James Avery (1945 - 2013)

James Avery James LaRue Avery (November 27, 1945 – December 31, 2013) was an American actor. He played patriarch and Judge Philip Banks in the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990−96). This character was ranked #34 in TV Guide’s “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time.” He also provided the voice of Shredder in […]

Tommy Ramone (1952 - 2014)

Erdélyi was Jewish, and was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1949, to parents who had survived the Holocaust by being hidden by neighbors, though many of his relatives were victims of the Nazis. The family emigrated to the US when Ramone was aged four and he grew up in Forest Hills, New York.  Tommy and […]

Meshach Taylor (1947 - 2014)

Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Hertha Mae (née Ward) and Joseph T. Taylor, former dean of students at Dillard University in New Orleans, who was also the first dean of arts and sciences at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis.  After the family moved from New Orleans to Indianapolis, Taylor graduated from Crispus […]

Eli Wallach (1915 - 2014)

Wallach was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, at 156 Union St., a son of Jewish immigrants Abraham and Bertha (Schorr) Wallach, both from Poland. He had a brother and two sisters, with his family being the only Jews in an otherwise Italian American neighborhood. His parents owned Bertha’s Candy Store. Wallach graduated in 1936 from […]

Bob Hoskins (1942 - 2014)

Hoskins was born in Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk on 26 October 1942 to Robert Hoskins, a bookkeeper and lorry driver, and Elsie (Hopkins) Hoskins, a cook and nursery school teacher. His grandmother was a Romani. From the age of 2 weeks old, he was brought up in Finsbury Park, London. Hoskins left school at […]

Phyllis Frelich (1944 - 2014)

Frelich was born in Devils Lake, North Dakota to deaf parents Esther (née Dockter) and Phillip Frelich, and was the eldest of nine siblings (all deaf). She attended North Dakota School for the Deaf, graduating in 1962, and then went on to study at Gallaudet College (now known as Gallaudet University), a school for the […]

Malik Bendjelloul (1977 - 2014)

Bendjelloul was born in Ystad in Sweden, 55 kilometres (34 mi) east of Malmö, the son of Algerian-born physician Hacène Bendjelloul and Swedish translator and painter Veronica Schildt Bendjelloul. He was the brother of journalist Johar Bendjelloul and the nephew of actors Peter and Johan Schildt. Bendjelloul grew up in central and southern Sweden (Ängelholm) […]

Elaine Stritch (1925 - 2014)

Elaine Stritch was born on February 2, 1925, in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest daughter of Mildred (née Jobe; 1893–1987), a homemaker, and George Joseph Stritch (1892–1987), an executive with B.F. Goodrich. Her Roman Catholic family was well-off. Stritch’s father was of Irish descent, her mother of Welsh. Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago from 1940 […]

Sid Caesar (1922 - 2014)

Caesar was the youngest of three sons born to Jewish immigrants living in Yonkers, New York. His father was Max Ziser and his mother was Ida (née Raphael). They likely were from Dambrowa Tarnowska, Poland. Reports state that the surname “Caesar” was given to Max, as a child, by an immigration official at Ellis Island. […]

Lauren Bacall (1924 - 2014)

Lauren Bacall Was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in The Bronx, New York, the only child of Natalie (née Weinstein-Bacal), a secretary who later legally changed her surname to Bacall, and William Perske, who worked in sales. Both her parents were Jewish. According to Bacall’s own statement, her mother emigrated from Kingdom […]

Jim Lange (1932 - 2014)

Lange began his radio broadcasting career in the Twin Cities after winning an audition as a teenager. He graduated from St. Thomas Academy high school, going on to the University of Minnesota on a scholarship from the Evans Scholars Foundation. After graduating from the University of Minnesota and serving in the Marines, Lange moved to […]

William Clay Ford Sr. (1925 - 2014)

Born on March 14, 1925, in Detroit, Michigan to Edsel Ford and Eleanor Lowthian Clay, Ford served in the U.S. Navy Air Corps during World War II. Following the war, Ford married Martha Parke Firestone, the granddaughter of Harvey Firestone and Idabelle Smith Firestone, on June 21, 1947. They had four children together: Martha Parke […]

Fred Phelps (1929 - 2014)

Phelps was born in Meridian, Mississippi, the elder of two children to Catherine Idalette Johnston and Fred Wade Phelps. His father was a railroad policeman for the Columbus and Greenville Railway and his mother was a homemaker.  On September 3, 1935, when Phelps was five years old, his mother died of esophageal cancer at the […]

Kate O’Mara (1939 - 2014)

O’Mara was born Frances Meredith Carroll to John F. Carroll, an RAF flying instructor, and actress Hazel Bainbridge (born 1909/1910 – died 7 January 1998). Her younger sister is actress Belinda Carroll. After boarding school she attended art school before becoming a full-time actress.  O’Mara married Jeremy Young in 1961, but the couple divorced in […]

Peaches Geldof (1989 - 2014)

Geldof was born in London on 13 March 1989, the second daughter of famed singer and Live Aid founder Bob Geldof and Paula Yates and a granddaughter of Hughie Green. She had two sisters, Pixie Geldof, Fifi Trixibelle Geldof and one half-sister, Tiger Lily Hutchence.  She grew up in Chelsea, London, and Faversham, Kent, and […]

