Mysterious Hollywood Deaths
Questions still remain surrounding these deaths.
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Today screen actor Robert (Bobby) Harron is one of Hollywood's forgotten souls, although he was a huge celebrity in his time and graced some of the silent screen's most enduring masterpieces. A talented, charismatic star in his heyday, Bobby had everything going for him but died far too young to make the longstanding impression he certainly deserved.
Bobby was born one of nine children in New York City to an impoverished Irish-American family. In order to put food on the table, Bobby started out quite young looking for work. At age 13 he found a job working for the American Biograph Studio on East 14th Street as a messenger boy and was given a couple of film bits for added measure. Within the next year director D.W. Griffith had joined the company and the sensitive, highly photogenic Bobby caught the legendary director's eye almost immediately.
Bobby subsequently had leading roles in many of Griffith's classic silents, usually playing characters that were much younger and much more naive than in real life. He appeared opposite other legendary female stars who also played "young-ish" roles, notably Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish. Bobby made indelible impressions in The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), An Old Fashioned Young Man (1917), Hearts of the World (1918), A Romance of Happy Valley (1919) and True Heart Susie (1919).
Bobby had become such a sensation that in 1920 he entertained thoughts about leaving the Griffith fold and forming his own company. A fatal, self-inflicted bullet wound to the left lung in September of 1920 ended those dreams before they ever got off the ground. Although it was listed as an "accidental" death, Hollywood rumor has it that a despondent Bobby killed himself in a New York hotel room on the eve of the premiere of Griffith's new film Way Down East (1920). It seems Bobby was devastated after being passed over by Griffith for the lead role in favor of the director's new protégé, Richard Barthelmess. Whatever the truth may be, Bobby's death remains a tragic mystery. Ironically, Bobby had two lesser known sibling actors who also died quite young. Tessie Harron (1896-1918) died at age 22 of Spanish influenza, and John Harron (1904-1939), nicknamed Johnnie, collapsed and died of spinal meningitis at age 35. Both appeared unbilled in Hearts of the World (1918) with Bobby.- Actress
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.
Wood was born July 20, 1938 in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents: housewife Maria Gurdin (née Zoodiloff), known by multiple aliases including Mary, Marie and Musia, and second husband Nick Gurdin (née Zacharenko), a janitor and prop builder. Nicholas was born in Primorsky Krai, son of a chocolate-factory worker. Maria was born in Barnaul, southern Siberia to a wealthy industrialist. Natalie's maternal grandfather owned soap and candle factories.
Wood's parents had to migrate due to the Russian Civil War. Her paternal grandfather joined the anti-Bolshevik civilian forces early in the war and was killed in a street fight between Red and White Russian soldiers. This convinced the Zacharenkos to migrate to Shanghai, China, where they had relatives. Wood's paternal grandmother remarried in 1927 and moved the family to Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1933 they resettled along the U.S. West Coast. Nicholas met Wood's mother, four years his senior, while she was still married to Alexander Tatuloff, an Armenian mechanic she divorced in 1936.
Mary Tatuloff, Wood's mother, had unfulfilled ambitions of becoming a ballet dancer. She grew up in the Chinese city of Harbin and had married Alexander there in 1925. The Tatuloffs had one daughter, Ovsanna, before coming to America in 1930. After marrying Nicholas Zacharenko in 1938, five months before Wood's birth, Mary (now calling herself Marie) transferred her dream of stardom onto her second child. Marie frequently took a young Wood with her to the cinema, where she could study the films of Hollywood child stars.
Wood's parents changed the family name to Gurdin upon obtaining U.S. citizenship, and her pseudonymous mother finally settled on a permanent first name: Maria. In 1942 they bought a house in Santa Rosa, where young Natalie was noticed by members of a crew during a film shoot. She got to audition for roles as an actress, and the family moved to Los Angeles to help seek out roles for her. RKO Radio Pictures' executives William Goetz and David Lewis chose the stage name Wood for her, in reference to director Sam Wood. Natalie's younger sister Svetlana Gurdin would eventually follow an acting career as well, under the stage name Lana Wood.
