Death Anniversary Thread

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Its the 22nd anniversary of the death of former tennis player & party pooper Bunny Austin, who died on his 94th birthday*.

 

 

Herbert Wilfred Austin was the last Briton to appear in a Wimbledon Men's Singles final until Andy Murray's appearance in 2012, 74 years later. In all, he appeared in three grand slam singles and three grand slam mixed doubles finals, losing them all. 

He's noted for being the first player to wear shorts in competition, and for popularising a split-shaft tennis racquet, which was widely mocked, and forgotten on his retirement, before becoming popular again in the '60s.

 

He appeared at Wimbledon in the parade of past champions & finalists to celebrate the Millennium, 56 days before his death.

 

He assumed his nickname, bestowed by schoolfriends, came from the Daily Mirror comic strip Pip, Squeak & Wilfred, Wilfred being a rabbit.

 

*It is not on record as to whether or not he was celebrating his birthday at the time.

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35 minutes ago, Toast said:

 

Laura Branigan's hits were also featured in two iconic scenes in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

@Gooseberry Crumble will enjoy the first one

 

 

 

 

I certainly did  thanks!! You must be a genius!!

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1 hour ago, Gooseberry Crumble said:

I certainly did  thanks!! You must be a genius!!

 

I'm rather partial to it myself

 

Superb series btw.  Darren Criss is tremendous as the murderous Andrew Cunanan, and deservedly won a lot of awards.

Terrific soundtrack too. These are not the only songs which you will never hear again without picturing the accompanying scene!

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German-American illustrator and author H. A. Rey died on this day 45 years ago, aged 78.

 

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4 hours ago, Toast said:

 

I'm rather partial to it myself

 

Superb series btw.  Darren Criss is tremendous as the murderous Andrew Cunanan, and deservedly won a lot of awards.

Terrific soundtrack too. These are not the only songs which you will never hear again without picturing the accompanying scene!

At his best Ryan Murphy  can really pull off some  exceptional gold standard television  drama and casting.  He can produce some rubbish as well but this was amongst his best work along with the dramatisation of the feud between  Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. 

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On this day in 2009  , american  writer, investigative journalist and producer  Dominick  Dunne died aged 83. 

His daughter actress Dominique Dunne was murdered in 1982. This opened his eyes and created passionate interest  in the different ways in America that  wealth can  protect people  from legal consequences.  He started to write and speak to the media,  ,especially in his regular contributions  to Vanity Fair magazine,  a lot about how those who are wealthy and part of  high society interact with the judicial and legal system in the US.  He became quite well known for not being shy about critiquing the rich and famously in his articles for Vanity Fair.

 

 

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W. E. B. Du Bois died on this day 59 years ago, aged 95.

 

After graduating from Harvard with a PhD in 1895 (the first African-American to do so, with a degree in sociology), Du Bois got a job at the University of Pennsylvania, researching Philadelphia's African-American neighborhoods. His study, The Philadelphia Negro, was published in 1899, in which Du Bois attacked stereotypes against African-American neighborhoods by providing empirical evidence.

 

In 1905, Du Bois was among the leaders of the Niagara Movement, an organization of anti-segregationists opposed to Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Compromise (which stated Blacks should just deal with segregation as long as the government gives them education and justice in the legal system). After a race riot in Atlanta occurred in 1906, Du Bois encouraged African-Americans to leave the Republican Party, as president Roosevelt failed to condemn the events.

 

In 1909, Du Bois became one of the founding members of the NAACP. During its first decade, Du Bois encouraged the woman's suffrage movement, and pushed for a nationwide outlawing of lynching. The group also called for the KKK-glorifying film The Birth of a Nation to be banned, to no avail.

 

In 1935, Du Bois wrote Black Reconstruction in America, showcasing what post-Civil War America was like for African-Americans at the time and challenging the then-current view of that time period. By that point in time, Du Bois was also a supporter of Marxism. As the Red Scare began, the FBI began investigating him in 1949 as a "Concealed Communist", and was tried in 1951, with the case being dismissed when Albert Einstein offered to appear as a witness. In 1961, aged 93, Du Bois officially became a member of the Communist Party.

 

Shortly after, Du Bois moved to Ghana when president Kwame Nkrumah offered him funding to complete his Encyclopedia Africana, discussing the diaspora of African-Americans around the world. The US did not renew his passport in 1963, so Du Bois decided to become a citizen. Du Bois died a few months later- the day before the March on Washington, in which a moment of silence was held in his honor.

