Actresses Who Committed Suicide
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Carole Landis was born on New Year's Day in 1919 in Fairchild, Wisconsin, as Frances Lillian Mary Ridste. Her father, a railroad mechanic, was of Norwegian descent and her mother was Polish. Her father walked out, leaving Carole, her mother and an older brother and sister to fend for themselves.
After graduating from high school, she married Jack Robbins (Irving Wheeler), but the union lasted a month (the marriage was annulled because Carole was only 15 at the time). The couple remarried in August 1934, and the two headed to California to start a new life. For a while she worked as a dancer and singer, but before long the glitter of show business drew her to Los Angeles.
She won a studio contract with Warner Brothers but was a bit player for the most part in such films as A Star Is Born (1937), A Day at the Races (1937), and The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937). The following year started out much the same way, with more bit roles. By 1939, she was getting a few speaking roles, although mostly one-liners, and that year ended much as had the previous two years, with more bit roles; also, she and Wheeler were divorced.
In 1940 she was cast as Loana in the Hal Roach production of One Million B.C. (1940); she finally got noticed (the skimpy outfit helped), and her career began moving. She began getting parts in B pictures but didn't star in big productions -- although she had talent, the really good roles were given to the established stars of the day.
Her busiest year was 1942, with roles in Manila Calling (1942), The Powers Girl (1943), A Gentleman at Heart (1942), and three other movies. Unfortunately, critics took little notice of her films, and when they did, reviewers tended to focus on her breathtaking beauty. By the middle 1940s, Carole's career was beginning to short-circuit. Her contract with 20th Century-Fox had been canceled, her marriages to Willis Hunt Jr. and Thomas Wallace had failed, and her current marriage to Horace Schmidlapp was on the skids; all of that plus health problems spelled disaster for her professionally and personally.
Her final two films, Brass Monkey (1948) and The Silk Noose (1948) were released in 1948. On July 5, 1948, Carole committed suicide by taking an overdose of Seconal in her Brentwood Heights, California, home. She was only 29 and had made 49 pictures, most of which were, unfortunately, forgettable. If Hollywood moguls had given Carole a chance, she could have been one of the brightest stars in its history.Killed herself with secanol in 1948- Actress
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Born in Denver, Co, 6 August, 1925 and originally named Barbara Jane Bates, Barbara was the eldest of 3 daughters born to a postal clerk and RN.
Rather shy, her mother initially sent Barbara to study ballet. By her late teens, the young beauty began to model clothes as a teen out of high school.
Fighting off a life-long paralyzing shyness,she managed to be persuaded to enter a local beauty contest, with the winner receiving 2 round-trip train tickets to Hollywood.
Barbara won the contest, and with that the demure but very troubled young woman was on the first steps of her career.
Once in California, she met Cecil Coan, a United Artists publicist. Coan, a married man with children who was more than two decades older than Barbara, fell hard for the young beauty. He promised to guide her career and make her a star.
He proved his worth and dedication to her when he left his wife and married Barbara.
Groomed in obscure starlet bits, it wasn't until Warner Bros. signed her in 1947 and perpetuated an appealing girl-next-door image when her career started happening. It took some time before the actress started making strides apart from the bobby-soxxer ingénue.
She turned heads and supported herself initially as a pin-up girl, a job she didn't enjoy. She rose in rank after a number of bit parts and, during her peak as a lead and second lead, appeared opposite a number of stars, including Bette Davis in June Bride (1948), Danny Kaye in The Inspector General (1949), Rory Calhoun in I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (1951), and even Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis in their comedy,The Caddy (1953) just to name a few.
Much of Barbara's work in the above films was routine. Barbara's on-and-off-screen life started unraveling not long afterward. Succumbing to extreme mood shifts, insecurity, ill health and chronic depression to the point of being taken off important film assignments. By age 30, the promise she had once shown was no longer considered, and she and her husband Coen, who made all of Barbara's decisions for her, tried to salvage her career in England.
Things looked promising at first, when she was picked up by the Rank Organisation and co-starred with John Mills and Michael Craig in a couple of dramatic suspense films, but the films were mediocre. She again started showing signs of instability to the point where she was dropped from 2 films and the Rank Organisation was forced to drop her.
The couple returned to Hollywood, where old friend Rory Calhoun cast her in a picture he was producing and starring in called Apache Territory (1958).
Emotionally unable to withstand the pressures of Hollywood any more, Barbara abandoned her career, save for an appearance in The Loaded Tourist (1962),starring Roger Moore.
Nothing was heard of Barbara until her March 1969 death. It was learned she'd returned to her hometown of Denver and worked in various jobs, including stints as a secretary, dental assistant and hospital aide. Her much older husband and chief supporter, Cecil Coan, died of cancer in January 1967, and Barbara fell apart.
Although she remarried in December of 1968 to a childhood friend, sportscaster William Reed, she remained increasingly despondent. She committed suicide just 4 months later. She was found dead in her car by her mother in her mother's garage of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Interestingly, the one role she'll always be identified with is also one of the smallest parts given her during her brief tenure as leading lady.
In the very last scene of All About Eve (1950). Barbara turns up in the role of Phoebe, a devious school girl and wannabe actress who shows startling promise as a future schemer along the lines of her equally ruthless idol, Eve Harrington, superbly played by Anne Baxter.
Barbara's image is enshrined in the picture's very last scene - posing in front of a 3-way mirror while clutching Baxter's just-received acting award. It's this brief, moment for which she'll best be remembered.Killed herself with carbon monoxide poisoning in 1969- Bella Darvi became a 50s symbol for one of the many movie "Cinderellas" whose bright and beautiful Hollywood fairy tale would come crashing down, ending in bitterness and tragedy. A self-destructive brunette beauty, her life was full of misfortune. Of Polish/French descent, she miraculously survived the tortures of a WWII concentration camp as a youth, only to get caught up in the phony glitter and high-living style of Monaco's casinos as a young adult in Europe. An inveterate gambler and drinker, she was, by chance, "discovered" by movie mogul Darryl F. Zanuck and his wife, Virginia Fox, who thought she had a foreign cinematic allure à la Ingrid Bergman. Despite her lack of acting experience, the Zanucks paid off her gambling debts and whisked her away to Hollywood to be groomed for stardom. Her marquee name "Darvi" was derived from the combined first names of her mentors. It should have been a dream-come-true opportunity. Fate, however, would not be so kind. After three high profile roles in The Egyptian (1954), Hell and High Water (1954) and The Racers (1955) opposite three top male films stars (Victor Mature, Richard Widmark and Kirk Douglas, respectively), Darvi's limited abilities were painfully transparent. Not only was she hampered by an ever-so-slight crossed-eyed appearance, she had a trace of a lisp which, combined with a foreign accent, made her speech appear slurred and difficult to understand. It didn't take long for the actress to go off the deep end. Within a short time, a major sex scandal involving Mr. Zanuck had wife Virginia packing Darvi's bags and any "career" she once had here in America was over. She retreated back to Europe, made a few inconsequential films, and quickly returned to her adverse habits -- liquor and the gambling tables. But this time there was no one to save her. Mounting debts and despair eventually turned her thoughts to suicide. After several attempts, Darvi finally succeeded in 1971 by turning on the gas stove in her apartment. She was only 42.Killed herself with gas poisoning in 1971
- Showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. once billed her as "the most beautiful girl in the world". Burlesque dancer Faith Bacon, and not the much better known Sally Rand who worked for Bacon in the early 1930s, is genuinely considered the lady who originated the "fan dance" during "The Jazz Age".
The Los Angeles-born dancer was born Frances Yvonne Bacon on July 19, 1910. Her career began on the Paris stage (she had no formal dance training) in one of Maurice Chevalier's popular revue shows. She returned to the States, specifically the East Coast, where the fetching 18-year-old wavy blonde won a chorine spot for "Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1928" and returned for his 1930 show. It was she who suggested to Carroll to allow her to undress all the way during the show (save some teasing ostrich features and a smoky spotlight) and, thus, introducing the art of the fan dance. Other shows also included "Fioretta" 1929, "Earl Carroll's Sketch Book of 1929," "Earl Carrol''s Sketch Book of 1930" and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931".
