CAUSE: Steiger’s later life was marred by mental illness. The break-up of his marriages and heart surgery left him severely depressed for eight years. He would lie in bed, not speaking and not washing, and on two occasions contemplated suicide and murdering his wife. He died in Los Angeles, California, aged 77 of pneumonia and kidney failure.
Anna Sten
(ANNEL [ANJUSCHKA] STENSKAYA SUDAKEVICH)
Born December 3, 1908
Died November 12, 1993
‘Goldwyn’s Folly’. Born in Kiev, the beautiful daughter of a Ukrainian father and a Swedish mother, Sten began her working life as a waitress before making the transition to silent films including Zluta Knizka (1927) as Maria, Moskva V Oktyabre (1927) and Moj Syn (1928) as Olga Surina. She left to work in Germany where she was spotted by Samuel Goldwyn playing Gruschenka in Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931). He contacted her agent with a view to taking her to America in the hope she would be another Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo. The agent omitted to mention that Sten didn’t speak English. Goldwyn signed her anyway and then spent a fortune teaching her English, acting and deportment labelling her ‘The Passionate Peasant’. The public didn’t take to her and Goldwyn cancelled her contract after three films. She appeared in just over a dozen films in America, but also pursued a career as a painter. Her movies included: Nana (1934) as Nana, We Live Again (1934) as Katusha Maslova, A Woman Alone (1936) as Maria, Exile Express (1939) as Nadine Nikolas, So Ends Our Night (1941) as Lilo, They Came To Blow Up America (1943) as Frau Reiker, Chetniks (1943) as Lubitca Mihailovitch, Three Russian Girls (1944) as Natasha, Runaway Daughters (1956) as Ruth Barton and The Nun And The Sergeant (1962). She was married and divorced twice.
CAUSE: She died aged 84 from a heart attack in New York.
Sir Robert Stephens
Born July 14, 1931
Died November 12, 1995
Knight errant. Born in Bristol, Robert Graham Stephens was at one time considered the heir apparent to Lord Olivier but his departure from the National Theatre in 1970, the break-up of his marriage to Maggie Smith and his heavy drinking wrecked what was once a promising career. He dragged himself back from the brink in the Eighties, winning an Olivier Award in 1991. Married four times, the final time to long-term girlfriend Patricia Quinn 10 months before his death, his films included: War And Peace (1956), A Taste Of Honey (1961) as Peter, A Circle Of Deception (1961) as Captain Stein, Cleopatra (1963) as Germanicus, Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966) as Charles Napier, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) as Teddy Lloyd, The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970) as Sherlock Holmes, Travels With My Aunt (1972) as Mr Visconti, Luther (1973) as Johan Von Eck, Empire Of The Sun (1987) as Mr Lockwood, The Fruit Machine (1988) as Vincent, Henry V (1989) as Pistol, The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990) as Sir Gerald Moore, The Pope Must Die (1991) as Carmelengo, Chaplin (1992) as Ted and England My England (1995) as Dryden.
CAUSE: He died of liver failure in the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, north London, aged 64. He left less than £145,000.
Jan Sterling
(JANE STERLING ADRIANCE)
Born April 3, 1921
Died March 26, 2004
Thin star. Born in Manhattan, New York, 5́ 6˝ Jan Sterling never quite made the top echelon of stardom but she was a solid if svelte actress who could always be relied upon to give a good account of herself. Her parents separated when she was young and her mother took the family to Europe. She was educated in London and Paris and at 15 joined Fay Compton’s drama school in London. She stayed only a short while, and by the age of 17 she was treading the boards on Broadway in Bachelor Born, playing a young English lady. During the course of the next 11 years she cornered the Broadway market in playing Brits. When she was 21 she changed her name to Jan Sterling at the suggestion of Ruth Gordon whose first idea was Amethyst Adriance because “you should name yourself after a gem”. 35C-23-35 Sterling made her first film, Tycoon, in 1947 but it was her second outing playing Stella McCormick in Johnny Belinda (1948) that she shone. On stage she nearly always played docile young ladies but on screen she was cast, much to her delight, as slags, bitches and manipulators. She impressed in bad girl roles in Caged (1950) as Smoochie, Ace In The Hole (1951), Flesh And Fury (1952) as Sonya Bartow, The Human Jungle (1954) as Mary Abbot and Female On The Beach (1955) as Amy Rawlinson. She was also in Sky Full Of Moon (1952) as Dixie Delmar and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The High And The Mighty (1954) in which she played Sally McKee. She was twice married. Her first husband in 1941 was the actor John Merivale. They divorced in 1948. Her second husband was another actor, Paul Douglas, who she married in 1950. Her son Adams was born in 1955. He died in 2003. Following her husband’s death in 1959 she reappraised her career. In the Seventies she moved in with Sam Wanamaker and they were together at his death in 1993.
