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 […]

C. Everett Koop (1916 - 2013)

C. Everett Koop Koop was born in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of John Everett Koop (1883–1972), a banker and descendant of 17th-century Dutch settlers, and Helen (née Apel) Koop (1894–1970). In 1937, he earned his A.B. degree from Dartmouth College, where he was given the nickname “Chick” (occasionally used for his first name, […]

Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923 - 2013)

Sawallisch was born in Munich on August 26, 1923. At the age of five, he was already playing the piano and by the time he was ten, he had decided he wanted to become a concert pianist. As a child, he was greatly influenced by Richard Strauss and Hans Knappertsbusch.  At first, he studied composition […]

Jerry Buss (1933 - 2013)

Born in Salt Lake City, Buss was raised by his divorced mother, Jessie. When he was nine years old, he moved with his mother to Los Angeles; they moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming, three years later when she remarried. Buss earned a scholarship to the University of Wyoming, graduating with a B.S. degree in two and […]

Ronald Dworkin (1931 - 2013)

Ronald Dworkin was born in 1931 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, the son of Madeline (Talamo) and David Dworkin. He studied at Harvard University and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar and a student of Sir Rupert Cross. After he completed his final year’s exams at Oxford, the examiners were […]

Chris Kyle (1974 - 2013)

Born in Odessa, Texas, the son of a Sunday school teacher and a deacon, Kyle’s father bought his son his first rifle at 8 years old, a bolt-action .30-06 Springfield rifle, and later a shotgun, with which they hunted pheasant, quail, and deer. After school, Kyle became a professional bronco rodeo rider and worked on […]

Edward Koch (1924 - 2013)

Koch was born in The Bronx borough of New York City, the son of Yetta (or Joyce, née Silpe) and Louis (Leib) Koch, immigrants from Uscieczko in Eastern Galicia. He came from a family of Conservative Jews who resided in Newark, New Jersey, where his father worked at a theater. As a child, he worked […]

Phil Ramone (1934 - 2013)

Ramone was born in South Africa and grew up in Brooklyn, New York, USA. As a child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Princess Elizabeth at age ten. In the late 1940s he trained as a classical violinist at the Juilliard School, […]

Yvonne Brill (1924 - 2013)

Yvonne Brill was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her parents were immigrants from Belgium. She attended the University of Manitoba, but was barred from studying engineering because of her gender, so she studied chemistry and mathematics.  Brill’s work in satellite propulsion systems resulted in a number of significant developments. She developed the concept for a new rocket […]

Joe Weider (1920 - 2013)

Weider was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Louis and Anna, Jewish immigrants from Poland. He published the first issue of Your Physique magazine in 1936 when he was 17 years old, and built a set of barbells out of car wheels and axles the same year out of the family garage on Coloniale street […]

Rise Stevens (1913 - 2013)

Stevens was born Risë Steenberg, on June 11, 1913, in New York City, the daughter of Sarah “Sadie” (née Mechanic) and Christian Steenberg, an advertising salesman. Her father was of Norwegian Lutheran descent and her mother was Jewish (of Polish and Russian descent). She had a younger brother, Lewis “Bud” Steenberg, who died in World […]

Harry Reems (1947 - 2013)

Reems was born Herbert Streicher. He attended the University of Pittsburgh for a year before briefly serving in the United States Marine Corps, from which he received an honorable discharge following hardship leave. He then elected to pursue an acting career, principally in off-Broadway theater.  Prior to appearing in Deep Throat, Herb Streicher was chosen […]

Bonnie Franklin (1944 - 2013)

Bonnie Franklin Franklin was born in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Claire (née Hersch) and Samuel Benjamin Franklin, an investment banker. Her parents were both Jewish immigrants, her father from Russia and her mother from Romania.  Her family moved to Beverly Hills when she was thirteen years old, and she graduated from Beverly Hills […]

Mary Thom (1944 - 2013)

Thom was born in Akron, Ohio in 1944. Her father was an engineer. He worked in the steel industry. Her mother worked from home as a homemaker. Thom listened to jazz and enjoyed Shakespeare. She credits these two interests at triggering her interest in activism. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1966. While there, […]

Deanna Durbin (1921 - 2013)

Edna Mae Durbin was born on December 4, 1921 at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the daughter of James Allen Durbin and his wife Ada (née Read), who were originally from Manchester, England. In 1923, her family moved from Winnipeg to southern California, and her parents soon become United States citizens. At the age […]

