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Alan Grigsby Sues (March 7, 1926 – December 1, 2011) was an American comic actor widely known for his roles on the 1968–1973 television series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Sues' on-screen persona was campy, outrageous and contained verbal slapstick; typical of his humor was a skit that found him following a pair of whiskey-drinking cowboys to a Wild West bar and requesting a frozen daiquiri. Sues' recurring characters on the program included Big Al the Sportscaster and Uncle Al the Kiddie's Pal. He also parodied castmate JoAnne Worley when she left the show, appearing in drag.

He was the only known gay man on TV at that time.

Alan Sues cause of death
Alan Sues died of heart attack.
Alan Sues was 85 years old at the time of his death

Laugh-In - Uncle Al, the kiddies Pal

Billie Wayne Grammar (August 28, 1925 – August 10, 2011), known professionally as Billy Grammar, was an American country music singer and noted guitar player. He is best known for the million-selling "Gotta Travel On", which made it onto both the country and pop music charts in 1959. It was Grammar's first hit record, and his most enduring.

In 1990, Grammar was inducted into the Illinois Country Music Hall of Fame, along with Tex Williams, Lulu Belle and Scotty, and Patsy Montana. Grammar suffers from a degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa. He became completely blind. On February 27, 2009, he was honored by the Grand Ole Opry for his 50 years as a member.

Billy Grammer cause of death
Grammar died on August 10, 2011, at 12:20 a.m. He was in Benton Hospital being treated for a long-term illness, which included suffering a heart attack in January.
Billy Grammer was 85 years old at the time of his death.  He was eighteen days short of his 86th birthday.

Gotta Travel On - Billy Grammer

Farley Earle Granger (July 1, 1925 – March 27, 2011) was an American actor. In a career spanning several decades, he perhaps was known best for his two collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Rope in 1948 and Strangers on a Train in 1951.

Farley Granger Cause of Death
Farley Granger died of natural causes
Farley Granger was 85 years old at the time of his death.

Strangers on a Train Trailer

Ferlin Eugene Husky (December 3, 1925 – March 17, 2011) was an American singer who became well-known as a country-pop chart-topper under various names, including Terry Preston and Simon Crum. In the 1950s and 60s, Husky had several hits, including "Gone" and "Wings of a Dove", each reaching number one on the country charts. In 2010, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Husky has suffered from heart problems for many years and has been hospitalized several times since the late 1970s, most recently for heart surgery in 2005 and blood clots in his legs in 2007. He was admitted to St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Missouri on April 19, 2009, with congestive heart failure and pneumonia. On July 15, 2009 his spokesman said he was recuperating at home after being released from a Nashville hospital.

Death of Ferlin Husky
On March 17, 2011, Management released a statement saying that Husky died from congestive heart failure.
Ferlin Husky was 85 years old at the time of his death.

Ferlin Husky - Wings of a Dove

* Tony Curtis was once married to actress Janet Leigh (Psycho, 1960) and fathered actresses Jamie Lee Curtis

Tony Curtis (June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor. He played a variety of roles, from light comedy, such as the musician on the run from gangsters in Some Like It Hot, to serious dramatic roles, such as an escaped convict in The Defiant Ones, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. From 1949, he appeared in more than 100 films and made frequent television appearances.

Tony Curtis cemented his reputation with breakthrough performances such as in the role of the scheming press agent Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with Burt Lancaster and an Oscar-nominated performance as a bigoted escaped convict chained to Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones. He did both screen comedy and drama together and became the most sought after star in Hollywood: Curtis' comedies include Some Like It Hot (1959) and Sex and the Single Girl (1964), and his dramas include The Outsider (1961), the true story of WW II veteran Ira Hayes, and The Boston Strangler (1968), in which he played the self-confessed murderer of the film's title, Albert DeSalvo. The latter film was praised for Curtis' performance.

Curtis also appeared frequently on television; he co-starred with Roger Moore in the TV series The Persuaders!. Later, he co-starred in McCoy and Vega$. In the early 1960s, he was immortalized as "Stony Curtis," a voice-over guest star on The Flintstones.