CAUSE: She died at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, following a series of strokes. She was 82.
Miroslava Stern
(MIROSLAVA STERNOVA)
Born February 26, 1926
Died March 10, 1955
Almost made it. Born in Prague, Miroslava was raised in Mexico, where her parents had emigrated in the early Thirties. She became a star in Mexican films, making her début as Beatriz in Cinco Rostros De Mujer (1946). After winning a beauty contest she moved to Hollywood, making her first American picture playing Linda de Calderon opposite Anthony Quinn in The Brave Bulls (1951). Her exotic look and accent limited her appeal and her only other major American film was Stranger On Horseback (1955) in which she appeared opposite Joel McCrea. She moved permanently to Mexico City and, in total, appeared in over 30 films.
CAUSE: Unlucky in love, she killed herself over a failed affair with bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin. She was 29.
Inger Stevens
(INGER STENSLAND)
Born October 18, 1933
Died April 30, 1970
Swedish siren. Born in Stockholm, the daughter of a professor, Inger was abandoned aged five when her mother ran off with another man. Inger was raised by an aunt and uncle while her father continued his academia. In 1946 she moved to America to stay with her father who was studying at Harvard. She knew just two words of English, ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, but was too shy to admit to her ignorance. Reunited with her father and a new stepmother, Swedish was banned at home. She finally learnt to speak English without an accent but ironically had to utilise a Swedish accent in the 1963 television show The Farmer’s Daughter in which she played Katy Holstrum. In 1949 the family moved to Manhattan, Kansas, but Inger was unhappy and left home, landing a job in burlesque. Her father brought her back home and she returned to school, where she studied drama. In 1951 she moved to New York and worked in a variety of jobs, including modelling, to support herself. She auditioned for and was accepted by Lee Strasberg’s Actors’ Studio. That led to her first acting job, playing a tired housewife in a television advertisement. She met Anthony Soglio who became her manager and lover and changed her name to Stevens. On July 1, 1955, they were married but separated within six months and divorced in 1958. However, Soglio continued to take 5 per cent of her salary until 1966 under the contract she signed with him. She made her film début in Man On Fire (1957) playing Nina Wylie opposite Bing Crosby. They began an affair but he broke her heart when he married Kathryn Grant in October 1957. Although Man On Fire won good reviews, it would be one of just four films she made in the Fifties. She lost out to Kim Novak for Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) and almost died playing Mrs Joan Molner in Cry Terror (1958) when a generator expelled noxious carbon monoxide fumes and she and 11 crew members were hospitalised. During filming of The Buccaneer (1958) in which she was Annette Claiborne she began a passionate affair with co-star Anthony Quinn; her affair with Crosby had turned her on to older men. During The World, The Flesh And The Devil (1959), in which she portrayed Sarah Crandall, she romanced Harry Belafonte. In December 1959 she moved back east. On New Year’s Eve of th
at year following a party, she attempted suicide by taking 25 sleeping pills and drinking half a bottle of ammonia. Her unconscious body was found three days later and she was rushed to Columbus Hospital; blood clots were found under her left lung, she was blind and her legs were swollen to four times their normal size with phlebitis. After a fortnight, her eyesight gradually returned. In June 1961 she barely escaped from a burning aeroplane that crashed at Lisbon. She was Emmy nominated in 1962 for The Price Of Tomatoes. She wouldn’t make another film until the hospital soap The New Interns (1964), in which she played Nancy Terman. That decade she appeared in Hang ’Em High (1967) as Rachel, A Guide For The Married Man (1967) as Ruth Manning, A Time For Killing (1967) as Emily Biddle, the cop drama Madigan (1968) as Julia Madigan, Firecreek (1968) as Evelyn Pittman, the Western 5 Card Stud (1968) as Lily Langford, the thriller House Of Cards (1968) as Anne and her last film A Dream Of Kings (1969) as Anna. She made what was to be her last television movie, Run, Simon, Run as Carroll Rennard, in 1970 opposite Burt Reynolds, with whom she fell in love. However, when the film finished so did the romance.
CAUSE: Inger’s body, clad in a negligee, was found face down in the kitchen of her home 8000 Woodrow Wilson Drive in the Hollywood Hills. She had taken Tedral washed down with alcohol and despite being rushed to Hollywood Receiving Hospital was pronounced dead on arrival at 10am. Following her death, it was revealed she had married black athlete-cum-producer Isaac Jones in Tijuana on November 18, 1961. She left no will and her body was cremated. She was 36.
