Deborah Kerr, Lewis Milestone and James Dean

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Actress Deborah Kerr was born on September 30, 1921 in Glasgow, Scotland. She was a highly successful British, television and film actress who was nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Actress but never won. In 1994, however, she was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for her impeccable grace and beauty, and dedication as an actress in motion pictures in which she always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance. Her films include The King and I, An Affair to Remember, From Here to Eternity, The Innocents, Black Narcissus, heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Separate Tables. She was married twice and is alleged to have had numerous affairs. Some of Kerr's leading men have stated in their autobiographies that they had an affair or romantic fling with her. The actor Stewart Granger claimed that Kerr seduced him in the back of his chauffeur-driven car at the time he was making Caesar and Cleopatra. Likewise Burt Lancaster claimed that he was romantically involved with her during the filming of From Here to Eternity in 1953. But there has been no independent corroboration of either actor's claims. Deborah Kerr died from the effects of Parkinson’s disease October 16, 2007 in Botesdale, Suffolk, England. Her burial location is unknown.

Director Lewis Milestone was born on September 30, 1895 in Russia. Known as “Milly” to his close associates, he directed over fifty films in a career that spanned over four decades from 1918 to 1964. He was nominated for three best director Academy Awards, winning two. The first win was for Two Arabian Knights (1929), which was the first and only best comedy directing award ever given out. His second best directing Oscar was for 1930’s, All Quiet on the Western Front. Other feature film credits include; Front Page 1931), The General Died at Dawn (1936), Of Mice and Men (1939), A Walk in the Sun (1945), The Red Pony (1949), Les Miserables (1952), Pork Chop Hill (1959), Ocean’s Eleven (1960), and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Milestone died on September 25, 1980 at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications following an unknown surgery. He is buried at Westwood Memorial Park in the Sanctuary of Tenderness.

Who died on this date:

On September 30, 1955, actor James Dean died. He was born on February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana. He is best remembered for his film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were as loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955), and as the surly ranch hand, Jett Rink, in Giant (1956). Dean's enduring fame and popularity rests on his performances in only these three films, all leading roles. His premature death in a car crash on September 30, 1955 near Paso Robles, California cemented his legendary status. He is buried at the Park Cemetery in Fairmont, Indiana.  

Gene Autry, Greer Garson, Trevor Howard, Tony Curtis

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Actor Gene Autry was born on September 29, 1907 in Tioga, Texas. He is best known for being the Singing Cowboy on radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s. Autry was also owner of the Los Angeles Angels from 1961 to 1997. He also owned several television and several radio stations in Southern California. Although his signature song was "Back in the Saddle Again," Autry is best known today for his Christmas songs, Here Comes Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Autry died from lymphoma on October 2, 1998 at his home in Studio City, California and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills.

Actress Greer Garson was born on September 29, 1904 in London, England. She never intended to become an actress, educated at London University. She aspired to be a school teacher, but ended up working in an advertising agency. To make ends meet, she sought out work as a part-time actress in small, local London theaters. She quickly gained a reputation as a talented actress and was discovered by MGM studio boss, Louis B. Mayer, while on a talent expedition in London. Signed to a contract by MGM, the vivacious actress took Hollywood by storm appearing for the first time onscreen in 1939’s Goodbye, Mr. Chip’s, in which she garnered the first of seven best actress Oscar nominations. In a television and film career that spanned four decades (1939-1982), she appeared in only twenty-four feature motion pictures. She often played a courageous mother character, but in later years was able to break out of this type casting to play comedic and other forms of dramatic parts. She was often paired with actor Walter Pigeon, and the two appeared together in eight motion pictures.   

She won the golden statuette only once in 1943 for her portrayal of the courageous house wife, Mrs. Miniver in Mrs. Miniver (1942). Her other Academy Award nominated films are Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Madame Curie (1943), Mrs. Parkington (1944), Valley of Decision (1945), and Sunrise at Campobello (1960). By the late 1940’s, her film career began to wane with less than spectacular box office successes. In 1960 she made a comeback with Sunrise at Campbello (considered by many to be her best performance) but this new found success was short lived and she soon found herself with few opportunities. She retired in the late 1960’s with her husband Buddy Fogelson to their New Mexico, ranch. In the 1980’s, she suffered from chronic heart problems which drastically slowed her environmental and charity work. She underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in 1988. On April 6, 1996 while in residence at the Dallas Presbyterian Hospital, she had another heart attack and died. Greer Garson’s final resting place is found in the Fogelson family plot at Sparkman Hill Crest Memorial Park in Dallas, Texas.  

Actor Trevor Howard was born on September 29, 1913 in Cliftonville, England. His film credits include The Way to the Stars (1945), Brief Encounter (1945), I see a Dark Stranger (1945), Green for Danger (1946), They Made Me a Fugitive (1947), The Passionate Friends (1949), The Third Man (1949),and Sons and Lovers (1960), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Over time Howard easily shifted to being one of England's finest character actors. Howard's later works included such films as Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Von Ryan’s Express (1965), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), and Superman (1978). He died on January 7, 1988, from a combination of bronchitis and influenza and was buried at the St. Peter Churchyard in Arkley, England.

Who died on this date: 

On September 29, 2010, actor Tony Curtis died. He was born Bernard Schwartz On June 3, 1925 in the Bronx, New York. Following his discharge from the army following World War II, Curtis attended City College of New York under the G.I. Bill and studied acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German stage director Erwin Piscator. He was discovered by a talent agent and casting director Joyce Selznick. Curtis claims it was because he "was the handsomest of the boys." Arriving in Hollywood in 1948 at age 23, he was placed under contract at Universal Pictures and changed his name to Tony Curtis, taking his first name from the novel Anthony Adverse and his last name from "Kurtz", a surname from his mother's family. Although the studio taught him fencing and riding, Curtis admitted he was at first only interested in girls and money. Nonetheless, he was not hopeful of his chances in becoming a major actor, and feared having to return to the Bronx, a failure.  

