Dirk Bogarde 1921 - 1991 Findadeath Update

Dirk Bogarde

March 28, 1921 - May 8, 1999

"I love the camera and it loves me."

Dirk was a British stage and screen actor.  He turned down the role of the lead male in Gigi and was considered for Dr. Zhivago.  He never really reached "legendary status" in the States.  He made a couple of big budget films in the US, but they didn't perform well so he stuck with his success in Britain.

A list of his performances are on the IMDB

TV?  Never!  I don't want my audience going for a piss or making tea while I'm hard at work.

He was also an author and talked to music.

Truthfully, I knew very little about Bogarde and his career, so I looked up a few interviews on youtube.  One thing for sure, Dirk found himself absolutely fascinating.  I've spent a lot of time with older actors and while they do have very interesting stories to share, 90% of the time it's exhausting to listen to them.  

EXHAUSTING

Wait, don't get up, I'm about to say something very interesting.

Dirk was a "lifelong bachelor".  He lived with a man name Anthony Forwood who used to be married to Glynis Johns.  

Dirk and Tony's London flat.

He had a stroke in November of 1987 after which he quit smoking.

Forwood died of liver cancer.

In 1996 Bogarde had surgery to unblock his arteries, after which he had a massive stroke.  He was paralyzed on one side of his body.  He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.  His speech was also severely affected.  Can you imagine?  Him not being able to talk?  What?  How will they hear my interesting stories?!

But don't fret.  He managed to complete the final volume (VOLUME) of his autobiography which included information about his fascinating stroke and how he learned to live with it.

The day before he died was spent with the Angel of Death herself, Lauren Bacall. 

He died of a heart attack on May 8, 1999.  He was 78 years old.

His ashes were scattered over his home in the South of France.

Wanna see his mailbox?

Trivia:  Bogarde chose Brigitte Bardot as a co-star in Doctor at Sea, thus bringing her to the attention of the non-English speaking world.

Official Website

It's Sammy Davis Jr.'s 25th Deathaversary! Let's SHAKE! (or dig him up... again.)

Sammy Davis Jr.December 8, 1925 - May 16, 1990

"Being a star made it possible for me to get
insulted in places where the average Negro
could never hope to go and get insulted."

I think "Being a star" is code for "hanging around Frank Sinatra".

Watch Sammy tear it up

I went to Forest Lawn the day after his funeral and took these photographs.

Then his wife went and dug him up.

After the funeral, Sammy’s wife Altovise went through all kinds of financial troubles with the estate.  The Samster, when buried, was FESTOOONED with valuable jewelry.  It cost her over $400, but she dug that shit up.  Here come 'da Judge.

For all the details check Sammy's death and exhumation read Findadeath

Marlene Dietrich 23rd Deathaversary May 6, 2015

Marlene Dietrich

December 21, 1901 - May 6, 1992

"Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret."

Dietrich was one of the most fascinating actresses of the 20^th Century.  She turned into one of the most curious recluses.  Classic film fans will probably want to string me up when I say that I constantly confuse Dietrich with Garbo.  Like Laurence Fishburne and Samuel L. Jackson and DeNiro/Pacino.   I can't explain it.  I can't defend it.  It just is.

Since 1978 Dietrich occupied a two-room apartment overlooking a courtyard garden, at 12 Avenue Montaigne in Paris.

She was bedridden for her final five years and would spend hours chatting with her friends across the world on two telephones (spending up to $7,500 a month). 

"A real friend is one you can call at 4am."

(zzzzzz.... ring ring!  ring ring!  'wha... oh God, please don't let it be her.')

Mike Pare clarifies, "She was not bedridden in the classic sense, she just chose not to get up and around. She had had a bad fall, and did have arthritis, but she was in otherwise excellent health, she just preferred to be a martyr. She was not hard up for money, she maintained her NYC apartment until she died though she had not seen it in years.  She was on occasion cash poor. One emerald piece she left her daughter was sold for over $900,000.

One article quoted a confidante, Bernard Hall.

