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

by Parish, James Robert

  One of Hexum’s day jobs was cleaning Venetian blinds. One day, a client of his turned out to be a pal of John Travolta’s manager. The manager, in turn, thought handsome six-foot, one-inch, 190-pound Jon-Erik had show-business potential and helped to launch his acting career. Soon the tall hunk was modeling for two beefcake calendars. With his earnings, he settled in Los Angeles. He had to work for a time as a busboy in a Venice restaurant, sharing a fleabag apartment with two coworkers. But not long thereafter, Jon-Erik was spotted by a casting director and hired for Voyagers (1982-83), a science-fiction adventure TV series.

  Although he was making headway in show business, Hexum maintained a frugal lifestyle, living modestly in an unfurnished house in a nonexclusive section of Burbank and driving a funky old 1954 Chevy. His romance with businesswoman Debbie Davis ended, and he later dated TV actress Emma Samms. In between, he was momentarily taken up by star Joan Collins, who cast him as her leading man in the made-for-TV movie The Making of a Male Model (1983). Next, Jon-Erik was hired for the role of Pat Trammel, the cancer-ridden friend of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant in the theatrical feature Bear (1984). Hexum was happy to be cast against type.

  But it was back to beefcake form in Cover Up, a detective-spy series that premiered on September 22, 1984, on the CBS network. Jon-Erik played fashion photographer Mac Harper, a weapons expert and former Green Beret. On Friday, October 12, Hexum was on the set, playing around between takes with a prop .44 Magnum pistol that he had just loaded with a blank. At about 5:15 P.M. he put the gun to his right temple. Just before he pulled the trigger, he smiled and reportedly said, “Let’s see if I get myself with this one.” Jon-Erik was apparently unaware that at close range, a blank (in reality, a minimal charge packed with cotton) can cause great damage. The force of the discharge drove a quarter-sized piece of his skull far into his brain. Rather than wait for the paramedics, the unconscious actor was rushed by studio station wagon to Beverly Hills Medical Center, where he lay in critical condition.

  Still in a coma six days later, on the evening of October 18, he was declared brain-dead. The next morning, with his mother’s approval, Jon-Erik was flown to San Francisco—still on a life-support system—where his heart was implanted into the body of a dying 36-year-old Las Vegas businessman. The actor’s kidneys and corneas were also removed and placed in organ transplant banks. Later, Hexum’s body was flown back to Los Angeles for the coroner’s official postmortem.

  Hexum’s funeral was private, and the days that followed were anticlimactic. The highly publicized stunt that caused Hexum’s death was ruled accidental, although several people who knew the actor said he had become more distant, brooding, and reckless in the weeks before the tragedy. The last episode of Cover Up to feature Hexum aired on November 3, 1984. The studio conducted a highly publicized search for his replacement, who proved to be another muscular hunk, Australian Antony Hamilton. Nevertheless, Cover Up faded from the air within a few months.

  A few years after the tragedy, Jon-Erik’s mother, Greta, won an undisclosed amount in an out-of-court settlement with Twentieth Century-Fox Television and Glenn Larson Productions. Hexum’s death led to an industry-wide investigation and the eventual establishment of new guidelines regarding the use of firearms on a film set. Nevertheless, actor Brandon Lee (the son of martial-arts legend Bruce Lee) would die in 1993 when he was shot with a live bullet while filming a scene for a movie in which, seemingly, the proper precautions had not been taken. At least, however, as an organ donor, Jon-Erik had not died in vain.

  Carole Landis

  [Frances Lillian Mary Ridste]

  January 1, 1919–July 5, 1948

  * * *

  Dearest Mommie,

  I’m sorry, really sorry to put you through this. But there is no way to avoid it. I love you darling. You have been the most wonderful Mom ever. Everything goes to you. Look in the files and there is a will which decrees everything. Goodbye, my angel. Pray for me.

  Your Baby

  * * *

  Having written this deeply touching farewell note, the pretty, 29-year-old actress Carole Landis, who had attempted suicide several times before, finally got her death wish through an overdose of sleeping pills.

