Gregg Toland

popular name: Françoise Dorléac

date_of_death: June 26, 1967

age: 25

cause_of_death: Single car crash

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Françoise Dorléac was a beloved French actress whose father was Maurice Dorleac, a stage and screen actor and her mother, Renee Deneuve, re-voiced Hollywood movies (including Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz). However most American's would know her as the older sister of Catherine Deneuve. Francoise Dorleac made her first stage appearance at age 10 and debuted on film in a short, Mesonges, in 1957. Supporting herself as a model for Dior, she studied acting at the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique. From 1960 – 1967 she appeared in 16 films including Philippe de Broca’s That Man from Rio (1964) co-starring Jean-Paul BelmondoIn Europe, Francois Truffaut’s The Soft Skin (1964) and Roger Vadim’s remake of La Ronde (1964) with Jane Fonda and Anna Karina. At the time Francoise was so popular she would be likened to Garbo and Dietrich. In the U.S. Look magazine would feature a June 1965 spread on "The Sister Stars of France," spotlighting 'sweet' Catherine and 'soignee' Francoise. In the final years of her very short life, Françoise Dorléac co-starred in the films "Billion Dollar Brain", "Genghis Khan" with Omar Sharif and James Mason, and "Where the Spies Are", a spy spoof with David Niven. Decades after her passing, a reporter would ask Catherine Deneuve what the low point of her life so far had been. She would pause and softly speak of the death of Françoise. She remembered her sister as a fine actress, a beautiful woman and "my closest friend."

popular name: Joan Crawford

date_of_death: May 10, 1977

age: 73

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Ranked in the Top Ten list of greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema by the American Film Institute, Joan Crawford's brilliant career included memorable performances in Mildred Pierce (1944), Possessed (1947), Sudden Fear (1952) and, of course, opposite her arch nemesis Bettie Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Married four times, adopting five children and a lifetime of in the lights, she became a virtual recluse in her final years dying in her tony New York apartment. The following year her daughter Christina published the notorious tell-all book Mommy Dearest.

popular name: Noël Coward

date_of_death: March 26, 1973

age: 73

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: A prolific performer, playwright and raconteur, Noël Coward was also a talented songwriter whose acerbic wit (both on and off stage) and sophisticated British persona were recognized worldwide. Coward first appeared onstage at the young age of 12, had his first success as a lyricist at the age of 26, and by the end of the 1930s had 9 hit musical productions. In the 1940s, he spent much of his time traveling the world, entertaining war troops, and received his only Oscar for the movie In Which We Serve. After 1945 his clipped, lisping speech and languid Englishness were wearing thin on the public and his career never regained the momentum of the prewar era. And though his stage productions and movies in the 1950s never garnered much critical praise, he nevertheless had one of the highest-paid nightclub acts going on the road.