V.C. Andrews (1923 - 1986)

Author. Her works included “Flowers in the Attic.”  Family links:  Parents:  William Henry Andrews (1894 – 1957)  Lillian Lilnora Parker Andrews (1902 – 1993)Cause of death: breast cancer Inscription:DaughterAuthor

Vaclav Havel (1936 - 2011)

Vaclav Havel Václav Havel (Czech pronunciation: [ˈvaːt͡slav ˈɦavɛl] ( listen); 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech writer, philosopher, dissident, and statesman. From 1989 to 1993, he served as the first democratically elected president of Czechoslovakia in 41 years. He then served as the first president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003) after […]

Val Avery (1924 - 2009)

Avery was born in Philadelphia. In his early years he acted in plays with the Armenian Youth Federation. Following his service in World War II, he attended the Bessie V. Hicks School of Drama in Philadelphia. Avery’s pock-marked face and shifty appearance allowed him to frequently be cast as a gangster, or other menacing heavies. Avery’s […]

Val Dufour (1927 - 2000)

Val Dufour Val Dufour, an Emmy Award-winning star of television soap operas, died on July 27 in Manhattan, where he lived. He was 73. Mr. Dufour won an Emmy Award as outstanding actor in a daytime drama series in the 1976-77 season for playing John Wyatt, a lawyer, on ”Search for Tomorrow.” He made his […]

Val Lewton (1904 - 1951)

Lewton was born Vladimir Ivanovich Leventon (Russian: Владимир Иванович Левентон, Ukrainian: Володимир Іванович Левентон) in Yalta, Imperial Russia (now in Ukraine), in 1904. He was of Jewish descent, the son of moneylender Max Hofschneider and Nina Leventon, a pharmacist’s daughter. The family converted to Christianity. He was nephew of actress Alla Nazimova. His mother left his […]

Val Puccio (1965 - 2011)

Val Puccio Was a professional wrestler. Trained by Johnny Rodz, Puccio began his wrestling career in 1989 and worked for various northeast U.S. independent promotions for virtually his entire career. He frequently teamed with his brother, Tony. They originally called themselves The Undertakers, before changing their team name in the early 1990s to Double Trouble, […]

Valda Valkyrien (1895 - 1956)

Actress, Ballet Dancer. Born in Iceland, she became the prima ballerina dancer of the Royal Danish Ballet in Denmark. While there she appeared in a number of Danish silent motion pictures, including 1912’s “Vanquished”, which saw a release and a measure of acclaim in the United States. She came over to America in 1914, and […]

Valentin Bondarenko (1937 - 1961)

Valentin Bondarenko was born in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. His father was sent to the Eastern Front in the first days of World War II. The youngster and his mother went through several years of hardship during the war. From an early age, Bondarenko was fascinated by aviation heroes and dreamed of becoming a military […]

Valentin Foulquier (1970 - 1970)

Painter and engraver.

Valentina Zimina (1899 - 1928)

Actress. Born in Russia, during the Russian Civil War she escaped the country and came to Hollywood in 1923. She became a popular figure of the silent film era romantic melodramas making her debut in “A Son Of His Father” (1925). Her other credits included “Rose Of The Tenements” (1926), “La Boheme” (1926), “The Woman […]

Valentine Blatz (1826 - 1894)

Businessman, Beer Magnate. Valentin Blatz, born to Casper Blatz, a brewer, in Miltenberg am Main, Bavaria, Germany, attended municipal schools until age 14 when he began an apprenticeship in his father’s brewery. He began in 1844, to acquire additional experience at breweries in Augusburg, Wurzburg and Munich until 1848 when he emigrated from Bavaria to […]

Valeria Moriconi (1931 - 2005)

Italian Stage and Screen Actress. Her real name was Valeria Abbruzzetti. She began her career on stage, but she soon triumphed in cinema with films such as “Gli Italiani si voltano” and “La Spiaggia.”  She was elected Great Master of Republic. On Stage, she was considered a Great Lady of the scene. Other of her […]

Valeriano Andrés (1922 - 2005)

Spanish Stage, Television and Screen Actor. He was born and died in Madrid. He was a pioneer in his work on television, and obtained big success on stage with plays such as “El Brigadier” and “El Alcalde de Zalamea.” On screen he is remembered in “Jeromín” (1953), “Esa Voz es una Mina” (1956), “Historias de […]

Valerie Benguigui (1965 - 2013)

Cesar Award-Winning Actress. A prolific star of the French big and small screens, she was honored with her country’s equivalent of the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for 2012’s “Le Prenom”. Raised in Paris, she was drawn to show business early, studied at the Cours Flourent, and trained at the distinguished National Chaillot Theatre School […]

Valerie French (1928 - 1990)

Born Valerie Harrison in London, she spent her early childhood in Spain, but returned to England to become a student at Malvern Girls’ College. After graduating, she joined the BBC drama department, working in television production before deciding to become an actress, joining the Theatre Royal Repertory Company. She moved into film acting in her […]

Valerie Harper (1939 - 2019)

