Tragic Destinies
by quietgiant2 | created - 16 Jan 2011 | updated - 2 months ago | PublicTragic Destinies at the Silent Times are changed to a new place: Look Here!! https://www.imdb.com/list/ls049073346/ Look Here!!
Cancer kills. We add people only when the victim had died young or left young child/children.To any other cases see
Cancer deaths http://www.imdb.com/list/ls003194534/
Among the patients who suffer too much before die are the victims of AIDS. in this case see
Deaths by AIDS http://www.imdb.com/list/ls003194308/
Our purpose is remember movie people who had a tragic life or an early or violent death.There are lots of filmed material about JFK or Charles Lindbergh, but they were not movie artists.
Every death is sad, but not every death is tragic.
10/30/2011. No space for soldiers killed in action, here. This is not a tribute to war. Movie Artists killed during the war are welcome, except soldiers. So, Johann Schwarzer, Stellan Rye or Nino Oxilia or Curt A. Stark or Aribert Mog or Hans Karl Gottschalk or Alain-Fournier or S. Rankin Drew or Lawrence Peyton or Donald Haines or Leslie Howard or Jimmy Butler are not (or even Vernon Castle or Phillips Holmes).
Searching deaths into imdb databases
http://www.imdb.com/search/name?death_date=1900
http://www.imdb.com/search/name?death_date=1901
....etc
Replacing the year number to the number you wish
For example: if you change the year 1900 for 1400 you will found Geoffrey Chaucer
Obs:Kurt Gerron has been moved to the list Auschwitz victims .See here. http://www.imdb.com/list/ls025550557/
Auschwitz was undeniably an extermination camp. In addition to Auschwitz, wikipedia considers all concentration camps on present-day Poland as extermination camps. The discussion about how many were has an answer : we will never know .The list purposes to note that these people were not vultures of the capitalist system, nor repressed pamphleteers of Bolshevism. All the 30 people on the list were artists, and artists are not a threat!
1. Pierre Batcheff
Actor | Les deux timides
Pierre Batcheff was born on June 23, 1907 in Harbin, Manchuria, China. He was an actor and writer, known for Two Timid Souls (1928), Monte Cristo (1929) and Napoleon (1927). He was married to Denise Tual. He died on April 13, 1932 in Paris, France.
1. Robert Ames
Actor | Smart Woman
Robert Ames was born on March 23, 1889 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for Smart Woman (1931), Holiday (1930) and Behind Office Doors (1931). He was married to Helen Muriel Oakes, Vivienne Segal, Frances Goodrich and Alice L. Gerry. He died on November 27, 1931 in New York ...
1. Otto Matieson
Actor | The Maltese Falcon
Otto Matieson was born on March 27, 1893 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an actor, known for The Maltese Falcon (1931), Behind Closed Doors (1929) and Scaramouche (1923). He was married to Isabel La Mal. He died on February 19, 1932 in Safford, Arizona, USA.
1. Louis John Bartels
Actor | Nothing But the Truth
Louis John Bartels was born on October 19, 1895 in Bunker Hill, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Nothing But the Truth (1929), Sin Takes a Holiday (1930) and The Florodora Girl (1930). He was married to Martha Wood. He died on March 4, 1932 in Hollywood, California, USA.
2. Peg Entwistle
Actress | Thirteen Women
Peg Entwistle was born on February 5, 1908 in Port Talbot, Wales at the home of her maternal grandparents, John and Caroline Stevenson because Caroline was to act as midwife. Peg's mother was Emily Stevenson Entwistle and her father was actor/ stage manager Robert Symes Entwistle (1872-1922). They ...
3. Paul Bern
Writer | The Beloved Rogue
Paul Bern is undoubtedly more famous today for being found shot to death in his bathroom barely 2 months after his marriage to proto-sex symbol Jean Harlow in 1932. Born in Hamburg, Germany as Paul Levy, he came to the United States with his family as a child. His mother died by drowning in the ...
4. Marcelle Romée
Actress | La lettre
Marcelle Romée was born on February 7, 1903 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France. She was an actress, known for The Letter (1931), Lilac (1932) and Une nuit à l'hôtel (1932). She died on December 3, 1932 in Chatou, Seine-et-Oise [now Yvelines], France.
