Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: On April 3, 2002, Linda Lovelace was involved in a car crash in Denver, Colorado, and suffered massive internal injuries. She was taken off a life-support machine at Denver Health Medical Center on April 22, dying shortly afterwards. Her former husband, Larry Marchiano, was with their children at the hospital when she died. “Everyone might know her as something else, but we knew her as mum and as Linda,” he said. “We divorced five years ago, but she was still my best friend.” Ironically, Chuck Traynor died, from a heart attack, exactly three months after Linda Lovelace on July 22, 2002.

  FURTHER READING: Inside Linda Lovelace– Linda Lovelace (London: Heinrich Hanau, 1974); The Intimate Diary of Linda Lovelace– Linda Lovelace as told to Carl Wallin (London: Heinrich Hanau, 1976); Ordeal An Autobiography – Linda Lovelace with Mike McGrady (New York: Citadel Press, 1980); Out Of Bondage – Linda Lovelace with Mike McGrady (New York: Berkeley, 1986).

  Arthur Lowe

  Born September 22, 1915

  Died April 15, 1982

  Pompous character actor. Arthur Lowe was born in his maternal grandfather’s home in Spring View Terrace, Hayfield, Derbyshire, the only child of Arthur Lowe (b. Hayfield, Derbyshire, November 1888, d. Hayfield, Derbyshire, August 12, 1971 of a heart attack and chronic bronchitis) and Mary Annie, known as ‘Nan’, Ford (b. Hayfield, Derbyshire, June 1885, d. Dystleigh Grange, Disley, Derbyshire, December 25, 1981 from a stroke and bronchopneumonia). In 1916 the family moved to Manchester, where Big Arthur became a clerk on the railway at London Road station (now Manchester Piccadilly). Later that year, after the massacre at the Somme, he was called up. He returned to his family in 1918 but was stricken with chronic bronchitis caused by a German mustard gas attack. ‘Little Arthur’, as he was called to distinguish him from his father, began his education at Chapel Street Elementary Municipal School when he was four. He left in July 1927 and later went to Alma Park Central School in Levenshulme. Little Arthur wanted to join the Merchant Navy but was let down by his poor sight. He worked as a clerk in the cycling department of Brown Brothers at 261-273 Deansgate in Manchester. He was paid £2 10s for a 51-hour week. In February 1939 he joined the Territorial Army, as a cavalry trooper in the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry. His poor eyesight ensured he was never allowed near the front. In March 1946 he was demobbed and pursued his dream to be an actor. It was a dream that would come true. ‘Little Arthur’ was known to one generation as Leonard Swindley in Coronation Street (the only Weatherfield character ever to get his own spin-off series, Pardon The Expression), to another as Captain George Mainwaring in Dad’s Army, and to a third as the voice of the Mr Men. Arthur Lowe was a truly talented actor. He was always in demand for films, television and theatre. The pompous Captain Mainwaring, manager of Martins Bank in Walmington-on-Sea as well as leader of the Home Guard, was not too dissimilar to Arthur Lowe. Both believed things should be done just so and any deviation from this was wrong. They had another disturbing connection. They both had overpowering wives. Elizabeth Mainwaring never appeared on screen. Her footsteps were heard and her backside bearing heavily down on a bunk in the Mainwarings’ Anderson shelter was spotted in one episode. Joan Cooper did appear in Dad’s Army. She played Dolly, the sister of Private Godfrey. It was at Joan Cooper’s insistence that she was cast in the role. She was determined that Arthur Lowe should not appear in any performance in which a part wasn’t reserved for her. He was a brilliant character actor. She was a mediocre actress who should never have left rep. This was the reason why for the last ten years of his life when Arthur Lowe should have been reaping the benefits of his talent in Hollywood and earning a fortune he was touring crappy theatres starring in crappy plays that were not worthy of his talent. Only in this way could Joan be assured of a part in her husband’s personal and professional life. Joan Cooper (b. Birmingham, May 27, 1922) married Arthur Lowe in a register office in Robert Adam Street on January 10, 1948, after her divorce from her first husband, the Canadian actor Richard Gatehouse on December 23, 1947. They had married in Ripon Cathedral, North Yorkshire, in March 1941 and their son, David, was born five months later at her parents’ home, Penmore House, Hasland, Chesterfield. It was there in November 1943 that she gave birth to a daughter named Jane. Sadly, four months later, Jane contracted subacute bronchitis and died after choking on her own vomit. In 1946 Joan Gatehouse and Arthur Lowe began an affair – they slept together for the first time on June 13. On August 1, 1946 they moved in together. Nan Lowe did not take to her son’s girlfriend – she disapproved of adultery and thought Joan too posh and too much of a luvvie – and the animosity between the two women lasted until death. At the close of 1947 Joan Lowe became pregnant. She was still upset by the death of her daughter and induced a miscarriage by drinking lots of gin (mother’s ruin) and lying in a hot bath. The Lowes eventually had a son, Stephen, who was born at Queen Charlotte Hospital, Hammersmith on January 23, 1953 at 6pm, weighing 6lbs 12oz. Stephen later declared that he had been all but ignored by his parents and commented on his mother’s voracious sexual appetite. Apparently, Arthur Lowe had little or no desire to make love to his wife every night. It was not that he didn’t find her attractive. It was simply that his sex drive was nowhere near as high as hers. “If you’re not fucking me, who are you fucking?” she would shout before indulging in her second vice – booze. She consumed copious amounts of gin which usually set her off on another rant to her husband. The drinking sessions would get heavier and heavier until she passed out and he would wearily put her to bed before sitting on the edge, his head in his hands, wondering what to do next. His films included: London Belongs To Me (1948), Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949) as a journalist, The Green Man (1956), Stormy Crossing (1957), The Boy And The Bridge (1959), The Day They Robbed The Bank Of England (1960), This Sporting Life (1963) as Slomer, If… (1968) as Mr Kemp, Spring And Port Wine (1970) as Mr Aspinall, The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer (1970) as Ferret, Adolf Hitler – My Part In His Downfall (1972) as Major Drysdale, No Sex, Please – We’re British (1973) as Mr Bromley, O Lucky Man! (1973) as Mr Duff/Charlie Johnson/Dr Munda, Man About The House (1974) as Spiros, The Bawdy Adventures Of Tom Jones (1976) as Dr Thwackum, The Strange Case Of The End Of Civilisation As We Know It (1977) as William Watson, The Lady Vanishes (1979) as Charters and Sweet William (1980) as Captain Walton.

