Famous People Who Would Have Turned 100 In 2022

Judy Garland spent over four decades singing, dancing, and acting on stage and in movies. It's an even more impressive feat when you know she was only 47 when she died in 1969. 

Garland was born Frances Gumm on June 10, 1922, to vaudevillians Frank and Ethel, who ran a theater in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She made her stage debut aged about three years old, singing "Jingle Bells" for a Christmas show. In case that detail hadn't given it away, Ethel was one of the early stage moms, although Garland also enjoyed performing. When she was 11, after the family had moved to Lancaster, California, she and her two older sisters sang and danced on stage in a trio. In 1935, as the LA Times reports, 13-year-old Garland was talent scouted and signed to MGM. Garland's most famous role came four years later, when she played wide-eyed Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." She also went on to star in classics including the 1954 adaptation of "A Star is Born" and "Meet Me in St. Louis."

Her career and personal life were characterized by brilliant highs and devastating lows. Garland became addicted to drugs and alcohol, which she blamed on MGM and her mother. Four of her five marriages ended in divorce. Her star power faded and brightened in waves, making Garland famous as the Queen of Comebacks. On June 22, 1969, Garland was found dead in her house in London, having accidentally overdosed on barbiturates.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Unlike one of his most famous characters, Christopher Lee could not elude death forever — although he did give it a good run for its money. Lee died on June 7, 2015, having turned 93 on May 27.

How you knew him depended on your generation. After struggling for years, Lee broke out as Dracula in Hammer Horror's 1958 movie "Horror of Dracula." Lee reprised the role at least 10 times, according to the New York Times. Appearances as Frankenstein's monster and the Mummy, and in "The Wicker Man," further cemented his horror icon status. Lee later landed roles in some of the most famous film franchises of all time — also in the villainous vein. In 1974, he starred opposite Roger Moore as the titular Bond baddie in "The Man With the Golden Gun." (Fun fact: He and "Bond" creator Ian Fleming were second cousins.) Decades later, "Star Wars" fans encountered Lee as a different count — Count Dooku — in the prequels, and he played (spoiler alert) treacherous wizard Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings" movies, and one of "The Hobbit" prequels.

Lee's life away from the cameras was fascinating too. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II, liaising with intelligence and Special Forces. He also loved music: he released two metal albums in 2010 and 2013 respectively. The first, "Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross," won him a prestigious Spirit of Metal Award at that year's Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards.

Before Bea Arthur went down in sitcom history as sharp-tongued Dorothy Zbornak on "Golden Girls," she already had a hit show and a hot Broadway career to her name. Arthur was born May 13, 1922, four months after her "Golden Girls" co-star Betty White, and over a year before Estelle Getty, who played her mother on the show. In February 1943, she became one of the first women to join the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, completing basic training and then working as a typist.

After working in summer stock and minor TV roles, in 1955 Arthur landed her most important early part: Lucy Brown in "The Threepenny Opera." It led to more stage and TV work, including Yente the Matchmaker in the 1964 original Broadway version of "Fiddler on the Roof," and the sidekick of Angela Lansbury's titular character in "Mame." In 1971, Arthur guest-starred in the sitcom "All in the Family." She was so popular that she got her own spin-off: "Maude." The show ran from 1972 until 1978, and was the first primetime series to feature a lead character — Maude herself — choosing to have an abortion, the LA Times reports.

Dorothy was Arthur's most famous role. She later said she was immediately excited about the part, because the first script was "bright and adult and fabulously funny." Arthur's performances in "Maude" and "Golden Girls" earned her one Emmy each for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She died on April 25, 2009, aged 86.

Few comic book authors are as recognizable as white-haired, aviator-sporting Stan Lee, largely thanks to his cameos in the movies about his most famous creations. He rescues a little girl from falling debris in 2002's "Spider-Man," is seen watering his lawn in "X-Men: The Last Stand," and drives a school bus in "Avengers: Infinity War," to name a few. 

Lee was born Stanley Lieber on December 28, 1922. According to the New York Times, Lee originally wanted to be a Very Serious Author. But at 17, he took a job at magazine and comics publisher Timely Comics (later Marvel). Lee started as a goffer and worked his way up to writing and editing. He teamed up with artist Jack Kirby, the co-creator of Captain America. The pair are responsible for many iconic Marvel characters, including the X-Men, Iron Man, and Black Panther. Kirby left for rival D.C. in 1970, and by 1972, Lee was leading Marvel.

Despite being known as one of the godfathers of modern comics, Lee left Marvel in 1998, to start his own short-lived media company. In 2002, after the success of the first Tobey Maguire "Spider-Man" movie and the animated "X-Men" series, Lee successfully sued Marvel for failing to pay 10% of the profits of TV and movies based on his characters. He was executive producer on many of the Marvel movies that have dominated cinema for the last five years, and regularly appeared at conventions. Lee died, aged 95, on November 12, 2018.

Like many of his contemporaries on this list, author Kurt Vonnegut served in the U.S. military during World War II. His semi-autobiographical novel, "Slaughterhouse-Five," was based on his harrowing experiences as a prisoner of war (POW) captured by the Germans, during which time he survived the bombing of Dresden. But because this was Vonnegut, he added a science-fiction twist and a dark sense of humor.