5. Jack Pickford
Actor | Brown of Harvard
Nepotism certainly has had its advantages in Hollywood, none more so than in the cinematic career of Jack Pickford, whose famous older sis, "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, saw to it that Jack had every advantage her star weight could muster. In Jack's case, it only added fuel to a ...
6. Sunny Jim McKeen
Actor | Brother for Sale
Young "Sunny Jim" McKeen was featured in 39 "Newlyweds and Their Baby" shorts in the late 1920s, then went on to make a series of six sound shorts on his own. A very blond little boy, he was a contemporary of the child actors such as Allen 'Farina' Hoskins and Jackie Cooper, Davey Lee and Shirley ...
7. Harry Sweet
Director | Rhythms of a Great City in Minor
Harry Sweet was born in Teller County, Colorado, in 1901 and moved with his family to Reno, Nevada, in 1916. While in high school he was a movie projectionist for several theaters in the city. He also was a talented acrobat.
He arrived in Hollywood in 1919 and immediately went to work as an actor ...
8. Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
Actor | Coney Island
Roscoe Arbuckle, the youngest of nine children, reportedly weighed 16 pounds at birth in Smith Center, Kansas on March 24, 1887. His family moved to California when he was one year old. At age 8 he first appeared on the stage. His first part was with the Webster-Brown stock company. From then until...
Director pseudonym: William Goodrich
9. Diva Tosca
Actress | As Armas
Diva Tosca was born on December 4, 1909 in Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She was an actress, known for As Armas (1930). She was married to Raul Roulien. She died on September 27, 1933 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Wife of Raul Roulien http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0745712/
She died hit by John Huston that was driving drunk.
John was not famous at that time, but his father Walter was a superstar. That's why the press stifled the process.
Roulien won the judgement without getting John's imprisonment
10. Lillian Hall-Davis
Actress | The Ring
Lilian Hall Davis was born June 23, 1898, in Mile End, London, England, the daughter of a London cab driver. For publicity purposes, she changed the spelling of her name to to the tonier Lillian Hall-Davis and reported her birthplace as the more fashionable Hampstead, London. She began acting in ...
11. Hugh Trevor
Actor | The Royal Bed
Educated at Collegiate Prepitory-Columbia Extension Institute, Hugh Trevor-Thomas was planning an altogether different future for himself until following the advice of his distant relative, producer William Le Baron. He left New York where he had successfully begun his own insurance company (Thomas...
12. Lilyan Tashman
Actress | The Matrimonial Bed
Lilyan Tashman was born on October 23, 1896 in Brooklyn, New York to Rose (Cook) from Germany and Morris Tashman from Bialystock, Poland. After toying with stage work, Lilyan made her film debut with Experience (1921), followed the next year by Head Over Heels (1922) (this was at a time when some ...
13. Dorothy Dell
Actress | Little Miss Marker
Dorothy Dell was born to Elbert and Lillan Goff in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on January 30, 1915. She won the most beautiful baby in Hattiesburg beauty contest when she was thirteen months old. She lived in New Orleans from the age of ten. She attended the Sophie Wright High School for girls. ...
14. Russ Columbo
Soundtrack | Raging Bull
Russ Columbo was born on January 14, 1908 in Camden, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Raging Bull (1980), Magic in the Moonlight (2014) and Wake Up and Dream (1934). He died on September 2, 1934 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
15. Jean Vigo
Writer | Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège
Jean Vigo had bad health since he was a child. Son of anarchist militant Miguel Almareyda, he also never really recovered from his father's mysterious death in jail when he was 12. Abandoned by his mother, he passed from boarding school to boarding school. Aged 23, through meetings with people ...
16. Lingyu Ruan
Actress | Shen nu
Ruan Lingyu was born Ruan Fenggen on April 26, 1910 in Shanghai, China. Her father died when she was a child and her mother worked as a maid to support them. When she was sixteen Ruan started acting as a way to earn money. She made her film debut in the 1927 Chinese language film A Married Couple ...
17. Edith Roberts
Actress | Speed Mad
Edith Roberts was born in New York City on September 17, 1899. She was a starstruck 19-year-old when she made her debut in The Deciding Kiss (1918). Although she didn't get the acclaim that her more successful counterparts did, she remained very busy throughout the decade and into the 1920s. After ...
18. Thelma Todd
Actress | Horse Feathers
Thelma Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, an industrial city near the New Hampshire state line. She was a lovely child with good academic tendencies, so much so that she decided early on to become a schoolteacher. After high school she went on to college but at her mother's insistence ...
19. John Gilbert
Actor | The Big Parade
John Gilbert was born into a show-business family - his father was a comic with the Pringle Stock Company. By 1915 John was an extra with Thomas H. Ince's company and a lead player by 1917. In those days he was assistant director, actor or screenwriter. He also tried his hand at directing. By 1919 ...
20. Marilyn Miller
Actress | Her Majesty, Love
"Look for the Silver Lining" became the appropriate signature song for one of Broadways's most popular musical stage stars of the 1920s, Marilyn Miller, for she embodied a vibrant, child-like optimism in her very best "happily ever after" showcases. Such happiness, however, did not extend into her ...
21. James Murray
Actor | The Crowd
Sometimes the early tragic death of a Hollywood actor can lead to immortality, as in the cases of icons James Dean and Marilyn Monroe--and, to a somewhat lesser extent, little Bobby Driscoll, who died a Skid Row bum in the streets, a victim of drug addiction. Not so for actor James Murray, whose ...
22. Alan Crosland
Director | Mister Dynamite
Director Alan Crosland was born in New York City on August 10, 1894, into an upper-middle class family, which soon moved to East Orange, NJ, where Alan was reared. His family's finances allowed for him to spend part of his elementary education in England, where he acquired a curious Anglo-American ...
23. John Bowers
Actor | Lorna Doone
Began working in films from 1916, becoming a a star within five years of his debut. His frequent co-star was was Marguerite de la Motte, whom he later married. The advent of sound effectively ended his career. Shortly after attending a party, the distraught 50-year-old Bowers committed suicide by ...
24. Marie Prevost
Actress | The Racket
Popular star in Hollywood for two decades through 1936, Marie Prevost began as a Mack Sennett "Bathing Beauty" in 1917, later starring in dozens of light comedies. But not long into the sound era, she encountered problems with her burgeoning weight, to the jeopardy of her career. Her self-remedy ...
25. Emmett J. Flynn
Director | The Palace of Pleasure
Emmett J. Flynn was born on November 9, 1892 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Palace of Pleasure (1926), Shame (1921) and The Lincoln Highwayman (1919). He was married to Margaret Shelby, Nita Flynn and Genevieve Flynn. He died on June 4, 1937 in Hollywood, ...
He was murder after married Margaret Shelby.
26. Jean Harlow
Actress | China Seas
Harlean Carpenter, who later became Jean Harlow, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911. She was the daughter of a successful dentist and his wife. In 1927, at the age of 16, she ran away from home to marry a young businessman named Charles McGrew, who was 23. The couple pulled up ...
27. Colin Clive
Actor | Frankenstein
Who could forget Colin Clive's "It's Alive! It's Alive!" as he melted to the floor mumbling the same over and over in ecstasy after his success at animating the Monster in the first sound version of Frankenstein (1931). Film history - horror film history - but part of a short history for actor ...
28. George Gershwin
Soundtrack | Manhattan
He was born Jacob Gershowitz, 26 September 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a boy he could play popular and classical works on his brother Ira's piano by ear. In 1913 he quit school to study music and began composing for Tin Pan Alley; by 1919 he had his first hit "...
29. Pearl White
Actress | The Perils of Pauline
Born on her father's farm in Green Ridge, Missouri, the youngest of five children. Moved with her family to Springfield, Missouri, where she grew up. Joined the Diemer Theatre Company during her second year of high school, and went on the road with a touring stock company at age 18, in 1907. Signed...
31. Florence Lawrence
Actress | Not Like Other Girls
Florence Lawrence was the first film player whose name was used to promote her films and the studio (Independent Moving Pictures Company [IMP]) for which she worked. Before her, actors and actresses worked anonymously, partly out of fear that stage managers would refuse to hire them if they were ...
Suicide. A very sad end to The First Star of Screens
32. John Harron
Actor | White Zombie
Actor John (Johnnie) Harron was born in New York City on March 31, 1903, a younger brother of silent screen star Robert Harron. John got his first taste of the movie business with an unbilled bit in one of his brother's many classic films, Hearts of the World (1918). After all the tabloid hoopla of...
