Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries
Page 132
CAUSE: He died aged 52 from a heart attack in Hedge End, Southampton, Hampshire.
Pola Negri
(BARBARA APOLONIA MATHIAS-CHALUPIEC)
Born December 31, 1894
Died August 1, 1987
Silent screen Vamp. Negri is almost totally forgotten (or unheard of) by today’s cinema audiences. Yet in her day she was a big star. Born in Janowa, Poland, she wrote and financed her first film, Niewolnica Zmyslów (1914). Three years later, she moved to Berlin to work there before moving to Hollywood in the early Twenties. Her films at Famous Players were for a time very popular. Her love life was tempestuous – she was very publicly engaged to Charlie Chaplin, who dumped her but gallantly allowed the press to report, on March 2, 1924, that it was she who had done the jilting. Her next ‘fiancé’ was Rudolph Valentino, but they were parted by his sudden death in August 1926. She attended his funeral dressed in black attended by a doctor and nurse who both wore white. Since Valentino was exclusively homosexual and rumours abounded about Negri’s sapphic tendencies, it would be a safe bet to assume it was a romance made not in heaven but in a publicist’s office. (Gay designer Billy Haines, who was linked publicly with Negri to hide his own homosexuality, confirmed the lesbian rumours. “So very private. In public it was always men. When Valentino died, then she said she was engaged to him. Pola was very willing, she loved the attention. Some of the ladies who liked other ladies wanted as little to do with [fake publicity] as possible.”) With typical forthrightness, Tallulah Bankhead called Negri “a lying lesbo, a Polish publicity hound.” Nevertheless, lesbian or not, on May 14, 1927, in Seraincourt, near Paris, she married Prince Sergei Mdivani, which made her the sister-in-law of fellow actress Mae Murray. It was supposedly her third trip up the aisle, having previously married Baron Popper and Count Eugene Domski whom she divorced in 1921, or possibly 1923. In August 1928 Negri became one of the first victims to the newly discovered sound films. Her Polish accent made her difficult to understand. Her career troubles were not helped by her histrionics, nor was her marriage. She and her husband were divorced on April 2, 1931, on the grounds of abandonment. She accused him of financial impropriety following the Wall Street crash. She successfully sued a French magazine for libel after it linked her romantically with Adolf Hitler. Her films included: Bestia (1915), Studenci (1916), Arabella (1916), Carmen (1918) as Carmen, Madame DuBarry (1919) as Madame DuBarry, Die Geschlossene Kette (1920), Sumurun (1920) as Taenzerin, Vendetta (1921), Mad Love (1923), Bella Donna (1923) as Bella Donna, The Cheat (1923) as Carmelita De Bórdoba, The Spanish Dancer (1923) as Maritana, Shadows Of Paris (1924) as Claire, Queen of the Apaches, Men (1924) as Cleo, Lily Of The Dust (1924) as Lily, East Of Suez (1925) as Daisy Forbes, Flower Of Night (1925) as Carlota y Villalon, Good And Naughty (1926) as Germaine Morris, Hotel Imperial (1927) as Anna Sedlak, Barbed Wire (1927) as Mona Moreau, The Woman On Trial (1927) as Julie, Three Sinners (1928) as Baroness Gerda Wallentin, Mazurka (1935) as Vera, Madame Bovary (1937) as Madame Bovary, Hi Diddle Diddle (1943) as Genya Smetana and The Moon-Spinners (1964) as Madame Habib.
CAUSE: She died aged 92 in San Antonio, Texas, of a brain tumour and pneumonia complications. She was buried in Crypt E-19 of Block 56 in the Main Mausoleum of Calvary Cemetery, 4201 Whittier Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90023.
