Death Anniversary Thread

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Canadian-American chemist Frank Spedding died on this day 40 years ago, aged 82.

 

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On this day 58 years ago, Walt Disney passed away at the age of 65.

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Lillian Disney died on this day 27 years ago, aged 98.

- Lillian was born as 'Lillian Bounds', and she would study business in college for a year. She joined the then-Walt Disney Studios as a secretary for its ink and paint department- and her boss (2 years her junior) fell in love with her.

- Lillian and Walt Disney married in 1925, and they had two children together. In 1928, Walt showed her concept of a new mascot for the studio which he named 'Mortimer Mouse', and Lillian suggested he rename it to 'Mickey' due to disliking how it sounded. The rest is history:

(Mortimer Mouse would become an actual character later on, as a rival to Mickey)

- Lillian would be credited with ink work on the 1929 Mickey short film Plane Crazy (incidentally, it will fully enter the public domain in a few weeks), and her legacy as a part of Disney lives on at the theme parks, where several vehicles were christened after her (Disney Land and Disney World both have trains called the 'Lily Belle', and the latter also has a steamboat called 'The Empress Lily').

- After Walt died in 1966, Lillian would remarry to a man named John Truyens- this marriage lasted for 12 years until his death. In later years, she would become a noted philanthropist, notably donating large sums to the CalArts animation school, and making the initial donation to build the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

- Lillian Disney died of a stroke, having suffered it on the 31st anniversary of her husband's death. Coincidentally, her nephew-in-law Roy E. Disney died on the same day 12 years later. The last Disney film within its animated canon to be released during her lifetime was Hercules, to put things in perspective.

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American professional golfer Helen Hicks died on this day 50 years ago, aged 63.

 

 

 

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Leopold II of Belgium died on this day 115 years ago, aged 74.

- Leopold was the son of king Leopold I, and would accede to the throne upon his father's death in 1865. He was known for mostly two things during his reign: his commissioning of buildings, and his rule over the Belgian Congo.

- Leopold established the Congo Free State in 1885 (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). He would initially use this colonial enterprise to obtain ivory, but soon endorsed forced labor of the native population to harvest rubber. Due to his status as the sole owner, he was directly responsible for its governance- notably the establishment of the Force Publique which committed mass atrocities against the Congolese. Many now consider it to be a genocide due to an estimated death toll of 10 million, and Leopold being deemed one of history's greatest monsters. Leopold would relinquish control of the colony to the Belgian government in 1908 once these actions came to light and led to international opposition against him.

- Leopold died after exactly 44 years on the throne. As his only legitimate children were female (he had two illegitimate sons with his mistress, however), the crown went to his nephew Albert I.

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American film and television actor, singer and songwriter Rex Allen died on this day 25 years ago, aged 78.

 

 

 

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Zsa Zsa Gabor died on this day 8 years ago, aged 99.

- Gabor's real name was Sari Gabor, and she received her nickname due to being unable to pronounce her name as a young child. She was named after Sari Fadak, a popular actress in her native Hungary.

- Gabor would become notable by competing in beauty pageants, and after moving to the US in 1941, made it big in Hollywood. Her breakout role was as Jane Avril in the 1952 version of Moulin Rouge, followed by other hit movies such as Lili and Touch of Evil. She also often appeared on TV, notably on multiple late night talk shows and as a one-time villain on the Adam West Batman show. Her final role was in 1996's A Very Brady Sequel.

- Gabor was equally as well-known for her nine marriages. Among her husbands were Conrad Hilton (founder of the Hilton brand of hotels), George Sanders (actor), and Jack Ryan (co-inventor of Barbie and Hot Wheels).

- In later years, Gabor had very notable health issues (and was very much deserving of "immortal" status). A 2002 car crash partially paralyzed her and made her rely on a wheelchair to move. She had two strokes in the mid-2000s, and in 2010 would receive last rites before being discharged from the hospital. Her right leg would be amputated in 2011 and she fell into a coma which she was not expected to survive- yet she emerged from it. For the last five years of her life she relied on a feeding tube to eat and drink, which ended up leading to an infection in 2016 that required surgery. What ultimately killed her was cardiac arrest.

- Gabor appeared on the DeathList a total of 10 times between 1991 and 2016, and was the 10th hit (of the 12) that year.

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American professional baseball right fielder Harry Hooper died on this day 50 years ago, aged 87.

 

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On this day 18 years ago, American animator and cartoonist Joseph Barbera, who co-founded Hanna-Barbera, passed away at the age of 95.

 

Photo Credit: Kerry Cisneroz per Creative Commons license

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Abbas II of Egypt died on this day 80 years ago, aged 70.

- Abbas was the son of Tewfik I of Egypt, and would succeed him as khedive (basically a sultan) of Egypt upon his death in 1892. At the time, the British were occupying Egypt, and Abbas would often criticize the British Army, appointing nationalists to his cabinet and associating with Islamic movements.

- By 1914 relations between Egypt and the UK were at an all-time low, with Lord Kitchener proposing a coup to oust Abbas. Once World War II broke out, the British led a propaganda campaign accusing Abbas of abandoning Egypt (he was healing from an assassination attempt in Constantinople), and would promptly depose him and install his pro-British uncle Hussein as sultan. Abbas would work with the Ottoman government to plan attacks on British positions in Egypt, such as the Suez Canal.

- Even after the end of the war, Abbas would remain barred from returning to Egypt by the new monarch Fuad I, having also lost his property there. He would officially relinquish his claims to the throne in 1931, and ended up moving to Switzerland where he would write memoirs of his life. He died exactly 30 years after the date of his forced abdication.

- Abbas had six children with his wife Ikbal. Had he not been deposed, the throne would've gone to his son Muhammad.

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Canadian actor Paul Maxwell died 33 years ago today aged 70; notably he played Steve Tanner, Elsie's ex-GI husband in Coronation Street who met his demise being pushed down a flight of stairs.

 

He was also popular with Gerry Anderson, voicing Steve Zodiac in Fireball XL5 and Captian Grey in Captain Scarlet, as well live action parts in UFO.

 

On the big screen he appeared opposite Harrison Ford as  antiquities collector 'Panama Hat' in The Last Crusade and also appeared on the West End stage in various productions.

 

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American jazz violinist and record producer Noel Pointer died on this day 30 years ago, aged 39.

 

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On this day 3 years ago, Sally Ann Howes, who played Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, passed away at the age of 91.

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Madge Sinclair died on this day 29 years ago, aged 57.

- Born in Jamaica, Sinclair worked as a teacher before emigrating to the US to pursue an acting career. Among her earliest roles was as a doctor in a 1972 episode of Sesame Street that discussed vaccination against measles.

- In 1974 Sinclair would make her big screen debut in the film Conrack, and would be nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress (losing to Diahann Carroll). She would follow this by playing a widow in Convoy in 1978 (opposite Kris Kristofferson), and gained further recognition as Queen Aoelon of Zamunda in Coming to America. In 1994, she would voice Simba's mother and Mufasa's mate Sarabi in The Lion King:

 

- On TV, Sinclair was best-known for appearing in Roots, Trapper John, M.D. (her role as Ernestine ended up nominating her for an Emmy three times), Gabriel's Fire, Me and the Boys, and one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

- Behind the scenes, Sinclair battled leukemia for the last 13 years of her life. Her last role was in an episode of Dream On.

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American electric blues guitarist and singer Son Seals died on this day 20 years ago, aged 62.

 

 

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Munro Leaf died on this day 48 years ago, aged 71.

- Leaf worked as an English teacher before starting a career in writing. In 1936, he would publish his most famous work, The Story of Ferdinand- a children's book about a bull that prefers smelling flowers to fighting. It would be banned in Spain and Nazi Germany after being deemed pacifist propaganda, and would also be adapted into a short film by Disney two years after publication:

It would also be adapted into a feature-length film by Blue Sky in 2017 with John Cena voicing the titular character.

- Speaking of World War II propaganda, Leaf would assist the army by writing Private Snafu shorts alongside fellow children's author Dr. Seuss:

This short was effectively an animated adaptation of their pamphlet This Is Ann, which also taught soldiers how to avoid catching malaria in battle.

- While Leaf wrote over 20 books in his lifetime, none of them matched the success of Ferdinand. He died of cancer.

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American actor Richard Long died on this day 50 years ago, aged 47.

 

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On this day 1 year ago, American Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow passed away at the age of 99.

 

Photo Credit: Olaf Storbeck per Creative Commons license

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Christine Cavanaugh died on this day 10 years ago, aged 51.

- Cavanaugh's first voice acting role was as David in the English dub of the 1988 film David and the Magic Pearl. Her first role of note was the voice of Gosalyn in Darkwing Duck, which was quickly followed by voicing Chuckie in Rugrats:

Cavanaugh voiced many other '90s cartoon characters you may recall, the most notable being Oblina in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Babe the pig in the Babe movies, and (of course) Dexter in Dexter's Laboratory (for the first two seasons):

- Cavanaugh would retire from voice acting in 2001 due to wishing to spend more time with her family. Her final credited performance was as Birdie in the last episode of The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald, released in 2003.

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Irish writer Samuel Beckett died on this day 35 years ago, aged 83.