Hollywood Star Walk obituaries

On Aug. 30, 1983, The Times re­por­ted that Jan Clayton, once one of Broad­way’s bright­est mu­sic­al stars but prob­ably bet­ter know to lat­ter-day audi­ences as Lassie’s first “moth­er” on the long-run­ning tele­vi­sion series, died in her West Hol­ly­wood home. She was 66.
On Ju­ly 30, 1983, The Times re­por­ted that Dav­id Niven, whose clipped ac­cent and thin mus­tache made him the per­son­i­fic­a­tion of the Brit­ish gen­tle­man in more than 90 films spread over nearly half a cen­tury, died Fri­day in his moun­tain chalet in Chat­eau D’Oex, Switzer­land.
On Apr. 24, 1983, The Times re­por­ted that Buster Crabbe, swim­ming hero of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics and later a hero of scores of Hol­ly­wood B-movies and ad­ven­ture seri­als, died in Scott­s­dale, Ar­iz.
On Feb. 18, 1982, The Times re­por­ted that jazz vis­ion­ary Thel­o­ni­ous Monk had died at a hos­pit­al in Engle­wood, N.J. He was 64.
On Nov. 30, 1981, The Times re­por­ted that the body of act­ress Nat­alie Wood was found float­ing Sunday in the ocean off Santa Catalina Is­land, where she had been spend­ing a hol­i­day week­end with her hus­band, act­or Robert Wag­n­er.
On Nov. 17, 1981, The Times re­por­ted that Wil­li­am Hold­en, whose hand­some face and easy, mas­cu­line man­ner made him the quint­es­sen­tial Amer­ic­an in many movies, was found dead in his apart­ment in Santa Mon­ica. He was 62.
On Aug. 5, 1981, The Times re­por­ted that Melvyn Douglas, the con­sum­mate act­or whose finely etched fea­tures graced mo­tion pic­ture screens dur­ing the Golden Age of Hol­ly­wood, died Tues­day in New York. He was 80.
On Ju­ly 29, 1981, The Times re­por­ted that Wil­li­am Wyler, an im­mig­rant who used his memor­ies of U.S. Air Force com­bat ser­vice dur­ing World War II to dir­ect the Academy Award-win­ning film “The Best Years of Our Lives,” died at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 79.
On Apr. 27, 1981, The Times re­por­ted that Jim Dav­is, the sil­ver-haired act­or who spent more than 30 years as a per­former be­fore at­tain­ing star­dom as the ruth­less pat­ri­arch Jock Ewing in TV’s “Dal­las,” died in his sleep at his North­ridge home. He was 65.
On Sept. 3, 1980, The Times re­por­ted that Duncan Ren­aldo, the dash­ing star of scores of ro­mantic movies who rode to his greatest fame as tele­vi­sion’s Cisco Kid dur­ing the 1950s, died at a hos­pit­al near Santa Bar­bara.
On April 30, 1980, The Times re­por­ted that Sir Al­fred Hitch­cock, the mas­ter mo­tion pic­ture dir­ect­or whose geni­us for the macabre chilled the spine of three gen­er­a­tions of movie­go­ers, died at his Bel-Air home. He was 80.
Feb. 21, 1980
On Feb. 21, 1980, The Times re­por­ted that act­ress Gale Rob­bins, one of the most pop­u­lar World War II pin-up girls, died of lung can­cer. She was 58.
On Jan. 30, 1980, The Times re­por­ted that Jimmy Dur­ante, pi­an­ist, comedi­an, sing­er, act­or and dan­cer, who con­trib­uted migh­tily to the mangled rich­ness of the Eng­lish lan­guage, had died.
On Dec. 24, 1979, The Times re­por­ted that Ann Dvorak, who played roles ran­ging from Al Ca­pone’s sis­ter to Ran­dolph Scott’s sweet­heart in a series of films dur­ing the 1930 and 40s, died in Hon­olulu at age 67.
On Nov. 24, 1979, The Times re­por­ted that act­ress Merle Ober­on, whose dark, age­less beauty brought her fame in such films as “Wuther­ing Heights” and “The Scar­let Pim­per­nel,” had died at Ce­dars-Sinai Med­ic­al Cen­ter.
On Feb. 16, 1978, The Times re­por­ted that Ilka Chase, a ver­sat­ile tal­ent equally suc­cess­ful as an act­ress and au­thor dur­ing a long and pro­lif­ic ca­reer, died in Mex­ico City of com­plic­a­tions res­ult­ing from a fall. She was 72.
Oct. 15, 1977
On Oct. 15, 1977, The Times re­por­ted that Bing Crosby, who began life as a penny-grub­bing gram­mar school tru­ant and sang and ac­ted his way to riches and in­to the hearts of mil­lions all over the world, died of a heart at­tack at a golf course just out­side Mad­rid.
