Tribute To Some Of Our Celebrities
JOAN RIVERS 1933-2014
Joan Rivers: Her Life in Photos
Comedienne, talk-show host, fashion critic, trailblazer: The riveting Rivers kept audiences laughing for more than 50 years.
THE EARLY DAYS
Born Joan Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York, on June 8, 1933, Rivers got her first taste of performing at New York's Barnard College, where the literature/anthropology major appeared in numerous productions. After graduation, she became a buyer for a clothing chain and married the owner's son. When that marriage ended after six months, Rivers tried her hand at acting, and in 1959 played opposite then-unknown Barbra Streisand in an Off-Broadway play. But she soon switched to comedy, testing out her skills in nightclubs and coffeehouses in New York City.
Some Of Our Celebrities Who Died Before The Release Of Their Movies!
1. Anna Nicole Smith
There aren’t too many people who would confidently refer to Anna Nicole Smith as a serious actress, but even so, when the model and socialite died of a drug overdose in February of 2007, she left an unfinished movie behind. Illegal Aliens was released on May 1, 2007, starring Smith as one of a trio of shape-shifting aliens who take on the forms of extremely attractive human females. Though pretty much everyone who saw the movie hated it, Anna Nicole Smith became the answer to a trivia question by dying before the movie was released.
2. Natalie Wood
Though she was a highly successful actress in her day, Natalie Wood is most famous now for being at the epicenter of one of the most mysterious celebrity deaths in history. Wood was terrified of water, and when she was a young girl, a gypsy fortuneteller had predicted she would drown. Sure enough, Wood died in the waters off California’s Catalina Island in 1981. Considered an accident for many years, authorities now classify the cause of Wood’s death as “undetermined.”
At the time of her death, Wood had a movie in post-production. That film was released in 1983 as Brainstorm, and it immortalizes the final performance of a talented actress whose life was tragically cut short by unknown causes.
3. Spencer Tracy
Over the course of his long and storied career, Spencer Tracy starred in a total of 74 films. He also earned two Academy Awards for Best Actor and is considered one of the top ten leading men in history by the American Film Institute. However, he would not live to see his final film, the racially charged 1967 drama Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
It was well-known that Tracy’s health was deteriorating as he advanced into his 60s, and the shooting schedule of his final film had to be altered to take his fragile condition into account. He died of a heart attack barely two weeks after production of the movie wrapped up.
4. Clark Gable
Screen legend Clark Gable was known as the “King of Hollywood” at the height of his career, and is still one of the most revered figures in American movie history. On November 6, 1960, Gable suffered a serious heart attack and was hospitalized, where he died 10 days later. Some of the people close to him claimed that his heart attack was the direct result of his physically challenging role in The Misfits, which he had just completed filming. The Misfits, a dramatic masterpiece penned by Arthur Miller starring Gable and Marilyn Monroe, was subsequently released on February 1, 1960.
5. John Candy
Canadian funnyman John Candy had reportedly turned over a new leaf in his last years. The famously overweight comedian had secretly harbored deep insecurities about his weight, and had just committed to a diet and exercise regimen designed to help him get healthy once and for all. However, in 1994, Candy died of a heart attack in his sleep at the age of 43.
At the time, Candy was working on Wagon’s East!, a movie which was subsequently completed with a double standing in for Candy. Another Candy movie, Canadian Bacon, which had already completed filming, was then released in 1995.
6. River Phoenix
Teen idol River Phoenix suffered a tragic and untimely death when he perished outside The Viper Room, a West Hollywood nightclub owned by Johnny Depp, on Halloween night in 1993. It was later revealed that the young actor, who was just 23 years old when he died, had ingested a lethal combination of cocaine, morphine and other substances.
Though Phoenix’s final film, Silent Tongue, had been screened in January of 1993 at the Sundance Film Festival, it did not go into wide release until 1994 and 1995. Its underwhelming performance at the box office makes it mostly forgettable, aside from the fact that it was Phoenix’s last movie appearance. #FongangMbanwei
