87

Beryl Davis (March 16, 1924 – October 28, 2011) was a British big band singer; born into a show business family, her father was Harry Davis, and her sister is Lisa Davis Waltz, a teen actress in the 1950s and 1960s.

Born in Plymouth, England, she began to sing for her father's band, and became popular singing for British and Allied troops during World War II. Glenn Miller discovered her in London, and she sang for the Army Air Force Orchestra.

She moved to Los Angeles post-war with her father's big band, and with Frank Sinatra for one year on "Your Hit Parade."

She was part of "The Four Girls" singing group, with Jane Russell, Rhonda Fleming, and Connie Haines. They recorded sixteen singles, and albums that became best sellers.

Beryl Davis Cause of Death
Beryl Davis died from complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Beryl Davis was 87 years old at the time of her death.

"Bluebirds in the Moonlight" (Beryl Davis, 1939)

Connie Haines - Beryl Davis - Rhonda Fleming - Jane Russell

Roger Williams (born Louis Weertz, October 1, 1924 – October 8, 2011) was an American popular music pianist. As of 2004, he had released 116 albums.

In 1955 Williams recorded "Autumn Leaves", the only piano instrumental to reach #1 on Billboard's popular music chart.   In 1966 he had another Top Ten hit with the song "Born Free" from the motion picture soundtrack. His other hits include "Near You", "Till", "The Impossible Dream", "Yellow Bird", "Maria", and "The Theme from Somewhere in Time". Billboard magazine ranks him as the top selling piano recording artist in history with 18 gold and platinum albums to his credit. Williams was known as the "Pianist to the Presidents" having played for nine administrations beginning with Harry S. Truman. His last White House performance was in November 2008 for a luncheon hosted by former First Lady Laura Bush.

Roger Williams cause of death
He died on October 8, 2011, one week after his 87th birthday of pancreatic cancer.

Autumn Leaves Roger Williams 1955

Roger Williams Excerpts From Vegas 2010 part 2

Linda Christian (November 13, 1923 – July 22, 2011) was a Mexican movie actress, who filmed films in Mexican cinema and in Hollywood, her career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara in the last Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film Tarzan and The Mermaids (1948). She is also noted for being the first Bond girl, appearing in a 1954 TV adaptation of the James Bond novel Casino Royale. In 1963 she starred in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "An Out for Oscar".

Linda Christian Cause of Death
Linda Christian died of colon cancer.  Linda Christian was 87 years old at the time of her death.

 Linda Christian & Tyron Power (January 27, 1947)

Roberts Scott Blossom (March 25, 1924 - July 8, 2011) was an American actor and poet.

Blossom won three Obie awards. After his long career, Roberts Blossom is perhaps best known for a small role in Home Alone.

In the thriller Deranged, Blossom played the leading role as killer Ezra Cobb. In the Oscar-winning film drama The Great Gatsby (1974), he was accompanied on-screen by Robert Redford. He won the Soapy Award for his role on Another World, on which he appeared from 1976-1977. In 1990 he starred in Home Alone as Kevin McCallister's (Macaulay Culkin) snow-shoveling neighbor, Old Man Marley. In the comedy Doc Hollywood (1991), he appeared on-screen with Michael J. Fox.

He retired from acting in the late-1990s to pursue writing poetry. He lived in Berkeley, California, and resided in Southern California until his passing on July 8, 2011.

Roberts Blossom cause of death
Roberts Blossom died of natural causes.  Roberts Blossom was 87 years old at the time of his death.

"Deranged" movie trailer (1974 Roberts Blossom A.I.P.)

Norma Zimmer (July 13, 1923 – May 10, 2011) was a vocalist, best remembered for her 22-year tenure as Lawrence Welk's "Champagne Lady" on The Lawrence Welk Show.

Zimmer sang with a quartet called The Girlfriends along with Betty Allan and others. They sang backup for Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and others. Their coup was to be hired as backup for the famous Bing Crosby version of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas".

As her two sons were growing up, she decided to give it up to raise her children. Welk told her it was all right for her to quit the road tours, but he asked her to stay on the television show until he could find another singer. Each week, a new girl came on as a possible replacement, but Welk kept asking Zimmer to come back the following week. That went on for 20 years. As the show's Champagne Lady, Zimmer sang one solo and often a duet (usually with Jimmy Roberts); she frequently danced with Welk at the end of the show.