Although his early film roles were partly the result of his good looks, by the latter half of the 1950's he became a notable and strong screen presence. He began proving himself to be a “fine dramatic actor,” having the range to act in numerous dramatic and comedy roles. In his earliest parts he acted in a string of "mediocre" films, including swashbucklers, westerns, light comedies, sports films, and a musical. However, by the time he starred in Houdini (1953) with his wife Janet Leigh. He won his first serious recognition as a skilled dramatic actor in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with co-star Burt Lancaster. The following year he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in another drama, The Defiant Ones (1958). Curtis then gave what many believe was his best acting, in a completely different role, the comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). Thomson calls it an "outrageous film," and it was voted the number 1 funniest film in history from a survey done by the American Film Institute. It costarred Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and was directed by Billy Wilder. That was followed by Blake Edwards’ comedy Operation Petticoat (1959) with Cary Grant. They were both “frantic comedies,” and displayed "his impeccable comic timing." He often collaborated with Edwards on later films. His most significant serious part came in 1968 when he starred in the true-life drama The Boston Strangler, which some consider his "last major film role." The part reinforced his reputation as a serious actor with his "chilling portrayal" of serial killer Albert DeSalvo. He gained 30 pounds and had his face "rebuilt" with a false nose to look like the real DeSalvo. 

Curtis was married five times. His first wife was actress Janet Leigh, to whom he was married from 1951 to 1962, and with whom he fathered actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis. On July 8, 2010, Curtis, who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was hospitalized in Las Vegas after suffering an asthma attack during a book signing engagement in Henderson, Nevada and died at his Henderson, Nevada home on September 29, 2010, of a cardiac arrest. He is buried at Palm Memorial Park in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Harpo Marx

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On September 28, 1964, actor Harpo Marx died. He was born on November 23, 1888 in New York City and was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by pantomime traditions, wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate. He got his stage name during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois. The dealer called him "Harpo" because he played the harp. His first film appearance was in the 1921s, Humor Risk, with his brothers, although according to Groucho, it was only screened once and then lost. Four years later, Harpo appeared without his brothers in Too Many Kisses, four years before the brothers' first widely-released film, The Cocoanuts (1929). Harpo became famous for prop-laden sight gags, in particular the seemingly infinite number of odd things stored in his oversized pockets. In the film Horse Feathers (1932), Groucho, referring to an impossible situation, tells Harpo that he cannot "burn the candle at both ends." Harpo immediately produces from within his coat pocket a lit candle burning at both ends. Earlier in the film a man on the street asks him for a cup of coffee, and he subsequently produces a steaming cup from inside his coat! He often used facial expressions and mime to get his point across. Harpo Marx died on September 28, 1964, after undergoing open heart surgery. Harpo's death was said to have hit the surviving Marx brothers very hard. Harpo was cremated and his ashes were reportedly sprinkled into the sand trap at the seventh hole of the Rancho Mirage golf course which he occasionally played on.

Edmund Burns, Clara Bow, Lloyd Nolan, Donald O'Connor

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Actor Edmund Burns was born on September 27, 1892 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was an actor who appeared in nearly one hundred films from 1915 to 1936.  Notable film credits include D. W. Griffith’s epic, Birth of a Nation (1915), and Frank Capra’s Academy Award winning film, It Happened One Night (1934), starring Clark Gable, and Claudette Colbert. Burns died on April 2, 1980, and his grave is located at Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach, California.

Who died on this date:

On September 27, 1965, actress Clara Bow died. She was born on July 29, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York. Her high spirits and acting artistry made her the quintessential flapper and the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol. She appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including hits such as Mantrap (1926), It (1927) and Wings (1927). She was first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture has been described to have ensured investors, by odds of almost 2-to-1, a "safe return" with only two exceptions. At the apex of her stardom, in January 1929, she received more than 45,000 fan letters. Bow ended her career with Hoop-La (1933), and became a rancher in Nevada. In 1931 she married actor Rex Bell, later politician and Lieutenant Governor, with whom she had two sons. 

In 1944, while Bell was running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Bow tried to commit suicide. A note was found in which Bow stated she preferred death to a public life. In 1949 she checked into The Institute of Living to be treated for her chronic insomnia and diffuse abdominal pains. Shock treatment was tried and numerous psychological tests performed. Her pains were considered delusional and she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, despite experiencing neither sound nor vision hallucinations, or psychosis. Bow spent her last years in Culver City, Los Angeles under the constant care of a nurse, living off an estate worth about $500,000 at the time of her death. She died on September 27, 1965 of a heart attack. She was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

On September 27, 1985, actor Lloyd Nolan died. He was born on August 11, 1902 in San Francisco, California. He began his career on stage and was subsequently lured to Hollywood, where he played mainly doctors, detectives, and police officers in many movie roles. Although Nolan's acting was often praised by critics, he was, for the most part, relegated to B pictures. The majority of Nolan's films comprised light entertainment with an emphasis on action. His most famous films include: Atlantic Adventure, Ebb Tide; Wells Fargo; Every Day's A Holiday, Bataan, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Peyton Place. Later in his career, he returned to the stage and appeared on television to great acclaim in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, for which he received an Emmy award. He also appeared in other numerous television shows throughout the 1960’s. Nolan died of lung cancer in Los Angeles on September 27, 1985 and is buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

On September 27, 2003, actor Donald O’Connor died. He was born on August 28, 1925 in Danville, Illinois. O'Connor began performing in movies at the age of 12 in 1937. In 1942 O'Connor joined Universal Pictures and achieved stardom with Mister Big (1943). In 1949, he played the lead role in Francis, the story of a soldier befriended by a talking mule. The film was a huge success. However, his musical career was constantly interrupted by his making one Francis film a year until 1955. O'Connor's role as Cosmo the piano player in Singin’ in the Rain (1952), earned him a Golden Globe Award. He died from heart failure on September 27, 2003 and his burial place is in dispute, some sources state that he is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills and others have his ashes with family.

