King George VI (king) -- Dead. Cornary thrombosis/cancer. Died February 1, 2012. Born December 14, 1895. King of England after his brother Edward abdicated, married to one Elizabeth, father of Elizabeth II. Wikipedia Obituary FindAGrave
John von Neumann
(genius) -- Dead. Cancer. Died February 8, 1957. Born December 28, 1903. Leading scholar in many areas, including mathematics, physics, game theory and computer theory.
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Mason Wiley (writer) -- Dead. AIDS Died October 7, 1994. Born circa 1955. Co-writer of Inside Oscar, one of the writers of The Official Preppy Handbook. Obituary
Mary Ellen Avery
(physician) -- Dead. Died December 4, 2011. Born May 6, 1927.
Developed a treatment for respiratory distress syndrome which saved many premature babies, first pediatrician to lead the American Association for the Advancement of Science, died same day as
Marion Dougherty.
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Richard Gautier
(actor/cartoon voice) -- Alive. Born October 31, 1931. TV actor in the '60s (especially Hymie, the robot in Get Smart, many cartoon voices in the '80s (especially Sepentor in G. I. Joe), ex-husband of Barbara Stuart.
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Curly Howard
(stooge) -- Dead. Cerebral hemmorhage/strokes. Died January 18, 1952. Born October 22, 1903. The manic member of The Three Stooges, youngest brother of Moe and Shemp, shaved his head when he was
told he didn't look funny enough.
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Shemp Howard
(stooge) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died November
23, 1955. Born March 17, 1895. While
originally in a vaudeville act with his brother Moe and Larry Fine, he wound up doing
other movies and his youngest brother Curly joined the stooge
act, which Shemp rejoined after Curly's death.
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Barbara Stuart (actress) -- Dead. Died May 15, 2011. Born January 3, 1930. Semi-regular on TV shows for 50 years, from The Great Gildersleve (Bessie) to Gomer Pyle (Bunny) to Huff (Alice), ex-wife of Richard Gautier. Wikipedia IMDb Obituary FindAGrave
Oliver Hardy
(comic) -- Dead. Cerebral thrombosis. Died August 7, 1957. Born January 18, 1892. The talkative half of Laurel and Hardy
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Laura Ingalls Wilder
(farmer/writer) -- Dead. Died February 10, 1957. Born February 7, 1867 . Started writing her "Little House" books after losing her money in the 1929 stock market crash.
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James Hilton
(writer) -- Dead. Liver cancer. Died December 20, 1954. Born September 9, 1900.
Wrote Lost Horizon and Goodbye Mr. Chips, adapted the screenplay for Mrs. Miniver.
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Arturo Toscanini
(conductor) -- Dead. Died January 16, 1957. Born March 25, 1867. Longtime conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted the world premieres of Puccini's La Boheme and Barber's Adagio for Strings.
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Humphrey Bogart
(actor) -- Dead. Esophageal cancer. Died January 14, 1957. Born December 25, 1899. Upper class kid who played crooks, detectives and won an Oscar for playing the captain of a small, leaky boat on a long tropical river (African Queen), married to Lauren Bacall for nearly 12 years.
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Moss Hart
(playwright/director) -- Dead. Heart failure. Died December 20, 1961. Born October 24, 1904. Co-wrote (with George S. Kaufman) the classics You Can't Take it With You and The Man Who Came to Dinner, directed the Broadway debuts
of My Fair Lady and Camelot, married to Kitty Carlisle Hart.
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Grandma Moses
(artist) -- Dead. Died December 13, 1961. September 7, 1860.
Farmer who took up painting rustic rural scenes in her late 70s, popularizing primative art.
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Alan Turing
(uber geek) -- Dead. Suicide (cyanide). Died June 7, 1954. Born June 23, 1912. Developed concepts like AI and neural nets and the basic machines later used to break the German's Enigma code during WWII, lost his security clearance for being gay.
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Dr. Ralph Bunche
(political scientist, professor) -- Dead. Diabetes. Died December 10, 1971. Born August 7, 1904. Professor, writer and informal advisor to Presdident Truman, Bunche worked extensively for the United Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiate a peace in Palestine in 1949. In 1936, he wrote "And so class will some day supplant race in world affairs. Race war will then be merely a side-show to the gigantic class war which will be waged in the big tent we call the world."
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Edgar Rice Burroughs
(writer) -- Dead. Died March 19, 1950. Born September 1, 1875. Writer of Tarzan, Mars, Barsoom and other popular series.
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Al Jolson
(singer/actor) -- Dead. Heart attack (while playing cards). Died October 23, 1950. Born May 26, 1886. Vaudevillean who went on to star in the first all-talking, full-length movie The Jazz Singer, married for a few years to
Ruby Keeler.
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Sinclair Lewis
(writer) -- Dead. Alcoholism. Died January 10, 1951. Born February 7, 1885. Wrote Babbitt, Arrowsmith and Elmer Gantry; first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930. Famously said "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
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Hattie McDaniel
(actress) -- Dead. Breast cancer Died October 26, 1952. Born June 10, 1895. Popular in movies and on radio, she was the first black woman to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
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Dorothy Thompson
(journalist) -- Dead. CA Died January 30, 1960. Born July 9, 1893. The only female journalist to have been thrown out of Nazi Germany for her reporting, married for a few years to Sinclair Lewis. "When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered."
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Burt Bacharach
(songwriter) -- Alive. Born May 12, 1928.
Famous for writing many pop songs since the '60s, usually
with lyricist Hal David, including "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" and "What the World Needs Now" and wrote songs for the musical Promises,
Promises. Married to and divorced
from Angie Dickinson and Carol Bayer Sager.
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Hal David
(lyricist) -- Alive. Born May 25, 1921.
Longtime songwriting partner of Burt Bacharach, wrote the lyrics for songs like "What's New Pussycat" and "Close to You."
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Carol Bayer Sager
(songwriter) -- Alive. Born March 8, 1947.
Co-wrote "A Groovy Kind of Love" while still in high school, collaborated with many other songwriters including Neil Diamond and her ex-husband, Burt Bacharach ("Arthur's Theme").
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Valerie Simpson
(singer/songwriter) -- Alive. Born August 26, 1945. With professional and life partner Nickolas Ashford, Ashford & Simpson wrote for Ray Charles and Diana Ross ("Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand"), performed their own music ("Solid") and Simpson had a solo hit with "I'm Every Woman."
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Mike Stoller
(composer) -- Alive. Born March 13, 1933. With professional partner Jerry Leiber, Stoller wrote the music for songs like "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Stand by Me" (with Ben E. King) and the Peggy Lee standard "Is That All There Is?."
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