"I used to sleep on her couch in her flat because she would wake at 4am calling, "Bernard, Bernard'," said Mr. Hall.  "I'd cook her breakfast because I knew that was what she needed.  But at 6am the scotch would be going down.  I didn't know what to do.  I gave it to her.  It was impossible saying no.  Anyway, she had two bottles under the bed.  She was brilliant until 10am, then zonk, she'd collapse."

"I loved her more than anything but she was totally impossible to live with."

Jayne Osborne prompted this memory of a drunken Judy Garland telling a hilarious story about Marlene.

One report claimed that she drank to forget the thrombosis her her once-glamorous legs.

Only on extremely rare occasions would she be seen leaving the door of her Paris apartment building.

She had an aversion to being seen as she aged, tho one resourceful photographer did capture pix of her thru a window and on her balcony shortly before she died that were printed in European papers.  Here is is, THANK YOU Richard!

This is the last verified photograph of Marlene, taken a few months before her death.

It was in this Paris apartment that Dietrich died, May 6^th 1992. She was 90 years old.

More than 1,500 people mourned at her funeral at the Madeleine Church in Paris. Her closed coffin, draped in the French flag and adorned with a simple bouquet of white wildflowers, rested beneath the altar. Three medals, including France's Legion of Honor, were displayed at the foot of the coffin, military style, for a ceremony symbolizing the sense of duty Dietrich embodied in her career as an actress, and in her personal fight against Nazism. Her daughter placed a wooden crucifix, a St. Christopher's medal and a locket enclosing photos of Dietrich's grandsons in the coffin. 

On May 16^th  her body was flown to Berlin, her birthplace, for burial near her mother Josefine von Losch.

Neo Nazi's disrupted her funeral service in Berlin, handing out anti-Dietrich pamphlets.

Someone put together this nice youtube video of her funeral.

Dietrich is buried in the Friedenau Cemetery, in Berlin.

Thank you, Jurgen

Findadeath.com friend Harald sends this:  As I have heard and read from many different sources, Dietrich (who had a hate-love relationship with Germany) wanted to have her last resting place in Berlin, because she wanted to be buried close to her mother, who is buried in a little Berlin cemetery, (Friedhof III, Berlin-Friedenau). It could be that Marlene finally made peace with Germany (she even came to Germany for a tour in the early 1960s). But maybe bringing her to Berlin could as well been a late revenge of her daughter, Maria Riva, who always said that Marlene was a dominant tyrant. And now Maria had the last word ;-)

Trivia: Dietrich once proclaimed that the diaphragm to be "the greatest invention since Pan-Cake makeup.

Dietrich on Mommie Dearest:  "Fay Dunaway should be ashamed of herself, but then, she probably needed the money to pay her liquor bills."

"I did not know Joan Crawford, but nobody deserves that kind of daughter.  Too bad she did not leave her where she found her, so that she could now spit her poison in the slums of some big city.   I hate her with a passion, and I know the public will."

"I am shocked that Paramount bought that filthy book and make that frightful bitch who wrote it rich."

Findadeath.com friend Andrew MW sends this in, December 15, 2001:  In 1981, I had lunch with an actor who had just worked with David Hemmings, who had directed Frau Dietrich in "Just A Gigolo" a few years before.

Apparently Marlene could not walk, and when she did the title song, was put on a platform and wheeled across to the piano!!..... it is a very difficult film to find, but I do recall that moment. A true story I believe. The actors name was John Hargreaves (deceased).

July 2003 My pal Harry Martin sends us this:  We were on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Princess Cruise Line ship the Sea Princess in February 2002. One of the features of the ship was a display of articles from the Marlene Dietrich estate that Princess purchased. I recall they had one gray dress (teeny waistline), some telegrams, a cigarette case and a makeup travel case. It was too cool. But sorry to say, though, most folks never stopped to see it because they were on the way to the theater or because on many days, you had to move the stupid art auction prints out of the way. But you know me, I just moved the dumb pictures so I could see the whole exhibit. So if any Find a Death fans are ever on the Sea Princess, be sure and look up the exhibit.

Trivia:  Her make-up man said she kissed so hard that she needed a new coat of lipstick after every kiss. 

It seemed Dietrich was short of cash towards the end of her life  In 1987 she sold off some of her cigarette cases and compacts for $81,500.  Either that or she wanted a good laugh when she was cleaning out a junk drawer so she called an auction house.

