On this day in 1734, Scottish folk hero, cattleman, outlaw, the Scottish Robin Hood, Red MacGregor, Rob Roy, died at his house in Inverlochlarig Beg, Balquhidder, Scotland, at the age of 63. Born Robert Roy MacGregor at Glengyle, Scotland at the age of 63. Baptised 7 March 1671. Rob Roy is anglicised from the Scottish Gaelic Raibeart Ruadh, or Red Robert. This is because Rob Roy had red hair, though it darkened to auburn in later life. His father was Donald MacGregor, and his mother Margaret Campbell. He later met Mary Helen MacGregor of Comar, who was born at Leny Farm, Strathyre, and they were married in Glenarklet in January 1693. She bore him four sons: James (known as Mor or Tall), Ranald, Coll, and Robert (known as Robin Oig or Young Rob). Rob Roy together with his father joined the Jacobite rising led by Viscount Dundee, Bonnie Dundee, to support the Stuart King James who had been deposed by William of Orange. 
The Final Footprint – Rob Roy is interred with his wife and sons Coll and Robert in Balquhidder Church Cemetery, Balquhidder, Scotland. Their graves are enclosed by an ornamental bronze rail and marked by an upright stone marker with the inscription; MACGREGOR DESPITE THEM. The publication of Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott in 1817, further added to his fame and fleshed out his biography. William Wordsworth wrote a poem called “Rob Roy’s Grave” during a visit to Scotland. Adaptations of his story has also been told in film, including the 1995 Rob Roy directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring Liam Neeson.
On this day in 1937, composer, pianist and conductor Maurice Ravel died in Paris at the age of 62. Born Joseph Maurice Ravel on 7 March 1875 in the Basque town of Ciboure, France, near Biarritz. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France’s greatest living composer.
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France’s premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. He made some orchestral arrangements of other composers’ music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
A slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance.
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On 30 December 1937 Ravel was interred next to his parents in a granite tomb at Levallois-Perret cemetery, in north-west Paris. He was an atheist and there was no religious ceremony.
#RIP #OTD in 1938 stage performer, film actress, the “Biograph Girl”, “the first movie star”, Florence Lawrence died from ingesting ant poison and cough syrup at her home in West Hollywood, aged 52. Hollywood Forever Cemetery
#RIP #OTD in 1971 composer, the father of film music (King Kong, Little Women, Jezebel, Casablanca, The Searchers, A Summer Place, Gone with the Wind), Max Steiner died of congestive heart failure in Hollywood, aged 83. He is entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
#RIP #OTD in 1983 musician, singer, songwriter (“Little Bird”, “Forever”, “Farewell My Friend”) co-founder of the Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson drowned at Marina Del Rey, California, aged 39. Buried at sea by the US Coast Guard off the coast of California
#RIP #OTD in 1984 director, screenwriter (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, Junior Bonner, The Getaway, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia) Sam Peckinpah died of a heart attack in Inglewood CA, aged 59. Cremated remains scattered off the coast of Malibu
On this day in 1986, writer of novels and short stories John D. MacDonald died following complications of coronary artery bypass surgery in St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the age of 70. Born John Dann MacDonald on July 24, 1916 in Sharon, Pennsylvania. MacDonald was a prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in his adopted home of Florida. Perhaps best known for his popular and critically acclaimed Travis McGee series, and his 1957 novel The Executioners, which was filmed as Cape Fear (1962) and remade in 1991.
In 1972, the Mystery Writers of America bestowed upon MacDonald its highest honor, the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement and consistent quality. Stephen King praised MacDonald as “the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller.” Kingsley Amis said, MacDonald “is by any standards a better writer than Saul Bellow, only MacDonald writes thrillers and Bellow is a human-heart chap, so guess who wears the top-grade laurels.”
MacDonald’s protagonists were often intelligent, introspective, and (sometimes) cynical men. Travis McGee, the “salvage consultant” and “knight-errant,” was all of that. McGee made his living by recovering the loot from thefts and swindles, keeping half to finance his “retirement,” which he took in segments as he went along. He first appeared in the 1964 novel The Deep Blue Good-by and starred in 21 novels through to the series’ final release, 1985’s The Lonely Silver Rain. All titles in the series include a color, a mnemonic device which was suggested by his publisher so that when harried travelers in airports looked to buy a book, they could at once see those MacDonald titles they had not yet read.
The McGee novels feature an ever-changing array of female companions; some particularly nasty villains; exotic locales in Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean; and appearances by a sidekick known only as “Meyer,” an economist of international renown and a Ph.D. As Sherlock Holmes had his well-known address on Baker Street, McGee had his lodgings on his 52-foot (16 m) houseboat, the Busted Flush, named for the poker hand that started the run of luck which enabled him to win the boat. She is docked at Slip F-18, marina Bahia Mar, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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He is buried in Milwaukee, at Holy Cross Cemetery and Mausoleum. He was survived by his wife Dorothy (1911-1989) and a son, Maynard.
