Robert Sterling (1917 - 2006)

After signing with Columbia Pictures in 1939, he changed his name to Robert Sterling to avoid confusion with silent western star William S. Hart. His name was legally changed while he was a second lieutenant officer attending flight training in Marfa in West Texas in 1943. In 1939, he performed with Shemp Howard, of “The Three […]

Anne Jeffreys (1923 - 2017)

Born Anne Carmichael on January 26, 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Anne Jeffreys entered the entertainment field at a young age, having her initial training in voice (she was an accomplished soprano). “She became a member of the New York Municipal Opera Company on a scholarship and sang the lead at Carnegie Hall in such […]

Hugh Hefner (1926 - 2017)

Hugh Hefner In January 1952, Hugh Hefner left his job as a copywriter for Esquire after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage, generating a bank loan of $600, and raised $8,000 from 45 investors, including $1,000 from his mother (“Not because she believed in the venture,” he told […]

Bernie Casey (1939 - 2017)

Bernie Casey was a record-breaking track and field athlete for Bowling Green State University. He earned All-America recognition and a trip to the finals at the 1960 United States Olympic Trials. In addition to national honors, Casey won three consecutive Mid-American Conference titles in the high-hurdles, 1958–60. Bernie Casey was drafted by the San Francisco […]

Leonard Mason (1920 - 1944)

Leonard Mason (February 22, 1920 – July 22, 1944) served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Battle of Guam where he was mortally wounded. Leonard Foster Mason was born on February 22, 1920 in Middlesboro, Kentucky. He enlisted in […]

Suzan Farmer (1942 - 2017)

Suzan Maxine Farmer (16 June 1942 – 17 September 2017) was an English film and television actress. She appeared in an episode of the Patrick McGoohan series Danger Man entitled “No Marks for Servility” and also featured in many other ITC series in the 1960s and 70s including UFO, Man in a Suitcase, The Persuaders!, […]

Goldy McJohn (1945 - 2017)

John Raymond Goadsby (May 2, 1945 – August 1, 2017), known as Goldy McJohn, was a Canadian keyboard player best known as the original keyboardist for rock group Steppenwolf. Originally a classically trained pianist, he was a pioneer in the early use of the electronic organ (Hammond B3) in heavy metal. He was also an […]

Vito Scotti (1918 - 1996)

Vito Scotti entered movies and television by the late 1940s. He made his film debut, playing an uncredited role as a Mexican youth in Illegal Entry (1949), with Howard Duff and George Brent. By 1953, Scotti replaced J. Carrol Naish as Luigi Basco, an Italian immigrant who ran a Chicago antique store, on the television version […]

William Bigler (1814 - 1880)

William Bigler (January 1, 1814 – August 9, 1880) was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as the 12th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1852 to 1855, and later a U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania from 1856 until 1861. William Bigler was born in rural Pennsylvania and received little formal education; he studied informally under his elder brother […]

John Bigler (1805 - 1871)

John Bigler was born in early 1805 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to parents of German ancestry. Beginning work in the printing trade at an early age, Bigler, as well as his younger brother, William, never received a formal education, yet Bigler took it upon himself to educate his younger brother. In 1831, both brothers moved to […]

Asa Biggs (1811 - 1878)

Asa Biggs (February 4, 1811 – March 6, 1878) was a North Carolina politician who held a number of positions. He was a U.S. Representative, a U.S. Senator, and federal judge. Biggs was born in Williamston, Martin County, North Carolina. He read law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and commenced practice in Williamston. He was […]

Jacob Howard (1805 - 1871)

Jacob Howard was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, and attended the district schools and the academies of Bennington and Brattleboro. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1830 and then studied law. He moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1832 and was admitted to the bar in 1833 and commenced practice in Detroit. He was city […]

John Biddle (1792 - 1859)

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, John Biddle enlisted in the U.S. Army and was appointed a second lieutenant in the Third Artillery on July 6, 1812 and promoted to first lieutenant March 13, 1813. He was attached to the staff of General Winfield Scott on the Niagara Frontier for most of the […]

Novella Nelson (1939 - 2017)

Novella Christine Nelson (December 17, 1938 – September 1, 2017) was an American actress and singer. She established her career as a singer, both on the off-Broadway and Broadway stage and in cabaret-style locales. Nelson was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 17, 1938. Novella Nelson was born to James and Evelyn (formerly Hines) Nelson in […]

Jackie Burkett (1936 - 2017)

Jackie Burkett accepted a scholarship from Auburn University, where he was a two-way player, playing center and linebacker, while also calling the defensive signals. He was named a starter as a sophomore and was a part of a team that won the SEC and the National championship. That squad was led by its defense, which registered […]

Paul Schaal (1943 - 2017)

