Deaths: October 21
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- Actor
- Music Department
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Shannon Hoon was born on 26 September 1967 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Without a Paddle (2004), Private Parts (1997) and Remember the Daze (2007). He was married to Lisa Crouse. He died on 21 October 1995 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Aila Meriluoto was born on 10 January 1924 in Pieksämäki, Finland. She was a writer, known for Haluan rakastaa, Peter (1972), Putoavia enkeleitä (2008) and Calamari Union (1985). She was married to Jouko Pakkanen and Lauri Viita. She died on 21 October 2019 in Finland.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Bengt Feldreich was born on 12 September 1925 in Stockholm, Sweden. He was an actor and director, known for Ungdomsgård i Stadsgården (1955), Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul (1958) and Ringside (1960). He died on 21 October 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden.- Writer
- Actress
Diane Thomas was born on 7 January 1946 in Michigan, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for Romancing the Stone (1984), The Jewel of the Nile (1985) and Game Show Models (1977). She died on 21 October 1985 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Don Fellows was born on 2 December 1922 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) and Superman II (1980). He was married to Miranda Fellows. He died on 21 October 2007 in London, England, UK.
- Donald Bain was born on 6 March 1935 in Mineola, Long Island, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Come Fly with Me: The Story of Pan Am (2011). He was married to Renee Paley-Bain. He died on 21 October 2017 in White Plains, New York, USA.
- Dorothy Hale was born Dorothy Anderson Donovan on January 11, 1905 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Her father, James P. Donovan, was a successful real estate agent. Dorothy was educated at a convent and attended drama school. When she was a teenager she ran away from home to become an actress. Her first professional job was in the 1924 Broadway musical Lady Be Good. She appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies but left the show when she was injured falling down a flight of stairs. Then she decided to move to France to study art. Dorothy married Gaillard Thomas, a millionaire stockbroker, in 1925. They divorced a few years later. In 1929 she married Gardner Hale, a successful painter. The couple had homes in Paris and New York. She became a popular socialite and was called one of the best dressed women in the country. Sadly on December 28, 1931 Gardner was killed in a car accident. The following year she met producer Samuel Goldwyn at a dinner party. He said she was a "great movie find" and announced she would play the lead in Cynara.
Unfortunately she was replaced by Kay Francis and only had a bit part in the film. Then she appeared in the 1934 drama. Her friend Claire Booth Luce cast her in the play Abide By Me. The show was a flop and her performance was panned. By 1937 her acting career was over and she was nearly bankrupt. Dorothy was devastated when her close friend Rosamond Pinchot committed suicide. During the Spring of 1938 she started dating Harry Hopkins, an advisor to President Roosevelt. When he refused to marry her she fell into a deep depression. On October 20, 1938 she had a small party in her Manhattan apartment and attended the theater with some friends. After returning home she spent several hours writing farewell notes. Tragically at 5:15 A.M. on October 21 she committed suicide by jumping out of her sixteenth floor window. The thirty-three year old was still wearing her black evening gown and a flower corsage.. Dorothy was cremated and her ashes were buried at Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium in Middle Village, New York. Artist Frieda Kahlo later immortalized her in the painting "The Suicide Of Dorothy Hale". - Eleanor Witcombe was born on 20 September 1923 in Yorketown, South Australia, Australia. She was a writer, known for My Brilliant Career (1979), The Getting of Wisdom (1977) and Number 96 (1972). She died on 21 October 2018 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elissa Landi was born in Venice, Italy on December 6, 1904. From an early age, she wanted to be an actress and writer. Her acting career started at the Oxford Repertory Company and on London's West End performing with actors such as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. She played Desdemona in "Othello" and appeared in plays with and by Noel Coward (most notably "Blithe Spirit, in which she was forced to enter through the fireplace when the door jammed). She made her London debut in "The Storm," which lasted for five months and for which she received rave reviews for her performances. That led to meaty leads in "Lavendar Ladies" and other plays. European film producers took notice of the photogenic beauty, and Elissa starred in eight films over the next two years. Her first film was the German-made Synd (1928). Her career didn't impress critics, though, until she played Anthea Dane in The Price of Things (1930). She felt that she would make more headway in the U.S., so she went to New York in 1931 to star in the stage version of "A Farewell to Arms." Although the play made no huge impression, Hollywood