Illinois Trivia

This morning’s news started with the announcement that Tony Curtis had passed away at 85. Not long after that, I found out that Greg Giraldo, the comedian and judge on Last Comic Standing had also died. These two noteworthy celebrities shared their final day, September 29, 2010. It reminded me of June 25 of last year when both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. So I wondered how often this kind of thing happened with celebrities. I’ll compile a list here:

9/29/2010 – Tony Curtis and Greg Giraldo
6/25/2009 – Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett
2/24/2006 – Don Knotts and Dennis Weaver
2/20/2005 – Sandra Dee and Hunter S. Thompson
12/10/2005 – Eugene McCarthy and Richard Pryor
6/29/2003 – Katharine Hepburn and Buddy Hackett
3/27/2002 – Milton Berle, Dudley Moore, and Billy Wilder
6/21/2001 – Carroll O’Connor and John Lee Hooker
12/23/2000 – Billy Barty and Victor Borge
2/12/2000 – Tom Landry and Charles Schulz
10/25/1999 – Hoyt Axton and Payne Stewart
7/28/1998 – Alan Shephard and Robert Young
7/4/1995 – Bob Ross and Eva Gabor
10/31/1993 – Federico Fellini and River Phoenix
5/16/1990 – Jim Henson and Sammy Davis, Jr.
10/11/1985 – Orson Welles and Yul Brynner
11/22/1963 – Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, and John F. Kennedy
7/4/1826 – John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

* September of 2003 was a bad time. Warren Zevon, John Ritter, Johnny Cash, Sheb Wooley, Gordon Jump, George Plimpton, Robert Palmer, Donald O’Connor, and Althea Gibson all died that month.