Celebrity Full Names: Actresses - U,V
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- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Hardly recognizable from one character to the next, Alanna González Ubach has starred in over 150 theater, film and television projects, including the Peabody Award winning "Men of a Certain Age", HBO's "Hung" as Yael Koontz, the Oscar-winning "Coco" as Mama Imelda, critically acclaimed "Euphoria" as Suze, and Seth MacFarlane's hit television series "Ted" as Susan Bennett. She was nominated for a SAG Award for her performance as Jeanine Pirro in "Bombshell" and noted by Variety and the New York Times as "a protean" and "seriously talented actress" to "keep your eye on." Ubach's father, Rodolfo, is Puerto Rican and Spanish and her mother, Sidna González, is Mexican. She was born and raised in Downey, California and resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Thom Russo, and their son, Thomas Rodolfo Russo, the third.Alanna Noel Ubach
ANU- Actress
- Soundtrack
Kim Johnston Ulrich was born on 24 March 1955 in Ripon, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Passions (1999), The Charmings (1987) and Supernatural (2005). She has been married to Robert J. Ulrich since 3 January 1981. They have two children.Kimberly Charisse Johnston
KCJ- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Una Damon (born Una Kim) is a South Korean and American actress. Her film credits include Gattaca, The Truman Show, Deep Impact, Deep Rising and Spider-Man. Damon has acted in numerous television shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Charmed, Chicago Hope, Sliders, Girlfriends and The Closer. In 1995, she appeared in the film For Better or Worse. In 2006, she directed and starred in a short film which she also wrote and produced called Sixth Street Bridge.Una Kim
UK- Music Artist
- Actress
- Music Department
Carrie Underwood was born on 10 March 1983 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. She is a music artist and actress, known for Soul Surfer (2011), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) and How I Met Your Mother (2005). She has been married to Mike Fisher since 10 July 2010. They have two children.Carrie Marie Underwood
CMU- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Gabrielle Union was born on October 29, 1972, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Theresa (Glass), who managed a phone company, and Sylvester E. Union, a military sergeant and business executive. When she was eight, her family moved to Pleasanton, California, where she grew up and attended high school. There, Union was an all-star point guard and a year-round athlete participating in soccer, basketball, and track. She graduated from Foothill High School (Class of 1991).
After high school, Gabrielle attended college at University of Nebraska, where she played on the soccer team; and then later transferred to Cuesta College. Eventually, she ended up at UCLA. On her way to law school, just planning on being a working stiff, things started to happen during her senior year. Gabrielle had a college internship at a L.A. modeling agency, she thought it would be an easy way to pick up some extra credits. Little did she know that clients were eyeing the help. Upon the completion of the internship, she was asked to become a client with the agency. Gabby thought of it as a great way to pay off a stack of college loans, and modeled until her agent found that she could actually act. Her first audition/job was landed without any headshots, on Saved by the Bell (1989). Since then, she has gone on to have many small but substantial film roles and has guest-starred on several hit TV shows, all before landing the role of "Dr. Courtney Ellis", on CBS' short-lived medical drama City of Angels (2000).
Although she plays parts that are opinionated and strong, Gabrielle believes that, "Hollywood needs to recognize all shades of African-American beauty." Gabrielle is a 1996 graduate of UCLA with honors in sociology.Gabrielle Monique Union
GMU- Misty Anne Upham, born in Kallispell, Montana, grew up in south Seattle, the fourth of five children. She began her career at the age of thirteen when she joined a community theater group, Red Eagle Soaring. What began as a summer workshop soon turned into a full-time job. By the age of fourteen she was writing and directing short skits and performing on tours throughout the northwest. In the next four years she would be accepted to several Seattle theater companies, all while attending high school. Her first break came in 2001 when she landed the role of Mrs. Blue Cloud in Chris Eyre's sophmore project Skins (2002), where she portrayed a victim of domestic abuse on the Pine Ridge reservation. She also had a large role in the family drama August: Osage County (2013), playing Johnna Monevata, a live-in housekeeper.
Misty died in 2014, in Auburn, Washington, of blunt-force trauma.Misty Anne Upham
MAU - Katherine Elizabeth Upton was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, to Shelley Fawn (Davis), a state tennis champion from Texas, and Jefferson Matthew Upton, a high school athletics director. Her uncle is Michigan congressman Fred Upton. Upton always knew she wanted to be a model. Since signing with IMG Models in 2010, Kate has taken the world by storm. For the past two years, Kate has graced the cover of the legendary Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, which has led to an onslaught of media buzz about the 21-year-old. Kate's stardom was elevated to an even higher level with her June 2013 American Vogue cover shot by Mario Testino, whose byline proclaims "American Dream Girl: How Kate Upton Became the Hottest Supermodel on Earth." She has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen Show, The Late Show, Saturday Night Live, The Dan Patrick Show, and Le Grand Journal, and continues to be one of the most searched-for names on Google.
