FOUND A GRAVE

Joan Leslie (1925 - 2015)

Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel was born on January 26, 1925 in Highland Park, Michigan, she was the youngest child of John and Agnes Brodel. John was a bank clerk and Agnes was a pianist. Leslie’s two older sisters, Betty and Mary Brodel, shared their mother’s musical interest and started to learn how to play instruments […]

Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014)

Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York in 1933. She was the younger daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants Beatrice (née Grushman; January 6, 1906 – October 1975) and Meyer C. Molinsky (December 7, 1900 – January 1985). Her elder sister, Mrs. Barbara Waxler, died on June 3, 2013, aged 82. Rivers was […]

Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014)

Joan Rivers Rivers was a member of the Reform synagogue Temple Emanu-El in New York and said she “love[d] Israel.” Rivers’ first marriage was in 1955 to James Sanger, the son of a Bond Clothing Stores merchandise manager. The marriage lasted six months and was annulled on the basis that Sanger did not want children […]

Joan Sebastian (1951 - 2015)

Joan Sebastian was born in the rural town of Juliantla in Guerrero, and began composing at the age of seven. His mother had enrolled him to a school near Guanajuato when he was eight years old, and later returned to his hometown three years later.  At age fourteen, his mother sent him away to a […]

Joan Sims (1930 - 2001)

Sims was born in 1930, the daughter of John Henry Simms (1888-1964), station master of Laindon railway station in Laindon, Essex, and his wife Gladys Marie Sims, née Ladbrook (1896-1981). Sims’ early interest in being an actress came from living at the railway station. She would often put on performances for waiting passengers. She decided […]

Joan Taylor (1929 - 2012)

Joan Taylor Her mother was a former vaudeville singer and dancer, her father was employed as a Hollywood prop-man. He later operated a cinema theater in the Northern Chicago-suburb of Lake Forest, where Rose was both exposed to and enthralled by motion pictures which shaped her future life. Initially she dreamed of becoming a dancer […]

Joan Tetzel (1921 - 1977)

Joan Tetzel played in When a Girl Marries and Woman of Courage, both on CBS. Tetzel is noted for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947), where she played “Judy Flaquer”, the daughter of the solicitor played by Charles Coburn in the film. In the movie, she is the confidante and best friend of […]

Joanne Borgella (1982 - 2014)

Joanne Borgella Joanne Borgella (May 29, 1982 – October 18, 2014) was an American singer and model. She was signed to Wilhelmina Models in New York City, Miami and LA. She was the first winner of Mo’Nique’s Fat Chance pageant as “Miss F.A.T.” in 2005 and a top 24 contestant on the seventh season of […]

Joanne Dru (1922 - 1996)

Born as Joan Letitia LaCock in Logan, West Virginia, Joanne Dru came to New York City in 1940 at the age of eighteen. After finding employment as a model, she was chosen by Al Jolson to appear in the cast of his Broadway show Hold On to Your Hats. When she moved to Hollywood, she […]

Jocelyn Brando (1919 - 2005)

Jocelyn Brando, the older sister of Marlon Brando, was born in San Francisco, California, to Marlon Brando, Sr., and Dorothy Julia Pennebaker Brando. Jocelyn and Marlon Brando and their sister Frances grew up mostly in the Midwest—in Omaha, Nebraska, Evanston and Libertyville, Illinois, though the family also spent time in California. The bane of the […]

Jody McCrea (1934 - 2009)

Jody McCrea served in the United States Army, Special Services. He later briefly hosted Country Style, USA, an Army-produced recruiting television program filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, featuring various country entertainers. He began acting on the 1959–1960 television series Wichita Town with his father. He went on to star in films (mainly westerns), including the World […]

Joe Adonis (1902 - 1971)

Joe Adonis Organized Crime Figure. Born Giuseppe Antonio Doto in the small town of Montemarano, Italy, near Naples, to Michele and Maria Doto. In 1909, Joe and his family entered the United States at New York City. As a young man, Joe supported himself by stealing and picking pockets. While working on the streets, Joe […]

Joe Cocker (1944 - 2014)

Joe Cocker John Robert “Joe” Cocker, OBE (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English rock and blues singer and musician who came to popularity in the 1960s. He was known for his gritty voice, spasmodic body movement in performance, and cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles.  Cocker’s cover […]

Joe Colombo (1923 - 1978)

Organized Crime Figure. He was the head of the Colombo crime family (named after him) from 1963 until he was shot in the head and critically wounded at a rally for the Italian American Civil Rights League (which he started) at Columbus Circle in New York City, New York on June 28, 1971. His shooting […]

Joe DiMaggio (1914 - 1999)

Joe DiMaggio DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California, the eighth of nine children born to Italian immigrants Giuseppe (1872–1949) and Rosalia (Mercurio) DiMaggio (1878–1951). He was delivered by a midwife identified on his birth certificate as Mrs. J. Pico. He was named after his father; “Paolo” was in honor of Giuseppe’s favorite saint, Saint Paul. The family moved to nearby San Francisco when […]

