Another one from the music world. I think she was more well known in Britain, but I heard Kirsty MacColl’s “In These Shoes?” on the radio circa 2001 or so and loved it. Then I found out she had been hit by a speedboat and killed while swimming in Mexico with her family in 2000. Just awful.
I binged on the Beverly Hillbillies for a few months. There is a attractive blonde actress playing various small roles. She looks slightly different each time.
Each time the credits indicated it was Sharon Tate. I got curious and looked her up. Imdb lists 15 appearances on the Beverly Hillbillies.
I certainly know the significance of that name. But it always surprised me to see her pop up in very ordinary roles and nothing like her movie star image.
She could have been a very respected character actor.
I watched the French movie Gainsburg (2010) about the life of the French musician responsible for that sensual “Je t’aime” song from the late sixties. He used to date Brigitte Bardot, played in the movie by the model Laetitia Casta, but who absolutely drew my attention was the British actress playing Jane Birkin. Absolutely breath-taking.
I looked her up. I assumed that, since the movie was already a few years old, she must be well on her way to superstardom by then and somehow escaped my attention. But this was such a mesmerizing presence, she was bound to have been quite in demand and have a fairly robust filmography.
No. Sadly, Gainsbourg was to be Lucy Gordon’s last movie. She commited suicide in her apartment in Paris in 2009.
He only made 5 feature movies and all of them were nominated for best picture Oscar. Godfather 1 and 2 , The conversation, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter
Charlotte Coleman, who played the adorable Scarlett in Four Weddings and a Funeral, died of a massive asthma attack in 2001.
Mmmm…not quite. The MST3K episode was “Being from Another Planet” which starred Ben Murphy, Deuel’s co-star on “Alias Smith and Jones.” The movie was a “mummy that was actually an alien” stinko film.
Pretty often when I run across an old show for the first time ever or the first time in a long time I Google/IMDB search the cast, and note the short lives of many of the stars. Alias Smith and Jones (as mentioned above) was one of them, given that I first ran across it in the early 2000s. Can’t recall specific examples, but sometimes I see that an actor died in their 20/30s. (Here is a depressing list.)
And that reminds me of the death of green Lorne at 33.
I was literally watching an episode of Angel with Lorne on screen when the news broke that Andy Hallett had died.
I remember pausing it and saying to my wife, “You will not believe this coincidence…but the guy who played Loren(still paused on screen) just died.”
We were both sad and amazed at the random coincidence.
Once in a great while I see a charming blonde on something like Cheers or a movie like …All the Marbles*. Who is this actress and what else has she done? So off to IMDb. And it’s always Angela Aames.
Dead at 32 from a viral/heart thing.
- TCM recently ran this. Man, Peter Falk was good at what he did.
Can’t help but wonder if Maggie McNamara was a victim of the casting couch, and Hollywood sexual harassment, that contributed to her demise.
I have a similar experience about Kellie Waymire, who appeared in episodes of Friends, Seinfeld, Six Feet Under, CSI, and quite a few other popular shows. She died in 2003 at age 36 of cardiac arrhythmia.
I’ve had this happen several times; not that I expected the actors I noticed to become superstars, just sometimes wondered why I didn’t see them in more roles. I just can’t really think of very many right now. Perhaps I should bookmark this thread for the next time.
Two that I can think of are…
Carole Lombard, who was brilliant in the original My Man Godfrey. She died in a plane crash in 1942 at age 33. To Be or Not to Be was her final film.
Juanin Clay. She was in the running to play Col. Deering in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century; didn’t get that part but had a prominent guest role in one episode, and was in WarGames as one of the staff of the war room inside Cheyenne Mountain. Died at 45; according to IMDb it was a heart ailment complicated by breast cancer.
And since the OP was partly inspired by The Twilight Zone, I might mention Jonathan Winters. I looked him up online once after seeing my favorite TWZ episode and found a video of him talking about spending time in a psychiatric hospital at about the same time that episode must have been shot.
Oh, one more. I caught some old episodes of What’s My Line and wondered what became of the panelists, who seemed to be the epitome of the New York publishing and social scene. I found out that Dorothy Kilgallen died during the run of the show from a combination of alcohol and barbiturates, and had some seemingly controversial episodes during her career.
The beautiful Inger Stevens began her career in the mid 1950s as a teenager, did quite a lot of TV for the next decade, appearing in two episodes of the Twilight Zone (including the classic “The Hitch-Hiker”), and was starring in feature films in the late '60s. In 1970 she died in an apparent suicide, at age 35.
Jim Hutton. Played Ellery Queen in the 70s, and also was a bright spot in The Green Berets. I loved watching him on-screen. Died of liver cancer at age 45 in 1979. 
Bruno Kirby played the young version of Clemenza, and had a pretty good role in When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers and several other easy to watch movies. I was wondering why I had seen anything from him in a while only to discover he died in 2006, from complications related to leukemia at the age of 57. 
I caught Summer Lovers about 10 years ago. I was wondering why I had never seen such a beautiful actress in any other work - looked her up on IMDB and found out she was dead. Quite disappointed.
I’m watching “The Code,” S 4 Ep 1 of Mission: Impossible (Leonard Nimoy’s debut as Paris). A beautiful actress with long blonde hair has taken the place of Barbara Bain. Her name is Alexandra Hay, and I remember seeing her in different shows in the '60s and '70s.
I look her up at IMDb and find she was born in July 1947 and died of coronary disease (!) in October 1993, at the age of 46.
Don’t forget his role as Lt. Steven Hauk in Good Morning, Vietnam. He had three jokes under consideration by Reader’s Digest!
Sammi Kane Kraft, who played Amanda Whirlitzer in the remake of BAD NEWS BEARS. She died in a car crash a few years later. Pretty girl, okay actress, very good athlete.
John Cazale, who played Fredo Corleone and died from a brain tumor not long afterwards. He only made four movies, but they were probably the four best movies made in the 1970s. We had a thread about the most famous actor with the fewest IMDB credits, and he was the winner. (My suggestion was Gummo Marx.)