  CAUSE: In December 1981 and January 1982 he appeared at the Victoria Palace, London, in his first pantomime Mother Goose alongside Ian Lavender and John Inman. Naturally, a part was created for Joan – the invented character of the Queen of Gooseland. By this time he was suffering from narcolepsy and two male dancers stood by his side at all times to nudge him in case he fell asleep. In March 1982 Lowe presented an award at the BAFTAs but stumbled over his lines and mispronounced a surname. The audience, thinking it was an act, howled. On April 14 he went to BBC Radio Birmingham to record a morale-boosting broadcast as Captain Mainwaring for the troops sailing to free the Falkland Islands from the Argentine invaders. That afternoon he took part as usual in the matinee performance of R.C. Sheriff’s 1948 play Home At Seven at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham where he was playing bowler-hatted banker David Preston. At 5.30pm he collected egg and chips from the theatre’s canteen and went back to his dressing room to eat. At 6pm he suffered a stroke but Joan insisted that he had just fallen over and banged his head. Worried theatre staff insisted on calling an ambulance. Lowe was taken unconscious to the General Hospital, Birmingham. His wife told the theatre manager to clear Arthur’s dressing room and that night she acted opposite Lowe’s understudy Vyvian Hall, even though the theatre offered to cancel the performance. Joan Lowe went to the hospital after she had finished the play and was told that her husband had lost the use of one side of his body and would be paralysed if he recovered. At 5am the following morning Arthur Lowe died aged 66 without regaining consciousness. That night she went on with the performance without telling Stephen who heard the news on the wireless. For some reason when she registered his death, Joan Lowe told the regist
rar that her husband had been born in Cheshire. On April 22 Arthur Lowe was cremated at Sutton Coldfield Crematorium and his ashes scattered in the grounds. Fewer than a dozen people attended the service. His widow was not there because she was touring in Belfast. Why did Arthur Lowe stay with this cold woman? Why didn’t he leave her? Because he loved her. Because he loved her he did work that was beneath him. Ultimately, Arthur Lowe did not achieve the acting greatness that could have been his because he loved a drunken nymphomaniac and that is the greatest tragedy of all. He left £205,983. Joan Lowe died on July 1, 1989 from stomach cancer at 3 Chapel Road in Hayfield, Derbyshire, the last home of her in-laws.

  FURTHER READING: Arthur Lowe– Graham Lord (London: Orion, 2002).

  Myrna Loy

  (MYRNA ADELE WILLIAMS)