Beyond Sports Illustrated, Kate has been featured on the covers of Vogue Italia, British Vogue, CR Fashion Book, Cosmopolitan, French ELLE, GQ, Italian GQ, German GQ, Jalouse, Sunday Times Style, Esquire, The Daily, and Muse Magazine. She has appeared in fashion editorials for American Vogue, Vogue Spain, V Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and Russian Interview, and has worked with photographers such as Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Terry Richardson, Alasdair McLellan, Bruce Weber, Sebastian Kim, Guy Aroch, Matt Jones, Miguel Reveriego, Norman Jean Roy, Josh Olins, Gilles Bensimon, Yu Tsai, Sebastian Faena, Walter Iooss, Ellen von Unwerth, and Stewart Shining. A favorite of high-fashion notables such as Stephen Gan, Tonne Goodman, Carlyne Cerf, Carine Roitfeld, and Katie Grand, Kate was also shot for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations" Exhibition Catalogue in 2012. Models.com exclaims, "The sexy market just got a little more competitive thanks to the meteoric rise of Kate Upton. The Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition was a major coup, but the momentum keeps building with cover after cover. We can't remember the last time a newbie made such a splash!"
Kate's YouTube video of her dancing to Cali Swag District's "Teach Me How to Dougie" last year was the number one watched video on Twitter and Google for multiple weeks. She has an enterprising reputation for creating viral hits, and the clip has over 8 million views.
Known for her vivacious personality and incredible physique, Kate has been the face for Sam Edelman, Accessorize, Guess Lingerie, Guess Jeans, Guess Accessories, Liverpool, Dylan George, and Dooney & Burke. She has also worked with Gillette, Skullcandy Headphones and Beach Bunny Swimwear, even designing a Beach Bunny Swimwear collection herself. She has starred in commercials for Mercedes-Benz, Carl's Junior and Sobe, and starred in The Other Woman (2014), by director Nick Cassavetes.
Kate resides in New York City. Kate is a five-time world champion equestrian, and she enjoys hanging out at the barn, horseback riding, and is an avid sportsfan.Katherine Elizabeth Upton
KEU - A stage actress, Urecal made her screen debut in 1933. For the remainder of her career and two hundred plus movies, she played cleaning women, landladies, shopkeepers and the like. She was known as a Marjorie Main type actress and later went on to a career in television playing in such shows as "Tugboat Annie" and "Peter Gunn." Minerva claimed her name was an anagram of her hometown, Eureka, California.Minerva Holzer
MH - Actress
- Camera and Electrical Department
A leading lady on screen, stage and sometimes television, Brenda Vaccaro, was born in Brooklyn but was actually raised in Dallas, Texas.
Her appetite for acting increased following several appearances in high school productions, and she finally started a professional career in the 1960s. Memorable to many in Supergirl (1984), she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar in Once Is Not Enough (1975).
Recently appeared in Just Desserts (2004).Brenda Buell Vaccaro
BBV- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
From drama to comedy, Daya Vaidya has made a name for herself through the dynamic characters she has brought to life on screen, and her ability to seamlessly transform into every role she embodies.
Daya starred for six seasons as political shark Jen Kowski on Amazon's hit thriller/drama series "Bosch," based on the best-selling novels by Michael Connelly. Daya also recently completed a major recurring arc on "Superman and Lois," bringing to life the DC Comics super villain - Onomatopeoia! She is also reprising her role as Jen Kowski on "Bosch: Legacy" and is starring as a series regular on the BET Plus series, "Black Hamptons."
In addition to her current work, Daya has appeared in critically acclaimed projects in film and television over the years, including a series regular role on the CBS hit "Unforgettable" where she starred as the savvy, street smart Nina Inara. Additional credits include: "Major Crimes," "Castle," "Twisted," "Two and a Half Men," and "Dexter." Daya has also worked behind the scenes with her husband, actor/writer/producer Don Wallace. The duo met on the set of the award winning, indie film "Blue" which they starred in together and Don wrote/produced.
Raised in Oakland, California, Daya was immersed in the arts from a young age. At just three years old she began dancing under the tutelage of Oakland Ballet's artistic director Ron Guidi and by the age of 11, she was performing with the prestigious Bay Area Youth Theater, playing Anita in West Side Story, Tzeital in "Fiddler on the Roof," among many others; as well as becoming a lead dancer in their 'Dance Wing' company. She also performed in her first Equity production of "Smile," at only 16 years old.
