Perry Bamonte, Bridget Bardot, Johnny Legend, and Erich von Däniken Die

These individuals were keyboards, guitar, six-string bass player for the Cure; a model, singer, and actress in multiple movies; rockabilly performer, film producer, actor and wrestling manager; and a Swiss author of pseudoscientific books which made claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture.

Perry Archangelo Bamonte was born on September 3, 1960, in London, England, and spent his early years in Basildon on the Essex coast, where he was drawn to music from a young age; details about his formal education aren’t widely documented, but his musical skills grew through hands-on experience rather than traditional schooling.

Bamonte entered the world of professional music in the early 1980s, initially involved behind the scenes with the influential post-punk and gothic rock band The Cure, joining their road crew in 1984 through his younger brother, Daryl, who was the band’s tour manager; he served as guitar technician and personal assistant to frontman Robert Smith and learned piano and keyboards during this period. When keyboardist Roger O’Donnell left The Cure in 1990, Bamonte was elevated to full-time band member,

contributing keyboards, guitar, six-string bass and occasional percussion and playing on a succession of albums beginning with Wish in 1992 and continuing through Wild Mood Swings (1996), Bloodflowers (2000) and The Cure (2004); over his first 14 years with the group he performed in more than 400 live shows.

After his departure from The Cure in 2005, Bamonte expanded his musical activities, joining the supergroup Love Amongst Ruin as bassist and pursuing other creative interests including fly fishing and illustration for publications such as Fly Culture magazine. In recognition of his contributions to music and his role in The Cure’s enduring influence, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. In a surprise return to The Cure in 2022 he participated in the extensive Shows of a Lost World tour, performing approximately 90 shows with the band until late 2024.

Known affectionately as “Teddy” by friends and colleagues for his quiet, intuitive and creative presence, Bamonte died on Thursday, December 24, 2025, at his home in the southwest of England after a short illness; he was 65 years old and is survived by his wife, Donna.

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born on September 28, 1934, in Paris, France, into a comfortable bourgeois family where her early life was shaped by strict Catholic upbringing and an introduction to ballet as a child, attending dance classes and later the Conservatoire de Paris before

transitioning into modeling as a teenager; she appeared on the cover of Elle magazine at age 15, which helped launch her into film and set the stage for her to become one of the most recognizable screen presences of the 20th century. Bardot’s formal schooling included private institutions in Paris and dance training under respected instructors, but her burgeoning career in entertainment quickly overtook traditional educational

pathways as she made her film debut in the early 1950s and rose to international fame with her performance in And God Created Woman (1956), becoming a defining sex symbol of the 1950s and ’60s and starring in dozens of films that often challenged contemporary cinematic norms around sensuality and female autonomy.

Her film work included critically noted performances in movies such as Contempt and Viva Maria!, and she also recorded numerous songs, cementing her status as a cultural icon. Bardot did not serve in the military, instead devoting herself to the arts and later to activism. After retiring from acting in 1973, she turned her focus to animal rights, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the welfare and protection of animals and advocating internationally for animal conservation causes.

Her later public life was marked by both passionate advocacy and controversy over her outspoken views on immigration and culture, which resulted at times in legal penalties in France. Bardot’s personal life included four marriages—to Roger Vadim, Jacques Charrier, Gunter Sachs, and finally Bernard d’Ormale, whom she wed in 1992.

She had one son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, with her second husband, though her relationship with her son was estranged for many years. Among her recognitions was being awarded the French Legion of Honour for her contributions to culture. Brigitte Bardot died on Sunday, December 28, 2025, at age 91, at her home in Saint-Tropez, France,

and is survived by her husband, Bernard d’Ormale, and a legacy that continues to influence cinema, fashion, animal welfare movements, and popular culture worldwide.

