Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: On May 28, 1971, Murphy, 46, and four executives from the prefab company took off from Atlanta, Georgia. A storm blew up and at 11.40am the pilot, Herman Butler, flew the plane into the side of a mountain. All six people aboard were killed but their bodies were not found for three days because of poor weather conditions. On June 7, Murphy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

  FURTHER READING: Hero: The Life And Death Of Audie Murphy – Charles Whiting (New York: Jove, 1991).

  Timothy Patrick Murphy

  Born November 3, 1959

  Died December 6, 1988

  Handsome tragedian. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Timothy Patrick Murphy looked to be destined for a long career. He made his début in the mini-series Centennial (1978) playing Christian. His devastating good looks proved attractive to women but off screen Murphy’s desires lay with men. A closeted homosexual, he was Spences Langley in the soap opera Search For Tomorrow from 1980 until 1981. The following year he signed to play Mickey Trotter, Ray Krebs’ cousin, in the glossy soap Dallas. A hit with viewers, Mickey wooed and won Lucy Ewing but Murphy decided he wanted to leave. He was written out when his character was involved in a car crash trying to prevent a drunken Sue Ellen from driving off Southfork. He played Chip Craddock in another soap Glitter. He played Gene Orowitz in the film Sam’s Son (1984) and Jeff Richmond in Doin’ Time On Planet Earth (1988) before illness forced his retirement.

  CAUSE: He died aged 29 in Sherman Oaks, California, from AIDS.

  N

  J. Carrol Naish

  Born January 21, 1897

  Died January 24, 1973

  Versatility personified. Born in New York, the thin, moustachioed 5́9½˝ Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish (pronounced Nash) was the great-great grandson of a former Irish Lord Chancellor but the family had fallen on hard times by Naish’s childhood and he was raised in a poor area of Yorkville-Harlem. He joined the navy aged 16 and then served in the Army Signal Corps during World War I. After making a few films he decided his future belonged on the Great White Way and headed east. Having established his reputation on Broadway he returned to Hollywood as something of a name. Despite his Gaelic background he found himself called upon to play all sorts of ethnic roles, including that of Chinese detective Charlie Chan in the TV series The New Adventures Of Charlie Chan (syndicated from June 1957) and Luigi Basco, an Italian immigrant, in the CBS sitcom Life With Luigi (from September 22, 1952, until June 4, 1973). His films included: Good Intentions (1930) as Charlie Hattrick, Scotland Yard (1930) as Dr Remur, Homicide Squad (1931) as Hugo, Tiger Shark (1932) as Tony, No Living Witness (1932) as Nick, It’s Tough To Be Famous (1932) as Lieutenant Blake, The Hatchet Man (1932) as Sun Yat Ming, Two Seconds as Tony, Crooner (1932) as Meyers, The World Gone Mad (1933) as Ramon Salvadore, Frisco Jenny (1933) as Harris, Elmer The Great (1933) as Jerry, Captured! (1933) as Guarand, Blood Money (1933) as Charley, Ann Vickers (1933) as Dr Sorell, Silent Men as Jack Wilder, Notorious But Nice (1933) as Joe Charney, What’s Your Racket? (1934) as Dick Graves, Return Of The Terror (1934) as Steve Scola, One Is Guilty (1934) as Jack Allan, Little Big Shot (1935) as Bert, The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer (1935) as Grand Vizier, Under The Pampas Moon (1935) as Tito, Front Page Woman (1935) as Robert Cardoza, Captain Blood (1935) as Cahusac, We Who Are About To Die (1936) as Nick, The Return Of Jimmy Valentine (1936) as Tony Scapelli, The Robin Hood Of El Dorado (1936) as Three-Fingered Jack, Anthony Adverse (1936) as Major Doumet, Charlie Chan At The Circus (1936) as Tom Holt, Ramona (1936) as Juan Can, The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1936) as Subahdar-Major Puran Singh, Crack-Up (1936) as Operative #77, Think Fast, Mr Moto (1937) as Adram, Daughter Of Shanghai (1937) as Frank Barden, Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937) as Mikhail Valdin, Illegal Traffic (1938) as Lewis Zomar, Her Jungle Love (1938) as Kuasa, Bulldog Drummond In Africa as Richard Lane, Beau Geste as Rasinoff, The Corsican Brothers (1941) as Lorenzo, Blood And Sand (1941) as Garabato, That Night In Rio as Machado, Dr Renault’s Secret as Noel, Gung Ho! (1943) as Lieutenant C.J. Cristoforos, Sahara as war prisoner Giuseppe, for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, Waterfront as Dr Carl Decker, Enter Arsene Lupin (1944) as Ganimard, House Of Frankenstein (1944) as Daniel, A Medal For Benny (1945) as Charley Martin, for which he was again nominated for an Oscar, Getting Gertie’s Garter (1945) as Charles, The Beast With Five Fingers (1946) as Ovidio Castanio, Humoresque (1946) as Rudy Boray, Joan Of Arc (1948) as Count John of Luxembourg, That Midnight Kiss (1949) as Papa Donnetti, Annie Get Your Gun (1950) as Chief Sitting Bull, Rio Grande (1950) as General Philip Sheridan, Denver And Rio Grande (1952) as Gil Harkness, Saskatchewan (1954) as Batouche, Sitting Bull (1954) as Sitting Bull, Desert Sands (1955) as Sergeant Diepel and Force Of Impulse (1961) as Antonio Marino.