  She was born in Fairchild, Wisconsin, the youngest daughter of Polish-Norwegian parents. Soon after Frances’s birth, her father abandoned the family, and her mother, Clara, took the three children to live in California. Frances was starstruck as a child; Kay Francis was one of her favorite film stars. At age 15, Frances eloped with 19-year-old Irving Wheeler to Yuma, Arizona. After a few weeks, they separated, and she returned to her classes at San Bernardino High School. The ill-matched couple reconciled later in the year, but by 1935 the union had again fallen apart.

  The body of movie star Carole Landis at her home, as Detective Captain Emmett E. Jones of the West Los Angeles Police Station views the suicide scene in July 1948.

  Courtesy of Photofest

  She took a bus to San Francisco, where rumor later had it that she enjoyed a very fast life. Now known as Carole Landis, she worked first at the Royal Hawaiian Club (where her shapely figure and hula dance caught the attention of many patrons) and then sang with Carl Ravazza and His Orchestra at an exclusive Santa Cruz country club.

  Eager to break into motion pictures, the appealing Carole moved to Hollywood, where both her mother and Wheeler (wanting to partake of her career potential) soon joined her. The determined actress can be spotted in several 1937 features, including A Day at the Races and A Star Is Born. Carole was showcased far more prominently in the Busby Berkeley musical Varsity Show (1937). Thanks to Berkeley, she obtained a Warner Bros, contract (at $50 per week) and had more minor assignments in studio pictures.

  There were no headlines when Warner Bros, let her option lapse in 1938. But there were several items published a few weeks later when possessive Irving Wheeler brought action against Busby Berkeley for $250,000, claiming that the screen director had alienated Carole’s affections from him. The suit was dismissed and Landis divorced Irving. After a failed pre-Broadway tour with Ken Murray in Once Upon a Night, she returned to moviemaking in 1939.

  It was the pioneering film director D. W. Griffith who rediscovered Carole. When he was engaged to help on One Million B.C. (1940), he selected her to be the prehistoric heroine. By the time filming began, she’d had her nose reshaped surgically, had become a blond, and had embarked on a strict diet. The movie surprised everyone by being a hit and her new boss, producer Hal Roach, promoted Carole as “The Ping Girl.” (She was also known for having “the best legs in town.”) Another of her endeavors in 1940 was getting married again, this time to wealthy yacht broker Willis Hunt Jr. When they parted that November, Carole commented, “We should have just remained good friends.”

  After a few more pictures for Roach, half of Carole’s contract was purchased by Twentieth Century-Fox—reportedly, studio head Darryl F. Zanuck was infatuated with her. In both Moon over Miami (1941) and I Wake Up Screaming (1941) she received much attention. But thereafter, as Zanuck’s enthusiasm for Landis waned, her status on the lot diminished and she was reduced to making smaller and smaller pictures. In the fall of 1942, she joined Kay Francis, Martha Rave, and Mitzi Mayfair for a Hollywood Victory Committee tour to Northern Ireland and England. On January 5, 1943, in an impulsive mood, Carole wed naval flier Captain Thomas Wallace, whom she met on the tour. Upon returning to the States, she costarred with Francis, Raye, and Mayfair in Four Jills in a Jeep (1944), a fictionalized version of their USO trek. Carole then went on another USO tour, but on this one she contracted dysentery and malaria. By the fall of 1944, Carole and Wallace had separated; they divorced in Reno in mid-1945.

  In early 1945, Carole finally reached Broadway in the short-lived musical A Lady Says Yes. Later that year, she wed wealthy Broadway producer W. Horace Schmidlapp, whom she had met through a new actress pal of hers, Jacqueline Susann (the future bestselling author of Valley of the Dolls). Still under Fox contrac
t, Carole made two minor pictures there in 1946 and was loaned to United Artists for A Scandal in Paris (1946). The next year, she met British actor Rex Harrison, who was married to actress Lilli Palmer and under Fox contract. “Sexy Rexy” quickly became enamored with the spunky American performer. Meanwhile, since she wasn’t getting any work in Hollywood, Carole transferred to England to make two pictures and be with Harrison, who was making a movie in his homeland.

  Harrison was back in Hollywood by early 1948, starring in the ironically titled Unfaithfully Yours (1948). He told the press that he and Carole were “great friends and that is all.” Landis also returned to California in 1948, where she initiated divorce proceedings against Schmidlapp. In the interim, Carole and Rex continued their steamy affair.