Paul Schaal (March 3, 1943 – September 1, 2017) was an American professional baseball player who played 11 seasons for the Los Angeles / California Angels and Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball. Paul Schaal became the Angels regular third baseman in his rookie season in 1965. He quickly established himself as a slick fielding […]

Rudolph Hass (1892 - 1952)

After reading a magazine article illustrating an avocado tree with dollar bills hanging from it in 1925, Rudolph Hass used all the money he had, plus a loan from his sister, Ida Hass, to buy a small acre and a half avocado grove at 430 West Road La Habra Heights, California. The trees were old […]

Alex Hawkins (1937 - 2017)

From 1956-58, Alex Hawkins starred collegiately for South Carolina, rushing for 1,491 yards and being voted 1958’s Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year. He was the 13th player selected in the 1959 NFL Draft. As a rookie, Hawkins was a member of the Baltimore team that won the 1959 NFL Championship Game, defeating the New […]

Frank Vincent (1937 - 2017)

Skilled at the drums, piano and trumpet, Frank Vincent originally aspired to a career in music, but turned to acting in 1976, when he co-starred in the low-budget gangster movie The Death Collector along with Joe Pesci, where they were spotted by Robert De Niro. De Niro told Martin Scorsese about both Vincent and Pesci; […]

Harry Stanton (1926 - 2017)

Harry Stanton appeared in indie and cult films (Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, Escape from New York, Repo Man), as well as many mainstream Hollywood productions, including Cool Hand Luke, The Godfather Part II, Alien, Red Dawn, Alpha Dog, Pretty in Pink, Stephen King’s Christine and The Green Mile. He was a favorite actor of Sam Peckinpah, […]

Harvey Milk (1930 - 1978)

Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Despite being the most pro-LGBT politician in the United States at the time, politics and activism were not […]

Harry Benjamin (1885 - 1986)

In 1948, in San Francisco, Harry Benjamin was asked by Alfred Kinsey, a fellow sexologist, to see a child who “wanted to become a girl” despite being born male; the mother wished for help that would assist rather than thwart the child. Kinsey had encountered the child as a result of his interviews for Sexual […]

David Reimer (1965 - 2004)

David Reimer was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was originally named Bruce, and his identical twin was named Brian. At the age of six months, after concern was raised about how both of them urinated, the boys were diagnosed with phimosis. They were referred for circumcision at the age of seven months. On April 27, […]

John Money (1921 - 2006)

Born in Morrinsville, New Zealand, to a family of English and Welsh descent, John Money initially studied psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with a double master’s degree in psychology and education in 1944. John Money was a junior member of the psychology faculty at the University of Otago in Dunedin, but in 1947, […]

Evelyn Hooker (1907 - 1996)

Evelyn Hooker was born Evelyn Gentry in North Platte, Nebraska, in her grandmother’s house and grew up with eight brothers and sisters in the Colorado Plains. When she was 13, her family moved to Sterling, Colorado. The journey to Sterling would be one of Evelyn’s fondest memories. Evelyn’s mother, Jessie Bethel, who had a third grade […]

Steve Endean (1948 - 1993)

Stephen Robert “Steve” Endean (August 6, 1948 – August 4, 1993) was an early gay rights activist, first in Minnesota, then nationally. He was born in Davenport, Iowa, and came to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota from 1968-1972, majoring in political science. In 1971, Endean founded the Minnesota Committee for Gay Rights (later Gay Rights […]

Blake Brockington (1996 - 2015)

Blake Brockington was born on May 14, 1996 in Charleston, South Carolina. He moved from Charleston to Charlotte, North Carolina, when he was 12. Brockington was assigned the sex of female at birth and identified as such publicly until he came out publicly as transgender while attending East Mecklenburg High School as a tenth grade student. […]

Joseph Beam (1954 - 1988)

Baptised as a Catholic, the young Joseph Beam studied mainly in parochial schools, including the Malvern Preparatory School, St. Thomas More High School and Franklin College, a small liberal arts college founded by American Baptists in Franklin, Indiana (20 miles south of Indianapolis). An only child, his boyhood was difficult and solitary; he was often […]

Edith Windsor (1929 - 2017)

During college, Edith met Saul Windsor. Their relationship ended at one time during the engagement when Windsor fell in love with a female classmate. However, after Windsor decided she did not want to live life as a lesbian, they reconciled and got married after graduation. They divorced less than one year afterward, and she confided […]

Elizabeth Kemp (1951 - 2017)

Elizabeth Kemp was in the original cast of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which began at The Actors Studio off-Broadway before it transferred to Broadway and became a long-running smash hit. Her mentor, Elia Kazan, took Tennessee Williams to see Kemp in this production and when Williams was looking for the actress to play […]