Deaths: March 1
List activity
1K views
• 2 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
46 people
- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Irma Serrano first made a name for herself as a singer, becoming one of the most popular ranchera performers of the 1960s. She became famous for her trademark roaring style which earned her the nickname "La Tigresa de la Canción Ranchera" (The Tigress of Ranchera Music). She was born in central Chiapas to Santiago Serrano Ruiz, a local journalist and poet of Mayan ancestry, and María Castro Domínguez, a wealthy woman of Spanish descent who owned 17 haciendas. Raised in the lap of luxury, in her youth she decided to become a performer against her parents' wishes and journeyed to Mexico City, where she made her film debut in Santo vs. the Zombies (1962). Soon after, she signed with CBS Records and began her highly successful singing career. She rose to national prominence with hit songs such as "El puente roto", "Tierra mala", and "La Martina", which reached Billboard's Top Ten list for Mexico. With her fame as Mexico's new rising folk singer, she appeared in musical guest roles in films such as Gabino Barrera (1965), Antonio Aguilar, and El zurdo (1965), with Rodolfo de Anda.- Director
- Editor
- Writer
Alain Resnais was born on 3 June 1922 in Vannes, Morbihan, France. He was a director and editor, known for Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Same Old Song (1997) and My American Uncle (1980). He was married to Sabine Azéma and Florence Malraux. He died on 1 March 2014 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.- Beth Morris was born on 19 July 1943 in Gorseinon, West Glamorgan, Wales, UK. She was an actress, known for David Copperfield (1974), I, Claudius (1976) and Barlow at Large (1971). She was married to Stephen Moore. She died on 1 March 2018 in Y Garn, Penllergaer, Wales, UK.
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Bonnie Franklin, of the freckled, fair-skinned, hazel-eyed, rosy-cheeked, carrot-haired variety, could light up a room with her buoyant, folksy personality, but she could be quite serious in a take-charge manner when it came to purposeful acting work. It took Norman Lear and a highly popular TV sitcom to finally make the 31-year-old performer a household star in the mid-1970s.
She was born Bonnie Gail Franklin in Santa Monica, California on January 6, 1944, the daughter of Samuel Benjamin, an investment banker, and Claire (née Hersch) Franklin, both of Jewish descent. She was thrust onto the stage at a very young age as a child tap dancer and became the protégé of consummate tapper Donald O'Connor. At age 9, she performed with O'Connor on NBC's The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950). A year later, she performed as one of the Cratchit daughters in the Shower of Stars (1954) TV version of "A Christmas Carol", starring Fredric March and Basil Rathbone as "Scrooge" and "Marley", respectively. The young girl then appeared, unbilled on film, playing sweet young things in the rural comedy, The Kettles in the Ozarks (1956), Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956) and the Sandra Dee/Troy Donahue's box office tearjerker, A Summer Place (1959).
At age 13, the family moved from Santa Monica to upper-scale Beverly Hills. Graduating from Beverly Hills High School in 1961, Bonnie studied at Smith College for a time where the freshman co-ed acted in an Amherst College production of "Good News". She then transferred to UCLA and majored in English. Following her studies, she returned to TV and appeared in lightweight comedies that welcomed her perky, pixie-like presence. These included mid-to-late 1960s episodes of Mr. Novak (1963), Gidget (1965), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965) and The Munsters (1964). In 1967, she married Ronald Sossi, a playwright best-known for his writing/producing chores on the TV series, The Rat Patrol (1966). The marriage, however, was short-lived and ended in 1970.
It was on the musical stage that Bonnie found breakthrough success. Following diligent work in "Drat the Cat!" (1965), "Your Own Thing" (1968), "George M.!" (1969) and "Dames at Sea" (1969), she took her first Broadway curtain call in "Applause", the well-received 1970 musical version of All About Eve (1950), starring Lauren Bacall. Bonnie played a theater "gypsy", named "Bonnie", who sings and dances to the title song backed by her "band of gypsies". Bonnie won the Outer Critics and Theatre World awards and a 1970 Tony nomination for her effort here. She continued on the stage with prime roles in "A Thousand Clowns" (1971), the title role in "Peter Pan" (1973), and the revue "Oh, Coward!" (1975).
