CAUSE: She died of a heart attack aged 51 in Montreal, Canada.
Belle Bennett
Born April 22, 1891
Died November 4, 1932
Circus star. Belle Bennett was born in Milaca, Minnesota (or possibly in Milcoon Rapids, Iowa) and began her career as a child performer in the circus before entering films. She appeared in The Reckoning Day (1915), Jerry In The Movies (1916), Not My Sister (1916), Ashes Of Hope (1917) as Gonda, The Lonely Woman (1918) as Martha Sellers, A Soul In Trust (1919) as Courtney Maitland and Monkey Shines (1920). Although she was relatively young, she appeared older than her years and so was often cast as mothers in films such as The Fourth Commandment (1926) playing Virginia, Henry King’s Stella Dallas (1926) playing Stella Dallas, John Ford’s Mother Machree (1928) in the title role, My Lady’s Past (1929) and Courage (1930) as Mary Colbrook. She also appeared on stage to great acclaim opposite Tyrone Power, Sr. Belle Bennett was married three times. Her husbands were Jack Oaker, William Macey and, from 1924 until her death, the director Fred Windemere (b. Muscatine, Iowa, April 15, 1892, d. Newport Beach, California, March 18, 1970).
CAUSE: She died aged 41 in Los Angeles, California.
Constance Bennett
Born October 22, 1904
Died July 24, 1965
Diva. Blonde and beautiful, 5́ 4˝ Constance Campbell was the eldest of the Bennett sisters. Although she and Joan were best known for their cinematic work, they came from a long line of theatrical actors. Their grandmother, Rosabel Wood, was a dancer and, by all accounts, not someone to be trifled with. Her youngest daughter, Adrienne, married handsome divorced actor Richard Bennett on November 8, 1903. He was famous for his mellifluous speaking voice and was to later appear with Constance in a film (Bought [1931]). He was to father three daughters – Constance, Barbara and Joan – before his divorce in 1925. Born in Deacon’s Mills, Indiana, on May 21, 1873, he died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on October 21, 1944. New York-born Constance was educated at Miss Shandor’s School, Mrs Merrill’s School and Mademoiselle Balsan’s Finishing School in Paris. She married Chester Hirst Moorhead, an 18-year-old law student on June 6, 1921, in Greenwich, Connecticut, when she was 16 years old. At the time her mother was preparing her coming out party. The newlyweds were refused a honeymoon by her irate parents, who sent her off to Europe and had the marriage annulled on January 17, 1923. After five minor films Constance made her first major film, Cytherea (1924), playing Annette Sherman. She went on to make a name for herself in sophisticated comedies such as What Price Hollywood (1932) as Mary Evans, Lady With A Past (1932) as Venice Muir, The Affairs Of Cellini (1934) as Duchess of Florence, Ladies In Love (1936) as Yoli Haydn, Topper (1937) as Marion Kerby, Merrily We Live (1938) as Jerry Kilbourne and Two-Faced Woman (1941) as Griselda Vaughn. She eventually made 57 films. The highest paid star ($30,000 a week) in Hollywood for a brief period at the start of the Thirties, she thought of acting as a means to support an extravagant lifestyle rather than as a career: “Hollywood is pretty painful, even in small doses,” she once complained. David Niven commented: “She seemed to me the quintessence of a movie star. Everything about her shone – her burnished head, her jewels, her famous smile, her lovely long legs, and the highly publicised fact that she pulled down 30,000 bucks a week.” Supposedly, her high wages so concerned the government that it introduced new tax legislation aimed specifically at Hollywood. In 1940 she made her stage début in Noël Coward’s Easy Virtue. In the Fifties she virtually retired from the big screen, preferring to concentrate on-stage work. Away from the screen she was litigious, an expert poker player, a proficient skier and a media loather. In the Sixties she founded her own cosmetic company. She married five times. Her first husband was to commit suicide on December 12, 1945, aged 42. Her second husband was big game hunter, Philip