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On this day 55 years ago in 1967 Brian Epstein,  manager of The Beatles,  died aged 32 from a drugs overdose. 

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American statesman, politician and jurist who served as the 11th Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941 Charles Evan Hughes died on this day 74 years ago, aged 86.

 

 

American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble Stevie Ray Vaughan died on this day 32 years ago, aged 35.

 

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Its 27 years since the death of Big Dee Irwin, also variously known as Dee Erwin & Dee Irwin but originally DiFosco "Dee" T. Ervin Jr.

 

His musical career began in the US Air Force with The Pastels, and continued after as part of Alan Freed's Big Beat Show, with Jerry Lee Lewis, Screaming Jay Hawkins & Chuck Berry amongst others.

 

Embarking on a solo career, his biggest hit was a cover of Bing Crosby's Swinging on a Star, with an uncredited Little Eva, which reached number 7 in the UK chart.

 

 

 

He died of heart failure, aged 63.

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American hip-hop disc jockey and music producer Scott La Rock died on this day 35 years ago, aged 25.

 

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On this day in  1971, US Golfer Jim Turnesa  died aged 58 from lung cancer. 

He was from a large family of which 7 brothers  became famous pursuing  golf professionally. The brothers being Doug, Jim, Joe, Phil, Frank, Mike and Willie. 

In 1952 Jim won  the PGA championship  beating Chick  Harbert  and he came third  and came 3rd in the US open in 1948.

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Lynching victim Emmett Till was murdered on this day 67 years ago, aged 14.

 

Till, a Chicago native, was visiting his great uncle, Mose Wright, in Mississippi during summer vacation in 1955. On the morning of August 24, Till, his cousins Curtis Jones and Simeon Wright, and a group of boys went to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market to buy some candy. While outside the store, till was accused of wolf-whistling at one of the storeowners, Carolyn Bryant- according to Simeon, it was in a jocular manner, but it was mentioned in a newspaper article following his disappearance that he had a speech impediment where he had trouble making "b" sounds, and that he may have wanted bubble gum.

 

Carolyn informed her husband and co-store owner Roy of the incident, and Roy later identified him as Till, and found out where he was staying. Roy and his half-brother JW Milam conspired kidnapping him, and in the midnight hours of August 28, they drove to the house of Mose Wright. They entered armed with a pistol, and forced Till out of the house while his mother offered them money to leave. After getting Till in their car, someone (possibly Carolyn herself) identified him as the person who whistled at Carolyn. They later pistol-whipped him unconscious, then shot him dead and threw Till's body over a bridge into the Tallahatchie River, then drove back home and burned his clothes. Till's body was discovered by two boys fishing on August 31, and his funeral was open-casket (there are pictures of it- go look it up yourselves if you dare).

 

Roy Bryant and Milam were tried for murder, and the jury declared them not guilty in an injustice to society. Bryant and Milam would eventually confess to the murder, alienating themselves from their community. Milam died of spinal cancer in 1980, aged 61, having been tried in cases such as using a stolen credit card and assault. Roy later divorced Carolyn, and died in 1994 at the age of 63, having no remorse for the killing and backtracking on his admission.

 

As for Carolyn Bryant, she later remarried and took the surname Donham. In June 2022, an unserved arrest warrant for Donham was found- a grand jury decided there was insufficient evidence to indict her, causing outrage. As a side note, Donham is reported to have some form of cancer and is in hospice care- a good choice for your 2023 lists if she makes it to January (don't know if she'll make it onto the main list or not).

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American-Irish actor, director, screenwriter and visual artist John Huston died on this day 35 years ago, aged 81.

 

 

American actor Chadwick Boseman died on this day 2 years ago, aged 43.

 

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British painter, cartographer, typographer and writer Phyllis Pearsall (Nee Gross) died 26 years ago today.

Educated at Roedean (she had to leave when her father, Alexander Gross, founder of cartographers Geographia Ltd,  went bankrupt) and later, the Sorbonne, which lead to her living and working in Paris, where she married Richard Pearsall; after eight years living and travelling together lead to the establishment of the Geographers' A to Zin Europe, she upped and left him in Venice while he was asleep. 

