CAUSE: On May 13, 1967, while filming George And The Dragon Sid suffered a massive heart attack. His health was so poor during the making of Carry On Doctor (1968) that it was fortunate that all his scenes required him to be in bed. As well as his gambling Sid James was a dedicated philanderer, attempting to seduce as many women as possible, and usually successfully. One of his conquests was his Carry On… co-star Barbara Windsor. It was when the affair with Windsor petered out that Sid began to lose the will to live. He told friends that if the affair ended he would be dead within a year. He drank a bottle of whisky a day and preferred to work rather than spend time at home with his wife. In 1976 he began a tour of the play The Mating Game. It was on stage at the Empire Theatre, Sunderland, that he suffered a fatal heart attack and died on the way to hospital. He was 63 years old. He left £68,012.
FURTHER READING: Sid James– Cliff Goodwin (London: Century, 1995).
Emil Jannings
(THEODOR FRIEDRICH EMIL JANENZ)
Born July 23, 1884
Died January 3, 1950
Oscar’s first. Born in Rorschach, Switzerland, (6)߰Jannings began acting in Berlin with Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theatre Company before moving to films at the suggestion of Ernst Lubitsch. He appeared in over 70 films including Passionels Tagebuch (1914), Im Schützengraben (1914), Arme Eva (1914), Unheilbar (1916), Stein Unter Steinen (1916), Nächte Des Grauens (1916), Frau Eva (1916), Die Ehe Der Luise Rohrbach (1916), Die Bettlerin Von St Marien (1916), Aus Mangel An Beweisen (1916), Lulu (1917), Der Ring Der Giuditta Foscari (1917), Fuhrmann Henschel (1918), Ein Fideles Gefängnis (1918), Die Brüder Karamasoff (1918), Die Augen Der Mumie Ma as Radu, Die Tochter Des Mehemed (1919), Madame DuBarry as Louis XV, Der Schädel der Pharaonentochter (1920), Der Schädel Der Pharaonentochter (1920), Das Große Licht (1920), Colombine (1920), Algol (1920) as Robert Herne, Vendetta (1921), Der Schwur Des Peter Hergatz (1921), Othello (1922) as Othello, Das Weib Des Pharao (1922) as Pharaoh Amenes, Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1923) as Harun al Raschid, Quo Vadis? (1924), Peter The Great (1924), Variete (1925) as jealous trapeze artist Boss Huller, Faust (1926) as Mephisto, The Way Of All Flesh (1927) as August Schilling, The Last Command (1928) as General Dolgorucki/Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, The Patriot (1928) as Czar Paul I, Liebling Der Götter (1930) as Albert Winkelmann, Der Blaue Engel (1930) as Professor Immanuel Rath, Stürme Der Leidenschaft (1932) as Gustav Bumke, Die Abenteuer Des Königs Pausole (1933), Traumulus (1936) as Professor Niemeyer, Die Entlassung (1942) as Bismarck, Wo Ist Herr Belling? (1945), Das Kommt Nicht Wieder (1958) and Das Gab’s Nur Einmal (1958). It was the success of Variete that led him to sign a three-year contract with Paramount and he subsequently won the first Best Actor Oscar for The Way Of All Flesh and The Last Command. He was acclaimed for his portrayal of the university professor opposite Marlene Dietrich in Der Blaue Engel /The Blue Angel but while she went on to become a huge star Jannings was let down by his poor English and returned to Germany where he appeared in propaganda films for the Nazis. Following the war he was blacklisted by the victorious Allies and retired to Austria, a broken man.
CAUSE: He died aged 65 in Strobl, Austria, of cancer.
David Janssen
(DAVID HAROLD MEYER)
Born March 27, 1931
Died February 13, 1980
The original fugitive. David Janssen was born in Naponee, Nebraska, the son of Harold Edward Meyer, but his parents separated while he was still in nappies. His mother, Berniece, a former Ziegfeld girl, married Eugene Janssen and the family settled in Los Angeles. Young David was educated at Fairfax High School in Hollywood and made his film début aged 14 in It’s A Pleasure (1945). Aged 18 he signed a contract with 20th Century Fox but they dropped him, supposedly because of his big ears and receding hairline. (His appearance gave rise to the rumour that he was, in fact, the illegitimate son of Clark Gable.) He then made 32 films for Universal but never became a really big star on the big screen. On July 1, 1957, his first major television series Richard Diamond, Private Eye aired on CBS. Diamond was an ex-NYPD cop who became a private detective. The show moved to NBC for its final year, ending on September 6, 1960. Three years and eleven days later, the show that would make Janssen a star premièred on ABC. He played Dr Richard Kimble, a man wrongly accused of uxoricide in The Fugitive. The show was based on the real life murder in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 3, 1954 of Marian Sheppard whose husband Dr Sam was convicted on December 21, 1954 and sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder. After 12 years of incarceration Sheppard was cleared on November 16, 1966. He died on April 6, 1970. The show ended on August 29, 1967 when the one-armed man confessed before being shot by Kimble’s nemesis, Lieutenant Philip Gerard. The finale received a 72 per cent share of American television viewers; a record that stood until the episode of Dallas when it was revealed who had shot J.R. Ewing (the first time). Janssen then appeared as Jim O’Hara in the short-lived series O’Hara, US Treasury (September 17, 1971–September 8, 1972) before scoring his final TV hit as San Diego private detective Harry Orwell in Harry-O (September 12, 1974–August 12, 1976). The show co-starred High Chaparral star Henry Darrow and featured Keye Luke (Charlie Chan’s Number One Son) and early appearances from the beautiful Farrah Fawcett-Majors. His other films included Francis Goes To West Point (1952) as Corporal Thomas, Francis In The Navy (1955) as Lieutenant Anders, To Hell And Back (1955) as Lieutenant Lee, The Green Berets (1968) as George Beckworth, The Shoes Of The Fisherman (1968) as George Faber, Macho Callahan (1970) as Diego Callahan and Covert Action (1978) as Lester Horton. (6)߰David Janssen was married twice. His first wife in 1958 was Ellie Graham. They divorced in 1973. She claimed that Janssen was a womaniser who slept with 31 women during the last 18 months of their marriage. Two years later he married Dani Saval Crayne Greco.
CAUSE: David Janssen awoke suffering from chest pains on February 13, 1980. He went to the bathroom and collapsed. At 5.55am his wife Dani rang for an ambulance but he was pronounced dead at Santa Monica Hospital, 1225 15th Street, Santa Monica, California, aged 48 of heart failure. He was buried on February 17, 1980 at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City. Pallbearers included Milton Berle, Rod Stewart, Gene Kelly, Richard Harris and Gregory Peck.
Jean Louis
Born October 5, 1907
Died April 20, 1997
Le designer. Jean Louis Berthault achieved fame with the dress he created for Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946). “That dress seemed marvellous from the first moment I thought of it,” he told one interviewer. “Rita made it sexy because of the casualness with which she wore it. There was something voluptuous about her ease.” Jean Louis was born in Paris, France and travelled to New York in 1935 on a speculative trip. He stayed and was soon designing for the Duchess of Windsor and Mrs Harry Cohn who recommended him to her husband. From 1944 until 1958 Columbia films bore the line “Gowns by Jean Louis” in the credits. When he was hired to work on Gilda Rita Hayworth had not long had a baby and, unlike today’s female celebrities, she still had her baby belly. Jean Louis’ solution was to flatten her stomach with a tight tie that flowed into a bow. Flame-moulded plastic bars held up the strapless frock. When later he worked with Kim Novak she did not want her gowns to have any support up top, so she glued herself into her outfits tearing skin and material at the end of each day’s shooting. Stars trusted Jean Louis because he made them feel glamorous and womanly, not slutty or slatternly. He designed for Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950) for which he was nominated for his first Oscar, It Should Happen To You (1954) for which he was nominated for his fifth Oscar and The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) for which he finally won an Academy Award; Rita Hayworth again in Affair In Trinidad (1952) for which he was nominated for his second Oscar; and Pal Joey (1957) and his eighth nomination; Deborah Kerr in From Here To Eternity (1953) for which he was nominated for his third Oscar; Marlene Dietrich’s 1953 cabaret tours; Judy Garland in A Star Is Born (1954) for which he was nominated for his fourth Oscar and Judgment At Nuremberg (1961) and his 10th nominatio
n; Joan Crawford in Queen Bee (1955) for which he was nominated for his sixth Oscar; Kim Novak in Bell, Book And Candle (1958) for which he was nominated for his ninth Oscar; Susan Hayward in Back Street (1961) for which he was nominated for his 11th Oscar; Vivien Leigh in Ship Of Fools (1965) and his 12th Academy Award nomination; Shirley MacLaine in Gambit (1965) for which he was nominated for his 13th Oscar; Julie Andrews in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) for which he was nominated for his 14th Oscar and Nancy Reagan on the night her husband was elected president (1980). On May 19, 1962, the infamous night that Marilyn Monroe sang a breathy ‘Happy Birthday’ to President Kennedy, Jean Louis designed the outfit that she was almost wearing. Marilyn had to be sewn into the gown and Jean Louis recalled, “It was nude, very thin material, embroidered with rhinestones, so she would shine in the spotlight. She wore nothing, absolutely nothing underneath. It cost about $5,000. It didn’t look very pretty from the back, but …” He was married twice. His first wife was Maggy and on September 10, 1993, six years after her death he married her best friend, the actor Loretta Young.
CAUSE: He died, aged 89, of natural causes at his home in Palm Springs, California.
Peter Jeffrey
Born April 18, 1929
Died Christmas Day, 1999
Moustachioed character actor. Born in Bristol and educated at Harrow and Pembroke College, Cambridge, he had no formal training but nonetheless appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National Theatre. Mainly known for his television work, he also made several films including: Becket (1964), If… (1967) as the headmaster, Ring Of Bright Water (1969), Anne Of The Thousand Days (1970), The Odessa File (1974), The Return Of The Pink Panther (1975), Midnight Express (1978) and The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1989).
CAUSE: He died from cancer in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, aged 70. His second wife, five children from his first marriage and two step-daughters were with him when he died.
Claudia Jennings
(MARY EILEEN CHESTERTON)
Born December 20, 1949
Died October 3, 1979
Playboy superstar. Born in Minnesota but raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 5́ 6˝ Mary, known to her friends as ‘Mimi’, moved again in 1966 to Evanston, Illinois, where she graduated from high school. She showed an early interest in drama and joined the Hull House theatre company in Chicago. In September 1968, 35-23-36 Claudia began working as a receptionist at the offices of Playboy magazine, where she was spotted by photographer Pompeo Posar who eventually persuaded her to do a test shoot for him. She kept refusing, saying, “Oh no, I got no boobs.” It was the lure of a $5,000 cheque that finally persuaded her and she became Playboy’s Playmate of the Month for November 1969, going on to reach the dizzy heights of becoming 1970’s Playmate of the Year. She used Playboy as a springboard to films and appeared in The Stepmother (1971), Jud (1971) as Sunny, in which she appeared topless, The Love Machine as Darlene, Unholy Rollers as Karen Walker, in which she appeared topless, Group Marriage as Elaine, The Single Girls as Allison, in which she appeared topless, 40 Carats (1973) as Gabriella, Truck Stop Women (1974) as Rose, in which she appeared topless, Grotesque (1975), ’Gator Bait (1976) as Desiree Thibodeau, in which she appeared topless, The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), in which she appeared topless, Sisters Of Death (1976), The Great Texas Dynamite Chase (1977) as Candy Morgan, Moonshine County Express (1977) as Betty Hammer, Impulsion (1978), in which she appeared topless, Deathsport (1978) as Deneer, in which she appeared topless and Fast Company (1979) as Sammy. For five years from 1970 she lived with songwriter/producer Bobby Hart. Their split sent her on a downward spiral. She was short-listed to take over from Kate Jackson on Charlie’s Angels, but lost out to Shelley Hack in May 1979.
CAUSE: Claudia began seeing Stan Herman, a Beverly Hills estate agent, in 1979 but the relationship wasn’t a healthy one and they spilt. She was on the way to collect her belongings from his Malibu home when she fell asleep at the wheel of her Volkswagen convertible and was involved in a head-on collision. She died as rescuers tried to cut her from the wreckage. She was 29.
Humphrey Jennings, OBE
Born August 19, 1907
Died September 24, 1950
Documentarian. Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings was born at The Gazebo, Walberswick, Suffolk, the only child of the architect Frank Jennings and Mildred Jessie Hall. After earning a First from Pembroke College, Cambridge, he received a scholarship to complete an unfinished doctorate. In 1934 he joined the GPO Film Unit but his interests were diverted by organising surrealist exhibitions. In 1939 he made a documentary, Spare Time, about what the working class got up to in their leisure periods. Although he never lost his interest in painting, he turned full time to documentary making and directed 20 films over the next 11 years. Mostly, he worked for the GPO Film Unit (later the Crown Film Unit) and his best work was produced during the Second World War – Listen To Britain (1942), Fires Were Started (1943), V-1 (1944) and Diary For Timothy (1945). In October 19, 1929, Jennings married Cicely Mary Wilhelmina Raimonde Cooper (b. 1908) and by her had two daughters: Mary-Lou (b. September 1933) and Charlotte (b. August 1935).
CAUSE: Jennings died aged 43 as a result of a fall on the Greek island of Poros while scouting for locations for the European Economic Commission.
Stratford Johns
Born February 22, 1925
Died January 29, 2002
Bluff blusterer. Born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Alan Stratford Johns, the son of a train driver, served in the South African navy before moving to England in 1948. After a brief career in accountancy, he became an actor and appeared in 30 films and more than 200 television programmes. It was his role as the tough-talking Charlie Barlow in Z-Cars (1962–1965) and then its spin-offs Softly Softly (1966-1972) and Barlow At Large (1971) that Johns became well known. His films included The Ship That Died Of Shame (1955) as a garage worker, The Night My Number Came Up (1955) as Sergeant, a security guard in The Ladykillers (1955), a policeman in Who Done It? (1956), Tiger In The Smoke (1956) and The Long Arm (1956), a man on an upturned life boat in A Night To Remember (1958), Two Letter Alibi (1962) as Bates, The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966) as The Voice, Rocket To The Moon (1967) as Warrant Officer, Cromwell (1970) as President Bradshaw, The Strange Case Of The End Of Civilisation As We Know It (1977) as Chief Commissioner, George And Mildred (1980) as Harry Pinto, The Fiendish Plot Of Dr Fu Manchu (1980) as Ismail, Dance With A Stranger (1985) as Moorie Conley, Car Trouble (1985) as Reg Sampson, Wild Geese II (1985) as Mustapha El Ali, Foreign Body (1986) as Mr Plumb, Salome’s Last Dance (1988) as Herod/Alfred Taylor, The Lair Of The White Worm (1988) as Peters and Splitting Heirs (1993) as Butler. Johns’ home life left a lot to be desired. In 1976 he and wife Nanette split after she confessed to ten lovers but were reconciled in 1983. In June 1988, the 18-stone Johns was arrested after he was accused of hitting Nanette at their home at 29 Mostyn Road, Wimbledon, south-west London. His eldest daughter, Frith (b. 1956), was sent to jail for possession of drugs. On April 4, 1989, his younger son, Alan (b. 1963), was jailed for two and a half years for selling cannabis worth £30,000. The court was told that Alan Stratford-Johns began taking heroin when he was 13. He was later disowned by his father when he sold a story to newspapers about him for £4,000. His younger daughter, Lissa (b. 1968) was hooked on amphetamines by the time she was 15 and at 17 was in hospital suffering from bleeding ulcers. Only daughter Peta seemed immune.
CAUSE: He suffered two strokes and had been in poor health for six years leading up to his death. He died of a heart attack at his home in Heveningham, Suffolk, aged 77.
Dame Celia Johnson
Born December 18, 1908
Died April 24, 1982
Theatrical dame. Born in Ellerker Gate, Richmond, Surrey, Celia Elizabeth Johnson was the daughter of a doctor and was educated at RADA. She made her professional début on the stage at the Theatre Royal, Huddersfield, on July 23, 1928 as Sarah in Major Barbara. The stage was to dominate her professi
onal life for more than fifty years. She made her film début in A Letter From Home (1941) and next appeared in In Which We Serve (1942) playing Noël Coward’s wife Alix Kinross, Dear Octopus (1943) as Cynthia and This Happy Breed (1944) as Ethel Gibbons. It was her performance as Laura Jesson in David Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945) for which she is best remembered. One review said that “what is most exceptional about it is that it dares to allow its average characters to remain average” adding that Johnson’s face “is touched by life rather than retouched by an ever-hovering make-up man”. Her performance was nominated for an Oscar but she lost out to Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own. Subsequently, her films were few and far between. She was in The Astonished Heart (1949) as Barbara Faber, The Holly And The Ivy (1952) as Jenny Gregory, A Kid For Two Farthings (1955) as Joanna, The Good Companions (1957) as Miss Trant, and The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) as Miss MacKay. On December 8, 1935 she married the travel writer Peter Fleming, OBE (b. 27 Green Street, Park Lane, London W 1, May 31, 1907, d. Black Mount, Argyllshire, August 18, 1971 of a heart attack), the elder brother of the writer Ian Fleming. They had one son, Nicholas Peter Val (b. More’s Gardens, Chelsea, London, January 3, 1939), and two daughters, Kate (b. May 24, 1946) and Lucy (b. Merrimoles House, Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, May 15, 1947). She was appointed CBE in June 1958 and awarded a damehood in the Birthday Honours List of 1981.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 99