Died Before Age 30
This is a list of all famous people (or relatively famous) who died before age 30
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- Music Artist
- Actress
- Composer
Amy Jade Winehouse was born on September 14, 1983 in Enfield, London, England and raised in Southgate, London, England to Janis Holly Collins (née Seaton), a pharmacist & Mitchell "Mitch" Winehouse, a window panel installer and taxi driver. Her family shared her love of theater and music. Amy was brought up on jazz music; She received her first guitar at age 13 and taught herself how to play. Young Amy Winehouse was a rebellious girl. At age 14, she was expelled from Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London. At that time she pierced her nose and tattooed her body. She briefly attended the BRIT School in Croydon, and began her professional career at 16, performing occasional club gigs and recording low cost demos. At 19 years old, she recorded her debut album: Frank (2003), a jazz-tinged album that became a hit and earned her several award nominations. During the next several years, she survived a period of personal upheaval, a painful relationship, and struggles with substance abuse. Her final album, Back on Black (2006) was an international hit, and 'Rehab' made No. 9 on the US pop charts.
Her big break came in 2008. Amy Winehouse became the first British female to win 5 Grammy Awards on the same night, February 10th, 2008, including Best New Artist and Record of the Year for 'Rehab'. Her Grammy performance was broadcast from London via satellite, because she was unable to appear in person in Los Angeles due to temporary problems with her traveling visa. Following her success at the Grammy Awards, Winehouse gave a string of highly successful performances during the year 2008. In June, she was suddenly hospitalized with a serious lung condition. However, she left hospital for one evening to perform for Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday celebration in London's Hyde Park. She sang her hits: Rehab & Valerie, drawing cheers and applause form the crowds and a smile from Mandela. Winehouse also performed for Roman Abramovich's party in Moscow; there she earned $2 million for her one-hour gig.
Amy Winehouse developed a distinctive style of her own. Her signature beehive hairstyle has become the model for fashion designers, while her vulnerability, her fragile personality and self-destructive behavior was regular tabloid news, and subject of criticism and controversy. In April 2008 she was named the second greatest "ultimate heroine" by the British population at large, and a month later was voted the second most hated personality in the UK. George Michael called her the "best female vocalist he has heard in his entire career," while Keith Richards warned that she "won't be around long" if her behavior doesn't change.
Musically, Amy Winehouse created a cross-cultural and cross-genre style. She experimented with an eclectic mix of jazz, soul, pop, reggae, world beat and R&B. She had a special ability to channel hurt and despair into her performances. Her voice, phrasing and delivery sometimes sounded like a mix between Billy Holliday, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan, and coupled with similarities in personal problems, she at times resembled another incarnation of legendary "Lady Blues".
Amy died at 27 years old on July 23, 2011 in her London home following a long-running battle with alcohol addiction. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and her ashes were laid to rest in Edgwarebury Jewish Cemetery in London, United Kingdom. Her death caused considerable mourning worldwide.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Composer
Kurt Cobain was born on February 20 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. Kurt and his family lived in Hoquiam for the first few months of his life then later moved back to Aberdeen, where he had a happy childhood until his parents divorced. The divorce left Kurt's outlook on the world forever scarred. He became withdrawn and anti-social. He was constantly placed with one relative to the next, living with friends, and at times even homeless. Kurt was not the most popular person in high school as he was in public school. In 1985 Kurt left Aberdeen for Olympia where he formed the band Nirvana in 1986. In 1989 Nirvana recorded their debut album Bleach under the independent label Sub-Pop records. Nirvana became very popular in Britain and by 1991 they signed a contract with Geffen. Their next album Nevermind became a 90s masterpiece and made Kurt's Nirvana one of the most successful bands in the world. Kurt became trampled upon with success and found the new lifestyle hard to bear. In February 1992 Kurt married Courtney Love, the woman who was already pregnant with his child, Frances Bean Cobain. Nirvana released their next album Incesticide later that year. The album appealed to many fans due to the liner notes, which expressed Kurt's open-mindedness. In September 1993 Nirvana released their next album, 'In Utero', which topped the charts. On March 4, 1994, Kurt was taken to hospital in a coma. It was officially stated as an accident but many believe it to have been an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Family and friends convinced Kurt to seek rehab. Kurt was said to have fled rehab after only a few days from a missing person's report filed by Courtney Love. On April 8th Kurt's body was found in his Seattle home. In his arms was a shotgun, which had been fired into his head. Near him laid a suicide note written in red ink. It was addressed to his wife Courtney Love and his daughter Frances Bean Cobain. Two days after Kurt's body was discovered people gathered in Seattle, they began setting fires, chanting profanities, and fighting with police officers. They also listened to a tape of Courtney reading sections of the suicide note left by Kurt. The last few words were "I love you, I love you".- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Composer
Widely regarded as the greatest and most influential guitarist in rock history, Jimi Hendrix was born on November 27, 1942 in Seattle, Washington, to African-American parents Lucille (Jeter) and James Allen Hendrix. His mother named him John Allen Hendrix and raised him alone while his father, Al Hendrix, was off fighting in World War II. When his mother became sick from alcoholism, Hendrix was sent to live with relatives in Berkeley, California. When his father returned from Europe in 1945 he took back Hendrix, divorced his wife, and renamed him James Marshall Hendrix.
When Jimi was 13 his father taught him to play an acoustic guitar. In 1959 Jimi dropped out of high school and enlisted in the U.S. Army, but soon became disenchanted with military service. After he broke his ankle during a training parachute jump, he was honorably discharged. He then went to work as a sideman on the rhythm-and-blues circuit, honing his craft but making little or no money. Jimi got restless being a sideman and moved to New York City hoping to get a break in the music business. Through his friend Curtis Knight, Jimi discovered the music scene in Greenwich Village, which left indelible impressions on him. It was here that he began taking drugs, among them marijuana, pep pills and cocaine.
In 1966, while Jimi was performing with his own band called James & the Blue Flames at Cafe Wha?, John Hammond Jr. approached Jimi about the Flames playing backup for him at Cafe Au Go Go. Jimi agreed and during the show's finale, Hammond let Jimi cut loose on Bo Diddley's "I'm the Man." Linda Keith, girlfriend of The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, was one of Jimi's biggest fans and it was she who told friend Chas Chandler, a band manager, about Jimi. When Chandler heard Jimi play, he asked him to come to London to form his own band, and while there Chandler made the simple change in Jimi's name by formally dropping James and replacing it with Jimi. Having settled in England with a new band called the Jimi Hendrix Experience, which consisted of Jimi as guitarist and lead singer, bass player Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, Jimi took the country by storm with the release of his first single "Hey, Joe."
In the summer of 1967 Jimi performed back in the USA at the Monterey Pop Festival, a mix-up backstage forced Jimi to follow The Who onstage, where after a superb performance Jimi tore up the house by trashing his guitar in a wild frenzy. Afterwards, Jimi's career skyrocketed with the release of the Experience's first two albums, "Are You Experienced?" and "Axis: Bold as Love," which catapulted him to the top of the charts. However, tensions, possibly connected with Jimi's drug use and the constant presence of hangers-on in the studio and elsewhere, began to fracture some of his relationships, including Chas Chandler, who quit as manager in February 1968.
In September 1968 the Experience released their most successful album, "Electric Ladyland." However, in early 1969 bassist Redding left the Experience and was replaced by Billy Cox, an old army buddy who Jimi had jammed with. Jimi began experimenting with different musicians. For the Woodstock music festival Jimi put together an outfit called the Gypsies, Sun and Rainbows, with Mitchell and Cox as well as a second guitarist and two percussionists. Their one and only performance in August 1969 at Woodstock took place near Bethel, New York, where Hendrix and his band were to be the closing headline act. Because of the delay getting there and the logistical problems, Jimi performed on the morning of the fourth and final day. Only 25,000 people of the original 400,000 stayed to watch Jimi and his band as the closing music number, where Jimi's searing rendering of "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the anthem for counterculture.
After Woodstock, Jimi formed a new band with Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums with the May 1970 release of the album "The Band of Gypsys." Jimi's last album, "Cry of Love", featured Cox on bass and former Experience drummer Mitchell on drums. However, Jimi's drug problem finally caught up with him. On the night of September 17, 1970, while living in London, Jimi took some sleeping pills, which were prescribed for his live-in girlfriend Monika Danneman. Sometime after midnight, Jimi threw up from an apparent allergic reaction to the pills and then passed out. Danneman, thinking him to be all right, went out to get cigarettes for them. When she returned, she found him lying where he collapsed, having inhaled his own vomit, and and she couldn't wake him. Danneman called an ambulance, which took him to a nearby hospital, but Jimi Hendrix was pronounced dead a short while later without regaining consciousness. He was 27 years old.
Jimi Hendrix's life was short, but his impact on the rock guitar is still being heard and set the course for a new era of rock music.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Music Department
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American poet, singer, and songwriter from Florida. He was the lead vocalist of the rock band "The Doors" (1965-1973), and has been cited as "one of the most influential frontmen in rock history". Morrison recorded a total of six studio albums with the Doors, all of which sold well. Morrison struggled with alcohol dependency for most of his adult life, and displayed erratic behavior both on and off the stage. He was described as "A Jekyll and Hyde" by record producer Paul Rothchild, due to often displaying contradictory character traits in his interactions with others. Morrison died unexpectedly in Paris, France at the age of 27. No autopsy was ever performed, and the cause of Morrison's death remains disputed. His mysterious death has inspired a large number of theories, and has fascinated people for decades.
In 1943, Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, a city located 72 miles (116 kilometers) southeast of Orlando. Melbourne emerged as a new settlement in the 1870s. It was named after Melbourne, Australia, because the new town's first postmaster had spend most of his life in the Australian city. Morrison's parents were George Stephen Morrison (1919-2008) and his wife Clara Virginia Clarke (1919-2005). Morrison's father was a career officer of the United States Navy, and would eventually reach the rank of rear admiral. George is primarily remembered for his service in the Vietnam War. The Morrisons were part of a Scottish-American family that had been living in the United States since the 18th century. Genealogical research has indicated that they were descendants of Clan Morrison, a Scottish clan which is primarily associated with the Isle of Lewis and Harris.
Morrison experienced the typical nomadic life of a military brat, as his family never settled permanently in any location. At various points in his childhood, Morrison lived in San Diego, in northern Virginia, in Kingsville, Texas, and in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1957, Morrison started his high school years in Alameda, California. In 1959, he was transferred to the George Washington High School, located in Alexandria, Virginia. He graduated from there in June 1961. During his last years of high school, Morrison maintained a grade average of 88. He reportedly tested in the top 0.1% with an IQ of 149.
Following his high school graduation, Morrison went to live with his paternal grandparents in Clearwater, Florida. He initially attended the St. Petersburg Junior College, which had been operating as a private, non-profit institution since the late 1920s. In 1962, Morrison started attending the Florida State University (FSU), located in Tallahassee. In September 1963, he was first arrested for the police. He had been found drunk at a home football game, and was charged with disturbing the peace.