The New York Times reports that when "Slaughterhouse-Five" was released in 1969, it resonated with a generation that was protesting against a different bloody conflict: the war in Vietnam. Vonnegut's focus on unconventional writing techniques and grammatical devices rattled the established literati, but it made him a literary hero to young people looking to break with the stifling norms.

Vonnegut had been writing for decades by that point. After the war, he worked as a reporter in Chicago while taking graduate courses in anthropology. His 1963 novel "Cat's Cradle" served as his thesis. Vonnegut ultimately wrote 14 novels, in addition to plays, short stories, and essays. Many drew on sci-fi themes, but he also used philosophical allegories and metafictional devices, such as having the narrator interrupt the action.

Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007, five months to the day after his 84th birthday, of brain injuries sustained in a fall.

A superstar in her heyday, Veronica Lake is most famous now for her hairstyle. She popularized a side-part so severe that her long, gently waved blonde hair covered one eye. The look was so widely known as Lake's trademark that during World War II, she made a video showing female factory workers how to pin their hair to avoid catching it in the machines. But Lake was more than her hairstyle. Born on November 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York, Lake made 26 movies in her brief Hollywood career, including hits like "I Wanted Wings" and "Blue Dahlia." According to the LA Times, she earned $4,500 a week at her peak of popularity in the 1940s.

However, Lake ultimately quit Hollywood, later commenting that being an actress felt like being forced through an assembly line. She went from making videos for factory workers to being one herself, as well as a waitress, although she made a brief stage comeback in England, and appeared on TV. She married and divorced four times, and struggled with alcohol abuse.

Lake died on July 7, 1973, aged 50, of acute hepatitis. According to Today, only a few people attended her memorial service, and her ashes were held until 1976 because no one paid the fees. They were scattered off the Miami coast — although a New York boutique owner has claimed to have some. In 1997, Kim Basinger played a sex worker made over to look like Lake in modern noir "L.A. Confidential."

Fashion designer Pierre Cardin is most associated with the bold and playful fashions of the 1960s — but he was always looking to the future. Cardin was born on July 7, 1922, while his French parents were either on vacation or working in Italy. He was raised in France, where he started working as a tailor as a teenager. During World War II, he volunteered in the French Red Cross.

Although he worked under notable couturiers — including Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior — in the '40s and '50s, Cardin was a next-generation designer. His first split from tradition came in 1957, when he left Paris' couture governing body so he could have more control over licensing. Two years later, he sold a ready-to-wear line to a store.

Cardin's first major success was his menswear. He rejected the bulkiness of traditional male tailoring in favor of unfussy, slimline, collarless suits. As the New York Times reported in his obituary, in 1966, the Beatles appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" wearing suits similar to a style Cardin had introduced in 1960 (based on those worn by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru), giving Cardin his big break in America. That decade, the future-facing Cardin also got in on the popular space craze.

In his later years, Cardin started focusing on licensing his various brands, as well as designing in his own right. Not just clothes, but matches, pickles, a hotel chain, and fruit juice. He died aged 98 on December 29, 2020.

Charles Mingus applied his virtuoso talents to the creative world of jazz and changed the genre forever. Born April 22, 1922, Mingus was a musical prodigy. He learned cello and trombone before switching to the instrument he would become famous for — and make truly famous for the first time: the bass. In his twenties, Mingus toured with jazz legend Louis Armstrong, as well as Lionel Hampton. In the next decade, he moved to New York, where he worked with well-known musicians including Red Norvo, Charlie Parker, and Stan Getz. Even more than a bass player, Mingus became famous for his compositions — recorded on his own label Debut Records — and then for leading his own bands.

Mingus' notoriously short temper sometimes interfered with his music. In the early '50s, he was fired by his idol Duke Ellington for a fight with a trombonist, NPR reports. But he also channeled it into speaking out against racism in music and beyond. In the late '60s, Mingus retreated from music, holing up in New York's East Village. He started to make a comeback in 1971 after his autobiography was published, recording and touring for the first time in years.

Just six years later, Mingus was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He continued to play until it became physically impossible, and then continued to compose. He died of a heart attack on a trip to Mexico on January 5, 1979, aged 56.

Although Carl Reiner won fans over with his comedic acting skills, he really thrived behind the scenes. Reiner's first comedy gigs had an unusual audience. While serving in the army during World War II, he provided entertainment for his fellow soldiers. He also trained to be a French interpreter, but that proved less relevant to his future career.

After working in a couple of Broadway revues, Reiner got his screen break in a supporting role on "Your Show of Shows." When that finished, he stepped out of the spotlight and into the history books when he created and wrote "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Airing for 158 episodes between 1961 and 1966, the show was based on Reiner's experience as a writer, and was his favorite professional accomplishment, according to the Guardian. Reiner went on to write, direct and sometimes act in comedy movies, often with frequent collaborator Steve Martin. He mostly chose to stay behind the camera in his later years — other than popping up in bit parts — but younger generations may remember him as formerly retired con artist Saul from "Ocean's 11."

He died aged 98 on June 29, 2020. His son Rob, an acclaimed writer and director in his own right, described his father in a tweet as "my guiding light."