Elsewhere, Faith took her scantily-clad act to the Chicago World's Fair in the mid 1930s where Sally Rand, now infamous for her own fan dance act, also performed, and the two rivals "competed" with their respective shows. At a 1936 performance at the Chicago State-Lake Theatre, Faith crashed through the glass box she was performing in during the show. Covered in blood, she collapsed then and there and spent a month in the hospital. The accident left her with deep, ugly scars on her legs. It was this terrible misfortune that triggered Bacon's slow but firm decline.
Faith's film work was very brief. She made her debut in the secondary role of Maxine in the "poverty row" crime drama Prison Train (1938) starring Fred Keating and "Citizen Kane" co-star Dorothy Comingore (who was billed, at the time, as "Linda Winters") and that was it! Other than starring in two short, cheap, grainy burlesque films, Dance of Shame (1942) and A Lady with Fans (1942), in which she demonstrated her art of fan dancing, Faith was pretty much dismissed as a controversial specialty act and was not seen on film again. Her later on-the-road engagements increasingly digressed in quality and amounted to performances in carnivals, dives and strip joints.
In 1940, Faith had to have major surgery for a glandular problem. For the rest of the decade, she was plagued by this and other illnesses, which left her so drained physically, mentally and financially that she attempted suicide with an overdose of pills in 1954. Although the struggling entertainer survived that attempt, she succeeded two years later when on September 27, 1956, she threw herself out of a third-story Chicago hotel window. She died later that evening from a fractured skull and perforated lung.Killed herself by jumping out a window in 1956 - Marion Aye was born Maryon Eloise Aye on April 5, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was a lawyer who moved the family to California. She was discovered by Fatty Arbuckle and started her career at Balboa Studios. When she was fifteen Marion lied about her age to elope with cameraman Sherman Plaskett. Sadly he passed away just a year later. After moving to New York City she worked at Bothwell Browne's Revue and became a Mack Sennett bathing beauty. Marion appeared in more than a dozen films including The Hick, Montana Bill, and The Weak-End Party with Stan Laurel. She also starred in a series of Cactus Westerns with Bob Reeves. In 1921 she made headlines when she became the first star to sign a contract with a morality clause in it. The following year was chosen to be one of the first Wampas baby stars along with Colleen Moore and Lois Wilson.
Her second marriage, to press agent Harry Wilson, ended in 1924. That same year Marion appeared in a successful stage production of White Collars. She seemed destined for stardom but her career never took off. Her last movie role was in the 1930 drama Up The River. Marion continued to work on the stage and the radio. Unfortunately she suffered from depression and in 1935 she attempted suicide. She married actor Robert Forester in 1936. Marion tried to make a comeback in 1951 and auditioned for a role on television. When she didn't get the part she became despondent. On July 10, 1951 she swallowed a large amount of poison in a Culver City motel. She was hospitalized but tragically she died eleven days later at the age of forty-eight. Her husband later told reporters that he never took her threats of suicide seriously. Marion was buried next to her mother at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.Killed herself by swallowing poison in 1951 - Actress
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Jeanette Loff was born Janette Lov in Orofino, Idaho, on October 9, 1906. Her father Maurice was a successful violinist from Denmark who moved their family to Canada when Jeanette was a child. She loved to sing and she studied music at the Ellison-White Conservatory in Portland, Oregon. At age sixteen she had a starring role in the operetta Treasure Hunters. In Portland, Loff played the organ at local theaters. She made her acting debut in the 1927 film Uncle Tom's Cabin. Cecil B. Demille offered her a contract and she quickly became one of Hollywood busiest starlets. In 1928 she appeared in Annapolis, Love Over Night, and Hold 'Em Yale. After her parents divorced Jeanette's mother Inga and sisters Irene and Myrtle came to live with her in California. Jeanette married a salesman named Harry Rosenbloom but they divorced in 1929. She also had a love affairs with producer Paul Bern, song writer Walter O'Keefe, and actor Gilbert Roland. Jeanette got the chance to show off her soprano voice in films like King Of Jazz and Party Girl. By 1931 she was tired of playing ingénues and decided to take a break from making movies. She moved to New York city and starred in several Broadway shows. Jeanette tried to make a comeback with the 1934 drama St. Louis Woman but it was not a hit. After a few more small roles her career stalled. Her final film was the comedy Million Dollar Baby. She retired from acting and married producer and liquor salesman Bert E. Friedlob. Sadly she did not get to enjoy her new life for very long. On August 5, 1942 Jeanette died after ingesting ammonia. She was only thirty-five years old. Although many believe she committed suicide her death may have been accidental. Her family does not believe she took her own life. Jeanette is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.Possible suicide by swallowing ammonia in 1942- Marvel Rea was born Marvel Luciel Rea on November 9, 1901, in Ainsworth, Nebraska. Her family moved to California when she was a child. Marvel grew into a beautiful teenager and in 1917 she became a Mack Sennett bathing beauty. The following year she married banker Henry Page Wells. Unfortunately he was a drug addict and she divorced him less than a year later. Marvel appeared in more than thirty films including Her Screen Idol and The Summer Girls. She never became a major star and in 1921 she quit acting. Her final role was in the short film For Land's Sake. Marvel married her second husband Edwin J. Wilkinson in 1936 but her happiness was short-lived. On September 2, 1936 she was kidnapped and assaulted by three men. They were caught and Marvel had to testify at the headline-making trial. Sadly she never fully recovered from the attack. She committed suicide on June 17, 1937 by ingesting ant poison. Marvel was only 35 years old. She is buried at Pacific Crest Cemetery in Redondo Beach, California.Killed herself by eating ant paste in 1937
- Anny Ahlers was born December 21, 1907 in Germany. Operetta singer, she began her career at the age of 4 in the circus. She later took up singing and dancing. Her first appearance was at the Volksoper in Hamburg. From there, as an operetta diva she moved down to Krefeldand Breslau. In 1928 Eric Charell got her to play in the operettas in Berlin. She played also in the original operetta by Paul Abraham, "Die Blume von Hawaii". (The Flower from Hawaii) She also made six films from 1928 to 1931 and got an engagement for an operetta in London because of her beautiful voice. In London her best friend was Sir Merrick Burrell. However, alcohol, drugs and Tuberculosis ended her life on March 14, 1933 in England.Killed herself by jumping out a window in 1933
- Blonde and utterly beautiful, Mary Nolan had the requisite figure and prettiness to rise up fast in the Hollywood ranks. Her downfall, however, would be just as fast and not at all pretty.
She was born Mary Imogene Robertson in 1905 and began her show-business career as a teenage model. Showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. took a gander at her--and her gorgeous gams--and signed up the young beauty for his "Follies" shows. A Jazz-Age baby and party girl by nature, Mary (who was using the moniker Imogene Wilson) had already earned the somewhat dubious nickname of "Bubbles" while working in New York, but she made the fatal career mistake of involving herself with a married Ziegfeld comedian and stirring up a major sex scandal. Frank Tinney was a top headliner married to musical comedy star Edna Davenport at the time. Mary's relationship with Tinney became quite abusive and the tabloids exposed the affair after Mary was seriously hospitalized during one of their many arguments. As a third-party husband-stealer, Mary received no comfort at all despite her injuries, and was summarily fired by Ziegfeld.
Forced to flee to Germany to avoid the negative attention, Mary starred in a few films there under the new moniker Imogene Robertson. She weathered the storm for almost two years in Europe before returning unobtrusively to Hollywood films in 1927 under another new stage name--Mary Nolan.
She proved a capable if not exceptional leading lady, pacing herself well in such films as West of Zanzibar (1928) with Lon Chaney, Desert Nights (1929)--one of John Gilbert's last vehicles--and Outside the Law (1930), a gangster flick opposite Edward G. Robinson. She even appeared top-billed in a few minor efforts, including Shanghai Lady (1929) and Young Desire (1930), but Docks of San Francisco (1932) would prove to be her last film appearance.
Troubled over her sudden and inexplicable reversal of fortune, she unfortunately let her self-destructive tendencies kick in again. Broke and despondent, she suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined due to acute malnutrition and a variety of physical ailments. She turned to heroin, and it spelled the end.
