Advanced search

Sophie Nyweide was born on 8 July 2000 in Burlington, Vermont, USA. She was an actress, known for Noah (2014), Mammoth (2009) and Bella (2006). She died on 14 April 2025 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.

Shirley Jackson was a horror and mystery writer born in San Francisco, California in 1916. She is best remembered for her unsettling novel of paranoia and the supernatural, 'The Haunting of Hill House' (1959) and her terrifying short story 'The Lottery' (1948), a horror tale rife with symbolism that is still puzzled over by critics and academics to this day. 'The Lottery' is regarded as an American Classic and as one of the best pieces of short fiction in the history of American Literature.

Jackson was publishing around the same time as fellow genre writers Ray Bradbury, Jack Finney, and Richard Matheson and is regarded by many - including Stephen King - as being one of the most influential writers of mystery, the occult, and Gothic horror.

Her books have been adapted to film and include The Haunting (1963), The Lottery (1996), and The Haunting (1999) by Jan de Bont.

Shirley Jackson sadly passed away in her sleep (1965) aged 48 following heart failure thought to be caused by neuroses and prescription drugs used to treat the condition.

She is fondly remembered by all in the fiction world.

British composer, primarily of film scores. From a military family and the son of a Royal Field Artillery colonel, John Mervyn Addison was born March 16, 1920, in Chobham, Surrey, and attended Wellington College, Berkshire, with plans for a military career. His interest and talent for music intervened, and he left Wellington for the Royal College of Music. With the opening of the Second World War, however, he was diverted back to the military and spent the war in a tank unit of the 22nd Hussars, being wounded in Normandy and rising to the rank of captain. After the war, he returned to the Royal College of Music, specializing in composition, clarinet, and oboe. By age 30, he had been made a professor of composition. He had previously won the RCM's Sullivan Award for Composition and was soon deluged with commissions for new compositions. He produced a wide variety of concerti, chamber pieces, and ballets. Although his first music for a film came in 1942 for Roy Boulting's Thunder Rock, his score was not used, and it was 1950 before he truly entered his principal profession, that of film composer. He scored numerous prominent films, among them Seven Days to Noon, Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer, and Tom Jones, for which he won an Academy Award. He received another Oscar nomination for his score to Sleuth, and a BAFTA nomination for his music for A Bridge Too Far, coincidentally the story of a World War II battle in which he himself had participated. In the late 1970s, Addison moved to the United States and focused a good deal of his work on television productions, most famously creating the popular theme music to the TV series Murder She Wrote. He died following a stroke, on December 7, 1998, in Bennington, Vermont. He was survived by his wife Pamela, 2 stepchildren, and 3 of his four biological children.

Alexis Wassel was born on 3 May 1948 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Blonde on a Bum Trip (1968). She was married to Glenn Walken. She died on 31 October 1997 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.

William Finn was born on 28 February 1952 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a writer and composer, known for Live from Lincoln Center (1976), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and In Trousers (1979). He died on 8 April 2025 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.

Herbert Oscar Anderson was born on 30 May 1928 in South Beloit, Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Haunted (1977), Naked City (1958) and The Mike Douglas Show (1961). He was married to Theresa Marie Kirchoff. He died on 29 January 2017 in Bennington, Bennington County, Vermont, USA.

Sidney Glazier was born on 29 May 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a producer, known for Take the Money and Run (1969), The Producers (1967) and The Eleanor Roosevelt Story (1965). He died on 14 December 2002 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.

Irving Fineman (aka Jonathan Joseph) was born in New York City on April 9, 1893, the son of a businessman. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1917 and did advanced work at Harvard University. For a few years he was an engineering instructor at the University of Illinois-Urbana, but left in 1928 to become a freelance writer. He has written novels, plays, short stories, poems, and has contributed to literary and critical publications. His 1932 novel "Lovers Must Learn" was filmed in 1962 as Rome Adventure (1962).

David Smith was born on 9 March 1906 in Decatur, Indiana, USA. He died on 23 March 1965 in South Shaftsbury, Shaftsbury, Bennington County, Vermont, USA.

W.C. Heinz was born on 11 January 1915 in Mount Vernon, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Run to Daylight (1964), Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004) and The Sweet Science (1999). He was married to Elizabeth Heinz. He died on 27 February 2008 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.

F. Henry Burkhardt was born on 13 September 1912 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He died on 23 September 2007 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.

Barry Galbraith was born on 18 December 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a composer, known for Satan in High Heels (1962), We Shall Return (1963) and The Snowy Day (1965). He died on 13 January 1983 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.

Rick Wessler was born on 14 March 1944. He was an actor, known for Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), New Rose Hotel (1998) and Alexander Nevsky (1938). He died on 7 September 2019 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.

Bill Dixon was born on 5 October 1925 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA. He was a composer, known for Wealth of a Nation (1966) and Imagine the Sound (1981). He died on 16 June 2010 in North Bennington, Vermont, USA.

Don Perkins was born on 23 October 1928 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Jericho (2000). He died on 28 July 2015 in Bennington, Vermont, USA.