Golden Era stars who died way before their time

[Blackthorn]

Great thread first time I've gone through it... quite astonishing statistics, eh...??

Yes indeed.

 

[jamespowers]

I am not sure if anyone mentioned it but Shemp Howard died at age 60 in 1955. While not extremely young, it was way before his time. He and the Stooges had just signed a Big multiyear contract. He hopped in the back seat of a cab with a friend with a cigar in his hand. As the cab took off, his friend complained that Shemp had leaned over and burnt him with his cigar. He pushed him back up to find that Shemp had had a massive heart attack and was dead. :doh:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And Shemp had his own separate film career as a character actor before he joined the Stooges.

 

[Zombie_61]

I am not sure if anyone mentioned it but Shemp Howard died at age 60 in 1955...

His brother Jerome, better known as Curly, died even younger at the age of 48 in 1952. Although the cause of his death was officially ruled as "massive cerebral hemorrhage", he had suffered a series of strokes in the last five years of his life that severely deteriorated his health.

 

[jamespowers]

And Shemp had his own separate film career as a character actor before he joined the Stooges.

Yes he did. Appearing with the likes of Abbott and Costello et al.

 

[jamespowers]

His brother Jerome, better known as Curly, died even younger at the age of 48 in 1952. Although the cause of his death was officially ruled as "massive cerebral hemorrhage", he had suffered a series of strokes in the last five years of his life that severely deteriorated his health.

Yes, Curly ended up a mess. :doh:

 

[Stanley Doble]

I have seen Shemp Howard as a bartender in a W C Fields picture (The Bank Dick) and in one of the Thin Man series (Another Thin Man) starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. No doubt he did other pictures, those ones I happen to have in my collection.

 

[jamespowers]

I have seen Shemp Howard as a bartender in a W C Fields picture (The Bank Dick) and in one of the Thin Man series (Another Thin Man) starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. No doubt he did other pictures, those ones I happen to have in my collection.

He did some of his own shorts as well. As Knobby Walsh, modeled after Joe Palooka, he was hilarious.

He even did some stuff with Fatty Arbuckle in 1933.

 

[jamespowers]

Come to think of it, Fatty died when he was only 46 in the same year 1933 after he signed a contract to make a feature film with Warner Brothers. A fate similar to Shemp years earlier.....:doh:

 

[John T. Sarto]

Not as young as some of the others mentioned, but Peter Lorre was only 59.

 

[John T. Sarto]

Audie Murphy, 45, plane crash.

 

[Blackthorn]

Audie Murphy, 45, plane crash.
View attachment 27947

Wow, didn't realize he was that young. So tragic, after all he had been through.

 

[jamespowers]

Audie Murphy, 45, plane crash.
View attachment 27947

I forgot about him! :doh: To have gone through the War and survived only to come back and die anyway....:doh:

 

[Blackthorn]

I don't have time to go back over the whole thread to see if this has been mentioned, but I just found out that Lon Chaney (senior) died at age 47, in 1930.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Jack Osterman, 37 (pneumonia, 1939)

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Beatriz Dominguez, 23 (ruptured appendix, 1921)
-- Best known as Rudolf Valentino's dance partner in Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

 

[Blackthorn]

I just saw I Wake Up Screaming, reminded me that Betty Grable died of cancer at 56 and Carol Landis committed suicide at 29, so sad on both counts.

 

[Blackthorn]

Rod Serling, age 50