light middleweight, middleweight and  undisputed welterweight. 

Also  in later years he came out as bisexual- something that was a big deal and rarity in the boxing world at the time.  There had been much speculation after a violent attack  on him outside a gay venue. 

 

 

 

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Its 24 years since screenwriter John Hopkins (aka John R Hopkins) died aged 67.

 

His various credits include Mrs Dale's Diary,  Margery Allingham's Campion (staring Bernard Horsfall) and Z Cars, where he was script editor for over 2 years and wrote over 50 episodes (including that one starring Judi Dench as a juvenile delinquent).

 

The Dench story inspired what became his best regarded work, Talking to a Stranger, again starring Dench. 

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“The first authentic masterpiece written directly for television.” George Melly, for The Observer

 

With films his break came with the Michael Crawford feature, Two Left Feet and he received co-writer credits for Thunderball and The Virgin Soldiers.

 

His stage work includes This Story of Yours, which received poor reviews but was picked up by Sean Connery who produced and starred in the film version, The Offence, directed by Sidney Lumet.

 

He died at home in Woodland Hills, California, when he slipped, hit his head and fell, unconscious, into his swimming pool, and drowned.

 

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American artist, art dealer and collector Betty Parsons died on this day 40 years ago, aged 82.

 

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On this day 23 years ago  in 1999 King Hassan ll of Morocco  died aged 70. He had reigned from February 1961 until his death in 1999.

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8th president of the United States Martin Van Buren died on this day 160 years ago, aged 79.

 

 

American television presenter, talk show host, game show host, comedian, actor, and singer Regis Philbin died on this day 2 years ago, aged 88.

 

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Peter Sellers died on this day 42 years ago, aged 54.

Sellers first rose to prominence in 1948 as a cast member of Third Division, co-starring with eventual DeathList hits Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan. In 1952, the trio starred in The Goon Show, and had their theatrical debut in 1951's Penny Points to Paradise.

 

Sellers would soon star in several films with Terry-Thomas (yet another DL hit) in the late '50s, and would soon gain worldwide recognition in the next decade, with roles such as Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther, the eponymous Dr. Strangelove, and one of the impostor James Bonds in the 1967 version of Casino Royale.

 

Sellers was notoriously difficult to work with, with Sellers himself claiming that he had "no identity outside the roles he played". In 1979, after he and his daughter Victoria saw his film Being There, Victoria stated that her father "looked like a little fat old man"- Sellers then proceeded to throw his drink at her.

 

Sellers died of a heart attack. At his funeral, with Secombe and Milligan in attendance, Sellers had ordered Glenn Miller's "In The Mood" to be played. This was a song all three of them hated, and was his final joke on them.

 

 

...In an odd coincidence, his son Michael also died of a heart attack, aged 52- 16 years ago today.

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Twenty-seven years since the death of singer/songwriter Jerry Lordan, from acute renal failure, aged 61.

 

A self-taught guitarist and pianist, after completing his National Service, he had a number of jobs, while also writing songs; one song, I've Waited So Long, recorded by Anthony Newley, reached number 3 in the UK.

 

He signed to Parlophone as a singer and achieved 3 UK top 40 singles in 1960, the most successful being Who Could Be Bluer, reaching number 16.

 

His real success was as a writer; initially with the instrumental Apache. First recorded by Bert Weedon, its said that Lordan didn't like it but played it on Ukelele to the Shadows while on tour; they liked the sound of it an recorded it, reaching number 1 in the UK, and charting in many other European markets. Dozens of artists have since covered or sampled it, or versions of it.

 

Further success followed with more Shadows tunes, including Wonderful Land, as well as others such as Jet Harris & Tony Meehan, Cliff Richard and Shane (Alvin Stardust) Fenton.

 

He also had a brief foray into acting, appearing three times in neighbour George Harrison Marks' movies.

 

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On this day 48 years ago in 1974,  English physicist  James Chadwick died aged 82.

 

In 1935 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics  for discovering the neutron in 1932.

