On this day in 1944, actress, dancer and singer, The Mexican Spitfire, Lupe Vélez died from an overdose of Seconal in her home in Glendale, California at the age of 36. Born María Guadalupe Villalobos Velez on July 18, 1908 in San Luis Potosí in Mexico.
Vélez began her career as a performer in Mexican vaudeville in the early 1920s. After moving to the United States, she made her first film appearance in a short in 1927. By the end of the decade, she was acting in full-length silent films and had progressed to leading roles in The Gaucho (1927), Lady of the Pavements (1928) and Wolf Song (1929), among others. Vélez then made the transition to sound films without difficulty. She was one of the first successful Latin-American actresses in Hollywood. During the 1930s, her well-known screen persona was exploited in several successful comedic films like Hot Pepper (1933), Strictly Dynamite (1934) and Hollywood Party (1934). In the 1940s, Vélez’s popularity peaked after appearing as Carmelita Fuentes in eight Mexican Spitfire films, a series created to capitalize on Vélez’s well-documented fiery personality.
Vélez’s personal life was as colorful as her screen persona. She had several highly publicized romances with Hollywood actors and a stormy marriage with Johnny Weissmuller. Her death and the circumstances surrounding it have been the subject of speculation and controversy.
Vélez was involved in several highly publicized relationships. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, she was linked to actors Tom Mix, Charlie Chaplin and Clark Gable. Her first long-term, high-profile relationship was with Gary Cooper. Vélez and Cooper met while filming 1929s Wolf Song and began a two-year relationship. When angered, Vélez was reported to have physically assaulted Cooper. Cooper eventually ended the relationship in mid-1931, at the behest of his mother Alice who after meeting her, strongly disapproved of Vélez. With plans to marry him gone, she spoke to the press in 1931: “I turned Cooper down because his parents didn’t want me to marry him and because the studio thought it would injure his career. Now its over, I’m glad I feel so free … I must be free. I know men to well they are all the same, no? If you love them they want to be boss. I will never have a boss.” The rocky relationship had taken its toll on Cooper, who had lost 45 pounds and was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Paramount Pictures ordered him to take a vacation to recuperate and while he was boarding the train, Vélez showed up at the station and fired a pistol at him.
After her breakup with Cooper, Vélez began a short-lived relationship with actor John Gilbert. They began dating in late 1931, while Gilbert was separated from his third wife Ina Claire. Rumors of an engagement were fueled by the couple, but Gilbert ended the relationship in early 1932, and attempted to reconcile with Claire.
Vélez and Johnny Weissmuller photographed shortly after being married in October 1933
Shortly thereafter, Vélez met Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller while the two were in New York. They dated off and on when they returned to Los Angeles, while Vélez also dated actor Errol Flynn. On October 8, 1933, Vélez and Weissmuller were married in Las Vegas. In July 1934, after ten months of marriage, Vélez filed for divorce citing “cruelty”. She withdrew the petition a week later after reconciling with Weissmuller. On January 3, 1935, she filed for divorce a second time and was granted an interlocutory decree. That decree was dismissed when the couple reconciled a month later. In August 1938, Vélez filed for divorce for a third time, again charging Weissmuller with cruelty. Their divorce was finalized in August 1939.
After the divorce became final, Vélez began dating polo player Guinn “Big Boy” Williams in late 1940. The couple were engaged, but never married. In late 1941, she became involved with author Erich Maria Remarque. Actress Luise Rainer recalled that Remarque told her “with the greatest of glee” that he found Vélez’s volatility wonderful when he recounted to her an occasion where Vélez became so angry with him that she took her shoe off and hit him with it. After dating Remarque, Vélez was linked to boxers Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey.
In 1943, Vélez began an affair with her La Zandunga co-star Arturo de Córdova. De Córdova had recently moved to Los Angeles after signing with Paramount. Despite the fact that de Córdova was married to Mexican actress Enna Arana with whom he had four children, Vélez granted an interview to gossip columnist Louella Parsons in September 1943 and announced that the two were engaged. She told Parsons that she planned to retire after marrying de Córdova to “cook … and keep house”. Vélez ended the engagement in early 1944, after de Córdova’s wife refused to give him a divorce.