  CAUSE: Three days after his 76th birthday, he died in La Jolla, California, of emphysema.

  Nita Naldi

  (ANITA DONNA DOOLEY)

  Born April 1, 1897

  Died February 17, 1961

  Silent vamp. Born in New York she appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies and worked in a couple of films before finding stardom as Miss Gina opposite John Barrymore in Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde (1920). Her star was in the ascendant and was enhanced by performances in The Last Door (1921) where she played a widow, A Divorce of Convenience (1921) as Tula Moliana and Experience (1921) as Temptation. She hit the pantheon of stardom with Blood And Sand (1922) as Doña Sol opposite Rudolph Valentino. The public went wild over Valentino, Naldi and the film which was really the last silent epic. Unfortunately, as many discover, when you reach the top there is only one way to go. Naldi’s next films were disappointing. Then she was cast as Sally Lung in Cecil B. DeMille’s first version of The Ten Commandments (1923). The advent of sound revealed her strong New York accent and she retired from making films after What Price Beauty? (1928) in which she played Rita Rinaldi. She began appearing on stage and in television.

  CAUSE: She died in New York from a heart attack in her room at the Wentworth Hotel and was interred in Calvary Cemetery, 4902 Laurel Hill Boulevard, Woodside, New York 11377. She was 64.

  Namu

  Died July 1966

  The first whale star. Namu was the first killer whale to become a movie star when he appeared in his own biopic, Namu The Killer Whale (1966). Namu was so friendly and intelligent that his keepers saw fit to finally set him free. The movie Free Willy (1993) was based on Namu’s tale.

  CAUSE: He drowned in Seattle, Washington.

  Alan Napier

  (ALAN NAPIER-CLAVERING)

  Born January 7, 1903

  Died August 8, 1988

  Holy domestic help! Born in Birmingham, England, he began his career in films in 1930 playing governors, generals and counts before moving to America in 1939 where he appeared in over 70 films. Yet it was his portrayal of Batman’s faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth, in both the classic camp Sixties TV series and the 1966 spin-off film Batman, that made 6́ 5˝ Napier famous. He was the first member of the cast to be assigned a role, although prior to casting he had never heard of Batman because he never read comics as a child. He was swayed into being the butler by his agent’s offer of $100,000. Napier’s films included The Invisible Man Returns (1940) as Willie Spears, A Yank At Eton (1942) as the Restaurateur, Cat People (1942) as Doc Carver, Random Harvest (1942) as Julian, Lassie Come Home (1943) as Jock, Madame Curie (1943) as Doctor Bladh, The Song Of Bernadette (1943) as Dr DuBeau, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) as Mr Parker, Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) as Count de Breville, Hangover Square (1945) as Sir Henry Chapman, Sinbad The Sailor (1947) as Aga, Lured (1947) as Inspector Gordon, Forever Amber (1947) as Landale, High Conquest as Thomas, Macbeth (1948), Johnny Belinda (1948), Joan Of Arc as Earl of Warwick, Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949) as Douglas Jessup, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court (1949), Challenge To Lassie (1949) as Lord Provost, Tarzan’s Peril (1951) as Mr Peters, Young Bess (1953) as Robert Tyrwhitt, Julius Caesar (1953) as Cicero, Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1959) as Dean, Tender I
s The Night (1962) as Pardo and Marnie (1964) as Mr Rutland.

  CAUSE: He died of a stroke in Santa Monica, California. He was 85. His wife predeceased him and he was survived by a daughter, a stepdaughter and three grandchildren.

