Deaths: February 5

Born July 8, 1961, Toby Keith Covel was the second child of Joan and Hubert Keith ("H. K.") Covel. He was born in Clinton, Oklahoma, and grew up with his brother Tracy and sister Tonnie in Moore, Oklahoma. After graduating from Moore High School, he didn't go on to college, but went to work in the Oklahoma oil fields with his father. He later met and married Tricia Lucas, whose child, Shelley Reeve, he adopted. He later had two children with Tricia -- daughter Krystal (born 1985, married in 2011) and son Stelen (born in 1997).

When Krystal was born, the Oklahoma oil industry had collapsed; leaving Toby, Tricia, and their two daughters in financial troubles. Touring with his band, the Easy Money Band, he got them all out of debt. After signing a deal at Mercury Records, his debut album "Toby Keith", which contained his first chart topper, "Should've Been a Cowboy", finally established him as a professional singer-songwriter. He then left Mercury for a period of three years. Coming back in 1997, he released his final studio album for Mercury, "Dream Walkin".

A year after his first Greatest Hits compilation came out from Mercury, he and producer James Stroud, left the label. He then signed a deal with DreamWorks Records, headed by his producer. Since releasing his fifth album, "How Do You Like Me Now?!", and its title track (written by Toby and Chuck Cannon); the then-DreamWorks, now-Showdog Tunes-signed singer and BMI-affiliated songwriter saw success like never before.

That success can be measured with at least five more studio albums since "How Do You Like Me Now?", more #1 singles, Academy of Country Music Awards (including two "Entertainer of the Year" awards) and other kinds of awards, and another Greatest Hits compilation (including songs from albums "How Do You Like Me Now?", "Pull My Chain", and "Unleashed", and a cover of "Mockingbird" with his daughter Krystal, who released her debut album in December 2011). He opened his own record label, the aforementioned Showdog Tunes.

Tragically, Toby Keith died after a battle with cancer at age 62 on February 5, 2024 in his beloved native Oklahoma.

Songwriter ("Mr. Custer"), composer, conductor, pianist and arranger who after college, conducted and arranged for the USAF Band. He went on to be a night club pianist, and has made many records. Joining ASCAP in 1956, his other popular-song compositions include "Johnny Willow" and "Battle of Gettysburg".

Alan Scott was born on 13 October 1922 in Haddonfield, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Lola (1961) and Aux frontières du possible (1971). He died on 5 February 2021 in Guilford, Connecticut, USA.

Ana Caputo was born on 27 August 1927 in Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She died on 5 February 2018 in Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Anani Yavashev was a Bulgarian actor. Anani Vladimirov Yavashev was born on October 18, 1932 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. He graduated in "acting" in National Academy for Theatre and Film Art, Sofia, Bulgaria (1956). Since 1956 he had been an actor in Gabrovo Drama Theater and since 1958 at the Youth Theatre in Sofia. He played many roles in the Youth Theatre; the most memorable of them were performances of "Romeo and Juliet," "Richard III", "Kitchen." He was the grandson of archaeologist and botanist Anani Yavashev and brother of artist Christo Yavashev - Cristo. He was a member of the Union of Bulgarian Actors and the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers. Anani received the title "Honored Artist" (1986) and the Order "Cyril and Methodius."

Angélica Gorodischer was born on 28 July 1928 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was a writer, known for La cámara oscura (2008). She was married to Sujer Gorodischer. She died on 5 February 2022 in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina.

Bennie E. Dobbins was born on 16 November 1932 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for The Running Man (1987), First Blood (1982) and Commando (1985). He died on 5 February 1988 in Vienna, Austria.

Björn Granath was born on 5 April 1946 in Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden. He was an actor, known for Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and Evil (2003). He was married to Annmargret Fyregård. He died on 5 February 2017 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Buddy Cage was born on 18 February 1946 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He died on 4 February 2020.

Carlos Barisio was born on 3 January 1951 in San Fernando, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He died on 5 February 2020 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Legendary actor Christopher Plummer, perhaps Canada's greatest thespian, delivered outstanding performances as Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (1979), the chilling villain in The Silent Partner (1978), the iconoclastic Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999), the empathetic psychiatrist in A Beautiful Mind (2001), the kindly and clever mystery writer in Knives Out (2019), and as Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). It was this last role that finally brought him recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, when he was nominated as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, one of three Academy Award nominations he received in the 2010s, along with All the Money in the World (2017) (as J. Paul Getty) and Beginners (2010); he won for the latter role. He will also likely always be remembered as Captain Von Trapp in the atomic bomb-strength blockbuster The Sound of Music (1965), a film he publicly despised until softening his stance in his autobiography "In Spite of Me" (2008).

Christopher Plummer was born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer on December 13, 1929 in Toronto, Ontario. He was the only child of Isabella Mary (Abbott), a secretary to the Dean of Sciences at McGill University, and John Orme Plummer, who sold securities and stocks. Christopher was a great-grandson of John Abbott, who was Canada's third Prime Minister (from 1891 to 1892), and a great-great-great-grandson of Presbyterian clergyman John Bethune. He had Scottish, English, Anglo-Irish, and Cornish ancestry. Plummer was raised in Senneville, Quebec, near Montreal, at his maternal grandparents' home.