  Born August 2, 1905

  Died December 14, 1993

  ‘The Queen of Hollywood’. Born in Raidersburg, Montana, Myrna was the redheaded daughter of a cattleman who was the youngest ever person to be elected to the Montana State legislature. She harboured an ambition to be a dancer from an early age and fulfilled that dream when she was 12. After a brief stint as a model, six years later, she was in the chorus of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The 5́ 6˝ Myrna began her film career as the silent era was ending. She appeared usually as some kind of vamp or femme fatale and her ‘Oriental’ appearance led her to change her name to the more eastern Loy. Her films included: Pretty Ladies (1925), Sporting Life (1925), Ben-Hur (1925), The Caveman (1926), The Love Toy (1926), Exquisite Sinner (1926), Don Juan (1926) as Mai, When A Man Loves (1927), The Climbers (1927) as Countess Veya, The Jazz Singer (1927), The Girl From Chicago (1927) as Mary Carlton, Ham And Eggs At The Front (1927) as Fifi, What Price Beauty? (1928), A Girl In Every Port (1928), Pay As You Enter as Yvonne De Russo, Fancy Baggage (1929) as Myrna, The Desert Song (1929) as Azuri, The Black Watch as Yasmini, The Great Divide as Manuella, The Devil To Pay! as Susan Hale, Under A Texas Moon (1930) as Lolita Romero, Cock O’ The Walk (1930) as Narita, Bride Of The Regiment (1930) as Sophie, The Jazz Cinderella (1930) as Mildred Vane, Renegades (1930) as Eleanore, Rogue Of The Rio Grande (1930) as Carmita, The Truth About Youth (1930) as Kara, Transatlantic (1931) as Kay Graham, Skyline (1931) as Paula Lambert, Rebound (1931) as Evie Lawrence, The Naughty Flirt (1931) as Linda Gregory, A Connecticut Yankee (1931) as Morgan le Fay, Body And Soul (1931) as Alice Lester, Consolation Marriage (1931) as Elaine Brandon, Vanity Fair (1932) as Becky Sharp, The Wet Parade (1932) as Eileen Pinchon, Thirteen Women (1932) as Ursula Georgi, The Mask Of Fu Manchu (1932) as Fah Lo See, The Barbarian (1933) as Diana, Topaze (1933) as Coco, When Ladies Meet (1933) as Mary Howard and The Prizefighter And The Lady (1933) as Belle Mercer Morgan. Just when it seemed as if she had been typecast into playing a certain type of character, W.S. Van Dyke came along and cast her as Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). She was to appear in the Thin Man sequels as well: After The Thin Man (1936), Another Thin Man (1939), Shadow Of The Thin Man (1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) and Song Of The Thin Man (1947). Her other films included: Manhattan Melodrama (1934) as Eleanor Packer, Wings In The Dark (1935) as Sheila Mason, Petticoat Fever (1936) as Irene Campton, The Great Ziegfeld (1936) as Billie Burke, Libeled Lady (1936) as Connie Allenbury, Parnell (1937) as Katie O’Shea, Too Hot To Handle (1938) as Alma Harding, Test Pilot (1938) as Ann Barton, The Rains Came (1939) as Lady Edwina Esketh, Lucky Night (1939) as Cora Jordan Overton, I Love You Again (1940) as Kay Wilson and Love Crazy (1941) as Susan Ireland. As she got older her role became more maternal, in movies such as The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer (1947) as Judge Margaret Turner, Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) as Muriel Blandings, That Dangerous Age (1949) as Lady Cathy Brooke, Midnight Lace (1960) as Aunt Bea, The April Fools (1969) as Grace Greenlaw and Airport 1975 (1974) as Mrs Devaney. From 1949 until 1954 she was a film adviser to UNESCO. On screen she often played the part of a perfect wife, something that may have hindered her off screen where she married and divorced four times. Her husbands were: Arthur Hornblow, Jr (June 27, 1936–June 1, 1942), John Hertz, Jr (June 6, 1942–August 21, 1944), Gene Markey (January 1946–August 1950) and Howland H. Sergeant (June 2, 1951–May 31, 1960). In 1991 she was awarded a special Oscar, no doubt to make up for never having been even nominated.

  CAUSE: On November 1, 1993, she was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital, New York. She underwent surgery 43 days later but died on the operating table at 6.22pm. She was 88. She was cremated on December 18, 1993 and her ashes were buried at Forestvale Cemetery, Helena, Montana.

  Ernst Lubitsch

  Born January 28, 1892

  Died November 30, 1947

  Deft director. After working in films in his native Berlin both as an actor and director, Lubitsch left for Hollywood in 1922 at the invitation of Mary Pickford. Seven years later, he discovered Jeanette MacDonald, who was to say of him: “To me, great people are always simple and Ernst was the simplest man I ever knew. He had no flaw in his greatness, no chi chi, nor false vanity. On the set, he had a greatness of his art, but no ‘artiness’.” On February 4, 1935, 5́ 7˝ Lubitsch became Paramount’s production chief, the first time this had happened to a director. His films included: Fräulein Seifenschaum (1914), Der Letzte Anzug (1915), Blindekuh (1915), Das Schönste Geschenk (1916), Der Blusenkönig (1917), Das Mädel Vom Ballet (1918), Ein Fideles Gefängnis (1918), Rausch (1919), Die Puppe (1919), Meine Frau, Die Filmschauspielerin (1919), Ich Möchte Kein Mann Sein (1919), Madame DuBarry (1919), Anna Boleyn (1920), Romeo Und Julia Im Schnee (1920), Rosita (1923) which was his first American film, The Marriage Circle (1924), Three Women (1924), Forbidden Paradise (1924), Kiss Me Again (1925), Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925), The Love Parade (1929) which was his first talkie, Paramount On Parade (1930), Monte Carlo (1930), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), Trouble In Paradise (1932), If I Had A Million (1932), The Merry Widow (1934), Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938), Ninotchka (1939), To Be Or Not To Be (1942) and Heaven Can Wait (1943).