On this day in 2004, writer, filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist Susan Sontag died from complications of myelodysplastic syndrome in New York City, at the age of 71. Born Susan Rosenblatt in New York City on January 16, 1933. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay “Notes on ‘Camp'”, in 1964. Perhaps her best-known works include On Photography, Against Interpretation, Styles of Radical Will, The Way We Live Now, Illness as Metaphor, Regarding the Pain of Others, The Volcano Lover, and In America.
Sontag was active in writing and speaking about, or travelling to, areas of conflict, including during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively about photography, culture and media, AIDS and illness, human rights, and communism and leftist ideology. Although her essays and speeches sometimes drew controversy, in my opinion, she was one of the most influential critics of her generation.
Sontag lived with the writer and model Harriet Sohmers Zwerling whom she first met at U. C. Berkeley from 1958 to 1959. Afterwards, Sontag was the partner of María Irene Fornés, a Cuban-American avant garde playwright and director. Upon splitting with Fornés, she was involved with an Italian aristocrat, Carlotta Del Pezzo, and the German academic Eva Kollisch. Sontag was romantically involved with the American artists Jasper Johns and Paul Thek. During the early 1970s, Sontag lived with Nicole Stéphane, a Rothschild banking heiress turned movie actress, and, later, the choreographer Lucinda Childs. She also had a relationship with the writer Joseph Brodsky. With Annie Leibovitz, Sontag maintained a relationship stretching from the later 1980s until her final years.
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She is buried in Paris at Cimetière du Montparnasse. Other notable Final Footprints at Montparnasse include; Charles Baudelaire, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett, Emmanuel Chabrier, César Franck, Guy de Maupassant, Adah Isaacs Menken, Man Ray, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jean Seberg.
On this day in 2015, musician, singer-songwriter, founder and frontman for Motörhead, Lemmy died at his apartment in Los Angeles at 4pm PST, from prostate cancer, congestive heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmia at the age of 70. Born Ian Fraser Kilmister on 24 December 1945 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom. In my opinion, their music was one of the foundations of the heavy metal genre. He was known for his appearance (including his friendly mutton chops), and his distinctive gravelly, raspy singing voice. He was also known for his unmistakable bass playing style, using a Rickenbacker bass and over-driven Marshall tube bass stacks. Alongside his music career, he also had many minor roles and cameo appearances in film and television.
He played in several rock groups in the 1960s, including the Rockin’ Vickers. He worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and The Nice, before joining the space rock band Hawkwind in 1971, singing lead vocals on their hit “Silver Machine”. After being fired from Hawkwind for drug possession in 1975, he founded Motörhead during the same year as the lead singer, bassist, songwriter and frontman. Motörhead’s success peaked in 1980 and 1981 and included the hit single “Ace of Spades” and the top charting live album No Sleep ’til Hammersmith. Lemmy continued to record and tour regularly with Motörhead until his death.
Lemmy during Motörhead’s 2011 The Wörld Is Yours Tour
Lemmy in May 2005, at Reds, Edmonton
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Lemmy’s memorial service took place at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, on 9 January 2016. The service was streamed live over YouTube with more than 230,000 people logging on to watch, while others gathered at the Rainbow Bar and Grill. His body was cremated following the funeral. His remains were placed in a 3D-printed mantelpiece shaped like his trademark cavalry hat and emblazoned with the slogan “born to lose, lived to win”. The piece was on display during his funeral and was later interred at Forest Lawn. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Buster Keaton, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Brittany Murphy, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.
On this day in 2016, actress, singer, businesswoman, film historian, and humanitarian Debbie Reynolds died the day after her daughter Carrie Fisher, from a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 84. Born Mary Frances Reynolds on April 1, 1932 in El Paso, Texas. With a career spanning almost 70 years, She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portrayal of Helen Kane in the 1950 film Three Little Words, and her breakout role was her first leading role, as Kathy Selden in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Other successes include The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy (1956 Golden Globe nomination), The Catered Affair (1956 National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress Winner), and Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), in which her performance of the song “Tammy” reached number one on the Billboard music charts. In 1959, she released her first pop music album, titled Debbie.
She starred in How the West Was Won (1962), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), a biographical film about the famously boisterous Molly Brown. Her performance as Brown earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other films include The Singing Nun (1966), Divorce American Style (1967), What’s the Matter with Helen? (1971), Charlotte’s Web (1973), Mother (1996) (Golden Globe nomination), and In & Out (1997). Reynolds was also a cabaret performer. In 1979, she founded the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in North Hollywood, which still operates today.
In 1969, she starred on television in The Debbie Reynolds Show, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. In 1973, Reynolds starred in a Broadway revival of the musical Irene and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical. She was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance in A Gift of Love (1999) and an Emmy Award for playing Grace’s mother Bobbi on Will & Grace. At the turn of the millennium, Reynolds reached a new younger generation with her role as Aggie Cromwell in Disney’s Halloweentown series. In 1988, she released her autobiography, titled Debbie: My Life. In 2013, she released a second autobiography, Unsinkable: A Memoir.
Reynolds also owned a Las Vegas hotel and casino, and she was an avid collector of film memorabilia, beginning with items purchased at the landmark 1970 MGM auction. She served as president of The Thalians, an organization dedicated to mental health causes. Reynolds continued to perform successfully on stage, television, and film into her eighties. In January 2015, Reynolds received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2016, she received the Academy Awards Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In the same year, a documentary about her life was released titled Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, which turned out to be her final film appearance; the film premiered on HBO on January 7, 2017.
