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Chwatt Aaron (b. 1919-02-05 / d. 2006-07-13) alias Red Buttons
José Ferrer chose Buttons to appear in a Broadway show The Admiral Had a Wife. The show was a farce set in Pearl Harbor, and it was due to open on December 8, 1941. It never did, as it was deemed inappropriate after the Japanese attack. In later years Buttons would joke that the Japanese only attacked Pearl Harbor to keep him off of Broadway.
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53
Born 1969-05-25. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
Anne Celeste Heche was an American actress who came to recognition portraying twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love on the soap opera Another World (1987–1991), winning her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards. She achieved greater prominence in the late 1990s with roles in the crime drama film Donnie Brasco (1997), the disaster film Volcano (1997), the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), the action comedy film Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), and the drama-thriller film Return to Paradise (1998).
On August 5, 2022, Heche was involved in a sequence of two car crashes in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, first when the Mini Cooper she was driving hit a garage at an apartment complex, and second when she crashed into a house, resulting in a fire that left her severely burned. A video recorded in the moments before the final crash shows Heche's vehicle navigating a neighborhood street at a very high speed, followed a few seconds later by the sound of a crash. The vehicle collision and resulting house fire required 59 firefighters to handle, who took 65 minutes to fully extinguish the fire and rescue Heche from the vehicle. The house was left structurally compromised and uninhabitable. The tenant of the house sustained minor injuries, but said that she and her pets were almost killed and that she had lost all of her personal property to the fire.
Law enforcement officials said that Heche was "deemed to be under the influence and acting erratically" at the time of the crashes. The Los Angeles Police Department said that a preliminary blood analysis confirmed the presence of narcotics in Heche's system, although more comprehensive toxicology tests that could take weeks are required to identify specific drugs.
Heche was removed from the crash scene on a stretcher, and was transported to a hospital. She was filmed sitting up on the stretcher and struggling with paramedics as she was being wheeled into the ambulance; however, she lost consciousness soon afterward. On August 8, a representative for Heche said she was in a coma in extremely critical condition, with medical ventilation required for a pulmonary injury. On August 11, the representative said that Heche was not expected to survive due to an anoxic brain injury, and that she was being kept on life support to determine if her organs were viable for donation, in accordance with her expressed wish to be an organ donor. Heche was declared brain dead a few hours later on August 11, but remained on life support to assess organ donor viability and locate recipients. Her family released a statement saying they "lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul".
84
Born 1933-10-27. Domain:Science (Physics style). Cause of death:Age
Gerald Marvin Weinberg was an American computer scientist, author and teacher of the psychology and anthropology of computer software development. His most well-known books are The Psychology of Computer Programming and Introduction to General Systems Thinking. Egoless programming is a style of computer programming in which personal factors are minimized so that quality may be improved. The cooperative methods suggested are similar to those used by other collective ventures such as Wikipedia. Prefactoring is the application of experience to the creation of new software systems. Its relationship to its namesake refactoring is that lessons learned from refactoring are part of that experience. The guidelines have come from a number of sources, including Jerry Weinberg, Norm Kerth, and Scott Ambler. These guidelines include: "When you're abstract, be abstract all the way" "Splitters can be lumped more easily than lumpers can be split" "Use the client’s language"
75
Born 1942-10-21. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:cancer (pancreas)
Hugh Dane was an American actor. He is best known for playing Hank the security guard on the television sitcom The Office from 2005 to 2013. Dane's professional acting career began with a role in the 1989 video game, It Came from the Desert before moving on to his first television role in a two-part episode of Hunter. In 1991, Dane acted in his first film role as a prison guard in the crime-thriller Ricochet. In the following years, Dane played small roles in popular television series' such as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Boy Meets World, Martin, Friends ("The One With The Baby On The Bus"), Sister, Sister, Monk and Girl Meets World.