Vélez then met and began dating a struggling young Austrian actor named Harald Maresch, whose stage name was Harald Ramond. In September 1944, she discovered she was pregnant with Ramond’s child. She announced their engagement in late November 1944. On December 10, four days before her death, Vélez announced she had ended the engagement and kicked Ramond out of her home.
The Final Footprint
On the evening of December 13, 1944, Vélez dined with her two friends, the silent film star Estelle Taylor and Venita Oakie. In the early morning hours of December 14, Vélez retired to her bedroom, where she consumed 75 Seconal pills and a glass of brandy. Her secretary, Beulah Kinder, found the actress’s body on her bed later that morning. A suicide note addressed to Harald Ramond was found nearby. It read:
To Harald, May God forgive you and forgive me too, but I prefer to take my life away and our baby’s before I bring him with shame or killing him. – Lupe.
On the back of the note, Vélez wrote:
How could you, Harald, fake such a great love for me and our baby when all the time, you didn’t want us? I see no other way out for me, so goodbye, and good luck to you, Love Lupe.
The day after Vélez’s death, Harald Ramond told the press that he was “so confused” by Vélez’s suicide, and claimed that even though the two had broken up, he had agreed to marry Vélez. He admitted that he once asked Vélez to sign an agreement stating that he was only marrying her to “give the baby a name”, but claimed he only did so because he and Vélez had had a fight, and he was in a “terrible temper”. Actress Estelle Taylor, who was with Vélez from 9:00 the previous night until 3:30 the morning Vélez died, told the press that Vélez had told her of her pregnancy, but said she would rather kill herself than have an abortion (Vélez was a devout Roman Catholic). Beulah Kinder, Vélez’s secretary, later told investigators that after Vélez broke off the relationship with Ramond, she planned to go to Mexico to have her baby. Kinder said Vélez soon changed her mind after concluding that Ramond “faked” the relationship and considered having an abortion.
The day after Vélez’s death, the Los Angeles County coroner requested that an inquest be opened to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death. On December 16, the coroner dropped the request, after determining that Vélez had written the notes, and that she had intended to kill herself.
On December 22, a funeral for Vélez was held at the mortuary at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Among the pallbearers were Vélez’s ex-husband, Johnny Weissmuller, and actor Gilbert Roland. After the service, Vélez’s body was sent by train to Mexico City, where a second service was held on December 27. Her body was then interred at Panteón Civil de Dolores Cemetery. Other notable final footprints at Dolores include; Rosario Castellanos, Dolores Del Rio, and Diego Rivera.
#RIP #OTD in 1953 author (The Yearling) Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings died in St. Augustine, Florida of a cerebral hemorrhage, aged 57. Antioch Cemetery near Island Grove, Florida
On this day in 1963, singer, pianist, Grammy winner, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer inductee, Queen of the Blues, Dinah Washington died in Detroit, Michigan from a combination of secobarbital and amobarbital, at the age of 39. Born Ruth Lee Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on 29 August 1924. She and her family moved to Chicago as a child. In my opinion, on of the best recording artists of the ’50s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music. Washington married seven times, including NFL Hall of Famer Dick “Night Train” Lane.
The Final Footprint – Washington is interred in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. In 1964, Aretha Franklin recorded a tribute album, Unforgettable: A Tribute to Dinah Washington. In 1993, the U.S. Post Office issued a Dinah Washington 29 cent commemorative postage stamp. In 2005, the Board of Commissioners renamed a park, near where Washington had lived in Chicago in the 1950s, Dinah Washington Park in her honor. In 2008, the city of Tuscaloosa renamed the section of 30th Avenue between 15th Street and Kaulton Park “Dinah Washington Avenue.” On 29 August 2013, the city of Tuscaloosa dedicated the old Allen Jemison Hardware building, on the northwest corner of Greensboro Avenue and 7th Street (620 Greensboro Avenue) as the newly renovated Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center. Other notable final footprints at Burr Oak Cemetery include Willie Dixon and Emmett Till.
