The “unsinkable” liner undoubtedly sailed with insufficient lifeboats, but it was infamously the lower Third Class passengers who suffered the heaviest losses—roughly two-thirds of them perished.
Although sea travel is much safer now, it is still risky, as the recent tragedy on the Costa Concordia in Italy demonstrated. Nevertheless, the sinking still captures the public’s attention, and back then, like now, the crowd was curious about the famous names of the deceased.
1. John Jacob Astor Iv
John Jacob Astor IV, a German-American businessman who had acquired his fortune in real estate and was the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, the creator of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, was likely the most well-known and wealthy of the victims of the actual sinking.
Astor IV’s wife made it to a lifeboat by following the rule that women and children should be rescued first, but Astor did not and perished at the age of 47.
2. Benjamin Guggenheim
The heir to the family’s mining company, Benjamin Guggenheim, was another well-known and wealthy passenger who passed away.
- He believed the catastrophe was small at first, but the tale goes that when he understood the Titanic was sinking and that a rescue attempt was doubtful, he changed into his formal evening attire to prepare for death.
- Ironically, he had planned to travel on the Lusitania, but when that ship needed repairs, he opted to travel on the newest, most luxurious ocean liner instead.
3. Isidor Straus
The German-born co-owner of the Macy’s department store in New York, Isidor Straus, passed away at the same time as his wife, Ida.
- In the 1997 film Titanic, they are shown laying together on a bed as water pours into the room. They were last seen seated in deck chairs on the deck after refusing to be separated in the lifeboats.
- The only solace for the heartbroken family was the knowledge that their infant grandson Stuart was scheduled to travel as well, but had instead remained in England due to his illness.
4. Jack Phillips
Even though nearly none of the crew members were well-known before the voyage, some of them were afterward made famous all over the world. The crew’s mortality rate was as high as two-thirds.
- The senior radio operator on board was Jack Phillips, and he was the one who transmitted the distress and rescue signals using the code CQD (although the new SOS was replacing it).
- He was ultimately held responsible for not relaying communications from the steamships Mesaba and the SS Californian, both of which had indicated icebergs and ice in the Titanic’s course ahead because he was under pressure to deliver passenger messages as well.
After working until the power went out, Phillips and Harold Bride fled for safety. Bride survived, but Phillips perished in the water while riding on his capsized lifeboat.
5. Thomas Andrews
- Thomas Andrews, a Ulsterman who oversaw the building of the Titanic, was unquestionably one of the more well-known individuals after the catastrophe.
- Andrews was confident in “his” Titanic and thought it was as well-built as possible. Designers and engineers typically go on the first voyage to evaluate the design and record issues.
- But he realized that the iceberg’s gash was too much for the individual hulls to bear and that the ship was doomed. He remained on board until the very end, offering assistance to other passengers and seizing each moment he could before his goal was lost forever.
Let’s discuss the Titanic actors who died.
6. Gloria Stuart (1910 – 2010)
Gloria Stuart led a long, exciting life similar to that of her “Titanic” heroine. The actor, who was 100 years old when she passed away in 2010; had been in more than 80 films and television shows dating back to Hollywood’s Golden Age.
- Additionally, she cross-examined luminaries like Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, Dorothy Parker, and Groucho Marx.
- She has worked on several timeless films from that period, including The Three Musketeers (1939), The Invisible Man (1933), The Old Dark House (1932), and Poor Little Rich Girl (1936).
- The last time Stuart had acted in a high-profile production—or even a film at all, for that matter—was in 1997’s “Titanic,” which she played.
- In reality, Stuart had practically given up acting by the time she was cast and, according to reports, even didn’t have an agent.
- However, the seasoned actor did not let fans down upon her triumphant return to Hollywood, turning in a performance as the elderly Rose that more or less eclipsed the efforts of the entire cast.
Stuart was appropriately honored for her work with her first and only Academy Award nomination, even though she didn’t win the award on Oscar night.
7. Bernard Fox (1927 – 2016)
While a large portion of the “Titanic” central ensemble was charged with playing fictional characters whose names didn’t exist on the ship’s official manifest, many others had the considerably more challenging duty of portraying actual passengers who suffered real-life tragedies as the ship sank.
- The latter group included Welsh-born actor and celebrated star of numerous movies and television shows Bernard Fox, who played the late, great Colonel Archibald Gracie IV in the movie “Titanic” with a low-key, aristocratic air befitting the man’s legacy.
- Gracie was a writer and amateur historian whose great-great-grandfather constructed New York’s Gracie Mansion, which today serves as the Mayor’s official house. If you’re not familiar with that history, it was erected in the early 1800s.
- Gracie initially appears in “Titanic” as Rose is being talked back from committing suicide by Jack, praising the young man for saving her.
- Gracie, a real-life Titanic survivor, published “The Truth On the Titanic” in 1913 as a book about calamity.
- That book is today recognized as one of the most important accounts of the ship’s sinking (it is currently available under the title “Titanic: A Survivor’s Story”).
Sadly, Gracie didn’t live to see it printed; he died just a few months after his Titanic experience. Regarding Fox, the adored actor, the movie served as one of his final on-screen appearances, and he lived for a full ten years after his “Titanic” performance.
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A Content publisher who likes to publish and write articles on popular celebrities. Covers the famous people passing away news. He has hobbies of writing content, skiing, and listening to music.