Johnny Legend was born Martin Margulies on October 3, 1948, in San Fernando, California, where he grew up immersed in music and popular culture; while specific details about his formal education are sparse, he attended local schools in the San Fernando Valley and developed a passion for rock-and-roll and folk music in his youth that would set the stage for a multifaceted career in

entertainment and underground culture. Adopting the stage name Johnny Legend, he emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a distinctive figure in the rockabilly revival scene, recording for labels such as Rollin’ Rock Records and collaborating with musicians who helped shape the retro-rock landscape; he co-wrote the novelty wrestling-themed song “Pencil Neck Geek” in 1977 and became known for his wild, unabashed persona and love of vintage music styles.

Legend’s creativity extended beyond music into film and subcultural cinema, where he acted in and produced a variety of low-budget genre movies including trash films, exploitation comedies, and cult favorites, and in 1982 he co-wrote and co-directed My Breakfast with Blassie with Andy Kaufman and wrestling legend Freddie Blassie,

a parody that became emblematic of his offbeat aesthetic. In the 1980s and ’90s he further championed obscure and bizarre cinema through video series such as Sleazemania and Teenage Theater for Rhino Home Video, helping to preserve and celebrate fringe film history. Legend also played a role in the world of professional wrestling.

Co-founding the Incredibly Strange Wrestling promotion in San Francisco in the mid-1990s, which blended punk-rock energy with over-the-top characters and performances. Over the course of his career he released numerous recordings, toured internationally with various bands, appeared in genre films including Bride of Re-Animator, Children of the Corn III, Man on the Moon and 2001 Maniacs, and became a beloved figure in cult circles for his exuberant

performances and encyclopedic passion for rockabilly and oddball media; in 1997 he was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in recognition of his contributions to the genre. Legend’s personal life included close relationships with family and fellow artists, including his sister Lynne Margulies, who herself became involved in entertainment. Known for his theatrical stage persona and

relentless celebration of alternative culture, Legend continued to perform and promote rockabilly music and fringe cinema into his seventies. Johnny Legend died on Friday, January 2, 2026, at his home in Newport, Oregon, from complications of a stroke and heart failure at the age of 77, and is survived by his family and the countless artists and fans who were inspired by his singular career.

Erich Anton Paul von Däniken was born on April 14, 1935, in Zofingen, in the Swiss canton of Aargau, and was educated in his youth at the Jesuit boarding school Collège Saint-Michel in Fribourg where, alongside a strict Catholic grounding, he developed early interests in religion, archaeology, space travel and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life, later training as a cook and waiter and working in the hotel industry across Switzerland and on ocean

liners before managing a hotel in Davos; he did not serve in the military. Von Däniken rose to international prominence in 1968 with the publication of his first book Chariots of the Gods?, in which he posited that many ancient civilizations, including the Egyptians and Mayans, had been visited and influenced by advanced extraterrestrial beings—a thesis that captured public imagination even as it was widely rejected by scholars and scientists as pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology.

Over the ensuing decades he authored more than four dozen books on ancient astronaut and paleo-contact theories, many of which sold tens of millions of copies and were translated into dozens of languages, and he became a fixture in popular culture and paranormal

discourse through lectures, television specials and later appearances in documentary series that drew on his ideas, while also, in 2003, creating the Mystery Park (later JungfrauPark) theme attraction in Interlaken that illustrated his theories but ultimately struggled commercially. Von Däniken’s early career included legal trouble—a conviction for fraud and embezzlement related to hotel management that resulted

in a prison sentence during which he continued writing—but he remained a prolific and controversial figure whose work inspired both fascination and fierce critique; among recognitions he received were an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Boliviana and the

satirical Ig Nobel Prize in Literature, as well as various awards tied to his public profile and literary output. His personal life was anchored by a long marriage to Elisabeth Skaja, whom he wed in 1959, and with whom he raised a daughter, Cornelia; he also had grandchildren and maintained close family ties throughout his life. Erich von Däniken died on Saturday, January 10, 2026, at the age of 90 in a hospital in Interlaken, Switzerland; he is survived by his wife, his daughter and his grandchildren.