Black Celebrities Who Died With Little Or No Fanfare

[attackatdawn]

Some of these people I have heard of & didn't know were dead and some I have never heard of

I found this today: http://panachereport.com/channels/ol...CelebsDied.htm

[Darrianne]

Wow....I do remember some of those - and didn't even realize they had passed away!

[herekittykitty]

Oooh, the story about Shirley Hemphill from "What's Happening" is heartbreaking.

What's more disturbing than the deaths, though, is the "Disturbing and Tragic" section. A lot of child abuse cases in there. Read at your own risk.

kitty

[Bee1001]

"Actress Shirley Hemphill (pictured above) appeared in the 70's sitcom "What's Happening." She died in 1999 from kidney failure. She was 50. It was nearly two weeks before her body was discovered in her home."

I always hate hearing stuff like that last line. It shouldn't take that long to discover that someone died.

[dirttrackdemon3]

"Actress Shirley Hemphill (pictured above) appeared in the 70's sitcom "What's Happening." She died in 1999 from kidney failure. She was 50. It was nearly two weeks before her body was discovered in her home."

I always hate hearing stuff like that last line. It shouldn't take that long to discover that someone died.

i always found her to be a funny lady. seriously sad!! has anyone ever been in a house where a corpse has sat for awhile?? its horrible!! watch that movie "7", u will know!

[SuburbanDeathHag]

Wow, thanks for the link. I can't believe Christie Love is dead.

[SlippyInvader]

OMG I didn't know Gwen Gutherie died I used to love that song "Nothing Going On But The Rent" I know if it was on the news over here I would have known about it because I liked her music.

[DietCokeofEvil]

It's amazing how many of them died so young...

[SlippyInvader]

How sad Mcfadden & Whitehead died within two years of each other ages 55 & 56.

[dirttrackdemon3]

i heard a rumor once that the chick who played martin lawrences g-friend in MARTIN died....any truth?? i didnt see her there, but i did see the lady that was urkels love interest.

[ScottyMonger]

i heard a rumor once that the chick who played martin lawrences g-friend in MARTIN died....any truth?? i didnt see her there, but i did see the lady that was urkels love interest.

Tisha Campbell is alive.

[Guest]

Man, both Damian AND Dame are dead. Both died same day, two years apart, how freaky is that?

[Irishlass]

I was saddended to hear the young man that played Rudy's(the Cosby show) BF stanley died so sad..

[Armcast]

Thanks for the link...what an tremendous amount of talent who died way too young...

[SW4]

I was glad to see Brock Peters on this list, always enjoyed him in films, and used to see him from time-to-time when I lived in Los Angeles..he drove a Cadillac Seville, with personal license plates that said "BROCK"

Did I miss the wonderful Roscoe Lee Browne on this list? He was a fine classically-trained actor who could play ANYthing. I remember being saddened not to see more on him when he passed.

[Aries65]

Moesha's brother - from the TV show died. Car accident?

[magblax]

Wow. Thanks for posting the link! I had no idea Lynne Thigpen had died a couple of years ago.

[Jazbabee]

Wow......that's a great link !!! Thanks for Sharing !!! It really answers a lot of questions I had about entertainers that seemed to have just disappeared !

[monhol]

my mother grown up with harry ray in new jersey. she said he was a piece of work as a little boy. him and his boys tried to jump her when they were kids and my mom went home and got a baseball bat and said "hit me now" they had the nerve to say to my mom "put the bat down" she was like yeah right it is 3 of you and 1 of me. he also put out another boy's eye by hitting him in the eye with a rock. my mom said he was a bad little boy lol well R.I.P. harry ray and mom.

[monhol]

wow that was so sad. i did not know tony thompson from chic died. hell i did not know the lead singer from starpoint died. even one of the "L A dream team has passed. i remember some of their songs. i read black magazines like "jet" and "ebony" alot of the deaths i read in those magazines. some were also in the news paper in my hometown. richard dimples field was a big shock.

[DelightfulDeathHag]

I was glad to see Brock Peters on this list, always enjoyed him in films, and used to see him from time-to-time when I lived in Los Angeles..he drove a Cadillac Seville, with personal license plates that said "BROCK"

Did I miss the wonderful Roscoe Lee Browne on this list? He was a fine classically-trained actor who could play ANYthing. I remember being saddened not to see more on him when he passed.

This was a great link! So many I never heard about their deaths,that says alot about our media! I loved both the above mentioned actors, don't remember the show but I vividly remember Brock Peters crying in it and it moved me to tears as well.These were two wonderfully talented men

[SanDiegodeathhag19]

i loved roger and zapp, heatwaves always and forever is such a beautiful song..