98
Born 1917-02-26. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
He was a Moroccan-French racing driver. He was born in Paris, France, but raced under the Moroccan flag, the only driver to do so in F1 history. He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix, driving a privately run Formula 2 Cooper. He finished 14th, five laps behind the winner, scoring no championship points. He was classified third in the F2 class. He was the oldest living World Championship driver from the death of Paul Pietsch in May 2012 until his own death in July 2015.
90
Born 1922-05-12. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
He was a British motor racing driver and manager. He participated in 50 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 12 July 1952, and achieved two podiums, scoring a total of 19 Championship points. He was born in Dovercourt, Essex, to parents of Italian descent. During a varied career he also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959, driving for Aston Martin and teamed with Carroll Shelby. After retiring from driving he returned to running his car dealership, but was tempted back to Formula One to manage the Cooper racing team in 1966 and 1967.
88
Born 1922-09-15. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
He was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination. At age 9, he was also the youngest performer to have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role—an honor that he received for the film Skippy (1931). For nearly 50 years, Cooper remained the youngest Oscar nominee in any category, until he was surpassed by Justin Henry's nomination, at age 8, in the Supporting Actor category for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). Cooper died after a short illness.
35
Born 1974-06-10. Domain:Art. Cause of death:Suicide
Tobi Wong was a Canadian born designer. He was known for his appropriation of work by other designers.
One of his most elaborate productions was the Wrong Store, a hoax-like exhibition he organized in 2007 with Gregory Krum, the director of retail at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.
77
Born 1931-07-20. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
"Tony" Marsh was a British racing driver from England. His Formula One career was short and unsuccessful, but he later enjoyed great success in hillclimbing, winning the British Hill Climb Championship on a record six occasions, divided into two sets of three successive titles. His first 'batch' came in a Cooper-JAP in 1955-56-57, while exactly a decade later (1965-66-67) he repeated the hat-trick at the wheel of his own Marsh-GM special.
Marsh continued to compete in hillclimbs until 2008.
99
Born 1908-09-07. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Age
On December 31, 2005, at age 97, DeBakey suffered an aortic dissection. Years prior, DeBakey had pioneered the surgical treatment of this condition, creating what is now known as the DeBakey Procedure. He was hospitalized at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas.
Dr. DeBakey initially resisted the surgical option, but as his health deteriorated and DeBakey became unresponsive, the surgical team opted to proceed with surgical intervention. In a controversial decision, Houston Methodist Hospital Ethics Committee approved the operation; on February 9–10, he became the oldest patient ever to undergo the surgery for which he was responsible. The operation lasted seven hours. After a complicated post-operative course that required eight months in the hospital, at a cost of over one million dollars, Dr. DeBakey was released in September 2006 and returned to good health. Although DeBakey had previously refused surgery, he later stated that he was grateful that his surgical team performed the operation.
DeBakey died of natural causes at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. DeBakey was preceded in death by his first wife, Diana Cooper DeBakey who died of a heart attack in 1972 and by his sons, Houston lawyer Ernest O. DeBakey, who died in 2004, and Barry E. DeBakey, who died in 2007. His brother Dr. Ernest G. DeBakey died in 2006. Ernest DeBakey was a cancer specialist in Mobile, Alabama. In addition to his wife, Katrin, and their daughter, Olga, DeBakey is survived by sons Michael and Denis, as well as sisters Lois and Selma DeBakey, who are both medical editors and linguists at Baylor.
27
Born 1980-11-24. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
Kiel was selected by the Chargers with the 62nd pick of the second round in the 2003 NFL Draft. Over his four seasons with the Chargers, he played in 59 games and started 51. He was cut on March 1, 2007, and was declared a free agent the following day.
In July 2003, Kiel was shot three times during an alleged attempted carjacking incident at a southwest Houston mall parking lot. The assailant, described as a man in his young teens or early 20s, fled the scene. None of Kiel's injuries were serious and he was shortly released by the hospital.
In September 2006, Kiel was arrested for multiple drug charges including possession, possession with the intent to sell, and transportation of a controlled substance. Police came to the Chargers practice facility and arrested him. He was released after posting a $1,550,000 bond.