Norma Zimmer Cause of Death
Norma Zimmer stopped performing publicly since she was suffering from a neurological disorder. She died peacefully on May 10, 2011 at her Brea, California home.
Norma Zimmer was 87 years old at the time of her death. She was survived by her two sons, Ron and Mark, as well as three grand children.

Norma Zimmer on The Lawrence Welk Show: Hold Me, Thrill Me
** Recommended **

William Campbell (October 30, 1923 – April 28, 2011) was an American actor who appeared in supporting roles in major film productions and also starred in several low-budget B-movies, including two cult horror films.

Campbell has obtained cult status for his guest starring roles on Star Trek, appearing first as the mischievous super-being Trelane (in part a parody of Liberace, whom Campbell resembled), in an episode of the original series called "The Squire of Gothos". Campbell also appeared twice as the Klingon Captain Koloth. Campbell first played Koloth on the original Star Trek series in the classic episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." He reprised the Koloth role on the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, some thirty years later. Campbell appeared at several Trek conventions in the 1980s and 1990s and many Star Trek fans consider Campbell's portrayal of the Trelane character as the first introduction of the "Q culture" to the series. (The Q are an omnipotent race made part of The Next Generation, then Deep Space 9 and Voyager series.) His last appearance was at the convention organized by Creation Entertainment at the Las Vegas Hilton in August 2006.

He died quietly on April 28, 2011, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

Irvin Kershner (April 29, 1923 – November 27, 2010) was an American film director and occasional actor, best known for directing Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Never Say Never Again and RoboCop 2.

After Empire Strikes Back, Kershner directed Never Say Never Again (Sean Connery's return to the role of James Bond); the HBO film Travelling Man starring John Lithgow and Jonathan Silverman; for which Kershner was nominated for an ACE Award; and RoboCop 2. He also directed several episodes of the television series seaQuest DSV, and he made his debut as an actor in the Martin Scorsese film, The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), playing Zebedee, the father of the apostles James and John. He played a film director in Steven Seagal's On Deadly Ground.

Death of Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner died at his Los Angeles home after a long illness (unspecified).
Irvin Kershner was 87 years old at the time of his death.

Empire Stikes Back - trailer (unofficial, created by a fan)

Armand "Army" Archerd (January 13, 1922 – September 8, 2009) was a columnist for Variety for over fifty years before retiring his "Just for Variety" column in September 2005. In November 2005, Archerd began blogging for Variety and was working on a memoir when he died.

Life and career
Archerd was born in The Bronx, New York and graduated from UCLA in 1941. He was hired by Variety to replace columnist Sheilah Graham (former girlfriend of F. Scott Fitzgerald) in 1953. His "Just for Variety" column appeared on page two of Daily Variety and swiftly became popular in Hollywood. Archerd broke countless exclusive stories, reporting from film sets, announcing pending deals, giving news of star-related hospitalizations, marriages, and births. In 1984, he was given a star on the Hollywood's Walk of Fame, in front of Mann's Chinese Theater, where he had emceed dozens of movie premieres.

One of his most significant scoops was in his July 23, 1985, column, when he printed that Rock Hudson, despite denials from the actor's publicists and managers, was undergoing treatment for AIDS.

Archerd was Jewish and a strong proponent of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Holocaust awareness. He was married to Selma Archerd, a former actress; they lived in Westwood, California.

Death of Army Archerd
Archerd died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from of a rare form of mesothelioma, "thought to be the result of his exposure to asbestos in the Navy during WWII."

Josephine Owaissa Cottle (April 5, 1922 - June 27, 2009), better known as Gale Storm, is an American actress and singer, who starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show.

Television & Music Career
Storm's television career skyrocketed from 1952 to 1955, with her starring role in My Little Margie. The show was originally a summer replacement for I Love Lucy. It ran for 126 episodes.

Storm's popularity was capitalized upon in The Gale Storm Show (aka Oh! Susanna).  This show ran for 143 episodes between 1956 and 1960. Both of her series were shown countless times in reruns.

Gale Storm had several top ten songs. She headlined in Las Vegas and appeared in numerous stage plays.

