Deaths: January 4
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- Actor
- Soundtrack
Arthur Duncan was drafted into a dance team with two friends while in school. He initially resisted, but they insisted he give it a try. He liked it, and began to take tap lessons.
For a few years Arthur worked in Australia, where he was a popular performer who was even offered his own TV show. Feeling that he was too young and experienced for the responsibility that would have come with the show, he turned it down. He explained that he was working regularly, so he didn't miss much. While in Australia he met and worked with Ken Delo, who he would later work with for many years on the Lawrence Welk show.
After returning to the US, Arthur asked an acquaintance in the business to inquire if Lawrence Welk had any interest in adding a performer like Arthur to his show. After a long wait, he was asked to an audition, and then a few months later to make a guest appearance. After another couple of guest appearances, Arthur appeared with the show during a run in Lake Tahoe. At the end of the last show there, Lawrence asked Arthur out onto the stage, commented to the audience that Arthur had become popular with them, and announced that he'd like Arthur to "join the Welk musical family". Arthur accepted, and thus began a run of decades on the show, during which it was very rare not to see Arthur have a tap solo, along with other dance numbers with fellow members of the cast.
It shouldn't go without mention that when Lawrence Welk put Arthur Duncan on his show, black performers were generally not well received by TV audiences of the time. Welk showed real courage in breaking the color barrier, and Arthur Duncan obviously won the admiration and respect of both live and TV audiences with his incredible talent, good humor, and pleasant personality.
(The above is based on an interview of Arthur Duncan on the Lawrence Welk shows syndicated on PBS).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ada Falcon was born on 17 August 1905 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was an actress, known for Idols of the Radio (1934), Tu cuna fue un conventillo (1925) and Innocent Lies (1995). She died on 4 January 2002 in Salsipuedes, Córdoba, Argentina.- Aharon Appelfeld was born on 16 February 1932 in Jadova, Storojinet, Romania [now Stara Zhadova, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a writer, known for Tsili (2014), Vers où Israël? (2012) and Beyond Paranoia: The War Against the Jews (2015). He was married to Judith. He died on 4 January 2018 in Petah Tikva, Israel.
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, in Mondovi, Algeria. His parents were Spanish-French-Algerian (pied noir) colonists. His father, Lucien, died in the Battle of Marne (1914) during WWI. His mother, named Catherine Helene Sintes was of Spanish origin, she was a deaf mute due to a stroke, but she was able to read lips and worked as a cleaning lady, providing for her son, who loved her to tears.
Camus studied at Algiers Lycee from 1923-32, then at the University of Algiers, from where he graduated in 1936 with a degree in philosophy. While a student he joined the French Communist Party in 1934, but in 1936 he joined the 'Le Parti du Peuple Algerien' and was denounced by communists as 'Trotskyite'. He was seriously influenced by the writings of 'Andre Malraux', 'Andre Gide' and Plotinus' theory of the "One", which became Camus' graduation thesis (1936).
He was rejected from the French army because of tuberculosis, which he contracted in the 1930's. His first marriage to Simone Hie, a morphine addict, ended due to infidelity from both of them. In 1940 Camus married a pianist and mathematician Francine Faure, whom he loved and patiently tolerated her affair with the actress María Casares. Camus and Francine Faure had twins born in 1945.
During the Second World War Camus was a writer for 'Paris-Soir' magazine. He was in Paris during the Wermacht occupation, and witnessed the execution of the French communist and anti-fascist activist Gabriel Peri by firearm, which turned Camus' mind against Nazi Germany. He moved to Bordeaux, where he finished his early works, 'The Stranger' and 'The Myth of Sisyphus', which opens with his famous statement about the philosophical question of suicide, and deals with the absurdity of existence in the meaningless struggle.
Camus joined the French Resistance cell 'Combat' and edited the eponymous paper under the pseudonym 'Beauchard'. He reported on the fighting when Allies liberated Paris in 1944. Camus continued his work for 'Combat' until 1947, and through this work he became acquainted with Jean-Paul Sartre. For a couple of years Camus was a member of Sartre's circle at the Cafe de Flore on the Boulevard St. Germain, but Camus' criticism of communist doctrine soon alienated Sartre. He highly regarded Franz Kafka and William Faulkner, whose 'Requiem for a Nun' he adopted into a play.
Camus' lectures about French existentialism brought him on a 3-month tour of the United States and Canada in 1946, where he spoke at several universities. He lectured for 3 months in Brazil, Argentina and Chile in 1949, where he became sick and almost suicidal. The return of his tuberculosis forced Camus into seclusion from 1949-1951. It was during those 2 years that he crystallized his analysis of rebels and revolutions and published 'The Rebel'. The book clearly formulates his rejection of communism as well as any violent activity under various Utopian masks of 'social justice'.
Albert Camus' desire for clarity and meaning in the world that offers nothing, but chaos, resulted in his work on the idea of absurdism. It was incorporated in many of his works from 'The Myth of Sisyphus' (1942), 'The Plaque' (1947), 'The Rebel' (1951), and other works. Camus' ideas resulted from his philosophic analysis of the diverse list of sources from 'Epicurus' to Fyodor Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, and 'Andre Breton', as well as his own experiences in the war and his studies.
His greatest work 'The Fall' (1956) presents the monologues of a self-proclaimed 'judge penitent' Clamence, whose character alludes to Zarathustra from Friedrich Nietzsche and Grand Inquisitor from the 'Karamasov Brothers' of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Camus challenges the reader with the dilemma of accepting the absurdity of our existence and/or learning how to deal with it as well as with the unpredictable consequences from doing something about it.
Camus was the proponent of the idea of human rights. He resigned from UNESCO in 1952 in protest of the UN acceptance of Spain under 'Edgar Franco 'El General''. He protested against the Soviet crush upon the East Berlin workers in 1953, and against the Soviet repressions in Hungary in 1956. He was a steady supporter of pacifism and was in opposition to capital punishment. In 1957 Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
He was killed in a car accident on January 4, 1960, in the small town of Villeblevin, France, in the car driven by his publisher and close friend Michel Gallimard, who also died in the accident.- Albert Roux is one of the world's best-known chefs. In 1967 he and his younger brother Michel opened Le Gavroche, Britain's first Michelin-starred restaurant, in London. The brothers have gone on to train other famous chefs, such as Marco Pierre White.
Albert Roux OBE, the son of a charcutier, was born at 67 Grande Rue, Semur-en-Brionnais, Saône-et-Loire. Upon leaving school, he initially decided to train as a priest at the age of 14, however he decided that the role was not suited for him and sought other employment and instead trained as a chef. His godfather worked as a chef for Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, and arranged for Albert, at the age of 18, to be employed working for Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor.
In 1967 he and his younger brother Michel opened Le Gavroche, on Lower Sloane Street in London. It became the first restaurant in Britain to win a Michelin star, the first to win two, and the first to win three in 1982. The restaurant became a favourite of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Career
In 1974, he and Michel set up the Roux Scholarship to enable up and coming chefs to get a start in the industry. During his time in the kitchen, he trained several other chefs who went on to gain Michelin stars of their own, including Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White, Pierre Koffmann and Marcus Wareing.
Albert continues to run a series of restaurants around the world, though his company Roux Consultancy, including one at the Greywalls Hotel in Muirfield, Gullane, and Brasserie Roux at the Sofitel St. James.
In a poll of UK chefs carried out by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine in 2003, Albert and his brother Michel were voted the most influential chefs in the country. In 2006, he and Michel were jointly given the Lifetime Achievement Award by S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants. - Spanish novelist Benito Perez Galdos was born in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, in 1843 to a wealthy family. He was sent to an English school in the Canary Islands, and later he studied law at the University of Madrid. Although he graduated with a law degree, the practice of law never interested him, and upon graduation he became involved in the literary circles of Madrid, and eventually got a job as the literary and drama critic of the magazine "La Nacion". He had always wanted to be a playwright, and although he wrote and published numerous plays--many of which met with great success and some of which were turned into films--he soon realized that his greatest talent was as a novelist.
He continued writing plays and novels while on the staffs of various literary publications, such as "Las Cortes" and "La Revista de Espana" magazines, and eventually he secured a position as editor of "El Debate". After a visit to France, however, he undertook what is generally considered his greatest work--"Episodios Nacionales", a project that became four series of books of ten volumes each and one series of eight books. Each book came out an average of every three months, in addition to his "regular" novels.
A lifelong bachelor, he was a somewhat reclusive man, though he did travel extensively in France, England and Spain, and the general public knew very little about his private life. Towards the end of his life his eyesight began failing him, and by 1912 he was completely blind. That didn't stop him, however; he continued to write, although dictating his work to a secretary, until he died in Madrid in 1920. - Born and educated in the well-to-do Alamo Heights area of San Antonio, Texas, Berry Kroeger first acted in local theatrical productions at the San Pedro Playhouse. His silky voice seemed tailor-made for a lengthy career on radio. By 1931, he was active both as announcer and purveyor of dramatic exploits and crime detection on network serials. After being signed by CBS in 1936 he carved out a very lucrative career on the airwaves in anthologies like "Inner Sanctum" and Orson Welles's "Mystery Theatre of the Air", in addition to starring as suave private eye "The Falcon" (the role played on the screen by Tom Conway).
Kroeger made his theatrical bow on Broadway in a 1943 play by Nunnally Johnson, entitled "The World's Full of Girls". In the course of the next decade he balanced his radio work with performing in classical plays opposite stars like Ingrid Bergman and Helen Hayes, but did not appear in the movies until 1948. When he finally did, it was -- invariably -- as venomous, sneering or smarmy villains. A burly, narrow-eyed and physically imposing character, he simply oozed menace. As his hair receded and turned white already in his twenties, he often tended to play men much older than their years. He tended to be less typecast on the small screen which permitted him to exhibit another side of his acting range. Kroeger adroitly parodied his sinister screen personae by caricaturing Sydney Greenstreet -- whom he somewhat resembled at this stage of his life -- in an episode of Get Smart (1965) ('Maxwell Smart, Private Eye'). Like many other 'professional screen villains', Kroeger was in private life rather the antithesis of the parts he essayed on screen. - Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Bill was known by his friends as "Billy", when he was a youth. He attended "public" school, as many actor's sons and daughters did in the 1960s. He was never athletic since he was stricken with a childhood disease. He was well liked at Emerson Junior High School in West Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Emerson in June 1962. He was known as a friend to everyone, rich or not. After Emerson, he went on to University High School in Los Angeles.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Brian Gibson was born on 22 September 1944 in London, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Breaking Glass (1980), Horizon (1964) and Frida (2002). He was married to Lynn Whitfield and Paula Guarderas. He died on 4 January 2004 in London, England, UK.- Casey Johnson was born on 24 September 1979 in Hollywood, Florida, USA. She died on 4 January 2010 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Writer
Born in Tahiti, the son of writer James Norman Hall, author of "Mutiny on the Bounty," Conrad Hall studied filmmaking at USC. He and two classmates formed a production company and sold a project to a local television station. Hall's company branched out into making industrial films and TV commercials. They were hired to shoot location footage for several feature films, including's Disney's The Living Desert (1953). In the early 1960s, Hall was hired as a camera assistant on several features and worked his way up to camera operator. He received his first cinematographer credit in 1965. Hall won acclaim for his rich and complex compositions, especially for In Cold Blood (1967) and won an Academy Award for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). He won two more Oscars, for American Beauty (1999), in 2000, and Road to Perdition (2002).- D.R. Nanayakkara was born on 15 March 1915 in Kolonnawa, Colombo District, Ceylan [now Sri Lanka]. He was an actor, known for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Seedevi (1951) and Amma (1949). He died on 4 January 1989.
