CAUSE: Whale’s penchant was for young men and David Lewis was in his forties when Whale’s retirement was forced upon him. Too old, far too old. Lewis joined the air force during the Second World War leaving Whale alone and lonely. To combat the solitude, Whale directed a half-hour army training film in 1942. He travelled to Paris where he met a 25-year-old called Pierre Foegel. Whale was taken with the young man and hired him as his chauffeur. The two men lived together in America from January to June 1953 when he went back to France. Whale asked Lewis to move out to make room for Foegel. In January 1954 he moved to America permanently. In late 1956 Whale suffered a stroke and was admitted to St John’s Hospital where, remarkably, he was treated for a nervous breakdown and given electric shock treatment. Allowed home in the spring of 1957, on Memorial Day, he gave his nurse the day off. He dressed and went to his studio in the garden where he wrote a long note. It ended: “The future is just old age and pain. Goodbye all and thank you all for your love. I must have peace and this is the only way.” Shortly before 1pm Whale threw himself into the shallow end of his pool and struck his head. Foegel showed the note to David Lewis who kept it a secret for 30 years until his own death. Suicide and homosexuality was too much to be revealed. James Whale was cremated on June 6 (death certificate; other sources say June 3) at the Kingsley and Gates Mortuary Chapel, South Sepulveda Boulevard. His ashes were interred in plot 20076 of the Great Mausoleum in Forest Lawn, Glendale, California. He left more than $600,000. On his bedside table he had left a book. In his films and life Whale had often displayed a sardonic sense of humour. The book was called Don’t Go Near The Water.
FURTHER READING: James Whale: A Biography – Mark Gatiss (London: Cassell, 1995).
Carol White
Born April 1, 1943
Died September 16, 1991
British blonde bombshell. Born in Hammersmith, London, at 12.06am, Carole Joan White was named after the actress Carole Lombard but dropped the ‘e’ because Carol White was symmetrical with ten letters. She attended the famous Corona Stage School. Her portrayal in the BBC plays of a good-time girl in Up The Junction (1965) and of a homeless, single mother in Cathy Come Home (1966) won her numerous critical plaudits. She was later fêted for her performance in the West End play Steaming in 1981 but by that time successes were few and far between. She fell into a downward spiral resulting in alcoholism, drug addiction, a conviction for shoplifting, various attempts at suicide, three marriages, numerous affairs and obscurity before her untimely death. Her films included: The Belles Of St Trinian’s (1954), Around The World In 80 Days (1956), Blue Murder At St Trinian’s (1957), Carry On Teacher (1959), Linda (1960), Slave Girls (1966), Poor Cow (1967), I’ll Never Forget What’s ’Is Name (1968), The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1970), Dulcima (1971) and The Squeeze (1977). Carol was married and divorced three times. Husband number one was Michael King on April 29, 1962, by whom she had two sons: Sean (b. November 4, 1962) and Stephen (b. January 20, 1964). She married Stuart Lerner in April 1972 and Michael Arnold on November 25, 1977.
CAUSE: She died in Miami, Florida, aged 48, as a result of her overindulgence in drink and drugs.
FURTHER READING: Carol Comes Home – Carol White With Clifford Thurlow (London: New English Library, 1982).
Arkie Whiteley
Born November 6, 1965
Died December 19, 2001
Down under beauty. The only child of the Australian artist Brett Whiteley, London-born Arkje Deya Whiteley spent a bohemian childhood travelling with her parents to Fiji, Bali, Paris and New York, where, according to legend, in the two years the family spent at the Chelsea Hotel, Janis Joplin was Arkie’s babysitter. Arkie first came to public prominence aged 15 when she won the Australian Oscar for her performance in A Town Like Alice (1981). She also appeared in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Razorback (1984) as Sarah Cameron before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Following graduation, she starred in David Hare’s The Secret Rapture at the National Theatre, and in the West End alongside Peter O’Toole in Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell. She was a regular face on television in shows such as Kavanagh QC, The Last Musketeer and Natural Lies. Gorgeous Arkie stripped for a sex scene with Bob Peck in the thriller Natural Lies (1992). “I was totally nude apart from my stockings and a tattoo I put on my bottom using a transfer. It was quite erotic and I was surprised at myself. It was a turn-on. I wished I had more to do. I thought the nudity was right for the part. This was my first full-frontal nude scene and took two hours to shoot.” Arkie’s previous experience was a shower scene with Adam Faith in Love Hurts. “That was hilariously unsexy. I was wearing a body stocking and he had these huge white knickers on and stood on a box to look taller. The hot water from the shower kept steaming up the camera.” Her films included Scandal (1989) as Vicky and Princess Caraboo (1994) as Betty.
