CAUSE: He died aged 78 at his home, Church Farm Oasts, Salehurst, Sussex of bronchitis and emphysema and a viral infection complicated by asthma. He left £257,093.
Heather Angel
Born February 9, 1909
Died December 13, 1986
Miss Nearly. 5́ 2˝ Heather Grace Angel was born in Oxford, the daughter of a chemistry professor, and began her career on the stage, making her début at the Old Vic in 1926. She travelled to the West Coast of America to try her hand in the talkies that were still in their infancy. She landed a bit part in Bulldog Drummond (1929) but stardom was to elude her and she would not make another film for two years. She returned to the silver screen in Night In Montmartre (1931) playing the lead female part Annette Lefevre. That same year she appeared in City Of Song (1931) as Carmela and then landed the role of Beryl in The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1932). Regular celluloid work may have escaped her in the Twenties but in the Thirties she was rarely off the screen although not in big budget films. She screen-tested for the role of Melanie in Gone With The Wind (1939) but lost out to Olivia de Havilland. In 1937 she landed the part of Phyllis Clavering in Bulldog Drummond Escapes and stayed with the series, appearing in Bulldog Drummond In Africa (1938), Bulldog Drummond’s Secret Police (1939), Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939), until the final film Bulldog Drummond’s Bride (1939). Her subsequent career was restricted to supporting roles. In her final work she played Harry S Truman’s mother-in-law in the mini-series Backstairs At The White House (1979). She was thrice married. Her first husband was the 6́ 4˝ actor Henry Wilcoxon (b. Dominica, West Indies, September 8, 1905, d. Los Angeles, California, March 6, 1984 from heart failure and cancer), then came another actor, 6́ Ralph Forbes (b. London, September 30, 1902 as Ralph Taylor, d. The Bronx, New York, March 31, 1951) from August 29, 1934 until their divorce in 1937 and finally the director Robert B. Sinclair (b. Toledo, Ohio, May 24, 1905) on April 15, 1944 until his murder by a prowler on January 4, 1970. Her films included: Self Made Lady (1932) as Sookey, Men Of Steel (1932) as Ann Ford, a girl in Frail Women (1932), Bill, The Conqueror as Rosemary Lannick, After Office Hours (1932) as Pat, Pilgrimage as Suzanne, Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case (1933) as Carlotte Eagan, Berkeley Square (1933) as Helen Pettigrew, Early To Bed (1933) as Grete, Orient Express (1934) as Coral Musker, Murder In Trinidad (1934) as Joan Cassell, Romance In The Rain as Cynthia Brown, Springtime For Henry (1934) as Miss Smith, Mystery Of Edwin Drood (1935) as Rosa Bud, It Happened In New York (1935) as Chris Edwards, The Informer (1935) as Mary McPhillip, The Headline Woman (1935) as Myrna Van Buren, The Three Musketeers (1935) as Constance, The Perfect Gentleman as Evelyn Alden, The Last Of The Mohicans (1936) as Cora Munro, Daniel Boone (1936) as Virginia Randolph, The Bold Caballero (1936) as Lady Isabella Palma, Western Gold (1937) as Jeannie Thatcher, Portia On Trial (1937) as Elizabeth Manners, The Duke Comes Back (1937) as Susan Corbin Foster, Army Girl (1938) as Mrs Bradley, Undercover Doctor (1939) as Cynthia Weld, Half A Sinner (1940) as Anne Gladden, Pride And Prejudice (1940) as Kitty Bennet, Kitty Foyle: The Natural History Of A Woman (1940), Shadows On The Stairs (1941) as Sylvia Armitage, a street girl in That Hamilton Woman (1941), Singapore Woman (1941) as Frieda, Suspicion as Ethel, The Undying Monster as Helga Hammond, Time To Kill as Myrle Davis, Cry “Havoc” (1943) as Andra West, Lifeboat (1944) in the memorable role of Mrs Higgins, the woman with the dead baby, In The Meantime, Darling (1944) as Mrs Nelson, The Saxon Charm (1948) as Vivian Saxon, the voice of Alice’s sister in Alice In Wonderland (1951), the voice of Mrs Darling in Peter Pan (1953) and The Premature Burial (1962) as Kate Carrell.
CAUSE: She died of cancer in Santa Monica, California, aged 77.
