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Damien Zachary Cord 1968 - 1995

Damien Zachary Cord was born on October 3, 1968 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States, and died at age 26 years old on July 7, 1995 in Los Angeles. Damien Cord was buried at Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, Nassau County, New York United States of America.

Damien Zachary Cord

Damien Z. Cord

October 3, 1968

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States

July 7, 1995

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States

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Damien Zachary Cord Damien Cord (1968 - 1995)

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Damien Zachary Cord's History: 1968 - 1995

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Introduction

Damien Zachary Cord was born Oct 3rd 1968 in Los Angeles, California. He was the son of British actress JoAnna Pettet and her lover Terence Stamp. Damien's mother, JoAnna, married Alex Cord who raised Damien but was not his birth father. While Damien was Joanna's only child, Alex Cord had 2 children (a boy and a girl) from other relationships. Damien, who was an actor like his parents, died too young at 26 years old on July 7th, 1995. While his obituary says that he died of "respiratory complications", other sources say that he died of a heroin overdose.
10/3

1968

Birthday

October 3, 1968

Birthdate

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Damien was Caucasian. His paternal grandfather Alexander Viespi (1909-2007) was born in Caracus Venezuela.
Nationality & Locations

Damien was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles California. He was a life-long resident of the Los Angeles area and died at North Hollywood Medical Center. He had lived in Valley Village, California and Van Nuys, California as well as Encino, California.
Early Life & Education

Damien attended Pinecrest School and Providence High School in Los Angeles.
Religious Beliefs

Damien had a private memorial service at Little Brown Church, Studio City.
Professional Career

Like his parents, Joanna Pettet and Terence Stamp, and the actor who raised him, Alex Cord, Damien was an actor.
07/7

1995

Death

July 7, 1995

Death date

Heroin Overdose, respiratory complications

Cause of death

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States
Death location

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Gravesite & Burial

mm/dd/yyyy
Funeral date
Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, Nassau County, New York United States of America
Burial location
Obituary

Newspaper obituary: Cord, Damien actor, age 26; born October 3, 1968 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, son of actors, Joanna Pettet and Alex Cord, died July 6, 1995 at North Hollywood Medical Center of respiratory complications. A resident of North Hollywood, he attended Pinecrest School and Providence High School. In addition to his loving parents, he is also survived by paternal grandparents, Alex and Marie Viespi. Private memorial service held Saturday, July 22, 4pm at Little Brown Church, Studio City.

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Damien Zachary Cord lived 48 years shorter than the average family member when died at the age of 26.

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21 Memories, Stories & Photos about Damien

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.5k+ favorites

07/08/2023

Damien Zachary Cord

Photo was posted as a Memorial Photo on July 7th.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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Amanda S. Stevenson

17.5k+ favorites

09/29/2019

Damien Zachary Cord

A photo of Damien Zachary Cord

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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Damien on the anniversary of his birthday 2022.

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.5k+ favorites

10/04/2022

Damien on the anniversary of his birthday 2022.

Damien Zachary Cord - the son of Joanna Pettet and Terence Stamp.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

Comments

Kathy Pinna

32.6k+ favorites

09/14/2022

IMDb biography, Alex Cord

The following Mini Biography was added to IMDb by "Tonyman 5":

Born Alexander Viespi, Jr. in Floral Park, New York in 1933, handsome, often mustachioed Alex Cord was stricken with polio at the age of 12. Confined to a hospital and iron lung for a long time, he overcame the illness after being sent to a Wyoming ranch for therapy. He soon regained his dream and determination of becoming a jockey or professional horseman.

A high school dropout at the age of sixteen, he grew up to be too tall to be a jockey so he joined the rodeo circuit and earned a living riding bulls and bareback horses. During another extended hospital stay, this time suffering major injuries after being thrown by a bull at a rodeo in New York City's Madison Square Garden, he reevaluated his life's direction and decided to finish his high school education by way of night school. A voracious reader during his long convalescence, he later studied and received his degree in literature at New York University.