- Actor
- Producer
David Veach was born on 29 September 1967 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Reno 911!: Miami (2007), The Lost Face (2001) and Douche Bros (2013). He died on 4 January 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Donal Donnelly was an English actor best known in the cinema for roles in The Knack... and How to Get It (1965) and The Godfather Part III (1990) and on stage for his work in the plays of Brian Friel. He was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, on the 6th of July 1931, but raised in Dublin, Ireland. In Dublin, he went to a Christian Brothers School where he acted in school plays with classmates Jack MacGowran and Milo O'Shea. Subsequently, he toured Ireland with Anew McMaster's repertory company.
On-stage, he established professional reputation in 1964 playing Gar Private in the Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1974) at Dublin's Gate Theatre. He was nominated for a Tony Award when the show transferred to Broadway in 1966, where it was a hit, racking up 326 performances. Two years later, he replaced Albert Finney in the 1968 Broadway production of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972). From 1969 through 1995, he appeared in an additional nine Broadway productions, including Sleuth (1972) and The Elephant Man (1980), and Friel's "The Mundy Scheme", Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), and "Translations".
In 1965, he co-starred with Michael Crawford and Rita Tushingham in Richard Lester's movie adaption of Ann Jellicoe's hit play "The Knack". It was a hit. He played the scheming Archbishop Gilday out to fleece Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in "The Godfather Part III" and gave a critically acclaimed performance in John Huston's adaption of James Joyce's short story The Dead (1987). He also appeared on British television, most memorably in Z Cars (1962) and the 1970s situation-comedy Yes, Honestly (1976).
Donal Donnelly died from cancer on the 4th of January 2010 in Chicago. He was 78 years old. He and his wife Patsy had two children. - Actor
- Producer
Drew is an energetic young actor who moved to Los Angeles, California with his family in the fall of 2003. His real passion is acting, but he also enjoys rockclimbing, swimming and riding dirt bikes in the mountains along side his Dad and three dogs.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Elias Rahbani was born on 26 June 1938 in Antelias, Lebanon. He was a composer and actor, known for What We Do in the Shadows (2014), My Beloved One (1974) and Welcome to Love (1968). He was married to Nina Maria Khalil. He died on 4 January 2021 in Beirut, Lebanon.- Fay Weldon was born on 22 September 1931 in Worcester, England, UK. She was a writer, known for She-Devil (1989), Puffball: The Devil's Eyeball (2007) and Flood Warning (2020). She was married to Nicolas P Fox, Ronald Weldon and Ronald G. Bateman. She died on 4 January 2023 in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, UK.
- Georges Duboeuf was born on 14 April 1933 in Crêches-sur-Saône, Bourgogne, France. He was married to Rolande. He died on 4 January 2020 in Romanèche-Thorins, Saône-et-Loire, France.
- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Composer
Singer/songwriter Gerry Rafferty was born on April 16, 1947 in Paisley, Scotland. He was the third son of Irish miner and lorry driver Joseph Rafferty and Rafferty's Scottish wife Mary Skeffington. His abusive alcoholic father died when Gerry was only sixteen. Rafferty grew up in a council house on the town's Glenburn estate and attended St. Mirin's Academy. Inspired by his Scottish mother who taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs and the music of Bob Dylan and the Beatles, Gerry started writing his own material. In 1963 he left St. Mirin's Academy and worked in a butcher's shop and as a civil service clerk while also playing with the local group Maverix on weekends. In the mid 60s Rafferty earned money busking on the London Underground. In 1966 he met fellow musician Joe Egan; they were both members of the pop band the Fifth Column. In 1969 Gerry became the third member of the folk-pop outfit the Humblebums which also featured comedian Billy Connelly. Rafferty and Connelly recorded two well-received albums on the Transatlantic label as a duo. In 1972 Gerry released his first solo album "Can I Have My Money Back?". That same year Egan and Rafferty formed the group Stealers Wheel. Stealers Wheel had a huge hit with the jaunty and witty song "Stuck in the Middle with You," which peaked at #6 on the Billboard pop charts. Stealers Wheel had a lesser Top 40 hit with "Star" ten months later and eventually broke up in 1975. In 1978 Gerry hit pay dirt with his second solo album "City to City," which soared to #1 on the Billboard album charts and sold over five million copies worldwide. The album also beget the hit song "Baker Street;" this haunting and poetic ballad was an international smash that went to #2 in America, #3 in the United Kingdom, #1 in Australia, and #9 in the Netherlands. Rafferty's third album "Night Owl" likewise did well. Moreover, Gerry had additional impressive chart successes with the songs "Right Down the Line," "Home and Dry," "Days Gone Down," and "Get It Right Next Time." Alas, a handful of albums Rafferty recorded throughout the 80s and 90s all proved to be commercial flops. Gerry sang the vocal on the song "The Way It Always Starts" for the soundtrack of the movie "Local Hero." Rafferty was married to Carla Ventilla from 1970 to 1990. He recorded his last album "Another World" in 2000 and released the compilation CD "Life Goes On" in 2009. Unfortunately, Gerry had problems with alcoholism that directly contributed to his untimely death at age 63 from liver failure on January 4, 2011; he's survived by his daughter Martha, granddaughter Celia, and brother Jim.- Lanky, balding, intense American character actor of Puerto Rican ancestry, born in New York's Spanish Harlem. Deserted by his parents, Sierra was brought up by an aunt in a rough, predominantly Irish neighbourhood from the age of six. Though briefly tempted by gang life as a teenager, he took up acting classes after accompanying a friend to an audition and ended up playing Shakespearean roles with the National Shakespeare Company and in the New York Shakespeare Festival (playing, among many other parts, Macbeth and Romeo), as well as appearing off-Broadway. He later said "I would have been happy if I continued to do that for the rest of my life". However, in 1969, Sierra decided to move to Hollywood and began acting in episodic television where he was initially typecast as Latino heavies or cops.
