Deaths: April 8
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- Elizabeth Hubbard was born on 22 December 1933 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for As the World Turns (1956), The Doctors (1963) and First Ladies Diaries: Edith Wilson (1976). She was married to David Bennett . She died on 8 April 2023 in Roxbury, Connecticut, USA.
- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Annette Joanne Funicello achieved teenage popularity starting in October 1955 after she debuted as a Mouseketeer. Born on October 22, 1942 in Utica, New York, the family had moved to California when she was still young. Walt Disney himself saw her performing the lead role in "Swan Lake" at her ballet school's year-end recital in Burbank and decided to have her audition along with two hundred other children. Annette became the last Mouseketeer of the twenty-four that was picked. By the run-through in 1958 of The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) in which she appeared in her own multi-segmented series entitled "Annette", she had become the most popular Mousketeer of them all and the only one kept under contract by Walt Disney after he canceled the show. Her popularity was such that by the late 1950s, she was simply known as "Annette" -- America's sweetheart and the first "crush" for many a teenage baby boomer. Whenever anyone spoke of Annette, no last name was ever needed as everyone knew who you were talking about.
The popular teenager became synonymous with wholesome entertainment and was borrowed by Danny Thomas in 1959 to play Gina, a foreign exchange student, on The Danny Thomas Show (1953) (aka "The Danny Thomas Show") and also that same year had a recurring role on the Disney television series Zorro (1957). She made her well as other Disney film vehicles for several years, including The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961) and The Monkey's Uncle (1965). During this time, the modest young singer had a couple of hit singles on the "Hot 100" charts, notably, "Tall Paul", and as a result, traveled with Dick Clark's caravan on singing tours around the country. At one point, she and teen idol Paul Anka became an item and he wrote both "Puppy Love" and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" with her in mind. Their busy careers led to them parting ways.
During the early 1960s, American International Films wanted to use her in a fun-on-the-beach movie. They presented the idea to "Mr. Disney", as Annette always called him and with whom she was still under contract. To everyone's surprise, he gave his consent, with the only condition being that she make sure her navel was completely covered by a one piece bathing suit. The first movie, aptly titled Beach Party (1963) starred Robert Cummings and Dorothy Malone as the older generation who explore the younger set represented by Annette (as "Dee Dee") and her love interest Frankie Avalon (as "Frankie"). The "teenage" couple (actually she was 20 and he 23) proved so popular in this that they were whisked into a number of sand-and-surf romps (Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)) that showcased the actors engaging in harmless fun while singing and dancing in the sand, and falling into silly slapstick.
After the surfing craze died out in 1965, Annette married Jack Gilardi, Paul Anka's agent, and became the mother of his three children -- Gina, Jack Jr. and Jason. While appearing in a few other movies that did nothing to further her career, including Fireball 500 (1966), Thunder Alley (1967) and Head (1968), she appeared as a guest on shows and, most famously, became the spokesperson for Skippy Peanut Butter in a host of commercials. But she phased out her career in favor of family.
She and Gilardi divorced in 1983. Three years later, she married Glen Holt, a harness racing horse breeder/trainer. Within a year into her second marriage, Annette was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She hid her condition for five years before making a formal announcement (in 1992) for fear that her uncontrollable movements might be characterized as drunkenness. She became the most famous spokesperson for the disease. Annette's life was filmed as a television movie with A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (1995) co-starring her good friend, Shelley Fabares. Receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, Annette was eventually wheelchair-ridden and went into complete seclusion.
Following a tragic March 2011 incident in which their Los Angeles house burnt to the ground and both Annette and husband Glen were hospitalized with smoke inhalation, the couple moved to Bakersfield, California. A little more than a year later, and over 25 years after she was diagnosed with this long and painful illness, Annette passed away on April 8, 2013 from complications at age 70. To the present, her foundation continues to raise money to help find cures for this and other debilitating disorders, including Lou Gehrig's disease.- After a childhood punctuated by petty theft Norman Rewiri made the mistake of trying to rob a betting shop at gun point; he was sent to prison where he finally began to educate himself. On release he took a new name, and started a new life as a union organizer & arbitrator. "Utu" director Geoff Murphy saw him on the news and asked him to play the lead in his film, starting him on a third career.
- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Born in Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo performer when, in 1940, Howard Hughes hired him to take a load of horses to California. He decided to stick around (the pay was good), and for some years was a stunt man, horse wrangler, and double for such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper and James Stewart. His break came when John Ford noticed him and gave him a part in an upcoming film, and eventually a star part in Wagon Master (1950). He left Hollywood in 1953 to return to rodeo, where he won a world roping championship, but at the end of the year he had barely cleared expenses. The movies paid better, and were less risky, so he returned to the west coast and a career that saw him in over 300 movies.- Actor
- Writer
Although best known as the deputy on Bonanza (1959) and Robert in The Magnificent Seven (1960), Russell was also well-known on a national level as the owner of the Portland Mavericks Baseball Club. Helming the only independent team in the Class-A Northwest League, Russell was an innovator. Before Bull Durham (1988), there were the Mavericks. Russell kept a 30-man roster because he believed that some of the players deserved to have one last season. His motto was one 3-letter word. Not WIN, although the Mavericks did just that. No, the word was FUN. He created a park that kept all corporate sponsorship outside the gates, hired the first female general-manager in professional baseball, and the the next year hired the first Asian-American GM/Manager. That season his team set a record for the highest attendance in minor-league history and went on to win the pennant. Ex-major leaguers and never-weres who couldn't stop playing the game flocked to his June tryouts, which were always open to anyone who showed up. Players from as far away as France and Cape Town would head to Portland for a chance with Russell's Mavericks.- Blase Bonpane was born on 24 April 1929 in Ohio, USA. He was married to Theresa. He died on 8 April 2019 in the USA.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Robert Raymond "Bob" Heatlie's father was a saxophone player, and Heatlie began learning to play from the age of seven. Aged 15, he took up the drums, and started doing gigs around town with his father and an accordion player, Tommy Cassidy.
He went on to learn keyboards and flute, and during the 1960s and 1970s played in numerous bands. These included This N That, The Prezure, Rockin Chair, The Memphis Roadshow, The Odd Couple (with David Valentine) and, at Tiffany's on St Stephen Street in Edinburgh, The Band of Gold. Around 1975, he started to do session work around three Edinburgh recording studios, REL Studios, Hart Street Studios & Palladium Studios. In 1977 he turned professional, and signed to EMI Music Publishing.
In 1979 Heatlie joined Scottish power pop band, The Headboys. Originally known as Badger, by the time Heatlie joined on keyboards and sax, the band had released two singles before being picked up by Robert Stigwood's RSO label. With future record producer Calum Malcolm also in the band, The Headboys toured the UK and Europe with Wishbone Ash, and reached the lower edges of the charts with The Shape of Things to Come / The Mood I'm In (1979). This saw them appear on Top of the Pops. A self-titled album, produced by Peter Ker, followed. Lack of chart success with four follow-up singles saw the band split the following year.
In 2013, interest in The Headboys was sparked by the appearance of The Lost Album. Released by the American Pop Detective label, the record featured ten tracks recorded for what was supposed to be the second Headboys album, but which had remained unreleased. The Lost Album was dedicated to the band's drummer, Davy Ross, who had died in 2010.
With Japanese Boy selling more than four and a half million copies, the song's success opened doors for Heatlie. For Cliff Richard, he wrote Locked Inside Your Prison (1983), opening side two of Richard's 25th anniversary Silver album. Heatlie's working relationship with Shakin' Stevens began with Cry Just a Little Bit (1983), which went to number three. Two years later the song was covered in America by Country singer Sylvia on her album, One Step Closer. Released as the album's second single, it reached number nine in the American Country charts, and number eight in Canada's equivalent.
