Blackbeard’s Ghost 1968 premiere
Thursday February 8th, Pantages Theatre
6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028
6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028
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Born in Decatur, Alabama and christened Dean Carroll Jones, the actor's father worked for a railroad company and the family moved often, living in Washington, DC, Nashville, and New Orleans. "It was in New Orleans I really learned how to sing", Jones told the Pittsburgh Press in 1969. Dropping out of school at 15, he worked for a short time singing in a club in that city, but when the club closed, he returned to Decatur and got his degree but Jones had gotten the show business bug.
After serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, Jones got a job acting in a melodrama at Knott's Berry Farm. He was spotted by veteran composer Vernon Duke, who was planning a musical. The musical project fell through, but Duke enabled Jones an audition with Arthur Freed, the famous producer of MGM feature film musicals such as "Singin' In the Rain". It did not go as planned. "He's an actor, not singer!", Freed exclaimed as related by Jones in a 1966 L.A. Times interview.
Still, the studio signed Jones, and in his first credited role, he found himself acting opposite James Cagney in the 1956 drama "These Wilder Years." The veteran actor helped him through their scene. "There I was, just out of the U.S. Navy without an acting lesson to my name," Jones told the Christianity Today. "In walks Cagney and says, 'Walk to your mark and remember your lines.' That's all I've been doing for 50 years."
Jones had mostly small roles of a far grittier nature than his later Disney fare. "I played drug addicts, pimps, hard-cased killers, ex-cons and angry young men," he told The Times in 1995. And he reveled in the movie life. In a 2007 interview with the Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois, he recalled being on the MGM Culver City studio back-lot, with "Liz Taylor yelling, 'Hey Dean-O, let's go down to Stage 22 and watch Bing and Frank sing!'" Jones would appear with Elvis Presley in 1957 in "Jailhouse Rock".
He made his debut on Broadway in 1960 opposite Jane Fonda in "There Was a Little Girl", which flopped. Jones went on to the more successful "Under the Yum-Yum Tree" later that same year. He appeared in the title role of the Disney television series "Ensign O'Toole", a military comedy, which debuted in 1962 on NBC on Sunday evenings. The show was followed by Disney's anthology television show, so Disney caught the end of some episodes of Jones series, and liked what he saw.
Beginning in 1965 with "That Darn Cat!", Jones became closely identified with Disney family fare. In addition to the "Love Bug" and "The Ugly Dachshund", he was the leading man in "Monkeys, Go Home", "The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit", "The Million Dollar Duck", "The Shaggy D.A.", "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo", and other Disney feature films.
But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was leading an off-screen life contrary to his wholesome image. He had numerous affairs and was drinking heavily. "I had thought if I became a star I'd be happy," he said in a 1976 L.A. Times interview. "I had thought if I had a fairly large amount of money I'd be happy. I thought if I had a house on a hill I'd be happy. I thought if I had a Ferrari I'd be happy. One goal after another was accomplished. And with no fulfillment." Jones was able to keep his torment largely separated from his work life. Even the head of the studio was fooled. "I remember having lunch with Walt one day, and he told me, 'Dean, you're a perfect fit for these pictures. You're such a good family man!'" Jones told the Pantagraph. "I wasn't a good family man", Jones acknowledged. "I was showing up at home smelling of perfume that wasn't my wife's".
Jones' first marriage to Mae Inez Entwisle ended in divorce in 1970. They had two daughters. He was married to actress Lory Patrick from 1973 until his death in 2015. Lory had a son, Michael Patrick, whom Jones adopted.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Dick Van Dyke was born Richard Wayne Van Dyke in West Plains, Missouri, to Hazel Victoria (McCord), a stenographer, and Loren Wayne Van Dyke, a salesman. His younger brother was entertainer Jerry Van Dyke. His ancestry includes English, Dutch, Scottish, German and Swiss-German. Although he had small roles beforehand, Van Dyke was launched to stardom in the musical "Bye-Bye Birdie" (1960), for which he won a Tony Award, and, then, later in the movie based on that play, Bye Bye Birdie (1963). He has starred in a number of films through the years including Mary Poppins (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Fitzwilly (1967), as well as a number of successful television series which won him no less than four Emmy Awards and three made-for-CBS movies. After separating from his wife, Margie Willett, in the 1970s, Dick later became involved with Michelle Triola. Margie and Dick had four children born during the first ten years of their marriage: Barry Van Dyke, Carrie Beth Van Dyke, Christian Van Dyke and Stacy Van Dyke, all of whom are now in their sixties and seventies, and married themselves. He has seven grandchildren, including Shane Van Dyke, Carey Van Dyke, Wes Van Dyke and Taryn Van Dyke (Barry's children) and family members often appear with him on Diagnosis Murder (1993).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Suzanne Pleshette achieved television immortality in her role as Bob Newhart's wife in the 1970s classic situation comedy, The Bob Newhart Show (1972). For her role as "Emily Hartley," wife of psychologist "Bob Hartley" (played by Bob Newhart), Pleshette was nominated for the Emmy Award twice, in 1977 and 1978. She was also nominated for an Emmy in 1962 for a guest appearance on the TV series, Dr. Kildare (1961) and, in 1991, for playing the title role in Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean (1990) in a 1990 TV movie. Her acting career lasted almost 50 years.
Suzanne Pleshette was born on January 31, 1937, in New York, New York, to Gene Pleshette, a TV network executive who had managed the Paramount Theaters in Manhattan and Brooklyn during the Big Band era, and the former Geraldine Kaplan, a dancer who performed under the pseudonym Geraldine Rivers. Pleshette claims that she was not an acting natural, but just "found" herself attending New York City's High School of the Performing Arts. After graduating high school, she attended Syracuse University for a semester before returning to NYC to go to Finch College, an elite finishing school for well-to-do young ladies. After a semester at Finch, Pleshette dropped out of college to take lessons from famed acting teacher Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
She made her Broadway debut in 1957 as part of the supporting cast for the play Compulsion (1959). Initially cast as "The Fourth Girl," she eventually took over the ingénue role during the play's run.
Blessed with beauty, a fine figure, and a husky voice that made her seem older than her years, she quickly achieved success on both the small and big screens. She made her TV debut, at age 20, in Harbourmaster (1957), then was chosen as the female lead opposite superstar Jerry Lewis in his 1958 comedy, The Geisha Boy (1958). On Broadway, she replaced Anne Bancroft in the Broadway hit The Miracle Worker (1962).
