Date of Death between 1984-01-01 and 1984-12-31 (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)
1. Richard Burton
Actor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Probably best-remembered for his turbulent personal life with Elizabeth Taylor (whom he married twice), Richard Burton was nonetheless also regarded as an often brilliant British actor of the post-WWII period.
Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925 into a Welsh (Cymraeg)-speaking family in ...
2. D'Urville Martin
Actor | Rosemary's Baby
D'Urville Martin was a key important, prolific and hugely engaging supporting actor who appeared with pleasing regularity in a handful of delightfully down'n'dirty 70s blaxploitation features. Martin was born on February 11, 1939 in New York City. D'Urville first began acting in the 1960s including...
3. James Mason
Actor | Lolita
James Mason was a great English actor of British and American films. He was born in Yorkshire, and attended Marlborough and Cambridge, where he discovered acting on a lark, and abandoned a planned career as an architect. Following work in stock companies, he joined the Old Vic under the guidance of...
4. Jackie Coogan
Actor | The Kid
Jackie Coogan was born into a family of vaudevillians where his father was a dancer and his mother had been a child star. On the stage by four, Jackie was touring at the age of five with his family in Los Angeles, California.
While performing on the stage, he was spotted by Charles Chaplin, who then...
5. Peter Lawford
Actor | The Longest Day
Born in London, England and son of a British World War I hero, Lawford had spent most of his childhood in Paris, France and began his acting career at a very young age. His parents were not married when their son was born. As a result of the scandal, The Lawfords fled to America.
As a young child, ...
6. François Truffaut
Writer | La nuit américaine
French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the ...
7. Walter Burke
Actor | Support Your Local Sheriff!
Highly recognizable Irish-American character actor whose small stature and wizened features made him resemble a leprechaun (a role which he played on more than one occasion). Probably best known as Willie Stark's bodyguard in All the King's Men (1949).
8. Diana Dors
Actress | The Long Haul
Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck on October 23, 1931 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. She and her mother both nearly died from the traumatic birth. Because of the trauma, her mother lavished on Diana anything and everything she wanted--clothes, toys and dance lessons were the order of the day. ...
9. Andy Kaufman
Actor | Taxi
Referred to by some as a dadaistic comedian, Andy Kaufman took comedy and performance art to the edges of irrationality and blurred the dividing line between reality and imagination. Born in New York City on January 17, 1949, the first son of Stanley and Janice Kaufman, Andy grew up on New York in ...
10. Sam Peckinpah
Writer | The Wild Bunch
"If they move", commands stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's bloody, high-body-count eulogy to the mythologized Old West. "Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle", observed critic Pauline Kael. That ...
11. William Powell
Actor | The Thin Man
William Powell was on the New York stage by 1912, but it would be ten years before his film career would begin. In 1924 he went to Paramount Pictures, where he was employed for the next seven years. During that time, he played in a number of interesting films, but stardom was elusive. He did ...
12. John Marley
Actor | Love Story
Veteran character actor John Marley was one of those familiar but nameless faces that television and filmgoers did not take a shine to until the late 1960s, when he had hit middle age. Distinctive for his craggy face, dark bushy brows and upswept silvery hair, his life (born in 1907) started out ...
13. Ethel Merman
Actress | It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Born in the Astoria section of Queens, New York City, Ethel Merman surely is the pre-eminent star of 'Broadway' musical comedy. Though untrained in singing, she could belt out a song like quite no one else, and was sought after by major songwriters such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Having ...
14. Walter Pidgeon
Actor | Forbidden Planet
Walter Pidgeon, a handsome, tall and dark-haired man, began his career studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He then did theater, mainly stage musicals. He went to Hollywood in the early 1920s, where he made silent films, including Mannequin (1926) and Sumuru (1927). ...
15. Woodrow Parfrey
Actor | The Outlaw Josey Wales
Parfrey was born Sydney Woodrow Parfrey in New York City, New York, to Hazel (James) and Sidney Parfrey, both Welsh immigrants. One of the most interesting character actors to emerge on American film and television in the 1960s, Parfrey brought a quirky charisma to every role he played, from ...
16. Estelle Winwood
Actress | The Producers
When Estelle saw the girl on a white horse at the circus, she then decided that she wanted to be an actress. And she was from the age of 5, to the disapproval of her father. Her mother had her train with the Liverpool Repertory Company, and Estelle performed in many plays and many roles in the West...
17. Jon-Erik Hexum
Actor | Voyagers!
In the early 1980s, this ruggedly handsome young man of Norwegian parentage was seen as the "next big thing", and then suddenly he was dead from an accident via a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hexum was born and raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, where he was a musically gifted student at school playing...
18. Peggy Ann Garner
Actress | A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Actress Peggy Ann Garner was was born Feb. 3, 1932, in Canton, Ohio. Her father was an English-born attorney, William H. Garner, who served as a U.S. Army officer during World War II. Virginia, her determined mother, got Peggy into summer stock and modeling before she was six. Estranged from her ...