Edmund Gwenn, George Raft, Anna Magnani

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Actor Edmund Gwenn was a venerable character actor, who will forever be known for his portrayal of Kris Kringle was born Edmund Kellaway on September 26, 1877 in Wandsworth, London, England. His parents disapproved of his interest in the theater and disowned him when at seventeen; he chose an acting career rather than a civil service profession. They were reconciled many years later when Gwenn neared his acting peak. At the age of twenty in a chance meeting, he was introduced to famed playwright George Bernard Shaw. The famed play write offered the young actor a prominent role in his London production of Man and Superman. Gwenn’s performance was critically acclaimed, and this led to five other Shaw stage productions. At the outbreak of World War I, Gwenn enlisted in the British Army and eventually rose to the rank of captain. Following the war, he resumed his London stage acting career, eventually moving to New York City and the bright lights of Broadway. Gwenn was a success here as well, appearing in numerous stage productions. His prolific motion picture career began in 1931 with How He Lied to Her Husband and from here on out, Gwenn was devoted primarily to film. During a screen and television career that spanned two decades (1931- 1957), he appeared in over eighty feature motion pictures that included; Tell Me Tonight (1932), Marooned (1933), Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), All American Chump (1936), Pride and Prejudice (1938), Foreign Correspondent (1940), The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), Charley’s Aunt (1941), Lassie Come Home (1943), Of Human Bondage (1946), Hills of Home (1948), Bonzo Goes to College (1952), and Them (1954).   

He won the best supporting actor Oscar in 1948 for his portrayal of the loveable Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34^th Street (1947) and upon accepting his statuette; Gwenn was quoted as saying “Now, I know there is a Santa Claus.” He was again nominated for a best supporting actor Academy Award in 1951 for Mister 880 (1950), but lost to George Sanders. Late in life Gwenn was crippled by severe arthritis and this ended his film career. Gwenn’s final days were spent in tremendous pain at the Motion Picture and Television Actors Home in Woodland Hills. He suffered a stroke and later developed pneumonia and died on September 6, 1959. A memorial service was held at the Motion Picture and Television Actors Home and at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. Edmund Gwenn’s cremated remains are interred at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.

Actor George Raft was born on September 26, 1901 in New York City. He is best known for his portrayals of gangsters in crime movies of the 1930s and 1940s. Film credits include Scarface (1932), Bolero (1934), Each Dawn I Die (1939), They Drive By Night (1940), and Some Like It Hot (1959). Raft's career as a leading man continued through the 1940s with films of gradually declining quality and his career spiraled steadily downward as a result until the iconic star was finally limited as a box office draw. Raft died from Leukemia on November 24, 1980 and his ashes are interred at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills.

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On September 26, 1973, actress Anna Magnani died. She was born on March 7, 1908 in Rome, Italy. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the The Rose Tattoo (1955). Film credits include Wild is the Wind (1957), The Fugitive Kind (1959), and The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969). She died on September 26, 1973 from pancreatic cancer and is buried at Cimitero Comunale in Lazio, Italy.

Walter Pidgeon

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Actor Walter Pidgeon was born on September 23, 1897 in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. Discontented with banking, Pidgeon moved to New York City, where he walked into the office of E. E. Clive, announced that he could act and sing, and said was ready to prove it. After acting on stage for several years, he made his Broadway debut in 1925. Pidgeon made a number of silent movies in the 1920s. However, he became a huge star with the arrival of talkies. He became associated with musicals; however, when the public grew weary of them, his career began to falter. Film credits include The Bride of the Regiment (1930), Kiss Me Again (1931), Saratoga (1937), and Dark Command (1940). It was not until he starred in How Green was my Valley (1941) that his popularity rebounded. He then starred opposite Greer Garson in Blossoms in the Dust, Mrs. Miniver (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for best actor). He was also nominated in 1944 for Madame Curie, again opposite Garson. His partnership with her continued in the 1950s, and concluding with Scandal at Scourie (1953). He died on September 25, 1984 from a stroke and in accordance with his wishes, his body was donated to the UCLA Medical School for medical research.

Paul Muni, Dorothy Lamour

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Actor Paul Muni was born on September 22, 1895 in Lemburg, Austria. His parents were actors who toured small cabarets in Europe and immigrated to the United States in 1902. He and his parents toured small vaudeville theaters throughout the Midwest and by 1926, Muni had graduated to the bright lights of Broadway. In 1928, he signed with 20th Century-Fox studios and it was suggested that he change his name from Weisenfruend to Muni. His first film project The Valiant (1929) was not a box office success but it did earn him a best actor nomination in his first screen appearance.

Muni’s award winning film career spanned thirty years (1929-1962) and included twenty-three motion pictures major film credits include; Scarface (1929), The Good Earth (1937), Juarez (1939), and We Are Not Alone (1939). He was nominated for six best acting Oscars, winning once, his nominated films were The Valiant (1929), I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Black Fury (1935), The Life of Emile Zola (1937), The Last Angry Man (1959), and his only Academy Award win was for portrayal of scientist Louis Pasteur in The Life of Louis Pasteur (1936). In the early 1960’s, Muni tired of the Hollywood life style and retired from film making. He and his wife lived a simple, quiet life in Montecito, California until August 25, 1967, when the former actor died from a heart attack. Funeral services and burial were held at the Hollywood Memorial Park (now called Hollywood Forever Cemetery). Muni’s unassuming grave is found beneath a cypress tree in the center of the Plains of Abraham lawn (formerly section 14), space 57 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

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On September 22, 1996, actress Dorothy Lamour died. She was born on December 10, 1914 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is best remembered for appearing with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the “Road to” movies. In 1936, she moved to Hollywood and began appearing regularly in films for Paramount Pictures. The role that made her a star was Ulah in The Jungle Princess (1936). While she first achieved stardom as a sex symbol, Lamour also showed talent as both a comic and dramatic actress. She was among the most popular actresses in motion pictures from 1936 to 1952. During the World War II, Lamour was among the most popular pinup girls among American servicemen. Some of Lamour's other notable films include The Hurricane (1937),Disputed Passage (1939), Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942), My Favorite Brunette (1947), and the best picture Oscar winner The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). She died at her home in North Hollywood, California from a heart attack on September 22, 1996 and is buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.

Kenneth More

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Actor Kenneth More was born on September 20, 1914 in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England. He starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman. He enjoyed great success in films of the 1950s. Film credits include Reach for the Sky (1956), A Night to Remember (1958), Sink the Bismark (1960), The Longest Day (1962), Battle of Britain (1969), and Oh What a Lovely War (1969). He died in London from Parkinson’s disease on July 12, 1982, aged 67, he was cremated and his remains are interred at the Putney Vale Cemetery in London, England.