  On July 3, 1948, Rex joined Carole for dinner at her new home in the 1400 block of Capri Drive in Pacific Palisades. Carole commented that she had severe financial problems, but Harrison was too excited about returning to Broadway in Anne of the Thousand Days to pay much attention to her plight. Rex left about 9:00 P.M. to visit actor Roland Culver and his wife. Once he had gone, Landis phoned New York to speak with longtime friend Marguerite Haymes (the mother of crooner and actor Dick Haymes), but she was not there. Carole made several other calls to friends, but they went unheeded because of the July 4th holiday.

  The next afternoon, Harrison phoned Carole’s place, but the maid told him that there was no answer when she knocked on the bedroom door. The actor rushed to Carole’s home, where at about 3:00 P.M. he found Landis dead on the bathroom floor. The actress was curled on her side with her cheek resting on a jewel box. She had taken an overdose of Seconal, a powerful barbiturate. The autopsy revealed that there was also a high alcohol content in her bloodstream and that, just before she had passed out, she had been trying to raise herself off the floor (perhaps in an attempt to get help). That night, when a distraught Rex went to the Culvers’ to spend the night, they handed him a small suitcase, which Carole must have left outside their home the prior evening. It contained Rex’s love letters to her.

  Carole’s funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. She was buried in an evening gown with an orchid pinned to each shoulder strap. Among the attendees were Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer (who had flown back from New York). The pallbearers included Dick Haymes, Pat O’Brien, and Cesar Romero. When Carole’s estate was tallied, her debts far outweighed the $150,000 worth of assets. Her memorabilia was auctioned off to reduce the deficit.

  As for Harrison, he claimed at the time to feel no guilt over the tragic situation, but later admitted that he spent several months in therapy. Branded the villain in the situation, his Twentieth Century-Fox contract was torn up, and he retreated to Broadway to be—appropriately enough—the philandering Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days (1948).

  After the fact, it was recalled that when Mexican-born movie star Lupe Velez took her own life in 1944, Carole Landis had said, “I know how she felt. You fight just so long and then you begin to worry about being washed up. You fear there’s one way to go, and that’s down.”

  Dana Plato

  November 1, 1963–May 8, 1999

  To many Hollywood observers, it was no surprise when 35-year-old Dana Plato died of a drug overdose in the fall of 1999. Her life had been going badly for years, long before she ingested a fatal mix of painkillers and Valium. Formerly the bright young costar of the hit TV comedy Diffrent Strokes (1978–84), Plato had endured a tough childhood and an even harder time once stardom drifted away.

  Although most sources list her date of birth as November 7, 1964, Dana’s death certificate gives her birthdate as November 1, 1963. She was born in southern California to a teenaged single mother named Linda Strain, who gave her up for adoption. (Dana and her birth mother would eventually be reunited in the early 1990s.) Her new parents, Dean and Kay Plato, operated a trucking firm. A few years after adopting Dana, the Platos separated, and thereafter it was Kay who nurtured and supervised the little girl. The youngster with the effervescent personality was soon taking tap, ballet, and figure-skating lessons. By 1970, she was doing TV commercials, already part of the show-business rat race.

  Dana later invented, exaggerated, or outright contradicted facts about her early professional life, which makes the truth difficult to perceive. Supposedly, her mother made her reject the young lead role in The Exorcist (1973), the part that made Linda Blair a star. (Later, Dana would insist that she had also won the key role of a very young prostitute in Pretty Baby, a 1978 film that “instead” ended up featuring Brooke Shields—all because Dana’s mother once again made her turn down the part.) Plato did appear, however, in the telefilm Beyond the Bermuda Triangle (1975) and the benign Return to Boggy Creek (1977), and had an unbilled bit part in The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). According to Dana, it was while she was auditioning for The Gong Show that producer Al Burton spotted her, hiring Plato for an upcoming series, Diffrent Strokes, at Tandem Productions.

