Gregg Toland

popular name: Nicholas Colasanto

date_of_death: February 12, 1985

age: 61

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Nicholas Colasanto was a well-loved actor and television director who achieved his greatest success as "Coach" on the TV series Cheers (1982). After serving his country during World War II, at the age of 28, he saw Henry Fonda perform on Broadway and was infected by the acting bug. He joined a theater company in Phoenix, Arizona before moving back to New York, where he performed in off-Broadway productions and appeared in TV commercials. He relocated to Hollywood in 1965 and began to appear on TV, were he also made his mark as a TV director. Eventually, he directed over 100 episodes of series TV in the 1960s and 70s, including episodes of Bonanza (1959), Columbo (1971), S.W.A.T. (1975) and Starsky and Hutch (1975). His two most memorable film roles were the the boxing manager in John Huston's Fat City (1972) and the mob boss in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980). Colasanto was primarily a dramatic actor but the producers of the TV comedy Cheers (1982) cast him as Ernie "Coach" Pantusso, the absent-minded and dumb but lovable bartender. The role made him famous and he earned an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series each of the three years that he appeared on the show. Sadly, at the height of his fame, he died from a heart ailment at his home in Studio City, California on February 12th, 1985.

popular name: Margaret Kelly

date_of_death: September 11, 2004

age: 94

cause_of_death: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Margaret Kelly, known as Miss Bluebell, was an Irish dancer who was the founder of the Bluebell Girls dance troupe. At the age of 14, Kelly left school and joined a Scottish dance troupe called the Hot Jocks. Nine months later, she was contracted to the Scala in Berlin by noted producer Alfred Jackson, manager of the Jackson Girls. Kelly remained at the Scala for 5 years. Beginning in 1930, Kelly danced in Paris for the Folies Bergère. In 1932, when she was 22, she created her own troupe there called the Bluebell Girls. Bluebell found her greatest triumph in the Nevada desert when she and Donn Arden brought the Bluebells to the Las Vegas strip. Miss Bluebell caught Vegas fever, and her show exploded into an extravaganza that included live camels, jugglers, Roman gladiators, illusionists, ice skaters, strong men and waterfalls. She sold out the Stardust Hotel and the MGM Grand. In six decades she left a legacy that recruited and trained 14,000 Bluebells, set up troupes over the world, received countless awards including the Legion d’honneur and the Order of the British Empire (OBE), had an audience with the pope, and was the subject of a book and BBC documentary. Upon her death, she was interred at Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris, France.

popular name: Lois Collier

date_of_death: October 27, 1999

age: 80

cause_of_death: Alzheimer's disease

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Lois Collier was a Hollywood actress whose acting career started as a model in the 1935 romance-comedy "Women Must Dress". From 1940 through 1949, her career would be active and somewhat successful, with her playing mostly heroine roles in B-movies. Her best known film is probably A Night in Casablanca (1946) starring the Marx Brothers. During the 1940s, she often starred opposite western stars Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, and Dennis Moore. In 1950, she starred in the sci-fi serial The Flying Disc Man from Mars. In the early 1950s she branched out into television where Collier starred mostly on television series episodes. She played Mary, the hero's girlfriend and sidekick, in 58 episodes of the television series Boston Blackie, which ran from 1951 to 1954. She retired from acting after 1957.