Morgan Plant, the stepson of the fabulously wealthy Commodore Morton F. Plant. They married on November 3, 1925, in the lobby of the Pickford Arms Hotel, Greenwich, Connecticut. The Justice of the Peace who performed the ceremony had also conducted Constance’s first wedding. (Plant’s mother later went on to marry Colonel William Hayward, father of the theatrical producer Leland Hayward. On November 15, 1936, Hayward married the actress Margaret Sullavan, who had previously been married to Henry Fonda and had two daughters and a son. One of the daughters, Brooke, author of the best-selling book Haywire, married Dennis Hopper in 1961 and the son, film producer William, married the beautiful British actress Fiona Lewis in 1978.) Their son, Peter Bennett Plant, was born at the Royal Free Hospital, London on January 3, 1929, although his paternity has long been in dispute. Philip Plant never recognised the boy as his son. Eleven months later, in Paris on November 14, 1929, Plant and Constance were divorced. She received a settlement of $500,000. On November 22, 1931, she married Henri, Marquis de la Falaise de la Coudraye in Beverly Hills. He had formerly been married to Gloria Swanson. Oddly, in November 1932 the press reported that Constance was trying to adopt a three-year-old English boy, Dennis A. Armstrong. The boy had been born on January 21, 1929, 18 days after Peter Plant’s birth. Gossips wondered if Peter Bennett Plant and Dennis A. Armstrong were the same boy. Or was he the illegitimate son of Constance’s cousin? The question has never been satisfactorily answered. The de la Falaise de la Coudrayes were divorced on November 14, 1940, in Reno, Nevada. On April 20, 1941, Constance married actor Gilbert Roland in Yuma, Arizona. She later commented that he “was a wonderful husband. In one room of the house … ” They had two daughters. The eldest, Rolinda, was born three years before the marriage (while Constance was still married to Henri, Marquis de la Falaise de la Coudraye) in New York City on April 21, 1938. The younger, Christina Gyl Consuelo known simply as Gyl, was born on December 9, 1941. She became an actress, appearing in films such as Day Of The Locust (1976) and Body Heat (1982). The Rolands divorced on June 20, 1946. Two days later, in Riverside, California, Constance married for the fifth and final time. Her last husband was Brigadier-General John Theron Coulter and she subsequently took on the organisation of entertainments for troops serving overseas in such places as Berlin. They were together at her death.
CAUSE: She died in Fort Dix Hospital, New Jersey of a cerebral haemorrhage. In recognition of her work with the army she was buried in Section 3, Lot 2231-A, Grid P-13 of Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.
Harold Bennett
Born November 17, 1898
Died September 15, 1981
Forever old. Although he was an old man Harold Bennett specialised in playing even older men such as the elderly Mr Blewitt in Dad’s Army, too old even for the Home Guard. Born in Hastings, East Sussex, he left school at the age of 12 and became an assistant in a jeweller’s shop and later taught English at the Working Men’s College in London. After service in the army in the First World War, he hired a coach and arranged a sightseeing tour of the battlefields. He began acting as an amateur later turning professional and touring with Donald Wolfit. When Bennett’s wife died in the Thirties he gave up acting and worked as a draughtsman for an electric light company to support his three children. He retired in 1964 and turned his hand to acting once more finding fame as an old-age pensioner. He played an old man in Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (1965), an old photographer in Games That Lovers Play (1970), appeared in Au Pair Girls (1972) as Lord Tryke, The Ups And Downs Of A Handyman (1975) as Gasper but it was his portrayal of decrepit but lecherous Young Mr Grace in the sitcom and film (1977) Are You Being Served? for which he was most famous.
CAUSE: He died aged 82 in London from a heart attack.
Jill Bennett
Born December 24, 1929
Died October 5, 1990
Confused actress. Nora Noel Jill Bennett was born in Penang, Malaya, the only child of (James) Randle Bennett, a rubber plantation owner, and Nora Adeline Beckett. In 1939 she and her mother fled to England but her father was captured by the Japanese and held prisoner for five years. In England Jill attended various boarding schools but was expelled at 14
and the following year decided to become an actress. From 1944 until 1946 she studied at RADA and made her stage début in 1947 in Now Barabbas at Bolton’s Theatre. In 1949 she began an affair with Godfrey Tearle, despite the fact that he was more than forty years older than her, that lasted until his death nine years later. In 1962 she married Willis Hall, the playwright but they divorced in 1965. Three years later she married (as his fourth wife) John Osborne. That marriage lasted nine years and during that time she suffered two miscarriages. Osborne also wrote a play, Time Present, based on her relationship with Tearle. She made her film début playing a murder victim in The Long Dark Hall (1951) and then appeared in Moulin Rouge (1952). Her other films included Hell Below Zero (1954) as Captain Gerda Peterson, Aunt Clara (1954) as Julie, Lust For Life (1956) as Willemien, The Extra Day (1956) as Susan, The Skull (1965) as Jane Maitland, The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1968) as Mrs Fanny Duberly, Inadmissible Evidence (1968) as Liz, Julius Caesar (1970) as Calpurnia, I Want What I Want (1972) as Margaret Stevenson, The Old Curiosity Shop (1975) as Sally Brass, Full Circle (1977) as Lily Lofting, For Your Eyes Only (1981) as Jacoba Brink, Britannia Hospital (1982) as Dr MacMillan, Lady Jane (1986) as Mrs Ellen, Hawks (1988) as Vivian Bancroft and The Sheltering Sky (1990) as Mrs Lyle. However, she was terribly insecure and believed that her relationships with men were failures.
CAUSE: In September 1990 she attempted suicide. The following month, on October 5, 1990, she took an overdose of sleeping pills at her home, 23 Gloucester Walk, Kensington, London. She was 60.
Joan Bennett
Born February 27, 1910
Died December 7, 1990
Brunette bombshell. Born in Palisades, New Jersey, 5́ 5˝ Joan Geraldine was the youngest of the three Bennett sisters. She was educated at St Margaret’s School, Waterbury, Connecticut. Like Constance, Joan also married early. On September 15, 1926, aged 16, she married John Fox, a theatrical producer, in Chelsea. She met him on a boat when she was travelling to attend L’Ermitage finishing school in Versailles. They lived at 22 Carlyle Square, London SW 3 (now the home of TV personality Sir David Frost). Their daughter, Adrienne Ralston (later Diana), was born on February 20, 1928. Later that year, she and Fox divorced. A few bit parts on stage and film followed, such as The Valley Of Decision (1915), The Eternal City (1923) as Page and Power (1928), before she played opposite her father in Jarnegan (1929) at the Longacre Theatre and was spotted by Hollywood. Her first major acting part was playing Phyllis Benton opposite Ronald Colman in Bulldog Drummond (1929). In 1931 she signed a two-year contract at Fox Films, which paid her $2,000 a week, compared to sister Joan’s $30,000. She starred in several films, such as Disraeli (1929) as Lady Clarissa Pevensey, Puttin’ On The Ritz (1930) as Dolores Fenton, Moby Dick as Faith Mapple, Doctors’ Wives as Nina Wyndram, She Wanted A Millionaire (1932) as Jane Miller, Careless Lady (1932) as Sally Brown, The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo (1935) as Helen Berkeley, Mississippi (1935) as Lucy Rumford and a number of ‘worthy’ films including Little Women (1934) as Amy March and Private Worlds (1935) as Sally MacGregor. However, none of these roles shot her to stardom. On March 12, 1932, she married for the second time. Her new husband was the screenwriter Gene Markey (1895–1978). (He was to later marry Hedy Lamarr and Myrna Loy.) Their daughter, Melinda, arrived on February 27, 1934. They were divorced in 1937. Film producer Walter Wanger (1894–1968) saw a potential in her and cast her as Kay Kerrigan in Trade Winds (1939) in which she wore a brunette wig. It was such a success that she dyed her blonde hair brown. The following year, on January 12, 1940, she married Wanger. They were to have two daughters: Stephanie, born on June 26, 1943, and Shelley, born on Independence Day, 1948. She made several films during her marriage, including Son Of Monte Cristo (1940) as Grand