People it shocked me to learn they had died

Natasha Jane Richardson was born in Marylebone, London, England, to director and producer Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave. She was the sister of actress Joely Richardson, the niece of actors Corin Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave, and the granddaughter of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson.

Trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, Richardson performed extensively on stage in roles, including "Helena" in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Ophelia in "Hamlet" at the Young Vic. In 1986, she garnered the London Drama Critics' Most Promising Newcomer Award for her performance as "Nina" in "The Seagull", with Vanessa Redgrave and Jonathan Pryce. In 1987, she played "Tracey Lord" in Richard Eyre's musical, "High Society".

Natasha made her feature film debut as Mary Shelley in Ken Russell's Gothic (1986). Her performance caught the attention of director Paul Schrader, who cast her in the title role in Patty Hearst (1988). Natasha achieved notable success in such films as Pat O'Connor's A Month in the Country (1987), Roland Joffé's Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) and The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish (1991), featuring Bob Hoskins and Jeff Goldblum. For her performance in Volker Schlöndorff's The Handmaid's Tale (1990) and Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers (1990), Richardson earned The London Evening Standard Award for Best Actress of 1990; and for Widows' Peak (1994), also starring Mia Farrow and Joan Plowright, she received the Best Actress Award at the 1994 Karlovy Vary Festival.

Also in 1994, she co-starred with Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson in Nell (1994) and, in 1998, in The Parent Trap (1998) with Dennis Quaid. Her early 2000s films include Blow Dry (2001) released in 2001, and Ethan Hawke's Chelsea Walls (2001).

Natasha performed the title role of "Anna Christie", first in London, where she was voted London Drama Critics' Best Actress Award in 1992, then on Broadway at the Roundabout in 1993, where she was nominated for a Tony for Best Actress in a Play, a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Debut of an Actress, and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress. For her performance as Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes' production of "Cabaret", she won the 1998 Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actress in a Musical. She then appeared on Broadway in Patrick Marber's Tony-nominated play "Closer". In December 2009 she had been intended to play "Miss Julie" on Broadway with Philip Seymour Hoffman, directed by David Leveaux for Roundabout Theatre.

Richardson's television credits included Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" for the BBC, also starring Judi Dench, Michael Gambon and Kenneth Branagh; the HBO cable feature Hostages (1992); the BBC film Suddenly, Last Summer (1993), based on the play by Tennessee Williams, and also starring Maggie Smith and Rob Lowe. In 1993 she starred as Zelda Fitzgerald in the TNT movie Zelda (1993), co-starring Timothy Hutton and directed by Pat O'Connor (cable Ace nomination for Best Actress). She played Ruth Gruber in the 2001 CBS mini-series Haven (2001) based on Ms. Gruber's autobiography.

In March 2009, Natasha died in a New York City hospital, after falling and receiving a head injury whilst skiing in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada. Natasha was married to actor Liam Neeson from 1994 until her death, and the couple have two children.

Striking brunette beauty Kandi Barbour was born Kandie Lou Dotson on February 15, 1959 in Russellville, Alabama. The daughter of Albert Edens Dotson and Annie Louise McKinney, Barbour grew up in Dothan, Alabama and attended Girard Junior High School in Dothan, Alabama from 1972 to 1974. Kandi was discovered by photographer Diana Hardy in the 1970's and first gained public recognition posing for various popular men's magazines in the late 1970's. Barbour started performing in explicit hardcore movies in her late teens in 1978; she appeared in over 30 X-rated features altogether prior to her retirement from the adult film industry in 1984. Moreover, Kandi not only did loops and worked as an exotic dancer, but also both modeled in ads and appeared in TV commercials for the music company K-tel International. Barbour lived in both Los Angeles, California and Hawaii, where she worked at the famous Honolulu strip club Club Hubba Hubba. She was inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame in 2009. Kandi was discovered dead from exposure on the streets of San Francisco, California on January 18, 2012.

It has not been revealed for certain where Arcadia Lake was born, where she went to school or where she died. Ron Jeremy has said she was teaching a college physical education aerobics class before beginning her adult film career. In Show World--a Times Square sex emporium--around 1977, she met Eric Edwards while dancing on the live stage. He claimed to have helped her stop using cocaine while she performed in films with him. He also said she was able to leave a methadone treatment program with his help. They were said to have married in 1980, but jealousies and disagreements followed regarding his multiple partnerships. Of course, without methadone, it was more difficult for her to stay off of cocaine. The money she earned from her successful porn career and her troubled marriage only fueled her return to her habit. Director Carter Stevens, a director of photography on many of her early films, said she "had the most beautiful, clear porcelain skin" complexion he had ever seen. Arcadia had such a clean, wholesome look in her films it was difficult to imagine that she had any drug problems at all. Rumors about her 1991 death range from her being the victim of a Mafia murder to her having faked her death so she could leave the porn world and take a new--and more respectable--name and career. Wherever she might be now, her beautiful dark, jet black hair and unforgettable sweet smile could live forever in the dreams of her fans.