Little was heard from her until 1948, when she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems. She was only 45 years old. Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly.Killed herself with secanol in 1948 - Actress
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Lupe Velez was born on July 18, 1908, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, as Maria Guadalupe Villalobos Velez. She was sent to Texas at the age of 13 to live in a convent. She later admitted that she wasn't much of a student because she was so rambunctious. She had planned to become a champion roller skater, but that would change. Life was hard for her family, and Lupe returned to Mexico to help them out financially. She worked as a salesgirl for a department store for the princely sum of $4 a week. Every week she would turn most of her salary over to her mother, but she kept a little for herself so she could take dancing lessons. With her mature shape and grand personality, she thought she could make a try at show business, which she figured was a lot more glamorous than dancing or working as a salesclerk. In 1924 Lupe started her show business career on the Mexican stage and wowed audiences with her natural beauty and talent. By 1927 she had emigrated to Hollywood, where she was discovered by Hal Roach, who cast her in a comedy with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Douglas Fairbanks then cast her in his feature film The Gaucho (1927) with himself and wife Mary Pickford. Lupe played dramatic roles for five years before she switched to comedy. In 1933 she played the lead role of Pepper in Hot Pepper (1933). This film showcased her comedic talents and helped her to show the world her vital personality. She was delightful. In 1934 Lupe appeared in three fine comedies: Strictly Dynamite (1934), Palooka (1934) and Laughing Boy (1934). By now her popularity was such that a series of "Mexican Spitfire" films were written around her. She portrayed Carmelita Lindsay in Mexican Spitfire (1939), Mexican Spitfire Out West (1940), The Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941) and Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event (1943), among others. Audiences loved her in these madcap adventures, but it seemed at times that she was better known for her stormy love affairs. She married one of her lovers, Johnny Weissmuller, but the marriage only lasted five years and was filled with battles. Lupe certainly did live up to her nickname. She had a failed romance with Gary Cooper, who never wanted to wed her. By 1943 her career was waning. She went to Mexico in the hopes of jump-starting her career. She gained her best reviews yet in the Mexican version of Naná (1944). Bolstered by the success of that movie, Lupe returned to the US, where she starred in her final film as Pepita Zorita, Ladies' Day (1943). There were to be no others. On December 13, 1944, tired of yet another failed romance, with a part-time actor named Harald Maresch, and pregnant with his child, Lupe committed suicide with an overdose of Seconal. She was only 36 years old.Killed herself with secanol in 1944- Phyllis Haver was born Phyllis O'Haver on January 6, 1899, in Douglas, KS. When she was a child her family moved to California. Young Phyllis got a job playing piano at a local movie theater. Producer Mack Sennett saw her and hired her to be one of his "Sennett Bathing Beauties". Between 1916-20 she appeared in more than 35 short films. With her curvy figure and blonde hair she quickly became one of the most popular of Sennett's bathing beauties. Eventually she left Sennett compact and signed a contract with Cecil B. DeMille. She co-starred with Olive Borden in Fig Leaves (1926) and with Victor McLaglen in What Price Glory (1926). She also won rave reviews for her performances as Roxie Hart in Chicago (1927).
In 1929 she married millionaire William Seeman. Although she was at the peak of her career, she decided to retire from acting. She and William moved into an 11-room penthouse in New York City. Phyllis said she loved being a wife and never wanted to return to Hollywood. Sadly, after 16 years of marriage she and William divorced. The couple had no children. As she grew older Phylis became more reclusive. She lived in a large house in Connecticut and rarely had visitors. Her only companion was her longtime housekeeper. She reportedly made several suicide attempts and was devastated when her former boss Mack Sennett died.
On November 19, 1960, 61-year-old Phyllis took her own life with an overdose of barbiturates. She was found in her bed fully dressed and wearing make-up. Phyllis was buried at Grassy Hills Cemetery in Falls Village, CT.Killed herself with an overdose of barbiturates in 1960 - Actress
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Ona Munson was born Owena Elizabeth Wolcott on June 16, 1903 in Portland, Oregon. She took singing and dancing lessons when she was a child. At the age of fourteen, Ona moved to New York City with her mother. She began her career performing in vaudeville. In 1919 she made her Broadway debut in George White's Scandals. She appeared in several hit Broadway shows including No, No, Nanette and Hold Everything. Ona married stage actor Edward Buzzell in 1926. She went to Hollywood in 1930 to make the comedy Going Wild (1930). Soon after, she divorced her husband and started dating director Ernst Lubitsch. She starred in The Hot Heiress (1931) with Ben Lyon and in Broadminded (1931) with Joe E. Brown. Ona returned to Broadway in 1933 for a production of Hold Your Horses. While appearing in the show Ghosts she had a brief romance with actress Alla Nazimova. She also had relationships with Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, and director Dorothy Arzner. In 1939 she was cast as Belle Watling, a Southern madam, in Gone with the Wind (1939). The movie was a huge success but Ona ended up being typecast in similar roles. She got rave reviews playing a madam again in the film The Shanghai Gesture (1941).
Ona had a passionate love affair with playwright Mercedes de Acosta. She said they shared "the deepest spiritual moment that life brings". Worried about being outed as a lesbian she ended the romance and married Stewart McDonald, a loan administrator, in 1941. Their marriage was an arrangement since Stewart was also gay. During World War 2 she was chosen to be "Hollywood's official hostess" and acted as a godmother to hundreds of soldiers. She made some movies at Warner Brothers but her career stalled. Her final film was the thriller The Red House (1947). Ona divorced Stewart and married French painter Eugene Berman in 1950. This was another lavender marriage to a gay man. The couple moved to an apartment in The Belnord on Manhattan's Upper West Side. During the early 1950s Ona appeared in a few television shows. Unfortunately she was plagued by health problems and became very depressed. On February 1955 she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. She was fifty-one years old. Ona left a note that said "This is the only way I know to be free again ... Please don't follow me." She is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.Killed herself with a barbiturate overdose in 1955- Joan Dowling had a passion for acting and as an aspiring young actress she would take roles in plays, pantomimes and other works simply to be on the stage. Her first recognised role was at the tender age of 14 and she signed her first film contract at 17. She had natural talent and did not have any coaching, voice or other lessons before being 'discovered'. She was well known for her roles in Ealing Studios productions and met her husband, Harry Fowler, on the set of the 1947 Ealing comedy Hue and Cry (1947). Sadly, Joan's life did not have a happy ending and she committed suicide in 1954 - a mere 26 years old.Killed herself with gas poisoning in 1954
- Florence Lawrence was the first film player whose name was used to promote her films and the studio (Independent Moving Pictures Company [IMP]) for which she worked. Before her, actors and actresses worked anonymously, partly out of fear that stage managers would refuse to hire them if they were found to be working in films and partly because movie executives didn't want to put much money into the production of these short, practically disposable films, and didn't want their players to become well known and start demanding higher salaries. Lawrence was on the stage from age three, appearing in musicals and plays, whistling and playing the violin. At 20 she was cast in the Edison production of Daniel Boone (1907), and that led to work at Vitagraph Studios. From there she was hired by Biograph, where she refined and perfected her craft under the direction of D.W. Griffith. In 1909 she left Biograph to seek more recognizable employment at another film company. As a result she was blacklisted by the Motion Picture Trust, headed by Thomas A. Edison, to which most motion-picture producers belonged and which held the patents on most film production equipment and would not allow any companies that did not belong to the Trust to use them. Carl Laemmle started IMP in late 1909, and refused to join the Motion Picture Trust. The Trust took action--both legal and otherwise--to discourage Laemmle from producing films on his own. Lawrence and her husband, director Harry Solter, signed on as IMP's first featured players. In 1910 Laemmle, partly out of anger over the Trust's actions--such as hiring thugs to attack his film crews and wreck his equipment--decided to advertise the fact that he had Miss Lawrence. She made the first personal appearance of a film star in St. Louis, MO, that March, and the resulting publicity made her famous (and also increased the grosses on her--and Laemmle's--films). Other film companies soon followed suit, and the names of film actors and actresses began to appear in all segments of the media. Lawrence worked for IMP for a year, then spent another year at Lubin before she began her own production company, Victor, where she worked on and off until 1914. After a stage accident in which she injured her back, she retired from films, only to be lured back in 1916 for her first feature, Elusive Isabel (1916). It was unsuccessful. She tried a comeback again in 1921; that, too, was unsuccessful. She settled into bit parts and character roles through the 1920s and 1930s. She committed suicide in 1938 after years of unhappiness and illness. She was found in her apartment on Dec. 27, 1938 and died soon afterward in hospital.Killed herself by eating ant paste in 1938
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Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, comedienne, singer, and model. Monroe is of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh descent. She became one of the world's most enduring iconic figures and is remembered both for her winsome embodiment of the Hollywood sex symbol and her tragic personal and professional struggles within the film industry. Her life and death are still the subjects of much controversy and speculation.
