Death Anniversary Thread

[Drewsky1211 4,273]

Buddy Hackett died on this day 21 years ago, aged 78.

- Hackett's real name was Leonard Hacker. During his teenage years, he would perform stand-up comedy under the name "Butch Hacker", taking his stage name following WWII.

- Hackett's first film was a 1950 short about bowling techniques, where he would comedically perform deliberately errant bowls. The producer for the Three Stooges offered for him to join them after seeing it, but Hackett declined as he wanted to develop his solo career.

- Hackett would have successes on TV starring as the titular character in the 1956 sitcom Stanley, and would soon appear in films such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Music Man:

- Hackett would take a break from acting in the 1970s to pursue poetry, culminating in the book The Naked Mind of Buddy Hackett. He would see a comeback in the late '80s by starring in Scrooged as Ebenezer Scrooge, and voicing Scuttle in Disney's The Little Mermaid:

- Hackett had longtime heart disease and refused surgery, and his death was hastened by diabetes and a stroke he suffered shortly before he died.

[Drewsky1211 4,273]

Forrest Mars Sr. died on this day 25 years ago, aged 95.

- Mars was the son of Franklin Mars, the founder of Mars Inc. He would join his father at the company, and wished to expand the company internationally, unlike his father.

- Mars would supervise the development of Snickers and 3 Musketeers, before franchising the company to the UK. Mars himself would then proceed to create the Mars Bar and Maltesers there:

In 1941, Mars would create M&M's- specifically the milk chocolate flavor:

- After the death of his father, Mars would found another food business (the generically-named Food Products Manufacturing), where he would make pet food and created the Uncle Ben's brand of rice. He would merge this company into Mars Inc. in 1964.

- Mars would retire from Mars Inc. in 1973, giving control to his children. He would found another candy company in 1980, Ethel M Chocolates, which would be bought out by his kids in 1988.

[Drewsky1211 4,273]

Henry the Fowler died on this day 1088 years ago, aged 59.

- Henry was the son of Otto, the duke of Saxony, and would succeed his father as duke after his death in 912.

- In 919, Henry would be elected king of East Francia, having been handpicked by his predecessor Conrad I before he died. Henry was the first non-Frank to take the throne (a Saxon), and reportedly got his epithet because he was reportedly fixing his bird traps when messengers arrived to inform him of his election as king.

- Henry was known for his military exploits during his reign, going to war with West Francia, Hungary, multiple Slavic tribes, and Denmark. He was nearly killed in battle with Hungarian troops in the Battle of Puchen in the first year of his rule, but had driven them away from Germany by 933.

- Henry was the founder of the Ottonian dynasty of German monarchs, named after his son and successor Otto I.

[John "요한" Sulu 389]

On this day 20 years ago, Marlon Brando, who played Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" trilogy passed away at the age of 80.