Gregg Toland

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: Peter Lorre

date_of_death: March 23, 1964

age: 60

cause_of_death: Stroke

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: A Hungary born actor, Lorre's success is best remember with his pairing with Sydney Greenstreet as Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon (1941), continued in Casablanca (1942) and seven other films during the early 1940s

popular name: Richard Blackwell

date_of_death: October 19, 2008

age: 86

cause_of_death: Complications from an intestinal infection

claim_to_fame: Show Business

best_know_for: Mr. Blackwell, whose first name was Richard, was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960 – long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair. He was the creator of the "Ten Worst Dressed Women List", an annual awards presentation he unveiled in January of each year. He published the "Fabulous Fashion Independents" list and an annual Academy Awards fashion review, both of which receive somewhat less media attention. Prior to his Worst Dressed list, Blackwell designer dresses sold for between $800 to $1,000 and were very successful. During the nearly two decade existence of the "House of Blackwell", he was designer to Yvonne De Carlo, Jayne Mansfield, Dorothy Lamour, and Jane Russell. During the 1980s, the emerging drift toward casual wear brought an end to The House of Blackwell. As he pivoted as a fashion critic, overtime Mr. Blackwell's somewhat mean spirited list began to wear thin. His take on Wynonna Judd ("She looks like Hulk Hogan in sequins"), on Martha Stewart ("Dresses like the centerfold for Farmers' Almanac") and the Dixie Chicks ("They look like a trio of truck stop fashion tragedies/ trapped in a typhoon") was losing it's audience appeal over time. Despite the waning audience he continued up until his death at age 86.