On this day in 1985, 7 time All-Star, 3 time World Series Champion, 2 time AL MVP, Gold Glove winner, 
New York Yankee and single season home run king, Roger Maris, died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Houston, Texas at the age of 51. Born Roger Eugene Maris on 10 September 1934 in Hibbing, Minnesota. Maris hit 61 home runs for the New York Yankees during the 1961 season breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 home runs (set in 1927). The Yankees retired Maris’ number 9 on Old-Timers’ Day, 21 July 1984, and dedicated a plaque in Maris’ honor to hang in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The plaque calls him “A great player and author of one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of major league baseball.” Maris was on hand for the ceremony and wore a full Yankee uniform.
The Final Footprint – Maris is interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, Fargo, North Dakota. His grave is marked by a large upright granite marker in the shape of a baseball diamond. The Yankees placed a plaque in Monument Park in Yankee Stadium in honor of Maris. Monument Park is an open-air museum containing a collection of monuments, plaques, and retired numbers honoring distinguished members of the Yankees. Other notable Yankees whose final footprints include memorialization in Monument Park; Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, George Steinbrenner, Thurman Munson, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Martin, Mel Allen, Bob Sheppard, and Casey Stengel.
On this day in 1993 dancer, film, television and stage actress Myrna Loy died at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, aged 88. Born Myrna Adele Williams in Helena, Montana on 2 August 1905.
Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. She was originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, but her career prospects improved greatly following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). Her role in The Thin Man helped elevate her reputation as a versatile actress, and she reprised the role of Nora Charles five more times.
Loy’s performances peaked in the 1940s, with films like The Thin Man Goes Home, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. She appeared in only a few films in the 1950s, including a lead role in the comedy Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), as well as supporting parts in The Ambassador’s Daughter (1956) and the drama Lonelyhearts (1958). She appeared in only eight films between 1960 and 1981, after which she retired from acting.
Although Loy was never nominated for an Academy Award, in March 1991 she received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her life’s work both onscreen and off, including serving as assistant to the director of military and naval welfare for the Red Cross during World War II, and a member-at-large of the U.S. Commission to UNESCO. In 2009, The Guardian named her one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
The Final Footprint
Loy died during surgery following a long, unspecified illness. She had been frail and in failing health, which had resulted in her being unable to attend the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony, where she was to receive a lifetime achievement Oscar. She was cremated in New York and her ashes interred at Forestvale Cemetery in her native Helena, Montana.
On this day in 2013, stage and film actor Peter O’Toole died from stomach cancer at Wellington Hospital in St John’s Wood, London, aged 81. Born Peter Seamus O’Toole on 2 August 1932 either in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland or Leeds, Yorkshire, England. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company before making his film debut in 1959.
He achieved international recognition playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for which he received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was nominated another seven times – for Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class(1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982), and Venus (2006). O’Toole holds the distinction for the most Academy Award nominations for acting without a win. In 2002, O’Toole was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements. He was additionally the recipient of four Golden Globe Awards, one British Academy Film Award and one Primetime Emmy Award.
Publicity photo for Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
O’Toole had a romantic relationship with model Karen Brown.
The Final Footprint –
O’Toole’s memorial plaque in St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden
His funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium in London on 21 December 2013, where he was cremated in a wicker coffin.
O’Toole’s remains are planned to be taken to Connemara, Ireland. They are currently being kept at the residence of the President of Ireland, Áras an Uachtaráin, by the President Michael D. Higgins who is an old friend of the actor.
On 21 April 2017, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin, announced that O’Toole’s daughter, Kate O’Toole had placed her father’s archive at the humanities research centre. The collection includes O’Toole’s scripts, extensive published and unpublished writings, props, photographs, letters, medical records, and more.
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