Significantly he also wrote the final draft of the MAUD report in 1941  into the feasibility of creating an atomic bomb. The report was very important in helping the US government  decide to proceed with research into creating atomic bombs.

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American jazz pianist Dick Wellstood died on this day 40 years ago, aged 59.

 

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On this day in 1965  American actress  Constance  Bennett  died aged 60.

Bennett  was a major Hollywood star throughout the 1920s and 1930s  and at one brief point  during the early 1930s  was the highest paid actress in Hollywood. 

 

She was the daughter of silent movie star  Richard Bennett  and the older sister of actress  Joan Bennett.  She was married five times , with one of her  marriages to French nobleman  Henri   de la Falaise  , a Marquis who was the ex husband of Hollywood legend  Gloria Swanson. 

  Her first marriage , opposed by her parents, was annulled on account  of her immaturity and youth at the time she wed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Constance starred in numerous silent movies in the 1920s including  Code of the west (1925)- a silent western and The Goose Woman  (1925).

In the 1930s her credits beyond silent movies include  Two against the world (1932), Outcast lady (1934) with Herbert Marshall and Tail Spin (1939).

She died of a stroke aged 60 in 1965. 

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Child actress Judith Barsi died on this day 34 years ago, aged 10.

Barsi's mother Maria was the person who got Judith into acting, when she was five years old. She would appear in episodes of shows such as Punky Brewster and The Tracey Ullman Show.

 

Famed animation director Don Bluth soon heard about Barsi's acting talent, and got her to voice characters in two of his films: Ducky, the "Bigmouth" dinosaur in The Land Before Time, and Anne-Marie, an orphan girl who can speak to animals in All Dogs Go to Heaven, with the latter's end credits song, "Love Survives", being dedicated in her memory. Bluth would later state that Barsi was "absolutely astonishing. She understood verbal direction, even for the most sophisticated situations".

 

Success can lead to envy- and here's where the story takes a tragic turn. Judith's alcoholic father Jozsef became increasingly violent towards his family, throwing objects at them, hiding a letter that one of Maria Barsi's relatives in Hungary had died to prevent her from leaving the country, and threatening to kill Maria and Judith many times. Judith would soon begin to binge-eat and pluck her eyelashes out. After a breakdown in front of her agent, her mother took her to a child psychologist, who reported their findings to CPS- this was dropped when Maria intended to divorce Jozsef.

On July 27, 1988, their neighbor heard a gunshot from the home and called the authorities- Jozsef had killed himself from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and it was reported that he had shot Judith and Maria approximately two days prior, then doused their bodies with gasoline.

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On this day two years ago in 2020, american actor  John Saxon  died aged 83.

 

He was skilled in martial  arts  so a great many of his acting roles in both film and television  reflected his strong physiciality and skill.

 

Among his many films in his fifty year acting career  include    Enter the Dragon (1973) with Bruce Lee,   A Nightmare on Elm Street  (1984) , The Unforgiven  (1960) with Burt Lancaster,  Lillian Gosh and Audrey Hepburn,   A Nightmare on Elm Str 3 (1987),  Planet Earth  (1974) and Queen of Blood  (1966) with Dennis Hopper and  Basil Rathbone. 

 

Numerous  roles in many of the big  television shows  during his careers,  mainly guest or short roles  include  , Burkes Law,  Gunsmoke (small one episode stints between 1965-1975),  Bonanza,  The Virginian,  Dr Kildare, Fantasy Island and  The Six Million Dollar  Man. 

His biggest and longest television  role  was as  Tony Cumson in Primetime Soap Falcon Crest- his character  being the son in law of the shows devious  matriarch  Angela  Channing played by Jane Wyman.

He married three times and had one son with Hollywood screenwriter  Mary Ann Saxon.

 

 

 

 

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Sixteen years since the death of Carl Brashear, aged 75.