Heatlie continued to write for Stevens, with Breaking Up My Heart (1985) reaching number 14 in the charts, while Woman (What have You Done to Me?) (1988) appeared on Stevens' A Whole Lotta Shaky album. In 1992, Stevens went to number 37 with Radio, co-written by Heatlie with Gordon Campbell.
From 1967 to 1999, Heatlie was married to Mary Davie, and they had two sons, Bobby junior and Michael. Heatlie had a third son, David, with Hungarian singer Eva Csepregi.
Heatlie went on to compose for television, beginning with children's animation, The Trap Door (1986). With David Pringle, he composed the theme tunes for This Morning (1988), Wheel of Fortune (1988), Scotsport (1990) and children's game show, Fun House (1994). He composed for many more children's animations, including Percy The Park Keeper (1996), and Kipper (1997). He also did the music for the original pilot episode of Bob the Builder (1997). Other theme tunes included Professor Bubble (2000), Little Robots (2003-2005) and Sheeep (2001-2001).
Later songwriting credits include Do You Wanna Party (1994) a club hit by DJ Scott featuring Lorna B, and Talk to Me (2020), a co-write with KT Tunstall, recorded by Finnish symphonic metal band, Apocalyptica, featuring Lzzy Hale of American band, Halestorm.- Country/rockabilly singer Carl Dobkins Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1941 to a family of musicians who moved to Cincinnati from the Appalachians. His father gave him a ukulele when he was nine years old. He not only learned to play that instrument but afterwards took up the guitar, and by high school he was writing and performing his own songs and eventually cut a few demo records. Local record producer/manager Gil Sheppard heard them and, after meeting with Dobkins, took him on as a client. Dobkins cut a record for local Cincinnati label Fraternity Records (also home to guitarist Lonnie Mack), but it went nowhere. Sheppard then signed Carl to King Records--a much larger label and home to such stars as James Brown and Hank Ballard--and Dobkins cut a record there, but before it could be released Sheppard sold the master to the national label Decca Records. The song, "If You Don't Want My Lovin'", became a regional hit, though it didn't chart nationally. Nevertheless, Decca thought it had a hot prospect in Dobkins and his next record was his breakout one--"My Heart Is an Open Book", which shot to #3 on the Billboard charts in 1959. Dobkins made several appearances on Dick Clark's iconic teen dance show American Bandstand (1952) (he made a total of 14 appearances on the show over the years) promoting the record. He went on a national tour and his follow-up songs, while not reaching the heights that "Open Book" did, sold respectably.
His subsequent career, while not spectacular, was nonetheless solid and he toured with some of the biggest names in rock--Bobby Rydell, Freddie Cannon, Frankie Avalon among them--and, though he is semi-retired, still makes occasional appearances. - Actor
- Writer
- Producer
A third-generation performer and the son of a singing band leader, Chuck McCann was already a show business veteran by age eleven. Born in Brooklyn, he began his career as a child actor on radio, and by the age of nineteen had appeared on The Steve Allen Show (1952). He performed on several NYC-based radio programs, and went on to create his own stand up act performed at many NYC/NJ/LI nightclubs and on many popular TV variety shows. For a time, he took a hiatus from nightclub and TV performing to study with The Pasadena Playhouse, where he gave a memorable performance in their production of '12th Night' as Sir Toby Belch. McCann would return to NYC to continue to perform in nightclubs and on TV variety shows. Until he was introduced to puppetry, first by Skip Boyland and then by Paul Ashleyon NBC TV's: Rootie Kazootie (1952). For the next 17 years, Ashley and McCann appeared on numerous TV shows: Rootie Kazootie (1952), "Uncle Paul's Lunchtime", The Gumby Show (1956) with Pinkie Lee, "The Puppet Hotel!", "Laurel & Hardy & Chuck!", "Let's Have Fun!", "The Chuck McCann Shows", "The Great Bombo's Magic Cartoon Circus Lunchtime Show" and "Chuck McCann's Laurel & Hardy Show!". After the cancellation of the latter on Friday June 9, 1967, Ashley and McCann went their separate ways.
