Major Causes of Death: Accidental | Cancer | Drug | Heart Attack | Heart Failure | Lung | Natural Cause | Suicide

LastName_G

Johnny Griffin - Jazz saxophonist, Fastest sax player 80

Buy From Amazon: Johnny Griffin CDs

Dead Sax PlayerJohn Arnold Griffin III (April 24, 1928 – July 25, 2008) was an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist.

Death of Johnny Griffin
Johnny Griffin died in Availles-Limouzine, France, where he had lived for the past 24 years.
Johnny Griffin was 80 years old at the time of his death.
Cause of death is unknown for now.  Griffin's wife Miriam found him dead before he was due to give a concert.

Johnny Griffin's last concert was July 21, 2008, in Hyères, France.

Early life and education
Griffin studied music at DuSable High School under Walter Dyett, starting out on clarinet before moving on to oboe and then alto sax. While still at high school at age 15, Griffin was playing with T-Bone Walker in a band led by Walker's brother.

* Johnny Griffin's biography & discography continues next page
* Buy From Amazon: Johnny Griffin CDs

Johnny Griffin's Sax Solo

Golden Girls' actress Estelle Getty dies 84

Buy From Amazon: Golden Girls and other Estell Getty Movies 

hollywood deathsEstelle Getty (July 25, 1923 – July 22, 2008) was an Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actress (theatre and screen). In her later years, she retired from acting and was battling Lewy Body dementia.

Death of Estelle Getty
On July 22, 2008, at approximately 5:30 a.m. PDT, Getty died in her Hollywood Boulevard home in Los Angeles from natural causes (according to her manager), three days before her 85th birthday.

Each of Getty's former Golden Girls co-stars reflected on her death: Rue McClanahan told the Associated Press, "Don't feel sad about her passing. She will always be with us in her crowning achievement, Sophia." Bea Arthur said in a statement, "Our mother-daughter relationship was one of the greatest comic duos ever, and I will miss her." Betty White remarked, "The only comfort at this moment is that although Estelle has moved on, Sophia will always be with us."

In honor of Estelle, Lifetime TV, which airs The Golden Girls, announced that it will air ten episodes of the series featuring the best of Sophia on Friday, July 25. Fans can vote for their favorite episode on Lifetime's website. The winning episode will be aired last in the marathon.

* Buy From Amazon: Golden Girls and other Estell Getty Movies

Golden Girls - Intro
For those who don't know - Estelle Getty is the short older lady

Johnny Grant - honorary mayor of Hollywood

 

Johnny GrantJohnny Grant (May 9, 1923 – January 9, 2008) was an American radio personality, television producer, and the honorary mayor of Hollywood. The honorary mayor was present at Hollywood community functions, including the unveiling of new stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. An intersection just north of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue is designated "Johnny Grant Way."

Grant died in bed at his apartment in the Roosevelt Hotel, the night of January 9, 2008 at the age of 84

In 1954, Grant had a significant role in the Paramount film White Christmas, portraying "Ed Harrison," an Ed Sullivan-type TV show host.

He is a retired major general in the California State Military Reserve, a volunteer backup and support force of the California National Guard. He is the only person ever to twice receive an Order of California, the state's highest honor. He was the first recipient of the highest honor awarded by the USO, the United Service Organizations. He has been chairman of the Los Angeles City Fire Commission, the Los Angeles County Social Service Commission and the Burbank, California, Police Commission. Most recently he has been a member of the Los Angeles City Cultural Heritage Commission.

Grant has won the Emmy Award twice. He was also chairman of the "Hollywood Christmas Parade" and head of the Hollywood Walk of Fame committee.

Related Blog - Angelyne to Succeed Johnny Grant?

Robert Goulet, Singer

 

Robert Goulet Death 
Buy from Amazon.com: Robert Goulet CD, DVD

Robert Goulet dead singerRobert Gerard Goulet (November 26, 1933 – October 30, 2007) was a Grammy and Tony Award-winning American-Canadian entertainer.

