15th SAG Awards Memoriam

1. Charlton Heston

With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...

2. Ivan Dixon

Actor | A Raisin in the Sun

Ivan Dixon was a handsome, mustachioed African-American actor and director who carried a strong, serious nature about his solid frame. He initially earned attention in groundbreaking stage and film work with pronounced themes of social and racial relevance. He would become better known, however, ...

3. Kim Chan

Actor | Le Cinquième Élément

Born in China, Kim Chan fled China in 1928 with his father Lem and two older sisters. Settling first in Rhode Island, then in New York, Kim left his family after his father caught him lying about an afternoon spent at the cinema. Faced with an ultimatum, Kim left for years as a day laborer, ...

4. Don S. Davis

Actor | A League of Their Own

Don S. Davis was born on August 4, 1942 in Aurora, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for A League of Their Own (1992), The Fan (1996) and Twin Peaks (1990). He was married to Ruby Fleming-Davis and Sondra Sue Davis. He died on June 29, 2008 in Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada.

5. Majel Barrett

Actress | Star Trek: First Contact

Majel Barrett (born Majel Leigh Hudec) was an American actress, known for her long association with Star Trek. She had multiple Star Trek-related roles, though she is mostly remembered for her roles as Nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek, The Original Series (1966-1969) and as Lwaxana Troi in Star ...

6. David Groh

Actor | Two-Minute Warning

David Groh's highly anticipated "marriage" to Valerie Harper on the eighth episode of the sitcom Rhoda (1974) was the highest rated episode of that decade, and the second most-watched program of all-time, surpassed only by the birth of 'little Ricky' on I Love Lucy (1951), with more than 50 million...

7. Stanley Kamel

Actor | Domino

Stanley Kamel was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey on January 1, 1943 and was raised in South River, New Jersey. He attended high school at Rutgers Prepatory School (graduated 1961) in Somerset, New Jersey and received his college degree from the Boston University School of Fine Arts in 1965. ...

8. Harvey Korman

Actor | Blazing Saddles

Harvey Korman was a lanky, popular TV comedy veteran with a flair for broad comic characterizations, who shone for a decade as leading man and second banana par excellence on The Carol Burnett Show (1967).

Harvey Herschel Korman was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ellen (Blecher) and Cyril Raymond ...

9. Edie Adams

Actress | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

The scintillating, sultry-eyed blonde (formerly a redhead) star of screen, TV and award-winning stage went on to become best known, however, for her sensual delivery pitching cigars in taunting '60s ads and commercials with her Mae Westian come-on line "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it ...

10. Paul Scofield

Actor | A Man for All Seasons

Though his number of film roles amount to a bit over 30, Paul Scofield has cast a giant shadow in the world of stage and film acting. He grew up in West Sussex, the son of a schoolmaster. He attended the Varndean School for Boys in Brighton. The love of acting came early. While still high school ...

11. Mel Ferrer

Actor | Lili

Actor/director/producer Mel Ferrer was born Melchor Gaston Ferrer on August 25, 1917, in Elberon, New Jersey. The son of a Cuban-born surgeon and a Manhattan socialite, he went to prep school and attended Princeton University. From the age of 15 he worked in summer stock. After Princeton he became ...

12. Sam Bottoms

Actor | The Outlaw Josey Wales

Sam Bottoms was born on October 17, 1955 in Santa Barbara, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Apocalypse Now (1979) and Seabiscuit (2003). He was married to Laura Bickford and Susan Arnold. He died on December 16, 2008 in Los Angeles, California,...

13. Cyd Charisse

Actress | Silk Stockings

Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea on March 8, 1922, in Amarillo, Texas. Born to be a dancer, she spent her early childhood taking ballet lessons and joined the Ballet Russe at age 13. In 1939, she married Nico Charisse, her former dance teacher. In 1943, she appeared in her first film, ...

