Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: She died in London aged 54 from cancer.

  Jay Adler

  Born September 26, 1896

  Died September 23, 1978

  Character brother. Born in New York, Jay was one of six children of the Yiddish stage and screen actor Jacob Pavlovich Adler (b. Odessa, Russia, February 12, 1855, d. New York, April 1, 1926) and Sarah Heine (d. 1953). His siblings were Luther, Stella, Julia, Florence, Frances and Charles (d. New York, June 22, 1955). He also had a half-sister, the thrice-married Celia Feinman Adler (b. 1891, d. The Bronx, New York, January 31, 1979), from his father’s marriage to the stage actress Dinah Shtettin. Adler began his career in the theatre appearing in both Yiddish and English productions before he made his film début in Penrod And His Twin Brother (1938) playing Johnson. His other movies included: No Time To Marry (1938) as Hess, Three Secrets (1950) as the city editor, Cry Danger (1951) as Williams, The Mob (1951) as Russell, Scandal Sheet (1952) as Bailey, The Bad And The Beautiful (1952) as Mr Z, My Six Convicts (1952) as Steve Kopac, Dreamboat (1952) as desk clerk, Assignment: Paris (1952) as Henry, The Prisoner Of Zenda (1952) as a customs officer, The Turning Point (1952) as Sammy, My Pal Gus (1952) as Van Every, The Juggler (1953) as Papa Sander, Vice Squad (1953) as Frankie Pierce, 99 River Street (1953) as Christopher, The Long Wait (1954) as Joe the bellhop, Down Three Dark Streets (1954) as Uncle Max Martell, The Big Combo (1955) as Sam Hill, Murder Is My Beat (1955) as Barman, Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) as Orry, Lucy Gallant (1955) as Sam, Illegal as Joseph Carter, Man With The Gun (1955) as Cal, Runaway Daughters as Mr Rubeck, The Killing (1956) as Leo, The Catered Affair (1956) as Sam Leiter, Lust For Life as Waiter, Hell On Devil’s Island as Toto, Crime Of Passion (1957) as Mr Nalence, Sweet Smell Of Success (1957) as Manny Davis, The Brothers Karamazov (1958) as Pawnbroker, Seven Guns To Mesa (1958) as Ben Avery, Saddle The Wind as Hank, Curse Of The Undead as Barman, The Story On Page One (1960) as Lauber, All The Fine Young Cannibals (1960) as Sammy, Dime With A Halo (1963) as Mr Lewis, Who’s Been Sleeping In My Bed? (1963), The Family Jewels (1965) as Mr Lyman, Brother, Cry For Me (1970), Grave Of The Vampire (1972) as Old Zack, Bummer! (1972) as Sid Rosen and Macon County Line (1974) as the impound yard worker. He was also a regular on television, appearing in numerous programmes such as Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Untouchables, 77 Sunset Strip, Wanted: Dead Or Alive, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Ben Casey and Perry Mason.

  CAUSE: He died in Woodland Hills, California, after a long illness three days before his 82nd birthday.