James Stewart
Born May 20, 1908
Died July 2, 1997
Hollywood good guy. It is unusual for a man to live in Hollywood for so long and for no one to have a bad word to say about him. Such a man was the slow-speaking Jimmy Stewart. Born Indiana, Pennsylvania (population: 5,000), James Maitland Stewart was the eldest of three children; his mother played the organ at the local Presbyterian church. At Princeton University he studied architecture. It was film director Josh Logan who persuaded Stewart to give acting a try. As he struggled with bit parts on Broadway, Stewart shared a flat with Henry Fonda. When they ventured to Hollywood, they again shared a home. His first two roles were playing journalists. His wife in the second film was played by Margaret Sullavan, who later married Henry Fonda. The two actors later went their separate ways when divided by politics; Stewart was a staunch conservative. His early films included: After The Thin Man (1936) as David Graham, Rose-Marie (1936) as John Flower, Small Town Girl (1936) as Elmer, Speed (1936) as Terry Martin, Born To Dance (1936) as Ted Barker, Seventh Heaven (1937) as Chico, Of Human Hearts (1938) as Jason Wilkins, The Shopworn Angel as Private Bill Pettigrew, You Can’t Take It With You (1938) as Tony Kirby, It’s A Wonderful World as Guy Johnson, Mr Smith Goes To Washington (1939) as Jefferson Smith, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, Destry Rides Again (1939) as Thomas Jefferson Destry, The Philadelphia Story (1940) as Macaulay (Mike) Connor, which won him a Best Actor Oscar, and Ziegfeld Girl (1941) as Gilbert Young. During World War II he joined the air force and flew 20 missions over Germany, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross. (In 1968 he retired from Air Force Reserve with the rank of Brigadier General. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, only the second time this honour has been conferred on a reserve officer.) Following the end of hostilities, he returned to Hollywood with a vengeance. He was nominated for another Oscar for It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) as George Bailey and appeared in Call Northside 777 (1948) as P.J. McNeal, Rope (1948) as Rupert Cadell, Winchester ’73 (1950) as Lin McAdam, Harvey (1950) as Elwood P. Dowd, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, Broken Arrow (1950) as Tom Jeffords, No Highway (1951) as Theodore Honey, The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) as Buttons, Bend Of The River (1952) as Glyn McLyntock, Rear Window (1954) as L.B. ‘Jeff’ Jefferies, The Glenn Miller Story (1954) as Glenn Miller, The Far Country (1954) as Jeff Webster, The Man From Laramie (1955) as Will Lockhart, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) as Doctor Ben McKenna, The Spirit Of St Louis (1957) as Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Vertigo (1958) as John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson, Bell, Book And Candle (1958) as Shepherd Henderson, Anatomy Of A Murder (1959) as Paul Biegler, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) as Ransom Stoddard, Mr Hobbs Takes A Vacation (1962) as Roger Hobbs, How The West Was Won (1962) as Linus Rawlings, Cheyenne Autumn (1964) as Wyatt Earp, Shenandoah (1965) as Charlie Anderson, Dear Brigitte (1965) as Professor Robert Leaf, The Flight Of The Phoenix (1965) as Frank Towns, Bandolero! ( 1968) as Mace Bishop, The Shootist (1976) as Doctor Hostetler, Airport ’77 (1977) as Philip Stevens, The Magic Of Lassie (1978) as Clovis Mitchell and The Big Sleep (1978) as General Sternwood. For many years he was one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors. Lucille Ball once commented: “Jimmy Stewart is sort of square. Even in the early days he told me his idea of a romantic evening was soft lights, sweet music, champagne … no girl, just soft lights, sweet music and champagne.” He finally married divorcee Gloria Hatrick McLean (b. Larchmont, New York, 1918, d. 918 Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills, February 16, 1994 of lung cancer) on August 9, 1949, and was a devoted husband. They had four children: Ronald (b. June 22, 1944) and Michael (b. 1945) from his wife’s first marriage and non-identical twins, Kelly and Judy (b. May 7, 1951). Ronald was killed in Quang Tri province, Vietnam, on June 11, 1969, 11 days before his 25th birthday.
CAUSE: In December 1996 when the battery in his pacemaker was due to be changed, he told his children that he did not want the procedure carried out. Stewart simply lost the desire to live after the death of his beloved wife. On the last day of January 1997 he fell in his bedroom and gashed his head. Taken to St John’s Hospital, Santa Monica, he was given a dozen stitches. Not long afterwards, he was readmitted to hospital suffering from a blood clot in his right knee and an irregular heartbeat. He spent his last months in bed watching television, refusing visitors and waiting to die. The passing came in Beverly Hills at 11.05am with a heart attack. He was 89 years old. On July 7, 1997, he was laid to rest next to his beloved wife in Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks, 1712 South Glendale Avenue, Glendale, California 91209. A 21-gun salute was fired in recognition of his war service. In October 1997 his house was bought for $5.6 million and razed to the ground.