Once Pleshette started acting, her career never lagged until she was afflicted with cancer.
Her most famous cinematic role was in Alfred Hitchcock's classic, The Birds (1963), as the brunette schoolteacher jilted by the hero of the film, "Mitch Brenner" (played by Rod Taylor). Pleshette's warm, earthy character was a perfect contrast to the icy blonde beauty, "Melanie Daniels" (Tippi Hedren).
Frankly, it is hard to understand how Taylor's Mitch would jilt Pleshette's Annie, other than to work out Hitchcock's dark vision of society and psychosexual relations between the sexes, in which amoral blondes triumph for aesthetic rather than moral reasons.
Still, it is for Emily Hartley she will always be remembered, for both the original show and her part in another show that had the most clever sign-off episode in TV series history. Bob Newhart had enjoyed a second success during the 1980s with his TV sitcom Newhart (1982), and when he decided to end that series, he asked Suzanne Pleshette to come back. She did, reprising her tole of Emily in a final episode of Newhart, where Newhart woke up as Bob Hartley from "The Bob Newhart Show" in the bedroom of the Hartley's Chicago apartment, Pleshette's Emily at his side. Bob Hartley then told his wife Emily of a crazy dream he'd just had, where he was the proprietor of a Vermont inn overrun with eccentrics, the premise of the second show.
After "The Bob Newhart Show" ceased production, Suzanne Pleshette worked regularly on television, mostly in TV movies. Although she was a talented dramatic actress, she had a flair for comedy and, in 1984, she headlined her own series at CBS. She helped develop the half-hour sitcom, and even had the rare honor of having her name in the title. Suzanne Pleshette Is Maggie Briggs (1984), however, was not a success. She co-starred with Hal Linden in another short-lived CBS TV series, The Boys Are Back (1994), in the 1994-95 season, then had recurring roles in the TV series Good Morning, Miami (2002) and 8 Simple Rules (2002).
Pleshette was married three times: In 1964, she wed teen idol Troy Donahue, her co-star in the 1962 film Rome Adventure (1962) and in 1964's A Distant Trumpet (1964), but the marriage lasted less than a year. She was far more successful in her 1968 nuptials to Texas oil millionaire Tommy Gallagher, whom she remained married to until his death in 2000. After becoming a widow, she and widower Tom Poston (a Newhart regular) rekindled an old romance they had enjoyed when appearing together in "The Golden Fleecing," a 1959 Broadway comedy. They were married from 2001 until Poston's death, in April 2007.
Pleshette was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent chemotherapy in the summer of 2006; she rallied, but in late 2007, she barely survived a bout of pneumonia. She died of respiratory failure on January 19, 2008, a few days shy of her 71st birthday.
Suzanne Pleshette was remembered as a gregarious, down-to-earth person who loved to talk and often would regale her co-stars with a naughty story. Newhart and his producers had picked her for the role of Emily in "The Bob Newhart Show" after watching her appearances with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), where she showed herself to be a first-rate raconteuse. Because she could hold her own with Newhart's friend Carson, it was felt she would be a perfect foil as Newhart's TV wife.
She accepted the part, and TV history was made.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Amiable and handsome James Garner had obtained success in both films and television, often playing variations of the charming anti-hero/con-man persona he first developed in Maverick, the offbeat western TV series that shot him to stardom in the late 1950s.
James Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner in Norman, Oklahoma, to Mildred Scott (Meek) and Weldon Warren Bumgarner, a carpet layer. He dropped out of high school at 16 to join the Merchant Marines. He worked in a variety of jobs and received 2 Purple Hearts when he was wounded twice during the Korean War. He had his first chance to act when a friend got him a non-speaking role in the Broadway stage play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954)". Part of his work was to read lines to the lead actors and he began to learn the craft of acting. This play led to small television roles, television commercials and eventually a contract with Warner Brothers. Director David Butler saw something in Garner and gave him all the attention he needed when he appeared in The Girl He Left Behind (1956). After co-starring in a handful of films during 1956-57, Warner Brothers gave Garner a co-starring role in the the western series Maverick (1957). Originally planned to alternate between Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) and Bret Maverick (Garner), the show quickly turned into the Bret Maverick Show. As Maverick, Garner was cool, good-natured, likable and always ready to use his wits to get him in or out of trouble. The series was highly successful, and Garner continued in it into 1960 when he left the series in a dispute over money.
In the early 1960s Garner returned to films, often playing the same type of character he had played on "Maverick". His successful films included The Thrill of It All (1963), Move Over, Darling (1963), The Great Escape (1963) and The Americanization of Emily (1964). After that, his career wandered and when he appeared in the automobile racing movie Grand Prix (1966), he got the bug to race professionally. Soon, this ambition turned to supporting a racing team, not unlike what Paul Newman would do in later years.
Garner found great success in the western comedy Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969). He tried to repeat his success with a sequel, Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971), but it wasn't up to the standards of the first one. After 11 years off the small screen, Garner returned to television in a role not unlike that in Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969). The show was Nichols (1971) and he played the sheriff who would try to solve all problems with his wits and without gun play. When the show was canceled, Garner took the news by having Nichols shot dead, never to return in a sequel. In 1974 he got the role for which he will probably be best remembered, as wry private eye Jim Rockford in the classic The Rockford Files (1974). This became his second major television hit, with Noah Beery Jr. and Stuart Margolin, and in 1977 he won an Emmy for his portrayal. However, a combination of injuries and the discovery that Universal Pictures' "creative bookkeeping" would not give him any of the huge profits the show generated soon soured him and the show ended in 1980. In the 1980s Garner appeared in few movies, but the ones he did make were darker than the likable Garner of old. These included Tank (1984) and Murphy's Romance (1985). For the latter, he was nominated for both the Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Returning to the western mode, he co-starred with the young Bruce Willis in Sunset (1988), a mythical story of Wyatt Earp, Tom Mix and 1920s Hollywood.