Pier Angeli
(ANNA MARIA PIERANGELI)
Born June 19, 1932
Died September 10, 1971
Fragile but unstable beauty. Born 20 minutes before her twin sister, Marisa Pavan, in Cagliaru, Sardinia, the family moved to Rome where, aged 15, she was raped by an American G.I. Discovered by film director Leonide Moguy, the green-eyed Pier appeared in a number of Italian films – including Domani E Troppo Tardi/Tomorrow Is Too Late (1949) as Mirella and Domani E Un Altro Giorno (1950) – before flying to Hollywood to appear in the lead role of Fred Zinnemann’s Teresa (1951). It was said that Angeli was so shy she passed out during her first screen kiss. The film’s success assured her stay and she went on to star opposite Paul Newman in The Silver Chalice (1954) as Deborra. While making that movie she met, and some say fell in love with, James Dean, who was making East Of Eden (1955). It was not her first Hollywood romance. She had loved many others including Kirk Douglas, John Drew Barrymore and Eddie Fisher. Even today opinions are divided on whether Dean and Pier ever actually had sex. “He always had uncertain relations with girlfriends,” said Elia Kazan. Her mother violently disapproved of Dean because of his bad behaviour and this caused numerous arguments between the couple. The devoutly Catholic Enrica Pierangeli got her way and, on October 4, 1954, 5́ 2˝ Pier announced her engagement to singer Vic Damone. The wedding, at St Timothy’s Church at Beverly Glen and Pico on November 24, 1954, was attended by Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller and Dean Martin. For many years a rumour has circulated that Dean watched the event from across the street, sitting on his motorbike. It has never been established exactly why Angeli split from Dean. They were seeing each other a fortnight before the wedding, although it seems he saw her as a casual fling while she believed the romance to be something altogether more serious. They were never to meet again. At the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital on August 21, 1955, Angeli gave birth to Perry Rocco Luigi Damone, named for singer Perry Como. Two months later, Dean was killed in a car crash. Angeli herself had several physical mishaps during this period. On February 25, 1955, she broke her pelvis during a turbulent plane flight; two years later, she received $45,000 in compensation. In January 1956 she broke her ankle after falling down the steps of her Bel Air home. Eleven months later, she suffered a miscarriage. In August 1957 Angeli and Damone separated and in November 1958 she filed for divorce, claiming Damone was jealous, cruel and had beaten her. The divorce was granted on December 18, 1958. Over the course of the next seven years both made claims and counterclaims and fought for custody of their son. In 1965 Angeli was granted custody. Among her films in this period were Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) as Norma, Port Afrique (1956) as Ynez, S.O.S. Pacific (1960) as Teresa, The Last Days Of Sodom And Gomorrah (1963) as Ildith and Battle Of The Bulge (1965) as Louise. In London on St Valentine’s Day 1962 she had married bandleader Armando Trotajoli and gave birth to his son, Howard Andrea, on January 8, 1963. They divorced in 1966, with Angeli later claiming that Dean was the only man she had ever truly loved. Her career took a turn for the worse and she appeared in a number of films she previously wouldn’t have touched with a barge pole. Her last films were sexploitation flicks including the X-rated Addio, Alexandra (1968), Nelle Pieghe Della Carne/In The Folds Of The Flesh, (1969) as Falesse/Ester in which she bared her breasts and Octaman (1971) before she returned to Hollywood broke and hoping for a chance to appear in The Godfather. It was not to be.
CAUSE: She died of a massive self-inflicted overdose of phenobarbital at the home she shared with her drama coach, 355 South McCarty Drive, Beverly Hills, aged 39. She once told a friend: “I’m so afraid to get old – for me, being 40 is the beginning of old age … Love is now behind me, love died in a Porsche.”
Tony Anholt
Born January 19, 1941
Died July 26, 2002
Off-screen Lothario. Born in Singapore of Anglo-Dutch heritage, 5˝10˝ Tony Anholt had a peripatetic childhood, moving to Australia and South Africa before settling in Britain. His father, a prisoner on the Burmese railway, died in 1944 and Tony’s mother remarried in 1949. Leaving school at 18, he became variously a tea taster, a Latin and English teacher at a Surrey prep school, a travel courier and an insurance salesman. Around this time he met his first wife, Sheila. The couple married in 1964 and moved to Spain where they taught before mov
ing to Paris where they followed a similar profession. Although comfortable in his job, Anholt longed to act and he landed a job at the Leas Pavilion in Folkestone where he appeared in 26 plays in 27 weeks. In 1969 he made his West End début playing Larry in Boys In The Band at the Wyndham Theatre. He was a regular on television appearing in Space 1999 as Tony Verdeschi and causing waves off-screen as Charles Frere in Howard’s Way. Anholt had a reputation as something of a Lothario and in 1986 he left his wife for his beautiful co-star Tracey Joanne Childs (b. Chiswick, west London, May 30, 1963). They married on July 1, 1990 but divorced in 1998.