Jean Negulesco
Born February 26, 1900
Died July 18, 1993
Arty director. In the Twenties, Negulesco (born in Craiova, Rumania) led a bohemian life as a painter in Paris, becoming a designer of film sets. He worked his way up and sideways until he was handed the assignment of directing Singapore Woman (1941). Three years later, he was praised for his work on The Mask Of Dimitrios (1944) and The Conspirators (1944). His subsequent films included: Three Strangers (1946), Nobody Lives Forever (1946), Humoresque (1946) (He revealed: “Joan Crawford used continually to knit, whether she was rehearsing, eating, looking at rushes or doing battle with someone. Oscar Levant asked her, ‘Do you knit when you fuck?’ For days after there were icebergs on the set.”), Johnny Belinda (1948) for which he was nominated for an Oscar, Road House (1948) and The Forbidden Street (1949). He spent most of the next decade at 20th Century Fox where he worked on, among other films, O. Henry’s Full House (1952), Titanic (1953), How To Marry A Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe, whom he adored, Three Coins In The Fountain (1954), The Gay Parisian (1955), Daddy Long Legs (1955), The Rains Of Ranchipur (1955) and Boy On A Dolphin (1957). Following his last film, Hello-Goodbye (1970), he spent his time painting and travelling.
CAUSE: Negulesco died aged 93 of heart failure in Marbella, Spain.
Anthony Newley
Born September 24, 1931
Died April 14, 1999
All-rounder. Born illegitimately in Hackney, London, and trained at Italia Conti for all of three weeks, George Anthony Newley made his stage début in April 1946 at Colchester. It took nine more years for his London début, but then things began to happen quickly. His Broadway début came in March 1956 just four months after his West End one. On July 20, 1961, his musical Stop The World: I Want To Get Off opened at the Queen’s Theatre. Newley also starred as Littlechap and directed. Three years later he wrote The Roar Of The Grease Paint – The Smell Of The Crowd. He made his first film in 1948 playing Dick Bultitude in Vice Versa (1948). Newley’s biggest role that year was as Jack Dawkins a.k.a. The Artful Dodger in David Lean’s Oliver Twist (1948). He lost his virginity during filming to Diana Dors who was also in the picture. In 1949 he was called up for National Service but left just as quickly: “I wasn’t mature enough to take a man’s world, and a psychiatrist gave me a ticket because I simply couldn’t adjust.” Back in films he made A Boy, A Girl And A Bike (1949) as Charlie Ritchie, Those People Next Door (1952) as Bob Twigg, Top Of The Form (1953) as Percy, Above Us The Waves (1955), The Cockleshell Heroes (1955) as Clarke, Port Afrique (1956) as Pedro, The Battle Of The River Plate (1956), The Good Companions (1957) as Mulbrau, Fire Down Below (1957) as Miguel, The Lady Is A Square (1959) as Freddy, a flop film starring and directed by Dame Anna Neagle, and Killers Of Kilimanjaro (1959) as Hooky Hook. On May Day 1959 Newley became a pop star when his song ‘I’ve Waited So Long’ entered the UK charts, where it would reach number three. It would be the first of a dozen hit singles including ‘Personality’ (1959/number six), ‘Why’ (1960/number one), ‘Do You Mind’ (1960/number one), ‘If She Should Come To You’ (1960/number four), ‘Strawberry Fair’ (1960/number three), ‘And The Heavens Cried’ (1961/number six), ‘Pop Goes The Weasel’ (1961/number twelve) and ‘What Kind Of Fool Am I?’ (1961/number 36). In the Sixties Newley and his partner Leslie Bricusse headed for Hollywood where Newley starred in Doctor Dolittle (1967), for which Bricusse wrote the Oscar-nominated songs. Four years later, they wrote the songs for Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971), a cinematic version of his book that author Roald Dahl positively hated. Following the divorce from his first wife, Elizabeth Ann Lynn, whom he married in 1956, Newley married Joan Collins (b. Bayswater, May 23, 1933) in New York on May 27, 1963. Seven months later, on October 12, their daughter, Tara Cynara, was born in Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, to be followed by a son, Alexander Anthony, known as Sacha, on September 8, 1965, also at Mount Sinai Hospital. Newley and Collins filmed the appalling semi-autobiographical Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe And Find True Happiness? (1969) with Newley as Hieronymus Merkin and Collins as Polyester Poontang. Newley also directed, produced and wrote the music for the film, which was shot in Malta and co-starred George Jessel, Milton Berle, Bruce Forsyth and Patricia Hayes. Not long after the film wrapped Collins and Newley separated and they divorced in August 1970. In the Seventies and Eighties Newley made a few films, appeared on television, wrote The Good Old Bad Old Days (1972) and married Dareth Rich, by whom he had a son and a daughter. In 1989 he was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. In 1991 Newley returned to live in the UK with his 90-year-old mother and even appeared as Vince Watson in EastEnders in 19
98.
