The 1960s: The Arts: Deaths

THE 1960s: THE ARTS: DEATHS

Gracie Allen, 58, comedian, wife and partner of George Burns, 27 August 1964.

Laverne Andrews, 51, oldest of the singing trio the Andrews Sisters, 8 May 1967.

Fay Bainter, 74, stage and film actress, 16 April 1968.

Tallulah Bankhead, 65, stage and screen star, 12 December 1968.

Diana Barrymore, 38, stage and film actress, 25 January 1960.

Vicki Baum, 64, novelist (GrandHotel), playwright, and screenwriter, 29 August 1960.

William Baziotes, 52, abstract painter, 5 June 1963.

Sylvia Beach, 75, supporter of American writers in Paris and first publisher of James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses, 6 October 1962.

William Bendix, 58, film actor (The Hairy Ape, The Babe Ruth Story), 14 December 1964.

R. P. Blackmur, 61, literary critic, 2 February 1965.

Marc Blitzstein, 58, composer and translator of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, 22 January 1964.

Charles Boni, 74, cofounder of the Modern Library and of the publishing house Boni and Liveright, 14 February 1969.

Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White), 56, writer, critic, and editor of mystery stories and science fiction, 29 April 1968.

Clara Bow, 60, sex symbol of the silent screen known as "the It Girl," 26 September 1965.

Charles Brackett, film writer and producer (Sunset Boulevard), 9 March 1969.

Van Wyck Brooks, 77, literary critic and historian, 2 May 1963.

Lenny Bruce, 40, controversial comedian, 3 August 1966.

Eugene Leonard Burdick, 46, collaborator on best-selling novels The Ugly American and Fail-Safe, 26 July 1965.

Eddie Cantor, 72, vaudeville, radio, film and television actor, 10 October 1964.

Neal Cassady, 41, Beat Generation inspiration, 4 February 1968.

Montgomery Clift, 45, film actor (From Here to Eternity), 23 July 1966.

Patsy Cline, 30, country singer ("Crazy," "Walkin' after Midnight"), 5 March 1963.

Nat "King" Cole, 45, popular pianist and singer ("Unforgettable," "Mona Lisa"), 15 February 1965.

John Coltrane, 40, innovative jazz saxophonist, 7 July 1967.

Gary Cooper, 60, Academy Award-winning movie star (Sergeant York, High Noon), 13 May 1961.

E. E. Cummings, 67, popular experimental poet, 3 September 1962.

Dorothy Dandridge, 41, singer and film actor (Porgy and Bess, Carmen Jones), 8 September 1965.

Sabu Dastagir, 39, film actor (The Jungle Book, The Thief of Baghdad), 2 December 1963.

Walt Disney, 65, animator, film producer, and theme-park impresario, 15 December 1966.

H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 75, poet, 27 September 1961.

W. E. B. DuBois, 95, founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, author (The Souls of Black Folk), 27 August 1963.

Marcel Duchamp, 81, influential French-born sculptor and painter (Nude Descending a Staircase), 1 October 1968.

Margaret Dumont, 75, actress and frequent foil for the Marx Brothers, 23 March 1965.

Max Eastman, 86, revolutionary writer and editor, 25 March 1969.

Nelson Eddy, 65, singer and costar with Jeanette Mac-Donald on several romantic films, 6 March 1967.

T. S. Eliot, 76, Nobel Prize-winning poet, critic, and dramatist, 4 January 1965.

Brian Epstein, 32, British discoverer and manager of the Beatles, 27 August 1967.

William Faulkner, 64, major Nobel Prize-winning novelist and short-story writer (The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!), 6 July 1962.

Edna Ferber, 82, popular playwright and novelist (Show Boat, Giant), 16 April 1968.

James Montgomery Flagg, 82, American illustrator, creator of World War I recruitment poster featuring Uncle Sam saying, "I Want You," 27 May 1960.

Clyde Julian "Red" Foley, 58, country musician, 19 September 1968.

Alan Freed, 42, disc jockey credited with popularizing rock 'n' roll, 20 January 1965.

Leo Friedlander, 78, sculptor, 24 October 1964.

Robert Frost, 88, acclaimed American poet ("Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," "The Road Not Taken"), 29 January 1963.

Clark Gable, 59, American movie actor (It Happened One Night, Gone with the Wind), 16 November 1960.

Howard R. Garis, 89, author and creator of "Uncle Wiggily" stories for children, 5 November 1962.

Judy Garland, 47, film star famous for her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of 'Oz, 22 June 1969.

John Gassner, 64, playwright and critic, 2 April 1967.

Hugo Gernsback, 83, founder of Amazing Stories, the first science-fiction magazine, in 1926 and originator of term science fiction, 19 August 1967.

Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson, 70, film actor known for cowboy roles, 23 August 1961.

William Goetz, 66, film producer and one of the cofounders of 20th Century-Fox and Universal, 15 August 1969.

Michael Gold, 74, proletarian writer (Jews without Money), 14 May 1967.

Woody Guthrie, 55, influential folk musician and com-poser ("This Land Is Your Land"), 3 October 1967.