Goulet rose to international stardom in 1960 as Lancelot in Lerner and Loewe's hit Broadway musical Camelot. His long career as a singer and actor encompassed theatre, radio, television and film.

Robert Goulet death
Robert Goulet was died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Robert Goulet was 73 years old at the time of his death.

On September 30, 2007, Robert Goulet was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, "a rare but rapidly progressive and potentially fatal condition." On October 13 he was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after it was determined he "would not survive without an emergency lung transplant."
Goulet died on October 30, 2007, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, while awaiting a lung transplant.


Alice Ghostley, Comedian

Alice Ghostley (August 14, 1926 – September 21, 2007) was a Tony Award-winning American actress. She was best known for her roles as Bernice Clifton on Designing Women (Emmy Nomination, Best Supporting Actress; 1992), as Esmeralda on Bewitched, and as Cousin Alice on Mayberry R.F.D..

Death

Alice Ghostley died at her home in Studio City, California on September 21, 2007 after a long battle with colon cancer and a series of strokes. Her death finally came from lung cancer. She was 81 years old. She is survived by a sister, Gladys Ghostley.

 

Merv Griffin

Hollywood Walk of Famer 

merv griffin dvd
Buy from Amazon.com: Merv Griffin DVDs, Books

Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American talk show host, game show host, entertainer, pianist, television personality and raconteur. He began his career as a singer and also appeared in movies and on Broadway; he later became host of his own TV show, The Merv Griffin Show, and created the long-running award-winning game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, becoming an entertainment business magnate.

Death 

Griffin's prostate cancer, treated originally in 1996, returned and he was admitted to Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where his condition deteriorated leading to his death on August 12, 2007 at age 82. Griffin is survived by his son, Tony, from Griffin's only marriage to Julann Wright during 1958 from 1976, and two grandchildren.

### 

Merv Griffin had a good and long life.

I remember a Seinfeld episod on Merv Griffin studio set.

 

Dabbs Greer, actor

dabbs greerRobert William "Dabbs" Greer (April 2, 1917 — April 28, 2007) was an American character actor who performed many diverse supporting roles in film and television for about 50 years.

Greer was born in Fairview, Missouri and attended Drury University, where he was a member of Theta Kappa Nu. His Southern voice fitted well in shows featuring rustic characters, such as Westerns.
 
Dabbs Greer in 1999He was recognizable to fans of The Adventures of Superman, as he appeared in three separate episodes on that show, including the series' inaugural entry, Superman on Earth (1952). He was the major guest star, as a man framed for capital murder in Five Minutes to Doom (1954 - see photo on right), and as an eccentric millionaire in The Superman Silver Mine (1958).

Greer had a prominent continuing role in the NBC TV series Little House on the Prairie as Reverend Alden from 1974 to 1983. Often cast as a minister, he performed the marriages of Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show and of Mike and Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch, and he tended to the spiritual needs of the townfolk in fictional Rome, Wisconsin, as Reverend Henry Novotny in Picket Fences.

In the 1958 film I Want to Live! he played the San Quentin captain who finished strapping down Barbara Graham in the gas chamber prior to her execution and was the last person to speak to her. He had a similar role in the 1999 film The Green Mile, in which he played the elderly version of Tom Hanks' Death Row officer Paul Edgecomb.

In the May 9, 1991, episode of L.A. Law called "On the Toad Again", he played a character who was addicted to a "high" produced by licking the skin secretions of psychoactive toads.

Death

Greer, a Missouri native, died April 28, 2007 at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena California after a battle with kidney and heart disease.  He was 90 years old

  • Please shrea your memory, add comment below 

 

Ernest Gallo

Ernest Gallo Wine VineyardsErnest Gallo (March 18, 1909 – March 6, 2007) was the American co-founder of the E & J Gallo Winery, which recently changed its name to Gallo Family Vineyards. He was ranked 297th on the 2006 Forbes 400 list of billionaires.

