Pairs of Celebrities died/born the same day

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died the same day (June 25, 2009).

1. Who is the most famous pair of people that died the same day? While its hard to measure fame objectively, there are two candidates that come to mind. (1) If you give a bonus for being in very different fields then the answer could be Orville Wright and Gandhi (Jan 30, 1948). (2) If you have an American bias then perhaps John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (July 4, 1826). Possible Bonus for July 4 being the day. (James Monroe also died on July 4, though in 1831. What is the probability that three of the US presidens died the same day? Prob=1 since they did.)
2. If you are famous and want people to notice your death there here are some tips:
   1. DO NOT die the same day as a someone more famous. Example: Farrah Fawcett overshadowed by Michael Jackson.
   2. DO NOT die close to the day someone more famous dies. Examples: (1) Ed McMahon died the day before Michael Jackson. (2) Mother Theresa died a few days after Princess Di (It is likely that Mother Theresa wanted to not have a big deal made of her death, so perhaps this was a win for her.)
   3. DO NOT die the last week of the year. James Brown and Gerald Ford both died the last week in 2006. By that time all the lists of famous people who died in 2006 were already made. So James Brown and Gerald Ford never made those lists.
3. Who were the most famous pair of people that were born the same day? While its hard to measure fame objectively a good candidate pair is Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin (Feb 12, 1809). Others of interest (from this website): George W. Bush and Sylvester Stallone (July 6, 1946), (One is a pretend war hero, the other starred in the ROCKY movies.) Sigmund Freud and Robert Peary (May 6, 1856), Winston Churchill and Lucy Maud Montgomery (Nov 30, 1874), (I didn't know who Montgomery was. Either fame is fleeting or I am not up on my writers of books for young girls-- she wrote Anne of Green Gables.) Ariel Sharon and Fats Domino (Feb 26, 1928).

The Betty White Award for 2024

In Jan of 2023 I estabalished the Betty White Award, see here which is given to people who died late in the prior year and hence won't be in the  those who we lost in year X articles. I also gave out a few from prior years. Here are past winners, some in retrospect.

2006: James Brown and Gerald Ford. See my post here. The post was not on the Betty White award since Betty White had not died yet. But the idea is there.

2021: Betty White and Bishop Tutu. See my post here. I didn't have the award yet but I do now. Can person X win the X award? I say yes. Its rare since usually the person an award is named after is dead, but in this case that's kind of the point.

2022: Pele (Soccor player), Barbara Walters (broadcast journalist), Pope Emeritus Benedict. See my post here. Three famous people! To quote my post: One was prominent in one of the worlds largest religions. The others were a broadcast journalist and a former Pope. 

2023: Tommy Smothers (Singer and Comedian). See my post here. Since I collect novelty songs I knew who he was, but I think most people did not. 

2024: I began writing this post on Dec 28. Bad idea- the whole point of the award is that we should WAIT until the year is OVER before doing retrospectives. In fact, the award was going to go to Ricky Henderson (famous baseball player), Greg Gumbel (sportscaster), and Olivia Hussey (Actress). The last two I had never head of until they died, but I didn't want to just give it to one person.

Then on Dec 29 Jimmy Carter died. Okay then. Greg and Olivia will still get Honorable Mention.  After that but before Jan 1, Linda Lavin died who will also get Honorable Mention. 

ADDED LATER: An alert commented that Manmohan Singh, who was prime minister of India 200 4-2014 (analogous to being president of America) passed away on Dec 26, 2024. Hence I have added him as well.

Here are the WINNERS of the Betty White Award for 2024:

Ricky Henderson A hall-of-fame baseball player who was truly a superstar. He died on Dec 20, 2024, at the age of 65. See his Wikipedia entry here. There are two criteria for the Betty White Award. 

a) Being famous enough so IF he had died earlier, he WOULD be in the those we lost in 2024 articles. On this criteria, Ricky Henderson is solid. Note that he holds the record for most stolen bases in a career by A LOT: RH has 1406, Lou Brock is second with  938.

b) Dying to late in the year to be on those lists. I checked- he is on some lists but not others. To NOT get the Betty White award because he died late but not late enough would be really sad. SO, even though on this criteria he is borderline, the judges have decided to give it to him.

Jimmy Carter A former president of the United States; however, he may be more known for his post-presidency work on charities. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He died on Dec 29, 2024 at the age of 100. Providing a Wikipedia link sounds silly- you all know who he is. Here are some miscellany:

a) I was hoping he would last until Biden stepped down so there would be six living ex-presidents:

Carter, Clinton, Bush Jr, Obama, Trump, Biden.  I blogged about this here.

b) Carter is the prez who lived the longest. He also  had the longest marriage. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter were married for 77 years. George and Barbara Bush were second with 73 years of marriage. 

c) Carter is the only president sworn into office by his nickname Jimmy (his `real' name is James). It annoyed me when BILL Clinton was sworn in as WILLIAM and when JOE Biden was sworn in as JOSEPH. If Jeb Bush had become prez he probably would have been sworn in by his nickname Jeb (his `real' name is John). Oh Well. 

Jimmy is Clearly famous enough and Clearly died late enough in the year. 

Manmohan Singh A former prime minister of India; however, some of my American readers may not know that (indeed- I did not). He served as prime minister from 2004 to 2014, serving two 5-year terms. He was the first Sikh prime minister of India. See his Wikipedia entry here. 

Manmohan is not famous in America but he is very famous in India and in countries that pay more attention to world events than Americans do. And he died late enough in the year.

