Celebrity deaths, illness, divorce and remembrance
Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1925 – April 11, 2007) was an American Emmy Award-winning actor and director, known for his rich voice and dignified bearing.
His most memorable film roles include Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz, the title character in William Wyler’s final film, The Liberation of L.B. Jones, and as the narrator in Babe.
Death
Browne died of cancer in Los Angeles on April 11, 2007, aged 81
Benjamin "Bob" Clark (August 5, 1939[1] – April 4, 2007) was an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer best known for directing and writing the script with Jean Shepherd to the 1983 holiday film A Christmas Story. His earliest success was the 1982 hit film Porky’s and he also wrote and directed its sequel Porky’s II: The Next Day.
Bob Clark’s Death
Bob Clark died of Car accident. Bob clark was 68 years old at the time of his death.
Clark and his son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were killed in a head-on automobile collision on the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles on the morning of April 4, 2007.The crash occurred when an SUV crossed the median and struck Clark’s Infiniti I30, causing the closure of the highway for eight hours. Police determined that the SUV’s driver, Hector Velazquez-Nava, had a blood alcohol level of three times the legal limit and was driving without a license. He initally pleaded not guilty to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter, but changed his plea to no contest in August. On October 12, 2007, Velasquez-Nava was sentenced to six years in prison under the terms of a plea agreement. In addition, he may face deportation to his native Mexico, as he entered and was living in the United States illegally.
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Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg, February 26, 1921 – March 11, 2007) was an American film actress and singer.
Betty Hutton’s Death
Betty Hutton died of colon cancer.
Betty Hutton was 86 years old at the time of her death.
Betty Hutton was scouted by orchestra leader Vincent Lopez, who gave Hutton her entry into entertainment. In 1939, she appeared in several musical shorts for Warner Bros., and appeared on Broadway in Panama Hattie and Two for the Show, both produced by Buddy DeSylva.
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Bradley E. Delp (June 12, 1951 – March 9, 2007) was an American musician best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Boston.
Brad Delp Cause of Death
Brad Delp committed suicide in his bathroom. Brad Delp was 55 years old at the time of his death.
Born: Danvers, Massachusetts, USA
Died: Atkinson, New Hampshire
Genre: Rock
Occupation: Musician
Instrument: Vocals, guitar, harmonica
Years active: 1976-2007
Label: Epic Records, MCA Records, Artemis Records
Associated acts: Boston, Return to Zero, Beatlejuice
Website Bandboston.com
Ernest 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.
Janet Blair (April 23, 1921 – February 19, 2007) was an American film and television actress.
Death of Janet Blair
Janet Blair died of complications from pneumonia, at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
Janet Blair was aged 85 at the time of her death.
Born as Martha Jane Lafferty (she took her acting surname from Blair County, Pennsylvania) in Altoona, Pennsylvania, she began her acting career on film in 1942. She left films for many years after she was dropped by her studio, Columbia Pictures, and disliked the roles she was offered.
Instead, she took the lead role of Nellie Forbush in a production of the stage musical South Pacific, making more than 1,200 performances in three years. " never missed a performance", she noted proudly. During the tour, she also got married to second husband, producer-director Nick Mayo, and they became parents of Amanda and Andrew.
She made a rare dramatic appearance in the 1962 British horror film Night of the Eagle.
Her last performance was on television in a 1991 episode of Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury.
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Vickie Lynn Marshall (November 28, 1967 – February 8, 2007), better known under the stage name of Anna Nicole Smith,[1] was an American model and television personality. She first gained popularity in Playboy, becoming the 1993 Playmate of the Year. She modeled for clothing companies, including Guess jeans. She starred in her own reality TV show, The Anna Nicole Show.
Anna Nicole Smith’s Death
On February 8, 2007, Smith was found unresponsive in room 607 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. According to Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger, at 1:38 p.m. (18:38 UTC) Smith’s friend and bodyguard, Maurice "Big Moe" Brighthaupt, who was a trained paramedic, called the hotel front desk from her sixth floor room. The front desk in turn called security, who then called 911. At 1:45 p.m. the bodyguard administered CPR before she was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital at 2:10 p.m and pronounced DOA at 2:49 p.m.
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Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio (March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007), was one of the most successful American singers of the twentieth century. Often billed as America’s Number One Song Stylist, his other nicknames include Mr. Rhythm, Old Leather Lungs, and Old Man Jazz. His hits included "That’s My Desire", "That Lucky Old Sun," "Mule Train", "Cry of the Wild Goose", "Jezebel," "High Noon", "I Believe", "Hey Joe!", "The Kid’s Last Fight", "Cool Water", "Moonlight Gambler", "Love is a Golden Ring", "Rawhide", and "Lord, You Gave Me a Mountain". His career as an entertainer spanned approximately 75 years, from 1930 (when he sang in between sets with a marathon dance company) to 2005 (when he sang That’s My Desire in a PBS special).
Frankie Laine’s Death
Frankie Laine died heart failure on February 6, 2007, at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California,
Frankie Laine was 93 years old at the time of his death
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Billy Henderson (August 9, 1939, Detroit, Michigan — February 2, 2007, Dayton Beach, Florida) was an African-American singer. He was an original member of The Spinners, a soul vocal group.
Billi Henderson’s Death
Henderson died of complications caused by diabetes.
Billi Henderson was 67 years old at the time of his death
The Spinners were formed in 1954 by five friends including Henderson from a High School in Ferndale, Michigan. They had several hits, especially in the 1970s, such as "I’ll Be Around" (1972) and "Could It Be I’m Falling in Love", "Then Came You" (with Dionne Warwick) and "The Rubberband Man". The Spinners were nominated for six Grammy Awards and they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the second star for a musical group consisting of African-Americans.
In 2004, Henderson had to leave The Spinners after he tried to sue the corporation and the business manager of the group for financial reasons.
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Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American writer who won awards in three careers—a Broadway playwright, a Hollywood TV and movie screenwriter, and a best-selling novelist. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created I Dream of Jeannie (1965-70), Hart to Hart (1979-84), and The Patty Duke Show (1963-66), but it was not until after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game (1982), The Other Side of Midnight (1973) and Rage of Angels (1980) that he became most famous.
Death of Sidney Sheldon:
Sheldon died from complications arising from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California
Sidney Sheldon was 89 years old at the age of his death.
He was cremated and buried in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
He struggled with bipolar disorder for years; he contemplated suicide at 17 (talked out of it by his father who discovered him), as detailed in his autobiography published in 2005, The Other Side of Me.