If you can see your name here, it is no good sign

March 28, 2024

R I P of the day

Arden John (b. 1930-10-26 / d. 2012-03-28)

He was a English playwright whose works tended to expose social issues of personal concern. He was a member of the Royal Society of Literature.

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Sad list (6002)

Laffin
Dominique. 1985-06-12

33

Born 1952-06-03. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Heart attack

Her career was cut short at the age of 33 by a massive heart attack. Her daughter, Cémentine Autin, the politician, later said that she had committed suicide. During her short career, Laffin appeared with many of France's rising young stars, including Gérard Depardieu, Juliette Binoche and Miou-Miou as well as established stars such as Yves Montand.

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Quinlan
Karen. 1985-06-11

31

Born 1954-03-29. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident

On April 15, 1975, a few days after moving into her new house, Quinlan attended a friend's birthday party at a local bar. She had eaten almost nothing for 48 hours. At the party, she reportedly drank a few gin and tonics — and took a tranquilizer, believed to be phenobarbital, but perhaps valium or methaqualone — when she suddenly felt faint. Shortly thereafter she was taken home and put in bed. When friends checked on her about fifteen minutes later, they found she was not breathing. An ambulance was called and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was attempted. Eventually some color returned to her pallid skin, but she did not regain consciousness. Karen Quinlan was admitted to Newton Memorial Hospital in New Jersey in a coma. She remained there for nine days in an unresponsive condition before being transferred to St Clare's Hospital, a larger facility.
Karen Quinlan had suffered irreversible brain damage after experiencing an extended period of respiratory failure (lasting no more than 15–20 minutes). No precise cause of her respiratory failure has been given, although her mother has said that the doctors' best guess was that she fell asleep or passed out and aspirated on her own vomit. She was in a coma. Her eyes were "disconjugate" — that is, they no longer moved in the same direction together — and her EEG, while not flat, showed only abnormal slow-wave activity. She was in a very deep and un-recoverable form of unconsciousness called a persistent vegetative state. Over the next few months she remained in hospital and her condition gradually deteriorated. She lost weight - eventually weighing less than 80 pounds (36 kilograms). She was prone to unpredictable, violent thrashing of her limbs. She was only kept alive by nasogastric feeding and the constant presence of a ventilator to help her breathe.
After seeing Karen like this for several months, her family finally came to the conclusion that she was beyond hope, and decided to remove her from the ventilator. Hospital officials refused. They were probably wary of a recent, well-publicised case where a doctor, Kenneth Edelin had been charged with manslaughter for performing a late-term abortion. The boundaries of the "right to life" was a topical issue and the hospital's lawyers did not want to risk a legal quagmire. The Quinlan family persevered, and in 1976 they took their case to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor. When she was taken off the respirator, Quinlan surprised many by continuing to breathe unaided, and was fed by artificial nutrition for nine more years.
She lived in a persistent vegetative state until her death from pneumonia in 1985. Quinlan was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Hanover, New Jersey.

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Jankélévitch
Vladimir. 1985-06-06

81

Born 1903-08-31. Domain:Philosophy. Cause of death:Age

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Rébuffat
Gaston. 1985-05-31

64

Born 1921-05-07. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Cancer

He was a well-known French alpinist and mountain guide. The climbing technique, to gaston, was named after him. He was a recipient of France's prestigious Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1984.

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Dubuffet
Jean. 1985-05-12

84

Born 1901-01-31. Domain:Painting. Cause of death:Age

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O'Brien
Edmond. 1985-05-09

69

Born 1915-09-10. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age

He was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. (1950) and his Oscar winning role in The Barefoot Contessa (1954). His many memorable films included The Killers, White Heat, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Wild Bunch. O'Brien died in Inglewood, California, of Alzheimer's disease and was interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

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Addams
Dawn. 1985-05-07

54

Born 1930-09-21. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer

She was a ubiquitous leading lady in several episodes of The Saint, which starred Roger Moore as Simon Templar (1963 - 1967).
Her last film roles were largely in low-budget 'B' horror films, unfortunately.