It wasn't until Bonnie was handed the prime role of "Ann Romano", a divorced mom raising two daughters (Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli) on One Day at a Time (1975), did she become a viable star. Although her contagious cheerfulness and beaming smile was part of her value on the comedy show, Franklin desired to focus on taboo TV subjects such as divorce, birth control, sexual harassment and suicide, as well as getting laughs. While the program didn't match the ground-breaking importance or success of an All in the Family (1971), the show did command consistent and respectable ratings ("Top 20" for seven of its nine years) and lasted on CBS until 1984. Bonnie received one Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe nominations during the sitcom's run, and managed to find time to squeeze in a few other TV-movie projects as well -- A Guide for the Married Woman (1978), Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (1979), the title role in Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980) and Your Place... or Mine (1983). Bonnie also directed episodes of One Day at a Time (1975), Karen's Song (1987) Charles in Charge (1984) and The Munsters Today (1987).
Following the show's demise, Bonnie seemed to keep a lower profile on camera, focusing instead on theatre roles and in several humanitarian efforts. Sporadic guest roles on Burke's Law (1994) (revived), Almost Perfect (1995) and Touched by an Angel (1994) was highlighted by a 2005 TV reunion with her One Day at a Time (1975) TV family, The One Day at a Time Reunion (2005). Her return to the theatre, after a break of 14 years, included roles in a variety of plays: "Happy Birthday and Other Humiliations" (1987), "Annie Get Your Gun" (1988) (as "Annie Oakley"), "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" (1988), "Love and Guilt and the Meaning of Life" (1990), "Grace & Glorie" (1996), "All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" (1997), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1999), "Same Time, Next Year" (2000), "Dancing at Lughnasa" (2003), "A Touch of the Poet" (2005), "A Delicate Balance" (2007) and as crotchety "Ouisar" in "Steel Magnolias" (2011). In addition, she put together and toured in her own cabaret act and appeared in nearly a dozen staged readings with Los Angeles' Classic and Contemporary American Playwrights.
Bonnie was a tireless activist for a variety of charities and civic-oriented issues, among them AIDS care and research and the Stroke Association of Southern California. More recently, Bonnie reunited with "One Day at a Time" daughter Valerie Bertinelli in a 2011 episode of Bertinelli's sitcom, Hot in Cleveland (2010), and, a year later, played a recurring nun in the daytime The Young and the Restless (1973).
In September of 2012, Bonnie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died several months later on March 1, 2013. Her second husband of 29 years, TV/film producer Marvin Minoff, who produced Bonnie's TV movie, Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger (1980), as well as the film, Patch Adams (1998), died in 2009.- Actor
- Soundtrack
He had drama lessons as a child and at 12 did a season at the Old Vic, In 1955 he did his national service in the Royal Signals where he took up boxing as a light welter weight and is still a member of the Amateur Boxing Association.By the time of being demobbed he'd lost his theatre contacts and was too old for juvenile roles and too young for 25 year olds so spent time in factories, and drove lorries., 1962 Arnold Wesker asked him to play Charlie Wingate in Chips With Everything, which he eventually left to take the part of Rita Tuhingham's husband in the film Leather Boys.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
After decades in show business, character actor Conrad Janis came to prominence as Mindy's father on TV's Mork & Mindy (1978). Manhattan-born Janis was the son of renowned art dealer and clothing manufacturer Sidney Janis (1986-1989), and his wife Harriet (Grossman), who wrote books about jazz. He began acting as a 13 year old with a travelling stock company. Subsequently working as a radio actor, he went on to provide assorted voices, ranging from teens to middle aged men. He also had a small role in the 1945 Broadway play Dark of the Moon which was noticed by a Hollywood talent scout and paved the way to some freelance work in motion pictures, where he was featured as juvenile leads. In the early 50s, Janis segued into television while pursuing a separate career as a jazz trombonist, inspired by the music of Kid Ory. Having perfected his skills by studying under Cab Calloway alumni Tyree Glenn and Herbie Nichols, Janis fronted his own Dixieland/trad combo (Conrad Janis and His Tailgate Five) in the early 50s. By the late '70s, he had formed the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band which performed in many festivals and was often showcased on David Letterman's and Johnny Carson's late shows.
Janis acted in anthology TV dramas from as early as 1950, according to his account ultimately racking up some 700 appearances (many of them not recorded or otherwise lost to posterity). He toiled away in fairly minor parts until his breakout role as music store owner Fred McConnell in Mork & Mindy. In addition to numerous guest appearances, the balding Janis was also seen as a regular in the short-lived sitcom Quark (1977) (as philistine bureaucrat Otto Bob Palindrome) and in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote (1984) and Frasier (1993). True to his roots, he remained involved with the art world and with music education throughout his life.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A character actor who seems to pop up everywhere as the stereotypical cop, military officer and/or tough guy, von Bargen could turn in performances of stunning complexity when given the chance.
