Franco Zeffirelli

popular name: Gene Tierney

date_of_death: November 6, 1991

age: 70

cause_of_death: Emphysema

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Gene Tierney was a talented American actress during the golden years of Hollywood in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and was renown for her striking beauty. She is best known for her role as the mysterious murder victim in Laura (1944), and her Oscar-nominated performance in Leave Her to Heaven (1945).

popular name: Allan Sherman

date_of_death: November 20, 1973

age: 48

cause_of_death: Respiratory failure

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Allan Sherman was an American musician, satirist, actor and television producer who became known as a song parodist in the early 1960s. In the fall of 1962, if an album sold 10,000 copies, Warner Bros. Records considered it a success. Then Allan Sherman released My Son The Folk Singer, an album of Jewish themed parody songs that sold close to 400,000 copies in three weeks on the way to over one million sales. Among the single recordings that helped to push his annual income beyond $500,000 at the height of his popularity were “Crazy Downtown,” and “Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh,” which described the horrors of a summer camp and won for Mr. Sherman a Grammy Award in 1963 for the best comic performance. But just as quickly as his star rose, Mr. Sherman's saw his popularity vanish post JFK and with the rise of Beatlemania. Audiences lost their desire for his particular form of comedy and the British Invasion dominated the airwaves. In his final years, Sherman's alcoholism and weight gain caused severe deterioration of his health; he later developed diabetes and struggled with lung disease. In 1966, his wife Dee filed for divorce and received full custody of their son and daughter. Sherman lived on unemployment benefits for a time and moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital for a short time to lose weight. He died while entertaining his friends during the night of November 20, 1973, at his West Hollywood home.

popular name: Marion Davies

date_of_death: September 22, 1961

age: 64

cause_of_death: Malignant osteomyelitis (bone cancer) of the jaw

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: In the Roaring Twenties, Marion Davies was a superstar. By 1923, Davies was the #1 female box office star in Hollywood due to the popularity of "When Knighthood Was in Flower" and "Little Old New York", which were among the biggest box-office hits of their respective years. Appearing in nearly four dozen films, both silent and “talkies,” Davies was everywhere. But many didn’t believe that she achieved her fame due to talent alone. Infamous for her 34-year relationship with business tycoon William Randolph Hearst, actress Marion Davies was maligned as a talentless gold-digger after "Citizen Kane" came out. After she retired to care for the ailing Hearst, even writer-director Orson Welles, defended Davies' record as a gifted actress and comédienne to whom Hearst's patronage did more harm than good. In his final years, Welles attempted to correct the widespread misconceptions which the film had created about Davies' popularity and talents as an actress.