Carmen Miranda

Vibrant singing star of the Brazilian stage and screen whose colorful performance in the Broadway musical "Streets of Paris" (1939) helped land her a film contract with Fox. "The Brazilian Bombshell," as she was called, enlivened a number of Hollywood musicals from the early 1940s, often appearing in outlandish outfits and her trademark fruit-laden headgear. She died abruptly of a heart attack after performing a taxing number on live TV in 1955.