sat up and took notice, and she soon appeared in Body and Soul (1931) opposite Charles Farrell. However, it wasn't until Cecil B. DeMille's biblical epic The Sign of the Cross (1932) that many moviegoers got their first glimpse of Elissa, and they were enthralled, although she was among such heavyweight stars as Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, and Vivian Tobin. Completed in under eight weeks, the film was a smash hit. After A Passport to Hell (1932) and Devil's Lottery (1932), Elissa scored again in The Warrior's Husband (1933), a film about the intrigues and intricacies of the old Roman Empire that starred Marjorie Rambeau and Ernest Truex. In 1934 Elissa co-starred with Robert Donat in the classic The Count of Monte Cristo (1934). The next year saw Elissa as world-class singer Lisa Robbia, (singing voice dubbed by Nina Koshetz) in Enter Madame! (1934) with Cary Grant, the era's greatest leading man. In Cary Grant's biography, he mentions seeing Elissa at a typewriter, pursuing her other passion, writing, between takes throughout the filming process. After a mediocre role in Mad Holiday (1936), Elissa had a better part as the tormented Selma Landis in the hit After the Thin Man (1936), the second film in the series. She appeared in only three movies after that, the last being the low-budget Corregidor (1943) for bottom-of-the-barrel Producers Releasing Corporation. When that picture was completed, Elissa left films behind and concentrated on writing; she produced six novels and poetry volumes. After Hollywood she concentrated on Broadway, regional theater, and summer stock near Kingston, New York, where she lived with her husband Curtis Thomas and their daughter. Elissa succumbed to cancer on October 21, 1948 at just 43 years old.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Elliott Smith was born on 6 August 1969 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Good Will Hunting (1997), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and Up in the Air (2009). He died on 21 October 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Writer
- Director
- Producer
French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the delinquent Truffaut and also when he was put in jail because he deserted the army. In 1953 Truffaut published his first movie critiques in "Les Cahiers du Cinema." In this magazine Truffaut, and some of his friends as passionate as he was, became defenders of what they call the "author policy". In 1954, as a test, Truffaut directed his first short film. Two years afterwords he assisted Roberto Rossellini with some later abandoned projects.
The year 1957 was an important one for him: he married Madeleine Morgenstern, the daughter of an important film distributor, and founded his own production company, Les Films du Carrosse; named after Jean Renoir's The Golden Coach (1952). He also directed The Mischief Makers (1957), considered the real first step of his cinematographic work. His other big year was 1959: the huge success of his first full-length film, The 400 Blows (1959), was the beginning of the New Wave, a new way of making movies in France. This was also the year his first daughter, Laura Truffaut, was born.
From 1959 until his death, François Truffaut's life and films are mixed up. Let's only note he had two other daughters Eva Truffaut (b. 1961) and Josephine (b. 1982, with French actress Fanny Ardant). Truffaut was the most popular and successful French film director ever. His main themes were passion, women, childhood and faithfulness.- Actor
- Soundtrack
For a while in the 1970s, Fred Berry was one of the biggest stars on American television. The former dancer, who became a star in the sitcom What's Happening!! (1976) ballooned until his weight became a threat to his health. He battled with food, drink, drugs and women, marrying 6 times to 4 women in total. Diabetes was diagnosed, he lost more than 100 pounds and turned to religion. Born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1951, Berry danced with The Lockers, but it was the sitcom deal in 1976 that gave him his big break. The series ran for three seasons. After it was canceled, Berry struggled with personal problems and with the search for another star vehicle. The series was popular through reruns and a further series (What's Happening Now! (1985) was picked up in 1985 and ran for three years, after which Berry gave up acting for religion. He returned to the screen in 1998 in the action movie In the Hood (1998), and his final role was a cameo in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003) in 2003. Berry died on October 21, 2003, aged 52.- Actor
- Soundtrack
George Hall was born on 19 November 1916 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Remember WENN (1996), Big Daddy (1999) and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992). He was married to Cordelia. He died on 21 October 2002 in Hawthorne, New York, USA.- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Gianni Ferrio was born on 16 November 1924 in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy. He was a composer, known for Inglourious Basterds (2009), Look Who's Back (2015) and The Adventurers (1970). He was married to Alba Arnova. He died on 21 October 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Gilberto Aceves Navarro was born on 24 September 1931 in Mexico City, Mexico. He died on 21 October 2019 in Mexico.