She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson at the Los Angeles County Hospital on June 1, 1926. Her mother, Gladys Pearl (Monroe), was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, to American parents from Indiana and Missouri, and was a film-cutter at Consolidated Film Industries. Marilyn's biological father has been established through DNA testing as Charles Stanley Gifford, who had been born in Newport, Rhode Island, to a family with deep roots in the state. Because Gladys was mentally and financially unable to care for young Marilyn, Gladys placed her in the care of a foster family, The Bolenders. Although the Bolender family wanted to adopt Marilyn, Gladys was eventually able to stabilize her lifestyle and took Marilyn back in her care when Marilyn was 7 years old. However, shortly after regaining custody of Marilyn, Gladys had a complete mental breakdown and was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and was committed to a state mental hospital. Gladys spent the rest of her life going in and out of hospitals and rarely had contact with young Marilyn. Once Marilyn became an adult and celebrated as a film star, she paid a woman by the name of Inez Melson to look in on the institutionalized Gladys and give detailed reports of her progress. Gladys outlived her daughter, dying in 1984.
Marilyn was then taken in by Gladys' best friend Grace Goddard, who, after a series of foster homes, placed Marilyn into the Los Angeles Orphan's Home in 1935. Marilyn was traumatized by her experience there despite the Orphan's Home being an adequate living facility. Grace Goddard eventually took Marilyn back to live with her in 1937 although this stay did not last long as Grace's husband began molesting Marilyn. Marilyn went to live with Grace's Aunt Ana after this incident, although due to Aunt Ana's advanced age she could not care properly for Marilyn. Marilyn once again for the third time had to return to live with the Goddards. The Goddards planned to relocated and according to law, could not take Marilyn with them. She only had two choices: return to the orphanage or get married. Marilyn was only 16 years old.
She decided to marry a neighborhood friend named James Dougherty; he went into the military, she modeled, they divorced in 1946. She owned 400 books (including Tolstoy, Whitman, Milton), listened to Beethoven records, studied acting at the Actors' lab in Hollywood, and took literature courses at UCLA downtown. 20th Century Fox gave her a contract but let it lapse a year later. In 1948, Columbia gave her a six-month contract, turned her over to coach Natasha Lytess and featured her in the B movie Ladies of the Chorus (1948) in which she sang three numbers : "Every Baby Needs a Da Da Daddy", "Anyone Can Tell I Love You" and "The Ladies of the Chorus" with Adele Jergens (dubbed by Virginia Rees) and others. Joseph L. Mankiewicz saw her in a small part in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and put her in All About Eve (1950) , resulting in 20th Century re-signing her to a seven-year contract. Niagara (1953) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) launched her as a sex symbol superstar.
When she went to a supper honoring her in the The Seven Year Itch (1955) , she arrived in a red chiffon gown borrowed from the studio (she had never owned a gown). That same year, she married and divorced baseball great Joe DiMaggio (their wedding night was spent in Paso Robles, California). After The Seven Year Itch (1955) , she wanted serious acting to replace the sexpot image and went to New York's Actors Studio. She worked with director Lee Strasberg and also underwent psychoanalysis to learn more about herself. Critics praised her transformation in Bus Stop (1956) and the press was stunned by her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller . True to form, she had no veil to match her beige wedding dress so she dyed one in coffee; he wore one of the two suits he owned. They went to England that fall where she made The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) with Laurence Olivier , fighting with him and falling further prey to alcohol and pills. Two miscarriages and gynecological surgery followed. So had an affair with Yves Montand . Work on her last picture The Misfits (1961) , written for her by departing husband Miller, was interrupted by exhaustion. She was dropped from the unfinished Something's Got to Give (1962) due to chronic lateness and drug dependency.
On August 4, 1962, Marilyn Monroe's day began with threatening phone calls. Dr. Ralph Greenson, Marilyn's physician, came over the following day and quoted later in a document "Felt it was possible that Marilyn had felt rejected by some of the people she had been close to." Apart from being upset that her publicist slept too long, she seemed fine. Pat Newcombe, who had stayed the previous night at Marilyn's house, left in the early evening as did Greenson who had a dinner date. Marilyn was upset he couldn't stay, and around 7:30pm she telephoned him to say that her second husband's son had called her. Peter Lawford also called Marilyn, inviting her to dinner, but she declined. Lawford later said her speech was slurred. As the evening went on there were other phone calls, including one from Jose Belanos, who said he thought she sounded fine. According to the funeral directors, Marilyn died sometime between 9:30pm and 11:30pm. Her maid unable to raise her but seeing a light under her locked door, called the police shortly after midnight. She also phoned Ralph Greenson who, on arrival, could not break down the bedroom door. He eventually broke in through French windows and found Marilyn dead in bed. The coroner stated she had died from acute barbiturate poisoning, and it was a 'probable suicide' though many conspiracies would follow in the years after her death.Possible suicide with a drug overdose in 1962- Actress
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Phyllis Barry was born Gertrude Hillyard on December 7, 1908, in Leeds, England. She was a gifted dancer and at the age of fourteen she joined an Australian cabaret troupe. Phyllis starred in many stage musicals including No No Nannette and Lady Be Good. She made her film debut in the 1925 Australian film Painted Daughters. At the time her stage name was Phyllis DuBarry. In 1930 she toured America in a production of Rio Rita. Producer Samuel Goldwyn saw her on stage and offered her a part in the drama Cynara starring Kay Francis. Unfortunately the movie flopped and her performance got mixed reviews. She married vaudeville performer Albert Nordlund (also known as Al Nord) in 1932. The following year she landed the lead role in the comedy What - No Beer? opposite Buster Keaton. She had supporting roles in the films Blind Adventure and Forbidden Heaven.
Phyllis and Albert had a rocky marriage and they separated several times. She divorced him in 1936 and said "he told me he didn't think my career meant anything". Phyllis continued to make movies but by 1939 her career had stalled. She appeared in The Three Stooges short Three Little Sew and Sews and had a bit part in the drama Waterloo Bridge. On August 20, 1939 she married decorator Gilbert M. Caldwell. The couple moved to a small house in West Hollywood. Her last film role was playing a waitress in the 1947 drama Love From A Stranger. Phyllis quit acting and tried to settle into life as a housewife. Unfortunately she became increasingly addicted to prescription drugs. On July 1, 1954 she died after accidentally overdosing of phenobarbital. Phyllis was only forty-five years old. She was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.Killed herself with barbiturate poisoning in 1954- Actress
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Helen Twelvetrees was born Helen Marie Jurgens in Brooklyn, New York on December 25, 1908. Her interest in the theatricals was apparent at an early age. After graduating from high school. Helen embarked on a stage career. She participated in a number of plays in New York City, but gravitated toward film when she headed to the West Coast in late 1928. In 1929, Helen appeared in her first motion picture called THE GHOST TALKS. That was quickly followed by WORDS AND MUSIC and BLUE SKIES that same year. Through the early thirties, Helen appeared in a number of movies. Audiences appreciated the pixish, little blonde and the roles she played. Perhaps one of her finest roles was a June Perry in STATE'S ATTORNEY (1932) opposite John Barrymore. Helen's character was romantically involved with the district attorney and plays the part with absolute conviction. Helen continued a hectic filming pace until 1936. She filmed five movies in 1935, but played in only THOROUGHBRED in '36. In 1938, Helen went through a drought and made her last film the following year in UNMARRIED. Helen's film career had ended. Through the balance of her life there seemed to be a void. On February 13, 1958, died after she took an overdose of sedatives. She was 49.Killed herself with an overdose of sedatives in 1958- Actress
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Perennial starlet Dorothy Abbott was a sexy, vivacious, wide-smiling model, showgirl and actress who could brighten up a room. Unfortunately, her cinematic offerings wound up being pretty minimal and her last years were marred by depression and, ultimately, a tragic end.