"When you're dead, you're dead.  That's it." - Deitrich

Deathaversary - Albert Dekker - The Hideous Kinky

Albert Dekker

December 20, 1905 - May 5, 1968

"Mmphmmpmhmmbmmmnmphmmm.."

Masturbation will kill you. Ask Albert. He was an actor best known for his role as Dr. Cyclops, but was also in East of Eden and The Wild Bunch.  He was also a former California Legislator. He had a sixteen-year-old son who killed himself in 1967.

His long-time fiancé Geraldine Saunders last saw Albert on May 2^nd when they attended the opening of The Latent Heterosexual, at the Hollywood Huntington Hartford. At the time she said, "We were to have gone again on Friday, but my numerous phone calls to him that evening went unanswered." She also claimed that they were to be married within the next month.

Dekker had recently moved into an apartment on Normandie Avenue in Hollywood.

Hello Dearly Departed van!

Initially annoyed and then concerned, Geraldine went to Dekker's apartment on Sunday morning the 5th.  There were numerous messages and notes attached to the door of his apartment from others who were concerned.   She asked the manager to open the apartment door just to have a peek.

When she turned the corner into the bathroom, she saw in the bathtub...

Now here's the thing.

A few years back we were making the documentary Dearly Departed Vol. 1.  Dekker was one of the featured stories.  Director Mike Dorsey lived in the building, but in a different apartment.   Since they are all the same, we were going to shoot it in his place.  In an "oh, what the hell" moment, I thought...  Well, we're here. Why don't we ask the people who live in Dekker's actual place?

So I knocked on the door.

A nice girl answered the door.  I told her we were doing a little documentary about an actor who lived in her apartment in the 1960's.  I asked her if she wouldn't mind if we shot in her apartment for a minute.  She agreed and asked us to return in 20 minutes.  I stressed to her, 

"We really want to see the bathroom."  

She looked at us strangely and agreed.  We returned.

This is what happened.

He "was kneeling nude in the bathtub.  A noose was around his neck but not tight enough to have strangled him. A scarf was tied over his eyes and a horse’s bit was in his mouth, fashioned from a rubber ball and metal wire, the bit had chain "reins" that were tightly tied beneath his head. Two leather straps were stretched between the leather belts that girded his neck and chest. A third belt, around his waist, was tied with a rope that stretched to his ankles, where it had been tied in some kind of timber hitch. The end of the rope, which continued up his side, wrapped around his wrist several times and was held in Dekker’s hand. Handcuffs clamped both wrists with a key attached. Written in red lipstick on his right buttock was the word, "whip." Sunrays had also been drawn around his nipples. "Make me suck," was written on his throat, and "slave," and "cocksucker," on his chest. On his stomach was drawn a vagina. He had apparently been dead for several days.  

He was 62 years old.

Dekker was sent back east to the Garden State Crematorium, New Jersey. No one knows for sure what has become of his cremains.

 Some people say it was a robbery gone wrong, because a good deal of cash and electronic equipment was missing from his apartment. I think someone may have ripped him off, but it sounds more like Albert loved doing the dirty squirty thing on his own. He was the great granddaddy of all autoerotic asphyxiators. Problem is, he didn't even complete the job.  The proverbial Die Trying, his death was ruled accidental.

He didn't cum.

Findadeath pal Jaymuss has a pal that wrote celebrities for autographs in the 60's.  This is one he got from our pal Albert.  I hope he washed his hands first.

Munchkin Harry Doll's Deathaversary May 4, 2015

Harry Doll
March 12, 1899 - May 4, 1970
"Dummkopf! What have you on your shoulders for heads?  Swiss cheese?"

I like little animals.

I like little people.

When I was a child, watching the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz worried and fascinated me.  The fact that they were given odd little outfits to wear that accentuated their size gave us permission to stare at them.  When I first saw the film Freaks, I fell in love with those featured in that film as well.  Again, it was okay to stare.  

I loved that I got in on the tail end of real Freak Shows while I was growing up, actually being able to experience one.  I know it's not politically correct, but I miss them.  I have absolutely no problem with people taking what others would consider a "disability" and using it to their advantage.  Of course, back in the Freak Show heyday, there were some very dark and unhappy stories.  That is not one of them.

Meet the Doll Family. 

They certainly are a treat for the eyes, aren't they?

Though born in Germany, they spent most of their lives living in Sarasota, Florida.  Sarasota is only 40 miles south of Gibsonton, the retirement place of many circus performers.  It seems that "Gibtown" has all but dried up - which is truly a loss.  One of my dream locations that I will visit at some point.

The Doll Family lived in this modular home community, behind this guard booth.

Here is a rare photograph of Daisy and Tiny Doll in front of their home, circa 1969.  Their home was featured in several publications because it was designed especially for little people.  Smaller furniture, light switches being lower, etc.  

This is Harry's favorite chair.

By most accounts, the Doll family lived happy lives.  Daisy was the only one who ever married - it didn't last long.  

Midgets - like the Doll Family, tend to live long lives.  I believe because they don't have the physical stress on their bodies that average sized people do.  They are perfectly proportioned, just small.  

Dwarves usually have bodies that are abnormally formed, and have medical problems, bone, respiratory, etc.  Herve Villechaize, David Rappaport, Peter Dinklage..I'm probably going to get loads of email about how Un PC I am.  So be it.

Grace Doll died on November 8, 1970.  She was 71.  

Harry Died on May 4, 1985 in the Doctor's Hospital of Sarasota, Florida.  He was 83.  

Daisy died on March 15, 1980 in the Sarasota Memorial Hospital.  She was 72. 

Tiny Doll died on September 6, 2004.  She was 90.  Tiny especially liked the color photograph of the Dolls at the top of the page.  She let me know herself.

All the Dolls were cremated, and the location of their cremains is unknown.

It is well known that while the Wizard of Oz was being made, the Munchkins stayed in the Culver Hotel nearby the MGM Studios.  Judy Garland herself fueled the urban legends of the orgies and police raids, which really never happened.  Judy would say anything for a laugh, especially when she was (obviously) inebriated.

Making the film was the first time a lot of little people had the chance to meet other little people.  Marriages and relationships (and one night stands I'm sure)  were made.  No doubt there were parties, but not to the extent it is often exaggerated.

I had the opportunity to stay in the Culver Hotel.  I even had one of the cool corner rooms.

Except for the view, it was terrible.  It was a total shitty experience.  No keys worked on any rooms, the portable air conditioner on wheels took up most of the room, the elevators were not working properly.  It was pretty costly for an experiment.  The lobby/bar, very nice.  The hotel?  Disqualified.

A few years ago the Munchkins received a star on the 

Hollywood Walk of Moneygrubbing.  

A very kind benefactor coughed up the several thousands of dollars to pay for the star, and fly 7 of the remaining 9 Munchkins out to Hollywood for the ceremony.

Joey Luft, Judy's son even shows up, to a crowd of squealing queens.  It was the last ceremony officiated by Johnny Grant before he bit it.  Buh bye.

The Munchkins finally received recognition in this world because of a man named Stephen Cox.  Long before the internet, and information was available at our fingertips, Steve documented every single Munchkin for his book - The Munchkins Remember, later republished The Munchkins of Oz.

A fascinating "Whatever happened to..." book that I loved and recommend.  I am proud to call Steve a friend, and Steve helped by providing original photographs for this story.

After the star ceremony there was a screening of The Wizard of Oz in Grauman's Chinese Theater, where the film was premiered back in 1939.  

The little people showed up for a Q and A, and were able to enjoy the most amazingly shitty print of the film.  One of those "Only in Hollywood" evenings.

CREEP FACTOR:  Harry and Daisy played lovers in Freaks.  MMmmmm.  What could make this movie more disturbing?

More:  Tiny subscribed to the National Enquirer.  Would you like Tiny Doll to show you their mailbox?

As of this writing, May 4, 2015, there is only one adult Munchkin alive.   His name is Jerry Maren.  He presented Dorothy with a lollipop in the film, and also recently visited Dearly Departed Tours.

No Munchkin killed himself during the filming of The Wizard of Oz.

Big findadeath thanks to Ryan Fridley who drove around Sarasota snapping pictures for us.  Thanks Ryan!

Special thanks to my buddy Barry Patraw.