DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Dawn Wells (aged 82)
American actress
Dawn Elberta Wells (October 18, 1938 – December 30, 2020) was an American actress who became known for her role as Mary Ann Summers on the CBS sitcom Gilligan’s Island.
DEATH: Wells died at age 82 on December 30, 2020 in Los Angeles due to COVID-19 complications.
DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Brittany Murphy (aged 32)
American actress (King of the Hill, Sin City)
Brittany Murphy-Monjack (born Brittany Anne Bertolotti; November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009), was an American actress and singer. A native of 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).
DEATH: At 8:00 am on December 20, 2009, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to “a medical request”at the Los Angeles home Murphy and Monjack shared. She had apparently collapsed in a bathroom. Firefighters attempted to resuscitate Murphy on the scene. She was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she died at 10:04 after going into cardiac arrest.
DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Sacagawea (aged 24 or 25)
Lemhi Shoshone woman who helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Sacagawea (also Sakakawea or Sacajawea; May 1788 – December 20, 1812) was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who is known for her help to the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory.
DEATH: According to Bonnie “Spirit Wind-Walker” Butterfield, historical documents suggest Sacagawea died in 1812 of an unknown sickness:
DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Carl Sagan (aged 62)
American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
Carl Edward Sagan (/ˈseɪɡən/; November 9, 1934 –December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences. He is best known for his work as a science popularizer and communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. 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.
DEATH: After suffering from myelodysplasia for two years, and receiving three bone marrow transplants from his sister, Carol, Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, in the early morning of December 20, 1996. Burial took place at Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca, New York.
DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Jeremy Bulloch (age 75)
Actor (Boba Fett in Star Wars)
Jeremy Bulloch (February 16, 1945 – December 17, 2020) was an English actor best known for the role of the bounty hunter Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy. He has appeared in numerous British television and film productions, including Doctor Who and Robin of Sherwood.
DEATH:
In August 2018 Jeremy posted on his personal web site, the news he would no longer be attending any future conventions. This was also the last update posted to his web site, suggesting it is no longer being maintained.
On December 17, 2020, news broke of the death of Jeremy Bulloch. No cause of death has so far been released.
DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Colonel Sanders (aged 90)
American entrepreneur (Kentucky Fried Chicken)
Colonel Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (now known as KFC) and later acting as the company’s brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company. The title ‘colonel’ was honorary – a Kentucky Colonel – not the military rank.
DEATH: Sanders was diagnosed with acute leukemia in June 1980. He died at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky of pneumonia on December 16, 1980 at the age of 90. Sanders had remained active until the month before his death, appearing in his white suit to crowds. His body lay in state in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfortafter a funeral service at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Chapel, which was attended by more than 1,000 people. Sanders was buried in his characteristic white suit and black western string tie in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.
DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Lee Van Cleef (aged 64)
American actor (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)
Clarence Leroy Van Cleef, Jr. (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989), was an American actor best known for his roles in Spaghetti Westerns such as For A Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Hatchet-faced with piercing eyes, he had declined to have his nose altered to play a sympathetic character in his film debut, High Noon, and was relegated to a non-speaking outlaw as a result. For a decade he was typecast as a minor villain, his sinister features overshadowing his acting skills. After suffering serious injuries in a car crash, Van Cleef began to lose interest in his apparently waning career by the time Sergio Leone gave him a major role in For a Few Dollars More. The film made him a box-office draw, especially in Europe.
DEATH: Despite suffering from heart disease from the late 1970s and having a pacemaker installed in the early 1980s, Van Cleef continued to work in films until his death on December 16, 1989, at age 64. He collapsed in his home in Oxnard, California from a heart attack. Throat cancer was listed as a secondary cause of death. Van Cleef’s body was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Hollywood Hills, California, with an inscription on his grave marker referring to his many acting performances as a villain: “BEST OF THE BAD”.
DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Walt Disney (aged 65)
American film producer and businessman
Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
DEATH: Disney had been a heavy smoker since World War I. He did not use cigarettes with filters, and had smoked a pipe as a young man. In November 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was treated with cobalt therapy. On November 30 he felt unwell and was taken to St. Joseph Hospital where, on December 15, ten days after his 65th birthday, he died of circulatory collapse caused by lung cancer.Disney’s remains were cremated two days later, and his ashes interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Parkin Glendale, California.
DEAD: ON THIS DATE
Vlad the Impaler
Prince of Wallachia and inspiration for the modern Dracula
Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș) or Vlad Dracula; 1428/31 – 1476/77), was voivode (or prince) of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. He was the second son of Vlad Dracul, who became the ruler of Wallachia in 1436. Vlad and his younger brother, Radu, were held as hostages in the Ottoman Empire in 1442 to secure their father’s loyalty. Vlad’s father and eldest brother, Mircea, were murdered after John Hunyadi, regent-governor of Hungary, invaded Wallachia in 1447. Hunyadi installed Vlad’s second cousin, Vladislav II, as the new voivode.
DEATH: Basarab Laiotă returned to Wallachia with Ottoman support, and Vlad died fighting against them in late December 1476 or early January 1477. In a letter written on 10 January 1477, Stephen III of Moldavia related that Vlad’s Moldavian retinue had also been massacred. According to Leonardo Botta, the Milanese ambassador to Buda, the Ottomans cut Vlad’s corpse into pieces.Bonfini wrote that Vlad’s head was sent to Mehmed II.
DEAD: ON THIS DATEGeorge Washington (aged 67)
1st president of the United States
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was one of the Founding Fathers and the first President of the United States (1789–1797). He commanded Patriot forces in the new nation’s American Revolutionary War and led them to victory over the British. Washington also presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the new federal government. For his leadership he has been called the “Father of His Country”.
DEATH: Dr. Brown thought that Washington had quinsy; Dick thought the condition was a more serious “violent inflammation of the throat”. Continued bloodletting (approximately five pints) proved unsuccessful, and Washington’s situation quickly deteriorated. Dick proposed an emergency tracheotomy, but the other two doctors were unfamiliar with the new procedure and disapproved, so it was not used. Washington instructed Brown and Dick to stop their attempts to save his life and leave the room, while he assured Craik, “Doctor, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go.”
Washington’s illness and death came more swiftly than expected. Washington instructed his private secretary Tobias Lear to wait three days before his burial, in order not to be entombed alive. Washington asked Lear, “Do you understand me ?”. “Yes,” responded Lear. Washington said, “Tis well.”Washington died peacefully with Martha composed at the foot of his bed around 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 14, 1799 at age of sixty-seven. Funeral arrangements included Washington’s Masonic lodge of Alexandria, Virginia, various members of the clergy, Dr. Craik, military officers, and various members of the Fairfax family. When news of his death reached Congress, they immediately adjourned for the day and the Speaker’s chair was shrouded in black the next morning.
DEAD: 