Famous and Gravy

This person died in 2020, age 87. She once said her writing style was partly inspired by Vladimir Nabokov, who she studied literature under at Cornell. In the mid 2010s, she became an internet sensation. She was barely five feet tall and weighed...

This person died in 2017 at age 66. There was a scrappy defiance in his career choices. He melded California rock with a deep Southern heritage to produce a long string of durable hits. He played the Super Bowl halftime show in 2008. His songs were...

This person died in 2016 at age 99. She appeared as a nightclub manager in Orson Welles’ 1958 “Touch of Evil”, and the same year as a sexy alien in “Queen of Outer Space.” She appeared on scores of talk shows, game shows, comedy specials,...

This person died in 2021, age 84. He was friends with Ken Kesey and made a memorable appearance in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” His son is a well-regarded singer and songwriter. He had a private library that held some 30,000 books and filled...

This person died in 2020, age 77.  He began shaving his head at age 12 — long before he got his nickname.  He was a standout college basketball player at Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina, and an eventual inductee into the...

Today we celebrate our 25th episode by spotlighting a fan-favorite category: Coffee, Cocktail or Cannabis. In this category, we ask which one of these three substances would you most want to do with the featured dead celebrity - either to provide...

This person died in 2012, age 83.   As he grew up – working class, Jewish, gay — he felt shunted to the margins. His book’s characters were described as headstrong and sometimes obnoxious. In the second half of his career, he was renowned...

This person died in 2013, age 87. She grew up in a flat above a grocery store owned by her father. She believed personal responsibility and hard work were the only ways to achieve national prosperity. Even some of her strongest critics accorded her a...

Today we’re announcing , a new game app from Famous and Gravy.  On this episode, hear people play the game out loud with laughter, surprise, and agony.  We also tell the story of how this game came to be, and how it actually inspired the...

This person died 2016, age 66. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Arizona. He began his comedy career as a writer and went on to become one of the most successful stand-up comics of the 1980s. He had frequently substituted for...