Gregg Toland

popular name: Burt Lancaster

date_of_death: October 20, 1994

age: 80

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Burt Lancaster was a failed circus performer when in 1945 (according to the sort of Hollywood legend of which one should probably believe only half) he chanced to share an elevator ride with a theatrical producer who assumed that someone so rugged, virile and good-looking could only be an actor and who consequently invited him to audition for a leading role in a Broadway play, The Sound of Hunting. By virtue of his performance, he was almost at once cast opposite Ava Gardner in Robert Siodmak's The Killers (1946), a tight, atmospheric, low-budget thriller that established Lancaster's reputation in Hollywood. Lancaster's career spanned 45 years and encompassed more than 70 movies, 1 Academy Award and a ranking of #19 in The American Film Institute list of the greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.

popular name: Allan Sherman

date_of_death: November 20, 1973

age: 48

cause_of_death: Respiratory failure

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Allan Sherman was an American musician, satirist, actor and television producer who became known as a song parodist in the early 1960s. In the fall of 1962, if an album sold 10,000 copies, Warner Bros. Records considered it a success. Then Allan Sherman released My Son The Folk Singer, an album of Jewish themed parody songs that sold close to 400,000 copies in three weeks on the way to over one million sales. Among the single recordings that helped to push his annual income beyond $500,000 at the height of his popularity were “Crazy Downtown,” and “Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh,” which described the horrors of a summer camp and won for Mr. Sherman a Grammy Award in 1963 for the best comic performance. But just as quickly as his star rose, Mr. Sherman's saw his popularity vanish post JFK and with the rise of Beatlemania. Audiences lost their desire for his particular form of comedy and the British Invasion dominated the airwaves. In his final years, Sherman's alcoholism and weight gain caused severe deterioration of his health; he later developed diabetes and struggled with lung disease. In 1966, his wife Dee filed for divorce and received full custody of their son and daughter. Sherman lived on unemployment benefits for a time and moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital for a short time to lose weight. He died while entertaining his friends during the night of November 20, 1973, at his West Hollywood home.

popular name: Alan Ladd

date_of_death: January 29, 1964

age: 50

cause_of_death: Cerebral edema caused by accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Alan Ladd was an American actor became an overnight star by playing Raven, a sensitive hit man, in "This Gun for Hire" (1942). Ladd continued his success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s in Westerns such as the classic Shane (1953). He was often paired with Veronica Lake in noirish films The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). His other notable credits include Two Years Before the Mast (1946), Whispering Smith (1948), which was his first Western and color film, and The Great Gatsby (1949). His popularity diminished in the mid 1950s, though he continued to appear in numerous films, including his first supporting role since This Gun for Hire in the smash hit The Carpetbaggers in 1963.