Heaven Can Wait-The Celebrities who Died in 2022

This is a tribute to some of the stars who shed their mortal coil in exchange for eternal fame.

January

Sidney Poitier KBE (20 February 1927—6 January 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and the first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Michael Lee Aday (27 September 1947—20 January 2022), known professionally as Meat Loaf, was an American rock singer and actor. He was noted for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. He is on the list of best-selling music artists. His Bat Out of Hell trilogy — Bat Out of Hell (1977), Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993), and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006) — has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

February

Gary Brooker MBE (29 May 1945—19 February 2022) was an English singer and pianist, and the founder and lead singer of the rock band Procol Harum.

Sally Clare Kellerman (2 June 1937—24 February 2022) was an American actress and singer whose acting career spanned 60 years. Her role as Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman’s film MASH (1970) earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

March

William Hurt (20 March 1950—13 March 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards, including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.

Madeleine Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; 15 May 1937— 23 March 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, Albright was the first woman to hold that post.

April

June Muriel Brown OBE (16 February 1927—3 April 2022) was an English actress and author. She was best known for her role as Dot Cotton on the BBC soap opera EastEnders (1985–1993; 1997–2020). In 2005, she won Best Actress at the Inside Soap Awards, and she received the Lifetime Achievement award at The British Soap Awards.

Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (28 February 1955—12 April 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was known for his exaggerated shrill voice, a strong New York accent, and edgy, often controversial, sense of humour. His numerous roles in film and television include voicing Iago in the Aladdin animated films and series, Digit LeBoid in Cyberchase, Kraang Subprime in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Aflac Duck. He was also known for his role as Mr Peabody in the Problem Child film series.

May

Ray Liotta (18 December 1954—26 May 2022) was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams (1989) and Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990). He was a Primetime Emmy Award-winning actor and received nominations for a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Andrew Fletcher (8 July 1961—26 May 2022), also known as Fletch, was an English keyboard player and founding member of the electronic band Depeche Mode. In 2020, he and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

June

Philip Baker Hall (10 September 1931—12 June 2022) was an American character actor. He was known for his collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson, including Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999). He also starred in leading roles in films, such as Secret Honor (1984) and Duck (2005). Hall had supporting roles in many films, including Say Anything… (1989), The Truman Show (1998), The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), The Insider (1999), Lost Souls (2000), The Contender (2000), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), Zodiac (2007), 50/50 (2011) and Argo (2012). He received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead for his role in Hard Eight and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture for Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

Alec John Such (14 November 14 1951—5 June 2022) was an American musician.^[1] He was best known as a founding member of the rock band Bon Jovi. As their bass player from 1983 to 1994, he played on their first five albums.^[3]Such started his musical career in the New Jersey band Phantom’s Opera, which performed both covers and original songs. In the early 1980s, he also played in the hard rock band Message, which included guitarist Richie Sambora.

July

James Caan (26 March 26, 1940—6 July 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972) — a performance which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised his role in The Godfather Part II (1974). He received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978.

Nichelle Nichols (born Grace Dell Nichols; 28 December 1932—30 July 2022) was an American actress, singer, and dancer best known for her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek and its film sequels. Nichols’ portrayal of Uhura was groundbreaking for African American actresses on American television. From 1977 until 2015, Nichols volunteered her time to promote NASA’s programs and recruit diverse astronauts, including some of the first female and ethnic minority astronauts.

August

Olivia Newton-John AC DBE (26 September 1948—8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including five #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100^[4] and two number-one albums on the Billboard 200: “If You Love Me, Let Me Know” (1974) and “Have You Never Been Mellow” (1975). Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two platinum and four 2× platinum) have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). But of course, she is mainly for her role in Grease.

Roger E. Mosley (18 December 1938—7 August 2022) was an American actor, director, and writer best known for his role as the helicopter pilot Theodore “T.C.” Calvin in the CBS television series Magnum, P.I., which, originally aired from 1980 until 1988.

September

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926—8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until she died in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was head of state of 15 realms at the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the longest verified reign of any female monarch in history.

Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother). Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother Edward VIII, making the ten-year-old Princess Elizabeth the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, and their marriage lasted 73 years until he died in 2021. They had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.

Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022), known professionally as Coolio, was an American rapper. First rising to fame as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle, Coolio achieved mainstream success as a solo artist in the mid-to-late 1990s with his albums, “It Takes a Thief” (1994), “Gangsta’s Paradise” (1995), and “My Soul” (1997).

October

Anthony Robert McMillan OBE (30 March 1950 – 14 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series. He was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama. In 1990, Coltrane received the Evening Standard British Film Award—Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. In 2011, he was honoured for his “outstanding contribution” to film at the British Academy Scotland Awards.

