Surprising facts about the entertainers and celebrities we lost in 2019
The world has lost a number of beloved stars across the entertainment industry this year but they left their own legacies we will never forget.
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From Hollywood legends to TV stars and fashion icons, this was the year we lost some of music and film’s biggest names.
Here are some of the quirkier facts about the celebrities who left us in 2019.
BEN UNWIN, 41
The Home And Away star died in August after taking his own life.
He started his career at the age of 12, playing a lead role in a Sydney production of the musical Seven Little Australians, but had dreams of becoming a pop star.
He quit acting to complete a law degree and worked as a senior solicitor in Sydney.
The role of bad boy Jesse McGregor in Home And Away was written especially for him after he had auditioned for another role on the popular soap.
The waterfall where his body was found is considered to be a place of evil spirits, according to local Aboriginal tribes.
MARIE FREDRIKSSON, 61
Marie Fredriksson, the powerhouse voice behind Swedish group Roxette’s biggest hits, It Must Have Been Love and Listen to Your Heart, died in December after a long battle with cancer.
Fredriksson and her musical partner, Per Gessle, sold a staggering 75 million albums worldwide.
The group had three number ones in Australia and were popular visitors to our shores, last touring in 2015.
Famously, they got their break in the US after a university exchange student returned home to Minneapolis armed with a Roxette album, which he encouraged the local radio station to play.
The DJ liked what he heard. The song was The Look and eight weeks later it became the group’s first American number one.
ANNALISE BRAAKENSIEK, 46
The Sydney-based model, blogger and businesswoman, of Norwegian descent, could speak five languages: English and German fluently and Dutch, Italian and Japanese conversationally.
She was often approached by pornographic magazines to pose but always refused.
In her will, the mental health practitioner, who was found dead in her Sydney unit in January, left her collection of crystals to friends.
DANNY FRAWLEY, 56
AFL Danny Frawley died in September after a single-vehicle crash.
He earned the nickname “Spud” having grown up on a potato farm in Bungaree, north-west of Melbourne.
He loved a bet and he’d urge his colleagues to put down $50 around a weekly quaddie. His strike rate was mostly abysmal and his colleagues would go to town on him.
He liked to tell the story of having his photo taken with supermodel Elle Macpherson when she became St Kilda’s No 1 female ticket holder in 1990.
“He was very proud of it. And (his wife, Anita) would walk past and put it in the top drawer face down. Apparently for 15 years Spud would put it up, Anita would put it in the drawer. Spud would put it up, Anita would put it in the drawer,” said Channel 7 commentator – and friend – Hamish McLachlan.
ANNE PHELAN, 75
Australian actress Anne Phelan died in October aged 75 after a sudden illness.
The Prisoner star joked about why she never tried to crack the US market.
“I’ve got too many chins to work in America,” she said in a 2002 interview. “You can’t have this many chins and work over there. It’s true. Even the most beautiful women in Hollywood are having cosmetic surgery.”
The tireless advocate for refugees and women living with HIV said in a 2009 interview, that the song she’d “like played at her funeral” was I Just Wanna Dance from Jerry Springer: The Opera.
SAMMY POWER, 55
Radio personality Sammy Power passed away on December 17 aged 55.
The former radio star was an eighth-generation Queenslander and was the heir to the family who brought farmers markets to the state.
Power had taken over management of the family’s markets at Mitchelton, Brisbane Powerhouse and Manly. She was a finalist in the 2015 Telstra Business Woman of the Year Awards for running the markets.
ANDREW ‘GREEDY’ SMITH, 63
Mental as Anything’s Andrew ‘Greedy’ Smith died on December 2, after suffering a heart attack in his car.
Smith originally joined the band on harmonica but switched to keyboard on the advice of Martin Plaza, purchasing a second-hand organ from a wedding reception venue.
His famous nickname came courtesy of bandmates after he ate 15 pieces of fried chicken in one sitting.
JOHN FORDHAM, 75
The “manager to the stars” passed away peacefully aged 75 after a lengthy battle with throat cancer.
Fordham helped give broadcaster Alan Jones his big break in radio. Their association began through rugby union in the 1980s. The Daily Telegraph reported Fordham approached the old 2UE boss, legendary kingmaker John Brennan, to give Jones his start on a breakfast show.