While best known for her role in Debbie Does Dallas (1978), most aficionados agree that her best films were Secrets of a Willing Wife (1979)--in which she played a cook who seemed not connected to the film's main plot--Honey Throat (1980) and Summertime Blue (1979).

Phil Hartman was born Philip Edward Hartmann on September 24, 1948, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. His surname was originally "Hartmann", but he later dropped the second "n". He was one of eight children of Doris Marguerite (Wardell) and Rupert Loebig Hartmann, a salesman. He was of German, Irish, and English descent. The family moved to the United States when Phil was around ten, and he spent the majority of his childhood in Connecticut and Southern California. He later obtained his American citizenship in the early 1990s. He often would visit his homeland of Canada throughout his career, and the City of Brantford even erected a plaque on the Walk of Fame in the town in honor of Phil's career and memory. The Humber College Comedy: Writing & Performance program in Toronto, Ontario, also has an award in Phil's memory that is given out to their Post-Graduate comedy students.

Phil originally studied Graphic Design at California State University. He began to work part time as a graphic artist, designing album covers for such bands as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (see Crosby Stills Nash & Young) and Poco. In 1975, alongside doing album work, Phil joined the California comedy troupe, The Groundlings. While in The Groundlings, Phil worked with Paul Reubens and Jon Lovitz, who became good friends of his until his death. Phil and Paul created the character Pee Wee Herman together, and Phil even had a role on Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986) as pirate Captin' Carl.

In 1986, Phil joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (1975) and was on the show for a record of 8 seasons (which was later broken by Tim Meadows). Phil played a wide range of characters including: Frank Sinatra, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Ed McMahon, Barbara Bush, and many others. He was known to help out other writers who wanted to get their sketches read and onto the show. He held Saturday Night Live (1975) together during his 8-year reign, thus the nickname he garnered while on the show, "The Glue." Phil was also known for his voice work on commercials and cartoons. He was probably most well known for the voices of Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz on the animated comedy The Simpsons (1989). He also provided other minor voices for The Simpsons (1989). Phil left Saturday Night Live (1975) in 1994, and in 1995, was cast in the critically acclaimed NBC show NewsRadio (1995) as arrogant radio show host Bill McNeal.

After Phil's death, Phil's good friend Jon Lovitz attempted to fill the void as Max Lewis on NewsRadio (1995), but the struggling show's ratings dropped, and the show later fizzled out and ended in 1999. Phil had an interesting career in movies, mostly playing supporting characters. He was the lead in Houseguest (1995) and was also in Greedy (1994), Jingle All the Way (1996), Sgt. Bilko (1996), and his last live action film, Small Soldiers (1998). His last role was the English language dub of Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), as the quick-witted cat Jiji, which featured Small Soldiers co-star Kirsten Dunst in the lead voice role.

On May 28th, 1998, Phil was shot to death while sleeping in his Encino, California home by his wife, Brynn Hartman. Brynn left the house and later came back with a friend to show him Phil's body. When her friend went to call 911, Brynn locked herself in the bedroom with Phil's lifeless body and shot herself. It was later discovered by the coroner that Brynn had alcohol, cocaine, and the antidepressant, Zoloft, in her system. They left behind two children, Sean Edward (b. 1988) and Birgen (b. 1992). Phil and Brynn's bodies were cremated and spread upon Catalina Island, just off the coast of California, on June 4, 1998. Phil had specifically stated in his will that he wanted the ashes spread on Catalina Island because it was his favorite holiday getaway as he was an avid boater, surfer and general lover of the sea.

Phil was a very caring and sensitive person and was described as "very sweet and kind of quiet."

John Hughes was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter. He was credited for creating some of the most memorable comedy films of the 1980s and the 1990s, when he was at the height of his career. He had a talent for writing coming-of-age stories, and for depicting fairly realistic adolescent characters.

In 1950, Hughes was born in Lansing, Michigan. The city's main employers for much of the 20th century were manufacturing plants for automobiles. Lansing housed the headquarters of companies such as Oldsmobile and the REO Motor Car Company. Hughes' father John Hughes Sr. was a salesman, while Hughes' mother Marion Crawford worked as a volunteer for charity organizations.

