Georgia Engel

popular name: Alan Ladd

date_of_death: January 29, 1964

age: 50

cause_of_death: Cerebral edema caused by accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Alan Ladd was an American actor became an overnight star by playing Raven, a sensitive hit man, in "This Gun for Hire" (1942). Ladd continued his success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s in Westerns such as the classic Shane (1953). He was often paired with Veronica Lake in noirish films The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). His other notable credits include Two Years Before the Mast (1946), Whispering Smith (1948), which was his first Western and color film, and The Great Gatsby (1949). His popularity diminished in the mid 1950s, though he continued to appear in numerous films, including his first supporting role since This Gun for Hire in the smash hit The Carpetbaggers in 1963.

popular name: Sal Mineo

date_of_death: February 12, 1976

age: 37

cause_of_death: Murder - stab wound to the heart

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Sal Mineo was a talented American actor who was best known for his role as John "Plato" Crawford in the drama film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at age 17, making him the fifth-youngest nominee in the category. Mineo also starred in films such as Crime in the Streets, Giant (both 1956), Exodus (1960), for which he won a Golden Globe and received a second Academy Award nomination, The Longest Day (1962), John Ford's final western Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). In fact, he either starred or was featured in over 20 major films before his untimely murder. He also made dozens of appearances on dozens of TV shows including Combat!, Hawaii Five-0, My Three Sons and Mission Impossible. On the night of February 12, 1976, Mineo returned home from a rehearsal for the play P.S. Your Cat Is Dead at 10:00 pm. After parking his car in the carport below his West Hollywood apartment, he was stabbed in the heart by a mugger. Mineo was found lying and bleeding profusely in the parking alley by his neighbor Raymond Evans, who had heard his cries for help, but Mineo was only able to walk a few steps, after which he collapsed immediately and was pronounced dead at the age of 37 due to massive hemorrhage. He was laid to rest at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

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.