  Larry Adler

  Born February 10, 1914

  Died August 7, 2001

  Mouth organist. Lawrence Cecil Adler was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of the plumber Louis Adler and Sadie Hack. The family had emigrated from Russia and their original name was Zelakovitch. Adler began piano lessons at six and was the youngest cantor at the Baltimore synagogue at the age of 10. He was educated at Baltimore City College and then the Peabody Conservatory of Music but was asked to leave after he performed a rendition of ‘Yes, We Have No Bananas’ at a recital instead of Grieg’s waltz in A minor. In 1927 he won the Maryland harmonica championship and ran away to New York to find work as a professional musician. He landed a job as an interval turn touring American picture houses for $100 a week. He met and befriended many celebrities in his work and made his first film Operator 13 in 1934. The impresario Sir C.B. Cochran hired Adler for a London tour and he became the talk of the town. He played Constantine Dan in the film St Martin’s Lane (1938) which starred Charles Laughton and Vivien Leigh. During the Second World War he entertained the troops in western Europe and the Middle East. In 1943 he made his début at Carnegie Hall. At the end of the war he played ‘The Battle Hymn Of The Republic’ on the balcony of Hitler’s former chancellery in Berlin and ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ at the Nuremberg stadium. Not long after, his life and career in America crashed when Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) called him a communist. In 1949 he moved to England where his career flourished once more. Four years later, he wrote the score for the film Genevieve. In lieu of a fee Adler received 2.5 per cent of the royalties which later added up to around £250,000. Genevieve’s American distributors insisted that Adler’s name be excised from the credits because of his continuing refusal to co-operate with McCarthy. When the music was nominated for and won an Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave the credit to the music’s conductor, Muir Matheson. Adler wrote music for more films including The Hellions (1961), The Great Chase (1962), The Hook (1963), King And Country (1964) and A High Wind In Jamaica (1965). He married the model Eileen Walser on April 11, 1938 and had a son, Peter, and two daughters by her. They divorced in 1961 and on January 1, 1969, he married Sally Cline. They divorced in 1977 having had one daughter. He went on to have a ten-year relationship with the biographer Lady Selina Shirley Hastings, daughter of Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings (b. March 5, 1945), 16th Earl of Huntingdon (d. 1990).

  CAUSE: Larry Adler was plagued by ill-health in the latter years of his life, having suffered a number of strokes. He died of pneumonia at St Thomas’ Hospital, Lambeth, London. He was 87. He left just under £208,000.

  Luther Adler

  Born May 4, 1903

  Died December 8, 1984

  Heavy brother. Born in New York, one of six children of Jacob P. Adler. [For full family details see under Jay Adler.] Luther Adler was a heavily built man which usually meant he played only villains. Oddly for a Jew, he played Hitler twice in The Magic Face (1951) and The Desert Fox: The Story Of Rommel (1951). His other films included: Lancer Spy (1937) as Schratt, Cornered (1945) as Marcel Jarnac, Saigon (1948) as Lieutenant Keon, The Loves Of Carmen (1948) as Dancaire, Wake Of The Red Witch (1948) as Mayrant Ruysdaal Sidneye, South Sea Sinner (1949) as Cognac, House Of Strangers (1949) as Joe Monetti, Under My Skin (1950) as Louis Bork, D.O.A. (1950) as Majak, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) as Keith ‘Cherokee’ Mandon, M (1951) as Dan Langley, The Tall Texan (1953) as Josh Tinnen, The Miami Story (1954) as Tony Brill, Crashout (1955) as Pete Mendoza, The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing (1955) as Delphin Delmas, Hoodlum Empire (1952) as Nick Mansani, Hot Blood (1956) as Marco Torino, The Last Angry Man (1959) as Dr Max Vogel, The Three Sisters (1966) as Chebutykin, Cast A Giant Shadow (1966) as Jacob Zion, The Brotherhood (1969) as Dominick Bertolo, Crazy Joe (1974) as Falco, Murph The Surf (1975) as Max ‘The Eye’, The Man In The Glass Booth (1975) as the presiding judge, Voyage Of The Damned (1976) as Professor Weiler, Mean Johnny Barrows (1976) and Absence Of Malice (1981) as Uncle Santos Malderone. Adler also appeared on television, usually in crime series such as Hawaii Five-O, The Untouchables and Naked City. Twice married, his wives were Sylvia Sidney (in London on August 10, 1938 as her second husband; their son, Jacob known as Jody, was born in New York City on October 22, 1939. She filed for divorce in Los Angeles on January 11, 1946 citing mental cruelty) and Julia Roche.

  CAUSE: He died, aged 81, in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, of natural causes.