Death of Gale Storm
Storm lived alone in Monarch Beach, California, near her two sons and their families, until failing health in recent years forced her into a convalescent home in Danville, California.  Cause of death is not known.
Gale Storm was 87 years old at the time of her death

I Hear You Knocking Gale Storm

 Gale Storm - Ivory Tower

Gale Storm's Filmography & Discography continues on next page

Filmography
Murder, She Wrote (1 episode, 1989)
The Love Boat (1 episode, 1979)
Burke's Law (2 episodes, 1964-1965)
The Gale Storm Show (83 episodes, 1956-1960)
Shower of Stars (1 episode, 1957)
What's My Line? 11/17/1975 (Episode #388) (Season 9 Ep 12)Mystery Guest
The Ford Television Theatre (1 episode, 1955)
Celebrity Playhouse (1 episode, 1955)
Robert Montgomery Presents (1 episode, 1955)
My Little Margie (76 episodes, 1952-1955)
The Unexpected (1 episode, 1952)
Woman of the North Country (1952)
The Texas Rangers (1951)
Al Jennings of Oklahoma (1951)
The Bigelow Theatre (2 episodes, 1950-1951)
Hollywood Theatre Time (1950) TV series
Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)
The Underworld Story (1950)
Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950)
The Kid from Texas (1950)
Abandoned (1949)
Stampede (1949)
Walk a Crooked Mile (1948)
The Dude Goes West (1948)
It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
Swing Parade of 1946
Sunbonnet Sue (1945)
G.I. Honeymoon (1945)
Forever Yours (1945)
Where Are Your Children? (1943)
Campus Rhythm (1943)
Nearly Eighteen (1943)
Revenge of the Zombies (1943)
Cosmo Jones, Crime Smasher (1943)
Rhythm Parade (1942)
Foreign Agent (1942)
Smart Alecks (1942)
Lure of the Islands (1942)
Man from Cheyenne (1942)
Freckles Comes Home (1942)
Red River Valley (1941)
Jesse James at Bay (1941)
Let's Go Collegiate (1941
Gambling Daughters (1941)
Saddlemates (1941)
City of Missing Girls (1941)
Merry-Go-Roundup (1941)
Uncle Joe (1941)
One Crowded Night (1940)
Tom Brown's School Days (1940)

Recordings

Singles
1956: I Hear You Knocking/Never Leave Me (Dot 15412) (#2)
1956: Memories Are Made of This/Teenage Prayer (Dot 15436)
1956: Why Do Fools Fall in Love/I Walk Alone (Dot 15448)
1956: I Ain't Gonna Worry/Ivory Tower (Dot 15458) (#6)
1956: Tell Me Why/Don't Be That Way (Dot 15474)
1956: Now Is The Hour/A Heart Without A Sweetheart (Dot 15492)
1956: My Heart Belongs To You/Orange Blossoms (Dot 15515)
1957: Lucky Lips/On Treasure Island (Dot 15539)
1957: Dark Moon/A Little Too Late (Dot 15558) (#4)
1957: On My Mind Again/Love By The Jukebox Light (Dot 15606)
1957: Go 'Way From My Window/Winter Warm (Dot 15666)
1957: I Get That Feeling/A Farewell To Arms (Dot 15691)
1957: You/Angry (Dot 15734)
1957: South Of The Border/Soon I'll Wed My Love (Dot 15783 )
1958: Oh Lonely Crowd/Happiness Left Yesterday (Dot 15861)
1960: I Need You So/On Treasure Island (Dot 16057)
1960: Please Help Me I'm Falling/He Is There (Dot 16111)

James Allen Whitmore, Jr. (October 1, 1921 - February 6, 2009) was an American two-time Academy Award-nominated, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning film actor.

Death of Jame Whitmore
Whitmore was diagnosed with lung cancer in November of 2008. He died of the disease, at his home in Malibu, California,
James Whitmore was 87 years old at the time of his death.

Biography
Following World War II, Whitmore appeared on Broadway in the role of the Sergeant in Command Decision. MGM hired Whitmore on contract, however his role in the film was played by Van Johnson. Whitmore's first major movie was Battleground that was turned down by Spencer Tracy, for which Whitmore was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Other major films included The Asphalt Jungle, The Next Voice You Hear, Above and Beyond, Kiss Me, Kate, Them!, Oklahoma!, Black Like Me, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and Give 'em Hell, Harry!, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of former President of the United States Harry S Truman.

To a younger generation, he was probably best known, in addition to his role in The Shawshank Redemption, as the commercial spokesman for Miracle-Gro plant food for many years.

