September 12, 1973 – November 30, 2013
Look. I’m not above “low-hanging-fruit” jokes. It would be EASY to make a The Fast and the Furious joke at the expense of Paul Walker. The fact that he was most widely-known for his starring role in the drift-happy street racing film franchise AND happened to die in a souped-up Porsche on a curve well known for high-speed drifting is RIFE with irony. It wouldn’t be right, mind you. But, it WOULD be obvious and lazy. Continue reading
December 19, 1925 – March 6, 2012
Even if you don’t know the name Robert Sherman, you CERTAINLY know his and his brother’s contribution to American popular culture. Any devoted Disney fan could rattle off a laundry list of songs that Robert and Richard Sherman wrote:
“Chim Chim Cher-ee”
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”
“I Wan’na Be like You”
“The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers”
“The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room”
“It’s a Small World (After All)”
…and that’s just a sample. Continue reading
November 19, 1889 – October 13, 1966
Clifton Webb was already a 20+ year veteran of the Broadway stage – where he starred in memorable classics like As Thousands Cheer, Blithe Spirit and the Gershwins‘ Treasure Girl – when he landed his first major film role in 1944’s noir classic, Laura, opposite Gene Tierney. Webb’s portrayal of the charismatic newspaperman in the film earned him his first of three Academy Award nominations. Continue reading
July 25, 1923 – July 22, 2008
All you need is one role.
For 10 years, Estelle Getty portrayed the wise-cracking octogenarian Sophia Petrillo over the course of four television shows: The Golden Palace, Empty Nest, Nurses and The Golden Girls. It was, of course, on The Golden Girls where audiences met and fell in love with the irascible Sicilian mother of Bea Arthur’s Dorothy. Getty won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance and was nominated many other times. Continue reading
January 1, 1911 – September 4, 1986
Hank Greenberg was a Hall of Fame baseball player who is widely regarded as one of the best sluggers of the 1930s and ’40s. Nicknamed “Hammerin’ Hank” (or “The Hebrew Hammer”) he was a 5-time All-Star, 2-time league MVP and won 2 World Series titles with the Detroit Tigers. He led the American League in home runs 4 times. Despite his historic success and consistent numbers, Greenberg is perhaps most fondly remembered for the nearly 4-year period in the middle of his career when he left baseball to serve in the Army before and during the United States’ involvement in World War II. Continue reading
May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926
Before Michael Jackson. Before Elvis. Before Marilyn. There was Valentino.
Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguella, known to the world as “Rudolph Valentino” was an Italian-born silent film actor who was an international sex symbol and one of the first Hollywood superstars. And his life and career had all the trappings of a Hollywood superstar: getting caught up in a murder in New York, fleeing to Los Angeles and stumbling into the motion picture industry, marrying too many women at the same time. You know, the standard tropes. His exotic good looks and dancing ability enabled him to play a range of characters from a sheik in 1921’s The Sheik to a Spanish bullfighter in 1922’s Blood and Sand. Continue reading
April 7, 1933 – December 31, 2015
Sometimes, you just have to walk away. That’s exactly what Wayne Rogers did in 1975 when he left the massively successful sitcom, M*A*S*H after playing “Trapper” John McIntyre for the show’s first 72 episodes. Similar to fellow M*A*S*H alumnus (and fellow season 3 departer,) McLean Stevenson, Rogers – despite enjoying his time on the show immensely – grew tired of constantly playing second fiddle to Alan Alda’s “Hawkeye” Pierce. Continue reading
November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982
Once – and perhaps always – the greatest tap dancer in the world, Eleanor Powell shuffled and clicked her way from Broadway to Hollywood. Her transition from stage to screen wasn’t idyllic. She initially disliked the the film-making culture and process and when MGM came calling, she made unreasonably high demands to avoid being signed. MGM did not care. They met her demands and she went on to shine in many of the studio’s golden age musicals alongside the likes of Fred Astaire, Nelson Eddy and Jimmy Stewart. Continue reading
April 13, 1923 – September 25, 2005
“Missed it by THAT much.”
Don Adams (Donald Yarmy) gave life to one of the most memorable and imitated television characters of all time. In 1965, Adams was under contract with NBC, who decided he should play the role of Maxwell Smart on their new show, the Mel Brooks-created spy spoof, Get Smart. Adams took bits and catchphrases from his early stand-up days and wrapped them in a distinct speaking style to bring Agent 86 to the small screen for 5 seasons. Continue reading
May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017
In the year and a half or so since his abrupt and untimely death at the age of 61, it’s still hard to imagine a world without Bill Paxton. The actor turned up so often for so long that one can be forgiven for still expecting to see him show up in some new movie or TV show today. Working often with director James Cameron, Paxton graced the screen in dozens of the most popular movies in the world for the better part of 3 decades. Small but memorable roles in the 1980s (Alien, Weird Science) led to blockbuster roles in the ’90s (Titanic, Tombstone, Twister) and lucrative TV roles in the 2000s (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Big Love – the latter of which earned him a number of Golden Globe and Emmy nominations.) He was literally everywhere. He even started a new wave band in 1982 because why not? Continue reading
Celebrity Graveland 