Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: Carradine died of natural causes in Milan, Italy, aged 81.

  Madeleine Carroll

  (MARIE-MADELEINE BERNADETTE O’CARROLL)

  Born February 26, 1906

  Died October 2, 1987

  Icy blonde. Born in West Bromwich in the West Midlands, blonde, 5́ 5˝ Carroll was one of Britain’s most popular early film stars. After studying French at the University of Birmingham she became a schoolteacher in Hove, East Sussex, but she saved £20 and, giving up the security of that profession, she travelled to London where agents fought to sign her. Her first film was The Guns Of Loos (1928) in which she played Diana Cheswick, quickly followed by The First Born (1928) playing Lady Madeleine Boycott and What Money Can Buy (1928) as Rhoda Pearson. She travelled west to Hollywood in the mid-Thirties and appeared in John Ford’s The World Moves On (1934) but it was her acting in two Hitchcock thrillers that secured her status. She was a sexy Pamela in The 39 Steps (1935) and the scene in which she and Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) are handcuffed together remains one of the most memorable in cinema history. Hitchcock was a notorious and sometimes cruel practical joker. He handcuffed Carroll and Donat together not long after they first met and then disappeared for the rest of the day, taking the only key with him. He said at the time that he’d done it to see how they got on together, but later confessed that his major enjoyment was wondering how they would answer the calls of nature! Carroll’s other Hitchcockian film was Secret Agent (1936), in which she took the part of Elsa Carrington. She was memorable in The Prisoner Of Zenda (1937) as Princess Flavia playing opposite Ronald Colman and had the title role in the Bob Hope comedy My Favorite Blonde (1942) as Karen Bentley. In 1942 her sister was killed in the Blitz and she returned to London to help with war work, specifically the Red Cross. She stayed for the duration and afterwards discovered that her heart was no longer in acting. She made just three more films: White Cradle Inn (1946) as Magda, An Innocent Affair (1948) as Paula Doane and The Fan (1949) as Mrs Erlynne. She worked for UNESCO, occasionally venturing onto the stage or television. Carroll married four times. Her first husband was Captain Philip Astley. They were married on August 25, 1931, and were divorced on December 12, 1939. Number two was Sterling Hayden in Peterboro, New Hampshire, on St Valentine’s Day 1942; they were together until May 8, 1946. The third trip up the aisle was taken with French film producer Henri Lavorel, on July 13, 1946. They divorced in 1949 and Carroll’s final marriage was to Andrew Heiskell, the publisher of the magazine Life. They married on September 1, 1950 and were together until their divorce on January 22, 1965, in Litchfield, Connecticut. They had one daughter: Anne-Madeleine (b. 1952, d. 1983).

  CAUSE: She died in Marbella, Spain, aged 81, after a long illness.

  John Paddy Carstairs

  (NELSON JOHN KEYS)

  Born May 11, 1910

  Died December 12, 1970

  Comedy director. John Paddy Carstairs was born at 1 St Stephen’s Mansions, Smith Square, London, the eldest of four sons of the actor and comic Nelson Waite (Bunch) Keys (b. London, April 7, 1886, d. April 26, 1939 of a heart attack) and the actor Hazel Eileen Saqui (b. Dublin). Another son was the producer Anthony Nelson Keys (b. 1911, d. Richmond, Surrey, March 19, 1985). Carstairs was educated at Alleyn Court preparatory school, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, and Repton (from 1924) where he excelled as a lightweight boxer and, with the aid of the headmaster, the Reverend Geoffrey Fisher, later Archbishop of Canterbury, he formed a cinema club. He produced a film about public school life, The Hero Of St Jim’s, which attracted the attention of the gentlemen of the fourth estate. Buoyed by the success he forsook Cambridge University and became an apprentice to Herbert Wilcox, a friend of his father. A name change came to avoid cashing in on his father’s fame. Wilcox taught him editing, screenwriting and camera angles and in 1929 Carstairs went to America for a year. On his return he worked for two years as Basil Dean’s assistant director but Dean disliked Carstairs who had adopted an American accent and loud clothes. He made his first film Paris Plane (1933) but it flopped and it was four years before he was allowed to try again. Back in Hollywood he landed a six-month contract with MGM as a scenario writer. On his return to England he was involved in a serious car crash after which he directed Night Ride (1937). Incident In Shanghai (1938) starring Patrick Barr was the first film he wrote and directed. In 1939 he made The Saint In London with George Sanders in the title role of Simon Templar. During the Second World War he made short films for the Ministry of Information and joined the Royal Navy’s air photography section. His film Spare A Copper (1940), a comedy set in Merseyside, starred George Formby and took £130,000 at the box office. After the cessation of hostilities he resumed directing comedies and worked with (Sir) Norman Wisdom on the successful Rank films Trouble In Store (filmed in the summer of 1953, previewed at the Gaumont Cinema in Camden Town, November 25, 1953), One Good Turn (1954), Man Of The Moment (1955), Up In The World (1956), Just My Luck (1957) and The Square Peg (1958), although Carstairs and Wisdom did not always see eye to eye. He directed Tommy Steele in the musical Tommy The Toreador (1959). He also wrote more than 30 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and was a talented artist in a variety of genres.