14. Robert Prosky

Actor | Thief

Robert Prosky was born on December 13, 1930 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Thief (1981), Broadcast News (1987) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). He was married to Ida Hove. He died on December 8, 2008 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

15. Robert DoQui

Actor | RoboCop 3

Excellent, prolific and versatile character actor Robert DoQui was born in 1934 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He attended Langston University on a music scholarship and was a member of the popular singing group, "The Langstonaires". Following a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, DoQui went to New ...

16. Don LaFontaine

Actor | In a World...

Don LaFontaine was born on August 26, 1940 in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for In a World... (2013), The Hitter (1978) and Free Radio (2007). He was married to Joan Studva and Nita Whitaker. He died on September 1, 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

17. Patrick McGoohan

Actor | The Prisoner

Born in America, and raised in Ireland and England, actor Patrick McGoohan rose to become the number-one British TV star in the 1950s to 1960s era. His parents moved to Ireland when he was very young and McGoohan acquired a neutral accent that sounds at home in British or American dialogue. He was ...

(died on January 13, 2009)

18. Christopher Allport

Actor | To Live and Die in L.A.

Christopher Allport was born on June 17, 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Jack Frost (1997) and Queen (1993). He was married to Susan Elizabeth Hayden and Carolyn Jones. He died on January 25, 2008 in Wrightwood, San Bernardino, ...

19. Dick Martin

Producer | Laugh-In

Dick Martin, the comedian and television director who achieved TV immortality as the co-host of Laugh-In (1967) as the comic foil to straight man Dan Rowan, was born on January 30, 1922 in Battle Creek, Michigan. The young Martin was a writer for the popular radio sit-com "Duffy's Tavern" before ...

20. Paul Benedict

Actor | This Is Spinal Tap

Genial, pleasant-voiced character actor Paul Benedict was born in New Mexico on September 17, 1938, and made hosts of stage, film and TV appearances in a career lasting five decades. The son of a doctor, he was diagnosed with acromegaly by an endocrinologist who happened to catch the nascent actor ...

21. Gil Stratton

Actor | Stalag 17

Gil Stratton was originally billed as Gil Stratton, Jr. He had a young, wholesome juvenile look when, at the age of 19, he debuted on Broadway creating the role of Bud Hooper in the 1941 Broadway musical "Best Foot Forward", in which he sang and danced.

Stratton continued working in New York on ...

22. Beverly Garland

Actress | The Alligator People

Born in Santa Cruz, California, Beverly Garland studied dramatics under Anita Arliss, the sister of renowned stage and screen star George Arliss. She acted in a little theater in Glendale then in Phoenix after her family relocated to Arizona. Garland also worked in radio and appeared scantily-clad ...

23. Sydney Pollack

Director | Tootsie

Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.

Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist...

24. Isaac Hayes

Actor | Escape from New York

Isaac Hayes, the second-born child of Eula and Isaac Hayes Sr., was raised by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wade Sr. The child of a poor family, he grew up picking cotton in Covington, Tennessee. He dropped out of high school, but later his former high-school teachers to get his diploma, ...

25. Evelyn Keyes

Actress | The Seven Year Itch

No shrinking violet this one, but despite her talent, vivacity and sheer drive, lovely and alluring blonde Evelyn Keyes would remain for the most part typed as a "B" girl on the silver screen. In spite of her ripe contributions to such superior pictures as Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), The Jolson ...

26. Barry Morse

Actor | Whoops Apocalypse

Born in London's East End, Barry's career began when he won a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of 15. Upon graduation, he followed with successful stage runs in London's West End and in theatrical productions throughout the United Kingdom, and appeared on the BBC's ...

27. John Phillip Law

Actor | Barbarella

John Phillip Law was born on September 7, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Barbarella (1968), Space Mutiny (1988) and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973). He was married to Shawn Ryan. He died on May 13, 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

28. Ruth Cohen

Actress | Seinfeld

Ruth Cohen was born on January 28, 1930 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Seinfeld (1989), V.I.P. (1998) and Life Among the Cannibals (1999). She died on August 23, 2008 in Panorama City, California, USA.

29. Ricardo Montalban

Actor | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Legendary actor Ricardo Montalban was the epitome of Latin elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Rudolph Valentino / Ramon Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority...