Wood made her film debut in Happy Land (1943). She was only five years old, and her scene as the "Little Girl Who Drops Ice Cream Cone" lasted 15 seconds. Wood somehow attracted the interest of film director Irving Pichel who remained in contact with her family. She had few job offers over the following two years, but Pichel helped her get a screen test for a more substantial role in the romance film Tomorrow Is Forever (1946). Wood passed through an audition and won the role of Margaret Ludwig, a post-World War II German orphan. At the time, Wood was unable to "cry on cue" for a key scene, so her mother tore a butterfly to pieces in front of her, giving her a reason to cry for the scene.
Wood started appearing regularly in films following this role and soon received a contract with 20th Century Fox. Her first major role was that of Susan Walker in the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which was a commercial and critical hit. Wood got her first taste of fame, and afterwards Macy's invited her to appear in the store's annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Following her early success, Wood receive many more film offers. She typically appeared in family films, cast as the daughter of such stars as Fred MacMurray, Margaret Sullivan, James Stewart, Joan Blondell, and Bette Davis. Wood found herself in high demand and appeared in over twenty films as a child actress.
The California laws of the era required that until reaching adulthood, child actors had to spend at least three hours per day in the classroom. Wood received her primary education on the studio lots, receiving three hours of school lessons whenever she was working on a film. She was reportedly a "straight A student." Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was quite impressed by Wood's intellect. After school hours ended, Wood would hurry to the set to film her scenes.
While Wood acquired the services of agents, her early career was micromanaged by her mother. An older Wood gained her first major television role in the short-lived sitcom The Pride of the Family (1953). At the age of 16, she found more success with the role of Judy in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). She played the role of a teenage girl who wears makeup and dresses up in racy clothes to attract the attention of a father who typically ignores her. The film's success helped Wood make the transition from child actress to an ingenue. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Her next significant film was The Searchers (1956), a western in which she played the role of abduction victim Debbie Edwards, niece of John Wayne's character. The film was a commercial and critical hit, and has since become regarded as a masterpiece. Also in 1956, Wood graduated from Van Nuys High School. She signed a contract with Warner Brothers, where she was kept busy with several new films. To her disappointment, she was typically cast as the girlfriend of the protagonist and received roles of little depth. For a while, WB had her paired with teen heartthrob Tab Hunter. The studio was hoping that the pairing would serve as a box-office draw, but this did not work out. One of Wood's only serious roles from this period was the title character in Marjorie Morningstar (1958), as a young Jewish girl whose efforts to create her own identity and career path clash with the expectations of her family. The film was a critical success, and fit well with other films exploring the restlessness of youth in the '50s.
Wood's first major box office flop was the biographical film All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), examining the rags to riches story of jazz musician Chet Baker without actually using his name. The film's box office earnings barely covered the production costs, and MGM recorded a loss of $1,108,000. For the first time. Wood's appeal to the audience was in doubt. With her career in decline following this failure, Wood was seen as "washed up" by many in the film community. But director Elia Kazan gave her the chance to audition for the role of the sexually-repressed Wilma Dean Loomis in his upcoming film Splendor in the Grass (1961). Kazan cast Wood as the female lead, because he found in her (in his words): a "true-blue quality with a wanton side that is held down by social pressure." Kazan is credited for producing Wood's most powerful moment as an actress. The film was a critical success, with Wood nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Wood's next important film was West Side Story (1961), where she played Maria, a restless Puerto Rican girl. Wood was once again called to represent the restlessness of youth, this time in a story involving youth gangs and juvenile delinquents. The film was a great commercial success with about $44 million gross, the highest-grossing film of 1961. It was also critically acclaimed, and is still regarded as one of the best films of Wood's career. Her next film was Gypsy (1962), playing the role of burlesque entertainer and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Film historians credit the film as an even better role for Wood than that of Maria, with witty dialogue, a greater emotional range, and complex characterization. The film was the eighth highest-grossing release of 1962, and was well-received critically.
Wood's next significant role was that of Macy's salesclerk Angie Rossini in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). In the film, Angie has a one-night-stand with musician Rocky Papasano, played by Steve McQueen, finds herself pregnant and desperately seeks an abortion. The film under-performed at the box office but was critically well-received. Wood received her third (and last) nomination for an Academy Award. At age 25, Wood was tied with Teresa Wright as the youngest person to score three Oscar nominations. Wood held that designation until 2013, when Jennifer Lawrence achieved her third nomination at age 23.