In the 1990s Garner received rave reviews for his role in the acclaimed television movie about corporate greed, Barbarians at the Gate (1993). After that he appeared in the theatrical remake of his old television series, Maverick (1994), opposite Mel Gibson. Most of his appearances after that were in numerous TV movies based upon The Rockford Files (1974). His most recent films were My Fellow Americans (1996) and Space Cowboys (2000) .- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Emanuel Goldenberg arrived in the United States from Romania at age ten, and his family moved into New York's Lower East Side. He took up acting while attending City College, abandoning plans to become a rabbi or lawyer. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts awarded him a scholarship, and he began work in stock, with his new name, Edward G. Robinson (the "G" stood for his birth surname), in 1913. Broadway was two years later; he worked steadily there for 15 years. His work included "The Kibitzer", a comedy he co-wrote with Jo Swerling. His film debut was a small supporting part in the silent The Bright Shawl (1923), but it was with the coming of sound that he hit his stride. His stellar performance as snarling, murderous thug Rico Bandello in Little Caesar (1931)--all the more impressive since in real life Robinson was a sophisticated, cultured man with a passion for fine art--set the standard for movie gangsters, both for himself in many later films and for the industry. He portrayed the title character in several biographical works, such as Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) and A Dispatch from Reuters (1940). Psychological dramas included Flesh and Fantasy (1943), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944)and Scarlet Street (1945). Another notable gangster role was in Key Largo (1948). He was "absolved" of allegations of Communist affiliation after testifying as a friendly witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy hysteria of the early 1950s. In 1956 he had to sell off his extensive art collection in a divorce settlement and also had to deal with a psychologically troubled son. In 1956 he returned to Broadway in "Middle of the Night". In 1973 he was awarded a special, posthumous Oscar for lifetime achievement.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born into an unconventional a family at the turn of the 20th century. Her parents, James "Shamus" Sullivan and Edith "Biddy" Lanchester, were socialists - very active members of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in a rather broad sense - and did not believe in the institution of marriage and being tied to any conventions of legality, for that matter. Her mother had actually been committed to an asylum in 1895 by her father and older brothers because of her unmarried state with James. The incident received worldwide press as the "Lanchester Kidnapping Case."
Elsa had a great desire to become a classical dancer and to that end at age 10 her mother enrolled her at the famed Isadora Duncan's Bellevue School in Paris in 1912. But the uncertainties of WW1 brought her home after only two years. At age 12, she was sent to a co-educational boarding school in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, England, to teach dance classes in exchange for her education and board. In 1918, she was hired as a dance teacher at Margaret Morris's school on the Isle of Wight.
Next to dance, she loved the music halls of the period, so in 1920 she debuted in a music hall act as an Egyptian dancer. About the same time she founded the Children's Theater in Soho, London and taught there for several years. She made her stage debut in 1922 in the West End play "Thirty Minutes in a Street." In 1924 she and her partner, Harold Scott, opened a London nightclub called the Cave of Harmony. They performed one-act plays by Pirandello and Chekhov and sang cabaret songs. She would later collect and record these and many others. The spot was frequented by literati like Aldous Huxley, H.G. Wells and also James Whale, working in London theater and soon to be directing on Broadway and Hollywood's most famous horror films. Lanchester kept busy including, on her own admission, posing nude for artists. During a 1926 comic performance in the Midnight Follies at London's Metropole, a member of the British Royal family walked out as she sang, "Please Sell No More Drink to My Father." She closed her nightclub in 1928 as her film career began in earnest.
Perhaps not beautiful in the more conventional sense, Lanchester was certainly pretty as a young woman with a turned-up nose that gave her a pert, impish expression, all the more striking with her large, expressive dark eyes and full lips. She had a lithe figure that she carried with the assuredness of her dancing background. Her voice was bright and distinctive, and had a delightful rush and trill that had an almost Scottish burr quality. What clicked on stage would do the same in the movies.
Her first film appearance was actually in an amateur movie by friend and author Evelyn Waugh called The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama (1925). Her formal film debut was in the British movie One of the Best (1927). She continued stage work and became associated in 1927 with a rather self-possessed but keenly dedicated actor, Charles Laughton. He appeared with her in three of four films Lanchester did in 1928. (Three of these were written for her by H.G. Wells). They did a few plays as well and wed in 1929. According to Lanchester, after two years, she discovered Laughton was homosexual but they remained married until his death in 1962. Lanchester declared in a 1958 interview that she kept to a separate career path from her husband. They appeared together on occasion, moving through 1931 with several smart play-like films including Potiphar's Wife (1931) with Laurence Olivier. She had done the play "Payment Deferred" in London in 1930 and followed it to Broadway in 1931.
MGM offered her a contract in 1932. In 1933 Alexander Korda was casting his The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and decided that Laughton was the perfect choice - and his wife would be just as perfect as one of Henry's six wives. Her versatility pointed to a part with some comedic elements and fitting more into a caricature. She looked most like Hans Holbein's famous portrait of Anne of Cleves (Henry's fourth wife who was actually somewhat more homely than the painter depicted). In costume Lanchester was charming if not striking. Her interpretation of Anne was a perfect integration with herself, and her scene with Laughton informally playing cards on the marriage bed and deciding on annulment is a high point of the movie.
Of course, it would be hard to mention her film career of the 1930s without mentioning the one role that would forever dog her, Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Having come to Hollywood with Laughton in 1932 (but not permanently until 1939), Lanchester did only a few films up to 1935 and was disappointed enough with Hollywood's reception to return to London for a respite. She was quickly called back by an old friend from London, stage and film associate James Whale, now the noted director of Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933). He wanted her for two parts in Bride: author Mary Shelley and the bride. A central joke of the movie build-up was the tag lines: "WHO will be The Bride of Frankenstein? WHO will dare?"
Indeed, it was no honeymoon for her. For some ten days, Lanchester was wrapped in yards of bandage and covered in heavy makeup. The stand-on-end hairdo was accomplished by combing it over a wire mesh cage. Lanchester was in real agony with her eyes kept taped wide open for long takes - and it showed in her looks of horror. Her monster's screaming and hissing sounds (based on the sounds of Regents Park swans in London) were taped and then run backward to spook-up the effect. She was delightfully melodramatic and picturesque as Wollstonecraft, and her bride would become iconic. Many have considered Bride of Frankenstein (1935) the best of the golden age horror movies.
Lanchester stood out in her next movie with Laughton the next year, Korda's dark Rembrandt (1936), but she only did a few more films for the remainder of the decade. Through the 1940s she was doubly busy - a couple of films per year while regenerating her beloved musical revue sketches. She performed for 10 years at the Turnabout Theater in Hollywood, using old London music hall/cabaret songs and others written for her. Later she would have to split her time further doing a similar act at a supper club called The Bar of Music. By the later 1940s she had become rather matronly, and the roles would settle appropriately. But she always lent her sparkle, as with her charming maid Matilda in The Bishop's Wife (1947). She would be nominated for best supporting actress in Come to the Stable (1949).
She entered the 1950s busy with road touring of her nightclub act with pianist J. Raymond Henderson (who went by "Ray" and who is sometimes confused with popular songwriter Ray Henderson). There was a series of tours to complement Laughton's famous reading tours, called Elsa Lanchester's Private Music Hall which ended in 1952; Elsa Lanchester--Herself which ended in 1961; and once more in 1964 at the Ivar Theater. She was equally busy with a stock of film roles and a large share of TV playhouse theater. She made ten movies with Laughton, the last of which, Witness for the Prosecution (1957) garnered her second supporting actress nomination. But her dizzy Aunt Queenie Holroyd of Bell Book and Candle (1958) is a fond remembrance of that time.
With the two decades from the 1960s to early 1980s, Lanchester was a fixture on episodic TV and an institution in Disney and G-rated fare - perhaps a bit ironic for the unconventional Lanchester. She wrote two autobiographies: "Charles Laughton and I" (1938) and "Elsa Lanchester: Herself" (1983), both recalling her nearly 100 roles before the camera. Lanchester remained humorously reflective in regard to her film career, describing it as "...large parts in lousy pictures and small parts in big pictures." It was the mix of silly, bawdy, and outrageous in her revues that was her great joy: "I was content because I was fully aware that I did not like straight acting but preferred performing direct to an audience. You might call what I do vaudeville. Making a joke, especially impromptu, and getting a big laugh is just plain heaven."- Actress
- Soundtrack
Flashy, leggy, bouffant blonde Dorothy Provine was a solid screen representation of the Kennedyesque era when life seemed so full of fun, so innocent and so optimistic. This sparkling beauty also gave TV audiences a double dose blast to the past via her popular co-starring roles on late 50s/early 60s series TV. A talented girl whose comedic gifts were never sufficiently tapped into by Hollywood, Dorothy nevertheless secured a dedicated fan base merely on her sunny smile, creamy good looks and carefree radiance alone.
Graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in Theater Arts. Hollywood folklore has it that the South Dakota-born (but raised in San Francisco) actress landed the role of the notorious femme bank robber in the low-budget "B" film The Bonnie Parker Story (1958) just three days after arriving in Hollywood. It certainly proved to be a lucky break, although it didn't clinch the movie stardom she might have expected. On the contrary, Dorothy was forced to languish in such predicable programmers as Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959) and Live Fast, Die Young (1958), while playing the gigantic, radiation-exposed love interest in the poorly-executed The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959) opposite rolypoly comedian Lou Costello in his only film effort after breaking up with partner Bud Abbott. Fortunately, TV made up for her lack of success on film.
Signed up by Warner Bros. and seemingly better suited for the small screen, Dorothy became one of the more visible female faces on TV and would be best remembered for her period roles as 1890s saloon singer Rocky Shaw, the friend of "Gold Rush" fortune seekers Roger Moore and Jeff York in The Alaskans (1959) and, better yet, as Pinky Pinkham, the Charleston-dancing flapper in the Warner Bros. adventure series The Roaring 20's (1960).
A vivacious guest on scores of other TV shows, Dorothy occasionally reappeared in lightweight 1960s films wherein she generally projected a squeaky-clean image playing various sparkly housewives, girlfriends and sisters. She was part of the all-star zaniness in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) as Milton Berle's wife; appeared as Jack Lemmon's bright-eyed better half in the suburban comedy Good Neighbor Sam (1964); played Hayley Mills's beleaguered older sis in the feline caper That Darn Cat! (1965); had a slam-bang cameo as Lily Olay the barroom singer who belts out the memorable "He Shouldn't-A, Hadn't-A, Oughtn't-A Swang on Me" in the slapstick farce The Great Race (1965); showed up as the true-blue gal pining for Jim Hutton in the bank heist comedy Who's Minding the Mint? (1967); and made her last silver screen appearance alongside Dick Van Dyke in the comedy Never a Dull Moment (1968), which did not live up to its title.
During this time Dorothy occasionally made use of her vocal talents on the live stage, and appeared briefly as a duo with George Burns in a 1963 Las Vegas nightclub act, replacing Burns' ailing wife Gracie Allen, who by this time had fully retired due to serious heart problems. Eventually, however, she lost interest in her career.
Dorothy abruptly left the business in 1969 after marrying director Robert Day, who was involved in several of the Tarzan movies. She showed up a couple of times on TV in the 70s but, for the most part, found her self-imposed retirement completely to her liking. The couple moved permanently to Bainbridge Island, Washington in 1981, and there she found contentment simply gardening and tending to her animals. They had one son, Robert Day Jr., who became a musician. Dorothy battled emphysema in her last years and died at a nearby hospice on April 25, 2010, at age 75.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Art Linkletter was born on 17 July 1912 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was an actor and producer, known for Champagne for Caesar (1950), Philippine Adventure (1964) and The Jack Benny Program (1950). He was married to Lois Marguerite Foerster. He died on 26 May 2010 in Bel-Air, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Joby Baker was born on 26 March 1934 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for Girl Happy (1965), Quincy M.E. (1976) and Key Witness (1960). He was previously married to Dory Previn, Joyce Harriet Winter and Joan Blackman.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Troy Donahue was a journalism student at Columbia University when he began playing in stock productions. He made his film debut in Man Afraid (1957) and in 1959 signed as a contract player with Warner Bros., which promoted him to stardom with A Summer Place (1959) that year. He was soon a teenage heartthrob, his blond hair and blue eyes appearing frequently on the covers of movie magazines. His most successful film was Parrish (1961), in which he played the title character. A few years after that his career went into a decline; he made only a few television movies between the mid-'60s and his small role in The Godfather Part II (1974) (in which his character's name, Merle Johnson, was actually his real name). His later films were almost entirely for the low-budget home video market, e.g., Sexpot (1990) and Nudity Required (1989).
On August 30, 2001, Donahue suffered a heart attack and was admitted to the hospital in Santa Monica, California. He died three days later on September 2 at the age of 65.- Actor
- Special Effects
- Producer
Ed Nelson was aiming for a career in the legal profession until he caught the acting bug during his second year of college. In 1952, he headed off to New York City, where he studied direction and production at the School of Radio Technique. He returned to his native New Orleans where he worked as an assistant director at WDSU-TV; he also narrated (and sometimes wrote) episodes of the New Orleans-made TV series N.O.P.D. (1955) with Stacy Harris. Nelson made the acquaintance of Roger Corman when the maverick movie-maker came to Louisiana to shoot the feature Swamp Women (1956); Nelson says he did "everything" on the picture, from playing a part and working as a location manager to wrestling an alligator(!). Nelson worked in many other Corman movies on Corman's Hollywood home turf, including Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), where Nelson played the crab. In later years, Nelson became one of TV's hottest stars via the nighttime soap opera Peyton Place (1964).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Blonde and blue-eyed with an attractively feline appeal, Carol Lynley began her professional career as Carolyn Lee. She learned ballet at age seven, became a successful child model at age 10 (eventually working for the Sears & Roebuck department store in New York), and got her face nationally recognized as "the Coca-Cola Girl."
Carole Ann Jones was born in New York City to Frances Fuller (Felch) from New England and Irish immigrant Cyril Roland Jones. Trying to branch out into acting early on, in New York City, to Frances Fuller (Felch), from New England, and Cyril Roland Jones, who was an Irish immigrant. Trying to branch out into acting early on, Carol discovered that another individual by that name, born seven years earlier, was already on the books of Actors' Equity, so Carolyn fused "lyn" and "lee" to create 'Lynley'. From age 15 she appeared on Broadway, played juvenile roles in early anthology television, and was featured on the cover of Life Magazine in April 1957. Her first important film roles came in decidedly wholesome fare, beginning with The Light in the Forest (1958) for Walt Disney Productions, in which she played indentured servant Shenandoe. It was a promising start. A New York Times reviewer praised her performance (alongside that of fellow screen newbie James MacArthur), describing both as "real charmers with more than their share of talent." Thrust once more into the limelight, Lynley reprised her earlier Broadway role in the film version of Blue Denim (1959) as a naive girl who becomes pregnant and ponders having an illegal abortion. This performance got her nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Newcomer in 1959. That same year, she graduated with a diploma from New York's School for Young Professionals. Lynley went on to play other ingénues and troubled teens before shedding her wholesome image by the early 1960s.
Return to Peyton Place (1961) headlined the actress as a best-selling novelist who controversially reveals the town's darkest secrets and scandals. This was followed by the bawdy (and mostly irritating) sex farce Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), with Lynley as a virginal college student in a New York apartment block pursued by a lecherous landlord/playboy (played by Jack Lemmon). Luckily, better opportunities to prove her acting mettle turned up with a double role in The Cardinal (1963) (opposite Tom Tryon), and as the tormented mother of a kidnapped child in the superior psychological thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), directed by Otto Preminger and co-starring Laurence Olivier. Cinema magazine commented "With a face like that of a fallen angel, Carol Lynley has beauty that is often awe inspiring".
In March 1965, the former teen queen posed nude for an issue of Playboy magazine; later that year she played the title role in a turgid biopic of 1930s Hollywood sex symbol Jean Harlow. While the quality of her films tended to decline after the mid-'60s, there were still entertaining moments in B-pictures like The Shuttered Room (1967) and Once You Kiss a Stranger... (1969) (in this lurid thriller, Lynley rose above her material and was memorable in the role of a psychotic murderess). In Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure (1972), she was merely one of the ill-fated passengers who ended up in Davy Jones' Locker. Still, Variety called her performance "especially effective". After 1967, television provided most of her work, including guest spots in seminal shows like Mannix (1967), The Invaders (1967), Hawaii Five-O (1968) and as co-star of the TV pilot for The Night Stalker (1972) (as Carl Kolchak's girlfriend). In her penultimate role, Lynley played a grandmother in a film titled uncannily similar to the one which had launched her career: A Light in the Forest (2003).
Carol Lynley retired from the screen in 2006. A highly capable actress who should have made a bigger splash in Hollywood, she passed away on September 3, 2019 in Pacific Palisades, California from a heart attack. She was 77.- Actor
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Although he came to be called "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence"--and, along with good friends James Cagney, Allen Jenkins, Frank McHugh and a few others were called "The Irish Mafia"--and he often played Irish immigrants, Pat O'Brien was US-born and -bred. As a young boy the devoutly Roman Catholic O'Brien considered entering the seminary to study for the priesthood, but although he often played a Father, Monsignor or Bishop, he never actually followed through and entered the seminary. And although never a policeman, in movies he often wore the cop's badge and, although in real life he had no discernible Irish accent, he could pour on the "brogue" when the role called for it.
Pat O'Brien excelled in roles as beneficent men but could also give convincing performances as wise guys or con artists. He was a most popular film star during the 1930s and 1940s. Over almost five decades, he co-starred in nine films with Cagney, including his own screen swansong, Ragtime (1981).- Actor
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Michael Dennis Henry was born August 15th, 1936. He was an athletic professional football player at the time he entered the movies. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1958-61) and the Los Angeles Rams (1962-64). During part of that time (1961-64) he was under contract with Warner Brothers and played a variety of bit parts (TV's Surfside 6 (1960), Hawaiian Eye (1959), Cheyenne (1955) & the movie, Spencer's Mountain (1963)). He earned the role of Tarzan when series producer, Sy Weintraub began looking for a "younger Burt Lancaster" type, anticipating not only more Tarzan movies but a TV series as well. Weintraub was a Rams fan and had seen a TV documentary about them called Men from the Boys, produced by and featuring Mike Henry. Mike only made three Tarzan movies. He suffered animal bites, food poisoning, infections, and impossible work schedules in Mexico and especially Brazil. He wound up suing Weintraub for "maltreatment, abuse, and working conditions detrimental to my health and welfare." Just before his second Tarzan release in 1967 he was signed as Sgt. Kowalski in John Wayne's The Green Berets (1968). He made more movies, including the part of "Junior", as a naive son of Jackie Gleason, with the role of Buford T. Justice! in the Smokey and the Bandit (1977) movie set there were three.- Jesse Owens, arguably the most popular American track and field star in history, was -- along with his contemporary, world's heavyweight champion Joe Louis -- one of the first African Americans to change white society's perception of both black athletes and, more importantly, people of color. The future Olympic champion was born James Cleveland Owens on September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama, the youngest of 10 children born to sharecroppers Henry and Emma Owens. When young "J.C." as he was called was eight years old, his parents decided to abandon their small hometown and flee the sharecropper's life of peonage (legal in the U.S. until a 1938 Supreme Court decision outlawed it) by moving north to Cleveland, Ohio to find a better way of life, far away from the Jim Crow segregated south. J.C. was enrolled in a public school, and on his first day of school, the teacher heard his name as "Jesse", which was what he would be known as instead of J.C. for the rest of his life.
