The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols

by Parish, James Robert

  Tupac Shakur

  June 16, 1971–September 13, 1996

  The life of Tupac Shakur, one of rap’s most influential performers during the 1990s, was a struggle to simultaneously dramatize and overcome his rough background. He became one of the most notorious—and wealthy—representatives of gangsta rap, also displaying a gritty acting style in his increasingly numerous movie roles. As a modern-day exponent of the “outlaw” image, Tupac was constantly involved in high-profile scrapes with the law. Sadly, his career was cut short in 1996 when he was murdered at the age of 25. His death left behind several albums and eight film appearances as testimony to his maturing performance style. For many, the mercurial, baffling Shakur has become a martyr of gangsta rap, and a symbol of the cost that a violent lifestyle can exact on anyone.

  Tupac was born in 1971 in New York City. His mother, Afeni Shakur (born Alice Faye Williams), was then a member of the Black Panthers. In 1969, she and several others in the militant organization were arrested on suspicion of a conspiracy to blow up buildings in New York City. In 1971, the pregnant Afeni was still in jail, incarcerated at the Women’s House of Detention in Greenwich Village. She was finally acquitted in May 1971 and one month later gave birth to Tupac Amaru Shakur (named for an Inca prince). Afeni, who had been going through very rough times at the time of Tupac’s conception, would later tell her son that she didn’t know who his father was. (His godfather was the former Black Panther leader Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, who in 1972 would be convicted of murdering a woman in Santa Monica, California.) Thus, Afeni was faced with raising her boy alone. (Years later in 1997, William Garland, a New Jersey trucker, would sue to collect a share of the inheritance from Tupac’s estate, claiming that he had fathered the boy. The court denied his claim, since the testimony showed that Garland had not seen his alleged son during 15 of his 25 years.)

  During Tupac’s early years, he and Afeni moved quite frequently within Harlem and the Bronx. As he grew into a teenager, the creative boy found release in writing poetry. His mother enrolled him in Harlem’s 127th Street Ensemble. He made his acting debut with them at age 13, in a benefit production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Apollo Theatre. Bit by the acting bug, he would later recall thinking, “This is the best s——t in the world!”

  When he and his mother moved to Baltimore, Maryland, Tupac attended the School for the Arts, studying acting and dance. While there, he wrote his first rap number. In his junior year he and his mother moved to Marin City, California, a few miles north of Sausalito and San Francisco. Shakur soon left home. Wanting badly to fit in, he turned to selling drugs and making his name known in other ways on the streets of “The Jungle,” as his new hometown was known.

  Never abandoning his artistic inclinations, in 1990 Tupac auditioned for Digital Underground, a Bay Area rap ensemble. Hired as both a dancer and a roadie, Shakur was part of the group’s “Sex Packets” tour, which played the United States and Japan. He made his recording debut on Digital Underground’s 1991 album This Is an E Release.

  Shakur’s solo debut was 2Pacalypse Now (1991); it proved that his promotional efforts to get known by “everybody” were working. The album engendered some bad publicity when, in April 1992, a young man shot a Texas state trooper and alleged later that listening to “Soulja’s Story” (a cut from Tupac’s album) had inspired the violent deed. This led several politicians, including Vice President Dan Quayle, to demand that Shakur’s album be removed from stores. The controversy only boosted the artist’s outlaw reputation and helped sales of the album.

  Tupac Shakur at the premiere of Poetic Justice (1993), in which he costarred.

  © 1993 by Albert L. Ortega

  As a member of Digital Underground, Tupac (billed as 2Pac Shakur) had made his film debut in Nothing But Trouble (1991). But it was in the Ernest Dickerson-directed Juice (1992) that he was noticed by critics and moviegoers. Meanwhile, he made headlines of another sort when a six-year-old boy died in the crossfire between Tupac’s posse and their opponents back in Marin City.

  As before, the publicity about Shakur wavered back and forth between his album releases (such as Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z [1993], which went gold) and his growing list of alleged offenses and confrontations with the police, both in California and in Atlanta, Georgia, where he had relocated.

