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List of Famous Dead People: Category - Business
James Busch Orthwein was the great grandson of Anheuser Busch co-founder Adolphus Busch. Orthwein owned NFL team the New England Patriots from 1992 to 1993, just long enough to hire coach Bill Parcells. He was also owner when the Pats changed their logo and uniforms. He was considering moving the Patriots to St. Louis, but [...]
Estée Lauder co-founded the Estée Lauder Companies with her husband Joseph Luder. The Estée Lauder Companies are known for the cosmetics and perfumes. Popular brands include Estée Lauder and Clinique. The company began in 1946 and is still going strong today.
William “Engineer Bill” Stulla was a children’s television host in the 50s and 60s who hosted “Cartoon Express with Engineer Bill”. He also spent time in the army, even earning a Bronze star as a World War II Veteran. Later on, he became a stockbroker after leaving television.
Wexler was a former journalist who made the transition to music producer. He was an integral part in signing and producing many of the biggest acts from the 1950s – 1980s. Some of the acts he worked with include Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and many more. During his Billboard [...]
Kirby was one of the most recognizable, prolific, and influential comic artists of all time. He co-created some of the greatest comic book icons such as the Fantastic Four, X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and literally hundreds more. Without having any formal training, Kirby got his start in comics in when he met Fox editor [...]
Weil was the founder and CEO of Rockmount Ranch Wear, a Denver-based Western clothing manufacturer. It is believed that Weil was also that oldest working CEO in the United States at 107. In 1946 Weil rented a space at 1626 Wazee Street in Denver, Colorado. He began to sell fashionable (yet practical) western wear. Weil [...]
William “Bill” Gwatney was the State Chair of the Democratic Party of Arkansas. He was a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and had previously served as a State Senator and Attorney General for Arkansas. He was also a businessman who owned several Arkansas car dealerships.
Mervyn Edward “Merv” Griffin, Jr. is probably best known for his talk show, The Merv Griffin Show that ran for 21 years winning 11 Emmy awards. Griffin was also a singer in his younger days, and even appeared on broadway and in movies. He had his share of business ventures as well investing in real [...]
Thomas is best known for founding the fast food chain Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers. Thomas never graduated from high school, he dropped out when he was only 15 so he could focus on his job as busboy at the Hobby House restaurant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It’s at that same restaurant he would meet his [...]
William Maxwell Gaines spent his early adult life in the Army as World War II started. He then became the publisher and co-editor of EC Comics which started out adapting Bible Stories then went on to publish titles like Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science, the Vault of Horror (and other horror titles – sometimes [...]
Wilton Norman Chamberlain was a professional basketball player who played for the Warriors, the 76ers, the Lakers, and even the Harlem Globetrotters. At 7 foot 1 inch, many consider him to be one of the best basketball players in history. After basketball, he became sort of a jack-of-all-trades. He played Volleyball and was even a [...]
Once the richest man in America, Samuel Moore Walton is the founder of both Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart. He came a long way considering that he grew up in the Great Depression struggling to help his family make ends meet. He eventually joined the Army and supervised security at aircraft plants and PoW camps. He [...]
Peterson is the man who invented the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin in 1972. He was a food executive and food scientist. Being a huge fan of eggs benedict, Peterson wanted to do something similar for the new breakfast sandwich he was developing. He eventually came up with the Egg McMuffin, which is an Egg sandwich (with [...]
Petty was a stock car driver in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a pioneering member of NASCAR. He began his NASCAR career when he was thirty-five years old. His first race was also the first ever NASCAR race, which was held at Charlotte Speedway. Petty went on to finish in the top 5 in [...]
Bachman was a horticulturalist and CEO of Bachman’s, a Minneapolis-based garden and floral company. He was the father of American athlete Elisabeth Bachman and the father-in-law of Hugh McCutcheon, the men’s volleyball coach.