Hughes had three sisters and no brothers. His family moved often. For most of his childhood, the Hughes family lived in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a commuter suburb of Metro Detroit. According to an interview of Hughes, he was the only boy in his neighborhood while growing up. He was surrounded by girls and "old people," and there was no boys around for him to befriend. He spend a lot of time alone, and used his active imagination to keep himself entertained.

In 1963, the Hughes family moved to Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Hughes attended first the Grove Middle School, and then the Glenbrook North High School. His high school experiences reportedly provided inspiration for his teen-themed films of his career. According to interviews with Hughes' friends, Hughes had a poor relationship with his parents who often criticized him.

As an adolescent, Hughes felt the need to escape his problems. He became an avid film fan, as he found that films satisfied his need for escapism. He was a fan of both the Rat Pack (an informal group of actors and singers), and the music group The Beatles.

After graduating high school, Hughes enrolled in the University of Arizona. He eventually dropped out of the University, and tried to make a living as a comedy writer. He wrote jokes for professional comedians, such as Rodney Dangerfield (1921 - 2004) and Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014).

In 1970, Hughes was hired by the advertising company Needham Harper & Steers (1925-1986). That same year, Hughes married his former high school classmate Nancy Ludwig. Hughes worked in the advertising industry for several years. In 1974, Hughes was hired by the advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide. This company's most notable clients included the Pillsbury Company, StarKist, Heinz, Green Giant, and Philip Morris.

As a marketing agent, Hughes was assigned to handle Virginia Slims, a brand of cigarettes produced by Philip Morris. The assignment required him to regularly travel to New York City, where Philip Morris' headquarters were located. Hughes took the opportunity to visit the offices of the popular humor magazine "National Lampoon" (1970-1998) in New York City. He successfully negotiated a new position as a regular contributor to the magazine.

Hughes reportedly impressed the magazine's editors by producing quality work at a fast pace. Among his first short stories was "Vacation '58," based on his recollections of his family's vacations during his childhood. The story was eventually adapted into the road comedy film "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983).

"National Lampoon" co-produced films written by their staff writers. Hughes provided the script for the black comedy "National Lampoon's Class Reunion" (1982), depicting a serial killer who targets his former classmates. The film was poorly received and under-performed at the box office, but it inspired Hughes to try to make a career as a screenwriter.

Hughes subsequently wrote the scripts for both "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983) and "Mr. Mom" (1983), comedy films which were box office hits. He then signed a contract for three films with the studio Universal Pictures. He made his directing debut in the coming-of-age comedy film "Sixteen Candles" (1984). The film depicted the misadventures of high school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker (played by Molly Ringwald). It performed well at the box office, and was well-received by critics.

Hughes quickly established himself as a leading director of teen films. His films "The Breakfast Club" (1985), "Weird Science" (1985), and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986) are considered classics of the genre. To cover new ground, he then directed "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987), featuring a duo of adult protagonists. The stars of the film were experienced comic actors Steve Martin and John Candy. The film was a hit. More importantly, Hughes and Candy became close friends. They would often work together in subsequent films.

Hughes' next film as a director was "She's Having a Baby" (1988), about the life of a newlywed couple. The film fared poorly financially and was considered rather "blasé" by critics. Hughes made a comeback with "Uncle Buck" (1989), about a lifelong bachelor who has to take care of his two nieces and a nephew. The film was a box office hit, earning about 80 million dollars at the box office.

Hughes' final film as a director was the comedy-drama "Curly Sue" (1991), about homeless con artist Bill Dancer (played by Jim Belushi) who desperately tries to keep the custody of his surrogate daughter. While moderately successful at the box office at the box office, the film was widely ridiculed for being overly sentimental.

In the 1990s, Hughes found success as a screenwriter, scripting several box office hits. Among his most notable films in this period were "Home Alone" (1990) and "Beethoven" (1992), with both films starting lucrative media franchises. Hughes also wrote the scripts of the sequels "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992) and "Home Alone 3" (1997). He also scripted a notable comic strip adaptation, "Dennis the Menace" (1993). It was based on the long-running comic strip "Dennis the Menace" (1951-) by Hank Ketcham (1920-2001).

In 1994, Hughes moved to the Chicago metropolitan area. At about that time, he started actively avoiding publicity. He rarely gave any interviews until the end of his life. In 1995, Hughes co-founded the production company Great Oaks Entertainment, which mainly handled co-production of Disney produced films. Hughes handled the scripting of two of the company's films: "101 Dalmatians" (1996) and "Flubber" (1997). Both were remakes of older films.

