Joey Ramone

popular name: Franco Ventriglia

date_of_death: November 28, 2012

age: 90

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Franco Ventriglia was an opera singer who sang bass in every major European opera house during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Serving in the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in the South Pacific during World War II upon return stateside Franco was working at his brother's filling station in Easton, Connecticut when Mario Pagano, a maestro de Canto at the American Theatre Wing Professional School heard from one of Ventriglia's coworkers about his singing talent. Ventriglia passed an audition and went on to attend the school on the G.I. Bill. After Pagano's death, Ventriglia and his wife Jean boarded the ocean liner SS Constitution for Italy. On board, after singing Ol' Man River for a group in first class, he met a businessman who asked him to contact Toti Dal Monte, a great coloratura soprano who also taught voice in Rome. Ventriglia took singing lessons from Dal Monte and eventually made his operatic debut in Palermo, singing in the Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He later sang with Luciano Pavarotti in La bohème and Rigoletto. He performed in Samson and Delilah at La Scala, a performance he considered the highlight of his career. He returned to the U.S. in 1978, where he continued to perform at venues including Carnegie Hall, and traveled to perform in southeast Asia, until his retirement in 2001 at age 79. Upon his death he was laid to rest at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Fairfield, CT.

popular name: Al Jackson Jr.

date_of_death: October 1, 1975

age: 39

cause_of_death: Murdered (unsolved)

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: Dubbed “The Human Timekeeper” for his impeccable rhythm and timing, Al Jackson, Jr. was a member of the seminal Stax Records house band Booker T. and the MG’s and provided the beat for the likes of Al Green, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, and Albert King during his brief yet illustrious career.

popular name: Tommy Dorsey

date_of_death: November 26, 1956

age: 51

cause_of_death: Asphyxia - aspiration of food in his sleep

claim_to_fame: Music

best_know_for: A highly respected and influential trombonist, Tommy Dorsey—both independently and with his brother Jimmy—led several of the most popular big bands of the swing era. Dorsey was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". He famously gave a skinny, big-eared Italian-American kid with a cool, seductive voice a shot at stardom. That kid was Frank Sinatra. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra is best remembered for standards such as "Opus One", "Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again".