Notable Deaths - August 26
Here are the notable deaths on August 26 throughout the years:
Lon Chaney, Sr. (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) - An American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema. He is best remembered for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with film makeup. He is chiefly remembered as a pioneer in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and most notably, The Phantom of the Opera. His ability to transform himself using self-invented makeup techniques earned him the nickname of “Man of a Thousand Faces.” During the filming of Thunder in the winter of 1929, Chaney developed pneumonia. In late 1929 he was diagnosed with bronchial lung cancer. Despite aggressive treatment, his condition gradually worsened, and seven weeks after the release of the remake of The Unholy Three, he died of a throat hemorrhage. In 1957, Chaney was the subject of a biopic titled Man of a Thousand Faces, and was portrayed by James Cagney. Chaney’s son, Lon Chaney, Jr., became a film actor after his father’s death, and is best remembered for roles in horror films, especially The Wolf Man. The Chaneys appeared on US postage stamps as their signature characters, the Phantom of the Opera and the Wolf Man, with the set completed by Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster and The Mummy. He and his son are mentioned in the Warren Zevon song “Werewolves of London.”
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) - An American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and peace activist who, on May 20–21, 1927, rose instantaneously from virtual obscurity to world fame as the result of his piloting of the first solo nonstop Transatlantic flight from New York (Roosevelt Field) to Paris (Le Bourget Field), in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh was awarded the nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, in 1927 for his exploit. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Lindbergh used his fame to relentlessly help promote the rapid development of U.S. commercial aviation. In the later 1930s and up until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh was an outspoken advocate of keeping the U.S. out of the world conflict (as was his Congressman father during World War I) and became a leader of the anti-war America First movement. Nonetheless, he supported the war effort after Pearl Harbor and flew many combat missions in the Pacific Theater as a civilian consultant, even though President Roosevelt had refused to reinstate his Army Air Force commission as a colonel that he had resigned earlier in 1941. In his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific prize-winning author, international explorer, inventor, and active environmentalist. In what came to be referred to by the press of the time as “The Crime of the Century,” on the evening of March 1, 1932, 20-month old Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was abducted by an intruder from his crib in the second story nursery of his family’s rural Hopewell, New Jersey, home. The search finally ended on May 12 when the remains of an infant were serendipitously discovered by truck driver William Allen about two miles from the Lindberghs’ home in woods near a road just north of the small village of Mount Rose, NJ. The child’s body was soon identified by Lindbergh as being that of his kidnapped son. A month later the Congress passed the so-called “Lindbergh Law” on June 13, 1932, which made kidnapping a federal offense if the victim is taken across state lines or “uses the mail or any means, facility, or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce in committing or in furtherance of the commission of the offense” including as a means to demand a ransom. Lindbergh spent his final years on the Hawaiian island of Maui, where he died of lymphoma. He was buried on the grounds of the Palapala Ho’omau Church in Kipahulu, Maui. The dance craze, the “Lindy Hop” became popular after his flight, and was named after him.
Frederick Bean “Tex” Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) - An American animator, cartoonist, and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, creating the characters of Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, and developing Porky Pig and Chilly Willy (this last one for the Walter Lantz Studio) into regular cartoon characters. His influence was found in almost all of the animated cartoon series by various studios in the 1940s and 1950s. Avery’s style of directing broke the mold of strict realism established by Walt Disney, and encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. He died at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, California at age 72. He had been suffering from lung cancer for a year. He is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park at Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California. Here is a Tex Avery tribute:
Ted Knight (December 7, 1923 – August 26, 1986) - An American actor best known for playing the comedic role of Ted Baxter on the CBS show “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Henry Rush on the ABC/syndicated show “Too Close for Comfort,” and Judge Elihu Smails in the 1980 golf comedy Caddyshack. A few months after the end of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1977 he was diagnosed with cancer for which he received various forms of treatment for several years. In 1985 he was diagnosed with colon cancer, which despite rigorous treatment, eventually began to spread to his bladder and throughout his lower gastrointestinal tract. He died from complications due to surgery. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Here is a clip of Ted from Caddyshack:
Laura Branigan (July 3, 1957 – August 26, 2004) - An American singer and actress of Irish ancestry. She was best known for her 1982 platinum-selling single “Gloria,” a hit throughout the world which spent a record-setting 36 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100. Branigan’s vocal performance of the song earned her a Grammy Award nomination in early 1983. Following the success of “Gloria,” Branigan introduced the ballad “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” which spent three weeks at #1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. The same year, she had another Top 10 Pop hit with “Solitaire.” Branigan’s Self Control album (1984) was certified Platinum and was her all-time biggest seller with the title track becoming an international smash. She died at her home on Long Island, New York. Her death was attributed to a previously undiagnosed brain aneurysm. It was reported in the media that she had been experiencing headaches for a few weeks before her death but did not seek medical attention. Branigan was cremated and her ashes were distributed over Long Island Sound. Here is her 1984 music video for “Self Control,” directed by William Friedkin (1973’s The Exorcist), that MTV originally refused to air because the original version was too sexually suggestive and risqué for public airing. After the record label provided an edited version, the network added this revised video to its rotation: