Death Anniversary Thread

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On this day in 2006  american singer Eileen Barton died aged 81from ovarian cancer. 

She was best known for her popular hit song in 1950 'If I knew you were coming I'd've baked a cake'.

 

Her family roots were in vaudeville  theatre- both of her patents were performers.

       At the age of 15 she appeared as a guest singer on The Johnny Mercer  variety series and caught the eye of Frank Sinatra who took her under his wing.and gave her a a regular role on his CBS Radio show in the 1940s. In later years she performed on stage with the likes of Danny Kaye and Nat King Cole. 

In 1956 she switched record labels to Epic Records but rock and roll was quickly displacing many singers from her generation from the  charts such was their tidal wave of popularity  and chart success was finished by the end of the decade.

 

 

In her personal  life Eileen was married twice  but had no children.  Firstly to  Dan Shaw an industrialist  .Her second husband  Lawrence  Kane was a career criminal and a suspect in the famous zodiac killer murders  in California in the 1960s..A serial killer case still unsolved to this day.  She also divorced  him and was unmarried at the time of her death. 

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Sancho VI of Navarre died on this day 828 years ago, aged 62.

Sancho became King of Pamplona following the death of his father in 1150. Sancho was the first monarch to call himself as the King of Navarre rather than King of Pamplona. During his reign, his nation was under constant threat from the neighboring Castile- it had been slowly annexing the western and coastal portion of Navarre to become a naval superpower. In 1177, King Henry II of England delivered arbitration between the two to set their borders as they were in 1158, before Castile invaded.  Sancho signed an alliance pact with Aragon to mutually defend against Castile in 1190. The following year, his daughter Berengaria became queen consort of England by marrying Richard I.

 

Sancho was a patron of learning, and his epithet "the Wise" stems from this. Sancho died after a 43 and a half year reign, and was succeeded by his son Sancho VII.

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Twenty-one years since the death of Tove Jansson, aged 86.

 

Mostly remembered for her Moomin books, she also wrote novels and short stories, as well as other stories for children. She was also an accomplished artist, with her first solo exhibition in 1943.

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51 minutes ago, time said:

Twenty-one years since the death of Tove Jansson, aged 86.

 

Mostly remembered for her Moomin books, she also wrote novels and short stories, as well as other stories for children. She was also an accomplished artist, with her first solo exhibition in 1943.

 

A few years ago the Tolkien Calendar used her Lord of the Rings Art

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English musician and songwriter and bassist for the rock band The Who, John Entwistle, died on this day 20 years ago, aged 57.

 

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On this day in 2001 Oscar winning american actor  Jack Lemmon  died from bladder cancer aged 76.

An actor who excelled in both comedic and dramatic roles Jack Lemmon was highly rated by his peers in Hollywood and was described by The Guardian newspaper as "The most successful tragi-comedian of his age"

 

Jack was nominated eight times for an Oscar and won twice.   Firstly  a best supporting actor win for 1955  film Mister Roberts and the best actor accolade  for Save the tiger (1973). He also won six Golden Globe awards.

Other notable films he starred in include  The Apartment (1960) with Shirley Maclaine,  The China Syndrome (1979) alongside  Jane Fonda and  Michael Douglas,  Some like it hot  (1959) famously with Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis,  Grumpy Old men (1993) paired with Walter Matthau with whom he had a successful  onscreen double act  and were cast together numerous times including also in the hugely successful The Idd Couple(1968) and  Days of wine and Roses  (1962) directed by Blake Edwards .

 

A brilliant actor with a great career but his personal life was often troubled by alcohol addiction  until he managed to quit in the 1970s.

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American talent manager and patriarch of the Jackson family of entertainers Joe Jackson died on this day 4 years ago, aged 89.

 

 

American stage and film actor whose career in motion pictures spanned the silent and sound eras Elmo Lincoln died on this day 70 years ago, aged 63.

 

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 British  childrens author Anthony  Buckeridge,  best known for his Rex Milligan and Jennings series of childrens books,  died on this day in 2004 aged 92.