 

Working as a painter in London, she got lost while using the most recent map she could find, which was 17 years old. This prompted her to create a new map to include the latest redevelopments. The success of this map lead to the founding of the Geographers' A to Z Map Co, which she turned into a trust in 1966 to ensure its continued existence.

 

She retired to Shoreham-by-Sea, where she died from cancer shortly before her 90th birthday, though her memory lives on through her commemoration on a local bus.

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American inventor Charles Darrow died on this day 55 years ago, aged 78.

 

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On this day  in  1938 , former footballer  Colin Veitch,  who famously played for Newcastle  United at the turn of the 20th century and also played for the national team, died aged 57 from pneumonia whilst on holiday in Switzerland. 

Regarded by many as one of  Newcastle United  best ever players,  he was noted fir his versatility of skill on the pitch, Colin was latterly nicknamed by some as an Edwardian superman.  He played for Newcastle between 1899-1914, England  between  1906-1909 and  managed Bradford  City between 1926-1928.

He was one of the very early advocates who campaigned  for the professionalisation of football and proper fair working conditions and  union representation for the players. 

 

Away from the pitch he had a keen interest in the arts and in 1911 co-founded  The Peoples theatre in Newcastle.  Veitch seemed to have a real skill for the arts as well as football,  becoming an accomplished playwright,  Composer, conductor and producer too. He counted George Bernard Shaw as a personal friend and mixed in artistic  circles.

In part because of his talent for campaigned,  advocating on behalf of others he was encouraged in his later years to stand as a candidate for the Labour Party at a general election.  He resisted this and continued  with his union  work on behalf of football players as a union activist to the PFA  - Professional  Footballers assistant- an organised he was later to be the Head of. His role with the PFA  certainly  caused him some hostility with the upper management/owners of Newcastle  and when he had a spell as a journalist Newcastle  barred him from the press box at St James Park.

He was recuperating from illness on a holiday in Switzerland when he died.

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Gene Wilder died on this day 6 years ago, aged 83.

Wilder began his acting career in stage plays, with his most well-known of these being the role of Billy in the Broadway version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (with Kirk Douglas). While in a production of Mother Courage and Her Children with Anne Bancroft, Anne introduced her to her then-boyfriend Mel Brooks. Brooks and Wilder would closely work together, with Wilder starring in his films The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and the title role in Young Frankenstein (pronounced Fronk-en-steen).

 

His most well-known role, however, is as the title character in the 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

 

Wilder was also known for his marriage to Gilda Radner, who divorced her first husband in 1982 just to marry him (they were co-stars of the film Hanky Panky, and fell in love). After Radner's premature death of ovarian cancer in 1989, Wilder became dedicated to spreading awareness of the disease.

 

Wilder died after a three-year battle with Alzheimer's while listening to Ella Fitzgerald's cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", one of his favorite songs. His diagnosis was hidden from the public so as not to sadden his fans- quoth his nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman, "he simply couldn't bear the idea of one less smile in the world".

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Ed Asner died 1 year ago today. 

 

 

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American actor Lee Marvin died 35 years ago today, from a heart attack amidst other medical conditions, aged 63. 

 

 

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Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman died on this day 40 years ago, aged 67.

 

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On this day  twenty years ago in 2002, former  British racing car driver  Lance  Macklin died aged 82 . He  took part in fifteen Formula one world championships races with a career that had its big debut in 1952.

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former Prime Minister of France Pierre Messmer died on this day 15 years ago, aged 91.

 

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Abraham Zapruder died on this day 52 years ago, aged 65.

Zapruder was Russian-born and emigrated to the US at the age of 15, working as a clothing designer in New York. Zapruder moved to Dallas in 1941.

 

In the early 1960s, Zapruder was a supporter of President Kennedy, and upon hearing he would be passing by his workplace- just across the street from the Texas School Book Depository. Zapruder initially left his camera at home due to rain that morning, only retrieving it once the weather cleared up. As JFK's motorcade passed by, Zapruder inadvertently captured history:

 

The Secret Service asked Zapruder for his footage for investigation into the assassination, and he handed it over. He later testified in the Warren Commission, stating that the direction of the shots came from behind Kennedy. Zapruder was noticeably and visibly distraught recalling the events.

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On this day in 2010 american wrestler  J.C Bailey  died aged 27 in his sleep from a brain aneurysm. It is   believed to have been caused by some of the repeated trauma and injuries to his head when taking part in the sport over the years, particularly the more combative versions  of wrestling.