In January 2007, he was cited for publicly urinating outside a San Diego nightclub, but the city dropped the charge. In February 2007, he pleaded guilty to felony and misdemeanor drug charges for shipping codeine-based cough syrup to Texas. He was released by the Chargers after his plea. The felony charge was dropped after he volunteered for 175 hours and underwent counseling for gambling.
On July 4, 2008, San Diego police reported that Kiel had died in a car crash. He was driving back home from a party thrown by Chargers player Stephen Cooper when his 2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo hit a wall and he was thrown from the car.
The autopsy report stated that Kiel died due to mechanical asphyxia. His funeral was held at hometown Lufkin, Texas.
27
Born 1980-07-11. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
Cooper began his racing career in 1998 driving Holden HQ sedans. Leading the 2005 Commodore Cup championship for most of the year, Cooper finished fourth at the final round at Eastern Creek Raceway. In 2006, Cooper was crowned V8 Utes Rookie of the Year. He competed in three rounds of the 2007 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series, with a top 15 finish at Queensland Raceway.
Cooper suffered severe head and internal injuries after crashing his Holden VZ Commodore into a guard rail at over 200 kph during the Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series race at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide on 23 February 2008.
He died two days later. A registered organ donor, Cooper's heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas and liver have been donated to seven people, including a six-year-old child.
76
Born 1931-03-06. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Age
Stewart raced a Cooper Bristol for the Scottish Ecurie Ecosse team at the 1953 British Grand Prix, but failed to finish after crashing at Copse.
His career, which began in local sprints and hillclimbing, saw his greatest successes coming in sportscar racing.
He won a host of events in Britain and abroad before retiring in 1955 at the age of just 24.
After his racing career ended, he worked in vehicle sales in the UK and America, and beat a 40-year battle with alcoholism in the late 1990s before setting up home close to where he grew up near Dumbarton in Scotland.
In his recent Autobiography, Jackie Stewart said: "I owe him almost everything because, when I was young and struggling at school, the world seemed a dark place, I found my real salvation in motor racing.
"But I only found it because, in my difficult time of need and confusion, it was my older brother who carried the torch and selflessly showed me the way.
"It was almost as if Jim was beckoning me to join him on a magic carpet ride, carrying me out of the wilderness at school into the exciting, glamorous world of motor racing."
33
Born 1975-00-00. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:alcohol, other drugs
Stunning Natasha, 32, and the BBC children’s show presenter are said to have stayed up until nearly dawn snorting the Class A drug.
After snatching a few hours’ sleep they woke at lunchtime on Thursday, when Natasha said she felt unwell and went for a bath.
Speight became worried a few minutes later when the bathroom fell silent. He went in and discovered Natasha’s lifeless body in the still warm water.
The CBBC SMart show star pulled her out of the bath and tried desperately to revive her with mouth-to-mouth. He then dialled 999 and paramedics fought in vain to save her.
Police were also called to the couple’s £625,000 penthouse in St John’s Wood, North London, and Speight, 42, was arrested on suspicion of Natasha’s murder.
He was later also arrested for supplying her with a Class A drug after reportedly telling cops how they had snorted cocaine together the night before.
Distraught Speight was taken to Marylebone police station, where he repeatedly broke down sobbing during his interview.
A police source said: “He did everything he could to save her. He was absolutely distraught afterwards and fully cooperative. He gave a full and frank account of what happened.”
She is said to have suffered regular fits after being injured in a car accident several years ago and lapsing into a coma. Neighbours also reported she had recently become painfully thin.
Natasha’s mum Carmen later issued a statement saying: “We are all absolutely distraught over the death of Natasha. She was our loving, caring daughter who was always full of life.”
Natasha met Speight in 1998 when they worked together on kids’ TV show See It Saw It. She played See, a court jester to a king played by Speight. Speight, who first found fame on ITV’s Saturday morning kids’ show Scratchy & Co, has worked on CBBC’s SMart since 1995.
