Georgia Engel

popular name: Jacques Chazot

date_of_death: July 12, 1993

age: 64

cause_of_death: Throat Cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Mr. Chazot began his career in earnest as a star dancer at the Opera Comique in Paris from 1956 to 1963 and choreographed or produced many ballets. His wit made him a popular guest on television talk shows. He was also known for his satirical writing about Parisian high society, symbolized by a fictional young snob named Marie-Chantal. He was a perennial figure in that society, and he used to say, "People love me because when I enter a room I create the effect of a sudden shower of rainbow confetti." In short, Chazot was a professional dandy, his slender figure shown off to its best advantage in a Saint-Laurent purple velvet dinner jacket. He preferred the weightless nourishment of his butterfly mind to the stupefying richness of French haute cuisine. He had been known to enter famous restaurants and order a glass of water (but with a sprig of fresh mint) and a post-prandial cigar. Like Ronald Firbank, he could dine appreciatively on a single green pea. He was a close friend of the writer Francoise Sagan, whom he reportedly almost married in 1964, despite his avowed homosexuality, and was often seen in the company of people like Maria Callas, Princess Grace and Marie-Helene de Rothschild. Upon his death he was interred at Cimetirie de Monthyon in France.

popular name: Milton Berle

date_of_death: March 27, 2002

age: 93

cause_of_death: Colon cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Comedian Milton Berle, one of the pioneering legends of television known to a generation of devoted fans as "Uncle Miltie," Berle's career began when he was 5 years old and spanned more than 80 years in stage, film, radio, and television. But it was on television in the 1940s and '50s that Berle made his most lasting mark. "The Texaco Star Theater," featuring Berle and guest stars in what would become legendary comic skits, debuted in 1948 and caught on with the public almost immediately. It became a Tuesday night fixture in homes across America and was credited with helping sell millions of first-time TV sets to a nation just getting acquainted with the new medium. After his twenty years as "Mr. Television" Berle slowly turned into a narcissistic, overbearing attention hog who didn't have neither the knowledge or desire to leave the spotlight with grace. Yet Berle is remembered today less for his jokes, or his comedy, than he is for both being a big d**k and having a big d**k. Berle was notorious for being a joke thief, an attention hog, a scene stealer, and a petty tyrant who took it upon himself to do things like try to “teach” the cast of Saturday Night Live about live television, resulting in one of the most notorious and disastrous episodes in the show’s history. So it comes as no surprise that his legacy has aged badly since his passing.

popular name: Irving Lazar

date_of_death: December 30, 1993

age: 86

cause_of_death: Complications stemming from diabetes and kidney failure

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Irving "Swifty" Lazar was the legendary Hollywood talent agent whose image as a dapper, elfin deal-maker with Coke-bottle glasses and bald dome made him a caricaturist's dream represent some of the greatest talent in Hollywood including Humphrey Bogart, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, Faye Dunaway, Richard M. Nixon, Noel Coward, Tennessee Williams, John Cheever, and John Huston (to name a few). Mr. Lazar, who wore trademark oversize dark eyeglasses, called himself the Prince of Pitch (he hated "Swifty") who won record fees for his clients when such mega-deals were unheard of including the sale of Truman Capote's novel "In Cold Blood" for $500,000, the musical "Camelot" for $1.4 million and he sold Neil Simon's play "The Odd Couple" when it was only a five-sentence summary. He also started the tradition for annual Oscar-night parties with his own private annual Oscar-night dinner party at Spago.