Mike Connors (1925 - 2017)

His film career started in the early 1950s. Mike Connors was cast in the critically acclaimed John Wayne film, Island in the Sky in which he was a crewman on one of the search-and-rescue planes. In 1956, still billed as Touch Connors, he played an Amalekite herder in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments starring […]

Robert Garcia (1933 - 2017)

Robert Garcia was born in Bronx, New York of parents born in Puerto Rico. His father was born in Coamo and had worked in the Central Aguirre sugar mill on the island’s south coast; his mother was born and raised in Ponce. They had migrated to New York City from the island in the 1920s; […]

Barbara Hale (1922 - 2017)

Barbara Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, a daughter of Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and Wilma Colvin. She had one sister, Juanita, whom Hale’s younger daughter was named for. The family was of Scots-Irish ancestry. In 1940, Hale graduated from Rockford High School in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine […]

Bob Holiday (1932 - 2017)

Bob Holiday (November 12, 1932 – January 27, 2017) was an American actor best known for playing Superman in the 1966 Broadway musical It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman! Historically, Holiday was the next “live-action” Superman after George Reeves. Holiday played Superman more than any other actor, having played the role in over […]

Gary Hart (1942 - 2008)

Gary Hart WWE is mourning the death of legendary wrestling manager Gary Hart, who guided the careers of several icons and was one of the creative forces behind World Class Championship Wrestling. Hart passed away over the weekend. Hart’s career, which spanned four decades, began in 1963, when Gary Hart made his debut as an in-ring […]

Rod Roddy (1937 - 2003)

Rod Roddy American Radio and Television Announcer. He is probably best remembered for his signature line, “Come on down!” from “The Price Is Right” morning television game show, although the phrase was originated and made popular by his predecessor Johnny Olson. Born Robert Ray Roddy in Fort Worth, Texas, he graduated from Texas Christian University […]

Emil Zátopek (1922 - 2000)

Emil Zátopek was the sixth child in a modest family. Aged 16, he began working in a Bata shoe factory in Zlín. Zátopek says that “One day, the factory sports coach, who was very strict, pointed at four boys, including me, and ordered us to run in a race. I protested that I was weak […]

Paavo Nurmi (1897 - 1973)

Paavo Johannes Nurmi (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈpɑːʋo ˈnurmi] 13 June 1897 – 2 October 1973) was a Finnish middle- and long-distance runner. He was nicknamed the “Flying Finn” as he dominated distance running in the early 20th century. Nurmi set 22 official world records at distances between 1500 metres and 20 kilometres, and won nine gold […]

Mamo Wolde (1932 - 2002)

Mamo Wolde was born in Ada’a to an Oromo family. In 1951, he moved to Addis Ababa. At his first Olympic appearance in 1956, Wolde competed in the 800 m, 1,500 m and the 4×400 relay. He didn’t compete in the 1960 Summer Olympics, when Abebe Bikila became the first Ethiopian to win a gold medal. Wolde […]

Miruts Yifter (1944 - 2016)

Born in Adigrat, in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, Miruts Yifter spent early parts of his youth working in different factories and as a carriage driver. His talent as a long-distance runner was noticed when he joined the Ethiopian Air Force. Miruts Yifter was called to the Ethiopian national team for the 1968 Summer Olympics in […]

Piers Sellers (1955 - 2016)

Piers Sellers was born in Crowborough, Sussex. His education started at Tyttenhanger Lodge Pre-preparatory School in Seaford, East Sussex, and Cranbrook School, Kent, from which he graduated in 1973 and where he was trained as a Royal Air Force cadet to pilot gliders and powered aircraft. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in ecological […]

Buddy Rogers (1904 - 1999)

Buddy Rogers Buddy Rogers made his screen debut in the 1926 film ‘Fascinating Youth,’ and quickly became a star in the late silent era. He also found success as a bandleader and a musician. His signature song became “Twelfth Street Rag,” which he was able to play a few bars of on a great number […]

Doug Mohns (1933 - 2014)

Doug Mohns played 1390 career NHL games, scoring 248 goals and 462 assists for 710 points, as well as compiling 1250 penalty minutes. Mohns played both forward and defence in his career. Mohns joined the Boston Bruins in 1953, where he became a versatile cornerstone of that franchise for 11 seasons. An early slapshot expert, […]

Kenny Wharram (1933 - 2017)

Kenny Wharram started his hockey career with his hometown team the North Bay Black Hawks in 1949 before switching the next season to the Galt Black Hawks for whom he played three seasons. He played one match for the Galt team’s parent club the Chicago Black Hawks in 1951 before returning for another season to […]

Oliver Smithies (1925 - 2017)

Oliver Smithies was awarded a Commonwealth Fund fellowship to take up a post-doctoral position in the United States, in the laboratory of J. W. Williams at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of Chemistry. A problem with acquiring a U.S. visa, due to a condition of the Commonwealth Fund fellowship, then forced him to leave the […]