33. María Fernanda Ibáñez
Actress | La madrina del diablo
María Fernanda Ibáñez was born on January 15, 1920 in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico. She was an actress, known for La madrina del diablo (1937), Dos cadetes (1938) and These Men (1937). She died on October 17, 1940 in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico.
34. Carole Lombard
Actress | My Man Godfrey
Carole Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 6, 1908. Her parents divorced in 1916 and her mother took the family on a trip out West. While there they decided to settle down in the Los Angeles area. After being spotted playing baseball in the street with the ...
35. Herbert Selpin
Director | Trenck, der Pandur
Herbert Selpin was born on May 29, 1902 in Berlin, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Trenck, der Pandur (1940), Titanic (1943) and The Dream of the Rhine (1933). He was married to Annie Markart. He died on August 1, 1942 in Berlin, Germany.
36. Sidney Fox
Actress | Midnight
This tiny (4' 11"), appealing, coquettish-looking Hollywood actress had only a few active years in early talkies before her career took a bad hit. A few years after that she joined other shattered 1930s hopefuls (Peg Entwistle, Gwili Andre, Peggy Shannon) as tragic symbols of unrequited stardom.
...
36. Annie Vernay
Actress | La principessa Tarakanova
Annie Vernay was born on November 21, 1921 in Genève-Plainpalais, Switzerland. She was an actress, known for La principessa Tarakanova (1938), Chantons quand même (1940) and The Novel of Werther (1938). She died on August 15, 1941 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
37. Buck Jones
Actor | The Range Feud
Buck Jones was one of the greatest of the "B" western stars. Although born in Indiana, Jones reportedly (but disputedly) grew up on a ranch near Red Rock in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and there learned the riding and shooting skills that would stand him in good stead as a hero of Westerns. He...
38. Lynne Overman
Actor | Union Pacific
Lynne Overman was born on September 19, 1887 in Maryville, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Union Pacific (1939), Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and She Loves Me Not (1934). He was married to Emily Helen Drange and Sylvia Antoinette Hazette. He died on February 19, 1943 in Santa Monica, ...
39. Conrad Veidt
Actor | Casablanca
Conrad Veidt attended the Sophiengymnasium (secondary school) in the Schoeneberg district of Berlin, and graduated without a diploma in 1912, last in his class of 13. Conrad liked animals, theater, cinema, fast cars, pastries, thunderstorms, gardening, swimming and golfing. He disliked heights, ...
death in exile.
40. Harry Baur
Actor | Un carnet de bal
Harry Baur was born on April 12, 1880 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Life Dances On (1937), The Golem: The Legend of Prague (1936) and Les Misérables (1934). He was married to Rika Radifé and Rose Grane. He died on April 8, 1943 in Paris, France.
Tortured by Gestapo
41. Yôko Umemura
Actress | Kaibyô nazo no shamisen
Yôko Umemura was born on October 21, 1903 in Tokyo, Japan. She was an actress, known for Kaibyô nazo no shamisen (1938), Zoku ôoka seidan mazohe daiichi (1930) and Ingachô oshidorî monogatari (1925). She died on March 8, 1944.
42. Robert Lynen
Actor | Sans famille
Robert Lynen was born on May 24, 1920 in Sarrogna, Jura, Franche-Comté, France. He was an actor, known for Sans famille (1934), Poil de carotte (1932) and Bargekeepers Daughter (1938). He died on April 1, 1944 in Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany.
43. Asmahan
Actress | Gharam wa intiqam
A very talented singer with a beautiful voice. She starred in two films, the first, Intisar al-chabab (1941), was with her older brother 'Farid Al Atrach' and the second Gharam wa intiqam (1944). Asmahane died in a car accident while filming 'Gharam wa intiqam', it is rumoured, through the war ...
44. Laird Cregar
Actor | The Lodger
Seemingly suave, cultivated actor by nature, definitely huge in both talent and girth, and capable of playing much older than he was, Hollywood of the early '40s tragically lost Laird Cregar before it could fully comprehend on how to best utilize his obvious gifts. He was born Samuel Laird Cregar ...