CAUSE: She died of cancer aged 36 in Palm Beach, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Dame May Whitty
Born June 19, 1865
Died May 29, 1948
Refined dowager. Born in Liverpool, Dame May Whitty’s stage career earned her several plaudits and she appeared in the West End and on Broadway before the start of the twentieth century. Although she made her film début in The Little Minister (1915) as Nanny Webster, she only made one more film in 21 years before becoming a semi-regular in the Thirties and Forties. Probably her best-known role is that of the titular Miss Froy in The Lady Vanishes (1938). She was twice nominated for Oscars for Night Must Fall (1937) as Mrs Bramson and as Lady Beldon in Mrs Miniver (1942).
CAUSE: She died of natural causes, aged 82, in Beverly Hills, California. She left £26,581 17s 1d.
Herbert Wilcox, CBE
Born April 19, 1890
Died May 15, 1977
Mr Elstree. Herbert Sydney Wilcox was born in Norwood, London, the son of Joseph Wilcox, a sculptor who also ran a billiard hall. Wilcox became a professional billiards player when he left school before joining the army, the Royal Flying Corps, becoming a film salesman and, in 1922, a film producer. His first effort, The Wonderful Story (1922), was a critical hit but a box-office flop. Realising the public wanted escapism in films he also began directing, starting with Chu Chin Chow (1923). In 1926 he founded Elstree Studios and two years later, in 1928, he was appointed head of production for the British and Dominions Film Corporation, a position he held for seven years. Wilcox announced he was to make 30 films each year and signed Anna Neagle for one of them, Goodnight Vienna (1932). Over the next quarter of a century, he directed her in 32 films. He also personally financed her in the hit Victoria The Great (1937). Wilcox continued to make films with a ‘Thirties’ feel to them, even after the war and into the Fifties, by which time public tastes had changed. In 1959 he directed his last film, The Heart Of A Man (1959). Five years later, he went bankrupt. In 1965 he suffered a coronary thrombosis. Regaining his health, he was discharged in 1966 but was to make no more films. A Roman Catholic, he married three times: to Dorothy Brown in 1916 (divorced 1917); to Mrs Maude Clark in 1918 (divorced 1943), by whom he had a son and three daughters, one of whom, Pamela, wrote Michael Wilding’s autobiography which is dedicated to Wilcox; and, in 1943 to Anna Neagle.
CAUSE: Wilcox died aged 87 in London following a long illness.
