Franco Zeffirelli

popular name: Buster Keaton

date_of_death: February 1, 1966

age: 70

cause_of_death: Lung Cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton was one of the three big stars of the Hollywood silent film era. Keaton was an American silent film actor, comedian, and director renowned for his physical comedy, deadpan expression, and innovative filmmaking. He began performing in vaudeville as a young child alongside his parents, developing a remarkable knack for slapstick and stunt work. Keaton rose to prominence in the 1920s with a series of short films and feature-length classics like The General (1926), Sherlock Jr. (1924), and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), which showcased his daring stunts, inventive visual gags, and impeccable comic timing. Often referred to as “The Great Stone Face” for his stoic on-screen persona, Keaton was also a pioneering director who pushed the boundaries of cinematic storytelling and physical comedy. Despite a career downturn in the 1930s, he experienced a resurgence later in life, earning recognition for his contributions to film history. The grave of this giant of Hollywood's silent film era can be found at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California.

popular name: James Dean

date_of_death: September 30, 1955

age: 24

cause_of_death: Broken neck, blunt force trauma (car crash)

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: With only three movies to his name - Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, Giant - James Dean cemented his legacy as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement when he died tragically at the age of 24. Sadly Dean never knew the impact of his talents when he became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations.

popular name: Hedy Lamarr

date_of_death: January 19, 2000

age: 85

cause_of_death: Heart disease

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Hedy Lamarr, the raven-haired Viennese beauty who became one of the reigning temptresses in Hollywood films in the 1930's and 40's, especially as Delilah vamping Victor Mature's Samson was was an Austrian-born Austro-Hungarian-American film actress and inventor. She was a film star during Hollywood's golden age. After a brief early film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial Ecstasy (1933), she fled from her first husband, a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer, and secretly moved to Paris. Traveling to London, she met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood. She became a film star with her performance in Algiers (1938). Her MGM films include Lady of the Tropics (1939), Boom Town (1940), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), and White Cargo (1942). Her greatest success was as Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's Bible-inspired Samson and Delilah (1949). She also acted on television before the release of her final film, The Female Animal (1958). She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Interesting to note that at the beginning of World War II, she and avant-garde composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Upon her passing Hedy Lamarr's well-visited grave can be found at Wiener Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria.