Deaths: October 24

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

Ana Bertha Lepe was born on 12 September 1934 in Tecolotlan, Jalisco, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Lo que le pasó a Sansón (1955), Neutron Traps the Invisible Killers (1965) and Barú, el hombre de la selva (1962). She died on 24 October 2013 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.

Antonia Bird was born on 27 May 1951 in London, England, UK. She was a director and producer, known for Priest (1994), Face (1997) and Ravenous (1999). She was married to Ian Ilett. She died on 24 October 2013 in London, England, UK.

Contrary to popular belief, Bobby Vee was not one of the flood of Italian-American rockers to come out of the New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia area in the '50s and '60s. He was born Robert Velline in Fargo, ND, and, although he started playing music when he was just a teenager, it was country music, not rock. However, he, his brother and some friends eventually formed a rock band, "The Shadows", and began to attract some attention in the Fargo area. His big break came when rock legends Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1959 en route to a concert in Minnesota. The concert's promoters decided to put on the show anyway, and asked for help from local talent. Bobby, who knew the words to all of the songs that were to be played, found himself on stage and, at 15 years old, began his career as a rock star. He and his group had a local hit with "Suzy Baby", which came to the attention of executives at Liberty Records in Hollywood, and he and The Shadows were signed to the label. The next few records they cut went basically nowhere, however, and Liberty was all set to cancel their contract when a DJ in Pittsburgh played the "B" side to one of their records, a remake of an old ballad by The Clovers called "Devil or Angel". It became a hit in Pittsburgh and then spread throughout the Northeast, eventually hitting #6 on the national pop charts. Liberty then signed Vee to a five-year contract. He had a string of hits for the label, such as "Take Good Care of My Baby", "Rubber Ball", "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" and "Come Back When You Grow Up, Girl".

Carmen Alborch was born on 31 October 1947 in Valencia, Valencia, Spain. She died on 24 October 2018 in València, València, Comunitat Valenciana, Spain.

Cheryl Walker was born on 1 August 1918 in South Pasadena, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Murder Is My Business (1946), Secrets of a Model (1940) and Larceny in Her Heart (1946). She was married to Dr. Jay Etzell Coumbe and Tway W. Andrews. She died on 24 October 1971 in Pasadena, California, USA.

Silent-era star Claire Windsor was born Clara Viola Cronk in Cawker City, Kansas, the daughter of Ella and G.E. Cronk. She was educated at Broadway High School in Seattle, Washington, and Washburn Preperatory Academy in Topeka, Kansas. She studied voice and piano at Cohn's Conservatory of Music in Seattle. Claire began her film career as an extra on the Famous Players-Lasky lot, and was signed to stock by director Allan Dwan to work at First National Pictures. She was then signed by writer/director Lois Weber to the lead role in What Do Men Want? (1921), at which time she changed her name to Claire Windsor (on the advice of writer Frances Marion). She toured with Al Jolson in his stage show in 1933.