- Harp McGuire was born on 1 November 1921 in Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for On the Beach (1959), Outlaws (1960) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He died on 21 October 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Sicilian-born character actor who appeared in scores of American films, usually as an exuberant and demonstrative Italian. As a teenager in 1902, Armetta stowed away on a boat bound for New York. There he did menial jobs until landing a position as a valet and presser at the Lambs Club, the New York actors' club. One of the members took a liking Armetta and arranged a small role for him in a Broadway show. Armetta followed this with many stage roles both in New York and in stock. In the early Twenties, he moved to California in search of work in movies, of which he'd had a taste while in New York. In Hollywood, Armetta slowly gained a name for himself as a character actor, and by the end of the decade, he had carved a niche for himself as a portrayer of humorous and sympathetic Italian immigrants, a position he maintained into the 1940s. He died of heart failure at 57.- Art Director
- Production Designer
- Art Department
Herbert Strabel was born on 14 October 1927 in Berlin, Germany. He was an art director and production designer, known for Cabaret (1972), Enemy Mine (1985) and The NeverEnding Story (1984). He was married to Bärbel. He died on 21 October 2017 in Holzkirchen, Germany.- Horacio Palma was born on 29 April 1931 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He died on 21 October 2016 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Ingo Maurer was born on 12 May 1932 in Reichenau, Constance, Germany. He died on 21 October 2019 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Irma Lozano was born on 24 August 1944 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She was an actress and writer, known for Rosas blancas para mi hermana negra (1970), Maria Isabel (1968) and Yesenia (1971). She was married to José Alonso and Omar González. She died on 21 October 2013 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Jack Kerouac was born into a French-Canadian family and spoke French before he learned English. His father was a printer and a local businessman. His first story was inspired by the radio show "The Shadow". As a young writer he styled himself after Thomas Wolfe, and attended Columbia University. Although his most famous novel is "On the Road", some of his other better known novels are "The Town and the City" and "The Dharma Bums", about a group of writers and Zen. Kerouac, who was married thrice, was a very heavy drinker, which was a major factor in his deteriorating health. He died in 1969, during emergency surgery.- Jerry Fogel was born on 17 January 1936 in Rochester, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), The Day of the Locust (1975) and Police Story (1973). He was married to Sandra Adele Millstein, Barbara Kay Fromm and Brenda Elaine Levison. He died on 21 October 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.
- Cinematographer
Joachim Rønneberg was born on 30 August 1919 in Alesund, Norway. He was a cinematographer, known for Secret War (2012), Les combattants de l'ombre - Des résistants européens contre le nazisme (2011) and Norge Rundt (1976). He was married to Liv Foldal. He died on 21 October 2018 in Alesund, Norway.- José Hernández was born on 10 November 1834 in Perdriel, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a writer, known for La vuelta de Martín Fierro (1974), Nobleza gaucha (1915) and Los hijos de Fierro (1978). He died on 21 October 1886 in Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Josip Elic was born on 10 March 1921 in Butte, Montana, USA. He was an actor, known for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Black Rain (1989) and The Producers (1967). He died on 21 October 2019 in River Edge, New Jersey, USA.