Wood continued her successful film career until 1966, but her health status was not as successful. She was suffering emotionally and had sought professional therapy. She paid Warner Bros. $175,000 to cancel her contract and was able to retire for a while. She also fired her entire support team: agents, managers, publicist, accountant, and attorneys. She took a three-year hiatus from acting.
Wood made her comeback in the comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) with the themes of sexual liberation and wife swapping. It was a box office hit. Wood decided to gamble her $750,000 fee on a percentage of the gross, earning a million dollars in profits. She chose not to capitalize on the film's success, however, and did not take another acting job for five years.
In 1970, Wood was married to the screenwriter Richard Gregson and was expecting her first child, Natasha Gregson Wagner. She went into semi-retirement to be a stay-at-home mom, appearing in only four more theatrical films before her death. These films were the mystery comedy Peeper (1975), the science fiction film Meteor (1979), the comedy The Last Married Couple in America (1980), and the posthumously-released science fiction film Brainstorm (1983).
In the late '70s, Wood found success in television roles, appearing in several made-for-TV movies and the mini-series From Here to Eternity (1979). Her project received high ratings, and she had plans to make her theatrical debut in a 1982 production of Anastasia.
On November 28, 1981, Wood joined her last husband Robert Wagner, their married friend Christopher Walken, and captain Dennis Davern on a weekend boat trip to Catalina Island. Conspicuously absent from the group was Christopher's wife, casting director Georgianne Walken. The four of them were on board the Wagners' yacht "Splendour." Earwitness Marilyn Wayne heard cries for help around 11:05 P.M. and a "man's voice slurred, and in aggravated tone, say something to the effect of, 'Oh, hold on, we're coming to get you,' and not long after, the cries for help subsided." On the morning of November 29, Wood's corpse was recovered 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away from the boat, near small Valiant-brand inflatable dinghy beached nearby. The toxicology report revealed her blood alcohol level was at .14, over the legal limit of .10. Wood was buried on December 2 at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Nine days later, the LACSD officially closed the case.- Music Artist
- Composer
- Music Department
Born in New York City, Tupac grew up primarily in Harlem. In 1984, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he became good friends with Jada Pinkett Smith. His family moved again in 1988 to Oakland, California. His first breakthrough in music came in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground. In the same year he received individual recognition for his album "2Pacalypse Now," but this album was also the beginning of his notoriety as a leading figure of the gangster permutation of hip-hop, with references to cop killing and sexual violence. His solo movie career also began in this year with Juice (1992), and in 1992 he co-starred with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (1993).
However, law confrontations were soon to come: A 15-day jail term in 1994 for assault and battery and, in 1995, a conviction for sexual assault of a female fan. After serving 8 months pending an appeal, Shakur was released from jail.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
George Reeves was born George Keefer Brewer in Woolstock, Iowa, to Helen Roberta (Lescher) and Donald C. Brewer. He was of German, English, and Scottish descent. Following his parents' divorce and his mother's remarriage to Frank J. Bessolo, Reeves was raised in Pasadena, California, and educated at Pasadena Junior College.
He was a skilled amateur boxer and musician. He interned as an actor at the famed Pasadena Playhouse, performed in dozens of plays, and was discovered there by casting director Maxwell Arnow. He was cast as Stuart Tarleton in Gone with the Wind (1939). While shooting the film, he appeared in another play at the Pasadena Playhouse and was seen there and signed by Warner Bros. studios. Over the next ten years he was contracted to Warners, Fox and Paramount.
He achieved near-stardom as the male lead in So Proudly We Hail! (1943), but war service interrupted his career, and after he returned it never regained the same level. While in the Army Air Corps he appeared on Broadway in "Winged Victory," then made training films. Career difficulties after the war led him to move to New York for live television. It was television where he achieved the kind of fame that had eluded him in films, as he was cast in the lead of the now-iconic Adventures of Superman (1952). He got a few film roles in the early 1950s, but he was mostly typecast as Superman, and other acting jobs soon dried up. His career had slid to the point where he was considering an attempt at exhibition wrestling when he committed suicide by shooting himself.
