Rogers in his teens
William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers
(November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935)
Rogers was a cowboy, vaudeville performer, humorist, social commentator
and motion picture actor. He was one of the world’s best-known celebrities
in the 1920s and 1930s, known as “Oklahoma’s favorite son”.
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994)
Lancaster was nominated four times for Academy Awards and won once for
his work in Elmer Gantry in 1960. He also won a Golden Globe for that
performance and BAFTA Awards for The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and
Atlantic City (1980). His production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, was the
most successful independent production company in Hollywood in the 1950s,
making movies such as Marty (1955), Trapeze (1956), and Sweet Smell of
Success (1957). He was named 19th among the greatest male stars of all
time by the American Film Institute in 1999.
Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry
1953
John Candy as McNeil High School Student Council Treasurer
from 1968-69.
John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994)
Candy rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second
City and its related Second City Television series. He also appeared in
comedy films such as Stripes (1981), Splash (1984), Spaceballs (1987),
and Uncle Buck (1989). One of his most remembered performances was
as Del Griffith, the on-the-move shower-curtain ring salesman in the John
Hughes 1987 comedy film Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
While filming the Western parody Wagons East!, Candy died of a heart
attack in his sleep in Durango, Mexico, at the age of 43.
.
Michael Landon (Eugene Maurice Orowitz)
(October 31, 1936 – July 1, 1991)
Actor Michael Landon was also a writer, director, and producer. He is
known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–1973),
Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and Jonathan
Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–1989), all on NBC-TV. Landon has
appeared on the cover of TV Guide 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball.
The Cartwright’s from left: Dan Blocker,Michael Landon, Lorene Greene, and
Pernell Roberts
June 1991
Landon began to suffer from severe abdominal pain in February 1991. On
April 5, 1991, pancreatic cancer was diagnosed; it had metastasized into his
liver and lymph nodes. The cancer was inoperable and the doctors’ prognosis
was terminal. On July 1, 1991, at age 54, Landon died in Malibu, California