CAUSE: Aged 67, he died of renal cell cancer in Jensen Beach, Florida.
Robert Newton
Born June 1, 1905
Died March 25, 1956
Eyeball-rolling baddie. Born in Shaftsbury, Dorset, Newton was a memorably villainous Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist (1948) before Oliver Reed took on that mantle 20 years later. Although he began appearing in films in the early Thirties it was for his no-gooder roles that Newton is best remembered. His films included: Fire Over England (1937) as Don Pedro, Poison Pen (1939) as Sam Hurrin, Dead Men Are Dangerous (1939) as Aylmer Franklyn, Dangerous Cargo as Commander Tomasou, Jamaica Inn (1939) as James ‘Jem’ Trehearne, Bulldog Sees It Through as Watkins, 21 Days (1940) as Tolly, Major Barbara (1941) as Bill Walker, This Happy Breed (1944) as Frank Gibbons, Henry V (1944) as Ancient Pistol, Odd Man Out (1947) as Lukey, Obsession (1949) as Dr Clive Riordan, Waterfront Women (1950) as Peter McCabe, Treasure Island (1950) as Long John Silver (probably his best role), Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951) as Dr Arnold, Blackbeard The Pirate (1952) as Blackbeard, Les Miserables (1952) as Javert, Androcles And The Lion (1953) as Ferrovius, The Desert Rats (1953) as Bartlett, Long John Silver (1954) reprising his portrayal of the one-legged sea cook that he also attempted on television in 1955, before his last film Around The World In 80 Days (1956) as Mr Fix, the villain who tries to prevent Phileas Fogg from travelling around the world in the given time. Towards the end of his life, Newton’s career suffered because of his alcoholism.
CAUSE: Newton died of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, California. He was 54 years old.
Lionel Ngakane
Born July 17, 1928
Died November 26, 2003
Film pioneer. Lionel Ngakane was born in Pretoria and educated at Fort Hare University College and the University of Witwatersrand. For a brief time he worked as a journalist on the magazines Zonk and Drum before becoming assistant to Zoltan Korda on his film Cry The Beloved Country (1951) in which he also appeared as Absolom Kumalo alongside Sidney Poitier. Korda kept Ngakane on his payroll after the film had wrapped and he moved to England where he met and befriended exiles from South Africa, becoming active in the African National Congress. Ngakane also ran a stall in Portobello Market selling bric-a-brac and later opened an antiques shop in the area. He saved his earnings from the shop to buy a 16-mm cine camera and made his first documentary Vukani in 1962, about the evils of apartheid. He also made a short film Jemima And Johnny about the racial tensions in Notting Hill in the Sixties. The film won plaudits at the Carthage, Rimini and Venice Film Festivals. In 1967, in Tunis, he was a founder member of the Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes, an organisation devoted to promoting independent film-makers in Africa. As an actor Ngakane appeared in Mark The Hawk with Eartha Kitt in 1957 and The Squeeze in 1977 with Stacey Keach. In 1985 he directed a documentary about Nelson Mandela and, four years later, was a technical consultant on Euzhan Palcy’s A Dry White Season. In 1994 he returned to South Africa and helped in the creation of the National Film and Video Foundation. He was unmarried.
CAUSE: He died, aged 75, after a long illness. His two brothers and three sisters survived him.