Don Messick is a legendary voice actor who spent his entire adult-hood in entertainment. He started out wanting to be a ventriloquist. Thankfully for cartoon lovers that career didn't pan out. How do you think his potential career would've stacked up against Edgar Bergen and later, Paul Winchell? No matter, Messick made his way to the hallowed halls of MGM in the early '50s on the recommendation of another voice actor, Daws Butler. At the time, MGM/Tex Avery were doing the theatrical "Droopy" cartoons. Bill Thompson, known for his hilarious voices on the radio show 'Fibber McGee and Molly', borrowed his Wallace Wimple voice and applied it to Droopy. Whenever Thompson couldn't make it to a session, MGM would ask Daws Butler to fill-in. Daws had been working for MGM since the mid '40s. Later, Daws apparently grew tired of the role and suggested Don Messick be Bill Thompson's fill-in. Butler, it's been said, literally squeezed his cheeks together to try and get that sound for Droopy while Messick simply thickened his tongue and loosened his jaws. Messick made the rounds and did every voice-over role large and small in this era. In 1957 Hanna-Barbera started their own company after departing from MGM...Daws Butler and Don Messick were the two voice actors the animation titans employed during the early days. Don was always heard as the "second banana" character or a walk-on. At various times he was the villain. His voice was heard as the 'narrator' on all of the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons. On "Ruff and Reddy", the duo's first made-for-TV cartoon series, Don was heard as "Ruff" the cat and as the Droopy-sounding "Professor Gizmo". Messick was also the narrator who interracted with the duo and got caught up in the action much like a soap opera announcer on radio. Daws was "Reddy", the dog, among other nameless characters in the show. In this 1957-1966 time span, Don Messick was cast as Daws Butler's voice partner and as the cartoon narrator. "Boo-Boo" was the little friend of "Yogi Bear" who lived in Jellystone Park. Yogi stole "pic-a-nic" baskets while Boo-Boo always tried, unsuccessfully, to steer Yogi to a more safer life always reminding him "the Ranger isn't going to like it, Yogi". The Ranger in question was "Ranger Smith", the park ranger who always chased and stopped Yogi's latest schemes. Messick gave voice to the Ranger. Daws was Yogi. In other programs, Messick was heard as "Pixie Mouse" to Daws Butler's "Dixie Mouse" and "Mr. Jinx". On "Snagglepuss", Messick was always heard as the villain, mostly the befuddled "Major Minor". Daws was Snagglepuss. In Huckleberry Hound, Daws was the star character while Messick usually did the narration as well as played a villain. Messick would later provide the voices of "Astro" and "RUDI" on the Jetsons. As a versatile voice actor, Messick performed a dozen wacky space aliens on the space cartoons of the mid '60s. The gibberish of "Gloop" and "Gleep" on the Herculoids cartoon was Messick. "Blip", "Igoo", "Zorak", "Tundra", and "Zoc" are just a few of the characters that Messick groaned or grunted for in the outer space cartoons...his most famous non-verbal voice is the snickering dog, "Muttley"...later called "Mumbley". "Richochet Rabbit", "Vapor Man", "Falcon 7", "Dr. Benton Quest", and "Multi-Man" are other voices from Messick in that era. In 1969 he provided the voice for his most famous role, "Scooby-Doo". Throughout the '70s and beyond, Messick gave voice to this cowardly great dane. In 1980 he became the voice of nephew, "Scrappy-Doo", while in later versions Daws Butler was on hand as "Scooby-Dum". On the 1977 Laff-a-Lympics cartoon, Messick not only announced the show but he performed some of the characters too. "Papa Smurf" became Messick's biggest original character in the '80s but he remained busy providing voices for his older characters in new Hanna-Barbera productions. Daws Butler and Mel Blanc were also living off their famed characters by reprising the voices in numerous made-for-TV cartoon movies and Saturday morning TV in the late '70s on into the next decade. Messick remained a much-used voice actor and in 1988 ABC announced "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo". Messick was back in the role and voiced the character until it's demise in 1990. His friend and voice partner, Daws Butler, passed away in 1988. In 1989 Mel Blanc passed away leaving Don Messick, June Foray, Stan Freberg, and Paul Winchell as the remaining link to the classic era. In 1989 The Smurfs went out of production. On the new Tiny Toon Adventures, Messick was heard as "Hamton Pig", a role he remained with until his mysterious retirement in 1996 at the age of 69 which was later revealed to be a result of a stroke. Don Messick died in 1997, closing a chapter in animation history in the process.

Who was the first "Robin, the Boy Wonder"? No, not Burt Ward, but this popular, curly-haired child actor of the 1940s. In addition to being in the first "Batman" film, he appeared in many other major films, mostly at Warner Brothers. In almost all of these films, he played the hero as a boy, "growing up" to be, among others, James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Ronald Reagan in Kings Row (1942). Not much is known of him after he dropped out of acting towards the end of the decade.

Edith was the chief costume designer for Universal Studios having started her career as a sketch artist at Paramount. Sweet Charity was her 1,130th film, Over the years she had over30 Oscar nominations of which she won 7. She wrote two books, The Dress Doctor and How to Dress For Success. In 1959 she was chosen as Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times

The wonderfully eccentric, snaggle-toothed Edith Massey was born in New York City and raised in an orphanage in Denver, Colorado before running away to Hollywood as a teenager. She met director John Waters while working as a barmaid and running her own thrift shop, Edith's Shopping Bag at Fells Point, Baltimore, Maryland in the late 1960s. Captivated by her effervescent charm, Waters cast her in Multiple Maniacs (1970) as Jesus's mother. Her next role was as Mama Edie in Pink Flamingos (1972). She appeared in many of Waters' earlier films, leading up to Polyester (1981), as well as being the subject of a biographical short film, Love Letter to Edie (1975).

After her role as Queen Carlotta in Desperate Living (1977), Massey embarked on a singing career which led to a nationwide tour, usually performing cover songs including "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Punks, Get Off the Grass" Fellow Dreamlander Cookie Mueller occasionally performed as a backup singer. Edith Massey passed away in October 1984.

Edythe Kirchmaier was born on 22 January 1908 in Springfield, Ohio, USA. She died on 24 October 2015 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.

Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 - October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.

While in junior high school, he became interested in science fiction, and years later while reading a copy of 'Astounding Stories' when he was working as an airline pilot, he decided to give it up and become a writer. He moved West and joined the Los Angeles police force to gain experience that would help him toward a writing career in Hollywood. He began selling scripts for television shows such as 'Dragnet' and 'Naked City'. He was head writer on 'Have Gun Will Travel' for two years, winning the 'Writer's Guild Award' for 'Best Script'. He created and produced 'The Lieutenant' followed by 3 years of the 'Star Trek' television series and produced the films 'Pretty Maids All in a Row', the first 'Star Trek' film and was executive consultant on the following two.

George Tarasovic was born on 6 May 1930 in Granville, New York, USA. He died on 24 October 2019 in Savannah, Georgia, USA.

Gloria Castillo was born on 2 July 1933 in Belén, Valencia county, New Mexico, USA. She was an actress, known for The Night of the Hunter (1955), Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) and Cavalcade of America (1952). She was married to Ellis Kadison. She died on 24 October 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Horst Schulze was born on 26 April 1921 in Dresden, Germany. He was an actor, known for Solange Leben in mir ist (1965), Emilia Galotti (1958) and Trotz alledem! (1972). He was married to Anneliese Pillatzke. He died on 24 October 2018 in Berlin, Germany.

Inés Murray was born on 12 March 1900 in Italy. She was an actress, known for La virgencita de Pompeya (1935), Galleguita (1940) and En retirada (1984). She died on 24 October 1984 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

John D. Lamond was born in 1947 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was a producer and director, known for North of Chiang Mai (1992), Stage Fright (1980) and Felicity (1978). He was married to Diane and Jean. He died on 24 October 2018 in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Jorge Batlle was born on 25 October 1927 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was married to Noemi Lamuraglia and Mercedes Menafra. He died on 24 October 2016 in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Julio Porter was born on 14 July 1916 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a writer and director, known for Escándalo en la familia (1967), Blum (1970) and Santo in the Wax Museum (1963). He died on 24 October 1979 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.

Kaoru Yachigusa was born on 6 January 1931 in Osaka, Japan. She was an actress, known for Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956), Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954) and With Beauty and Sorrow (1965). She was married to Senkichi Taniguchi. She died on 24 October 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.

Lamont Johnson was born on 30 September 1922 in Stockton, California, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985), Lipstick (1976) and Lincoln (1988). He was married to Tony Johnson. He died on 24 October 2010 in Monterey, California, USA.

Luis Aguilar was born on 29 January 1918 in Mexico, D.F., Mexico. He was an actor and composer, known for Los chiflados del rock and roll (1957), Una aventura en la noche (1948) and Los años de Greta (1992). He was married to Rosario Gálvez and Ana María Almada Rubalcava. He died on 24 October 1997 in Mexico D.F., Mexico.