Throughout his life, Curtis enjoyed painting, and since the early 1980s, painted as a second career. His work commands more than $25,000 a canvas now. In the last years of his life, he concentrated on painting rather than movies

Death of Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis died in bed at his Las Vegas home, on September 29, 2010, at 9:25 PM of cardiac arrest.  Tony Curtis was 85 years old at the time of his death.

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis

Fess Elisha Parker, Jr.
Born: August 16, 1924 Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Died: March 18, 2010 (aged 85) California, United States

Fess Elisha Parker, Jr. was an American film and television actor best known for his 1950s portrayals of Davy Crockett for Walt Disney and of Daniel Boone in the late 1960s. He was also known as a wine maker and resort owner-operator.

Death of Fess Parker
Fess Parker died of complications from old age.
Fess Parker was 85 years old at the time of his death.

Fess Parker's Filmography continues next page

Fess Parker Filmography

    * Harvey (1950)
    * No Room for the Groom (1952)
    * Untamed Frontier (1952)
    * Springfield Rifle (1952)
    * Take Me to Town (1953)
    * The Kid from Left Field (1953)
    * Island in the Sky (1953)
    * Thunder Over the Plains (1953)
    * Dragonfly Squadron (1954)
    * Them! (1954)
    * The Bounty Hunter (1954)
    * Battle Cry (1955)
    * Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
    * The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)
    * Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956)
    * Westward Ho, The Wagons! (1956)
    * Old Yeller (1957)
    * The Light in the Forest (1958)
    * The Hangman (1959)
    * Alias Jesse James (1959)
    * The Jayhawkers! (1959)
    * Hell Is for Heroes (1962)
    * Smoky (1966)
    * Daniel Boone: Frontier Trail Rider (1966)

Television

    * City Detective, (1 episode, 1955)
    * Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1962-1963)
    * Daniel Boone (lead cast member from 1964-1970, with Ed Ames, Patricia Blair, Darby Hinton, and Veronica Cartwright)
    * Climb an Angry Mountain (1972)
    * The Fess Parker Show (1974) (unsold pilot)

Betsy Blair (December 11, 1923 - March 13, 2009) was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London.

Born as Elizabeth Winifred Boger, Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur dancer, performed on radio, and worked as a model, before joining the chorus of Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in 1940. There she met Gene Kelly; they were married the following year, when she was 17 years old; they divorced 16 years later in 1957.

Death of Batsy Blair
Batsy Blair died in London after a bout with cancer. Batsh Blair was 85 years old at the time of her death. She is survived by a daughter, three stepchildren and several grandchildren.

After work in the theatre, Blair began her film career playing supporting roles in films such as A Double Life (1947) and Another Part of the Forest (1948). Her interest in Marxism led to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee and Blair was blacklisted for some time, but resumed her career with a critically acclaimed performance in Marty (1955), winning a BAFTA Award and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

She continued her career with regular theatre, film and television work until the mid 1990s.

Batsy Blair as Clara - "Marty" with Ernest Borgnine
(Ernest Borgnine is still alive)

Bettie Page (April 22, 1923 - December 11, 2008) was a former American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She was also one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine.

Death of Bettie Page
Bettie Page died on December 11, 2008, having been on continuous life support since her heart attack in December 2008

While she faded into obscurity in the 1960s after converting to Christianity and serving as a Baptist missionary in Angola, she experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980s and had a significant cult following. Her look, including her jet black hair and trademark bangs, has influenced many artists. Bettie is a great aunt of comedian/writer Benjy Bronk and Bettie is a cousin of actress Mena Suvari.

Related story: Pinup Legend Bettie Page in Coma

Ray Ellis (July 28, 1923 Philadelphia - October 27, 2008 Encino, California) was an American record producer, arranger and conductor. The orchestration for Billie Holiday's Lady in Satin is perhaps his best known work in the jazz vein.

Ellis arranged many hit records in the 1950s and 1960s. Included are classics such as "A Certain Smile" by Johnny Mathis; Broken Hearted Melody by Sarah Vaughan; and "Standing On The Corner" by the Four Lads. In 1970 he produced Emmylou Harris' debut LP Gliding Bird.

Ellis work encompassed all areas of music, from records to film, commercials, and television. His television theme music credits include NBC News At Sunrise with Connie Chung and the original cartoon series Spider-Man. In the early 1960s, Ellis had a contract to produce his own easy listening record albums with RCA Victor, MGM, and Columbia, the most popular probably being Ellis in Wonderland.

Death of Ray Ellis
Ray Ellis died of complications from melanoma
Ray Ellis was 85 years old at the age of his death.

Janet Blair (April 23, 1921 - February 19, 2007) was an American film and television actress.

Death of Janet Blair
Janet Blair died of complications from pneumonia, at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
Janet Blair was aged 85 at the time of her death.

Born as Martha Jane Lafferty (she took her acting surname from Blair County, Pennsylvania) in Altoona, Pennsylvania, she began her acting career on film in 1942. She left films for many years after she was dropped by her studio, Columbia Pictures, and disliked the roles she was offered.

Instead, she took the lead role of Nellie Forbush in a production of the stage musical South Pacific, making more than 1,200 performances in three years. " never missed a performance", she noted proudly. During the tour, she also got married to second husband, producer-director Nick Mayo, and they became parents of Amanda and Andrew.

She made a rare dramatic appearance in the 1962 British horror film Night of the Eagle.

Her last performance was on television in a 1991 episode of Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury.

Jack Warden (September 18, 1920 – July 19, 2006) was an Emmy Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated American character actor.

Death of Jack Warden
Jack Warden died of heart and kidney failure in a New York hospital on July 19, 2006.
Jack Warden was 85 years old at the time of his death.

Career
Warden had his first credited film role in The Man with My Face in 1951, and in 1952 he began a three-year role in the television series Mr. Peepers. After a role as a sympathetic corporal in From Here to Eternity (1953), Warden's breakthrough film role was his performance as Juror No. 7, a salesman who wants a quick decision in a murder case, in 12 Angry Men (1957).

He received a supporting actor Emmy Award for his performance as Chicago Bears coach George Halas in Brian's Song (1971), and was nominated for Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Shampoo (1975) and Heaven Can Wait (1978). He also had notable roles in such films as All the President's Men (1976), ...And Justice for All and Being There (both 1979), Used Cars (in which he played a celebrated dual role in 1980), The Verdict (1982), Problem Child (1990) and its sequel (1991), While You Were Sleeping (1995), and the Norm MacDonald film Dirty Work (1998).

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Carbon Copy (1981) trailer - Jack Warden taking a small roll here

Jack Warden's biography & filmography continues 

Warden appeared in over one hundred movies, typically playing gruff cops, sports coaches, trusted friends and similar roles, during a career which spanned six decades. His last film was 2000s The Replacements, opposite Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves.

Personal life
Warden married French actress Vanda Dupre in 1958 and had one son, Christopher. Although they separated in the 1970s they never divorced.

Early life
Warden was born John H. Lebzelter in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Laura M. (née Costello) and John Warden Lebzelter, who was an engineer and technician. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he was expelled from high school for fighting and eventually fought as a professional boxer under the name Johnny Costello. He had 13 welterweight bouts but earned little money. He worked as a nightclub bouncer, tugboat deckhand and lifeguard before joining the Navy in 1938. He was stationed in China for three years with the Yangtze River Patrol.

In 1941, he joined the United States Merchant Marine; but quickly tiring of the long convoy runs, he switched to the Army in 1942 where he served as a paratrooper in the elite 101st Airborne Division during World War II. In 1944, on the eve of the D-Day invasion (during which many of his friends died), Warden shattered his leg by landing on a fence during a night-time practice jump in England. After almost a year in the hospital (during which time he read a Clifford Odets play and decided to become an actor after the end of the war), he recovered enough to participate in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.

After leaving the military with the rank of sergeant, he moved to New York City and pursued an acting career on the G.I. Bill. He joined the company of the Dallas Alley Theater and performed on stage for five years. In 1948 he made his television debut on The Philco Television Playhouse and Studio One. He made an uncredited film debut in 1951 in You're in the Navy Now, a movie which also featured the film debuts of Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.