Sierra made his breakthrough in the role of Julio Fuentes on NBC's Sanford and Son (1972), his character the perennial butt of bigoted jokes from the show's cantankerous lead, played by Redd Foxx. He then appeared in the original cast of the police sitcom Barney Miller (1975) as the passionate, proudly Puerto Rican Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale. Written out of the show at the end of season two, he had further recurring roles in serial television, frequently alternating between comedy and drama. These included the short-lived hospital sitcom A.E.S. Hudson Street (1977), the controversial but hugely popular parody Soap (1977) (as South American counter-revolutionary "El Puerco"), Hill Street Blues (1981) (as Assistant District Attorney Alvarez), Zorro and Son (1983) (as garrison commander Paco Pico, one of the hero's chief antagonists), Miami Vice (1984) (as Don Johnson's erstwhile boss Lou Rodriguez, killed off by a hitman in episode four -- in fact, Sierra opted to leave the show because he disliked Miami) and the science fiction series Something Is Out There (1988) (as Captain Victor Maldonado). His numerous, varied and often highly entertaining guest appearances have included supporting roles as a Native American renegade on Gunsmoke (1955), a mutated religious leader living underneath irradiated New York in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), a professor of anthropology helping Mulder and Scully track down the Jersey Devil in The X-Files (1993), a Cardassian member of the sinister Obsidian Order on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), an Italian priest in John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) and an Iraqi gunboat captain in the Rambo spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993).
Sierra made his home in Laguna Beach, California, where he died of cancer on January 4 2021 at the age of 84. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Gustavo Kupinski was born on 18 January 1974 in Palermo, Buenos Aires City, Distrito Federal, Argentina. He was an actor, known for Los Piojos: Babilonia (1994), Los Piojos: Verano del '92 (1996) and Los Piojos: Maradó (1996). He was married to Flavia Cuellas. He died on 4 January 2011 in Dolores, Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Actor
- Editorial Department
- Additional Crew
Harry Fowler was born on 10 December 1926 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Pickwick Papers (1952), Hue and Cry (1947) and Went the Day Well? (1942). He was married to Catherine Palmer and Joan Dowling. He died on 4 January 2012 in London, England, UK.- Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Heung-Kam Lee was born on 13 January 1932 in Shunde District, Guangdong Province, China. She was an actress and producer, known for Yu nu shen tou (1967), Ni xi de ji (1976) and Pin fok chun kei (1984). She was married to Chung-Kwan Siu. She died on 4 January 2021 in Hong Kong, China.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera or "Oscar" DeCorti, the son of two first-generation immigrants from Italy. In 1924 he moved to California, changed his name from "DeCorti" to "Corti" to Cody, and started working as an actor, presenting himself as a Native American. In 1936, he married Bertha Parker, a Native American archaeologist of Abenaki and Seneca descent. Together, they adopted two sons - Robert and Arthur, two brothers of Dakota and Maricopa descent. Iron Eyes Cody claimed Native American descent, although he was actually of Italian descent, with ancestors from Sicily. He labored for decades to promote Native American causes, and was honored by Hollywood's Native American community in 1995 as a "non-Native" for his contribution to film.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ivan Bortnik was born on 16 April 1939 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was an actor, known for Antikiller (2002), Mama ne goryuy (1998) and Don't Cry Mommy 2 (2005). He was married to Tatiana Nikolaevna Borzykh. He died on 4 January 2019 in Moscow, Russia.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Pioneering actor who was among Hollywood's first - years ahead of Sidney Poitier - to crush the Stepin Fetchit stereotype of black males as shiftless illiterates. Although in some pictures Edwards would portray subservient characters (e.g. "General" George C. Scott's valet in Patton (1970)), he delivered true dignity in his performances. He is especially remembered for his leading role in Home of the Brave (1949).- James Parks Morton was born on 7 January 1930 in Houston, Texas, USA. He was married to Pamela Taylor. He died on 4 January 2020 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
- Joan Copeland, the sister of famed playwright Arthur Miller, is a renowned actress in her own right. She made her name on Broadway, debuting there in 1945 to begin a career that lasted more than 60 years. She also had a long career on television, where she appeared in a number of that medium's most popular soap operas. She played scheming villain Andrea Whiting in Search for Tomorrow (1951), and also appeared in Love of Life (1951) and The Edge of Night (1956), among others. She occasionally worked in films, but made fewer than 20 of them in her career, preferring the stage and television, where she made her debut in 1950.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Spending his youth in Skåne, due to his mother's engagement at the Malmö City Theater, wasn't easy for somebody with a Stockholm accent, but Johannes avoided being bullied by cracking jokes and doing pranks. At 18 he applied to acting school but was rejected. He applied successfully later and has since worked in both Malmö and Stockholm. In 1991 he started with stand-up-comedy. During the 1990s he starred in several comedy plays in theaters in Stockholm. He biggest claim to fame though is the role as 'Joker' in the long running TV show "Rederiet".- John Muckler was born on 13 April 1934 in Midland, Ontario, Canada. He died on 4 January 2021 in Buffalo, New York, USA.