In 1997, Hughes severed his partnership with Ricardo Mestres. A year later, their final co-production, "Reach the Rock," was released. The film was scripted by Hughes, though it was uncharacteristically dramatic for a Hughes film. The film depicted the conflict between an alienated young man and a police chief.

In the 2000s, Hughes only scripted three more films. The most notable among them the romantic drama "Maid in Manhattan" (2002), a hit for protagonist Jennifer Lopez. It earned about 164 million dollars.

In August 2009, Hughes visited New York City with his wife. He wanted to visit one of his sons who lived there, and to meet his new grandson. On August 6, Hughes suffered a heart attack while walking in Manhattan. He was transported to Roosevelt Hospital, but died shortly after. He was fifty-nine years old.

Hughes was buried in Lake Forest Cemetery, a rural cemetery located in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was survived by his wife, their two children, and several grandchildren.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, and entertained audiences nearly his entire life. His father, Joe Jackson (no relation to Joe Jackson, also a musician), had been a guitarist, but was forced to give up his musical ambitions following his marriage to Michael's mother Katherine Jackson (née Katherine Esther Scruse). Together, they prodded their growing family's musical interests at home. By the early 1960s, the older boys Jackie, Tito and Jermaine had begun performing around the city; by 1964, Michael and Marlon had joined in.

A musical prodigy, Michael's singing and dancing talents were amazingly mature, and he soon became the dominant voice and focus of the Jackson 5. An opening act for such soul groups as the O-Jays and James Brown, it was Gladys Knight (not Diana Ross) who officially brought the group to Berry Gordy's attention, and by 1969, the boys were producing back-to-back chart-busting hits as Motown artists ("I Want You Back," "ABC," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Got to Be There," etc.). As a product of the 1970s, the boys emerged as one of the most accomplished black pop / soul vocal groups in music history, successfully evolving from a group like The Temptations to a disco phenomenon.

Solo success for Michael was inevitable, and by the 1980s, he had become infinitely more popular than his brotherly group. Record sales consistently orbited, culminating in the biggest-selling album of all time, "Thriller" in 1982. A TV natural, he ventured rather uneasily into films, such as playing the Scarecrow in The Wiz (1978), but had much better luck with elaborate music videos.

In the 1990s, the downside as an 1980s pop phenomenon began to rear itself. Michael grew terribly child-like and introverted by his peerless celebrity. A rather timorous, androgynous figure to begin with, his physical appearance began to change drastically, and his behavior grew alarmingly bizarre, making him a consistent target for scandal-making, despite his numerous charitable acts. Two brief marriages -- one to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley -- were forged and two children produced by his second wife during that time, but the purposes behind them appeared image-oriented.

Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. His passion and artistry as a singer, dancer, writer and businessman were unparalleled, and it is these prodigious talents that will ultimately prevail over the extremely negative aspects of his troubled adult life.

Marilyn Chambers was born on 22 April 1952 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Rabid (1977) and Angel of H.E.A.T. (1983). She was married to William Taylor, Jr., Chuck Traynor and Doug Chapin. She died on 11 April 2009 in Santa Clarita, California, USA.

Artie Mitchell and his brother Jim Mitchell were pioneers in the production of pornographic films and "adult entertainment" in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. They also founded the O'Farrell Theater on San Francisco's O'Farrell Street. Hunter S. Thompson, a regular customer who once was employed as the night manager of the porno palace, praised it as "The Carnegie Hall of public sex in America."

The younger of the two, Artie Jay Mitchell was born on December 12, 1945, in Lodi, California. He was raised in Antioch, California. His father, J.R., was a gambler, a vocation accepted by his mother, Georgia Mae. It was an ordinary upbringing in a blue-collar town, except perhaps for that fact that when the brothers were children -- they were inseparable from the beginning -- their parents would sometimes cook roadkill for dinner. It was an environment they wanted to escape.

Jim went off to the-then San Francisco State College, while Artie was drafted and did a stint in the army. At State, Jim matriculated in the film program, dreaming of becoming the American Jean-Luc Godard, who had revolutionized film narrative as part of the French New Wave. Needing money, Jim became a "pin-up" photographer, which consisted of approaching girls and offering them five or ten dollars to pose topless for his camera. It first happened at San Francisco's Ocean Beach, when he walked up to a pretty, bikini-clad gal and propositioned her.

He sold his photos to local porn purveyors at a profit. Soon he was directing short sex films known as "loops", as the films, many less than three minutes, would play continuously in the burgeoning peep show theaters. For each loop Jim charged up to $100.