[goldil]

I didn't know about Michelle Thomas dying. Apparently she played Steve Urkel's girlfriend on Family Matters, but I knew her better as Justine, Theo's girlfriend on The Cosby Show.

[Cathy J.]

How sad Mcfadden & Whitehead died within two years of each other ages 55 & 56.

Mcfadden & Whitehead almost died together and at the same time..and with Lindsay Wagner from the Bionic Woman !!

All three almost got on American Airlines flight 191. The plane which crashed in Chicago during the Memorial day weekend in 1979 killing 271. Until 9/11 that was America's deadliest plane crash.

I don't remember why McFadden & Whitehead refused to board the plane but Wagner had "bad vibes" about the flight so therefor did not get on.

[knothere]

wow that was very informative for this hag

[Jason]

Yeah thanks for posting that Dawn... I was shocked to see Wylie Draper had died. He did a great job in the Jacksons movie.

[Daphne]

Some of these people I have heard of & didn't know were dead and some I have never heard of

I found this today: http://panachereport.com/channels/ol...CelebsDied.htm

Wow this is awesome - I know many of the faces and I, too, did not know many of these people died. Thanks for the link!

[miamore73]

Yeah thanks that was a truely great link.

[SW4]

...... don't remember the show but I vividly remember Brock Peters crying in it and it moved me to tears as well.These were two wonderfully talented men

Perhaps To Kill a Mockingbird......Peters is wrongly accused of assault and his testimony in the courtroom is tearfully emotional. I still get a lump in my throat when I watch it.

[RoRo]

Thanks for sharing a great link...I didn't know some of these people had passed...brought back some memories

[StricklandFOREVER]

Richard Biggs, who was an actor on Days of Our Lives and Babylon 5 was a great guy. I have a great friend that is on DAYS and introduced me to him several times. He did not die of cancer like the site says. He died of a aortic tear. He was getting ready for work one morning and just passed out and never woke up........so sad. Just a FYI!

R.I.P. Richard

[SheBoss]

I'm sorry. I have a huge problem with that whole site. There was no need to single out blacks. If you think about it there were a lot more non-black actors and actresses that died without any fanfare at all. It should have been 'Celebrities who died with little or no fanfare'. It doesn't matter what race but I hate when people single out one race like that. But that was a web site that is geared toward blacks. I guess they had to word it that way to get people to read it.

JMO!

Your picture STILL freaks me out!

[Mamma]

I find it rather tragic that the website proclaims the deaths of black celebrities who died with little or no fanfare, as Mabel King from What's Happening fame barely gets a sentence or two on the same website.

Want to hear the real tragedy, sadness, AND photo of Mabel King? Look it up at FAD. I shit you not, it was Mabel King's story that first got me hooked on FAD, and that story (and visit) absolutely broke my heart.

Seriously, look up Mabel King at FAD ... so tragic . That website just doesn't do her the justice she should have gotten.

~Mamma

ETA: Stevemr ~ I ditto SheBoss. That picture is just .... damn.

[scarletfever1971]

I find it rather tragic that the website proclaims the deaths of black celebrities who died with little or no fanfare, as Mabel King from What's Happening fame barely gets a sentence or two on the same website.

Want to hear the real tragedy, sadness, AND photo of Mabel King? Look it up at FAD. I shit you not, it was Mabel King's story that first got me hooked on FAD, and that story (and visit) absolutely broke my heart.

Seriously, look up Mabel King at FAD ... so tragic . That website just doesn't do her the justice she should have gotten.

~Mamma

ETA: Stevemr ~ I ditto SheBoss. That picture is just .... damn.

I had never read her page - her story IS incredibly sad. I also wasn't aware that she was Steve Martin's mama in "The Jerk".

[Mamma]

Hey Scarlet ~

Yes, very sad indeed. I was searching some old .jpgs on the web for Whats Happening, and I believe that's how FAD came up. Mabel King's story was the first story I'd read at FAD, and I spent HOURS reading the rest.

Mabel deserved better .

Y'know what else is weird? I see Zola Taylor from The Platters is mentioned on the black entertainers website - but no mention of alleged husband Franki Lymon, at all? What gives? Even the movie cover for Why Do Fools Fall In Love is on Zola's portion, but no Frankie.

Did I miss it? Frankie died of a heroin overdose in his childhood home he shared with his grandma. He was a bigamist, leaving behind 3 wives, one of them Zola.

