Deaths: February 29
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- Actress
- Composer
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Well known for her high level of camp and her energetic performances, La Lupe was one of the Spanish-language world's greatest performers. Born in Cuba to a poor family, La Lupe began her life as a schoolteacher in Havana at her father's request. However music was in her blood, and against his wishes she entered a singing competition on the radio where she won first place. Later she joined the singing group "Trio Los Tropicales" and made many successful club debuts throughout Havana. When La Lupe went solo, her performances at Havana's La Red night club caused quite a stir, an impact that leaked slowly to the rest of the island. Overnight La Lupe had become a source if wonderment, controversy and a national celebrity.
Her first recordings, which included Spanish versions of Rock hits by Paul Anka and other American authors, as well as Cuban standards, made the hit parades of radio stations across the country. Her unique voice, combined with extravagant performance antics, made her a smash in the Cuban music scene. However, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, La Lupe felt that she could no longer live in a country that did not accept her singing style, which was officially classified as anti-revolutionary. She left Cuba for Mexico in 1962, where she sought to relaunch her career, but was never accepted. Later she moved to New York, where she met fellow Cuban musician Mongo Santamaría. Both teamed up with to make the album make "Mongo Introduces La Lupe" in 1963. That album made her a star and later she joined the legendary musician Tito Puente to record four successful albums which confirmed and cemented her enormous popularity.
Voted the best singer by the Latin press in 1965 & 1966, La Lupe went on to become one of the top two divas of salsa music (the other was Celia Cruz). It was during these years that she recorded some of her greatest songs, especially those written by Puerto Rican composer C. Curet Alonso, such as "La Tirana" and "Puro Teatro". In the 1970's La Lupe saw her career decline somewhat. First she was banned from television from Puerto Rico after she tore her clothes off during an awards ceremony on national television. Next, her record label, Tico Records, was purchased by Fania Records, and company executives decided to focus their energies on the less controversial Celia Cruz. Although she had several hits during that decade, she slowly faded into obscurity. In the 1980's, La Lupe, retired from the industry, found herself destitute. Her husband's medical bills, her large donations to the African-based religion of "Santeria", and her personal problems often left her and her family homeless. She became paralyzed following a domestic accident and was healed in a Pentecostal church. After this, she converted to Pentecostalism and recorded Christian oriented material in the late 80s. She continued her faith activities by funding a ministry she named La Lupe in Christ which allowed her to preach to Pentecostal communities until her death in 1992.
La Lupe never saw the surge in her popularity after her death, especially after the legendary Spanish director, Pedro Almodovar chose her song, "Puro Teatro," to be the closing song of his Oscar nominated hit film, "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown". Fania re-released her recordings on their Tico labels during that decade, and many of her records went platinum throughout Spain and Latin America. Considered by many to be a combination of Bette Midler meets Judy Garland with a dash of Eartha Kitt, La Lupe's largest fan base is primarily the gay Latin community. Many drag performers imitate her and she is considered to be the Judy Garland of the Spanish-language world due to her torrid love affairs, heavy drug use, poor financial management and her bout with bipolar-ism. Doubtless, La Lupe is one of the most remarkable musical divas the world has ever known.- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Alice Albright Patterson was born in November 1940 to the journalist and former aviatrix Josephine Patterson Albright and her husband artist Ivan Albright. Brought up in Chicago and educated at Radcliffe College and the University of Columbia Alice returned to Chicago to work as a journalist and free-lance contributor to Channel 2, as well as writing a biography of her grandmother, pioneering newspaper publisher Cissy Patterson. First married to newspaper executive James Hoge by whom she had three children she subsequently married author Michael Arlen, moving with him to New York. In 1983 her old friend Nora Ephron contacted her to jointly write the screenplay for the film 'Silkwood' for which they received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, since when she has worked sporadically in film, as well as continuing as an author.- Beatriz Guido was born in 1924 in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina. She was a writer, known for The Eavesdropper (1966), La caída (1959) and Fiebre amarilla (1982). She was married to Leopoldo Torre Nilsson. She died on 4 March 1988 in Madrid, Spain.
- Ceri Morgan was born on 22 December 1947 in Treorchy, Wales, UK.
- Chloe Aaron was born on 9 October 1938 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California, USA. She was a producer, known for The Soldier's Tale (1984), American Masters (1985) and Dead Pan Alley (1990). She was married to David L. Aaron. She died on 29 February 2020 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
- Novelist and actress, Dana Broccoli, began her career as an actress on the New York and Boston stage and later moved to Los Angeles, where she met and married film producer Albert R. Broccoli. They moved to London and, together, they formed a film company, Danjaq LLC, which acquired the James Bond franchise and the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" property.
She said that she and Cubby had the happiest professional time whilst filming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) in England in 1967. It gives her great joy to be working again with Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, the composers and lyricists who created the original score, and to watch the development of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" as a musical for the London Palladium stage under the brilliant creative team and a wonderful cast.
