Definite List of Deceased Actors from The Cannonball Run Franchise
by Wezqu | created - 7 months ago | updated - 5 months ago | PublicThis is list of all main or significant cast members of The Cannonball Run movie franchise who have past away in order of death date.
1. Sammy Davis Jr.
Actor | The Cannonball Run
Sammy Davis Jr. was often billed as the "greatest living entertainer in the world".
He was born in Harlem, Manhattan, the son of dancer Elvera Davis (née Sanchez) and vaudeville star Sammy Davis Sr.. His father was African-American and his mother was of Cuban and African-American ancestry. Davis Jr....
Morris Fenderbaum. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). He died May 16, 1990. Cause of death "complications from throat cancer".
2. Bert Convy
Actor | The Cannonball Run
Bert Convy was born on July 23, 1933 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Cannonball Run (1981), Hero at Large (1980) and Weekend Warriors (1986). He was married to Catherine Hall and Anne Anderson. He died on July 15, 1991 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Brad. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died July 15, 1991. Cause of death "brain tumor".
3. Molly Picon
Actress | Fiddler on the Roof
Barely 5' tall, the little "yente" with the big, expressive talent and mischievous twinkle in her eye, Yiddish icon Molly Picon, entertained theater, radio, TV and film audiences for over seven decades. Born Malka Opiekun to Polish-Jewish parents in New York on February 28, 1898, she would ...
Mom Goldfarb/Mrs. Goldfarb. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). She died April 5, 1992. Cause of death "Alzheimer's disease".
4. Jilly Rizzo
Actor | Year of the Dragon
Jilly Rizzo was born on May 6, 1917 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Year of the Dragon (1985), Eternity (1990) and Cannonball Run II (1984). He was married to Dorothy. He died on May 6, 1992 in Mission Hills, California, USA.
Jilly. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died May 6, 1992. Cause of death "road accident".
5. Telly Savalas
Actor | Kojak
Of Greek descent on both sides, the son of immigrants, Savalas was a soldier during World War II, although most of his enlistment records were destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1973. He later studied psychology at Columbia University under the ...
Hymie Kaplan. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died January 22, 1994. Cause of death "prostate cancer".
6. Dub Taylor
Actor | The Getaway
Dub Taylor was born on February 26, 1907 in Richmond, Virginia, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Getaway (1972), The Wild Bunch (1969) and You Can't Take It with You (1938). He was married to Florence Gertrude Heffernan. He died on October 3, 1994 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Sheriff. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died October 3, 1994. Cause of death "congestive heart failure".
7. Doug McClure
Actor | The Virginian
Douglas Osborne McClure was born on May 11, 1935 in Glendale, California. Educated at UCLA, this blond leading man long made a career of apparent agelessness. He played one young sidekick after another through numerous movies and one television series after another, playing 20ish roles into his ...
The Slapper. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died February 5, 1995. Cause of death "lung cancer".
8. Michael V. Gazzo
Actor | The Godfather Part II
Michael Vincente Gazzo was born in Hillside, New Jersey, on April 5, 1923. He attended Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop at the New School on the GI Bill after being demobilized from the US Army Air Force after World War II.
Gazzo's first major success was as a playwright. His play about drug ...
Sonny. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died February 14, 1995. Cause of death "stroke".
9. Rick Aviles
Actor | Waterworld
Rick Aviles was born on October 14, 1952 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Waterworld (1995), Ghost (1990) and The Cannonball Run (1981). He died on March 17, 1995 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Mad Dog. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died March 17, 1995. Cause of death "AIDS-related pulmonary embolism".
10. John Megna
Actor | To Kill a Mockingbird
John Megna was born on November 9, 1952 in Queens, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), The Cannonball Run (1981) and Police Woman (1974). He died on September 5, 1995 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Arthur Rose. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died September 5, 1995. Cause of death "AIDS".
11. Dean Martin
Soundtrack | The Dean Martin Show
Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, to Gaetano Alfonso "Guy" Crocetti, an Italian immigrant and barber, and his Ohio-born wife, Angela (Barra) Crocetti. He spoke only Italian until age five. Martin came up the hard way, with such jobs as a boxer ("Kid Crochet"), a steel mill ...
Jamie Blake. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). He died December 25, 1995. Cause of death "lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease".
12. Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder
Actor | The Cannonball Run
Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder was born on September 9, 1918 in Steubenville, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Cannonball Run (1981), ABC's Wide World of Sports (1961) and Sammy and Company (1975). He died on April 21, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
The Greek. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died April 21, 1996. Cause of death "heart failure".
13. Frank Sinatra
Actor | From Here to Eternity
Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants Natalina Della (Garaventa), from Northern Italy, and Saverio Antonino Martino Sinatra, a Sicilian boxer, fireman, and bar owner. Growing up on the gritty streets of Hoboken made Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. ...
Frank Sinatra. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died May 14, 1998. Cause of death "bladder cancer, and heart and kidney disease".
14. Foster Brooks
Actor | The Villain
Brooks was born in Louisville, Kentucky, one of eight sons, whose father was a county sheriff. Brooks dropped out of school after the 6th grade and did a variety of jobs before beginning a career in radio at the age of 21. He was a newscaster and disc jockey in Louisville, and Buffalo before ...