Frances Farmer, Margaret Lindsay, June Preisser, Gloria Talbott

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Actress Frances Farmer was born on September 19, 1913 in Seattle, Washington. She is best known for sensationalized and fictional accounts of her life, and especially her in voluntary commitment to a mental hospital.. Farmer was the subject of three films, three books, and numerous songs and magazine articles. Farmer signed her first film contract on her 22nd birthday with Paramount Pictures and moved to Hollywood. She had top billing in two well-received 1936 B-movies.

Farmer was not entirely satisfied with her career, however. She felt stifled by Paramount's tendency to cast her in films which depended on her looks more than her talent. Her outspoken style made her seem uncooperative and contemptuous. In an age when the studios dictated every facet of a star's life, Farmer rebelled against the studio's control and resisted every attempt they made to glamorize her private life. She refused to attend Hollywood parties or to date other stars for the gossip columns. By 1939, her temperamental work habits and worsening alcoholism began to damage her reputation.

On October 19, 1942, Frances Farmer was stopped by the police in Santa Moncia for driving with her headlights on bright in the wartime blackout zone. Some reports say she was unable to produce a driver's license and was verbally abusive. The police suspected her of being drunk and she was jailed overnight. Farmer was fined $500 and given a 180-day suspended sentence. She immediately paid $250 and was put on probation. By January 1943, she failed to pay the rest of the fine and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. At almost the same time, a studio hairdresser filed an assault charge alleging that Farmer had dislocated her jaw on the set. The police traced Farmer to the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood. Getting no answer, they entered her room with a pass key. They reportedly found her in bed (some stories include an episode involving the bathroom) and made her dress quickly. By all accounts, she did not surrender peacefully. At her hearing the next morning, she behaved erratically. She claimed the police had violated her civil rights, demanded an attorney, and threw an inkwell at the judge. He immediately sentenced her to 180 days in jail. She knocked down a policeman and bruised another, along with a matron. She ran to a phone booth where she tried to call her attorney, but was subdued by the police. They physically carried her away as she shouted, "Have you ever had a broken heart?"

Newspaper reports gave sensationalized accounts of her arrest. Through the efforts of her sister-in-law, a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County, Farmer was transferred to the psychiatric ward of L.A. General Hospital. There she was diagnosed with "manic depressive psychosis.” Within days, having been sent to the Kimball Sanitarium in La Crescenta, Farmer was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. She was given insulin shock therapy, a treatment then accepted as standard psychiatric procedure. Her family later claimed they did not give their consent to the treatment, as documented in her sister's self-published book, Look Back in Love, and in court records. The sanitarium was a minimum-security facility. After about nine months, Farmer walked away one afternoon and went to her half-sister Rita's house, over 20 miles away. The pair called their mother in Seattle to complain about the insulin treatment.

Farmer moved back in with her parents in West Seattle, but she and her mother fought bitterly. Within six months, Farmer physically attacked her mother. Her mother then had Frances committed to Western State Hospital. There, Farmer sometimes received electro-shock treatment. Three months later, during the summer of 1944, she was pronounced "completely cured" and released. While traveling with her father to visit at an aunt's ranch in Reno, Nevada, Farmer ran away. She spent time with a family who had picked her up hitchhiking, but she was eventually arrested for vagrancy in Antioch, California. Her arrest received wide publicity. Offers of help came in from across the country, but Farmer ignored them all. After a long stay with her aunt in Nevada, Farmer went back to her parents. At her mother's request, at age 31, Farmer was recommitted to Western State Hospital in May 1945 and remained there almost five years, with the exception of a brief parole in 1946.On March 23, 1950, at her parents' request, Farmer was paroled back into her mother's care. From 1958 to 1964 Farmer hosted a successful TV show called Frances Farmer Presents which had the top audience ranking in its time slot throughout the program's run. She was also in demand as a public speaker. On September 19, 1970, Farmer died from cancer and is buried at at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Fishers, Indiana.

Actress Margaret Lindsay was born on September 19, 1910 in Dubuque, Iowa. She was noted for her supporting work in successful films of the 1930s and 1940s such as Jezebel (1938) and Scarlett Street (1945) and her leading roles in lower-budgeted B-Movies. Perhaps Lindsay's finest film role was in The House of the Seven Gables (1940). Lindsay died at the age of 70 of emphysema on May 9, 1981 at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

Who died on this date:

On September 19, 1884, actress June Preisser died. She was born on June 26, 1920 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her parents sent her to an athletic club at an early age, in an attempt to build her strength. There she, and her sister Cherry, learnt acrobatics. When Preisser was nine years old an actor noticed the two sisters performing acrobatics on a sidewalk near their home, and his interest in them eventually led to them working in vaudeville, and later for the Ziegfeld Follies in 1934 and 1936.

In the late 1930’s, June was signed to a contract by MGM and her first film was Dancing Co-Ed (1939). Her next film, Babes in Arms (1939), gave her a significant role opposite Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. She performed with Rooney and Garland again in Strike Up the Band (1940), and with Rooney in two "Andy Hardy" films, Judge Hardy and Son (1939) and Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941). Other notabel film credits include Gallant Sons (1940), Henry Aldrich for President (1941), and Sweater Girl (1942). Her final film was Music Man (1948), after which she retired from acting. On September 19, 1984, she was killed in car accident in Florida and is buried at the Atkins Cemetery, Blountstown, Florida.

On September 19, 2000, actress Gloria Talbott died. She was born on February 7, 1931in Glendale, California. She began film her career as a child actor in such films as Maytime (1937) Sweet and Lowdown (1943) and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). She stopped acting following her marriage, and resumed after her divorce, having worked extensively in film and television. She worked on a regular basis in the 1950s, having appeared in Crashout (1955), We’re No Angels (1955) and All That Heaven Allows (1955). Talbott later became known as a scream queen after appearing in a number of horror films in the 1950s. She died on September 19, 2000 from kidney failure and is buried at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.

Anne Francis, Tommy Bond, Constance Moore

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Actress Anne Francis was born on September 16, 1930 in Ossining, New York. She is best known for her role in the film classic Forbidden Planet (1956). She won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy award for her role in Honey West. Francis holds the distinction of starring in the first TV series with a female detective character's name in the title. Over her career, Francis appeared in scores of TV shows and movies. She made her film debut in This Time for Keeps (1947). In her early film career, she played supporting roles in films such as: Susan Slept Here, So Young So Bad, and Bad Day at Black Rock. Her first leading role was in Blackboard Jungle (1955). Francis found success in television and appeared in numerous TV shows. Francis was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007 and died on January 2, 2011, from pancreatic cancer at a retirement home in Santa Barbara, California. Her ashes were given to family and final disposition is unknown.