She was born Dorothy E. Abbott on December 16, 1920, in Kansas City, Missouri and started her career off as a chorine with Earl Carroll and his Los Angeles-based revues and in Las Vegas showrooms where she was dubbed the rather mystifying title of "The Girl with the Golden Arm". Paramount Studios perked up on the lovely blonde with the Betty Page-like bangs and gave her a starting contract at $150 a week. Groomed in dozens of decorative "good time girl" bits -- dancers, chorus girls, waitresses, stewardesses, party girls, nurses and models -- she was at the same time promoted as a cheesecake pinup, "winning" such dubious titles as "Miss Wilshire Club," "Miss Los Angeles Transit" and "Miss Oil Cans".
The dusky-voiced Dorothy was usually briefly seen and not heard in such dramatic and lightweight fare as The Razor's Edge (1946), Road to Rio (1947), Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) (in which she has her first speaking role as a maid), Words and Music (1948), Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), Little Women (1949), Neptune's Daughter (1949), Annie Get Your Gun (1950), His Kind of Woman (1951), Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952), _The Las Vegas Story (1952)_, The Caddy (1953), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Jailhouse Rock (1957), South Pacific (1958), The Apartment (1960), That Touch of Mink (1962), A Gathering of Eagles (1963) and Dear Heart (1964). Her one starring role came early in the exploitative, lowbudget potboiler A Virgin in Hollywood (1953) as a star reporter out to get a seamy Hollywood story, but she was unable to capitalize on it.
Working bit parts at the studio during the days, she would often perform on stage in little theatre shows at night. On the sly, when work was meager, she became a real estate agent in the 1950s in order to help supplement her income. TV chores included guest roles in "Leave It to Beaver" and "Ozzie and Harriet". She also had a recurring part for one season as Jack Webb's girlfriend on the Dragnet (1954) series.
Dorothy married LAPD narcotics squad officer-turned homicide detective Adolph Rudy Diaz in 1949. Diaz, who was of Native American (Apache) descent, eventually retired as a cop in order to pursue acting. By this time, the marriage was in trouble and the couple separated. Going by the stage name of Rudy Diaz in 1967, he began to get work and was seen out in public with other women. The divorce was finalized in 1968, but Dorothy took it hard and never seemed to get over it. On December 15, 1968, she committed suicide at her Los Angeles home -- one day before her 48th birthday. She was interred (as Dorothy E. Diaz) at Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, Los Angeles County, California, Plot: Valley Lawn, Lot 2939.Killed herself in 1968- Clara Blandick was an American actress born as Clara Dickey and born aboard an American ship off the coast of Hong Kong on June 4, 1880. Little is known about her early life until she became an actress. She grew up in Boston and first acted on stage in E.H. Sothern's 'Richard Lovelace'. Although she appeared in 118 films, she was primarily a stage actress. She began her film career at a late age. She was 33 when she was picked for the role as Emily Mason in Mrs. Black Is Back (1914). Her next film was The Stolen Triumph (1916), after which she returned to the stage, where she seemed more comfortable. She did not make another film until the age of 48, when she appeared in Poor Aubrey (1930).
She had only three films under her belt by this time but would appear in more than 100 over the next 20 years. She made nine films in 1930, and thirteen the following year. The role that was to immortalize her, however, was "Auntie Em" in The Wizard of Oz (1939). She continued in films until 1950, when she appeared on the screen for the final time in Key to the City (1950).
By this time Blandick had been suffering from poor health for years, especially painful arthritis and failing eyesight, and retired from the screen. On Palm Sunday, April 15, 1962, aged 85, she went to church in Hollywood. When she returned she wrote a note stating she was about to take the greatest adventure of her life. She took an overdose of sleeping tablets and pulled a plastic bag over her head, thus ending her life.Killed herself with an overdose of pills in 1962 - Evelyn Nelson was born Dorris Evelyn Nelson on November 13, 1899 in Chloride, Arizona. Her father was a miner and cattle owner. When she was a child her family moved to Los Angeles, California. She started her career at Bull's Eye films and appeared in the 1920 comedy Don't Park Here. Evelyn was signed by Vitagraph and costarred with Oliver Hardy in the comedies The Backyard and The Decorator. Then she was chosen to be Jack Hoxie's leading lady in the 1921 film Cyclone Bliss. She would make a series of westerns with Jack including The Crow's Nest, The Desert Bridegroom, and Two-Fisted Jefferson. Her older sister Pauline Nelson became an actress too. After her father died Evelyn moved into a modest apartment with her mother. She began a passionate affair with married actor Wallace Reid.
He ended the relationship because he was fearful it would ruin his career. Tragically in January of 1923 Wallace died of a drug overdose. Evelyn was devastated by his death. In June of 1923 she finished filming Desert Rider. She was physically and emotionally exhausted. On June 16, 1923 she committed suicide by turning on the gas in her apartment. She was only twenty-three years old. Evelyn left two suicide notes for her family. The first note said that she was "tired" and that she wanted "rest more than anything in the world". The other note said "I am just about gone and will soon be with my friend Wally." She was buried in an unmarked grave at Rosedale cemetery in Los Angeles.Killed herself in 1923 - 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".Killed herself by jumping out a window in 1938 - Gladys Frazin was born on June 21, 1900 in Chicago, Illinois. She began her career on the New York stage. In 1918 she married theatrical agent Leo Lowenstein. Their son, Leo Jr, was born two years later. Gladys starred on Broadway in The Masked Woman and toured the country in White Cargo. She became a popular stage star and was featured on the cover of The National Police Gazette. In 1924 she made her film debut in the drama Let No Man Put Asunder. She left her husband and married actor Douglas Gilmore but they were divorced in 1925. Her third marriage, to Richard W. Lehne, only lasted a month. Gladys went to London to star in a stage production of The Trial of Mary Dugan. She married comedian Monty Banks in 1929.
They costarred together in The Compulsory Husband and Monty adopted her son. Gladys appeared in some British films but she never became a major star. Her final role was in the 1931 drama The Other Woman. In April of 1932 she disappeared for several days after having a nervous breakdown. Soon after Monty filed for divorced and Gladys moved in with her parents in New York City. She and Monty announced they were going to remarry in 1934 but they broke up again. Gladys was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered from severe depression. On March 9, 1939 she committed suicide by jumping out of her sixth floor bedroom window. She was only thirty-eight years old. Gladys left a suicide note that said "Mother and Dad, Please forgive me for what I am doing. I cannot suffer any longer. Love, Gladys."Killed herself in 1939 by jumping out her window - Actress
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This enigmatic Stockholm-born beauty had everything going for her, including a rapidly rising film and TV career. Yet on April 30, 1970, at only 35, Inger Stevens would become another tragic Hollywood statistic -- added proof that fame and fortune do not always lead to happiness. Over time, a curious fascination, and perhaps even a morbid interest, has developed over Ms. Stevens and her life. What exactly went wrong? A remote, paradoxical young lady with obvious personal problems, she disguised it all with a seemingly positive attitude, an incredibly healthy figure and a megawatt smile that wouldn't quit. Although very little information has been filtered out about Ms. Stevens and her secretive life over the years, William T. Patterson's eagerly-anticipated biography, "The Farmer's Daughter Remembered: The Biography of Actress Inger Stevens" (2000), finally put an end to much of the mystery. But not quite all. The book claims that a large amount of previously-published information about Ms. Stevens is either untrue or distorted.
A strong talent and consummate dramatic player of the late 50s and 60s, she was born Inger Stensland, the eldest of three children, of Swedish parentage. A painfully shy and sensitive child, she was initially drawn to acting as a girl after witnessing her father perform in amateur theater productions. Her rather bleak childhood could be directed at a mother who abandoned her family for another man when Inger was only 6. Her father moved to the States, remarried, and eventually summoned for Inger and a younger brother in 1944 to join him and his new bride. Family relations did not improve. As a teenager, she ran away from home and ended up in a burlesque chorus line only to be brought home by her father. After graduation and following some menial jobs here and there, she moved to New York and worked briefly as a model while studying at the Actors Studio. She broke into the business through TV commercials and summer stock, rising in the ingénue ranks as a guest in a number of weekly series.
