John Daly (1914 - 1991)

The second of two brothers, Daly was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, where his American father worked as a geologist. After his father died of tropical fever, Daly’s mother moved the family to Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Daly was an alumnus of Tilton School in Tilton, New Hampshire; he later served on its […]

John Chancellor (1927 - 1996)

Chancellor attended the University of Illinois Navy Pier campus (precursor to UIC) which specified completing the last two years of instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1949. Originally a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, he first started his career in national television news as a correspondent on NBC’s evening newscast, the Huntley-Brinkley […]

David Brinkley (1920 - 2003)

Brinkley was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, the youngest of five children born to William Graham Brinkley and Mary MacDonald (née West) Brinkley. He began writing for a local newspaper, the Wilmington Morning Star, while still attending New Hanover High School. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Emory University, and Vanderbilt […]

Ed Bradley (1941 - 2006)

Bradley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents divorced when he was 2, after which he was raised by his mother, Gladys, who worked two jobs to make ends meet. Bradley, who was referred to with the childhood name of “Butch Bradley,” was able to see his father, who was in the vending machine business […]

David J. Bloom (1963 - 2003)

David Bloom was born in Edina, Minnesota, and was an avid ice hockey player and state champion in high school debating in the National Forensic League. Bloom attended Pitzer College in Claremont, California, from 1981 to 1985 where he was a national debate champion. He majored in political science.  Bloom was survived by his wife, […]

Bill Beutel (1930 - 2006)

Beutel graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire after a stint in the Army and studied law at the University of Michigan Law School, though he left Michigan without obtaining his law degree. While Beutel was in law school, he wrote Edward R. Murrow a letter saying, “I very much wanted to be a […]

Leslie Carter (1986 - 2012)

Leslie Carter was born in Tampa, Florida, the third of six children of Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (born September 23, 1952). She was born at the Garden Villa Retirement Home, where the Carter family were living and working at the time. She was the older sister of Aaron Carter and his […]

Jeanne Bice (1939 - 2011)

Bice was born on July 20, 1939, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where she was also raised. She later moved to the nearby town of Ripon, Wisconsin as an adult. Bice and her husband, Arlow “Butch” Bice Jr., had a son and a daughter, Tim and Lee. She opened her first store, a women’s apparel […]

Brendan Behan (1923 - 1964)

Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) (/ˈbiːən/ bee-ən; Irish: Breandán Ó Beacháin; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army. Born in Dublin into […]

Patti Page (1927 - 2013)

Clara Ann Fowler (November 8, 1927 – January 1, 2013), known by her professional name Patti Page, was an American singer of traditional pop music. She was the top-charting female vocalist and best-selling female artist of the 1950s, selling over 100 million records during a six decade long career. She was often introduced as “the […]

Scotty Beckett (1929 - 1968)

Born in Oakland, California, Beckett got his start in show business at age 3 when the family moved to Los Angeles and a casting director heard him singing by chance. Beckett was at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital visiting his father, who was recovering from an illness, and was entertaining him by singing songs in Pig […]

Lester Bangs (1948 - 1982)

Bangs was born in Escondido, California, the son of Norma Belle (née Clifton) and Conway Leslie Bangs, a truck driver. Both of his parents were from Texas; his father from Enloe, and his mother from Pecos County. Norma Belle was a devout Jehovah’s Witness. Conway died in a fire when his son was young. When […]

West Arkeen (1960 - 1997)

Aaron West Arkeen was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France and grew up in San Diego. He was the grandson of Russian-Jewish immigrants to America and the son of a career U. S. Army Master Sergeant, Morris Arkeen. He was born in France while his father was serving overseas. He started playing guitar at the age of […]

Liberace (1919 - 1987)

Liberace He was born Wladziu (Polish for Walter) Liberace in West Allis, Wisconsin to immigrant Italian and Polish parents one of four children. Both parents were musically talented. His Italian father played the french horn with the Milwaukee Philharmonic Orchestra and his Polish mother played the piano. When Polish pianist Paderwski visited the Liberaces, he […]

Chris Antley (1966 - 2000)

Christopher Wiley Antley (January 6, 1966 – December 2, 2000) was a champion American jockey.  He was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida but grew up in Elloree, South Carolina. He left school at sixteen to ride horses professionally at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. His first win was on a horse named Vaya Con […]

Janet Achurch (1864 - 1916)

Born as Janet Sharp on 17 January 1864 in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, her mother died during childbirth and she was reared by her father William Prior Sharp, an insurance agent. Her maternal grandparents, James and Mary Achurch, managed the Theatre Royal in Manchester. She became an actress after ending her education in 1881 and joining Sarah […]