STEVE DUNLEAVY, 81
One of Rupert Murdoch’s favourite journalists, Steve Dunleavy, died in June of unknown causes.
He exposed Elvis Presley’s addiction to prescription drugs, interviewed the mother of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, and Albert DeSalvo, the confessed Boston Strangler.
He also championed smokers and gun owners.
He wrestled a bear on TV and was bitten by a witness in a rape case when he confronted her with nude photographs of herself.
He was said to have been the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr’s Australian reporter in Oliver Stone’s 1994 film Natural Born Killers.
Ava Gardner reportedly threw a glass of champagne in his face when he asked for an interview but he took it in his stride, writing “last night, I shared a glass of champagne with Ava Gardner. She threw it; I wore it.”
BILL COLLINS, 84
“Mr Movies”, as he was affectionately known, died in his sleep in June.
He was said to deliver all his pieces to camera in one take and without a teleprompter.
Gone With the Wind (1939) was his favourite film of all time. He says he first watched it at age 10 and it sparked his love of movies.
Angela Lansbury was one of his biggest fans telling him that he upheld “the traditions of our business for years and with such aplomb and with such grace and knowledge of movies and theatre and television and everything, that it’s a great privilege to get to talk with you.”
He received loads of hate mail when he screened the unsettling Aussie outback film Wake in Fright (1971) in 1989, but defended the decision on air.
“Yes, some of it is disgusting perhaps, some of it is absolutely horrifying, but it’s real, it’s true, it’s Australiana, the other side of the coin,” he said.
PUA MAGASIVA, 38
The New Zealand actor, best known for his roles as the Red Ranger from Power Rangers Ninja Storm, New Zealand soapie Shortland Street and Sione’s Wedding, took his own life in May.
In January 2017, he helped pull a man from his burning car. Magasiva and others managed to rip the steering wheel off to free the driver’s chest and pulled the pedal off his leg, while also fighting the flames.
Earlier this month, Magasiva’s widow, Lizz, made headlines with her revelations about the full horror of her abusive relationship with the actor, culminating in a brutal assault on her the night he died.
Lizz told the New Zealand Herald that while the couple’s social media profiles suggested the perfect “fairytale” romance, she and her daughter lived in fear of violence and emotional abuse.
GEOFF HARVEY, 83
The “musical maestro” of The Midday Show and Carols by Candlelight, died in March.
He was known as a practical joker and for making “wild bets”. His trademark beard was a result of losing a 1965 bet to Don Lane on a football match.
In the book Who Killed Channel Nine, publicity manager Vicki Jones was reportedly told she and her team would have to start mowing the lawns because money was tight. She stormed into the station manager’s office saying they had got “got all the blood there is to get out of us”. It was only when the manager asked what she was talking about that she realised she had fallen victim to one of Harvey’s practical jokes.
MIKE WILLESEE, 76
The legendary journalist and TV presenter died in March of throat cancer.
He was described as sex symbol by Cleo Magazine and was invited to be a centrefold.
He is credited with helping to start the career of a young comedian called Paul Hogan.
He famously stumped Liberal leader John Hewson during the 1993 federal election campaign when he asked “If I buy a birthday cake from a cake shop, and GST is in place, do I pay more or less for that birthday cake?”
Political commentators say Mr Hewson’s long-winded reply was the turning point in the 1993 election, which he lost.
CARMEN DUNCAN, 76
Carmen Duncan died in February after a battle with vaginal cancer. She had previously overcome breast, bowel and thyroid cancer, still managing to star in the stage show Anything Goes while having chemotherapy.
She paved the way for Australian actors in the US with her Emmy-nominated role in soap opera, Another World. Her younger sister, seven-time Logie winner, Paula Duncan, says she may not have become an actress if it wasn’t for Carmen.
“I auditioned for NIDA, Carmen went to NIDA, and I didn’t get in because I was immature. Carmen insisted that I auditioned for an ABC production of Pirates of Penzance, said ‘No, I am not going to do it, I am not going to get it, Australia doesn’t like me, it’s not going to work for me, it is different for you and she said ‘you will get it’ and she pushed me to do it and she was right.”