Brooks Commits Suicide - James Whitmore as Brooks

James Whitmore's Filmography continues next page

James Whitmore's Filmography 

The Majestic (2001)
Here s To Life (2000)
Behind the Planet of the Apes (1998)
The Relic (1997)
Wild Bill, Hollywood Maverick: The Life and Times of William A. Wellman (1996)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Where The Red Fern Grows - Pt. 1 & 2 (1992)
Old Explorers (1990)
Glory! Glory! (1988)
All My Sons (1987)
Frontier Heritage (1987)
Nuts (1987)
Celebrity (1985)
The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985)
The Killing of Randy Webser (1981)
Rage (1980)
The First Deadly Sin (1980)
Bully (1978)
The Word (1978)
The Serpent's Egg (1977)
Give 'Em Hell, Harry! (1975)
I Will Fight No More Forever (1975)
Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)
High Crime (1973)
The Harrad Experiment (1973)
Chato's Land (1971)
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
Madigan (1968)
Nobody's Perfect (1968)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Chuka (1967)
Waterhole Number 3 (1967)
Black Like Me (1964)
Who Was That Lady? (1960)
Face of Fire (1959)
The Restless Years (1958)
The Deep Six (1957)
Crime in the Streets (1956)
The Eddy Duchin Story (1956)
The Last Frontier (1956)
Battle Cry (1955)
Oklahoma! (1955)
The McConnell Story (1955)
Them (1954)
All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953)
Kiss Me Kate (1953)
The Girl Who Had Everything (1953)
The Great Diamond Robbery (1953)
Above and Beyond (1952)
Because You're Mine (1952)
The Next Voice You Hear (1950)
Battleground (1949)
Ray Bradbury Dancing Among the Muses

** Connie Haines' mother Mildred JaMais is still alive at 109 years of age.

Yvonne Marie Antoinette JaMais (January 20, 1921 – September 22, 2008) was an American singer who performed under the stage name Connie Haines. Her 200 recordings were frequently up-tempo big band songs with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Frank Sinatra.

Life and career
She began performing at age 4, and by age 9 had a regular radio show performing as Baby Yvonne Marie, the Little Princess of the Air.

After a number of regional successes and winning the Major Bowes contest, she was hired by Harry James, who asked her to change her name. She and James both later joined Tommy Dorsey, and Haines credited Dorsey with developing her style further. Haines performed in a number of films, including Duchess of Idaho.

She died in Clearwater Beach, Florida of myasthenia gravis.

Cyd Charisse (March 8, 1922 – June 17, 2008) was an American dancer and actress.

Death of Cyd Charisse
In her eighties, Cyd Charisse made occasional public appearances and appeared frequently in documentaries spotlighting the golden age of Hollywood.

Publicist Gene Schwam said Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on June 16, 2008 after suffering an apparent heart attack. She died the following day, aged 86.

Honors
On November 9, 2006, in a private White House ceremony, President George W. Bush presented Cyd Charisse with the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities, the highest official U.S. honor available in the arts

Leona Helmsley (July 4, 1920 – August 20, 2007) was a billionaire New York City hotel operator and real estate investor. She was a flamboyant personality and had a reputation for tyrannical behavior that earned her the nickname "Queen of Mean." The image of Helmsley was sealed when a former housekeeper testified that she heard Helmsley say: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." She was convicted of federal income tax evasion and other crimes in 1989 and served 19 months in prison (and two more months in house arrest), after receiving an initial sentence of 16 years.

Death

Leona Helmsley died from congestive heart failure, at the age of 87, on August 20, 2007, at her summer home in Greenwich, Connecticut Cardiovascular disease ran in her family, claiming the lives of her father, son and a sister. After a week at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, she was entombed next to Harry Helmsley in a mausoleum constructed for $1.4 million and set on 3/4 acre in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Westchester County, New York.

### 

I grew up in the 80's. I probably heard Johnny Carson cracking jokes about Leona Helmsley about thousand times.

She was a great person in a way.  She started out as a secretary, then took over the industry.  I wish I was like that.

Then she made some bad decisions later in her life.

She must have been lonely, because she left 12 million dollars to her dog.

• Click here for a Leona Helmsley biography
• Share your memory, add your comment below
• Buy from Amazon.com: Leona Helmsley Books & Documentaries

Jack Palance (born Volodymyr Palahniuk; February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an Academy Award-winning American film actor. With his rugged facial features, Palance was best known to modern movie audiences as both the characters of Curly and Duke in the two City Slickers movies, but his career spanned half a century of film and television appearances.