- Judith McGrath was an Australian TV actress who was born and raised in Brisbane, Queensland and she was most known for her roles in Australian TV Drama Prisoner (1979) as acidic and sarcastic officer Colleen 'Po Face' Powell where she stayed for until the 1984 season before moving on and working extensively in the Australian Theatre Company before her next big role in Australian romance/medical drama A Country Practice (1981) and then working several years later in one of Australia's most beloved TV dramas All Saints (1998) which ran for 12 years and earned McGrath a logie nomination for best actress, during the series 493 episodes McGrath only missed one episode.
McGrath retired from acting in 2012 after her final on-screen role on the TV drama Winners & Losers (2011) and lived quietly until her death in 2017. McGrath died in 2017 aged 70 after a battle with lung cancer. - Actor
- Writer
Kevin Meaney was born on 23 April 1956 in Valhalla, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Big (1988), Uncle Buck (1990) and The Nightmare Room (2001). He was married to Mary Ann Halford and Leanne Coronel. He died on 21 October 2016 in Forestburgh, New York, USA.- Lech Ordon was born on 24 November 1928 in Poznan, Wielkopolskie, Poland. He was an actor, known for Letters to Santa (2011), Zona dla Australijczyka (1964) and Hello, Fred the Beard (1978). He was married to Magda. He died on 21 October 2017 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Kentucky-born Marie McDonald, born Cora Marie Frye in 1923, was a leggy, voluptuous blonde starlet who pursued her career with a vengeance but found little reward in the end. Her mother was a former Ziegfeld girl and her grandmother an operatic singer. Her father, on the other hand, was not so artistically inclined, earning a living as a warden at Leavenworth Prison. Her parents divorced when Marie was just 6 years old. Marie's mother remarried and the new family moved to Yonkers, New York, where she attended Roosevelt High School and excelled in piano and wrote for the school newspaper.
Although Marie was offered a college scholarship by Columbia University in journalism, Marie's impressive beauty and physical assets propelled her to try a show business career. A Powers model at 15 (she lied about her age), she quit high school and started entering beauty contests, winning the "Miss Yonkers" and "The Queen of Coney Island" titles, among others. In 1939 she was crowned "Miss New York," but subsequently lost at the "Miss America" pageant.
The attention she received from her beauty titles, however, pointed her straight to the Broadway stage and the "George White's Scandals of 1939." This in turn led to her move to Los Angeles, finding work in the chorus line while trying to break into pictures. She found her first singing work with Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra on his radio show and eventually joined other bands as well. Although Universal signed her up, she couldn't get past a few one-line jobs. She knew publicity would have to be her mode of operation if she was to draw the necessary attention and advance her career.
Press agents dubbed Marie "The Body" and the tag eventually stuck. Though her physical attributes were impressive, her talent was less so. Managing to come her way were the films Guest in the House (1944), Living in a Big Way (1947) with Gene Kelly and Tell It to the Judge (1949). Marie was once in contention for the Billie Dawn role in "Born Yesterday," which could have been her big break, but she lost out to Judy Holliday. The audience simply didn't latch on to Marie and she ended up more on the road doing bus-and-truck shows than anything else.
Despite a plethora of tabloid attention, which included her seven marriages and numerous sex scandals in addition to the publicity hijinks she managed to muster up, notoriety that would have made the late Jayne Mansfield envious, Marie's career eventually stalled and she turned to drink, drugs and despair. This led to frequent skirmishes with the law and more than a few nervous breakdowns. Her last effective role was in the Jerry Lewis starrer The Geisha Boy (1958) where she gamely played a snippy movie star at the mercy of the comedian's outrageous slapstick. In 1965, at age 42, the never-say-die gal finally decided enough was enough and she ended it all with an overdose of pills.- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Martin Eric Ain was an actor and composer, known for Welcome to the 80's (2009), Celtic Frost: A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh (2006) and Celtic Frost: Jewel Throne, Live (1989). He died on 21 October 2017 in Switzerland.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Martin Ingerman was born on March 6, 1936 in New York City. He had an older brother named Arthur. He had a rough childhood and was often picked on. After he finished school, he went into the army. Later, he appeared in a couple of game shows and won. He wanted to be an actor so he went to California. He lived with another guy and actually ended up dating and eventually marrying his roommate's girlfriend.
Marty made a couple of movies, but made it big when he starred with John Astin in I'm Dickens, He's Fenster (1962). Soon after the show went off the air, he and his wife divorced.
He met and married Shirley Jones and became stepfather to Shaun, Ryan, and Patrick Cassidy, sons of Jones from her marriage to Jack Cassidy. He worked some, but Shirley was primarily the breadwinner. Eventually he started putting some money away and in a couple of years was able to accumulate over a million dollars. In 1999, he and Shirley separated for six months, but then got back together. They live in Encino, California, with three dogs.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ms. Andrews and her sisters, Patty and Laverne, were one of the most successful women's singing groups, with 19 gold records and sales of nearly 100 million copies. The sisters began performing in the early 1930's when the Depression wiped out their father's business. In 1937, the trio of sisters scored their first big hit with 'Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen'. In addition to 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, ' their best-known songs included 'Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree' and 'Rum and Coca Cola'. The trio officially broke up after the death of Laverne in 1967, but temporarily interrupted their feud to star in the 1974 Broadway musical "Over Here!". Ms. Andrews began a solo career in 1979. Her album and its title, were released in 1990, 'Maxene: An Andrews Sister'. Her last performance was on Sunday, October 8th, 1995, in the show 'Swing Time Canteen', at New York City's Blue Angel Theater.- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Michael Gleason was born in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for McCloud (1970), Remington Steele (1982) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1996). He was married to Lynne Randall and Jan Anderson. He died on 21 October 2016 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Possessing one of TV's more identifiable mugs, Jewish-American character actor Milton Selzer was here, there and everywhere in the 1960s and 1970s, playing a host of usually unsympathetic mobsters, gamblers, and crooks with a sad, almost pathetic quality in about every popular crime story offered, notably The Untouchables (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Hawaii Five-O (1968) and Mission: Impossible (1966). Always in demand with his trademark glum face, bulb nose and spoon-shaped ears, Selzer went on to enjoy a five-decade plus career.
Milton was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1918 but moved with his family while young to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Graduating from Portsmouth High School in 1936, he studied at the University of New Hampshire before serving in World War II. Moving to New York, he trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and The New School in the 1940s and received his first big break with minor roles in the Broadway classical plays "Richard III", "Julius Caesar" and "Arms and the Man". In the late 1950s, Selzer turned to film and (especially) to TV's "Golden Age", making an early mark in solid ethnic roles (German, Arab, etc.)
He finally made a definitive move to Los Angeles in 1960. Occasional movies included The Last Mile (1959), The Young Savages (1961), Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), In Enemy Country (1968) and Lady Sings the Blues (1972), but it was the small screen that proved a sounder medium for him. With hundreds upon hundreds of guest parts to his credit, he also was called upon to play more upstanding gents including store-owners, judges and colonels on occasion, always offering a solid, authentic presence to every sound stage he set foot on.
In later years Selzer managed a few regular series roles including Needles and Pins (1973) and The Famous Teddy Z (1989). Broaching 80 years old, he officially retired in the late 1990s and passed away of pulmonary and stroke complications just shy of age 88 in Oxnard, California.- Actor
- Writer
Peter Barkworth was born on 14 January 1929 in Margate, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Where Eagles Dare (1968), Patton (1970) and The Price (1985). He died on 21 October 2006 in Hampstead, London, England, UK.- Raúl Rossi was born on 25 June 1925 in Argentina. He was an actor, known for Todo el año es Navidad (1960), La extraña dama (1989) and Somos novios (1969). He died on 21 October 1993 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
The son of a physician, Raymond Hatton entered films in 1909, eventually appearing in almost 500 other pictures. In early silents he formed a comedy team with big, burly Wallace Beery. He was best known as the tobacco-chewing, rip-snorting Rusty Joslin in the Three Mesquiteers series. He was also in the Rough Riders series and appeared as Johnny Mack Brown's sidekick as well. His last Western was, fittingly, Requiem for a Gunfighter (1965).- Robert Faurisson was born on 25 January 1929 in the UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Chroniques de France (1964), L'antisémite (2012) and Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992). He was married to Anne-Marie Tuloup. He died on 21 October 2018 in Vichy, Allier, France.