Basil Paterson (1926 - 2014)

Paterson was born in Harlem on April 27, 1926, the son of Leonard James and Evangeline Alicia (Rondon) Paterson. His father was born on the island of Carriacou in the Grenadines and arrived in the United States aboard the S.S. Vestris on May 16, 1917 in New York City. His mother was born in Kingston, […]

Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014)

Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York in 1933. She was the younger daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants Beatrice (née Grushman; January 6, 1906 – October 1975) and Meyer C. Molinsky (December 7, 1900 – January 1985). Her elder sister, Mrs. Barbara Waxler, died on June 3, 2013, aged 82. Rivers was […]

Edmund Szoka (1927 - 2014)

Edmund Casimir Szoka (September 14, 1927 – August 20, 2014) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was President Emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President Emeritus of the Governatorate of Vatican City State, having previously served as Bishop of Gaylord from 1971 to 1981 and Archbishop of […]

Edith Flagg (1919 - 2014)

Edith Flagg was born as Edith Feuerstein on November 1, 1919 in Vienna, Austria. She was raised in Galați, Romania, where her father worked as a photographer. She went to study fashion in Vienna at the age of fifteen. When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, she fled to The Netherlands and later Poland, where she […]

George Eastman (1854 - 1932)

Eastman was born in Waterville, New York to George Washington Eastman and Maria Eastman (née Kilbourn), the youngest child, at the 10-acre farm which his parents bought in 1849. He had two older sisters, Ellen Maria and Katie. He was largely self-educated, although he attended a private school in Rochester after the age of eight. […]

Stephen Foster (1826 - 1864)

Foster attended private academies in Allegheny, Athens, and Towanda, Pennsylvania. He received an education in English grammar, diction, the classics, penmanship, Latin, Greek, and mathematics. In 1839, his elder brother William was serving his apprenticeship as an engineer at nearby Towanda and thought Stephen would benefit from being under his supervision. The site of the […]

Nefertiti (1370 - 1330)

Neferneferuaten Nefertiti (ca. 1370 BC – ca. 1330 BC) was the Great Royal Wife (chief consort) of Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc. Akhenaten and Nefertiti were responsible for the creation of a whole new […]

Godfrey of Bouillon (1060 - 1100)

Godfrey of Bouillon was born around 1060 as the second son of Eustace II Count of Boulogne and Ida, daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Lower Lorraine and his wife, Doda). His birthplace was probably Boulogne-sur-Mer, although one 13th-century chronicler cites Baisy, a town in Lower Lorraine (Belgium). As second son, he had fewer opportunities than […]

Elizabeth Bathory (1560 - 1614)

Elizabeth was engaged at age 15 to Ferenc Nádasdy, the son of Baron Tamás Nádasdy de Nádasd et Fogarasföld and his wife, Orsolya Kanizsay  in what was likely a political arrangement within the circles of the aristocracy. The couple married on 8 May 1575 at the palace of Varannó. Approximately 4,500 guests attended the wedding. […]

Harry Blackstone Sr (1885 - 1965)

Harry Blackstone Sr Blackstone was in the mode of courtly, elegant predecessor magicians like Howard Thurston and Harry Kellar, and the last of that breed in America. He customarily wore white tie and tails when performing, and he traveled with large illusions and a sizable cast of uniformed male and female assistants. For a number […]

Doug Henning (1947 - 2000)

Doug Henning Henning was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, began practicing magic at Oakenwald School in Fort Garry, and later moved to Oakville, Ontario.  He performed his first show at the age of 14 at the birthday party of a friend and was inspired by his audience’s spellbound reaction. Within a few months of placing an […]

Jean Eugene Robert Houdin (1805 - 1871)

Jean Eugene Robert Houdin Master of magic Robert-Houdin was born Jean Eugène Robert in Blois, France, on 6 December 1805—a day after his autobiography said he was. His father, Prosper Robert, was one of the best watchmakers in Blois. A skillful artisan and hard worker, Prosper Robert’s main ambition was to provide for his family, […]

Albert Ebossé Bodjongo (1989 - 2014)

Bodjongo played with his hometown club Douala Athletic Club, a club in MTN Elite Two, Cameroon’s National Second Division. He also played for Coton Sport FC and Unisport Bafang in Cameroon.  He was signed by Malaysian club Perak FA on 15 April 2012 as a replacement for outgoing striker Lazar Popović. He made his league […]

Leonid Stadnyk (1970 - 2014)

Leonid Stadnyk was formerly listed as the world’s tallest living man according to Guinness World Records.  On August 20, 2008, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, Craig Glenday, announced that the title of world’s tallest man had been returned to China’s Bao Xishun after Stadnyk refused to be measured under the Guinness standard guidelines requiring several […]

Antônio Ermírio de Moraes (1928 - 2014)

Antônio Ermírio de Moraes (June 4, 1928 – August 24, 2014) was a Brazilian businessman who was the chairman of the Votorantim Group; one of the country’s largest companies, specialized in metals, paper, cement and frozen orange juice. He was the grandfather of IndyCar Series driver Mario Moraes. Moraes was also the president of the […]