Often viewed as the beautiful loner or lady of mystery, an innate sadness seemed to permeate many of her roles. Inger made her film debut at age 22 opposite Bing Crosby in Man on Fire (1957). Serious problems set in when Inger began falling in love with her co-stars. Broken affairs with Crosby, James Mason, her co-star in Cry Terror! (1958), Anthony Quinn, her director in Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer (1958), and Harry Belafonte, her co-star in The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959), left her frequently depressed and ultimately despondent. An almost-fatal New Year's day suicide attempt in 1959 led to an intense period of self-examination and a new resolve. A brief Broadway lead in "Roman Candle," an Emmy-nominated role opposite Peter Falk in Price of Tomatoes (1962), and popular appearances on such TV shows as Bonanza (1959), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Route 66 (1960) paved the way to a popular series as "Katy Holstrum," the Swedish governess, in The Farmer's Daughter (1963). This brisk, change-of-pace comedy role earned her a Golden Globe award and Emmy nomination, and lasted three seasons.
Now officially a household name, Inger built up her momentum once again in films. A string of parts came her way within a three-year period including the sex comedy A Guide for the Married Man (1967) as roving eye husband Walter Matthau's unsuspecting wife; Clint Eastwood's first leading film role in Hang 'Em High (1968); the crime drama, Madigan (1968) with Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark; the westerns Firecreek (1968) with Fonda again plus James Stewart, and 5 Card Stud (1968) opposite Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum; the political thriller House of Cards (1968) starring George Peppard and Orson Welles; and A Dream of Kings (1969) which reunited her with old flame Anthony Quinn. Although many of her co-starring roles seemed to be little more than love interest filler, Inger made a noticeable impression in the last movie mentioned, by far the most intense and complex of her film career. Adding to that mixture were a number of well-made TV mini-movies. On the minus side, she also resurrected the bad habit of pursuing affairs with her co-stars, which would include Dean Martin and, most notably, Burt Reynolds, her last.
In April of 1970, Inger signed on as a series lead in a crime whodunit The Most Deadly Game (1970) to be telecast that September. It never came to be. Less than a week later, she was found unconscious on the floor of her kitchen by her housekeeper and died en route to the hospital of acute barbiturate intoxication -- a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol. Yvette Mimieux replaced her in the short-lived series that fall. For all intents and purposes, Ms. Stevens' death was a suicide but Patterson's bio indicates other possibilities. Following her death, it came out in the tabloids that she had been secretly married to a Negro, Ike Jones, since 1961. The couple was estranged at the time of her death.Killed herself with an overdose of pills- Costume and Wardrobe Department
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Irene Maud Lentz was born on December 8, 1901 in Baker, Montana. When she was a teenager, she moved to Hollywood to become an actress. She found work as a Mack Sennett bathing beauty and appeared in the comedies Picking Peaches (1924) and A Tailor-Made Man (1922). Irene married director F. Richard Jones in 1929. Tragically he died a year later from tuberculosis. To make extra money Irene decided to open a dress shop. In 1933 she was asked to design the clothes for Lili Damita in Goldie Gets Along (1933). She quickly became one of Hollywood's top costumes designers. Irene had a passionate affair with actor Gary Cooper. She later said he was the only man she really loved. In 1936 she married Eliot Gibbons, a writer. Irene became the head costume designer at MGM, where she created iconic costumes for Lana Turner and Judy Garland.
She was nominated for an Academy Award in 1948 for her work on B.F.'s Daughter (1948). Eventually she left MGM to open her own fashion house. Unfortunately her marriage to Elliot was troubled and they began living apart. In 1960 Irene's close friend Doris Day asked her to design the clothes for Midnight Lace (1960). She received her second Academy Award nomination for her work on the film. By this time Irene had a serious drinking problem and was suffering from depression. On November 15, 1962 Irene checked into the Knickerbocker hotel in Hollywood. She committed suicide by jumping out of a bathroom window. Irene was sixty-one years old. In her suicide note she wrote ""I'm sorry. This is the best way." She was buried next to her first husband at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.Killed herself by jumping out a window- Maggie McNamara -- with her brown hair in a ponytail -- arrives in Rome in Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) expecting great things to happen. Petite and slender, she looks almost like a schoolgirl in her prim blue suit. She is bright and vivacious and goes for what she wants -- a proposal from "Prince Dino De Cessi" played by Louis Jourdan. She was in her mid-20s, then, and at the height of her career as she made her second film. One of four children of Irish-American parents, Maggie had come a long way since attending Textile High in New York to prepare for a modeling career. Pert as well as petite, she must have reminded people of the young Debbie Reynolds. Both had a look that was popular in the late 1940s. Maggie's picture appeared twice on the cover of Life Magazine and people were saying she too ought to be in movies. She started taking lessons with a dramatic coach and, at the age of 23, she was discovered by Otto Preminger. He signed her to play the role of a proper young lady who lets herself be lured to a bachelor's apartment in the Chicago production of a play of F. Hugh Herbert. She played the ingénue role in "The Moon Is Blue" in the national company for 18 months. Then, in 1951, she made it to Broadway in "The King of Friday's Men". Brooks Atkinson, drama critic for the New York Times, said of her performance in that play that she was "remarkably pretty and has a gift for acting". Then Maggie was offered the female lead in the Otto Preminger's film version of The Moon Is Blue (1953) with William Holden and David Niven. Theater patrons in New York and Chicago had found the stage version of the story amusing. The Catholic Legion of Decency was not amused when it previewed the film. It was stamped "C" for Condemned. The New York Times noted in 1978: "The Moon Is Blue aroused a storm of controversy because of what some observers regarded as 'indecent' discussion of sex, and the ridicule of the rules of parental protection. By current standards, it was, in fact, a prim and proper work". Maggie was supporting herself as a typist when she died in 1978. The New York Times obituary appeared four weeks after her death. It said she was 48. The relative who confirmed that she had died did not give the newspaper the date of her birth. The relative said Maggie had been doing some writing recently and a film script, "The Mighty Dandelion", had been accepted by a new film producing company.Killed herself by taking an overdose of pills
- Peggy O'Neill was born Barbara Jeanne O'Neill in San Francisco, California. When she was eighteen she won a beauty contest and moved to Hollywood. She met producer Charles Rogers who helped her get a screen test. Peggy was given a starring role in the 1944 comedy Song Of The Open Road. Columnist Louella Parsons called her "Hollywood's newest Cinderella". During the Summer of 1944 Peggy went in a bond selling tour of Texas with Adele Mera and Gale Storm. She had small parts in the movies It's A Pleasure and The Hoodlum Saint.
Peggy impulsively married Lloyd Miner, an Army officer, on January 16 1945. They separated shortly after the wedding and Peggy moved in with her mother. In the Spring of 1945 Peggy was offered a long term contract with Paramount. She started a serious romance with screenwriter Albert Mannheimer. On April 12, 1945 Peggy had an argument with Albert. That evening she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. She was only twenty-one years old. Peggy was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.Killed herself at age 21 - Claire Maynard was born Marie J. MacCarthy on March 22, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, James MacCarthy, was head of New York City's board of transportation and her grandfather, M.J. Coffey, was a State Senator. When Claire was a teenager she started modeling for a local dress shop. A 20th Century Fox talent scout saw her and signed her to a contract in the Summer of 1931. She made her film debut in the drama Over The Hill. Claire made four more films at Fox including Good Sport and Dance Team. Unfortunately after six moths they decided to drop her contract. She was signed by Universal in 1932 and made two comedy shorts with Slim Summerville. Claire had a brief romance with writer Jack Kirkland, ex-husband of Nancy Carroll.