  Tupac got very positive reviews for his performances in John Singleton’s Poetic Justice (1993), in which he costarred with Janet Jackson, and in the basketball picture Above the Rim (1994). But negative publicity was forthcoming when allegations were made that Shakur and three pals had sexually abused a young woman. Then there was the charge that the rapper/actor had punched filmmaker Allen Hughes when he fired Tupac from the movie Menace II Society [1993] for being a troublemaker on the set. For that charge, the undaunted Shakur spent 15 days in jail. By now, Shakur had his own music group called Thug Life; their self-titled album Thug Life: Volume One was released in 1994.

  While out on bail for the sexual abuse charge, Tupac was preparing to make a guest appearance on another rapper’s album. On November 30, 1994, in the Times Square building that housed the recording studio, he was shot and robbed. Despite his many life-threatening injuries, he survived, going against his doctors’ advice to attend his sentencing for the sexual abuse charge. He was sentenced to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Danemora, New York.

  Meanwhile, his latest album, Me Against the World (1995), was selling well. While incarcerated, Tupac announced that he had stopped marijuana smoking and reformed in many other ways. Still behind bars, Tupac wed college student Keisha Morris, in a ceremony that Vanity Fair magazine described as a “jailhouse convenience,” so he could have conjugal rights.

  When released from prison after eight months, pending an appeal, Shakur found himself in the midst of a rumble between Marion “Suge” Knight’s New York-based label, Death Row Records (for whom he now recorded) and such competitors as Los Angeles-based Bad Boy Records (headed by Sean “Puffy” Combs). Possibly, this East Coast-West Coast record company feud played a part in the events of September 7, 1996. Tupac and Suge Knight were driving in a black BMW sedan near the Las Vegas Strip. The Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight boxing match had just ended, and Knight’s BMW was 1 of a 10-car convoy heading to the Shark Club after the match at the MGM Grand Hotel. As Knight stopped for a traffic light, four unknown assailants in a Cadillac opened fire on the passenger’s side of his car. It was about 11:15 P.M.

  In the melee, Shakur was badly injured by four bullet wounds. (Knight received only minor injuries.) During three emergency surgeries at Las Vegas’s University Medical Center, Tupac’s right lung was removed. It had been shredded by three bullets. He was in a coma for six days and died on September 13, 1996, at 4:03 P.M. Las Vegas time. (Tupac, who had a fatalistic streak, had often talked about his belief that he would have a relatively short life.) After an autopsy was conducted that night, his body was released to his mother. After a small service in Las Vegas, Afeni had her son’s remains cremated and took the ashes back to her home in Atlanta.

  To date, no suspects have been arrested. One supposed witness to the homicide, a member of Shakur’s backup group, the Outlaws Immortaliz, was murdered days after the shooting. Knight, who was barely injured in the brawl that killed Tupac, has not told the media anything substantive about the sad episode.

  On September 14, 1996, two thousand rap fans packed themselves into a Harlem community center to pay tribute to Tupac Shakur. (Some seven hundred others, unable to get in, stood outside in the harsh rain, listening to the event over loudspeakers.) The Nation of Islam hosted the event, described as a “hip-hop day of atonement.” Everyone there pledged to work toward ending violence in the black community. On November 10, 1996, in Atlanta, Georgia, four thousand people attended a memorial service for Tupac at the local Civic Center.

  Not long after Shakur’s slaying, the Death Row label released Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, which became a
bestseller. The artist featured on the record was listed in the credits as “Makaveli,” but it was Shakur; this led to speculation that perhaps Tupac had faked his own death. Unfortunately, the rumor proved to be false.

  Since Tupac’s passing, several albums of compilations and outtakes have been issued to good sales, and also several more films featuring Shakur, including Gridlock’d (1997) and Gang Related (1997). (A cottage industry has grown up around the release of albums, magazines, books, and videos devoted to the late rapper, not to mention various lawsuits and countersuits regarding rights to Shakur’s music.) All these things are a testament to the myriad gifts of this champion of gangsta rap, whose intensity about life, art, music, and power helped bring forth his undeniable talent but also led to the combustion that ended his short life.

  Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer

  August 7, 1927–January 21, 1959

  In 1935, the makers of the “Our Gang” movie shorts added another pleasing young actor to their roster. He was gangling, freckle-faced Carl Switzer—the kid with the cowlick and squeaky voice that screeched off key when he sang. Nicknamed “Alfalfa” by producer Hal Roach, the boy quickly developed into a popular screen personality. But he had one career problem: he grew up. No longer a hot property in the industry, Alfalfa turned to heavy drinking. Eventually, he ended up shot in a pathetic argument over $50.

  Carl was born on a farm in Paris, Illinois, in 1927. He and his older brother, Harold, often sang at local events. In early 1935, while visiting their grandparents in California, the boys decided to try and see the studio where those great “Our Gang” comedy shorts were being made. They had no way to gain entrance onto the lot, but the studio cafeteria was just outside the gate. One day at lunchtime, the siblings made an unscheduled appearance there. Dressed in coveralls, they treated the diners to an impromptu round of hillbilly songs. Roach was impressed by their chutzpah and hastily wrote them into a comedy short (Beginner’s Luck, 1935) that was currently in production. Harold, known as “Deadpan” or “Slim,” remained with the series for a few years, but generally as a background figure. Carl, however, developed quite a following, soon rivaling Spanky McFarland as the focal point of the trouble-prone gang. In a six-year period, “Alfalfa” bounced through 61 short subjects.

  By the end of 1941, Switzer had left the Gang, too adult-looking to continue participating in their juvenile shenanigans. He made the rounds of the film-casting offices, where he was greeted with a constant “Didn’t you use to be . . . ? Hey, Alfalfa! Sing off-key for us!” It frustrated the young man—badly! Infrequently, he was given small movie parts; The Human Comedy (1943) and Going My Way (1944) were two of these. He joined the low-budget Gas House Kids film series in the mid-1940s, but the property sputtered out after only three mediocre entries. When screen jobs were too few, Carl made a modest living as a bartender and sometimes as a hunting guide in northern California. (Henry Fonda and Roy Rogers were among his clients.)

  In 1954, Carl married an heiress from Kansas, but the union was finished in five weeks. A disillusioned Switzer told the press, “Bear hunting and marriage don’t mix.” Irritated with life’s stumbling blocks, he began drinking more frequently and more heavily. When inebriated, he turned very boastful and pugnacious, which often led to barroom brawls.

  Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Jane Frazee, and Vera Vague in a scene from Rosie the Riveter (1944).

  Courtesy of JC Archives

  His pal Roy Rogers let Switzer guest-star on his TV series four times between 1952 and 1955; Switzer also appeared in a segment of Science Fiction Theater in 1955. Mostly, though, Hollywood had forgotten him. When he was hired for the small role of Angus in The Defiant Ones (1958, starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier), he had visions of the long-hoped-for comeback finally happening. Instead, the picture proved to be his swan song.

  On January 29, 1959, Carl and a friend stormed over to the bungalow home of Bud Stiltz at 10400 Columbus Avenue, Mission Hills, in the San Fernando Valley. Carl had recently lost Stiltz’s hunting dog (temporarily); it had cost Carl a $50 reward to retrieve the animal, and he wanted Stiltz to reimburse him. Having failed in his efforts over the telephone, Carl now barged into Stiltz’s living room. During the ensuing argument, the drunken Switzer grabbed a heavy clock and cracked it over Stiltz’s head. The blow cut Stiltz badly over his eye. While Switzer’s pal remained an observer, Stiltz ran to his bedroom for his gun with Switzer in hot pursuit. The two men grappled for the weapon. It discharged, causing Stiltz’s fiancée and her three children (who were huddled with her in the bedroom) to flee to a neighbor’s house. Even though Stiltz had gotten his hands on the gun, Carl drew his hunting knife and yelled that he was going to kill his opponent. He charged the man and Stiltz fired. The bullet hit Carl in the stomach and he collapsed, dead.

  Carl was buried at Hollywood Memorial Park. His marker bears his name, a profile drawing of Petey (the Our Gang dog), and two Masonic symbols. At the trial, Bud Stiltz broke into tears while reciting the facts of the case. The jury decided it was “justifiable homicide.”

  When Carl Switzer’s father died in 1960, he was buried next to Alfalfa—the boy who couldn’t take it when Hollywood turned its back on him.