- Jonas Neubauer was born on 19 April 1981 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He was married to Heather Fujiko Ito. He died on 5 January 2021.
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Josh Gelman was a producer, known for 48 Hours (1988), Bravery and Hope: 7 Days on the Front Line (2020) and 48 Hours on ID (2010). He was married to Christina Leijonhufvud . He died on 4 January 2022 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Juan Carlos Mendizabal is known for La americanita (2003).
- Music Department
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Junko Hirotani was born on 17 October 1956 in Tokyo, Japan. She was an actress, known for Ghost in the Shell (1995), Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital (2003) and Gakincho rock (2004). She died on 4 January 2020 in Tama, Tokyo, Japan.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Karl Heinz Vosgerau was born on 16 August 1927 in Kiel, Germany. He was an actor, known for Wie ein Blitz (1970), Die Wächter (1986) and M.E.T.R.O. - Ein Team auf Leben und Tod (2006). He was married to Sabine. He died on 4 January 2021 in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany.- Károly Gesztesi was born on 16 April 1963 in Budapest, Hungary. He was an actor, known for A titkos hely (2003), Valami Amerika (2002) and Hungarian Vagabond (2004). He was married to Claudia Liptai, Zsuzsa Csarnóy and Nikoletta Karel. He died on 4 January 2020 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Famed band leader, composer, author, arranger and conductor, educated at Ithaca College, the New York Military Academy, and Duke University (where he led the dance orchestra). He worked as a freelance arranger, and formed the Band of Renown in 1938, touring until 1947. He joined ASCAP in 1952, collaborating with Ben Homer and Bud Green. He made many records, and his popular music compositions include "Sentimental Journey"; "We Wish You the Merriest"; "Dance of the Blue Devils"; "Trylon Stomp"; "Duckfoot Waddle"; "Plumber's Revenge"; "My Number One Dream Come True"; "Bill's Well", and "Bill's Ill".- Lianwen Zhang is known for Fei xing jiao xiang qu (1981), Xu Mao and His Daughters (1981) and Yan yang tian (1975).
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Lorenza Mazzetti was born on 26 July 1927 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was a director and writer, known for Together (1956), Latin Lovers (1961) and I cattivi vanno in paradiso (1959). She died on 4 January 2020 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Lovely, buxom, and vivacious blonde bombshell Louisa Moritz was born as Luisa Cira Castro Netto on September 25, 1936 in Havana, Cuba. Many members of Louisa's family which include her father Luis, sister Aurora, and her older brother Rafael all worked in the law profession. Moritz left Cuba and moved to New York City during the upheaval of the 1950s. Louisa was inspired to change her last name from Castro to Moritz after seeing the St. Moritz Hotel in New York City. She arrived in NYC in July 1960, aged 23.
She began her acting career in TV commercials in the late 1960s. She made her debut in a TV commercial for Ultra-Ban spray deodorant and won both a Clio Award and an Andy Award for her work as a student driver in a TV commercial for American Motors. Louisa made her film debut in the lead role of young prostitute Carmela in The Man from O.R.G.Y. (1970). Perhaps best known to general audiences as the hooker Rose in the Oscar-winning classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), her most memorable roles included Sylvester Stallone's airhead navigator Myra in the cult science fiction black comedy Death Race 2000 (1975), cheery prostitute Flora in the delightful Sixpack Annie (1975), Officer Gloria Whitey in Up in Smoke (1978), hilarious as the aggressively lascivious Carmela in the uproariously raunchy teen comedy hoot The Last American Virgin (1982), and ditsy kleptomaniac Bubbles in the terrifically trashy babes-behind-bars treat Chained Heat (1983). Among the television programs Moritz appeared on are The Leslie Uggams Show (1969), The Joe Namath Show (1969), Love, American Style (1969), Ironside (1967), Happy Days (1974), M*A*S*H (1972), Chico and the Man (1974), The Rockford Files (1974), The Incredible Hulk (1978) and The Associates (1979).
Outside of acting, Moritz sold real estate, sung a song she specifically wrote about host Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show," and bought a hotel in Beverly Hills which she renamed the Beverly Hills St. Moritz. Although often cast as the generic dumb blonde in many films and TV shows (a part which she always played with great spirit and infectiously sweet good humor), Moritz in real life was the total radical opposite of this particular persona: She not only made the Deans List while studying for her law degree at the University of West Los Angeles, but won the American Jurisprudence Bancroft Whitney Prize for Contracts as well. She went on to become a lawyer in southern California, but was eventually disbarred for failing to provide certain quarterly reports. Louisa Moritz died at age 82 from cardiovascular disease on January 4, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Her Orthodox Jewish family was totally averse to her having an entertainment career. Her parents and grandparents forced her to leave the Theatre Guild school (New York) while still a teenager and had their wills drawn up accordingly so as to discourage this career choice.
