April 14 | Rachel Carson

May 27, 1907 - April 14, 1964: Age 56

Rachel Carson was the American biologist who raised hell when she published Silent Spring, a seminal criticism of the widespread use of synthetic pesticides and its effect on the environment and on public health. In doing so she came up against a number of very powerful corporate and government interests; but she also alerted a wider audience to issues that, until then, had been considered too scientific for the public to care about.

Today every schoolchild that I know here in Canada has "caring for the environment" as a very central, deeply cherished value. I know this, not because of what they say, but because of what they do. They campaign for energy savings, raise funds for environmental causes, put up posters of endangered animals, heckle their parents into turning off the lights for Earth Hour, and so forth. When Silent Spring was published, in the 1960s, I was a schoolchild. In those days, the simple idea of not throwing your trash out the car window was a concept original enough to be worthy of an entire ad campaign.

Carson's influence was a major catalyst for the banning of DDT as an agricultural pesticide. Her research also exposed the carcinogenic effects of synthetic pesticides; ironically her health began to fail and in 1960, while researching the book, she discovered cysts in her left breast. She had a precautionary mastectomy, but by December 1960 it was discovered the cysts were malignant and had metastasized.

The next two years were a race between the disease and her energy in finishing, publishing, and promoting the book. The corporate opponents, including DuPont and Cyanamid, attacked her research, her credentials, and even her personal character. Former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson wrote to President Eisenhower that, because she was unmarried despite being physically attractive, she was "probably a Communist". By April 1963, however, Silent Spring won the battle of public opinion: a TV special created a widespread public reaction and inspired a congressional review of the dangers of pesticides.

Weakened by the struggle with cancer and with opponents to her ideas, her last public appearance was in May 1963. In early 1964 she was laid low by a respiratory virus; in February she was diagnosed with anaemia caused by the radiation treatments, and in March cancer was discovered in her liver. She died of a heart attack on April 14, 1964.

Source: Wikipedia

February 26 | Bill Hicks

December 16, 1961 - February 26, 1994: Age 32

“Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the weather.”

Bill Hicks had the same problem that all open-hearted geniuses have had throughout history: his natural compassion and love for humankind clashed with his towering rage at the cruelty and foolishness of the species. Thus in his early career, although he was immediately recognized as brilliant, he sometimes lost it and went way over the line. The line being, in some cases, his physical safety: During the 80s when he performed in a drunken rage, a couple of military veterans beat him up after the show, breaking one of his legs and cracking a rib.

By the 1990s he had stopped drinking and drugs, and found enough equilibrium to deliver his best stuff without getting in the way of the material. In 1993, while touring in Australia, he experienced pains in his side. In June he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and started chemo while still on tour. He only told his family and close friends, and continued to work.

In October he made what would have been his last TV appearance, a guest spot on the Letterman Show. Although his material had been approved by the network twice, censors pulled his routine in its entirety at the last minute: Hicks was incensed. In his routine he had made a pro-life joke; one of the sponsors was a pro-life lobby organization.

His last performance was in January 1994. He spent time with his parents, playing them the music he loved and showing them documentaries about his interests. He called friends to say goodbye and re-read J.R.R. Tolkein’s Fellowship Of The Rings. He stopped speaking on February 14. His parents were with him when he died on February 26.

First of all, I did not know Bill Hicks before researching his death. He was AWESOME. Do follow these YouTube links if you aren't already familiar with him. The first link is to Part 1 of a roughly 1/2 hour video of one of his shows, for my money it gives the best overview. Just follow the links to Parts 2 and 3 as they come up. However if you don't have time, this link will take you to a 5-minute mashup of one of his greatest routines. This same routine appears at the end of the longer video; it also appears (or rather is heard) in the movie Zeitgeist.

Sources: Wikipedia, Bill Hicks Official Site

January 17 | Robert Eads

December 18, 1945 - January 17, 1999: Age 53

Robert Allen Eads was a female-to-male transsexual. Born "Barbara", he really gave being female a go, even getting married twice and bearing three children. After the birth of his third child he divorced his husband and began to live as a lesbian, but at the time always felt that he was a heterosexual man, rather than a gay woman.

