Orlando Woolridge (1959 - 2012)

Orlando Woolridge was selected sixth in the 1981 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, where he played for his first five seasons. Woolridge made his NBA debut on November 7, 1981. Woolridge was named NBA Player of the week on December 9, 1984. During the 1984–85 season, Woolridge averaged 22.9 points/game and combined with rookie […]

Orrin Porter Rockwell (1813 - 1878)

Bodyguard to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. On Christmas, 1843, he was given a blessing by Joseph Smith. Smith said that as long as he never cut his hair ‘…no bullet or blade can harm thee..’  Family links:  Spouses:  Mary Ann Neff Rockwell (1829 – 1866)*  Christina Olsen Rockwell (1837 – 1911)*  Luana Hart Beebe […]

Orry-Kelly (1898 - 1964)

Orry-Kelly was born in Kiama, New South Wales, Australia, and was known as Jack Kelly. His father William Kelly was born on the Isle of Man and was a gentleman tailor in Kiama. Orry was a name of an ancient King of the Isle of Man. Orry-Kelly was sent to Sydney at age 17 to […]

Orville D. Merillat (1916 - 1999)

Businessman-Philanthropist Served in US Coast Guard during WWII; married Ruth Muller on January 19, 1941; founder, and former President and CEO of Merillat Industries, Inc.; employer of over 3,000 people with more than eleven factories across the United States; recipient of the Michigan Small Business Person of the Year in 1977; co-recipient with Ruth of […]

Orville Redenbacher (1907 - 1995)

Businessman. He is best remembered for his trademark bowtie, thick black glasses, and his folksy manner in television commercials of the 1960s and 1970s, where he advertised his “Orville Redenbacher Gourmet Popping Corn”. Born in Brazil, Indiana, he was the third child and only son of a general farmer in Clay County, Indiana.  In 1924, […]

Osa Massen (1914 - 2006)

Osa Massen (13 January 1914 – 2 January 2006) was a Danish actress who went on to become a successful movie actress in Hollywood. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1941. Born Aase Madsen Iversen in 1914, she began her career as a newspaper photographer, before becoming an actress. She first came […]

Osama Bin Laden (1957 - 2011)

Osama Bin Laden Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan, President Obama announced on Sunday. In a late-night appearance in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Obama declared that “justice […]

Oscar Alberto Espíndola (1939 - 2004)

Cacho Espíndola was born in 1940 in Buenos Aires, Argentina as Oscar Alberto Espíndola Rossi. He was an actor, known for Verdad consecuencia (1996), Nights Without Moons and Suns (1984) and Un mundo de veinte asientos (1978). He died on August 21, 2004 in Buenos Aires. Argentine comic actor with extensive experience in film, theater and television. His uncle was the acclaimed first actor Raúl […]

Oscar Allen (1882 - 1936)

Oscar Allen was born in a log cabin in Winn Parish to Asa Levi Allen and the former Sophronia Perkins. He attended Winn Parish schools, the Springfield Normal School and Business College in Springfield, Missouri, and Trinity University, a private institution then in Waxahachie, Texas, south of Dallas in Ellis County, Texas (Trinity is now […]

Oscar Apfel (1878 - 1938)

Osca Apfel was born in Cleveland, Ohio. After a number of years in commerce, he decided to adopt the stage as a profession. He secured his first professional engagement in 1900, in his hometown. He rose rapidly and soon held a position as director and producer and was at the time noted as being the […]

Oscar Beregi, Jr (1918 - 1976)

Actor. Hungarian-born motion picture and television figure of the 1950s through the 1970s. Appeared in the movie “Young Frankenstein,” and on television series such as “The Twilight Zone” and “The Monkees”. (bio by: Kenneth McNeil)  Family links:  Parents:  Oscar Beregi (1876 – 1965)Cause of death: Heart attack

Oscar de la Renta (1932 - 2014)

Oscar de la Renta Born on July 22, 1932, Oscar de la Renta was raised alongside six sisters in a middle-class household in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. At the age of 18, he left the Caribbean island to study painting at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. While in Spain, he dreamed of becoming […]

Óscar Domínguez (1906 - 1957)

Artist. He was born in La Laguna, Tenerife, Islas Canarias. He was a member of Spanish Painters School in Paris and was included in surrealist movement, as Dalí, Picasso or Miró. He moved to France during Spanish Civil War. Also, he invented a new tecnique known as Decalcomanía. Among his paintings “Composition au Taureau,” “La […]

Oscar F. Mayer (1859 - 1955)

Business Magnate. He was the founder of the Oscar Mayer Company, which became one of the most successful and enduring meat and cold cut production companies in the United States. Born in Germany, in 1873, at the age of 14, the family grocery business failed, and he immigrated to the United States with his cousin. […]

Oscar Hijuelos (1951 - 2013)