Joe Frazier (1944 - 2011)

Joe Frazier Hall of Fame Professional Boxer. Olympic Gold Medalist. World Heavyweight Champion (1970 until 1973). Regarded by may as being one of the greatest fighters of his era, he is famed for his epic bouts against Muhammad Ali, notably the contest referred to as the “Thrilla in Manila”. The son of a sharecropper, he […]

Joe Gans (1874 - 1910)

Joe Gans Gans started boxing professionally about 1891 in Baltimore. He shocked the boxing world with his “scientific” approach to fighting. Finding an opponents strengths and weaknesses, then competing with a game-plan was Gan’s specialty. Known as a true student of the sport. In 1900, Gans quit with an eye cut in the twelfth round […]

Joe Louis (1914 - 1981)

Joe Louis Professional Boxer. Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1937 to 1949. He began his pro career in 1934, and by 1936 he had beaten such great heavyweights as Stanley Poreda, Natie Brown, and Rosco Toles. He was seemingly invincible, until his meeting with Max Schmeling on June 19, 1936. Schmeling was the underdog […]

Joe May (1880 - 1954)

After studying in Berlin and a variety of odd jobs, Joe May began his career as a stage director of operettas in Hamburg. In 1902 he had married the actress Mia May (born Hermine Pfleger) and took his stage name from hers. As Joe May, he made ten films for Continental-Art Film GmbH in Berlin; the […]

Joe Ranft (1960 - 2005)

Ranft was born in Pasadena, California, and raised in Whittier. As a child, Ranft developed a love for magic, storytelling, film and comedy. At 15, he became a member of the Magic Castle Junior Group. After graduating from Monte Vista High School, Whittier, in 1978, Mr. Ranft began studying in the character animation program at […]

Joe Seneca (1919 - 1996)

Joe Seneca (January 14, 1919 – August 15, 1996) was an American film and television actor who had a lengthy Hollywood career, portraying bit parts in many major films and television sitcoms spanning from the 1970s to the 1990s. He played the father of Danny Glover’s character in the film Silverado. Seneca was born Joel McGhee […]

Joe Simon (1913 - 2011)

Joe Simon was born in 1913 as Hymie Simon and raised in Rochester, New York, the son of Harry Simon, who had emigrated from Leeds, England, in 1905, and Rose, whom Harry met in the United States. Harry Simon moved to Rochester, then a clothing-manufacturing center where his younger brother, Isaac, lived and the couple had a daughter, Beatrice, in 1912. A […]

Joe Simon (1913 - 2011)

Joe Simon was born in 1913 as Hymie Simon and raised in Rochester, New York, the son of Harry Simon, who had emigrated from Leeds, England, in 1905, and Rose, whom Harry met in the United States. Harry Simon moved to Rochester, then a clothing-manufacturing center where his younger brother Isaac lived, and the couple […]

Joe South (1940 - 2012)

Joe South Born Joseph Alfred Souter into a family of diverse talent, his father was a guitarist and his mother penned romantic poetry, he developed a fondness for country music while listening to programs broadcasted from Nashville on the radio. He dropped out of Southern Polytechnic State University to pursue a career in music and […]

Joe Strummer (1952 - 2002)

John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known by his stage name Joe Strummer, was a British musician, singer, actor and songwriter who was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of The Clash, a punk rock band that was formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British […]

Joe Weider (1920 - 2013)

Weider was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Louis and Anna, Jewish immigrants from Poland. He published the first issue of Your Physique magazine in 1936 when he was 17 years old, and built a set of barbells out of car wheels and axles the same year out of the family garage on Coloniale street […]

Joe Wilbur “Joe Bill” Adcock (1927 - 1999)

Joseph Wilbur “Billy Joe” Adcock (October 30, 1927 – May 3, 1999) was a major league baseball player, best known as a first baseman and right-handed slugger with the powerful Milwaukee Braves teams of the 1950s, whose career included numerous home run feats. A sure-handed defensive player, he also retired with the third highest career […]

Joey Adams (1911 - 1999)

Adams was born in Brooklyn, New York as Joseph Abramowitz. For many years, he wrote the “Strictly for Laughs” column in the New York Post. His wife, Cindy Adams (to whom he was married from 1952 until his death), remains a society/gossip columnist for the same paper.  Adams’ career spanned more than 70 years and […]

Joey Bishop (1918 - 2007)

Joey Bishop Bishop was the least flamboyant of the Rat Pack and no match for the others — Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr. and Sinatra himself — in their dedication to hell raising. But he shared in their phenomenal success in the early 1960s, when they headlined music and comedy shows at the […]

Joey Gallo (1929 - 1972)

Organized Crime Figure. Born and raised in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Umberto and Mary Gallo. Joey grew up in a world already shaped by crime. His father was a bootlegger during the Prohibition era, and he encouraged his boys Larry, Joey and Albert, to be hoodlums and killers […]