OTHER kids' TV stars caught in scandal include ex-Blue Peter host John Leslie, filmed in a cocaine-fuelled orgy with Abi Titmuss in 2003, and Jamie Theakston, who had sex with a hooker in a Mayfair bondage den. In 1998 Blue Peter axed Richard Bacon over a 12-hour booze and cocaine bender.
62
Born 1944-12-15. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Murder
Zheng was the head of the State Pharmaceutical Administration from 1994 to 1998, head of the State Drug Administration from 1998 to 2003, and head of the State Food and Drug Administration from 2003 to 2005.
Zheng retired in 2005. He first came under investigation by the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in December 2006 and was expelled from the Party in March 2007.
In May 2007, Zheng was convicted of taking bribes and dereliction of duty and sentenced to death by a trial court in Beijing. These corrupt practices are believed to have led to 40 deaths in Panama from cough syrup that contained diethylene glycol in place of glycerin.
Zheng entered an appeal for leniency on June 12, saying that the sentence was "too severe" citing the fact that he had confessed his crimes and cooperated with investigators. However, the court ruled that he was a "great danger" to the country and its reputation.
The appeal was rejected on June 22 and he was executed by shooting.
85
Born 1920-03-03. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Other
Doohan suffered from Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and lung fibrosis in later life. In 2004, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
the cause of his death is identified as pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease. In what may be regarded as an ironic coincidence, Doohan died on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, arguably the greatest engineering achievement in human history.
Almost two years after his death, approximately one-quarter ounce (7 grams) of Doohan's ashes were sent into space, as he had requested in his will. The ashes, along with those of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper as well as almost 200 others, were launched on the SpaceLoft XL rocket, on April 28, 2007, when the rocket briefly entered outer space in a suborbital flight before parachuting to earth, as planned, with the payload still inside. The rest of his remains were scattered over Puget Sound in Washington.
beam me up, Scotty, is a catch phrase from the original series star trek.
77
Born 1927-03-06. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Age
Cooper developed Parkinson's disease late in life and at age 77 died from heart failure at his home in Ventura, California on October 4, 2004, which was also the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch and the same day SpaceShipOne made its second official qualifying flight and won the Ansari X-Prize.
69
Born 1935-03-12. Domain:Science (Medical/Bio style). Cause of death:Operation
He was at the center of a major international controversy in 1988 when he published a paper in the prestigious scientific journal Nature reporting on the action of very high dilutions of anti-immunoglobulin E on the degranulation of human basophils, a kind of white blood cell. Biologists were puzzled by these results as only molecules of water, and no molecules of the initial substance (anti-IgE) are expected to be found in these high dilutions. These results seem to indicate that the configuration of molecules in water may be biologically active. A journalist coined the term water memory for this hypothesis.
As a condition for publication, Nature asked for the results to be replicated by independent laboraties, which was done. The article was then published. A follow-up investigation of Benveniste's laboratory by a team including Nature editor Dr. John Maddox and "professional pseudo-science debunker" James Randi, with the cooperation of Benveniste's own team, failed to replicate the results. Subsequent investigations have yielded mixed results. Benveniste's reputation was damaged, but he refused to retract his controversial article. He began to fund his research himself as his external sources of funding were withdrawn, and in 1997 he founded the company DigiBio to further his research:: "The principal mission of DigiBio is to develop and commercialise applications of Digital Biology."
Benveniste died in Paris at the age of 69 after heart surgery.
