FOUND A GRAVE

Bob Weston (1947 - 2012)

Bob Weston The long-lasting pop band Fleetwood Mac is also one of the most controversial, its several changes of style and personnel often arising from romantic entanglements rather than musical differences. Bob Weston, who has died aged 64 of a gastrointestinal haemorrhage and cirrhosis of the liver, was the band’s lead guitarist in the early […]

Phillis Wheatley (1753 - 1784)

Although the date and place of her birth are not documented, scholars believe that Phillis Wheatley was born in 1753 in West Africa, most likely in present-day Gambia or Senegal. Wheatley was brought to British-ruled Boston, Massachusetts on July 11, 1761, on a slave ship called The Phillis. It was owned by Timothy Fitch and […]

James Wheaton (1924 - 2002)

James Wheaton (January 11, 1924 – June 9, 2002), was an American motion picture and television actor. He may be best known as the voice actor “OMM” in George Lucas’s THX 1138, a role for which he was chosen over Orson Welles. Wheaton also appeared in Trouble Comes to Town and Sanford and Son. In the […]

David White (1916 - 1990)

Born in Denver, Colorado, his family later moved to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, David White later graduated from Los Angeles City College and began acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and the Cleveland Play House. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during World War II and, after his discharge, made his Broadway debut in 1949 in […]

Ryan White (1971 - 1990)

Ryan White was born at St. Joseph Memorial Hospital in Kokomo, Indiana, to Jeanne Elaine Hale and Hubert Wayne White. He was circumcised and the bleeding would not stop. When he was three days old, doctors diagnosed him with severe hemophilia A, a hereditary blood coagulation disorder associated with the X chromosome, which causes even […]

Christine White (1926 - 2013)

Christine White Christine Lamson White (May 4, 1926 – April 14, 2013) was an American actress, most noted for her role in the television show Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”. Early life White was born in Washington, D.C. to parents Lucia W. and James Andrew White. While studying English at the University of […]

Marie Wilson (1916 - 1972)

Born in Anaheim, California, Marie Wilson began her career in New York City as a dancer on the Broadway stage. She gained national prominence with My Friend Irma on radio, film and later, television. The show made her a star but typecast her almost interminably as the quintessential dumb blonde, which she played in numerous […]

Edward Higgins White II (1930 - 1967)

White was born on November 14, 1930, in San Antonio, Texas, to parents Edward H. White, Sr. (1901–1978), who became a major general in the U.S. Air Force, and Mary Rosina White (née Haller; 1900–1983). He attended school in his hometown and became a member of the Boy Scouts of America, where he earned the […]

Reggie White (1961 - 2004)

White was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He played high school football at Howard High School under Coach Robert Pulliam, a former defensive lineman at Tennessee. During his senior year, White recorded 140 tackles (88 solo) and 10 sacks, and received All-American honors. He was rated the number one recruit in Tennessee by the Knoxville News Sentinel. White played college football […]

Andy Whitfield (1971 - 2011)

Whitfield was born in Amlwch, Anglesey, Wales. He studied construction at Sheffield Hallam University in England. He moved to Australia from Britain in 1999 to work as an engineer in Lidcombe, before later settling in Sydney. He appeared in several Australian television series, such as Opening Up, All Saints, The Strip, Packed to the Rafters, […]

Keith Whitley (1954 - 1989)

Whitley was born to Faye (editor of The Elliott County News) and Elmer Whitley (an electrician) in Ashland, Kentucky, but was raised 46 miles away in Sandy Hook, and attended Sandy Hook High School. He had two brothers, Randy and Dwight, and a sister, Mary. The Whitley family has lived in the Elliot County area […]

Slim Whitman (1923 - 2013)

Slim Whitman Whitman was born Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr, in Tampa, Florida, on January 20, 1923. Growing up, he liked the country music of Jimmie Rodgers and the songs of Gene Autry, but he did not embark on a musical career of his own until the end of World War II, after he had served […]

Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Walter “Walt” Whitman (/ˈhwɪtmən/; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. […]

James Whitmore (1921 - 2009)

Born in White Plains, New York to Florence Belle (née Crane) and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York for three years, before transferring to the Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, on a football scholarship. He went on to study at Yale University, also […]

Grace Lee Whitney (1930 - 2015)

Whitney was born Mary Ann Chase in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was adopted by the Whitney family, who changed her name to Grace Elaine. She started her entertainment career as a “girl singer” on Detroit’s WJR radio at the age of fourteen. After she left home, she began to call herself Lee Whitney, eventually becoming […]