After World War two  Buckeridge  wrote a number of radio plays for the BBCs childrens hour detailing the humorous  antics of  Jennings broadcast in 1948.  Success was born and from 1950 he wrote a series of more than twenty novels.

 

British actor and comedian  Stephen Fry cites Anthony  Buckeridges  skill for exploring British humour  as an influence on him growing up and  a key part of the mix of post war British comedy. 

 

 

 

 

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Today marks the 108th anniversary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie Chotek, aged 50 and 46 respectively.

Franz was a member of the Austrian royal family; Sophie was the daughter of a Bohemian count. They wed in 1900.

 

The couple were visiting Sarajevo in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country of Serbia bordered its southwest, and recently underwent a nationalist revolution that saw relations with Austria-Hungary diminish and Russia increase, and a sense of wanting to reclaim the land from its 1300s counterpart, the Serbian Empire.

 

A militant organization of ethnic Serbs called Unification or Death (also known as Black Hand) decided that Franz was to be assassinated. Its organizer, Danilo Ilic, arranged six assassins along their motorcade route. The first two assassins failed to act, but the third, Nedeljko Cabrinovic, threw a bomb at Franz's car. It bounced off and exploded under the following car, totaling it and  wounding dozens in the process. Cabrinovic failed his suicide attempt (the cyanide pill was too old and only induced vomiting) and was severely beaten by onlookers.

 

The couple then attended a reception at the town hall, where Franz was noticeably shaken, saying that he was "greeted with bombs". The motorcade was rerouted to avoid the city center. Meanwhile, another assassin, Gavrilo Princip, positioned himself in front of a food store, when the couple's car accidentally turned onto the side street Princip was at. After being informed that they were going the wrong way, the driver attempted to put their car in reverse- giving Princip ample time to shoot Franz and Sophie at point-blank range.

 

This assassination is widely seen as the direct cause of World War I- Austria-Hungary soon declared war on Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary- this led to a domino effect of polities declaring war on each other, plunging Europe into "the Great War".

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4th president of the United States James Madison died on this day 186 years ago, aged 85.

 

 

Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist Terry Fox died on this day 41 years ago, aged 22.

 

 

American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010 Robert Byrd died on this day 12 years ago, aged 92.

 

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American professional baseball player, manager and coach, Mickey Cochrane, died on this day 60 years ago, aged 59.

 

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On this day seven years ago in 2015   Jope  Seniloli , the former Vice President of Fiji who was convicted of treason in 2004, died aged 76.

Jope  was a Fijian  chief a respected and prestigious position  in Fijian society .In the year 2000 a coup took place that deposed  the elected President  Ratu Sir Kamisese  Mara and elected Prime Minister  Mahendra Chaudhry .

In the aftermath  as a way of appeasing supporters of the coup in Fiji and easing  simmering tensions and splits in the country  Jope was appointed  Vice President.  He was widely understood to be sympathetic to the coup plotters frustrations and anger  but always tried  to claim he assisted in the coup under duress at gunpoint. 

Appeasement was seen not to work and  indeed was problematic to the viability of the post coup government.  He was  later charged  by the Attorney General with illegally swearing himself in as Prime Minister  during the coup and with treason.  He also appointed to his cabinet chief instigators and organisers  of the coup .

 

His claims of duress were rejected  during his trial and he was sentenced to four years in jail in the summer of 2004.  A sentence the judge said would have been longer  but for his past record as serving Fiji as a teacher. 

Controversially he was released from jail after a few months on health grounds.  A decision especially unpopular with much of the military who made clear their opposition to his return to politics when strong persistent rumours emerged that he was going to run for political office in 2006. 

 The military made it clear they would take action if anyone involved in the coup  were to stand in a general election.  Jope denied the rumours of a hope to return and it faded as an issue.

Jope died aged 76 in 2015.

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On this day in 1995 Hollywood actress  , model and icon of glamour  in the golden age of Hollywood,  Lana Turner  died  of cancer aged 74. 

