how old was william holden in sunset boulevard

Fury of the Gods Brings Back the "Shazamily": Inside DC's New Superhero Adventure, Scream 6's Brutal NYC Trip: "You Can't Trust Anyone" This Time, Cocaine Bear Is Not Just About a Killer "Coked-Up" Bear, It's Also an "Underdog Story", How Marvel's Wastelanders Podcast Created an Exciting Story with No Visual Safety Net, Sunset Boulevard: The Original Hollywood Expose. DeMille." The magnifying glass in Normas beauty makeover scene shows the skin of a young ingnue, not an aging crone. The murder made it to the late editions, radio, and television because one of the biggest old-time stars was involved. In their scene together in Artie's bathroom Gillis mentions to Betty in his dramatic flirtation about having spent "12 years in the Burmese jungle", when coincidentally, just a few years later his character, Shears, finds himself lost there in David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai. In the scene where Norma is showing Joe her silent movies, one of them is Queen Kelly (1932), which was filmed at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, NY. Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, Venice Film Festival Special Award for Ensemble Acting, Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, "When Alcoholics drink themselves to death", "William Holden Dead at 63; Won Oscar for 'Stalag 17', "Barbara Stanwyck's Honorary Award: 1982 Oscars", "The Screen Strand Shows 'Invisible Stripes', "30 Days, 30 Classics Day 17: Sabrina (1954) starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart", "Screen: Crosby Acts in 'Country Girl'; Film Based on Odets Drama Makes Bow", "The Screen in Review; 'Bridges at Toko-ri' Is Fine Film of War", "Han Suyin dies at 95; wrote 'Many-Splendored Thing', "13 Fascinating Facts About 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', "Columbia Earns as It Holds Coin Due Bill Holden on 10% of 'Kwai', "The Towering Inferno Movie Review (1974)", "Network Movie Review & Film Summary (1976)", "William Holden Gave His All Even "When Time Ran Out", "William Holden's Unscripted Fall From Grace", The William Holden Wildlife Education Center, "West Holden: More than just the son of William Holden", Image of William Holden and Brenda Marshall, Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1951, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Holden&oldid=1142631715, Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Primetime Emmy Award winners, United Service Organizations entertainers, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple partners, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2022, TCMDb name template using numeric ID from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, episode: "William Holden/Frances Bergen Show", This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 14:28. Sunset Boulevard mixed fiction with the realities of filmmaking. Zach Laws, Chris Beachum. For some scenes, cinematographer John F. Seitz would sprinkle dust into the air so it could be caught by the lights and create a moody effect. After the. This was the last major Hollywood feature film to be shot on nitrate stock. Principal photography took place from 11 April to 18 June 1949. "[13]:174 The interactions between Bogart, Hepburn and Holden made shooting less than pleasant, as Bogart had wanted his wife, Lauren Bacall, to play Sabrina. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first American audiences had seen of it. Was Oscar-nominated in all the major categories--Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Screenplay--but only won in the last category. Every woman was in love with him. The "fee" for renting the Jean Paul Getty mansion was for Paramount to build the swimming pool, which features so memorably. Norma Desmond was the greatest of them all. It said so on the chart from her astrologer, who read DeMilles horoscope. [4] He made a sex comedy with David Niven for Otto Preminger, The Moon Is Blue (1953), which was a huge hit, in part due to controversy over its content. read more: The Big Sleep is Proof That Plot Doesnt Matter. The moment he discovers that life could be beautiful, Norma slits her wrist with Joes razor. It was built in 1924 by William Jenkins, at a cost of $250,000. In one week, she received 17,000 fan letters. According to the Los Angeles Times, the actor long experienced alcoholism, and though he was able to avoid drinking when with lover Stefanie Powers, it ultimately helped pave the way for his death. [48] He also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Read and download theDen of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazineright here! Norma Desmond: I *am* big. Holden had his most widely recognized role as "Commander" Shears in David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) with Alec Guinness,[25] a huge commercial success. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's 17th and final screenplay collaboration. Although they don't have a scene together in this film, Hedda Hopper and Buster Keaton had worked together in the 1932 comedy Speak Easily (1932), both were among the many stars appearing in the 1931 two-reeler The Stolen Jools (1931), and they both appeared in a 1958 episode of The Garry Moore Show (1958) that also featured Carol Burnett, who years later would spoof the Norma Desmond character regularly on her own variety show. Norma goes to visit Cecil B. DeMille, several of whose films Swanson had starred in. There were three young directors who showed promise in those early days of silent film, D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. [12] Swanson later said, "Bill Holden was a man I could have fallen in love with. The 2014 book by William J. Mann, Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood, names Ross Blackie Madsen Sheridan as the killer, based on a death bed confession from actress Margaret Gibson, who beat a 1917 rap on prostitution and opium dealing. Warner, who appears as one of "The Waxworks", had been Gloria Swanson's leading man in Zaza (1923). Beedle grew up in South Pasadena, California. Sunset Blvd. But she fits it like a round peg in a square hole. This indicates that he is smoking filterless cigarettes, which was the norm for that era until filters became the standard after the mid-'50s. Hola, identifcate . But it wasn't a bullet from the gun of an aging movie queen that tragically ended his life, but rather, a rug, per The New York Times. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who plays herself in the movie, wrote that Billy Wilder was crazy about Evelyn Waughs book The Loved One, and the studio wanted to buy it.. (1940) followed by the role of George Gibbs in the film adaptation of Our Town (1940), done for Sol Lesser at United Artists.[8]. Sunset Boulevard is a noir film and like many of the post-World War II dark classics, it is covered with a thick sheen of cynicism. Although Gloria Swanson correctly states he is a Sagittarius, it is actually on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp. His co-star Barbara Stanwyck, a screen. Later he strangled himself with it. This promised to go the limit. He called it "that goddamned butler role" for the remaining seven years of his life. This parallel narrative--two perspectives from the same character, one omniscient, the other blissfully ignorant--that converge at the moment of Joe's death, are a major reason the film retains such dramatic and emotional power. This is a reference to the now-mad Norma's final possession by the character of Salome, with whom she'd been so obsessed. Getty always wanted a pool, the poor dope. There were no shortage of suspects. The investigation found that in the weeks just prior to his death, Taylor had been making some pretty delusional statements about his place in the world and some of his friends thought he had recently gone insane. He stayed at Paramount for The Remarkable Andrew (1942) with Brian Donlevy, then made Meet the Stewarts (1943) at Columbia. Seitz had used a similar technique on Double Indemnity (1944). Norma telling studio guard Jonesy that without her there would be no Paramount Studios is not a far-fetched notion. You used to be big. Suratt believed that DeMille's epic, "The King of Kings" (released in 1927) was based on her screenplay and filed a $1,000,000 plagiarism suit which was settled out of court in 1930. Only 950 were made from 1924 to 1931. Billy Wilder also used Sheldrake as the last name of Fred MacMurray's character in "The Apartment". He made two more films with Olson: Force of Arms (1951) at Warner Bros. and Submarine Command (1951) at Paramount. Norma Desmond returns to the Paramount lot and is overcome with nostalgia. When two more test audiences reacted the same way, Wilder cut the scene and the movie was saved. These actors were bigger than life. It was largely from his association with Wilder that Holden would enjoy the greatest acting successes of his career in the 1950s. Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge were famous for owning downtown real estate in Los Angeles and San Diego. Billy Wilder's terrifying valentine to Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard (1950), features one of the most indelible of all screen performances: Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond. Erich von Stroheim, who directed Swanson in Queen Kelly (1932), plays Max the butler, who serves as the projectionist in the scene. (1950) was plagiarized from other scripts. On February 7, 1955, Holden appeared as a guest star on I Love Lucy as himself. The antique car used as Norma Desmond's limousine is an 1929 Isotta-Fraschini Tipo 8A, a luxury car made in Italy, and once belonged to 1920s socialite Peggy Hopkins Joyce. (The book is about a failed screenwriter who works for a cemetery and lives with a forgotten silent-film star.) Two years later, he was praised for his Oscar-nominated leading performance in Sidney Lumet's classic Network (1976),[34] an examination of the media written by Paddy Chayefsky, playing an older version of the character type for which he had become iconic in the 1950s, only now more jaded and aware of his own mortality. Throughout Hollywood history many film stars, and/or single films, were responsible for saving ailing studios. Marshman was a journalist but both Wilder and Brackett had been impressed by the critique he had given of their earlier film, The Emperor Waltz (1948). The original nitrate negatives for the film have long disappeared. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. [27] He played an American Civil War military surgeon in John Ford's The Horse Soldiers (1959) opposite John Wayne, which was a box-office disappointment. The clips in Sunset Boulevard were the first time American audiences saw it. Holden, just 63 when he died, had most recently appeared in the Blake Edwards' film "S.O.B." producer Music by Franz Waxman Cinematography by John F. Seitz . The Tragic 1981 Death Of Sunset Boulevard Star William Holden Grunge 2.14M subscribers Subscribe 486 18K views 3 weeks ago #Actor #Hollywood #SunsetBoulevard While Actor William Holden. . But it originally began in the L.A. county morgue, with toe-tagged corpsesincluding Joe'sspeaking to each other (in voiceover) about how they died. It would go on to be one of his most successful movies. He became bitter about the throwaway roles Hollywood kept giving him. Sometimes hetinkles the wheezing gothic ivories like Lurch in the original TV series The Addams Family, playing the recognizable strains of The Phantom of the Opera. [45], According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's autopsy report, Holden bled to death in his apartment in Santa Monica, California, on November 12, 1981, after lacerating his forehead from slipping on a rug while intoxicated and hitting a bedside table. Well, not a comeback, a return, a return to the millions of people who have never forgiven her for deserting the screen. [15] Holden and Hepburn became romantically involved during the filming, unbeknownst to Wilder: "People on the set told me later that Bill and Audrey were having an affair, and everybody knew. Youre killing yourself for an empty house. The film is openly referenced in Soapdish (1991), The Player (1992), Gods and Monsters (1998), Mulholland Drive (2001), Inland Empire (2006) and Be Cool (2005) while the closing scene of Cecil B. Demented (2000) is a direct parody of the final scene of the 1950 classic. You probably know about the Andrew Lloyd Webber version of Sunset Boulevard that premiered in London in 1993 and headed to Broadway in 1994 with Glenn Close in the lead role. An ending for the film was cobbled together, but the movie was never shown in the U.S. Getting the role was a lucky break for Holden, as Montgomery Clift was initially cast but backed out of his contract. They had paired up in pictures since 1938. According to Gloria Swanson's daughter, Michelle Amon, her mother stayed in character throughout the entire shoot, even speaking like Norma Desmond when she arrived home in the evening after filming. The California license plate on Gillis' Plymouth, 4D R 116, appears to be a legal and current registration for 1949. Every time I go to L.A., which isn't too often, I look at these palm-bemused, once smart stucco facades, and wonder if a Norma Desmond from a later era might be hiding from the world inside them, buttressed by cable TV (AMC or TCM, no doubt), a poodle named FiFi or Sir Francis, walk-in closets full of leopard-print Capri pants that haven't fit in decades, and a world class liquor cabinet that has seen heads of state under the table on a good night. Wilder used real names like Darryl Zanuck, Tyrone Power, and Alan Ladd. But as commentator Steve Sailer points out, more than one contemporary source mentions it as an inspiration. In fact, a pivotal plot point in the Showtime limited series of Twin Peaks (2017) includes a scene from "Sunset Boulevard" in which the character's name is mentioned. He played an older version of Joe in Sidney Lumets classic Network (1976), written by the cynical Paddy Chayefsky. [39][46] He dictated in his will that the Neptune Society cremate him and scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean. Features the only Oscar-nominated performances of Erich von Stroheim and Nancy Olson. Montgomery Clift was originally cast as the writer but dropped out two weeks before the shoot. Gillis smokes unfiltered cigarettes in the film. In the penultimate scene, as Max tells Norma that "the cameras have arrived," the high strings in composer Franz Waxman's Oscar-winning score quote a chord from Richard Strauss's "The Dance of the Seven Veils" from his opera "Salome". On the advice of Libby Holman, Montgomery Clift, who had signed to play the part of Joe Gillis, broke his contract just two weeks prior to the start of shooting. Her character's age was 22 but she was 21 at the time of filming. Please, don't let it be true, it must be some mistake," per her memoir. They reportedly began a two-year affair, which is alleged to have ended due to Holden's alcoholism. Columbia teamed him with Lucille Ball for Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), and the sequel to Dear Ruth, Dear Wife (1949). True to character, Von Stroheim refused to leave Paris to attend the Academy Awards ceremony, and declared that his nomination for best supporting actor should've been for best actor. Joe Gillis' typewriter is a portable manual Remington Rand Noiseless Model 7. Cecil B. DeMille had a pet name for Gloria Swanson: "Young Fellow". We were close friends for many years. She lives in a crumbling old mansion with her butler Max (Erich von Stroheim). He was a genuine star. You murdered me. The Paramount logo appears as a transparency over the opening shot. Holden was reunited with Wilder in Stalag 17 (1953), for which Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor. For television roles in 1974, Holden won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his portrayal of a cynical, tough veteran LAPD street cop in the television film The Blue Knight, based upon the best-selling Joseph Wambaugh novel of the same name.[31][4]. Idealists can screw for fun and for power, because sex is good for business but love is a luxury Hollywood gals cant live without. The film's narrative structure bears a marked resemblance to that of American Beauty (1999). Later in the film Max tells Gillis that he was the silent-movie director who discovered Norma and put her in films. If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Clift's biographers say it was because he had a strong following among older women, who wrote him letters describing how they'd like to mother him, and he didn't want to encourage such behavior. To shoot Joe and Norma dancing together at her New Year's Eve party, cameraman John F. Seitz used a dance dolly---a wheeled platform attached to the camera. For the clip of the vintage film that Norma was watching Paramount couldn't find anything suitable so Gloria provided it from her own collection. Westmore and director Billy Wilder agreed with this so William Holden was made up to look younger than he was. Saltar al contenido principal.com.mx. Holden himself claimed that he, too, could picture his end. And like the title, Holden seemed to have the looks and muscular build Hollywood craved. The young actor also got to work with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in the gangsters on parole movie,Invisible Stripes. About 10 minutes later, Holden passed out and died from blood loss. When he appeared in the innovative Hollywood director Rouben Mamoulian's Golden Boy (1939), he was hailed as exactly that, but had seen his stock fall, largely through his problems with alcohol and a string of unmemorable films in the 1940s. Mrs. Getty's home had to be completely re-decorated to give it the oversized grandeur needed for the film. Among the many past associations embedded in Sunset Blvd. (he'd already gotten the shot he needed on the first take). He always wished that I would get an Oscar. 