In the late 1980s he began to make the transition from female to male with testosterone therapy and a double mastectomy. Because he was already approaching menopause, he was advised not to have an operation to remove his reproductive organs. That is unfortunate, given the cause of his death.

In 1996 he began to experience abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, which was diagnosed as ovarian cancer. It had metastasized but he was unable to find a doctor willing to treat him: being in rural Georgia, they were afraid that taking Eads on would harm their practice. The cancer went unchecked until 1997. After more than a year of painful and aggressive treatment, Robert died in the arms of his partner, a male-to-female transgender woman.

During that last year, he agreed to appear in Southern Comfort, a documentary film about transgender individuals. You can hear some of his words from the film (but no footage) here, on YouTube.

Sources: Wikipedia, Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, Transgender Tapestry

December 9 | Andrea Absolonová

December 26, 1976 - December 9, 2004: Age 27

As an Olympic high diver on the Czech team in Atlanta in 1996, Andrea Absolonová injured her spine while diving from the 10 metre platform. She never quite recovered her full abilities (although she did compete in Sydney in 2000) and soon turned to modelling.

When she was in her early 20s, a photographer persuaded Absolonová to pose nude while shooting for a billboard ad. This quickly led to a flourishing career posing for adult entertainment magazines and performing in adult films. Her screen name was Lea de Mae, and her healthy good looks ensured international success. Her image was on the cover and in the centerfold of Hustler magazine in October 2004.

In July 2004 she began to experience headaches and problems with her left eye. Medical scans revealed a brain tumour, which was removed through surgery in August, followed by radiation and chemotherapy.

The treatment was bad enough, but the pains in her back and head continued as well. By November the pains were so extreme that only high doses of painkillers provided any relief. Her left eye would roll up and her left limbs were sluggish and trembled. Further scans revealed additional tumours. Two more surgeries relieved the pain somewhat but were otherwise ineffective. She had glioblastoma, a very aggressive form of cancer, and the treatments never got ahead of it fast enough. By early December Absolonová running a high fever and hallucinating. Then, after a couple of days of mild improvement, she died on December 9.

Sources: Wikipedia, Lea de Mae: Angels Live Forever!, A life like a jump from a tower

December 4 | Frank Zappa

December 21, 1940 - December 4, 1993: Age 52

"If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT."

Frank Zappa was a composer, musician, and an artist in many other media as well. I remember as a child being shocked and a little frightened by things I learned about Frank Zappa: for example, there was a poster of him sitting on a toilet, half-naked, pants around his ankles, in almost every bedroom of a certain type of intellectual teenager (watch and hear his thoughts on this in a UK interview). His album covers were disturbing ("Weasels Ripped My Flesh" featured a cartoon of a smiling American guy holding a flesh-ripping weasel to his face). His song titles were disturbing. He gave his children weird names (Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva).

The thing that really bothered me the most was that he was ugly, or so it seemed to me at the time. He wasn't, actually, it was just that in not trying to cultivate a beautiful, acceptable image he (probably inadvertantly) created an image of deliberate personal ugliness. Or so it seemed to a middle-class small-town Canadian girl-child in the 1960s. This truly puzzled and frightened me. It carried, for me, the terrifying vibration of inner freedom.

Music was at the core of what his did, believed, thought, explored, and expressed. As a young man he discovered Edgard Varèse, a very avant-garde contemporary composer. He was so obsessed with Varèse that his mother gave him, as a fifteenth birthday present, permission to call the composer long distance at his home in New York. Unfortunately Varèse was away in Europe at the time but Zappa spoke to his wife, and later received a friendly letter from Varèse himself. He framed the letter and kept it on display for the rest of his life.

Zappa's music was disturbing, intricate, sometimes ugly, often beautiful, always at or near the edge of the current cultural climate. Naturally he insisted on producing his records himself and maintaining artistic control; this paid off in a large output of original, brilliant, and extremely influential musical explorations.

