Colleen Dewhurst (1924 - 1991)

Dewhurst was born in Montreal, Quebec, the only child of Ferdinand Augustus “Fred” Dewhurst, owner of a chain of confectionery stores, and his wife, Frances Marie (née Woods) Dewhurst, a homemaker, whose father had been a “well-known athlete in Canada, where he had played football with the Ottawa Rough Riders”. The family naturalized as U.S. […]

David Lean (1908 - 1991)

Lean was born in Croydon, Surrey (now part of Greater London), to Francis William le Blount Lean and the former Helena Tangye (niece of Sir Richard Trevithick Tangye). His parents were Quakers and he was a pupil at the Quaker-founded Leighton Park School in Reading. His younger brother, Edward Tangye Lean (1911–1974), founded the original […]

John Russell (1921 - 1991)

John Russell Born in Los Angeles, California, he fit the Hollywood image of tall, dark, and handsome. He attended the University of California as a student athlete. Following the outbreak of World War II, he joined the United States Marines, though he was initially rejected because of his height (6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)). […]

Brad Davis (1949 - 1991)

He was born Robert Creel Davis in Tallahassee, Florida to Eugene Davis (a dentist whose career declined due to alcoholism) and his wife, Anne (née Creel) Davis. His brother Gene is also an actor. According to an article in The New York Times published in 1987, Davis suffered physical abuse and sexual abuse at the […]

Klaus Kinski (1926 - 1991)

Klaus Kinski was born to German nationals in Zoppot in what was, under League of Nations supervision, the Free City of Danzig from 1920-1939. (It is now Sopot, Poland). His father, Bruno Nakszynski, a German of Polish descent, was a failed opera singer turned pharmacist; his mother, Susanne (née Lutze), was a nurse and the […]

Danny Thomas (1912 - 1991)

One of 10 children, Danny Thomas was born on January 6, 1912, in Deerfield, Michigan, to Charles Yakhoob Kairouz and his wife Margaret Taouk. His parents were Maronite Catholic immigrants from Lebanon. Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St. Francis de Sales Church (Roman Catholic), Woodward High School, and finally the University of Toledo, […]

Ralph Bellamy (1904 - 1991)

Ralph Rexford Bellamy was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Lilla Louise (née Smith), a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy. He ran away from home when he was 15 and managed to get into a road show. He toured with road shows before finally landing in New York. He began […]

Eleanor Audley (1905 - 1991)

Eleanor Audley Beginning as a radio actress, she worked extensively in the 1940s and 50s in Hollywood on such shows as Escape, Suspense and the radio versions of My Favorite Husband (as mother-in-law Mrs. Cooper), The Story of Dr. Kildare (as receptionist Molly Byrd), and Father Knows Best (as one of the Anderson family’s neighbors). […]

Ken Curtis (1916 - 1991)

Though born Curtis Wain Gates in Lamar in Prowers County in southeastern Colorado, Curtis was reared west of there in Las Animas, the seat of Bent County. His father, Dan Gates, was the Bent County sheriff. The family lived above the jail and his mother, Nellie Sneed Gates, cooked for the prisoners. The jail is […]

Natalie Schafer (1900 - 1991)

Schafer was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, the eldest child of Jennie Elizabeth (née Tim) and Charles Emanual Schafer. Her family was German Jewish. She began her career as an actress on Broadway before moving to Los Angeles in 1941 to work in films.  Schafer appeared on Broadway in seventeen plays between 1927 and […]

Red Lane (1939 - 2015)

Red Lane Nashville’s Tennessean newspaper reports that Lane died on Wednesday night (July 1) near Music City. Born Hollis Rudolph DeLaughter on Feb. 9, 1939, in Louisiana, Lane was the son of sharecroppers who moved around frequently. He began to play music as a child, learning on a guitar his father got by trading a […]

Dean Jones (1931 - 2015)

Dean Jones  Dean Jones, whose boyish good looks and all-American manner made him Disney’s favorite young actor for such lighthearted films as “That Darn Cat!” and “The Love Bug,” has died of Parkinson’s disease. He was 84. He died Monday in Los Angeles, Jones’ publicist Richard Hoffman said Wednesday. Jones’ long association with The Walt […]

Gene Tierney (1920 - 1991)

Tierney was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Howard Sherwood Tierney and Belle Lavina Taylor. She was named after a beloved uncle, who died young. She had an elder brother, Howard Sherwood “Butch” Tierney, Jr., and a younger sister, Patricia “Pat” Tierney. Their father was a successful insurance broker of Irish descent, their […]

Adam Ward (1988 - 2015)

Adam Ward was tragically taken from this world on Wednesday, August 26, 2015. He was a bright light in our lives for 27 wonderful years.Adam was born on May 10, 1988, to Charles “Buddy” and Mary Lou Speas Ward of Daleville. Although he grew up in Botetourt with his sister and brother, Sarah and Jay, […]

Alison Parker (1991 - 2015)