87
Born 1916-03-16. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Age
Carlotta Mercedes Agnes McCambridge was an American actress of radio, stage, film, and television. Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress." She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her screen debut in All the King's Men (1949) and was nominated in the same category for Giant (1956). She also provided the voice of the demon Pazuzu in The Exorcist (1973). In 1954, she co-starred with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden in the offbeat western drama, Johnny Guitar, now regarded as a cult classic. McCambridge and Hayden publicly declared their dislike of Crawford, with McCambridge labeling her "a mean, tipsy, powerful, rotten-egg lady. In 1979, McCambridge's son John Markle, a UCLA graduate with a Ph.D. in Economics, joined the Little Rock, Arkansas investment firm Stephens Inc. after working for Salomon Brothers in New York City. Markle was a successful futures trader, and quickly rose through the company's ranks. McCambridge gave Markle $604,000 to manage for her, but in the fall of 1987, the company discovered that Markle had opened a secret account in McCambridge's name. Soon the company found that Markle had been charging trading losses to the Stephens house account, while crediting profitable trades to McCambridge's account. Markle was later shown to have forged his mother's signature in opening the account. Markle was placed on medical leave, then fired from his position at Stephens. McCambridge refused to cooperate with Markle and the company in instituting a repayment scheme that would have kept the matter from becoming public, saying that she had done nothing wrong and that Stephens Inc. owed her money. Shortly thereafter, in November 1987, Markle killed his family—his wife Christine (age 45) and daughters Amy (age 13) and Suzanne (age 9)—and then himself. He left a note taking responsibility for his crimes and a long, bitter letter to his mother. The letter contained the following: "Initially you said, 'well, we can work it out' but NO, you refused… You called me a liar, a cheat, a criminal, a bum. You said I have ruined your life… You were never around much when I needed you, so now I and my whole family are dead — so you can have the money… 'Night, Mother." A $5 million lawsuit was filed against Markle's estate and McCambridge claiming fraud and misappropriation of funds. Although some of the mishandled funds had been handled under McCambridge's name through Markle's power of attorney, she herself was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.
58
Born 1943-11-26. Domain:Directing. Cause of death:Cancer
Paltrow died while vacationing in Rome, Italy, to celebrate his daughter's (Gwyneth) 30th birthday. He had suffered from oral cancer for several years, and his death was due to complications from cancer and pneumonia. In 2007, his widow, in cooperation with The Oral Cancer Foundation, set up a fund in his name to address the oral cancer issues in the US. The foundation works primarily in the areas of public awareness, early detection, patient support functions and research.
77
Born 1924-05-03. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Cancer
Tyrrell served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. After the war he became a timber merchant. In 1951 he began racing a Cooper in Formula 3. A good but not great driver, he achieved a number of good placings and the occasional win but, realising he was not going to reach the top, Ken Tyrrell stood down as a driver in 1959, and began to run a Formula Junior team using the woodshed owned by his family business, Tyrrell Brothers, as a workshop.
86
Born 1913-09-12. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Accident
Although one of British cinema's most recognisable characters and an important and long-standing element in the 'Bond' franchise, 'Q' did not make Desmond Llewelyn rich: the actor was merely paid 'by the day' for his few hours of work on-set, and did not share in the money made by the films. Contrary to his gadget-expert character in the Bond films, Llewelyn always maintained that he was totally lost in the world of technology, a trait that also plagued his successor, John Cleese.
Llewelyn was killed in a road accident after returning home from a friend's house. His Renault Megane car without other occupants collided head-on with a 35-year-old man driving a bronze Fiat Bravo company car on the A27 road near the village of Berwick, East Sussex. He died shortly afterwards. He was 85. The other driver was seriously injured. Roger Moore, who had appeared with Llewelyn in six Bond movies, spoke at his funeral.
John Cooper, of Berwick, near Eastbourne, told the inquest how he was travelling in the same eastbound direction as Mr Llewelyn on the A27 when he saw the blue Renault pull out.
He said: "The car went onto the wrong side of the road. I saw an oncoming car and then a few seconds later a collision.
"The manoeuvre by the blue car was a firm one. There was nothing hesitant about it."
Mr Llewelyn's vehicle went into the front of a hire car being driven by Rhys Morgan.
Mr Llewelyn's son Ivor told the court how his father, born in Newport, Gwent, was on his way back from Wales to sign copies of his biography in Alfriston, East Sussex.
Mr Llewelyn said: "For his age he was remarkable. He travelled a lot."
Pathologist Dr Christopher Moffat told the inquest that although there was sign of heart disease, there was no evidence to suggest Mr Llewelyn had suffered a heart attack.
He had a successful bypass operation several years before to ease his condition.
Coroner Mr Craze concluded: "It would appear Mr Llewelyn was wholly on the wrong side of the road. The overtaking manoeuvre occurred at a time when it was not appropriate."
Mr Morgan received a broken leg, pelvis and ribs, cuts and damaged eyesight.
39
Born 1958-02-27. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
Michael Kennedy died at the end of 1997 in a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado. He was skiing with several other members of the Kennedy family when he hit a tree while they were playing football on skis. Kennedy was not wearing a helmet or other safety equipment, and was reportedly filming the football game on a camcorder.
In 1997, the news broke that Michael Kennedy was having an affair with the family's former babysitter. Allegedly, the affair had begun three years before when the babysitter was a fourteen-year-old teenager, and Kennedy was placed under investigation for statutory rape. However, the babysitter did not cooperate with prosecutors. Shortly after the scandal began, Michael Kennedy and his wife separated. After the affair, Michael Kennedy checked himself into a rehab center for alcoholics.
73
Born 1909-08-15. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Cancer
Jean Martinelli was a French actor who appeared in over 50 French films between 1933 and 1983, mostly in supporting roles. One of his few international films was Alfred Hitchcock's classic film To Catch a Thief (1955), where he played the role of a one-legged waiter. Martinelli also worked in television and theatre. He was married to the actress Nadine Basile. He also did a lot of dubbing, lending his soft, deep voice to actors such as John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster and Raymond Burr, as well as to animated characters such as Shere Khan and Colonel Hathi in The Jungle Book. For children in particular, he remained the voice of the famous Nounours in Bonne nuit les petits (replacing Georges Aubert).
77
Born 1905-04-05. Domain:Politics. Cause of death:Age
The son of a cobbler, Rochet was named in honor of the anti-clerical politician Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau.
Favorable to left-wing cooperation, Rochet directed the PCF votes towards François Mitterrand in the presidential elections of 1965. The problem he faced as general secretary was the balance between a needed rejuvenation of the PCF structure and maintaining an orthodox Marxist-Leninist ideology. In consequence, he publicly stated his disregard for the leftist movement of May 1968, while later in the same year he had to deal with the Soviet crushing of the Prague Spring (when he tended to be favorable to the latter). The considerable stress of dealing with the latter event took a great toll on Rochet's nervous health.
34
Born 1934-11-10. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
Lucien Bianchi, born Luciano Bianchi, was an Italian-Belgian racing driver who raced for the Cooper, ENB, UDT Laystall and Scuderia Centro Sud teams in Formula One. He entered a total of 19 Formula One World Championship races, scoring six points and had a best finish of third at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix. He died in a testing crash in preparation for the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans. His grandnephew, Jules Bianchi, who made his Formula One debut with the Marussia team for the 2013 season competing under the French flag, also died as a result of injuries sustained in a racing accident.
60
Born 1901-05-07. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:cancer (prostate)
He had undergone surgery for prostate cancer and colon cancer in the previous year, but as there were no means of monitoring the progress of cancer in those days it spread first to his lungs and then, most painfully, to his bones. Cooper was too ill to attend the Academy Awards ceremony in April 1961, so his close friend James Stewart accepted the honorary Oscar on his behalf. Stewart's emotional speech hinted that something was seriously wrong, and on the next day newspapers all over the world ran the headline, "Gary Cooper has cancer". One month later, the revered star was dead.
28
Born 1930-04-20. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident
Stuart Nigel Lewis-Evans was a British racing driver, who competed in Formula One at 14 Grands Prix from 1957 to 1958. Born in Luton and raised in Kent, Lewis-Evans served in the Royal Corps of Signals before starting his racing career in 1951, driving a Cooper 500. After winning the non-championship 1957 Glover Trophy, he debuted in Formula One at the Monaco Grand Prix with Connaught. Lewis-Evans contested five further Grands Prix in 1957 with Vanwall, taking his maiden pole position at the Italian Grand Prix before retiring with engine issues. Retaining his seat for 1958, Lewis-Evans also retired from pole at the Dutch Grand Prix, before taking his maiden podiums in Belgium and Portugal. Lewis-Evans crashed heavily at the dusty Ain-Diab Circuit during the season-ending Moroccan Grand Prix. His car's engine seized and sent him lurching into barriers at high speed, where it burst into flames. He was airlifted back to the UK, but died of his burns in hospital six days after the accident. His death cast a pall over Vanwall's victory in the 1958 International Cup for F1 Manufacturers, an achievement to which Lewis-Evans had contributed significantly. Vandervell never fully recovered from Lewis-Evans's death and withdrew from motorsport at the end of 1958.