(died on January 14, 2009)

30. Augusta Dabney

Actress | Running on Empty

Augusta Dabney was born on October 23, 1916 in Berkeley, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Running on Empty (1988), That Night! (1957) and The Paper (1994). She was married to William Prince and Kevin McCarthy. She died on February 4, 2008 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, USA.

31. George Furth

Actor | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

George Furth wrote eleven one-act plays planned for Kim Stanley as each of the separate leads. Hollywood actor Anthony Perkins, interested in directing, asked Sondheim to read the material. After Sondheim read the plays, Sondheim asked Harold Prince for his opinion; Prince thought the plays could ...

32. Van Johnson

Actor | The Caine Mutiny

Van Johnson was the fresh-faced, well-mannered nice guy on screen you always wanted your daughter to marry! This fair, freckled and invariably friendly-looking MGM song-and-dance star of the 40s emerged a box office favorite (1944-1946) and second only to heartthrob Frank Sinatra during what gossip...

33. Bernie Mac

Actor | The Bernie Mac Show

Bernard Jeffrey McCollough was born in 1957 in Chicago, the son of Mary McCullough and Jeffery Harrison. He grew up in the city, in a rougher neighborhood than most others, with a large family living under one roof. This situation provided him with a great insight into his comedy, as his family, ...

34. Pat Hingle

Actor | The Quick and the Dead

Pat Hingle (real name: Martin Patterson Hingle) was born in Miami, Florida, the son of a building contractor. His parents divorced when Hingle was still in his infancy (he never knew his father) and his mother supported the family by teaching school in Denver. She then began to travel (with her son...

(died on January 3, 2009)

35. Don Galloway

Actor | The Big Chill

Born July 27, 1937 in Brooksville, Kentucky. He was married to Linda Galloway [divorced], the former Linda Robinson, and had two daughters. Their names are Tracy and Jennifer. Married the second time to Linda Marie, he has two stepchildren: Sheila and Robert. He also has one brother. Education, ...

(died on January 8, 2009)

36. George Carlin

Actor | Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

George Denis Patrick Carlin was born and raised in Manhattan, New York City, to Mary (Bearey), a secretary, and Patrick John Carlin, an advertising manager for The Sun; they had met while working in marketing. His father was from Donegal, Ireland, and his mother was Irish-American. His parents ...

37. Richard Widmark

Actor | Kiss of Death

Richard Widmark established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death (1947), in which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as the killer Tommy Udo. Kiss of Death (1947) and other noir thrillers established Widmark as part of a new ...

38. Estelle Getty

Actress | The Golden Girls

She was truly one mother of a mom...on stage, on film and on TV. A favorite firecracker on 80s and 90s television, tiny character player Estelle Getty became best known for her carping, meddlesome moms -- complete with bemused, cynical looks, irreverent digs and dead-pan Henny Youngman-like ...

39. Bernie Hamilton

Actor | Bucktown

Bernie Hamilton was born on June 12, 1928 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Bucktown (1975), The Young One (1960) and Starsky and Hutch (1975). He was married to Maxine King. He died on December 30, 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

40. Roy Scheider

Actor | Jaws

Lean, angular-faced and authoritatively spoken lead / supporting actor Roy Scheider obviously never heard the old actor's axiom about "never appearing with kids or animals" lest they overshadow your performance. Breaking that rule did him no harm, though, as he achieved pop cult status by finding, ...

41. Eartha Kitt

Actress | The Emperor's New Groove

An out-of-wedlock child, Eartha Kitt was born in the cotton fields of South Carolina. Kitt's mother was a sharecropper of African-American and Cherokee Native American descent. Her father's identity is unknown. Given away by her mother, she arrived in Harlem at age nine. At 15, she quit high school...

42. Nina Foch

Actress | The Ten Commandments

A leading lady of the 1940s, the tall and blonde Foch usually played cool, aloof and often foreign, women of sophistication. As film roles became harder to find, Foch proved to be versatile in many areas. She was a panelist on several TV quiz shows, worked as George Stevens' assistant director for ...

43. Paul Newman

Actor | The Hustler

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...