Jerry Lee Lewis (29 September 1935—28 October 2022) was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “The Killer,” he was described as “rock ‘n‘ roll’s first great wild man.” A pioneer of rock ‘n‘ roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana, and early recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. “Crazy Arms” sold 300,000 copies in the Southern United States, but it was his 1957 hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” that shot Lewis to worldwide fame. He followed this with the major hits “Great Balls of Fire”, “Breathless,” and “High School Confidential.” His rock ‘n‘ roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old cousin once removed.

November

Christine McVie (née Perfect; 12 July 1943—30 November 2022) was an English musician and songwriter. She was best known as a keyboardist and one of the vocalists of Fleetwood Mac.

McVie was a member of several bands, notably Chicken Shack, in the mid-1960s British Blues scene. She began working with Fleetwood Mac in 1968, initially as a session player, before joining the band in 1970. Her first compositions with Fleetwood Mac appeared on their fifth album, Future Games. She remained with the band through many changes of line-up, writing songs and performing lead vocals, before partially retiring in 1998. She was described as “the prime mover behind some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits”. Eight songs written or co-written by McVie, including “Don’t Stop,” “Everywhere,” and “Little Lies,” appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 “Greatest Hits” album. She appeared as a session musician on the band’s last studio album, “Say You Will.” She also released three solo studio albums.

Irene Cara (18 March 1959—25 November 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress of Black, Puerto Rican and Cuban descent^.[13] Cara rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film Fame, and for recording the film’s title song “Fame,” which reached No. 1 in several countries.

In 1983, Cara co-wrote and sang the song “Flashdance… What a Feeling” (from the film Flashdance), for which she shared an Academy Award for Best Original Song and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1984. Before her success with Fame, Cara portrayed the title character Sparkle Williams in the original 1976 musical drama film Sparkle.

December

Maxwell Fraser (14 June 1957—23 December 2022), better known by his stage name Maxi Jazz, was a British musician, rapper, singer, songwriter and DJ. He was the lead vocalist of the British electronic band Faithless from 1995 to 2011 and from 2015 to 2016.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento (23 October 1940—29 December 2022), known by his nickname Pelé, was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled “the greatest” by FIFA,^[1][2] he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. In 1999, he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2000, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century. His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which includes friendlies, are recognised as a Guinness World Record.

source

https://news.sky.com/story/celebrity-deaths-2022-the-famous-faces-and-notable-figures-we-said-goodbye-to-this-year-12748889

RIP 2021

In 2021 we saw the deaths of many rich and famous. No matter how much wealth you have or how famous and powerful you are, death waits for no one. Below is just a summary of some of the stars and celebrities we lost this year.

Actress and model Tanya Roberts — known for her roles as Midge in “That ’70s Show” and a Bond Girl in 1985’s “A View to Kill” — died on Jan. 4, one day after her publicist mistakenly announced her death prematurely. The 65-year-old passed peacefully at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where she’d been hospitalized since Christmas Eve after collapsing at her home following a hike.(picture above)

Dustin Diamond, age 44

Diamond was known best for playing the bumbling comic relief Samuel “Screech” Powers in the beloved 1990s TV series “Saved by the Bell.”

“We are saddened to confirm of Dustin Diamond’s passing on Monday, February 1st, 2021 due to carcinoma,” Diamond’s representative said in a statement provided to Insider.

“He was diagnosed with this brutal, relentless form of malignant cancer only three weeks ago. In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system,” the statement continued. “The only mercy it exhibited was its sharp and swift execution. Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful.”

Yaphet Kotto, age 81

The veteran character actor was known best for playing Bond villain Mr. Big in 1973’s James Bond movie “Live and Let Die” and Parker in the sci-fi classic “Alien.”

Known for his physically imposing characters, Kotto was a fixture in movie and TV for decades, including roles on the series “Homicide: Life on the Street” and FBI agent Mosely in the beloved comedy “Midnight Run” opposite Robert De Niro. His wife, Thessa Sinahon, announced Kotto’s passing in a Facebook post. It was confirmed by Kotto’s agent, Ryan Goldhar, The New York Times reported.

Kotto died on March 15 near Manila in the Philippines. No cause of death was given.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh age 99

Philip died of “old age” on the morning of 9 April 2021 at Windsor Castle, aged 99, two months before his 100th birthday. He was the longest-serving royal consort in world history. The Queen, who was reportedly at her husband’s bedside when he died, privately described his death as “having left a huge void in her life”

The palace said Philip died peacefully, which was confirmed by Philip’s daughter-in-law, the Countess of Wessex, who told the press, it was “so gentle. It was just like somebody took him by the hand and off he went.”[171] His death led to the commencement of Operation Forth Bridge, the plan for publicly announcing his death and organising his funeral The funeral took place on 17 April 2021 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and he was interred in the Royal Vault inside St George’s.The Duke’s body is expected to be moved and interred in the King George VI Memorial Chapel in St. George’s, after the death of the Queen.