Reynolds and Eddie Fisher on their wedding day, 1955
Reynolds was married three times. Her first marriage was to singer Eddie Fisher in 1955. They became the parents of Carrie (1956–2016) and Todd Fisher (1958). The couple divorced in 1959 when it was revealed shortly after the death of Elizabeth Taylor‘s husband Mike Todd that Fisher had been having an affair with her. The affair was a great public scandal which led to the cancellation of Eddie Fisher’s television show.
Reynolds’ second marriage, to millionaire businessman Harry Karl, lasted from 1960 to 1973. For a period during the 1960s, she stopped working at the studio on Friday afternoons to attend Girl Scout meetings, since she was the leader of the Girl Scout Troop of which 13-year-old Carrie and her stepdaughter Tina Karl, also 13, were members. Reynolds later found herself in financial difficulty because of Karl’s gambling and bad investments. Reynolds’ third marriage was to real estate developer Richard Hamlett from 1984 to 1996.
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Her son Todd later said Reynolds had been seriously impacted by Carries’s death, and grief was partially responsible for her stroke, noting that his mother had stated “I want to be with Carrie” shortly before she died. He said his mother had joined his sister in death because Reynolds “didn’t want to leave Carrie and did not want her to be alone”. He added, “she didn’t die of a broken heart” as some news reports had implied, but rather “just left to be with Carrie”.
Reynolds was entombed while Carrie was cremated. A portion of Fisher’s ashes were laid to rest beside Reynolds’s crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, during a larger joint memorial service held on March 25, while the remainder of Carrie’s ashes are held in a giant, novelty Prozac pill. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Buster Keaton, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Brittany Murphy, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.
On this day in 2017 actress, singer, comedian, and vaudeville performer with a career ultimately spanning nine decades, which included film, radio, records, theater, night clubs and television, Rose Marie died at her home in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles at the age of 94 . Born Rose Marie Mazzetta in Manhattan, New York, on August 15, 1923.
As a child performer during the years just after the silent film era, she had a successful singing career under the stage name Baby Rose Marie. was widely known for her role on the CBS situation comedy The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966), as television comedy writer Sally Rogers, “who went toe-to-toe in a man’s world”.[2] Later, she portrayed Myrna Gibbons on The Doris Day Show and was a featured celebrity on The Hollywood Squares for 14 years.
She is the subject of a 2017 documentary film, Wait for Your Laugh, which includes interviews with her and her co-stars including Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, Peter Marshall, and Tim Conway.
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Marie was memorialized as “the patron saint of female comedy writers”. Marie’s long-time friend and agent, Harlan Boll, says that the legendary actress’s death had to do with “age problems.” Boll was with Marie shortly before she passed away. He explained to reporters that Marie had laid down to rest on Thursday afternoon, and by the time her caregiver checked in on her, to see if she wanted something to eat, and discovered she had stopped breathing.”
And on this day in 2021, American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL) John Madden died in Pleasanton, California, aged 85. Born John Earl Madden in Austin, Minnesota on April 10, 1936.
He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, who he led to eight playoff appearances, seven division titles, seven AFL / AFC Championship Game appearances, and the franchise’s first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XI. Never having a losing season, Madden holds the highest winning percentage among NFL head coaches who coached 100 games.
After retiring from coaching, Madden was a color commentator for NFL telecasts from 1979 to 2008, which earned him 16 Sports Emmy Awards. Madden appeared on all four major American television networks, providing commentary for games broadcast by CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC. He also lent his name, expertise, and commentary to the Madden NFL video game series (1988–present), which became the best-selling football video game franchise of all time. Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
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In a press release announcing Madden’s death, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that Madden “was football”, adding, “there will never be another John Madden, and we will forever be indebted to him for all he did to make football and the NFL what it is today.” Madden is entombed in Cathedral of Christ the Light Mausoleum in Oakland.
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On this day in 1836, empresario, The Father of Texas, Stephen F. Austin died of pneumonia at noon at the home of George B. McKinstry right outside of what is now West Columbia, Texas. Born Stephen Fuller Austin in the mining region of southwestern Virginia (Wythe County) in what is now known as Austinville, some 256 miles (412 km) southwest of Richmond, Virginia. Austin led the second, and ultimately successful, colonization of Texas by bringing 300 families from the United States. Austin never married. On 10 June 1836, Austin was in New Orleans, where he received word of Santa Anna‘s defeat by Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. On August 4, Ausitn announced his candidacy for president of Texas. He felt confident he could win the election until two weeks before the election, when on August 20, Houston entered the race. Houston went on to win the election.