McCann went onto become a successful comic/character actor and mimic, doing voice over for many television cartoon shows and playing character parts on numerous dramatic and comedic TV series and movies. Paul Ashley used his puppets in industrial films and industrial stage shows. McCann also starred on other TV series: Turn-on (1969), Happy Days (1974), Far Out Space Nuts (1975),All That Glitters (1977), _"New Kind Of Family, A" (1979)_ and "Chuck McCann's Fun Stuff!". Ashley was slated to reunite with McCann for "LBS Children's Theater" and another TV puppet show "Tiny TV". But Ashley was forced to drop out both projects, when it was discovered that he was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and McCann took over as the show's host and performer. "LBS Children's Theater" made its debut in September of 1983 and was on the air for one season. Paul Ashley never lived long enough to see "LBS Children's Theater" become a success. Later, he played the voice of Jollo in the 1992 classic hit Sierra video game King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow.
Chuck McCann died on April 8, 2018 in Los Angeles, California, of heart failure.- Chynna Rogers was born on 19 August 1994 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Chynna: Glen Coco (2014). She died on 8 April 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Claire Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Fifth Avenue merchant-tailor Noel Wemlinger, an immigrant Frenchman from Paris who lost his business during the Depression, and his Belfast-born wife, Benjamina, known as "Betty". Young Claire's interest in acting began when she was 11 years old. She attended high school in Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York. After starting classes at Columbia University, she spent six months at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, also in New York. Her adult acting experience began in the late 1920s in several stock productions; she appeared with Robert Henderson's Repertory Players in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1930. That same year, aged 20, she signed with Warner Bros. Not too far from her home haunts was Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, the last and best of the early sound process studios, which had been acquired by Warner Bros. in 1925 to become Vitaphone. Trevor appeared in several of the nearly 2000 shorts cranked out by the studio between 1926 and 1930. Then she was sent west to do ten weeks of stock productions with other contract players in St. Louis. In 1931 she did summer stock with the Hampton Players in Southampton, Long Island. Finally, she debuted on Broadway in 1932 in "Whistling in the Dark".
Trevor moved to the silver screen, debuting in the western Life in the Raw (1933). There would be three more films (one more western) that year and six or more through the 1930s. Although she had been typed playing gun molls and hard-case women of the world, she displayed her already considerable versatility in these early films, often playing competent, take-charge professional women as well as "shady" ladies. There was a disappointed-pout-vulnerability in her face and that famous slightly New York-burred voice that cracked with a little cry when heightened by emotion that quickly revealed an unusual and sensitive performer. Many of her early films were "B" potboilers, but she worked with Spencer Tracy on several occasions, notably Dante's Inferno (1935).
Hollywood finally took notice of her talents by nominating her for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her standout performance as a slum girl forced by poverty into prostitution in Dead End (1937), opposite Humphrey Bogart. That same year she did the radio drama "Big Town" with Edward G. Robinson, then teamed with he and Bogart again for the slightly hokey but entertaining The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938). Director John Ford tapped her for his first big sound Western film, Stagecoach (1939), the film that made a star of John Wayne. All her abilities to bring complexity to a character showed in her kicked-around dance hall girl "Dallas", one of the great early female roles. She and Wayne were electric, and they were paired in three more films during their careers.
