Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: Her husband found her collapsed in the bathroom of their London home, calling for help after suffering a heart attack. She died in hospital an hour later. She was 69.

  Albert Austin

  Born December 13, 1881

  Died August 17, 1953

  Brummy comic. Born in Birmingham the lean and lugubrious Austin travelled to America on Fred Karno’s 1912–1913 tour and stayed. He spent two years in rep in Denver before signing a contract with Charlie Chaplin’s company at Mutual in 1916, where he was the only player to appear alongside Chaplin in all 12 Mutual comedies. He worked alongside him as friend, advisor and assistant director until 1931. He is not mentioned in Chaplin’s autobiography despite their long friendship. He spent the last 11 years of his life as a security guard for Warner Bros. His brother William is noted below.

  CAUSE: He died aged 71 in North Hollywood.

  Gene Austin

  (EUGENE LUCAS)

  Born June 24, 1900

  Died January 24, 1972

  Singing cowboy. Born in Gainesville, Texas, singer-songwriter Austin was educated at Baltimore University, Maryland and served his country on a Mexican Punitive Mission in 1916 during the First World War. He appeared in vaudeville from 1923 and in 1925 joined ASCAP. He wrote songs alone and with others and was the first performer to get a certified million seller for his record ‘My Blue Heaven’, recorded in December 1927. In 1928 he achieved another million seller with ‘Ramona’. Austin made his film début in Sadie McKee (1934), an early Joan Crawford vehicle. He also appeared in Gift Of The Gab (1934), Belle Of The Nineties (1934), Klondike Annie (1936), Songs And Saddles (1938), My Little Chickadee (1940) and Moon Over Las Vegas (1944). His daughter is the former actress Charlotte Austin (b. Charlotte, North Carolina, November 2, 1933).

  CAUSE: Austin died aged 72 of cancer in Palm Springs, California.

  William Austin

  Born June 12, 1884

  Died June 15, 1975

  Silly ass. Born in Georgetown, British Guyana where his father owned a sugar plantation, 6́ 1˝ William Crosby Piercy Austin was said to be the younger brother of Albert (see above). He travelled widely on business but when he came to America he became an actor and worked in various stock companies for three years. He signed a five-year contract with Paramount and appeared in Clara Bow’s It (1927) and with the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (1933). He was most often to be seen playing monocled silly asses on screen.

  CAUSE: He died three days after his 91st birthday in Newport Beach, California.

  Gene Autry

  Born September 29, 1907

  Died October 2, 1998

  ‘Oklahoma’s Yodelin’ Cowboy’ was actually born near Tioga Springs, Texas, as Orvon Gene Autry although he grew up on a ranch in Ravia, Oklahoma. On leaving school Autry began working as a cowboy and then a telegrapher for the Frisco Railroad in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Aged 21 he began appearing on the radio station KCVOO-Tulsa, from 1929 until 1930 when he started making records for the American Record Corporation (ARC) and Victor. That led to the National Barn Dance show on WLS-Chicago where he met Smiley Burnette, who was to become his movie partner. Seeing his potential ARC, who also owned Republic Pictures (then called Mascot Pictures), put him in films. Autry performed two songs in the Ken Maynard Western In Old Santa Fé (1934) before moving in front of the cameras in his own right for the 13-episode serial The Phantom Empire (1934). In 1935 he starred in Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds, which cost $18,000 to make and took $1 million at the box office. In 1938 he staged a walkout over pay, returning to Republic Films on December 4 after they agreed to pay him $10,000 per film. Always a popular box-office draw, Autry appeared in over 100 films, achieving first place as Most Popular Western Star between 1937 and 1942. He always played a chaste character and if he had to kiss the girl it was always done in the last reel – even then the camera would focus on his horse. He was also a non-smoking teetotaller on screen and refused to hit anyone shorter or weaker than himself. On July 26, 1942, he was sworn in as a member of the US Army Air Corps and gained not a little personal publicity by doing it live on his radio show, Melody Ranch. He served for three years. Back on screen he continued to make films for Republic until June 26, 1947, when he finally left the company to move to Columbia. Perhaps realising that television was where it was at, in April 1947 Autry had become the first major movie star to announce he was to appear in a TV series. His final film was Last Of The Pony Riders (1953). He wrote over 200 songs and sold over 30 million records, including million sellers That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine (1939, over 5 million copies sold), South Of The Border (1939), Here Comes Santa Claus (1947), Peter Cottontail (1949), Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1949, over 12 million copies sold) and Frosty The Snowman (1950). In 1950 he became the first cowboy to be named as one of the Ten Best Dressed Men in America. It was Autry who started the fad for C&W singers to wear Western apparel and in 1969 he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. He is equally famous for the horse he rode, Champion the chestnut stallion. The horse was bought for $1,000 because it looked exactly the same as the first horse Autry ever rode on screen. That horse was called Tony Jr (real name Lindy) and appeared alongside Tom Mix. Autry was one of the richest stars in Hollywood, worth well over $200 million. He owned several record companies, two television stations, a TV and film production company (they made the series Champion The Wonder Horse), the Los Angeles (later California) Angels baseball club and had interests in real estate and oil. In 1980 he was named as the eighth richest man in California by the Los Angeles Times. “We made over 100 Westerns together. At the end of each picture Gene would ride off into the sunset,” quipped his TV sidekick Pat Buttram, “now he owns it.” Autry married twice. On April 1, 1932, he married Ina Mae Spivey. They had 48 happy years together until her death in Palm Springs, California on May 20, 1980. On July 19, 1981, Autry married bank vice-president Jacqueline Ellam, 35 years his junior, at the First United Methodist Church in Burbank, California.

  CAUSE: He died in Studio City, California, of cancer three days after his 91st birthday.

  Charles Avery

  (CHARLES AVERY BRADFORD)

  Born May 28, 1873

  Died July 23, 1926

  Charlie Chaplin’s dresser. Born in Chicago, Avery was one of the original seven Keystone Kops. He later became a director but Hollywood legend has him as one of the contributors to Charlie Chaplin’s tramp ensemble. Apparently, Chaplin took Fatty Arbuckle’s huge trousers and Avery’s tiny jacket but Chaplin claims to have originated the costume himself “on the way to wardrobe”.

  CAUSE: Avery committed suicide aged 53 in Los Angeles, California.

  Tex Avery

  Born February 26, 1908

  Died August 26, 1980

  Bugs Bunny’s dad. Born in Taylor, Texas, Frederick Bean Avery was a descendant of Daniel Boone and Judge Roy Bean, “the law west of the Pecos,” although his grandmother warned him against revealing the family connection: “Don’t ever mention you are kin to Roy Bean. He’s a no-good skunk.” Avery was educated at North Dallas High School, graduating in 1927 and after a summer course at the Chicago Art Institute and a failed attempt to launch a newspaper cartoon, he moved to California two years later landing a job working at a harbour. In 1929, he began work at the Walter Lantz Studios as an animator and in 1930, worked on Aesop’s Fables. In 1935 he joined Warner Bros. where he was employed on the Merry Melodies and Loony Tunes series. He was one of the creators of Bugs Bunny and also coined the phrase “What’s up, doc?” He often interrupted the action in his cartoons with a question – for example, a chase scene would stop and the words “Exciting, isn’t it?” would appear on screen. In 1942 he moved to MGM and the first cartoon he directed was The Blitz Wolf, a version of The Three Little Pigs in which Hitler is the Big Bad Wolf. He next created Droopy the dog. Interestingly for someone who relied on the visual, Avery was blind in his left eye and had no depth of vision. In 1954 Avery returned briefly to Lantz but began working on advertisements i
n 1955. Lantz said, “The thing about Avery is that he can write a cartoon, lay it out, time it, do the whole thing himself.” He also created Lucky Ducky and Chilly Willy the penguin. Although several of his films were nominated, Tex Avery never won an Oscar. His work included: Towne Hall Follies (1935), Quail Hunt (1935), Gold Diggers Of ’49 (1936), The Blow Out (1936), Plane Dippy (1936), I’d Love To Take Orders From You (1936), Page Miss Glory (1936), I Love To Singa (1936), Porky The Rain-Maker (1936), The Village Smithy (1936), Milk And Money (1936), Don’t Look Now (1936), Porky The Wrestler (1937), Picador Porky (1937), I Only Have Eyes For You (1937), Porky’s Duck Hunt (1937), Uncle Tom’s Bungalow (1937), Ain’t We Got Fun (1937), Porky’s Garden (1937), I Wanna Be A Sailor (1937), Egghead Rides Again (1937), A Sunbonnet Blue (1937), Little Red Walking