Charles Grodin, age 86

A master at deadpan humor, Charles Grodin became a comedy fixture in the 1980s and 1990s for roles in “The Great Muppet Caper,” “Midnight Run,” and “Beethoven.” Grodin was also known for writing a number of plays and books. He earned an Emmy for being one of the writers on the 1977 “Paul Simon Special.”

In the 1990s, he showed a different side of his talents, talk show host, when he did “The Charles Grodin Show” on CNBC.

Johnny Solinger,age 55

Former Skid Row singer Johnny Solinger reportedly died on June 26 at the age of 55. The news came about a month after he told fans that he’d been diagnosed with liver failure, according to reports.

The band, which Solinger was a part of from 1999 to 2015, posted a tribute to Solinger that read in part, “We are saddened to hear the news of our brother Johnny Solinger. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and fans.”

Richard Donner, age 91

One of the early architects of the Hollywood blockbuster, director Richard Donner’s filmography is a legendary one.

From the original “Superman” in 1978 starring Christopher Reeve to “The Goonies” and the “Lethal Weapon” franchise, Donner’s storytelling has touched generations.

Then there are the non-franchises that are also memorable: horror classic “The Omen,” the Bill Murray-starrer “Scrooged,” and the hit Western “Maverick.”

And before movies, Donner made his mark in television, having directed the iconic “Twilight Zone” episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” which featured William Shatner convinced a monster is on the wing of the airplane.

Donner died on July 5, was confirmed to Deadline by his wife and business manager Lauren Schuler Donner No cause of death has been revealed.

Charlie Watts, age

Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, died at age 80 on Aug. 24. A statement from his spokesperson, posted to the band’s social media accounts, said Watts “passed away peacefully in a London hospital,” and was “surrounded by his family.”

While he is thought to be one of the greatest rock drummers of all time, and is the only member besides Mick Jagger and Ketih Richards to have credits on every studio album, Watts managed to keep his other interests alive throughout his long career.

Having gone to art school, and became a graphic designer, he helped compose the Between the Buttons record sleeve, and would work with Jagger on conceiving elaborate staging for their tours. Watts also had a jazz quintet on the side, and organized tributes to Charlie Parker.

Norm Macdonald age 61.

Comedian and “Saturday Night Live” star Norm Macdonald died after a private nine-year battle with cancer in September. He was 61.

He was most proud of his comedy,” his friend Lori Jo Hoekstra, who was also his longtime producing partner, said. “He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered.”

James Michael Tyler, age 59

James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther on Friends, died on October 24. He was 59.
His manager confirmed to the BBC that Tyler died on Sunday, peacefully at his home. “If you met him once you made a friend for life,” a statement from his manager read. “[He] is survived by his wife, Jennifer Carno, the love of his life.” In June, Tyler revealed he was battling stage 4 prostate cancer. “Wanting to help as many people as possible, he bravely shared his story and became a campaigner for those with a prostate to get a… blood test as early as 40-years-old,” his manager said, per the BBC. Tyler was well-known for his role as Gunther, the Central Perk coffee shop manager, who had an unrequited crush on Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) throughout the show’s run. While best known for Friends, his other onscreen credits include Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Showtime’s Episodes, and Scrubs.

Graeme Edge, age 80.

Edge was the drummer and last original member of the legendary rock band The Moody Blues.

The band, which was formed in 1964, had a revolutionary sound which has stood the test of time thanks to iconic songs like “Nights in White Satan” and “Tuesday Afternoon.” The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

“It’s a very sad day. Graeme’s sound and personality [are] present in everything we did together and thankfully that will live on,” the band’s current lead singer and guitarist, Justin Hayward, wrote on the band’s website.

“In the late 1960′s we became the group that Graeme always wanted it to be, and he was called upon to be a poet as well as a drummer,” Hayward continued. “He delivered that beautifully and brilliantly, while creating an atmosphere and setting that the music would never have achieved without his words.”

Edge died on November 11, no cause was given.

Michael Nesmith, age 78

The guitarist for the iconic 1960s pop band The Monkees, Nesmith was recognizable for being the tallest of the foursome and often sporting a wool cap.

The band was created at the height of The Beatles’ popularity and became superstars thanks to being on the hit NBC series “The Monkees” in which Nesmith, along with bandmates Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz did silly comedy while performing chart-topping songs.

Song like “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” and “Daydream Beliver” made Nesmith and the group the first big American boy band.

Over his career, Nesmith won a Grammy and was an executive producer behind the 1984 cult classic movie “Repo Man.”

Nesmith died of natural causes on December 10.

“With infinite love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his family said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “We ask that you respect our privacy at this time and we thank you for the love and light that all of you have shown him and us.”

sources

https://pagesix.com/list/celebrity-deaths-2021/

https://www.insider.com/celebrities-who-have-died-this-year-2021-1

https://ew.com/celebrity/stars-we-lost-in-2021/

Bruce Lee

I don’t think there is anyone on the planet who hasn’t heard of Bruce Lee. There probably isn’t that much I can say about the man that is not know yet. But on the 48th anniversary of his death it might be a good starting point to look at the lesser known facts of Bruce Lee.