Daya attended UCLA where she majored in Dance. After two years Daya took a sabbatical from college and danced on scholarship with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. Although she loved to dance, Daya wanted to finish pursuing her degree and decided to change her major to Theater. She returned to Los Angeles and completed her studies at UCLA earning a BFA in Theater Arts. While in Los Angeles, she has starred in many regional theater productions, including the west coast premiere of Jose Rivera's "Marisol," where she played the title role.
Upon graduating, Daya began auditioning for film, dance and television projects...she has been working ever since. Additionally, Daya also loves to teach children dance and acting. She coached and taught at Walter Pridgen's Acting Studios, as well as privately coached dancers and actors alike- including several children who went on to become professional actors. Daya is a member of the Los Angeles based theater company - Theatre Tribe and continues refining her craft with award winning director and acting coach, Stuart Rogers.
As a multi-racial woman, whose father was South Asian Gujurati and whose Mother is of Italian and Spanish descent, Daya is a vocal peace activist fighting for social justice, diversity in Hollywood and women's rights. She is also a two-time breast cancer survivor and promotes breast cancer awareness and research. See lessDaya Vivian Vaidya
DVV- A native Californian of Swedish descent, Sigrid Valdis (the professional stage name of Patricia Annette Olson) was raised in the Westwood and Brentwood neighborhoods of Los Angeles, and attended exclusive private schools, including Marymount High School. Upon graduation, she moved to Europe, then to New York City to continue the modeling career she had begun as a teenager. While working as a designer's showroom and runway model, she met and married a businessman in the fashion industry.
After the birth of her first child, Melissa, she began studying at Stella Adler's Theatre School while working on her first feature film. Her natural talent and on-screen demeanor were impressive, and she found herself back in California in 1964 in pursuit of a promising acting career. Over the next 18 months, she would accumulate an impressive list of credits and on-camera time: Her first film, Two Tickets to Paris (1962) starring Joey Dee of "Peppermint Twist" fame, was followed by big screen roles in Marriage on the Rocks (1965) (alongside Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin), Our Man Flint (1966) (starring James Coburn and Lee J. Cobb), and The Venetian Affair (1966) (with Robert Vaughn).
The exposure of appearing in films brought her a plethora of work in television and opportunities to work with TV legends such as Phil Silvers, Steve Allen, Red Skelton and Sid Caesar. She shared the small screen with the likes of Allan Sherman, Dennis Hopper, Henry Silva, Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. Her numerous credits include Kraft Mystery Theater (1961), Arrest and Trial (1963), and The Wild Wild West (1965).
She also performed on stage, most notably during the summer of 1968 when, with Bob Crane and Abby Dalton, she starred in a touring production of the comedy "Cactus Flower". In addition to the exposure and the opportunity to work with Hollywood's biggest names, she was becoming recognized for her ability to perform effectively in various types of roles in multiple genres and settings. She succeeded in movies and television, comedy and drama, commercials, sitcoms and skits, and was equally successful in lead and supporting roles. She was widowed in 1967, just a short time after she had begun to gain exposure on a weekly network television show.
Valdis caught the eye of Hogan's Heroes (1965) producer Edward Feldman in 1965, leading to her guest appearance as Gretchen in Episode 10. When the second season began, Feldman brought her under contract as a regular cast member, playing the role of Hilda, Col. Klink's secretary. On October 16, 1970, Sigrid and Crane were married on the set of the show. At that time, theirs was the first reported "actual" marriage to be performed on a sound stage. A year later they had a son, Robert Scott Crane. Sigrid retired from acting following Scott's birth so that she could devote herself to her husband and family.