Prodded by an interest in acting, Alex received dramatic training at the Actors Studio and began his professional career in summer stock (The Compass Players in St. Louis, Missouri) and at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut where he played "Laertes" in a production of "Hamlet". A British producer saw his promise and invited him to London where he co-starred in four plays ("Play With a Tiger", "The Rose Tattoo", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Umbrella"). He was nominated for the "Best Actor Award" by the London Critics' Circle for the first-mentioned play.

He sought a Hollywood "in" and found one via his equestrian skills in the early 1960s. Steady work came to him on such established western TV series as Laramie (1959) and Branded (1965) and that extended itself into acting roles on crime action series (Route 66 (1960) and Naked City (1958)). Gaining a foothold in feature films within a relatively short time, he starred or co-starred in more than 30 feature films, including Synanon (1965), Stagecoach (1966), Stiletto (1969) and The Brotherhood (1968).

After his film career declined in the late 1970s he turned to action adventure overseas with the "spaghetti western" A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die (1967) [A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die] and the British war drama The Last Grenade (1970) with Stanley Baker and Richard Attenborough. Around that time as well, he played the murderer opposite Sam Jaffe's old man in Edgar Allan Poe's dramatic short, The Tell-Tale Heart (1971). It was TV, however, that provided more career stability. Cord has more than 300 credits, including roles in Hotel (1983), Fantasy Island (1977), Simon & Simon (1981), Jake and the Fatman (1987), Mission: Impossible (1966), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) and Murder, She Wrote (1984). He situated himself in a number of series, notably Airwolf (1984), in which he co-starred with Jan-Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine as the mysterious white-suited, eye-patched, cane-using "Michael Archangel".

Later commercial interest was drawn from his title role in Grayeagle (1977), a remake of the John Wayne film, The Searchers (1956), in which he played the Indian kidnapper of Ben Johnson's daughter. Lana Wood, sister of star Natalie Wood (who appeared in the original), also co-starred in this film. Alex can still be seen from time to time in low-budget films and the occasional television appearance, but other interests took up his time. His last film role was in the dismissible thriller Fire from Below (2009) in support of Kevin Sorbo.

Alex's love for horses extended itself into work for numerous charities and benefits. He was a regular competitor in the Ben Johnson Pro-Celebrity Rodeos that raised money for children's charities, and he is one of the founders of the Chukkers for Charity Celebrity Polo Team which has raised more than $3 million for worthy causes. He chairs "Ahead with Horses", an organization that provides therapeutic riding programs for the physically and emotionally challenged. Alex also turned to writing, thus far publishing several novels including A Feather in the Rain (2005), Days of the Harbinger (2013), The Man Who Would Be God (2014 and High Moon (2016). He has also sold three screenplays.

The actor's three marriages all ended in divorce. His second wife was British-born actress Joanna Pettet and third, Susannah, was a horse trainer. He had three children -- Toni Aluisa, Wayne and Damien Zachary. His son by Pettet, Damien, died tragically in 1995 of a heroin overdose at the age of 26.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / [contact link]

When he was 12 he contracted polio which left him with his left leg paralysed and told that he would be on crutches for the rest of his life but refused to accept it and built up his on exercises and won the battle and was able to walk again. During one period of recovery he lived on a ranch breaking in yearlings and started to train as a jockey until he became too big so turned to rodeo shows riding, roping and steer wrestling. For 5 years during which time he was gored by steers, suffered brain concussion, fractured his skull and had 3 broken ribs before deciding to give it up. He took to reading and became fascinated by Shakespeare in 1957 and decided to act after seeing Olivier in Richard III. He enrolled in an acting academy in Connecticut playing many classical roles then trained with Lee Strasberg in New York. Numerous stage roles led to television dramas. and appearing in England in Play With a Tiger winning critical reviews and a nomination for the London critics. Award, The Joker for BBC TV and in 1963 The Rose Tattoo on the London stage. His film break was being cast as Ringo Kid in a remake of Stagecoach

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Kathy Pinna

32.6k+ favorites

09/14/2022

IMDb biography, Joanna Pettet

This IMDb biography was created by Gary Brumburgh / [contact link]:

This beautiful, stylish, London-born blonde started out quite promisingly on the stage and in late 1960s films before phasing out her career in the 1990s. Joanna Pettet was born Joanna Jane Salmon and raised in Canada. Her father, a British Royal Air Force pilot, was killed in WWII. Her trek to New York to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse paid off with subsequent Broadway roles in "Take Her, She's Mine" (debut: understudy to Elizabeth Ashley), "The Chinese Prime Minister" and "Poor Richard" with Alan Bates, which earned her the Theatre World Award in 1965.

A steady role on The Doctors (1963) daytime soap occurred around this time. Escorted to Hollywood, Pettet stood her ground among the other talented hopefuls such as Candice Bergen, Shirley Knight, Jessica Walter and the late Joan Hackett and Elizabeth Hartman in the glossy Ivy League film soap The Group (1966). Continuing, she proved a diverting love interest in the British thriller Robbery (1967) and in the French/English co-production The Night of the Generals (1967), and was one of the more interesting figures to come out of the elephantine James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967), in which she played the fetching, exotic-dancing Mata Bond.

A versatile player, she was unfortunately cast in roles that emphasized her beauty rather than her talent. Playboy magazine took an interest, and she graced a nude pictorial in 1968, the same year she married actor Alex Cord. A host of bad films, however, such as Blue (1968) and The Best House in London (1969), put the kibosh on her film career. In the 1970s she was prominently featured in run-of-the-mill TV movies such as The Weekend Nun (1972), Pioneer Woman (1973), A Cry in the Wilderness (1974), Thriller: A Midsummer Nightmare (1975) (aka "Appointment with a Killer"), Captains and the Kings (1976), Sex and the Married Woman (1977) and The Return of Frank Cannon (1980). Series work included Night Gallery (1969) and Harry O (1973), but none of this stretched her abilities. By the late 1970s she was appearing in "has-been" shows like Fantasy Island (1977) and The Love Boat (1977). She was little seen after that; her career ended in low-budget work such as Double Exposure (1982), Sweet Country (1987) and Terror in Paradise (1990). Since then, Pettet has been out of the scene.

She was divorced from Cord in 1989. Her only child, Damien Zachary Cord, fell into a fatal coma after an acute heroin overdose in 1995, aged 26. She later became the caregiver and companion of her friend, actor Alan Bates, until his death from cancer in 2003.

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Damien Cord with his mother, Actress Joanna Pettet

Kathy Pinna

32.6k+ favorites

07/22/2022

Damien Cord with his mother, Actress Joanna Pettet

A photo of Damien and his mother, probably in the early 1970s

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

Comments

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.5k+ favorites

09/08/2021

Joanna Pettet and Damien Zachary Cord.

Mother and Son.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

Comments

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.5k+ favorites

10/10/2019

Damien Zachary Cord

A photo of Damien Zachary Cord

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

Comments

Alexander Demay

3 favorites

06/30/2020

Dear Damien, I'm so very sorry I was not there when you needed me but I didn't know where you were until it was too late. I did stay to comfort your mom Joanna in her cabin for a while until she began accusing me of taking things even though I bought food for her and her dogs. I love and miss you friend and think of you often...of our crazy escapades and of Ed Limato but more than anything our time together on the beach where that old lady asked if we were brothers because of the way we played and our trip to the Renaissance fair...even our all night trips downtown to score. You were my best friend, Damien and I miss you always. You were an Devil that looked like an Angel and together we will one day have more in heaven 💕

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Amanda S. Stevenson

17.5k+ favorites

10/21/2019

Damien Zachary Cord

A photo of Damien Zachary Cord at the pool.

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

Comments

Daniel Pinna

657 favorites

02/26/2020

Just need to say I simply adore this photo. I don’t know either person but the expressions and poses are just fantastic. Looks like a fascinating woman.

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Amanda S. Stevenson

17.5k+ favorites

02/26/2020

Joanna Pettet and Zachary Cord.

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