  CAUSE: He died aged 60 of heart failure at Kingston Hospital, Kingston upon Thames, and was cremated at the Kingston crematorium. He was survived by his wife, Molly. He left £7,123.

  Katrin Cartlidge

  Born May 15, 1961

  Died September 7, 2002

  Intense actress. Born in London, one of two daughters and a son of Bobbi and Derek Cartlidge, and schooled at Parliament Hill School for Girls in Hampstead, where she suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia, Katrin Cartlidge began her career at the Royal Court Theatre where she was a dresser to Jill Bennett in the number one dressing room. She was picked by Peter Gill to appear in Apart From George at the National Theatre although her first stage appearance was naked at the Riverside Studios in the early Eighties. She also worked as a life model at the Slade School of Fine Art. In 1982 she was signed to play Lucy Collins in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside and stayed in the close for six years until 1988. She made her film début playing Doris in Sacred Hearts (1985) but it was her portrayal of Sophie, a lost soul, in Mike Leigh’s Naked (1993) that brought her to public attention. Her scenes, some topless, with David Thewlis were disturbing but at the same time compulsive. Playing Hannah in Career Girls (1997) saw her win the Evening Standard Best Cinema Actress Award and going topless probably didn’t harm either. Cartlidge often played in films that were not commercial because she enjoyed pushing the boundaries with new often untried directors. She also appeared in Before The Rain (1994) as Anne in which she also bared her breasts, Breaking The Waves (1996) as Dodo McNeill, the title role in Claire Dolan (1998) and From Hell (2001) as Annie Chapman. She once said, “I actually love getting older. I hated my twenties, I couldn’t wait to be 30. I’m really looking forward to turning 40, if I get there … I think the older you get, the more you find life interesting … So roll on, I can’t wait.”

  CAUSE: Cartlidge died aged 41 of complications from pneumonia and septicaemia.

  Peggy Cass

  Born May 21, 1924

  Died March 8, 1999

  Talkaholic. Boston-born Cass was intended (by her family) to be a secretary but her desire to be on the stage was too strong and she made her professional début in 1945 on an Australian tour. Four years later, she made her first appearance on Broadway in Touch And Go but it was her performance as Agnes Gooch in Auntie Mame that won her a Tony and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Her film appearances were infrequent as she seemed to prefer chat shows on the small screen. Her movies included If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium (1969) and Age Of Consent (1969), which starred James Mason and a naked Helen Mirren.

  CAUSE: She died of heart failure aged 74.

  John Cassavetes

  Born December 9, 1929

  Died February 3, 1989

  Influential all-rounder. Born in New
York City, the son of a Greek immigrant, Cassavetes worked as an actor, writer, director, producer and film editor. He made his first appearance before the cameras in Fourteen Hours (1951) but Cassavetes never quite seemed to attain the megastardom his talent deserved. Perhaps he didn’t want it badly enough. His performance as Victor Franko in The Dirty Dozen (1967) earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. He was equally memorable as Guy Woodhouse in the horror flick about devil worship Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Cassavetes was at times an obsessive loner. Perhaps most tellingly he made a film called I’m Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes – The Man And His Work in 1984. Many of his films co-starred his wife Gena Rowlands (they married on March 19, 1958) and his dear friend Peter Falk. He appeared in one and directed two episodes of Columbo in the early Seventies. He had three children: the arrogant Nick (b. New York City, 1959) who acts in low-budget, straight-to-video films, Alexandra (b. 1965) and Zoe (b. 1970).

  CAUSE: Cassavetes died in Los Angeles, California, of cirrhosis of the liver. He was 59. He was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park, 1218 Glendon Avenue, Los Angeles 90024. His will was brief and to the point: “I leave all and everything I own to my beloved wife Gena Rowlands Cassavetes. I leave nothing to anyone else, whomsoever, they may be. I owe no one any debt or obligation, other than usual and ordinary bills. No one has done me a special service that I feel obligated to.”