My friend Ken wrote to me last week "All idealism is an attempt to dismiss a specific suffering or struggle from one's experience". Zappa was an anti-idealist. He was brilliant at seeing things exactly as they are, and pointing it out to whomever was interested in hearing what he had to say. During the 1980s he was active in the fight against quasi-censorship of music through "ratings" labels on record albums. See this appearance on Crossfire to see Zappa's style.

It is impossible to "fit" Zappa into a tiny entry like this. My advice is: get on the net and explore. Also, check out what his kids are doing....great things, all four of them.

In 1991 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The prognosis was terminal (as it is for all of us, but his was more terminal than most). He continued to work, focusing on orchestral and synclavier (an early digital synthesizer) works. He died on December 4, 1993.

Finally, a quote from him relevant his current state of non-being: "Well, I believe that those energies and processes exist. I just don't think that they've been adequately described or adequately named yet, because people are too willing to make it all into something that supports a religious theory of one flavor or another. If you start defining these things in nuts-and-bolts scientific terms, people reject it because it's not fun, y'know. It takes some of the romance out of being dead ... because of people's desires to have eternal life and to extend their influence from beyond the grave ... all that Houdini type stuff ... but basically, I think when you're dead ... you're dead. It comes with the territory."

Source: Wikipedia, The Official Frank Zappa Website

November 29 | George Harrison

February 25, 1943 - November 29, 2001: Age 58

"Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait; and love one another."

George Harrison joined The Beatles at a time when he wasn't actually of legal age to enter the clubs they played in (he was 15). He went on to become one of the most important and influential musicians of the 20th century: his most prominent contribution being the introduction of the sitar and Indian music into rock and roll. Click here to see and hear him taking a sitar lesson with Ravi Shankar.

His interest in Hindu philosophy and Eastern culture had a profound and lasting influence on millions of people in Europe and North America. The Beatles broke up in 1970 and Harrison continued to distinguish himself musically, socially, and spiritually for the rest of his life. He was the first rock star to organize a major charity concert (Concert for Bangladesh, 1971)

Harrison battled cancer throughout the late 1990s, beginning with his throat and then his lungs. In 1999 somebody broke into his home and attacked him with a knife, stabbing him multiple times, puncturing his lung. He and his wife managed to contain the attacker until police came (the man believed Harrison was possessing him and that he had a mission from God to kill him — he was acquitted on grounds of insanity). Harrison recovered from the attack, but in 2001 his cancer recurred and this time the diagnosis was terminal — it had metastasized to his brain. He died on November 29, 2001 at his home in Hollywood Hills.

From his family: "He left this world as he lived in it: conscious of God, fearless of death and at peace, surrounded by family and friends."

Click here for a nice little clip of George's ultimately positive view of the world.

Source: Wikipedia

November 27 | Ada Lovelace

December 10, 1815 - November 27, 1852: Age 36

In 1815 the poet and future revolutionary Lord Byron was in a pickle: he was getting a lot of flack for his bohemian lifestyle, including rumours (probably true) that he had fathered the illegitimate child of his half-sister Augusta. He was advised to marry to avoid scandal, so he married Annabella Milbanke, a highly intelligent but ultimately rather rigid and religious young woman he was currently infatuated with. One daughter, Augusta Ada Byron, was the result, but by the time she was born it was clear the relationship would not work. Although Byron was indeed brilliant he had no morals at all, was mentally unstable, and was in perpetual financial distress. They separated by mutual consent shortly after Ada was born.

Annabella set about raising her daughter to be as different from her ex-husband as possible, so she taught Ada mathematics at a very early age, and had her privately tutored in math, science, and music by the best minds of the day. Ada turned out to be just as brilliant, or even more so, than her parents. At the age of 13 she created a design for a flying machine. She married one of her tutors, William King, who became the Earl of Lovelace, hence the name by which she is best known. They had three children.

