Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Read online

  CAUSE: He died of cancer aged 74 in Hollywood.

  Mabel Albertson

  Born July 24, 1901

  Died September 28, 1982

  Wise and witty mum. The elder sister of Jack Albertson, Mabel was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and although she worked regularly on big and little screens, she never eclipsed her brother’s fame. Her cinematic work began with Gang War (1928) and included: the widow in Mutiny On The Blackhawk (1939), My Pal Gus (1952) as Mrs Frisbee, She’s Back On Broadway (1953) as Velma Trumbull, So This Is Love (1953) as Mary Garden, About Mrs Leslie (1954) as Mrs Sims, Black Widow (1954) as Sylvia, Ma And Pa Kettle At Waikiki (1955) as Tess Andrews, The Cobweb (1955) as Regina Mitchell-Smyth, Ransom! (1956) as Mrs Partridge, a society reporter in Forever, Darling (1956), Four Girls In Town (1957) as Mrs Conway, Man Afraid (1957) as Maggie, The Female Animal (1958) as Irma Jones, The Long, Hot Summer (1958) as Mrs Stewart, Home Before Dark (1958) as Inez Winthrop, The Hangman (1959), Don’t Give Up The Ship (1959) as Mrs Trabert, The Gazebo (1959) as Mrs Chandler, All The Fine Young Cannibals (1960) as Mrs McDowall, All In A Night’s Work (1961) as Mrs Kingsley, Period Of Adjustment (1962) as Mrs Alice McGill, A Fine Madness (1966) as the chairman, Barefoot In The Park (1967) as Aunt Harriet, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) as Mrs Hatch and What’s Up, Doc? (1972) as Mrs Van Hoskins.

  CAUSE: She died from Alzheimer’s disease aged 81 in Santa Monica, California.

  Hardie Albright

  (HARDIE ALBRECHT)

  Born December 16, 1903

  Died December 7, 1975

  Blond, blue-eyed leading man. Born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, 5˝10˝ Hardie Albright was the son of vaudevillians and he made his stage début aged six in their act. After studying drama at Carnegie Tech and the Arts Institute in Chicago, he joined Eve Le Gallienne’s repertory theatre. His first performance on the Great White Way came in 1926. Hardie appeared in many Broadway plays before making his film début in 1931. Appearing in more than 50 films, he retired from acting in 1948, and became a drama instructor at UCLA, where he wrote several books on acting and directing. Perhaps his biggest claim to fame is that he provided the voice for the adolescent Bambi in the 1942 film. His films included: Young Sinners (1931) as Gene Gibson, Hush Money (1931) as Stuart Elliot, Skyline (1931) as John Breen, Heartbreak (1931) as Count Carl Walden, So Big! (1932) as Dirk De Jong, The Purchase Price (1932) as Don Leslie, Jewel Robbery (1932) as Paul, This Sporting Age (1932) as Johnny Raeburn, A Successful Calamity (1932) as George Struthers, The Crash (1932) as Arthur Pringle, The Cabin In The Cotton (1932) as Roland Neal, Three On A Match (1932) as Phil, 20,000 Years In Sing Sing (1932), The Match King (1932) as Erik Borg, The Working Man (1933) as Benny Burnett, The Song Of Songs (1933) as Von Prell, Three-Cornered Moon (1933) as Ronald, The House On 56th Street (1933) as Henry Burgess, The Ninth Guest (1934) as Henry Abbott, Nana (1934), White Heat (1934) as Chandler Morris, Beggar’s Holiday (1934), The Scarlet Letter (1934) as Arthur Dimmesdale, Two Heads On A Pillow (1934) as Dave Talbot, Crimson Romance (1934) as Hugo, The Silver Streak (1934) as Allen Dexter, Sing Sing Nights (1934) as Howard Trude, Women Must Dress (1935) as David, Champagne For Breakfast (1935) as Bob Bentley, Calm Yourself (1935) as Bobby Kent, Ladies Love Danger (1935) as Phil Morton, Red Salute (1935) as Arner, Granny Get Your Gun (1940) as Philip Westcott, Ski Patrol (1940) as Tyko Gallen, Carolina Moon (1940) as Henry Wheeler, Flight From Destiny (1940) as Ferrers, Marry The Boss’s Daughter (1941) as Putnam Palmer, Bachelor Daddy (1941) as Ethelbert, Men Of The Timberland (1941) as Dudley, Navy Blues (1941), Captains Of The Clouds (1942) as Kingsley, The Mad Doctor Of Market Street (1942) as William Saunders, a police detective in Saboteur (1942), a chauffeur in Lady In A Jam (1942), The Pride Of The Yankees (1942) as Van Tuyl, The Loves Of Edgar Allan Poe (1942) as Shelton, Mom And Dad (1945) as Carl Blackburn, an exploitative sex documentary, Army Wives (1945) as Verne, The Jade Mask (1945) as Walter Meeker, Sunset In El Dorado (1945) as Cecil Phelps/Cyril Earle, Captain Tugboat Annie (1945) as Johnny Webb and Angel On My Shoulder (1946) as Smiley Williams. He was married twice, firstly (from 1934 until 1940) to Martha Sleeper. His second wife was the comedian Arnita Wallace (b. 1924, d. Mission Viejo, California, June 11, 1985 in her sleep), by whom he had his only child, Victoria.