Valerie Harper, who played one of TV’s most popular and enduring characters — the constantly dating, constantly dieting Rhoda Morgenstern — for nearly a decade starting in 1970, has died, PEOPLE confirms. She was 80. Harper’s daughter Cristina Harper Cacciotti spoke out about her mother’s death on behalf of her father Tony Cacciotti on Twitter […]

Valerie Hobson (1917 - 1998)

In 1935, still in her teens, Valerie Hobson appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive. She played opposite Henry Hull that same year in Werewolf of London, the first Hollywood werewolf film. The latter half of the 1940s saw Valerie Hobson in perhaps her two most memorable roles: […]

Valérie Quennessen (1957 - 1989)

French Actress. She dedicated much of her childhood to pursuing her dream of becoming an acrobat. She quickly reached a level of competence and received an award for her expertise at the age of ten. By her teens, she had given up acrobatics and enrolled in acting classes, not because she particularly wanted to get […]

Valérie Quennessen (1957 - 1989)

French Actress. She dedicated much of her childhood to pursuing her dream of becoming an acrobat. She quickly reached a level of competence and received an award for her expertise at the age of ten. By her teens, she had given up acrobatics and enrolled in acting classes, not because she particularly wanted to get […]

Valery Bryusov (1873 - 1924)

Author. A leader of the Russian Symbolist movement. Although active mainly as a poet, Valery Bryusov is probably best known today for his historical novel “The Fiery Angel” (1908). Set during the Spanish Inquisition, this gloomy,  sexually-charged book had its origins in a real-life love triangle between Bryusov,  poet Nina Petrovskaya,  and Andrei Bely,  the […]

Valeska Suratt (1882 - 1962)

She moved from Terre Haute, Indiana to New York City in 1905 hoping to make it big as an actress. It is said that in 1906 she was walking down a hotel staircase one evening wearing a backless gown. Producer Edward Edelston saw this ‘beauty’ and cast her as a Gibson Girl in ‘The Belle […]

Valli Valli (1882 - 1927)

Valli was educated in London and Paris. As a twelve-year-old, she made her first stage appearance in Gentle Ivy (1894) at Terry’s Theatre in London. She demonstrated her theatrical skill in Berlin in 1895 with a successful run in the musical comedy Morocco Bound. She returned to London’s Drury Lane Theatre, performing the role of […]

Van Cliburn (1934 - 2013)

Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the son of Rildia Bee (née O’Bryan) and Harvey Lavan Cliburn, Sr. At age three, he began taking piano lessons from his mother, who had studied under Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt. When Cliburn was six, his father, who worked in the oil industry, moved the family […]

Van Heflin (1908 - 1971)

Van Heflin was born Emmett Evan Heflin, Jr. in Walters, Oklahoma, the son of Fanny Bleecker (née Shippey) and Dr. Emmett Evan Heflin, a dentist. He was of Irish and French ancestry. Heflin’s sister was Daytime Emmy-nominated actress Frances Heflin (who married composer Sol Kaplan). Heflin attended Classen High School in Oklahoma City (One source […]

Van Williams (1934 - 2016)

Van Williams was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the son of Priscilla Anne (Jarvis) and Bernard Cardwell Williams. He grew up on a ranch outside Fort Worth and later studied animal husbandry and business at Texas Christian University. He moved to Hawaii in 1956 after differences with his father on how the ranch should be […]

Van Wyck Brooks (1886 - 1963)

Author and Critic. Van Wyck Brooks received a Pulitzer Prize for his literary history “The Flowering of New England.” He was the son of Charles Brooks, a New York stock broker and Sarah Ames Brooks lived in Plainfield, New Jersey.  He graduated from Harvard in 1908 after completing the four year course of studies in […]

Vance Bryden Gerry (1929 - 2005)

Disney Animation Artist. In 1955, he began his career at Disney Studios as an artist, he contributed to the television shows, “The Goofy Success Story,” “Goofy’s Cavalcade of Sports,” and “How to Relax,” also features “The Truth About Mother Goose,” and “Donald in Mathmagic Land.” As a layout artist, he worked on the films “101 […]

Vanda Godsell (1922 - 1990)

Vanda Godsell (17 November 1922 – 11 April 1990) was an English actress. Hal Erickson writes in Allmovie, “Vanda Godsell specialized in playing disheveled housewives, busybody landladies, and blowsy domestics.” She appeared as Mrs. Weaver in This Sporting Life (1963), Mrs. Pitt in Bitter Harvest (1965), Mrs. Goodge in The Wrong Box (1967)  She was […]

Vanessa Stephen Bell (1879 - 1961)

Artist. She was a painter, the elder sister of author Virginia Woolf and a leading member of the Bloomsbury Group. The daughter of the Victorian writer Sir Leslie Stephen, in 1901 she entered the Royal Academy painting school. In 1907 she married the poet and art critic Clive Bell who was also a member of […]

Vanity (1959 - 1970)

Vanity   Denise Matthews, the singer, model and actress known as Vanity, who toured with Prince in the 1980s before eschewing her wild persona for life as a minister, died on Monday in Fremont, Calif. She was 57. Ms. Matthews’s sister Renay Matthews confirmed the death. She said Ms. Matthews had checked into a hospital […]