wow 2 celebs died in one day
June Cash and Robert Stack
Grammy Winner June Carter Cash Dies at 73
June Carter Cash, the Grammy-winning scion of one of country music's pioneering families and the wife of country giant Johnny Cash, died Thursday of complications from heart surgery. She was 73.
She died at a hospital with her husband of 35 years and family members at her bedside, manager Lou Robin said. She had been critically ill after May 7 surgery to replace a heart valve.
A singer, songwriter, musician, actress and author, June Carter Cash performed with her husband on record and on stage, doing songs like 'Jackson' and 'If I Were a Carpenter,' which won Grammy awards in 1967 and 1970, respectively. Their duets included 'It Ain't Me Babe' in 1964 and 'If I Had a Hammer' in 1972.
'People talk about Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette when it comes to pioneering women in country music. But they very seldom mention June, somewhat because she got married to Johnny Cash,' said Ed Benson, executive director of the Country Music Association. 'I think people should think of her more often when they think of the pioneering women in country music.'
She was co-writer of her husband's 1963 hit 'Ring of Fire,' which was about falling in love with Cash. In his 1997 autobiography, Johnny Cash described how his wife stuck with him through his years of amphetamine abuse.
'June said she knew me _ knew the kernel of me, deep inside, beneath the drugs and deceit and despair and anger and selfishness, and knew my loneliness,' he wrote. 'She said she could help me. ... If she found my pills, she flushed them down the toilet. And find them she did; she searched for them, relentlessly.'
Longtime friend Kris Kristofferson, who wrote the Cash hit 'Sunday Morning Coming Down,' said Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash have 'been partners in life for as long as I've known them _ always in love, and always there for each other.
'I know how much she means to him. It's the hardest thing he'll ever have to face.'
June Carter was born June 23, 1929, in Maces Spring, Va. Her mother, Maybelle Carter, was in the Carter Family music act with her cousin Sara Carter and Sara's husband, A.P. Carter. In 1927, they made what are among the first country music recordings.
The family act broke up, but mother and daughters June, Helen and Anita continued on as Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters, with little June playing autoharp.
Starting in 1939, the sisters starred in a radio show on XERA in Del Rio, Texas, that could be heard as far away as Saskatchewan, Canada. The Carters went on to become staples of the Grand Ole Opry country music show in Nashville.
The Carters' harmony singing still inspires artists today and Maybelle's 'Carter lick' on the guitar has become one of the most influential techniques in country music.
In the late 1950s, after her marriage to country singer Carl Smith broke up, June Carter moved to New York to study acting at the behest of director Elia Kazan, who had seen her perform while scouting Tennessee for movie locations.
In 1961, she turned down an offer to work on a variety show that had Woody Allen as one of the writers, agreeing instead to tour with Johnny Cash for $500 a week. They married in 1968 after he proposed to her o n stage on London, Ontario.
In a 1987 Associated Press interview, June Carter Cash described her husband as 'probably the most unusual, fine, unselfish person I've known.'
'There's a lot of power to him,' she said then. 'I've seen him on shows with people with a No. 1 record or a lot of No. 1 records, but when John walks on that stage, the rest of 'em might as well leave.'
In 1999, she released an acoustic album, 'Press On,' that amounted to a musical autobiography and won her another Grammy. The album, her first in a quarter-century, followed her career from its beginning through her then 31-year marriage and collaboration with Cash.
'There's a lot of people who I love _ fans that I've known through the years _ who will be glad I did it,' she said about the album at the time. 'And maybe some other people ... wonder what Johnny Cash's wife is really like.'
In 1979, she wrote an autobiography, 'Among My Klediments,' and released 'From the Heart,' a memoir, in 1987.
June Carter Cash did occasional acting roles, including the part of Robert Duvall's mother in the 1997 film 'The Apostle.' With her husband, she periodically performed at Billy Graham crusades.
Johnny and June Carter Cash had a son, John Carter Cash, in 1970. She was also the mother of country singer Carlene Carter, whose father was Smith, and singer Rosanne Cash is her stepdaughter.
Funeral services will be private and details will not be released at the request of the Cash family.
Untouchables' Actor Robert Stack Dies
Veteran actor Robert Stack, who earned an Emmy as the tough-guy hero of TV's 'Untouchables' and an Oscar nomination at the height of his movie fame in the 1950s, has died. He was 84.
Stack, 84, was found dead of a heart attack Wednesday evening at his home by his wife, Rosemarie.
The actor was treated for prostate cancer in October. But his wife said he had been feeling good, and he looked hardy at a weekend 80th birthday party for longtime friend Johnny Grant.
'He came in full of energy and enthusiasm, gave me a good, strong birthday hug,' Grant said. 'What a shock.'
Nancy Reagan said she and former President Reagan had known Stack more than 50 years. 'Bob had an extraordinary career in both movies and television,' she said. 'Just when it seemed he was ready to retire, he always found a new project.'
Stack had a lengthy film career, beginning with his screen debut in 1939's 'First Love,' where he gave young actress Deanna Durbin her much-publicized first screen kiss.
He became a matinee idol overnight.
Longtime Hollywood publicist Warren Cowan recalled Stack's pleasure when Cowan told him he had seen a publicity photo of the actor in the preserved home of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl whose family hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam house for 25 months before they were captured in World War II.
'There was a big still picture on Anne Frank's bulletin board,' Cowan said. 'I told him about it last year.'
His greatest fame came with the 1959-63 TV drama 'The Untouchables,' in which he played Chicago crimebuster Eliot Ness and won a best actor Emmy.
That role, coupled with his job as host of the reality series 'Unsolved Mysteries,' created an enduring good-guy image.
'I think there's a definite carry-over from Eliot Ness,' Stack said in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. 'Somebody once said, 'You really think you're Eliot Ness.' No, I don't think I'm Ness, but I sure as hell know I'm not Al Capone.''
Stack also could do comedy. He spoofed his screen image as a granite-jawed, humorless tough guy in the 1980 comedy 'Airplane!' An avid golfer, he had a comic role in 1988's 'Caddyshack II.'
In real life, Stack was an athletic man who liked skeet shooting and golf. Relaxed and jovial, with abundant Hollywood anecdotes, he had a knack for being able to talk to anyone, Grant recalled.
'This guy was at home with the society folks (and) he could sit on a curb down on the Bowery and talk to the less fortunate folks and be just as comfortable,' Grant said.
'Everybody loved him. I don't think I ever heard one harsh word said about Bob Stack. Nor did I ever hear him give one,' Grant said.
Stack was born into a performing arts family in Los Angeles. His great-great-grandfather opened one of the city's first theaters, and his grandparents, uncle and mother were opera singers.
His father, however, 'was the only Irishman in County Kerry who couldn't sing, and that's whose singing voice I got,' Stack said in 1998.
But the young man had a resonant speaking voice and rugged good looks, enough to catch the eye of producer Joe Pasternak when Stack ventured onto the Universal lot at age 20.
'He said 'How'd you like to be in pictures? We'll make a test with Helen Parrish, a little love scene.' Helen Parrish was a beautiful girl. 'Gee, that sounds keen,' I told him. I got the part,' Stack recalled.
He played a series of youthful romantic leads before leaving Hollywood to serve with the Navy as an aerial gunnery instructor in World War II.
His postwar career climbed in the 1950s with meatier roles and better projects, including 'The High and the Mighty' starring John Wayne in 1954.
In 1957, Stack was nominated for a best supporting Oscar for 'Written on the Wind,' a domestic melodrama starring Lauren Bacall and Rock Hudson. When he lost the trophy (to Anthony Quinn, 'Lust for Life'), Jimmy Stewart reassured him he'd win next time.
'But Jimmy, what if I never get another part like this?' Stack said.
'Well, that's just too **** bad,' Stewart replied.
Stack was never nominated for another Oscar. But he told that story with a chuckle _ he clearly didn't take himself or life in Hollywood too seriously. 'It's all malarkey; even the wonderful part is malarkey,' he said.
Stack made more than 40 films, including 'The Iron Glove' (1954); 'Good Morning Miss Dove' (1955) and 'Is Paris Burning?' (1966).
His role as Ness in 'The Untouchables' brought him a best actor Emmy in 1960. The series, awash in Prohibition Era shoot-'em-ups between gangsters and federal agents, drew harsh criticism about its violence _ along with good ratings for ABC.
Stack found more series success with 'The Name of the Game' (1968-71), 'Most Wanted' (1976-77) and 'Strike Force' (1981-82).
'Unsolved Mysteries,' true stories of crime and mysterious disappearances, brought Stack back to TV in 1988, and the popular show continued through the late '90s.
His autobiography, 'Straight Shooting,' was published in 1979.
Stack is survived by his wife, whom he married in 1956, and their two children, Elizabeth and Charles, both of Los Angeles.
Grammy Winner June Carter Cash Dies at 73
June Carter Cash, the Grammy-winning scion of one of country music's pioneering families and the wife of country giant Johnny Cash, died Thursday of complications from heart surgery. She was 73.
She died at a hospital with her husband of 35 years and family members at her bedside, manager Lou Robin said. She had been critically ill after May 7 surgery to replace a heart valve.
A singer, songwriter, musician, actress and author, June Carter Cash performed with her husband on record and on stage, doing songs like 'Jackson' and 'If I Were a Carpenter,' which won Grammy awards in 1967 and 1970, respectively. Their duets included 'It Ain't Me Babe' in 1964 and 'If I Had a Hammer' in 1972.
'People talk about Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette when it comes to pioneering women in country music. But they very seldom mention June, somewhat because she got married to Johnny Cash,' said Ed Benson, executive director of the Country Music Association. 'I think people should think of her more often when they think of the pioneering women in country music.'
She was co-writer of her husband's 1963 hit 'Ring of Fire,' which was about falling in love with Cash. In his 1997 autobiography, Johnny Cash described how his wife stuck with him through his years of amphetamine abuse.
'June said she knew me _ knew the kernel of me, deep inside, beneath the drugs and deceit and despair and anger and selfishness, and knew my loneliness,' he wrote. 'She said she could help me. ... If she found my pills, she flushed them down the toilet. And find them she did; she searched for them, relentlessly.'
Longtime friend Kris Kristofferson, who wrote the Cash hit 'Sunday Morning Coming Down,' said Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash have 'been partners in life for as long as I've known them _ always in love, and always there for each other.
'I know how much she means to him. It's the hardest thing he'll ever have to face.'
June Carter was born June 23, 1929, in Maces Spring, Va. Her mother, Maybelle Carter, was in the Carter Family music act with her cousin Sara Carter and Sara's husband, A.P. Carter. In 1927, they made what are among the first country music recordings.
The family act broke up, but mother and daughters June, Helen and Anita continued on as Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters, with little June playing autoharp.
Starting in 1939, the sisters starred in a radio show on XERA in Del Rio, Texas, that could be heard as far away as Saskatchewan, Canada. The Carters went on to become staples of the Grand Ole Opry country music show in Nashville.
The Carters' harmony singing still inspires artists today and Maybelle's 'Carter lick' on the guitar has become one of the most influential techniques in country music.
In the late 1950s, after her marriage to country singer Carl Smith broke up, June Carter moved to New York to study acting at the behest of director Elia Kazan, who had seen her perform while scouting Tennessee for movie locations.
In 1961, she turned down an offer to work on a variety show that had Woody Allen as one of the writers, agreeing instead to tour with Johnny Cash for $500 a week. They married in 1968 after he proposed to her o n stage on London, Ontario.
In a 1987 Associated Press interview, June Carter Cash described her husband as 'probably the most unusual, fine, unselfish person I've known.'
'There's a lot of power to him,' she said then. 'I've seen him on shows with people with a No. 1 record or a lot of No. 1 records, but when John walks on that stage, the rest of 'em might as well leave.'
In 1999, she released an acoustic album, 'Press On,' that amounted to a musical autobiography and won her another Grammy. The album, her first in a quarter-century, followed her career from its beginning through her then 31-year marriage and collaboration with Cash.
'There's a lot of people who I love _ fans that I've known through the years _ who will be glad I did it,' she said about the album at the time. 'And maybe some other people ... wonder what Johnny Cash's wife is really like.'
In 1979, she wrote an autobiography, 'Among My Klediments,' and released 'From the Heart,' a memoir, in 1987.
June Carter Cash did occasional acting roles, including the part of Robert Duvall's mother in the 1997 film 'The Apostle.' With her husband, she periodically performed at Billy Graham crusades.
Johnny and June Carter Cash had a son, John Carter Cash, in 1970. She was also the mother of country singer Carlene Carter, whose father was Smith, and singer Rosanne Cash is her stepdaughter.
Funeral services will be private and details will not be released at the request of the Cash family.
Untouchables' Actor Robert Stack Dies
Veteran actor Robert Stack, who earned an Emmy as the tough-guy hero of TV's 'Untouchables' and an Oscar nomination at the height of his movie fame in the 1950s, has died. He was 84.
Stack, 84, was found dead of a heart attack Wednesday evening at his home by his wife, Rosemarie.