Studied drama at Columbia University, and belonged to the American Theatre Wing.
When Mae was 17 and living in the South Bronx, she won a local contest to find the girl who most resembled Helen Kane, a popular singer known as the "Boop-Oop-A-Doop Queen". She was promptly signed by an agent and began performing in the Vaudeville circuit. Billing herself as "Mae Questel - Personality Singer of Personality Songs," she performed dead-on vocal imitations of Maurice Chevalier, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West and of course Helen Kane, among many others. Her mimic talent also provided duck, dog, chicken, owl, monkey, lion and baby sounds for radio shows.
Betty Boop creator Max Fleischer heard Mae doing her "boop-oop-a-doop" routine and hired her to do the character's voice in 1931. She served as the voice on more than 150 Betty Boop animated shorts until the character was retired in 1939. Her recording of "On The Good Ship Lollipop" sold more than 2 million during the Depression.
Best known as the voice of "Betty Boop", she was also the voice of not-so-less-famous "Olive Oyl" in the Popeye cartoons, as well as the toddler Swee'pea and others. She did Popeye's voice once, in the cartoon Shape Ahoy (1945), because Jack Mercer was serving in the military during World War II. Her versatility is probably better appreciated in the cartoon Never Kick a Woman (1936) in which she provides the quivery, nervous-Nellie voice of Olive Oyl, based on comedic actress Zasu Pitts, and the deep, assured, alluring voice of the blonde saleswoman, based on Mae West.
In 1968, the City of Indianapolis honored her with a "Mae Questel Day". In 1979, she won the Troupers Award for outstanding contribution to entertainment.- Martinus J.G. Veltman was born on 27 June 1931 in Waalwijk, Netherlands. He was married to Anneke. He died on 4 January 2021 in Bilthoven, Netherlands.
- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Michel Galabru was born on 27 October 1922 in Safi, French Protectorate of Morocco [now Morocco]. He was an actor and writer, known for Subway (1985), La Cage aux Folles (1978) and Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (1999). He was married to Claude Etevenon and Annette Jacquot. He died on 4 January 2016 in Paris, France.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Miiko Taka came into the world as Betty Miiko Shikata in Seattle, Washington, a Nisei born of Japanese immigrant parentage. She spent much of her upbringing in Los Angeles. In 1942, Betty and her family were removed from their homes and interned in the Gila River War Relocation Centre in Arizona, a concentration camp which had been set up following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour. One of her fellow detainees was the actor Pat Morita. Betty's internee file described her as a semi-skilled dressmaker and seamstress and suggested stenographer or typist as 'potential occupations'. Little is known of Betty's life prior to her debut in Joshua Logan's Sayonara (1957) , except that she had no prior acting experience and was employed as a clerk at a travel agency in L.A..
The role of Hana-Ogi, the celebrated Matsubayashi dancer who defies tradition by having a secret affair with an American pilot (Marlon Brando), had originally been earmarked for Audrey Hepburn. When Hepburn turned it down, Logan cast the unknown Miiko Taka in the part. Sayonara ultimately grossed $ 10.5 million and won four Oscars, including one for co-star Miyoshi Umeki as Best Supporting Actress. Miiko's performance was lauded by Variety and by Bosley Crowther of the New York Times who described her as "a flute-like beauty - a really lovely, serene and soothing impulse".
In the wake of Sayonara, Miiko was cast as a geisha opposite Glenn Ford in Cry for Happy (1961), a predictable comedy about the assorted romantic affairs of four G.I.'s on leave in Japan during the Korean War. She had further high profile roles in Operation Bottleneck (1961) (as a girl guerrilla), A Global Affair (1964) (with Bob Hope), The Art of Love (1965) (with James Garner) and Walk Don't Run (1966) (with Cary Grant in his last film appearance). On television, she was mostly typecast amid exotic backgrounds in such escapist entertainments as Hawaiian Eye (1959), Adventures in Paradise (1959), I Spy (1965) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). Her penultimate screen appearance was as a Japanese noblewoman in James Clavell's miniseries Shogun (1980).
Miiko Taka was thrice married. Her first husband was the actor Dale Ishimoto with whom she had a son and a daughter.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Norman Snider was born on 14 November 1945 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a writer and actor, known for Dead Ringers (1988), Casino Jack (2010) and Code Name: Eternity (2000). He died on 4 January 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Oscar Polk was born on 25 December 1899 in Marianna, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), The Green Pastures (1936) and Reap the Wild Wind (1942). He was married to Ivy V. Polk. He died on 4 January 1949 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
Phil Lynott was born on 20 August 1949 in West Bromwich, Birmingham, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for A Knight's Tale (2001), The Expendables (2010) and Rush (2013). He was married to Caroline Crowther. He died on 4 January 1986 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, UK.- Phyllis Gates was born on 7 December 1925 in Dawson, Minnesota, USA. She was married to Rock Hudson. She died on 4 January 2006 in Marina del Ray, California, USA.