45. Gloria Dickson
Actress | They Won't Forget
Gloria Dickson was born Thais Alalia Dickerson on August 13, 1917, in Pocotello, Idaho. After her father died, her mother took Gloria and her sister to California. During high school she started acting in local theater productions. When she was nineteen a Warner Brothers talent scout saw one of her...
46. Christa Tordy
Actress | Prinz Louis Ferdinand
Christa Tordy was born on June 30, 1904 in Bremen, Germany. She was an actress, known for Prinz Louis Ferdinand (1927), The Countess of Sand (1928) and Potsdam, das Schicksal einer Residenz (1927). She was married to Harry Liedtke. She died on April 28, 1945 in Bad Saarow, Brandenburg, Germany.
47. Hans Brausewetter
Actor | Paradies der Junggesellen
Hans Brausewetter was born on May 27, 1899 in Málaga, Málaga, Andalucía, Spain. He was an actor, known for Bachelor's Paradise (1939), Der Kaufmann von Venedig (1923) and Ein Glas Wasser (1923). He died on April 29, 1945 in Berlin, Germany.
48. Luisa Ferida
Actress | Amore imperiale
Luisa Ferida started as a stage actress and first appeared in films with La Freccia d'oro (1935) in a supporting role but because of her photogenic looks and talent as an actress, she soon graduated to leading parts at the end of the thirties. In 1939, whilst working on An Adventure of Salvator Rosa...
She was killed along with her partner Osvaldo Valenti (also a movie actor) in a lynching commanded by partisans
49. Ferdinand Marian
Actor | Jud Süß
Ferdinand Marian was born on August 14, 1902 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor, known for Jud Süß (1940), Ohm Krüger (1941) and Madame Bovary (1937). He was married to Maria Byk and Irene Saager. He died on August 7, 1946 in near Dürneck, Freising, Bavaria, ...
50. Heinrich George
Actor | Metropolis
Heinrich George was born on October 9, 1893 in Stettin, Pomerania, Germany [now Szczecin, Zachodniopomorskie, Poland]. He was an actor and producer, known for Metropolis (1927), Burning Hearts (1945) and Die Degenhardts (1944). He was married to Berta Drews. He died on September 25, 1946 in Soviet ...
51. Adrienne Ames
Actress | The Death Kiss
Born in Fort Worth, TX, in 1907, Adrienne Ames hit Hollywood in the late 1920s. Although her career only lasted about ten years, she crammed a lot of living into it--high-profile marriages (and divorces) and her reputation as a clothes horse and glamour queen par excellence far outshone her ...
52. Carole Landis
Actress | I Wake Up Screaming
Carole Landis was born on New Year's Day in 1919 in Fairchild, Wisconsin, as Frances Lillian Mary Ridste. Her father, a railroad mechanic, was of Norwegian descent and her mother was Polish. Her father walked out, leaving Carole, her mother and an older brother and sister to fend for themselves.
...
53. Nora Lane
Actress | The Western Code
Nora Bennett Schilling was born in Chester, Illinois. She grew up and went to school near St. Louis. After modeling for a time, she went to visit a friend in California and was noticed by someone in the film industry. She successfully passed her screen test and began playing small parts in silent ...
54. Mary Nolan
Actress | Desert Nights
Blonde and utterly beautiful, Mary Nolan had the requisite figure and prettiness to rise up fast in the Hollywood ranks. Her downfall, however, would be just as fast and not at all pretty.
She was born Mary Imogene Robertson in 1905 and began her show-business career as a teenage model. Showman ...
55. Nora Gregor
Actress | La règle du jeu
Nora Gregor was an operetta diva, stage and film actress. She made her debut in Graz, Austria, and from there went to the Volksbühne an das Raimund-Theater in Vienna. She also worked at the Reinhardt Bühne in Berlin. From 1930 to 1933 she lived in Hollywood and also in Berlin. She made her first ...
56. Johnnie Walker
Actor | The Spirit of the USA
Johnnie Walker was born on January 7, 1894 in New York City, New York. At the age of 20 he began singing and dancing in vaudeville. He starred in Edison films and then went to Fox where he was billed as a star. Johnnie's greatest movies were Over the Hill (1920) in which he played the black sheep ...