- Robert Winley was born on 9 December 1952 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Joy Ride (2001) and Near Dark (1987). He died on 21 October 2001 in Costa Mesa, California, USA.
- Rosaura Barahona was born on 12 October 1942 in Mexico City, Mexico. She was a writer, known for El destierro (1976). She died on 21 October 2017 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
English character actress with a penchant for genteel aristocrats and kindly mothers. The daughter of teachers, she "spent some time selling shoes in Reading" before entering the acting profession. Aged eighteen, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her debut in repertory theatre at Amersham in 1955. Rosemary Leach enjoyed a prolific and varied career in both supporting and leading roles on the screen (though, by her own account, preferred radio and the stage). She became a familiar presence, most notably in television period dramas and sitcoms. Her roles have included Queen Victoria in Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic (1978) (she also played Queen Elizabeth II on at least four occasions on both stage and screen),scatterbrained Aunt Fenny in The Jewel in the Crown (1984) (which fostered her fascination with India and resulted in several subsequent visits) , the swindled widow Joan Plumleigh-Bruce -- victim of 1930's social climbing con man Ralph Ernest Gorse -- in The Charmer (1987), one of three nannies working for wealthy families in Edwardian London's exclusive Berkeley Square (1998),the verger's wife, Mrs. Tope, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1993) and Zoë Wanamaker's habitually Martini-imbibing mother Grace in My Family (2000). She was twice nominated for BAFTA awards, latterly as Best Supporting Actress for her role as the kindly Mrs. Honeychurch in A Room with a View (1985). Her own personal favourite roles have included Miss Adelaide in a 1973 Birmingham Repertory Theatre production of "Guys and Dolls" and that of eccentric real life author Helene Hanff in "84 Charing Cross Road" (1981, Ambassador Theatre, London) for which she received an Olivier Award as Best Actress.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Drummer, singer, songwriter and guitarist Sandy West was born as Sandy Pesavento on July 10, 1959 in Long Beach, California and was raised in Huntington Beach. The most athletic of seven sisters, Sandy was an avid surfer and water skier. West began playing the violin as a kid, but soon switched to drums at age nine after her grandfather bought her a drum kit. She started performing in public at age thirteen as the sole female member of a local band. At age sixteen Sandy co-founded the seminal all-female rock group the Runaways in 1975. She was an important member of the band for four years and wrote all her own drum parts. While the Runaways failed to achieve much commercial success in America, they were a huge smash in Japan, where they performed in arenas to sold out crowds and released a live album that went gold. Alas, the Runaways broke up in 1979. West formed her own group the Sandy West Band and released the solo album "The Beat is Back." Unable to support herself as a musician, Sandy worked mainly in construction as well as a small amount of time as both a bartender and a veterinary assistant in order to keep herself afloat. However, she did continue to perform live in concert with former the Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie on several occasions throughout the years. Moreover, West was widely acknowledged as an exceptionally fine and proficient drummer who influenced many women rock musicians to start playing the drums. She's featured as an interview subject in the 2004 documentary "Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways." Sandy was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005. Sandy West died at the tragically young age of 47 on October 21, 2006.- Tara Correa-McMullen was born on 24 May 1989 in Westminster, Vermont, USA. She was an actress, known for Rebound (2005), Judging Amy (1999) and Zoey 101 (2005). She died on 21 October 2005 in Inglewood, California, USA.
- Willie Brown was born on 2 December 1940 in Yazoo City, Mississippi, USA. He was married to Yvonne. He died on 21 October 2019 in Tracy, California, USA.