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On this day in 1981, Oscar-winning composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader, Hoagy Carmichael, died from a heart attack in Rancho Mirage, California at the age of 82. Born Hoagland Howard Carmichael on 22 November 1899 in Bloomington, Indiana. He is best known for writing the music to “Stardust”, “Georgia On My Mind”, “The Nearness of You”, and “Heart and Soul”, four of the most-recorded American songs of all time. In my opinion, Carmichael was one of the most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented of the hundreds of writers composing pop songs in the first half of the 20th century. The Oscar was awarded for “In the Cool, Cool, Cool, of the Evening”, lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Carmichael attended Indiana University and the Indiana University School of Law, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in 1925 and a law degree in 1926. He married twice; Ruth Menardi in 1935 and Dorothy Wanda McKay in 1977. 
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On this day in 1909, painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer, Frederic Remington died after an emergency appendectomy led to peritonitis, at the age of 48 in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Born Fredieric Sackrider Remington in Canton, New York on 4 October 1861.
The Hunters’ Supper
The Outlier
The Parley
Fight for the Waterhole
Indians Simulating Buffalo
The Scout: Friends or Foes?, 1902–1905, oil on canvas, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Ridden Down (1905–1906) depicts an Indian in defeat with his horse exhausted, stoically calling the spirits while awaiting his fate
Episode of the Buffalo Gun
The Hussar
The Gendarme
Mounted Indian Scout
Uhlan
Scouts Climbing a Mountain
The Old Stage-Coach of the Plains, 1901
A Map in the Sand
A Dash for the Timber depicts cowboys in the Southwest shooting at Apaches in the rear. One of the eight riders is already wounded but remains on his horse.
His First Lesson 1903
The Call for Help
On this day in 1974, comedian, vaudevillian, radio, television and film actor, and violinist Jack Benny died from pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 80. Born 
On this day in 1988, oil tycoon, King of the Wildcatters, Diamond Glenn, Glenn McCarthy died in Houston at the age of 81. Born Glenn Herbert McCarthy on 25 December 1907 in Beaumont, Texas almost seven years after the discovery of oil at Spindletop. McCarthy was an oil prospector and entrepreneur who owned many businesses in various sectors of the economy. McCarthy founded the Shamrock Hotel in Houston, which gained him national fame and inspired the fictional character Jett Rink in Edna Ferber’s 1952 novel Giant along with its 1956 film adaptation, which starred James Dean in the role. McCarthy married Faustine Lee.
The Final Footprint – McCarthy is interred in the Lee Family Private Estate in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. One of the offices I worked in when I worked in Houston had a great view of Glenwood Cemetery. Other notable Final Footprints at Glenwood include; Maria Franklin Prentiss Langham Gable, Oveta Culp Hobby, William P. Hobby, Howard Hughes, Anson Jones and Gene Tierney, who married into the Lee family and is interred in the same estate.
On this day in 1999, singer-songwriter, guitarist Curtis Mayfield died from complications of type 2 diabetes at the North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, Georgia at the age of 57. Born Curtis Lee Mayfield on June 3, 1942 in Chicago. In my opinion, Mayfield was one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music. He first achieved success and recognition with The Impressions during the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, and later worked as a solo artist.
On this day in 2000, United States Navy veteran, Emmy, Tony and Academy award-winning actor, Jason Robards, died of lung cancer in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the age of 78. Born Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. on 26 July 1922 in Chicago, Illinois. I particularly enjoyed his performances in; A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Comes a Horseman (1978), Melvin and Howard (1980), A Thousand Acres (1997). Robards married four times; Eleanor Pittman (1948 – 1958 divorce), Rachel Taylor (1959 – 1961 divorce), Lauren Bacall (1961 – 1969 divorce), Lois O’Connor (1970 – 2000 his death).
On this day in 2005, actor and food writer Vincent Schiavelli died of lung cancer, aged 57, at his home in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily. Born Vincent Andrew Schiavelli on November 11, 1948 in Brooklyn. Perhaps best known as a sad-faced character actor, Schiavelli was diagnosed Marfan syndrome in childhood. His roles include Fredrickson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Mr. Vargas in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), the Subway Ghost in Ghost (1990), Organ Grinder in Batman Returns (1992), Chester in The People vs Larry Flynt (1996), Dr. Kaufman in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and ABC executive Maynard Smith in Man on the Moon (1999). Before his death in 2005, Vincent Schiavelli was considered by many as one of Hollywood’s best character actors. Roger Ebert stated “Schiavelli had a way of slipping into films without people knowing his name, but they remembered his great performances as unique characters.”
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Before the creation of United Artists, Chaplin married for the first time. The 16-year-old actress Mildred Harris had revealed that she was pregnant with his child, and in September 1918, he married her quietly in Los Angeles to avoid controversy. Soon after, the pregnancy was found to be false. Chaplin was unhappy with the union and, feeling that marriage stunted his creativity, struggled over the production of his film Sunnyside. Harris was by then legitimately pregnant, and on 7 July 1919, gave birth to a son. Norman Spencer Chaplin was born malformed and died three days later. The marriage ended in April 1920, with Chaplin explaining in his autobiography that they were “irreconcilably mismated”.
While making The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time. Mirroring the circumstances of his first union, Lita Grey was a teenage actress, originally set to star in the film, whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage. She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with statutory rape under California law. He therefore arranged a discreet marriage in Mexico on 25 November 1924. Their first son, Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr., was born on 5 May 1925, followed by Sydney Earl Chaplin on 30 March 1926.