On Mar. 1, 1977, The Times re­por­ted that Ed­die (Rochester) An­der­son, who won fame on ra­dio and tele­vi­sion play­ing the late Jack Benny’s gravel-voiced chauf­feur and but­ler, died at the Mo­tion Pic­ture and Tele­vi­sion Hos­pit­al in Wood­land Hills.
Feb. 19, 1977
On Feb. 19, 1977, The Times re­por­ted that act­or Andy Dev­ine, the queaky-voiced sidekick in hun­dreds of movie and tele­vi­sion west­erns had died at a hos­pit­al in Or­ange, Cal­if. He was 71.
On Aug. 2, 1976, The Times re­por­ted that dir­ect­or Fritz Lang, one of the screen’s grand mas­ters and the last sur­viv­or of the Golden Age of the Ger­man cinema, died today in his home in Beverly Hills. He was 85.
On Jan. 24, 1976, The Times re­por­ted that Paul Robe­son, who drew bra­vos for his rich bass-bar­tione voice and was vil­i­fied for his as­so­ci­ations with com­mun­ism, died in a Phil­adelphia hos­pit­al. He was 77.
On Aug. 20, 1974, The Times re­por­ted that Ilona Mas­sey, film star of the 1930s and 1940s died at Beth­esda Nav­al Hos­pit­al after a three-month ill­ness. She was 64.
On May 25, 1974, The Times re­por­ted that Ed­ward Kennedy El­ling­ton, the cool, im­pec­cable bandlead­er-com­poser whose Har­lem sound stirred the world’s jazz lov­ers for dec­ades, had died. He was 75.
On May 1, 1974, The Times re­por­ted that Ag­nes Moore­head, whose act­ing ca­reer spanned half a cen­tury and al­most every char­ac­ter role from glam­or­ous di­vor­cee to acid-tongued witch, died at Meth­od­ist Hos­pit­al in Rochchester, Minn.
On Apr. 24, 1974, The Times re­por­ted that Bud Ab­bott, the mar­tin­et straight man to the roly-poly, bum­bling Lou Cos­tello in the pop­u­lar slap­stick com­edy team of the 1940s and 1950s died at his home in Wood­land Hills. He was 78.
On Sept. 26, 1973, The Times re­por­ted that act­ress Anna Mag­nani, who won the 1955 Academy Award for “The Rose Tat­too,” had died in a Rome clin­ic.
On Dec. 17, 1972, The Times re­por­ted that film dir­ect­or Wil­li­am Di­eterle, famed for Hol­ly­wood bio­graph­ies and “The Hunch­back of Notre Dame,” had died. He was 79.
On Oct. 31, 1972, The Times re­por­ted that pro­du­cer-dir­ect­or Mitchell Leis­en had died at the Mo­tion Pic­ture Re­lief Hos­pit­al in Wood­land Hills, Cal­if. Leis­en, had been an art dir­ect­or on Cecil B. De­Mille pic­tures for 12 years be­fore en­ter­ing the ranks of dir­ect­ors in the 1930s.
On Oct. 25, 1972, The Times re­por­ted that Claire Wind­sor died at Good Samar­it­an Hos­pit­al after col­lapsing from an ap­par­ent heart at­tack in her Los Angeles apart­ment. She was 74.
On Sept. 14, 1972, The Time re­por­ted that act­or Wil­li­am Boyd, who por­trayed Ho­pa­long Cas­sidy, the sil­ver-haired par­agon of West­ern vir­tue in 92 mo­tion pic­ture and tele­vi­sion films had died. He was 77.
On Jan. 18, 1972, The Times re­por­ted that act­ress Rochelle Hud­son had been found dead at her home in Palm Desert.
On Ju­ly 24, 1971, The Times re­por­ted that Van Heflin had died in a Los Angeles hos­pit­al. He was 60.
April 27, 1970
On April 27, 1970, The Times re­por­ted that Gypsy Rose Lee, who made striptease an art—by nev­er really tak­ing it all off—died at UCLA Med­ic­al Cen­ter after a three-year fight against can­cer.
On Ju­ly 22, 1967, The Times re­por­ted that act­or Basil Rath­bone, whose roles ranged from Shakespeare to Sher­lock Holmes, died of a heart at­tack in New York.
On June 11, 1967, The Times re­por­ted that Spen­cer Tracy, one of Hol­ly­wood’s great act­ors, died at his home of a heart at­tack. He was 67.
On May 31, 1967, The Times re­por­ted that Claude Rains, stage and screen act­or, died at Lakes Re­gion­al Hos­pit­al in Lac­onia, N.H. He was 77.
On Ju­ly 26, 1965, The Times re­por­ted that Con­stance Ben­nett, who was born to the foot­lights and later be­came one of Hol­ly­wood’s highest paid act­resses by play­ing brittle so­ci­ety roles, died in a New Jer­sey Army Hos­pit­al.