Child actor Tommy Bond was born on September 16, 1926 in Dallas, Texas. He is best known for playing Butch on the Our Gang serial. Bond got his start in 1931 at the age of five when a talent scout for Hall Roach studios approached him as he was leaving a Dallas cinema with his mother. The scout asked him if he would like to act in films because he "had a great face" and set up an appointment with Hal Roach in Los Angeles. Hal Roach was gathering new talent for his popular Our Gang comedies. Bond's grandmother volunteered to drive the boy to L.A. by motor car. Bond was hired at Hal Roach Studios for the Our Gang series in the summer of 1931. He worked in Our Gang for two years, alternately appearing as a supporting character and a background actor. In late 1934, Bond left the series and returned to public school, still earning periodic bit parts in Hollywood productions. Bond returned to Our Gang on a recurring basis late in 1936, when Roach hired him to play "Butch", the neighborhood bully. While an Our Gang, Bond appeared in a number of outside films, such as those featuring fellow Hal Roach Studios with Laurel and Hardy. Throughout his lifetime, Bond appeared in over 73 films, was a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild, joining in 1937. He died on September 24, 2005 due to complications from heart disease in Los Angeles, California and is buried at Riverside national Cemetery in Riverside, California.

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On September 16, 2005, actress Constance Moore died. She was born on January 18, 1920 in Sioux City, Iowa. She is best known for her musicals such as Show Business and Atlantic City and the classic 1939 movie serial Buck Rogers, in which she played Wilma Deering, the only female character in the serial. She retired from films in 1947 but made sporadic appearances over the next few decades. Moore died September 16, 2005, at the age of 85 following a long illness. She was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Jackie Cooper, Fay Wray, Penny Singleton, Margaret Lockwood, Sara Haden

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Actor Jackie Cooper was born on September 15, 1922 in Los Angeles, California. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination. At age 9, he was also the youngest performer to have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, an honor that he received for the film Skippy (1931). For nearly 50 years, Cooper remained the youngest Oscar nominee in any category, until he was surpassed by Justin Henry, age 8, in the Supporting Actor category for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

Cooper first appeared in films as an extra with his grandmother, who would bring him along in hopes of aiding her own attempts to get extra work. He graduated to bit parts in feature films and director Leo McCarey, arranged an audition for the Our Gang serial. Cooper joined the series in 1929, signing to a three-year contract. He initially was only a supporting character in the series, but by early 1930 he had done so well with the transition to sound films that he had become one of the Gang's major characters. According to his autobiography, Cooper, under contract to Hal Roach Studios, was loaned in the spring of 1931 to Paramount to star in Skippy (directed by his uncle, Norman Taurog). The movie catapulted young Cooper to super-stardom. He began a long on-screen relationship with actor Wallace Beery in such films as The Champ (1931), The Bowery (1933), The Choices of Andy Purcell (1933), Treasure Island (1934), and O’Shaughnessy’s Boy (1935). A legion of film critics and fans have lauded the relationship between the two as an example of classic movie magic. However, in his autobiography Cooper wrote that Beery was "a big disappointment", and accused him of upstaging and other attempts to undermine the boy's performances out of what Cooper presumed was jealousy.  

Not conventionally handsome as he approached adulthood, Cooper had the typical child-actor problems finding roles as an adolescent. From 1964 to 1969, Cooper was vice president of program development at Columbia Pictures TV division. He was responsible for packaging series (such as Bewitched) and other projects and selling them to the networks. He reportedly cast Sally Field as Gidget. Cooper acted only once during this period, in the 1968 TV-movie Shadow on the Land. Cooper left Columbia in 1969 and started yet another phase of his career, one in which he would act occasionally in key character roles. Cooper found renewed fame in the 1970s and 1980s as editor Perry White in the Superman film series starring Christopher Reeve. Cooper announced his retirement in 1989, although he was still directing episodes of the syndicated series Superboy. He began spending more time training and racing horses at Hollywood Park and outside San Diego during the Del Mar racing season. He lived in Beverly Hills from 1955 to his death. Cooper died on May 3, 2011, after a short illness and his final resting place is unknown.

Actress Fay Wray  was born on September 15, 1907in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. She is most famous for playing the lead in King Kong. Through an acting career that spanned 57 years, Wray attained international stardom as an actress in horror film roles, leading to many considering her as the first "scream queen.” After appearing in minor film roles, Wray gained media attention being selected as one of the "WAMPAS Baby Stars.”. This led to Wray being signed to Paramount Studios as a teenager, where she made more than a dozen films. After leaving Paramount, she signed deals with various film companies, being cast in her first horror film roles among many other types of roles, including in The Bowery (1933) and Viva Villa (1934). At RKO Pictures, she starred in the film with which she is most identified, King Kong (1933). After the success of King Kong, she continued to star in various films, but by the early 1940s, her appearances became sporadic. She retired from acting in 1942, after her second marriage. However, due to financial problems she had to continue acting, and over the next three decades, Wray appeared in minor film roles and also frequently on television. Wray died in her sleep of natural causes on August 8, 2004, in her Manhattan apartment and is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Two days after her death, the lights of the Empire State Building were extinguished for 15 minutes in her memory.

Actress Penny Singleton was born on September 15, 1908 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During her sixty year career Singleton is best known for her role as Blondie in the Blondie film series from 1938 until 1950. She also provided the voice of Jane Jetson in the animated series, the Jetson’s. Singleton began her show business career when she was a child, singing at a silent movie theater, and toured in vaudeville as part of an act called "The Kiddie Kabaret.” She was cast opposite Arthur Lake in the feature film Blondie in 1938, based on the comic strip. As Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead they proved so popular that a succession of 27 sequels were made from 1938 until 1950. Singleton died on November 12, 2003 from a stroke and was interred at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in San Fernando, California.