In his autobiography, Chaplin recalled that on his return to Los Angeles, “I was confused and without plan, restless and conscious of an extreme loneliness”. He briefly considered retiring and moving to China. Chaplin’s loneliness was relieved when he met 21-year-old actress Paulette Goddard in July 1932, and the pair began a relationship.
On this day in 1983, painter, sculptor, and ceramicist, 
On this day in 1989, baseball player, All-Star second 
baseman, manager, 5× World Series champion (1951–1953, 1956, 1977), New York Yankees #1 retired, Billy Martin died in a low speed, single vehicle collision during an ice storm at the end of the driveway to his farm in Port Crane, north of Binghamton, New York, at the age of 61. Born Alfred Manuel Martin, Jr. on 16 May 1928 in Berkeley, California. Perhaps best known as the manager of the New York Yankees, a position he held five different times. As Yankees manager, he led the team to consecutive American League pennants in 1976 and 1977; the Yankees were swept in the 1976 World Series by the Cincinnati Reds but triumphed over the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games in the 1977 World Series. As a manager, Martin was known for turning losing teams into winners, and for arguing animatedly with umpires, including a widely parodied routine in which he kicked dust on their feet. On 10 August 1986, the Yankees retired Martin’s uniform number 1 and dedicated a plaque in his honor for Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The plaque contains the words, There has never been a greater competitor than Billy. Martin told the crowd, “I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform, but I am the proudest.” On 24 May 1986, on the season finale of Saturday Night Live, co-host Martin was “fired” by executive producer Lorne Michaels for being “drunk” in a skit, slurring his lines. During the goodnights, Martin “sets fire” to the dressing room in retaliation. In 1988, on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update,” comedian Dennis Miller opened the sports segment with, “In Calgary tonight, Katarina Witt won the gold medal in figure skating, prompting Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to fire manager Billy Martin.” Steinbrenner and Martin appeared together in a series of funny commercials for Miller Lite beer. Martin was married four times Lois Berndt, Gretchen Winkler, Heather Ervolino, and Jillian Guiver. 
On this day in 1995, legendary singer and actor, American icon, member of the Rat Pack, The King of Cool, Dean Martin, died from emphysema at his Beverly Hills home at the age 78. Born Dino Paul Crocetti on 7 June 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio to Italian parents. Martin was a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television. Martin was on the nightclub circuit when he met the comic Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York. They formed a friendship and soon began participating in each other’s acts combining their musical and comedic talents. Martin and Lewis made their offical debut at Atlantic City’s 500 Club on 24 July 1946. From then until 1956 they were one of the hottest acts in America appearing in clubs, on television and in movies. By the mid ’60s, Martin was a top movie, recording, and nightclub star. He first starred alongside Frank Sinatra in the Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958). Martin was acclaimed for his performance as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson. He teamed up again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), although perhaps unconvincingly cast as brothers. As a singer, Martin was influenced by Harry Mills, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como until he developed his own style and could hold his own in duets with Sinatra and Crosby. Like Sinatra, he could not read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs. His signature tune, “Everybody Loves Somebody”, improbably knocked The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” out of the number-one spot in the United States in 1964. Elvis was said to have been influenced by Martin’s style. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin and Sinatra, along with friends Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis, Jr. formed the legendary Rat Pack, so called by the public after an earlier group of social friends, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack centered on Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, of which Sinatra had been a member. The Martin-Sinatra-Davis-Lawford-Bishop group referred to themselves as “The Summit” or “The Clan”. Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show in 1965 which ran until 1974. After the show’s cancellation, NBC continued to air the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast format in a series of TV specials through 1984. Martin was married three times; Betty McDonald (1941 – 1949 divorce) Jeanne Biegger (1949 – 1972 divorce), Catherine Hawn (1973 – 1976 divorce). Perhaps my all-time favorite entertainer: Rio Bravo is one of my favorite movies; the Martin and Lewis movies are great; I remember wathcing his show on television; the roast specials were some of the funniest shows I ever saw; and of course he is one of my favorite singers. The holiday season does not officially start for me until I hear him sing, Baby it’s cold Outside.
The Final Footprint – Martin is entombed in the Sanctuary of Love Mausoleum at 
On this day in 2006, recording artist, musician, songwriter, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown died from congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia, at age 73 with his personal manager and longtime friend Charles Bobbit at his bedside in the Emory Crawford Long Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Born James Joseph Brown, Jr. on 3 May 1933, in Barnwell, South Carolina in a small wooden shack. One of the founding fathers of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century popular music and dance. In a career that spanned six decades, Brown influenced the development of several music genres. He began his career as a gospel singer in Toccoa, Georgia. Joining an R&B vocal group called the Avons that later evolved to become The Famous Flames, Brown served as the group’s lead singer. First coming to national public attention in the late 1950s as a member of The Flames with the ballads “Please, Please, Please” and “Try Me”, Brown built a reputation as a tireless live performer with the The Famous Flames and his backing band, sometimes known as the James Brown Band or the James Brown Orchestra. His success peaked in the 1960s with the live album Live at the Apollo and hit singles such as “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, “I Got You” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”. During the late 1960s, Brown moved from a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly “Africanized” approach to music-making that influenced the development of funk music. By the early 1970s, Brown had fully established the funk sound after the formation of The J.B.’s with records such as “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine” and “The Payback”. Brown also became notable for songs of social commentary, including the 1968 hit “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud”. He continued to perform and record for the duration of his life until his death. Brown recorded 16 number-one singles on the Billboard R&B charts. Brown was honored by many institutions including inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. Brown is included in most rankings of greatest artists of all time. Brown was married three times; Velma Warren (1953 – 1969 divorce), Deidre “Deedee” Jenkins (1970 – 1981 divorce) and Adrienne Lois Rodriguez (1984 – 1996 her death). A fourth marriage to Tomi Rae Hynie in 2002 was later ruled invalid.