Fisherman #1. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died December 20, 2001. Cause of death "natural causes".
15. Jack Elam
Actor | C'era una volta il West
Colorful American character actor equally adept at vicious killers or grizzled sidekicks. As a child he worked in the cotton fields. He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel. Elam got his first movie ...
Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). He died October 20, 2003. Cause of death "congestive heart failure".
16. Louis Nye
Actor | Curb Your Enthusiasm
Louis Nye was one of those delightfully pretentious comic actors you loved to hate, his flip manner and faux rich boy arrogance possessing his characters no matter what social stature they were. Nye (first name pronounced Louie) was a master at sketch comedy, foreign accents and the quicksilver ad ...
Fisherman #3. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died October 9, 2005. Cause of death "lung cancer".
17. Don Knotts
Actor | The Andy Griffith Show
Don Knotts, the legendary television character actor, was born Jesse Donald Knotts on July 21, 1924 in Morgantown, West Virginia, to William Jesse Knotts and the former Elsie Luzetta Moore. He was the youngest of four sons in a family that had been in America since the 17th century.
His first stint ...
CHP Officer #2. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died February 24, 2006. Cause of death "pulmonary and respiratory complications from pneumonia related to lung cancer".
18. Jack Smith
Actor | On Moonlight Bay
Radio crooner "Smilin' Jack Smith" was a popular 40s and 50s personality. He was born Jack Ward Smith on November 16, 1913, on Bainbridge Island, across Puget Sound from Seattle, Washington. His father, Walter Reed Smith, was the captain of the naval destroyer USS Dixie. Jack was named after the ...
Announcer Jack Smith. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died July 3, 2006. Cause of death "leukemia".
19. Charles Nelson Reilly
Actor | Millennium
Charles Nelson Reilly was born to Charles Joseph Reilly and Signe Elvera Nelson. His father was Irish-American and Catholic, his mother was Swedish-American and Lutheran. As a child he amused himself with improvised puppet theater performances.
He had a traumatic experience in 1944, when present for...
Don Don Canneloni. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died May 25, 2007. Cause of death "complications from pneumonia".
20. George Furth
Actor | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
George Furth wrote eleven one-act plays planned for Kim Stanley as each of the separate leads. Hollywood actor Anthony Perkins, interested in directing, asked Sondheim to read the material. After Sondheim read the plays, Sondheim asked Harold Prince for his opinion; Prince thought the plays could ...
A. J. Foyt. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died August 11, 2008. Cause of death "lung infection".
21. Ricardo Montalban
Actor | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Legendary actor Ricardo Montalban was the epitome of Latin elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Rudolph Valentino / Ramon Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority...
King. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died January 14, 2009. Cause of death "congestive heart failure".
22. Dom DeLuise
Actor | The Cannonball Run
As might be said for the late and great comedians Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn, it seems that Mel Brooks was the only director on the planet who knew how to best utilize this funnyman's talents on film. Brooks once remarked that, whenever he cast Dom in one of his films he'd add an extra two ...
Victor Prinzim. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). He died May 4, 2009. Cause of death "kidney failure and respiratory complications from cancer".
23. Farrah Fawcett
Actress | Saturn 3
Farrah Fawcett is a true Hollywood success story. Born in Texas, she was the daughter of Pauline Fawcett (Pauline Alice Evans), a homemaker, and James Fawcett, an oil field contractor. She was a natural athlete, something that her father encouraged, and she attended a high school with a strong arts...
Pamela. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). She died June 25, 2009. Cause of death "anal cancer".
24. George Lindsey
Actor | Robin Hood
George Lindsey quickly became an icon on television in the 1960's playing the part of 'Goober Pyle" on the The Andy Griffith Show (1960). He replaced Jim Nabors who portrayed "Gomer Pyle" who ran the "fillin station" on "The Andy Griffith Show." As Jim Nabors was tapped for his own show Gomer Pyle:...
Uncle Cal. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died May 6, 2012. Cause of death "undisclosed".
25. Norman Grabowski
Actor | The Towering Inferno
Norman Grabowski was born on February 5, 1933 to Anthony & Mary Grabowski in Irvington, New Jersey, as Norman David Grabowski. He was an actor, best known for his roles in Blackbeard's Ghost (1968), The Towering Inferno (1974), Hooper (1978) and The Cannonball Run (1981). He died on October 12, ...
Petoski. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died October 12, 2012. Cause of death "undisclosed".
26. Sid Caesar
Actor | Grease
Comedian, saxophonist, composer, actor and musician, he performed within the orchestras of Charlie Spivak, Shep Fields and Claude Thornhill as saxophonist. Later, as super-hip jazz musician "Cool Cees" in television skits, he played tenor saxophone, and sang with the satirical trio "The Hair Cuts" ...
Fisherman #2. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died February 12, 2014. Cause of death "undisclosed".
27. Richard Kiel
Actor | Moonraker
Towering 7' 2" tall actor who cornered the market on playing giants, intimidating henchmen, bayou swamp monsters and steel toothed villains! Kiel worked in numerous jobs including as a night club bouncer and a cemetery plot salesman, before breaking into film & TV in several minor roles in the late...
