Gregg Toland

popular name: Sarah Bernhardt

date_of_death: March 26, 1923

age: 78

cause_of_death: Kidney disease

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas; Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. She also played male roles, including Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rostand called her "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture", while Hugo praised her "golden voice". She made several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures. Hailed as “the Divine Sarah,” Sarah Bernhardt is recognized as the first international stage star and considered by many to be the finest actress in the world. She debuted in the title role of Racine’s Iphigénie in 1862 and built a reputation as a versatile actress with an expressive voice and poetic gestures. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, she pursued multiple careers, buying a series of French theaters to produce modern experimental plays while touring Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Canada. She also wrote, painted, and sculpted. During a 1905 performance in Rio de Janeiro, Bernhardt badly injured her knee, which finally required amputation in 1915. Despite her injury, Bernhardt performed on stage and in films until weeks before her death. She was laid to rest atCimetière du Père Lachaise in Paris, France.

popular name: Mel Blanc

date_of_death: July 10, 1989

age: 81

cause_of_death: Emphysema and heart disease

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Known as "The Man of Thousand Voices" Mel Blanc developed and performed nearly 400 distinct character voices including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd with precision and a uniquely expressive vocal range.

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.