On this day in 2008, Tony nominated actress, singer, cabaret star, dancer, stand-up comedienne, activist and voice artist, Eartha Kitt died from colon cancer at her home in Weston, Connecticut at the age of 81, with her daughter by her side. Born Eartha Mae Keith on a cotton plantation in North, a small town in Orangeburg County near Columbia, South Carolina, on 17 January 1927. Known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of “C’est Si Bon” and the enduring Christmas novelty smash “Santa Baby”, which were both US Top 10 hits. Orson Welles once called her the “most exciting woman in the world”. Kitt began her career in 1943 with the Katherine Dunham Company and appeared in the 1945 original Broadway production of the musical Carib Song. In the early 1950s, she had six US Top 30 hits, including “Uska Dara” and “I Want to be Evil”. Her other notable recordings include the UK Top 10 hit “Under the Bridges of Paris” (1954), “Just an Old Fashioned Girl” (1963) and “Where Is My Man” (1983). She took over the role of Catwoman in 1967 for the third and final season of the 
And on this day in 2016, singer, songwriter George Michael died from heart failure in his Oxfordshire home at the age of 53. Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou on 25 June 1963 in East Finchley, London. Herose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! and later embarked on a solo career. He was widely known for his work in the 1980s and 1990s, including hit Wham! singles such as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Last Christmas” and solo albums such as Faith (1987) and Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990).
In a private ceremony, Michael was buried at Highgate Cemetery in north London, near his mother’s grave. Other notable final footprints as Highgate include; George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, Karl Marx, and Christina Rossetti.
On this day in 1863, novelist William Makepeace Thackeray died from a stroke in his bed in London at the age of 52. Born on 18 July 1811 in Calcutta, India, where his father, Richmond Thackeray (1 September 1781 – 13 September 1815), was secretary to the board of revenue in the British East India Company. Thackeray was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society. He married Isabella Gethin Shawe.
The Final Footprint – Due to his unexpected death, his family, friends, and reading public were shocked. An estimated 7000 people attended his funeral at Kensington Gardens. He was buried on 29 December at Kensal Green Cemetery, and a memorial bust sculpted by Marochetti can be found in Westminster Abbey. Other notable final footprints at Kensal Green include Leigh Hunt and Harold Pinter (see below). In addition, Ingrid Bergman, Freddie Mercury and Alan Rickman were cremated at Kensal Green.
On this day in 1984, actor, member of the Rat Pack Peter Lawford, died from cardiac arrest at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 61. Born Peter Sydney Vaughn Aylen on 7 September 1923 in London. A member of the “Rat Pack” with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Joey Bishop. Lawford was married four times; Patricia Kennedy (1954 – 1966 divorce) sister of then-US Senator John F. Kennedy (Lawford, along with other members of the “Rat Pack”, helped campaign for Kennedy and the Democratic Party; Sinatra famously dubbed him “Brother-in-Lawford” at this time), Mary Rowan (1971 – 1975 divorce) the daughter of comedian Dan Rowan, Deborah Gould (1976 – 1977 divorce), and Patricia Seaton (1984 – 1984 his death). 
On this day in 2008, Nobel Prize-winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor, Harold Pinter died at Hammersmith Hospital in London, from liver cancer at the age of 78. Born on 10 October 1930, in Hackney, east London. In my opinion, one of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. Perhaps his best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others’ works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). Pinter also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others’ works. In 1956 he married actress Vivien Merchant. He left Merchant in 1975 and married author Lady Antonia Fraser in 1980. Pinter received over 50 awards, prizes, and other honours, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005 and the French Légion d’honneur in 2007. 
On this day in 1884, cattle baron in the American West, John Chisum died in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he had repeatedly sought treatments, due to complications from surgery to remove a growth from his jaw, at the age of 60. Born John Simpson Chisum on 15 August 1824 in Hardeman County, Tennessee. Chisum moved with his family to Texas in 1837, finding work as a building contractor. He also served as county clerk in Lamar County. Chisum was of Scottish, English, and Welsh descent. In 1854, Chisum became engaged in the cattle business and became one of the first to send his herds to New Mexico Territory. He obtained land along the Pecos River by right of occupancy and eventually became the owner of a large ranch in the Bosque Grande, about forty miles south of Fort Sumner, with over 100,000 head of cattle. In 1866-67, Chisum formed a partnership with cattlemen Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving to assemble and drive herds of cattle for sale to the United States Army in Fort Sumner and Santa Fe, New Mexico, to provide cattle to miners in Colorado as well as provide cattle to the Bell Ranch. A gambler, Chisum frequently played poker with Texas John Slaughter, a lawman in Texas and later the Arizona Territory. Chisum with money, advice, and influence behind the scenes, played a role in the Lincoln County War between the opposing factions of cattle farmers and business owners, and involving Billy the Kid. Chisum never married.