Hijuelos was born in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, to Cuban immigrant parents, Pascual and Magdalena (Torrens) Hijuelos, both from Holguín, Cuba. His father worked as a hotel cook. As a young child, he suffered from acute nephritis after a vacation trip to Cuba with his mother and brother José, and was in St. Luke’s Convalescent Hospital, […]

Oscar Ingolfur “Ossie” Asmundson (1908 - 1964)

Professional Hockey Player. A native of Red Deer, Alberta, he played Right Wing for the New York Rangers from 1932 to 1934, the Detroit Red Wings from 1934 to 1935, the Detroit Olympics from 1934 to 1935, the St. Louis Eagles from 1934 to 1935, and the Montreal Canadiens from 1937 to 1938, He passed […]

Oscar Peterson (1925 - 2007)

Oscar Peterson was born to immigrants from the West Indies; his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway. Peterson grew up in the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, Quebec. It was in this predominantly black neighbourhood that he found himself surrounded by the jazz culture that flourished in the early 20th century. […]

Oscar Sullivan (1919 - 2012)

Oscar Sullivan Lonzo and Oscar were an American country music  duo founded in 1945 originally consisting of Lloyd George (1924-1991) as “Lonzo” and Rollin “Oscar” Sullivan  (1919-2012), best known for being the first to perform the 1948 song “I’m My Own Grandpa “. George departed in 1950, and Lonzo was later portrayed by Johnny Sullivan (1917-1967) from 1950 to […]

Oscar Taveras (1992 - 2014)

Oscar Taveras Oscar Francisco Taveras (June 19, 1992 – October 26, 2014) was a Dominican-Canadian professional baseball outfielder who played one season for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Cardinals signed him at age 16 in 2008 as an undrafted free agent and he made his MLB debut in 2014. Over […]

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as […]

Oscar Zeta Acosta (1970 - 1970)

American Folk Figure. He was immortalized in  gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s novel, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, in which Thompson used him as the model for his “Samoan” attorney character. Born in El Paso, Texas, he served in the United States Air Force, and had a a brief stint as a missionary in […]

Oskar Homolka (1898 - 1978)

After serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, Oscar Homolka attended the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna and began his career on the Austrian stage. Success there led to work in the much more prestigious German theatrical community in Munich where in 1924 he played Mortimer in the […]

Oskar Karlweis (1894 - 1956)

Oskar Karlweis (10 July 1894, Hinterbrühl – 24 January 1956, New York City) was an Austrian stage and film actor, active internationally. Son of a playwright, Karlweis abandoned his youthful law studies for the stage, first for eight years at Vienna’s Stadttheater. After service in World War I, he was active with Max Reinhardt’s Theater in […]

Oskar Kokoschka (1886 - 1980)

Artist. Celebrated Austrian-born painter. As one of the leaders of the expressionist movement, he was vilified by the Nazis and went into exile in Switzerland.  Family links:  Spouse:  Oldriska Palkovská Kokoschka (1915 – 2004)* *Calculated relationship

Ossi Oswalda (1897 - 1947)

Actress. Dubbed the “German Mary Pickford”, she won the hearts of many with the comical characters she portrayed during the silent film era. Her movie credits include “The Doll”, “The Oyster Princess”, “The Merry Jail”, “A Night of Horror”, “I Don’t Want to Be a Man”, “My Lady Margarine”, and “Amor am Steuer” among many […]

Ossie Clark (1942 - 1996)

Born in Warrington, Cheshire, England in 1942, Raymond Clark’s parents, Anne and Samuel Clark, moved to Oswaldtwistle during the war, hence his nickname, “Ossie”. Ossie’s mother, Anne Grace Clark, was in labour with Ossie for seven days during an air raid in World War II. Anne had been expecting a girl and so had no […]

Ossie Davis (1917 - 2005)

Davis was born Raiford Chatman Davis in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia, a son of Kince Charles Davis, a railway construction engineer, and his wife Laura (née Cooper; July 9, 1898 – June 6, 2004). The name Ossie came from a county clerk who misheard his mother’s pronunciation of his initials “R.C.” when he was born. […]

Oswaldo Guayasamín (1919 - 1999)

Painter. He was born in Quito, Ecuador. In 1942, he made his first exhibition in his hometown. He is best remembered for his murals in cities such as Quito, Madrid, Paris and Sao Paulo, influenced by the painters Orozco and Picasso. His paintings were exhibited all around the world. Among others “La Época de la […]

Othon Friesz (1879 - 1949)

Artist. An early Impressionist style French painter, he was later converted to Fauvism, a painterly (visible brushstrokes) style of strong color, a movement led by artists Henri Matisse and Andre Derain, that lasted only briefly in the early 1900s. Born Achille-Emile Othon Friesz in Le Havre, France, he came from a family of shipbuilders and […]

Otis Blackwell (1931 - 2002)

Otis Blackwell Songwriter. He is best known for writing such classics Rock and Roll songs as “Return To Sender”, “All Shook Up”, and “Great Balls of Fire”. He is credited with writing songs that have sold over 185 million copies. Tracks for Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis were most popular, but he also wrote for […]