BILLY J SMITH, 73,
Former rugby league commentator and television personality Billy J Smith died in February after hitting his head in a fall with his family deciding to turn off his life support after he failed to regain consciousness.
He is best known for the TV show It’s a Knockout and for calling the first ever State of Origin game.
While hosting many Brisbane lunches he loved roasting anyone and everyone and it was not unusual for raffle winners to forfeit their prize rather than go on stage and risk Smith critiquing their hair or clothing style.
JOHN KENNERLEY, 78
The husband of media personality Kerri-Anne Kennerley and founder of NSW Lotto passed away in February after battling health issues.
Kennerley was left a quadriplegic after he slipped off a balcony at a Coffs Harbour golf resort in March 2016 while posing for a photo with his wife.
Lawyers filed a lawsuit against the golf course after his death.
The couple met in New York in the late 1970s and he reportedly helped the TV star leave her abusive first husband, music producer Jimmy Miller.
REG WATSON, 93
The pioneering television producer and screenwriter, who created the UK’s first soap opera, Crossroads, before moving to Australia and developing shows like Prisoner, Sons and Daughters and Neighbours, died in October.
He helped launch the careers of stars like Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Guy Pearce and was known as the “Godfather of the modern soap opera”.
He was attacked by critics in his early days for creating what some deemed “low-brow” television but always defended the artform.
“It’s a form of drama that 20 million viewers love and a few critics love to hate,” he once said. “It serves a need in the community. It gives them some form of involvement in the lives of these people and they accept the fact that it goes over the top occasionally.”
CLIVE JAMES, 80
The poet, writer, TV host and reviewer died in November, nine years after he was diagnosed with terminal leukaemia.
The “kid from Kogarah” was originally named Vivian, after the male star of the 1938 Australian Davis Cup team but changed his name to Clive, after a character in a Tyrone Power movie, when the film Gone with the Wind made people think of “Vivian” as a girl’s name.
He had an IQ of 140 but admitted he was “stupid” for having an eight-year affair with former model, Leanne Edelsten, who revealed that they would share a Cherry Ripe before and after sex.
Clive’s wife kicked him out of home in 2012, causing him to admit “I deserve everything that has happened to me.”
PAUL CRONIN, 81
The Sullivans star died in September surrounded by his family.
He was a semi-trailer truck driver and a draftsman until one night while watching TV with his wife, Helen, his daughter Susanne said he decided to make a switch.
“The story goes he was watching TV one night with mum and he said ‘I reckon I could do that’, and she said, ‘why don’t you?’. He got a walk on role in one of the Crawford Productions and then he got Matlock and the rest is history,” she said.
He went on to win five silver Logies.
The Aussie Rules tragic also founded the Brisbane Bears team in the late 1980s.
In 1980, Cronin received the uniquely Melbourne honour of being crowned the King of Moomba.
NINGALI LAWFORD-WOLF, 52
The Australian actress died in August in Edinburgh following complications after an asthma attack while touring with the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Secret River.
She starred in Rabbit Proof Fence and Bran Nue Dae and was nominated for Best Actress at the AACTA Awards for her role in Last Cab to Darwin.
She was reportedly born under a tree at Christmas Creek Station in the Kimberley, Western Australia.
RICHARD CARTER, 65
Carter starred in a slew of memorable roles, including Rake, Bangkok Hilton, Police Rescue, Blue Murder, The Great Gatsby, Babe: Pig in the City and A Country Practice, and died in July after a brief illness.
He said one of his proudest moments was on his last film, Mad Max: Fury Road.
He told The Guardian that during production he walked with George Miller across the sand flats of Namibia “surrounded by one and a half million greater and lesser flamingoes”, which was “the most awe-inspiring thing I think I have ever done in my life, apart from marrying my wife and the birth of our child”.
He said he and Miller returned to the set “hand-in-hand. I felt like a king.”
IAN JOHNSON, 70
The “beloved media executive” from Nine and Seven died in June.
“Jonno” helped kick off The Footy Show and is credited with bringing Eddie McGuire to Nine.
At Seven he secured the rights to the AFL and convinced Daryl Somers to leave his long-time home at Nine and come to Seven to host Dancing with the Stars.
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JIMMY HANNAN, 84
One of the pioneers of Australian television, Hannan died of cancer in January.
He appeared regularly on variety show In Melbourne Tonight and later hosted his own musical variety show, winning the Gold Logie in 1965.
The Bee Gees were such fans of his work that they sang backing vocals on his record Beach Ball.
His daughter Melissa Hannan, won the Miss Australia title in 1981 and was also a competitor in the Miss World held in London.
MIKE RAYMOND, 76
The legendary former Supercars commentator died in November following a battle with pneumonia.
The voice of Australian touring car racing for two decades helped usher in the introduction of RaceCam in 1979, allowing the commentary team to speak to drivers during races. It led to in-car cameras at the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500.
He coined the phrase “be there” for his motorsport promotions signature call to arms.
CARLA BELLOMARINO, 29
The TV producer on The Project died suddenly in September after suffering a cardiac arrest.
The Project co-host Waleed Aly paid tribute on-air to the talented producer, who he said was “set to dominate the industry”.
“It’s just about impossible to summarise Carla for you,” he said. “She was full of life, she was a go-getter. She was going to dominate the television industry, there was no doubt about that. More importantly, she was hilarious, she was really funny, she was extraordinarily kind.”
MICK MILLETT, 60
Michael Millett died in September after a battle with cancer.
The former journalist, who became the deputy editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, joined the ABC in 2009 as director of communications.
Millett was said to treat people the same whether they were politicians or PR people.
He was said to have “never bowed by authority” and would “casually put his feet on the coffee table in ministerial offices”.
CAROL CHANNING, 97
The legendary Broadway star died in January, two weeks before her 98th birthday.
She starred in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway playing the role more than 5000 times and when Hollywood cast 25-year-old Barbra Streisand in the movie role, Channing was “suicidal”.
She married four times, the last at age 82 to her childhood sweetheart who proposed to her after he read in her memoir how much she had loved him as a child.
Her trademark platinum blonde bouffant was a wig as she was allergic to bleach.
Johnny Depp once said he would like to play Carol Channing in a biopicand she reportedly approved.
LUKE PERRY, 52
The Beverly Hills 90210 heart-throb died in March after suffering a massive stroke.
He was voted “Biggest Flirt” by his high school classmates and once worked in a doorknob factory to make ends meet.
He got the scar on his right eyebrow from colliding with a drinks machine in a bowling alley.
He once appeared as an extra in a music video for Twisted Sister.
Perry left his $10 million (A$14.73 million) estate to his son Jack and daughter Sophie, cutting out his mother, stepfather siblings, ex-wife, and even his last fiancee.
PEGGY LIPTON, 72
The beautiful Twin Peaks actress died in May after battling colon cancer.
She became a model for the Eileen Ford agency in New York at age 15 before her mother talked her into studying acting and quickly became famous playing an undercover “hippy cop” in The Mod Squad.
Lipton also had a brief singing career with three of her singles making it onto the Billboard charts.
In her autobiography she revealed she had been abused as a child and had experimented with drugs, including cocaine and peyote.
She had a one-night stand with Elvis Presley, dated Paul McCartney, and settled down with music producer Quincy Jones with whom she had two daughters, Rashida and Kidada Jones. The pair later divorced but remained good friends.
DORIS DAY, 97
The all-American singer died of pneumonia in May after being in excellent health for her age.
She started out as a dancer, winning $500 in a local talent contest but when her legs were injured in a car accident her dancing career was over and she became a singer instead.
The Once I Had a Secret Love singer used to smoke two-and-a-ha;f packs of cigarettes a day.
Her husband-manager Marty Melcher died after misappropriating her $23 million ($A34 million) fortune.
She convinced her son Terry Melcher to move out of his Los Angeles home just months before Charles Manson’s “family” killed pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four others there in 1969.
Day became an animal rights activist after seeing how animals were mistreated in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
She dated Ronald Reagan and encouraged him to pursue politics.
Day underwent a hysterectomy after being diagnosed with a tumour the size of a grapefruit growing into her intestines.
She turned down the role of Jessica in Murder, She Wrote (1984) saying it would make her look old.
RUTGER HAUER, 75
The Blade Runner star passed away peacefully in July after a short, unspecified illness.
He was raised in the Netherlands by a nanny and ran away to sea but was colourblind, preventing a career with the Dutch navy.
He was voted Best Dutch Actor of the Century and is commemorated on a Dutch stamp.
Hauer was an environmentalist and set up an AIDS research foundation.
He was Anne Rice’s original vision for Lestat in Interview With the Vampire.
The steely-eyed actor once did an ad for Guinness but hated it so much he spat it out between takes.
He also guest-starred in Kylie Minogue’s music video for On a Night Like This.
KARL LAGERFELD, 85
The German designer died of pancreatic cancer in January.
The imposing, ponytailed fashion icon moved to Paris at the age of 14 and stopped celebrating birthdays when he turned 30.
He was the son of a Swedish businessman who introduced condensed milk to Germany.
Lagerfeld once lost 36 kilograms in a year so that he could fit into the sizes of a fellow designer.
He said that Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge “has a nice silhouette. On the other hand, her sister (Pippa Middleton) struggles. I don’t like the sister’s face. She should only show her back.”
He said that Adele was “a little too fat”.
“No one wants to see curvy women. They are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly,” he said.
He never drank, smoked, or used drugs and once said sweatpants are “a sign of defeat.”
RIP TORN, 88
The Larry Sanders Show actor died of a heart attack in July.
He studied animal husbandry at a Texas university and went into acting so he could buy a ranch.
He helped his cousin, Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek, get into acting.
Torn served as a US Army military police officer and played three US presidents and was friends with jazz great Miles Davis.
In January 2010, he was arrested in Connecticut after police found him passed out drunk, holding a loaded gun, on the floor of a bank he had broken into.
During filming he struck director and co-star Norman Mailer in the head with a hammer.
Easy Rider star Dennis Hopper told Jay Leno that Torn pulled a knife on him during pre-production of the film, but Torn sued for defamation and won $475,000.
RIC OCASEK, 75
The Cars frontman passed away in his sleep from heart disease in September.
His father was a systems analyst for NASA, his real name Otcasek.
His grandmother bought him a guitar after noticing he was obsessed with Buddy Holly.
He produced the debut album for the pop-punk band Weezer.
Before starting The Cars in the 1970s, Ocasek formed three bands before hitting on success with The Cars.
The Shake it Up singer also dabbled in poetry and art.
Ocasek was married three times, had six kids, and each wife had two sons. He divorced his second wife shortly after he met supermodel Paulina Porizkova, then aged 18, on the set of the music video shoot for the 1984 hit Drive when he was 40.
He cut all of his wives and children out of his will.
ANDRE PREVIN, 89
Previn died in February of no known cause.
The musical prodigy fled Nazi Germany as a child and recorded his first piano jazz album at the age of 16.
He was married and divorced five times, including to Mia Farrow, with whom he had six children.
Their adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn had an affair with director Woody Allen, who was in a relationship with Mia Farrow for years, and the controversial pair later married.
KEITH FLINT, 49
The Prodigy frontman took his own life and had unspecified amounts of cocaine, alcohol and codeine when he was found in his home in March.
He was kicked out of home by his father when he was a teen.
His numerous tattoos included the word “Inflicted” on his stomach, which he said was painful.
Went to the same school as bandmate Liam Howlett but because of their difference in age, they never met.
His manic dancing moves in the Firestarter music video were parodied by comedian Weird Al Yankovic.
Flint was a keen motorcyclist and raced in club competitions.
JOHN SINGLETON, 51
The Boyz n the Hood director died in April of a stroke.
He was the first ever African-American, and youngest person ever to be nominated for a Best Director Academy Award.
He wrote the script for the film while working as an intern on The Arsenio Hall Show (1989), which is where he met Ice Cube, who went on to star in the movie.
He was sentenced to make a short film about domestic violence after pleading no contest to charges he assaulted the mother of his six-year-old daughter Cleopatra.
He also had a daughter with a Ghanaian princess.
If you are experiencing mental health issues or suicidal feelings contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, BeyondBlue 1300 224 636, Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 or Headspace on 1800 650 890. If it is an emergency call 000.
Originally published as Surprising facts about the entertainers and celebrities we lost in 2019