In 1964, Morrison was transferred to the film program at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He enrolled at a class which studied the works of Antonin Artaud (1896-1948), and reportedly developed a fascination with surrealist theatre. In 1965, Morrison completed his undergraduate degree at UCLA's film school. He refused to attend the graduation ceremony, and the University mailed his diploma to his mother.
Following his university graduation, Morrison followed a bohemian lifestyle in Venice Beach, California. He lived on the rooftop of a building, and wrote song lyrics without having a chance to perform them. In the summer of 1965, Morrison and his recent acquaintance Ray Manzarek decided to form a rock band. They soon recruited the guitarist Robby Krieger and the drummer John Densmore. Morrison decided to name the band "The Doors", after the autobiographical book "The Doors of Perception" (1954) by Aldous Huxley. The name of the book was a reference to using "psychedelic drugs as facilitators of mystical insight".
Morrison soon emerged as the primary lyricist of the band, though Krieger wrote or co-wrote several of their hit songs. Morrison typically avoided using music instruments in live performances, though he learned to use both the maracas and the tambourine. In June 1966, the band were the opening act at the nightclub "Whisky a Go Go" in West Hollywood. During their performances there, Morrison interacted with the Irish singer Van Morrison (1945-), and studied aspects of Van's stage persona and stagecraft. He eventually incorporated several of these aspects into his own stage persona.
In November 1966, Morrison and the other members of the band produced the promotional film "Break On Through (To the Other Side)", named after the title of their first single. They would continue to create short music films throughout the initial years of the band. In 1967, the band signed a contract with the record company Elektra Records. The company would promote their songs to nationwide. The band had its breakthrough hit in the summer of 1967, with the single "Light My Fire". It spent three weeks at the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The band was soon booked to perform two of their songs in the variety television series "The Ed Sullivan Show". The show's censors insisted on changes to "Light My Fire", due to the show's explicit references to drug use. The band feigned compliance, but instead used the explicit version of the song. The resulting controversy caused the cancellation of their six further bookings for television appearances. However, their popularity among rock fans increased.
In September 1967, the band released their second album "Strange Days". It reached the 3rd place number on the US Billboard 200, and earned favorable reviews by the music press. The bands distinctive blend of blues and dark psychedelic rock had turned them into one of the most popular rock bands in the United States. However, Morrison would soon gain notoriety for different reasons. He was arrested on stage in New Haven, Connecticut, after narrating to the audience his recent encounter with a police officer who had maced him. The local police charged him with indecency and public obscenity, though the charges were eventually dropped. Morrison was the first rock performer to be arrested onstage during a live performance.
In September 1968, the Doors played in Europe for the first time. They gave four performances at the Roundhouse, London. Their performances were filmed by Granada Television for the television documentary "The Doors Are Open", which introduced the band to a wider British audience. As the band was gaining international popularity, the members increasingly took note of Morrison's self-destructive behavior. They were aware that he was a heavy drinker, but they realized that he started regularly appearing inebriated in their recording sessions.
By early 1969, Morrison had gained weight. He decided to stop wearing leather pants and concho belts, and to dress casually instead. He also ditched his typically clean-shaven look, and grew a beard for the first time. On March 1, 1969, Morrison increased his own reputation for rebellious behavior. While performing at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, he encouraged the audience to start a riot and threatened to expose his penis on stage. Within days, six warrants for his arrest were issued by the Dade County Police department. One on them on charges of indecent exposure.
Due to Morrison's ongoing legal problems, many of the Doors' scheduled concerts had to be canceled. On September 20, 1970, Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity in a jury trial in Miami. In October 30, he was officially sentenced to imprisonment for 6 months and a fine of 500 dollars. Morrison remained free on a bond of 50,000 dollars. He commented in a press interview that the American judicial system favors the wealthy, and that (in his words) "if you have money you generally don't go to jail".
Morrison's last album with "The Doors" was "L.A. Woman". It was recorded between December 1970 and January 1971, and eventually released in April 1971. The album was heavily influenced by the blues genre, even more so than their previous works. It was co-produced by the veteran sound engineer Bruce Botnick. The album peaked at the 9th place on the Billboard 200, and the 28th place on the UK Albums Charts. Its most popular song was "Riders on the Storm", which peaked at the 14th place on the U.S Billboard Hot 100.
After finishing the recording of the album, Morrison announced to his band-mates that he planned to move to Paris, France. They had no objection to his decision. In March 1971, Morrison joined his longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson (1946-1974) at her rented apartment in Rue Beautreillis. This Paris street was noted as the former residence of the poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). While staying in Paris, Morrison shaved his beard and lost some weight.
On July 3, 1971, Courson found Morison dead in the bathtub of their apartment at approximately 6:00 a.m. No autopsy was performed, as it was not required by French law. The official cause of death was heart failure, though this was just an educated guess. There were initial rumors of an accidental heroin overdose, but no evidence could confirm them. Morrison was buried at "Père Lachaise Cemetery", the largest cemetery in Paris and the most visited necropolis in the world. The cemetery was founded by the emperor Napoleon in 1804, and houses the remains of several famous writers and artists. Morrison has continued to inspire musicians for decades, and has repeatedly been cited as a main inspiration for the gothic rock genre.- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Actress
Janis Lyn Joplin was born at St. Mary's Hospital in the oil-refining town of Port Arthur, Texas, near the border with Louisiana. Her father was a cannery worker and her mother was a registrar for a business college. As an overweight teenager, she was a folk-music devotee (especially Odetta, Leadbelly and Bessie Smith). After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School, she attended Lamar State College and the University of Texas, where she played auto-harp in Austin bars.She was nominated for the Ugliest Man on Campus in 1963, and she spent two years traveling, performing and becoming drug-addicted. Back home in 1966, her friend Chet Helms suggested she become lead singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company, an established Haight-Ashbury band consisting of guitarists James Gurley and Sam Andrew, bassist Peter Albin and drummer Dave Getz). She got wide recognition through the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, highlights of which were released in Monterey Pop (1968), and with the band's landmark second album, "Cheap Thrills". She formed her "Kosmic Blues Band" the following year and achieved still further recognition as a solo performer at Woodstock in 1969, highlights released in Woodstock (1970). In the spring of 1970, she sang with the "Full Tilt Boogie Band" and, on October 4 of that year, she was found dead in Hollywood's Landmark Motor Hotel (now known as Highland Gardens Hotel) from a heroin-alcohol overdose the previous day. Her ashes were scattered off the coast of California. Her biggest selling album was the posthumously released "Pearl", which contained her quintessential song: "Me & Bobby McGee".- Actor
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- Cinematographer
When hunky, twenty-year-old heart-throb Heath Ledger first came to the attention of the public in 1999, it was all too easy to tag him as a "pretty boy" and an actor of little depth. He spent several years trying desperately to sway this image, but this was a double-edged sword. His work comprised nineteen films, including 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), A Knight's Tale (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Ned Kelly (2003), The Brothers Grimm (2005), Lords of Dogtown (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Casanova (2005), Candy (2006), I'm Not There (2007), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). He also produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.
Heath Ledger was born on the fourth of April 1979, in Perth, Western Australia, to Sally (Ramshaw), a teacher of French, and Kim Ledger, a mining engineer who also raced cars. His ancestry was Scottish, English, Irish, and Sephardi Jewish. As the story goes, in junior high school it was compulsory to take one of two electives, either cooking or drama. As Heath could not see himself in a cooking class he tried his hand at drama. Heath was talented, however the rest of the class did not acknowledge his talent. When he was seventeen he and a friend decided to pack up, leave school, take a car and rough it to Sydney. Heath believed Sydney to be the place where dreams were made or, at least, where actors could possibly get their big break. Upon arriving in Sydney with a purported sixty-nine cents to his name, Heath tried everything to get a break.
His first real acting job came in a low-budget movie called Blackrock (1997), a largely unimpressive cliché; an adolescent angst film about one boy's struggle when he learns his best mate raped a girl. He only had a very small role in the film. After that small role Heath auditioned for a role in a T.V. show called Sweat (1996) about a group of young Olympic hopefuls. He was offered one of two roles, one as a swimmer, another as a gay cyclist. Heath accepted the latter because he felt to really stand out as an actor one had to accept unique roles that stood out from the bunch. It got him small notice, but unfortunately the show was quickly axed, forcing him to look for other roles. He was in Home and Away (1988) for a very short period, in which he played a surfer who falls in love with one of the girls of Summer Bay. Then came his very brief role in Paws (1997), a film which existed solely to cash in on guitar prodigy Nathan Cavaleri's brief moment of fame, where he was the hottest thing in Australia. Heath played a student in the film, involved in a stage production of a Shakespeare play, in which he played "Oberon". A very brief role, this offered him a small paycheck but did nothing to advance his career. Then came Two Hands (1999). He went to the U.S. trying to audition for film roles, showcasing his brief role in Roar (1997) opposite then unknown Vera Farmiga.
Then Australian director Gregor Jordan auditioned him for the lead in Two Hands (1999), which he got. An in your face Aussie crime thriller, Two Hands (1999) was outstanding and helped him secure a role in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). After that, it seemed Heath was being typecast as a young hunk, which he did not like, so he accepted a role in a very serious war drama The Patriot (2000).
What followed was a stark inconsistency of roles, Ledger accepting virtually every single character role, anything to avoid being typecast. Some met with praise, like his short role in Monster's Ball (2001), but his version of Ned Kelly (2003) was an absolute flop, which led distributors hesitant to even release it outside Australia. Heath finally had deserved success with his role in Brokeback Mountain (2005). For his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in in the film, Ledger won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and Best International Actor from the Australian Film Institute, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Ledger was found dead on January 22, 2008 in his apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo, with a bottle of prescription sleeping pills near-by. It was concluded weeks later that he died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs that included pain-killers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. His death occurred during editing of The Dark Knight (2008) and in the midst of filming his last role as Tony in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).
Posthumously, he shared the 2007 Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award with the rest of the ensemble cast, the director, and the casting director for the film I'm Not There (2007), which was inspired by the life and songs of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In the film, Ledger portrayed a fictional actor named Robbie Clark, one of six characters embodying aspects of Dylan's life and persona.
A few months before his death, Ledger had finished filming his performance as the Joker in 'The Dark Knight (2008). His untimely death cast a somber shadow over the subsequent promotion of the $185 million Batman production. Ledger received more than thirty posthumous accolades for his critically acclaimed performance as the Joker, the psychopathic clown prince of crime, in the film, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, a Best Actor International Award at the 2008 Australian Film Institute Awards (for which he is the second actor to win an acting award posthumously after Peter Finch who won an Oscar for Network (Best Actor 1977)), the 2008 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor, the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, and the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.- Actor
- Additional Crew
James Byron Dean was born February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, to Mildred Marie (Wilson) and Winton A. Dean, a farmer turned dental technician. His mother died when Dean was nine, and he was subsequently raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle in Fairmount, Indiana. After grade school, he moved to New York to pursue his dream of acting. He received rave reviews for his work as the blackmailing Arab boy in the New York production of Gide's "The Immoralist", good enough to earn him a trip to Hollywood. His early film efforts were strictly small roles: a sailor in the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis overly frantic musical comedy Sailor Beware (1952); a GI in Samuel Fuller's moody study of a platoon in the Korean War, Fixed Bayonets! (1951) and a youth in the Piper Laurie-Rock Hudson comedy Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952).