The Final Footprint – Chisum is interred in the Chisum Family Cemetery in Paris, Texas. He left his estate worth $500,000 to his brothers Pitzer and James. While living in Bolivar, Texas, he lived with a young slave girl named Jensie and had two daughters with her. The relationship is described in a book titled Three Ranches West. Chisum had an extended family living with him at the South Springs ranch in Roswell. Chisum’s niece Sallie, daughter of his brother James, became a beloved figure in the area, where she lived until 1934. Sallie kept a diary or journal that has historical importance because of its references to Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, both of whom she knew. She and John Chisum are honored by statues to their memory in Roswell and Artesia, New Mexico. Chisum has been portrayed on film by John Wayne in Chisum (1970) and James Coburn in Young Guns II (1990).
On this day in 1979, art collector, bohemian and socialite Peggy Guggenheim died from a stroke in Camposampiero near Padua, Italy at the age of 81. Born Marguerite Guggenheim on August 26, 1898 in Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who would establish the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Peggy Guggenheim created a noted art collection in Europe and America primarily between 1938 and 1946. She exhibited this collection as she built it and in 1949, settled in Venice, where she lived and exhibited her collection for the rest of her life. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice.
On this day in 2000, comedian, conductor and pianist, The Clown Prince of Denmark, The Unmelancholy Dane, The Great Dane, Victor Borge, died in Greenwich, Connecticut at the age of 91. Born Børge Rosenbaum on 3 January 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Borge was married twice; Elsie Chilton (1933 – divorce) and Sarabel Sanna Scraper (1953 – 2000 her death).
The Final Footprint – Borge was cremated. Part of his cremated remains were interred with his second wife at Putnam Cemetery in Greenwich, with a replica of Danish icon The Little Mermaid sitting on a large rock at the gravesite, the other part with his parents in Western Jewish Cemetery (Mosaisk Vestre Begravelsesplads), Copenhagen, Denmark.
On this day in 1870, post-romanticist poet and writer, also a playwright, literary columnist, and artist, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer died from tuberculosis in Madrid at the age of 34. Born Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida on February 17, 1836 in Seville. In my opinion, one of the most important figures in Spanish literature. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had done earlier. It was after his death that most of his works were published. Perhaps his best known works are the Rhymes and the Legends, usually published together as Rimas y leyendas. These poems and tales are essential to the study of Spanish literature and common reading for high-school students in Spanish-speaking countries.
On this day in 1880, novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era, George Eliot died at the age of 61 in Chelsea, Middlesex, England. Born Mary Ann Evans on 22 November 1819 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight. Eliot used a male pen name, she said, to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot’s life, but she wanted to escape the stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances. She also wished to have her fiction judged separately from her already extensive and widely known work as an editor and critic. An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived for over 20 years. In my opinion, Middlemarch is one of the greatest novels in the English language. Eliot married John Cross (1880 – 1880 her death).
The Final Footprint – Eliot was not buried in Westminster Abbey because of her denial of the Christian faith and her “irregular” though monogamous life with Lewes. She was interred in Highgate Cemetery (East), Highgate, London in the area reserved for religious dissenters or agnostics, next to Lewes. In 1980, on the centenary of her death, a memorial stone was established for her in the Poets’ Corner. Several buildings in her birthplace of Nuneaton are named after her or titles of her novels, such as The George Eliot School (previously George Eliot Community School) and Middlemarch Junior School. In 1948, Nuneaton Emergency Hospital was named George Eliot Hospital in Eliot’s honour. George Eliot Road, in Foleshill, Coventry was named in her honour. Nuneaton motor cycle manufacturer John Birch named his motor cycles after her. A statue of Eliot is in Newdegate Street, Nuneaton, and Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery has a display of material related to her. Other notable final footprints at Highgate include; Karl Marx, Christina Rossetti and Jean Simmons.
On this day in 1989, avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, member of the French Resistance, Samuel Beckett died in a nursing home in Paris at the age of 83. Born Samuel Barclay Beckett on Good Friday, 13 April 1906 in Foxrock, Dublin. Beckett lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature. In my opinion, Beckett is among the most influential writers of the 20th century. He is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. Beckett is one of the key writers in what has been called the “Theatre of the Absurd”. His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation”. He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesnil (1900 – 17 July 1989) was the tennis partner, lover, and later wife (1961 – 1989 her death) of Beckett. Barbara Bray had a long term relationship with Beckett, from 1961 to his death.
