#RIP #OTD in 1898, illustrator whose black ink drawings depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic, Aubrey Beardsley died of tuberculosis at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France, aged 25. Cimetière du Trabuquet, Menton
On this day in 1904, eccentric saloon-keeper, Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, “The Law West of the Pecos”, Judge Roy Bean, died in Langtry, Texas at the approximate age of 78. Born Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. sometime in 1825 in Mason County, Kentucky. Bean named his saloon The Jersey Lilly in honor of Lillie Langtry, a British actress born on the island of Jersey. She was a renowned beauty and had a number of prominent lovers including the future king of England, Edward VII. Bean charged only $5 for a wedding, and ended all wedding ceremonies with “and may God have mercy on your souls.” A fictionalized biopic was made, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) starring Paul Newman. In Larry McMurtry’s novel Streets of Laredo (1993), a fictionalized version of Bean is killed by an outlaw.
The Final Footprint – Bean and his son Sam are interred at the Whitehead Museum in Del Rio, Texas. Bean’s grave is marked by a flat granite marker inscribed; JUSTICE OF THE PEACE / LAW WEST OF THE PECOS. Lillie Langtry recounted how she visited the area following the death of Bean in her autobiography, The Days I Knew (1925).
#RIP #OTD in 1936 stage actress, journalist for Le Figaro, leading French suffragette, newspaper owner Marguerite Durand died in Paris, aged 72. Batignolles Cemetery, Paris. The Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand was created from her collection of papers.
On this day in 1970 singer Tammi Terrell died from a brain tumor in Philadelphia at the age of 24. Born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery on April 29, 1945 in Philadelphia. Perhaps best known as a singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, most notably for a series of duets with Marvin Gaye. Terrell’s career began as a teenager, first recording for Scepter/Wand Records, before spending nearly two years as a member of James Brown‘s Revue, recording for Brown’s Try Me label. After a period attending college, Terrell recorded briefly for Checker Records, before signing with Motown in 1965. With Gaye, Terrell scored seven Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need to Get By”. Terrell’s career was interrupted when she collapsed into Gaye’s arms as the two performed at a concert at Hampden–Sydney College on October 14, 1967, with Terrell later being diagnosed with a brain tumor.
The Final Footprint
Terrell’s funeral was held at the Janes Methodist Church in Philadelphia. At the funeral, Gaye delivered a final eulogy while “You’re All I Need to Get By” was playing. Terrell is interred in Mount Lawn Cemetery in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania.
On this day in 1975, blues guitarist, singer, songwriter T-Bone Walker died of bronchial pneumonia following a stroke in Los Angeles, at the age of 64. Born Aaron Thibeaux Walker on May 28, 1910 in Linden, Texas. He was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues and electric blues sound. Much of his output was recorded from 1946 to 1948 for Black & White Records, including his most famous song, “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)” (1947). Other notable songs he recorded during this period were “Bobby Sox Blues” (a number 3 R&B hit in 1947) and “West Side Baby” (number 8 on the R&B singles chart in 1948). He won a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1971 for Good Feelin’.
Walker at the American Folk Blues Festival in Hamburg, March 1972
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Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. Other notable final footprints at Inglewood include; Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Grable, Etta James, Robert Kardashian, Gypsy Rose Lee, Billy Preston, Cesar Romero, Big Mama Thornton, and Syreeta Wright.
#RIP #OTD in 1998 photographer who specialized in expressive photos of ordinary people in everyday lives, Esther Bubley died from cancer in Manhattan aged 77
On this day in 2019, guitarist, The King of the Surf Guitar, Dick Dale died in Loma Linda, California at Loma Linda Hospital with his wife Lana by his side, at the age of 81. Born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937 in Boston. He was a pioneer of surf music, drawing on Middle Eastern music scales and experimenting with reverberation. “The King of the Surf Guitar” was the title of his second studio album.
Dale worked closely with the manufacturer Fender to produce custom-made amplifiers including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier. He pushed the limits of electric amplification technology, helping to develop equipment that was capable of producing a louder guitar sound without sacrificing reliability.
Dale was married three times. First wife Jeannie in the 1970s was a Tahitian dancer in Hawaii and provided back up vocals for the 1975 release Spanish Eyes. Together they created a musical revue and toured at resorts in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe. From the proceeds, they made successful investments in nightclubs and real estate allowing Dale to purchase his three-story 17 room dream mansion at ‘the Wedge’ located in Newport Beach at the tip of the Balboa Peninsula and mouth to Newport Harbor. Jeannie toured with Dale and his Deltones through the early 80’s up until their very public and bitter divorce in 1984 which depleted much of Dale’s accumulated wealth.