We probably wouldn't know anything at all about her had she not befriended Charles Babbage at a dinner party given by another of her tutors, the scientist Mary Somerville. When Babbage went on to present a paper on his "Analytical Engine" in Italy, Ada translated some notes another mathematician made on his presentation. She began a correspondence with Babbage, and with his encouragement appended her own ideas to the translation, including a specific method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the Engine. This was the first computer program ever written.

A friendly, creative relationship between the two continued for the rest of her life. Unfortunately that life was short: she was plagued by illness and ultimately diagnosed with uterine cancer. In an attempt to treat her illness, her doctors bled her until she died. Weirdly, this is exactly what her father died of (bleeding in an attempt to cure an illness) at about the same age, 26 years before.

In those days medicinal bleeding was a catch-all cure for just about anything; it is curious that a "remedy" with absolutely no empirical track record of success persisted for so many centuries. The only conceivable beneficial effect of bleeding would be a temporary drop in blood pressure for those with hypertension, and a sedative effect that might benefit patients who were too nervous or active. And of course placebo. Since bleeding was used so widely, it got credit for all natural healing as well: if the patient was sick, he or she was bled; if he or she got better, well, it must have been the bleeding.

Sources: Wikipedia, Ada Lovelace: Founder of Scientific Computing, Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace

November 12 | Cameron Duncan

April 20, 1986 - November 12, 2003: Age 17

Cameron Duncan was a filmmaker from New Zealand, but he only made a few short films and clips because he died so early: age 17. He had osteosarcoma, the same cancer that Terry Fox had. He died on November 12, 2003 in Texas while receiving treatment.

As a youngster (was he ever anything but?) Duncan won awards for his short films and ads. Toward the end of his life he attracted the attention of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, and they became friends. Composer Fran Walsh wrote the end title song of Return of the King, "Into the West", for Duncan, and it was publicly performed for the first time at his funeral.

Click here to see Strike Zone, a really neat 10-minute film that includes a haka, softball, a re-enactment of Duncan getting the news from his doc that there was no hope, and his funeral. Another short, DFK6498, describes the experience of his illness. Have Kleenex on hand.

Sources: Wikipedia, New Zealand Herald. His official website, cameronduncan.com, is not working today but maybe it will be up again later.

November 7 | Steve McQueen

March 24, 1930 - November 7, 1980: Age 50

Steve McQueen is one of those resilient people who survived a difficult childhood to become an intelligent, healthy, kind and decent man. Abandoned by his parents as a child, he was raised by an Uncle until his mother "reclaimed" him and took him to live in Los Angeles with a new, abusive stepfather. He ran with street gangs as a young teenager and ended up in reform school. At 17 he joined the Marines, and served for 3 years.

In 1952 he auditioned along with 2,000 others for Lee Strasbourg's prestigious acting school in New York. He was one of two people chosen (the other was Martin Landau). By the mid-50s he was was a working actor; by the early 1960s he was starring in films like The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven. In addition to considerable acting skills, he had the rare quality of being equally appealing to male and female audiences. Part of his appeal to male fans was his interest in racing cars and motorcycles; McQueen did most of his own stunts if they involved a vehicle.

He was diagnosed in December 1979 with mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer associated with exposure to asbestos. Advised by American doctors that conventional treatments would be ineffective, he travelled to Mexico to receive unconventional treatments that included coffee enemas and the drug laetrile, a "natural" drug not sanctioned by the USFDA. Following surgery to remove a tumour in his lung, McQueen had a heart attack and died on November 7, 1980.

Sources: Wikipedia

October 26 | Hattie McDaniel

June 10, 1895 - October 26, 1952: Age 57

Hattie McDaniel is best know for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, but between 1932 and 1950 she performed in nearly 100 films. Even though she was well respected by influential people in Hollywood, and her performance in Gone with the Wind would win her an Oscar, she did not attend the premier of that film in Atlanta because the laws of Georgia at the time would have required her to sit in a separate section for blacks, and she would have had to stay at a special hotel for blacks rather than with her fellow actors. Clark Gable threatened to boycott the premier for this reason, but McDaniel persuaded him to attend anyway.