19. Sam Jaffe
Actor | The Day the Earth Stood Still
Born Shalom Jaffe in New York City, he became known to the world as Sam Jaffe. From a Jewish family as a child he appeared in Yiddish theater productions with his mother, a well-known regional stage actress. He graduated from the City College of New York and then studied engineering at Columbia ...
20. Sue Randall
Actress | Desk Set
Sue Randall was an actress who was born in 1935. Her primary roles were television instead of motion pictures with Desk Set (1957) being her only silver screen appearance. Sue's TV appearances were mostly guest roles in programs such as The Twilight Zone (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Bonanza (1959) ...
21. Richard Basehart
Actor | Moby Dick
Despite many a powerful performance, this actor's actor never quite achieved the stardom he deserved. Ultimately, Richard Basehart became best-known to television audiences as Admiral Harriman Nelson, commander of the glass-nosed nuclear submarine 'S.S.R.N Seaview' in Irwin Allen's Voyage to the ...
22. Ian Hendry
Actor | Get Carter
Born 13 January 1931 in Ipswich, England, Ian Hendry's career began rather auspiciously--playing the fall guy for a circus clown. After attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama, things started progressing nicely when he starred as "Dr. Geoffrey Brent" in Police Surgeon (1960). This led...
23. Sunny Johnson
Actress | Flashdance
Sunny Johnson was born on September 21, 1953 in San Bernardino County, California, USA as Sunny Suzanne Johnson. She was an actress, known for Flashdance (1983), The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1981) and Charlie's Angels (1976). She died on June 19, 1984 in Los Angeles, California.
24. May McAvoy
Actress | Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Silent-screen star May McAvoy was born in an upscale area of New York City. Her well-to-do family owned and operated a large livery stable situated where the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel now stands. She initially wanted to be a teacher but became intrigued with show business after watching a friend ...
25. Johnny Weissmuller
Actor | Tarzan the Ape Man
Johnny Weissmuller was born as Peter Johann Weißmüller in Freidorf, today a district of the city of Timisoara in Romania, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Weissmuller would later claim to have been born in Windber, Pennsylvania, probably to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of ...
26. Neil Hamilton
Actor | Batman: The Movie
Neil Hamilton's show business career began when he secured a job as a shirt model in magazine ads. He became interested in acting and joined several stock companies. He got his first film role in 1918, but received his big break from D.W. Griffith in The White Rose (1923).
After performing in ...
27. Henry Wilcoxon
Actor | The Ten Commandments
Henry Wilcoxon was given the lead role of Marc Antony in Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra (1934). It would prove to be the beginning of a long relationship with DeMille he would become a familiar DeMille character actor and DeMille's associate producer in the later years of DeMille's career. However, ...
28. Richard Deacon
Actor | The Birds
Richard Deacon was the bald, bespectacled character actor most famous for playing television producer Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) from 1961 to 1966. In the first season of that show he also continued to appear on the series he was already appearing on, Leave It to Beaver (1957), ...
29. Flora Robson
Actress | Clash of the Titans
Flora Robson knew she was no beauty, but her wise and sympathetic face would become a familiar - indeed, shining - ornament of the 1930s and 40s silver screen. Though not sure of acting as a career in her early years, she nevertheless appeared on stage for the first time at 5 years old. She was ...
30. Jeanne Cagney
Actress | Yankee Doodle Dandy
Dark-haired beauty Jeanne Carolyn Cagney was born in New York City, New York on March 25, 1919 - just a few months after the end of World War I. She and her four brothers - including James Cagney and William Cagney - were raised by her widowed mother. Jeanne majored in French and German during her ...
31. Truman Capote
Actor | Murder by Death
Truman Capote was born on September 30, 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA as Truman Streckfus Persons. He was a writer and actor, known for Murder by Death (1976), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and The Innocents (1961). He died on August 25, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
32. Shug Fisher
Actor | Mister Roberts
This country singing-and-playing perennial earned the nickname of "Shug" early in life from his mother, who used to call him "sugar" as an infant. The native Oklahoman was born George Clinton Fisher in 1907, the son of a Scots-Irish father and part Choctaw mother. He learned how to play the ...
33. Bess Flowers
Actress | The Shadow
Bess Flowers was born on November 23, 1898 in Sherman, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for The Shadow (1937), We Faw Down (1928) and Hands Across the Border (1926). She was married to Cullen Tate and William S. Holman. She died on July 28, 1984 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
34. Oskar Werner
Actor | Fahrenheit 451
Remote, somewhat morose and, as a result, intriguing, Viennese talent Oskar Werner was born in 1922, not far from the birthplace of "Waltz King" Johann Strauss, and christened Oskar Josef Bschließmayer. His parents divorced when he was fairly young.
While growing up, Oskar found performing in school...
35. Peter Bull
Actor | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
He was born 21st March 1912 in London, the fourth son of Sir William James Bull M.P. and Lillian Heather Brandon. Educated at Winchester College, he started in journalism before studying for the stage with Elsie Fogerty and made his stage debut at London's Shaftsbury Theatre in As You Like It on ...
36. Janet Gaynor
Actress | A Star Is Born
Janet Gaynor was born Laura Gainor on October 6, 1906, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, she & her parents moved to San Francisco, California, where she graduated from high school in 1923. She then moved to Los Angeles where she enrolled in a secretarial school. She got a job at a shoe ...
37. Joseph Losey
Director | The Servant
Belonging to an important family clan in Wisconsin, Joseph Losey studied philosophy but was always interested in theater and thus worked together with Bertolt Brecht. After directing some shorts for MGM, he made his first important film, The Boy with Green Hair (1948), for RKO. While he was filming ...
38. Francis De Wolff
Actor | From Russia with Love
Francis De Wolff was born on January 7, 1913 in Essex, England. He was an actor, known for From Russia with Love (1963), A Christmas Carol (1951) and Moby Dick (1956). He was married to Linda Finch, Melissa Dundas and Jean Fairlie. He died on April 18, 1984 in Sussex, England.
39. Wesley Lau
Actor | The Twilight Zone
Wesley Lau was born on June 18, 1921 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA as Wesley Albert Lau. He was an actor and writer, known for The Twilight Zone (1959), The Alamo (1960) and Mission: Impossible (1966). He was married to Marie Louise Metcalf and Shirin Devrim. He died on August 30, 1984 in Los ...
40. Leonard Rossiter
Actor | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Leonard Rossiter was born on October 21st, 1926 in Liverpool. Unable to afford to go to university, he worked in an insurance office until he was 27, when he joined Preston repertory company and made his professional stage debut in "The Gay Dog". After Preston, he starred in productions at ...
41. Christine McIntyre
Actress | The Rangers' Round-Up
One of five children, Christine Cecilia McIntyre was born in Nogales, Arizona, on April 26, 1911, to John and Edna (nee Barnaby) McIntyre. In the early 1930s, Christine received a Bachelor of Music degree at Chicago Musical College, where she honed her operatic soprano voice (which can be heard in ...
42. Indus Arthur
Actress | MASH
Indus Arthur was born on April 28, 1941 in Los Angeles County, California, USA as Indus Jo Saugstad. She was an actress, known for MASH (1970), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962) and Ben Casey (1961). She died on December 29, 1984 in Los Angeles County.
43. Gary Vinson
Actor | The Roaring 20's
Gary Vinson was born on October 22, 1936 in El Segundo, California, USA as Robert Gary Vinson. He was an actor and writer, known for The Roaring 20's (1960), Pistols 'n' Petticoats (1966) and Battlestar Galactica (1978). He was married to Lavonne R. Wuertzer and Paula Jeanne Hill. He died on ...
44. Lennard Pearce
Actor | Only Fools and Horses....
Lennard Pearce was born on February 9, 1915 in Paddington, London, England. He was an actor, known for Only Fools and Horses (1981), Only Fools and Horses: Christmas Trees (1982) and Only Fools and Horses: Licensed to Drill (1984). He died on December 15, 1984 in Archway, London.
45. Jack La Rue
Actor | The Fighting Rookie
Discovered on Broadway by director Howard Hawks, La Rue was originally brought to Hollywood to play a gangster in Scarface (1932). He lost that role to George Raft, and similarly was replaced by Humphrey Bogart in the film version of The Petrified Forest (1936). Eventually, he became well-known to ...
46. Vincent Beck
Actor | ...and justice for all.
Tall, deep-voiced character actor who started on screen in the lamentable Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) which may have taken him some time to live down. Thereafter, he was most comfortable playing the heavy -- and never averse to do so in monster make-up -- as in The Time Tunnel (1966) ...
47. Ned Glass
Actor | West Side Story
Veteran Polish-born character actor Ned Glass grew up in New York, and, after vaudeville experience, started acting in small parts on Broadway from the early 1930's. He gained further experience in the capacity of theatrical production supervisor, before entering motion pictures in 1937 as an MGM ...
48. Arnold Ridley
Actor | Dad's Army
Having sustained injuries during World War I , the young Arnold Ridley was forced to give up a budding acting career and turn to writing. He hit the jackpot with 'The Ghost Train' which was a great West End success and has been filmed several times. This was followed by a number of other plays ...
49. Alan Lake
Actor | Freelance
Alan Lake was born on November 24, 1940 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. He was an actor, known for Freelance (1971), The Avengers (1961) and The Growing Summer (1968). He was married to Diana Dors. He died on October 10, 1984 in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England.
50. Jack Mercer
Actor | Popeye
His parents were actors, but Jack decided to pursue his love of art. He got a job as an inbetweener (rookie animator) at the Fleischer studio. Dave Fleischer happened to hear him singing the Popeye theme song in a funny voice, and asked Jack to try voicing one cartoon. He later became a writer at ...