Prosperity did not come with the move to Cleveland as southern blacks were to find that racism was prevalent up north too, and Owens had to work while attending school to help support his family. Because he had to work after school, his high school track coach would meet him in the mornings to train him, due to his great talent. He was recruited by many colleges, but decided to go to the University of Ohio, but without a scholarship, he had to again work his way through school. In addition, he had to face discrimination daily on campus and during the travels to track meets, as America was still in the throes of legal segregation.
Owens married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Solomon, in 1935, and they eventually had three daughters together. At the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor on May 25, 1935, Owens set three world records and tied a fourth in less than an hour. Owens tied the record in the 100-yard dash at 9.4 seconds, and set records in the broad jump (26 feet 8 1/4 inches), the 220-yard dash (20.3 seconds) and the 220-yard low hurdles (22.6 seconds). The stage was set for Berlin.
The Berlin Olympics of 1936 were held in Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, and Hitler's Nazi Party used the event as a soapbox to promulgate the theory of "Aryan" racial superiority. Hitler was spectacularly shown up by Jesse Owens and other African American athletes, members of a so-called "inferior" race. Despite the hostile atmosphere, Owens triumphed in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash and the broad jump. He replaced a Jewish-American member of the 400-meter relay team that went on to win the Gold Medal. In three of his events, Owens -- who became the first American in the history of track and field to win four gold medals in a single Olympics, a feat not duplicated until 1984, when Carl Lewis won gold medals in the same events at the Warsaw Pact nations-free 1984 Summer Olympics) -- established Olympic records. It is disputed whether Owens shook hands with Hitler. By the end of the games, the German fans cheered for him. In fact, in his 1970 autobiography "The Jesse Owens Story", Owens claimed that the Fuhrer himself waved to him.
Owens' life after the Olympics was marred by the lack of opportunities provided to all African Americans, not just athletes. Although he came back to a ticker-tape parade held in in his honor by the City of New York, Owens had to ride the freight elevator to attend a reception for him at the posh Waldorf-Astoria hotel. In his autobiography, Owens remembered, "When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either."
Like many African Americans in the first half of the 20th Century, Owens was a Republican. The Democratic Party traditionally counted on the votes of the "Solid South", politicians who were anti-black and pro-segregation, while the Party of Lincoln traditionally was the party of civil rights legislation, which died in committee under long-serving Southern Democratic pols in Congress. It was not until the 1960 Presidential election that a majority of African Americans voted for the Democratic candidate rather than the Republican. Thus, it is not surprising that Owens endorsed Republican Presidential candidate 'Alf Landon' over incumbent President 'Franklin D. Roosevelt' in 1936, who would lose, crushed under the massive landslide racked up by FDR, who began to form a "New Deal coalition" that would embrace African Americans.
After the Olympics, Owens had difficulty making a living and turned to sports promotion, essentially turning himself into an entertainer. Though boxing was integrated, the number of African American contenders was regulated as to not alienate white fans, and the pro sports of baseball, football and basketball were segregated. Black athletes, even those as popular as Owens, did not begin winning serious promotional contracts until the 1970s.
To make an income, Owens engaged in many exhibitions, such as running against race horses before Negro League professional baseball games. He moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he became a radio disc-jockey. He was extremely well-liked, and became an in-demand public speaker. Owen's popularity grew with the time, as he was seen after the war as the man who showed up Hitler and his discredited policies of racial superiority, thus becoming an important public figure in a society that, beginning with the Supreme Court decision desegregating schools (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954), was facing the painful process of overcoming its own racial hatreds and sordid past.
Owens started his own public relations firm, and traveled around the country speaking on behalf of corporations and for US Olympic Committee. His speeches stressed the importance of religion, hard work and loyalty. He also sponsored and participated in youth sports programs in inner-city neighborhoods. In 1976, President Gerald Ford bestowed the Medal of Freedom on Jesse Owens, the highest civilian honor the United States government can award.
Jesse Owens, one of the more remarkable Americans to grace the world stage, died on March 31, 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona from complications of lung cancer, likely caused by his pack-a-day cigarette smoking habit. He was buried in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. Owens was 66 years old. His Owens's memory is kept alive by his widow Ruth and his daughter Marlene, who operate the Jesse Owens Foundation, which provides financial assistance and support to deserving young people s from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Honors continued to accrue to Owens, even after death, testament to his greatness as a symbol of overcoming adversity. In 1984, a street in Berlin was named after him, and a school was renamed Jesse Owens Realschule/Oberschule (Secondary School). On March 28, 1990, Owens was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, which was presented to his family by President 'George H. W. Bush'. - Bob Mathias was born on 17 November 1930 in Tulare, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete (1960), The Bob Mathias Story (1954) and China Doll (1958). He was married to Gwen Alexander and Melba Wiser. He died on 2 September 2006 in Fresno, California, USA.
- Ollie Matson was born on 1 May 1930 in Trinity, Texas, USA. He was married to Mary Louise Paige. He died on 19 February 2011 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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A distinguished American athlete and occasional actor with many other strings to his bow, Rafer Johnson was a UCLA basketball star who went on to become Pan American decathlon champion in 1955, a two time decathlon silver medallist at the Melbourne Olympics (despite injuries) and winner of gold four years later in Rome. In 1968, he joined the Special Olympics International Board of Directors as a co-founding member and the following year also co-founded the California Special Olympics, serving as board president from 1983 to 1992. He was briefly a member of the Peace Corps during the administration of John F. Kennedy. While sports anchor at KNBC in Los Angeles, he took time out to support his close friend Robert F. Kennedy during the latter's 1968 presidential campaign in the role of advisor and quasi bodyguard. Along with L.A. Rams football star Roosevelt Grier he famously tackled Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan and secured the murder weapon, a .22 caliber revolver. In 1984, Johnson was the torch bearer at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He became an inductee into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in 1994, the California's Hall of Fame in 2009 and seven years later was awarded the UCLA medal.
In between his many sporting achievements, Johnson enjoyed a modest acting career. At its outset, he had befriended film legend Kirk Douglas while in Rome training for the 1960 Olympics and was offered the plum role of the Ethiopian slave Draba in the upcoming blockbuster epic Spartacus (1960). Since accepting the part would have made Johnson a professional actor and therefore disqualified him from participating in the games, he had little choice but to turn down the offer. The role subsequently went to fellow athlete Woody Strode. After 1960, Johnson appeared sporadically in films, often cast as native Africans in period adventures (The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961), The Fiercest Heart (1961), Tarzan and the Great River (1967)) and subsequently guest-starred in episodes of Mission: Impossible (1966),Roots: The Next Generations (1979) and Quincy M.E. (1976). He also made a brief appearance as a DEA operative in the James Bond thriller Licence to Kill (1989).