The actor was treated for prostate cancer in October. But his wife said he had been feeling good, and he looked hardy at a weekend 80th birthday party for longtime friend Johnny Grant.
'He came in full of energy and enthusiasm, gave me a good, strong birthday hug,' Grant said. 'What a shock.'
Nancy Reagan said she and former President Reagan had known Stack more than 50 years. 'Bob had an extraordinary career in both movies and television,' she said. 'Just when it seemed he was ready to retire, he always found a new project.'
Stack had a lengthy film career, beginning with his screen debut in 1939's 'First Love,' where he gave young actress Deanna Durbin her much-publicized first screen kiss.
He became a matinee idol overnight.
Longtime Hollywood publicist Warren Cowan recalled Stack's pleasure when Cowan told him he had seen a publicity photo of the actor in the preserved home of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl whose family hid from the Nazis in an Amsterdam house for 25 months before they were captured in World War II.
'There was a big still picture on Anne Frank's bulletin board,' Cowan said. 'I told him about it last year.'
His greatest fame came with the 1959-63 TV drama 'The Untouchables,' in which he played Chicago crimebuster Eliot Ness and won a best actor Emmy.
That role, coupled with his job as host of the reality series 'Unsolved Mysteries,' created an enduring good-guy image.
'I think there's a definite carry-over from Eliot Ness,' Stack said in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. 'Somebody once said, 'You really think you're Eliot Ness.' No, I don't think I'm Ness, but I sure as hell know I'm not Al Capone.''
Stack also could do comedy. He spoofed his screen image as a granite-jawed, humorless tough guy in the 1980 comedy 'Airplane!' An avid golfer, he had a comic role in 1988's 'Caddyshack II.'
In real life, Stack was an athletic man who liked skeet shooting and golf. Relaxed and jovial, with abundant Hollywood anecdotes, he had a knack for being able to talk to anyone, Grant recalled.
'This guy was at home with the society folks (and) he could sit on a curb down on the Bowery and talk to the less fortunate folks and be just as comfortable,' Grant said.
'Everybody loved him. I don't think I ever heard one harsh word said about Bob Stack. Nor did I ever hear him give one,' Grant said.
Stack was born into a performing arts family in Los Angeles. His great-great-grandfather opened one of the city's first theaters, and his grandparents, uncle and mother were opera singers.
His father, however, 'was the only Irishman in County Kerry who couldn't sing, and that's whose singing voice I got,' Stack said in 1998.
But the young man had a resonant speaking voice and rugged good looks, enough to catch the eye of producer Joe Pasternak when Stack ventured onto the Universal lot at age 20.
'He said 'How'd you like to be in pictures? We'll make a test with Helen Parrish, a little love scene.' Helen Parrish was a beautiful girl. 'Gee, that sounds keen,' I told him. I got the part,' Stack recalled.
He played a series of youthful romantic leads before leaving Hollywood to serve with the Navy as an aerial gunnery instructor in World War II.
His postwar career climbed in the 1950s with meatier roles and better projects, including 'The High and the Mighty' starring John Wayne in 1954.
In 1957, Stack was nominated for a best supporting Oscar for 'Written on the Wind,' a domestic melodrama starring Lauren Bacall and Rock Hudson. When he lost the trophy (to Anthony Quinn, 'Lust for Life'), Jimmy Stewart reassured him he'd win next time.
'But Jimmy, what if I never get another part like this?' Stack said.
'Well, that's just too **** bad,' Stewart replied.
Stack was never nominated for another Oscar. But he told that story with a chuckle _ he clearly didn't take himself or life in Hollywood too seriously. 'It's all malarkey; even the wonderful part is malarkey,' he said.
Stack made more than 40 films, including 'The Iron Glove' (1954); 'Good Morning Miss Dove' (1955) and 'Is Paris Burning?' (1966).
His role as Ness in 'The Untouchables' brought him a best actor Emmy in 1960. The series, awash in Prohibition Era shoot-'em-ups between gangsters and federal agents, drew harsh criticism about its violence _ along with good ratings for ABC.
Stack found more series success with 'The Name of the Game' (1968-71), 'Most Wanted' (1976-77) and 'Strike Force' (1981-82).
'Unsolved Mysteries,' true stories of crime and mysterious disappearances, brought Stack back to TV in 1988, and the popular show continued through the late '90s.
His autobiography, 'Straight Shooting,' was published in 1979.
Stack is survived by his wife, whom he married in 1956, and their two children, Elizabeth and Charles, both of Los Angeles.