  Jack Cassidy

  Born March 5, 1927

  Died December 12, 1976

  Desperately cruel thespian. John Edward Joseph Cassidy was born in New York, the son of an Irish father and a German mother. After giving up his dream of becoming a priest, he made his Broadway début aged 15 as a chorus boy in the Ethel Merman musical Something For The Boys and became a musical star throughout the Fifties and Sixties, often appearing with second wife Shirley Jones. He did not appear in too many films, preferring the smell of the greasepaint and innumerable television shows. He won an Emmy and a Tony. His films included Irving Wallace’s The Chapman Report (1962) as Ted Dyson, Cockeyed Cowboys Of Calico County (1970) as Roger Hand and W.C. Fields And Me (1976) as John Barrymore. His first wife was actress Evelyn Ward (b. West Orange, New Jersey) and their son David (b. New York City, April 12, 1950) became a teeny heartthrob in the Seventies. Jack Cassidy married Shirley Jones (b. Smithtown, Pennsylvania, March 31, 1934) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 5, 1956. Their son Shaun Paul (b. Los Angeles, September 27, 1958) became a singer and actor, appearing as one of The Hardy Boys. The other sons were Patrick (b. January 4, 1962) and Ryan (b. February 23, 1966). The couple was divorced in 1975. Cassidy was bisexual and one of his lovers was the handicapped composer Cole Porter. Cassidy would take great pleasure in sadistically teasing the musicologist. He would take out his penis and offer it to Porter but as soon as Porter got close enough on his crippled legs (he broke them falling from a horse) to perform oral sex, Cassidy would move away.

  CAUSE: At around 5am on December 12, 1976, following a party the night before, Cassidy fell asleep on the living room settee of his penthouse flat at 1221 North Kings Road, West Hollywood. Cassidy was smoking a cigarette and it dropped from his hand onto the material. Within minutes the whole building, which he owned, was ablaze. It took five fire tenders to put out the flames and the other one hundred residents of 1221 had to be evacuated. One corpse was found but was burned beyond recognition. Cassidy’s car was missing from the garage and hope was raised in the family that someone else had died in the conflagration. Their hopes were dashed when a friend returned the car and later dental records identified the body as that of Cassidy. What was left of him was cremated three days later.

  Ted Cassidy

  Born July 31, 1932

  Died January 16, 1979

  Lurch. Theodore Crawford Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh and was raised in Philippi, Pennsylvania. Neither parent stood taller than 5́ 8˝ but Ted grew to be 6˝9˝. Unsurprisingly, he became a successful basketball player but ultimately preferred acting to sport. After graduating with a degree in speech and drama from Stetson University, De Land, Florida, Cassidy decided to pursue his acting dream, despite offers to join two bands as a vocalist. He married his college sweetheart, Margaret Helen Jesse, and the couple had two children, Sean and Lynn Cameron, but things didn’t work out and the couple divorced. Probably because of his huge size, Ted Cassidy was not as extrovert as many other actors. His best-known part was as the butler Lurch in the ABC sitcom The Addams Family. He also terrified younger viewers as Injun Joe in an NBC production of The New Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. His films included: Trigger Law (1944), Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969) as Harvey Logan, Poor Pretty Eddy (1973) as Keno, The Harrad Experiment (1973), which he co-wrote and which features a nude Don Johnson and Bruno Kirby, and The Last Remake Of Beau Geste (1977). His friend John Astin said that Cassidy was concerned that his height and look made jobs difficult to come by. He wanted to play serious parts but was cast in junk roles, such as playing Bigfoot in an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. He was horrified when people began to mistake him for 7́ 2˝ Richard Kiel, who played Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). “There was a point when I was ready to get out of the business because of that – because he’s not an actor. He does his best, but if that’s acting I’m a bricklayer … It was awful. That’s the big, dumb brute character again and I will not be known as that dumb brute.”

  CAUSE: In late December 1978 Cassidy underwent open-heart surgery in St Vincent’s Hospital, 2131 West 3rd Street, Los Angeles to remove a non-malignant tumour from his left atrium ventricle. The operation seemed to be a success and Cassidy was sent home, 21858 De La Luz, Los Angeles, California 91364. However, all was not well and he was readmitted to St Vincent’s on January 16, 1979, and suffered a cardiac arrest. He died at twelve minutes to two in the afternoon. He was cremated at Forest Lawn on January 20, 1979, and the ashes were buried in his back garden. Mrs Cassidy soon moved, leaving the urn behind. Someone has Lurch in their garden without realising it.

