Georgia Engel

popular name: Ernest Lehman

date_of_death: July 2, 2005

age: 89

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Ernest Lehman was an American screenwriter, producer, and director who was nominated six times for Academy Awards for Best Screenplay during his career, but never won. Ernest Lehman received the first Honorary Academy Award to every be awarded for his influential work in 2001. Some his best known work includes "Hello, Dolly!", "North by Northwest", "The Sound of Music", "West Side Story", and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?".

popular name: Bette Davis

date_of_death: October 6, 1989

age: 81

cause_of_death: Metastasized breast cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Bette Davis was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was known for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas. In 101 feature films and TV movies, she created Hollywood’s first and finest portrait of the thoroughly modern woman: her independence born in neurosis, her strength forged in professional and domestic combat, her man of the moment an irrelevance or a desperate burden. ”I either have to hold him off/ Or have to hold him up,” she sang in Thank Your Lucky Stars. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue ten Academy Award nominations (and one write-in) for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 1999, Davis was placed second on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema. In 1983, after filming the pilot episode for the television series Hotel, Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Within two weeks of her surgery, she had four strokes which caused paralysis in the left side of her face and in her left arm, and left her with slurred speech. Davis collapsed during the American Cinema Awards in 1989, and later discovered that her cancer had returned. Too weak to make the long journey back to the U.S., she traveled to France, where she died of metastasized breast cancer on October 6, 1989, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Davis was 81 years old. Bette was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood, California.

popular name: Rudy Vallée

date_of_death: July 3, 1986

age: 84

cause_of_death: Throat cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Rudy Vallée was an American singer, musician, actor, and radio host who is considered by many to be the first modern American teen idol and pop star. After playing drums in his high school band, Vallée played clarinet and saxophone in bands around New England as a teenager. From 1924 to 1925, he played with the Savoy Havana Band at the Savoy Hotel in London and upon return to the states he graduated with a degree in philosophy from Yale University. After graduation, he formed Rudy Vallée and the Connecticut Yankees, having named himself after saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft. With this band (formed in 1928), which included two violins, two saxophones, a piano, a banjo, and drums, he started singing. He had a thin, wavering tenor voice and seemed more at home singing sweet ballads than jazz songs. But his singing, suave manner, and boyish good looks attracted attention, especially from young women. In the 1920s and early '30s he had a hit radio program, The Fleishmann's Yeast Hour (although his explosive, ego-driven personality made his cast and crew hate him). In the early 1930s he was ranked with the likes of Bing Crosby and the tragic Russ Columbo in the Hit Parade. A huge hit on radio in 1933 with his program Vallee was considered a bastard by his staff. He was known to instigate fist fights with virtually anyone who got on his nerves. During his show's run he slugged photographers, threw sheet music at pianists' heads, and socked hecklers in their noses. While audiences loved him, most of his staff hated him. As a very popular star in nightclubs, on records, and in movies, he helped other singers, such as Alice Faye--who was his band singer for a while--and Frances Langford to start their careers. In his early movies he often played the romantic lead, but later he switched to stuffy and comic parts and later also appeared on Broadway. In his final years Rudy took a turn at performing standup comedy ... badly.