FURTHER READING: Everybody’s Man: A Biography Of Jimmy Stewart – Jhan Robbins (London: Robson Books, 1985); James Stewart: A Biography – Donald Dewey (Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1996).
Lee Strasberg
(ISRAEL STRASSBERG)
Born November 17, 1901
Died February 17, 1982
Methodologist. Born in Budzanów, Austria-Hungary, and raised in New York from the age of seven, Strasberg’s reputation has become polarised. He is either demonised or worshipped. From 1948 he ran the infamous Actors’ Studio in New York and numbered some of Hollywood’s greats under his patronage, including Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Robert De Niro, James Dean, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Julie Harris, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton and Rod Steiger. The ‘Method’ required actors to dredge up personal feelings in order to play a role. Some believed in it wholeheartedly; others, such as Laurence Olivier, dismissed it. Strasberg once opined that he had taught two great acting talents: Marilyn Monroe and Brando. When Marilyn married Arthur Miller it was Strasberg who gave the bride away. Six years later, he delivered the eulogy at her funeral. He turned to acting in later life, appearing in The Godfather: Part II (1974) as Hyman Roth, for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, The Cassandra Crossing (1976) as Herman Kaplan, Going In Style (1979) as Willie, Boardwalk (1979) as David Rosen, and … And Justice For All (1979) as Grandpa Sam. He was thrice married: firstly, to Nora Z. Krecaun, then to Paula Miller (b. 1911, d. April 1966 of heart failure exacerbated by cancer) by whom he had two children, Susan and John (b. May 20, 1941), and then to Anna Mizrahi, who survived him.
CAUSE: He died in New York aged 80 of natural causes.
Susan Strasberg
Born Ma
y 22, 1938
Died January 21, 1999
Acting scion. Born in Sydenham Hospital, New York, at midday Susan Elizabeth Strasberg was the daughter of Method acting guru Lee Strasberg. She made her name in the 1955 Broadway production of The Diary Of Anne Frank. However, the Sixties were not kind to her and she faded from view during the decade. She wrote two volumes of memoirs, Bittersweet and Marilyn & Me. Among Strasberg’s films were In Praise Of Older Women (1978) in which she bared her breasts, Rollercoaster (1986) and The Delta Force (1989). On September 25, 1965, in Las Vegas she married Christopher Jones and their daughter, Jennifer Robin, was born six months later on March 14, 1966, at 4.43pm.
CAUSE: She died in New York, New York, of breast cancer. She was 60.
FURTHER READING: Bittersweet– Susan Strasberg (New York: Signet, 1980); Marilyn & Me– Susan Strasberg (London: Doubleday, 1992).
Dorothy Stratten
(DOROTHY RUTH HOOGSTRATEN)
Born February 28, 1960
Died August 14, 1980
The Unicorn. Blonde and beautiful 5́ 9˝ Dorothy Stratten was born in a Salvation Army Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and was working as a waitress at a snack bar when she was spotted by a pimp and small-time hustler called Paul Leslie Snider (b. April 15, 1951) in October 1977. Four months later, after a fight with her first boyfriend she began seeing Snider. He persuaded her to pose nude for him and, in August 1978, after forging her mother Nellie’s signature on the model release, sent her pictures to Playboy for the magazine’s 25th Anniversary Playmate Contest. The magazine was impressed and offered 36-24-36 Dorothy a pictorial. Snider saw the opportunity to make some money and he persuaded Dorothy to marry him at the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas on June 1, 1979. She was an instant hit at Playboy Inc., becoming Miss August of 1979 and later Playmate of The Year. She also moved into the Playboy Mansion. Snider used the money she had earned ($200,000 as Playmate of the Year) to finance several unsuccessful business ventures. Soon afterwards she and Snider split up and Dorothy became involved with film director Peter Bogdanovich, moving into his house at 212 Copa de Oro, Bel Air. Snider, insane with jealousy, hired a private detective to follow his estranged wife. She had been cast in a number of films including Autumn Born (1979), Skatetown USA (1979), Galaxina (1980), and Bogdanovich’s They All Laughed (1981) and looked to become Playboy’s first superstar. It was not to be. Two films professed to tell the story of Dorothy Stratten – Death Of A Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981) and Star 80 (1983), which was filmed in the actual apartment in which Dorothy died.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 164