57. Richard Hart
Actor | Desire Me
While he had a short life and very short film career, sleekly handsome actor Richard Hart, with his dark and virile looks, demonstrated much promise in those few years, especially on Broadway and in TV's "Golden Age." It all ended quickly, however, with his sudden demise at age 35.
He was born ...
58. Robert Walker
Actor | Strangers on a Train
He possessed the same special brand of rebel/misfit sensitivity and charm that made superstars out of John Garfield and (later) James Dean and Montgomery Clift. In the war-torn 1940s, Robert Walker represented MGM's fresh, instinctive breed of up-and-coming talent. His boyish good looks combined ...
59. Maria Montez
Actress | Arabian Nights
In a world weary of war and dispirited by the ravages of the Great Depression, Hollywood at the turn of the 1940s concocted a wildly popular, effective lot of escapist fare (though often cheaply made) to regale the sick at heart worldwide. Universal Pictures, more often than not, led in producing ...
60. John Garfield
Actor | Four Daughters
John Garfield was born Jacob Julius Garfinkle on the Lower East Side of New York City, to Hannah Basia (Margolis) and David Garfinkle, who were Jewish immigrants from Zhytomyr (now in Ukraine). Jules was raised by his father, a clothes presser and part-time cantor, after his mother's death in 1920,...
61. Susan Peters
Actress | Random Harvest
War-era MGM had a lovely, luminous star in the making with Susan Peters. She possessed a creative talent and innate sensitivity that would surely have reigned as a leading Hollywood player for years to come had not a tragic and cruel twist of fate taken everything away from her.
She was born Suzanne...
62. Alan Curtis
Actor | Phantom Lady
Attractive Hollywood leading man (and sometime villain) from the late 30s until his death following surgery, Alan Curtis (Harry Ueberroth) was born 24 July 1909 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in that area and in the early 1930s became a model, appearing in many magazine and newspaper ...
63. Jorge Negrete
Actor | El rebelde (Romance de antaño)
Jorge Alberto Negrete Moreno was born in Guanajuato, Mexico, on November 1911, and had five brothers. His father was a General, and when he retired the family moved to Mexico city, where he worked as a teacher amongst others at the Humboldt German school, thus allowing Jorge and brother David to ...
64. James Cardwell
Actor | Daughter of the Jungle
Eager young James (aka Jimmy) Cardwell had an auspicious beginning and showed great promise in 1940s films. Dark-haired and thick-browed with an earnest, boyish look and set-jawed handsomeness that could remind someone of a John Garfield type, he couldn't have started off much better than by ...
65. Clyde Bruckman
Writer | The General
Had been out of work and was pretty much broke when he killed himself. He borrowed Buster Keaton's gun and after eating a meal that he could not pay for, shot himself. There are two stories; One says it was in the restroom of the cafe on Santa Monica Blvd, and the other story states he did it in ...
66. Ona Munson
Actress | Gone with the Wind
Ona Munson was born Owena Elizabeth Wolcott on June 16, 1903 in Portland, Oregon. She took singing and dancing lessons when she was a child. At the age of fourteen, Ona moved to New York City with her mother. She began her career performing in vaudeville. In 1919 she made her Broadway debut in ...
67. Miroslava
Actress | La muerte enamorada
Born in interwar Prague as Miroslava Stanclová, her father died and she was adopted by a Jewish doctor, the psychoanalyst Dr. Oskar Leo Stern (1900-1972) who married her mother, Miroslava (née Becka; 1898-1945). Dr. and Mrs. Stern had a son, Ivo (1931-2011), the actress's half-brother. The family ...
68. Sybille Schmitz
Actress | Titanic
The enigmatic actress remains one of the most interesting figures in German film. Although she achieved stardom early in her career, the tragic Sybille Schmitz could never fit in with her surroundings. Too "alien looking" for Hollywood, Schmitz never migrated to America like her more glamorous ...
69. Suzan Ball
Actress | City Beneath the Sea
Suzan Ball, a second cousin of Lucille Ball, was born on March 3, 1934, in Jamestown, New York. She came to Hollywood with her family in 1941. She sang with the Mel Baker Orchestra from 1948-1953. Her first part in Hollywood was as a harem girl in Aladdin and His Lamp (1952) at Monogram. She got an ...