Aaron Spelling was not only the father to famous Beverly Hills 90210 actress Tori Spelling, but he was the most prolific television producer of all time counting 218 producer (including executive producer) credits on his resume. Among the shows he is responsible for are: Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210, Charmed, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, Starsky and [...]
Kroger was a businessman who is created the Kroger chain of supermarkets. The first of which he opened in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1883. Kroger worked for a small grocery store where he became a manager, when the owners refused to make him a full partner… he left and opened his own store. [...]
While famous for cake mix, Duncan Hines was actually a writer of travel guides, and a restaurant/hotel critic. He published a cookbook in 1939, and by ’47, his name was well respected. It was then that Roy H. Park, an entrepreneur, wanted to sell kitchen products using the Duncan Hines name. That name was eventually [...]
Raymond Albert Kroc is not the founder of McDonald’s exactly, but he took it over as a small franchise in ’61 and built it up into the biggest fast food name in the world. Before McDonald’s he was a paper-cup salesman, a musician, and worked at a radio station. He met Richard and Maurice McDonald [...]
Hardee, the founder of the fast food chain Hardee’s, opened his first restaurant in Greenville, North Carolina in 1960. It was an instant success, mainly due to its strong menu. James Carson Gardner and Leonard Rawls formed a partnership with Hardee to further expand his chain. The company went public in 1963, but the partnership [...]
Bernie Brillstein was a talent agent and TV/movie producer who formed his own agency and managed John Belushi, Lorne Michaels, and Jim Henson. In the 80s, Brillstein met Brad Grey, and the two formed Brillstein-Grey Entertainment and were responsible for The Sopranos, The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and Happy Gilmore to name a few. Brillstein eventually [...]
Harland David Sanders is known as Colonel Sanders, the creator of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and of course The Colonel’s Original Recipe. Sanders was actually not a Colonel in the military, but a private in the Army. He was given the nickname the “Kentucky Colonel” by Governor Ruby Laffoon. The Colonel’s original recipe is still kept [...]
Orville Redenbacher is the face of the most popular brand of popcorn in the United States. After graduating from Purdue University and hitting it big with fertilizer, he and his partner Charlie Bowman bought a seed corn plant near Valparaiso, Indiana and the rest is history. To this day, the Redenbacher brand of popcorn is [...]
Darrent Demarcus Williams was still a young player in the NFL when his life was taken. He had only been drafted by the Denver Broncos in 2005 after a good run at Oklahoma State University. He played as a starting cornerback for the Broncos. Williams was also the CEO of RYNO Entertainment, an independent record [...]
Adolphus Busch was the co-founder if American beer giant Anheuser-Busch (his father in-law Eberhard Anheuser was the other one). This is the company that brews many, many brands of beer including the Budweiser, Michelob, Busch, and Rolling Rock families of products. Busch served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. His great-great-grandson August Busch [...]
Schott was the controversial partner, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Reds from 1984 to 1999. She was the first woman to purchase a professional baseball team instead of inheriting it. She is also remembered for making slurs against African-Americans, Jews, Japanese, and gays. She was banned from managing the team from 1996 – 1998 [...]
Irv Robbins was the co-founder of Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor with his partner and brother-in-law Burt Baskin. The duo sold Baskin-Robbins to United Fruit Company for an estimated $12 million in 1967. Robbins stayed on for 11 more years and retired from the ice cream game in 1978. Today Baskin-Robbins is the worlds largest ice [...]
Known as “the Spam King”, Davidson conducted his business with the name “Power Promoters” sending out hundreds of thousands of spam emails between 2002 – 2006. Davidson was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 5, 2007. Almost a year later he would be sentenced to serve 21 months in federal prison, and pay [...]
Eberling was a German-American chef who invented SpaghettiOs, and won over the hearts of children everywhere. After the Korean War Eberling began working in the development department at Campbell Soup Co., this is where he got his idea for “spaghetti and meatballs” in a can. He got the idea for the “O” when he saw [...]