Lee was born Lee Jun Fan on November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California, in both the hour and year of the Dragon. His father, Lee Hoi Chuen, a Hong Kong opera singer, moved with his wife, Grace Ho, and three children to the United States in 1939; Hoi Chuen’s fourth child, a son, was born while he was on tour in San Francisco.

Lee received the name “Bruce” from a nurse at his birthing hospital, and his family never used the name during his preschool years. He only started to use the name Bruce when he entered secondary school and began his study of the English language The future star appeared in his first film at the age of 3 months, when he served as the stand-in for an American baby in Golden Gate Girl (1941).

At the age of three months, Lee Hoi Chuen, his wife Grace and baby Bruce returned to Hong Kong where Bruce would be raised until the age of 18. Bruce’s most prominent memory of his early years was the occupation of Hong Kong by the Japanese during World War II (1941-1945). At the age of 13, Bruce was introduced to Master Yip Man, a teacher of the Wing Chun style of gung fu. For five years Bruce studied diligently and became very proficient. He greatly revered Yip Man as a master teacher and wise man and frequently visited with him in later years.

As a nine-year-old, he would co-star with his father in The Kid, also known as Kid Cheung and My Son A-Chang, is a 1950 Hong Kong drama film starring the then 9-year-old Bruce Lee in his first leading role in the title role of “Kid Cheung”, based on a comic book character written by Yuen Bou-wan, who also has a role in the film. Co-starring Lee’s father, Lee Hoi-chuen.

In high school, one of Bruce’s accomplishments was winning an interschool Boxing Championship against an English student in which the Marquis of Queensbury rules were followed and no kicking was allowed.

-As a side note- John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry , was a Scottish nobleman, remembered for his atheism, his outspoken views, his brutish manner, for lending his name to the “Queensberry Rules” that form the basis of modern boxing, and for his role in the downfall of the Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde. Lord Queensberry’s son Alfred had a relationship with Oscar Wilde-

Bruce was also a terrific dancer, and in 1958 he won the Hong Kong Cha Cha Championship. He studied dancing as assiduously as he did gung fu, keeping a notebook in which he had noted 108 different cha cha steps. In addition to his studies, gung fu and dancing, Bruce was also a child actor under the tutelage of his father who must have known from an early age that Bruce had a streak of showmanship. By the time he was 18, he had appeared in 20 films.

Lee finished high school in Edison, Washington, and subsequently enrolled as a philosophy major at the University of Washington. He also got a job teaching the Wing Chun style of martial arts that he had learned in Hong Kong to his fellow students and others. Through his teaching, Lee met Linda Emery, whom he married in 1964. By that time, Lee had opened his own martial arts school in Seattle.

Just as Bruce was cementing his plans to expand his martial arts schools, fate stepped in to move his life in another direction. In August of 1964, Ed Parker, widely regarded as the father of American Kenpo, invited Bruce to Long Beach, CA to give a demonstration at his First International Karate Tournament. A member of the audience was Jay Sebring, a well-known hair stylist to the stars. Jay told his producer client, William Dozier, about having seen this spectacular young Chinese man giving a gung fu demonstration just a few nights before. Mr. Dozier obtained a copy of the film that was taken at Ed Parker’s tournament. The next week he called Bruce at home in Oakland and invited him to come to Los Angeles for a screen test.

The rest of course is Hollywood history.

On July 20, 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong to have dinner with actor George Lazenby, known for his roles as James Bond in “Her Majesty’s Secret Service” with whom he intended to make a film. According to Lee’s wife Linda, Lee met producer Raymond Chow at 2 p.m. at home to discuss the making of the film Game of Death. They worked until 4 p.m. and then drove together to the home of Lee’s colleague Betty Ting Pei, a Taiwanese actress. The three went over the script at Ting’s home, and then Chow left to attend a dinner meeting.

Later, Lee complained of a headache, and Ting gave him the painkiller Equagesic, which contained both aspirin and the tranquilizer meprobamate. Around 7:30 p.m., he went to lie down for a nap. When Lee did not come for dinner, Chow came to the apartment, but he was unable to wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, and spent ten minutes attempting to revive Lee before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Lee was declared dead on arrival at the age of 32.

The untimely death of Bruce was not the only tragedy to fall on the Lee family.

On March 31, 1993, Bruce Lee’s son Brandon Lee was filming a scene in The Crow where his character is shot and killed by thugs. In the scene, Lee’s character walks into his apartment and discovers his fiancée being beaten and raped. Actor Michael Massee’s character fires a Smith & Wesson Model 629 .44 Magnum revolver at Lee as he walks into the room.

