Gone Before Their Time #3 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan died on September 14, 1927.

Duncan was a reknowned dancer and an innovator in the world of choreography who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though she was American by birth, she lived in Eastern Europe and Russia for much of her life. Duncan did not like to think of dance as a performance art, and she rejected the rigidity of ballet and other formal dance. Instead, she preferred to return to the idea of dance as a sacred communion with life, encouraging natural and athletic body movements in her creations. For these reasons, she is considered the creator of modern interpretive dance.

The story of Duncan's death is well-known. Because she didn't want to wear a cape or a coat on a car ride in France, Duncan agreed to wear a scarf instead. Tragically, the scarf became entangled in the axle of the vehicle in which she was a passenger, and she died of strangulation. Though she was no longer performing very much at that time in her career, Duncan was still an important voice for change and freedom in the European and world communities at the time of her death.

Answer: Elizabeth Hartman

Elizabeth Hartman died on June 10, 1987.

Hartman was a once-promising American actress who is perhaps best remembered in the role of the blind girl who bonds with Sydney Poitier's character in the 1965 movie, "A Patch of Blue". The film was well-received, and at the time, Hartman was the youngest to ever be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar at the age of 22. She had a few more successes on the screen and on the stage, but her depression and paranoia made it difficult for her to work. Her last acting job was a voice-over for the animated film, "The Secret of NIMH" in 1981.

By the time she was 39, she had divorced her husband (from whom she'd been separated for five years) and given up on acting altogether to work in a Pennsylvania museum and receive treatment for mental illness. When she died, she leapt from the fifth floor window of her apartment. Though this may have been an accident, as Hartman was known to be very fearful and to jump up and run away wildly at almost any provocation, she had called her therapist on the phone earlier that day and was despondent. Hartman's mother, who died ten years after the actress, is buried alongside her daughter in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Youngstown, OH.

Answer: Jayne Mansfield

Jayne Mansfield died on June 29, 1967.

Mansfield was an actress and personality who capitalized on her blonde bombshell image to become a sex symbol in the 50s and 60s, rivaled only by Marilyn Monroe. She was born in New Jersey, and in a strange twist of fate, witnessed her father's death in a car that he was driving with Mansfield's mother, when he had a heart attack in 1936. Mansfield was only three at the time.

Mansfield had always wanted to be a famous actress, and she broke into the business after having studied acting as a model and by winning many beauty contests. Her early recognition came by appearing nude in "Playboy" in 1955, again following in Monroe's footsteps. Mansfield's first real break as an actress came in 1955, and it was also due in part to Monroe. Twentieth Century Fox signed Mansfield to a contract and groomed her to become a replacement for Monroe, who was becoming more and more difficult to work with.

Though Mansfield had a fair amount of success in films for four years, her acting career never really took off. She reinvented herself as a nightclub performer where there was less censorship, and periodically tried her hand at films again. She also appeared on television and made a few records as a singer.

Mansfield loved publicity and sacrificed her personal life to gain it wherever she could. Mansfield once again was all over the news when she became the first major actress to appear nude in a Hollywood film, "Promises, Promises" in 1961. Her mainstay remained nightclub acts, however.

Mansfield was married three times and divorced twice (her third divorce was pending when she died), and had countless liaisons with rich and powerful men. Mansfield had sunk into alcoholism by the time of her death. There were three adults in the front seat of car: Mansfield, her lawyer and current companion, and their 20-year-old driver. Three of Mansfield's children, including Mariska Hargitay (who was then three, the same age that Mansfield had been when her father died) were asleep in the back seat when the crash happened, and escaped unharmed.

Answer: Heather O'Rourke

Heather O Rourke died on February 1, 1988.

O'Rourke was a gifted child actress whose angelic looks were what made Steven Spielberg hire her to star in his horror film "Poltergeist" the day he saw her, over Drew Barrymore who had almost clinched the role. O'Rourke starred in all three movies of the franchise, starting from when she was five years old, and ending with her death at the age of 12. She also did many television performances and appeared to have a promising career ahead of her.

O'Rourke was misdiagnosed as having Crohn's disease when she fell ill early in 1988. She was really suffering from a bowel obstruction caused by a congenital defect. When her condition worsened and she began throwing up violently, she was rushed to the hospital. O'Rourke suffered cardiac arrest before reaching the medical facility. She was revived and underwent surgery to remove the blockage, but she died of sepsis while undergoing the procedure. Her family later sued Kaiser Permanente for misdiagnosis and the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Answer: Gilda Radner

Gilda Radner died on May 20, 1989.

Radner was one of the seven original cast members of "Saturday Night Live" when it began in 1975. For the five years that she was part of the troupe, known as "The Not Ready for Prime Time Players", she created many memorable characters and influenced female comedians who followed her. Almost every female comic interviewed since Radner's appearance on the scene cites her brilliance and fearlessness as an inspiration.

She had begun her career as an actress after dropping out of college to take a role in "Godspell". Shortly thereafter she joined the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, and remained a comedian for the rest of her life.

Radner met her second husband, Gene Wilder, while making a film with Sidney Poitier called "Hanky Panky" in the early 1980s. She was in the process of divorcing her first husband, and she and Wilder became very close and eventually married. They stayed married until Radner's death in 1989.