Filmography
The Replacements (2000)
Bulworth (1998)
Chairman Of The Board (1998)
Dirty Work (1998)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Problem Child 3: Junior in Love (1995)
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Toys (1992)
Problem Child 2 (1991)
Problem Child (1990)
The Presidio (1988)
Dead Solid Perfect (1988)(Cable TV)
Still Crazy Like a Fox (1987) (TV)
September (1987)
Crazy Like a Fox (1984) TV Series
Crackers (1984)
The Verdict (1982)
So Fine (1981)
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
Used Cars (1980)
Being There (1979)
Topper (1979) (TV)
The Bad News Bears (1979) TV Series
...And Justice for All (1979)
Death on the Nile (1978)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Raid on Entebbe (1977) (TV)
The White Buffalo (1977)
All the President's Men (1976)
Jigsaw John (1976) TV Series
Shampoo (1975)
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973)
Brian's Song (1971) (TV)
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971)
Bye Bye Braverman (1968)
N.Y.P.D. (1967) TV Series
The Invaders (1967) TV series guest appearance
The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1965) TV Series
The Thin Red Line (1964)
Bewitched - It Shouldn't Happen To A Dog (1964) TV series Guest appearance
Donovan's Reef (1963)
The Asphalt Jungle (1961) TV Series
Wake Me When It's Over (1960)
The Twilight Zone (1960) TV series Guest appearance
That Kind of Woman (1959)
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
Darby's Rangers (1958 film)
12 Angry Men (1957)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Mr. Peepers (1952) TV Series
Man with My Face (1951)
You're in the Navy Now (1951) (uncredited)  

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From Amazon.com: Shelley Winters DVD

Shelley Winters (August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress. 

Winters died on January 14, 2006 of heart failure at the Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills at the age of 85 a few hours after she married DeFord; she had suffered a heart attack on October 14, 2005. Ex-husband Anthony Franciosa died of a stroke five days later.

Academy awards

• 1951 Best Actress in a Leading Role A Place in the Sun - Nominated
• 1959 Best Actress in a Supporting Role The Diary of Anne Frank - won
• 1965 Best Actress in a Supporting Role A Patch of Blue - won
• 1972 Best Actress in a Supporting Role The Poseidon Adventure - nominated

Shelley Winters From "The Balcony" (1963)

Roebuck "Pops" Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000) was a Mississippi-born Gospel and R&B musician. He was an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and singer. He was the patriarch and member of singing group The Staple Singers, which included his son Pervis and daughters Mavis, Yvonne, and Cleotha.

Biography
Roebuck Staples was born on a cotton plantation near Winona, Mississippi, the youngest of 14 children. When growing up he heard, and began to play with, local blues guitarists such as Charlie Patton, who lived on the nearby Dockery Plantation, Robert Johnson, and Son House.. He dropped out of school after the eighth grade, and sang with a gospel group before marrying and moving to Chicago in 1935.

Biography continues on next page

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There he sang with the Trumpet Jubilees, while working in the stockyards, in construction work, and later in a steel mill. In 1948 he formed The Staple Singers to sing as a gospel group in local churches, with him singing and playing guitar behind his children. They first recorded in the early 1950s for United and then the larger Vee-Jay Records, with songs including "This May Be The Last Time" (later covered by The Rolling Stones) and "Uncloudy Day".

In the 1960s the Staples Singers moved to Riverside Records and later Stax Records, and began recording protest, inspirational and contemporary music, reflecting the civil rights and anti-war movements of the time. They gained a large new audience with the 1972 US # 1 hit "I'll Take You There", followed by "Respect Yourself", "If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)", and other hits. Pops Staples also recorded an instrumental blues album, Jammed Together, with fellow guitarists Albert King and Steve Croppe.

After Mavis left for a solo career in the 1980s, Pops Staples began a solo career, appearing at international "blues" festivals (though steadfastly refusing to sing the blues), and tried his hand at acting. His 1992 album Peace to the Neighborhood won a Grammy nomination, and in 1995 he won a Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy for Father, Father.

In 1986, Roebuck played the role of Mr. Tucker, a voodoo witch doctor, in the Talking Heads film True Stories.

In 1998 he received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1999 the Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Buy from Amazon.com: Lone Ranger DVDs

Clayton Moore (September 14, 1914 – December 28, 1999) was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character The Lone Ranger.

Clayton Moore's Death
Clayton Moore died December 28, 1999, from a heart attack.
Clayton Moore was 85 years old at the time of his death. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Clayton Moore Biography
Born as Jack Carlton Moore in Chicago, Illinois, Moore was a circus acrobat as a boy, then later enjoyed a successful career as a John Robert Powers model. Moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s, he began working as a stunt man and bit player between modeling jobs. According to his autobiography, around 1940 Hollywood producer Edward Small convinced him to adopt the stage name "Clayton" Moore. He was an occasional player in B westerns and Republic Studio cliffhangers, ultimately starring in more such films than serial hero Buster Crabbe. His big break came in 1949, when George Trendle spotted him in "The Ghost of Zorro." As producer of the radio show and creator of "The Lone Ranger" character along with writer Fran Striker, Trendle was about to launch the masked man in the new medium of television. Moore was cast on sight.

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Lone Ranger Opening

Clayton Moore's Biography continues

Buy from Amazon.com: Lone Ranger DVDs  

Moore then faced the challenge of training his voice to sound like the radio version of The Lone Ranger, which had then been on the air since 1933, and succeeded in lowering his already distinctive baritone even further. With the first notes of Rossini's stirring "William Tell Overture" and announcer Fred Foy's, "Return with us now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear...", Moore and co-star Jay Silverheels in the role of Tonto made television history as the first western written specifically for that medium. The Lone Ranger soon became the highest-rated program to that point on the fledgling ABC network and its first true "hit", earning an Emmy nomination in 1950.

After two successful years, which presented a new episode every week, 52 weeks a year, Moore had a pay dispute and left the series. As "Clay Moore," he made a few more westerns and serials, sometimes playing the villain. The public didn't really accept the new Lone Ranger, actor John Hart, so the owners of the program relented and rehired Moore at his requested salary. He stayed with the program until it ended first-run production in 1957. He and Jay Silverheels also starred in two feature-length "Lone Ranger" motion pictures.

After completion of the second feature, "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold" in 1956, Moore embarked on what eventually became 40 years of personal appearances, TV guest spots, and classic commercials as the legendary masked man. Silverheels joined him for occasional appearances during the early 1960s, and throughout his career Moore always expressed his tremendous respect and love for Silverheels.

In 1979, the owner of the Ranger character, Jack Wrather, obtained a court order prohibiting Moore from making future appearances as The Lone Ranger. Wrather anticipated making a new film version of the story, and did not want the value of the character being undercut by Moore's appearances, nor anyone to think that the 65-year-old Moore would be playing the role in the new picture. This move proved to be a public relations disaster of the first order. Moore responded by changing his costume slightly and replacing the mask with similar-looking wraparound sunglasses, and then counter-sued Wrather. He eventually won the suit, and was able to resume his appearances in costume, which he continued to do until shortly before his death. For a time he worked in publicity tie-ins with the Texas Rangers baseball team.

Some have attributed the incredible failure of Wrather's picture, finally released in 1981 as The Legend of the Lone Ranger, to this move. In reality, it was only one of the picture's many problems (including Klinton Spilsbury's performance in the title role, reportedly so inept that his dialogue was re-recorded by James Keach). However, none of the subsequent remakes of the fictional western hero caught the public's imagination nor earned their respect as did the original.

Moore often was quoted as saying he had "fallen in love with the Lone Ranger character" and strove in his personal life to take The Lone Ranger Creed to heart. This, coupled with his public fight to retain the right to wear the mask, ultimately elevated him in the public's eyes to an American folk icon. In this regard, he was much like another cowboy star, William Boyd, who nurtured the Hopalong Cassidy character. Moore was so identified with the masked man that he is the only person on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as of 2006, to have his character's name along with his on the star, which reads, "Clayton Moore — The Lone Ranger". He was inducted into the Stuntman's Hall of Fame in 1982 and in 1990 was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In keeping with the nature of the Ranger character, Moore chose to protect the Ranger's identity at all times and is perhaps the only actor whose full face is largely unknown to the public. It was never shown in the TV series, although occasionally he would don a disguise and affect an accent, revealing the upper half of his face in the process. However, there is no shortage of photos of Moore unmasked, including many in his autobiography. His many fans, however, could easily recognize him by his distinctive voice.

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