Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  CAUSE: Wanamaker died aged 74 from cancer in London.

  Warner Bros Albert

  (ALBERT EICHELBAUM)

  Born July 23, 1884

  Died November 26, 1967

  Harry

  (HARRY EICHELBAUM)

  Born December 12, 1881

  Died July 25, 1958

  Jack L.

  (JACK EICHELBAUM)

  Born August 2, 1892

  Died September 9, 1978

  Sam

  (SAM EICHELBAUM)

  Born August 10, 1887

  Died October 5, 1927

  The four brothers were four of the 12 children of Jewish Polish immigrants who arrived in Baltimore in 1883. The family drifted to and from Canada (Sam was born in Baltimore, Maryland, Jack was born in London, Ontario) before moving to Youngstown, Ohio. In 1903 the four brothers ventured into the entertainment business in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. Jack was a gifted singer and he kept the audience amused in the intervals. In 1905, adopting the name Warner, they moved into film production but soon had to sell. They tried again in 1912 and, after five years of hard work, succeeded with My Four Years In Germany (1917). They moved to Hollywood and opened a studio simply called Warner Bros. Sam was appointed CEO, Albert was Treasurer, Harry was President and Jack was in charge of production. The company established itself with the first talkie – The Jazz Singer (1927). The way Jack ran the company wasn’t to everyone’s taste. Humorist Wilson Mizner opined: “Working for Warner Bros is like fucking a porcupine. It’s a hundred pricks against one,” while actress Simone Signoret commented wryly, “He bore no grudge against those he had wronged.” Many saw Jack as a kind of Prince Philip of his day. When he met Madame Chiang Kai-Shek he told her he had forgotten to bring his laundry. In May 1956 Albert and Harry sold their interest in the studio, although Jack remained until 1967 before going independent.

  CAUSE: Sam died aged 40 (the day before The Jazz Singer opened in New York) of a sinus infection coupled with a brain abscess and pneumonia. Harry died aged 76 in Hollywood, California, of a cerebral occlusion. Albert died of natural causes aged 83. Jack succumbed to a pulmonary edema and inflammation of the heart in Los Angeles, California. He was 86.

  Jack Warner, OBE

  (HORACE JOHN WATERS)

  Born October 24, 1895

  Died May 24, 1981

  Dependable Brit. Born in Bromley, Kent, Warner was one of six children of an undertaker’s warehouseman. His sisters, Elsie and Doris, became famous on the radio as Gert and Daisy in the Thirties and Forties. For a time he studied to become a car engineer but left and found work with an undertaker in Balham. That didn’t suit him and in August 1913, aged 17, he travelled to France where he landed a job as a mechanic in Paris. The First World War saw him serving in the Royal Flying Corps and earning a meritorious service medal. After the war on March 31, 1919, he resumed his career as a mechanic and added racing driver to his CV. He was almost 40 before he made his acting début in the West End. He altered his surname to avoid charges of living off his more famous sisters. His film début came in Dummy Talks (1942). His fourth film was the one that gained him most notice. He played Mr Huggett in Holiday Camp (1947) opposite Kathleen Harrison as Mrs Huggett. The film spawned three sequels and a radio show. A brief role as PC George Dixon in The Blue Lamp (1949) led to the part that Warner immortalised on television in Dixon Of Dock Green from July 9, 1955, until May 1, 1976, when the realism of cop shows such as Z Cars and The Sweeney forced his final retirement as, no doubt, the oldest copper in the Met. In 1933 he married Muriel Winifred ‘Mollie’ Peters at St Mark’s Church, Albert Road, Regent’s Park, London. There were no children from the marriage.

  CAUSE: He suffered a stroke in 1980 that forced his retirement. He died from pneumonia following another stroke aged 85 in the Royal Masonic Hospital, Ravenscourt Park, London.

  FURTHER READING: ’Evening All – Jack Warner (London: Star, 1979).

