Gregg Toland

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: 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.

popular name: Eddie Albert

date_of_death: May 26, 2005

age: 99

cause_of_death: Pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: American actor best known for his role on the 1960s television comedy series "Green Acres" as Oliver Wendell Douglas. Eddie Albert was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Roman Holiday (1954), and the second in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid (1973). All in all, Eddie Albert appeared in over 500 TV series, movies, stage productions and variety shows. Eddie Albert was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard.