Gregg Toland

popular name: Greta Garbo

date_of_death: April 15, 1990

age: 84

cause_of_death: Pneumonia and kidney failure

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Greta Garbo was a Swedish-American actress, renowned for her iconic roles in the silent film and early sound film eras. Born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden, she worked as a shop assistant and appeared in a few Swedish films before being discovered by Hollywood in 1925. She signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1927 and soon became one of the most popular stars of the 1920s and 1930s. Garbo's mysterious, often melancholic on-screen presence earned her the nickname "The Divine Garbo." She starred in several classic films such as Flesh and the Devil (1926), Camille (1936), and Grand Hotel (1932), which showcased her range, from passionate lovers to tragic figures. Her roles often reflected themes of love and loss, matching her off-screen enigmatic persona. Garbo made a successful transition to sound films, and in 1939, she received an Academy Award nomination for Ninotchka. Despite her success, Garbo was known for her desire for privacy, and in 1941, she retired from acting at the age of 36 after making only 26 films in 17 years. When Garbo quit Hollywood, she spent the remainder of her life in shuttered and fenced residences in France, Switzerland and Manhattan, where she lived in an East Side high-rise. Known as “the Swedish sphinx” because of her deep fear of reporters and other strangers, she ironically became one of the most publicized women in the world while trying to guard her privacy. Her biographer John Bainbridge wrote in “Garbo,” that except at the start of her career, she “granted no interviews, signed no autographs, attended no premieres, answered no fan mail.” At the time of her death in 1990 she owned 18th-century antiques, fine rugs, damask curtains, real estate and many pieces of art, including a Renoir. She left her entire estate of $32 million (equivalent to $75,000,000 in 2023) to her niece. She was interred Skogskyrkogården cemetery in Stockholm, Sweden.

popular name: Dorothy Kilgallen

date_of_death: November 8, 1965

age: 52

cause_of_death: Accidental overdose of barbituits and alcohol

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Called by famed attorney F. Lee Bailey “A very bright and very good reporter of criminal cases, the best there was,” “One of the greatest women writers in the world,” by Ernest Hemingway, and by the New York Post, “The most powerful female voice in America,” Dorothy Kilgallen was a What’s My Line? television star, radio personality, celebrated journalist, revered investigative reporter and author. After spending two semesters at the College of New Rochelle, she started her career shortly before her 18th birthday as a reporter for the Hearst Corporation's New York Evening Journal. In 1938, she began her newspaper column "The Voice of Broadway", which was eventually syndicated to more than 140 papers. In 1950, she became a regular panelist on the television game show What's My Line?, continuing in the role until her death. Kilgallen's columns featured mostly show-business news and gossip, but also ventured into other topics, such as politics and organized crime. She wrote front-page articles for multiple newspapers on the Sam Sheppard trial and, years later, events related to the John F. Kennedy assassination, such as testimony by Jack Ruby. As Kilgallen neared the end of her JFK assassination investigation, her body was discovered in her townhouse bedroom with the official cause of death a drug overdose combined with alcohol consumption: “Circumstances Undetermined.” The simple grave of Dorothy Kilgallen can be found at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

popular name: Nelson Eddy

date_of_death: March 6, 1967

age: 66

cause_of_death: Suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage while on stage at the Sans Souci Hotel

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Nelson Eddy was an American actor and baritone singer who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred with soprano Jeanette MacDonald. He was one of the first "crossover" stars, a superstar appealing both to shrieking bobby soxers and opera purists, and in his heyday, he was the highest paid singer in the world.