Sterling Hayden: Born in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, March 26th, 1916. Sterling ran away and took to the sea as a youth at 17. He sailed around the world a number of times, becoming a well known and highly respected ship's captain. Hollywood took to him after he appeared in VIRGINIA in 1940. He fell for his first leading lady and wed Madeleine Carroll. He later married, divorced, and remarried Betty Ann de Noon ( mother of his four children ). His father died in 1925 and was adopted by his stepfather 'James Hayden' and renamed Sterling Walter Hayden. Joined the Marines under pseudonym " John Hamilton " (a name he never acted under). Made headlines defying court order not to sail to Tahiti with his children following divorce decree. Published autobiography "Wanderer" in 1963, and novel "Voyage" in 1976, both to great acclaim.
Offered role of Tarzan as replacement for Lex Barker, but refused. In 1941, Paramount studios started advertising him as "The Most Beautiful Man in the Movies!" He was 6' 5" and died of cancer on May 23rd, 1986 in Sausalito, California.
Don Durant: Mr. Durant, who was born Donald Allison Durae in Long Beach, California on November 20th, 1932, spent most of his youth at his stepfather's ranch in Elko, Nev., where he learned to ride, rope and shoot. After stints in the Army and Navy, he pursued an acting and singing career and toured with a theater group. He signed as a bit player with CBS in 1954 and appeared on "The Jack Benny Show, " "The Red Skelton Show" and "General Electric Theater." Mr. Durant also toured with the Tommy Dorsey, Frankie Carle and Ray Anthony orchestras.
He had a leading role in Roger Corman's 1958 low-budget adventure film "She Gods of Shark Reef." After guest spots on television, Mr. Durant was cast as Johnny Ringo and married the actress Trudy Wroe the same year the show began. The half-hour series "Johnny Ringo" ran on CBS from 1959 to 1960. A Johnny Ringo Western Frontier Play Set, for instance, featured miniature figures, horses and wagons, sold on eBay in 2001 for ,998.
Don Durant had chronic lymphoeytic leukemia since 1992 from which he died on March 15th, 2005 at his home in Orange County. His family by his side, he was 72 .
Kay Walsh: British actress Kay Walsh, who starred in several films by her director husband David Lean, died at age 90 in London on April 16th, 2005.
Born to an Irish family in London, Walsh began her career as a chorus girl before moving into films. She was already a busy performer in low-budget pictures when she met Lean in 1936. They were married in 1940. Walsh starred in Lean's wartime flag-wavers "In Which We Serve" and "This Happy Breed" - both scripted by Noel Coward - before playing doomed, kindhearted Nancy in Lean's 1948 adaptation of Dickens' "Oliver Twist."
Ms. Walsh helped her husband with many aspects of his films, including casting and writing. She had a writing credit on Lean's 1946 "Great Expectations." The marriage was not entirely happy; Lean had many affairs, and the couple divorced in 1949. But they remained on good terms. In 1956 she married psychologist Elliott Jaques. They later divorced, and he died in 2003.
Walsh appeared in more than 50 films, including the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Stage Fright" with Marlene Dietrich and "The Horse's Mouth" (1958) opposite Alec Guinness. Her final role was in the Cold War drama "Night Crossing" in 1981.
Gunther Gabel-Williams: Venice, Florida / July 19th, 2001
Animal lovers and circus fans around the globe are today mourning the loss of Gunther Gebel-Williams, legendary star of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, who died this morning in his Venice, Florida home after a year-long battle with cancer. This beloved circus star entertained more than 200 million people and never missed one of more than 12,000 performances in his 30-year tenure with The Greatest Show On Earth. " Gunther was unlike any performer anywhere. When he entered the circus arena riding Roman Post on galloping horses or atop an elephant, every eye was always on him until he left the floor," recalled Kenneth Feld, Chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment and a close friend to Gunther. "Whether he was working with tigers, leopards, elephants, horses, or a giraffe, you immediately knew that he was special, because his incredible rapport with animals was unsurpassed Gunther knew the mind of the animal, and he taught us all to love and respect all living things. He set a standard for performing which will be almost impossible to match."
He performed in the Giant Steel Cage for the last time in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on September 27th, 1998, when he stepped in for his son, Mark Oliver, who returned home to be with his wife Cristina for the birth of Gunther's grandchild, Hunter. He was born in Germany on September 12th, 1934 and died the morning of July 19th, 2001 after a year-long battle with brain cancer.
Barney Martin: Born on March 3rd, 1923, in Queens, Mr. Martin was a navigator in the Air Force during World War II before starting a 20-year career as a New Yor police detective. He showed a talent for making deputy police commissioners laugh during presentations.
In the 1950's he began writing on the side for comedy shows like "Name That Tune" and "The Steve Allen Show." Mr. Martin got his start in film when Mel Brooks featured him in "THE PRODUCERS" in 1968. His role as Goring in that movie sent Mr. Martin into Broadway theater, where he appeared in several musicals, including "ALL AMERICAN" and "HOW NOW DOW JONES." He is credited with creating the role of Roxie's unappreciated husband, Amos Hart, in the musical "CHICAGO."
Mr. Martin also appeared in several television series, including "The Tony Randall Show," "Us," "Sydney" and "Zorro and Son." In "Seinfeld," Mr. Martin was the third actor to play Seinfeld's father and became the one most identified with the role of Morty, the Florida retiree. He said at the show's wrap party in 1998 that "playing Jerry's dad was like having whipped cream on top of a mountain of ice cream."
He died on Monday, March 2005 at his home in Los Angeles at age 82.