  CAUSE: Albright died of congestive heart failure in Mission Viejo, California. He was 71.

  Robert Alda

  (ALPHONSO GIUSEPPE GIOVANNI ROBERTO D’ABRUZZO)

  Born February 26, 1914

  Died May 3, 1986

  Cinematic pop. To the cinema audiences of the Forties and Fifties actors such as Robert Alda and Kirk Douglas were stars in their own right. To the cinema audiences of the Seventies they are predominantly known for their famous offspring. Born in New York, Alphonso D’Abruzzo, the son of Anthony D’Abruzzo, an immigrant hairdresser, dropped out of New York University because of the Great Depression. In 1933 he first appeared on stage at the RKO in New York in vaudeville in an act called Charlie Ahearn And His Millionaires. From 1935 until 1940 he toured in burlesque. He first appeared on radio in 1934 and television three years later. He made his cinematic début playing composer George Gershwin in Rhapsody In Blue (1945) but that was to be the pinnacle of his movie career. His other films include Cloak And Dagger (1946), Tarzan And The Slave Girl (1950), Imitation Of Life (1959), Cleopatra’s Daughter (1963), Cagliostro (1974), I Will, I Will … For Now (1976) and The Big Rip Off (1978). He was more successful on stage having made his legitimate Broadway début on November 24, 1950, at the 46th Street Theater playing Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls, a performance that would win him a Tony. In the Sixties he emigrated to Rome and worked there steadily for the next 20 years. In September 1932 he married beauty contest winner Joan Brown and their only child, a son, Alfonso Jr, who went on to become better known as Alan Alda, was born on January 28, 1936, in New York City. Following his divorce in Las Vegas on November 24, 1957, Alda married Italian actress Flora Marino and their son, Antony, was born in 1957.

  CAUSE: Alda died in Los Angeles aged 72 following a stroke suffered in 1984.

  Robert Aldrich

  Born August 9, 1918

  Died December 5, 1983

  Independent director. Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, Aldrich never intended to enter show business. At the University of Virginia he studied law and economics. In 1941 he landed a job at RKO in a menial capacity before working his way up to becoming a second assistant director, production manager and associate producer. He learned his trade on films such as Joan Of Paris (1942), Rookies In Burma (1943), Adventures Of A Rookie (1944), The Story Of G.I. Joe (1945), The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946), The Private Affairs Of Bel Ami (1947), Force Of Evil (1948) and Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952). In the early Fifties he began working in television writing and directing various series. He turned to directing feature films in 1953 with movies such as Apache (1954), World For Ransom (1954) and The Big Knife (1955) which he also produced. That year he set up his own production company, the Associates and Aldrich, to allow himself more autonomy in his work. On October 25, 1955 The Big Knife, starring Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Shelley Winters and Rod Steiger, opened at the Hollywood Paramount. It was a look at the dark side of Tinseltown and was universally loathed by certain sections of the Hollywood community who labelled it “a gross misrepresentation of the motion picture industry”. Aldrich’s first major cinematic coup was persuading arch rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford to star as the Hudson sisters, Blanche and Jane, in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962). At the press conference to announce the film the two ageing movie queens jostled each other to get a better picture vantage and Davis only agreed to make the film after Aldrich assured her he had never had sex with Crawford. Aldrich commented: “ A director is a ringmaster, a psychiatrist and a referee.” The film was shot in just three weeks and was a smash, recouping its outlay (less than $1 million) in eleven days and eventually taking $9 million at the box office. Aldrich later commented, “Joan and Bette were
perfect pros on the set of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? until 6pm. Then I’d get a call from Joan asking, ‘Did you see what that bitch did to me today?’ A couple of minutes later Bette would call and ask, ‘What did that bitch call you about?’ First one and then the other. I could count on it every night.” Despite their antipathy both women signed for the follow-up Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) but Crawford dropped out to be replaced by Olivia De Havilland. In 1966 Aldrich made the war film The Dirty Dozen, which was another smash, and followed that up with two lesbian-themed movies The Killing Of Sister George (1968) and The Legend Of Lylah Clare (1969). Of his star in the second he commented, “Kim Novak has been seriously hurt by men. Unlike Marilyn [Monroe], she survived. But her pain has also survived, and she no longer trusts men, particularly if they want to become or seem to be getting intimate. So I have to remain fatherly and detached when guiding her through her roles. In The Legend Of Lylah Clare she plays two roles, two actresses, one of them a late star, a legend in the Dietrich-Garbo persona who is sapphic. I have no trouble ignoring Kim’s beauty because I just think of her as being sapphic, like Lylah.” In 1977 he made The Choirboys, lambasted as one of the worst police films ever made. By that time Aldrich was already ill.