Controversy still surrounds his death, due mainly to the fact of his longtime affair with Toni Mannix (aka Toni Mannix), the wife of MGM executive E.J. Mannix. Many of Reeves' friends and colleagues didn't believe that he had committed suicide but that his death was related to the Mannix situation. However, no credible evidence has ever been produced to support that contention.- Born in Boston of Irish ancestry and raised in Dallas, Jack Nance traveled throughout the country doing children's theater. For eight years, he performed with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Later, he became involved with avant-garde theater. He first met David Lynch in the early 1970s in Philadelphia while he was performing in a local theater, and Lynch decided to cast him as the lead in Eraserhead (1977). Originally, it was to be a six-week shooting project, but due to budget restrictions and technical complications, the production and filming took nearly five years to complete. Nance relocated to Los Angeles in the early 1980s, where he appeared in unusual and widely praised films that were not always considered mainstream Hollywood. He has appeared in almost every movie by Lynch, including the television series Twin Peaks (1990), usually playing secondary characters or quirky supporting parts. Nance died suddenly and unexpectedly on December 30, 1996 from an apparent internal head injury the morning after getting into a physical brawl at a donut shop with some rowdy patrons.
- Actor
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- Director
David Carradine was born in Hollywood, California, the eldest son of legendary character actor John Carradine, and his wife, Ardanelle Abigail (McCool). He was a member of an acting family that included brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine as well as his daughters Calista Carradine and Kansas Carradine, and nieces Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton.
He was born in Hollywood and educated at San Francisco State College, where he studied music theory and composition. It was while writing music for the Drama Department's annual revues that he discovered his own passion for the stage, joining a Shakespearean repertory company and learning his craft on his feet. After a two-year stint in the army, he found work in New York as a commercial artist and later found fame on Broadway in "The Deputy" and "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" opposite Christopher Plummer. With that experience he returned to Hollywood, landing the lead in the short-lived TV series Shane (1966) before being tapped to star opposite Barbara Hershey in Martin Scorsese's first Hollywood film, Boxcar Bertha (1972). The iconic Kung Fu (1972) followed, catapulting Carradine to super-stardom for the next three years, until he left the series to pursue his film career.
That career included more than 100 feature films, a couple of dozen television movies, a whole range of theater on and off Broadway and another hit series, Kung Fu: A Legend Reborn (1992).
Carradine received the Best Actor Award from the National Board of Film Review as well as a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory (1976), and he won critical acclaim for his work as Cole Younger in The Long Riders (1980). "Kung Fu" also received seven Emmy nominations in its first season, including one for Carradine as Best Actor. In addition, he won the People's Prize at the Cannes Film Festival's "Director's Fortnight" for his work on Americana (1981), and a second Golden Globe nomination for his supporting role in North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985). Among his other notable film credits were Gray Lady Down (1978), Mean Streets (1973), Bird on a Wire (1990), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Serpent's Egg (1977) and Circle of Iron (1978). He returned to the screen in what could be his greatest performance, playing the title role in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), for which he received his fourth Golden Globe nomination. He also continued his devotion to music, and recorded some 60 tracks in various musical genres and sang in several movies. He made his home in Los Angeles with his fifth wife Annie, her four children and their two dogs.
Found dead in Bangkok, Thailand, on June 3, 2009, aged 72.- Bob Crane was born in Waterbury, CT, the youngest of two sons. In school he was known for being a class clown and an intense music lover. His favorites were jazz and big band. Bob's specialty was the drums. After graduating from Stamford High School in 1946, he turned his attention to his love for music. He became a drummer with the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra for about a year. He was later dismissed for not being "serious enough". In 1949 Bob married Ann Terzian, his high school sweetheart. They had three children - Robert David Crane, Debbie, and Karen. In 1956 Bob and his family left the east and moved out west to California. There he began a lengthy, successful career in radio. He worked at KNX radio and became "King of the Airwaves" in Los Angeles. His radio program became a huge success, the most listened to on the air. This was due to Crane's personality and humor. He had charm and an undeniable quick wit. Hollywood's biggest and brightest were frequently interviewed by Bob on his show, including Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Marvin Gaye, Mary Tyler Moore, and Bob Hope. In the midst of his success, Bob's true goal was to make it big as an actor. He began to make guest appearances on such shows as The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He also appeared in the 1961 films, Return to Peyton Place (1961) and Man-Trap (1961). In 1963 Bob got a role on the popular The Donna Reed Show (1958), as "Dr. Dave Kelsey". After two years the producers let him go, saying his character was "too suggestive". This was no problem for Crane. In 1965 he received the starring role in a new sitcom for CBS