  Stella Adler

  Born February 10, 1901

  Died December 21, 1992

  Stage sister. Born in New York, one of six children of the actor Jacob P. Adler. [For full family details see under Jay Adler.] Stella made her acting début in 1906 in Broken Hearts at her father’s theatre, The Grand, in New York and appeared regularly in his company for many years after. She once said, “I don’t know what’s the matter with young actresses these days – they’re only interested in Chekhov. When I was starting out actresses were only interested in diamonds.” She gave her first performance on the London stage in 1919 at the Pavilion Theatre, Mile End, playing Naomi in Elisha Ben Avia. She studied under her father, Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslavsky at the American Laboratory Theater and under Konstantin Stanislavsky in Europe. She became an acting teacher in 1940 at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research and opened the
Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in New York in 1949. Her students included Alvin Ailey, Warren Beatty, Marlon Brando, James Coburn, Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Benicio Del Toro, Teri Garr, Harvey Keitel, Cloris Leachman, Karl Malden, Bette Midler, Matthew Modine, Sydney Pollack, Anthony Quinn, John Ritter, Jerome Robbins, Diana Ross, Martin Sheen, Elaine Stritch, Henry Winkler and Shelley Winters. Her film appearances were sparse although she desperately wanted to become a movie star. She made her début (under the name Stella Ardler to avoid anti-Semitism) in the romantic screwball comedy Love On Toast (1937), directed by E. A. Dupont, playing Linda Craven. (Apparently, studio heads suggested in all seriousness that she change her name to Beverly Wilshire.) She was also in W.S. Van Dyke II’s Shadow Of The Thin Man (1941) as Claire Porter and Elliott Nugent’s My Girl Tisa (1948) as Mrs Faludi. In 1943 she became associate producer at Metro Studios. In February 1951 she celebrated her 50th birthday with a party attended by many notables and her mother. Mrs Adler was asked her age and replied that she was 62. The guest was puzzled and pointed out that Stella was 50. “That’s her problem,” retorted her mother. Stella Adler was married three times. Her first husband was Horace Eleascheff by whom she had one daughter, Ellen. In 1943 she married Harold Clurman but that ended in divorce. He was constantly unfaithful to her and at a party she stood on a table and asked all her lovers to form a circle around her. “You see, Harold,” she told her husband, “you have your girls but I have my men.” Her third husband was Mitchell Wilson, the novelist and scientist, and they were together until his death from a heart attack on February 26, 1973.

  CAUSE: When she was in her early eighties, Stella Adler fell and broke her hip. The doctors who fitted the replacement did a poor job and she struggled to walk for the rest of her life. She died, aged 91, of heart failure in Los Angeles, California.

  Renée Adorée

  (JEANNE DE LA FONTE)

  Born September 30, 1898

  Died October 5, 1933

  La petite fille. Born in a circus tent in Lille, France, the 5́ 1˝ daughter of an English clown and a French horse rider, she followed in her mother’s saddle steps and aged ten became a bareback rider in the ring. After a stint as a dancer at the Folies Bergères the blue-eyed brunette moved to Hollywood to become a film star. She appeared in over 40 films but faded from the public eye through ill-health and the arrival of the talkies. Her movies included Made In Heaven as Miss Lowry starring opposite Tom Moore (whom she married on February 12, 1921), West Of Chicago as Della Moore, Monte Cristo (1922) as Eugénie Danglars, Women Who Give (1924) as Becky Keeler, Defying The Law (1924) as Lucia Brescia, Exchange Of Wives (1925) as Elise Moran, Exquisite Sinner (1926), Mr Wu (1927) as Nang Ping with Lon Chaney, His Glorious Night (1929) and Call Of The Flesh (1930) as Lola. It was her performance as Mélisande with John Gilbert in The Big Parade (1925) that brought her the stardom she craved. The film told the tale of a young couple in love; he is sent off to war and she fears for his safety. Luck is on their side and he returns home to continue their passion. Adorée’s sexiest role was as Suzette in Man And Maid (1925), a film written by Elinor Glyn (who labelled Clara Bow “The It Girl”.) Following her divorce from Moore in October 1924 she was engaged twice. She married agent William Sherman Gill in Los Angeles on June 28, 1927 but that marriage was also destined to end in the divorce courts – on February 2, 1929, after Gill testified his wife had a ferocious temper.

  CAUSE: In 1930 Adorée discovered she had tuberculosis and moved to Arizona in a bid to overcome it. However, she missed her life in Tinseltown and returned in early 1933. She died in Tujunga, California, a week after her 35th birthday. She is buried in crypt 19, Abbey of the Psalms Foyer in Hollywood Memorial Park, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles 90038.