Next came "nudies," very short exhibitions of nudity and simulated (if not real) sex shot on 16mm film and shown at down-at-the-heels movie theaters in decaying neighborhoods like the Mission. These short nudies, which dispensed with the plot that drove the high-grossing movies of American auteur and smut king Russ Meyer, had men lining up around the block to see them. Because of the sexual revolution the Bay Area (and the country as a whole) was undergoing in the late 1960s, there were many good-looking California girls interested in taking part in his films, all in the name of freedom, unbridled expression and sexual liberation.

Jim dropped out of S.F. State's film program in the late 1960s, offended by a professor's criticism of his student work. In 1968 film censorship had officially died (the industry Production Code was replaced by the self-policing ratings regimen of the MPAA) and the mainstream barriers against sexually explicit film began dropping as rapidly as a porno actress' bluejeans. While there was not as yet any hardcore feature-length films, the liberalization was felt in the fringes of the grindhouse circuits by the transition from softcore forms featuring discreet nudity and then full-frontal nudity to hardcore porn loops and ten-minute shorts featuring actual intercourse, the so-called "Tijuana" stag flicks, since hardcore porn until that time time could only be seen -- outside of a gentleman's "smoker" -- in a "legitimate" theater in outposts such as that Mexican city across the border from San Diego.

The films were shot on the cheap with student-caliber 16mm cameras. Jim and his associates created grindhouse nudies and hardcore cinema with the pretensions of student filmmakers, but when Artie partnered with Jim, the pretensions to art were dropped in favor of churning out product like sausages for their O'Farrell Theater, which was opened on Independence Day, 1969, located on the site of an old Pontiac automobile showroom.  The San Francisco Police Department raided the theater shortly after it opened, and obscenity charges were filed against the Mitchell Brothers, but there were many left-wing lawyers ready to defend them and their First Amendment rights in late 1960s San Francisco.

In the sybaritic confines of the O'Farrell Theater, the Mitchell Bros. pushed the envelope on what was acceptable fare for exhibition and were arrested for obscenity numerous times. It was a much more liberal era, and the courts generally leaned toward expanding adults' rights to view films of their own choice. Beating the raps made them well-known in California and gave them a countercultural allure they reveled in, as well as making them rich. By 1971 they decided to make a feature film and show it at their own theater (for the auteur Jim, a feature film also was a logical next step). Behind the Green Door (1972), one of the classics of the genre, is based on an anonymous GI novella that used to circulate in barracks after WWII (and was the subject of a hit song in the 1950s that non-military types did not understand). Arguably the best reviewed porno film ever, the movie was dreamed up by ex-GI Artie and shot by Jim on a $60,000 budget.

The boys were lucky, their success a case of being in the right place at the right time, a place and time where the in the best American entrepreneurial spirit, the wages of sin were handsomely rewarded. Some estimates place the film's gross at almost $30 million (accurate porn film grosses are hard to ascertain due to the involvement of organized crime in the exhibition segment of the genre; true grosses were seldom reported, since the Mafia always skims much of the receipts directly into their pockets, but the film did make the list of the top 20 grossing films of 1972 in "Variety"). It also launched the career of adult film superstar Marilyn Chambers, one of the less-than-a-handful of porn actors to appear outside the genre in mainstream films under their own name.

The Mitchell Bros.' parents were in the audience at the O'Farrell for the "Green Door" premiere, during which the movie's reels were accidentally shown out of sequence. No one seemed to notice or care. "Behind the Green Door" was a huge hit, second only to Deep Throat (1972) as a "sin cinema" sensation. It played to packed movie houses in major cities across the country, and was even exhibited at the Cannes Film Festival. Lady Luck smiled on the Mitchell Bros., and luck definitely had a hand in the success of the film. By coincidence, Ivory Snow detergent debuted a new box design featuring a young mother holding her infant. The materfamilias on the box happened to be none other than Marilyn Chambers, concurrently revealing her own box in the Mitchell Bros.' latest adult extravaganza.

Though it was Artie's idea, the finished film featured a return to Jim's art house pretensions, but this time it worked. There is a surreal quality to "Green Door" that makes it work as both pornography and a film, something that other porn films relying on more conventional narrative to create redeeming social quality (in order to avoid getting busted) failed to achieve. The film is, arguably, the best reviewed of its genre, and likely is the best porno film ever made, and has been called the Citizen Kane (1941) of its genre.