- Music Artist
- Composer
- Actor
Pino Daniele was born on 19 March 1955 in Naples, Campania, Italy. He was a music artist and composer, known for Pensavo fosse amore... invece era un calesse (1991), Stealing Beauty (1996) and The Hand of God (2021). He was married to Fabiola Sciabbarasi and Dorina Giangrande. He died on 4 January 2015 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Rahul Dev Burman was born on 27 June 1939 in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India. He was a composer and actor, known for Sholay (1975), 1942: A Love Story (1994) and Procession of Memories (1973). He was married to Asha Bhosle and Rita Patel. He died on 4 January 1994 in Bombay, Maharashtra, India.- Ralph Dumke was born on 25 July 1899 in South Bend, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for All the King's Men (1949), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Mystery Street (1950). He was married to Greta Leona Edner. He died on 4 January 1964 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.
- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Ray Thomas was born on 29 December 1941 in Stourport on Severn, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for Killing Eve (2018), Hittimittari (1984) and The Moody Blues: Your Wildest Dreams (1986). He was married to Lee Lightle. He died on 4 January 2018 in Surrey, England, UK.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Rayya Elias was born on 16 April 1960. She was a director and writer, known for Anonymous (2004), The Lunchroom (2006) and We Are All Angels. She died on 4 January 2018 in New York City, New York, USA.- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Robert Stigwood was born on 16 April 1934 in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia. He was a producer, known for Evita (1996), Gallipoli (1981) and Grease 2 (1982). He died on 4 January 2016 in London, England, UK.- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
Sandro was born on August 19, 1945, as Roberto Sanchez. He began the secondary school and was expelled in the first year. In 1960 he formed of his first band of music called "Blue Trio" (Trío Azul). Later, when one of the members of the group gone, turned into the duo "The Caribs" (Los Caribes). Dissolved The Caribs in few time, Sandro began his soloist's career, and formed the group "The caniches of Oklahoma", integrated by H. Centurion, A. Quiroga, L. Vázquez and Sandro, who was the guitarist and the second voice. Later, the group transformed in "Them of Fire" (Los de fuego). In 1963, Los de fuego recorded a single "¿Llamas a esto amor?" (Called you love this?) and "Eres un demonio disfrazado" (You are a demon disguised). Later, the group recorded "Choza de azúcar" (Hut of Sugar) and "Dulce" (Sweet), and in 1964, Los de Fuego recorded the disc "Presentando a Sando" (Presenting Sandro). This album has songs like "Hay mucha agitación" (There is many agitation and "Las largas noches" (The long nights). Sandro has more than 30 published discs, among them, "Sandro and Those of Fire" (Sandro y Los de Fuego), "Alma y Fuego" (Soul and Fire), "Una muchacha y una guitarra" (A girl and a guitar), and the best of everything: "Sandro de America" (Sandro of America). From 2001 Sandro began to have physical problems (heart and lungs; he was a great smoker), and he was hospitalized. As consequence of a pulmonary double and the heart transplant, and after facing infectious derivative processes, Sandro died on January 4, 2010, stopping a great legacy for the romantic music.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Actor
Sigfreid Barros-Sanchez was born on 7 June 1976 in the Philippines. He was a writer and actor, known for Tsardyer (2010), Ang gitaristang hindi marunong magskala (2014) and Huling biyahe (2012). He died on 4 January 2022 in Quezon City, Philippines.- Actor
- Writer
Steve Raines was born on 17 June 1916 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Rawhide (1959), The High Chaparral (1967) and Sheriff of Wichita (1949). He was married to Sally Jean Durkus. He died on 4 January 1996 in Grants Pass, Oregon, USA.- Stuart Scott was born on 19 July 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Kid (2000), The Game Plan (2007) and Drumline (2002). He was married to Kimberley Alice Emmons. He died on 4 January 2015 in Avon, Connecticut, USA.
- Actress
- Producer
The second daughter of manufacturing executive Oscar Blum and his wife Dorothy, Tanya Roberts was born 1949 in Manhattan and grew up in the elite Westchester County suburbs Scarsdale and Greenburgh. Tanya reportedly dropped out of high school, got married and hitchhiked around the country until her mother-in-law had the marriage annulled. She met psychology student Barry Roberts while waiting in line to see a movie. A few months later, she proposed to him in a subway station, and they were married. She studied acting under Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen. In her early years in New York, she supported herself as an Arthur Murray dance instructor and by modeling. She appeared in off-Broadway productions of "Picnic" and "Antigone", and in television commercials for Ultra Brite, Clairol and Cool Ray sunglasses.
In 1977, Tanya and her husband -- by then a scriptwriter -- moved to Hollywood. She began appearing in made-for-TV films including Pleasure Cove (1979), Zuma Beach (1978), and Waikiki (1980). Her film debut was in The Last Victim (1976). After appearing in several minor films, her first big break came when she was selected as the last Angel on the final season of Charlie's Angels (1976), and was featured on the cover of People magazine (02/09/1981). The attention she garnered helped secure her most significant film roles: The Beastmaster (1982) (and posed for the cover and an inside spread in Playboy magazine to promote the film), the title role in Sheena (1984) and as a Bond girl in A View to a Kill (1985). She continued to appear in films, though mainly direct-to-video and direct-to-cable features. She was featured in the CD computer game The Pandora Directive (1996) and had a recurring lead role in the television series That '70s Show (1998). Widowed in 2006, Tanya Roberts died of sepsis from a urinary tract infection in 2021.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Sassy comedienne Thelma White became a rather reluctant entry into cult film history with her infamous role as blonde vixen "Mae Colman", who pushes marijuana ("demon weed") onto unsuspecting school-age youths in the classic 1930s turkey Reefer Madness (1936) (originally titled "Tell Your Children"). It was not how she would have liked to be remembered, but obviously the fates decided differently. In the long run, Thelma managed to become a fairly good sport about the whole thing, finally making peace with the cult embrace.