Daniel von Bargen was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 5, 1950 to Juanita (Bustle) and Donald L. von Bargen. Of German and English descent, he grew up in Cincinnati for most of his childhood before moving with his family to Southern California. He attended Purdue University, majoring in drama. He joined the Trinity Repertory Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island, after graduation and worked with them for many years. A breakthrough role in Mastergate (1992) by Larry Gelbart launched him onto Broadway. He starred in off-Broadway productions of "Beggars in the House of Plenty", "Macbeth", "The Cherry Orchard", "Hurlyburly", and "Uncle Vanya." On TV, he was best-known for his roles in Malcolm in the Middle (2000) and The West Wing (1999).
His role in The Postman (1997) as the Pineview sheriff who suspects Kevin Costner's character of being a fraud, was a stand-out as von Bargen infused the role with the pathos of a man caught between just trying to survive and wanting to believe in the hope the Postman represents. In an otherwise mediocre film, audiences were moved to tear up as his character shouts, "Ride Postman! Ride!", just before being put to death for assisting in the rebellion. His more evil side was brought out in Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions (1995) as he played Nix, an older, wiser, more magical and supernaturally gifted type of Charles Manson character rising from the dead to "murder the world".- A dark-haired, durably handsome and dependable cowboy actor equipped with a strong stance and taciturn seriousness both on and off camera, Dennis Moore was cast as both hero and villain in his three-decade-long career. A player in well over 200 "B"-level oaters and serials during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Moore never reached the rugged heights of top-flight stardom but did manage to find steady employment until only a few years before his death at age 56.
Moore was born Dennis Price Meadows on January 26, 1908, in Fort Worth, TX, the son of Texas-born Dennis Wesley Meadows and Tennessee-born Bessie Bebe Price Meadows. His initial interest in show business may have been sparked while employed as an usher at a movie theater. He eventually learned the tools of the trade performing on the dramatic stage in Texas and in stock companies in the early 1930s. His film career began in 1932 with uncredited appearances for a time in a variety of cliffhangers and westerns as various henchmen and cowhands, and he even worked as a stuntman on occasion. Billed first as Denny Meadows, he changed his stage name to the more catchy, marquee-friendly Dennis Moore by 1936, and legally changed his last name to Moore in the early 1950s. An avid flyer (he was once a transport pilot and flight instructor), a few of his roles reflected this passion. He played a pilot in the Tailspin Tommy (1934) serial and, while signed at Warner Brothers for a time, played Humphrey Bogart's flight engineer in China Clipper (1936).
By the 1940s he was freelancing at various minor studios and was occasionally given the action lead, such as in Fangs of the Wild (1939). He also appeared opposite stalwart cowboys Gene Autry, Buster Crabbe and Buck Jones, among others, and was seen in both the "Three Mesquiteers" and "Rough Riders" series.
Moore hit his peak in films during WW II when many of the big stars had enlisted or been drafted into the military (serious injuries incurred in a plane crash rendered him ineligible for military service). During this productive period he co-starred with Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune in the "Range Buster" series at Monogram Pictures and then co-starred with Tex Ritter and Jimmy Wakely in some of their popular western entries. He also was front and center in the Raiders of Ghost City (1944) and The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) serials, among others.
In mid-career, Moore turned from granite-jawed heroes to black-hatted bad guys and henchmen in many "Poverty Row" westerns, yet still snagged a couple of leads and co-leads in serials every now and then, including Perils of the Wilderness (1956) and Blazing the Overland Trail (1956). He also was seen quite frequently on TV western series (Tombstone Territory (1957), Sky King (1951), The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954), Bat Masterson (1958)) in standard guest spots. One of his last was a recurring part in Disney's The New Adventures of Spin and Marty (1957) on the "Mickey Mouse Club" series. He pretty much hung up his gun belt shortly thereafter.
A highly private man who was considered a loner by nature, little is known about his private life. He was married more than once, perhaps up to four times according to surviving relatives. His final marriage, in 1947 to Marilyn Mason, produced one daughter, Linda, and lasted until his death. He subsequently moved to Big Bear Lake, CA, where he operated a gift shop for the last few years of his life. He died on March 1, 1964, at age 56 of rheumatic heart disease combined with circulatory problems. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Dolores Costello was once known as the Goddess of the Silent Screen but is probably best remembered today as Drew Barrymore's grandmother. She was born in 1905 to actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello. Her father began his film career in 1908 and soon became the most popular matinée idol of his day. He gave Dolores and her sister Helene Costello their screen debuts in 1911. Dolores appeared in numerous pictures throughout the 1910s and the early 1920s, mostly with her father and sister. She later appeared on the New York stage with her sister in "George White Scandals of 1924." They were then signed by Warner Bros. where Dolores met future husband John Barrymore.