Hood (1937), Daffy Duck And Egghead (1938), The Sneezing Weasel (1938), The Penguin Parade (1938), The Isle Of Pingo Pongo (1938), A Feud There Was (1938), Johnny Smith And Poker-Huntas (1938), Daffy Duck In Hollywood (1938), Cinderella Meets Fella (1938), The Mice Will Play (1938), Hamateur Night (1939), A Day At The Zoo (1939), Thugs With Dirty Mugs (1939), Believe It Or Else (1939), Dangerous Dan McFoo (1939), Detouring America (1939), Land Of The Midnight Fun (1939), Fresh Fish (1939), Screwball Football (1939), The Early Worm Gets The Bird (1940), Cross Country Detours (1940), The Bear’s Tale (1940), A Gander At Mother Goose (1940), Circus Today (1940), A Wild Hare (1940), Ceiling Hero (1940), Wacky Wildlife (1940), Of Fox And Hounds (1940), Holiday Highlights (1940), The Haunted Mouse (1941), The Crackpot Quail (1941), Tortoise Beats Hare (1941), Porky’s Preview (1941), Hollywood Steps Out (1941), The Heckling Hare (1941), Aviation Vacation (1941), Speaking Of Animals Down On The Farm (1941), All This And Rabbit Stew (1941), The Bug Parade (1941), Speaking Of Animals In The Zoo (1941), The Cagey Canary (1941), Aloha Hooey (1942), Crazy Cruise (1942), The Early Bird Dood It! (1942), Dumb-Hounded (1943), Red Hot Riding Hood (1943), Who Killed Who? (1943), One Ham’s Family (1943), What’s Buzzin’ Buzzard? (1943), Screwball Squirrel (1944), Batty Baseball (1944), Happy-Go-Nutty (1944), Big Heel-Watha (1944), The Screwy Truant (1945), Jerky Turkey (1945), The Shooting Of Dan McGoo (1945), Swing Shift Cinderella (1945), Wild And Woolfy (1945), Lonesome Lenny (1946), The Hick Chick (1946), Northwest Hounded Police (1946), Henpecked Hoboes (1946), Hound Hunters (1947), Red Hot Rangers (1947), Uncle Tom’s Cabaña (1947), Slap Happy Lion (1947), King-Size Canary (1947), What Price Fleadom (1948), Little ’Tinker (1948), Half-Pint Pygmy (1948), The Cat That Hated People (1948), Bad Luck Blackie (1949), Señor Droopy (1949), The House Of Tomorrow (1949), Doggone Tired (1949), Wags To Riches (1949), Little Rural Riding Hood (1949), Out-Foxed (1949), The Counterfeit Cat (1949), Ventriloquist Cat (1950), The Cuckoo Clock (1950), Garden Gopher (1950), The Chump Champ (1950), The Peachy Cobbler (1950), Cock-A-Doodle Dog (1951), Daredevil Droopy (1951), Droopy’s Good Deed (1951), Symphony In Slang (1951), Car Of Tomorrow (1951), Droopy’s Double Trouble (1951), Magical Maestro (1952), One Cab’s Family (1952), Rock-A-Bye Bear (1952), Little Johnny Jet (1952), T.V. Of Tomorrow (1953), The Three Little Pups (1953), Drag-A-Long Droopy (1954), Billy Boy (1954), Homesteader Droopy (1954), Farm Of Tomorrow (1954), The Flea Circus (1954), Dixieland Droopy (1954), I’m Cold (1954), Crazy Mixed Up Pup (1954), The Legend Of Rockabye Point (1955), Field And Scream (1955), Sh-h-h-h-h-h (1955), The First Bad Man (1955), Deputy Droopy (1955), Cellbound (1955), Millionaire Droopy (1956) and Cat’s Meow (1957).