Radner's health problems began as pain in her legs in 1985. She sought help from many doctors, and none of them were able to determine the cause of her discomfort, which was quickly growing worse and spreading to other parts of her body. By the time the real illness was discovered, Radner was already in the fourth stage of ovarian cancer. Though she had radical surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and even went into remission for a brief period, it was too late to save her. Radner died after the return of her cancer. She had slipped into a coma during a CT scan to determine how far the disease had spread, and died three days later without regaining consciousness.

Answer: Brittany Murphy

Brittany Murphy died on December 20, 2009.

Murphy was born in 1977 in Atlanta, GA. She took her mother's maiden name as her professional name because her parents divorced when she was two. Her mother moved to New Jersey and raised Brittany, and they moved to California when she was a senior in high school so that Murphy could pursue an acting career. She found quick success and recognition in a series of movies and many felt she would be an important actor.

In December 2009, however, Murphy died of pneumonia and actute anemia in the home she shared with her husband, Simon Monjack. In a strange turn of events, her widower died at the age of 40 from the same illness only six months later. The Los Angeles Department of Health investigated toxic mold as a possible cause for their deaths, but this was later rejected by the Coroner's Office. In 2011, Murphy's mother filed a lawsuit alleging that mold had indeed caused the deaths.

Answer: Selena

Selena (birth name Selena Quintanilla-Perez) died on March 31, 1995.

Selena was born into a musical family in the state of Texas. She was the youngest child, and her first appearances were as part of her family's musical group, which sang the mixture of Mexican and Texan music that is called Tejano. It quickly became obvious that Selena was going to be a star, and after a few years, she was a headliner herself, with a huge following. She was a successful singer-songwriter, spokesperson, model, actress, and fashion designer and was known as the Queen of Tejano music. The world seemed to be her oyster.

The head of Selena's fan club, and someone who was given more and more control over Selena's boutiques and fashion business, was Yolanda Saldivar. Though different family members warned Selena that Saldivar was behaving erratically, firing people without just cause, making the business go downhill, and appeared to be obsessed with Selena herself, the artist dismissed these complaints as exaggerations. Unfortunately, they appeared to be true. Selena finally confronted Saldivar when there was proof that fans had paid for fan club membership and had received nothing in return. The result of this confrontation was Saldivar's shooting the artist who eventually died of blood loss and and a severed artery after identifying her assailant.

Answer: Dana Plato

Dana Plato died on May 8, 1999.

Plato was born in California to an unwed teenaged mother who already had another child a year and a half older than Plato. She was put up for adoption and went to live as the adopted daughter of a California couple whose last name was Plato, and who divorced when she was three. After that time, she was raised by her adoptive mother.

Plato was involved in the theater from a young age and appeared in her first feature film at the age of 13. Her big break came when she landed the role of Kimberly Drummond on "Diff'rent Strokes" in 1978 at the age of 14. The show was an instant hit and she remained part of the cast until 1983, when she had moved in with her boyfriend and became pregnant. The show's producers didn't feel that a pregnancy would fit in with the show's wholesome image, and they let Plato go, though she did continue to do guest spots in her character on the sitcom until it finished its run in 1986 (when Plato was 22).

Unfortunately, that was to prove to be the pinnacle of her success. Plato never achieved a similar level of recognition. She had breast implants put in and did a "Playboy" photo spread, but she was quickly relegated to B movies and couldn't make the same amount of money as she had been accustomed to earning on the sitcom. By the end of her acting career, Plato was appearing in soft core porn films.

On May 7, 1999, the day before she died, Plato did an interview on "The Howard Stern Radio Show". She shared details about her life, her financial problems and past run-ins with the law. She even said she was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, but claimed to have been sober for more than 10 years. Unfortunately, Stern's raw show's format wasn't a good fit for the fragile Plato. Callers insulted her and questioned her sobriety in insulting and belittling ways. She seemed shaken, even though Stern came to her defense.

The next day, Plato died of an overdose of Lortab and Soma. Her death was eventually ruled a suicide. In a sad turn of events, eleven years after Plato's death, her son committed suicide by gunshot at the age of 25 in Oklahoma. Plato's son said that he wanted to be with his mom before pulling the trigger.

Answer: Karen Carpenter

Karen Carpenter died on February 4, 1983.

Carpenter was a gifted vocalist, guitarist and drummer who appeared with her older brother, Richard, as part of the duo The Carpenters from the late '60s through her death in 1983. Most people remember her for her angelic and rich vocals on songs that were popular, such as "Close to You" and "A Kind of Hush". The pair stopped touring in the late 1970s while Richard overcame an addiction to quaaludes. The sibling that was truly ill, however, was Karen.

Carpenter had had an eating disorder for many years, and habitually used ipecac syrup (an over the counter drug used to induce vomiting in cases of poisoning) to assist her in maintaining a very low weight. The weight loss, anorexia, and bulimia caused Carpenter's heart to become damaged, and she died of heart failure brought on by anorexia.

Answer: Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard died on January 16, 1942.

Lombard was one of the most gifted actors in Hollywood's golden age. Her gift for comic timing along with her beauty was a rare combination. She was married to William Powell briefly and the two remained friends after she married the man who would prove to be the love of her too-brief life, Clark Gable.

Lombard was a patriot, dedicated to the cause of helping the US in WWII efforts however she could. She was on a war-bond fund-raising mission when her plane crashed in the mountains of Nevada. She and everyone else on the plane were lost.