In the scene preceding the fatal scene, a gun was loaded with cartridges from which the crew had removed the powder charge, so in close-ups the revolver would show normal-looking bullets. The crew had neglected, however, to remove the primer from the cartridges. This caused one of the rounds to fire and lodge a bullet inside the barrel. For the fatal scene, which called for the revolver to be fired at Lee from a distance of 3.6–4.5 meters (12–15 ft), the emptied cartridges were replaced with blank rounds, which feature a live powder charge and primer, but no bullet, thus allowing the gun to be fired without the risk of an actual projectile. When the blank round was fired, the bullet lodged in the barrel was propelled forward with almost the same force as if the round were live, and it struck Lee in the abdomen.

Brandon Lee was rushed to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina. Attempts to save him were unsuccessful and after six hours of surgery, Lee was pronounced dead on March 31, 1993 at 1:03 pm, aged 28

sources

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033669/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://brucelee.com/bruce-lee

https://www.biography.com/actor/bruce-lee

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Uncle Fester from the Addams family in WWII

Most people will know Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester in the Addams Family. What is less known about Jackie Coogan is that he was  the first child stars in film history.

In 1921 he starred in “the Kid” alongside Charlie Chaplin, Jackie was 7 at the time.

He also served in WWII as a United States Army Air Force pilot

Coogan enlisted in the U.S. Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor that December, he requested a transfer to Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. Graduating the Advanced Glider School with the Glider Pilot aeronautical rating and the rank of Flight Officer,he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group.

In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. He flew British troops, the Chindits, under General Orde Wingate on March 5, 1944, landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles (160 km) behind Japanese lines in the Burma Campaign.

Last Rank Second Lieutenant

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I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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Celebrities who contributed their services in WWII-Part 3

Tony Curtis is a legend in his own right. He has starred in dozens of classic films including Some Like It Hot, The Defiant Ones ,Spartacus and Operation Petticoat.

He enlisted in the United States Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor and war was declared. He joined the Pacific submarine force. Curtis served aboard a submarine tender, the USS Proteus, until the end of the Second World War.

On September 2, 1945, Curtis witnessed the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay from his ship’s signal bridge about a mile away.

John Coltrane

John served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. It is said that he joined the Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. He enlisted in 1945, August 6th, the same day that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He found himself being shipped off to Pearl Harbor and was stationed at Manana Barracks. While in the Navy, he was a member of the swing band, the Melody Masters. Coltrane, who is also known as “Trane,”

Johnny Carson

 

Carson is famous as the host of The Tonight Show, a role that he held for 30 years.Carson joined the United States Navy on June 8, 1943, and received V-12 Navy College Training Program officer training at Columbia University and Millsaps College. Commissioned an ensign late in the war, Carson was assigned to the USS Pennsylvania in the Pacific.

While in the Navy, Carson posted a 10–0 amateur boxing record, with most of his bouts fought on board the Pennsylvania.He was en route to the combat zone aboard a troop ship when the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war. Carson served as a communications officer in charge of decoding encrypted messages. He said that the high point of his military career was performing a magic trick for United States Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal.

In a conversation with Forrestal, the Secretary asked Carson if he planned to stay in the navy after the war.In response, Carson said no and told him he wanted to be a magician. Forrestal asked him to perform, and Carson responded with a card trick.Carson made the discovery that he could entertain and amuse someone as cranky and sophisticated as Forrestal.

Don Knotts

Jesse Donald “Don” Knotts was an American comedian  best known as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, a 1960s sitcom for which he earned five Emmy awards.

Once the second world war came along, he enlisted in the army and began entertaining his fellow troops. He toured the pacific islands with Stars and Gripes, a variety show put on by other troops. An urban legend claims that Knotts served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, serving as a drill instructor at Parris Island, but this is not true

 

Robert Montgomery

When Robert Montgomery enlisted into the US Navy during the start of World War 2, he was already a huge name. He had acted opposite of huge actors like Greta Garbo and Carole Lombard and had been nominated for several Oscars

After World War II broke out in Europe in September, 1939, and while the United States was still officially neutral, Montgomery enlisted in London for American field service and drove ambulances in France until the Dunkirk evacuation. He then returned to Hollywood and addressed a massive rally on the MGM lot for the American Red Cross in July 1940. Montgomery returned to playing light comedy roles, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) with Carole Lombard. He continued his search for dramatic roles. For his role as Joe Pendleton, a boxer and pilot in Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Montgomery was nominated for an Oscar a second time. After the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941, he joined the United States Navy, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander, and served on the USS Barton (DD-722) which was part of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

Harry Dean Stanton

Harry Dean Stanton might not be an A-list celebrity, but  he worked with the best of them. He has been in a number of big name pictures that include The Godfather 2, Red Dawn, Alien, Pretty in Pink and The Green Mile.

During World War II, Stanton served in the United States Navy, including a stint as a cook aboard the Landing Ship Tank USS LST-970 during the Battle of Okinawa.