Like many successful members of oppressed groups, she found herself dealing with prejudice from the white community on one side while being criticized by "progressive" blacks on the other for taking roles as maids and other black stereotypes. Her comment was, "I'd rather play a maid for $700 a week than be one for $7 a week."

She died of breast cancer in 1957. She wanted to be buried at Hollywood Memorial Park with her peers, but was denied by the owner, who maintained a whites-only policy. She was buried elsewhere. Years later a more progressive owner offered to have her remains moved to what is now called the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, but her family declined. Instead a large memorial was build at Hollywood Forever Cemetery commemorating her achievements.

Sources: Wikipedia, Noteable Biographies, Internet Movie Database

October 9 | Paul Hunter

October 14, 1978 - October 9, 2006: Age 28

Paul Hunter was an international snooker champion whose good looks and popularity earned him comparisons with David Beckham. He showed promise at a very young age, and by his early 20s had gained world attention by beating higher ranked and more experienced players in national tournaments. His high point came in 2004 with his third Masters win in 4 years. "Masters" is one of the most prestigious international snooker competitions.

Toward the end of that year he began to feel pains in his side. In early 2005 an abdominal scan showed several cysts, which subsequent biopsy proved to be tumours caused by a rare form of stomach cancer. Two days before the start of chemotherapy, he and his wife found out that she was pregnant. Their baby was born December 26, a blessing after a painful year of chemotherapy and uncertainty.

By January it was clear that the chemotherapy wasn't working any more, although the doctors continued to try. By the end of the summer he was dying. In early October he was admitted to a hospice where, 5 days before his 29th birthday, he died, surrounded by his family. His wife Lindsay wrote, "No one cried. There was this spooky calm. I carefully removed his diamond stud earring. I'd been wearing the other one of the pair since the day he went into hospital. I also put on the white dressing gown he'd been wearing for the past few months because it still smelled of him."

Sources: Wikipedia, Daily Mail article by Lindsay Hunter

October 8 | Kathleen Ferrier

April 22, 1912 - October 8, 1953: Age 41

Kathleen Ferrier, born in Lancashire, UK, was a brilliant contralto. She is particularly remembered for her Bach Passions, her Orfeo, but most of all for her beautiful renditions of English folk songs. Unassuming, funny, and personable, she was easily the greatest and most beloved British opera singer of her time, and perhaps of all time.

In March 1951 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Surgery in April proved that the cancer had spread to her bones. Extensive radiotherapy and its side effects caused her to cancel most of her performances that year, including a tour of North America. By mid 1952 she was in almost constant pain. It was during that year that she made her famous recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde — the composition of a dying man. Most of the people involved knew she was very ill, and she herself may have realized that she was dying. It is recognized as one of the greatest performances of that piece ever recorded.

Her last challenge was a production of Orfeo and Eurydice in early 1953. By now she certainly knew she was dying, and that this would be her last role. The first night was brilliant. On the second night, partway through the second act, "a dull crack was heard" and Ferrier flinched. Her left femur had broken spontaneously. Holding on to a piece of scenery for support, she continued to sing. The other performers, taking their cue from her, continued the opera, improvising the movement around her, and the performance was completed. After the curtain, when asked what she needed, she replied "Get me a stretcher."

There were two more surgeries in May and in July, but it was futile. Ferrier died on October 8, 1953.

Sources: bbc.co.uk, Wikipedia

October 4 | Graham Chapman

January 8, 1941 - October 4, 1989: Age 48

Graham Chapman is most famous for being one-sixth of Monty Python's Flying Circus. His characters include Hegel in the International Philosophy football match; Mrs. Conclusion, who discusses philosophy with Jean-Paul Sartre; Arthur, King of the Britons in Holy Grail; and Brian in Life of Brian. He went to Cambridge University and qualified as a medical doctor, but never practiced. Instead he began writing comedy with fellow student John Cleese.