He had major roles in only three movies. In the Elia Kazan production of John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955) he played Cal Trask, the bad brother who could not force affection from his stiff-necked father. His true starring role, the one which fixed his image forever in American culture, was that of the brooding red-jacketed teenager Jim Stark in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955). George Stevens' filming of Edna Ferber's Giant (1956), in which he played the non-conforming cowhand Jett Rink who strikes it rich when he discovers oil, was just coming to a close when Dean, driving his Porsche Spyder race car, collided with another car while on the road near Cholame, California on September 30, 1955. He had received a speeding ticket just two hours before. At age 24, James Dean was killed almost immediately from the impact from a broken neck. His very brief career, violent death and highly publicized funeral transformed him into a cult object of apparently timeless fascination.- Music Artist
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Talented. Beautiful. Modest. These three words described R&B singer-turned-actress Aaliyah perfectly.
Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Diane (Hankerson) and Michael Haughton. Her uncle was music manager Barry Hankerson and her brother is director Rashad Haughton. Aaliyah was raised in Detroit. She got her first major exposure appearing on the syndicated television series Star Search (1983), where she awed the audience with her amazing voice and talent, singing "My Funny Valentine", a song which her mother had sung years earlier. At age 11, she sang with Gladys Knight in a five-night stint in Las Vegas. Withdrawing from the celebrity scene for a few years, Aaliyah lived the life of a normal teenage girl, attending Detroit's Performing Arts High School, where she majored in dance. It was around this same time that Aaliyah met singer/composer R. Kelly. Kelly assisted Aaliyah with the production of her debut album "Age Ain't Nothing But A number", which scored several number hits, specifically "Back and Forth." The album's title was a brief reference to her short-lived marriage to R. Kelly (she was 15 years of age at the time, and he was in his 20s). Thir marriage was annulled due to her status as a minor.
During her senior year, Aaliyah went on to record "One In A Million", which featured the songwriting talents of major R&B producers/writers Missy Elliott and Timbaland. The album was a major success and sealed Aaliyah's fame forever.
Aaliyah recorded the single 'Journey to the past' for the Anastasia (1997) soundtrack. After seeing her at an awards show and in the video for her hit song "Are You that Somebody?" (from the Eddie Murphy film Doctor Dolittle (1998)), film producer Joel Silver (producer of The Matrix (1999) and other major actor films) asked Aaliyah to audition for a role in an romance/action film, Romeo Must Die (2000). With her determination and sex appeal, Aaliyah won Silver over and was cast in her first major film role. Romeo Must Die (2000) was a hit at the box office. This film led to her being cast as one of the stars of the film based on Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned (2002), and in the two sequels to the major box office hit, The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003).
During the busy schedule of her film career, Aaliyah took time to record her third album, the self-titled "Aaliyah". July 2001 was a busy time for Aaliyah. After the success of her song "Try Again", for which she was nominated for a Grammy Award and won several MTV Video Awards, Aaliyah finally released her "Aaliyah" album. Debuting at number two on the Billboard charts, "Aaliyah" was a sales success, despite some lackluster reviews.
In August 2001, Aaliyah took time off from her busy album promotional tour to fly to the Bahamas to film a video for the song "Rock the Boat". The video, filmed on Abaco Island, was directed by Hype Williams, a major music video director known for his style and wit.
On August 25, 2001, after filming the video, Aaliyah and about 9-11 of her entourage took off from Marsh Harbour airport at 6:50pm EDT in a small Cessna 404 en route to Opa-Locka, Florida. A few minutes after take-off, the plane crashed about 200 feet from the runaway, killing Aaliyah and many others instantly. Four passengers were pulled alive from the wreckage, and one later died at a hospital in Nassau. Aaliyah was only 22 years old. Her funeral was held on Friday August 31st in New York, and 22 white doves were flown to celebrate each year of her life. Soon after her death, the hit singles 'More Than a woman' and 'Rock The Boat' were released, from her third album. In 2002, the film Queen of the Damned (2002) was released, in which Aaliyah played Queen Akasha. She was nominated for best Villain at the MTV Movie Awards 2002.
Aaliyah's short-lived, but brilliant career, was a true success story for a young African-American woman who went against all odds to be herself in an industry where originality is scarce. Truly missed by her family, friends, and fans, her music and film contributions will live forever. It's no wonder that her name means 'Highest, most ex-halted one; the best' in Hebrew. She had achieved so much in her twenty-two years.- Actor
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River Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom in Madras, Oregon. His mother, Arlyn (Dunetz), a Bronx-born secretary, and his father, John Bottom, a carpenter, met in California in 1968. They worked as itinerant fruit pickers, and later joined the Children of God religious group (John was originally Catholic, while Arlyn was born Jewish). By the time River was two, they were living in South America, where John was the sect's Archbishop of Venezuela. They later left the group and, in 1977, moved back to the United States, changing their last name to "Phoenix". They lived with River's maternal grandparents in Florida, and later moved to Los Angeles. His parents encouraged all of their children to get into movies and, by age ten, River was acting professionally on TV. His film debut was in Explorers (1985), followed rapidly by box-office successes with Stand by Me (1986) and The Mosquito Coast (1986), and as young Indiana in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). His role as Danny Pope in Running on Empty (1988) earned him an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. His best role was probably Mike, the hustler in My Own Private Idaho (1991).
A dedicated animal-rights activist and environmentalist, River was a strict vegetarian and a member of PeTA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). River was a talented musician as well as an actor, and he played guitar, sang, and wrote songs for his band, Aleka's Attic, which also included his sister Rain Phoenix, while living in Gainsville, Florida. Although the band never released its own album, their song "Across the Way" can be found on PeTA's "Tame Yourself" album, used to fight animal abuse. River was in the middle of filming Dark Blood (2012), playing the character Boy when he died. The film couldn't be finished due to too many unfilmed crucial scenes. His mother was later sued.
River died of acute multiple drug intoxication involving lethal levels of cocaine and morphine at age 23 outside the Viper Room, Johnny Depp's Los Angeles club.- Music Artist
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Born in New York City, Tupac grew up primarily in Harlem. In 1984, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he became good friends with Jada Pinkett Smith. His family moved again in 1988 to Oakland, California. His first breakthrough in music came in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground. In the same year he received individual recognition for his album "2Pacalypse Now," but this album was also the beginning of his notoriety as a leading figure of the gangster permutation of hip-hop, with references to cop killing and sexual violence. His solo movie career also began in this year with Juice (1992), and in 1992 he co-starred with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice (1993).
However, law confrontations were soon to come: A 15-day jail term in 1994 for assault and battery and, in 1995, a conviction for sexual assault of a female fan. After serving 8 months pending an appeal, Shakur was released from jail.- Music Artist
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Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, was born on May 21, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of Jamaican parents, Voletta Wallace, a pre-school teacher, and Selwyn George Latore, a welder and small-time politician. He was raised in the poor Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Dropping out of high school at the age of seventeen, Biggie became a crack dealer, which he proclaimed was his only source of income. Hustlin' one's way was a common life for a young Black man trying to make a living in the ghetto. His career choices involved certain risks. However, a trip to North Carolina for a routine drug exchange ended being the soon-to-be MC a nine-month stay behind bars. Once released, Biggie borrowed a friend's four-track tape recorder and laid down some hip-hop tracks in a basement. The tapes were then passed around and played at local radio station in New York.
Not extremely attractive, Wallace named himself Biggie, for his weight. Biggie was a Black man who was overweight, extremely dark skinned, and had a crook in his eye, yet he was a charmer. A young impresario and sometime producer by the name of Sean Combs heard Biggie's early tapes. Impressed, Puffy went to sign Biggie to his new label, Bad Boy Records.
Puffy and Biggie worked on the artist's first album, and the Notorious B.I.G. was born. Biggie was first heard on a remix of a Mary J. Blige song and a track on the Who's the Man? (1991) soundtrack. After these successes, the album worked on earlier went through its final touches and was released in 1994, titled "Ready to Die." The record was certified platinum quickly, and the Notorious B.I.G. was named MC of the Year at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards. After the quick success of the album, Biggie went back to get his friends, some who didn't even rhyme. He had several run-ins with the law, on charges that ranged from beatings, to drugs and to weapons, while all claimed that Biggie was a gentle person. He soon met a rapper from the west coast named Tupac Shakur, and the two became friends.
Tupac supported Biggie and was often giving him advice. However, their friendship turned into the most violent era of hip-hop music on November 30, 1994. While Biggie and Puffy were at a recording session at Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan, Tupac went there to record with another rapper for his third studio album, "Me Against The World" at the same time, but in the lobby, Tupac was held at gunpoint and robbed of $40,000 worth of jewelry. Tupac was shot five times. Biggie rushed down just in time to see Tupac being loaded into an ambulance. Extending a middle finger, Pac blamed Biggie for the shooting and said that Biggie knew about it and failed to warn him. This sparked the East Coast, West Coast rivalry. Tupac later recovered from his injuries. During this encounter, Biggie admitted that he was scared for his life. Biggie never responded to any of Tupac's disses. Tupac attacked Biggie in every way he could, even starting strong rumors that there was a love affair between Tupac and Biggie's wife, Faith Evans.
Later, The entire country became divided into two groups, the west side and the east side, which became Death Row Records versus Bad Boy Records, Marion 'Suge' Knight versus Puff Daddy, and Tupac versus Biggie. The two of them finally met again late in 1995, and Tupac secretly said to Biggie, "I'm just tryin' to sell some records." Unfortunately, it became very real when on September 7, 1996, Tupac was shot four times in a drive-by shooting off the Las Vegas strip after he left a fight he was involved in inside of the MGM Grand Hotel after a Mike Tyson boxing match. He died six days later on September 13, 1996 as a result of those gunshot wounds at the age of 25. The case is still unsolved. Biggie was scared for his life, but he wanted to put an end to the rivalry between the two coasts. Biggie went to the west coast for several events, to support for his next release album, "Life After Death," but also to make a statement that the rivalry was over. On March 7, 1997, he attended the Soul Train Music Awards and went to the after party hosted by Vibe magazine and Qwest Records on March 8. On March 9, Biggie was sitting in an SUV on the street when he was shot multiple times by an unknown assailant. He died almost instantly. Hip-Hop faced its greatest tragedy when both Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were killed. Biggie was only 24 years old.- Actor
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Born on February 1, 1965 to Bruce Lee (Martial Arts idol) and Linda Lee Cadwell. Brother to Shannon Lee. In 1970-71, they moved to Hong Kong, where Brandon lived until age eight, becoming fluent in Cantonese. By the time he was able to walk, he was already involved in learning about martial arts from his father.
