Gregg Toland

popular name: Ticky Holgado

date_of_death: January 22, 2004

age: 59

cause_of_death: Lung cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Ticky Holgado was a French character actor known for his short stature, distinctive face and heavy Southern accent. Holgado's original vocation was to be a musician. After playing in a band as a teenager, he found work in the French music industry and was eventually employed as a personal secretary by singer Claude François and later by Johnny Hallyday. He became an actor in his mid-thirties and began appearing in small roles, mostly in comedy films. He gradually became a familiar face in French films. In 1991, Holgado appeared in two films that allowed him to gain greater fame, Delicatessen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, then Une époque formidable..., by Gérard Jugnot, where he played a part written especially for him. During the years that followed, Holgado was very active as a character actor. He was nominated twice to the César Award for Best Supporting Actor, first for Une époque formidable..., then for French Twist (1994). Unfortunately the talented actor had to step back from films while he fought a five-year losing battle with lung cancer. In the end he was featured in over 65 films including international hits "Amelie," "Manon of the Spring," and "Les Miserables."

popular name: Paul Lynde

date_of_death: January 10, 1982

age: 55

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: “I'll take Paul Lynde.” Not so long ago (actually a lifetime ago) if that sentence was uttered by a contestant on Hollywood Squares, lights would flash around the center cube in a grid of B-level celebrities and settle on a genuine star - Paul Lynde. He was tanned, rested and ready with a whinnying snigger (which he stole from actress Alice Ghostley) and bawdy, thinly veiled reference to his sexual orientation. Sadly his wealth and fame never made Lynde happy. He drifted from one relationship to another, often with paid escorts, and longed to be taken seriously as an actor. He died in his sleep of a heart attack at the age of 55 with, as the coroner reported, the heart of an 80-year-old.

popular name: Al Jolson

date_of_death: October 23, 1950

age: 64

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Jolson rose through the ranks of vaudeville as a comedian and a blackface “Mammy” singer. By 1920, he had become the biggest star on Broadway, but he is probably best remembered for his film career. He starred in "The Jazz Singer" (1927), the first talking movie ever made, and his legend was assured in 1946 with the release of the successful biography of his life "The Al Jolson Story". At the height of his career he was the highest paid entertainer in the world!