Death of Jack Palance
Jack Palance died at the age of 87, of natural causes, at his home in Montecito in Santa Barbara County.He was cremated and his ashes were retained by family and friends

• Please share your memory, leave your comment
• Jack Palance's filmography continues on next page

Jack Palance as a bad guy

Hollywood Walk of Fame
Palance has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1992, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Academy award and nominations
1952 – Nominated – Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Sudden Fear
1953 – Nominated – Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Shane
1992 – Won – Best Actor in a Supporting Role – City Slickers

Complete Filmography of Jack Palace

(1950-2004) (In order of production)

Television Movies/Mini-Series

Television Shows

Red Buttons (February 5, 1919 – July 13, 2006) was an American comedian and actor.

Death of Red Buttons
Red Buttons died of vascular disease on July 13, 2006 at his home in the Century City area of Los Angeles. Red Buttons was 87 years old. Buttons had been ill for some time and was with family members when he passed away

Early life
Red Buttons was born Aaron Chwatt on February 5, 1919 in New York City to Jewish immigrants. At sixteen years old, Buttons got a job as an entertaining bellhop at Ryan's Tavern in City Island, Bronx. The combination of his red hair and the shiny buttoned bellhop uniform inspired orchestra leader Charles "Dinty" Moore to call him Red Buttons, the name under which he would later perform.

Later that same summer, Buttons worked on the Borscht Belt; his straight man was Robert Alda. In 1939, Buttons started working for Minsky's Burlesque; in 1941, José Ferrer chose Buttons to appear in a Broadway show The Admiral Had a Wife. The show was a farce set in Pearl Harbor, and it was due to open on December 8, 1941. It never did, as it was deemed inappropriate after the Japanese attack. In later years Buttons would joke that the Japanese only attacked Pearl Harbor to keep him off Broadway.

• Red Buttons' Biography & Filmography continues next page
• Please share your memory, leave your comment

Career
In September 1942, Buttons at last got his Broadway debut in Vickie with Ferrer and Uta Hagen. Later that year, he appeared in the Minsky's show Wine, Women and Song; this was the last Burlesque show in New York City history, as the Mayor La Guardia administration closed it down. Buttons was on stage when the show was raided.

1943 saw Buttons in the Army Air Corps. He was chosen to appear in the Broadway show Winged Victory, as well as appearing in the Darryl F. Zanuck movie version. He later went on to entertain troops in the European Theater of operations in the same unit as Mickey Rooney.

After the war, Buttons continued to do Broadway shows. He also performed at Broadway movie houses with the Big Bands. In 1952, Buttons received his own variety series on television - The Red Buttons Show ran for three years, and achieved high levels of success. His catch phrase from the show, "strange things are happening," entered the national vocabulary briefly in the mid-1950s.

His role in Sayonara was a dramatic departure from his previous work. In that film, he played Joe Kelly, an American airman stationed in Kobe, Japan during the Korean War, who falls in love with Katsumi, a Japanese woman (played by Miyoshi Umeki), but is barred from marrying her by military rules intended to reassure the local populace that the U.S. presence is temporary. His portrayal of Kelly's calm resolve not to abandon the relationship and touching reassurance of Katsumi impressed audiences and critics alike; both he and Umeki won Academy Awards for the film. After his Oscar-winning role, Buttons performed in numerous feature films, including Hatari!, The Longest Day, Harlow, The Poseidon Adventure, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Pete's Dragon, and 18 Again! with George Burns. Buttons also made many memorable TV appearances on programs including Little House on the Prairie, It's Garry Shandling's Show, ER and Roseanne.

He became a nationally recognizable comedian, and his "Never Got A Dinner" sketch was a standard at the Dean Martin roasts for many years.

Number 71 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time, Buttons received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television, located at 1651 Vine Street.

Personal life
Buttons was married to actress Roxanne Arlen in 1947, but it soon ended in divorce. His next marriage was to Helayne McNorton, from December 8, 1949 until 1963. His last marriage was to Alicia Pratt, which lasted from January 27, 1964 until her death in March 2001. Buttons had two children, daughter Amy Buttons and son Adam Buttons. He was the advertising spokesman for the Century Village, Florida retirement community.

Buttons was an early member of the Synagogue for the Performing Arts, and at the time, Rabbi Jerome cutler was the Rabbi.