Barrymore soon made Dolores his costar in The Sea Beast (1926). During their lengthy kissing scene Dolores fainted in John's arms. They married in 1928 despite the misgivings of her mother, who would die the following year at age 45. They had two children, DeDe in 1931 and John Drew Barrymore in 1932. Dolores took time off from her movie career in the early 1930s to raise her young children. Her sister Helene and her new husband, actor Lowell Sherman, successfully convinced Dolores to divorce Barrymore in 1935, mainly because of his excessive drinking.
After the divorce Dolores returned to acting, appearing in several big-budget pictures, and her career seemed to be back on track. Her physical appearance, however, was greatly damaged from the harsh studio makeup used in the early years. The skin on her cheeks was in the process of deteriorating, forcing her into early retirement. She lived in semi-seclusion on her Southern California avocado farm, Fallbrook Ranch, where much of the memorabilia and papers from both the Barrymore and Costello family were destroyed in a flood.- Eddie Firestone was born on 11 December 1920 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Duel (1971), The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) and Barnaby Jones (1973). He was married to Mary Jean Sisich. He died on 1 March 2007 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.
- Elly Mayday was born on 15 April 1988 in Saskatchewan, Canada. She died on 1 March 2019 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Enrique San Francisco was born on 10 March 1955 in Madrid, Spain. He was an actor, known for Orquesta Club Virginia (1992), Cuéntame cómo pasó (2001) and El asesino de la calle Pradillo (1996). He died on 1 March 2021 in Madrid, Spain.- Ernesto Cardenal was born on 20 January 1925 in Granada, Nicaragua. He died on 1 March 2020 in Managua, Nicaragua.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Faidon Georgitsis studied at the Drama Schools of Karolos Koun, Hristos Vahliotis and Pellos Katselis. His screen debut was in Jules Dassin's Never on Sunday (1960) (followed next by their collaborations in Phaedra (1962) and Kravgi gynaikon (1978) too), as well as other memorable films of great directors such as Vasilis Georgiadis' The Red Lanterns (1963) and Blood on the Land (1965) (as well as a cameo in Gamos Ala... Ellinika (1964) too), Takis Kanellopoulos' Ouranos (1962) and Michael Cacoyannis' Eroika (1960). Among others, he had collaborated with Karolos Koun in his Art Theater and the National Theatre of Northern Greece. Besides his acting work, he had also directed films and several stage plays.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Gabriele D'Annunzio was born on 12 March 1863 in Pescara, Abruzzi e Molise, Italy [now Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Samson and the Slave Queen (1963), La luz, tríptico de la vida moderna (1917) and La crociata degli innocenti (1917). He was married to Maria Hardouin di Gallese. He died on 1 March 1938 in Gardone Riviera, Lombardy, Italy.- Director
- Producer
- Animation Department
A former cartoonist, Gregory La Cava entered films during WWI as an animator for Walter Lantz on such animated films as "The Katzenjammer Kids" series. Hired by the Hearst Corp. as the editor-in-chief for its International Comic Films division, La Cava switched to live-action films in the 1920s and began directing two-reel shorts. Graduating to features, La Cava gained a reputation as a surefooted comedy director, responsible for such classics as My Man Godfrey (1936) and She Married Her Boss (1935). La Cava was equally proficient in other genres as well, turning out the dramatic Stage Door (1937) and the bizarre political fantasy Gabriel Over the White House (1933). He is also supposed to have directed some scenes in several of the films of his close friend W.C. Fields when Fields couldn't get along with the directors assigned to him, although there is no official record of this ever happening.- Jack Welch was born to Irish-Catholic parents. He attended the University of Massachusetts, graduating in 1957 with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He later received his M.S. and Ph.D at the University of Illinois in 1960. Welch joined General Electric in 1960 as a junior engineer with a salary of $10,500. He moved up the ranks to become vice president of GE in 1972 and vice chairman in 1979. Welch became GE's youngest-ever chairman and CEO in 1981.
Welch gained a reputation as a brutal corporate leader. He shut down factories, reduced payrolls, and cut lackluster old-line units. He was dubbed "Neutron Jack" (in reference to the neutron bomb) for wiping out the employees while leaving the buildings intact. Each year, Welch would fire the bottom 10% of his managers. But he would also reward the top 20% with bonuses and stock options, and expanded the stock options program at GE to nearly one-third of all employees. Although he was initially treated with contempt by his employees for his policies, they eventually grew to respect him. Welch's strategy was later adopted by other CEOs across corporate America. Welch is known for destroying the nine-layer management hierarchy and bringing a sense of informality to the company.
