Joey Ramone

popular name: Tex Williams

date_of_death: October 11, 1985

age: 68

cause_of_death: Pancreatic cancer

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Tex Williams was an American country music singer, songwriter, bandleader and occasional film actor. He is best known for his 1949 hit "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)," which became a major crossover success. Tex Williams, along with Spade Cooley and Bob Wills, was among the most popular bandleaders in the musical genre known as "western swing" in the 1940s and 1950s. Williams began his career in music in the late 1930s, playing in local bands. After serving in World War II, he joined the Spade Cooley Orchestra, where he gained considerable recognition. He later formed his own band, Tex Williams and His Western Caravan, which helped establish his career. In the 1950s, Williams moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to record and perform. Williams' other successes included the cover of a Bob Wills' classic, 'That's What I Like About The West', and also 'Never Trust A Woman', 'Don't Telephone, Don't Telegraph, Tell A Woman', 'Suspicion' and 'Talking Boogie'. Tex's band was a frequent guest on numerous radio and TV programs in the 1950s, including the Grand Ole Opry, Spike Jones, Dinah Shore, the Jo Stafford Show and National Barn Dance. His band split up in 1965 because, as he said, he 'had no use for a band. When you have a band, you have to keep those guys working.' He continued to perform and record throughout his life, although his fame was mostly rooted in his earlier work. Tex's constant smoke, smoke, smoke of cigarettes finally caught up with him, and he died of lung and pancreatic cancer in 1985. He was laid to rest in Eternal Valley Memorial Park, Newall, California.

popular name: Earle Hagen

date_of_death: May 26, 2008

age: 88

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Earle Hagen was a talented Hollywood composer and musician who wrote some of the most famous theme songs in television history. Hagen's memorably melodic riffs in a variety of musical genres graced the score of dozens of television shows from 1953 to 1986, including “Make Room for Daddy,” “The Mod Squad,” “Eight Is Enough” and “The Dukes of Hazzard. Of course most remember him as the creator of possibly the most idly hummed melody of all time - the folksy, countrified whistle that opened “The Andy Griffith Show,” accompanying Sheriff Andy Taylor (Mr. Griffith) and his young son, Opie (Ron Howard), down a dirt road toward a fishing hole. And not only did he score the opening theme song, he also did the whistling himself. He also wrote the swing-like anthem for “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” accompanying Mr. Van Dyke’s entry into his suburban home and his tumble over an ottoman. (In later seasons, Mr. Van Dyke would sidestep the ottoman to the same playful musical phrase.) He wrote the cool, cosmopolitan and suggestively exotic theme for the espionage drama “I Spy.” He wrote the cheerily mock-military anthem for the bumpkin-in-the-marines comedy “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C,” starring Jim Nabors. And he wrote the perky pop theme for the Marlo Thomas vehicle “That Girl.”

popular name: Hugo Montenegro

date_of_death: February 6, 1981

age: 55

cause_of_death: Emphysema

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Hugo Montenegro was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best-known work is derived from interpretations of the music from Spaghetti Westerns, especially his cover version of Ennio Morricone's main theme from the 1966 film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He composed the musical score for the 1969 Western Charro!, which starred Elvis Presley. Montenegro's electronic works were decisive and influential for the future generations of electronic musicians, giving a retro/futuristic edge by the use of the Moog synthesizer, and helped to push its popularity. His version of the main theme from Hang 'em High reached #59 in Canada. In 1968, his hit "Aces High" placed at #11 on the Billboard Year-End Chart of the Top Hits of 1968.