Moses Hadas, 66, prominent scholar and translator of classical literature, 17 August 1966.

Edith Hamilton, 95, well-known classicist (Mythology), 31 May 1963.

Oscar Hammerstein II, 65, Broadway lyricist and librettist, collaborator with Richard Rodgers on musicals (Oklahoma!, The King and I, South Pacific), 23 August 1960

Dashiell Hammett, 66, renowned writer of hard-boiled detective fiction (The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man), 10 January 1961.

Lorraine Hansberry, 34, playwright (A Raisin in the Sun), 12 January 1965.

Otto Harbach, 89, Broadway lyricist and librettist, 24 January 1963.

Moss Hart, 57, playwright, director, and screenwriter, 21 December 1961.

Coleman Hawkins, 64, jazz saxophonist, 19 May 1969.

Gabby Hayes, 83, the archetypal Western sidekick, 9 February 1969.

Ben Hecht, 70, journalist, fiction writer, playwright, and screenwriter, 18 April 1964.

Ernest Hemingway, 61, Nobel Prize-winning writer (The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell To Arms), 2 July 1961.

Sonja Henie, 57, Olympic figure-skating champion who later starred in films, 12 October 1969.

Josephine Herbst, 76, writer, 28 January 1969.

Paul Hindemith, 68, German-born composer, 29 December 1963.

Hans Hofmann, 85, influential painter and teacher, 17 February 1966.

Judy Holliday, 42, Oscar-winning actress (Born Yesterday),? June 1965.

Edward Hopper, 84, painter (Nighthawks), 15 May 1967.

Louis Horst, 80, former husband of and collaborator with modern dance pioneer Martha Graham, 23 January 1964.

Langston Hughes, 65, major African-American poet and novelist, 22 May 1967.

Zora Neale Hurston, 59?, folklorist and novelist (Their Eyes Were Watching God), 28 January 1960.

Aldous Huxley, 69, British novelist (Brave New World, Point Counter Point) who spent his last years in America promoting experiments with religion and drugs, 22 November 1963.

Shirley Jackson, 45, noted writer of novels and short stories ("The Lottery"), 8 August 1965.

Randall Jarrell, 51, poet and critic, 14 October 1965.

Robinson Jeffers, 75, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and playwright, 20 January 1962.

Spike Jones, 53, popular bandleader, 1 May 1965.

Helen Kane, 62, "boop-boop-a-doop" singer of the 1920s and 1930s ("I Wanna Be Loved by You"), 26 September 1966.

Boris Karloff, 81, British star of American horror films, 2 February 1969.

George S. Kaufman, 71, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director, and producer, 2 June 1961.

Buster Keaton, 70, silent-film comedian, 1 February 1966.

Jack Kerouac, 47, Beat Generation novelist (On the Road), 21 October 1969.

Franz Kline, 51, abstract expressionist painter, 13 May 1962.

Ernie Kovacs, 42, television and movie comedian, 13 January 1962.

Fritz Kreisler, 86, Austrian-born violinist and composer, 29 January 1962.

Alan Ladd, 50, film actor (Shane), 29 January 1964.

Oliver La Farge, 61, supporter of American Indians and Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Laughing Boy), 2 August 1963.

Bert Lahr, 72, Broadway, radio, television, and film actor best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, 4 December 1967.

Nella Larsen, 72, novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, 30 March 1964.

Charles Laughton, 63, Academy Award-winning stage and film actor, 15 December 1962.

Stan Laurel, 74, of the classic Laurel and Hardy comedy team, 23 February 1965.

Vivien Leigh, 53, Oscar-winning British stage and film actress remembered for playing Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, 8 July 1967.

Frank Loesser, 59, Broadway composer and lyricist (Guys and Dolls), 28 July 1969.

Peter Lorre, 59, Hungarian-born film actor (M, Casablanca), 23 March 1964.

MinaLoy, 83, poet, 25 September 1966.

Jeanette MacDonald, 57, soprano and star of 1930s romantic films with Nelson Eddy, 14 January 1965.

Jayne Mansfield, 34, film actress, 29 June 1967.

John P. Marquand, 66, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, 15 July 1960.

Chico Marx, 70, the "Italian," piano-playing Marx Brother, 11 October 1961.

Harpo Marx, 70, the silent, harp-playing Marx Brother, 28 September 1964.

Carson McCullers, 50, southern playwright, short-story writer, and novelist (The Member of the Wedding, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe), 29 September 1967.

Jimmy McHugh, 74, composer for movies and Broadway (Tm in the Mood for Love"), 23 May 1969.

Adolphe Menjou, 73, elegant movie actor (The Front Page, A Farewell to Arms), 29 October 1963.

Helen Menken, 64, Broadway actress and president of the American Theater Wing, 27 March 1966.

Grace Metalious, 39, author of the best-selling novel Peyton Place, 25 February 1964.

Dimitri Mitropoulos, 64, Greek-born conductor, 2 November 1960.

Marilyn Monroe, 36, sex symbol and film actress (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven-Year Itch), 5 August 1962.

Wes Montgomery, 45, jazz guitarist, 15 June 1968.