The Final Footprint – Suzanne died on 17 July 1989. The two were interred together in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris and share a simple granite gravestone that follows Beckett’s directive that it should be “any colour, so long as it’s grey.” Other notable Final Footprints at Montparnasse include; Charles Baudelaire, Simone de Beauvoir, Emmanuel Chabrier, César Franck, Guy de Maupassant, Adah Isaacs Menken, Man Ray, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jean-Paul Sartre, 
On this day in 1995, actress, Butterfly McQueen, died at the Augusta Regional Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia at the age of 84. Born Thelma McQueen on 7 January 1911 in Tampa, Florida. Apparently, her nickname was a tribute to her constantly moving hands. She appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O’Hara’s maid in the film version of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. The cast of GWTW included; Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Thomas Mitchell, and Hattie McDaniel. She never married.
On this day in 2014, singer and musician Joe Cocker died from lung cancer in Crawford, Colorado, at the age of 70. Born John Robert “Joe” Cocker on 20 May 1944 in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Perhaps best known for his gritty voice, spasmodic body movement in performance and definitive versions of popular songs of varying genre.
The Final Footprint
On this day in 1375 Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular, Giovanni Boccaccio died at the age of sixty-two in Certaldo, Tuscany, Italy, where he is buried. Other notable works include Filostrato and Teseida (the sources for Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and The Knight’s Tale, respectively), Filocolo, a prose version of an existing French romance and the source for Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and La caccia di Diana, a poem in terza rima listing Neapolitan women.
On this day in 1940, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and short-story writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, died from a heart attack in Hollywood at the age of 44. Born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald on 24 September 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota into an Irish Catholic family. Named after his famous second cousin Francis Scott Key, three times removed. Fitzgerald attended Princeton University. He and his wife Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald helped define the Jazz Age, a term he coined. In my opinion, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night and his most famous, the celebrated classic, The Great Gatsby. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon was published posthumously. He and Zelda married in 1920. At the time of his death he was living with his lover Sheilah Graham.
The Final Footprint – Fitzgerald was originally buried in Rockville Union Cemetery, Rockville, Maryland. Zelda died in 1948, in a fire at the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Their daughter, Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan worked to overturn the Archdiocese of Baltimore ruling that Fitzgerald died a non practicing Catholic, so that he could be at rest at the Roman Catholic cemetery where his father’s family was laid. Both Scott’s and Zelda’s remains were moved to the family plot in Saint Mary’s Cemetery, in Rockville, Maryland in 1975. Their graves are marked by a large companion marble monument and a marble full ledger. The inscription on the ledger is the last line from his novel, The Great Gatsby; SO WE BEAT ON, BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT, BORNE BACK CEASELESSLY INTO THE PAST. – The Great Gatsby. A cenotaph, in memoriam, is placed at Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda’s hometown.
On this day in 1964, writer and artistic photographer Carl Van Vechten died in New York City at the age of 84. Born June 17, 1880 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people.
The Final Footprint
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On this day in 1968, Pulitzer Prize and Noble Prize-winning writer, John Steinbeck, died of heart disease in New York City at the age of 66. Born John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. on 27 February 1902 in Salinas, California of German and Irish descent. Perhaps best remembered for his novels; The Grapes of Wrath (1939) which won the Pulitzer, East of Eden (1952) and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). Most of Steinbeck’s work is set in southern and central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists. The movie version of East of Eden, directed by Elia Kazan, marked the debut of James Dean. He attended Stanford University but did not graduate. Steinbeck married three times; Carol Henning (1930 – 1943 divorce), Gwyndolyn Conger (1943 – 1948 divorce), Elaine Scott (1950 – 1968 his death).
The Final Footprint – Steinbeck was cremated and his cremated remains were interred in the Hamilton Family Estate in Garden of Memories Memorial Park in Salinas with his parents and his maternal grand-parents. His mother’s maiden name was Hamilton. His third wife, Elaine, was later buried there as well. The estate is marked by an upright granite marker engraved with the Hamilton name.
On this day in 1996, astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences, Carl Sagan died from complications of myelodysplasia at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, at the age of 62. Born Carl Edward Sagan on November 9, 1934 in Brooklyn. Perhaps best known for his work as a science popularizer and communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the now accepted hypothesis that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to and calculated using the greenhouse effect.
On this day in 2009, actress and singer Brittany Murphy-Monjack died from pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, at the age of 32. Born Brittany Anne Bertolotti on November 10, 1977 in Atlanta. Murphy moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and pursued a career in acting. Her breakthrough role was as Tai Frasier in Clueless (1995), followed by supporting roles in independent films such as Freeway (1996) and Bongwater (1998). She made her stage debut in a Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge in 1997, before appearing as Daisy Randone in Girl, Interrupted (1999) and as Lisa Swenson in Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999).
On this day in 1848, novelist Emily Brontë died from tuberculosis at the Brontë family home in Haworth Parsonage, Haworth, England at the age of 30. Born Emily Jane Brontë on 30 July 1818 in the village of Thornton, Yorkshire, in the North of England, to Maria Branwell and Patrick Bronte. She was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë. Perhaps best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. She never married.
On this day in 1996, Academy Award-nominated actor, Marcello Mastroianni, died from pancreatic cancer in Paris at the age of 72. Born Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni on 28 September 1924 in Fontana Liri, Italy. A man who worked with and loved some of the most beautiful women in the world. His prominent films include La dolce vita (1960), La Notte (1961), 
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