CAUSE: Anholt died aged 61 in London of a brain tumour. He was survived by his actor son Christien (b. 1971).
Annabella
(SUZANNE GEORGETTE CHARPENTIER)
Born July 14, 1904
Died September 18, 1996
The one who ‘stole’ Ty. Born in Paris she moved with her family to La Varenne-Saint-Hilaire when she was four. The blonde daughter of a magazine editor and publisher, she came to fame marrying heartthrob Tyrone Power. Taking her stage name from an Edgar Allan Poe poem Annabelle Lee, she appeared in a number of French films including Napoléon (1926) as Violine and La Bacarolle D’Amour (1928) before being discovered by director René Clair who put her in movies such as Le Million (1931) and Un Soir De Raffle (1931). She went to Hollywood and appeared in French versions of American films. (The accepted standard at the time was to make the same movie on the same set and with the same script but in a different language and with a different cast.) Learning English, she moved to London and appeared in a number of films including Wings Of The Morning (1937), the first British film in Technicolor, again coming to the attention of Hollywood. She also appeared on Broadway but following her interlocutory divorce from Power in 1948 made one French film (Dernier Amour [1949]) and one Spanish (Don Juan [1950]) and retired. Prior to Power she had married (and was widowed by) French writer Albert Sorré by whom, in 1930, she had a daughter, Anne. The latter was adopted by Tyrone Power and took his name. She married (1954) and divorced (1968) actor Oskar Werner and taught deaf children in North Hampton, Long Island, New York. On October 4, 1934, Annabella married French actor Jean Murat (1888–1968). She and Power fell in love in 1938 while making Suez (1938) (she played Toni and was third billed after his Ferdinand de Lesseps) and were married on St George’s Day 1939 at her home on St Pierre Road, Bel Air. Actor Don Ameche was best man and Pat Peterson (Mrs Charles Boyer) was maid of honour. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck had done everything in his power to prevent the match, believing it would harm his star’s box-office draw if he was married. As it turned out, it was Annabella’s career that was wrecked. She and Power remained on excellent terms following their January 24, 1949, divorce.
CAUSE: She died aged 92 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of a heart attack.
Colleen Applegate
Born May 24, 1963
Died March 23, 1984
Suicide blonde. Born in Farmington, Minnesota, Colleen Applegate was a gorgeous girl who made her living appearing in pornographic movies. She lost her virginity aged 16 and left her home town with boyfriend Mike Marcel, having tried to kill herself with pills while still in high school. She made her first porn film, Maximum #4, in 1983. However, unlike others in the industry she never really enjoyed performing on screen. While working in porn she underwent an abortion, contracted herpes and moved in with drug dealer Jake Erlich. Among her films (many made under the name Shauna Grant) were All American Bad Girls #2: In Heat (1983), Candy’s Bedtime Story (1983), Centerfold Celebrities #2 (1983), Centerfold Celebrities #3 (1983), Feels Like Silk (1983), Swedish Erotica Superstar #4: Shauna Grant (1983) and several posthumously released compilation tapes.
CAUSE: She died by her own hand aged 20. On March 22, 1984, she shot herself in the right temple with a. 22 calibre rifle and lay on a life support system for 24 hours before doctors decided she was brain dead.