"Behind the Green Door" was a major success on the West Coast, and eventually was shown in New York and other East Coast cities, but without any profit to the Mitchell Bros., as they were ripped off by the Mafia, which made its own bootleg prints and showed the film in its own theaters. As porno was still legally suspect, and the power of the Mafia was very real, there was little that the Mitchell Bros. could do to fight back. They opened up their own chain of 11 theaters on the West Coast to keep from being ripped off by local "wiseguys".

Sicne it was the time of the "auteur", when cinema theory held film to be the work of the director, Jim Mitchell got the lion's share of the laurels (the loot was split 50-50). Since he had come up with the idea, Jim's "success" made Artie resentful, fueling the resentment often felt by younger brothers towards their older sibling. The Mitchell Bros. continued to make feature films, including their less successful, quasi-sequel Resurrection of Eve (1973), also featuring Marilyn Chambers. Jim's pretensions sank their investment in Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last Seven Days (1975), the older Mitchell brother's attempt to become a porno Cecil B. DeMille. Too much money was spent on the production (as much as $750,000) and too few box office receipt came in from the East Coast (where the porno circuits were controlled by the Mob, which was an organization averse to splitting the take with anybody; they would bootleg copies of the film and keep all the money for themselves, as "Deep Throat" director Gerard Damiano found out--he "traded" the profits for "Deep Throat" to the mob in exchange for his life) for it to make a good enough profit to justify the time and money.

After "Sodom and Gommorah," Jim's filmmaking ambitions died, though the brothers continued to make films into the 1980s (they were self-deprecating about their films. "The only Art in this business is my brother," Jim claimed). The brothers felt contempt for the talent that appeared in their movies, referring to the males as "meat." After the 1970s the Mitchell Bros. essentially turned themselves into panderers offering live sex entertainment. Once again, they were pioneers.

The Mitchell Bros. didn't invent lap dancing; New York's Melody Theater featured strip shows with audience participation on- and off-stage during the 1970s. The Mitchell Bros. introduced lap dancing to San Francisco in 1980 when dancers at the O'Farrell Theatre were encouraged to come down from the stage and sit, nude, on the laps of audience members for tips. The innovation put a whole new face on sexual entertainment in the city. Suddenly, for a $1.00 tip, guys in the audience could enjoy contact with a real, live girl. Always the innovators, the Mitchell Bros. succeeded in tearing down the fabled "fourth wall" of theater, fusing fantasy and reality (it started a revolution in adult entertainment that still resonates, with the proliferation of high-class "gentlemen's" clubs in the 1990s--lap dancing had become the nation's predominant form of live, adult entertainment).  

As their next step, the Mitchell Bros. put on live sex shows at the O'Farrell Theate until the city, backed by the courts, outlawed it. San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein had a bee in her bonnet for the O'Farrell Theatre during her administration, and after one raid closed down the establishment, the Mitchell Bros. placed this notice on the theater's marquee: "For show times call Mayor Feinstein at" followed by her home telephone number.

The Mitchell Bros. produced Behind the Green Door: The Sequel (1986), a paean to safe sex starring Artie's new girlfriend, Missy Manners, but they were essentially through as movie impresarios (some publicity was gained by the fact that Miss Manners, whose real name was Elisa Florez, had been an aide to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, one of the country's major right-wing "moralists"). The film was not a hit, and the theater increasingly was the focus of the Bros.' business.

Both Artie and Jim were hard partiers, but Jim managed to clean up his act in the late 1980s and hoped that Artie would follow his lead. Artie, however, had no interest in giving up his lifestyle. The brothers were drifting apart in a fundamental way, though they worked together and their families were close. Once Artie, Jim and three of their children had to be pulled from high surf, trapped by the undertow, by the the San Francisco Fire Department Cliff and Surf Rescue Team. The team members were given lifetime passes to the O'Farrell.

On February 27, 1991, Jim shot his brother Artie to death in what he claimed was an intervention gone wrong. Going to Artie's house in what he had planned to be a pitch to make Artie wake up and save himself by entering a drug rehabilitation plan, Jim slashed the tires on Artie's car before entering the house with a rifle and pistol. After arguing with Artie, Jim shot him to death while Artie's girlfriend was on the phone to police. Four months later, after getting out of jail on bail, Jim hosted a massive wake party for Artie at the O'Farrell. Jim reportedly is in pain to this day, and likely will be for the rest of his life, having killed - as he put it - his mother's baby and the father of his nieces and nephews. He also had killed his business partner and long-time best friend.

Some of the dancers at the O'Farrel claim that the place is haunted by Artie's ghost, that he can be seen in mirrors, or in the faintly lit nooks and crannies in the theater, glowering at the girls. Thus, a man who captured the spirit of the age like flickering lightning in a bottle on film is now reduced to a spirit himself, a shade, haunting the haunts he made world famous a lifetime ago.

Born in Portland, Oregon, she grew up in on a farm in Ketchum, Idaho. But dad was Jack Hemingway, son of the Nobel prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway and, with that heritage, fame was almost foreordained. By the time she was 21, after the lead in the rape melodrama Lipstick (1976), she had a budding movie career, a $1 million promotional contract with Faberge perfume, and her face on magazine covers around the world. But, within the decade, it was all lost. Her sister Mariel Hemingway, whose role in Lipstick (1976) had been suggested by Margaux, was a much greater success. Margaux had started drinking heavily; two marriages had failed. In 1988, she checked herself into the Betty Ford Center for rehabilitation. Attempts to parley her recovery from alcohol into a revived career failed and, by the time she was 41, almost nothing was left. She lived alone in a studio apartment, no children, no lover, few friends. Neighbors informed police that she had not been seen for days and, on July 1, they entered through a 2nd-floor window. Dental records had to be used to confirm her identity.

Dorothy Stratten's story was brief, glorious and tragic. She was born Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten on February 28, 1960 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She grew up in a rough neighborhood in Vancouver, but kept out of trouble and went through the motions of school. While not a beauty as a child, nor early teen, Stratten came into her own out of high school and attracted the attention of Paul Snider, a promoter and wannabe star. He started dating her and after seeing an advertisement for Playboy's 25th Anniversary Playmate search in 1978, convinced her to pose for photos. Playboy saw the potential in Stratten and flew her out to Los Angeles, California, where she became a candidate. Although she lost out to Candy Loving, Stratten was made a Playmate in the August 1979 issue of Playboy. Soon after, she was pressured into marrying Snider, who had a Svengali-like influence on her.

After her centerfold came out, Stratten found work in a few movies, notably Americathon (1979) and Skatetown U.S.A. (1979), as well as being the object of Richard Dawson's affection in an ABC-TV special shot at the Playboy mansion. Clearly, her star was on the rise. In 1980, it was revealed that Stratten would be tabbed as the Playmate of the Year by Playboy publisher and founder Hugh Hefner. While this was one of the crowning achievements of her career, things were not going well in her marriage to Snider. He bothered her on the set of the movie Galaxina (1980) and when Snider found out she was developing more than a friendly relationship with director Peter Bogdanovich, Snider grew increasingly frustrated.

After a separation, Snider bought a shotgun and talked Stratten into coming to the apartment they used to share in West Los Angeles. Snider tied her up, sexually assaulted her and put the shotgun next to her face and pulled the trigger. Snider then turned the shotgun on himself to complete the murder-suicide. Since her death, Stratten has become something of a minor cult fixture, and has had two (one a television) movies, a song, and a couple of books written about her. The last movie she was in, They All Laughed (1981), was released after her death.

Raised in Homestead, Florida, Fritz lived in California. She studied acting with the following teachers: Grant Tom Cramer Reilly, Howard Fine, and Michael Arabian. With more than 50 feature films and television shows on her resume, she took the art of eroticism very seriously. This intoxicating beauty got her a role playing a bikini-clad girl in Columbia Pictures' Spring Break (1983).

After that film, she parlayed her natural ability to turn heads into a full-fledged acting career. Like so many other Hollywood luminaries, she got her start in Hollywood working with legendary producer Roger Corman in flicks like Dinosaur Island (1994) (of which Corman was an uncredited co-producer). She landed a supporting role in Go (1999), the sophomore project from Doug Liman, the director of Swingers (1996). With her love for computers, she elevated her career to the next level by bringing herself into cyberspace before her untimely death in 2020 from cancer.

Bob Saget was an American actor, stand-up comedian, and television host from Philadelphia. His best known role was playing pater familias Danny Tanner on the hit sitcom "Full House" (1987-1995). He played the character again in the sequel series "Fuller House" (2016-2020). Saget served as the original host of the long-running clip show "America's Funniest Home Videos" from 1989 to 1997. Saget voiced the narrator in the hit sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" (2005-2014), depicted as an older version of main character Ted Mosby.

In 1956, Saget was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia. His parents were supermarket executive Benjamin Saget and hospital administrator Rosalyn "Dolly" Saget. The Saget family eventually moved to Norfolk, Virginia. Bob received his early religious education at Temple Israel, a synagogue of Norfolk which adhered to Conservative Judaism. He was reportedly a rebellious student.

