Gregg Toland

popular name: Totie Fields

date_of_death: August 2, 1978

age: 48

cause_of_death: Pulmonary embolism

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Totie Fields was an American comedian who got her start on the east coast in nightclubs when Ed Sullivan saw her show at the Copacabana in New York Cith and gave Fields her first big break when he booked her on his show. She made multiple appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Merv Griffin Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She also appeared in a 1971 episode of The Carol Burnett Show (Season 4, Episode 21) and a 1972 episode of Here's Lucy (Season 5, Episode 7) starring Lucille Ball. During the last two years of her life, Miss Fields had undergone surgery several times including the removal of her leg, breast and eye surgery, and suffered two heart attacks. Nevertheless, in 1978, during the last year of her life, Fields was voted "Entertainer of the Year" and "Female Comedy Star of the Year" by the American Guild of Variety Artists. Upon the passing of Totie Fields she was laid to rest at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.

popular name: Alice Faye

date_of_death: May 9, 1998

age: 83

cause_of_death: Stomach cancer

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Although may be a little forgotten after all these years, Alice Faye was one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career in the 1940s. Ms. Faye's warm, husky contralto and demure sexuality in ''Tin Pan Alley,'' ''Hello, Frisco, Hello'' and ''Alexander's Ragtime Band'' made her one of Hollywood's top 10 moneymaking stars in 1938 and 1939. Under contract to 20th Century Fox for a little over a decade, during which she made 32 movies, Ms. Faye walked out in 1945 after Darryl Zanuck, the studio's leader, chopped up her scenes in ''Fallen Angel'' to highlight the performance of a younger Fox star, Linda Darnell. While an accomplished actress with such film hits as In Old Chicago, Rose of Washington Square and Lillian Russell, she was also a talented singer. Irving Berlin was once quoted as saying that he would choose Faye over any other singer to introduce his songs, and George Gershwin and Cole Porter called her the "best female singer in Hollywood in 1937". During her years as a musical superstar (from the 1930s to the early 1940s), Alice Faye managed to introduce 23 songs to the Hit Parade and was the first female crooner and equivalent to Bing Crosby. In May 1941, she married bandleader Phil Harris. Their marriage, one of the most successful in Hollywood, became a plotline in the hit radio comedy, The Jack Benny Program, where for 16 years Harris was a regular cast member. in 1946. The Harrises' gently tart comedy sketches made them the show's stars. By 1948 the show became a strictly situation comedy with a music interlude each from husband and wife and was renamed The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show.

popular name: Louise Emmons

date_of_death: March 6, 1935

age: 77

cause_of_death: Heart disease and pneumonia

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Louise Emmons was an American character actress who specialized in portraying old hags, such as the evil headmistress from the Our Gang film Mush and Milk (1933). Louise appeared in 53 films throughout her career including "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalpyse" (1921), "The Ten Commandments" (1923), "Resurrection" (1931), and "King Kong" (1933). Her last film was the horror movie Mark of the Vampire (1935), where she played an old gypsy.