Actress Margaret Lockwood was born on September 15, 1916 in Karachi, Pakistan. She began studying for the stage at an early age at the Italia Conti, and made her debut in 1928, at the age of 12, at the Holborn Empire, where she played a fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In December of the following year, she appeared at the Scala Theatre in the pantomime The Babes in the Wood. In 1932, she appeared at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in Cavalcade. Lockwood then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she was seen by a talent scout and signed to a contract. In June 1934, she played Myrtle in House on Fire at the Queen's Theatre, and on 22 August 1934 appeared as Margaret Hamilton in Gertrude Jenning's play Family Affairs when it premiered at the Ambassadors Theatre; Helene Ferber in Repayment at the Arts Theatre in January 1936; Trixie Drew in Henry Bernard's play Miss Smith at the Duke of York's Theatre in July 1936; and back at the Queen's in July 1937 as Ann Harlow in Ann's Lapse.

Lockwood’s film career began in 1935, when she appeared in the film version of Lorna Doone. In 1938 she starred in her most successful film, Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. In 1940, she played the role of Jenny Sunley in The Stars Look Down. In the early 1940s, Lockwood changed her on-screen image to play villainesses in both contemporary and period films, becoming the most successful actress in British films during that period. Her greatest success was in the title role in The Wicked Lady (1945), a film which was controversial in its day and brought her considerable publicity. She made a return to the stage in a record-breaking national tour of Noël Coward's Private Lives in 1949, and also played Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion at the Edinburgh Festival of 1951, and the title role in J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in 1949, 1950, and 1957 (the latter with her daughter as Wendy). Her subsequent long-running West End hits include an all-star production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband (1965/66, in which she played the villainous Mrs Cheveley), W. Somerset Maugham's Lady Frederick (1970), Relative Values (Noël Coward revival, 1973), and the thrillers Spider's Web (1955, written for her by Agatha Christie), Signpost to Murder (1962), and Double Edge (1975). Margaret Lockwood lived her final years in seclusion in Kingston-upon-Thames and died in the Cromwell Hospital, Kensington, London on July 15, 1990 from cirrhosis of the liver. Her cremated remains were given to family and final disposition is unknown.

 Who died on this date:

On September 15, 1981, actress Sara Haden died. She was born on November 17, 1899 in Galveston, Texas. She was a character actress of the 1930s through the 1950s. Haden made her film debut in 1934 (one year after her mother's retirement) in Spitfire. Haden later became a MGM contract player in the late 1930s and had smallish roles in many of the studio's films, most notably in the Andy Hardy series starring Mickey Rooney, cast as the spinsterish Aunt Milly Forrest. Haden made her last film in 1958 but was active on television up until a 1965 guest spot on Dr. Kildare. She was most notable for her stern, humorless characterizations such as a truant officer in Captain January (1936), but she also played the much-loved teacher Miss Pipps who is unjustly fired in the Our Gang serial Come Back, Miss Pipps (1941). Her other films include Poor Little Rich Girl (1936), Woman of the Year (1942), and The Bishop’s Wife (1947).  She died on September 15, 1981 and is buried at the Old City Cemetery in Galveston, Texas.

Jack Hawkins, Kay Medford, Grace Kelly, Irving Thalberg, Janet Gaynor

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Actor Jack Hawkins was born on September 14, 1910 - 18 July 1973) in Middlesex, England. Although he had appeared in several films during the 1930s, it was only after World War II that he began to build a successful career in the cinema and often played stern but sympathetic authority figures in films like Angels One Five, The Cruel Sea, and The Long Arm. From the late 1950s, he mostly appeared in character roles, often in epic films like Ben-Hur, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Lord Jim, Oh, What a Lovely War and Zulu. For The Bridge on the River Kwai, he had to persuade good friend Alec Guinness to take the lead role, which would ultimately win Guinness an Oscar.Hawkins was married to actress Jessica Tandy from 1932 to 1940. A three-pack-a-day smoker, Hawkins began experiencing voice problems in the late 1950s; unknown to the public he had undergone cobalt treatment in 1959 for what was then described as a secondary condition of the larynx, but which was probably cancer. In December 1965, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. His entire larynx was removed in January of the following year; thereafter his performances were dubbed. Following an unsuccessful operation to fit him with an artificial voice box, he died at St Stephen's Hospital, London, on July 18, 1973. He was cremated and interred at the Golders Green Crematorium, London.

Actress Kay Medford was born on September 14, 1914 in New York City. She was a character actress who began her career as the original "Mama" in Bye Bye Birdie, starring opposite Dick Van Dyke on Broadway. Medford appeared in the Warner Bros. rock and roll movie Jamboree (1957). She appeared in musicals such as Paint Your Wagon and Carousel, before appearing onstage in Funny Girl. For her performance she was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award for Featured Actress (Musical), and when she repeated the role in the 1968 film version and was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress. From 1969-70 she co-starred opposite John Forsythe in the CBS television series To Rome with Love. Medford never married and died on April 10, 1980 in New York City from cervical cancer. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered.

Who died on this date: 

On September 14, 1982, actress Grace Kelly died. She was born on November 12, 1929 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, Grace Kelly appeared in New York City theatrical productions as well as in more than forty episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. In October 1953, with the release of Mogambo, she became a movie star, a status confirmed in 1954 with a Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nomination as well as leading roles in five films, including The Country Girl, in which she won the Oscar for best actress. On April 18, 1956, she married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and became The Princess of Monaco. She retired from acting at 26 to enter upon her duties in Monaco. She died on September 14, 1982, when she lost control of her automobile and crashed after suffering a stroke. Her daughter Princess Stephanie, who was in the car with her, survived the accident. Princess Grace is buried at the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

On September 14, 1936, movie mogul Irving Thalberg died. He was born on May 30, 1899 in Brooklyn, New York.  He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films. He worked as personal secretary to legendary studio founder carl Laemmle at Universal Studios. Irving Thalberg was bright and persistent, and by age 21 was executive in charge of production at Universal City. In 1924, he left Universal for MGM to become head of production. At the time he joined MGM, Thalberg was dating actress Norma Shearer, whom he married in 1927. At first, Thalberg and studio chief Louis B. Mayer got along famously well. However, they had different production philosophies. Thalberg preferred literary works, while Mayer preferred glitzy crowd-pleasing films. A clash was inevitable, and their relationship grew decidedly frosty. When Thalberg fell ill in 1932, Mayer took advantage of the situation and replaced him with David O. Selznick. When Thalberg returned to work in 1933, it was as one of the studio's unit producers; he helped develop some of MGM's most prestigious films of the early 1930s. Thalberg died of pneumonia on September 14, 1936 in Santa Monica, California. He is interred in a private marble tomb in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. His crypt is engraved, "My Sweetheart Forever" by his wife Norma Shearer.