Andrew Arbuckle
Born September 5, 1884
Died September 21, 1938
Fatty’s cousin. Little is known of Andrew Arbuckle, apart from him sharing a surname and a weight problem with his cousin, Fatty. Some sources list his date of birth as 1887 (the same as Fatty) while at least one gives his year of death as 1931 and another as 1939. This particular Arbuckle, who weighed almost 24 stone, was born in Galveston, Texas, and began his career in vaudeville. He was discovered by the producer William H. Ince and became one of the silent screen’s most prominent character actors. With the advent of sound he retired, but returned to the screen in the Thirties to play bit parts. His brother was the actor Macklyn Arbuckle (b. San Antonio, Texas, July 9, 1866, d. Waddington, New York, April 1, 1931 from a brain haemorrhage). In October 1915, he married Blanche Duquesne. His films included: Graft (1915), The Red Circle (1915), Little Mary Sunshine (1916) as Bob’s Father, The Matrimonial Martyr as Professor Stanley, A Lucky Leap (1916), Big Tremaine (1916) as Samuel Leavitt, Happiness (1917) as Nicodemus, Should She Obey? (1917) as Uncle John, Peggy Leads The Way as H.E. Manners, Naughty, Naughty! (1918) as Adam Miller, His Own Home Town (1918) as Reverend John Duncan, a clergyman in Denny From Ireland (1918), A Romance Of Happy Valley (1919), The Spider And The Rose (1923), The Love Hunger (1919) as Bob Clinton, The Hoodlum as Pat O’Shaughnessy, A White Man’s Chance (1919) as Valentino, Darling Mine (1920), Unseen Forces as Mr Leslie, Mother O’ Mine as Henry Godfrey, The Light In The Clearing (1921) as Horace Dunkelberg, The Deuce Of Spades as Fat Ed, Caught Bluffing (1922) as Ham Thomas, Saved By Radio (1922) as Pat, Name The Man (1924) as Vondy, The Dangerous Coward (1924) as David McGuinn, The Fighting Boob (1926) as Old Man Hawksby and The Dark Angel (1935) as Mr Gallop.
CAUSE: Arbuckle died just over a fortnight after his 54th birthday in Los Angeles, California.
Roscoe Conkling ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle
Born March 24, 1887
Died June 29, 1933
Wronged heavyweight. Today the name of Fatty Arbuckle is known only as the participant in one of Hollywood’s earliest scandals. Yet, though Fatty was cleared of any malfeasance, still the smear hangs over him. It should all have been so different. Arbuckle was born, three days prematurely, in Smith Center, Kansas, weighing a hefty 14 pounds. Despite his father being an ardent Democrat, the new-born child was named for a right-wing Republican. When Roscoe was two, the family emigrated to Santa Ana, California. The boy was regularly beaten by his father, often for no apparent reason. (Some believe it was because he suspected Roscoe was not sired by him, but this is extremely unlikely given the devout Baptist background of his wife.) Still a teenager, Roscoe began to earn a good living as a singer in San Francisco. By this time he weighed over 15st, but it was mainly muscle. Following the earthquake of April 18, 1906, he travelled to Portland, Oregon, where he joined a vaudeville troupe led by Leon Errol earning $25 a week, half what he had been on in Frisco. In 1909 he started at the Selig Polyscope Company, where he worked under the direction of Francis Boggs, regarded by many as potentially as great a director as D.W. Griffith. (Boggs would be murdered by a deranged Japanese gardener in November 1911.) In April 1913 he signed for Mack Sennett’s studio, Keystone (originally as a Keystone Kop, earning $3 a day) and became known as ‘Fatty’, a nickname he despised, reminding reporters, “I have a name, you know.” On July 17, 1913, A Noise From The Deep was released, in which Mabel Normand delivered the first recorded custard pie-in-the-face gag to Arbuckle. Despite his bulk, Roscoe was surprisingly agile and was the only Kop never to hurt himself during stunt work. He was also ambidextrous, able to throw two pies at once and in different directions. In his first 12 months with Sennett, Arbuckle made anywhere between 50 and 100 films (the exact figure can never be known because many of them are no longer extant) and was the studio’s biggest money earner. On August 1, 1916, the 19-stone star, who was the first American actor to endorse cigarettes, was persuaded to join a Paramount subsidiary called the Comique Film Corporation. He was given complete artistic control of his work and was paid $1,000 a day;
