On this day 18 August death of Honoré de Balzac – Anita Loos – John Sturges – Persis Khambatta – Elmer Bernstein – Don Pardo

Balzac on an 1842 daguerreotype by Louis-Auguste Bisson

On this day in 1850 French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac died in Paris at the age of 51.  Born 20 May 1799 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France.  Perhaps best for known for his sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon.  Balzac influenced the writers and popular culture of his time and beyond.  Balzac might be as well-known for his literary legacy as he is for his tumultuous love life.  At twenty-three, he fell for Mme. Berny, a woman nearly twice his age known as “la Dilecta,” whose creative and intellectual influence on Balzac had a profound impact on shaping his budding voice.  When the two split up in 1832, he entered a troubled relationship with the Marquise de Castries, whom he later portrayed rather unflatteringly in The Duchesse of Langeais.  That year, he received a fan letter from Countess Ewelina Hańska, a married Polish noblewoman to whom he came to refer to as “The Foreigner.”  They embarked upon an intense correspondence, which quickly escalated into a passionate bond, which lasted seventeen years.  The two met twice, once in Switzerland the following year, and once in Vienna in 1835, and the two vowed to marry once Ewelina’s husband died.  Though the Count passed away in 1842, Balzac’s poor finances prevented the couple from marrying.  In March of 1850, when he was already fatally ill, the two finally wed, five months before Balzac died in Paris.

The Final Footprint – Balzac is interred at the Cimetière du Père Lachaise in Paris.  Victor Hugo served as a pallbearer and eulogist and Alexandre Dumas attended the funeral.  His grave is marked by a large stone monument topped by a bronze bust of Balzac.  He became the subject of a monumental statue by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, which stands near the intersection of Boulevard Raspail and Boulevard Montparnasse.  Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Frédéric Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Eugène Delacroix, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.

#RIP #OTD in 1981 actress, novelist (Gentleman Prefer Blondes), playwright (Gigi), screenwriter Anita Loos died in Manhattan’s Doctors Hospital, aged 93. Etna Cemetery, Etna, California.

#RIP #OTD in 1992 film director (Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Ice Station Zebra, Marooned, McQ, Joe Kidd), John Sturges died in San Luis Obispo, California aged 82. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 1998 actress (Star Trek, Nighthawks) Persis Khambatta died from a heart attack at Marine Hospital in south Mumbai at the age of 49. Cremation

#RIP #OTD in 2004 film composer (The Man with the Golden Arm, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hud, True Grit, Cape Fear, Animal House, Meatballs, The Blues Brothers, Stripes, Trading Places, Ghostbusters) Elmer Bernstein died at home in Ojai CA from cancer, aged 82. Cremation

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — Episode 1 — Pictured: Announcer Don Pardo on September 25, 1982 — Photo by: Al Levine/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

On this day in 2014 radio and television announcer Don Pardo died in his sleep in Tucson at the age of 96. Born Dominick George Pardo on February 22, 1918 in Westfield, Massachusetts.

A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with NBC, working as the announcer for early incarnations of such notable shows as The Price Is Right, Jackpot, Jeopardy!, Three on a Match, Winning Streak and NBC Nightly News. His longest, and best-known, announcing job was for NBC’s Saturday Night Live, a job he held for 39 seasons, from the show’s debut in 1975 until his death in 2014.

Pardo married Catherine Lyons (d. 1995) in 1938.

The Final Footprint

Pardo was interred next to Catherine in Rockland Cemetery, Sparkill, New York.

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