Alison Parker, loved by everyone who knew her, was taken from us at the age of 24 on August 26, 2015. Born in Annapolis, MD, Alison grew up in Collinsville, Virginia and graduated from Martinsville High School in 2009. Her many accomplishments included Piedmont District Swimmer of the Year award, Big M Trophy recipient, and […]

Marvin Mandel (1920 - 2015)

Marvin Mandel Mandel was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Baltimore City Public Schools, graduating from the The Baltimore City College, which was a city-wide, all-male institution that served as an early model of a college prep, specialized “magnet” school that developed and became popular in American public education forty years later. Mandel received […]

Ozzie Brooks (1931 - 1996)

Mr. Brooks was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio and entered the U.S. Air Force in 1949. After his marriage, Ozzie was stationed at Air bases in New York, Germany, England and, finally, Otis Air Force Base in Bourne, Massachusetts. He retired from the Air Force in 1969. He then served as a civilian employee […]

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr (1943 - 1993)

American Tennis Player and Social Activist. Widely recognized as the first outstanding African-American men’s tennis champion, Arthur Ashe was the first African-American to represent his country in Davis Cup play (1963), the first African-American man to win the U.S. Open singles title (1968), the first African-American man to win the Wimbledon singles title (1975), and […]

James Baldwin (1924 - 1987)

One of the 20th century’s greatest writers, Baldwin broke new literary ground with the exploration of racial and social issues in his many works. He was especially well known for his essays on the black experience in America. Baldwin was born to a young single mother, Emma Jones, at Harlem Hospital. She reportedly never told […]

John Blewett III (1973 - 2007)

Blewett started racing go karts at the age of 10. In 1996, at age 22, he won the coveted NASCAR’s Northeast Regional Championship, falling only a few points shy of the National Title. During his career he recorded 96 wins between 1993 and 2007, including track championships at Flemington Speedway, Wall Township Speedway, New Egypt, […]

Tony Bettenhausen (1916 - 1961)

Melvin Eugene “Tony” Bettenhausen (September 12, 1916 Tinley Park, Illinois – May 12, 1961 Indianapolis, Indiana) was an American racing driver, who won the National Championship in 1951 and 1958.  Bettenhausen was nicknamed the “Tinley Park Express” in honor of his hometown. He was nicknamed “Tunney” after heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney. “Tunney” later became […]

Wes Craven (1939 - 2015)

Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Caroline (née Miller) and Paul Eugene Craven. He was raised in a strict Baptist family. Craven earned an undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois and a master’s degree in Philosophy and Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Craven briefly taught English at Westminster […]

Louis XVIII of France (1755 - 1824)

Louis Stanislas Xavier, styled Count of Provence from birth, was born on 17 November 1755 in the Palace of Versailles, the son of Louis, Dauphin of France, and his wife Maria Josepha of Saxony. He was the grandson of the reigning King Louis XV. As a son of the Dauphin he was a Fils de […]

Charles X of France (1757 - 1836)

Charles Philippe of France was born in 1757, the youngest son of the Dauphin Louis and his wife, the Dauphine Marie Josèphe, at the Palace of Versailles. Charles was created Count of Artois at birth by his grandfather, the reigning King Louis XV. As the youngest male in the family, Charles seemed unlikely ever to […]

Ove Andersson (1938 - 2008)

Andersson was born in Uppsala and grew up on a remote farm. His father bought a 98cc motorbike, and Andersson said this was where he first fell in love with speed and machinery. He went on to begin studying engineering in Uppsala, and also began marshalling ice races. He dropped his engineering course and began […]

Bob Anderson (1922 - 2012)

Anderson was educated at The Royal Hospital School, in Raleigh House. It was here that he began to fence.[citation needed] Anderson joined the Royal Marines and won several combined services titles in the sport of fencing. He served in the Mediterranean during World War II.  As a competitive fencer, he represented Great Britain at the […]

Bob Sweikert (1926 - 1956)

Bob Sweikert grew up in pre-war Los Angeles. His mother had married his stepfather, an electrician for the state of California, when Bob was an infant. Bob was raised through his early teen years with his older stepbrother, Ed, who enlisted in the US Navy, and then soon died in 1942, at the onset of […]

Rich Vogler (1950 - 1990)

Vogler was the National Alliance of Midget Auto Racing (NAMAR) midget champion in 1973. He won the midget car track championships at the Indianapolis Speedrome in 1984 and 1985. He won the Fireman Nationals midget car race at Angell Park Speedway in 1985. Vogler became the first driver to win the USAC Sprint Car and […]

Bill Vukovich (1918 - 1955)

Before he began Indy racing, Vukovich drove midget cars for the Edelbrock dirt track racing team. He raced on the West Coast of the United States in the URA, and won the series’ 1945 and 1946 midget car championships. Vukovich won the 1948 Turkey Night Grand Prix at Gilmore Stadium, and six of the last […]

Blaise Alexander (1976 - 2001)

Alexander was born on March 26, 1976 in Montoursville, Pennsylvania. He began his stock car career at age 12 in the World Karting Association and was the champion of the East Series in 1992. From that point, Alexander moved onto the Micro-Sprint racing series at tracks in different states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, […]