  Roy Castle

  Born August 31, 1932

  Died September 2, 1994

  All-round entertainer. Born in Holmfirth Infirmary, Yorkshire, an only child (he shared a bedroom with his parents until he was 16) Roy Castle began his career as music hall was on its deathbed. He was stooge to comedian Jimmy James for two years but was probably best known for his 22-year stint as presenter of BBC Television’s Record Breakers. His film appearances were rare and probably his best-known part was that of Captain Keene (a role that Jim Dale would normally have played) in Carry On Up The Khyber (1968). Another appearance came in Dr Who & The Daleks (1966) but it is for his ability to play almost any musical instrument (he was especially noted for his trumpet playing) and his prodigious tap-dancing skills that Castle will be remembered.

  CAUSE: Despite having never smoked a cigarette in his life, he died at his home, “Bearwood,” 21 South Park View, Gerrard’s Cross, Buckinghamshire, of lung cancer contracted through passive smoking having worked for years in smoky jazz clubs. He was two days past his 62nd birthday. He left £582,199.

  FURTHER READING: Now And Then: An Autobiography– Roy Castle (London: Robson Books, 1994).

  Walter Catlett

  Born February 4, 1889

  Died November 14, 1960

  Mr Fusspot. Born in San Francisco, California, 5́10½˝ Catlett was educated at St Ignatius College and began his acting career in vaudeville and in theatre, even performing in opera for a time. He was best known for his owlish glasses and his voice. Sturdy at first, he would crumble under the slightest stress. He appeared in Second Youth (1924), which was his début, The Front Page (1931), A Tale Of Two Cities (1935), Mr Deeds Goes To Town (1936) as Morrow, Bringing Up Baby (1938), Li’l Abner (1940), Pinocchio (1940) as the voice of J. Worthington Foulfellow, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), The Boy With Green Hair (1948) as the King, The Inspector General (1949), Davy Crockett And The River Pirates (1956) as Colonel Plug, Friendly Persuasion (1956) as Professor Waldo Quigley
and his final film Beau James (1957) as Al Smith.

  CAUSE: He died aged 71 from a stroke in Woodland Hills, California.

  Jeff Chandler

  (IRA GROSSEL)

  Born December 15, 1918

  Died June 17, 1961

  Tough guy with a secret. Jeff Chandler’s reputation as a Hollywood he-man was shattered in the autumn of 1999 by his former girlfriend and co-star Esther Williams when she revealed that the 6́ 5˝ hunk had been a transvestite. Such matters were a far cry from the rough area of Brooklyn where the actor was born. Deserted by his father, Ira Grossel became involved in the restaurant business early on. Growing up in a dominantly female household, young Ira began wearing women’s clothes as a small boy; it became a compunction he never grew out of. After high school and a brief spell in the catering industry he joined the Feagin School of Dramatic Art, becoming a stagehand and then an actor. However, Pearl Harbor stopped him progressing too far in the profession. He served in the army, rising to the rank of first lieutenant, and after World War II developed a crush on Esther Williams after seeing her in Easy To Wed (1945). The male lead in the film was Van Johnson who played a character called Bill Chandler. Because Bill Chandler got the girl, Gossel changed his name to Jeff Chandler. Despite the name change, Chandler remained exceptionally proud of his Jewish heritage. He made his first post-war foray into show business in radio dramas before making his film début in Johnny O’Clock (1947). On October 13, 1946, he married actress Marjorie Hoshelle in Los Angeles and fathered two daughters, Jamie and Dana. The couple divorced on April 15, 1954, but reconciled before the decree absolute; they were finally divorced in 1960. Signed to Universal on an exclusive seven-year contract, the prematurely grey Chandler began appearing in Westerns, usually playing Native American Indians and, in 1950, was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of the Apache chief Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950). It was a part he was to play on two more occasions – The Battle At Apache Pass (1952) and Taza, Son Of Cochise (1954) (playing Rock Hudson’s dad). In 1954 he became a singer, signing a contract with Decca Records. Three years later, he appeared in Las Vegas. Separated from his wife, Chandler began an affair with Esther Williams during the filming of Raw Wind In Eden (1958) after which he revealed his secret, much to Williams’ disgust; his transvestitism stopped her becoming his second wife. From the mid-Fifties Chandler’s career rather faltered, perhaps because of his earlier Red Indian typecasting. He appeared in a number of truly awful films, earning his living using his looks rather than his undoubted talent.