70. James Dean
Actor | East of Eden
James Byron Dean was born February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, to Mildred Marie (Wilson) and Winton A. Dean, a farmer turned dental technician. His mother died when Dean was nine, and he was subsequently raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle in Fairmount, Indiana. After grade school, he moved to ...
71. William Eythe
Actor | The House on 92nd Street
He had the requisite charm and dark, thick-browed good-looks of a Tyrone Power that often spelled "film stardom" but it was not to be in the case of actor William Eythe. Spotted for Hollywood while performing on Broadway, he made nary a dent when he finally transferred his skills to film and is ...
72. Märta Torén
Actress | Rogues' Regiment
From an early age her dream was to become an actress. Her first application for acting studies at The Royal Dramatic Theater in 1944 was unsuccessful. After additional dramatic coaching she was finally accepted in 1947. But screenwriter Edwin Blum arranged a screen test for RKO which eventually led...
73. Pedro Infante
Actor | Tizoc (Amor indio)
Undoubtedly, Pedro Infante was, and still is, the idol of Mexico. Because of his movies (59 including 55 leading roles and four cameos), records (366 songs recorded between 1943 and 1956) and public appearances in Mexico and Latin America, Infante became a star and the most beloved human being in ...
74. Helen Twelvetrees
Actress | Millie
Helen Twelvetrees was born Helen Marie Jurgens in Brooklyn, New York on December 25, 1908. Her interest in the theatricals was apparent at an early age. After graduating from high school. Helen embarked on a stage career. She participated in a number of plays in New York City, but gravitated toward...
75. Tyrone Power
Actor | Witness for the Prosecution
Tyrone Power was one of the great romantic swashbuckling stars of the mid-twentieth century, and the third Tyrone Power of four in a famed acting dynasty reaching back to the eighteenth century. His great-grandfather was the first Tyrone Power (1795-1841), a famed Irish comedian. His father, known ...
76. Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer
Actor | Second Childhood
Carl Switzer was an American child actor, singer, dog breeder, and hunting guide from Paris, Illinois. He became famous for portraying Alfalfa in the film series "Our Gang" during the 1930s. His character was one of the most memorable characters ever portrayed in the series. Later in his career, ...
77. Helen Parrish
Actress | Three Smart Girls Grow Up
The daughter of stage actress Laura R. Parrish, lovely slim-eyed brunette Helen Parrish was born on March 12, 1923 (references sometimes vary between 1922 and 1924), in Columbus, Georgia. She started out in movies at the ripe old age of four playing Babe Ruth's daughter in the silent movie Babe ...
78. George Reeves
Actor | Adventures of Superman
George Reeves was born George Keefer Brewer in Woolstock, Iowa, to Helen Roberta (Lescher) and Donald C. Brewer. He was of German, English, and Scottish descent. Following his parents' divorce and his mother's remarriage to Frank J. Bessolo, Reeves was raised in Pasadena, California, and educated ...
79. Kay Kendall
Actress | Les Girls
Kay Kendall was born on May 21, 1927 in Withernsea, Yorkshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Les Girls (1957), The Reluctant Debutante (1958) and Simon and Laura (1955). She was married to Rex Harrison. She died on September 6, 1959 in London, England, UK.
80. Mario Lanza
Soundtrack | For the First Time
Mario Lanza's life, sadly, has all the markings of an epic Shakespearean tragedy. The story is truly incredible: a wild, incendiary Philadelphia kid who can sing better than Enrico Caruso sets out to become the greatest dramatic opera singer who ever lived, is detoured by MGM honcho Louis B. Mayer ...
81. Sylvia Lopez
Actress | Il figlio del corsaro rosso
Sylvia Lopez was born on November 10, 1933 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Son of the Red Corsair (1959), Hercules Unchained (1959) and Tabarin (1958). She was married to Francis Lopez. She died on November 20, 1959 in Paris, France.
82. Gérard Philipe
Actor | Fanfan la tulipe
In 1940 Gerard left school and his parents wanted him be a lawyer. But soon his mother noticed that he was only interested in acting, although his father was against the idea. After timely intervention from Marc Allégret, who decided he showed some promise, Gerard's debut was in Claude Dauphin's ...
83. Véra Clouzot
Actress | Les diaboliques
Véra Gibson-Amado, known professionally as Véra Clouzot, was a Brazilian-French actress.