AND three Honorable Mentions:

Greg Gumbel A sportscaster, died on December 27, 2024 at the age of 78. See his Wikipedia entry here. SO, does he deserve it? 

a) Being famous. I've read that he is famous but frankly, I had never heard of him until I saw the obit and said  Betty White Award Contender.? That he had an obit on some news site IS an indicator of fame. And more to the point of the award, had he died a a few days later, in 2025, he would have been on the those who we lost in 2025 lists. If Jimmy Carter hadn't died he would have won the award (with Ricky Henderson and Olivia Hussey and Linda Lavin) so I decided to give him Honorable Mention.  My award, My rules. 

b) Dying late. OH YEAH! Dec 27 is very late. 

Olivia Hussey An actress, died December 27, 2024 at the age of 73. See her Wikipedia entry here. SO, does she deserve the award? 

The Being Famous and Dying late comments are identical to those for Greg Gumbel. 

So she also gets an Honorable Mention. 

Linda Lavin An actress, died December 29, 2024 at the age of 87. See her Wikipedia entry here. SO does she deserve the award? 

The Being Famous and Dying late comments are identical to those for Greg Gumbel. 

So she also gets an Honorable Mention. Also she gets credit for dying really late in the year.

The Betty White Award for 2023: Tommy Smothers

Betty White died on December 31, 2021. When I mention that, even now, some people are surprised that they didn't hear about it. Why? Because she died AFTER all of the who we said goodbye to this year articles have come out. I think its idiotic to have these things come out in DECEMBER instead of early January.  Same with Time Magazine's Person of the Year. If Joe Biden had managed to create peace between Israel and the Palestinians AND between Russia and Ukraine on Dec 31, then he might, just might, have been a better choice than Taylor Swift for Person of the Year.

BUT, rather than complain, I created The Betty White Award for famous people who die towards the end of December. 

Past Winners:

2006: James Brown and Gerald Ford. I didn't have the award then but I noticed their deaths coming to late in the year to be noticed, see my post  here.

2021: Betty White and Bishop Tutu. See my post here. I didn't quite have the award then, but its implied.

2022: Pele, Barbara Walters, Pope Emeritus Benedict. See my post here.

I thought based on these three data points that I would often have 2 or more winners. But no. For 2023 there is one winner:

Tommy Smothers who died on  Dec 26, 2023 at the age of 86.

Tommy and Dickie Smothers (his brother is still alive at the age of 85)  were known as The Smothers Brothers. They did Comedy and Music together. They are more known for their comedy. A few notes

0) I wrote this post on Dec 31. I was going to post it on Dec 31 at 11:00PM but then thought What if someone famous dies in the next hour? Then I'll need to redo the post, probably giving both that person and Tommy Smothers the award!  I waited until Jan 2 since its possible that someone famous dies and I don't hear about for a few days.

1) They had a comedy-variety show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour from Feb 1967 to June 1968. It was controversial at the time for some of its political comments though, frankly, if you saw it now I really don't see why they were controversial.  They had very high ratings but were cancelled because of the controversy. I don't understand that either- if its making the network money, then why cancel it? Possibilities:

a) They were losing sponsors. I have not read that this was the case. And I would think they could get new ones.

b) Some local stations refused to air it. This seems to be true.

c) The suits themselves were offended and put their principles above profits. 

d) They were scared that the FCC would crack down on them.

e) They got angry letters (this is true though I don't see why this means you cancel).

What controversy? They made fun of the president! They were against the war in Vietnam!

So I am puzzled that they were cancelled. 

I was young at the time  and didn't really understand it (I still don't) but I recalled a great Mad Magazine piece about it (in 1968).  And thanks to the wonder of the internet, I found it in about 5 seconds. Here it is: here.  I suspect that my young readers are not at all surprised that an article I read over 50  years ago I can find easily. This still surprises me. And I note that its not always so easy.

2) The show was one of the first to do political humor about real living politicians (Another one was That was the week that was which had Tim Lehrer on it, among others.) Comedy featuring a generic politician being, say, dishonest, was certainly allowed, but not an actual one with current issues. As such it lead the way for SNL, The Daily Show, and other shows. 

3) While Smothers Brothers sounds like a made up name, their last name really was Smothers. Reminds me of Clint Eastwood and Dolly Parton having great stage names for their real names.

4) One of their types of comedy was to start singing a real song (they were good singers- folk singers) and then in the middle of it get into an argument or discussion about it. Here is an example: here. (warning- this is NOT controversial or political)

5) There was one episode that never aired because of its controversy.  Here it is: here. I watched it. I cannot see what is controversial in it. There is also some commentary after it that explains why it was controversial.

More odd- I didn't find it that funny. And note that this is the kind of thing I usually DO find funny. But this is not a criticism- its just evidence that some shows (or art in general) has a short shelf live.

6) That one episode being on you tube reminds me of the ONE picture of FDR in a wheelchair is ALL OVER the web. Here is one place: here. Not just the web--- it was in my High School History Text with the caption a rare photo of FDR in a wheelchair. Even then I doubt it was rare since it was in many textbooks. And now being on the web makes it even harder to say its rare. I did a post a long time ago (I was a guest blogger) on how things on the web can't really be considered rare. Its here.

7) The fact that they were controversial then but would not be now reminds me of the TV show Tanner 88, which was on HBO in 1988 (one of their first original series) which followed the fictional presidential campaign of Jack Tanner. At the time it was considered biting political satire. I bought the DVD and watched it in 2008. A typical episode of West Wing (a good show, but hardly a biting political satire) had more bite. But again, much like The Smothers Brothers, it paved the way.Which brings up back to our original point:

 Tommy and Dickie Smothers: We THANK YOU for paving the way for political satire and commentary.