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Tremblay
Daniel. 1985-04-08

35

Born 1950-03-07. Domain:Painting. Cause of death:Accident

car accident

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Deckers
Jeanne-Paule (alias: The singing nun). 1985-03-29

51

Born 1933-10-17. Domain:Religious. Cause of death:Suicide

Better known in English as The Singing Nun, she was a Belgian nun, and a member (as Sister Luc Gabriel) of the Dominican Fichermont Convent in Belgium. She became internationally famous in 1963 as Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile) when she scored a hit with the song "Dominique". In the English language world, she is mostly referred to as "The Singing Nun".
Her musical career over, Deckers opened a school for autistic children in Belgium. In the late 1970s (mentioned in the July 22, 1978 broadcast of American Top 40), the Belgian government claimed that she owed around US$63,000 in back taxes. Deckers countered that the money was given to the convent and therefore exempt from taxes. Lacking any receipts to prove her donations to the convent and her religious order, Deckers ran into heavy financial problems. In 1982 she tried, once again as Soeur Sourire, to score a hit with a disco version of "Dominique", but this last attempt to resume her singing career failed.
Citing their financial difficulties in a note, she and her companion of ten years, Anna Pécher, both committed suicide by an overdose of barbiturates and alcohol.

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Shagalov
Moishe (alias: Marc Chagall). 1985-03-28

98

Born 1887-07-07. Domain:Painting. Cause of death:Age

In 1960 he created stained glass windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem.
During the Six Day War the hospital came under severe attack and Chagall's paintings came under threat. In response to this Chagall famously wrote a letter from France stating "I am not worried about the windows, only about the safety of Israel. Let Israel be safe and I will make you lovelier windows.". Luckily, only one of them was damaged as most of the windows were taken down in time.

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Redgrave
Michael. 1985-03-21

77

Born 1908-03-20. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Other

Redgrave was born in Bristol, England the son of the silent film actor Roy Redgrave and the actress Margaret Scudamore. He never knew his father, who left when Michael was only six months old, to pursue a career in Australia. His mother remarried Captain James Anderson, a wealthy tea planter, but he hated his stepfather.
Redgrave was married to the actress Rachel Kempson for fifty years from 1935 until his death. Their children Vanessa, Corin and Lynn Redgrave, and their grandchildren - Natasha and Joely Richardson; Jemma and Luke Redgrave; and Carlo Nero - are all involved in film making (all as actors except Luke Redgrave).
He died in a Denham nursing home from Parkinson's disease in 1985, the day following his 77th birthday.

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Colasanto
Nicholas. 1985-02-12

61

Born 1924-01-19. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Heart attack

Colasanto was best known for his role as Coach Ernie Pantusso on the sitcom Cheers. He also appeared in feature films, including Fat City and Family Plot. Colasanto's heart disease had worsened by the third season of Cheers. Castmates noticed his weight loss, though the actor chose to keep the severity of his illness a secret. Shortly after the Christmas holiday in 1984, he was admitted to a local hospital due to water on his lungs. Co-star Ted Danson later commented that the veteran actor had difficulty remembering his lines during production of the third and final season for Colsanto. After being released from the hospital, Colasanto's doctor recommended he not return to work, but he mustered the strength to appear briefly in the third season finale episode, "Rescue Me." It would be his last live appearance on the show. Colasanto died of a heart attack at his home at the age of 61. Colasanto's character was written out of the show as also having passed away. The fourth season premiere episode, "Birth, Death, Love and Rice" (1985), dealt with Coach's death as well as introducing Colasanto's replacement, Woody Harrelson.

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de Fiennes
Henri (alias: Henry Hathaway). 1985-02-11

87

Born 1898-03-13. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Heart attack

Henry Hathaway made his 65th and last film in 1974. He died from a heart attack in 1985 in Hollywood and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

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Lefrique
Jeanne. 1985-01-26

67

Born 1918-00-00. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident

She married Bourvil in 1943. She was killed in a car accident while going to Bourvil's tomb.

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Audran
René. 1985-01-25

55

Born 1930-00-00. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Murder

General of the French Army. Shot by Action Directe.

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Vetrov
Vladimir Ippolitovich. 1985-01-23

52

Born 1932-10-10. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Heart

He was a high-ranking KGB spy during the Cold War, who decided to covertly release valuable information to France and NATO on the Soviet Union's clandestine program aimed at stealing technology from the West. Between the spring of 1981 and early 1982, Vetrov gave the DST almost 4,000 secret documents, including the complete official list of 250 Line X officers stationed under legal cover in embassies around the world. Included was a breakdown of the Soviet effort to collect scientific, industrial and technical information from the west to improve its own efforts. Members of the GRU, the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and several other bodies all took part in such efforts. Vetrov also provided summaries on the goals, achievements, and unfilled objectives of the program. He identified nearly 100 leads to sources in 16 countries. In February 1982, after heavy drinking caused by a cooling-off period imposed by the French, who were fearful of his discovery through too much contact, Vetrov stabbed his mistress during an argument in his car (she survived). When a man knocked on the car window, Vetrov thought his spying had been discovered, so he stabbed and killed the man. He happened to be another KGB officer. Vetrov was arrested, tried, and sentenced to 12 years in jail in the fall of 1982. While in jail, Vetrov carelessly revealed in letters that he had been involved in "something big" before going to jail. The KGB eventually discovered that he was a double agent. As part of his confession, Vetrov wrote a blistering denunciation of the Soviet system, "The Confession of a Traitor". News of his subsequent execution reached France in March 1985. The information which Vetrov provided enabled the western countries to expel nearly 150 Soviet technology spies around the world; the French expelled 47 Soviet spies, most of whom were from Line X. This caused the collapse of the Soviet's information program at a time when it was particularly crucial. The U.S. created a massive operation to provide the Soviets with faulty data and sabotaged parts for certain technologies, as a consequence to the Farewell Dossier. Vetrov was also responsible for exposing the spy Dieter Gerhardt, a senior officer in the South African Navy who had been spying for the Soviets for 20 years.

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Surtees
Robert. 1985-01-05

78

Born 1906-08-09. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Age

Robert L. Surtees was an American cinematographer who won Academy Awards three times, for the films King Solomon's Mines, The Bad and the Beautiful and the 1959 version of Ben Hur.

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de Lacretelle
Jacques. 1985-01-02

97

Born 1888-07-14. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Age

"Silbermann".
He was a member of "les croix de feu".
His grand-daughter, Hortense de Labriffe, married Arnaud Montebourg.

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Peckinpah
Sam. 1984-12-28

59

Born 1925-02-21. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs

Throughout his life, Peckinpah was plagued by alcoholism, drug addiction, and, according to some, mental illness (possibly manic depression or paranoia). He was married three times. His personality reportedly often swung between a sweet, soft-spoken, artistic disposition, and bouts of rage and violence during which he verbally and physically abused himself and others. He was fascinated with guns and was known to shoot the mirrors in his house during his "benders",

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Lawford
Peter. 1984-12-24

61

Born 1923-09-07. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Heart

He was a British-born American actor, member of Frank Sinatra's "Rat Pack," and brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting.
He performed in the film "Ocean Eleven" (1960).
His fourth and final marriage, in July 1984, after a nine-year courtship, was to Patricia Seaton. Lawford died in a hospital in Los Angeles of cardiac arrest complicated by kidney and liver failure.

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Merida
Carlos. 1984-12-21

93

Born 1891-12-02. Domain:Painting. Cause of death:Age

He was a Guatemalan artist who was one of the first to fuse European modern painting to Latin American themes, especially those related to Guatemala and Mexico.

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Milgram
Stanley. 1984-12-20

51

Born 1933-08-15. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Heart attack

He was a social psychologist at Yale University, Harvard University and the City University of New York. While at Harvard, he conducted the small-world experiment (the source of the six degrees of separation concept), and while at Yale, he conducted the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority. He also introduced the concept of familiar strangers.
A French political thriller, titled I... comme Icare ("I"...as in Icarus), involves a key scene where Milgram's experiment on obedience to authority is explained and shown.

