“Adventures are always better with friends.”

After surviving a building collapse following a World War II air raid, Michael Bond joined to Royal Air Force, but was dismissed after a severe bout of air sickness. He spent the rest of the war in an administrative position. After the war, Michael became a cameraman with the BBC, while honing his life-long dream of writing. He sent his manuscript about a little bear from “darkest Peru” to famed British children’s writer Barbara Ker Wilson. Wilson loved the book and intended to published it.  When she called Michael to tell him the news, he told her that he was not permitted to receive personal phone calls at work.

The Adventures of Paddington, the first of 13 books featuring the loveable bear, was published in 1958. It would go on to sell over 35 million copies worldwide. The last in the series, Paddington Turns Detective and Other Funny Stories, was published posthumously in 2018.

Michael Bond passed away in June 2017 at age 91. He was interred in Paddington Cemetery with a headstone whose inscription reads: “Please look after this bear, Thank you.”

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“Flounder, you can’t spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You fucked up! You trusted us!”

Stephen Furst was delivering pizzas to supplement his struggling acting career. Ever the innovator, he included his head shot with every pie he delivered. One day, he made a delivery to producer Matty Simmons, who was getting ready to cast his next picture, a raunchy look into the world of a college fraternity in the early 1960s. Matty was taken by the photograph and tagged Stephen as the hapless “Flounder” in Animal House, thus launching a career that spanned nearly four decades, including theatrical movies and regular roles on several successful television series.

Stephen passed away from complications from diabetes in June 2017, at the age of 63.

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Kurt Cobain never wanted to be the voice of his generation.

In a suicide note to his imaginary childhood friend “Boddah,” Kurt lamented that he no longer “felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing for too many years now.”

Kurt took his own life on April 5, 1994. His body was discovered three days later by an electrician who came to Kurt’s Seattle home to install a security system.

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Linda Martinez was a child prodigy. From the time she was able to stand and reach the piano, she was picking out melodies on the ivory keys. She began formal lessons at Yamaha Music Education System in Orange County, California. Linda began winning music competitions as a youngster, winning the 1991 Yamaha International Junior Original Concert Composition Competition in Tokyo, an international competition. She performed her jazz suite, “Gunther and I,” at the awards ceremony. She continued her musical studies through high school, then attended USC’s Thornton School of Music, where she graduated with a degree in music composition.

After college graduation in 1998, Linda became the keyboardist for Fox TV’s The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show, which led to appearances with other artists. She toured with the Beyoncé-fronted group Destiny’s Child two years later. She also accompanied drummer Shelia E. and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

In 2003, Linda was named the grand prize winner in the Turner Classic Movies Young Film Composers Competition. The honor gave her the opportunity to compose the score for a 1925 silent film The Rag Man, with famed film composer Elmer Bernstein acting as her mentor. The film was broadcast on TCM in January 2004 with Linda’s original soundtrack. Linda composed additional scores for several animated short subjects, as well as another silent film at the request of TCM. Linda also worked with award-winning composer Laura Karpman on pieces for The History Channel and PBS.

Despite a bright career ahead, Linda took her own life in May 2005. She was 29 years old.

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