Chapman was also one of the first gay celebrities to come out publicly: he did so on a television talk show in the mid-1970s.

In 1988 Chapman's dentist noticed a growth on his tonsils. It was diagnosed as throat cancer. It had spread to his neck and spine, and within a year of diagnosis he died of pneumonia. It was one day before the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of Flying Circus: "The worst case of party-pooping in history," according to Terry Jones. His old friends John Cleese and Michael Palin were with him when he died.

At the memorial service in December, John Cleese delivered a eulogy. I won't spoil it by telling you much, just that the first few words are "Graham Chapman, co-author of the parrot sketch, is no more." It's on YouTube: just go there now and enjoy it. Here is the link.

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube

September 27 | Babe Zaharias

June 26, 1911 - September 27, 1956: Age 45

"She is beyond all belief until you see her perform...Then you finally understand that you are looking at the most flawless section of muscle harmony, of complete mental and physical coordination, the world of sport has ever seen."
– sportswriter Grantland Rice, quoted by ESPN.

"It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up and waited for the phone to ring."
— sportswriter Joe Williams, New York World-Telegram.

In 1932 Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias entered eight events in the Amateur Athletic Union championships. She won five outright and tied first for a sixth. That year she went on to represent the US in the Olympics, entering three events and medalling gold in two (her winning high jump was disqualified because the judges didn't like her style of diving head first over the bar).

By 1935 she had become interested in golf, and went on to become the most celebrated and beloved golfer of all time. She was the Tiger Woods of her day. Both Associated Press and Sports Illustrated voted her "Female Athlete of the 20th Century" and she was ranked #10 in ESPN's list of the top 50 athletes of all time, the first woman on the list.

"It's not enough just to swing at the ball. You've got to loosen your girdle and really let the ball have it."
— Babe Zaharias

In 1953 she was diagnosed with colon cancer. In 1954 she won a major title (the Vare Trophy) one month after cancer surgery. In 1955 her cancer re-emerged, but she managed to win two titles before succumbing to the disease in September 1956, at 45 years old, still among the top rank of female golfers.

Sources: Wikipedia, US Olympic Committee

September 23 | Sigmund Freud

May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939: Age 83

Freud loved a good cigar (whether just a cigar, or nothing more), and he smoked a lot of them: 20 a day. In 1923 he was diagnosed with mouth cancer, but he continued to smoke, even though he knew they were killing him (although the first breakthrough medical study linking tobacco smoking with health damage didn't come out until 1948, the link had been suspected since the 17th century).

The tumours started on his hard palate and metastasized to the upper part of the lower jaw and his cheek. He underwent more than 30 operations to try to halt the cancer and replace some of the affected tissue with prosthetics, but they seemed only to increase his discomfort.

In March 1938 the Nazis annexed Austria, and anti-Semitism in Vienna (including visits from the Gestapo and the cancellation of his passport) drove Freud and his family to flee to London in June 1938. His cancer advanced, and in March 1939, he wrote to Arnold Zweig, "There is no longer any doubt that we are dealing with a new outbreak of my dear old carcinoma with which I have shared my existence for the past 16 years. Who would turn out to be the stronger could not, of course, have been predicted." In June he wrote to Marie Bonaparte, "...the radium has once again begun to eat away at something...and my world is what it was previously, a small island of pain floating on an ocean of indifference."

In September he asked his friend, Dr. Max Schur, who had fled with him to London, to help him die. “My dear Schur, you certainly remember our first talk. You promised me then not to forsake me when my time comes. Now it is nothing but torture and makes no sense any more.” Schur administered three large doses of morphine in the space of several hours, and Freud died, an assisted suicide.

There is an interesting article on the website of the Freud Museum about Freud's attitude. A quote: “Freud did not just 'have' cancer, he formed a relationship with it which echoed the structure of numerous others in his life - from childhood playmates to later friends and colleagues.” Click here to read more, it’s worth your time.

Sources: BBC History, Jewish Virtual Library, Freud Museum