Lou Costello (1906-1959)

Birth name: Louis Francis Cristillo
Birthdate: March 6th, 1906
Location: Paterson, New Jersey, USA

Died: March 3rd, 1959
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Cause of death: Heart attack

For Lou Costello's comedy partner Bud Abbott, click here.

Best known for: Comedy actor most famous for playing the gag man to Bud Abbott in the Abbott and Costello comedy partnership of the 1940s and 50s. He enjoyed joint success with Abbott in a string of branded comedies, such as Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955).

Abbott and Costello first worked together in 1935, and formally teamed up the following year to perform in burlesque, vaudeville, minstrel and stage shows. By 1938 they were gaining fans across America as part of the Kate Smith Radio Hour, and in 1940 they secured their first Hollywood film roles in One Night in the Tropics - they were actually minor characters but they stole the show with their comedy song and dance routines. After that, they never looked back...

Bud Abbott (1897-1974)

Birth name: William Alexander Abbott
Birthdate: October 2nd, 1897
Location: Reading, Pennsylvania, USA

Died: April 24th, 1974
Location: Woodland Hills, California, USA
Cause of death: Prostate cancer

For Bud Abbott's comedy partner Lou Costello, click here.

Best known for: Comedy actor most famous for playing the "straight man" to Lou Costello in the Abbott and Costello comedy partnership of the 1940s and 50s. He enjoyed joint success with Costello in a string of branded comedies, such as Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955).

Abbott and Costello first worked together in 1935, and formally teamed up the following year to perform in burlesque, vaudeville, minstrel and stage shows. By 1938 they were gaining fans across America as part of the Kate Smith Radio Hour, and in 1940 they secured their first Hollywood film roles in One Night in the Tropics - they were actually minor characters but they stole the show with their comedy song and dance routines. After that, they never looked back...

Tarzan - Part 4 (1962-1972)

Character's first film appearance: Tarzan of the Apes (released January 27th, 1918)

Character description: Tarzan - aka John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke - is a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his novel Tarzan of the Apes in 1912. He was a feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani great apes after being separated from his parents when their ship was marooned off the African coast by mutineers. As an adult he experiences modern civilisation for the first time, largely rejecting it and choosing to remain in the wild as a heroic adventurer.

This is the fourth in a multi-part entry charting what happened to the various actors who have played Tarzan over the years. Click here for the silent era (1918-1929), click here for the 1930s and 1940s (1932-1948), click here for the 1950s, or read on to find about the Tarzans from the 1960s...

Etta James (1938-2012)

Birth name: Jamesetta Hawkins
Birthdate: Tuesday, January 25th, 1938
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA

Died: Friday, January 20th, 2012
Location: Riverside, California, USA
Cause of death: Leukaemia and dementia

Best known for: Legendary American singer who straddled the genres, including jazz, blues, R&B, soul and gospel, and is believed to have bridged the gap between blues and rock 'n' roll. She was nominated for a Grammy Award 15 times, winning three - for Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holliday (1995), Let's Roll (2004) and Blues to the Bone (2005) - and received three further Grammy honours - the Lifetime Achievement in 2003 and two Hall of Fame awards for At Last (1999) and The Wallflower (2008). She also enjoyed a couple of number one blues and jazz records in the States, including 2001's Blue Gardenia and 2003's Let's Roll, while in 1955 she had a US R&B chart-topper with The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry).

Etta's 1960s heyday soon gave way to a slump in commercial, but not critical, popularity in the 1970s. She was devastated when the founder of the label which had helped make her a star - Leonard Chess of Chess Records - died in 1969, and although she continued recording for Chess, it wasn't working, and she left the label in 1979.