  Iris Adrian

  (IRIS ADRIAN HOFSTADTER) Born May 29, 1912

  Died September 17, 1994

  Blonde wisecracker. Born in Los Angeles, California, her father’s death from the flu epidemic of 1918 meant that Iris Adrian had to leave school at the end of the eighth grade. She won a competition for having a perfect back in 1929 and landed a job as a chorus girl in a revue at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood. After a couple of shows she was spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, who cast her in Ziegfeld Follies Of 1931. That led to work in a restaurant theatre in New York where she honed her comedic skills. She made about 100 films, including Paramount On Parade (1930), Gay Deception (1935), Gold Diggers Of 1937 (1936) as Verna, Go West (1940), Road To Zanzibar (1941), Million Dollar Kid (1944) as Marcie Cortland, Shake Hands With Murder (1944) as Patsy Brent, Boston Blackie’s Rendezvous (1945) as Martha, The Paleface (1948) as Pepper, Mighty Joe Young (1949), G.I. Jane (1951) as Lieutenant Adrian and My Favorite Spy (1951) as Lola although out of her 120+ films, her best roles were probably in Roxie Hart (1942) in which she played the killer Two-Gun Gertie, and as the stripper in The Trouble With Women (1947). She appeared often on television in The Jack Benny Show and featured as Dottie in the short-lived The Ted Knight Show (1978). She married former American football player Fido Murphy but never had children. She didn’t consider her colleagues as suitable for romance. “I never went with actors. Basically, they’re bums who got lucky in the looks department. Very vain. It would be like dating another dame.”

  CAUSE: She died aged 82 as a result of an earthquake in Hollywood, California.

  Max Adrian

  (MAX BOR)

  Born November 1, 1903

  Died January 19, 1973

  Camp and fruity. Born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, Max Adrian was educated at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen. He was 22 when he made his stage début appearing in the chorus of Katja The Dancer at the Gaiety Theatre, Douglas, on the Isle of Man in August 1926. He made his London début in December 1927 at the Globe Theatre and made his first film seven years later in The Primrose Path. He was a touch too camp for stardom on the silver screen and spent much of his career in the theatre. Nevertheless, he appeared in many films including The Primrose Path (a remake of the 1925 film – as Julian Leigh) (1934), A Touch Of The Moon as Francis Leverton, a salesman in To Catch A Thief (1936), Nothing Like Publicity (1936) as Bob Wharncliffe, The Happy Family (1936) as Noel Hutt, When The Devil Was Well as David, Macushla (1937) as Kerry Muldoon, Why Pick On Me? as Jack Mills, Merely Mr Hawkins (1938) as Mr Fletcher, Kipps (1941) as Chester Coote, Penn Of Pennsylvania (1942) as Elton, The Young Mr Pitt (1942) as Sheridan, Talk About Jacqueline (1942) as Lionel, The Chronicle History Of King Henry The Fifth With His Battle At Agincourt in France (1944) as The Dauphin, Charles VII, Quel Bandito Sono Io (1949) as Catoni, Pool Of London (1951) as Charlie Vernon, an aide in The Pickwick Papers (1952), Uncle Vanya (1963) as Professor Serebryskov, Dr Terror’s House Of Horrors (1965) as Dr Blake, The Deadly Affair (1966) as adviser, The Terrornauts (1967) as Dr Henry Shore, The Devils (1971) as Ibert, The Boy Friend (1971) as Mr Max/Lord Hubert Brockhurst and The Music Lovers (1971) as Nicholas Rubinstein. A sufferer from asthma, Adrian collapsed on the first day of rehearsals for The Boy Friend and the insurance company insisted that director Ken Russell drop him. Russell refused but put Adrian in a wheelchair and had him sing “to playback… [so] if he pegs out halfway through, we’ll go on filming in long shot and no one will be any the wiser.” Adrian also appeared as Senator Ludicrus Sextus in the television sitcom Up Pompeii.

  CAUSE: He died in Wilford, aged 69, of natural causes.