  Clarence Nash

  Born September 22, 1904

  Died February 20, 1985

  Absolutely quackers. Oklahoma-born Clarence Nash’s talents were used in over 160 films yet he was able to walk down the street totally unrecognised. When his parents moved to California he met Walt Disney and showed the cartoonmeister his repertoire of animal sounds. Disney hired him and from June 9, 1934, Clarence Nash was the voice of Donald Duck. He also provided Donald’s voice speaking phonetically in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish as well as the voices of Huey, Dewey and Louie and Donald’s girlfriend Daisy. It could all have been so different for Nash as he once recalled: “I wanted to be a doctor and ended up the biggest quack in the world.”

  CAUSE: He died of leukaemia aged 80 in Burbank, California. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

  Mildred Natwick

  Born June 19, 1905

  Died October 25, 1994

  Bird-like eccentric. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she graduated from Bryn Mawr and made her first appearance on stage as an amateur in The Playboy Of The Western World in 1929 at the Vagabond Theater in her home city. Her professional début didn’t come for another three years, when she appeared as Mrs Noble in Carry Nation at the Biltmore, New York, on October 29, 1932. On May 12, 1933, came her London début as Aunt Mabel in The Day I Forgot at the Globe Theatre. She didn’t make a film until she was in her mid-thirties and even then seemed to prefer the intimacy of the stage. Her films included: The Long Voyage Home (1940) as Freda, Yolanda And The Thief (1945) as Aunt Amarilla, 3 Godfathers (1948), She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) as Mrs Allshard, Cheaper By the Dozen (1950) as Mrs Mebane, Against All Flags (1952) as Molvina MacGregor, Teenage Rebel (1956) as Grace Hewitt, Tammy And The Bachelor (1957) as Aunt Renie, Barefoot In The Park (1967) as Mrs Ethel Banks, reprising a role she had played on Broadway and for which she was nominated for an Oscar, If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) as Jenny Grant, Daisy Miller (1974) as Mrs Costello, At Long Last Love (1975) as Mabel Pritchard and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) as Madame De Rosemonde. Television fame came late to her as one half of a pair of geriatric mystery writers who had a tendency to solve crimes. The Snoop Sisters aired on NBC from December 19, 1973, until August 20, 1974, and on ITV from January 24, 1974. Mildred Natwick was Gwendolyn Snoop while Helen Hayes played Ernesta Snoop. Natwick was a lesbian and never married.

  CAUSE: She died in New York aged 89 of natural causes.

  Alla Nazimova

  (ALLA LAVENDERA)

  Born May 22, 1879

  Died July 13, 1945

  ‘Woman of 1000 Moods’. Despite her talents as a violinist and actress it is as Hollywood’s most exotic lesbian that Nazimova is known. Born in Yalta in the Crimea, she was educated at the St Petersburg Conservatory and then studied under Stanislavski before arriving in the early days of Hollywood. She appeared in just over 20 films including her début War Brides (1916) as Joan, Revelation (1918) as Joline, Eye For Eye (1918) as Hassouna, the title role in The Brat (1919), Billions (1920) as Princess Triloff, Camille (1921) as Marguerite, A Doll’s House (1922) as Nora Helmer, the title role in Salome (1923) in which she hired only homosexual actors in a ‘homage’ to Oscar Wilde, The Redeeming Sin (1925) as Joan and My Son (1925) as Ana Silva, after which she retired from the screen to embrace the theatre. She returned to films 15 years later in Escape (1940) as Emmy Ritter and followed that up with Blood And Sand (1941) as a memorable Senora Augustias, Tyrone Power’s mother, The Song Of Bernadette (1943), In Our Time (1944) as Zofya Orvid, The Bridge Of San Luis Rey (1944) as The Marquesa and Since You Went Away (1944) as Zosia Koslowska. Nazimova was a very close friend of actress Edith P. Luckett (b. Washington, DC, July 16, 1888, d. Arizona, October 26, 1987, of Alzheimer’s disease) and became godmother to her daughter, who grew up to be Nancy Reagan (b. New York, July 6, 1921). She also introduced Rudolph Valentino to his two wives, both members of Nazimova’s lesbian coterie. Nazimova founded what was to become a playground of debauchery in Hollywood. The notorious Garden of Allah opened on January 9, 1927, and was located at 8152 Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights Boulevard. The hotel collection of 25 bungalows was frequented by Tallulah Bankhead, Bogie and Bacall, Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Errol Flynn and so many writers it was dubbed the “Algonquin Round Table West”. The swimming pool was built in the shape of the Black Sea in homage to Nazimova’s origins. The place began to lose some of its magic in the Forties and by the following decade most of the inhabitants were prostitutes and their clientele. It was demolished in 1959 to make way for the Great Western Bank. Despite her sexual proclivities, Nazimova married twice: in 1904 she wed Russian actor Paul Orleneff. On December 5, 1912, she married actor Charles Bryant in her New York home, only to discover the marriage wasn’t legal because Orleneff hadn’t granted her a divorce. She lived with Bryant as his common-law wife until 1925.

