6. WC Fields (1946) - "Been Lookin' For Loopholes"
WC Fields was an American comedian, actor and writer who was famous for his roles in "Poppy" and "The Bank Dick" - but he died from an alcohol-related stomach haemorrhage on Christmas Day, 1946, on a holiday he claimed to despise. Supposedly Fields asked for a hose to be placed on to the roof of the Las Encinas Sanatorium in Pasadena, California, where he was staying so that he could hear his favourite sound of falling rain one last time before he died. However, just days before his death Fields was visited in hospital by his actor friend Thomas Mitchell - who was shocked to discover the atheist lying in his bed reading the Bible. Asking the deeply agnostic Fields - who had once said he skimmed the Bible while looking for movie plots and only found "a pack of wild lies" - why he was reading it, the dying comedian replied:
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
