Keith Andes

Film and stage actor Keith Andes died at his home in Santa Clarita, a community northeast of Los Angeles, on November 11. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office ruled the death a suicide by asphyxiation. Andes had been suffering from bladder cancer and other ailments. He was 85.
Born John Charles Andes on July 12, 1920, in Ocean City, New Jersey, Andes was brought to Hollywood by 20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck. The mogul had seen him perform as an understudy in the Broadway production of the homefront melodrama Winged Victory.
Besides appearing in a small part in the 1944 film version directed by George Cukor, Andes had mostly supporting roles in about 20 other films, including The Farmer’s Daughter [...]

by Andre Soares | November 28, 2005   
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Howard Keel

Actor Howard Keel, best known for his MGM musicals of the 1950s, died on November 7 in Palm Desert, in Southern California. Keel, who had been suffering from colon cancer, was 85 years old.
He was born in 1919 in Gillespie, Illinois, as Harold Clifford Leek, but had his name changed when he was hired by MGM in the 1940s following a stint in Broadway musicals. The studio’s own musicals were then at the height of their popularity and prestige, and Keel was set to start at the top: playing opposite Judy Garland (as Annie Oakley) in Annie Get Your Gun. Garland eventually dropped out, being replaced by Betty Hutton (borrowed from Paramount), but Keel remained the leading man in what [...]

by Andre Soares | November 8, 2004   
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