On September 14, 1984, actress Janet Gaynor died. She was the first winner of the Academy Award for lead actress and the youngest ever to win the award (until Marlee Matlin in 1986). She was born Laura Gainer on October 6, 1906 in Philadelphia. Gaynor had a long career in show business with over sixty film, theater, and television credits from 1924 until 1981. She was one of Hollywood’s top stars from the late 1920’s through the 1930’s. The classic virgin-heroine type on screen, her personal life mirrored her on screen persona. A devout Quaker, Gaynor lived at home with her mother until she got married. She was one of the few actresses to successfully move from silent pictures to talkies. Gaynor’s major film credits include; High Society Blues (1930), Daddy Long Legs (1931), State Fair (1933), The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935), and A Star is Born (1937). Gaynor won the lead actress Academy award (1927-1928) for performances in three films, Sunrise (1927), 7th Heaven (1927), and Street Angel (1928). During the first years of the Academy Awards, actors and actresses could win for multiple films. Gaynor’s award winning performances during 1927-1928, were a real challenge to box office champ, Gloria Swanson’s dominance. Gaynor was nominated for a second best actress Academy Award in 1937 in A Star is Born, but lost to Luise Rainer.                          

At the peak of her film career in 1938, Gaynor abruptly retired from films and married MGM dress designer Gilbert Adrian. Her retirement from show business lasted until 1959, when she returned to the Broadway stage in Midnight Sun. On September 5, 1982, Gaynor was seriously hurt in an automobile accident in San Francisco, which also injured fellow actress Mary Martin. Unfortunately, Gaynor never fully recovered from these injuries. Chronic illness followed the accident and on September 14, 1984, almost two years after the tragic car crash, Gaynor died from pneumonia at a Palm Springs, California area hospital. In accordance with her final wishes, there was no memorial or funeral service. Gaynor is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery next to her first husband, Gilbert Adrian in the Garden of Legends (formerly section 8), lot 193.

Claudette Colbert, Robert Dudley, Dorothy McGuire, Betty Field

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Actress Claudette Colbert was a versatile and award winning actress and was born Lily Claudette Chauchoin on September 13, 1903 in Saint-Mande, France. At an early age the actress and her family immigrated to the United States, settling in New York City. Her career in show business began on the stage, where her big break on Broadway came in 1927, playing the role of the snake charmer in The Barker. This success led directly to film contracts and role in the 1927 silent film, For the Love of Mike. With the advent of talking pictures there was a need for classically trained stage actress’ and Colbert abandoned the stage for the big screen. She appeared in seventy-nine films and television programs from 1927 to 1987, film highlights include; The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), The Wiser Sex (1932), The Sign of the Cross (1932), Cleopatra (1934), Imitation of Life (1934), The Gilded Lily (1935), Arise My Love (1940), No Time for Love (1943), and Three Came Home (1950).

In the early years of her career, Colbert was type cast as the sweet and virtuous woman. This image changed in 1932 and in one memorable scene from the film, The Sign of the Cross, Colbert playing the role of the seductress takes a scandalous dip in a bath tub filled with milk. This role helped propel her into a new category of super stardom, that of sex symbol. She was nominated for three best actress awards, Private World’s (1935), and Since You Went Away (1945), but her only Academy Award win was in 1934’s It Happened One Night, co-starring Clark Gable. Ironically, the night of her biggest success might never have been, Colbert did not plan on attending the ceremony. She believed that actress Bette Davis (due to a ground swell of last minute write-in votes) would win the award and not wanting to be humiliated had planned a trip to New York instead of attending the ceremony. While awaiting her train at Union Station in Los Angeles, friends of Colbert’s arrived at the train station just in time to whisk the actress back to the Biltmore Hotel (under police escort) to receive the best actress Oscar. She made it just in time to accept the award and then quietly slipped out of the ballroom and resumed her planned trip to New York. As her film career began to wane in the early 1950’s, Colbert made the successful switch to television and theater. She appeared on numerous television programs until 1987, and also made several successful Broadway stage appearances in the 1960’s and again in the early 1980’s.

The legendary actress suffered a series of strokes in March of 1993, which left her partially paralyzed and confined to wheelchair. Despite these disabilities, Colbert continued to have a zest for life, visiting often with family and friends. On July 30, 1996, three years after her first stroke, she tragically suffered another massive stroke and died at her vacation home in Bridgetown, Barbados at age ninety. Claudette Colbert is buried at the Parish of Saint Peter’s Cemetery in Barbados.     

Actor Robert Dudley was born on September 13, 1869 in Cincinnati. Ohio. He was a prolific character actor, who appeared in numerous films from the silent era to the 1950’s. Primarily, appearing in “B” movies, notable film credits include Seven Keys of Baldpate (1917), The Traveling Salesman (1921), Chicago (1927), Reunion (1932), The Toast of New York (1937), The House of the Seven Gables (1940), The Son of Dracula (1943), Lady on a Train (1945), and As Young as You Feel (1951). In Orson Wells’ Academy Award winning film, Citizen Kane (1941), Dudley played an uncredited role as a photographer. He was the founder of the “Troupers Club of Hollywood,” an organization founded by actors for actors. Robert Dudley died November 12, 1955 in San Clemente; California. He is buried at Melrose Abbey in Anaheim, California.

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On September 13, 2001, actress Dorothy McGuire died. She was born on June 14, 1916 in Omaha. Nebraska. She began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Eventually, she moved onto Broadway, first appearing in Our Town and Claudia. She was discovered by David O. Selznick on the strength of her stage performance; McGuire starred in her first film, a movie adaptation of her Broadway success, Claudia, and portrayed the character of a child bride who almost destroys her marriage through her selfishness. Her inaugural screen performance was popular with both the public and critics alike and was the catalyst for not only a sequel, Claudia and David (both movies co-starring Robert Young), but also for numerous other film roles. By 1943, at the age of 27, she was already playing mother roles, in such movies as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.. She was nominated for a best actress Academy Award in 1947 for Gentleman’s Agreement. Other notable films include The Enchanted Cottage, A Summer Place, Three Coins in the Fountain, Friendly Persuasion, Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, The Greatest Story Ever Told, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. She was married to Life magazine photographer John Swope (1908–1979) for more than 35 years. McGuire died of cardiac arrest on September 13, 2001 and her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.