4.99. The car William Holden drives is a P15 Plymouth Special DeLuxe convertible, a model that was produced from 1945-49. A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return. Mae West rejected the role of Norma Desmond because she felt she was too young to play a silent-film star. It was not particularly successful. So Wilder gave up, and DeMille (who was already being compensated) gave Norma his own chair.. She can sense the hot spot of every light and has never lost the wonderment of movies. When Gloria Swanson finished Norma's final scene, the mad staircase descent, she burst into tears and the crew applauded. Included among the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the Top 100 Greatest American Movies. "[13] Paramount reunited him with Nancy Olson, one of his Sunset Boulevard costars, in Union Station (1950). [32] Also in 1974, Holden starred with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the critically acclaimed disaster film The Towering Inferno,[33] which became a box-office smash and one of the highest-grossing films of Holden's career. When Norma is telling Joe about how rich she is, she mentions a beach house and downtown real estate. "[4], For his contribution to the film industry, Holden has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1651 Vine Street. He received an eight-month suspended sentence for vehicular manslaughter.[1]. She is ever the star. Wilder told the actors to kibbutz and let him shuffle. This is absolutely true, Nancy Reagan continued consulting her astrologer long after she stopped parking at studio lots. On the basis of this film and largely due to his continuing association with director Billy Wilder, Holden would reach the zenith of his career from 1950-'57. Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. Director Cecil B. DeMille, a pioneer of silent Hollywood who was still a top director when "Sunset Boulevard" was shot in 1949, also famously played himself. Rudy's shoeshine stand at the parking lot where Gillis hides his car from the creditors was inspired by Oscar Smith's shoeshine stand located just inside the Bronson Gate at the old Paramount Studios, which was a popular hangout for gossip and socializing while Billy Wilder was building his career there. A true Hollywood horror story. It was a big hit, as was The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), a Korean War drama with Kelly.[20][21]. is directed toward his associate producer, Henry Wilcoxon, who had starred in his epics Cleopatra (1934), The Crusades (1935) and Unconquered (1947), later moving to a position behind the camera as DeMille's associate, which he held until the older man's death in 1959. She worked closely with Gloria Swanson on Norma Desmond's wardrobe, as she figured Swanson would have had a better idea of what women of that time would have worn and what they would be wearing now. Technically the address was 641 S Irving Blvd but the estate lay at the corner of Irving and Wilshire Blvd. His body was found four days later. Norma Shearer turned down the role of Norma Desmond as she didn't want to come out of retirement and also found the part to be highly distasteful. Sunset Boulevards cinematographer John Seitz said Wilder had wanted to do The Loved One, but couldnt obtain the rights. British author Evelyn Waughs satirical 1948 novel was about a failed screenwriter who lives with a silent film star and works in a cemetery. Other actresses considered for Norma Desmond were Mae West (who wanted to rewrite the dialogue), Mae Murray, and Mary Pickford. Holman was reportedly worried the film would parody their relationship and told Clift she would commit suicide if he played the role. William Haines, along with fellow silent screen veterans Buster Keaton and Anna Q. Nilsson, was approached to play one of Gloria Swanson's bridge partners. Columbia put Holden in a Western with Jean Arthur, Arizona (1940), then at Paramount he was in a hugely popular war film, I Wanted Wings (1941) with Ray Milland and Veronica Lake. Brackett thought the sequence was cruel in its emphasis on what age had done to the one-time beauty, but Wilder insisted it was essential to show how driven she was in her pursuit of youth. The director turned actor was still able to steer the expensive Italian car into the Paramount gate. Gillis: "No, swimming pool." After returning from France, she shot her last Paramount films--Stage Struck (1925), The Untamed Lady (1926) and Fine Manners (1926)--at the studio's lot in Astoria, Queens, NY. Hedda Hopper: at the top of the stairwell as Norma descends toward the cameras. words "Sunset Blvd." Also, the house didn't have a pool, so Paramount paid to have one installed on the condition that if Mrs. Getty didn't like it, they'd remove it after filming was over. The actor got up and tried to staunch the blood pouring from his forehead but never called 911, which might have saved his life, per the biography. "[13] And Wilder commented "Bill was a complex guy, a totally honorable friend. Holman was 16 years older than him and was afraid people would think the movie was a parody of their relationship. Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D. M. Marshman Jr. Online Film & Television Association Awards, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." For scenes in which he drove, the car was towed by another car. Swanson supplemented many of the costumes with her own accessories and jewelry. This is a nod to retired silent-movie star Clara Bow, whose husband Rex Bell, a former star of "B" westerns, was the president of the Nevada Chamber of Commerce, and later Lieutenant Governor of Nevada. In reality, Gloria Swanson never worked with Normand and worked only once with Prevost in a 1916 short. It was the same technique he had used to shoot Rudolph Valentino's tango in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). Holden was still an unknown actor when he made Golden Boy, while Stanwyck was already a film star. Cinematographer John Seitz put a mirror on the bottom of the pool and filmed the reflection. For the first industry screening, Paramount executives invited several silent-film stars. He did another Western at Columbia, Texas (1941) with Glenn Ford, and a musical comedy at Paramount, The Fleet's In (1942) with Eddie Bracken, Dorothy Lamour, and Betty Hutton.[9]. Wilder won the argument and privately told friends that he would not be making any more films with Brackett. Ready? [38], Holden maintained a home in Switzerland and also spent much of his time working for wildlife conservation as a managing partner in an animal preserve in Africa. The Academy Award-winning actor William Holden, born William Beedle Jr., on April 17, 1918, in O'Fallon, Illinois, began his career with 1939s "Golden Boy," per Britannica. This wasn't the original opening and was filmed long after completion of filming. was voted #6 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by "Premiere" magazine in 2007. Seleccionar el departamento en el que deseas buscar. Microphones would catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor would photograph the red, swollen tongues. The "Desmond mansion" was located not on Sunset Blvd. Although she had long before ruled out the possibility of a movie comeback, she was nevertheless highly intrigued when she got the offer to play the lead. At Paramount, he was in a comedy with Ginger Rogers that was not particularly popular, Forever Female (1953). "I am big. That's the end.". Film debut (uncredited) of Yvette Vickers. The house was owned by the J. Paul Getty family. She looks like a mannequin of a . Holden, who was at this point dependent on alcohol, said, "I really was in love with Audrey, but she wouldn't marry me. At the end, they stood and cheered for Gloria Swanson's return. Although Sheldrake's musings on a film about the story of a female baseball player was seen as humorous, the movie "A League of Their Own" would do just that 42 years later. The body was found by Henry Peavey, who took over for convicted embezzler Edward F. Sands as Taylors valet. When Joe tells Betty that next time he will write "The Naked and the Dead", he is referring to the best-seller written by Norman Mailer and published in 1948. Sunset Boulevard now begins with police cars racing to Norma Desmond's house, where a dead body is floating in the pool. [26], He made another war film for a British director, The Key (1958) with Trevor Howard and Sophia Loren for director Carol Reed. You see, this is my life, she promised. Holden starred in the 20th Century Fox film Apartment for Peggy (1948). Sunset Boulevard, one of Hollywood's most cruelly accurate depictions of itself, is now 65 years oldolder, even, than its main character, who's washed up at 50. Sunset Boulevard is also a reflection of Hollywood through a glass, darkly. Oh, wake up, Norma. Gloria Swanson's career was not revitalized by this film. When filming began, William Holden was 31 and Gloria Swanson was 50, the same stated age as her character. The Den of Geek quarterly magazine is packed with exclusive features, interviews, previews and deep dives into geek culture. If it were to come to auction in 2021, it would be valued at well over $1M. The exterior shots were of a house located not on Sunset but Irving Boulevard, near the corner of Wilshire, owned by the J. Paul Getty family. Around this time he also appeared in 21 Hours at Munich (1976). He stayed true to his word. When Artie Green introduces Joe to other guests at his New Year's Eve party, he jokingly refers to him as "the well-known screenwriter, uranium smuggler and Black Dahlia suspect", a reference to the infamous unsolved L.A. murder case in 1947 of an aspiring actress known as The Black Dahlia, who was found murdered and dismembered on a street in Los Angeles.