Lee Van Cleef

Many will remember Lee Van Cleef for his role as Angel Eyes in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. No doubt his penetrating and scary eyes are what saw him play the villain in a number of big Western flicks throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s

After basic training and further training at the Naval Fleet Sound School, Van Cleef was assigned to a submarine chaser and then to a minesweeper, USS Incredible, on which he worked as a sonarman.

The ship initially patrolled the Caribbean, then moved to the Mediterranean, participating in the landings in southern France. In January 1945, Incredible moved to the Black Sea, and performed sweeping duties out of the Soviet Navy base at Sevastopol, Crimea.

Afterwards the ship performed air-sea rescue patrols in the Black Sea before returning to Palermo, Sicily. By the time of his discharge in March 1946, he had achieved the rank of Sonarman First Class (SO1) and had earned his mine sweeper patch.

 

He also had been awarded the Bronze Star and the Good Conduct Medal. By virtue of his deployments Van Cleef also qualified for the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

 

Henry Fonda

A fellow actor known for another classic and iconic Western “Once upon a time in the West”(and many other movie)

Fonda enlisted in the United States Navy to fight in World War II, saying, “I don’t want to be in a fake war in a studio.”Previously, James Stewart and he had helped raise funds for the defense of Britain.Fonda served for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer USS Satterlee.

He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Navy Presidential Unit Citation.

World’s most dangerous criminals-Well not really.

 

In this blog mug shots of extremely dangerous criminals, well not really. They are actually pictures of celebrities after they were arrested for relatively minor offences. Some I expected but others were a surprise to me like the mug shot above of Larry King arrested in Miami, Florida on charges of grand larceny after stealing $5,000 from a business partner. December 20, 1971.

Bill Gates

Arrested for driving without a license and failing to stop at a stop sign. December 13, 1977.

Steve McQueen

Arrested for arrest for drunk driving and speeding on in Anchorage, Alaska. June 22, 1972.

Jimi Hendrix

Arrested for narcotics possession at Toronto International Airport. May 3, 1969.

Jane Fonda

Arrested for drug smuggling and kicking a policeman during the scuffle at an airport in Cleveland, Ohio. November 3, 1970.

However, the actress/antiwar activist was only carrying vitamins, not illegal drugs, and insists that she was targeted by the Nixon White House because of her anti-establishment political convictions.

Mick Jagger

Arrested along with Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards for attacking a paparazzo and obstructing a police officer who intervened in Warwick, Rhode Island. July 18, 1972.

Frank Sinatra

Arrested in Hackensack, New Jersey on charges of adultery and seduction for “carrying on with a married woman.” November 26, 1938.

Jim Morrison

Several years before he became the frontman of The Doors, Morrison was arrested in Tallahassee, Florida and charged with petty larceny, public intoxication, disturbing the peace, and resisting arrest after drunkenly stealing a cop’s helmet and then not going quietly once he was caught. September 28, 1963.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Arrested for his role in the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama. February 24, 1956.

Johnny Cash

Arrested in El Paso, Texas for carrying hundreds of pep pills and tranquilizers in his luggage across the border as he returned from a trip to Juarez, Mexico. October 4, 1965.

Rosa Parks

Arrested for her role in the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama. February 22, 1956

David Bowie

Arrested after a performance in Rochester, New York along with three other people (including fellow musician Iggy Pop) for marijuana possession. March 25, 1976.

The charges soon disappeared, but Bowie never performed in Rochester again.

Kurt Cobain

Arrested in Aberdeen, Washington for trespassing onto the roof of an abandoned warehouse while intoxicated. May 25, 1986

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CELEBRITIES WHO CONTRIBUTED THEIR SERVICES IN WWII-Part 2

J.D. Salinger

The author of one of the most famous books “Catcher in the rye”

Salinger was assigned to a counter-intelligence division, for which he used his proficiency in French and German to interrogate prisoners of war.In April 1945 he entered a liberated concentration camp, probably one of Dachau’s sub-camps.Salinger earned the rank of Staff Sergeant and served in five campaigns.Salinger’s experiences in the war affected him emotionally. He was hospitalized for a few weeks for combat stress reaction after Germany was defeated, and he later told his daughter: “You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live.” Both of his biographers speculate that Salinger drew upon his wartime experiences in several stories, such as “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor”, which is narrated by a traumatized soldier. Salinger continued to write while serving in the army, publishing several stories in slick magazines such as Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post. He also continued to submit stories to The New Yorker, but with little success; it rejected all of his submissions from 1944 to 1946, a group of 15 poems in 1945 alone

After Germany’s defeat, Salinger signed up for a six-month period of “Denazification” duty in Germany for the Counterintelligence Corps.

Beatrice Arthur

Actress mainly known for he role as Dorothy in “the Golden Girls” During World War II, she worked as a truck driver and typist in the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, receiving an Honorable Discharge in September 1945.