She was cast in the lead role in Under The Circumstances but the film never got made. In 1933 she moved back to New York City and started acting in the theater. She had a small role in the 1936 play Bright Honor. Claire was married for a short time. She was devastated when her mother Florence died in 1938. Claire became very depressed and attempted suicide. She would often spend hours visiting her mother's grave. On July 19, 1941 Claire killed herself by turning on the gas in her apartment. She was only twenty-nine years old. Claire left three notes for her family members. The letter for her father said "Daddy, My sweetheart, Always my sweetheart." Her friends said she ended her life because her heart could not ache any longer. Claire was buried next to her mother at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.Killed herself with gas poisoning - Actress
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Nora Bennett Schilling was born in Chester, Illinois. She grew up and went to school near St. Louis. After modeling for a time, she went to visit a friend in California and was noticed by someone in the film industry. She successfully passed her screen test and began playing small parts in silent films in 1927, taking on the name Lane. In her 17 year career she played in over 80 films. Her notable works include her role as Zerelda in Jesse James (1927), her role as Sally in The Cisco Kid (1931), the villainous role of Goldie in Western Frontier (1935), as well as her supporting part in Jimmy the Gent (1934) which starred James Cagney and Bette Davis. She played in four Hopalong Cassidy films, two of which she was cast as the widowed ranch owner, Nora Blake. In her personal life, she was noted as an excellent swimmer and won many awards. On August 5, 1931, she and fellow actors Warner Baxter and Edmund Lowe were involved in a Southern Pacific train crash 20 miles east of Yuma, Arizona, but managed to escape uninjured. In 1941 she married Burdette Henney and retired from movies in 1944. The two lived a happy marriage until tragedy struck in 1948 when they went on a fishing trip in Bishop, California, during which Nora's husband died suddenly of a heart attack. On October 16, exactly one month after Burdette's death, the grief stricken widow shot herself dead after leaving a note to her step-son, simply saying she could not go on without him.Killed herself with a gunshot- Actress
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Christine Maple was born Christine Raphael on November 16, 1912 in Belle-Plaine, Kansas. When she was a child her parents divorced. Her mother remarried and they moved to Los Angeles. Christine started competing in beauty pageants and was a finalist in the Elks National Convention bathing beauty contest. In 1930 she made her film debut in the Charley Chase short Fifty Million Husbands. She also appeared as a dancer in the musical Whoopee. Florenz Ziegfeld hired her to star in the Ziegfeld Follies and gave her the title of "Miss Universe". During the show she shocked audiences by appearing on stage completely nude. She was romantically involved with violinist Enric Madriguera and plastic surgeon Dr. Morton Berson (who fixed her nose). Christine became known for wearing low-cut evening dresses and telling outrageous lies about her life. She once claimed that her father was a British duke. In December of 1933 she was arrested after causing a scene on train in Switzerland.
A few months later the wife of millionaire Martino De Alzaga Unzue accused her of being "too friendly" with her husband. She made headlines in April of 1935 when she got into a fight with a cab driver after refusing to pay her bill. Her mother said she had a nervous breakdown and sent her to a sanitarium. Christine signed a contract with Republic pictures in 1936 and appeared in the westerns The Big Show and Roarin' Lead. She went to Australia in 1938 to appear in a stage production of The Women. Unfortunately she had to leave the show when she became very ill. She suffered another nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized in 1943. After being released she moved to Langhorne, Pennsylvania and worked in a department store. Tragically on January 12, 1947 she committed suicide by hanging herself. Christine was only thirty-four years old. Her body was cremated and her ashes were given to her family.Killed herself by hanging- Allyn King was born on February 1, 1899 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Tragically her father, Dr. Allyn King, was murdered in 1909. A few years later her mother moved them to New Haven, Connecticut. Allyn started performing in vaudeville when she was a teenager. In September of 1916 she became the headliner of the Ziegfeld Follies. She spent five seasons starring in the Follies where she earned five hundred dollars a week. Allyn was cast in the 1920 Broadway show Ladies Night. Over the next three years she starred in several more shows including Sun Showers and Moonlight. She was nicknamed "Broadway's Sweetest Girl". Allyn was obsessed with her weight because of a clause in her contract that said she would be fired if she gained ten pounds. She began starving herself and taking thyroid pills to maintain her boyish figure. In 1923 she made her film debut in The Fighting Blade. Unfortunately it would be her only movie role.
Allyn was romantically involved with Carl Wiedemann, a wealthy brewer from Kentucky. There were rumors they were engaged but the relationship ended when she refused to give up her career. By 1927 years of extreme dieting left her thirty pounds underweight and suffering from severe anemia. She entered a sanitarium to recover and remained there for almost two years. After being released Allyn started studying music and hoped to return to Broadway. Unfortunately she became very depressed when she gained weight. On March 29, 1930 she jumped out of a five-story apartment window. She survived the fall but died from her injuries on March 31. Allyn had committed suicide at the young age of thirty-one. She left a note saying she was unhappy about her failed career and recent weight gain. Allyn was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in New York City.Killed herself by jumping out a window - Actress
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Marie Walcamp was born on July 27, 1894 in Dennison, Ohio. Dennison had a small population and was miles from Canton and Youngstown, the two nearest big cities in the state. Because of its size, the town didn't afford the type of opportunity of fame that Marie wanted. She began to dream of stardom early, as most young girls do, and when she had finished her formal education headed to the East Coast in search of acting jobs on the stage. While she found some work in New York, she was discovered and was given a role in 1913's The Werewolf on the silver screen when she was 19 years old. Unfortunately, the roles were not always good ones for her. Her counterparts always seemed to get bigger and better roles although Marie knew she could hold her own against the best of them. By the time the twenties rolled around, Marie was used less and less on the screen. Her final film was In A Moment of Temptation in 1927. On November 17, 1936, Marie committed suicide from an overdose of medication. She was just 42 years old.Killed herself by turning on the gas- Helen Lee Worthing was born Helen Wortham on January 31, 1905 in Louisville, Kentucky. Her mother died when she was a child and her father moved the family to Massachusetts. During World War 1 she worked with the Red Cross. She married Charles McDonald, a businessman, in 1917. At the age of twenty-four she entered a beauty contest and was named "the most beautiful woman in America". Soon after she moved to New York City and appeared in several shows. She joined the cast of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1921. The following year her marriage ended and she attempted suicide. Helen made her film debut in the 1923 drama Enemies of Women. She had supporting roles in The Other Woman's Story and Watch Your Wife. Her performances got good reviews and her future seemed bright. In the April of 1927 she was brutally attacked in her home. While she was recovering she fell in love with her African American physician Dr. Eugene Nelson. There was a scandal when the public found out the couple had gotten married. She was shunned by the film community and had to file for bankruptcy.
Helen started drinking and in 1930 she suffered a nervous breakdown. After numerous separations she and Eugene were divorced in May of 1932. A few months later Eugene told the court that she was using her alimony to buy drugs. When she threatened suicide a judge committed her to a sanitarium. She was arrested in 1933 for using narcotics and again in 1935 for public drunkenness. Then in 1939 she was caught forging prescriptions for morphine and had to spend a year in jail. Helen told reporters she hoped jail would help her but her life continued to spin out of control. She was arrested several more times and in March of 1946 she was found passed out drunk on a Los Angeles street. Helen moved into a run-down house where she spent her days looking through scrapbooks from her career. On August 25, 1948 she committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. She was forty-three years old. The police found a note that said "I have had so many heartbreaks and so many let-downs and I don't believe I can stand one straw more." Her friends paid for her to be buried at Inglewood Cemetery in Los Angeles.Killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills - Irene Dalton was born on September 10, 1899 in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from high school she started working as a stenographer. She got her first acting job when she answered an ad in a local newspaper. Irene was signed by Christie studios in August of 1920. She costarred with Earl Rodney in Three Jokers and with Laura La Plante in His Four Fathers. The petite actress was just five feet tall and had jet black hair. She was Lloyd Hamilton's leading lady in numerous comedies including The Vagrant, Rolling Stones, and Poor Boy. In 1923 she had a supporting roles in the films Children Of Jazz and Bluebeard's 8th Wife.. Irene had a brief romance with actor Lew Cody. She also had a long affair with John Raymond Owens, a married millionaire sportsman. When his wife filed for divorce she named Irene as the other woman. John and Irene were both arrested in October of 1924 and charged with violating the Mann Act. They were accused of crossing state lines for illicit fornication. Irene claimed they were both innocent and the charges were eventually dropped.