Aside from the youngest member of the Barrymore siblings (which counted Oscar-winners Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore in their number), Plummer was the premier Shakespearean actor to come out of North America in the 20th century. He was particularly memorable as Hamlet, Iago and Lear, though his Macbeth opposite Glenda Jackson was -- and this was no surprise to him due to the famous curse attached to the "Scottish Play" -- a failure.

Like another great stage actor, Richard Burton, early in his career Plummer failed to connect with the screen in a way that would make him a star. Dynamic on stage, he didn't succeed as a younger leading man in films. Perhaps if he had been born earlier, and acted in the studio system of Hollywood's golden age, he could have been carefully groomed for stardom. As it was, he shared the English stage actors' disdain -- and he was equally at home in London as he was on the boards of Broadway or on-stage in his native Canada -- for the movies, which did not help him in that medium, as he has confessed. As he aged, Plummer excelled at character roles. He was always a good villain, this man who garnered kudos playing Lucifer on Broadway in Archibald Macleish's Pulitzer Prize-winning "J.B.".

Plummer won two Emmy Awards out of seven nominations stretching 46 years from 1959 and 2011, and one Genie Award in six nominations from 1980 to 2009. For his stage work, Plummer has racked up two Tony Awards on six nominations, the first in 1974 as Best Actor (Musical) for the title role in "Cyrano" and the second in 1997, as Best Actor (Play), in "Barrymore". Surprisingly, he did not win (though he was nominated) for his masterful 2004 performance of "King Lear", which he originated at the Stratford Festival in Ontario and brought down to Broadway for a sold-out run. His other Tony nominations show the wide range of his talent, from a 1959 nod for the Elia Kazan-directed production of Macleish's "J.B." to recognition in 1994 for Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land", with a 1982 Best Actor (Play) nomination for his "Iago" in William Shakespeare's "Othello".

Until the 2009 Academy Awards were announced, it could be said about Plummer that he was the finest actor of the post-World War II period to fail to get an Academy Award. In that, he was following in the footsteps of the late great John Barrymore, whom Plummer so memorably portrayed on Broadway in a one-man show that brought him his second Tony Award. In 2010, Plummer finally got an Oscar nod for his portrayal of another legend, Lev Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). Two years later, the first paragraph of his obituary was written when the 82-year-old Plummer became the oldest person in Academy history to win an Oscar. He won for playing a senior citizen who comes out as gay after the death of his wife in the movie Beginners (2010). As he clutched his statuette, the debonaire thespian addressed it thus: "You're only two years older than me darling, where have you been all of my life?"

Plummer then told the audience that at birth, "I was already rehearsing my Academy acceptance speech, but it was so long ago mercifully for you I've forgotten it." The Academy Award was a long time in coming and richly deserved.

Plummer gave many other fine portrayals on film, particularly as he grew older and settled down into a comfortable marriage with his third wife Elaine. He continued to be an in-demand character actor in prestigious motion pictures. If he were English rather than Canadian, he would have been knighted. (In 1968, he was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor and one which required the approval of the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II.) If he lived in the company town of Los Angeles rather than in Connecticut, he likely would have several more Oscar nominations before winning his first for "The Last Station".

As it is, as attested to in his witty and well-written autobiography, Plummer was amply rewarded in life. In 1970, Plummer - then a self-confessed 43-year-old "bottle baby" - married his third wife Elaine Taylor, a dancer, who helped wean him off his dependency on alcohol. They lived happily with their dogs on a 30-acre estate in Weston, Connecticut. He thanked her from the stage during the 2012 Oscar telecast, quipping that she "deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day of my life." Although he spent the majority of his time in the United States, he remained a Canadian citizen. He died in his Weston, Connecticut home on February 5, 2021 at age 91.

His daughter, with actress Tammy Grimes, is actress Amanda Plummer.

Conrad Hilton Jr. was born on 6 July 1926 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was married to Patricia McClintock and Elizabeth Taylor. He died on 5 February 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Dana Vávrová was born on 9 August 1967 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress and director, known for Herbstmilch (1989), Der letzte Zug (2006) and Amadeus (1984). She was married to Joseph Vilsmaier. She died on 5 February 2009 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

David Axelrod was born on 17 April 1931 in Los Angeles, California, USA. David was a composer and director, known for Revolver (2005), Kangaroo Jack (2003) and Cannonball! (1976). David died on 5 February 2017 in Burbank, California, USA.

Dean Jagger was born in Lima, Ohio, on November 7, 1903. He dropped out of high school twice before finally graduating from Wabash College. Working first as a school teacher, he soon became interested in acting and enrolled at Chicago's "Lyceum Art Conservatory". Mr. Jagger made his first movie and only silent film, The Woman from Hell (1929) in 1929, starring Mary Astor. During 1929 he also appeared in the film Handcuffed (1929). He quickly found his niche as a character actor and the highlight of his career was winning an Oscar for "Best Supporting Actor," in the 1949 movie Twelve O'Clock High (1949). Dean played Principal Albert Vane on TV for the 1963-1964 season of Mr. Novak (1963). Dean Jagger died in Santa Monica, California, on February 5, 1991.