In 1941, Véra met French actor Léo Lapara, a member of the theater company of Louis Jouvet, who toured in Brazil during World War II. Vera married the actor, taking part in the company's South American tour that...
84. Belinda Lee
Actress | La lunga notte del '43
Green-eyed blonde bombshell Belinda Lee was born in Devon, England to florist Stella Mary Graham and hotel owner Robert Esmond Lee on June 15, 1935. Nicknamed "Billie," she was an incredible beauty while still a teen attending the Rookesbury Park Prep School in Hampshire and St. Margaret's boarding...
85. Jeff Chandler
Actor | Broken Arrow
Jeff was born in Brooklyn and attended Erasmus High School. After high school, he took a drama course and worked in stock companies for two years. His next role was that of an officer in World War II. After he was discharged from the service, he became busy acting in radio dramas and comedies until...
86. Gail Russell
Actress | The Uninvited
Gail Russell was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 21, 1924. She remained in the Windy City, going to school until her parents moved to California when she was 14. She was an above-average student in school and upon graduation from Santa Monica High School was signed by Paramount Studios.
...
87. Jean Brooks
Actress | The Seventh Victim
The fourth and youngest child of Horace and Robina Kelly, Jean Brooks spent her early years in her native Texas before relocating to Costa Rica with her mother after her father's death. Her time in Costa Rica enabled her to become fluent in Spanish, and she began her professional career as a singer...
88. Linda Darnell
Actress | Fallen Angel
Linda Darnell, one of five children of a postal clerk, grew up fast. At 11, she was modeling clothes, giving her age as 16. At 13, she was appearing on the stage with little theater groups. Her mother encouraged her to audition when Hollywood talent scouts came to Dallas. She went to California and...
90. Marilyn Monroe
Actress | Some Like It Hot
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, comedienne, singer, and model. Monroe is of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh descent. She became one of the world's most enduring iconic figures and is remembered both for her winsome embodiment of the Hollywood sex symbol and her tragic personal and ...
90. Montgomery Clift
Actor | From Here to Eternity
Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-...
92. Françoise Dorléac
Actress | L'homme de Rio
The radiant Françoise Dorléac is better remembered today as the elder, ill-fated sister of French film star Catherine Deneuve. The Paris-born actress, however, was actually the first to become a star and had quite a formidable career of her own in the 1960s until it was cut short. Born into a ...
93. Zbigniew Cybulski
Actor | Popiól i diament
Won international fame with the leading role of Maciek Chelmicki in Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds (1958). He created a character which was imitated not only in Poland; often compared with James Dean.
Graduated from the Higher State School of Acting in Cracow; also studied journalism. From 1953 ...
94. Steve Cochran
Actor | White Heat
Born Robert Alexander Cochran, son of a California lumberman, he worked mostly in the theatre before landing a contract with Samuel Goldwyn in 1945. His debut was Wonder Man (1945) with Virginia Mayo and Danny Kaye. From 1949 to 1952, he was signed to Warner Brothers, then started up his own ...
95. Jayne Mansfield
Actress | The Girl Can't Help It
One of the leading sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s, film actress Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the only child of Vera J. (nee Palmer; later Peers) and Herbert W. Palmer. Her parents were well-to-do, with her father a successful attorney ...
96. Vivien Leigh
Actress | A Streetcar Named Desire
If a film were made of the life of Vivien Leigh, it would open in India just before World War I, where a successful British businessman could live like a prince. In the mountains above Calcutta, a little princess is born. Because of the outbreak of World War I, she is six years old the first time ...
97. Albert Dekker
Actor | The Wild Bunch
A stage actor from 1927, Albert Dekker was an established Broadway star when he made his film debut ten years later. Tall and with rugged good looks, he often played aggressive character roles, a prime example being his double-crossing gang leader in the classic The Killers (1946). From 1944-46 he ...
99. Virginia Weidler
Actress | The Philadelphia Story
Delightful child/juvenile actress Virginia Anna Adelaide Weidler (her friends called her "Ginny") had that knowing gleam in her eye that usually spelled trouble in one form or another for anyone nearby. She was born in Eagle Rock, California, in 1927, one of six children. Her mother was former ...
Tell Your Friends