She quit making movies and started living with Charles Meehan, a real estate broker and bootlegger. In March of 1927 Charles, Irene, and Lloyd Hamilton were involved in a drunken nightclub fight that left stuntman Eddie Diggins dead. Charles was arrested on suspicion of murder and Irene was questioned by the police. The scandalous story made headlines all over the country. After a brief investigation Charles was released and the police decided not to charge anyone in Eddie Diggins death. Irene married her former costar Lloyd Hamilton on June 19, 1927. Unfortunately he was an alcoholic and became abusive. The couple split up after just eight months of marriage. She returned to Chicago and moved in with her parents. Tragically Irene died suddenly on August 15, 1934 at the age of thirty-four. She was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, Illinois. Although some sources claim Irene was actress Dorothy Dalton's younger sister the two women were not related.Killed herself at age 34 - Ruan Lingyu was born Ruan Fenggen on April 26, 1910 in Shanghai, China. Her father died when she was a child and her mother worked as a maid to support them. When she was sixteen Ruan started acting as a way to earn money. She made her film debut in the 1927 Chinese language film A Married Couple In Name Only. Ruan fell in love with Zhang Damin, a gambler who had been disowned by his wealthy family. She would financially support him during their relationship. In 1930 she signed a contract with Lianhua Studios and starred in the film Spring Dream of an Old Capital. It was a huge hit and made her one of China's biggest stars. Her success continued with starring roles in Little Toys, Homecoming, and The Goddess. She was called "China's Greta Garbo". Ruan broke up with Zhang and started dating Tang Jishan, a married tea tycoon. He bought her a mansion in Shanghai and she became his mistress. Her ex-lover Zhang sued her in 1934 claiming she was his wife and owed him money.
The scandal made front page headlines and from then on then tabloid press became obsessed with her personal life. Unfortunately her relationship with Tang was rocky and he started abusing her. She was devastated when he threw her beloved dog out of a window. Ruan was cast in the 1935 drama New Women. It was based on the life of Ai Xia, an actress who had committed suicide. When New Women premiered in February of 1935 there was a backlash from journalists who objected to their negative portrayal. On March 8, 1935 Ruan committed suicide by overdosing on barbiturates. She was just twenty-four years old. A note was found that said "Gossip is a fearful thing". More than one hundred thousand fans attended her funeral. Three female fans were so overcome with grief that they committed suicide during her funeral procession. She was buried at Fu Shou Yuan Cemetery in Shanghai. Two new "suicide" notes written by Ruan were found in 2001. In these notes she writes that Tang broke her heart and Zhang shamed her publicly.Killed herself by overdosing on pills - Actress
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Well-endowed, attractive Joyce Jameson was typecast as "broads," "dames," and dizzy blondes -- somewhat in the vein of Barbara Nichols. In real life, she was said, like such other ditzy blondes as Judy Holliday and Jayne Mansfield, to have been the antithesis of her screen personae, a graduate in theatre arts from UCLA, highly intelligent and well-read.
Born in Chicago in 1927 (not 1932 as has been misreported) as Joyce Kingsley as per the Cook County, Illinois Birth Index, 1916-1935 (File Number 6045258), she began acting in films from 1951, after being 'spotted' at the small Cabaret Club by Steve Allen. At that time, she was already a seasoned performer on stage in musical revue, featured playing multiple parts in shows staged by her then-husband and mentor, Billy Barnes, initially at the Cabaret Club, then at the Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood, and finally on Broadway.
After several small supporting bits on the big screen and the odd ghost-written TV script, Jameson's career gained momentum from the late 1950s. She was seen in better productions, such as Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960). Adept at dialects and mimicry, Jameson made a name for herself on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957) with a ventriloquist act, featuring her 'alter ego,' an imaginary dummy, unsurprisingly named "Marilyn." Jameson was said to have derived the idea of being subsumed by this 'other personality' from the British horror classic Dead of Night (1945). Reputedly still more uproarious, were her biting impersonations of Judy Garland, Grace Kelly, and, above all, Marlene Dietrich.
She may be most-fondly remembered for her first two cult Gothic horrors she made for Roger Corman, loosely based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Tales of Terror (1962), finds her (in story number two, 'The Black Cat') as perpetually inebriated Peter Lorre's philandering wife Annabel, who suffers the ignominious fate of being entombed alive in a wine cellar, alongside paramour Vincent Price. Her performance on the way to that demise -- at once funny and tragic -- amply demonstrated her ability to hold her own in a leading role opposite such dominant personalities as Lorre and Price. She was quite good (and certainly very decorative) in her second outing for Corman, The Comedy of Terrors (1963) albeit in a more typical role as decrepit Boris Karloff's ditzy daughter, Amaryllis Trumbull.
On television, she had a recurring spot on The Andy Griffith Show (1960) and guested in many classic series, including westerns and science fiction, though her forte was almost certainly comedy. Unable to escape her typecasting, she rarely got roles her acting talent would have justified. Jameson once commented acerbically in an interview, "Everyone expects to cast me as the dumb or victimized blonde. After they interview me, I can just hear them say, 'Hey! She's intelligent, but what do you do with it?'" (The Pittsburgh Press, July 27,1958).Killed herself with pills- Vera Sisson was born on July 31, 1891 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was educated at the Brownlee Collegiate school for girls in Denver, Colorado. When she was twenty-one she applied to Universal Studios for extra work. She made her film debut in the 1913 drama The Helping Hand. Vera costarred with J. Warren Kerrigan's in seven hit westerns including and The Sandhill Lovers and The Oyster Dredger. In an interview she said her greatest ambition was to have her own studio. She lived with her mother in a small home in Los Angeles. Vera was offered a contract at Biograph studios in 1915. The following year she married director Richard Rosson. She continued to make movies but she was mostly cast in supporting roles.
Vera costarred with Rudoph Valentino in The Married Virgin and with Constance Talmadge in Experimental Marriage. She decided to retire from acting to be a full-time wife. Her final role was in the 1926 comedy Love 'Em and Leave 'Em. In 1939 she and her husband Richard were arrested in Germany and charged with photographing military secrets. They were released after thirty-four days in solitary confinement. The couple bought a home on Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades. They never had children. Tragically Richard took his own life on May 31, 1953. Vera became very depressed after his death. On August 6, 1954 she committed suicide by overdosing on barbiturates. She was sixty-three years old. Vera was buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles.Killed herself with an overdose - Actress
- Writer
Marie Walcamp was born on July 27, 1894 in Dennison, Ohio. Dennison had a small population and was miles from Canton and Youngstown, the two nearest big cities in the state. Because of its size, the town didn't afford the type of opportunity of fame that Marie wanted. She began to dream of stardom early, as most young girls do, and when she had finished her formal education headed to the East Coast in search of acting jobs on the stage. While she found some work in New York, she was discovered and was given a role in 1913's The Werewolf on the silver screen when she was 19 years old. Unfortunately, the roles were not always good ones for her. Her counterparts always seemed to get bigger and better roles although Marie knew she could hold her own against the best of them. By the time the twenties rolled around, Marie was used less and less on the screen. Her final film was In A Moment of Temptation in 1927. On November 17, 1936, Marie committed suicide from an overdose of medication. She was just 42 years old.Killed herself with gas- Abigail Adams was born Margaret Thomas Adams on January 11, 1922. During her freshman year at the University of North Carolina she was discovered by modeling agent Harry Conover. She dropped out of school and moved to New York City to be a model. She made her film debut in the 1942 comedy Moonlight Masquerade. For a short time she used the stage name Tommye Adams. On January 22, 1942 she married 41-year-old actor Lyle Talbot; the marriage was annulled just eight months later. Abigail was romantically involved with Tony Martin, Mickey Rooney, and pianist Jose Iturbi. She began a turbulent romance with actor George Jessel in 1944; he was 23 year older and had three ex-wives. They broke up and got back together numerous times. Abigail had bit parts in more than a dozen films, including Bathing Beauty and Marriage Is A Private Affair. In March 1945 she was arrested for hit-and-run driving; the charges were dropped when George Jessel testified in her defense.
Abigail's apartment was destroyed in a fire in December 1947. By that time she had a serious drinking problem and her career was in trouble. Her last film was the 1948 comedy The Fuller Brush Man. George proposed to her with a heart-shaped diamond ring but refused to set a wedding date. They continued to have an on-again/off-again relationship. Abigail started singing in nightclubs and wrote a screenplay. She suffered from severe insomnia and began taking sleeping pills at night. In 1950 she attempted suicide by slashing her wrists. She was arrested on December 12, 1954 for public intoxication and ended up her relationship soon after. On February 13, 1955, at only 33 years old, she died after overdosing on sleeping pills. She was found in her bed wearing a blue nightgown. The police ruled her death as accidental but many believe she committed suicide. She was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina.Killed herself with pills