Diane Cailhier was born in 1947 in Valleyfield, Québec, Canada. She was a writer and director, known for Une vie comme rivière (1996), Le survenant (2005) and Lac Mystère (2013). She was married to Alain Chartrand. She died on 5 February 2020 in Canada.

Dirk Rambo was born on 13 November 1941 in Delano, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The New Loretta Young Show (1962), Dragnet 1967 (1967) and The Virginian (1962). He died on 5 February 1967 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Doc Thompson was born on 6 May 1969 in Painesville, Ohio, USA. He was a director, known for The 1st Annual Snowflake Awards (2017). He died on 5 February 2019 in Haltom City, Texas, USA.

Better known for her scandalous private life than for her mild film input, the story goes that blonde, extremely well-endowed Dolores Moran was checked out at an annual Sacramento Elks Lodge picnic in 1941 by a Warner Brothers talent scout in the early 40s and a starlet was born.

Born in Stockton, California in 1926, this bombshell looker, a one-time drive-in car hop, had started collecting beauty titles as a teen ("Queen of the Butte County Fair") by the time the major studio took notice of her and signed her up. The studio immediately promoted the darker-haired-now-platinum blonde as a WWII pin-up and her cover-girl appearances on magazines became a favorite with GI soldiers. Beginning in 1942, she would start out as set decoration (including Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)) and would typically be utilized in small, decorative film parts. She achieved a bit of distinction, or perhaps distraction, in a couple of larger roles -- Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins' tearjerker Old Acquaintance (1943), Bogie and Bacall's To Have and Have Not (1944), and Jack Benny's The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945).

Moran's reputation of having affairs with married film heavyweights had already preceded her by the time the 22-year-old began dating 42-year-old producer Benedict Bogeaus, who was married to starlet Mimi Forsythe at the time. Bogeaus divorced his wife and married Moran in late 1946. Two years later Dolores bore him a son. Sadly, in 1952, Bogeaus' former wife committed suicide.

Secondary roles followed for Moran with Too Young to Know (1945) and the film noir The Man I Love (1946). Dolores first worked with her producer/husband in the film Christmas Eve (1947). Her film career sagged after that as her Svengali-like husband insisted she appear strictly in his pictures from Johnny One-Eye (1950) and Count the Hours! (1953) to her last role as a burlesque queen in Silver Lode (1954), often giving her roles that showed off her "bad girl" image. In between she appeared on TV: "Dangerous Assignment," "My Hero" and Mr. & Mrs. North".

The turbulent marriage of Dolores and Benedict finally came to an end in 1962. Moran decided to lay low after this and, as such, little was heard about her until newspapers reported her death from cancer at age 56 in 1982.

Donald Peterman was born on 3 January 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Flashdance (1983) and Men in Black (1997). He was married to Sally. He died on 5 February 2011 in Palos Verdes Estates, California, USA.

Douglas Osborne McClure was born on May 11, 1935 in Glendale, California. Educated at UCLA, this blond leading man long made a career of apparent agelessness. He played one young sidekick after another through numerous movies and one television series after another, playing 20ish roles into his late 40s. Although he made more than 500 appearances in his career (counting television episodes separately), he is undoubtedly best remembered as Trampas in the series The Virginian (1962) and Backtrack! (1969). McClure was fighting cancer the last couple of years before his death; despite this, he continued working, appearing in Maverick (1994) as one of the gamblers, as well as in Riders in the Storm (1995) and episodes of Burke's Law (1994) and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993) which did not appear until after his death. Doug McClure died at age 59 of lung cancer on February 5, 1995.

Edith Bouvier Beale was born on 5 October 1895 in Nutley, New Jersey, USA. She was married to Phelan Beale. She died on 5 February 1977 in Southampton, New York, USA.

Educated at the Universities of Prague and Stuttgart, Emeric Pressburger worked as a journalist in Hungary and Germany and an author and scriptwriter in Berlin and Paris. He was a Hungarian Jew, chased around Europe (he worked on films for UFA in Berlin and Paris) before World War II, finally finding sanctuary in London--but as a scriptwriter who didn't speak English. So he taught himself to understand not only the finer nuances of the language but also of the British people. A few lucky breaks and introductions via old friends led to his meeting with "renegade" director Michael Powell. They then went on to make some of the most interesting (IMHO) and complex films of the 1940s and 1950s under the banner of "The Archers". Pressburger often showed a deep understanding of the British only granted to those "outside, looking in". He always prided himself on being "more English than the English". After all, some of us were just BORN English, but he CHOSE to become English. He spent his last days at Shoemakers Cottage, Aspall, Stowmarket, Suffolk in the English countryside that he loved so well.

F.X. Feeney was born on 1 September 1953 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Big Brass Ring (1999), Masters of Disaster and Harris Kubrick. He died on 5 February 2020 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Franklin Cover was born on 20 November 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Wall Street (1987), Almost Heroes (1998) and The Stepford Wives (1975). He was married to Mary Bradford Stone. He died on 5 February 2006 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.