Billy Wilder
Born June 22, 1906
Died March 27, 2002
Director extraordinaire. Billy Wilder was a small, compact, bespectacled, brown-eyed, acid-tongued, fast-talking, round-faced Viennese Jew who chain-smoked on the set. The son of a hotel and restaurant owner, Samuel Wilder was born in Sucha, Austria-Hungary, 100 miles east of Vienna, and intended to become a lawyer but left university after only one year of a law degree. He became a journalist on a Viennese newspaper reporting on sport and crime and interviewing celebrities. He once tried to interview Sigmund Freud, who hated newspapermen and showed him the door. In 1926 he applied for and got a job on Berlin’s largest tabloid but boosted his income as a dancer-cum-g
igolo in a city hotel. In 1929 he became a screenwriter on Robert Siodmak’s People On Sunday (1929). In the following year he adapted Erich Kastne’s novel, Emil And The Detectives and wrote scripts for several other German films until Hitler came to power in January, 1933. 5́ 10˝ Wilder fled Nazi Germany and arrived in Paris where he co-directed Mauvaise Graine, a story about car thieves with Danielle Darrieux. In 1934 he arrived, via Mexico, in Hollywood. His mother and other members of his family who stayed died in the concentration camps. In Hollywood he was to earn himself a reputation as a master film-maker from Double Indemnity in the mid-Forties through Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot to The Apartment at the beginning of the Sixties. Sunset Boulevard caused Louis B. Mayer to snarl, “This Wilder should be horsewhipped!” Most of Wilder’s best films were in collaboration with Charles Brackett and I.A.L. Diamond. He and Brackett met in 1936 when Wilder was put under contract to Paramount. Wilder and Brackett made their mark with sharp-edged comedies such as Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938) and Ninotchka (1939) starring Greta Garbo, Midnight (1939) for Mitchell Leisen and Ball Of Fire (1941) for Howard Hawks. On the back of these achievements they became two of the most highly paid writers in Hollywood. In 1942 Wilder became a director with The Major And The Minor, a Ginger Rogers comedy. Wilder later described it as a chaste version of Lolita. He next turned to a Second World War spy story, Five Graves To Cairo (1943), with his Austrian compatriot, Eric von Stroheim. Wilder’s star rose with his third and fourth films. Double Indemnity (1944), scripted by Raymond Chandler from the novel by James M. Cain, remains the archetypal Forties film noir. In The Lost Weekend (1945) Wilder offered Hollywood’s first serious treatment of alcoholism and gave Ray Milland the best part of his career as the tragic victim. The film won four Oscars, including two for Wilder himself. His flair for cynical comedy was apparent in the political farce, A Foreign Affair (1948), set in post-war Berlin and starring Marlene Dietrich. Two years later, Wilder made Sunset Boulevard, the story of a faded Hollywood screen goddess and a screenwriting flop (played respectively by Gloria Swanson and William Holden). Wilder and Brackett won the Oscar for best screenplay – and made plenty of enemies in Hollywood itself. In 1955 Wilder made The Seven Year Itch. His female lead Marilyn Monroe had married baseball hero Joe DiMaggio seven months before filming began. The marriage was already in trouble due to his jealousy and readiness with his fists. At 1am on September 15, 1954 the crew filmed the famous skirt blowing scene at the Trans-Lux Theater on Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street. Fifteen times Marilyn’s dress blew into the air and fifteen times the huge crowd (estimated at between 1,000 and 5,000 people) cheered. Joe DiMaggio watched the proceedings with his friend the journalist Walter Winchell before storming off, his hands thrust deep into his pockets. Although Marilyn wore two pairs of knickers, her friend Jim Haspiel says that her pubes were clearly visible. However, in the end the scenes shot that night were not useable in the film and what finally appears was shot on a Fox soundstage. Following the shoot Marilyn returned to suite 1105-6 of the St Regis Hotel, 2 East 55th Street & 5th Avenue, where she was staying with DiMaggio. They had a violent fight that night and the next day he flew back to California alone. On October 5, 1954, Marilyn announced their separation. They were divorced 22 days later. DiMaggio was back by her side for the première on her 29th birthday in 1955. “We’re just good friends,” said Marilyn to ward off press speculation of a reconciliation. The film ran 13 days over schedule and ten per cent over budget due in no small part to Marilyn’s health. She caught a serious lung illness while filming the skirt scene on Lexington Avenue. Fox publicised the film by hanging an enormous (52 ft high) poster of Marilyn at Loew’s State Theater in Time Square on Broadway at a cost of $1,500. It had to be replaced by a more circumspect version after complaints. Writing in the New York Daily Mirror, Philip Strassberg