  CAUSE: He died of lung cancer in Burbank, California, aged 72.

  George Axelrod

  Born June 9, 1922

  Died June 21, 2003

  Hollywood’s highest-paid scriptwriter. George Axelrod was born in 1922 – “a great year for writers and drunks” he was to say – and grew up in New York. He spent his teenage years reading voraciously “to make up for my lack of formal education” and hanging around outside theatres. During the Second World War he served with the US Army Signal Corps and once demobbed he began to write for television and radio, notably Midnight In Manhattan and the Grand Ole Opry on the wireless and Celebrity Time for television. In 1947 he turned his hand to fiction and wrote the novel Beggar’s Choice, which he followed five years later with Blackmailer. In 1948, he began to concentrate mainly on film and television. On November 20, 1952, The Seven Year Itch opened at the Fulton Theater on Broadway and ran for 1,141 performances. Starring Tom Ewell and Vanessa Brown, it was the story of a publishing executive who began to have adulterous thoughts when his wife left him alone in New York for the summer. When the play arrived at the Aldwych Theatre in London on May 14, 1953, the Daily Telegraph’s theatre critic said that the play was “highly ingenious, with plenty of amusing quirks,” but felt that the play was actually trite. The play was made into a film with Ewell and Marilyn Monroe in 1955. That year Axelrod’s disjointed Hollywood satire Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? opened at the Belasco Theater on October 13, 1955 starring Orson Bean, Martin Gabel, Walter Matthau and Jayne Mansfield. It ran for 444 performances. It was made into a film starring Tony Randall and Mansfield in 1957. In 1954 he wrote his first film Phffft! which starred Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon. Two years later, in 1956, Axelrod wrote the screenplay for William Inge’s 1955 play Bus Stop which starred Kim Stanley as Cherie in the theatre and Marilyn Monroe on screen. On December 16, 1959, Goodbye Charlie had its stage première at the Lyceum Theatre and starred Lauren Bacall and Sydney Chaplin (it was filmed in 1964 with Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis). Axelrod moved to Hollywood but tired of its phoniness and moved his family to England where they lived in Chester Square, London (minus a crate of expensive paintings and silver which fell into the Atlantic en route). The Axelrods stayed in London for almost a decade but George wrote little in that period. His best work was undoubtedly in the Fifties and early Sixties but increasing sexual freedom in the latter half of that decade began to lessen his appeal. One of his greatest successes was Breakfast At Tiffany’s, drawn from Truman Capote’s novella, which has been enormously popular since its release in 1961, thanks to Audrey Hepburn’s performance in the lead role. He made another film with Hepburn two years later, Paris When It Sizzles. The Manchurian Candidate (1962), John Frankenheimer’s film of Richard Condon’s Cold War thriller, was a flop when it was first released. It was withdrawn by its leading man, Frank Sinatra, who owned the copyright, after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, but when it was re-released 20 years later, the film was hailed as a masterpiece. In 1965, on the release of How To Murder Your Wife, starring Jack Lemmon and Terry-Thomas, Axelrod said, “The American male is the only member of the animal kingdom that has consistently permitted itself to be bullied, coddled, mothered, tyrannised and in general made to feel like a feeble-minded idiot by the female of the species.” “In my experience,” he told another interviewer, “there are five things which make a man sexually attractive to a woman: power, money, energy and the ability to make her laugh.” Asked about the fifth, he replied, “If you think I’m going to tell you that, you must be crazy.” Axelrod’s other film scripts included The Secret Life Of An American Wife (1968), The Lady Vanishes (1979), Frankenheimer’s Holcroft Covenant (1982) and The Fourth Protocol (1987). He married Gloria Washburn in 1942. They had two sons but divorced in 1954; that year he was remarried to the actress Joan Stanton (b. 1923), who died on September 13, 2001, in Los Angeles. They had a daughter, the actress Nina Axelrod. A stepson, Jonathan Axelrod (b. New York, July 9, 1949), also became a scriptwriter and producer.

  CAUSE: Axelrod died in Los Angeles, aged 81, of heart failure.