Cameron Todd Willingham (1968 - 2004)

On December 23, 1991, a fire destroyed the Willingham family home in Corsicana, Texas. Killed in the fire were Willingham’s three daughters: two-year-old Amber Louise Kuykendall and one-year-old twins Karmon Diane Willingham and Kameron Marie Willingham. Willingham himself escaped the home with only minor burns. Stacy Kuykendall, Willingham’s then-wife and the mother of his three […]

Jesse Tafero (1946 - 1990)

On the morning of February 20, 1976, Black and Irwin approached a car parked at a rest stop for a routine check. Tafero, his partner Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs, her two children (ages 9 years and 10 months), and Walter Rhodes were found asleep inside. Tafero had previously been in prison and was on probation. Black […]

Ruben Cantu (1966 - 1993)

Ruben Cantu grew up with his mother and father, until the age of 14, when the couple split up, with Ruben’s mother moving 20 miles (30 km) away, and Ruben and his father continuing to live in a trailer in a crime-ridden south San Antonio barrio. The neighborhood was home to a loose band of […]

Mitchell Guist (1964 - 2012)

Mitchell Guist was born in 1964 in Gonzales, Louisiana and lived with his brother, Glenn, for his entire life. Mitchell spent most of his early life with his parents until he was 18 and moved into his own home in the bayou with Glenn.  In 2011, Mitchell and Glenn became stars on the History Channel’s […]

Phil Harris (1956 - 2010)

Phil Harris Harris began fishing with his father at age eight and after high school began crab fishing. He initially worked on a crab boat unpaid until he proved his worth. By the time he was 21 he was one of the youngest captains of a crab fishing boat on the Bering Sea. He had […]

Joey Kovar (1983 - 2012)

Kovar was a native of Evergreen Park, Illinois, where he continued to reside after appearing on The Real World: Hollywood and other shows. He battled addiction to both drugs and alcohol before appearing in television.  Kovar, a former personal trainer, was discovered at age 24 by a talent scout on a Chicago street. In 2008, […]

Jack Lemmon (1925 - 2001)

Jack Lemmon One of the most consistently acclaimed actors in motion picture and television history, Jack Lemmon became the first man to win Academy Awards as both Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Mister Roberts” (1955) and Best Actor for “Save the Tiger” (1973). In between and after, Lemmon amassed an envious résumé of […]

Vivien Leigh (1913 - 1967)

Vivien Leigh After finishing her primary education she decided to pursue acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art when she was 18. For the next few years her career consisted of stage work and small film roles. In 1937 her first marriage with dissolved and she took up residence with actor Laurence Olivier. It […]

Peggy Lee (1920 - 2002)

Peggy Lee Singer, Songwriter and Actress. Best remembered for songs “Fever,” “Lover,” “Big Spender,” and a host of other songs. Born Norma Dolores Egstrom, her mother died when she was 4, and her father, a railroad station agent, remarried, but later abandoned the new family, leaving Peggy with her stepmother, who physically abused her. Peggy […]

Peter Lawford (1923 - 1984)

Peter Lawford He is probably best remembered as a member of the Hollywood’s “Rat Pack’ which included entertainers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr, and Joey Bishop, who appeared together on stage and films, including the movies “Ocean’s 11” (1960) and “Sergeants 3” (1962). He is also remembered as the husband of Patricia Kennedy, […]

Stan Laurel (1890 - 1965)

Stan Laurel Comedian. He found his greatest success when paired with Oliver Hardy. Born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, England, the second of five children. His father, A. J. Jefferson managed a number of vaudeville theaters, and his mother was an actress. He lived with his grandparents until age six, then moved in with his […]

Lorraine Hansberry (1930 - 1965)

Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest of four children born to Carl Augustus Hansberry, a successful real-estate broker, and Nannie Louise (born Perry) a school teacher. In 1938, her father bought a house in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago, incurring the wrath of their white neighbors. The latter’s legal efforts to […]

William F. Albright (1891 - 1971)

From the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement. Most notably, coming from his own background in radical German historical criticism of the historicity of the Biblical accounts, Albright, through his seminal work in archaeology (and most notably his development […]

Charles Laughton (1899 - 1962)

Charles Laughton In 1927, Laughton began a relationship with Elsa Lanchester, at the time a cast mate in a stage play. The two were married in 1929, became US citizens in 1950, and remained together until Laughton’s death. Over the years, they appeared together in several films, including Rembrandt (1936), Tales of Manhattan (1942) and […]