In the 1940s, Trevor began appearing in the genre that brought her to true stardom: "film noir". She started in a big way as killer Ruth Dillon in Street of Chance (1942) with Burgess Meredith. She was equally convincing as the more complex but nonetheless two-faced Mrs. Grayle in the Philip Marlowe vehicle Murder, My Sweet (1944). However, she was something very different and quite extraordinary as washed-up, hopelessly alcoholic former nightclub singer and moll Gaye Dawn in Key Largo (1948), for which she won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress, again working with Bogart and Robinson. Her pitiful rendition of the torch song "Moanin' Low", which her character was forced to sing, humiliatingly, for the sadistic crime boss played by Robinson (to whom she is, figuratively speaking, permanently tethered) in exchange for a desperately needed drink. There were more quality movies and an additional Academy nomination (The High and the Mighty (1954)) into the 1950s,, but she also was doing work on stage and in television.
She was enthusiastic about live TV and appeared on several famous shows by the mid-1950s. She won an Emmy for Best Live Television Performance by an Actress as the flighty wife of Fredric March in NBC's Dodsworth (1956). She alternated her career among film, stage and TV roles. As she aged she easily transitioned into "distinguished matron" and mother roles, one of her most unusual ones being the murderous Ma Barker in Ma Barker and Her Boys (1959). Her final film role was as Sally Field's mother in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982).
Trevor and her third husband, producer Milton H. Bren, had long been residents of tony Newport Beach, California, to which they returned when she finally retired from screen work. However, she did maintain an active interest in stage work, and became associated with the University of California-Irvine's School of Arts. She and her husband contributed some $10 million to further its development for the visual and performing arts (that included three endowed professorships). After her passing in April 2000 at 90 years of age, the University renamed the school The Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Her presence on the UCI campus is in more than spirit alone. She donated her Oscar and her Emmy to UCI; both are on display in the arts plaza at the campus theatre that bears her name.- David Swift was born on 3 April 1931 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Day of the Jackal (1973), Vanity Fair (1987) and Casanova (1971). He was married to Paula Jacobs. He died on 8 April 2016 in London, England, UK.
- The daughter of a clergyman and a mother, who was an accomplished painter of portraits and landscapes, Stella Dorothy Sabiston spent her formative years in her home state of Alabama. She had three siblings, all of whom died relatively young. She attended the University of Alabama, but always harbored ambitions of becoming an actress. In the early 1920s, the curly-haired brunette abandoned her studies and ran away to New York (as Dorothy Sebastian), where she took up acrobatic dancing at the prestigious Ned Wayburn academy. By the time she took elocution lessons to get rid of her noticeable southern drawl, Dorothy had her first failed marriage (1920-24) behind her. Living in a cheap apartment, and after several rejections, she landed her first job in show business as a chorus girl in "George White's Scandals" in June 1924. The show opened at the Apollo Theatre and ran for 198 performances, closing in December. Sometime prior to that, according to recollections of fellow cast member and friend Louise Brooks, Dorothy struck up a somewhat personal connection with then-British cabinet minister Lord Beaverbrook. Their meeting took place during a party at the Ritz Hotel in an apartment owned by producer Otto Kahn, at which several Scandals girls and Hollywood producers were present. The end result was an MGM contract for Dorothy.
She showed promise in her first film, Sackcloth and Scarlet (1925), starring Alice Terry. Much to her chagrin, as her career went on she was often cast as vamps or, at least, disreputable or hard-boiled "other women" in films like Hell's Island (1930). On occasion she played nice girls, for instance in A Woman of Affairs (1928), with Greta Garbo. Then there were 'friends of the heroine' roles, which included her major successes, Our Dancing Daughters (1928) with Joan Crawford, and Spite Marriage (1929) with Buster Keaton(to whom she was romantically linked at the time). At the end of her five-year contract with MGM she asked for a raise (her weekly salary amounted to $1,000 per week), but was refused. Out of a contract, her film career faltered after several "Poverty Row" productions at Tiffany and, finally, a leading role in the (for her) ironically titled They Never Come Back (1932). Thereafter, like so many other actors who bucked the studio system or simply failed to make the grade as major stars, she was relegated to minor supporting roles (though some of them were in A-grade pictures like The Women (1939) and Reap the Wild Wind (1942), which starred Ray Milland and John Wayne).