On Jan. 15, 1965, The Times re­por­ted that Jeanette Mac­Don­ald died at Meth­od­ist Hos­pit­al in Hou­s­ton, Texas. She was 61.
On Oct. 30, 1963, The Times re­por­ted that film star Ad­ol­phe Men­jou, who came out of Pitt­s­burgh, Pa., to cre­ate a four-dec­ade Hol­ly­wood im­age of Parisi­an soph­ist­ic­a­tion, died in his Beverly Hills home. He was 73.
On Mar. 7, 1963, The Times re­por­ted that the shattered bod­ies of Patsy Cline, Hawk­shaw Hawkins and Cow­boy Co­pas were found in the wreck­age of a small plane which crashed near the Ten­ness­ee River.
On Jan. 29, 1963, The Times, re­por­ted that film writer John Far­row has died at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 58.
On April 12, 1962, The Times re­por­ted that Mi­chael Curtiz, le­gendary film dir­ect­or and col­or­ful fig­ure in Hol­ly­wood, died of can­cer at his home in Sher­man Oaks. He was 62
On May 14, 1961, The Times re­por­ted that Gary Cooper, the strong, si­lent hero of the screen had died of can­cer at his home in Holmby Hills. He was 60.
On Jan. 5, 1961, The Times re­por­ted that act­or Barry Fitzger­ald had died in Dub­lin’s St. Patrick’s Hos­pit­al.
On Aug. 7, 1959, The Times re­por­ted that Pre­ston Sturges, renowned Hol­ly­wood film pro­du­cer-writer-dir­ect­or and Broad­way play­wright, died of a heart at­tack yes­ter­day in his New York hotel room.
March 4, 1959
On Mar. 4, 1959, The Times re­por­ted that Lou Cos­tello, the roly-poly com­ic whose heart was as big as his girth, died yes­ter­day af­ter­noon of a heart at­tack at Doc­tor’s Hos­pit­al in Beverly Hills, three days be­fore his 53rd birth­day.
On Apr. 16, 1958, The Times re­por­ted that Es­telle Taylor, glam­or­ous mo­tion-pic­ture act­ress of the 1920s and 1930s and one­time wife of Jack De­mp­sey, died of can­cer at her Los Angeles home.
On Aug. 8, 1957, The Times re­por­ted that Oliv­er Hardy, ro­tund film comedi­an, had died at the home of his moth­er-in-law in North Hol­ly­wood. He was 65.
On April 28, 1995, The Times re­por­ted that Con­stance Col­li­er, the stage and film act­ress, died Monday in New York.
On May 8, 1953, The Times re­por­ted that Ed­ward Sedg­wick, vet­er­an mo­tion-pic­ture pro­du­cer and dir­ect­or and seni­or of­ficer for Lu­cille Ball-Desi Arnaz film con­cern, had died at his home in North Hol­ly­wood.
On May 22, 1952, The Times re­por­ted that John Gar­field, “tough guy” screen and stage star, died of a heart at­tack at the Gramercy Park apart­ment of Iris Whit­ney, an act­ress friend.
On May 8, 1951, The Times re­port that Warner Bax­ter, win­ner of the second act­or’s Oscar in film­dom his­tory for his por­tray of the ori­gin­al “Cisco Kid,” had died at his Beverly Hills home.
On April 17, 1949, The Times re­por­ted that Wal­lace Beery, the “lov­able old ras­cal” of many a Hol­ly­wood film had died at his Beverly Hills home. He was 64.
On Dec. 26, 1946, The Times re­por­ted that W.C. Fields, stage and screen comedi­an, had died at Las En­ci­nas San­it­ari­um in Pas­adena, Cal­if. He was 66.
On June 24, 1946, The Times re­por­ted that Wil­li­am S. Hart, the ori­gin­al two-gun man of the si­lent films, died at the Cali­for­nia Luther­an Hos­pit­al, where he had been in a coma for sev­er­al days.
On Jan. 5, 1940, The Times re­por­ted that Flora Finch, one of the screen’s out­stand­ing comedi­ennes dur­ing the si­lent era of mo­tion pic­tures, died at the Good Samar­it­an Hos­pit­al from blood pois­on­ing. She was 72.
On Ju­ly 29, 1934, The Times re­por­ted that Mar­ie Dressler, whose smiles, tears, tri­umphs and even her grumpy old ways in char­ac­ter parts throbbed from screens throughout the world, had died.
On Ju­ly 5, 1929, The Times re­por­ted that Dustin Farnum, noted stage and screen act­or and broth­er of Wil­li­am Farnum, also an act­or, died of kid­ney dis­ease in New York’s Post­gradu­ate Hos­pit­al.
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