  Sharon Tate

  January 24, 1943–August 9, 1969

  In the lengthy, bizarre annals of Hollywood, there have been many shocking murders of show-business celebrities. None, however, was as gruesome as the wanton killing of actress Sharon Tate and her jet-setting Hollywood pals by the satanic Charles Manson and his deranged clique. More than three decades after the atrocious massacre, the mere mention of the sensational case can still make even the most stoic person shudder.

  Sharon Marie Tate was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1943, the oldest of three girls. Because of her father’s employment—he was a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army in the intelligence division—the Tates frequently moved around the United States and other countries as well. While growing up, the stunning Sharon won several beauty contests and was the Homecoming Queen at the Vicenza American High School in Verona, Italy. Stagestruck, she found work as an extra in several movies filmed on location in Italy: Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man (1962) and Barabbas (1962). Determined to break into the motion-picture business, Sharon was thrilled when her dad was reassigned to California. Now she would be that much closer to her dream city—Hollywood.

  By early 1963, Sharon was based in Los Angeles, living at the Hollywood Studio Club and working occasionally in television commercials. She was introduced to Martin Ransohoff, the president of Filmways, and he cast her in the recurring role of Janet Trego on The Beverly Hillbillies (1963–65) and other bit TV parts. Ransohoff also cast the breathtakingly attractive blond in several of his productions: The Wheeler Dealers (1963), The Americanization of Emily (1964), and The Sandpiper (1965). For a short time, she dated the French actor Philippe Forquet, who was then in Hollywood making a picture. But their brief affair was full of heated arguments. More lasting was her relationship with the swinging hairstylist Jay Sebring, who thrived on a celebrity clientele of male Hollywood stars.

  While on location in England for Eye of the Devil (made in 1965, released in 1967), Martin Ransohoff introduced Sharon to the Polish-born director Roman Polanski. Ransohoff convinced the offbeat Polanski to cast Sharon in the female lead of The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), as a Jewish innkeeper’s daughter. Polanski reluctantly agreed to use Tate instead of actress Jill St. John. Before they completed the parody classic, this most unlikely pair—the diminutive, cynical, worldly-wise Roman and the tall, cheerful, unsophisticated Sharon—had fallen deeply in love.

  When Tate and Polanski returned from making their horror spoof, they shared a house in Santa Monica. For her next role, Ransohoff gave her the flashy part of a curvaceous surfer in the Tony Curtis comedy Don’t Make Waves (1967). One of the small number of highlights of the tawdry Valley of the Dolls (1967) was Tate’s appearance as sex siren Jennifer North, who commits suicide after suffering a
mastectomy. Unlike her costars, Patty Duke and Barbara Parkins, Sharon received glowing reviews.

  On January 20, 1968, in London, the 24-year-old Sharon wed Polanski, 10 years her senior. Among those attending the nuptials were Warren Beatty, Leslie Caron, and Michael Caine. After playing one of Dean Martin’s girl toys in Matt Helm’s spy-movie parody, The Wrecking Crew (1969), Tate ended her exclusive contract with Ransohoff. She preferred to freelance now that she was a rising force in the international film industry. Meanwhile, she and Polanski played and dined among the trendy Hollywood set.

  Before Sharon left for London to shoot Thirteen Chairs (released in 1970) with Orson Welles, the Polanskis rented a house at 10050 Cielo Drive, off Benedict Canyon Road, in Bel Air. (The previous tenants had been Doris Day’s son Terry Melcher and his girlfriend, Candice Bergen.) Because Roman had preproduction film conferences to attend in Europe, Sharon returned alone to California in July 1969 after finishing her movie. At the time, she was eight months pregnant.

  Sharon also had several new movie projects lined up, such as The Story of O and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, but her real attention was on the impending birth of her child and planning a party for Roman, who was due home sometime before his birthday on August 18. On a hot Thursday, August 7, 1969, the very pregnant Sharon went with several actor pals to a TV episode screening at Universal. The next day, actress Joanna Pettet and another friend came to Sharon’s for lunch, and that evening, Sharon was invited by a friend to a small dinner party. But she declined the invitation, mentioning that she was very tired. She decided that she would go out for hamburgers with Jay Sebring and then spend a quiet night at home.

  Sharon Tate in a spooky moment from Eye of the Devil (1967).

  Courtesy of JC Archives