Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: Elvis was found dead or close to death aged 42 at a house called Graceland, located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee 38116. He was pronounced dead at 3.30pm in Trauma Room 2 of Baptist Memorial Hospital. That much is certain. The pathologist who performed the autopsy announced Elvis had died of “cardiac arrhythmia”. Yet for years stories have circulated about how Elvis really died, including a report that 14 drugs were discovered in his corpse. One writer even suggested suicide, citing Elvis’ 1967 attempt, depression, tax bill, impotence, failing health and career as evidence for this supposition.

  FURTHER READING: My Life With Elvis – Becky Yancey & Cliff Lindecker (London: Mayflower, 1978); Elvis: Portrait Of A Friend – Marty Lacker, Patsy Lacker & Leslie S. Smith (New York: Bantam, 1980); Elvis – Albert Goldman (London: Penguin, 1982); Elvis And Gladys – Elaine Dundy (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985); Elvis And Me – Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (London: Century Hutchinson, 1985); Life With Elvis – David Stanley With David Wimbish (Bromley: Marc Europe, 1986); Are You Lonesome Tonight? The Untold Story Of Elvis Presley’s One True Love And The Child He Never Knew – Lucy De Barbin And Dary Matera (London: Century, 1987); Elvis And The Colonel – Dirk Vellenga With Mick Farren (New York: Dell, 1988); Elvis: His Life From A–Z – Fred L. Worth & Steve D. Tamerius (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1988); Priscilla, Elvis And Me – Michael Edwards (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1988); The Elvis Files: Was His Death Faked? – Gail Brewer-Giorgio (Lancaster: Impala Books, 1990); Elvis: The Last 24 Hours – Albert Goldman (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1991); The Death Of Elvis: What Really Happened – Charles C. Thompson II & James P. Cole (London: Orion, 1993); The Ultimate Elvis – Patricia Jobe Pierce (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994); Elvis Meets The Beatles – Chris Hutchins & Peter Thompson (London: Smith Gryphon, 1994); Last Train To Memphis: The Rise Of Elvis Presley – Peter Guralnick (London: Little, Brown, 1994); Down At The End Of Lonely Street: The Life And Death Of Elvis Presley – Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske (London: William Heinemann, 1997); Careless Love: The Unmaking Of Elvis Presley – Peter Guralnick (London: Little, Brown, 1999).

  Emeric Pressburger

  (IMRE JOSEF PRESSBURGER)

  Born December 5, 1902

  Died February 5, 1988

  One half of The Archers. Born at 3 St Peter’s Street, Miskolc, Hungary, Pressburger studied maths and engineering at the Universities of Prague and Stuttgart before the death of his father prevented him from continuing his studies. A move to Berlin in 1926 saw him work as a journalist and short story writer for films. He joined Ufa where his first screen credit emerged as Abschied (1930). He worked uncredited on Emil Und Die Detektive (1931). In Germany he changed his name to Emmerich and then moved to France and then London where he worked for Sir Alexander Korda. In London he changed his name once again, becoming Emeric. In 1938 he worked on The Challenge (1938) and that year also met his future collaborator Michael Powell. Their first projects were The Spy In Black (1939) and Contraband (1940). In 1943 they christened their partnership The Archers and established a logo of nine arrows hitting a target. Pressburger’s foreign eye helped The Archers’ films become fantastical and unique. In 1946 Pressburger became a British subject and a devoted fan of Arsenal. His and Powell’s films were not always appreciated by their contemporaries and they split after Ill Met By Moonlight (1956). They resumed their partnership briefly in 1972, working for the Children’s Film Foundation. After this, Pressburger virtually retired. He was married twice. Wife number one (1938–1941) was Agnes Anderson. His second wife was Gwynneth May Zillah ‘Wendy’ Greenbaum (née Orme) by whom he had two daughters, one of whom died in infancy. They married in 1947 and were divorced twice, once in Reno, Nevada, in 1953 and again in England in 1971.

  CAUSE: Pressburger died of bronchial pneumonia, aged 85, in Saxstead, Suffolk.

  Robert Preston

  (ROBERT PRESTON MESERVEY)

  Born June 8, 1918

  Died March 21, 1987

  Reliable B star. Born in Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, 6́ 1˝ Preston looked as if he was on the way to becoming a huge star when he was awarded a Paramount Pictures contract just two years after leaving school. He had made his professional début in a play directed by Tyrone Power’s mum. He never quite fulfilled his promise, seemingly happy to drift along until he won the part of Harold Hill in The Music Man on Broadway. It won him a Tony and made him a star. When the play was made into a film in 1962, Preston reprised his role and then shone in All The Way Home (1963) and Junior Bonner (1972) as Ace Bonner. A lull followed until the Eighties when Blake Edwards rescued Preston from obscurity and cast him in S.O.B. (1981) as Dr Irving Finegarten and in drag in Victor/Victoria (1982) as Toddy for which he was nominated for his only Oscar. He opined: “I was disappointed not to win. But actors never win in gay roles. The Academy pats you on the back with a nomination; it’s as if they’re saying, ‘How brave of you,’ and ‘Quite a stretch.’ But they can’t help wondering about you if you play the role too well …” On November 9, 1940, he married actress Catherine Craig (b. 1918), who survived him.

