Dead in Hollywood is a true-crime web series of strange and tragic Hollywood deaths.
"There's the Hollywood sign; there's Griffith Observatory; there's the great, amazing Los Angeles Basin. It's 465 square miles of insanity and the best food on the planet." -Robert Crais
James Dean on the set of “Rebel Without a Cause” at the Griffith Observatory.
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On the evening of October 9, 1985, Orson Welles recorded his final interview on syndicated TV program The Merv Griffin Show, appearing with biographer Barbara Leaming. "Both Welles and Leaming talked of Welles's life, and the segment was a nostalgic interlude," wrote biographer Frank Brady. Welles returned to his house in Hollywood and worked into the early hours typing stage directions for the project he and Gary Graver were planning to shoot at UCLA the following day. Welles died sometime on the morning of October 10, following a heart attack. He was found by his chauffeur at around 10 a.m.
On May 27, 1995, Reeve was left quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He used a wheelchair and needed a portable ventilator to breathe for the rest of his life.
For the first few days after the accident, Reeve suffered from delirium, woke up sporadically and would mouth words to Dana such as "Get the gun" and "They're after us." After five days, he regained full consciousness, and his doctor explained to him that he had destroyed his first and second cervical vertebrae, which meant that his skull and spine were not connected. His lungs were filling with fluid and were suctioned by entry through the throat; this was said to be the most painful part of Reeve's recovery.
After considering his situation, believing that not only would he never walk again, but that he might never move a body part again, Reeve considered suicide. He mouthed to Dana, "Maybe we should let me go." She tearfully replied, "I am only going to say this once: I will support whatever you want to do because this is your life, and your decision. But I want you to know that I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you. And I love you." Reeve never considered euthanasia as an option again.
In early October 2004, he was being treated for an infected pressure ulcer that was causing sepsis, a complication he had experienced many times before. On October 4th, he spoke at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago on behalf of the Institute's work. This was to be his last reported public appearance. On October 9, Reeve felt well and attended his son Will's hockey game. That night, he went into cardiac arrest after receiving an antibiotic for the infection. He fell into a coma and was taken to Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York. Eighteen hours later, on October 10, 2004, Reeve died at age 52. His doctor, John McDonald, believed an adverse reaction to the antibiotic caused Reeve's death.
His widow, Dana Reeve, headed the Christopher Reeve Foundation after his death. Although a non-smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer on 9 August 2005 and died at age 44 on 6 March 2006.
Actor Yul Brynner, dying from lung cancer, told a television audience that what he really wanted to do was to film a commercial that said, "Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke, whatever you do, just don't smoke."
Brynner was very much alive when he made this statement in January 1985, on "Good Morning America" on ABC News. But after he died, in October of that year, he got his wish. The resulting public service announcement remains one of the most memorable antismoking statements ever made.
When his lung cancer was diagnosed in June 1983, Brynner, then 63, was one of the world's most recognizable actors. With his distinctive bald head, he had appeared in 4,625 performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "King and I," winning a Tony in 1952 for playing the haughty, strutting king of Siam. In 1956, he won an Oscar for the film.
Brynner's stamina was all the more remarkable given his history of smoking. He started at age 12 and had smoked as many as five packs a day before quitting in the late 1960's.
Defying his doctors' orders, Brynner continued to perform across the country after the cancer was diagnosed, despite extreme fatigue from radiation treatments and chemotherapy. On June 30, 1985, he finally retired from the stage, giving one final performance in "The King and I" on Broadway.
Brynner never made the commercial he proposed. But shortly after his death, officials at the American Cancer Society had an idea: What about using the footage from "Good Morning America" to make a public service announcement? Brynner's widow, Kathy, gave her permission. What had made her husband become so passionately opposed to smoking, she recently recalled, was his realization that cigarettes could even cause cancer 15 years after someone had stopped.
The announcement, completed in 1985 and first aired in early 1986, could not have begun more boldly. It opened with an image of Brynner's tombstone, with the inscription "Yul Brynner, 1920-1985." An announcer intoned, "Ladies and gentlemen, the late Yul Brynner."
Next, Brynner appeared on the "Good Morning America" video clip. His antismoking advice was followed by another statement he had made on the program: "If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn't be talking about any cancer. I'm convinced of that." With that, the 30-second spot ended.
The announcement, made for the cancer society by the New York agency McCaffrey & McCall, deliberately toyed with viewers' minds, giving the appearance that the actor was, indeed, speaking from beyond the grave.
Although this was obviously not the case, the announcement still retained its intensity among the public. Kathy Brynner recalls being approached by strangers, who told her that what her husband had done was "unbelievable" and "courageous." (NYT, “An Unforgettable Final Act, a King Got Revenge on His Killers”)
Natalie Wood & Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island. Wood would drown on Catalina. The events surrounding her death are a mystery to this day.
Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, and Tab Hunter backstage at the Academy Awards.
Check out the latest issue of Dead in Hollywood… Dead in San Diego: Betty Broderick (Issue 7.5)
Billy Daniels is an American singer who was most notable for his hit recording of "That Old Black Magic" and his pioneering performances on early 1950s television. He died at the age of 73 in Los Angeles, and was buried at the El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley, San Diego, California. He was one of the first African-American entertainers to cross over into the mainstream and his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame lies alongside that of Jerry Lewis.
Hard at work on Dead in Hollywood: Natalie Wood (Issue #8).
“From the age of six, I have known that I was sexy. And let me tell you it has been hell, sheer hell, waiting to do something about it.” -Bette Davis
Bette Davis collapsed during the American Cinema Awards in 1989, and later discovered that her cancer had returned. She recovered sufficiently to travel to Spain, where she was honored at the Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival, but during her visit, her health rapidly deteriorated. Too weak to make the long journey back to the U.S., she traveled to France, where she died on October 6, 1989, at 11:20 pm, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Davis was 81 years old.
She was entombed in Forest Lawn—Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, alongside her mother Ruthie and sister Bobby, with her name in larger type size. On her tombstone is written: "She did it the hard way", an epitaph that she mentioned in her memoir Mother Goddam.
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On April 8, 2003, stand-up comedian Rodney Dangerfield underwent brain surgery to improve blood flow in preparation for heart valve-replacement surgery on a later date. The surgery took place on August 24, 2004. Upon entering the hospital, he uttered another characteristic one-liner when asked how long he would be hospitalized: "If all goes well, about a week. If not, about an hour and a half."
In September 2004, it was revealed that Dangerfield had been in a coma for several weeks. Afterward, he began breathing on his own and showing signs of awareness when visited by friends, however, he died on October 5, 2004 at the UCLA Medical Center, a month and a half shy of his 83rd birthday, from complications of the surgery he had undergone in August. Dangerfield was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. His headstone reads, "Rodney Dangerfield... There goes the neighborhood." The Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is home to such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Stratten, and Dominique Dunne.
Eddie Kendricks died on this day in 1992. He was one of the founding members of Motown’s The Temptations.
Born Eddie Kendrick, but is best known by the stage name Eddie Kendricks, was an American singer and songwriter. Kendricks was noted for his distinctive falsetto singing style. He co-founded the iconic Motown singing group The Temptations, and was one of their lead singers from 1960 until 1971. His was the lead voice on such famous songs as "The Way You Do The Things You Do", "Get Ready", and "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me).” Exasperated by a lack of creative and financial control, Kendricks left Motown in 1978, with the requirement of signing away the rights to his royalties. He moved first to Arista Records, and later to Atlantic Records. By this time, his popularity had waned, and he was also gradually losing his upper range as a result of chain smoking. In late 1991, Kendricks, by now living in his native Birmingham, Alabama, underwent surgery to have one of his lungs removed in hopes of preventing the spread of the cancer. He continued to tour through the summer of 1992, when he fell ill again and was hospitalized. Kendricks died of lung cancer in Birmingham on October 5, 1992 at age 52.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar was named by his mother after Kendricks.
On October 4, 1970, Janis Joplin, one of the most iconic female musicians of the 1960s died from an accidental overdose of heroin in room #105 of the Landmark Motor Hotel, at the tragic age of 27. The Landmark Motor Hotel (7047 Franklin Ave.) lies in the heart of Hollywood. The hotel’s name might have changed - it’s now called The Highland Gardens Hotel - but you can still stay in the same hotel room where Joplin died. She lived in this room for the last few months of her life. The closet contains a small brass plaque, commemorating Joplin’s life, and the walls are heavily decorated with fan art and notes, comprising a ever-evolving shrine to the late singer.
On Sunday afternoon, October 4, 1970, producer Paul Rothchild became concerned when Janis Joplin failed to show up at Sunset Sound Recorders for a recording session in which she was scheduled to provide the vocal track for the already-existing instrumental track of the song "Buried Alive in the Blues." In the evening, Full Tilt Boogie's road manager, John Cooke, drove to the Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood where Joplin was staying. He saw Joplin's psychedelically paintedPorsche 356 C Cabriolet in the parking lot, and upon entering Joplin's room (#105), he found her dead on the floor beside her bed. The official cause of death was a heroin overdose, possibly compounded by alcohol.
“I'm a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything ... It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned to make that feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel.” -Janis Joplin
Juan Romero cradling the head of a dying Robert F. Kennedy and a photo of the abandoned and now demolished kitchen hallway of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles where Robert F. Kennedy was mortally wounded by an assassin’s bullet. Juan Romero died this past Monday at the age of 68 from a heart attack. He was the last person to shake Kennedy’s hand before Kennedy was struck down.