On September 13, 1973, actress Betty Field died. She was born on February 8, 1913 in Boston, Massachusetts. She began her acting career on the London stage in She Loves Me Not. Following its run she returned to the United States and appeared in several stage successes, before making her film debut in 1939. Her role as Mae, the sole female character, in Of Mice and Men (1939) established her as a dramatic actress. She starred opposite John Wayne in the The Shepard of the Hills (1941). Field played supporting roles in films such as Kings Row (1942). Field preferred performing on Broadway and appeared in Dream Girl and The Waltz of the Toreadors, but returned to Hollywood regularly, appearing in Flesh and Fantasy (1943), The Southerner (1945), The Great Gatsby (1949), Picnic (1955), Bus Stop (1956), Peyton Place (1957), Butterfield 8 (1960) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). Her final film role was in Coogan’s Bluff in 1968. She also appeared on television. Filed died on September 13, 1973 in Hyannis, Massachusetts from a stroke. He cremated remains were given to family for final disposition, which is unknown.

Maurice Chevalier, Anthony Perkins, William Boyd

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Actor Maurice Chevalier was born on September 12, 1888 in Paris, France. He was a French actor, singer, and popular vaudeville entertainer.  Chevalier's signature songs included "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" from the movie, Gigi (1958). In 1928, he signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and played his first American role in Innocents of Paris. In 1930 he was nominated for an Academy Award for best actor for The Love Parade (1929) and The Big Pond (1930). Other notable screen credits include Paramount of Parade (1930), Monkey Business (1931), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931),  One Hour With You (1932), Love me Tonight (1932), The Merry Widow (1934), and Love in the Afternoon (1957). In the early 1960s, he toured the United States and between 1960 and 1963 made eight films, including Can-Can (1960) and Fanny (1961). In 1970, several years after his retirement, he sang the title song of the Disney film The Aristocats, which ended up being his final contribution to the film industry. He died in Paris on January 1, 1972, and was interred in the cemetery of Marnes-la-Coquette in Hauts-de-Seine, France.

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On September 12, 1992, actor Anthony Perkins died. He was born on April 4, 1932 in New York City. He is best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion (1956) and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s, Psycho (1960). Perkins made his film debut in The Actress (1953) and received a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for his second film, Friendly Persuasion (1956). He also portrayed the troubled former baseball player Jimmy Piersall Fear Strikes Out (1957). Perkins also acted in theater and in 1958; he was nominated for a Tony Award for best actor in Look Homeward, Angel. During this time he also starred in Green Mansions (1959) and Tall Story (1960), Goodbye Again (1961), The Trial (1962), Pretty Poison (1968) and Catch 22 (1970). Perkins reprised the role of Norman Bates in three sequels to Psycho. The first, Psycho II (1983), was a box office success more than 20 years after the original film. He then starred in and directed Psycho II in 1986, but refused to reprise his role as Bates in the failed television pilot Bates Motel. He died on September 12, 1992, from complications of AIDS. He was cremated, and his ashes were given to his family. His widow, Berry Berenson was killed on American Airlines Flight 11 which crashed into Tower 1 of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

On September 12, 1972, actor William Boyd, better known as the actor that played Hopalong Cassidy died. He was born on June 5, 1895 in Hendrysburg, Ohio and was the son of day laborer Charles William Boyd and his wife, the former Lida Wilkens. Following his father's death, he moved to California and worked as an orange picker, surveyor, tool dresser and auto salesman. In Hollywood, he found extra work in Why Change Your Wife? and other films. During World War I, he enlisted in the army but was exempt because of a "weak heart." More prominent film roles followed, and he became famous as a leading man in silent film romances, earning an annual salary of $100,000. He was the lead actor in Cecil B. DeMille's The Volga Boatman (1926) and DeMille's extravaganza, The King of Kings, helping Christ carry the cross as Simon of Cyrene amd also in DeMille's Skyscraper. He then appeared in D. W. Griffith's Lady of the Pavements (1929).

In 1935, he was offered the supporting role of Red Connors in the movie Hop-Along Cassidy, but asked to be considered for the title role and won it. The original Hopalong Cassidy character, written by Clarence E. Mulford for pulp fiction, was changed from a hard-drinking, rough-living wrangler to its eventual incarnation as a cowboy hero who did not smoke, drink or swear and who always let the bad guy start the fight. Although Boyd "never branded a cow or mended a fence, cannot bulldog a steer", and disliked Western music, he became indelibly associated with the Hopalong character and, like rival cowboy stars Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, gained lasting fame in the Western film genre. The Hopalong Cassidy series ended in 1947 after 66 films, with Boyd producing the last twelve.

Anticipating television's rise, Boyd spent $350,000 to purchase the rights to the Hopalong Cassidy character, books and films. In 1949, he released the films to television, where they became extremely popular and began the long-running genre of Westerns on television. Like Rogers and Autry, Boyd licensed much merchandise, including such products as Hopalong Cassidy watches, trash cans, cups, dishes, Topps trading cards, a comic strip, comic books, radio shows and cowboy outfits. The actor identified with his character, often dressing as a cowboy in public. Although Boyd's portrayal of Hopalong made him very wealthy, he believed that it was his duty to help strengthen his "friends", the American youth. The actor refused to license his name for products he viewed as unsuitable or dangerous, and turned down personal appearances at which his "friends" would be charged admission.

Boyd had a cameo as himself in Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth. DeMille reportedly asked Boyd to take the role of Moses in his remake, The Ten Commandments, but Boyd felt his identification with the Cassidy character would make it impossible for audiences to accept him as Moses. He was married five times, first to Laura Maynard, then to actresses Ruth Miller, Elinor Fair, Dorothy Sebastian and Grace Bradley. Following his retirement from the screen, Boyd invested both his time and money in real estate and moved to Palm Desert, California. He refused interviews and photographs in later years, preferring not to disillusion his millions of fans who remembered him as their screen idol. Boyd died on September 12, 1972 in Laguna Beach, California from complications from Parkinson's disease and heart failure. He was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.