  Sir Felix Aylmer, OBE

  (FELIX EDWARD AYLMER -JONES)

  Born February 21, 1889

  Died September 6, 1979

  Fruity-voiced thesp. If not for Kenneth Williams impersonating Aylmer in films and chat shows the old actor might be completely forgotten. Felix Aylmer was born at Alexander House in Corsham, Wiltshire, the second of five sons (one of whom died as a child) and one daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel (Thomas) Edward Aylmer-Jones and Lilian Cookwort
hy. He was educated at Magdalen College School and Exeter College, Oxford where he studied mathematical moderations and physics. At university he dabbled with the Oxford University Dramatic Society and much to his parents’ displeasure he decided on a theatrical career. He made his stage début in 1911 not long after his 22nd birthday playing the Italian in Cook’s Man at the Coliseum Theatre. He subsequently worked with Fred Terry and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree before joining the Birmingham Repertory Company in 1913. From 1914 until 1918 he served with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. Unlike many actors Aylmer did not appreciate the Bard. “I am a bit of an anti-Shakesperean. I acknowledge his greatness, of course – but, you know, Shakespeare has done so much harm to actors. He has been responsible for so much work that is artificial and unreal.” He claimed to prefer film-making, saying that it required a greater skill than stage work. He made his film début in Escape (1930) as the governor and went on to appear in, among many others, The World, The Flesh, The Devil (1932) as Sir Henderson Trent, The Shadow (1933) as Sir Richard Bryant, the coroner in The Ghost Camera (1933), Whispering Tongues (1934) as Superintendent Fulton, The Iron Duke (1934) as Lord Uxbridge, Doctor’s Orders (1934) as Sir Daniel Summerfield, The Price Of A Song (1935) as Graham, She Shall Have Music (1935) as Donald Black, Old Roses (1935) as Lord Sandelbury, Hello, Sweetheart (1935) as Peabody, Checkmate (1935) as Henry Nicholls, The Ace Of Spades (1935) as Lord Yardleigh, Tudor Rose (1936) as Edward Seymour, Michael Powell’s Her Last Affaire (1936) as Lord Carnforth, Seven Sinners (1936) as Sir Charles Webber, As You Like It (1936) as Duke Frederick, Sensation (1936) as Lord Bouverie, Royal Eagle (1936) as Windridge, Man In The Mirror (1936) as the Earl of Wigan, The Improper Duchess (1936) as Count Seidel, The Frog (1936) as John Bennett, the police commissioner in Dusty Ermine (1936), Dreaming Lips (1937) as Sir Robert Blaker, Action For Slander (1937) as Sir Eustace Cunninghame, The Vicar Of Bray (1937) as Earl of Brendon, The Mill On The Floss (1937) as Mr Wakem, The Live Wire (1937) as Wilton, The Citadel (1938) as Mr Boon, I’ve Got A Horse (1938) as Lovatt, Break The News (1938) as Sir George Bickory, Just Like A Woman as Sir Robert Hummel, Young Man’s Fancy (1940) as Sir Caleb Crowther, Spies Of The Air (1940) as Colonel Cairns, Night Train To Munich as Dr John Fredericks, Charley’s Big-Hearted Aunt (1940) as Henry Crawley, The Briggs Family (1940) as Mr Sand, The Case Of The Frightened Lady (1940) as Dr Lester Charles Amersham, The Ghost Of St Michael’s as Dr Winter, The Saint’s Vacation (1941) as Charles Leighton, Spellbound (1941) as Mr Morton, Major Barbara (1941) as James, Kipps (1941), I Thank You (1941) as Henry Potter, South American George (1941) as Mr Appleby, Hi Gang! (1941) as Lord Amersham, The Seventh Survivor (1941) as Sir Elmer Norton, The Black Sheep Of Whitehall (1942) as Crabtree, Uncensored (1942) as Colonel von Hohenstein, Sabotage At Sea (1942) as John Dighton, Thursday’s Child (1943) as Mr Keith, Escape To Danger (1943) as Sir Alfred Horton, The Demi-Paradise (1943) as Mr Runalow, the lead in Mr Emmanuel (1944), English Without