Brandon attended high school in Los Angeles, where he realized that he had also inherited acting ability along with his martial arts skills. In 1983, he was expelled from school because of misbehavior, but received his diploma at Miraleste High School. He continued his education and interest in acting at Emerson College in Massachusetts, where he majored in theatre. Having chosen an acting career, he studied at the Strasberg Academy, with Eric Morris in New York and in Los Angeles, and in Lynette Katselas' class in Los Angeles.
His first professional job as an actor came at age twenty, when casting director Lynn Stalmaster asked him to read for a CBS television film, Kung Fu: The Movie (1986). Lee's first role in a feature film was Legacy of Rage (1986) (aka "Legacy of Rage" (1986)) for D.M. Films of Hong Kong, followed by a co-starring role in Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991). He was also in Rapid Fire (1992), and The Crow (1994). He turned down offers to be in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993).
Brandon died (while filming) at the age of 28, of what is to be believed, a brain hemorrhage on the set of The Crow (1994). The film crew shot a scene in which it was decided to use a gun without consent from the weapons coordinator, who had been sent home early that night. They handed Michael Massee the gun loaded with full power blanks and shot the scene, unaware that a bullet had become dislodged from a previous shot and had lodged itself in the barrel. Upon shooting of the scene the blank round forced the bullet out the barrel striking Brandon Lee. The crew only noticed when Lee was slow getting up. The doctors worked desperately for five hours, but it was no use. The bullet had lodged itself in Mr Lee's lower spine. He was pronounced dead at 1:04 P.M. the next day. He was supposed to marry Eliza Hutton on April 17, 1993. His body was flown to Seattle to be buried beside his father in Lake View Cemetery.- Music Department
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Jones was born on 28 February, 1942, to Lewis and Louise Jones. He had two sisters, Pamela and Barbara. Pamela died when Brian was still a child. He fathered his first of several children in high school and was subsequently made to leave. In the early 1960s, Brian formed the legendary group, The Rolling Stones. He even gave the group their name and booked their first gigs, working also as their manager for a short time. In 1965, Brian met and fell for stunning model Anita Pallenberg. They began a torrid affair. He composed the music to her film debut, A Degree of Murder (1967) ("Degree of Murder"). He also began drinking and experimenting with drugs. In 1967, Anita left Brian for his bandmate, Keith Richards. Brian fell deeper into drugs and depression. Brian was slowly withdrawing from his social life and his band into isolation. In November 1968, Brian purchased "Cotchford Farm", the house was formerly occupied by A.A. Milne, author of the "Winnie-the-Pooh" tales. The following month, he made his last public appearance with the Stones for their "Rock and Roll Circus" special. In June of 1969, Brian and the Stones parted ways. By then, Brian had started to clean up and was planning on forming another group. But on the 3rd of July, Brian was dragged unconscious from his swimming pool and later pronounced dead. He was 27. Mystery still surrounds his untimely death. Some believe it was drugs, some believe an asthma attack, and some even believe he was murdered. In 1999, Brian's ex-girlfriend, Anna Wohlin, who was with him on the night he died, wrote a book stating that Brian was murdered by a friend who had been doing some work to his property. In 1996, some of Brian's fans and friends collaborated and founded the "Brian Jones Fan Club".- Music Artist
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Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.- Actor
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Ritchie, the 'California Kid' was from a family of poverty stricken fruit pickers and was the first rock star to originate from the West Coast and one of the innovators of 'Latino rock. In an eight month career he scored three hits with 'Come On Let's Go', 'Donna' and 'La Bamba' before being killed in an air crash on February 3rd 1959 which also took the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.. He was just 17. Associate producer Daniel Valdez spent 2 1/2 years searching for Ritchie's family then discovered them living just 15 minutes from where he lived. He then spent months learning all about Ritchie before writing a script which he gave to the family for their approval and with it filming went ahead. The part of Ritchie went to the then 25 year old unknown Lou Diamond Phillips who put on 15lbs to get a chubbier face and learned how to sing and play the guitar after he'd past the audition. During the filming Lou married his own 'Donna' Julie Cyphers who was a production assistant on 'La Bamba'.- Duane Allman was born in Nashville, Tennessee in November 1946. On Christmas Day in 1960, Duane was given a motorcycle as a gift while his younger brother, Gregg Allman, got a guitar. A few months later, Duane wrecked his motorcycle in an accident, but traded in the spare parts for a guitar of his own. Within a year, the duo played at sock hops in Daytona Beach, Florida, calling themselves "The Kings". In 1965, Duane and Gregg formed their band, "The Allman Joys", and toured the south, but they failed to make an impression in the music business. Duane, Gregg and a few friends drifted to Los Angeles where they formed a new band called "Hourglass". After recording two albums for Liberty Records, the Allmans returned to Florida where they played with the bands "Second Coming" and "The 31th of February". Duane frequently traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama and played backup guitar with such great singers as Aretha Franklin, King Curtis and Percy Sledge. In 1969, Duane got his first big break when Jerry Wexler, the vice-president of Atlantic Records, offered him a solo contract. Duane formed a new band which made up of drummers Jai Johanny Johanson and Butch Trucks, guitarist Dickey Betts, bassist Berry Oakley, and brother Gregg Allman on the keyboard. Once assembled, The Allman Brothers Band settled in Macon, Georgia where they joined Phil Walden's Capricorn Records for a recording contract. The band's first album combined strains of blues, soul, rock and country music into the electrifying sound that launched Southern rock music. Their second album, "Idlewild South", climbed to the top of the charts where they performed at New York's Filimore East in March 1971. The band recorded a double album released in July of that year and reached the top ten, but Duane did not live to see his band's true success. On October 29, 1971, Duane Allman was riding his motorcycle down Macon's main street when a truck pulled out from another street in front of him. He lost control of his bike trying to avoid a collision and crashed head-on into the rig, killing him almost immediately. He was 24 years old. The band played at his funeral. Only a year later, they gathered somberly, again, to bury Berry Oakley, who was killed in a motorcycle crash, just three blocks away from Duane's fatal accident.
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Sharon's early life was one of constant moving as her father served in the military. When she lived in Italy, she was voted "Homecoming Queen" of her high school. After being an extra in a few Italian films, Sharon headed to Hollywood where she would again start as an extra. Her first big break came when she was cast as the shapely bank secretary, "Janet Trego", in the television series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) (1963-1965). In 1967, she would meet her future husband, director Roman Polanski, on the set of the English film The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). Sharon's big role would be that same year when she was the starlet in Valley of the Dolls (1967). With her marriage to Roman, her life became one of parties, travel and meeting influential movie people. She would appear as a red-haired beauty in the spy spoof The Wrecking Crew (1968) working with Dean Martin and the equally beautiful Elke Sommer. Sharon was 2 months pregnant of her first child while filming in Italy and France a funny Italian comedy movie 12 + 1 (1969) in February 1969. On August 9, 1969 Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring, Steve Parent, and Voytek Frykowski were murdered by 3 of Charles Manson's followers: Charles 'Tex' Watson, Susan Atkins (died in prison in 2009), and Patricia Krenwinkel. Manson died in prison in 2017. Watson and Krenwinkel are still in prison.- The only child of Jozsef Barsi and Maria Benko, Judith Eva Barsi beat 10,000-to-1 odds when she was discovered at a San Fernando Valley skating rink at age 5 1/2 in 1983 and mistaken for a three-year-old. Her first commercial was for Donald Duck Orange Juice and she went on to appear in anywhere between fifty and a hundred commercials, several episodes of various T.V. series, and three major motion pictures. Her mother Maria was the main thrust of her career as a Hollywood starlet, but also took great pains to try to give her a normal, happy childhood; bringing her Hungarian meals like duck for her school lunch. But this happy childhood did not last long. Beginning in 1985, Jozsef would often be home drunk instead of working as a plumber, and he refused to let Maria work. As a result, the family briefly went on welfare until Judith's career took off in 1986 and 1987. By the time she entered fourth grade, she was pulling in an estimated $100,000 a year, which bought her family a nice four-bedroom house on a quiet street in West Hill. As her career soared, her father became an increasingly abusive recluse who constantly threatened to kill his wife and daughter. In stressful moods Judith bit her nails and plucked out her eyebrows and eyelashes and her cats' whiskers. C.P.S. was called in numerous times, but as Maria was reluctant to press charges and many of the reports/accounts were emotional and not physical abuse, the case was not pursued.
On Wednesday, July 27th, Eunice Daly, a next-door neighbor, heard a loud bang next door while watering her plants. The house had been set on fire, and later the Barsis' bodies were discovered shot dead. All of Judith's toys that were not destroyed by the fire were given to the local Goodwill, and her best friend continued to feed her cats for months afterward. - Heather Michele O'Rourke was born on December 27, 1975 in Santee, San Diego, California, to Kathleen, a seamstress, and Michael O'Rourke, a construction worker. She had German, Danish, English, and Irish ancestry.
Heather entered American cinematic pop-culture before first grade. She was sitting alone in the MGM Commissary waiting for her mother when a stranger approached her asking her name. "My name is Heather O'Rourke," she said. "But you're a stranger, and I can't talk to you". When her mother returned, the stranger introduced himself as Steven Spielberg. She failed her first audition when she laughed at a stuffed animal Spielberg presented her with. He thought she was just too young (she had just turned five), and he was actually looking for a girl at least 6 years old, but he saw something in her and asked her to come in a second time with a scary story book. He asked her to scream a lot. She screamed until she broke down in tears. The next day at the commissary, Spielberg told her and her family, "I don't know what it is about her, but she's got the job." She instantly became a star overnight and was easily recognized at her favorite theme park, Disneyland, and everywhere in California. In the years that followed, Heather was a familiar face on TV in Happy Days (1974) (1982-1983), Webster (1983) (1983-1984), and The New Leave It to Beaver (1983) (1986-1987), three shows in which she had recurring roles. In 1986, the highly anticipated sequel to her first movie, Poltergeist (1982), Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) debuted in theaters; it was her riveting performance in this film that cemented her a place in Hollywood history. In January 1987, Heather began to have flu-like symptoms and her legs and feet swelled. She was taken to Kaiser Hospital, and they confirmed it was only the flu, but when symptoms continued, they diagnosed her as having Crohn's Disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestine. She was on medication throughout the filming of her next project, Poltergeist III (1988), and her cheeks were puffy in some scenes. She never complained during filming and did not appear sick to fellow cast members.