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Magne
Michel. 1984-12-19

54

Born 1930-03-20. Domain:Music. Cause of death:Suicide

Michel Magne was a French film and experimental music composer. He was nominated in 1962 for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for adapting the Jackie Gleason score to film Gigot. He also scored Barbarella and a series of OSS 117 films. Magne wrote some songs with lyrics by Françoise Sagan for Juliette Gréco and provided orchestral accompaniment. In 1962, he purchased the Château d'Hérouville, near Pontoise, and converted it into a residential recording studio in 1969, known as Studio d'enregistrement Michel Magne, which through the 1970s was used by a series of artists such as Elton John (at his Honky Château), Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens, and the Bee Gees among many others. In 1972, he married Marie-Claude, née Calvet, having met her in 1970, near Hérouville while she was hitch-hiking as a schoolgirl. The couple moved to the south of France in 1974. Magne committed suicide with barbiturates in 1984, in a hotel room.

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de Rosnay
Arnaud. 1984-11-24

38

Born 1946-03-09. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident

He died while trying to wind surf through the detroit of Taiwan.

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Himes
Chester. 1984-11-12

75

Born 1909-07-29. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Age

Himes wrote in his autobiography:
Up to the age of thirty-one I had been hurt emotionally, spiritually and physically as much as thirty-one years can bear. I had lived in the South, I had fallen down an elevator shaft, I had been kicked out of college, I had served seven and one half years in prison, I had survived the humiliating last five years of Depression in Cleveland; and still I was entire, complete, functional; my mind was sharp, my reflexes were good, and I was not bitter. But under the mental corrosion of race prejudice in Los Angeles I became bitter and saturated with hate.
In 1969, fleeing oppression, Himes moved to Moraira, Spain, where he died in 1984 from Parkinson's Disease.

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Gandhi
Indira. 1984-10-31

66

Born 1917-11-19. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder

Indira Gandhi had numerous bodyguards, two of whom were Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, both Sikhs. They assassinated Indira Gandhi with their service weapons in the garden of the Prime Minister's Residence at No. 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi. As she was walking to be interviewed by the British actor Peter Ustinov filming a documentary for Irish television, she passed a wicket gate, guarded by Satwant and Beant. According to information available immediately following the incident, Beant Singh shot her thrice using his side-arm and Satwant Singh fired twenty-two rounds into her using a Sten submachine gun. Beant Singh was shot dead and Satwant Singh was shot and arrested by her other bodyguards.
Gandhi died on her way to the hospital, in her official car, but she was not declared dead until many hours later. She was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where doctors operated on her. Official accounts at the time stated as many as 29 entry and exit wounds and some reports stated 31 bullets were extracted from her body. She was cremated on 3 November, near Raj Ghat and the place was called Shakti Sthal. After her death, sectarian unrest created by congress politicians loyal to Indira Gandhi engulfed New Delhi and several other cities in India, including Kanpur, Asansol and Indore, leading to the death of thousands of Sikhs. Gandhi's friend and biographer Pupul Jayakar would later reveal Indira's tension, and her premonition about what might happen in the wake of Operation Blue Star.

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Ogier
Pascale. 1984-10-25

25

Born 1958-10-26. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Heart attack

« Tu m'excuseras mignonne
D'avoir pas pu pleurer
En suivant les couronnes
De tes amis branchés
Parce que ton dealer
Était peut-être là
À respirer ces fleurs
Que tu n'aimerais pas
À recompter ces roses
Qu'il a payé au prix
De ta dernière dose
Et de ton dernier cri

P'tite conne
Allez, repose-toi
Tout près de Morrison
Et pas trop loin de moi »

Renaud, P'tite conne, in: Mistral gagnant, 1985.

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Brion
Marcel. 1984-10-23

89

Born 1895-11-21. Domain:Writing. Cause of death:Age

He was the father of Patrick Brion, the voice of "Cinéma de minuit"

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Bschliessmayer
Oskar (alias: Oskar Werner). 1984-10-23

61

Born 1922-11-13. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Heart attack

"Jules", in François Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962);
His alcoholism apparently having resulted in the decline of his acting career, Werner died of a heart attack in 1984, at the age of 61, just before he was scheduled to deliver a lecture at a German drama club.

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Truffaut
François. 1984-10-21

52

Born 1932-02-06. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:cancer (brain)

Truffaut was born out of wedlock. He never met his biological father, who was a Jewish dentist. His mother's future husband Roland Truffaut accepted him as an adopted son and gave him his surname.

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