Georgia Engel

popular name: Suzanne Somers

date_of_death: October 15, 2023

age: 76

cause_of_death: Breast cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Suzanne Somers was a talented actress who first became famous for playing, as she put it, “one of the best dumb blondes that’s ever been done,” on the TV sitcom Three's Company. Holding her own playing opposite veteran actors John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt, Suzanne made the headlines when, after four years co-starring on the hit show, by getting fired when she demanded an increase in pay well over the leading star of the show (John Ritter). In the years after “Three’s Company,” Ms. Somers remained in the public eye through frequent appearances in movies and on television, including the 1990s sitcom “Step by Step,” a stint co-hosting the television series “Candid Camera” and a wide variety of talk shows. But her earnings from television were greatly eclipsed by the health and diet business empire (most notably with the ThighMaster) she built with her long-time husband Alan Hamal. Upon her passing from breast cancer with metastasis to the brain, her net worth exceeded $105 million. Upon her death she was laid to rest at Desert Memorial Park.

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.

popular name: Betty Hutton

date_of_death: March 12, 2007

age: 86

cause_of_death: Colon cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Betty Hutton was an American stage, screen, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. Unlike other actresses who have been called "blonde bombshells," Hutton had a screen personality that had more to do with energy and humor than sex. Time magazine wrote in 1950: "Betty Hutton, who is not remarkably pretty, by movie standards, nor a remarkably good singer or dancer, has a vividly unique personality in a town that tends to reduce beauty and talent to mass-produced patterns. Watching her in action has some of the fascination of waiting for a wildly sputtering fuse to touch off an alarmingly large firecracker." During her prime she worked with or co-starred with some of the biggest names of the era including Preston Sturges, Fred McMurray, Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken and William Holden. When she dropped out of her contract at Paramount at the top of her game, she never starred in a film again but did well on television, nightclubs and the stage. Her final appearance on screen was on Good Morning America, which led to a 1978 televised reunion with her two daughters.