36
Born 1908-07-18. Domain:Performing. Cause of death:Murder
María Guadalupe Villalobos Vélez, known professionally as Lupe Vélez, was a Mexican actress, dancer, and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Nicknamed The Mexican Spitfire by the media, Vélez's personal life was as colorful as her screen persona. She had several highly publicized romances with Hollywood actors and a stormy marriage with Johnny Weissmuller. In December 1944, Vélez died of an intentional overdose of the barbiturate drug Seconal. Her death and the circumstances surrounding it have been the subject of speculation and controversy. Despite the coroner's ruling that Vélez committed suicide to avoid the shame of bearing an illegitimate child, some authors have speculated that this was not entirely true. Robert Slatzer (who later claimed to have been secretly married to Marilyn Monroe) claimed that a few weeks before Vélez's death, he interviewed her at her home and she confided in him that she was pregnant with Gary Cooper's child (by that time, Cooper was married to socialite Veronica "Rocky" Balfe). According to Slatzer, Vélez said that Cooper refused to acknowledge the child, believing that Harald Ramond was the father. After Vélez died, Slatzer said he asked Cooper about the situation and Cooper confirmed that it was possible he might have been the father. Slatzer further claimed that he also interviewed Clara Bow (who had also dated Cooper in the 1920s), who revealed that shortly before Vélez's death, Cooper called her and screamed that he was going to kill Harald Ramond for impregnating Vélez. Slazter claimed that Bow told him that she never believed Vélez's baby was fathered by Ramond, and that she was convinced that Vélez had attempted to get Ramond to marry her to protect Cooper's reputation. Biographer Michelle Vogel speculated that if Cooper was the father, his rejection of Vélez and their child coupled with the idea of having to raise a child alone may have sent Vélez "over the edge". In the 2002 book Tarzan, My Father, Johnny Weiss Müller, Jr. recounted the events surrounding Vélez's death as a mystery caused by an attempt to "put a lid" on what happened. It states her housekeeper discovered her body and called Bo Roos, Vélez's business manager, who called his friend and Beverly Hills Police Chief Anderson to the scene. The book states after Vélez arranged to meet Ramond, decorated her room, and dressed in a negligee, her ingestion of Seconal was either to calm her nerves to meet him or a failed dramatic gesture to scare him. The book also suggested the baby was fathered possibly by Cooper, not Ramond. Vélez's death was recounted in the 1959 book Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger, and has become urban legend. In his telling, Vélez planned to stage a beautiful suicide scene atop her satin bed, but the Seconal did not mix well with the "Mexi-Spice Last Supper" she had eaten earlier that evening. As a result, she became violently ill, stumbled to the bathroom to vomit, slipped on the bathroom floor tile, and fell head first into the toilet, where she subsequently drowned. Anger claimed that Vélez's "chambermaid" Juanita found her the next morning. Despite the fact that his version of events contradicts published reports and the official ruling, his story is often repeated as fact or for comedic effect – it was recounted in the pilot episode of the television comedy series Frasier, and also referenced in an episode of the cartoon The Simpsons. Vélez's biographer, Michelle Vogel, points out that it would have been "virtually impossible" for Vélez to have "stumbled to the bathroom" or even get off her bed after having consumed such a large amount of Seconal. Seconal, a barbiturate, is noted for being fast acting even in small doses, and Vélez's death was likely instantaneous. Her death certificate lists "Seconal poisoning" due to "ingestion of Seconal" as the cause of death, not drowning. Further, there was also no evidence to suggest Vélez had vomited.