  The new show’s premise was based on contrasts. A very wealthy Park Avenue widower (Conrad Bain) with a 13-year-old daughter (Dana) adopts the two orphaned children (Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges) of his late housekeeper, and everyone lives happily after. The network sitcom debuted in November 1978 and went on to be a big hit. Gary Coleman, who suffered from a kidney problem that stunted his growth, quickly emerged as the sitcom’s major attraction (and promptly demanded to be treated accordingly). Plato and Bridges became well-known too, but their fame was always tied to the public’s ongoing fascination with the diminutive, wisecracking Coleman.

  During the show’s peak years, in the early 1980s, Dana had a reputation on the set for being rebellious and wild. As she and Todd Bridges physically matured beyond the ages of their characters—while Gary couldn’t because of his medical problems—the sitcom plotlines focused even more on Coleman and even less on the two satellite leads. It caused further dissension on the already trouble-plagued set.

  Then Dana, who was always “surprising” the producers of Diffrent Strokes, gave them really shocking news. She was pregnant (and unmarried). The startling announcement led to her dismissal from the family-oriented sitcom. In March 1984, Plato married her 21-year-old musician boyfriend, Lanny Lambert, in Las Vegas, Nevada. A few months later their son Tyler was born. A year later, however, Dana and Lanny divorced. Dana went to stay with her mother in the San Fernando Valley, just outside of Hollywood, while custody of young Tyler was given to his father. With no show-business jobs being offered, and her life in turmoil, Plato began drinking heavily.

  In 1988, Dana’s adoptive mother died after a long struggle with cancer. Soon Plato was broke. To earn money and to give her dormant career a possible jump-start, she did a nude spread for the June 1989 issue of Playboy magazine. But by the next year she was back in Las Vegas, working at $5.75 an hour for a dry-cleaning establishment. In February 1991, increasingly desperate and acting more irrational, Dana held up a local video store and took $164 from the register. She was arrested shortly. When the press got word, Dana claimed that her arrest happened when she went to return the stolen money. The abortive caper made headlines everywhere.

  At this low ebb, Plato was rescued by the kindness of entertainer Wayne Newton, who had never met her. He posted her $13,000 bail. The court sentenced the teary defendant to six years in prison, but that was commuted to five years of probation and four hundred hours of community service. Dana was instructed to get counseling for her mental health and substance-abuse problems.

  Dana would later maintain that her court-ordered therapist prescribed high doses of Valium, leading her to become addicted to the tranquilizer. Soon, Plato was charged with forging prescriptions to get more of the powerful drug; she entered a guilty plea to this charge before the court. As part of her plea bargain, she was put on five years of probation, given a $2,000 fine, and required to complete a substance-abuse treatment program. The prescription-forging charge was dropped, and in January 1995, Dana was rele
ased early from her probation.

  Having overcome her legal hurdles—all duly reported by the media and dredged up by Dana for sympathy on various talk shows—Plato traded on her notoriety to do a few summer-stock productions in both Canada and the United States. She also made an X-rated lesbian porno picture in 1997 (Different Strokes, the Story of Jack and Jill . . . and Jill).

  In 1998, Dana returned to Hollywood, where she fell back into her substance-abuse habit. She was nearly out of money and claimed she was shooting a new movie. Wayne Newton tried to intervene and get her back on the right path, but to no avail. Dana turned to the media in yet another bid for sympathy.

  By May 1999, Dana was engaged to 28-year-old Robert Menchaca, whom she had met a few months earlier in Tulsa, Oklahoma, while she was visiting her son Tyler (who lived there with his father and paternal grandmother). That May, Dana and Robert were living in a 37-foot-long motor home in Moore, Oklahoma, while he visited his parents. They had also recently gone to New York City, where Dana had appeared on Howard Stern’s radio show to refute claims that she was taking drugs again.

  On the afternoon of Saturday, May 8, 1999—the day before Mother’s Day—Dana said she wasn’t feeling well and went into the bedroom to take a nap. Her fiancé, Robert Menchaca, lay down next to her. When he awoke a few hours later, he found Plato still next to him, but her lifeless body was cold. At about 8:45 P.M., after Menchaca’s mother (a nurse) and others tried to revive her, the paramedics arrived. By then Dana was dead. Later, the chief medical examiner of the state of Oklahoma would rule the death a suicide (brought on by an overdose of painkillers and Valium), stating that the deceased had “a past history of suicidal gestures.”