Saget spend part of his high school years in Los Angeles, where he befriended veteran comedian Larry Fine (1902-1975). He attended a Philadelphia high school during his senior year. He was originally interested in a medical career but his English teacher Elaine Zimmerman convinced Saget to aspire to an acting or filmmaking career instead.

Saget received his college education at the "Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts", a college associated with the Temple University of Philadelphia. One of his student films won a merit award at the Student Academy Awards. He graduated college with a Bachelor of Arts in 1978. He had already started performing in comedy clubs during his college years.

In 1978, Saget intended to take graduate courses at the University of Southern California. He dropped out due to health-related problems. He almost died due to a gangrenous appendix, costing him a loss of confidence. He decided afterwards to lose some weight, in the belief that it would improve his health.

Following his graduation, Saget spend about a decade working mostly as a comedian. He appeared in minor acting roles in both films and television. In 1987, Saget was performing comedy bits for the short-lived non-fiction show "The Morning Program". The show offered a mix of "news, entertainment and comedy", but was canceled due to low ratings.

Saget's big break came when he was chosen to portray widowed father Danny Tanner in the sitcom "Full House" (1987-1995). The series depicted Danny's efforts to raise three young daughters, with the assistance of his best friends. The show suffered from poor viewership in its first season, but attracted a family audience due to its portrayal of the struggles associated with parenting. By its third season, it was ranked among Nielsen's Top 30 shows. Saget became a household name, and the series lasted for 8 seasons and 192 episodes. The series was eventually canceled due to its increasing production costs. Its rating had remained high until its final episode.

In 1989, Saget was chosen as the host of the clip show "America's Funniest Home Videos". The show featured humorous homemade videos which were submitted by its viewers, often highlighting physical comedy, pranks, or unusual behavior by children and pets. While the show was popular with viewers, Saget himself was increasingly frustrated with its repetitive format. When his contract for the show expired in 1997, Saget was not interested in negotiating for a renewal.

In 1996, Saget directed the dramatic television film "For Hope". The film depicted the struggles of a woman who is slowly dying due to being afflicted with scleroderma, an autoimmune disease with no known cure. Saget was reportedly inspired by the life and death of his sister Gay Saget, who had died due to scleroderma. The film received high ratings in its debut.

In 1998, Saget directed the comedy film "Dirty Work". It depicted two half-brothers who offer to perform revenge schemes for paying clients, but have a personal grudge against a man who reneged on a deal with them. The film under-performed at the box office, but gained a cult following due to its reputation as a "gag-fest".

From 2001 to 2002, Saget had the starring role of Matt Stewart in the sitcom "Raising Dad". The premise of the series was that widowed father Matt Stewart was trying to raise two daughter, while pursuing a teaching career at his eldest's daughter's high school. Despite the series having a similar concept to "Full House", it failed to find an audience. It lasted for a single season.

In 2005, Saget was cast as the narrator in the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" (2005-2014). The premise of the series was that middle-aged Ted Mosby narrates his life story (and the life stories of his best friends) to his son and daughter. The series repeatedly implied that Ted was an unreliable narrator, who either embellished or censored aspects of his various stories. The series was quite popular, lasting for 9 seasons and 208 episodes.

In 2007, Saget directed the direct-to-video parody film "Farce of the Penguins". The film was a full-length parody of the documentary film "March of the Penguins" (2005), featuring penguins conversing about their love lives. It featured the voices of several then-popular actors, including several of Saget's former co-stars from "Full House".

In 2009, Saget was cast in the main role of Steve Patterson in the sitcom "Surviving Suburbia". The premise of the series was that the members of a suburban family have problems in interacting both with each other, and with their new neighbors. The series only lasted a single season, and struggled with low ratings.

In 2014, Saget published his memoirs under the title "Dirty Daddy". In 2016, a sequel series to "Full House" was introduced under the title "Fuller House". It featured the lives of two of Danny Tanner's daughters, and Danny's grandchildren. Saget played the recurring role of Danny for 15 episodes. The sequel series lasted for 5 seasons. This was Saget's last major role in a sitcom. He continued, however, to regularly host television events.

In January 2022, Saget was in Florida for a stand-up tour. On January 9, Saget was discovered dead in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, located south of Orlando, Florida. He was 65-years-old. His autopsy revealed that the cause of death was blunt head trauma from an accidental blow to the back of his head, likely from a fall. He had died in his sleep. He was buried at the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, next to the graves of his parents and his sister. Mourners honored Saget by offering donations to the charity "Scleroderma Research Foundation" (SRF), since Saget had long served in its board of directors. Saget is gone, but his popularity endures due to his acting and directing roles in several popular films and television shows.