She was born Thelma Wolpa in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1910, the daughter of itinerant carnival actors who traveled throughout the Midwest. She was barely two-years-old by the time she found herself part of the family circus act and received prime billing as "Baby Dimples". By age 10, she was old enough to join the popular singing and dancing team of "The White Sisters".
Thelma peaked fairly early on the vaudeville circuit with both the Ziegfeld Follies and Earl Carroll Revues, and went on to appear on Broadway alongside such stars as Milton Berle. Radio work started coming Thelma's way and, then, the movies.
RKO signed her up in 1928 and, while there, saw occasional freelancing trades to other studios for some of their two-reeler talkies. A number of these comedies, as well as some musicals, notably a series of Pathé, Vitaphone and MGM shorts, showcased the brightest comics of the day including Edgar Kennedy and Leon Errol. In her heyday, Thelma got to appear with the likes of W.C. Fields and Jack Benny. Progressing to "B" level feature work by 1935, the starlet co-starred with Richard Talmadge in the crimer Never Too Late (1935) before being pressured by the studio into appearing in the over-the-top propaganda drug film written by an overzealous religious group.
In "Tell Your Children," Thelma played a predatory vamp who is goaded on by her dope-pushing boyfriend into luring young students back to her apartment for a toke of the weed and resulting sex parties. She ends up regretting her ways and commits suicide by jumping out a window. The film was a certifiable bomb. The acting was horrible, the direction was wildly melodramatic and the writing inane and unintentionally funny. Nobody escaped its wrath and it pretty much poisoned Thelma's film career.
The movie was re-discovered in 1972 and given the cool, updated, hip name of Reefer Madness (1936). It had audiences rolling in the aisles, especially the ones who were high, and deservedly earned its place in the leagues of film cultdom. As for Thelma, she continued on with her career as best she could. Better known for her active private life, which included affairs with members of both sexes, she was reduced to bit roles once again with the exception of some prominent billing in the "Poverty Row" pics Spy Train (1943) and Bowery Champs (1944).
During the war, Thelma gamely went overseas as a USO performer alongside other such personalities as Carmen Miranda, but was forced to abandon her plans after contracting a rare form of polio while performing in the Aleutian Islands. Left bedridden and partially crippled for a number of years, she recovered enough to appear in a few more films and made her last with Mary Lou (1948). She subsequently became an agent for a number of Hollywood stars, including Debbie Reynolds, Robert Blake, James Coburn and actress-turned-cloistered-nun Dolores Hart. She also ventured into occasional film and TV producing.
Two failed marriages to actors Claude Stroud and Max Hoffman Jr. in the 30s and 40s led to a long and happy one with actor-cum-costume designer Maurice Millard. She was widowed in 1999 after 42 years. She had no children by her marriages.
Thelma died of pneumonia at the age of 94 on January 11, 2005, at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.- Tim O'Kelly was born on 12 March 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Targets (1968), Hawaii Five-O (1968) and The Monroes (1966). He was married to Evelyn Rudie. He died on 4 January 1990 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- He was born in the USA while his Australian parents were in Boston at the time. He has two sisters and a brother and his father is a doctor for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. He was raised on a farm near (Benalla, North East Victoria) He left school early and moved to Queensland, shearing sheep and breaking horses, before heading overseas. He applied to National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) graduating in 1996. His theatre work includes the plays The Caucasian Chalk Circle and the Bell Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest.
He has a son, Ariel, (1989), from a relationship with actress Rachael Maza. - Tony Lip (born Frank Anthony Vallelonga) was raised in the Bronx, New York. He worked for twelve years at the world-famous Copacabana Nightclub in New York City. At the Copa, he played host to the most famous personalities of the era, including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin. Lip then went on to a career in acting. He got his first big break when he was cast in the hit film, The Godfather. He then appeared in several major motion pictures including Crazy Joe, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Year of the Dragon, Honor Thy Fathers, Goodfellas, and Donnie Brasco. He was most recently featured as the New York mob boss Carmine Lupertazzi on the hit HBO series, The Sopranos. He also added "author" to his credits. In his book "Shut Up and Eat!" Lip shares personal stories as well as his family's favorite Italian recipes. He gathered his favorite Italian-America actors and friends, including Danny Aiello, James Gandolfini, Chazz Palmintieri and Joe Mantegna to do the same. For the first time ever, these actors-stars of such hits as The Godfather, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Moonstruck, The Sopranos, and A Bronx Tale-shared their families' secret recipes. Plus told tell their own stories of growing up as Italian-Americans. This delightful cookbook, full of photos, personal stories, and favorite recipes, shows why preparing and sharing an Italian meal is a truly rich experience.
In 2018, a film depicting Tony's road trip and friendship with Don Shirley, Green Book (2018), was released, with Viggo Mortensen as Tony, in an Academy Award for Best Actor-nominated performance. - Wyllie Longmore was born on 2 November 1940 in Stirling, St Ann, Jamaica. He was an actor, known for Love Actually (2003), Coronation Street (1960) and Floodtide (1987). He was married to Estelle Hampton. He died on 4 January 2023 in Manchester, England, UK.