Franco Zeffirelli

popular name: Richard Blackwell

date_of_death: October 19, 2008

age: 86

cause_of_death: Complications from an intestinal infection

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Mr. Blackwell, whose first name was Richard, was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960 – long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair. He was the creator of the "Ten Worst Dressed Women List", an annual awards presentation he unveiled in January of each year. He published the "Fabulous Fashion Independents" list and an annual Academy Awards fashion review, both of which receive somewhat less media attention. Prior to his Worst Dressed list, Blackwell designer dresses sold for between $800 to $1,000 and were very successful. During the nearly two decade existence of the "House of Blackwell", he was designer to Yvonne De Carlo, Jayne Mansfield, Dorothy Lamour, and Jane Russell. During the 1980s, the emerging drift toward casual wear brought an end to The House of Blackwell. As he pivoted as a fashion critic, overtime Mr. Blackwell's somewhat mean spirited list began to wear thin. His take on Wynonna Judd ("She looks like Hulk Hogan in sequins"), on Martha Stewart ("Dresses like the centerfold for Farmers' Almanac") and the Dixie Chicks ("They look like a trio of truck stop fashion tragedies/ trapped in a typhoon") was losing it's audience appeal over time. Despite the waning audience he continued up until his death at age 86.

popular name: Fred Allen

date_of_death: March 17, 1956

age: 61

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Fred Allen was an American comedian with a talent for ad-lib. His absurdist topically-pointed radio program The Fred Allen Show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the Golden Age of American radio. After 30 years on the radio, Fred Allen, a 52-year-old comic known for wry jokes, bow ties, and baggy eyes, made the cover of Time magazine. Intellectuals loved Allen, as did his peers in comedy. Radio rival Edgar Bergen acknowledged him as “the greatest living comedian.” Some people would have given the nod to Jack Benny, and Allen might have agreed; the two had been friends for years and were professionally linked by a fake feud they waged on their respective radio shows. But for Allen even to have been in the running with the great Benny shows his high standing at the time. Even though Allen had built up a weekly audience of 20 million listeners, his decline from popularity was swift. By the late 1940s and early 50s, television was well on its way from novelty (172,000 sets in use in 1948) to necessity (17 million sets in 1952). Not just radio networks but movie theaters, nightclubs, and restaurants were losing business to the upstart. Second, there was a problem with Allen's appeal - even he admitted he had a face for radio. Allen spent his final years as a newspaper columnist/humorist and as a memoirist and rented a small New York office to work six hours a day without distractions. He was also a panelist on "What's My Line?" for two years when he suddenly died of a heart attack on streets of New York City. He was laid to rest at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

popular name: Michael O'Shea

date_of_death: December 4, 1973

age: 67

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Michael O'Shea was a talented actor who appeared in feature films and later in television and whose career spanned the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Some of his most memoriable roles included the leading man opposite Barbara Stanwyck Lady of Burlesque (1943), the title role in the biopic Jack London (1943), The Eve of St. Mark (1944), Something for the Boys (1944), the lead in Man from Frisco (1944), and a musical, Something for the Boys (1944), with Carmen Miranda. The next year O'Shea then went into It's a Pleasure! (1945), playing a hockey star who marries figure skater Sonja Henie. And if you look hard enough, you might spot him as a guest star in one episode of the television police drama Adam-12. He is was also married to actress Viriginia Mayo up until the time of his passing.