Biography

April 25, 1911 · Los Angeles, California, USA

February 25, 1964 · New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (plane crash)

On 25 Feb 1964 Spencer was a passenger on board Eastern Airlines flight 304 (originating in Mexico City) which departed New Orleans International Airport at 01:59 CST en route to New York with scheduled intermediate stops in Atlanta, Washington-National Airport. The plane, a Douglas DC-8-21, carried 58 passengers and crew. En route from Mexico City the pilot reported an inoperative pitch trim compensator, with the flight completed at reduced airspeed. It was flagged for scheduled repairs at Kennedy Airport upon completion of this flight. The plane reached an altitude of 4,000' and encountered moderate to severe shear wind turbulence, crashing into Lake Ponchartrain at 02:05 CST at a dive angle in excess of 20-degrees. CAB reported probable cause: "The board determined the probable cause of this accident was the degradation of aircraft stability characteristics in turbulence, because of abnormal longitudinal trim component positions." (CAB report File # 1-1006) There were no survivors. It ranks as the worst accident involving a DC-8 in history and the 48th worst aircraft accident in U.S. history as of 7 Mar 2007.

American bass-baritone who appeared in at least two productions of "Show Boat" onstage and also played supporting roles in two major M-G-M films in the 1940s, before his self-imposed exile to Germany in 1951, where he made films for ten years. However, he did return once to the U.S. in 1955, to star in a television production of Eugene O'Neill's "The Emperor Jones". He was returning to the U.S. again at the time of his tragic death.

Appeared on Broadway as Joe in the 1946 Broadway revival of "Show Boat", in which he sang "Ol' Man River". This was the longest-running revival of a show up until that time, and the first American production of the show to have its own authentic "original cast album", although this was a revised production which cut three songs and changed some of the lyrics and orchestrations.