  John Agar

  Born January 31, 1921

  Died April 7, 2002

  The first Mr Shirley Temple. 6́ 2˝ John George Agar, Jr was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father, a former star athlete and the head of the family meat-packing business, died in 1935 and John’s mother, Lillian, opened an exclusive boutique that soon gained a wealthy clientele. In 1942 Agar joined the air force where he served as a sergeant at the Fourth Air Force base in Ephrata. One day while visiting Ann Gallery, the daughter of his mother’s friend ZaSu Pitts, Agar briefly met her next door neighbour Shirley T
emple. After a hesitant start and a few double dates, they became secretly engaged. Agar proposed at traffic lights on Sunset Boulevard by an old age people’s home and a petrol station. Agar accompanied her to a party at the home of David O. Selznick where he fell into conversation with the producer who asked if the airforceman might be interested in an acting career. Once he was discharged Agar was put under contract by Selznick. Meanwhile, his relationship with Temple flourished and, fearful of an overseas posting, they married on September 19, 1945 in the Wilshire Methodist Church on Wilshire Boulevard. Their 10-day honeymoon was spent in Santa Barbara although on arrival at the hotel they discovered that the honeymoon suite had been given to another couple. The couple announced that they would live on his salary – $150 a week – and put hers into trust and they moved into a small home. In fact, it had been the doll’s house on Shirley Temple’s parents’ estate. He made his film début – opposite his wife – in Fort Apache (1948) as 2nd Lieutenant Michael Shannon O’Rourke. However, like many men with more successful wives Agar found it difficult to cope being labelled “Mr Shirley Temple” and he began drinking. He became an alcoholic and he and Shirley Temple divorced on December 6, 1949, becoming final on December 5, 1950. His career flourished but that did not stop his drinking. By 1951 he had served 60 days’ prison time for drink-related offences. On May 17 of that year a judge refused to marry Agar to Loretta Barnett Combs, the fashion model who was to be his second wife, until he had drunk enough black coffee to sober up. In 1953 he was arrested twice in the same day and was sentenced to four months in prison. His films up to that time included I Married A Communist (1949) as Don Lowry, Adventure In Baltimore (1949) as Tom Wade, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) as Lieutenant Flint Cohill, Sands Of Iwo Jima (1949) as Private First Class Peter Conway, Breakthrough (1950) as Lieutenant Joe Mallory, The Magic Carpet (1951) as Ramoth, Along The Great Divide (1951) as Billy Shear, Woman Of The North Country (1952) as David Powell, Man Of Conflict (1953) as Ray Compton and Shield For Murder as Detective Sergeant Mark Brewster. After that he began to make low-budget horror and sci-fi films with the occasional big picture in between. They included Tarantula (1955) as Dr Matt Hastings, Revenge Of The Creature as Professor Clete Ferguson, The Mole People (1956) as Dr Roger Bentley, Ride A Violent Mile (1957) as Jeff Dunning, Joe Butterfly (1957) as Sergeant Dick Mason, The Brain From Planet Arous (1957) as Steve March, Daughter Of Dr Jekyll (1957) as George Hastings, Jet Attack (1958) as Captain Tom Arnett, Attack Of The Puppet People (1958) as Bob Westley, Raymie (1960) as Ike, Hand Of Death (1962) as Alex Marsh, Journey To The Seventh Planet (1962) as Captain Don Graham, Law Of The Lawless (1964) as Pete Stone, Zontar The Thing From Venus (1966) as Dr Curt Taylor, Curse Of The Swamp Creature (1966) as Barry Rogers, Women Of The Prehistoric Planet (1966) as Dr Farrell, Johnny Reno (1966) as Ed Tomkins, Waco (1966) as George Gates, Chisum (1970) as Amos Patton, Big Jake (1971) as Bert Ryan, King Kong (1976) as a public official, Miracle Mile (1989) as Ivan Peters and The Pandora Directive (1996) as Thomas Malloy. Agar once said: “I never made a movie that pleased me, but living has given me more dimension than I had then. I simply wasn’t ready when it was handed to me. Yes, I’d really like another shot at it.” He adopted two sons, Martin David (b. 1957) and John George III (b. 1964), from his second marriage but had no contact with Linda Susan (b. Santa Monica Hospital, January 30, 1948), his daughter from his marriage to Shirley Temple. “I know that Shirley and I are now grandparents. That is because it was in the news. I was not invited to the wedding. We are not in touch.”