Tears (1944) as Mr Spaggot, The Wicked Lady (1945) as Hogarth, the first nobleman in Caesar And Cleopatra (1945), The Years Between (1946) as Sir Ernest Foster, The Magic Bow (1946) as Signor Fazzini, The Laughing Lady (1946) as Sir Felix Mountroyal, A Man About The House (1947) as Richard Sanctuary, The October Man (1947) as Dr Martin, Green Fingers (1947) as Daniel Booth, The Ghosts Of Berkeley Square (1947) as Colonel H. ‘Bulldog’ Kelsoe, Hamlet (1948) as Polonius, The Calendar (1948) as Lord Forlingham, Quartet (1949) as Maryin, Edward, My Son (1949) as Mr Hanray, Prince Of Foxes (1949) as Count Marc Antonio Verano, She Shall Have Murder (1950) as Mr Playfair, Quo Vadis (1951) as Plautius, No Highway (1951) as Sir Philip, The House In The Square (1951) as Sir William, Ivanhoe (1952) as Isaac of York, The Man Who Watched The Trains Go By (1953) as Mr Merkemans, The Master Of Ballantrae (1953) as Lord Durrisdeer, Knights Of The Round Table (1953) as Merlin, The Love Lottery (1954) as Winant, The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp (1954) as Joshua Webman, Anastasia (1956) as the chamberlain, Saint Joan (1957) as the inquisitor, I Accuse! (1958) as Edgar Demange, The Doctor’s Dilemma (1958) as Sir Patrick Cullen, Separate Tables (1958) as Mr Fowler, The Two-Headed Spy (1958) as Cornaz, The Mummy (1959) as Stephen Banning, Exodus (1960) as Dr Lieberman, Never Take Sweets From A Stranger (1960) as Clarence Olderberry, Sr, From The Terrace (1960) as James Duncan MacHardie, The Hands Of Orlac (1961) as Dr Francis Cochrane, The Road To Hong Kong (1962) as Grand Lama and Masquerade (1965) as Henrickson. He played Queen Victoria’s libidinous prime minister Lord Palmerston three times on screen in Victoria The Great (1937), Sixty Glorious Years (1938) and The Lady With A Lamp (1951). He also played the ineffectual Lord North in The Young Mr Pitt (1942) and Lord Melbourne in the television film Victoria Regina (1961). He began appearing on television as early as 1938 and was a regular on the small screen. His last major role on television was playing Father Anselm, the Prior of Mountacres Priory, in the sitcom Oh Brother! (September 13, 1968– February 27, 1970) and in a couple of episodes of its successor Oh Father! He played bishops or other clergymen in Kate Plus Ten (1938), The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943), The Chronicle History Or King Henry The Fifth With His Battell Fought At Agincourt In France (1944) as Archbishop of Canterbury, The Way To The Stars (1945) as Reverend Charles Moss, The Man Within (1947) as a priest, Christopher Columbus (1949) as Father Perez, The Running Man (1963) as a parson, Becket (1964) as Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, and lawyers in The Temporary Widow (1930), Home, Sweet Home (1933) as Robert Wilding, KC, My Old Dutch (1934) as a judge, Girl In The News (1941), Once A Crook (1941), Your Witness (1950) as a British judge, The Boys (1962) as a judge, The Chalk Garden (1964) as Judge McWhirrey, Decline And Fall … Of A Birdwatcher (1968) as the judge and Hostile Witness (1968) as Justice Osborne. He was president of the actors’ union Equity for 20 years from 1949. He was made OBE in the 1950 Birthday Honours List and received his knighthood in the 1965 Birthday Honours List. He wrote two books about Dickens – Dickens Incognito (1959) in which he theorised (incorrectly) that the writer had a child by his mistress Ellen Ternan and The Drood Case (1964) about Dickens’ final, unfinished work. He was married to the actor Cecily Byrne (b. Nottingham, July 31, 1889, d. Sussex, June 30, 1975). They had two sons, David and Ian, who both predeceased him and one daughter, Jennifer. David Aylmer (b. Hampstead, London, 1933, d. London, July 20, 1964 by his own hand) was an actor.