Douglas Stuart Moore, 75, composer of folk operas, 25 July 1969.

Anna Mary Robertson ("Grandma") Moses, 101, painter who started at age seventy-six and created more than one thousand paintings, 13 December 1961.

Charles Munch, 77, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1949 to 1962, 6 November 1968.

Paul Muni, 71, stage and screen actor (Inherit the Wind), 25 August 1967.

Red Nichols, 60, jazz musician and bandleader, 28 June 1965.

Edwin O'Connor, 49, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, 23 March 1968.

Flannery O'Connor, 39, Southern fiction writer, 3 August 1964.

Clifford Odets, 57, writer of protest plays (Waiting for Lefty), 14 August 1963.

Frank O'Hara, 40, poet and critic of the New York School, 25 July 1966.

Dorothy Parker, 73, razor-tongued poet, short-story writer, and critic, one of the wits of the Algonquin Round Table, 7 June 1967.

Maxfield Parrish, 95, painter, 30 March 1966.

Sylvia Plath, 30, poet ("Daddy," "Lady Lazarus") and novelist (The Bell Jar), 11 February 1963.

Cole Porter, 71, Broadway composer and lyricist (Kiss Me, Kate), 15 October 1964.

Earl "Bud" Powell, 41, jazz pianist, innovator in bebop with Duke Ellington and Charlie "Bird" Parker in the 1940s, 1 August 1966.

Claude Rains, 77, British-born film actor (Casablanca, The Invisible Man), 30 May 1967.

Otis Redding, 26, popular singer ("[Sittin' on] The Dock of the Bay"), 10 December 1967.

Fritz Reiner, 74, Hungarian-born conductor, 15 November 1963.

Elmer Rice, 74, playwright (The Adding Machine), 8 May 1967.

Conrad Richter, 78, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, 30 October 1968.

Henry Morton Robinson, 62, best-selling novelist (The Cardinal), 13 January 1961.

Theodore Roethke, 55, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, 1 August 1963.

Billy Rose, 66, Broadway producer and songwriter ("Me and My Shadow"), 10 February 1966.

Ruth St. Denis, 91, one of the creators of modern dance and teacher of Martha Graham, 21 July 1968.

Carl Sandburg, 89, poet and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, 22 July 1967.

Joseph M. Schenck, S 2, Russian-born film pioneer, one of the founders of 20th Century-Fox, 22 October 1961.

Delmore Schwartz, 52, poet and critic, 11 July 1966.

Evelyn Scott, 70, novelist, 3 August 1963.

David O. Selznick, 63, Hollywood producer (Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz), 22 June 1965.

Mack Sennett, 76, movie director (the Keystone Kops), 5 November 1960.

Ben Shahn, 70, Lithuanian-born artist, 14 March 1969.

Upton Sinclair, 90, socialist writer (The Jungle), 25 November 1968.

Cordwainer Smith (Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger), 53, science-fiction writer, 6 August 1966.

E. E. "Doc" Smith, 75, science-fiction writer, 1 September 1965.

John Steinbeck, 66, Nobel Prize-winning fiction writer (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath), 20 December 1968.

Billy Strayhorn, 51, jazz pianist, arranger, and composer ("Take the A Train"), partner of Duke Ellington for twenty-six years, 10 June 1967.

Ruth Suckow, 67, novelist, 23 January 1960.

Sharon Tate, 26, actress and wife of director Roman Polanski murdered by Charles Manson's followers, 8 August 1969.

Deems Taylor, 80, pioneer in American opera, 3 July 1966.

Jack Teagarden, 58, jazz trombonist and vocalist, 15 January 1964.

James Thurber, 66, cartoonist and writer ("The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"), 2 November 1961.

Alice B. Toklas, 89, author and companion of Gertrude Stein, 7 March 1967.

Melvin B. Tolson, 68, poet, 29 August 1966.

Jean Toomer, 72, poet and fiction writer of the Harlem Renaissance (Cane), 30 March 1967.

Spencer Tracy, 67, Oscar-winning movie actor (Boys' Town, Adams Rib, Captains Courageous), 19 June 1967.

B. Traven (Berick Traven Torsvan), 79, mysterious writer (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), 27 March 1969.

Sophie Tucker, 79, singer billed as "the last of the redhot mamas," 9 February 1966.

Carl Van Vechten, 84, critic and novelist (Nigger Heaven), 21 December 1964.

Edgard Varese, 81, French-born composer, innovator in electronic music, 6 November 1965.

Bruno Walter, 85, German-born conductor, 17 February 1962.

Walter Wanger, 74, movie producer (Stagecoach, Cleopatra), 18 November 1968.

Dinah Washington, 39, blues singer, 14 December 1963.

William Carlos Williams, 79, poet and pediatrician, 4 March 1963.

Yvor Winters, 67, poet and critic, 25 January 1968.

Richard Wright, 52, novelist (Native Son) and autobiographer (Black Boy), 28 November 1960.

Ed Wynn, 79, radio, television, and stage performer known as "The Perfect Fool," later a successful dramatic actor (Requiem for a Heavyweight), 19 June 1966.