Haing S. Ngor
Born March 22, 1950
Died February 25, 1996
Unlikely star. Born in Samrong Young, Cambodia Ngor was a gynaecologist and obstetrician in his native Phnom Penh until the Khmer Rouge took over and began to torture intellectuals and professionals. Ngor fled to America where he appeared in the film The Killing Fields (1984) in which he played Dith Pran, a translator. Ngor won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal. He continued to appear in films and was in Dung Fong Tuk Ying (1986) as Yeung Lung, The Iron Triangle (1989) as Tuong, Vietnam, Texas (1990), My Life (1993) as Mr Ho and The Dragon Gate (1999) as Sensei.
CAUSE: In a terrible irony, having escaped the terrors of the Khmer Rouge, Ngor was gunned down outside his home in Los Angeles’ Chinatown district.
Wade Nichols
Born 1955
Died January 28, 1985
Suicide blond. Porn star who made the transition from glamour to mainstream when he landed a job using the name Dennis Parker on the TV soap Edge Of Night playing Police Chief Derek Mallory from 1979 until 1984. His films included: Exploring Young Girls (1975), Visions (1977), Secret Dreams Of Mona Q (1977), Odyssey, The Ultimate Trip (1977), Barbara Broadcast (1977), Punk Rock (1979), Captain Lust And The Pirate Women (1979) as Handsome Jack, Love You (1980) and Blonde Ambition (1981).
CAUSE: The bisexual Nichols committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after discovering he had contracted AIDS.
Derek Nimmo
Born September 19, 1930
Died February 24, 1999
Plummy-voiced thespian. Despite his rounded vowels Derek Robert Nimmo was actually born at 26 Springbourne Road in Liverpool, the son of an insurance clerk, Henry Nimmo (d. 1959) and Marjorie Sudbury Hardy. He knocked two years off his age and reference books give his birthdate as 1932. He was educated at Quarry Bank High School, Harthill Road, Liverpool, the alma mater of politicians Bill Rodgers and Peter Shore and, of course, John Lennon, who took the school’s name for his first band. (By coincidence, the first headmaster when the school opened in 1922 was called George Harrison.) Nimmo became interested in acting at school, often playing female roles. He left school at 17, and briefly and reluctantly followed his father into insurance. After national service (he was a corporal in the intelligence corps in Cyprus) he considered becoming a priest but took a job with a paint company paying £12 a week. He organised dances and concerts and met his future wife at one. On April 9, 1955 he married Patricia Sybil Anne Brown: they had two sons, Timothy St John (b. 1956) and Piers James Alexander (b. 1967) and a daughter, Amanda Kate Victoria (b. 1959). In 1952 he became a professional actor and landed his first part at the Hippodrome, Bolton, as Ensign Blades in J.M. Barrie’s Quality Street. He spent the next four years in rep. Nimmo made his London début in Jean Anouilh’s Waltz Of The Toreadors at the Criterion Theatre in 1957. He was to become known for playing clergymen and in 1964 he played one for the first time in the farce See How They Run at the Vaudeville Theatre. He appeared in the films The Millionairess (1960), Go To Blazes (1962), The Amorous Prawn (1962), A Hard Day’s Night (1964), Hot Enough For June (1964), Murder Ahoy (1964), Joey Boy (1965), Casino Royale (1967) and One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975) but was best suited to the small screen. From January 31, 1967 to June 17, 1971 he starred in All Gas And Gaiters as the self-effacing curate the Reverend Mervyn Noote opposite William Mervyn’s bishop and Robertson Hare’s archdeacon. The show ran for five series. Running simultaneously, he played the accident-prone monk Brother Dominic in Oh Brother! (September 13, 1968–February 27, 1970). A sequel, Oh Father! (September 12–October 24, 1973), followed. Nimmo won the Royal Television Society’s silver medal in 1970 and the Variety Club of Great Britain’s Show Business Personality of the Year Award in 1971. He again donned clerical garb to play Dean Selwyn Makepiece in Hell’s Bells (June 9–July 14, 1986). When the television work dried up he took to touring and created his own company Intercontinental Entertainment. He worked in Africa, America, Australia, and the Middle and Far East and was careful about the plays he produced. He abhorred the current trend towards nudity and crudity. In Britain he was best known for his work on the radio programme Just A Minute, alongside Kenneth Williams, Peter Jones and Clement Freud. He authored a number of books, including Derek Nimmo’s Drinking Companion (1979), Shaken And Stirred (1984), Table Talk (1990) and Memorable Dinners (1991) and edited O Come On All Ye Faithful: A Humorous Church Collection (1986).