He met his second wife Jill, a veterinary assistant, at a Huntington Harbour, California party in 1986. They lived at Dale’s Sky Ranch in Twentynine Palms, California. Dale credits Jill for his transition from Surf Rock to a more raw and stripped down style that consisted of just him and two other musicians. Jill also provided back up vocals and drum tracks for Dale’s 1993 Tribal Thunder and 1996 Calling Up Spirits albums.
Dale married third wife Lana in 2011.
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Dale’s final footprint is at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Forever include; Mel Blanc (yes, his epitaph is “That’s All Folks!”), Lana Clarkson, Iron Eyes Cody, Chris Cornell, Cecil B. DeMille, Victor Fleming, Judy Garland, Joan Hackett, John Huston, Hattie McDaniel’s cenotaph, Jayne Mansfield’s cenotaph, Tyrone Power, Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Virginia Rappe, Nelson Riddle, Mickey Rooney, Ann Sheridan, Bugsy Siegel, Rudolph Valentino, Fay Wray, and Anton Yelchin.
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On this day in 44BC, Roman general, statesman, Consul, and notable author of Latin prose, Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of rebellious senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus, on the steps of the Senate in Rome. He was 55. born into a patrician family, the gens Julia, which claimed descent from Iulus, son of the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas, supposedly the son of the goddess Venus, in July 100 BC, in Rome. Caesar played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed a political alliance that was to dominate Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass power through populist tactics were opposed by the conservative ruling class within the Roman Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the frequent support of Cicero. Caesar’s victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, extended Rome’s territory to the English Channel and the Rhine. Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both when he built a bridge across the Rhine and conducted the first invasion of Britain. These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, who had realigned himself with the Senate after the death of Crassus in 53 BC. With the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Caesar refused the order, and instead marked his defiance in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon with a legion, leaving his province and illegally entering Roman Italy under arms. Civil war resulted, and Caesar’s victory in the war would put him in an unrivaled position of power and influence. After assuming control of government, Caesar began a programme of social and governmental reforms, including the creation of the Julian calendar. He centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed “dictator in perpetuity”, giving him additional authority. But the underlying political conflicts had not been resolved, which resulted in his assassination.
The Final Footprint – According to Plutarch, after the assassination, Brutus stepped forward as if to say something to his fellow senators; they, however, fled the building. Brutus and his companions then marched to the Capitol while crying out to their beloved city: “People of Rome, we are once again free!” They were met with silence, as the citizens of Rome had locked themselves inside their houses as soon as the rumor of what had taken place had begun to spread. Caesar’s dead body lay where it fell on the Senate floor for nearly three hours before other officials arrived to remove it. His body was cremated, and on the site of his cremation the Temple of Caesar was erected a few years later (at the east side of the main square of the Roman Forum). Only its altar now remains. A lifesize wax statue of Caesar was later erected in the forum displaying the 23 stab wounds. A crowd who had gathered there started a fire, which badly damaged the forum and neighboring buildings. A new series of civil wars broke out, and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesar’s adopted heir Octavius, later known as Augustus, rose to sole power after defeating his opponents in the civil war. Octavius set about solidifying his power, and the era of the Roman Empire began. Much of Caesar’s life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns, and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources. Caesar is considered by many to be one of the greatest military commanders in history.
On this day in 1975, prominent Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of respiratory failure at the age of 69. Born Aristotle Socrates Onassis on 15 January 1906 in Karatass, a suburb of Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey). During his lifetime he was one of the wealthiest and most famous men in the world. Onassis married twice; Athina Livanos (1946 – 1960 divorce), daughter of shipping magnate Stavros Livanos and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1968 – 1975 his death). Onassis reportedly had a notorious affair with Maria Callas shortly after the two met in 1957. Onassis was quoted as saying, “There [was] just a natural curiosity; after all, we were the most famous Greeks alive in the world.” Livanos divorced Onassis over the affair. He ended his relationship with Callas to marry Kennedy.
The Final Footprint – Onassis was entombed in a sarcophagus beside the chapel next to his son Alexander in the Island of Skorpios Cemetery on Skorpios Island in the Ionian Sea off the western coast of Greece, a private island owned by Onassis.


On this day in 1991, lyricist and blues singer, Doc Pomus, died from cancer in Manhattan at the age of 65. Born Jerome Solon Felder on 27 June 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. Best known for the many rock and roll songs he co-wrote, with Mort Shuman including; “A Teenager in Love”; “Save The Last Dance For Me”; “Hushabye”; “This Magic Moment”; “Turn Me Loose”; “Sweets For My Sweet”; “Go Jimmy Go”, “Can’t Get Used to Losing You”; “Little Sister”; “Suspicion”; “Surrender”; “Viva Las Vegas”; “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame”; and with Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber: “Young Blood” and “She’s Not You”.