  CAUSE: He died aged 65 in Los Angeles from kidney failure. As he lay dying he was visited by actor Richard Jaeckel who asked Aldrich if there was anything he needed. “Yeah, a good script,” came the reply.

  Kay Aldridge

  Born July 9, 1917

  Died January 12, 1995

  Serial queen. Katharine Gratten Aldridge was born in Tallahassee, Florida, and was raised in the home of two spinsters after her mother was widowed at a young age. On leaving school she landed herself a clerical job in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1935, laid up in bed with a broken leg (the result of a horse riding accident), her story was featured in a local paper. A copy of the feature was sent to a New York modelling agent who signed her up. Two years later, film producer Walter Wanger (1894–1968) employed “the ten most photographed girls in the world” to appear in his film Vogues Of 1938 (1937). Of the ten models Aldridge was the only one to express an interest in Hollywood. When she went up for the role of Scarlett O’Hara she was coached by Henry Fonda. She appeared as the second lead in Hotel For Women (1939) (credited as Katharine Aldridge) as Melinda Craig after she was replaced by Linda Darnell. She went on to appear in over 20 films including Here I Am A Stranger as Lillian Bennett, Yesterday’s Heroes (1940), Shooting High (1940) as Evelyn Trent, Girl In 313 (1940) as Sarah Sorrell, Girl From Avenue A as Lucy, Free, Blonde And 21 as Adelaide, You’re In The Army Now (1941), Sailor’s Lady (1940) as Georgine, Down Argentine Way (1940) as Helen Carson, Golden Hoofs (1941) as Cornelia Hunt, Dead Men Tell as Laura Thursday, Navy Blues and Louisiana Purchase (1941) as Louisiana Belle. It was her casting as Nyoka Gordon in The Perils Of Nyoka that assured her place in serial history. It ran to 15 episodes and was re-released as Nyoka And The Tigermen in 1952 and Nyoka And The Lost Secrets Of Hippocrates 14 years after that. She retired from the screen after playing Wilhelmina Hammond in The Man Who Walked Alone (1945) and Claudia Moore in The Phantom Of 42nd Street (1945) at the insistence of her much older first husband, Arthur Cameron, whom she married on St Valentine’s Day 1945. They had four children, two of each, before separating in 1954. Two years later, Aldridge married painter Richard Derby Tucker and lived happily with him until his death in 1979. A third trip up the aisle in 1982 ended when her husband died eight months later.

  CAUSE: She died in Rockport, Maine, of a heart attack aged 77.

  Grigori Aleksandrov

  (GRIGORI VASSILEYEVICH MARMONENKO)

  Born January 23, 1903

  Died December 16, 1984

  Soviet cineaste. Born in Ekaterinburg, Russia, Aleksandrov began his theatrical career on the stage before becoming assistant to Sergei Eisenstein and starring in his masterpieces such as Strike (1924), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1927). He and Eisenstein later travelled to America on a fact-finding mission for Que Viva Mexico! (1931). Back in the Soviet Union, Aleksandrov directed his first film Jazz Comedy (1934), a musical that inspired a new wave in Soviet cinema. His last film was Skvorets I Lira (1973). His first wife was the actress Anna Sten.

  CAUSE: He died in Moscow, Soviet Union, aged 81 of natural causes.