  CAUSE: He died aged 78 in Santa Barbara, California, from lung cancer.

  Marie Prevost

  (MARY BICKFORD DUNN)

  Born November 8, 1893

  Died January 21, 1937

  Beautiful coquette with a poor mental attitude. The 5́ 4˝ Marie Prevost began her showbiz life in 1916 as a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty and went on to make almost 100 films. She was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, and educated in Montreal in a convent before moving to Los Angeles. She worked as a typist for a legal firm for a brief while and then joined Sennett where she stayed for five years when she joined Universal. Her best films there were with Ernst Lubitsch: The Marriage Circle (1924) as Mizzi Stock, Three Women (1924) as Harriet and Kiss Me Again (1925) as LouLou Fleury. In 1926 she transferred to PDC where she starred in several bedroom farces such as Up In Mabel’s Room (1926) as Mabel Ainsworth and Getting Gertie’s Garter (1927) as Gertie Darling. She was married twice, the first time at 19, but both marriages ended in divorce.

  CAUSE: Marie made a successful transition to the talkies. Her problem wasn’t her voice, it was her weight. She went on a diet and eventually stopped eating altogether, resulting in her death due to extreme malnutrition, drug addiction and alcoholism at the age of 43. Her body lay undiscovered for two days at her home, 6230 Afton Place, Hollywood. Her pet dachshund howled continuously until she was found and had begun eating Marie’s arm and legs in a bid to survive.

  Dennis Price

  Born June 23, 1915

  Died October 6, 1973

  Devious-looking smoothie. Born in Ruscombe, Berkshire, Dennistoun John Franklin Rose Price was the son of a Brigadier-General and the official referee of the Supreme Court of Judicature. After education at Radley College and Worcester College, Oxford, he made his West End stage début on September 6, 1937, at the Queen’s Theatre as Green and Exton’s servant in Richard II. Two years later, he married and went on to father two daughters but his real first loves were men and alcohol. Invalided out of the army, he joined Noël Coward’s troupe and made his leading film début in A Canterbury Tale (1944). Price rose to become a leading figure in British films appearing in The Bad Lord Byron (1948), The Dancing Years (1948) and Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949). In 1950 he was divorced and his career went into a steep decline. On April 19, 1954, he tried to gas himself in his Egerton Gardens, Knightsbridge, home. The resulting publicity boosted his career and he appeared in Private’s Progress (1955), The Naked Truth (1957), I’m All Right, Jack (1959) and Tamahine (1963). In 1966 he fell into trouble with the Inland Revenue and did a bunk from his London home, 16 Curzon Street, W 1, to Sark. The following year he was declared bankrupt.

  CAUSE: Price died of cirrhosis of the liver at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey. He was 58.

  Vincent Price

  Born May 27, 1911

  Died October 25, 1993

  Horror gian
t. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Vincent Leonard Price made his name originally playing romantic leads on the West End and Broadway stages, yet it is his consummate portrayal of villains for which he is best known. He made his film début in Service De Luxe (1938) as Robert Wade and then went on to appear in a number of period dramas such as The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex (1939) as Sir Walter Raleigh, Tower Of London (1939) as the Duke of Clarence, Hudson’s Bay (1940) as King Charles II and Brigham Young – Frontiersman (1940) as Joseph Smith. He didn’t make a horror film until he was in his forties but then became synonymous with the genre. His films included: House Of Wax (1953) as Professor Henry Jarrod, The Fly (1958) as François Delambre, House On Haunted Hill (1958) as Frederick Loren, House of Usher (1960) as Roderick Usher, Pit And The Pendulum (1961) as Nicholas Medina, Tales Of Terror (1962) as Fortunato/Valdemar/ Locke, The Masque Of The Red Death (1964) as Prospero, The Tomb Of Ligeia (1965) as Verden Fell, Dr Goldfoot And The Bikini Machine (1965) as Dr Goldfoot, in which he sent up his image, Scream And Scream Again (1969) as Dr Browning, More Dead Than Alive (1969) as Dan Ruffalo, Cry Of The Banshee (1970) as Lord Edward Whitman, The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) as Dr Anton Phibes, Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972) as Dr Anton Phibes, Theatre Of Blood (1973) as Edward Lionheart, Journey Into Fear (1975) as Dervos, The Monster Club (1980) as Eramus and the fantastical Edward Scissorhands (1990) as the Inventor. To television viewers Price was probably best known as Egghead in the Sixties Batman series, while to music fans, he was the voice of the rap in Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit ‘Thriller’. Away from the screen Price was a talented cook and published several recipe books. He was married three times.

  CAUSE: He died of emphysema caused by lung cancer at 7.30pm, aged 82, at his home, 9255 Swallow Drive, Los Angeles, California 90069. Four days later, he was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea three miles from Santa Monica.

  Bryan Pringle

  Born January 19, 1935

  Died May 15, 2002

  Craggy-faced character actor. Born in Glascote, Staffordshire, the son of the Reverend Craster Pringle, Bryan Pringle did not get on well with his mother and was raised mostly by a family friend. Pringle was to become a household face if not a household name. Raised in Lancashire he was educated at St Bees, a public school in Cumbria where he was told by a master that he had better become an actor because he had no chance of attaining any O levels. Pringle took his advice and went to RADA where he won the Bancroft Gold Medal in 1954 and joined the Old Vic the following year where he stayed until 1957. He made his film début playing Jack in Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (1960). He often played policemen or soldiers. “I don’t particularly like playing nasty characters. I was just born with a face that nobody could think well of,” he once commented. He was a sergeant in The Challenge (1960) with Jayne Mansfield. He also appeared in HMS Defiant (1962) as Sergeant Kneebone, Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) as a driver, the ambitious milkman Austin in The Early Bird (1965) opposite Norman Wisdom, PC Bradford in Berserk! (1967) with Joan Crawford, Diamonds For Breakfast (1968) as a police sergeant, The Boy Friend (1971) as Percy Parkhill/Percy Browne, The Old Curiosity Shop (1975) as Mr Garland, Jabberwocky (1977) as a security guard, a waiter in Bullshot (1983), Brazil (1985), Jake in Drowning By Numbers (1988), a gatekeeper in Consuming Passions (1988), 3 Men And A Little Lady (1990) as an Englishman, American Friends (1991) as Haskell, Snow White: A Tale Of Terror (1997) as Father Gilbert and Stepan in All Forgotten (2000). He played Cheese and Egg in the sitcom The Dustbinmen (1969) and another policeman, Sergeant Flagg, in the sitcom The Growing Pains Of PC Penrose (1975). He was also Felix Norman, the pathologist, in the first Prime Suspect (1991). In 1958 he married Anne Jameson (who predeceased him in 1999) by whom he had one son, Craster, and one daughter, Kate.

  CAUSE: Pringle died in London, aged 67.

  Freddie Prinze

  (FREDERICK KARL PRUETZEL)

  Born June 22, 1954

  Died January 29, 1977

  Hispanic heartbreaker. Born at 4.09am weighing just over 9lb at St Claire’s Hospital, New York, Freddie Prinze was a bright young star in the firmament of American television. His starring vehicle, Chico & The Man, regularly topped the viewing charts. Despite his phenomenal success (he was a millionaire) Prinze was a deeply unhappy man whose only real solace came in the shape of his wife, Kathy, and infant son, Fred (b. March 9, 1976). He didn’t like having to live in California, preferring the grittier New York. It was not unusual for his telephone bill to run into thousands of dollars as he spent hours ringing his mother, Maria. He was even threatened by real-life Chicanos who believed the role in Chico & The Man should have gone to an authentic Mexican. Like many stars, Prinze developed an unfortunate liking for drugs. His habit caused the break-up of his marriage. At one stage he was taking up to 100 Quaaludes a day as well as sniffing enough cocaine to keep a Colombian drugs baron in luxury and drinking copious amounts of wine. Allegedly, he took so much cocaine, he burned a hole in his nose and had to ingest it anally. In January 1977 Prinze, living at 216/10300 Wilshire Boulevard, began divorce proceedings and attempted to kick drugs. He took up karate as a way of redirecting his energies. That same month he began an engagement at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, commuting between there and Los Angeles where he was filming Chico & The Man during the day. His producer, James Komack, warned Prinze that he was burning the candle at both ends, but the star swore he could manage the arduous schedule. He couldn’t and soon Prinze went to his doctor to ask for some Quaaludes to enable him to cope. Unsurprisingly, the medic said no, so Prinze simply bought them off a dealer on the street. Komack called Prinze into his office to offer his star any help he needed. Prinze was adamant that everything would be fine once his workload decreased but Komack was uncertain that this was the root of the problems. During a visit Komack noticed a gun in one of the drawers in Prinze’s house. He confiscated it but the next day Prinze rang to ask for its return saying he needed it for protection. Komack demurred but eventually relented, realising that Prinze could easily purchase a gun almost anywhere.

  CAUSE: At 865-75 Comstock, Beverly Hills, on January 28, 1977, Freddie Prinze fatally shot himself in the temple. He died at UCLA Medical Center, 10833 LeConte Avenue, Los Angeles, the next day at 1pm. He was just 22 years old. A note was found in his room that read: “I must end it. There’s no hope left. I’ll be at peace. No one had anything to do with this. My decision totally – Freddie Prinze P.S. I’m sorry. Forgive me. Dusty’s here. He’s innocent. He cared.” Dusty was Marvin ‘Dusty’ Snyder, Freddie’s business manager, who was in the same room when Prinze shot himself. In January 1983 his death was ruled an accident by a jury who concluded that he was acting under the influence of drugs and was not responsible for his actions. His life insurers paid out.