called Hogan's Heroes (1965). It was a comedy about a group of POWs in a Nazi prison camp. He played the smooth-talking, crafty "Colonel Robert Hogan". Hogan's Heroes became a hit show, finishing in the top 10 at the end of the 1965-66 season. Crane was nominated for an Emmy twice, in 1966 and 1967. He had reached the peak of his success. It was during this time that Crane met Patti Olson, known as Sigrid Valdis. She played "Hilda" on Hogan's Heroes. Bob divorced his wife, Ann, after 20 years of marriage, and married Patti in 1970. They married on the set of "Hogan's Heroes". They had a son, Scott Crane, in 1971. Also in 1971, the new president of CBS abruptly canceled Hogan's Heroes after a 6-year run. Following the end of Hogan's Heroes Bob continued to act. However the roles were few and not very fulfilling. He starred in Superdad (1973) and Gus (1976), two Disney films, and had guest spots on shows, including Police Woman (1974), Ellery Queen (1975), and The Love Boat (1977). Bob briefly had his own show, The Bob Crane Show (1975), in 1975. Unfortunately, NBC canceled the show after 3 months. In 1973 Bob bought the rights to the play "Beginner's Luck". He both directed the play and starred in it. The play went around the country, including California, Texas, Hawaii, and Arizona. In June, 1978 Bob took "Beginner's Luck" to Scottsdale, Arizona. It was in Scottsdale that the unthinkable happened. In the early morning hours of June 29, 1978, Bob Crane was brutally murdered in his rented apartment room. He was beaten to death, while he slept, and strangled with an electrical cord. He was 49 years old. His murder remains unsolved.
- A stage actor from 1927, Albert Dekker was an established Broadway star when he made his film debut ten years later. Tall and with rugged good looks, he often played aggressive character roles, a prime example being his double-crossing gang leader in the classic The Killers (1946). From 1944-46 he served a term in the California legislature representing the Hollywood district. As he got older Dekker, unlike many actors, turned to the stage rather than television, and achieved great success there and on the college lecture circuit. His last role, in The Wild Bunch (1969), was one of his most memorable: the tough railroad detective Harrigan, who hires a murderous group of bounty hunters to track down and kill a gang of outlaws who've been robbing his company's trains.
- Elizabeth Short was born July 29th, 1924, in Medford, Massachusetts, to Phoebe and Cleo Short. When she was five her father disappeared; his car was later found near a lake, apparently abandoned, which led to the belief that he had committed suicide. However, he later appeared at home and apologized to his wife for leaving the family like that. Nevertheless, she wouldn't take him back, and he left the family again and moved to the West Coast.
Elizabeth developed a passion for movies in her youth, and when she turned 19 she decided to visit her father in California. She stayed with him for a while, but it wasn't long before he kicked her out for "not doing anything with her life"; apparently he also wasn't enamored of the fact that Elizabeth was dating a lot of different men.
After moving out, Elizabeth traveled to Santa Barbara where she was arrested for underage drinking and sent back home to Massachusetts. She returned to southern California in 1946.
On January 15th, 1947, her body was found cut in half in a vacant lot in Leimert Park. It was assumed that she had died the previous day. The press named the crime "The Black Dahlia murder", mostly because of Elizabeth's dark hair and her practice of often times wearing black or dark clothing.
The murder started one of the most intense investigations in Los Angeles history, but although the police said they did have suspects, no arrests were ever made. The case still remains unsolved. - Director
- Actor
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Born in Carlow, Ireland. Came to USA c. 1890. Worked as stage actor, engineer, antique dealer, gold miner. Entered silent film industry as actor in 1912; most noted film as actor was Captain Alvarez (1914) for Vitagraph. Directed first film for Balboa Films in 1914. Subsequently directed for American Film, Favorite Players, Pallas, Morosco, Fox, Famous Players-Lasky, Select, Realart and Paramount. Served in the British Army 1918-1919 then resumed his Hollywood career. Served as president of the Motion Picture Directors' Association for three terms. Stars he directed included Mary Pickford Dustin Farnum Wallace Reid and Mary Miles Minter . Directed Davy Crockett (1915) , Tom Sawyer (1917) , Anne of Green Gables (1919) and Huckleberry Finn (1920) among others. His unsolved murder in 1922 remains one of Hollywood's greatest mysteries.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Christa Helm was born on 10 November 1949 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. She was an actress, known for Let's Go for Broke (1974), Wonder Woman (1975) and Legacy of Satan (1974). She was married to Gary Clements. She died on 12 February 1977 in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Thelma Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, an industrial city near the New Hampshire state line. She was a lovely child with good academic tendencies, so much so that she decided early on to become a schoolteacher. After high school she went on to college but at her mother's insistence entered several beauty contests (apparently her mother wanted her to be more than just a "schoolmarm"). Thelma was so successful in these endeavors that she entered on the state level and won the title of "Miss Massachusetts" in 1925 and went on to the "Miss America" pageant; though she didn't win, the pageant let her be seen by talent scouts looking for fresh new faces to showcase in films. She began to appear in one- and two-reel shorts, mostly comedy, which showcased her keen comic timing and aptitude for physical comedy--unusual in such a beautiful woman.
