Elvin Shepherd

popular name: Earle Hagen

date_of_death: May 26, 2008

age: 88

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Earle Hagen was a talented Hollywood composer and musician who wrote some of the most famous theme songs in television history. Hagen's memorably melodic riffs in a variety of musical genres graced the score of dozens of television shows from 1953 to 1986, including “Make Room for Daddy,” “The Mod Squad,” “Eight Is Enough” and “The Dukes of Hazzard. Of course most remember him as the creator of possibly the most idly hummed melody of all time - the folksy, countrified whistle that opened “The Andy Griffith Show,” accompanying Sheriff Andy Taylor (Mr. Griffith) and his young son, Opie (Ron Howard), down a dirt road toward a fishing hole. And not only did he score the opening theme song, he also did the whistling himself. He also wrote the swing-like anthem for “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” accompanying Mr. Van Dyke’s entry into his suburban home and his tumble over an ottoman. (In later seasons, Mr. Van Dyke would sidestep the ottoman to the same playful musical phrase.) He wrote the cool, cosmopolitan and suggestively exotic theme for the espionage drama “I Spy.” He wrote the cheerily mock-military anthem for the bumpkin-in-the-marines comedy “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C,” starring Jim Nabors. And he wrote the perky pop theme for the Marlo Thomas vehicle “That Girl.” Upon his death, we was laid to rest at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

popular name: Sonny Bono

date_of_death: January 5, 1998

age: 62

cause_of_death: Massive head injuries caused by skiing into a tree

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Singer, songwriter, actor and entertainer Sonny Bono began his career struggling to write songs while working as a waiter, a construction worker, a truck driver and a butcher's helper. In his 20's he immersed himself in the music business as a songwriter and singer with Specialty Records, where he worked with Sam Cooke and Little Richard. Soon he teamed up with the legendary record producer Phil Specter, where he wrote songs (''You Bug Me, Baby,'' and ''Needles and Pins'') and sang background for groups like the Righteous Brothers. The turning point of his career took place when the exotically beautiful 16-year-old named Cherilyn Sarkisian, who called herself Cher, drifted into his life. The pair first achieved fame with two hit songs in 1965, "Baby Don't Go" and "I Got You Babe". The couple's career as a duo ended in 1975 following their divorce. In the decade they spent together, Sonny and Cher were nominated for two Grammy Awards and sold over 40 million records worldwide. Rolling Stone ranked them No. 18 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. Sadly, it was on January 5th, 1998 when Sonny took off alone snow skiing and later slammed into a tree. Bono's body was found late Monday afternoon in a narrow, wooded area between two ski runs at the Heavenly Ski Resort. He died instantly from massive head trauma.

popular name: Hank Williams

date_of_death: January 1, 1953

age: 29

cause_of_death: Heart failure caused by drug and alcohol abuse

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: American Country singer, songwriter, and musician. Hank Williams was one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Some of his best hits include "Move It on Over", "Lovesick Blues", "Your Cheatin' Heart", and "Hey, Good Lookin'". Artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, and the Rolling Stones have been influenced by his work. Often described as being fiercely driven, drug-addicted and stubbornly drunk, Hank Williams was nonetheless the finest songwriter and song stylist of the twentieth century.