said, “This is the film that every red-blooded American male has been awaiting ever since the publication of the tease photos showing the wind lifting Marilyn Monroe’s skirt above her shapely gams. It was worth waiting for. The Seven Year Itch is another example of cinema ingenuity in transplanting a stage success to celluloid … Tom Ewell, who reaped critical acclaim in the legit show and won over other contenders for the role in the movie and La Monroe deserve most of the credit for carrying off the comedy coup … her pouting delivery, puckered lips – the personification of this decade’s glamour – make her one of Hollywood’s top attractions, which again proves her as the not too bright model.” Wilder’s next encounter with Monroe occurred on Some Like It Hot (1959). In October 1958, by which time most of the strenuous shots had been filmed, Marilyn found herself pregnant again. Heartbreak was to follow as she miscarried the child on December 16 in her third month. Marilyn could not sit down between takes because her costumes were tight fitting so she had to rest standing up in what looked like an upright barber’s chair. Curtis and Lemmon had their legs and chests shaved and a female impersonator called Barbette was brought onto the set to show them how women behave, carry themselves, etc. However, Barbette walked off because he did not get on with Jack Lemmon. Wilder’s original choices to play the musicians were Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, United Artists wanted Frank Sinatra to play Jerry/Daphne. The choice for Sugar was Mitzi Gaynor. Sinatra agreed to play the role but then failed to keep an appointment to discuss the part and no more was heard from Ol’ Blue Eyes. By this time, with Monroe on board, UA didn’t much mind who was cast as Jerry/Daphne. Enter Jack Lemmon. Marilyn took 47 takes to deliver the line, “It’s me, Sugar.” She kept saying, “It’s Sugar, me,” or “Sugar, it’s me.” Following the thirtieth take, Wilder had the line written on a blackboard. Another line also caused her problems. It was “Where’s the bourbon?” The scene required Marilyn to search through a chest of drawers and deliver the line. Forty times she said either, “Where’s the bottle?,” “Where’s the whisky?” or “Where’s the bonbon?” Wilder had the line written on a piece of paper and put in the drawer. Then Marilyn became puzzled as to the location of the paper so Wilder placed it in every drawer. Marilyn took 59 takes to film the scene. Marilyn was not happy with her opening scene. Remembered Billy Wilder, “She called me after the first daily rushes … I hung up and Diamond and I met and decided it was not good enough. She had just come on originally doing something with that ukulele. And we made up that new introduction with a new entrance [showing Sugar] coming down to the train through that puff of steam. She was absolutely right about that.” Marilyn remembered it slightly differently. “I’m not going back into that fucking film until Wilder reshoots my opening. When Marilyn Monroe comes into a room, nobody’s going to be looking at Tony Curtis playing Joan Crawford. They’re going to be looking at Marilyn Monroe.” Monroe wanted the film to be shot in colour (as stipulated by her contract) but when the tests were shown, the make-up made the faces of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon look distinctly green. She agreed to let Billy Wilder shoot in monochrome. Wilder hated colour films. He only shot The Seven Year Itch in colour because of Monroe’s contract. It wasn’t until 1969 that he began making colour films because monochrome ones were unsellable to television. After filming wrapped, Wilder swore he would never direct Monroe again: “I have discussed this with my doctor and my psychiatrist and my accountant and they tell me I am too old and too rich to go through this again.” The partnership with Lemmon continued over six more films. Among them was The Apartment (1960) which also starred Fred MacMurray and Shirley MacLaine. It brought two more Oscars for Wilder and one for the Romanian-born I.A.L. Diamond, who succeeded Brackett as his regular script collaborator. During the Sixties Wilder’s inspiration appeared to wane. He made One, Two, Three (1961), Irma La Douce (1963), Kiss Me Stupid (1964) and The Fortune Cookie (1966). He returned to form in the Seventies with The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970) and The Front Page (1974) with Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Perhaps the best of Wilder’s later films was Fedora (1978). Buddy Buddy (1981), the last and least successful teaming of Lemmon and Matthau, was an anticlimactic farewell.
He officially retired in 1981 although continued to go into his office as much as possible. He was married twice. In May 1936, he eloped to Yuma, Arizona with Judith Coppicus. They divorced in 1946. They had twins, Victoria and Vincent (born December 21, 1939). Vincent died shortly after birth. On June 30, 1949, he married Audrey Young.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 180