~Mamma

[miamore73]

I'm sorry. I have a huge problem with that whole site. There was no need to single out blacks. If you think about it there were a lot more non-black actors and actresses that died without any fanfare at all. It should have been 'Celebrities who died with little or no fanfare'. It doesn't matter what race but I hate when people single out one race like that. But that was a web site that is geared toward blacks. I guess they had to word it that way to get people to read it.

JMO!

Steve you're always more than welcome to start your own website and name it whatever you want and put whatever you want on it.

I don't see anything wrong with it. Things are geared just for teens, the elderly and just for men or women. If someone wants to single out their race or preferences to seperate themselves than so be it. It's only a problem when the bashing of someone else's beliefs, race or preferences occur.

[stinkythejokedog]

Brownshoe Jenkins...terrible tragedy considering his contribution to the janitorial sciences

[Reecy]

I didn't know about Michelle Thomas dying. Apparently she played Steve Urkel's girlfriend on Family Matters, but I knew her better as Justine, Theo's girlfriend on The Cosby Show.

I thought I read somewhere that Michelle Thomas died of a brain Tumor.
but on this site (Black celebrities who died with no fan fare) I read that she died of a stomach ailment (?).

[motherogod]

Wow, thanks for this link!! These people deserve to be known in death as they were in life. I'm amazed at the young ages, and the prominence of cancer and AIDS. I guess that's typical in the entertainment business.

[MbalmR]

I too was disturbed by how young so many of those people were! And I had NO idea that Lynne Thigpen died. She was one of my favorite actresses. Remember her portrayal of the cast iron bitch in the movie "Lean On Me?" And wasn't she the voice and lips of the DJ in the movie "Warriors?"

[attackatdawn]

I thought I read somewhere that Michelle Thomas died of a brain Tumor.
but on this site (Black celebrities who died with no fan fare) I read that she died of a stomach ailment (?).

I thought she had died from Ovarian cancer, but it says stomach cancer on here too http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...6104&GRid=4413&

So sad to die so young, she was talented and very pretty too.

[Daphne]

Just a FEW I recognized and had no idea of their demise
Howard Rollins?? An EWF member? Superfly? Michael Jones Evans?
So freakin sad..

[MorbidMolly]

Thanks for the link...what an tremendous amount of talent who died way too young...

Ditto...

[SomeChick]

Great info about those folks. Thanks!

[dovescry1999]

I'm gonna check it out. But one that made me mad, was no mention when Michael Peters died. I didn't find out about his death until about 4 months after he passed...

[dovescry1999]

Some of these people I have heard of & didn't know were dead and some I have never heard of

I found this today: http://panachereport.com/channels/ol...CelebsDied.htm

Thank you very much for that info...

[Jason]

I'm sorry. I have a huge problem with that whole site. There was no need to single out blacks. If you think about it there were a lot more non-black actors and actresses that died without any fanfare at all. It should have been 'Celebrities who died with little or no fanfare'. It doesn't matter what race but I hate when people single out one race like that. But that was a web site that is geared toward blacks. I guess they had to word it that way to get people to read it.

JMO!

I actually found Dawns thread very informative and I learned a lot more then I do with most other threads on this forum. For example the guy that played Michael Jackson in the "Jacksons: an American dream" movie died a year after making that movie. How tragic is that? I got that feeling deep down that brought me to Find A Death in the first place... so in my opinion this thread is very important for this forum.

[Jason]

I thought the site was interesting. Maybe i took the whole site wrong. I saw it as 'people don't care about black people. They don't even give them a mention when they die'. That kind of irked me. My best friend here at work decided to go militant last week after watching a documentary. Maybe I'll go ask him to see what he thinks about my view.

Well I kind of took it like that also.. but in a way that says, we should be paying more attention to what happened to these people because like it or not their deaths were WAY overlooked compared to most other celebrities. I heard of most of them by accident or because I searched Dawns post... ask your friend, let us all know what he says.

[MagneticElectric]

I really don't like to think in terms of race myself, but I've noticed that a lot of media outlets don't talk about a LOT of celebrities who die. There are so many actors & actresses who worked a lot throughout the 50s, 60s & 70s and are just forgotten after they die. Perhaps it has to do with what they're famous for, but I find it a bit odd that someone who was nominated for an Oscar (like Paul Winfield) gets a blurb and news outlets devote hours upon hours on someone like Anna Nicole Smith. I guess it's all in how scandalous one lives their life.

Anyway, I can't believe the guy from Silver Spoons died! I had no idea. Most of the others I knew about and a few surprised me. Very sad.

[Maruz83]

Great Link !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sad