After the death of his parents, Ernest and brother Julio (1910–1993), along with their wives Amelia (1910–1993) and Aileen (1913–1999), raised their thirteen-year-old little brother Joseph (1919–2007). In 1986, the brothers sued Joseph for using the Gallo name on his cheese labels. The brothers won and their relationship with Joseph was forever strained.

Ernest Gallo was married for sixty-two years to Amelia Franzia Gallo. When she died on December 22, 1993, Ernest released the following statement: "Amelia was a great wife, mother and grandmother, and a truly great lady. While her loss is very, very difficult for me, I feel fortunate and thankful I have had her for sixty-two memorable years." The couple had two sons: David, who died in 1997, and Joseph.

His younger brother, Joseph Gallo, died on February 17, 2007 at age eighty-seven. Weeks later, on March 6, 2007, Ernest Gallo died at his home in Modesto, California.

  • Share your memory, add your comment below

Paul Gleason, actor (Principal from Breakfast Club) - dies 67

Breakfast Club dead actorPaul Xavier Gleason (May 4, 1939 – May 27, 2006) was an American film and television actor.

Death of Paul Gleason
Gleason died on May 27, 2006 at a Burbank, California hospital from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer connected with asbestos, which he is thought to have contracted from asbestos exposure on building sites while working for his father as a teenager

Career
Gleason starred in many movies, and became well-known initially as Dr. David Thornton on All My Children, playing the role from 1976 to 1978. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as Richard Vernon, the gruff disciplinary principal in the seminal 1985 movie The Breakfast Club. He reprised versions of that character several times, including in an A*Teens music video, on the television show Boy Meets World (although he was a dean on BMW) and in the films Johnny Be Good and Not Another Teen Movie. As a bookend to his modern fame as strict disciplinarian, Gleason played a tough yet forgiving and nurturing professor to the lead character in Van Wilder.

Gleason is known to Star Wars fans for his role as Jeremitt Towani in the 1985 made-for-TV film The Battle for Endor. He played the villainous Clarence 'Mr' Beeks in the famous 1983 comedy Trading Places starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. He also played Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T Robinson, the blowhard police official in Die Hard.

WWE wrestler Eddie Guerrero dies 38

Death of WWF wrestlerEduardo "Eddie" Gory Guerrero Llanes (October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005) was an American professional wrestler born into a Mexican wrestling family. He wrestled in Mexico and Japan and in every major professional wrestling promotion in the United States. He wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

Death of Eddy Guerrero 

On November 13, 2005, Guerrero was found unconscious in his hotel room (The Marriott City Center) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by his nephew, Chavo. Chavo attempted CPR, but Eddie was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived on the scene. He was survived by his widow Vickie Guerrero and their two daughters, Shaul and Sherilyn. He also is survived by a daughter, Kaylie, from a previous relationship.

An autopsy revealed that Guerrero died as a result of acute heart failure, caused by undiagnosed arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Although Guerrero had not taken alcohol or illicit drugs for nearly four years, his past excesses contributed to his heart failure.

Guerrero's wife Vickie claimed that he had been lethargic and unwell in the week preceding his death, but had attributed it to the stress of continuously traveling and performing. She added that the doctors had told her that Guerrero's blood vessels had shriveled and weakened as a result of an undiagnosed heart disease, and that he had simply dropped into a deep sleep.

On the November 30 edition of WWE Byte This!, Chavo said that Guerrero had been working hard and was at peak physical fitness as a result, doing cardiovascular and weight training exercises every day. There had been no symptoms or cause for concern. Chavo noted that, while many people abuse drugs for over ten years with no ill effects, Guerrero had suffered heart complications that were not detected in time to prevent his death, even though he had ceased his drug abuse some four years earlier.

Syndicate content