Sadly, Dorothy Sebastian grabbed the headlines not always as a result of her profession: the three-times-married actress was involved in several well-publicized court cases over tax evasion (1929), acrimonious divorce proceedings from ex-husband William Boyd (of 'Hopalong Cassidy' fame) (1936), a drunk driving charge after a party at Keaton's house in November 1938 (naively suggesting that a meal of spaghetti and garlic had been responsible for "retaining the intoxicating odor of the wine") and a charge by a San Diego hotel of not paying a $100 account, which was later dismissed (she eventually countersued the hotel for defamation of character and was awarded $10,000). During the war years Dorothy worked as an X-ray technician at a defense plant, Bohn Aluminium & Brass, but continued to act in small parts. She met her third husband at this time, the aircraft technician Herman Shapiro. Dorothy had a brief scene with Gloria Grahame in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), but it ended up on the cutting room floor. After being ill for some time, Dorothy died of cancer in August 1957 at the Motion Picture Country House, Woodland Hills. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. - Producer
- Production Manager
- Additional Crew
Edward L. Rissien was born on 20 October 1924 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He was a producer and production manager, known for Swingers (1996), Castle Keep (1969) and Time Table (1956). He was married to Laurie Rissien and Joanne Gilbert. He died on 8 April 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Fishman was born on 6 January 1951 in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico. He was an actor, known for La verdad de la lucha (1990), Volver a empezar (1994) and World Class Championship Wrestling (1972). He was married to Lola Gonzales. He died on 8 April 2017 in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
Glenn Fredly was born on 30 September 1975 in Jakarta, Indonesia. He was an actor and producer, known for We Are Moluccans (2014), Letters from Prague (2016) and Filosofi Kopi (2015). He was married to Mutia Ayu and Dewi Sandra. He died on 8 April 2020 in Jakarta, Indonesia.- Additional Crew
- Writer
Guy Lyon Playfair was born on 5 April 1935 in Quetta, India. He was a writer, known for The Enfield Haunting (2015), Ghostwatch (1992) and Nationwide (1969). He died on 8 April 2018 in London, England, UK.- Héctor del Mar was born on 22 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina. He was an actor, known for WWE Smackdown! (1999), Lleno, por favor (1993) and Nadie es perfecto (1995). He died on 8 April 2019 in Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Jack Hammer was born on 16 September 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Top Gun (1986), Stand by Me (1986) and Easy A (2010). He died on 8 April 2016 in Oakland, California, USA.- Warner was grooming Bryan for stardom in the late 1930s when she met and married the love of her life, Justin Dart, head of the Rexall Drug empire. An ardent Republican, he became one of Ronald Reagan's most trusted advisors.
- Joe McConnell is known for Blink (1993).
- During World War II and its aftermath, Joel Kupperman was one of the most famous children in the country, and also one of the most loathed.
From 6 to 16, Joel was a star on "The Quiz Kids," a popular radio program that later migrated to television. He captivated Marlene Dietrich and Orson Welles by performing complex math problems, joked with Jack Benny and Bob Hope, charmed Eleanor Roosevelt and Henry Ford. He played himself in a movie ("Chip Off the Old Block," in 1944), addressed the United Nations and was held up as an exemplar of braininess to a generation of children. - John Downing was born on 17 April 1940 in West Glamorgan, Wales, UK. He died on 8 April 2020 in England, UK.
- John Hudson was born on 24 January 1919 in Gilroy, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Screaming Skull (1958), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and Return to Paradise (1953). He was married to Mary LaRoche. He died on 8 April 1996 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Casting Department
Jose De Vega was born on 4 January 1934 in San Diego, California, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for West Side Story (1961), The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and Island of the Lost (1967). He died on 8 April 1990 in Westwood, California, USA.