CAUSE: On December 3, 1998, Derek Nimmo fell down a flight of stairs at his London home and was taken comatose to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He died of pneumonia on February 24, 1999. He left £561,717.
David Niven
Born March 1, 1910
Died July 29, 1983
Tale-teller. “If you want to know about my father’s life, you won’t find
it in his autobiographies. They are all about other people.” Thus spoke David Niven’s elder son, also called David. And it is certainly true that although his two best-selling volumes of autobiography make for highly entertaining reading, they are by no means an accurate portrayal of Niven’s life or anyone he mentions in their pages for that matter. Like Kenneth Williams, Niven was a brilliant raconteur and believed (possibly rightly) that facts are of secondary importance in a ripping yarn. Niven’s tall tales begin even at the moment of his birth. James David Graham Niven was born not in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland, as he told everyone, but in Belgrave Mansions, London. On August 21, 1915, his father was killed in action in Gallipoli and his mother married a Tory politician whom David disliked. Niven was expelled from his prep school for stealing a prize marrow and then went to Stowe. In his first autobiography, The Moon’s A Balloon, Niven recounts the humorous story of how he lost his cherry aged 14 to a Piccadilly prostitute he called Nessie. However, his friend and biographer, Sheridan Morley, believes that ‘Nessie’ was a composite of many of the hookers that the teenage Niven associated with. Unlike many other public schoolboys Niven’s sexual orientation was strictly heterosexual. During a promotional tour for his book, Niven announced that Nessie had written to him when he was around 20 and told him she had married and was now living in Seattle. After that whenever he appeared on TV in America the studio would be flooded by calls from English ladies d’un age certain claiming to be his teenage paramour. On July 23, 1926, he was caught cheating in an exam. Stowe didn’t expel him, content with merely thrashing him to within an inch of his life. In 1928 he went up to R.M.C. Sandhurst where, in October of that year, he appeared in a play. The following year he joined the Highland Light Infantry. Niven tells the tale of being invited to a swanky fancy dress ball when he was a soldier. Determined to make an impression, he spent hours searching for a costume before finally deciding on a clown’s outfit. His make-up was elaborate and for good measure he brought a few props, such as a string of sausages. As Niven arrived, he thought the butler had a puzzled look on his face but thought no more of it. However, as the door to the drawing room was opened Niven’s horror was complete. Everyone in the room was immaculate in evening dress. The young squaddie had the right venue but the wrong night. Again Niven’s storytelling comes to the fore. For years Niven told the story of how he sent a telegram to his commanding officer “Request Permission Resign Commission”. In fact, the telegram was sent by Niven’s older brother, Max. Niven moved to Canada and then on to New York where he became a whisky salesman and racehorse promoter. A trip to Hollywood followed and he got work as an extra in various Westerns. Niven was listed by Central Casting as Anglo-Saxon type #2008 which was odd because his first job was playing a Mexican. His stock rose in Hollywood due in no small part to his friendship with Loretta Young and Sally Blane and his affair with Merle Oberon. His early films included Cleopatra (1934), Without Regret (1934) as Bill Gage, Barbary Coast (1934), Splendor (1935) as Clancey Lorrimore, Mutiny On The Bounty (1935), Thank You, Jeeves (1936) as Bertie Wooster, Dodsworth (1936) as Major Clyde Lockert (about which a reviewer wrote “All we can say about this actor is that he is tall, dark and not the slightest bit handsome”), Rose-Marie (1936) as Teddy, The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1936) as Captain James Randall, The Prisoner Of Zenda (1937) as Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim, The Dawn Patrol (1938) as Lieutenant Douglas ‘Scotty’ Scott, Wuthering Heights (1939) as Edgar Linton and Raffles (1939) as A.J. Raffles. As soon as filming wrapped on Raffles, Niven became the first of the British ex-pats in Hollywood to return home to fight in the war. He made just two films during the war, The First Of The Few (1942) as Geoffrey Crisp and The Way Ahead (1944) as Lieutenant Jim Perry. His only film of 1945, the year the war ended, was Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s fantasy A Matter Of Life And Death (1946) as Squadron Leader Peter D. Carter, an RAF pilot taken before his time, and his battle to get back to earth. Unusually, the film was shot in both monochrome and colour. In December 1945 Niven returned to America, where tragedy was waiting. On September 21, 1940, he had married Primula Rollo (b. 1918) in Huish, near Marlborough and they were to have two sons: David, Jr. (b. December 15, 1942, at 9.30am) and James Graham (b. November 6, 1945). On May 21, 1946, Primmie Niven died of a fractured skull and lacerations after falling down a flight of concrete stairs at Tyrone Power’s house during a game of sardines. She was 28 although Niven, for some reason, records her age as 25 in his autobiography. For a time after Primmie’s death Niven lived with Rita Hayworth (he also had affairs with Ann Todd and Evelyn Keyes). His post-war films were for the most part disappointing and coincided with the end of the British Raj in Hollywood and the death of the studio system. They included Enchantment (1948) as General Sir Roland Dane, Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948) as Prince Charles, Soldiers Three (1951) as Captain Pindenny, Happy Go Lovely (1951) as B.G. Bruno, The Elusive Pimpernel (1951) as Sir Percy Blakeney, Appointment With Venus (1951) as Major Valentine Morland, Happy Ever After (1954) as Jasper O’Leary, The King’s Thief (1955) as Duke of Brampton, Carrington, V.C. (1955) as Major Charles ‘Copper’ Carrington, Around The World In 80 Days (1956) as Phileas Fogg, My Man Godfrey (1957) as Godfrey Smith, Bonjour Tristesse (1958) as Raymond, Please Don’t Eat The Daisies (1960) as Larry Mackay, The Guns Of Navarone (1961) as Corporal Miller, 55 Days At Peking (1963) as Sir Arthur Robertson, The Pink Panther (1963) as Sir Charles Litton, Casino Royale (1967) as Sir James Bond, Vampira (1974) as Count Dracula, Paper Tiger (1975) as Walter Bradbury, Candleshoe (1977) as Colonel Dennis/Mr Gipping/Mr Priory/John, Death On The Nile (1978) as Colonel Race, Escape To Athena (1979) as Professor Blake, The Sea Wolves: The Last Charge Of The Calcutta Light Horse (1980) as Colonel W.H. Grice, Trail Of The Pink Panther (1982) as Sir Charles Litton and Curse Of The Pink Panther (1983) again as Sir Charles Litton, although his voice was dubbed by comedian Rich Little because of Niven’s final illness. On January 14, 1948 he married Hjördis Paulina Tersmeden at the South Kensington Registry Office. They would adopt two daughters, Kristina and Fiona; although the marriage was happy, it was punctuated by affairs on both sides. In 1951 Niven published his first book, a novel, called Round The Rugged Rocks. It was the story of a soldier who through a series of misadventures finds himself a Hollywood star. Niven probably revealed more of himself in this book than he did in his autobiographies, possibly one reason why he would not allow it to be republished in his lifetime after it went out of print. Seven years later, he won an Oscar for Separate Tables (1958). In 1971 he published the first volume of his memoirs. After certain publishers professed a lack of faith in the book, The Moon’s A Balloon (originally entitled Three Sides Of A Square) went on to sell 5 million copies world-wide. Four years later Bring On The Empty Horses was a thumping success too. He spent much of his time publicising and promoting the book. His final book, a novel called Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly, was published in 1981.