Duchess Zona, Nob Hill (1945) as Harriet Carruthers, Scarlet Street (1946) as Kitty March, The Woman In The Window (1944) as Alice Reed, Father Of The Bride (1950) as Ellie Banks, Father’s Little Dividend (1951) reprising her role and We’re No Angels (1955) as Amelie Ducotel. Although she was more at ease with the media than sister Constance, she, too, kept her distance. She later revealed that on St Valentine’s Day, 1950, “I had a live skunk shipped to [gossip writer Hedda Hopper’s] house. Later she wrote that she named it Joan. A columnist always got the last word.” Bennett had also taken a full-page advertisement in the Hollywood Reporter that day to ridicule Hopper. However an incident in her off-screen life was to propel her to the front pages of the press in a way that she could never have envisaged. On December 13, a jealous Wanger, convinced she was having an affair with her agent Jennings Lang and, catching his wife having an innocent lunch with Lang, shot him in the groin. On April 22, Wanger was sentenced to four months in prison. Despite this, the couple remained married until 1965. Her fourth and final husband was the former film critic David Wilde, whom she married on St Valentine’s Day, 1974. Towards the end of her life she rarely watched new films because she was offended by the bad language in them. “I’ve certainly used most of those words – still do now and then – but not in a picture,” she stated. She wasn’t impressed by the newcomers either. “The heyday of the Hollywood blonde is over. Before, there was Harlow and Lana and Marilyn. Now, being blonde has nothing at all to do with being sexy. There’s silly, giddy Goldie Hawn or chunky Kathleen Turner, who’s twice the woman – literally – that Lauren Bacall was, or Meryl Streep, who can act Polish or Australian but she sure as hell can’t act blonde.”
CAUSE: Died in New York, New York, of a heart attack, aged 80.
Jack Benny
(BENJAMIN KUBELSKY)
Born February 14, 1894
Died December 26, 1974
The meanest ‘39-year-old’ in Hollywood. Born in Mercy Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, Benny was the son of a publican. He was presented with his first violin (a half-sized model costing $50) when he was six years old. Like many children Benny loved to play but hated practising his instrument. When he left school he hired himself out at weddings, bar mitzvahs and the like at $1.50 a pop. Originally, he called himself Ben Benny but when another entertainer, then much more successful, called Ben Bernie objected, young Kubelsky became Jack Benny. Benny’s mother died when he was 23 but his father lived to see his success and on his retirement to Miami Beach (paid for by Benny) he would hand out pictures of his famous son to strangers, whether they wanted them or not. As with many entertainers, Benny, who was plagued by insecurity throughout his life, got his start in show business in vaudeville before progressing to the radio (regularly from 1932), films and television, where The Jack Benny Show played on CBS from October 28, 1950, until September 1964, when it transferred to NBC for one series. Benny was known for his mincing walk, his hand-to-cheek gesture, his vanity about his supposed age of 39 and his meanness. “When Jack Benny has a party not only do you bring your own Scotch, you bring your own rocks,” George Burns quipped and another friend, Bob Hope, added: “They asked Jack Benny if he would do something for the Actors’ Orphanage so he shot both his parents and moved in.” Among his films (in which he often played himself) were Medicine Man (1930) as Dr John Harvey, Taxi Tangle (1931) as himself, Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round as Chad Denby, It’s In The Air as Calvin Churchill, Broadway Melody Of 1936 (1935) as Bert Keeler, The Big Broadcast Of 1937 (1936) as Jack Carson, Artists & Models (1937) as Mac Brewster, Artists And Models Abroad (1938) as Buck Boswell, Charley’s Aunt (1941) as Babbs Babberley, To Be Or Not To Be (1942) as Josef Tura, George Washington Slept Here (1942) as Bill Fuller, The Great Lover (1949), Gypsy (1962) and It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). Benny married underwear seller Sadie Marks, aka Mary Livingstone (whom he met on a blind date), in Waukegan’s only hotel on January 14, 1927. In 1934 they adopted a six-week-old girl named Joan Naomi. In his act Benny was to say: “Mary and I have been married for 47 years, and not once have we ever had an argument serious enough to mention the word ‘divorce’ … ‘murder’ yes, but ‘divorce’ never.”