he was also given a Rolls-Royce as a signing present. Remarkably, no formal contract was ever signed. (Less than a year after Arbuckle’s departure Keystone Studios crumbled.) Arbuckle and mogul Joseph M. Schenck had a meal and simply shook hands on the deal. He quickly became one of America’s most popular stars in films such as For The Love Of Mabel (1913), Fatty’s Day Off (1913), Fatty’s Flirtation (1913), Mabel And Fatty’s Married Life (1913) and His Wedding Night (1917). He became very conscious of his family appeal and toned down or cut gags that he felt were too risqué. On August 6, 1908, he had married an actress called Minta Durfee (b. Los Angeles, California, 1890, d. Motion Picture Country House and Hospital, Woodland Hills, California, September 9, 1975) at the Byde-A-While Hotel in Long Beach, California, but Arbuckle was quite puritanical and it was a week before the marriage was consummated. He also insisted on turning the lights out before sex. To keep up with the demand for his films, Fatty often filmed three pictures simultaneously. On Labor Day 1916 Arbuckle underwent a painful operation to drain a carbuncle on his leg. To ease the pain he was given heroin. As a result he lost over 6st in weight and leant heavily on two walking sticks, which were always hidden from public view. In early 1917 he went on a month-long trip to publicise his new contract. Despite the widely repeated story in Kenneth Anger’s scabrous Hollywood Babylon, Fatty didn’t take part in an orgy at Mishawum Manor in Woburn, Massachusetts at the end of the tour on March 7, 1917. However, others, including Paramount Presidents Adolph Zukor, Hiram Abrams and Walter Greene and Vice President Jesse Lasky, did enjoy the pleasures of champagne, chicken legs and 15 whores. Arbuckle was even unable to make love to his wife because of the pain in his leg. That year also saw the first splintering of Arbuckle’s marriage. He moved into his club and lived separately from his wife, although they occasionally met and had sex. Arbuckle didn’t have a sex life outside his marriages. He was refused permission to join the army after America’s declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917, because he was too fat. In 1919 Zukor negotiated to buy the rights to Arbuckle’s next 22 films, unheard of for a comedian. The new contract raised his earnings to $3,000 a day! Arbuckle bought a new house at 649 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, for $250,000. Its previous occupants included Theda Bara and Alla Nazimova. (The cellar of the house was stocked with alcohol, making it a very popular venue after January 16, 1920, and the passing of the 18th Amendment.) A second house was purchased at 1621 East Ocean Avenue, close to Long Beach. The contract wasn’t officially signed until January 1921. To celebrate the new contract and the Labor Day (September 5) Holiday that year, Arbuckle held a party at San Francisco’s swanky St Francis Hotel, booking rooms 1219–1221. At the time he had six full-length films playing in the cinemas of New York and Los Angeles, plus 27 two-reelers. This was at the height of Prohibition, when America in its wisdom banned alcohol. No such restriction existed in Arbuckle’s rooms, where bootleg gin and whisky flowed, well, like water. One visitor was the illegitimate, clap-infested, 26-year-old starlet Virginia Rappé (née Rapp). Rappé had undergone five abortions between the ages of 14 and 16. At 17 she became pregnant by John Sample, a 40-year-old sculptor, and had the baby (a daughter born in 1910) fostered. She later became an artist’s nude model. It was also claimed that she was a prostitute, hooked into ‘white slavery’ that involved several studios. According to Arbuckle’s wife, “She was sweet enough, naïve. But had no morals whatsoever. She’d sleep with any man who asked her. In fact, Mack Sennett had to shut the studio down twice because of her … because she was spreading lice and some sort of venereal disease. She was a sad case.” In 1918 Rappé was named “Best Dressed Girl In Pictures” but by the time of the party she had not worked for two years and was living on, and with, director Henry Pathé Lehrman, a man to whom she referred optimistically as her fiancé. She was also pregnant at the time and begged Arbuckle for money ($2,000) for an (illegal) abortion. He had been sympathetic to her plight, but suggested she talk to her boyfriend, a recommendation Rappé greeted with horror, leading the comedian to believe that Lehrman was not the baby’s father. At the party she went into the bathroom in the suite Arbuckle had hired (1219). Determined to change into his street clothes, the pyjama-clad corpulent comic went to his room and found her vomiting. After giving her two glasses of water, he carried her to the single bed and went to clean up the mess. (Arbuckle was something of a cleanliness freak, regularly taking three baths a day.) Returning from the bathroom, he discovered Rappé had fallen off the bed onto the floor where she lay groaning. He put her back on the bed, where she vomited over herself. Fatty went to find Rappé’s friend Bambina Maude Delmont. With showgirl Zey Prevon, they went to comfort Rappé who was sitting on the bed, fully clothed. A few minutes later she screamed, “I’m hurt! I’m dying. I know I’m dying” and began tearing at her clothes. Arbuckle’s director friend, Fred Fischbach, at the suggestion