The bond that fans form with celebrities is called a parasocial relationship.
It’s one-sided but can feel as real as any other.
This is one reason why the world mourns celebrities when they die.
It’s a way to join large groups of other fans.
Losing them is also a reminder of mortality and perhaps even the loss of a part of their
childhood.
Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more ways to honor lost famous faces who you’ve
developed a bond with.
Keep watching to learn about celebrities who died on this date, August 25.
Paul Muni
Paul Muni was born on September 22, 1895.
He began his career doing Yiddish theater and then moved on to Hollywood.
He became such an asset to Warner Bros. that he was allowed to choose his own parts.
Paul’s most famous role was the lead in the 1932 crime thriller Scarface.
He played in 32 films and was nominated for an Academy Award 5 times and won once for
The Story of Louis Pasteur in 1936.
He was also a Broadway star and won a Tony for Best Actor in a Play for the 1955 production
of Inherit the Wind.
Paul Muni died of a heart attack at the age of 79 on August 25, 1967.
John McCain John McCain III was born on the 29th of August,
1936.
He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 and became a naval aviator
during the war in Vietnam.
He was a prisoner of war until 1973.
He was eventually released and retired from the Navy in 1981.
John was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and served 2 terms.
He also served 2 terms as a Senator in Arizona starting in 1986.
John was a conservative Republican but had his own opinions about issues such as LGBT
rights, gun regulation, and financial reform.
He was also investigated for the Keating Five scandal but was exonerated.
John helped pass the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002.
He also helped restore diplomatic relations with Vietnam and joined the Senate Commerce
Committee and the Gang of 14.
John ran as a Republican candidate in 2000 but lost the primary to George W. Bush.
He got another nomination in 2008 over Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee but lost the general
election to Barack Obama.
John didn't approve of Obama's methods but did vote against repealing the American Health
Care Act of 2017.
He was also a vocal critic of President Donald Trump.
John McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 and died at the age of 81 on August
25, 2018.
George Bush and Barack Obama gave eulogies at his televised funeral.
Joe Biden gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.
Frederick O’Neal Frederick O’Neal was born on August 27,
1905.
He began acting professionally in St. Louis in 1927 but moved to New York in 1936.
He founded the American Negro Theater there in 1940 and appeared in many of its productions.
His Broadway debut came in the 1944 production of Anna Lucasta.
He won 3 awards for it and reprised it in Chicago and London and for the film adaptation.
He also played Lem Scott on stage and screen in Take a Giant Step.
In 1953, Frederick created a pilot for a variety show starring Sammy Davis Jr.
It was meant to show struggling black performers but never found a sponsor.
Frederick still found other roles at the time, including Broadway musicals such as House
of Flowers and shows such as Car 54, Where are You and an episode of Breaking Point.
Frederick was also a major advocate for actor's unions.
He organized the Aldrige Players in 1927, co-founded the British Negro Theater in 1948,
and became the first Black president of the Actors Equity Association in 1964.
Frederick O’Neal died at the age of 86 on August 25, 1992.
He’s survived by his wife Charlotte Talbot Hainey.
He was inducted into the Black Film Makers Hall of Fame in 1975, and they gave him a
special tribute in 1990.
The NAACP made him their 1979 Man of the Year.
He also earned honorary degrees, including a Doctorate of Human Letters from St. John’s
University in 1981.
Aaliyah Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born on the 16th
of January, 1979.
She appeared on Star Search at the age of 10 and later sang in concert with Gladys Knight.
She signed with Jive Records and her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records by the
time she was 12.
R. Kelly became her mentor and produced her debut album, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.
It sold 3 million copies and went double platinum.
She moved to Atlantic Records when allegations of an illegal marriage with her mentor began
to surface.
Timbaland and Missy Elliot helped her make her 2nd album, One in a Million.
It also sold 3 million copies in the United States and 8 million worldwide.
She helped make the soundtrack for her debut film, Romeo Must Die.
