On this day in 1870, novelist Charles Dickens died at his country home, Gads Hill Place, in Higham, Kent, England after a stroke at the age of 58. Born Charles John Huffman Dickens on 7 February 1812 in Landport, Portsmouth, England. Probably the most popular novelist of the Victorian era. Dickens remains popular. Some of the characters he created are among the most iconic characters in English literature. In 1830, Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, but her parents evidently disapproved of the relationship and sent her to school in Paris. Dickens married Catherine Thomson Hogarth (1836-1870 his death) although they separated in 1858. He possibly had a long affair with Ellen Ternan. The iconic characters he created include; Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Bill Sikes, Pip, Miss Havisham, Charles Darnay, David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Abel Magwitch, Daniel Quilp, Samuel Pickwick, Wackford Squeers, Uriah Heep. My favorite Dickens’s novels are;
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The Final Footprint – Dickens is interred in a vault in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, despite the fact that his wish was to be buried at Rochester Cathedral in Rochester, Kent, “in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner”. His last words, as reported in his obituary in The Times were alleged to have been: “Be natural my children. For the writer that is natural has fullfilled all the rules of art”. His will stipulated that no memorial be erected to honour him. The only life-size bronze statue of Dickens, cast in 1891 by Francis Edwin Elwell, is located in Clark Park in the Spruce Hill neighbourhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles II, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Edward III, Edward IV, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, Stephen Hawking, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, James VI and I, Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, John Milton, Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Richard II, Thomas Shadwell, Edmund Spenser, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.
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 in 2009 |
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On this day in 2017 actor Adam West died in Los Angeles from leukemia at the age of 88. Born William West Anderson on September 19, 1928 in Walla Walla, Washington. Known primarily for his role as Batman in the 1960s ABC series of the same name and its 1966 theatrical feature film.
West began acting in films in the 1950s. He played opposite Chuck Connors in Geronimo (1962) and The Three Stooges in The Outlaws Is Coming (1965). He also appeared in the science fiction film Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) and performed voice work on The Fairly OddParents (2003–2017), The Simpsons (1992, 2002), and Family Guy (2000–2018), playing fictional versions of himself in all three. Late in his career, West starred in two direct-to-DVD animated Batman films, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, and Batman vs. Two-Face, the latter of which was released posthumously.
in The Detectives (1961)
Episode of The Big Valley, In Silent Battle with Barbara Stanwyck (1968)
in 1989 at the 41st Primetime Emmy Awards
at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con
at the 2014 Phoenix Comicon, on a panel for Batman
West was married three times. His first marriage was to his college girlfriend Billie Lou Yeager in 1950. The couple divorced six years later. In 1957 he married Cook Island dancer Ngatokorua Frisbie Dawson, part of the Puka Puka Otea in Hawai’i. They had two children before their divorce in 1962. West then married Marcelle Tagand Lear in November 1970. They had two children and remained together for more than 46 years, until Adam’s death.
The Final Footprint
After his death, West’s former Batman co-star and longtime friend, Burt Ward, released a statement; “This is a terribly unexpected loss of my lifelong friend, I will forever miss him. There are several fine actors who have portrayed Batman in films. In my eyes, there was only one real Batman that is and always will be Adam West. He was truly the Bright Knight.”
On June 15, 2017, Los Angeles projected the Bat-Signal on City Hall as a tribute to West, and Walla Walla shone the bat-signal on the Whitman Tower. West was cremated and his cremains were scattered in the Pacific.
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