When filming was completed in June, Heather and her family went on a road trip from Chicago, to New Orleans, to Orlando and all the way back to Lakeside where they lived at the time. Heather was well until January 31, 1988, Super Bowl Sunday. She was unable to keep anything in her stomach and crawled into bed with her parents that night, saying that she didn't feel well. The next morning, February 1, sitting at the breakfast table, she couldn't swallow her toast or Gatorade. Her mother noticed her fingers were blue and her hands were cold. Kathleen called the doctor's and was getting ready to put her clothes on when Heather fainted on the kitchen floor. When the paramedics came in, Heather insisted that she was "really okay" and was worried about missing school that day. In the ambulance, Heather suffered cardiac arrest and died on the operating table at 2:43 p.m. at the tender age of 12. Of all her achievements, Heather was proudest of being elected student body president of her 5th grade class in 1985. - Actor
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Jean Michel Basquiat began painting graffiti in New York in 1977. He always signed his works with SAMO, which means "Same Old Shit". His works came to the attention of the American painter Keith Haring, who drew inspiration for his own work from New York graffiti paintings. Basquiat also made drawings on paper, sheet metal, T-shirts and other materials. And assemblages were created from scrap. In 1980 he took part in an exhibition together with Jenny Holzer, John Ahearn and several other artists. The following year, the medium "Artforum" reported on Basquiat in a major article.
Further exhibitions followed, which contributed to his popularity. He presented his work in 1981 at the exhibition "New York, New Wave" at P.S.1. His contacts with the director Julian Schnabel, who made a film about Basquiat in 1996, as well as other acquaintances with artists such as the American painter Willem de Kooning also advanced his career - also in the international art scene. In 1982 an exhibition of his works opened in Italy. In the same year, at the age of 21, he was invited to take part in the documenta in Kassel.
In 1983 he met Andy Warhol, which not only developed into a friendship. Warhol became his mentor and supporter. The relationship developed into a working group and joint exhibitions followed. Warhol called Basquiat the first black superstar artist. His works quickly became sought after by critics, collectors and artists. He made his breakthrough with mixed media, using colored pencils, oil pastels, pastels, watercolors, pencils, charcoal and acrylics. He used it to design canvases and paper, adding columns of words and grimaces or the copyright symbol.
In the 1980s, Jean Michel Basquiat became one of the most important figures in the New York art scene alongside artists such as Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, David Salle and Francesco Clemente. In his second phase, Basquiat emphasized the figurative nature of his subjects. Nevertheless, his roots in graffiti art cannot be denied, they are always present. He created paintings with large formats and fast movements. He used Jackson Pollock's drip painting technique by letting the paint fall onto the surface. Basquiat's themes in his art included protesting against racial discrimination.
With his works, the artist also wanted to draw attention to the difficult conditions of the weaker people in society. Basquiat was very productive in his short artistic career. His complete works number several hundred Work.
Jean Michel Basquiat died of a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988.- Actor
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Ian Curtis was born in Old Trafford, Manchester, at the Memorial Hospital. He grew up listening to The Who and The Rolling Stones, and other heroes of his teenage years included David Bowie, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and James Dean. He especially liked musicians whose lyrics spoke of death, or those who had died at their peak. He attended the King's School in Macclesfield, where he took his first overdose with a friend. During their customary "social services" hours on Wednesdays, they would visit the homes of elderly pensioners, and would usually take drugs out of their medicine cabinets. With friend Oliver Cleaver, Ian took an accidental overdose of chlorpromazine hydrochloride, brand name Largactil, which was used to treat schizophrenia. Both had their stomachs pumped, and were kept from being expelled when Oliver said he had been trying to kill himself.
Ian met his future wife Deborah in 1972. After he quit school and his family moved to New Moston, Manchester, Ian stopped experimenting with drugs. He and Deborah were married on August 23, 1975. During several moves from different houses, Ian and Deborah spent short periods of time living in his grandparents' basement. On 20 July 1976, Ian saw the Sex Pistols play at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. He had missed their first show, but was inspired just as much by the second. Always having been a music fan, Ian felt driven to join a band. After moving back to Macclesfield, Ian found his place in the band Joy Division, then called Warsaw. The band consisted of Bernard Sumner on guitar, Peter Hook on bass, and Stephen Morris on drums. During the years of 1977-1980, the band took off and became a part of Tony Wilson's label, Factory records. They released one EP, "An Ideal for Living," in January 1977, and two official albums: "Unknown Pleasures" in June 1979, and "Closer," released posthumously in July 1980. Ian first discovered that he suffered from epilepsy in December 1978, while his wife was pregnant with their daughter Natalie. The pills he took to help his epilepsy are believed by many to be the cause of Ian's intense depression from that point up until his death. Another major contributing factor was Ian's ongoing affair with a woman named Annik Honore, who he first met in late 1979. With a wife and daughter at home, Ian usually saw Annik at Joy Division gigs and on their tours, where wives were not allowed. On April 7, 1980, Ian took an overdose of Phenobarbitone, which he announced to his wife. She rushed him to the hospital. He had his stomach pumped, and was pronounced not suicidal. The day following his suicide attempt, he performed with Joy Division at Derby Hall, Bury. Ian had only sung two songs when a riot broke out. Tony Wilson found Ian crying upstairs, and to comfort him, reminded him about the Lou Reed gig at the Free Trade Hall where there had also been a bottle-throwing riot. The last Joy Division performance was May 2, at Birmingham University. Ian spent the last few months of his life moving back and forth between other people's houses, rarely staying at home. When he did return home, it was to watch the film Stroszek (1977), by one of his heroes, Werner Herzog. He had been living with his parents at the time, and wouldn't want to upset them by watching such a dark film. He wrote a letter to his wife Deborah, which spoke of the troubles in his life, and the love he felt for her and Natalie. He did write that he wished he was dead, but did not speak of any intentions to kill himself. After this, he is believed to have taken photographs of his daughter and wife down to look at, and to have listened to Iggy Pop's "The Idiot." He was discovered in the morning by his wife, Deborah, having committed suicide by hanging. The date of his death was May 18, 1980.- Composer
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Clifford Lee Burton was born on February 10, 1962 in Castro Valley, California, to Janet (Morgen) and Ray Herbert Burton. He had two siblings. His mother was from a German Jewish family, and his father was of British Isles descent.
As a youngster, Clifford always liked music, listening to genres such as blues, classical, country and jazz, and he even liked the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He loved all kinds of music, and when he attended college he became educated in music theory. At the age of six he learned to play his first instrument, the piano. When he became a teenager he learned to play the bass guitar and took lessons from September 1978 to January 1980. He had played in several bands before he joined a band that would later go on to become one of the most popular and successful bands of all time.
In 1982 he played at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in Los Angeles and was spotted by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, who were forming a heavy metal band and were searching for a new bassist with creativity. The two had gone to the Whiskey A-Go-Go at the recommendation of Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records. Hetfield and Ulrich were greatly impressed with Burton's bass playing and asked him to join their band, Metallica. At first Burton didn't want to join Metallica, but agreed to join if the band was willing to relocate to San Francisco, which they did. Burton went on to perform on the band's first three albums ("Kill 'Em All", "Ride The Lightning" and "Master of Puppets"), which all became hits, and with these three albums he instantly became a favorite musician amongst many music fans, with his impressive bass playing, powerful stage presence and very opinionated and honest personality. Things were looking bright for Burton but, sadly, his life was cut tragically short in 1986. After Metallica had finished touring with Ozzy Osbourne in 1985 they began touring in 1986. On the morning of September 27 the bus the band was touring in was driving from Stockholm, Sweden, to Copenhagen, Denmark, to perform some more gigs, and it went into a slide on some icy roads. Burton was thrown out of the bus' window and the bus fell on its side and crushed him. His Metallica bandmates were devastated over Burton's death, as were the band's fans. Burton was a powerful force in Metallica and his loss is seen by many as one of the most tragic losses in the history of music, which it is, because Burton was extremely talented and helped to contribute to some of Metallica's most successful songs. Not only that, but his live performances were also very powerful and he was very friendly and down-to-earth, very honest and opinionated and always willing to express his thoughts and feelings.
Metallica paid tribute to Burton by releasing the home video _Cliff 'Em All (1987) (V)_ and by using several unused riffs and a poem of his on their song "To Live Is To Die", which appeared on their acclaimed 1988 album "...And Justice For All". Burton may be gone, but he'll never be forgotten, and he will always be remembered by both Metallica and their fans, as well as music fans in general, and his contributions to the music industry are some of the finest that were made.- Actor
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Along with fellow Sex Pistol member, Johnny Rotten, lanky, sneering, pock faced Sid epitomised the punk movement born in the mid 1970s in working class England. Sid Vicious (real name John Beverly) wasn't an original member of the Pistols, but rather joined the band after original bassist, Glen Matlock dropped out after personality clashes with lead singer Rotten. On stage, Sid (often stripped to the waist) would incite the audience to get wilder and more frenzied, and his infamous antics included spitting and spraying beer into the audience. The British establishment despised the Pistols with a passion, and Sid was viewed as a crude, foul mouthed hoodlum corrupting English youth with his unclean image. Unfortunately for a naive Sid, he fell into the company of alleged drug user, Nancy Spungen, and his world spiralled out of control leading to the break up of the Pistols (their last show being in San Francisco), and Sid's lame attempts to kick start his own solo career, which included a demented cover of the popular Frank Sinatra song "My Way", accompanied by a violent video clip. Vicious and Spungen took up residency in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City in early 1978, however their self destructive personalities meant a tragedy was fast approaching, and on October 12th 1978, Spungen was found dead in their hotel room from stab wounds. Vicious was charged by police with Spungen's murder and released on bail, pending trial. However, only four months later in February 1979, Vicious himself was found dead of a heroin overdose. Sid was dead at aged 21. His will requested his ashes be poured over Nancy's grave at the King David Cemetery in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Along with Janis Joplin, Brian Jones & Jimi Hendrix, Sid had assured himself a place in rock and roll history, as another iconic music figure dead at a young age.- Actor
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Born in Danbury, Connecticut, USA, to Greg and Mary, Jonathan Brandis began his career at age 5, acting in several television commercials. He also appeared in small parts in several films and TV shows before his first starring role in the 1990 film The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990). He starred in popular films such as Ladybugs (1992) and starred as Lucas Wolenczak in Steven Spielberg's television series SeaQuest 2032 (1993). He doubled up his high school courses so he could finish a year early for his role on SeaQuest. After his career stalled for a bit, he was hoping his role in serious drama film Hart's War (2002) would relaunch it. However, most of his scenes ended up being cut from the finished film. This caused him to fall into a deep depression in which he would drink heavily and tragically end his own life on November 12th, 2003.- Tiny (5'0") but slim, sexy, and adorable brunette knockout Elisa Rebeca Bridges was born on May 24, 1973, in Miami, Florida, and raised in Houston, Texas. Her father worked as an architect for oil companies and her mother was a travel agent. She had an older brother and a younger sister. Elisa graduated from Marcus High School in Flower Mound, Texas.
She was the Playmate of the Month in the December, 1994 issue of "Playboy." Bridges appeared in several "Playboy" videos and numerous "Playboy" special edition publications. Elisa was "Playboy"'s Video Playmate of the Month for September 1996. She had a small part as a bikini-clad beauty in both the blockbuster hit comedy The Birdcage (1996) and the family comedy Skippy (2001). Bridges was still modeling for "Playboy" when she died suddenly of a drug overdose at age 28 at the Beverly Hills mansion of longtime Hugh Hefner acquaintance Edward Nahem on February 7, 2002. - Actor
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Merritt Butrick was an American actor from Gainesville, Florida. He is primarily remembered for portraying Dr. David Marcus in the science fiction films "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982) and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984). His character was depicted as a son of the Starfleet officer James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk (played by William Shatner) and the leading scientist Dr. Carol Marcus (played by Bibi Besch). Butrick also portrayed the one-shot character of Captain T'Jon in a 1988 episode of the science fiction series "Star Trek: The Next Generation". His character was depicted as a ship's commanding officer who had been tasked with transporting medication, but had become addicted to the drug felicium.
Butrick received his high school education at the Tamalpais High School, located in Mill Valley, California. The city is part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Butrick graduated from high school in 1977, and subsequently attended the California Institute of the Arts with the intent of becoming an actor. He dropped out, as his instructors thought that he did not have the necessary skills to become an actor. He subsequently found steady work as an actor throughout the 1980s.
In his television debut, Butrick portrayed a recurring rapist in two episodes of the police procedural "Hill Street Blues". His first major role in television was portraying the supporting character Johnny Slash in the sitcom "Square Pegs" (1982-1983). His character was depicted as a geeky high school student. Johnny demonstrated eccentric behavior, but insisted that he was not on drugs. He hung out with the social misfit Patty Greene (played by Sarah Jessica Parker), and was hinted to be attracted to her. The series was praised for its realism, but it was canceled prematurely. The production company received several complains concerning drug and alcohol abuse by teenage members of the cast, and decided to pull the plug to avoid further controversy.
Butrick's other films included the telekinesis-themed comedy "Zapped! (1982)", the corporate corruption-themed black comedy "Head Office" (1985), the dysfunctional family-themed drama "Shy People" (1987), the vampire-themed horror film "Fright Night Part 2" (1988), and the ghost-themed horror film "Death Spa" (1989). He received praise in 1988 for his portrayal of a ditzy male prostitute in the stage play "Kingfish".
In March 1989, Butrick died at the age of 29. His death was caused by toxoplasmosis, complicated by an AIDS infection. Two panels were dedicated to him as part of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, both referencing his role as David Marcus. A few of his former co-stars have recorded anecdotes about his life and career in DVD featurettes, though Butrick had few confidants.- Born in Germany in 1929 and raised and raised in Germany and Amsterdam. In 1942, shortly after receiving a diary for her 13th birthday, she and her family were forced to go into hiding to escape Hitler's persecution of the Jews. Hiding with another family and a dentist in an annex behind the building in which her father worked, Anne recorded their lives in her diary almost daily. In addition, she recorded her fights with her mother, her budding relationship with the other family's son, and her own maturation. In 1944, the eight people were discovered and arrested by the Gestapo. They were separated and put in concentration camps. At age 15, Anne died there in March, 1945. Her mother and sister, as well as the other people living with them, also died. Only her father survived; on his return home, he found her diary untouched and had it published in 1947. It was an immediate success, as millions of readers were touched by her indomitable spirit in the face of such chaos. The diary is famous even to this day and was the inspiration for the Broadway play "The Diary of Anne Frank" in 1955. The play was adapted by first time in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), followed by Anne Frank's Diary (1999), The Diary of Anne Frank (1995) and The Diary of Anne Frank (2016). It inspired four TV movies, The Diary of Anne Frank (1962), The Diary of Anne Frank (1985), The Diary of Anne Frank (1967) and The Diary of Anne Frank (1980). The diary also inspired the mini series The Diary of Anne Frank (1987), The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) and The Diary of Anne Frank (2009). In addition, her life inspired Forget Me Not: The Anne Frank Story (1996) (about a Neo Nazi who back in time to meet Anne), My Best Friend Anne Frank (2021) and Mi ricordo Anna Frank (2009) (about her relation with her close friend Hannah Goslar), My Daughter, Anne Frank (2015) (about the relation between Anne and her father Otto) and Where Is Anne Frank (2021), based on the eponymous graphic novel, as well as the biographic documentary Anne Frank Remembered (1995) and Anne Frank, Then and Now (2014).
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- Soundtrack
Eddie Cochran was born as Ray Edward Cochran on October 3, 1938 in Albert Lea, Minnesota. When Eddie was 14, his parents moved to Bell Gardens, California where he began playing the guitar. In 1954, Eddie joined a local band with songwriter Hank Cochran where Eddie performed as the second vocalist. The group became known as "The Cochran Brothers" even though Eddie and Hank were not related. The Cochran Brothers were, more or less, a country-western act until Elvis Presley began overshadowing their acts in 1955. Shortly thereafter, the duo broke up with Eddie hurtling towards a career in rock and roll and Hank moving to Nashville where he became a successful songwriter. In 1956, Eddie hooked up with Jerry Capehart, an old friend who was also a songwriter. The two landed a recording contract with Crest Records, a small label in Hollywood, California.
Si Warmoker, an executive at Liberty Records, heard Eddie's singing and thought he could make Eddie into Liberty's answer to Elvis. To help launch Eddie's career, Liberty Records arranged for him to have a cameo in the movie The Girl Can't Help It (1956) which starred Jayne Mansfield. Eddie, in his cameo role as himself, sang the song "Twenty Flight Rock". Eddie also appeared as himself in the grade-B movie Untamed Youth (1957). Eddie's first single "Sittin' in the Balconcy" became one of the top 20 on the music charts. It was almost a year later that Eddie had another hit record titled "Summertime Blues" in 1958. "Summertime Blues" scored top with the teenage listeners and Eddie became one of Liberty's biggest successes. With this song, Eddie was established as an important influence on music in the late 1950s.
In 1959, Eddie met songwriter Sharon Sheeley, whom he asked to write a song with him and their collaboration produced the single "Somethin' Else", which Liberty released in September 1959. In early 1960, Eddie toured England for several weeks. Sharon joined Eddie on his tour which concluded with a concert in Bristol. The day after the concert, Eddie, Sharon and singer Gene Vincent were scheduled to return to the United States on an early morning flight. During the ride to Heathrow Airport, the Ford consul taxi they were riding in blew a tire and skidded into a lamp post off the road. Sharon was badly injured, Vincent suffered a broken leg and other broken ribs, while Eddie suffered severe head injuries and died several hours later at a local hospital on the afternoon of April 17, 1960 at age 21.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dominique Dunne was born in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Ellen Beatriz Griffin Dunne and Dominick Dunne, a producer, actor, and writer. Actor Griffin Dunne is her brother. After her parents' divorce, she moved first to New York, and then to Beverly Hills. Upon graduation from high school, Dominique went to the University of Colorado to study acting, leaving after one year to pursue her career. Three weeks after arriving in Hollywood, she landed her first gig. Other roles soon followed, notably her role as Dana Freeling, the eldest daughter in Poltergeist (1982), and Dominique was soon well known in the Hollywood social scene. Well-liked by all who knew her, Dominique seemed to be at the top of the world. Then, at a party, she met John Thomas Sweeney, the chef at popular LA nightspot "Ma Maison." The two began a relationship, which turned stormy. Sweeney was uncontrollable and abusive (so abusive that Dominique did not need makeup to play the role of an abuse victim on Hill Street Blues (1981)). Dominique ended the relationship on October 30, 1982. That same night, a distraught Sweeney raced to her house, where she and actor David Packer were rehearsing a scene from V (1983), dragged her outside, and strangled her, leaving her brain-dead. Five days later, she was removed from life support and died, cutting short a brilliant career and leaving behind scores of shocked and angry loved ones.- Actor
- Stunts
Despite being one of the smallest actors in Hollywood at 37 inches, Josh proved quality early on in life. By creating and distributing his own business cards before he was even a teenager, Josh landed a spot on "The Dancing Baby" ice cream commercial, which led to his role in Baby Geniuses (1999), where he played all the babies and did all the dancing. His co-star in that, Peter MacNicol, introduced him to David E. Kelley, who cast him as recurring guest Oren Koolie on Ally McBeal (1997), a child lawyer who gives Ally a hard time. His role on Passions (1999) was his first contract role in a TV series. He also appeared in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) with Jim Carrey.
His mother added recently: "Perhaps he didn't live many years but he lived a life that was filled with big dreams most of which he lived as a reality rather than only dreaming about. He said the only dream that can't come true is one that no one dares to dream, other than that every dream is possible. I hope that Josh will always be remembered not because he died but because he really lived a life filled with love and laughter and lots and lots of dreams. He made the most out of what he had, he was larger than life and we should all be as wise as the little guy with the big dreams."- Composer
- Soundtrack
Bobby Fuller was born on 27 October 1942 in Baytown, Texas, USA. He was a composer, known for Boys Don't Cry (1999), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Dead Beat (1994). He died on 18 July 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Matthew Garber was a British child actor. Both of his parents were theatrical actors, but neither was particularly famous.
In 1963, Garber came to the attention of actor Roy Dotrice (father of Karen Dotrice) who was seeking potential child actors. Roy recommended Garber to the casting department of the Disney company, where young Garber's "artful dodges, like squinting, screwing up his nose, and brushing his hair back with one hand" were thought likely to make him stand out. He was cast in the film "The Three Lives of Thomasina" (1963), as the character Geordie McNab, a playmate to the Scottish girl Mary MacDhui (played by Karen Dotrice).
Garber next received a bigger role as the character Michael Banks in "Mary Poppins" (1964), one of the two charges of the protagonist nanny. Jane Banks, Michael's sister, was played by Karen Dotrice. The film was the greatest hit of Garber's career and is the role for which he is most remembered.
In 1967, Garber had his third and last film role, as the character Rodney Winthrop in "The Gnome-Mobile". In the film, Rodney and his sister Elizabeth Winthrop (played by Karen Dotrice) are trying to prolong the life of a 943-year-old gnome, who has lost the will to survive.
Following his brief film career, Garber returned to his school studies. He attended first St Paul's Primary School in Winchmore Hill, and then Highgate School in Highgate, North London. He graduated in 1972.
In 1976-1977, Garber was in India and contracted hepatitis. He returned to London in June 1977, seeking better medical treatment. It was too late as the disease had infected his pancreas. He died soon after, the official cause being hemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis. He was only 21-years-old. He was single and had no known children.
Garber's remains were cremated at St. Marylebone Crematorium, in East Finchley, London. Both of his parents died within a decade following his death. Fergus Garber, a surviving younger brother of Matthew, was never informed whether there was any memorial erected for his brother. Garber was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 2004.- In the early 1980s, this ruggedly handsome young American actor of Norwegian parentage was seen as the "next big thing", and then suddenly he was dead from an accident via a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The son of Thorleif Hexum (born in Norway) and Gretha Paulsen (born in Minnesota), Jon-Erik Hexum was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, where he was a musically gifted student at school playing both the horn and the violin in the school orchestra, and even the piano at home. He then attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, before transferring across to Michigan State University studying bio-medical engineering and then switching over to philosophy. At MSU, Hexum played football, and DJ'd at several local radio stations under the name of "Yukon Jack", before being discovered by John Travolta's manager, Bob LeMond.