 

Born in Idaho,  Lana was discovered by a talent scout of sorts when spotted  purchasing soda  in Hollywood  after her family relocated to Los Angeles when she was a teenager. She signed to MGM  on an 18 year long personal contract. 

Her first movie was in 1937 as a murder victim in They won't forget  but success and popularity was fairly swift and by the early 1940s  she had evolved beyond  supporting roles as the young naive female ingenue  to leading lady status. 

Her other films include black and white western Honky tonk  (1941) with Clark Gable-an actor she was cast with several times,  Marriage is a private affair (1941),  The Postman always rings twice with John Garfield (1946), The Merry Widow (1952) , Peyton Place (1957) for which she was nominated for an Oscar  and  Who's got me action? (1962) with Dean Martin.

After the success  of The Postman always rings twice the studios were more willing to take risks with Turners casting  moving her away from glamorous sex symbol  to stronger more meaty and dramatic roles. 

 

By  around 1950 her films  were becoming  unsuccessful at the box office most noticeably  in  George Cukor film A life of her own.Its poor reception  led MGM to switch strategy and try and make Lana a star of musical films but this was not fruitful and as lucrative work became harder to come by Lanas finances descended into a mess with bankruptcy looming. This exacerbated her depression  and she attempted  suicide in 1951 but was saved by her business manager who kicked down her locked bathroom door.

 

A turn away from musicals and back to drama helped resurrect her career when she was cast opposite Kirk Douglas in  The bad and the beautiful (1952) directed by Vincente  Minnelli.But in 1956 MGM announced they would not be renewing Lanas contract. 

In her personal life at this point  Lana began  dating  gangster  Johnny Stompanto  who was deeply involved in the criminal underworld in Los Angeles.  Whilst she was filming a movie in London with Sean Connery,  Stompanto  became very suspicious that she was sleeping with Connery because she would not allow him to visit the film set. In one confrontation he tried to strangle her and in another he had a bust up with Sean  and was advised by the police to leave and was immediately taken to the airport.

 

In April 1959  Johnny Stompanto died after Lanas daughter Cheryl  stabbed him after he threatened  to kill both mother and daughter.  The courts deemed it justifiable homicide  but did place Cheryl afterwards in the care of her grandmother. 

   Stompantos son alleged that it was really Lana who killed his father and the daughter was covering for her.  The lawsuit was settled out of court but speculation has never gone away fully.

Overall Lana was arguably just as famous for her  turbulent  private life  as her acting. In her later career Lana took  numerous tv roles including The Love Boat and primetime soap  Falcon Crest -her role in the latter rumoured to have been cut short due to clashes with the shows leading actress Jane Wyman.

 

Lana was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1992 but while she had been a lifetime smoker the public had no idea as  MGM had always insisted photos showing Lana smoking be airbrushed.

Lana died aged 74 which shocked her close family who believed she  was improving after recent  radiation therapy. 

Lana left the bulk of her estate to her maid, who was also her companion for 45 years and carer in her ailing years. Her daughter challenged the will but to little avail as legal expenses squandered most of what was left.

 

 

 

 

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Emperor Moctezuma II died on this day 502 years ago, aged 54.

Also known as Montezuma, he became the emperor of the Mexica (Aztec) Empire in 1502 following the death of his uncle, Ahuitzotl. Among the things he did as emperor included conquest into the modern day Mexican states of Guerrero and Oaxaca. In 1516, a civil war began following the death of the ruler of the city-state Texcoco, in which the state was split into three. One of the rulers of these new city-states, Ixtlilxochitl, disliked Moctezuma.

 

In 1518, Moctezuma was alerted of Juan de Grijalva's arrival on the east coast, and began to set up watchtowers for future sightings- the following year, Hernan Cortes and his crew did so, and Moctezuma was informed ASAP. He sent diplomats to meet the Spaniards, and later met Cortes, gifting him an Aztec calendar, and some silver and gold. Six days later, Moctezuma was put under house arrest by the Spanish- this occurred following an attack on a Spanish garrison by a tribute collector. Hostilities by the occupying Spanish army and native civilians exploded in 1520 with the Massacre in the Great Temple.