  Ruth Warrick

  Born June 29, 1915

  Died January 15, 2005

  Soap matriarch. Born in St Joseph, Missouri, Ruth Warrick was educated at the University of Kansas City and moved to New York where she was hired by Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater. Welles hand-picked her to make her début playing Emily Monroe Norton Kane in 1941’s Citizen Kane. She made 19 films in the Forties such as Song Of The South (1946) as Sally but by the end of that decade she was nothing more than a supporting player. 5́ 6˝ Ruth Warrick moved from the big screen to the small and found a niche in soap operas. It was her portrayal of Phoebe Tyler Wallingford in All My Children (from 1970) that won her acclaim, two Emmy nominations and a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award. She was married four times. Her first husband (on April 15, 1938) was the actor Erik Rolf (b. Chicago, Illinois, June 1, 1911, d. San Diego County, California, May 28, 1957) by whom she had two children, Karen Elizabeth (b. March 13, 1941) and Jon (b. September 1942). They divorced in 1946. Her second marriage was to the actor Carl Neubert in 1949. In July 1953 she married Robert McNamara by whom she had a son, Timothy. Her fourth and final marriage was in 1975 to Jarvis Cushing.

  CAUSE: She died in Manhattan, New York, of complications from pneumonia. She was 89.

  Richard Warwick

  Born April 29, 1945

  Died December 16, 1997

  Rugged support. Born in Dartford, Kent, Warwick studied at RADA before making his film début in Lindsay Anderson’s if… (1968) as Wallace and then appeared in Romeo And Juliet (1968) as Gregory. It seemed as if his bid for stardom would succeed, then he appeared in the disastrous The Breaking Of Bumbo (1970) and his career never really recovered. His films included: Nicholas And Alexandra (1971) as Grand Duke Dimitry, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland (1972) as the Seven of Spades, Confessions Of A Pop Performer (1975) as Kipper, Sebastiane (1976), International Velvet (1978) as Tim, The Tempest (1979) as Antonio, a prisoner in Johnny Dangerously (1984), Hamlet (1990) as Bernardo, White Hunter, Black Heart (1990) as Basil Fields and Jane Eyre (1996) as John. He was unmarried.

  CAUSE: Warwick died of AIDS aged 52.

  Lew Wasserman

  Born March 15, 1913

  Died June 3, 2002

  MCA mogul. One of the most influential executives in Hollywood, Lewis Robert Wasserman developed his company MCA – Music Corporation of America – into a huge conglomerate encompassing all forms of media. Unlike his predecessors such as Jack Warner, Sam Goldwyn, Lew Grade or Louis B. Mayer, Wasserman preferred to keep a low profile and work behind the scenes. Wasserman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of orthodox Jewish-Russian immigrants. His father was a clerk and failed restaurateur. While attending Glenville High School, young Wasserman got a job as an usher at the Palace, a cinema in Cleveland, where he worked from 3pm until midnight. He later recalled, “It was usually 2am when I got home. Then I had to get up early enough to walk five miles to school.” It was the start of a work ethic that saw him working 16-hour days, seven days a week at MCA. Because his parents were too poor, Wasserman was unable to go on to further education. (In 1998 he gave $8.75 million for scholarships to the University of California at Los Angeles.) On leaving school in 1930 Wasserman began marketing for the Mayfair Casino, a Cleveland nightclub, where he met Jules Stein, an agent, who had created MCA six years earlier. Stein was impressed with the youngster and in 1936 Wasserman became MCA’s director of advertising and publicity at a salary of $60 a week. That year also saw him marry Edith Beckerman on July 5. They had one daughter, Lynne Kay. Wasserman began to look after the careers of stars such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Betty Grable, James Stewart and Jane Wyman. Wasserman negotiated with the studios to release actors from restrictive long-term contracts. However, he wasn’t necessarily kind to all his clientele. He told Shirley Temple she was “washed up”. She recalled, “I started to cry. ‘Here,’ he said, pushing a Kleenex box across the desk top. ‘Have one on me.’” In 1946 Wasserman had risen to become company president. At the start of the next decade he had increased the compan
y’s portfolio to include production. In 1959 he bought the Universal Pictures lot in North Hollywood, and, three years later, Universal Studios, with its parent company, Decca Records. It was at this time that MCA was the subject of a US Justice Department investigation for possible breach of the anti-trust laws. Wasserman avoided legal action by disbanding the talent agency but he also expanded the film and television production side, opened Universal Studios’ theme park, and invested in the musical side of the business. Wasserman also began to cultivate political contacts and became one of Hollywood’s most successful and in-demand political fund-raisers. A Democrat, he became a confidant of Presidents Johnson, Carter and Clinton. Yet he was also close to Ronald Reagan when the former B-movie actor occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Wasserman had been Reagan’s first agent in Hollywood, and the men were close friends. Under Wasserman, MCA was responsible for Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, Jurassic Park, ET The Extra Terrestrial and Schindler’s List. It also produced The Sting, Day Of The Jackal, Out Of Africa and American Graffiti. On the small screen Wasserman’s MCA made Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kojak, Miami Vice and Murder, She Wrote among others. It was Wasserman who pioneered the made-for-television movie and the mini-series. In 1990 MCA was sold to the Matsushita Corporation of Japan for $6.1 billion. Wasserman, although sidelined by his new bosses, stayed on as chief executive and was estimated to receive $30 million a year in dividends in return for his five million shares in the company. In 1995 the company was taken over by Seagram and Wasserman retired with the title chairman emeritus. By 1998, he was said to be worth $500 million. In 1995 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – America’s highest civilian honour – by Bill Clinton.