  Ben Alexander

  Born May 26, 1911

  Died July 5, 1969

  Joe Friday’s partner. Nicholas Benton Alexander was born in Goldfield, Nevada, and began his career as a child star in Each Pearl A Tear (1916) in which he played Cupid. He was educated at Hollywood High School in between films, followed by a degree at the University of California. He began as a child star then made the transition to juvenile lead. These included: The Little American (1917) as Bobby Moore, The Lady Of The Dugout (1918) as the lady’s son, The Heart Of Rachael (1918) as Jim, Little Orphan Annie as an orphan, The Turn In The Road (1919) as Bob, The White Heather as Donald Cameron, Josselyn’s Wife (1919) as Tommy Josselyn, The Hushed Hour (1919) as Gondy, The Mayor Of Filbert (1919) as Carroll, Tangled Threads (1919) as ‘Sonny Boy’ Wayne, The Better Wife (1919) as Little Dick, The Family Honor (1920) as Little Ben Tucker, Through Eyes Of Men (1920) as Little Billy, Penrod And Sam (1923) as Penrod Schofield, Jealous Husbands (1923) as Bobbie, Boy Of Mine (1923) as Bill Latimer, A Self-Made Failure (1924) as Sonny, Flaming Love (1925) as Benny Keene, Pampered Youth (1925) as George Minafer, The Shining Adventure (1925) as Benny and The Highbinders (1926) as Roy Marshall. He successfully made the move to talkies from silent films and struck an early note as Franz Kemmerich, the tragic amputee, in All Quiet On The Western Front (1930). During the rest of the decade he made around four films a year but none of them set the screen alight and he moved to radio where he hosted quiz and chat shows and appeared in sitcoms. Alexander later became an advertising executive with Foote, Cone & Belding, and made just three films in the Forties and Fifties. With the advent of television he moved to the small screen and hosted and produced his own short-lived talent show Party Time At Club Roma from October 14, 1950 until January 6, 1951. Two years later, another opportunity arose when Alexander became Officer Frank Smith on the police show Dragnet playing Sergeant Joe Friday’s genial but permanently worried partner. He played the part until 1959. In 1960 he became a regular guest on the primetime quiz show Take A Good Look. In 1966 he landed the part of kindly but fussy Desk Sergeant Dan Briggs on the Broderick Crawford series Felony Squad, a role that lasted until his death.

  CAUSE: He died of natural causes aged 58 in Hollywood, California. He was cremated and his ashes were interred in Maui Cemetery, Wailuku, Hawaii.

  Frank ‘Fatty’ Alexander

  Born May 25, 1879

  Died September 8, 1937

  Huge star. Born in Olympia, Washington, Alexander joined Keystone in 1913 and was a support act rather than ever becoming a major star like Fatty Arbuckle. The 5́ 8˝ Alexander weighed in at 25 stone resulting in his nicknames ‘Fatty’ and the more ironic if less accurate ‘Tiny’. He was one-third of the trio known as A Ton of Fun. On October 24, 1925, Film Box Office announced that they were to produce a series of comedies starring “the three fattest men on the screen” to be produced by Joe Rock. The series lasted until 1928. The other men were Hilliard ‘Fat’ Karr and ‘Kewpie’ Ross and the films were Three Wise Goofs (1925), On The Links (1925), All Tied Up (1925), Tailoring (1925), In The Air (1926), A Beauty Parlor (1926), Three Of A Kind (1926), Wedding Daze (1926), Backfire (1926), Oh, What A Night! (1926), The Vulgar Yachtsman (1926), Three Fleshy Devils (1926), Honeymoon Feet (1926), The Heavy Parade (1926), Heavy Fullbacks (1926), What Price Dough (1927), Campus Romeos (1927), Wanderers Of The Waistline (1927), Old Tin Sides (1927), 3 Missing Links (1927), All Alike (1928) and Big Berthas (1928). Alexander’s other films included: When Ambrose Dared Walrus (1915) as a fireman, Bath Tub Perils (1916), Social Pirates (1917), Melting Millions (1917) as Bailey, By The Sad Sea Waves (1917), a bather in Rainbow Island (1917), Ba
thing Beauties And Big Boobs (1918) as Fat, a café owner in Huns And Hyphens (1918), Bears And Bad Men (1918) as Paw Slawson, Pluck And Plotters (1918), Dull Care (1919) as the chief of police, Traps And Tangles (1919), The Grocery Clerk (1920) as Big Ben, The Stage Hand (1920) as the stage manager, The Rent Collector (1921) as a thug, The Bakery (1921) as the bakery owner, The Fall Guy (1921) as the sheriff, The Bell Hop (1921) as a government official, The Sawmill (1922) as the mill owner, The Show (1922) as a ballet dancer, Cyclone Jones (1923) as Fatty Wirthing, Her Boy Friend (1924) as Slim Chance, Kid Speed (1924) as Mr Avery DuPoys, Wizard Of Oz (1925) as Uncle Henry/Prince of Whales, a hotel guest in Hop To It! (1925), a cook in S.O.S. Perils Of The Sea (1925), The Perfect Clown (1925) as Tiny Tott, Assorted Nuts (1926), Play Safe (1927), Madame Q (1929), the fat lodger in The Shrimp (1930), the fat man in the audience in Catch As Catch Can (1931), The Kickoff (1931), The Bargain Of The Century (1933) and The BarberShop (1933). Alexander appeared with another cinematic fat man Oliver Hardy in thirteen films: Dull Care (1919), The Stage Hand (1920), The Rent Collector (1921), The Bakery (1921), The Fall Guy (1921), The Bell Hop (1921), The Sawmill (1922), The Show (1922), Her Boy Friend (1924), Kid Speed (1924), Wizard Of Oz (1925) (Hardy played The Tin Man), Hop To It! (1925) and The Perfect Clown (1925).