Its main single, Try Again, was the first one to top the Hot 100 solely on airplay.
Her next film was Queen of the Damned.
Her 3rd self-titled album topped the Billboard 200 in 2001.
Aaliyah died at the age of 25 on August 25, 2001.
She was going to the Bahamas on a plane that was overloaded and overheated.
It crashed into the ground and killed all 9 passengers.
The pilot had traces of cocaine and alcohol, and Aaliyah’s family sued him and settled
out of court.
Aaliyah has posthumously sold over 8.1 million albums in the US and 24-32 million worldwide.
This makes her the 10th most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years and the 27th
most successful in history.
Truman Capote Truman Streckfus Persons was born on the 10th
of September, 1924.
He was a novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.
He knew he wanted to write by the age of 8, and wrote one of his first short stories,
Miriam, in 1945.
It was published by Random House and got him a contract to write a novel called Other Voices,
Other Rooms in 1948.
His work has spawned over 20 films and TV dramas.
A few of the most famous are Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1958 and In Cold Blood in 1966.
Truman Capote died on Augst 25, 1984.
The coroner listed the cause of death as liver disease and multiple drug intoxication.
He was cremated and his ashes were stolen multiple times, first at a Halloween party
in 1988 and again during the filming of Tru in 1992.
They were finally scattered at Crooked Pond in 2013.
The Old Courthouse Museum in Monroeville, Alabama Old Courthouse Museum is dedicated
to his childhood and how it affected his writing.
Like and subscribe to Facts Verse for more on the lives and deaths of the world’s most
familiar names.
Keep watching to learn about more celebrities who died on this date, August 25.
Samantha Smith Samantha Reed Smith was born on June 29, 1972.
She became famous for her peace activism and anti-war efforts during the Cold war.
In 1982, she wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov, the General Secretary of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union.
He responded and gave her a free trip to the country.
The media covered her in both countries and considered her America’s youngest goodwill
ambassador.
Her acting credits include a Disney Channel special about the presidential election in
1984 and co-starring in the TV series Lime Street.
Samantha Smith tragically died at the tender age of 13 on August 25, 1985.
She was on Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 when it crashed before reaching the runway.
Neil Armstrong Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930.
He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in aeronautical engineering, and his
tuition was paid by the Navy under the HOlloway plan.
Neil moved on to space flight after the war.
After plenty of test flight experience, he joined the NASA astronaut core in 1962.
His first manned space flight was in the Gemini 8 in March of 1966, making him the first civilian
astronaut in space.
The famous moon landing occurred on July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 program.
Over 350 million people watched him on TV.
President Nixon awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Collier Trophy in
1969.
President Jimmy Carter gave him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1979.
He was honored by being inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1979.
His Apollo 11 crewmates were also given the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.
Neil may be best known for reaching the moon, but he didn’t stop after resigning from
NASA in 1971.
He taught at the University of Chicago until 1979, investigated the Apollo 13 accident
and the Challenger disaster, and more.
Neil Armstrong died at the age of 82 due to complications from a coronary bypass surgery
on August 25, 2012.
Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy was born on February
22, 1932.
He earned a law degree from the University of Virginia and became an assistant district
attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts.
He was 30 when he won a 1962 special election to enter the senate.
He had a 6-year term and won 7 more times.
He was temporarily suspended due to the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969.
He left the scene of an accident that caused the death of his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
Ted pleaded guilty and was suspended for 2 months.
The scandal ruined his chances of winning the 1980 presidential campaign against Jimmy
Carter.
Ted was a skilled public speaker and became known as the Lion of the Senate.
He helped enact over 300 bills into law.
He also made unsuccessful attempts to enact immigration reform and called universal health
care “the cause of my life.”
Ted Kennedy was the 2nd oldest member of the senate before his death at the age of 77 from
a malignant brain tumor on August 25, 2009.
He also has the 5th-longest run as a US senator.
He’s buried with his brothers John and Robert at Arlington National Cemetery.
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