In 1986, GE acquired NBC, as well as hundreds of other companies. In 1999 he was named "Manager of the Century" by Fortune magazine. His salary was a staggering $94 million a year, with a retirement plan of $8 million a year. Welch led GE to massive revenues (nearly $130 billion in 2000). Through its strong earnings and future growth estimates, GE was valued at $400 billion in 2004, making it the world's largest corporation. Welch retired from GE in September 2001. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Born September 30, 1952, in Royton, near Oldham, England, Jack Wild was discovered by talent agent June Collins, mother of rock star Phil Collins. His breakthrough came when he landed the role of Oliver in the London stage production of "Oliver!" When it came to casting the film, the role of the Artful Dodger went to Jack, a role that resulted in his getting an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Fresh from this success, Jack was offered the lead role in the American television series H.R. Pufnstuf (1969). This Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft production featured Wild as a boy marooned in an enchanted land with puppets and actors in elaborate costumes. The success of this program led to Wild reprising the role for the film version, Pufnstuf (1970). Other roles followed, including Melody (1971) and Flight of the Doves (1971). Around the same time, Wild released three albums ("The Jack Wild Album"; "Everything's Coming up Roses", featuring along with cover numbers a couple of new songs written by up-and-coming songwriter Lynsey de Paul; and "Beautiful World"). By 1972, however, he was already being demoted to the role of supporting actor for The Pied Piper (1972). He also appeared in Our Mutual Friend (1976). He returned to films in two small roles: the miller's son in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and a peddler in Basil (1998). Wild underwent surgery for oral cancer in July 2004, and had some vocal cords and part of his tongue removed. Unfortunately, the cancer proved untreatable and he died on 1 March 2006.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Jackie Coogan was born into a family of vaudevillians; his father was a dancer and his mother had been a child star. On the stage by age 4, Jackie was touring at age 5 with his family in Los Angeles, California.
While performing on the stage, he was spotted by Charles Chaplin, who then and there planned a film in which he and Jackie would star. To test Jackie, Chaplin first gave him a small part in A Day's Pleasure (1919), which proved that he had a screen presence. The movie that Chaplin planned that day was The Kid (1921), where the Tramp would raise Jackie and then lose him. The movie was very successful and Jackie would play a child in a number of movies and tour with his father on the stage.
By 1923, when he made Daddy (1923), he was one of the highest- paid stars in Hollywood. He would leave First National for MGM where they put him into Long Live the King (1923). By 1927, at age 13, Coogan had grown up on the screen and his career was going through a downturn. His popular film career would end with the classic tales of Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931).
In 1935, his father died and his mother married Arthur Bernstein, who was his business manager. When he wanted the money that he made as a child star in the 1920s, his mother and stepfather refused his request and Jackie filed suit for the approximately $4 million that he had made. Under California law at the time, he had no rights to the money he made as a child, and he was awarded only $126,000 in 1939. Because of the public uproar, the California Legislature passed the Child Actors Bill, also known as the Coogan Act, which would set up a trust fund for any child actor and protect his earnings.
In 1937, Jackie married Betty Grable; the marriage lasted 3 years. During World War II, he served in the Army; he returned to Hollywood after the war. Unable to restart his career, he worked in B-movies, mostly in bit parts and usually playing the heavy. In the 1950s he started to appear on television, and he acted in as many shows as he could. By the 1960s he would be in two completely different television comedy series.. The first one was McKeever and the Colonel (1962), where he played Sgt. Barnes in a military school from 1962 to 1963. The second series was the classic The Addams Family (1964), where he played Uncle Fester from 1964 to 1966. After that, he continued to make appearances on television shows and a handful of movies. He died of a heart attack in 1984.- Jacques Lesourne was born on 26 December 1928 in La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, France. He died on 1 March 2020 in Paris, France.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jahmil French was born on 29 July 1991 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001), Boost (2016) and The Divide (2014). He died on 1 March 2021 in Canada.- Actor
- Cinematographer
- Soundtrack
Jan Vycítal was born on 8 March 1942 in Prague, Protektorát Cechy a Morava [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor and cinematographer, known for Písnicky roku 1973 (1973), Lucie a zazraky (1970) and Pan Tau (1970). He died on 1 March 2020 in the Czech Republic.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Jerome Courtland was born on 27 December 1926 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Pete's Dragon (1977), Kiss and Tell (1945) and Make Believe Ballroom (1949). He was married to Marlene Juttner, Janet Rose Gumprecht and Polly Bergen. He died on 1 March 2012 in Santa Clarita Valley, California, USA.