Dana Broccoli has written two novels, Scenario for Murder and Florinda. In June 2000, she wrote the adaptation of her novel "Florinda" for the London stage musical La Cava. - Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Davy Jones left home to become a jockey. While he was an apprentice, he was encouraged to go into acting and got a role in a production of "Peter Pan". From there, he played on Coronation Street (1960) and The Pickwick Papers (1952) before landing the role of "The Artful Dodger" in "Oliver!". This job took him to America's Broadway, where he was discovered by Ward Sylvester and brought to Los Angeles. From there, he was given a role in The Monkees (1965). With this sitcom, he made 58 television episodes, 9 albums, a television special, and a movie before calling it quits in the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, Davy rejoined fellow Monkee Micky Dolenz and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to make an album and do some touring. Davy had gone on to perform in more plays, including "The Real Live Brady Bunch" and "Oliver!" (again), and had also fulfilled his dream of becoming a jockey. He rejoined The Monkees for touring from 1986-89 and 1996-97. Davy Jones died at age 66 of a heart attack on February 29, 2012.- Dieter Laser is a German actor. He is known to English-speaking audiences for his roles: Mantrid in Lexx, Prof. Otto Blaettchen in The Ogre and Dr. Joseph Heiter in The Human Centipede (First Sequence), for which he won Best Actor at the Austin Fantastic Fest. In 1975, he was awarded the German Film Award in Gold in the category of Best Actor for his title role in John Glueckstadt.
He was born in Kiel. On a cold winter afternoon at the age of sixteen, Dieter Laser went to the stage door of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg at that time the most famous theatre in Germany and he asked the doorman how to become an actor. There was an extra missing for the Christmas fairy tale afternoon-performance for children and 30 minutes later he stood on stage among a bunch of "sailors". That was the beginning of his career as an extra. - He had grown up in a fundamentalist Christian sect where the Theatre was regarded as devil's work. As a brainwashed believer he had to hazard the consequences. Therefore he made a deal with the devil: 'I will become an actor and I'll pay later on - in hell!' - Watching as an extra the famous actors "The Gods" by doing their marvelous work during rehearsals and performances became his "drama school". Gradually he got a word to speak in a play - then two words - even a sentence - a tiny part - another little part - and one day he suddenly got a contract and overnight his dream had come true: he now was a real actor with whom the "Gods" shook hands. - After 14 passionate years on stage and as a co-founder and member of the board of the meanwhile most famous German theatre, the Schaubuehne in Berlin, he decided to become a freelancer and got his first work for the cinema: the title role in John Glueckstadt. For this performance he won the German Film Award in Gold. Since then, and besides countless guest appearances on the most important stages of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxemburg, with parts like Don Juan, Valmont, Peer Gynt, Macbeth, Captain Ahab etc. Dieter Laser played in about 65 films, at times co-starring with "Gods" like Burt Lancaster, Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Glenn Close, John Malkovich etc.. - Make-Up Department
Éva Székely was born on 3 April 1927 in Budapest, Hungary. She is known for Stifled (2020), Helsinki 1952: Games of the XV Olympiad (1952) and Eyes of the Holocaust (2000). She was married to Dezsõ Gyarmati. She died on 29 February 2020 in Budapest, Hungary.- Fiona MacCarthy was born on 23 January 1940 in London, England, UK. She was married to David Mellor and Ian White-Thompson. She died on 29 February 2020 in the UK.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Frank Albertson entered the film industry in 1922 as a prop boy, but soon graduated into acting. He was a prolific and reliable character actor who occasionally played the lead in a "B" picture, but was used mainly as a supporting actor in scores of films, often cast as a wisecracking cab driver, a cop or a reporter.- Gilbert R. Hill was born on 6 November 1931 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He was an actor, known for Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) and Beverly Hills Cop III (1994). He was married to Delores Hooks. He died on 29 February 2016 in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
Lee Reherman was born on 4 July 1966 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Last Action Hero (1993) and Blackout (2012). He died on 29 February 2016 in Manhattan Beach, California, USA.- Luis Alfonso Mendoza was an actor, known for Ay caramba! (2001), Agent Macaw: Shaken & Stirred (2009) and Wizards and Giants (2003). He was married to Lourdes Adame. He died on 29 February 2020 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.
- Marc Cavell was born on 28 June 1939 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Man from the Alamo (1953) and Devil's Angels (1967). He died on 29 February 2004 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
- Composer
Wes Farrell was born on 21 December 1939 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for The Partridge Family (1970), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). He was married to Jean Alice Inman, Pamela Hensley, Tina Sinatra and Joan Ellen Arthurs. He died on 29 February 1996 in Coconut Grove, Florida, USA.- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
William O. Smith was born on 22 September 1926 in Sacramento, California, USA. William O. was a composer, known for Ordeal by Innocence (1984), Bones (2005) and Four in the Afternoon (1951). William O. was married to Virginia Paquette and C. William O. died on 29 February 2020 in Seattle, Washington, USA.