Arthur C. Clarke

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.

He is perhaps most famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely considered to be one of the most influential films of all time.

During the Second World War from 1941 to 1945 he served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist and was involved in the early-warning radar defence system, which contributed to the RAF’s success during the Battle of Britain. Clarke spent most of his wartime service working on ground-controlled approach (GCA) radar.. Although GCA did not see much practical use during the war, it proved vital to the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949 after several years of development. Clarke initially served in the ranks, and was a corporal instructor on radar at No. 2 Radio School, RAF Yatesbury in Wiltshire. He was commissioned as a pilot officer (technical branch) on 27 May 1943.He was promoted flying officer on 27 November 1943.He was appointed chief training instructor at RAF Honiley in Warwickshire and was demobilised with the rank of flight lieutenant.

David Niven

James David Graham Niven (1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983)was an English actor and novelist. His many roles included Squadron Leader Peter Carter in A Matter of Life and Death, Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days, and Sir Charles Lytton, (“the Phantom”) in The Pink Panther. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Separate Tables (1958).

After Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, Niven returned home and rejoined the British Army. He was alone among British stars in Hollywood in doing so; the British Embassy advised most actors to stay.Niven was recommissioned as a lieutenant into the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) on 25 February 1940,and was assigned to a motor training battalion.

He wanted something more exciting, however, and transferred into the Commandos. He was assigned to a training base at Inverailort House in the Western Highlands. Niven later claimed credit for bringing future Major General Sir Robert E. Laycock to the Commandos. Niven commanded “A” Squadron GHQ Liaison Regiment, better known as “Phantom”. He worked with the Army Film Unit. He acted in two films made during the war, The First of the Few(1942) and The Way Ahead (1944). Both were made with a view to winning support for the British war effort, especially in the United States. Niven’s Film Unit work included a small part in the deception operation that used minor actor M.E. Clifton James to impersonate General Sir Bernard Montgomery. During his work with the Film Unit, Peter Ustinov, though one of the script-writers, had to pose as Niven’s batman. (Ustinov also acted in The Way Ahead.) Niven explained in his autobiography that there was no military way that he, as a lieutenant-colonel, and Ustinov, who was only a private, could associate, other than as an officer and his subordinate, hence their strange “act”. Ustinov later appeared with Niven in Death on the Nile (1978).

Niven took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, although he was sent to France several days after D-Day. He served in the “Phantom Signals Unit,” which located and reported enemy positions, and kept rear commanders informed on changing battle lines. Niven was posted at one time to Chilham in Kent. He remained close-mouthed about the war, despite public interest in celebrities in combat and a reputation for storytelling. He once said:

I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war.

Yogi Berra

Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (May 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher, manager, and coach who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball.

During World War II, Berra served in the U.S. Navy as a gunner’s mate on the attack transport USS Bayfield  during the D-Day invasion of France.

A Second Class Seaman, Berra was one of a six-man crew on a Navy rocket boat, firing machine guns and launching rockets at the German defenses at Omaha Beach. He was fired upon, but was not hit, and later received several commendations for his bravery. During an interview on the 65th Anniversary of D-Day, Yogi confirmed that he was sent to Utah Beach during the D-Day invasion as well.

Gene Roddenberry

Eugene Wesley “Gene” Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriterand producer. He is best remembered for creating the original Star Trek television series.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew eighty-nine combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II, and worked as a commercial pilot after the war.

He enlisted with the USAAC on December 18, 1941. He graduated from the USAAC on August 5, 1942, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

He was posted to Bellows Field, Oahu, to join the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force, which flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

On August 2, 1943, while flying out of Espiritu Santo, the plane Roddenberry was piloting overshot the runway by 500 feet (150 m) and impacted trees, crushing the nose, and starting a fire, killing two men. The official report absolved Roddenberry of any responsibility.Roddenberry spent the remainder of his military career in the United States,and flew all over the country as a plane crash investigator. He was involved in a further plane crash, this time as a passenger. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.

Celebrities who contributed their services in WWII.

Without trying to sound too much like an old fogy but most of the “Celebrities” nowadays don’t really contribute anything to society as a whole. Sure, some entertain us with their sporting skills or talents(some don’t even have that) but as far as actually contributing some worth while or substantial there are very few who do so.

Below is a summary of celebrities who offered their services during WWII some even risked their own lives to fight for the freedom of others.

Yul Brynner

During World War II, Brynner worked as a French-speaking radio announcer and commentator for the US Office of War Information, broadcasting to occupied France.

Marcel Marceau

Long before he donned his famous face paint and toured the world as “Bip the Clown,” beloved mime Marcel Marceau was serving as a member of the French Resistance during World War II. Along with his brother Alain, Marceau forged documents and doctored identity cards to help prevent French children from being conscripted into German labor camps. He also smuggled some 70 Jewish children out of the country by posing as a Boy Scout leader and leading them through the wilderness to safety in neutral Switzerland. The silent performer later joined the Free French Forces under Charles De Gaulle, and served as a liaison offer to General George Patton’s army while entertaining Allied troops with his miming.