 

After enlisting four months before the Navy was de-segregated, he was the first African-American to graduate  (in 1954) from the US Navy Diving & Salvage School, encountering racism while there. In 1966 he was assigned to search for, and salvage, a nuclear warhead which had been lost at sea (The Palomares Incident) off Spain. After two-and-a-half months the warhead was located, but during the retrieval, a towline broke, catapulting a pipe into Brashear's leg, almost severing the limb below the knee. This lead to the amputation of the lower part his left leg. Despite this, he returned to active duty - the first amputee to be recertified for active diving operations by the US Navy. In 1970 he achieved the position of Master Diver, the highest position for an enlisted man.

 

He retired from the Navy in 1979 with the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer and served as a government official at the Norfolk Naval Base until 1993. 

 

His story is told in the 2000 film Men of Honor, where he is played by Cuba Gooding Jr.

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American businessman Malcolm Baldrige Jr. died on this day 35 years ago, aged 64.

 

 

 

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On this day in 1843 Scottish chemist Charles macintosh  died aged 76.  After some experimentation  with chemicals and materials the glaswegian  made discoveries that enabled him to invent the modern  waterproof raincoat.  

Now known with the accepted  altered name as the mackintosh  raincoat .

 

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Winsor McCay died on this day 88 years ago, aged about 63.

 

In 1905, McCay created Little Nemo, regarded as one of the earliest fantastical comic strips. In 1911, Windsor adapted it into one of the earliest animated films, and the comic ran until 1927.

 

McCay was also a vaudevillian, and he employed animation in his act- 1914 saw him create Gertie the Dinosaur, which he would give a command to- the illusion of Gertie obeying McCay was done by McCay acting in real-time.

 

McCay's 1918 The Sinking of the Lusitania was considered the longest animated feature when released- the wartime propaganda film was 12 minutes long.

 

McCay is considered the pioneer of animation loops and in-between frames, and his work would inspire animators such as Dave and Max Fleischer and Walt Disney in the 1920s.

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British and American actress Olivia de Havilland died on this day 2 years ago, aged 104.

 

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On this day in 1984 George  Gallup, an  american statistician ,  pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the  famous Gallup poll method of measuring  public opinion, died aged 82 in Switzerland. 

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Twenty-four years since the death of Seán Ó hEinirí (John Henry), Irish folklorist, aged 83. He's generally accepted to have been the last Irish monolinguist.

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American journalist and author Jim Bishop died on this day 35 years ago, aged 79.

 

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On this  day seventy years ago in 1952 , the First Lady  of Argentina  Eva Peron died of cervical cancer aged 33.

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King James I of Aragon died on this day 746 years ago, aged 68.

James became king at the age of 5 upon the death of his father, Peter II. When he was 13, James married Eleanor, the daughter of the King of Aragon- their marriage was annulled in 1229 (though their son Alfonso was declared legitimate, though he predeceased James). Also in 1229, James began to conquer the Balearic Islands from the Almohad Caliphate, which he achieved in 1235. In 1238, James established the autonomous state of Valencia in eastern Aragon.

 

James began to rally for a Crusade in 1267, when Abaqa, the khan of the Ilkhanate (and a great-grandson of Genghis Khan) sent a letter to him- this resulted in James sending an envoy to the khanate, and he returned with a diplomat two years later. James began to sail east, but a storm drove him off-course into France. James took this as a sign to call the crusade off, and he returned home.

 

James was also a patron of education, funding the University of Montpellier, and was among the most prolific Catalan authors of his day. In 1274, he wrote his autobiography, Llibre dels fets (Book of Deeds), and wrote a collection of proverbs from various authors, the Libre de la Saviesa (Book of Wisdom).

 

Upon his death, James split his kingdom between his sons Peter III (Aragon) and James II (Majorca).

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On this day in 2003,  British American  comedian , actor and entertainer  Bob Hope, died aged 100.

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On this day  ten years ago in 2012  , British actor  Geoffrey Hughes,  best known for  playing snob Hyacinth Buckets common as muck brother in law in sitcom  Keeping up appearances,  died aged 68.

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American baseball shortstop Travis Jackson died on this day 35 years ago, aged 83.