While working as the executive producer of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Ken Kragen met singer Kenny Rogers and soon became his manager. Eventually, Ken was managing a full roster of popular singers, including Lionel Ritchie, Travis Tritt, Dottie West and Trisha Yearwood.

Singer-actor Harry Belafonte was so moved after hearing the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and its efforts to raise money to combat hunger, he contacted Ken Kragen with the idea to make a fund-raising single and eventual album. Ken, with his many show business connections, assembled an all-star line-up of top talent including Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, as well as his pals (and clients) Lionel Ritchie and Kenny Rogers. He named the assemblage “USA for Africa.” Interest in participation was so great, Ken had to turn down nearly fifty singers because of logistics. The result was “We Are the World,” the recording of which was an exercise in camaraderie, thanks to a large sign on the recording studio door that read: “Check Your Egos at the Door.”

A year after the international success of USA for Africa’s “We Are the World,” Ken organized another nationwide effort called “Hands Across America.” His idea was to create a human chain across the continental United States by having folks hold hands. It was an ambitious undertaking and, for the most part, Ken’s idea was successful. It raised fifteen million dollars and boasted the participation of many celebrities — despite large gaps in the chain in sparsely populated areas.

Ken jumped between fundraising and the entertainment business. He worked for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and famously battled with Jay Leno’s manager Helen Kushnick, eventually forcing her dismissal from The Tonight Show.

Honored by many organizations — from the United Nations to MTV to the Grammys — Ken passed away in December 2021 at the age of 85. He lived a life some of us could only dream of.

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This drawing is my fourth entry in the annual Faces of Death year-end compilation. It is my third subject named “Ken.” (In 2020, I was shut out from drawing Ken Osmond.)

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On August 13, 1980 — the two-year anniversary of her arrival in Los Angeles from her native Vancouver — Dorothy Stratten was murdered by her estranged husband Paul Snider, who then turned the gun on himself. But, this isn’t really a story about Dorothy Stratten, the beautiful, but ill-fated actress and Playboy centerfold. This story actually begins at her funeral.

Dorothy was filming the romantic comedy They All Laughed when she began a secretive affair with the film’s director Peter Bogdonovich. The tryst continued after filming wrapped. Bogdonovich knew that Dorothy was technically still married, but she had not seen her husband Snider for months. Snider had a well-earned reputation for being abusive and controlling, so he was shielded from Dorothy by Bogdonovich and Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. Just after They All Laughed ended production, Snider murdered Dorothy. Bogdonovich was inconsolable.

At Dorothy’s funeral, Bogdonavich was introduced to Dorothy’s mother, Nelly Hoogstratten and Louise, Dorothy’s 12 year-old sister. From conversation — and commiseration — he learned that the family was having difficulty making ends meet. Their main source of income was the money that Dorothy had been sending home on a regular basis. Bogdonavich was taken by their situation and began supplementing the family financially. He took special interest in young Louise, paying her tuition for a private school, enrolling her in modeling classes for which he also paid the bill. He bought her a grand piano and took her on trips to Hawaii and Europe. Upon her high school graduation, Bogdonavich bought her a brand-new Pontiac Trans Am. He even gave her a small role in his film Illegally Yours.

In 1988, the 49-year old Bogdonavich married his one-time love’s little sister, Louise. She was 20.

The couple remained married for thirteen years, divorcing in 2001. Just prior to their marriage, Peter released a book about his relationship with Dorothy Stratten entitled Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960–1980. It was a very controversial release, detailing episodes with Dorothy that Bogdonavich remembers differently than others who were present at the time. The book prompted threatening legal action, forcing Bogdonavich to file for bankruptcy, but determined to have the book published.

Bogdonavich’s career has been a roller-coaster of high highs and low lows.

Who knows what Dorothy Stratten’s career could have been?

Peter Bogdonavich passed away on January 6, 2022. He was 82.

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Betty White. She missed one hundred years on this earth by a mere seventeen days.

But, oh, what a life.

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In 1976, I bought a copy of Anne Rice’s debut novel Interview with the Vampire. I was a fan of horror films and books and I thought this one would be right up my alley. It wasn’t. I forced myself to read the first several chapters. It was like a high school reading assignment. It was tedious and I could not stay focused. I put the book down and never picked it up again – leaving it unfinished in a drawer.

In 2015, my wife and I visited New Orleans. As with most trips, I always do my best to squeeze in a visit to a local cemetery and places of “death-related” interest in between “regular” sightseeing. As with all of my cemetery adventures, I have to do a bit of research beforehand. I discovered that, while she no longer called “The Big Easy” home, Anne Rice still owned property in the city’s lovely Garden District. I also found out some other things about the prolific author.

It seems that she wrote Interview with the Vampire as sort of a mourning catharsis. She and her husband Stan (also a writer) had lost their daughter Michele, who passed away from  leukemia at the age of five.

Anne, who was raised a strict Catholic, struggled with religion her entire life. She was devout until she wasn’t, embracing an atheist outlook, only to return to the Church later in life… only to leave again after a vocal criticism of policies.. She suffered physically, as well. She fell into a diabetic coma and nearly died in 1998. A few years later, she teetered at death’s door with a bowel blockage that required emergency surgery.  In between her two medical issues, her husband Stan passed away from brain cancer at the age of 60.

The subject matter of Anne’s writing was varied and ambitious. She wrote predominately in the horror genre. Under pseudonyms, she penned several volumes of gothic erotic fiction. Later, she ventured into religious historical fiction… and she was successful in all of her endeavors.

Anne passed away in December 2021 at the age of 80. She will be interred with her husband and daughter in a beautiful mausoleum in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Perhaps, I’ll pick up my copy of Interview with the Vampire and give it another chance.

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When Mike Nesmith answered an ad in Variety that read:

“Madness!! Auditions. Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series. Running parts for 4 insane boys, age 17–21. Want spirited Ben Frank’s-types. Have courage to work. Must come down for interview.”

he thought this was his chance at rock and roll stardom. However, he saw something in the ad that wasn’t really there.

The call was for actors for a new TV series about a down-and-out rock group called “The Monkees.” Broadway and singing star Davy Jones had already been contracted. Screen Gems producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider just need three more guys to fill out the cast. Mike Nesmith fit the bill. Not for his musical ability or his songwriting prowess. Out of the 437 applicants, Rafelson and Schneider wanted him because they remembered the guy with the wool hat.

Mike was determined to use his role in The Monkees as a springboard to bigger and better…. much to the chagrin of Screen Gems Head of Music Don Kirshner. Kirshner was onboard with Rafelson’s and Schneider’s vision. Mike was not.

Nevertheless, the “band,” under the leadership of a disgruntled Mike Nesmith, was successful in ousting Kirshner from the production and taking over their own destiny.

But it seemed that Mike was still not satisfied. After the demise of the group, Mike Nesmith experimented in the budding video technology, as well as movie producing and other creative endeavors. He humbly backed out of the later reunions that The Monkees staged, however he did pop up for a performance here and a performance there.

After Davy passed away, Mike joined his remaining band mates for another tour, this one heavy on “Mike” compositions. More recently, he teamed with Micky Dolenz for one final tour in 2020… eventually postponed for a year by the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic.

Mike passed away in December 2021 at the age of of 78, just weeks after the tour ended. I hope he finally found what he was looking for.

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