Tony Rosato (1954 - 2017)

Tony Rosato first gained attention when he and Robin Duke joined the cast of the first incarnation of SCTV in its final season during the fall of 1980. His most well-known character on the program was the notoriously drunk TV chef Marcello Sebastiani. Rosato then moved with Duke to the cast of Saturday Night Live […]

David Modell (1960 - 2017)

David Modell was the son of the late 1960s film and television actress Patricia Breslin and the late television and movie actor David Orrick McDearmon (1914–1979). During his 25-year association with the original Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens, he worked in the ticket office and in the public relations and marketing divisions. He started working […]

Dick Gautier (1931 - 2017)

Dick Gautier started his career as a nightclub comic and a singer; he joined ASCAP in 1959 after serving in the United States Navy. In 1960, he portrayed fictional rock ‘n roll star Conrad Birdie in the original Broadway theatre production of Bye Bye Birdie, receiving a Tony Award nomination for his performance. He would later […]

James Hodgson (1915 - 2012)

James Day Hodgson (December 3, 1915 – November 28, 2012) was an American politician. He served as the Secretary of Labor and the Ambassador to Japan. James Hodgson was born in Dawson, Minnesota, the son of Fred Arthur Hodgson, a lumberyard owner, and his wife, Casaraha M. (née Day). He graduated from the University of Minnesota […]

Roberta Peters (1930 - 2017)

Roberta Peters was born Roberta Peterman in The Bronx, New York City, the only child of Ruth (née Hersch), a milliner, and Solomon Peterman, a shoe salesman. Her family was Jewish. Encouraged by tenor Jan Peerce, she started her music studies at age 13 with William Herman, a voice teacher known for his exacting and […]

Andy Marte (1983 - 2017)

Andy Marte signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves at the age of 16 in 2000, and succeeded at every level of the farm system. He was selected to appear in the All-Star Futures Game in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 Marte hit .275 with 20 home runs and 74 runs batted in […]

Loalwa Braz (1953 - 2017)

Loalwa Braz was born in Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro to a family of musicians: her father was an orchestra leader and her mother, a popular and classical pianist. She learned to play the piano at the age of four and started singing at 13. She lived in Paris from 1985 and in Geneva from 2010 […]

Miguel Ferrer (1955 - 2017)

Miguel Ferrer Miguel Ferrer, the actor best known for starring as Owen Granger on “NCIS: Los Angeles,” died Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017, of cancer, according to multiple news sources. He was 61. Ferrer’s other notable roles were as FBI pathologist Albert Rosenfield in the cult classic television series “Twin Peaks” and as Vice President Rodriguez […]

Mary Tyler Moore (1936 - 2017)

Mary Tyler Moore Mary Tyler Moore, one of the most beloved and honored actresses in television history, died Wednesday in a Greenwich, Connecticut, hospital. The star of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was 80. Moore, who had been the CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, was diagnosed with […]

Gorden Kaye (1941 - 2017)

Gorden Kaye had appeared in a radio play directed by Alan Ayckbourn and also in a television play from Manchester. Ayckbourn suggested that he audition for the Bolton Octagon Theatre; he was offered a contract and his roles there included Pishchik in The Cherry Orchard followed by roles in The Homecoming, The Imaginary Invalid, Luther […]

Butch Trucks (1947 - 2017)

One of Trucks’ first bands was local Jacksonville band The Vikings, who made one 7-inch record in 1964. Another early band was The 31st of February which formed and broke up in 1968. This group’s lineup eventually included both Duane Allman and Gregg Allman. They recorded a cover of “Morning Dew”, by 1960s folk singer […]

Ernest Shackleton (1874 - 1922)

Ernest Shackleton CVO OBE FRGS (/ˈʃækəltən/; 15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was a polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, and one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Kilkea, Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton and his Anglo-Irish family moved […]

Frank Wild (1873 - 1939)

Frank Wild was born in Skelton-in-Cleveland, North Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest of eight sons[2] and three daughters born to schoolteacher Benjamin Wild and his seamstress wife Mary (née Cook). The family came from Skelton close to Marton, birthplace of Captain James Cook, to whom the family claimed ancestry through Mrs Wild. Her father was […]

Frank Worsley (1872 - 1943)

Frank Arthur Worsley DSO OBE RD (22 February 1872 – 1 February 1943) was a New Zealand sailor and explorer who served on Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1916, as captain of the Endurance. He also served in the Royal Navy Reserve during the First World War. Born in Akaroa, New Zealand, on 22 February […]

James Wordie (1889 - 1962)

James Wordie was born at Partick, Glasgow, the son of John Wordie, a carting contractor, and Jane Catherine Mann. He studied at The Glasgow Academy and obtained a BSc in geology from University of Glasgow. He graduated from St John’s College, Cambridge as an advanced student in 1912, and began research work. His occupation brought […]