Sir Alec Guinness

Some 35 years before he counseled Luke Skywalker to “use the Force” as Obi Wan Kenobi, Sir Alec Guinness was piloting infantry landing craft in the Mediterranean. A trained thespian, Guinness put his theater career on hold in 1939 to join the Royal Navy. He landed some 200 British soldiers on the beaches of Sicily during the July 1943 invasion of Italy, and went on to ferry arms to partisan fighters in Yugoslavia. During one such voyage in 1944, Guinness’s boat was caught in a violent hurricane off the coast of Italy, and he only narrowly managed to guide the ship into a harbor before it was thrown onto a rocky shoreline and damaged beyond repair. Guinness would later put his wartime experience to use portraying military officers in such films as “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Tunes of Glory,” and even played Adolf Hitler in 1973’s “Hitler: The Last Ten Days.

Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks is best known as the writer-director behind the laugh-a-minute comedies “Young Frankenstein,” “Blazing Saddles” and “Spaceballs.” But along with writing killer one-liners, he is also an old hand at defusing German mines. Born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York, Brooks enlisted in the army in 1944 at the age of 17. He later served in 1104th Engineer Combat Battalion, a unit that braved sniper fire and shelling to build bridges, clear blocked roads and deactivate landmines ahead of advancing Allied forces. Ever the comedian, Brooks once used a bullhorn to serenade nearby enemy troops along the German-French border with the Al Jolson song “Toot, Toot, Tootsie”—and received a round of applause in return.

Jackie Coogan

The “Addams Family” actor was a star by the age of 5, appearing alongside Charlie Chaplin in the silent film sensation “The Kid.” Coogan put acting on hold during WWII to deliver troops behind enemy lines in the Burma campaign.

James Stewart

In August 1943, Stewart was assigned to the 445th Bomb Group as operations officer of the 703d Bombardment Squadron, but after three weeks became its commander. On October 12, 1943, judged ready to go overseas, the 445th Bomb Group staged to Lincoln Army Airfield, Nebraska. Flying individually, the aircraft first flew to Morrison Army Airfield, Florida, and then on the circuitous Southern Route along the coasts of South America and Africa to RAF Tibenham, Norfolk, England. After several weeks of training missions, in which Stewart flew with most of his combat crews, the group flew its first combat mission on December 13, 1943, to bomb the U-boat facilities at Kiel, Germany, followed three days later by a mission to Bremen. Stewart led the high squadron of the group formation on the first mission, and the entire group on the second. Following a mission to Ludwigshafen, Germany, on January 7, 1944, Stewart was promoted to major.Stewart was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions as deputy commander of the 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing on the first day of “Big Week” operations in February and flew two other missions that week.

On March 22, 1944, Stewart flew his 12th combat mission, leading the 2nd Bomb Wing in an attack on Berlin. On March 30, 1944, he was sent to RAF Old Buckenham to become group operations officer of the 453rd Bombardment Group, a new B-24 unit that had just lost both its commander and operations officer on missions.To inspire the unit, Stewart flew as command pilot in the lead B-24 on several missions deep into Nazi-occupied Europe. As a staff officer, Stewart was assigned to the 453rd “for the duration” and thus not subject to a quota of missions of a combat tour. He nevertheless assigned himself as a combat crewman on the group’s missions until his promotion to lieutenant colonel on June 3 and reassignment on July 1, 1944, to the 2nd Bomb Wing, assigned as executive officer to Brigadier General Edward J. Timberlake. His official tally of mission credits while assigned to the 445th and 453rd Bomb Groups was 20 sorties.

Hugh Hefner

Years before founding what would become the Playboy empire, Hefner served as a writer for a military newspaper in the U.S. Army at the end of WWII.

Tony Bennett

The crooner responsible for “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and “Rags to Riches” is also a battle-tested World War II vet. Tony Bennett was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944, and spent the later stages of the war in the 63rd Infantry Division in France and Germany. Bennett’s unit was responsible for mopping up after the Battle of the Bulge, and he participated in intense urban combat while searching for Nazi stragglers in bombed-out German towns. The singer also witnessed the horror of the Holocaust firsthand when he helped liberate the Nazi concentration camp at Landsberg, Germany. Bennett would later write that his army service transformed him into an lifelong pacifist, but it also whetted his appetite for show business by giving him his first ever chance to perform as part of a military band.

Joe Louis

One of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time, Louis was a major driver of anti-Nazi sentiment in America during WWII. In January 1942, Louis held a charity boxing match that raised $47,000 for the Navy Relief Society. The next day he enlisted in the U.S. Army.

I will be doing more articles in the future about celebrities who contributed to the WWII efforts since there were so many of them.