He reportedly turned down opportunities to appear in such shows as The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) and CHiPs (1977) and many day time soap operas before finally making his debut in the TV series Voyagers! (1982) as time traveler Phineas Bogg. He was then cast as hunk Tyler Burnett alongside Joan Collins in Making of a Male Model (1983), and then as ex-Green Beret Mac Harper in Cover Up (1984).
However, on October 12, 1984 after a long and draining day's shooting on the set of Golden Opportunity (1984), Hexum became bored with the extensive delays and jokingly put a prop .44 magnum revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, and the wadding from the blank cartridge shattered his skull, whereupon the mortally injured Hexum was rushed via ambulance to Beverly Hills Medical Center to undergo extensive surgery. Despite five hours of work, the chief surgeon, Dr. David Ditsworth, described the damage to Hexum's brain as life-ending. One week later, on October 18th, he was taken off life support and pronounced dead. However, Hexum's commitment to organ donation meant five other lives were assisted or saved with organs harvested from him. He was 26 years old. - Actor
- Music Department
- Director
Shannon Hoon was born on 26 September 1967 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Without a Paddle (2004), Private Parts (1997) and Remember the Daze (2007). He was married to Lisa Crouse. He died on 21 October 1995 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.- Anissa Jones was an American child actress of Lebanese descent. She is primarily remembered for the role of the orphan girl Buffy Davis in the hit sitcom "Family Affair" (1966-1971). The series lasted for 5 seasons and 138 episodes. Jones' career rapidly declined following the end of the sitcom. She died due to "combined drug intoxication" when only 18-years-old.
In 1958, Jones was born in West Lafayette, Indiana. West Lafayette is a college town, primarily known as the home of Purdue University. Jones' father was the engineer John Paul Jones, who was at that time a faculty board member at Purdue University. Jones' mother was Mary Paula Tweel, a Lebanese-American zoology student.
Jones spend the first few years of her life in Charleston, West Virginia, where her family had settled. Around 1963, the Jones family moved to Playa Del Rey, California. Her father had accepted a job in aerospace engineering in California, and was eager to relocate to the West Coast. The marriage of Jones's parents soon deteriorated, and they were already divorced by 1965.
In 1964, Jones made her debut at television commercials. She was only 6-years-old at the time. She begun pursuing acting roles in 1965. She had her big break in 1966, when cast in a co-starring role in the new sitcom "Family Affair". She was 8-years-old at the time, but she was cast in the role of a 6-year-old. Jones was unusually short for her age, and she reportedly looked younger than her actual age.
Jones soon became a popular child actress, and she made several guest appearances in other television series. She served as a guest host in the variety show "The Hollywood Palace",. She was also interviewed in the talk shows "The Mike Douglas Show" and "The Merv Griffin Show". She made her film debut in 1969, with a small part in the drama film "The Trouble with Girls". The film's main star was Elvis Presley, in one of his last acting roles. The film depicted the murder of a pharmacist in Iowa, and the efforts of a band manager to profit from the crime.
"Family Affair" ended in 1971, leaving Jones without a regular role for the first time in her acting career. Despite auditioning for various roles over the following years, she was nearly always rejected. Her acting career ended at the age of 12. In 1976, Jones was still living in California and had a regular boyfriend.
On August 27, 1976, Jones went partying with her friends in the beach town of Oceanside, California. The following day, Jones was found dead at the home of Helen Hennessy, a close friend. An autopsy revealed that she had consumed a combination of cocaine, PCP, Quaalude, and Seconal. A small vial of blue liquid was found next to her corpse, but the police could not determine what it was. Jones was given a small, private funeral service. Her remains were cremated, and her ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
Following Jones' death, Dr. Don Carlos Moshos was arrested for illegally prescribing Seconal to Jones. Moshos died in late December 1976, while still awaiting his trial. In 1979, a court decision forced Moshos' estate to make compensations payments to Jones' surviving relatives. Jones' last surviving relative (her mother) died in January 2012. Jones is long gone, but is still fondly remembered for her sitcom role. - Gia Carangi was born on 29 January 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Blondie: Atomic (1980). She died on 18 November 1986 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Dorothy Stratten's story was brief, glorious and tragic. She was born Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten on February 28, 1960 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She grew up in a rough neighborhood in Vancouver, but kept out of trouble and went through the motions of school. While not a beauty as a child, nor early teen, Stratten came into her own out of high school and attracted the attention of Paul Snider, a promoter and wannabe star. He started dating her and after seeing an advertisement for Playboy's 25th Anniversary Playmate search in 1978, convinced her to pose for photos. Playboy saw the potential in Stratten and flew her out to Los Angeles, California, where she became a candidate. Although she lost out to Candy Loving, Stratten was made a Playmate in the August 1979 issue of Playboy. Soon after, she was pressured into marrying Snider, who had a Svengali-like influence on her.
After her centerfold came out, Stratten found work in a few movies, notably Americathon (1979) and Skatetown U.S.A. (1979), as well as being the object of Richard Dawson's affection in an ABC-TV special shot at the Playboy mansion. Clearly, her star was on the rise. In 1980, it was revealed that Stratten would be tabbed as the Playmate of the Year by Playboy publisher and founder Hugh Hefner. While this was one of the crowning achievements of her career, things were not going well in her marriage to Snider. He bothered her on the set of the movie Galaxina (1980) and when Snider found out she was developing more than a friendly relationship with director Peter Bogdanovich, Snider grew increasingly frustrated.
After a separation, Snider bought a shotgun and talked Stratten into coming to the apartment they used to share in West Los Angeles. Snider tied her up, sexually assaulted her and put the shotgun next to her face and pulled the trigger. Snider then turned the shotgun on himself to complete the murder-suicide. Since her death, Stratten has become something of a minor cult fixture, and has had two (one a television) movies, a song, and a couple of books written about her. The last movie she was in, They All Laughed (1981), was released after her death. - Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Frankie Lymon was born on 30 September 1942 in Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for American Graffiti (1973), October Sky (1999) and The Big Fix (1978). He was married to Emira Lymon, Zola Taylor and Elizabeth Waters. He died on 28 February 1968 in New York City, New York, USA.- Ryan White was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1971. A hemophiliac, Ryan regularly needed injections of blood products to survive. In 1985 at the age of 13, it was discovered that Ryan contracted the AIDS virus, sometime during the previous year, from tainted blood. His case got national attention when his school expelled him when they learned about his disease. Not wanting to lie down and die that easily, Ryan and his parents took the school to court, where they won the right for him to return to class. As a result of Ryan's courage and outspokenness to take on his own school board, be became one of the USA's most visible spokesperson on the AIDS crisis. During 1985-1989, he appeared at schools and AIDS fundraisers throughout the country and gave moving testimony before the President's Commission on AIDS. He was befriended by many celebrities, including Michael Jackson, Elton John, Phil Donahue and Elizabeth Taylor, AIDS activists themselves. Despite overwhelming international attention, Ryan never lost his sense of priorities with his schoolwork or life in general. AIDS finally claimed Ryan's life on April 8, 1990 at the age of 18.
- Freddie Prinze was born Frederick Karl Pruetzel in New York City, New York, to a Puerto Rican mother, Aurea Elena Ruiz, and a German immigrant father, Edward Karl Pruetzel. Freddie grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City. As a chubby child, he was often bullied, but was quite creative and bright in his extracurricular activities (he was known to have handmade a ham radio, which he used regularly). Early on, he aspired to become famous, and, after enrolling at Fiorella LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts, he obtained a job at the Improv Club, in New York, where people started to take notice of his comedic talent (but the long hours he worked at night, balanced by increasing absences in school, caused him to drop out of high school to pursue comedy full-time). He changed his name to Freddie Prinze (to indicate that he was "The Prince of Comedy"). In December 1973, he was invited to perform on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson", which proved to be a breakthrough performance, as he was invited to chat with Johnny after his performance (only two other comedians have enjoyed that privilege). Soon afterwards, he won the role of "Chico Rodriquez" in an NBC-produced TV series called Chico and the Man (1974)(he and co-star Jack Albertson forged a great friendship while working on the show). In 1975, he released a comedy album, titled "Looking Good", and further boosted his popularity with appearances on various TV shows (such as the "Tony Orlando & Dawn" show). In Las Vegas in August 1975, he married Katherine Cochran, with whom he had a son, Freddie Prinze, Jr. (born on March 8, 1976 in Albuquerque, New Mexico). He loved his role as a father, and his growing popularity. But all the fame had a downside to it: Freddie developed an addiction to drugs (namely Quaaludes and cocaine), and was subsequently arrested in Nov. 1976 for DUI. His marriage was dissolving, and he separated from his wife. He started to mention thoughts of suicide to many of his close friends and family including his friends singer Tony Orlando and comedian David Brenner. In January 1977, following his final public appearance at the Inaugural Ball for President Jimmy Carter, 22-year-old Freddie called his mother, friends and manager and announced that he was committing suicide. While his manager tried to stop him, he placed a .32 caliber pistol against his temple and pulled the trigger.He was rushed to UCLA Medical Center with a massive head wound. He was kept on life support until January 29, 1977, when his family decided to turn off the life support.
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- Composer
Otis Redding was born on 9 September 1941 in Dawson, Georgia, USA. He was a music artist and composer, known for Top Gun (1986), Hamburger Hill (1987) and Road House (1989). He was married to Zelma Redding. He died on 10 December 1967 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.- Her father was a trumpeter with bands such as Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman, and her mother was a former Ziegfeld Follies dancer. Judy studied ballet, music, and acting, won a "Miss Stardust" beauty contest in 1949, danced with the Copacabana chorus line. and was making bit appearances on television while still in high school. At age 17, she landed the part of Princess Summerfall Winterspring on the The Howdy Doody Show (1947) children's TV show, where she stayed for two years before resigning. She returned to stage work and was "rediscovered" in a play in 1956, "Pipe Dream", which landed her on the cover of "Life" magazine. She made two films, the last as Elvis Presley's co-star, Jailhouse Rock (1957). Three days after shooting completed, she and her second husband were driving home from Los Angeles to New York when he swerved to avoid hitting a truck and collided with another vehicle; she was dead at the scene, and he died the following morning of the injuries he sustained. Buried in Hartsdale, New York. No children by either marriage.
