Gregg Toland

popular name: Anne Heche

date_of_death: August 11, 2022

age: 53

cause_of_death: Smoke inhalation and thermal injuries from a vehicular crash, following a sternal fracture due to blunt trauma

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Anne Heche was an actress known for her roles in a variety of genres in film, television, and theater. She received numerous accolades, including a National Board of Review Award and multiple Emmy Awards. Heche's professional acting career began on the soap opera Another World (1987–1991) portraying the twins Vicky Hudson and Marley Love, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. She made her film debut in a supporting role in O Pioneers!, a 1992 American made-for-television drama film based on the 1913 novel by Willa Cather. Heche's acting profile rose during the 1990s, gaining particular attention for her co-starring role in the independent film Walking and Talking (1996) and for her standout supporting role in the crime drama Donnie Brasco (1997). Further high-profile roles followed in 1997, including Volcano, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Wag the Dog. In 1998, Heche further rose to prominence with her leading role in the romantic comedy Six Days, Seven Nights opposite Harrison Ford. Also in 1998, she starred in Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of Psycho. Heche's personal life often upstaged her acting career. From 1997 to 2000, she was in a high-profile relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres. Immediately following her split with DeGeneres in 2000, she had a highly publicized psychotic breakdown.

popular name: Peter Lawford

date_of_death: December 24, 1984

age: 61

cause_of_death: Cardiac Arrest brought on by kidney and liver failure due to substance abuse

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: At age 25, Lawford was one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood and a symbol of glamour and romance. By the end of his life, he was heavily addicted to drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, kinky sex and so broke that he didn't think twice about selling out Liz Taylor to the tabloids for $15,000. But one secret he did take to his grave is the part he played in the events surrounding the 1962 death of Marilyn Monroe, who carried on clandestine affairs with Lawford's onetime brothers-in-law, Jack and Bobby Kennedy. It was Lawford, who married into the Kennedy family in 1954, who introduced Jack Kennedy to Monroe; it was Lawford who cleaned up the actress` apartment after she apparently killed herself to make sure nothing remained to link her with the Kennedys and result in a politically disastrous scandal.

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.