Rafer Johnson passed away on December 2 2020 in Sherman Oaks, California, at the age of 85.- Parry O'Brien was born on 19 January 1932 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He was married to Terry Bakondi. He died on 21 April 2007 in Santa Clarita, California, USA.
- Bob Richards was born on 20 February 1926 in Champaign, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Cavalcade of America (1952), ABC's Wide World of Sports (1961) and XIVth Olympiad: The Glory of Sport (1948). He was married to Vonda Joan Beaird and Mary Leah Cline. He died on 26 February 2023 in Waco, Texas, USA.
- Hal Connolly was born on 1 August 1931 in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA. He was married to Pat Winslow and Olga Fikotová. He died on 18 August 2010 in Catonsville, Maryland, USA.
- Greta Andersen was born on 1 May 1927 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was married to John Sonnichsen, Andre Veress and Helge Jeppesen. She died on 6 February 2023 in Solvang, California, USA.
- Vicki Draves was born on 18 August 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Trouble with Angels (1966), Karen (1964) and The Munsters (1964). She was married to Lawrence Mole Parker. She died on 16 March 1995 in Toluca Lake, California, USA.
- Henry Z ("Hank") Jones Jr. has been actively climbing family trees since the age of eight, when he found an old trunk filled with fading tintypes, family letters and old newspaper clippings in the basement of his parents' home in San Leandro, California. He wrote his first genealogical work, "A Few More Left: The Story of Isaac Hillman", his great-grandfather, while still in high school. Hank continued to pursue his genealogical interests while attending Stanford University, from which he graduated in 1963; this early research was mainly on his colonial-American Crippen, Whiting and Dibble lines. When Hank discovered that he descended from Abraham1 Bergmann, a German from Iggelheim in the Pfalz region who immigrated in 1709 to County Limerick, Ireland, his interest in all matters Palatine was born. He exhaustively combed all archives in Germany, London and Ireland to gather all extant data on this Irish-German group who arrived with his ancestor in 1709/10 and then published his results in 1965 in "The Palatine Families of Ireland" (reprinted in a revised and greatly expanded edition in 1990 by Picton Press). Determined to continue his investigations into all the families that left Germany in the great exodus, Hank then turned his attention to those 847 families who settled in colonial New York in 1710. His New York Palatine project began in 1969: Hank's goal was to write a history of these courageous emigrants firmly documented with sources contemporary with the events! Every extant New York "Palatine" churchbook was extracted for every Palatine reference 1710-1776, and this information was placed on family groupsheets - which eventually totaled 17,000! A major thrust of the project was to find the ancestral homes and German origins of the 847 families, and, via Hank's village-to-village researches overseas, over 600 of the 847 were found and documented in Europe. His two-volume set, "The Palatine Families of New York--1710" was finally published in 1985 and has won the prestigious Donald Lines Jacobus Award as "best genealogical work of 1986" and also the Award of Merit "in recognition of distinguished work in genealogy" from the National Genealogical Society; for his efforts on the Palatines, Jones was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, of whom there are only 50 in the world. Hank has continued to write many articles on the Palatines over the years, and they have been published in The American Genealogist (TAG), National Genealogical Society Quarterly, New York Genealogical & Biographical Record, Genealogical Journal, Genealogical Magazine of Pennsylvania, Der Reggeboge, The Palatine Immigrant, and many others. He also is on the national Board of Directors of the Genealogical Speaker's Guild and has served as a Trustee of the Association of Professional Genealogists. In 1989, Hank co-authored a volume with noted Pennsylvania scholar Annette K. Burgert on the German origins of 250 families from the Neuwied/Westerwald region who arrived in Philadelphia 1740 - 1753 entitled "Westerwald to America" (published by Picton Press). "More Palatine Families", the companion volume to his 1710 set which chronicles the European origins and American activities of many of the families who arrived in colonial New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the great second wave of emigration from Germany 1717-1776, was released in 1991. Hank's 1993 book "Psychic Roots: Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy" (Genealogical Publishing Co.), drawn from intriguing near "Twilight-Zone" experiences shared by over 200 prominent family historians, is now in its fourth printing. Recently, NBC-TV's popular program Unsolved Mysteries (1987) starring Robert Stack featured an episode based on "Psychic Roots". Hank's story of how he started genealogy at the age of eight by exploring that old trunk was recreated and dramatized. He also had the opportunity to talk at length about his experiences in genealogy on the show, prompting a deluge of mail and calls from viewers wanting to know more about his work and how they might pursue their family history. This wonderful response has prompted a sequel, Hank's newest book, "More Psychic Roots: Further Adventures in Serendipity & Intuition in Genealogy" (also published by GPC); 225 genealogists worldwide contributed 300 new stories/experiences for this latest volume. As to his "other life" apart from genealogical research, Hank Jones has been in the entertainment field since his graduation from Stanford. He began his career as co-star of the old daytime The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (1962) on ABC, logging 400 network appearances on the program; during this period. Hank also recorded albums on RCA and Capitol Records. In 1963 he began a 20-year career as an actor in films and television. He was a featured player in many of the Walt Disney films of the 1960s and 1970s, which still come back to haunt him on television today! These include Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) with Peter Ustinov, Elsa Lanchester and Suzanne Pleshette; Herbie Rides Again (1974) with Helen Hayes; The Shaggy D.A. (1976), with Dean Jones and Tim Conway; The Cat from Outer Space (1978) with Sandy Duncan, and several others. He also appeared in many other films, including MGM's Girl Happy (1965) with Elvis Presley (a Palatine descendant of Valentin1 Pressler of 1709) and 20th Century-Fox's Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), the Academy Award-winning film about Pearl Harbor. On television, Hank had recurring roles on My Three Sons (1960) with Fred MacMurray and William Frawley, and also on the The Patty Duke Show (1963). He was on many of the comedy programs of the 1960s and 1970s, including The Love Boat (1977), The Jeffersons (1975), Mork & Mindy (1978), _"Henry Fonda Presents the Star and the Story" (1955)_, Love, American Style (1969), Petticoat Junction (1963), and many others. One of his most interesting roles was playing former-Beatle Ringo Starr's twin brother (after five hours of make-up every day) in a TV version of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper (1976). Over the years, Hank has been featured in countless TV commercials, several of which (for MacDonald's, Hai Karate After Shave, Honda, and Dial Soap) won awards and were shown on NBC's "World's Greatset Commercials" show. A long-time songwriter and member of ASCAP, Hank's song "Midnight Swinger" recorded by Mel Tormé was honored with a preliminary Grammy nomination in 1970. In 1986, Hank made three appearances as "champion" on the popular quiz-show Jeopardy! (1984). Besides all the fun and $$$ involved, it gave him a chance to talk about genealogy on national television and brought forth thousands of letters from around the country from those interested in the Palatines! Hank retired from "on-camera acting" in 1981 to devote more time to his first love of genealogical research.