Jeff Buckley (1966 - 1997)

Jeff Buckley Musician. Born in Anaheim, California, he was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, whom emerged in New York City’s avant-garde club scene in the 1990’s. Signed to Columbia Records, he released his first album “At Sin-é” (1993) followed by his full-band album, “Grace” (1994). With the success of the albums, he went on an extensive […]

Buddy Holly (1936 - 1959)

When Elvis Presley died, 25,000 people gathered outside Graceland in the sweltering Memphis heat. John Lennon’s murder drew millions of people to Central Park for a silent vigil. But when Buddy Holly’s plane went down in an Iowa cornfield at a little past 1 a.m. on Feb. 3, 1959, there was nobody waiting for him […]

Janos Starker (1924 - 2013)

Starker was born in Budapest to a father of Polish descent and a mother who had immigrated from Ukraine, both Jewish. His two older brothers were violinists, and the young János (named for the hospital in which he was born) was given a cello before his sixth birthday. A child prodigy, Starker made his first […]

Al Neuharth (1924 - 2013)

Al Neuharth was born into a German-speaking family in rural South Dakota. Neuharth’s parents were Daniel J. and Christina, who married on January 11, 1922. Daniel died when Al was two. Al needed to help his family survive the Great Depression. He worked on his grandfather’s farm. As a youngster, he also delivered the Minneapolis […]

E. L. Konigsburg (1930 - 2013)

Elaine Lobl was born in New York City on February 10, 1930, but grew up in small Pennsylvania towns, the second of three daughters. She was an avid reader, although reading was only “tolerated” in her family, “not sanctioned like dusting furniture or baking cookies”. She was high school valedictorian in Farrell, Pennsylvania, where there […]

François Jacob (1920 - 2013)

Jacob was born the only child of Simon, a merchant, and Thérèse (Franck) Jacob, in Nancy, France. An inquisitive child, he learned to read at a young age. Albert Franck, Jacob’s maternal grandfather, a four-star general, was Jacob’s childhood role model. At seven he entered the Lycée Carnot, where he was schooled for the next […]

Hilary Koprowski (1916 - 2013)

Hilary Koprowski was born in Warsaw, Poland, to Paweł (Paul) and Sonia Koprowski. The parents had met in 1906 while Hilary Koprowski’s father was serving in the Russian Army, and they had moved to Warsaw soon after their marriage in 1912. Hilary Koprowski attended Warsaw’s Mikołaj Rej Secondary School, and from age twelve he took […]

Robert G. Edwards (1925 - 2013)

Edwards was born in Batley, Yorkshire, and attended The Henry Box School in Witney. After finishing Manchester Central High School on Whitworth Street in central Manchester, he served in the British Army, and then completed his undergraduate studies in biology at the Bangor University. He studied at the Institute of Animal Genetics and Embryology at […]

Zao Wou-Ki (1920 - 2013)

Zao was born in Beijing with family roots in Dantu, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province. In his childhood he was brought back to his hometown Dantu where he studied calligraphy. From 1935 to 1941, he studied painting at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. In 1948, he went with his wife Lan-lan, a composer, […]

Marvin Gaye (1939 - 1984)

Marvin Gaye Marvin Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown Records in the 1960s with a string of hits, including “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” and “I Heard It Through the […]

John Lennon (1940 - 1980)

John Lennon John Ono Lennon, MBE, born John Winston Lennon; (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980), was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of the rock band the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. With Paul McCartney, he formed a songwriting partnership that is one of […]

James Dean (1931 - 1955)

James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of […]

Annette Funicello (1942 - 2013)

Annette Joanne Funicello was born in Utica, New York, to Italian Americans Virginia Jeanne (née Albano) and Joseph Funicello. Her family moved to Southern California when she was four years old.  Annette took dancing and music lessons as a child in order to overcome shyness. In 1955, the 12-year-old was discovered by Walt Disney when […]

Kurt Cobain (1967 - 1994)

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was an American musician who was best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1985 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene, having its debut album Bleach released on the independent record label Sub Pop in […]

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927 - 2013)

Ruth Prawer was born in Cologne, Germany to Jewish parents Marcus and Eleanora (Cohn) Prawer. Marcus was a lawyer who moved to Germany from Poland to escape conscription and Eleanora’s father was cantor of Cologne’s largest synagogue. Her father was accused of communist links, arrested and then released and she witnessed the violence unleashed against […]