Elvin Shepherd

popular name: Elvis Presley

date_of_death: August 16, 1977

age: 42

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Elvis Presley was an American singer, musician and actor. He is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century and is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll". He is the best-selling solo music artist of all time, and was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, R&B, adult contemporary, and gospel. He won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Presley made his film debut in "Love Me Tender". After touring and starring in films, by 1973 Elvis's health was in major and serious decline. Twice during that year, he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. On the evening of Tuesday, August 16, 1977, Presley was scheduled to fly out of Memphis to begin another tour. That afternoon, Ginger Alden discovered him in an unresponsive state on a bathroom floor. According to her eyewitness account, "Elvis looked as if his entire body had completely frozen in a seated position while using the toilet and then had fallen forward, in that fixed position, directly in front of it. ... It was clear that, from the time whatever hit him to the moment he had landed on the floor, Elvis hadn't moved."

popular name: Sam Phillips

date_of_death: July 30, 2003

age: 80

cause_of_death: Respiratory failure

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Sam Phillips was one of the true musical pioneers of the 20th century. A man who redefined the cultural landscape by producing and engineering local talent in his modest studio and distributing the results on his own Sun Records label. And while he may have only had moderate results with such discoveries as Johnny Cash, Howlin' Wolf, BB King and Roy Orbison, he became a legend recording and producing Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and, of course, Elvis Presley. In the end, Sam was one of the main people responsible for breaking down the barriers between white and black music, melding country with blues, and creating the genre that we now refer to as rock & roll.

popular name: Django Reinhardt

date_of_death: May 16, 1953

age: 43

cause_of_death: Cerebral hemorrhage

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Django Reinhardt was a pioneering Belgian-born Romani guitarist and composer who became one of the most influential figures in European jazz. After a caravan fire in 1928 severely injured his left hand—leaving two fingers partially paralyzed—he developed a groundbreaking technique that allowed him to solo using primarily two fingers, creating a fluid, fiery style that redefined jazz guitar. In the 1930s, he co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with violinist Stéphane Grappelli, pioneering the all-strings format and establishing what became known as “Gypsy jazz.” The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as a lead instrument. Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter. Reinhardt composed enduring standards such as “Minor Swing” and “Nuages,” blending American swing with Romani musical traditions. During World War II, he continued performing across occupied Europe, and after the war he toured the United States, even performing with Duke Ellington in 1946. Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become standards within gypsy jazz, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages". In his final recordings, made with his Nouvelle Quintette in the last few months of his life, he had begun moving in a new musical direction, in which he assimilated the vocabulary of bebop and fused it with his own melodic style.