  CAUSE: Nazimova died of a coronary thrombosis in Los Angeles, California, aged 76.

  Dame Anna Neagle

  (FLORENCE MARJORIE ROBERTSON)

  Born October 20, 1904

  Died June 3, 1986

  ‘Queen of the British Cinema’. Born in Forest Gate, Essex, the only daughter in a family of three children, she studied to be a dancer and made her first appearance on stage as a dancer in December 1917 at the Ambassadors’ Theatre. She worked continuously in the theatre, making her Broadway début at the Selwyn Theater on December 30, 1929, as a dancer in Wake Up And Dream. The following year she changed her name to Anna Neagle (her mother’s maiden name) and made her first film, The Chinese Bungalow (1931) as Charlotte. Two years later, she appeared as Viki in Goodnight Vienna (1932), a film directed by the man who would share her personal and professional life for the next 45 years, Herbert Wilcox. Playing the title role in Nell Gwyn (1934) made her a star and she became associated with historical biopics such as Peg Of Old Drury (1935) in which she played Peg Woffington and Victoria The Great (1937), playing Queen Victoria, a role she reprised in Sixty Glorious Years (1938). A 1939 foray to America saw her in four pictures for RKO: Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) as Edith Cavell, No, No, Nanette (1940) as Nanette, Irene (1940) as Irene O’Dare and Sunny (1941) as Sunny Sullivan. Back in England she returned to the biopic and played aviatrix Amy Johnson in They Flew Alone (1941). Following the end of hostilities Neagle’s films became less concerned with history and dealt more with light entertainment escapism. She appeared regularly on the London stage. However, in 1950 she returned to real-life roles, taking on the part of World War II heroine Odette Hallowes in the film Odette. The following year she played Florence Nightingale in The Lady With A Lamp (1951). Her last film, The Lady Is A Square (1958) in which she played Frances Baring and which she also produced, was a flop and thereafter she turned her attention to the stage. On August 9, 1943, she married Herbert Sydney Wilcox, CBE (b. Cork, Ireland, April 19, 1892, d. London, May 15, 1977) at Caxton Hall Registry Office, Westminster. There were no children. Noël Coward recalled: “I have just finished reading an autobiography by Herbert Wilcox called Twenty-Five Thousand Sunsets. It is curiously endearing. His unquestioning adoration of Anna shines through every page. You would think, from reading it, that dear Anna is the greatest actress, singer and dancer and glamorous star who ever graced the stage and screen. The fact that this is not strictly accurate never for a split second occurs to him.”

  CAUSE: She died of breast cancer in a nursing home, Clare House, in Oakcroft Road, West Byfleet, Woking, Surrey. She was 81. Dame Anna was buried in the City of London Cemetery in Manor Park. She left £151,267.

  Robin Nedwell

  Born September 27, 1946

  Died February 1, 1999

  The young doctor. Born in Birmingham, the son of a commer
cial traveller, Robin Nedwell moved to Cardiff at an early age and was educated at Monkton and Canton High Schools in the city. He joined the Welsh Theatre Company and then trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He became famous for playing Dr Duncan Waring in the innumerable Doctor programmes although he only took the lead role after Barry Evans (who was also to die young) left the series. Nedwell appeared in Doctor In The House (July 12, 1969–July 3, 1970) as Waring and reprised the part in Doctor In Charge (April 9, 1972–December 29, 1973), Doctor At Sea (April 21–July 14, 1974), Doctor On The Go (April 27, 1975– April 10, 1977), Doctor Down Under (February 5, 1979–May 10, 1980) and Doctor At The Top (February 21–April 4 1991). Nedwell’s film work included: The Vault Of Horror (1973) as Tom, Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977) as Lieutenant Grainger, The Shillingbury Blowers (1980) as Peter Higgins and A Slice Of Life (1983) as Toby. Other television work included: The Upchat Connection (October 24–December 5, 1978) as ‘Mike Upchat’ taking over when John Alderton refused to make a second series, West End Tales (February 16–April 6, 1981) as Fiddler, Shillingbury Tales (May 17–June 21, 1981) as Peter Higgins, The Zany Adventures Of Robin Hood (1984) as Will Scarlett and Cluedo (1990) as Reverend Green. He married Heather Inglis in 1982 and they had one daughter, Amie. His hobbies included collecting swords and Japanese armour.