Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries
Page 65
CAUSE: On Thursday December 30, 1971, Pete worked, as usual, on Alias Smith & Jones, and was in high spirits according to the crew. At his home at 2552 Glen Green Terrace, a two-bedroomed bungalow in the Hollywood Hills, Pete read through the script for the next day. He had one visitor that night – his girlfriend, 29-year-old Diane Ray, a secretary and aspiring actress. Together they watched the latest episode of Alias Smith & Jones (Duel was not happy with the edition) and a Lakers basketball game. Duel drank a lot that evening, leading to an argument with Diane, who went to bed. At 1.25am Pete walked into the bedroom and stared at her for a long moment before going to a dresser where he took out a package that Diane thought was a forgotten Christmas present. Taking the box into the living room, Pete smiled at his girlfriend and said, “I’ll see you later.” A few moments later, Diane heard a loud sound like a firecracker. Going to find out what had happened, she saw Duel lying nude in front of the Christmas tree, a .38 revolver by his side and blood oozing from his right temple. Gathering her wits about her Diane called the police. At first, the authorities did not want to write the death off as a suicide and cited Pete’s open-house policy for aspiring and out-of-work actors as a possible factor. Perhaps, they argued, one of the resting thespians, jealous of Pete’s success, had killed him. There was no evidence, however, that anyone apart from Duel and Ray had been in the house. Pete’s friends dismissed the suicide theory and claimed it was an accidental death. However, none of them came up with a satisfactory answer as to why ecologist Pete had bought a gun, if not to kill himself. It may be interesting to note that when he arrived in Hollywood, Pete had given himself five years before returning to Broadway. At the time of his death, Pete had spent six years in Tinseltown and the success of Alias Smith & Jones threatened to extend that period by some years. A memorial service was held on January 2, 1972, at the Hindu-Christian Self Realisation temple in Pacific Palisades, California. (Pete was not a member but his manager was.) Pete’s funeral took place on January 5, 1972, at the Baptist Church in Penfield, New York. Even now, almost 30 years after his death, Pete Duel and all that he stood for are remembered not just for what might have been but also for what he achieved in his ever-so brief life. He once said, “Fame in show business is not in proportion to actual achievement.” His business manager has an enduring memory of Pete Duel. John Napier writes, “I shall never forget early one morning about 4am one summer when Pete stood in front of my home, barefoot in blue jeans, looking out over the vast valley stretching far in the distance and began in a loud, strong, beautiful voice, to recite Hamlet. Even in my sleepless stupor I was suddenly caught up in the beauty of the speech as his Hamlet reverberated around the hills. When he came near the end of the speech the sun began to peek its brilliant head over a nearby mountain as if to pay tribute to a fine performance. ‘I love you sun,’ he yelled and we broke into gales of laughter. Neighbours, be damned. It was a happy time. There were many happy times like that.”
Howard Duff
Born November 24, 1913
Died July 8, 1990
Mr Grit. Born in Bremerton, Washington, Duff was the original Sam Spade on the wireless before World War II. He made his film début in Brute Force (1947) and went on to appear in over 40 films. Mostly, he was cast as a gritty, dependable character rather than a lead. He appeared on several TV shows such as Bonanza, The Twilight Zone, The Virginian, Batman, Alias Smith & Jones, Kung Fu, Knots Landing, Flamingo Road and Dallas. His films include: The Naked City (1948) as Frank Niles, Red Canyon (1949) as Lin Sloane, Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949) as George Morton, Calamity Jane And Sam Bass (1949) as Sam Bass, Spy Hunt (1950) as Roger Quain, Shakedown (1950) as Jack Early, Woman In Hiding (1950) as Keith Ramsey, Models, Inc. (1952), Tanganyika (1954) as Dan Harder, Private Hell 36 (1954) as Jack Farnham, While The City Sleeps (1956) as Kaufman, Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) as John Shaunessy and Oh, God! Book II (1980). In Glenbrook, Nevada, on October 21, 1951, he married actress Ida Lupino. Their daughter, Bridget, was born six months later on April 23, 1952. They separated in 1972 but didn’t get divorced until 1984.
CAUSE: He died aged 76 of a heart attack in Santa Barbara, California.
Dominique Dunne
Born November 20, 1959
Died November 4, 1982
Promise unfulfilled. Dominique Ellen Dunne was born in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Roman Catholic journalist Dominic Dunne (b. Hartford, Connecticut, October 29, 1925) who covered the O.J. Simpson and Menendez brothers trials for Vanity Fair, the sister of actor Griffin Dunne (b. New York, June 8, 1955), the niece of novelist John Gregory Dunne (b. Hartford, Connecticut, May 25, 1932) and his author wife Joan Didion (b. Sacramento, California, December 5, 1934) who co-wrote A Star Is Born (1976). Following her parents’ divorce Dominique moved to New York and then to Beverly Hills where she attended the high school popularised in Beverly Hills 90210. Then it was off to study acting at the University of Colorado. The 5́ 1˝ Dunne made her film début as Polly Ames in The Haunting Of Harrington House (1981) but it was as the elder sister, Dana Freeling, in Poltergeist (1982) that she made her name and showed her real talent. She soon began to be a regular on the Beverly Hills social scene and, by all accounts, was liked by everyone who encountered her. It seemed as if the world was at her feet.