 

Five weeks after this incident, the Spanish forced Moctezuma to appear on his balcony to order his people to stop fighting. This had the opposite effect- violence immediately erupted, and Moctezuma was stoned to death. Two more emperors came after him, but their reigns were very short. Spain would rule their land for the next 300 years.

 

Today, travelers' diarrhea that affects tourists visiting Mexico is colloquially known as "Montezuma's revenge".

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Its 58 years since the death of American Jazz musician & composer Eric Dolphy, who died in Berlin aged 36.

 

In June 1964, he travelled to Berlin to perform at a Jazz club, The Tangent. He was so ill, he was barley able to perform, and was taken to hospital, where he lapsed into a diabetic coma and subsequently died. The exact circumstances surrounding his death are disputed - one version says he was diagnosed as being in a diabetic coma, given insulin, which caused him to die of insulin shock, whereas another version says he was taken to hospital, where it was assumed that, as a black jazz musician, he was under the influence of narcotics, and left to sleep it off (he was in fact a teetotal non-smoker, who'd never taken drugs).

 

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American actor William Hickey died on this day 25 years ago, aged 69.

 

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Well the 29th  June  really does seem to be a date  that claims the lives of  a number  of  Hollywood legends. 

As well as  Lana Turner  two more big iconic  Hollywood   names died  on this date. 

Firstly  actress , pin up and playgirl Jayne Mansfield  died  in a car crash in New Orleans on this day in 1967 aged just 34. Three of the mother of fives  children were in the car including  now actress  Mariska  Hargitay.  All of the adults who were in the car  died. 

 

Secondly , one of most acclaimed film actresses of the golden age of Hollywood multi Oscar winning actress  Katherine Hepburn,   died on this day in 2003 aged 96.

 

Her  impressive career  in film , during which she worked with some of the biggest  and most iconic names of the golden age of Hollywood include   The Philadelphia story  (1940) with Cary Grant and James Stewart,  Guess who's coming to dinner? (1967)  with Sidney Poitier and reported lover Spencer  Tracy,  The African Queen (1951) with Humphrey Bogart,  On golden pond  (1981)with Henry and Jane Fonda and Bringing up Baby (1938)  again another successful onscreen pairing with Cary Grant. 

 

 

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American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades Carl Reiner died on this day 2 years ago, aged 98.

 

 

American singer and actress Rosemary Clooney died on this day 20 years ago, aged 74.

 

 

American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the Senate and House of Representatives Henry Clay died on this day 170 years ago, aged 75.

 

 

American politician, government official and businessman who served as secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush Donald Rumsfeld died on this day a year ago, aged 88.

 

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Five years ago on this day in 2017  british film critic, television presenter and journalist  Barry Norman  died aged 83.

Most famous  for the many years he presented the BBCs  Film review show where he most of interviewed the majority of the biggest film stars of the 1970s,  1980s and 1990s. 

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James Oglethorpe died on this day 237 years ago, aged 88.

Oglethorpe was elected to Parliament in 1722- after being cleared of murder during a bar fight, for which he spent 5 months in jail for. After the death of his friend in 1729 in a debtor's prison, Oglethorpe formed a committee to investigate the conditions of the prisons, and described poor conditions and abuse going on there.

 

During his time on the committee, Oglethorpe became friends with fellow MP John Perceval (later the Earl of Egmont). In 1730, the two began a plan to form a new American colony as an asylum for the unemployed. It was determined that the Savannah River was the best spot, providing a buffer zone between South Carolina and then-Spanish-owned Florida. Oglethorpe received a charter in 1732, and arrived in North America the following year.