CAUSE: In October 1974 Benny was stricken with a numbness in h
is hand when he picked up his violin. An examination showed nothing amiss, although he then began to suffer from stomach pains. On December 20, Mrs Benny rang her husband’s agent, Irving Fein, and told him that cancer of the pancreas had been diagnosed and he was given around a fortnight to live but that Benny had been kept in the dark about the nature of his illness. Just six days later, Benny died at 11.26pm at his Holmby Hills home. He was buried in Hillside Memorial Cemetery, Culver City, California on December 29, 1974. Over 3,000 people attended the service. Among the ten pallbearers were Milton Berle, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra and Billy Wilder. His estate was worth over $4 million. In his will, written exactly six months before his death, he dictated that if anyone challenged the document and lost they would be entitled to just $1. Benny’s violin, manufactured in Paris in 1845, was auctioned in 1997 and raised $84,300.
FURTHER READING: Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography – Irving A. Fein (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1976).
Berry Berenson
Born April 14, 1948
Died September 11, 2001
Long-suffering wife. Berinthia Berenson was born in New York City and had a distinguished pedigree. Her elder sister was the actress and model Marisa Berenson (b. New York February 15, 1947); their grandmother was the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and their great-uncle was Bernard Berenson, the art historian and expert on the Italian Renaissance. Berry was educated in Switzerland, Italy, France and England. She fell in love with the actor Anthony Perkins when she was 12 years old and saw him in Phaedra (1961). Berry became a fashion photographer and wore jeans and pearls as her “uniform”. In November 1972, after meeting Perkins at a party and confessing her pubescent crush, she interviewed him for Andy Warhol’s magazine Interview. Despite Perkins’ homosexuality, they began an affair and soon she was pregnant. On August 9, 1973, Berry the bride three months gone, barefoot and carrying a bouquet of wild flowers, was married to confirmed bachelor Tony Perkins in Wellfleet, near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Their son, Osgood Robert, was born on February 2, 1974. He now acts. A second son, Elvis, was born two years and one week later on February 9, 1976. Berry denied knowing that her husband was homosexual but this seems unlikely since she grew up in a milieu in which homosexuality flourished. Jennifer Lee, the actress who was married to Richard Pryor, remembered, “She knew everybody in fashion and was very comfortable in the mix of gay men.” She fell for gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s assistant and lover. Another friend confirmed, “Berry had a definite penchant for homosexual men, which was kind of odd.” Berry made her film début playing Barbara Curry, the wife of a construction worker (Perkins) in Remember My Name (1978), a thriller by Alan Rudolph. She also appeared in Winter Kills (1979) playing a morgue attendant and Cat People (1982) as Sandra, as well as a receptionist in the television mini-series Scruples (1980). She also appeared in episodes of various television shows such as Cheers and Friends. On March 27, 1990 their world was shattered when the National Enquirer reported that Perkins had the deadly disease AIDS. Although his homosexuality was an open secret in Hollywood, Perkins had hidden it from the public since becoming famous in 1956. He had never been tested for the disease and decided to sue the tabloid until his wife suggested he go for a test to ensure their case was watertight. The Perkinses were shocked when the story proved to be deadly accurate and he was indeed stricken with the HIV virus. On September 12, 1992 Anthony Perkins died of AIDS at the age of 60. Following her husband’s death, Berry continued to raise her family, acted on television and returned to work as a photographer.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 29