CAUSE: In 1982 Dominique began to see 26-year-old John David Sweeney, a chef at the popular Los Angeles niterie Ma Maison. However, Sweeney was a jealous control freak with a violent temper. When Dominique landed the part of someone who had been beaten up on Hill Street Blues, she didn’t need very much make-up, thanks to Sweeney. It became too much for Dominique and on the night before Halloween she ended the relationship. Sweeney turned up at her home, 8723 Rangely Avenue, West Hollywood, to effect a reconciliation but Dominique had had enough. However, Sweeney was not a man to take no for an answer and he dragged her outside and put his hands around Dominique’s throat. The police were called but when they arrived, Dominique was already lying unconscious in the front garden. When he saw the police Sweeney mumbled, “I killed my girlfriend.” An ambulance rushed the comatose Dominique to Cedars-Sinai Hospital Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles. She lay in a coma for five days until her heart simply stopped beating. The hospital remains very keen to state that it did not switch off her life support system. Dominique died at 11am. Cause of death: anoxic encephalopathy due to strangulation. She was just 22. Her funeral was held on November 6 at Westwood Catholic Church. It was widely attended and Dominique was laid to rest in grave number 189, Section D of Westwood Memorial Park, 1218 Glendon Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024. While in prison awaiting trial Sweeney attempted to kill himself using a throwaway razor. In November 1983 he was convicted of assault and unintentional manslaughter and sentenced to 62 years in prison. However, he was released in June 1986 after having served just over two and a half years. Remarkably, he went back to working as a chef in Los Angeles. Dominique’s mother, Ellen Griffin Dunne, set up a support group, Justice for Victims of Homicide, for grieving relatives. When Dominique’s family and friends discovered where Sweeney was working they picketed the restaurant handing out flyers that read, “The hands that will prepare your meal tonight also murdered Dominique Dunne.” Sweeney was sacked, changed his name to John Maura, and left the area.
Irene Dunne
Born December 20, 1898
Died September 4, 1990
Adaptable performer. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, 5́ 5˝ Irene Marie Dunne was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, a steamship inspector and Adelaide Henry, an accomplished pianist, who encouraged her to follow in her footsteps. In 1911 Joseph Dunne died and the family moved to 917 West Second Street, Madison, Indiana, where they boarded with her mother’s family. Irene, a devout Roman Catholic, landed a job as a teacher in East Chicago, Indiana, but decided instead to go to the Chicago Musical College. After graduating she failed an audition for the New York Metropolitan Opera. She got a job with a touring company where she learned her acting trade. On July 16, 19
28, she married Francis Dennis Griffin, a New York dentist and they adopted a four-year-old girl, Anna Mary Bush, on March 17, 1936. They were together until Griffin’s death on October 15, 1965. Under contract to RKO she made her film début in Leathernecking (1930) playing Delphine Witherspoon. She soon earned a reputation as someone who could play across the board, including comedies, melodramas and musicals. Her 42 films included: The Great Lover (1931) as Diana Page, Cimarron (1931) as Sabra Cravat, a performance that earned her a nomination for Best Actress Oscar, Bachelor Apartment (1931) as Helene Andrews, Thirteen Women (1932) as Laura Stanhope, Back Street (1932) as Ray Schmidt, No Other Woman (1933) as Anna Stanley, If I Were Free (1933) as Sarah Cazenove, Magnificent Obsession (1935) as Helen Hudson, Theodora Goes Wild (1936) as Theodora Lynn, earning her second nomination for Best Actress Oscar, Show Boat (1936) as Magnolia Hawks, High, Wide, And Handsome (1937) as Sally Watterson, The Awful Truth (1937) as Lucy Warriner provided her third Best Actress Oscar nomination, her fourth came with Love Affair (1939) in which she played Terry McKay, My Favorite Wife (1940) as Ellen Arden, Anna And The King Of Siam (1946) as Anna Owens, Life With Father (1947) as Vinnie Day, I Remember Mama (1948) as Mama Hansen which earned her a fifth and final Best Actress Oscar nomination and It Grows On Trees (1952) as Polly Baxter. At her peak she was earning $400,000 a year. Very right wing, she criticised Farrah Fawcett and Vanessa Redgrave for having children out of wedlock. Dunne retired in 1952 to become an advocate of Republican policies. She was appointed the American delegate to the United Nations by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957 and was a staunch supporter of Ronald Reagan’s bid for the presidency.
CAUSE: She died in Los Angeles, California, of heart failure. She was 91.
E
Johnny Eck
(JOHN ECHKARDT)
Born August 27, 1911
Died January 5, 1991
Cinematic oddity. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, 20 minutes after his normal-sized twin brother Robert, Johnny Eck stood just 1˝6˝. Aged 12, he joined a sideshow where he was billed as “Johnny Eck, The Half-boy”. He made just four films but one was the notorious Tod Browning movie Freaks (opened on July 8, 1932) which was banned for many years in the UK. It was the story of a circus freak show and featured many malformed actors who had worked in sideshows. Of his fellow performers, Eck said, “I met hundreds and thousands of people, and none finer than the midgets and the Siamese twins and the caterpillar man and the bearded woman and the human seal with the little flippers for hands. I never asked them any embarrassing questions and they never asked me, and God, it was a great adventure.” The film originally ran to 90 minutes but was cut to 64 and the 26 minutes of footage have been lost. It starred Olga Baclanova as a heartless trapeze artiste. In 1937, with his twin brother, Johnny performed a sawing-in-half illusion. His other films were: Tarzan The Ape Man (1932), Tarzan Escapes (1936) and Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941).
CAUSE: Eck died in his home city of Baltimore, Maryland aged 79.
Nora Eddington
Born February 25, 1924
Died April 10, 2001
Mrs Errol Flynn II. Born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Jack Eddington, who worked for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. When Flynn spotted her in 1943 Nora was working on a tobacco stand in Los Angeles Hall of Justice. He was in the courtroom on trial for rape. He wooed Nora and they had a platonic relationship until one night when he raped her. Despite this assault, Flynn charmed his way back into Nora’s life and she married the legendary hellraiser by proxy in Mexico in September 1944 and gave birth to his daughters Deirdre (b. Mexico City, January 10, 1945 at 10.50pm) and Rory (b. Hollywood, California, March 12, 1947). Flynn was his usual self and the couple were divorced on July 7, 1949 in Nevada. The following year she married the singer Dick Haymes who had been married to Joanne Dru and would later marry Rita Hayworth. Nora divorced Haymes in 1953. Her third husband was Richard Black and by him she had one son, Kevin, who died when he was 10. Nora appeared in three films Unusual Occupations (1947), Adventures Of Don Juan (1948) and Cruise Of The Zaca (1952).
CAUSE: She died aged 77 of kidney failure in Los Angeles, California.
Nelson Eddy
Born June 29, 1901
Died March 6, 1967
‘The Singing Capon’. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, a descendant of 8th American President Martin Van Buren, blond baritone Eddy began his career as a boy soprano. In 1915 his parents separated and he went to live with his mother in Philadelphia. Needing to support the family, he left school and took a number of writing jobs before landing his first professional gig in 1922 in The Marriage Tax at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. His career blossomed and he took a number of jobs with various Philadelphia ensembles. He began appearing on radio from the late Twenties and in 1933 was offered a contract by RKO but preferred to sign for MGM. He made his film début in Broadway To Hollywood (1933) but his star didn’t shine brightly until he was teamed with Jeanette MacDonald in Naughty Marietta (1935). It was to be the first of eight films they would make together, during the course of which the duo became immensely popular; indeed, they were often referred to as ‘America’s Sweethearts’. He also sang with Eleanor Powell, Virginia Bruce and Ilona Massey. Following the end of his film career in 1947 Eddy began touring nightclubs. On January 19, 1939, Eddy married Ann Denitz Franklin (d. August 28, 1987). There were no children from the marriage.
CAUSE: On March 5, 1967, he suffered a stroke while appearing in the Blue Sails Room of the Sans Souci Hotel in Miami Beach. Taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, he died the next day aged 65. He was buried in Hollywood Memorial Park, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, California 90038.
Jimmy Edwards, DFC
Born March 23, 1920
Died July 7, 1988
Blusterer. Born in Barnes, Surrey, James Keith O’Neill Edwards was the eighth of nine children (last of five sons) of Professor Reginald Walter Kenneth Edwards, lecturer in Maths at King’s College, London. He was educated at St Paul’s Cathedral School, King’s College School and went up to St John’s College, Cambridge where he read history. He came to fame on the radio in the show Take It From Here in which he created the character of Pa Glum (later transferred to TV). To television viewers he was best known for his portrayal of the headmaster of Chiselbury School in the sitcom Whack-O! (from October 4, 1956). He was instantly recognisable by his enormous handlebar moustache (said to be 11” across and grown to hide facial scars suffered during World War II). He appeared in Murder At The Windmill (1948), Treasure Hunt (1952), Three Men In A Boat (1955), Bottoms Up! (1959, a Whack-O! spin-off), Nearly A Nasty Accident (1961), The Plank (1967) and others. He stood as a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party in the 1964 General Election in the Paddington North constituency. A homosexual, he married air hostess Valerie Seymour in 1958 but they divorced in 1969 when she discovered he was continuing to sleep with men (on honeymoon he had told her he was a reformed homosexual). In 1976 an Australian drag artist Ramon Douglas sold the story of his ten-year ‘loving relationship’ with Edwards.