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Kelly James is known for Miles from Tomorrowland (2015), Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (1994) and Danny Phantom (2003).- Sam Balter was born on 8 November 1909 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Pittsburgh Kid (1941) and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). He died on 8 August 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Bill Walsh was born in New York to immigrant parents (father from Canada, mother from Ireland). In his teen years he lived with relatives in Cincinnati, OH, and later attended the University of Cincinnati. In 1933 he joined the stock touring company of husband / wife team Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay as a writer, but the couple divorced the next year and Walsh found himself stuck in Hollywood with no job and no prospects. He wound up working as an agent for a publicity agency, one of his clients being ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.
Walsh joined Walt Disney Studios in 1943, working for both the Publicity and Story departments. One of his jobs was to write jokes for the syndicated Mickey Mouse comic strip (he continued doing that on a voluntary basis for more than 20 years, long after he left those departments). Walsh brought his former client Edgar Bergen to Disney to narrate some cartoons and TV shows. Walt Disney, who at first saw television as basically a tool to promote his films, was impressed with Walsh's publicity savvy and chose him to head the studio's television division. His first few projects were resounding successes, and when Disney made a deal with ABC Television to invest in its Disneyland amusement park in exchange for Disney developing a TV series, Walsh was named the series' producer. The show turned out to be The Mickey Mouse Club (1955). Walsh developed the show basically by himself, with little input from Disney, who was more concerned with developing Disneyland. He hired both the child performers and adult hosts on the show, came up with the basic format--rotating "theme" days, animated opening and closing sequences and recurring live-action series, among other innovations--and even helped to develop the famous Mousketeer "ears" each performer wore.
After several seasons on "The Mickey Mouse Club", Walsh wanted to get out of television production and left the show to produce live-action films. He produced quite a few of Disney's comedies and adventure films, the most famous being Mary Poppins (1964), which was one of the studio's biggest successes and pleased critics as much as it did fans. Most of the films he produced, however, were derided by critics as dull and low-quality and helped to cement Disney's reputation for turning out unimaginative, repetitive, assembly-line pap. The films made money for the studio, though, and Walsh and Walt Disney remained close until Disney's death in 1966.
Bill Walsh died of a heart attack in 1975.- Animation Department
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Don DaGradi was born on 29 September 1911 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Mary Poppins (1964), Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). He died on 4 August 1991 in Friday Harbor, Washington, USA.- Director
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Robert Stevenson was born on 31 March 1905 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Mary Poppins (1964), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Nine Days a Queen (1936). He was married to Ursula Henderson, Frances Holyoke Howard, Anna Lee and Cecilie L Leslie. He died on 30 April 1986 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.- Actor
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Legendary actor Glenn Ford was born Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford in Sainte-Christine-d'Auvergne, Quebec, Canada, to Hannah Wood (Mitchell) and Newton Ford, a railroad executive. His family moved to Santa Monica, California when he was eight years old. His acting career began with plays at high school, followed by acting in West Coast, a traveling theater company.
Ford was discovered in 1939 by Tom Moore, a talent scout for 20th Century Fox. He subsequently signed a contract with Columbia Pictures the same year. Ford's contract with Columbia marked a significant departure in that studio's successful business model. Columbia's boss, Harry Cohn, had spent decades observing other studios'-most notably Warner Brothers-troubles with their contract stars and had built his poverty-row studio around their loan-outs. Basically, major studios would use Columbia as a penalty box for unruly behavior-usually salary demands or work refusals. The cunning Cohn usually assigned these stars (his little studio could not normally afford then) into pictures, and the studio's status rose immensely as the 1930s progressed. Understandably, Cohn had long resisted developing his own stable of contract stars (he'd first hired Peter Lorre in 1934 but didn't know what to do with him) but had relented in the late 1930s, first adding Rosalind Russell, then signing Ford and fellow newcomer William Holden. Cohn reasoned that the two prospects could be used interchangeably, should one become troublesome. Although often competing for the same parts, Ford and Holden became good friends. Their careers would roughly parallel each other through the 1940s, until Holden became a superstar through his remarkable association with director Billy Wilder in the 1950s.
Ford made his official debut in Fox's Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence (1939), and continued working in various small roles throughout the 1940s until his movie career was interrupted to join the Marines in World War II. Ford continued his military career in the Naval Reserve well into the Vietnam War, achieving the rank of captain. In 1943 Ford married legendary tap dancer Eleanor Powell, and had one son, Peter Ford. Like many actors returning to Hollywood after the war (including James Stewart and Holden (who had already acquired a serious alcohol problem), he found it initially difficult to regain his career momentum. He was able to resume his movie career with the help of Bette Davis, who gave him his first postwar break in the 1946 movie A Stolen Life (1946). However, it was not until his acclaimed performance in a 1946 classic film noir, Gilda (1946), with Rita Hayworth, that he became a major star and one of the the most popular actors of his time. He scored big with the film noir classics The Big Heat (1953) and Blackboard Jungle (1955), and was usually been cast as a calm and collected everyday-hero, showing courage under pressure. Ford continued to make many notable films during his prestigious 50-year movie career, but he is best known for his fine westerns such as 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and The Rounders (1965). Ford pulled a hugely entertaining turn in The Sheepman (1958) and many more fine films. In the 1970s, Ford made his television debut in the controversial The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970) and appeared in two fondly remembered television series: Cade's County (1971) and The Family Holvak (1975). During the 1980s and 1990s, Ford limited his appearance to documentaries and occasional films, including a nice cameo in Superman (1978).
Glenn Ford is remembered fondly by his fans for his more than 100 excellent films and his charismatic silver screen presence.