Death Anniversary Thread

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Christopher Reeve died on this day 20 years ago, aged 52.

- Reeve attended Juilliard before going into professional acting, and was classmates with Robin Williams there. His first major role was as Nicky in the Broadway play A Matter of Gravity, where he would befriend Katharine Hepburn.

- Reeve would quickly become a star when in 1978, he was cast as Superman, starring in a quadrilogy of films as the superhero until 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. He was planned to star in a fifth Superman movie, but Superman IV was panned to where its production company (Cannon Films) went bankrupt:

- Other movies Reeve was known for starring in included Deathtrap (alongside Michael Caine), Switching Channels, Bump in the Night, and The Rose and the Jackal.

- Reeve took up horse riding as a hobby in 1985 (despite the fact he was mildly allergic to horsehair, but soon overcame his allergies), and began competing in dressage competitions. A 1995 accident during one of these would put an end to that and his acting career- but began a new one for him.

- After snapping his neck in the injury (which rendered him quadriplegic), Reeve would become an activist for people with physical disabilities. He would host the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta, and was elected the chairman of the American Paralysis Association that same year (which was renamed after him and his wife Dana in 2007). He was also known for making a guest appearance on Sesame Street in 2000 (he was also a guest star on The Muppet Show in 1980):

- Reeve died after going into cardiac arrest, believed to have been caused by an antibiotic he took which his body rejected.

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American comedian, actor, dancer, singer, songwriter, film producer, screenwriter and author Eddie Cantor died on this day 60 years ago, aged 72.

 

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Neal Hefti died on this day 16 years ago, aged 85.

- Hefti was inspired to become a musician after watching performances by people like Dizzy Gillespie and Cab Calloway, and would begin writing his own compositions in his late teens for local bands in Nebraska that included (lesser-remembered) bandleaders such as Nat Towles and Money Johnson. He would also join big bands as a trumpet player. In 1950 Hefti began writing songs for one of his idols- Count Basie, and he wrote most of the songs on one of his most well-received albums, 1958's The Atomic Mr. Basie.

- As the era of swing and jazz came to an end thanks to rock and roll, Hefti would soon seek work as a film and TV composer. Among his most well-known soundtracks included both the movie and TV show adaptations of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, and the 1965 film Harlow for which he received a Grammy nomination for its title song "Girl Talk":

However, Hefti's most famous composition was the theme song for the Adam West Batman show:

- Hefti retired following his wife's death in 1978, and lived for another three decades.

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American chemist and inventor James Franklin Hyde died on this day 25 years ago, aged 96.

 

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Jay Ward died on this day 35 years ago, aged 69.

- Ward's first cartoon was 1948's Crusader Rabbit, the first animated series designed specifically for television. The show ran until 1952, but Ward ended up losing the rights to the characters to the network.

- Ward's most famous creation was The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (titular moose and squirrel seen above), running from 1959 to 1964. The show would also introduce other famous cartoon characters in its other segments, Dudley Do-Right and Peabody's Improbable History. Ward followed this with the equally-famous George of the Jungle in 1967; each of these properties eventually got the film treatment (some better than others).

- Ward used his Rocky and Bullwinkle fame to lease an island, dubbing it "Moosylvania" after Bullwinkle's fictional home. He would make a petition to have Moosylvania become a state, and would end up going to Washington, DC to meet with John F. Kennedy- the only problem was that he arrived the day the Cuban Missile Crisis began and had to scrap these plans.

- Ward was also known for making the original design of Cap'n Crunch:

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Norwegian figure skater and film star Sonja Henie died on this day 55 years ago, aged 57.