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- Producer
Brad Renfro was born on July 25, 1982 in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Angela Denise McCrory and Mark Renfro, a factory worker. He was discovered at age 10 by director Joel Schumacher and was cast in the motion picture The Client (1994), which starred Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. Although this would be his zenith, he went on to appear in other films, including The Cure (1995), Tom and Huck (1995), Sleepers (1996), and Apt Pupil (1998). Renfro won The Hollywood Reporter's Young Star Award in 1995 and was nominated as one of People magazine's "Top 30 Under 30," though addiction problems in his teens and early 20s led to several police arrests and hampered his career. He died of a drug overdose in January 2008, aged 25.- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Randy Rhoads was born on 6 December 1956 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He was a writer, known for Ghost Rider (2007), Megamind (2010) and Tag (2018). He died on 19 March 1982 in Leesburg, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Born on September 30, 1947 in London, England, Mark Bolan was always destined to be a star. Even as a teenager, he was already seeking fame. Well known as a sharp dresser, he was employed by a modeling agency and became a "John Temple Boy", wearing John Temple suits in their catalogs as well as becoming a cardboard cutout displayed in their shop windows. Many initial attempts to get into the music business failed, and so he turned to acting, landing several character roles in some television series including a juvenile delinquent on the Sam Kydd series Orlando (1965). His first recording, "The Wizard", was released in 1965 and resulted in an appearance on the music show Ready, Steady, Go! (1963). He briefly became a member of the 1960s group John's Children before forming his own group, Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The group's first single was "Debora", also a track on the album "My People Were Fair", released in July 1968. Although not a hit the first time around, on its re-release in 1972, when Bolan was at his peak, "Debora" made the UK top 10. In July 1969, the group dropped its folksy, hippie sound to go electric with the single "King of the Rumbling Spires". Unfortunately, like his other singles, it failed to take off, only reaching #44. The group shortened its name to T. Rex and finally broke through with the single "Ride a White Swan" in 1970. This opened the door to a whole series of hit singles, including "Bang a Gong, Get It On"--on which Elton John played keyboards--which reached the US top 10 in 1971, as well a series of highly acclaimed albums.
At the height of his popularity, Bolan had a string of #1 hit singles in the United Kingdom and became a teen idol as well as a leader of the glam rock movement. He appeared in Ringo Starr's movie Born to Boogie (1972), a documentary showing a concert at Wembley Empire Pool. However by 1975, on account of the rise of 1970s soul music, Bolan's career was in decline, at least sales-wise. As a leading figure of the punk rock movement in the United Kingdom, he provided a forum for new acts to appear on television via his own music program. Just when he was on the rebound, Marc Bolan cruelly died in a car crash on September 16, 1977, two weeks before his 30th birthday.- Actress
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Ranked #19 in AVN's Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time. Raised in Texas and throughout Southern California. Was porn star Jeanna Fine's girlfriend. She is one of the most notorious, controversial porn stars of all time.- Actress
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Rebecca began modeling at the age of 16, going off to New York on her own to begin her career. Four months later, she found herself in Japan, modeling. Eventually, she landed a co-starring role on My Sister Sam (1986), for which she is now best known. In 1989 she also became a spokesperson for Thursday's Child, a charity for at-risk teens.
In April of that same year, having missed a signing due to filming, she reluctantly went to a girls' shelter to sign autographs. "No one will recognize me", she insisted, "or want my autograph," but as it turned out all of them did. In fact, the girls were so in awe that they invited her to the Renaissance Fair in May; Rebecca accepted.
Only two months later, she lay dead on the pavement in front of her new apartment in West Hollywood, having been shot to death by a paranoid schizophrenic fan around her age, Robert John Bardo, who came to her apartment asking for an autograph. She obliged, even though she was busy rehearsing in her apartment for the most important role of her short career. He later said he felt rejected by her because she didn't spend more time with him at her door.
He returned a few minutes later, pressed the buzzer, and when she again opened the door for him, he shot her once in the chest, placing the bullet directly into her heart. Rebecca screamed out, "Why?" then fell backward in the doorway, and was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai hospital within minutes of arriving there by ambulance after the shooting.
The killer fled to Tucson, AZ, and the next morning the previously diagnosed "psychiatric patient" was found walking blindly, appearing to be hoping to be hit and killed by a car or truck on a major highway. He was subsequently arrested, transferred back to Los Angeles, and plea-bargained for a life sentence without the possibility of parole, with a then-young assistant district attorney named Marcia Clark, who later became famous for her failed attempt to convict O.J. Simpson of murder. There was a trial by Judge that lasted a month, because the obsessed fan changed his mind about the plea bargain agreement, and pleaded an 'insanity defense'. He was found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.- Music Artist
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- Music Department
Selena was born in Lake Jackson, Texas, 50 miles southeast of Houston, to Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Marcella Quintanilla. Abraham opened a Mexican restaurant, Papagayo, in Lake Jackson. Selena was 9 years old when her father discovered her talent for singing. He formed a band consisting of Selena on vocals, her brother A.B. Quintanilla on bass, and her sister Suzette Quintanilla on drums. The group, called Los Dinos after a band Abraham was a member of in the 1950s and 1960s, frequently performed at the restaurant. In 1981, the family moved to Corpus Christi where Abraham started booking his band for weddings and parties. This became their way of life. Selena and Los Dinos' big break came in 1987, when 15-year-old Selena won the Tejano Music Award for Female Entertainer of the Year. That award led Selena to a major record-label contract with Capitol Records and six very successful albums. By 1992, Selena had branched out and launched her clothing line and married her guitarist, Chris Pérez. In 1994, she was nominated and won her first Grammy for Best Mexican-American album, "Selena Live!" That year, she opened her first boutique in Corpus Christi, Texas. On March 31, 1995, Selena was murdered by Yolanda Saldivar, her friend and president of her fan club.- Actor
- Soundtrack
David Strickland was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, on October 14, 1969. Raised in Princeton, New Jersey, he never thought about an acting career until moving to the LA suburb of Pacific Palisades while in high school. Instead of going to college, he joined a theater company and began performing comedy sketches that he wrote along with a friend. To gain some acting experience, Strickland also participated in 64 student films. His stage credits include Biloxi Bluesues, Bye Birdie, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Pizza Man, and I Won't Dance. He went on to earn guest-starring roles on Roseanne (1988) and Dave's World (1993), as well as recurring roles on Sister, Sister (1994) and Mad About You (1992) (as Paul Reiser's backstabbing co-worker at the Explorer Channel). When not acting, his pastimes included golf, making fruit smoothies, and playing "a mean game of paddle-tennis." He will best be remembered by TV fans for his co-starring role of Todd, the magazine's music critic, on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996) (which stars Brooke Shields). Recent movie achievements, before his untimely death, included a lead role in the independent film Delivered (1998) (a dark comedy directed by Guy Ferland) and the role of 'Steve' in the hit movie Forces of Nature (1999).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Thuy Trang was born on December 14th of 1973 in Saigon, Vietnam. After the fall of Saigon in 1975 to Communist forces, her father who had fought in the Vietnam War, traveled to the United States to seek political asylum. However, his entire family, unable to follow, were left behind.
In 1979, Thuy and her family boarded a cargo ship with other refugees to travel to the United States. However, first they sailed to a detention camp in Hong Kong.
The family was finally reunited in California in 1980.
Thuy graduated from Banning High School and earned a scholarship to study civil engineering at UC Irvine.
After her father died from cancer In 1992, Thuy got interested in acting and, in 1993, got her first big break when she landed the role of Trini Kwan on the hit TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993). In 1994, Thuy left the show to pursue other projects.
After appearing in a video documentary called the Encyclopedia of Martial Arts: Hollywood Celebrities (1995), as an interviewee, and a cameo as a manicurist in Spy Hard (1996), Thuy got her next large role as Kali in The Crow: City of Angels (1996), the sequel to The Crow (1994).
Tragically, on September 3rd 2001, Thuy was a passenger in a car traveling on the I-5, that lost control. She suffered fatal injuries.
She leaves behind only a small body of work but, through them, she made an impact on many.
Thuy Trang will be missed by many.- Composer
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- Soundtrack
Ronnie Van Zant was born on January 15, 1948 in Jacksonville, Florida. He was the oldest son of six children (3 sisters and 2 brothers - musicians Donnie and Johnny). Ronnie attended Lee High School in Jacksonville with fellow band members Gary Rossington and Allen Collins. They soon formed what would become Lynyrd Skynyrd. At the height of their fame, on October 20, 1977, their chartered plane crashed. Ronnie was killed along with band members Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie. His signature songs are "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama".- Music Artist
- Music Department
- Composer
Hank Williams was born in September 1923 in a small Alabama farming community about 70 miles south of Montgomery. His father was a railroad engineer who was also a victim of shell shock after a year of fighting in France in 1918 during World War I and spent many years in veterans hospitals. Hank's mother, Lillian Skipper Williams, played the organ in their local church and taught him gospel songs when he was six. When Hank turned 10 he taught himself to play the guitar, mostly by watching other guitarists.
In his teens Hank learned to play and sing country songs that he heard on the family radio, and picked up some blues chords from a black friend who was a street musician named Tee-Tot (Rufe Payne). At the age of 14 Hank put together his own band, playing at hoedowns and other get-together, where he won a local talent contest competition with his composition "WPA Blues." At 17, Hank put together a group called 'Hank Williams' Original Drifting Cowboys' and they successfully auditioned for the manager of WSFS Radio in Montgomery, where they played regularly on the air. Hank met his first wife Audrey Williams during a traveling medicine show and they were married in December 1944 at an Alabama gas station. Audrey was a strong-willed woman who became Hank's booking agent, road manager and promoter. It was she who encouraged the stage-frightened Hank to perform on stage and helped book gigs outside of Alabama.
In 1946 Hank and Audrey traveled to Nashville to secure a music publishing contract with producer Fred Rose, head of the Acuff-Rose publishing firm, who asked Hank to write a song on the spot. The song, "Mansion on the Hill", landed Hank a publishing contract with Acuff-Rose. During the late 1940s Hank--a tall, thin man who alway wore a short-brimmed, white cowboy hat--had his peak years when MGM Records signed him for a recording contract and he became a regular on "Louisiana Hayride", a KWKH radio show in Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1949, after the birth of Hank and Audrey's son Hank Williams Jr., Hank was asked to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where he made his stage debut on June 11, 1949.
From 1949 to 1950, Hank became country music's top artist, with hits like "Lovesick Blues," "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It," "Moanin' the Blues" and "Why Don't You Love Me." His 1951 hits included "Hey, Good Lookin'" "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)." Hits of 1952 were "Honky Tonk Blues," "Jambalaya," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."
However, Hank's unprecedented success came with a price. A heavy drinker since his late teens, Hank proved to be an undependable performer when be began showing up for concerts drunk, and sometimes didn't show up at all. When Audrey divorced him in 1951 due to their constant fights over his drinking, his band began to become disillusioned with him, too, and the Grand Ole Opry suspended him from appearing at live shows. In October 1952 Hank married his second wife, 19-year-old Billie Jean Jones, who was no more successful than Audrey in protecting Hank from himself. Also, the Drifting Cowboys departed that same month due to Hank's violent mood swings and unpredictability. He was still in demand for live performances, though.
On the early morning hours on New Year's Day 1953, while traveling through West Virginia on the way to a show in Canton, Ohio, Hank Williams died in his sleep in the back seat of his Cadillac limousine at the age of 29.- Soundtrack
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