She had been making shorts for Hal Roach when she was signed to Paramount Pictures. Her first role--at age 21--was as Lorraine Lane in 1927's Fascinating Youth (1926), a romantic comedy that was Paramount's showcase vehicle for its new stars. Thelma received minor billing in another film that year, God Gave Me Twenty Cents (1926). The next year she starred with Gary Cooper and William Powell in the western Nevada (1927). That year also saw her in three more films, with The Gay Defender (1927) being the most notable. It starred Richard Dix as a man falsely accused of murder.
As the 1920s closed, Thelma began to get parts in more and more films. In 1928 and 1929 alone she was featured in 20 pictures, and not just comedies--she also did dramas and gothic horror films. Unlike many silent-era stars whose voices didn't fit their image or screen persona, Thelma's did. She had a bright, breezy, clear voice with a pleasant trace of a somewhat-aristocratic but unsnobbish New England accent and easily made the transition to sound films. In 1930 she added 14 more pictures to her resume, with Dollar Dizzy (1930) and Follow Thru (1930) being the most notable. The latter was a musical with Thelma playing a rival to Nancy Carroll for the affections of Buddy Rogers. It was a box-office hit, as was the stage production on which it was based. The following year Thelma appeared in 14 more films, among them Let's Do Things (1931), Speak Easily (1932), The Old Bull (1932), and On the Loose (1931). Her most successful film that year, however, was the Marx Brothers farce Monkey Business (1931). While critics gave the film mixed reviews, the public loved it. In 1932 Thelma appeared in another Marx Brothers film directed by Norman Z. McLeod, Horse Feathers (1932). She also starred in This Is the Night (1932), a profitable film which featured Cary Grant in his first major role. In 1934 Thelma made 16 features, but her career would soon soon come to a grinding halt. In 1935 she appeared in such films as Twin Triplets (1935) and The Misses Stooge (1935), showcasing her considerable comic talents. She also proved to be a savvy businesswoman with the opening of "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café", a nightclub/restaurant that catered to show-business people. Unfortunately, it also attracted some shady underworld types as well, and there were rumors that they were trying to take over her club and use it as a gambling establishment to fleece the wealthy Hollywood crowd. According to these tales, Thelma and her boyfriend, director Roland West, wouldn't sell their establishment once they found out what the gangsters had in mind, which incurred the enmity of the wrong people with whom to have differences of opinion. Whether or not the stories were true, on December 16, 1935, 29-year-old Thelma was found dead in her car in her garage in Los Angeles. Her death was ruled suicide-by-carbon-monoxide-poisoning. At the time, as today, many felt that her death was actually a murder connected to the goings-on at her club, a theory that was lent credence by the fact that no one who knew her had ever seen her depressed or morose enough to worry about her committing suicide. Another factor that aroused suspicion was that her death was given a cursory investigation by the--at the time--notoriously corrupt Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the case was quickly and unceremoniously closed. Her death has remained controversial to this day.
Three films she made before her death weren't released until the following year: Hot Money (1936), An All American Toothache (1936), and The Bohemian Girl (1936). The latter saw her quite substantial role cut down so much that she was barely glimpsed in the picture. Thelma had made an amazing 115 films in such a short career, and her beauty and talent would no doubt have taken her right to the top if not for her untimely demise.- At age 36, actress Barbara Colby was on the brink of TV-character stardom when the native New Yorker was senselessly shot and killed one evening on the streets of Los Angeles. The tall, toothy, husky-voiced, frizzy-haired actress equipped with a keen, Brooklyn-tough sensibility and dead-on comedy instincts had just started to make a name for herself on the West Coast when tragedy occurred. Hollywood lost a wonderful personality and promising talent that summer evening, someone who was proving to the TV masses that she was a bona fide contender.