Arnold, Mitsubishi Driver. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died September 10, 2014. Cause of death "possible acute myocardial infarction".
28. Alex Rocco
Actor | The Godfather
Tough, gruff, thick-browed, volatile-looking character actor Alex Rocco was born Alessandro Federico Petricone, Jr. on February 29, 1936, to Italian immigrants in Cambridge, Mass. He grew up a member of Boston's Winter Hill gang (his nickname was "Bobo") and was briefly detained regarding a murder ...
Tony. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died July 18, 2015. Cause of death "pancreatic cancer".
29. Abe Vigoda
Actor | The Godfather
Tall, dour-faced and slouch-shouldered character actor Abe Vigoda proved himself in both gritty dramatic roles and as an actor with wonderful comedic timing.
Vigoda was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Lena (Moses) and Samuel Vigoda, a tailor -- both Russian Jewish immigrants. His father was a tailor ...
Ceasar. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died January 26, 2016. Cause of death "natural causes".
30. Roger Moore
Actor | Moonraker
Roger Moore will perhaps always be remembered as the man who replaced Sean Connery in the James Bond series, arguably something he never lived down.
Roger George Moore was born on October 14, 1927 in Stockwell, London, England, the son of Lillian (Pope) and George Alfred Moore, a policeman. His ...
Seymour. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died May 23, 2017. Cause of death "lung and liver cancer".
31. Mel Tillis
Actor | The Cannonball Run
Mel Tillis was born on August 8, 1932 in Tampa, Florida, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for The Cannonball Run (1981), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) and Every Which Way But Loose (1978). He was married to Julia Ann Edwards and Doris Yvonne Duckworth. He died on November 19, 2017 in Ocala, ...
Mel. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). He died November 19, 2017. Cause of death "respiratory failure".
32. Jim Nabors
Actor | Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Tall, spade-jawed, hopelessly genial balladeer/actor Jim Nabors was born in James Thurston Nabors on June 12, 1930 in Sylacauga, Alabama and raised there, graduating from the University of Alabama. A typing clerk at the United Nations in his salad days, he eventually moved to Los Angeles, ...
Pvt. Homer Lyle. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died November 30, 2017. Cause of death "immune system deficiencies".
33. Burt Reynolds
Actor | Boogie Nights
Enduring, strong-featured, and genial star of US cinema, Burt Reynolds started off in T.V. westerns in the 1960s and then carved his name into 1970s/1980s popular culture, as a sex symbol (posing nearly naked for "Cosmopolitan" magazine), and on-screen as both a rugged action figure and then as a ...
J. J. McClure. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). He died September 6, 2018. Cause of death "heart attack".
34. Tim Conway
Actor | The Carol Burnett Show
Funny man Tim Conway was born on December 15th, 1933 in Willoughby, Ohio, to Sophia (Murgoiu) and Daniel Conway, a pony groomer. He was a fraternity man at Bowling Green State University, served in the army, and started his career working for a radio station.
Conway got into comedy when he started ...
CHP Officer #1. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died May 14, 2019. Cause of death "complications from hydrocephalus".
35. Arte Johnson
Actor | Laugh-In
Arte Johnson was born on January 20, 1929 in Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Laugh-In (1967), Love at First Bite (1979) and Baggy Pants & the Nitwits (1977). He was married to Gisela Johnson and Texie Waterman. He died on July 3, 2019 in Los Angeles, ...
Pilot. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died July 3, 2019. Cause of death "bladder and prostate cancer".
36. Peter Fonda
Actor | Easy Rider
Peter Henry Fonda was born in New York City, to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario, Canada-born New York socialite Frances Brokaw (born Frances Ford Seymour). He was the younger brother of actress and activist Jane Fonda and the father of actress Bridget Fonda.
Fonda made his professional...
Chief Biker. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died August 16, 2019. Cause of death "lung cancer".
37. Johnny Yune
Actor | They Call Me Bruce
Johnny Yune was born on October 22, 1936 in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. He was an actor and writer, known for They Call Me Bruce (1982), They Still Call Me Bruce (1987) and The Cannonball Run (1981). He was married to Julia Yune. He died on March 8, 2020 in Alhambra, ...
TV Talk Show Host. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died March 8, 2020. Cause of death "Alzheimer's disease".
38. Warren Berlinger
Actor | The Cannonball Run
Warren Berlinger was born on August 31, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Cannonball Run (1981), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The World According to Garp (1982). He was married to Betty Lou Keim. He died on December 2, 2020 in Santa Clarita, California, ...
Shakey Finch. Appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981). He died December 2, 2020. Cause of death "cancer".
39. Henry Silva
Actor | The Manchurian Candidate
Henry Silva was born on September 23, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He quit public school to attend drama classes at age 13, supporting himself as a dishwasher in a Manhattan hotel. By 1955, Silva had moved up from dishwasher to waiter, and felt ready to audition for the Actors Studio. He was one of ...
Slim. Appeared in Cannonball Run II (1984). He died September 14, 2022. Cause of death "natural causes".
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