The Final Footprint – Pomus is interred in Beth David Cemetery, Elmont, New York. His grave is marked with an individual granite marker engraved with; “TURNING CORNERS IS ONLY A STATE OF MIND KEEPING YOUR EYES CLOSED IS WORSE THAN BEING BLIND.” THERE IS ALWAYS ONE MORE TIME – D. P. / SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME
On this day in 2018 theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author Stephen Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England from ALS at the age of 76. Born Stephen William Hawking on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England. Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death. He was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge at the time of his death. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009.
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On this day in 1906, social reformer and women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony died at the age of 86 of heart failure and pneumonia in her home in Rochester, New York. Born on February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. She played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.
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On this day in 1943, author, poet, short story writer novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner, Stephen Vincent Benét, died of a heart attack in New York City at the age of 44. Born on 22 July 1898 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown’s Body (1928), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and “By the Waters of Babylon.” He graduated from Yale.
On this day in 1978, actor John Cazale died in New York City from lung cancer with girlfriend Meryl Streep by his side, at the age of 42. Born John Holland Cazale on 12 August 1935 in Revere, Massachusetts. Perhaps best known for his role as Michael Corleone’s big brother Fredo in Francis Ford Coppola‘s Godfather films. During his six-year film career he appeared in five films, each nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter. He appeared in archival footage in The Godfather III, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. He is the only actor to have this multi-film distinction.
The Final Footprint – Cazale was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden, Massachusetts. Al Pacino said: “I’ve hardly ever seen a person so devoted to someone who is falling away like John was. To see her (Streep) in that act of love for this man was overwhelming.”
On this approximate day in 1945, victim of the Holocaust and diarist, Anne Frank, died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony, Nazi Germany at the age of 15. Born Annelies Marie Frank on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, the year the Nazis gained control over Germany. By the beginning of 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in the hidden rooms of Anne’s father, Otto Frank’s, office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in March 1945. Otto, the only survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that Anne’s diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl. The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944.
The Final Footprint – Anne and her sister Margot were buried in a mass grave at Bergen-Belsen, the exact whereabouts are not known. A memorial to the sisters has been erected there. A bronze statue of Anne was erected outside the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. A bronze plaque in Anne’s memory was placed at Beth Olam Cemetery in Los Angeles. The plaque has the term of endearment; A Star shines in the dark. The plaque also has a picture of Anne cast into the bronze and the following inscription from her diary; “This is a photo as I wish I still was. If so, I would still have a chance to come to Hollywood.”
On this day in 1967, soprano opera singer and actress Geraldine Farrar died in Ridgefield, Connecticut of a heart attack at the age of 85. Born in Melrose, Massachusetts on 28 February 1882. Farrar was noted for her beauty, acting ability, and “the intimate timbre of her voice.” She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed “Gerry-flappers”. Farrar studied voice with the American soprano Emma Thursby and the Italian baritone Francesco Graziani. Farrar created a sensation at the Berlin Hofoper with her debut as Marguerite in Charles Gounod’s Faust in 1901 and remained with the company for three years, during which time she continued her studies with famed German soprano Lilli Lehmann. She appeared in the title rôles of Ambroise Thomas’ Mignon and Jules Massenet’s Manon, as well as Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Her admirers in Berlin included Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, with whom she is believed to have had a relationship beginning in 1903. After three years with the Monte Carlo Opera, she made her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in Romeo et Juliette on 26 November 1906. Farrar appeared in the first Met performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 1907 and remained a member of the company until her retirement in 1922, singing 29 roles there in nearly 500 performances. In 1960 Farrar was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the music and film categories (at 1620 & 1709 Vine Street).
The Final Footprint – Farrar was buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. Other notable final footprints at Kensico include; Anne Bancroft, Tommy Dorsey, Lou Gehrig, Danny Kaye, Robert Merrill, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Ayn Rand.
On this day in 1913, abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman died in Auburn, New York surrounded by friends and family members of pneumonia, aged 90-91. Born Araminta Ross, c. January 29, 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland. Born a slave, Tubman was beaten and whipped by her various masters as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate slave owner threw a heavy metal weight intending to hit another slave but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. She was a devout Christian and experienced strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God.
On this day in 1948, novelist and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald, died in a fire at the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina at the age of 47. Born Zelda Sayre on 24 July 1900 in Montgomery, Alabama. The Fitzgeralds were icons of the 1920s; she was dubbed by her husband “the first American Flapper”. After the success of his first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), the Fitzgeralds became celebrities and were seen as embodiments of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties: young, seemingly wealthy, beautiful, and energetic. The couple has been the subject of popular books, movies and scholarly attention. They were married 3 April 1920 in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. They had one daughter Frances Scott “Scottie” Fitzgerald (26 October 1921 – 16 June 1986). Zelda wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz (1932) and worked on another novel, Caesar’s Things, which she never finished.
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On this day in 1988, singer, songwriter Andy Gibb died from myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a viral infection in John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, at the age of 30. Born Andrew Roy Gibb on 5 March 1958 in Manchester, England. He was the younger brother of the Bee Gees: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.
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On this day in 1994, poet, novelist, and short story writer Charles Bukowski died of leukemia in San Pedro, Los Angeles, aged 73, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp. Born Heinrich Karl Bukowski in Andernach, Germany on 16 August 1920. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. His work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. The FBI kept a file on him as a result of his column, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, in the LA underground newspaper Open City.
The Final Footprint – Bukowski is interred in
On this day in 1997, French journalist, author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE, Jean-Dominique Bauby, died in Paris at the age of 44. Born 23 April 1952 in Paris. On 8 December 1995 at the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. Waking up twenty days later, he found he was entirely paralyzed; he could only blink his left eyelid, a condition referred to as locked-in syndrome. He learned to communicate by blinking and in this manner dictated his memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le scaphandre et le papillon) (1997). In 2007 the book was adapted into a feature film of the same name, directed by Julian Schnabel. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2008 for directing, cinematography, editing and writing.
The Final Footprint – Bauby is entombed in the Bauby family crypt in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world. Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Maria Callas, Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Max Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Marcel Proust, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.
On this day in 2005, rodeo champion, country music singer and songwriter, bronze sculptor, Grammy Award nominee, Chris LeDoux, died in Casper, Wyoming from cancer at the age of 56. Born Chris Lee LeDoux 2 October 1948 in Biloxi, Mississippi. In 1976, LeDoux won the world bareback riding championship at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. During his music career LeDoux recorded 36 albums, many self-released. His album, Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy, was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
On this day in 2007, singer and songwriter Brad Delp died by suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning at his home in Atkinson, New Hampshire, at the age of 55. Born Bradley Edward Delp on June 12, 1951 in Peabody, Massachusetts. Perhaps best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Boston (“More Than a Feeling”, “Peace of Mind”, “Foreplay/Long Time”, “Rock and Roll Band”, “Smokin'”, “Don’t Look Back”).
On this day in 1999, baseball Hall of Fame
player, 3-time MVP, 13-time All Star, 9-time World Series champion, “Joltin’ Joe”, “The Yankee Clipper”, Joe DiMaggio, died at his home in Hollywood, Florida at the age of 84 from lung cancer. Born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio on 25 November 1914 in Martinez, California. Perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (15 May – 16 July 1941), a record that still stands. I believe he is the only player to be named an all-star in every season he played. The Yankees retired his number 5 in 1952.
The Final Footprint – DiMaggio is entombed in a private single crypt mausoleum in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California. A raised granite cenotaph in front of the mausoleum was engraved with his name and birth and death dates and the term of endearment; GRACE, DIGNITY AND ELEGANCE PERSONIFIED. His final words may or may not have been, “I’ll finally get to see Marilyn.” Another notable final footprint at Holy Cross; Vince Guaraldi.
On this day in 1967, member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, Alice B. Toklas died in Paris at the age of 89. Born Alice Babette Toklas in San Francisco on 30 April 1877. Toklas was the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. Toklas met Stein in Paris on September 8, 1907, the day she arrived there from San Francisco after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Together they hosted a salon in the home they shared that attracted expatriate American writers and avant-garde painters. Acting as Stein’s confidante, lover, cook, secretary, muse, editor, critic, and general organizer, Toklas remained a background figure, chiefly living in the shadow of Stein, until the publication by Stein of Toklas’ “memoirs” in 1933 under the title The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. It became Stein’s bestselling book. Toklas and Stein remained a couple until Stein’s death in 1946. Although Stein willed much of her estate to Toklas, including their shared art collection (some of them by Picasso) housed in their apartment at 5, rue Christine, the couple’s relationship had no legal recognition. As many of the paintings appreciated greatly in value, Stein’s relatives took action to claim them, eventually removing them from Toklas’s residence while she was away on vacation and placing them in a bank vault. Toklas then relied on contributions from friends as well as her writing to make a living.

On this day in 1999, film director, writer, producer, and photographer, Stanley Kubrick, died in his sleep at his home in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England at the age of 70. Born on 26 July 1928, at the Lying-In Hospital in Manhattan, New York. Best known for his films, Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr. Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Oddysey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
The Final Footprint – Kubrick is interred next to his favorite tree at his home in Childwickbury Manor, Hertfordshire, England, U.K. His grave is marked with an engraved stone with the term of endearment; “Here lies our love Stanley”.