Though born in New York City in 1939, Barbara was raised predominantly in New Orleans where her interest in acting grew while attending high school. After her graduation in 1957, she received a scholarship to Bard College on the Hudson back in New York, followed by a single semester at the Paris Sorbonne University in France.
While she tried to make a go of it professionally on the New York stage, her spiritual world also began to open and develop. In contrast to her tough, streetwise exterior, the gentle, deep-feeling lady avidly pursued a metaphysical way of life. She didn't touch alcohol, was a strict vegetarian, and meditated regularly as a devoted follower of the Indian Hindu guru Swami Muktananda. She also was a firm believer in reincarnation.
Following a solid stage performance in "Six Characters in Search of an Author" in 1964, Barbara took to the Broadway lights with a debut in "The Devils" the following year. Throughout the rest of the decade, she impressed in such plays as "Under Milk Wood", "Murder in the Cathedral" and "Dear Liar", and also garnered fine notices for her Portia in "Julius Caesar" in 1966 at the American Shakespeare Theatre Festival in Stratford, Connecticut.
Marking her first prime TV role on a Columbo (1971) episode in 1971, Barbara began a bi-coastal career and played a host of support/guest roles on such established shows as The Odd Couple (1968), McMillan & Wife (1971), The F.B.I. (1965), Medical Center (1969), Kung Fu (1972) and Gunsmoke (1955). But it was MTM Productions that took strongly to Barbara after she made a hilarious appearance as worldly prostitute Sherry opposite an impossibly naive Mary Tyler Moore in a now-classic 1974 jail-cell episode of the Moore comedy series. Producers were so impressed by Barbara's dead-pan comic timing and appealingly sharp, cynical edge that they brought her character back in a subsequent episode.
Never giving up her love for the stage, Barbara continued to gain in strength in such quirky '70s plays as "Aubrey Beardsley the Neophyte", "House of Blue Leaves", "Afternoon Tea" and "The Hot L. Baltimore". She also returned to the classics with an off-Broadway role as Elizabeth in "Richard III," and was back on Broadway with the plays "Murderous Angels" in 1971 and a revival of "A Doll's House" starring Liv Ullmann in the early part of 1975. Following the close of the latter show, Barbara returned to Los Angeles with a career-making offer. MTM had just cast her as a regular player on a spin-off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970). The new sitcom, Phyllis (1975), starred actress Cloris Leachman who had played one of Mary's self-absorbed, scatterbrained friends to Emmy-winning effect. Barbara, who appeared earlier with Leachman in the TV-movie A Brand New Life (1973), was now in "second banana" position playing Cloris' boss, Julie Erskine, the owner of a commercial photography studio. The actress had officially paid her dues and broken into the top sitcom ranks. With two films also in the can, California Split (1974) and The Memory of Us (1974), Barbara seemed poised for bigger things.
On July 24, 1975, just weeks after her 36th birthday and only three episodes into the TV series, Barbara and her acting colleague/boyfriend, James Kiernan, were walking to their car following the teaching of an acting class in Venice, California, when they were deliberately shot by two gang members inside a parking garage area. Barbara, who was estranged at the time from Robert Levitt Jr., the son of legendary entertainer Ethel Merman, died instantly from her single gunshot wound; Mr. Kiernan, who had recently appeared in an episode of MTM's "Rhoda," was able to describe the shooting to police before he succumbed but could not recognize the two men who shot them, noting that the shooting had occurred without warning, reason or provocation. Police noted that there was no attempt to rob the pair and appeared to be a random act of violence. The killers were never caught and the homicide remains a "cold case". Barbara was later cremated and a memorial service held at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon. She was survived by her mother and younger sister Renee.
Following the tragedy, comedienne Liz Torres came on board to replace Barbara in the Julie Erskine part. The role itself lasted for only one season before they changed the sitcom's setting in order to try and improve the lackluster ratings. It didn't help. Despite a Golden Globe win for Leachman, the show was canceled after only one more season. In retrospect, one can't tell whether Barbara might have made a difference in the sitcom's ratings or outcome, but the fact remains that a single inexplicably brutal and senseless act snuffed out the life of a star comedienne in the making.