We've been remiss of lately marking the passing of showbiz greats and with Oscar night fast approaching and with it another "in memoriam" people we've lost are suddenly in mind. (This time of year is always a major challenge to keep up with given the mania of awards season.) Here are five stars, four of whom became famous right around the same time as each other, that passed away in December.
Let this small remembrance make amends for our lateness in paying tribute...
Sue Lyon in "Night of the Iguana"
Sue Lyon (1946-2019)
The beautiful blond Iowan will live on forever as Dolores "Lolita" Haze in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film version of the infamous novel about an older man's obsession with a 12 year old girl. For the film version they upped Lolita's age a bit. Lyon won the Golden Globe for "Promising Newcomer" at just 15 and though she'd never have a film success that big again she would later co-star in films like The Night of the Iguana (1964)... as another teenage seductress, 7 Women (1966), Evil Knievel (1971) and Alligator (1980).
Jerry Herman with two of his Dollys, Pearl Bailey and Carol Channing
Jerry Herman (1931-2019)
While we never much cared for his snarkiness about Stephen Sondheim's genius musicals, Herman's own musical gifts were great... just of a different temperment altogether. He called his shows "his children" and few composers could write showtunes as catchy yet non-annoying (*cough Webber*). Our personal favourite (i.e. karaoke go to) of all his songs was "I Am What I Am" from the seminal La Cage Aux Folles with "Bosom Buddies" from Mame a close runner up. But he will surely live on for all eternity due to the multiple glories of Hello Dolly. Herman wrote a memoir called "Showtune" but it's unfortunately out of print.
Claudine Auger (1941-2019)
The French actress, a runner up for "Miss World" in 1958, became famous as a Bond Girl -- she was "Domino" in the mega hit Thunderball (1965). She was actually the first French Bond Girl (though other Gallic actress have since followed including, most recently, Lea Seydoux) and her acting career stretched all the way into the 1990s in Europe though she never had a film remotely as famous as Thunderball again.
Anna Karina (1940-2019)
The Danish actress, born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer, is best known as a French actress, having made the jump to Paris when she was just 18. Coco Chanel reportedly chose her stage name. After becoming a popular model she emerged as a major fixation of the French New Wave. In 1961 when she was just 21 she made her film debut starring in Michel Deville's Tonight or Never, married Jean Luc Godard and starred in his film A Woman is a Woman. Other famous Godard films followed like Band of Outsiders (1964), Alphaville (1965) and Pierrot le Fou (1965). She mostly worked in French cinema though made the odd appearance in other cinemas here and there. The multi-talented beauty also wrote novels and in 1973 wrote, produced, directed, and starred in her own film Vivre Ensemble (1973).
and last but definitely not least...
Danny Aiello (1933-2019)
This beloved Italian-American character actor will always be special to 80s kids as the Papa from Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" (1986) which is when yours truly first took note of him. But that proved just an appetizer to his eventual pop culture cache.
Though he'd started in movies in the 1970s with the Robert DeNiro baseball drama Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), his true breakthrough came via or adjacent to (depending on your preference) that giant Madonna hit when he gave two perfect supporting performances in two indisputable classics nearly back-to-back: Best Picture nominated romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987) and Spike Lee's amazing Do The Right Thing (1989). He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the latter.
He worked steadily from the early 70s through the mid Aughts. Among his many film credits are also Radio Days, Harlem Nights, City Hall, 2 Days in the Valley, Pret-a-Porter, Once Upon a Time in America, The Cemetery Club, Hudson Hawk, Once Around, The Godfather Part II, and Lucky Number Slevin. Aiello also wrote a memoir called "I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else" which is thankfully much cheaper to get your hands on than the Herman autobiography linked above.