Claire Whitney (1890 - 1969)

Claire Whitney Claire Whitney was born in New York City on May 6, 1890. Her acting career first started out on the stage, but as time wore on, it was evident that films were taking the place of plays, at least for a while. Her first film was The Star of India (1913) when she […]

Whitney Blake (1925 - 2002)

Blake was born in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California. She was the first child of Martha Mae Whitney (née Wilkerson) and Harry C. Whitney, a United States Secret Service agent who had guarded President Woodrow Wilson, his wife, and other political officials. Blake and her younger brother traveled around the country extensively, during which time […]

Tom Wicker (1927 - 2011)

Wicker was born in Hamlet, North Carolina. He was a graduate of the University of North Carolina. He won a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 1957. In 1993, he returned to Harvard, where he was a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government. He died from an apparent heart attack, on November 25, 2011. […]

Richard Widmark (1914 - 2008)

Widmark was born in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, the son of Ethel Mae (née Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark. His father was of Swedish descent and his mother of English and Scottish ancestry. Widmark grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and also lived in Henry, Illinois for a short time, moving frequently because of his father’s work […]

Robert Wiene (1873 - 1938)

Robert Wiene was born in Breslau, as the elder son of the successful theatre actor Carl Wiene. His younger brother Conrad also became an actor, but Robert Wiene at first studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he also started to act, at first in small parts on stage. His first involvement with […]

Doyle Wilburn (1930 - 1982)

Doyle Wilburn Along with brother Teddy, the Wilburn Brothers were one of the most popular country music duos of all time. Beginning their careers as children, along with two older brothers, Leslie and Lester and sister, Geraldine, singing on street corners for tips, the Wilburn Family was discovered by Roy Acuff who brought them to […]

Teddy Wilburn (1931 - 2003)

Teddy Wilburn Country Musiician. With brother Doyle, he made up one of the most succesful brother duos in country music history. They began their careers as children, along with older brothers Lester and Leslie and sister Geraldine, singing on street corners. The Wilburn Family was discovered in 1940 by Roy Acuff who brought them to […]

Jimmy Wilde (1892 - 1969)

Jimmy Wilde Born William James Wilde, Jimmy Wilde worked in the coal mines as a boy and started boxing at the age of sixteen in fairground booths where crowds were amazed by his toughness and ability to knock down much bigger opponents. Indeed throughout his career his opponents were usually larger and heavier than him. […]

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as […]

Brian Wilde (1927 - 2008)

Though born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, he was brought up in Devon and Hertfordshire and attended Hertford Grammar School. He trained as an actor at RADA. He had a small part in the horror film Night of the Demon (1957). He had an earlier role as a small time crook in the 1954 film “Forbidden Cargo” (uncredited) […]

Thorton Wilder (1897 - 1975)

Thorton Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Amos Parker Wilder, a newspaper editor and U.S. diplomat, and Isabella Niven Wilder. All of the Wilder children spent part of their childhood in China. His older brother, Amos Niven Wilder, was Hollis Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School, a noted poet, and […]

Billy Wilder (1906 - 2002)

Billy Wilder From the late 1930s to the early 1960s, Billy Wilder dominated Hollywood’s Golden Age. With over fifty films and six Academy Awards to his credit, he is one of Hollywood’s all-time greatest directors, producers and screenwriters. His films range from stark melodrama, like DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) and SUNSET BOULEVARD […]

Roy Wilkins (1901 - 1981)

Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901. His mother died when he was four years old, after which Wilkins and his siblings were raised by an aunt and uncle in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they attended local schools. Wilkins graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in sociology in 1923. In 1929, […]

Jess Willard (1881 - 1968)

Jess Willard On April 5, 1915, in Havana, Cuba, a Kansas farmer named Jess Willard became heavyweight champion of the world by defeating Jack Johnson. Willard, born in Pottawatomie County, began his professional career in 1911 at Sapulpa, Oklahoma, where he lost on a foul. Six weeks later he won over the same fighter at […]

Myrna Loy (1905 - 1993)

Loy was born Myrna Adele Williams in Helena, Montana,  to Adelle Mae (née Johnson) and rancher David Franklin Williams, and raised in nearby Radersburg. Her paternal grandparents were natives of Wales, and her maternal grandparents were Swedish and Scottish. Her first name was derived from a whistle stop near Broken Bow, Nebraska, whose name her […]