Franco Zeffirelli

popular name: Françoise Dorléac

date_of_death: June 26, 1967

age: 25

cause_of_death: Single car crash

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Françoise Dorléac was a beloved French actress whose father was Maurice Dorleac, a stage and screen actor and her mother, Renee Deneuve, re-voiced Hollywood movies (including Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz). However most American's would know her as the older sister of Catherine Deneuve. Francoise Dorleac made her first stage appearance at age 10 and debuted on film in a short, Mesonges, in 1957. Supporting herself as a model for Dior, she studied acting at the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique. From 1960 – 1967 she appeared in 16 films including Philippe de Broca’s That Man from Rio (1964) co-starring Jean-Paul BelmondoIn Europe, Francois Truffaut’s The Soft Skin (1964) and Roger Vadim’s remake of La Ronde (1964) with Jane Fonda and Anna Karina. At the time Francoise was so popular she would be likened to Garbo and Dietrich. In the U.S. Look magazine would feature a June 1965 spread on "The Sister Stars of France," spotlighting 'sweet' Catherine and 'soignee' Francoise. In the final years of her very short life, Françoise Dorléac co-starred in the films "Billion Dollar Brain", "Genghis Khan" with Omar Sharif and James Mason, and "Where the Spies Are", a spy spoof with David Niven. Decades after her passing, a reporter would ask Catherine Deneuve what the low point of her life so far had been. She would pause and softly speak of the death of Françoise. She remembered her sister as a fine actress, a beautiful woman and "my closest friend."

popular name: Anna Nicole Smith

date_of_death: February 8, 2007

age: 39

cause_of_death: Combined drug intoxication

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Anna Nicole Smith was a stunning, full-figured American model, a terrible actress and television personality. Smith started her career as a Playboy magazine centerfold in May 1992 and won the title of 1993 Playmate of the Year. She later modeled for fashion companies including Guess, H&M and Heatherette. In 1993, when she modeled for the Swedish clothing company H&M, this led to her picture being displayed on large billboards in Sweden and Norway. Smith was also featured on the cover of Marie Claire and in GQ magazine. Smith dropped out of high school in 1984, married in 1985 and divorced in 1993. In 1994, her highly publicized second marriage to 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall resulted in speculation that she married him for his money, which she denied. Following Marshall's death in 1995, Smith began a lengthy legal battle over a share of his estate. Her cases reached the Supreme Court of the United States: Marshall v. Marshall on a question of federal jurisdiction and Stern v. Marshall on a question of bankruptcy court authority. Eventually losing her bid to gain control of a portion of billionaire Marshall's $1.6 billion estate, she was saddled with attorney fees that made her bankrupt. In the end, Vickie Lynn Hogan swapped her small-town woes for a ticket to stardom as a Playboy Playmate, Guess Jeans pinup girl and glamorous movie star: a walking, talking billboard for fashion, sex and, later, severe misfortune. Upon her passing, Anna was laid to rest at Lakeview Memorial Gardens in Nassau Bahamas.

popular name: Ozzie Nelson

date_of_death: June 3, 1975

age: 69

cause_of_death: Liver cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Oswald Nelson big band leader, actor, director, and producer. But he is most well known as the patient, loving father Ozzie Nelson with his lovely wife Harriet in once of America's most beloved TV shows. For 14 years, from 1952 to 1966, ”The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” was a television staple, an American icon, which may have preceded ”Seinfeld” as the first show that was really about nothing. (The Nelsons made an extraordinary 435 episodes; by contrast, there are 180 episodes of ”Seinfeld.”). Unlike ”Leave It to Beaver,” which ran six years, and ”Father Knows Best,” which lasted nine, ”Ozzie and Harriet” may have endured far longer because the Nelson family blurred the line between fiction and reality. The show actually began on radio in 1944, with Ozzie and Harriet playing themselves and actors portraying the boys. Their real sons joined the show in 1949, and the whole family made the transition to television.