While the name Doug Kenney may not be very familiar, he was a key figure in the new comedy movement of the ‘70s. Kenney helped co-found “National Lampoon” magazine. However, he died believing one of the biggest hits of the early ‘80s, Caddyshack, which he co-wrote, was a failure.

Kenney was editor of the Harvard Lampoon while a student there. He, along with select others such as Henry Beard, helped give the humor magazine a makeover. Kenney graduated in 1969 and along with Beard and another Harvard alum (Robert Hoffman) created National Lampoon magazine.
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He played the Man of Steel on television, but in real life, George Reeves proved to be less than bulletproof.

Reeves was a handsome man and soon after arriving in Hollywood, he signed to a contract with Warner Bros.  However, after appearing in some B-movies and the flop <i>Lydia</i>, Reeves was released from his contract.  He freelanced for a while before being drafted into the Army during World War II.  He was transferred to the Army Air Forces and landed a gig on the Broadway show Winged Victory.  After leaving the Army, Reeves took work where he could find it, finally moving to New York after his 1949 divorce from Ellanora Needles (Wikipedia). 
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Rebecca Schaeffer was young, beautiful, and talented but it only took one twisted mind to end that in a split second.

Rebecca began modeling at the age of 16, even appearing on the cover of Seventeen magazine. She moved to New York to pursue acting. It wasn’t long before she landed the role of Patti Russell on the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam and moved back to Los Angeles. The series, which also starred Pam Dawber, ran for two seasons. After its cancellation in 1988, Rebecca appeared in several movies, including two that were made-for-television. Rebecca also served as the spokesperson for Thursday’s Child, a charity that supports at-risk teens.
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It wasn’t until 2004 that I finally watched 1978’s Midnight Express, the film about an American held in the horrible conditions of a Turkish prison. I was amazed by this film, but mostly by the lead actor, sexy and talented Brad Davis. After the film, I immediately wondered what became of him. By that time, Hollywood and all the excesses it has to offer had consumed Davis.

Brad Davis was born into a middle class family which unfortunately included an alcoholic father and a mother who was sexually attached to her son. It must have been that childhood that both confused and angered Davis as an adult. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and also studied acting in New York at the American Place Theater. Davis’ wife, Susan Bluestein, said in “After Midnight: The Life and Death of Brad Davis” that he had been forced to hustle in Times Square to survive and at one point, had lived with a transvestite.
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Sammy Davis Jr. was an entertainer’s entertainer – starting his career as a child with his father and “uncle” Will Mastin in the dance troupe the Will Mastin Trio.  Over his long career, Sammy earned more than $50 million dollars, but when he died, there was little left.  Rumors have it that not only did those close to Sammy pilfer his home as he lay dying of cancer, but that even in death, they continued to try to squeeze out money from the use of the Candy Man’s image.

Sammy was born Samuel George Davis, Jr. in Harlem on December 8, 1925 of an African American father and a Puerto Rican mother.  When his parents divorced at age 3, Sammy Sr. took little Sammy out on the road with him.  While Sammy didn’t receive a lot of formal education, he learned a lifetime about dancing, singing, and entertaining on the road.  Mastin and Sammy Sr. tried to shield little Sammy from racism as much as they could, but in the early 20th century in America, that was not possible.  For most of his life, Sammy would be torn between his actions and what was expected of him by Black Americans.

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While it is no big deal for today’s starlets to give birth out of wedlock, Hollywood in the ‘30s was not quite as forgiving. Take for example the case of Loretta Young, Clark Gable, and their lovechild, Judy Lewis.

Loretta Young was fresh off an affair with Man’s Castle co-star Spencer Tracy when she signed on to film The Call of the Wild with Clark Gable. Maybe it was the wilderness setting of Mount Baker, Washington or maybe it was just Gable’s intrigue with Tracy, but Gable and Young’s immediate connection soon turned into a full fledge affair. Clark was still married to Rhea Langham, but continued to date Young even after the filming was over.
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It is rarely easy being the child of a celebrity and it was no different for Lindsay Crosby, the son of crooner Bing Crosby. Bing’s first marriage to actress/singer Dixie Lee produced four sons: Gary, Lindsay, and twins Dennis and Phillip. Having four strapping boys and the image of the ideal father played well for Bing’s reputation, but real life was far different than reel life. Dixie Lee had a drinking problem and Bing was a strict disciplinarian.

Still, the world knew no different and the boys, after appearing on their father’s holiday specials, formed a nightclub act, The Crosby Boys. That didn’t last long as the siblings fought and the act ended in 1959.
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Another child of acting royalty, initially Sean Flynn didn’t have much contact with his famous swashbuckling father Errol after his parent’s divorce in 1942. His mother and father fought over him, but he was raised primarily by his mother, French actress Lili Damita. Sean did inherit a few traits from Errol however – captivating good looks and a love for adventure.

Sean showed up on The Errol Flynn Theatre once when he was 16. He then attended Duke University, but when Errol died of a heart attack in 1959, Sean decided he had had enough of school and set out for Hollywood.

His first film was Where the Boys Are (1960). After that, he starred in The Son of Captain Blood, a sequel of his father’s famous film. His last film was 1967’s Singapore, Singapore. Sean appeared in eight feature films during his career.
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The Barrymore Family seems to be blessed with a knack for acting and yet cursed with addictive personalities. Diana Barrymore was the daughter of famed Shakespearean actor John Barrymore and the poet Blanche Oelrichs Thomas, who went by the pseudonym of Michael Strange.

By the time she was a teenager, Diana was playing Ann in the touring company of Outward Bound. John called her “the best thing I’ve ever produced” yet the two weren’t very close, despite their shared interests in acting and Brandy Alexanders.
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Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was always large, weighing 14 pounds at birth. So much larger was he than his other eight siblings that his father questioned his paternity. When Arbuckle’s mom died in 1899, 12-year-old Arbuckle was abandoned by his father to fend for himself.

While working in the kitchen of a hotel, he caught the attention of a local performer who took him to amateur night at a local theater. Arbuckle won and David Grauman recruited him as a singer and dancer in Vaudeville.
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