  CAUSE: Lew Wasserman died aged 89 at his home in Beverly Hills, California, of complications following a stroke. He is buried in Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 West Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles 90045.

  Richard Wattis

  Born February 25, 1912

  Died February 1, 1975

  Owlish prude. Although he was more often than not cast as an interfering busybody or supercilious prude, off screen Dicky Wattis was vastly different. Best remembered to television audiences as the snooty Mr Charles Fulbright Brown, next door neighbour to Eric and Hattie Sykes in the long-running sitcom, Sykes, he also appeared with Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier in The Prince And The Showgirl (1957). According to diarist Colin Clark, Marilyn kept her distance from Wattis because of his homosexuality. Clark goes on to recall that for most of the time he spent with Wattis all the actor “wanted to do was pick up some gorgeous hunk of a man”. Wattis was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, and following schooling in Birmingham and Worcestershire, he joined the family engineering firm before making his first stage appearance at the Royal Theatre, Brighton, in September 1935. His first West End performance came at the Aldwych on June 30, 1948, as Lord Seymour Sangate, MP, in Ambassador Extraordinary. He entered films in 1937 with A Yank At Oxford and became a stalwart British supporting actor in films such as The Happiest Days Of Your Life (1950) as Arnold Billings, Appointment With Venus (1951) as Carruthers, Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951), Top Secret (1952) as Barnes, Mother Riley Meets The Vampire (1952) as Police Constable Freddie, Colonel March Investigates (1952) as Cabot, The Importance Of Being Earnest (1952) as Seaton, Doctor In The House (1954), Hobson’s Choice (1954) as Albert Prosser, The Belles Of St Trinian’s (1954) as Manton Bassett, The Colditz Story (1955) as Richard Gordon, Blue Murder At St Trinian’s (1957) as Manton Bassett, The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness (1958) as Mr Muffin, Dentist On The Job (1961) as Macreedy, The Longest Day (1962), The V.I.P.s (1963) as Sanders, Carry On Spying (1964) as Cobley, Operation Crossbow (1965) as Sir Charles Sims, The Amorous Adventures Of Moll Flanders (1965), The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966) as Manton Bassett, Casino Royale (1967), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) as the sweet factory secretary, Monte Carlo Or Bust (1969) as the golf club secretary, Wonderwall: The Movie (1969) as Perkins, Games That Lovers Play (1970) as Mr Lothran and Confessions Of A Window Cleaner (1974) as Carole’s Father. He lived in unmarried splendour at 23 Cadogan Place, London SW 1.

  CAUSE: Dicky Wattis died of a heart attack, aged 62, in London.