 

As the colonial governor of Georgia, Oglethorpe founded the city of Savannah, allied with the Yamacraw natives, and granted land for the minority Jewish population (to the chagrin of his Anglican trustees). Oglethorpe would also leave the colony to return to England multiple times, creating a power vacuum- one specific instance was his service during the War of Jenkins' Ear, beginning in 1739. During the war, he attempted to capture St. Augustine in Florida, failed, and resigned as governor.

 

Oglethorpe then fought during the Jacobite Rising, and was promoted to lieutenant general. Oglethorpe lost reelection in Parliament in 1754. Oglethorpe is believed to have joined the Prussian army during the Seven Years' War under a pseudonym, leaving it in 1759 returning to England in 1761. Oglethorpe advocated for Corsican independence, and more quietly supported American independence- in 1785, after the war ended, he met John Adams.

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Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983-1984 and 1986-1992 Yitzhak Shamir died on this day 10 years ago, aged 96.

 

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American professional baseball outfielder Pete Gray died on this day 20 years ago, aged 87.

 

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On this day 56 years ago in 1966,  English novelist  Margery Allingham  died of breast cancer aged 62.

She was regarded as one of the best  writers in the murder mystery genre  became less popular andduring what is  referred to as the 'Golden age of Detective Fiction' - an era primarily in the 1920s and 1930s and  mainly but not exclusively made up of English writers.

 

Along with writers Dorothy L Sayers,  Ngaio Marsh  and Agatha Christie,  Margery Allingham  were referred to as 'The Queens of crime'

Fictional sleuth Albert  Campion  was the character Margery wrote the most novels about.  

The popularity of the light hearted straight forward who done it  detective novel , at which Allingham excelled , waned  in the aftermath of world war two and has never quite reached its  huge successful heights of the 1920 and 1930s again.

 

 

 

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On this day 25 years ago in 1997  American actor and Hollywood legend Robert  Mitchum  died aged 79. He is ranked 23rd on the American film institutes list of the 50 greatest American screen legends of all time.

His acting style  is generally  regarded as being an early foretaste  of the more layered untypical  antiheroes that became more commonplace  in movies in the  50s and 60s  . Initially he found  success in film noir but his roles became broader as he became a mainstream star. Some directors  he worked with such as Howard Hawks  and  John Huston  thought he deserved to be on the same pedestal as actors like Laurence Olivier,  Marlon Brando and Richard Burton. One of americas best known film critics Roger  Ebert  called Mitchum "the soul of film noir ".

    Films he starred in include  Colt Comrades  (1943) with William Boyd,  When Strangers marry (1944) alongside  Kim Hunter,  Nevada (1944)  Desire me (1947) opposite  Greer Garson, His kind of woman (1951) with Jane  Russell, The Hunters (1958) Robert Wagner  and May Britt costarring,  River of no return (1954) opposite Marilyn Monroe  and  The Story of G.I Joe (1945) for which he was  nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar. 

One less known part of Mitchums life is that he was a singer who released a number  of albums and singles in the 1950s.

He continued to act until the mid 1990s. 

A lifelong smoker he died of complications of emphysema and lung cancer.

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Chocolatier Forrest Mars Sr. died on this day 23 years ago, aged 95.

Mars was the son of Frank Mars, founder of confectionary business Mars Incorporated. Forrest joined the company in 1923, and came up with the concept of the Milky Way bar. Forrest also created the Mars Bar (1932), and supervised the development of the 3 Musketeers and Snickers bars. In 1937, he created Maltesers- currently among the most popular British candies.

 

In 1941, Mars made his most-famous candy: M&M's. Inspired by seeing British soldiers eat Smarties candies (not to be confused with a different tablet candy of the same name), Mars got a patent for it, and began exclusively selling it to the US Army- they bought it as snack rations for soldiers during World War II. Soldiers returning home after the war demanded more, and Mars' company expanded with larger and larger factories.

 

Mars retired from the company in 1973, and founded Ethel M Chocolates in 1978. His children (now in charge of Mars Inc.) purchased the factory from him in 1988. At the time of his death, Mars had a net worth of four billion dollars.