of Prevon turned the now naked Rappé upside down then placed her in a bath of ice cold water. Next she was given bicarbonate of soda, which she promptly threw up, and then ice was applied to her body by the drunken guests. At Roscoe’s insistence the hotel manager was summoned. Roscoe wrapped Rappé in a dressing gown and carried her to room 1227. Then the party continued. A doctor examined Rappé and found her to be uninjured, only drunk, a diagnosis confirmed by Delmont, who wanted to be left in peace. The hotel detective, George Glennon, looked in on the two women and concurred there was nothing serious amiss. However, Bambina Maude Delmont was a woman with an eye for the easy chance and a fast buck; she was also a bigamist, a professional co-respondent and had a long police record. When her friend was examined by the house doctor, Virginia Rappé was in pain and Delmont told the doctor she had been attacked by Arbuckle, something that Rappé denied. The doctor left and Delmont went back to the party, where she stripped naked. Arbuckle called George Glennon, asking for Delmont to be removed. The next day Delmont finally showed some concern for her friend and summoned another doctor. Furious at her ejection from the party, and what she saw as her rejection from Arbuckle’s life, she began telling anyone who would listen that Arbuckle had attacked Rappé. She then contacted two lawyers, sending them identical telegrams: “We have Roscoe Arbuckle in a hole here. Chance to make some money out of him.” She went to the authorities and accused Arbuckle of abusing and raping Rappé, who died in Wakefield Sanatorium, 114 Walnut Street, San Francisco on September 9, 1921, at 1.30pm and was buried in Hollywood Memorial Cemetery. (Delmont would not be called as a witness because her statements were so contradictory, mainly because she was lying through her teeth.) A scapegoat had to be found both for Virginia Rappé’s death and for the ‘moral guardians’ of society to bring the film industry to heel, and poor Fatty was it. Two days later, he was arrested for the murder of Rappé. His films were blacklisted by the Hays Office and women’s groups called for his head. On September 28 he was released from jail on $5,000 bail. The local D.A. put Arbuckle in the dock three times, although the charges were reduced to rape and manslaughter. His first trial began before Judge Harold Louderback on November 14, 1921, and ended, after 44 hours’ deliberation, on December 4, with a hung jury (10–2 for acquittal). On February 3, 1922, a second jury also hung, but this time 9–3 for conviction. On April 12 Arbuckle’s third trial, which began on March 13, ended in his acquittal after just five minutes in the jury room. That five minutes had been spent composing a statement. The foreman of the jury read it to the court: “Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel a great injustice has been done to him. We feel also that it was only our plain duty to give him this exoneration, under the evidence, for there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime. He was manly throughout the case, and told a straightforward story on the witness stand, which we all believed. The happening at the hotel was an unfortunate affair for which Arbuckle, so the evidence shows, was in no way responsible. We wish him success, and hope the American people will take the judgment of 14 men and women who have sat listening for 31 da
ys to evidence, that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame.” Rappé had been suffering from bladder infections and a ‘running abscess’ that ultimately caused her death. However, it was too late to save Arbuckle’s career. The cost of defending himself was put at $750,000. Six days after the end of the case, censor-in-chief Will Hays temporarily banned Arbuckle from making films. His studio withdrew his pictures. The ban was to last until December 20. Pathetically, Arbuckle pleaded, “Just let me work … I think I can entertain and gladden the people that see me. All I want is that. If I do get back it will be grand. If I don’t, well okay.” In January 1923 he began work again, on a film called Handy Andy. However, he soon moved behind the cameras to direct under the pseudonym William Goodrich (his father’s two Christian names). For the next nine years, he directed films, ran a nightclub and appeared on stage to pay off his debts. His wife divorced him on January 27, 1925. He married actress Doris Deane (b. Butte, Montana 1899 as Doris Dibble, d. Los Angeles, March 1974) four months later on May 16. Divorced again in August 1928, he married, for the third time, on June 21, 1932, in Erie, Pennsylvania. The bride this time was actress Addie Oakley Dukes McPhail. In 1932 he appeared in a ‘talkie’ and signed a contract for six more only to die after a celebratory meal with just one in the can.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 12