  Carol Wayne

  Born September 6, 1942

  Died January 13, 1985

  Busty blonde beauty. Carol Wayne was born in Chicago, Illinois, the eldest of two acting sisters (sibling Nina Wayne [b. Chicago, Illinois, September 18, 1943] appeared in the television series Camp Runamuck). Carol and Nina began their careers as teenage skaters with the Ice Capades before becoming topless dancers in Las Vegas. Carol was very keen to showcase her 39C-24-35 figure. She made her film début in Gunn (1967) and followed that up with The Party (1968) as June Warren. In 1968 she made the first of her 101 appearances as the Matinee Lady for the Tea Time Movie on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Her other films included: a nurse in Scavenger Hunt (1979), Savannah Smiles (1982) as Doreen, Heartbreakers (1984) as Candy, which featured her first topless scene, and Surf II (1984) as Jocko’s mother. In February 1984 she posed nude for Playboy and claimed to have had an orgasm during the shoot. She was married three times. Her first marriage lasted less than a year. Husband number two was photographer Barry Finkelstein (who was previously married to Mary Travers of Peter, Paul & Mary) by whom she had a son, Alex (b. 1969). Husband number three was TV producer Burt Sugarman. They were divorced in 1980.

  CAUSE: On December 13, 1984, Carol filed for bankruptcy, listing her income as “$000.00”. On January 4, 1985, suffering from drink and cocaine problems, she flew to the exclusive Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo on Mexico’s Gold Coast to “clear her head”. Her companion was Edward Durston, a used car dealer from Los Angeles. However, on January 10, they missed their 7pm return flight. With no money, they had to book into the cheaper Playa de Santiago hotel. When they arrived, Carol screamed at Durston: “Why have you brought me to this dump?” She refused to get out of the taxi and go into reception. She stomped off, heading towards the beach while Durston took their luggage up to their room. Durston went to the bar and then left the hotel. At 2.30 the next morning he returned and asked if Carol “had showed up”. When told she hadn’t, Durston left and booked into another hotel, leaving town the next afternoon with Carol still missing. He left her luggage at the airport, saying she would collect it later. On January 13, 1985, her body was discovered floating in four feet of water three hundred yards from shore in Santiago Bay, Manzanillo. She was wearing a black jumpsuit, leather jacket and red shoes. An autopsy disclosed that she had drowned 36 to 48 hours earlier. No drugs or alcohol were found in her body. The local police chief wanted to know why Durston had left town so quickly, especially when it was disclosed that he was also the last person with TV personality Art Linkletter’s daughter, Diane, when she supposedly jumped out of her apartment window in Shoreham Towers, West Los Angeles, on October 4, 1969, after taking LSD. In 1990 Carol Wayne’s death was reinvestigated and labelled accidental. Carol couldn’t swim. The American Consulate opined: “I don’t think it was a drowning. A drowning yes, of course, but there’s more to it than that.”

  David Wayne

  (WAYNE MCMEEKAN)

  Born January 30, 1914

  Died February 9, 1995

  Reliable second lead. Born in Traverse City, Michigan, the son of an insurance executive, 5́ 7˝ Wayne’s mother died when he was four. Following a degree at Western Michigan University he became a statistician in Cleveland, Ohio. In his spare time he joined a local repertory company that specialised in the Bard. In 1941 he married Jane Gordon (d. 1993), by whom he had twin daughters Kearney and Melinda. He was turned down by the army and so became an ambulance driver in North Africa instead. On demob he was a hit on Broadway, earning praise from both Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller. He won a Tony for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for Finian’s Rainbow the first year they were presented for 1947. Seven years later he won a Best Actor in a Dramatic Role award for The Teahouse Of The August Moon. He made his
film début in Portrait Of Jennie (1948) as Gus O’Toole and also appeared, among other features, in Adam’s Rib (1949) as Kip Lurie, Stella (1950) as Carl Granger, M (1951) as Martin Harrow, As Young As You Feel (1951) as Joe Elliott, O. Henry’s Full House (1952) as Horace, We’re Not Married! (1952) as Jeff Norris, Down Among The Sheltering Palms (1953) as Lieutenant Carl Schmidt, How To Marry A Millionaire (1953) as Freddie Denmark, Tonight We Sing (1953) as Sol Hurok, Hell And High Water (1954) as Tugboat Walker, The Three Faces Of Eve (1957) as Ralph White, The Andromeda Strain (1971) as Dr Charles Burton, Huckleberry Finn (1974) as the Duke, The Front Page (1974) as Bensinger, The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975) as Colonel Clydesdale and The Fence (1994) as the foreman of the steel mill. On television he was best known as Inspector Richard Queen in Ellery Queen and the original Willard ‘Digger’ Barnes in Dallas.