Georgia Engel

popular name: Carl Switzer

date_of_death: January 21, 1959

age: 31

cause_of_death: Gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Carl Switzer, the actor who as a child played Alfalfa in the Our Gang comedy film series, was the freckle-faced boy with a warbling singing voice and a cowlick protruding from the top of his head. It was Switzer’s best-known role in his short-lived Hollywood career. Our Gang revolved around a group of ragtag children and their adventures. In addition to Alfalfa, the ensemble of memorable characters included Spanky, Darla, Buckwheat, Froggy, Stymie and Pete the dog. Our Gang was considered groundbreaking in that it featured white and black child actors interacting equally. Switzer played Alfalfa from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s. In 1955, the Our Gang films were turned into a hugely popular TV series called The Little Rascals; however, Switzer never received any royalties from the show. After Our Gang, Switzer found small roles in movies and on television, but his most successful days in Hollywood were behind him. He made money working odd jobs, including stints as a hunting guide and bartender, and had several run-ins with the police. On January 21, 1959, Switzer and a friend went to the Mission Hills home of Moses “Bud” Stiltz, to collect a debt Switzer believed he was owed. A fight broke out, during which Stiltz shot and killed Switzer. A jury later ruled the incident justifiable homicide. Carl was laid to rest at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

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: Paulette Goddard

date_of_death: April 23, 1990

age: 79

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Paulette Goddard was an American actress and film producer best known for her work during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Born Marion Levy on June 3, 1910, in Whitestone Landing, Queens, New York, she began her career as a fashion model and stage performer before transitioning to film in the early 1930s. Goddard gained fame through her collaborations with Charlie Chaplin, particularly for her role as the Gamin in Modern Times (1936) and later in The Great Dictator (1940). Goddard's career flourished in the 1940s with notable roles in films like The Women (1939), North West Mounted Police (1940), and So Proudly We Hail! (1943), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She was long regarded as one of Hollywood's richest and sexiest women. Her four husbands included comic great Charles Chaplin, actor Burgess Meredith and famed novelist Erich Maria Remarque, author of 'All Quiet on the Western Front.' She refused to discuss her private affairs and never admitted her 1936 marriage to Chaplin until she divorced him six years later.