Although the Cranes were separated during part of 1977, they reconciled in 1978. However, Sigrid met with tragedy again a few months later when Crane was murdered. Amid this turmoil and fear, she moved from the Los Angeles area to protect her family from the constant media scrutiny invited by the case.Patricia Annette Olson
PAO - Nina Vale was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is known for The Gay Falcon (1941), Cornered (1945) and Mysterious Intruder (1946).Anne Nina Hunter
ANH - Actress
- Soundtrack
Virginia Vale was born on 20 May 1920 in Dallas, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for Blonde Comet (1941), Triple Justice (1940) and Broadway Big Shot (1942). She died on 14 September 2006 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Dorothy Virginia Howe
DVH- Considered in her day to be one of the screen's great beauties, Vola Vale was born born Violet Smith in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in Rochester. As a youngster she appeared in amateur stage productions in Rochester, and at age 15 made her film debut under her real name (she didn't use Vola Vale until 1916). Under contract to Biograph, she appeared in a wide variety of films. She left that studio in 1916 and joined Universal Pictures, where she appeared in a long series of comedy and dramatic shorts before making her feature debut in 1917. She worked not only for Universal but for many independent companies, and made several films with veteran western star William S. Hart. Her popularity soared in the 1917-1918 period as she turned out a slew of films for many different studios. In 1918 she married director Albert Russell, who specialized in westerns, and began making westerns herself. After she and Russell divorced, she abandoned westerns and began turning out "society" dramas. Her popularity began to decline in 1923, and she began appearing in more and more undistinguished, low-budget independent fodder for the states-rights market. She met director John Gorman in 1926 while appearing in one of his films and they were married later that year. She retired from the screen in 1927. She and Gorman divorced, and she later married Lawrence McDougal, and that lasted until he died in 1970. Several months later, in October of 1970, she herself died of heart disease and diabetes.Vola Smith
VS - Brooke Valentine was born on 4 October 1984 in Houston, Texas, USA.Kanesha Nichole Brookes
KNB - Actress
- Soundtrack
Karen Valentine was born on a chicken farm in northern California and made her professional debut, at the age of 16, on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show"). After performing as a contestant on a live national broadcast of "The Miss Teenage America Pageant", Ed Sullivan phoned during the ceremonies and invited her to appear on his iconic variety show the following week. She has since starred in countless productions on stage and screen, including the acclaimed series, Room 222 (1969) as student teacher Alice Johnson, for which she received an Emmy Award. She was a regular panelist on the popular game show The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965), exchanging quips with Paul Lynde, George Gobel and host Peter Marshall. Over the years she has starred in many made-for-television movies, series episodes and variety specials, as well as several feature films. She has been a fixture on TV talk shows and guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962). Across the country, Ms. Valentine has appeared in many stage productions, on Broadway and off, as well as touring with national companies.Karen Lynne Valentine
KLV- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Born in Illinois in 1912, Helen Vlahakis, later known as Joan Valerie soon settles down in Hollywood, where she studied drama at the famous Pasadena Playhouse. Darryl F. Zanuck discovered her there but gave her parts only in B movies, although in pleasant ones. By way of example, she was the charming blonde in office in John Ford's "Submarine Patrol" (1938), "Charles Chan at the Wax Museum" (also 1940), "Rio Rita" (1942). By the end of the nineteen forties her contributions had become thinner and, after marrying with Greek producer Paris Methusis, she finally gave up acting. Her happy life as Mrs. Methusis came to a tragic end when, in her late sixties, she died in the aftermath of a car accident.Helen Valerie Vlahakis
HVV- The real-life Baroness DeWitz, Valkyrien played bit parts at Great Northern in Copenhagen in 1912 before signing with US producer David Horsley. She later switched to the Thanhouser company who featured her in exotic melodramas partially filmed in Jacksonville, Florida. William Fox lured her over to his company with promises of star-billing and heavy promotion. Unfortunately, Fox failed to deliver and Valkyrien sued him to the tune of $25,000. The outcome of the suit is lost to history but Valkyrien was through as a star. She played supporting roles opposite Clara Kimball Young and was featured in several very low-budget independent films. Leaving films in favor of the Ziegfeld Follies, Valkyrien showed up in Hollywood in 1927 with hopes of resuming her screen career. That didn't happen and she retired permanently.Adele Eleonore Freed
AEF - Actress
- Producer
Amber Valletta was born in Phoenix, Arizona, USA as Amber Evangeline Valletta. She is an actress, producer and model. She began her career as a fashion model. Valletta was married to Olympic volleyball player Chip McCaw with whom she has a son, Auden. Valletta endorsed Democrat President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. In July 2014, Valletta spoke out about her battle with drug and alcohol addiction.Amber Evangeline Valletta
AEV- Virginia got her start with a Milwaukee stock company and also did some film work with Essanay Studios in 1917 Chicago. Back in the theater, it would be 3 more years before she was brought out to Hollywood to act as leading lady to Bert Lytell. Virginia would continue to appear in films throughout the decade and she would be an established star at Universal by the mid 20's. The bulk of her films would be between 1924 and 1927. While she had no trouble adjusting to sound in The Isle of Lost Ships (1929), which she made at First National, her big salary and declining appeal both conspired to end her film career. Unable to find a suitable studio, she would make her last film The Last Zeppelin (1930) at Tiffany Studios. In 1931, she married Charles Farrell and retired from the screen to live in Beverly Hills before moving to Palm Springs.Virginia McSweeney
VM - Writer
- Additional Crew
- Actress
A native of Moline, Illinois she was the daughter of a post office worker and Depression era housewife. She started her career as a stage actress in 1946 despite her fathers objections and later emerged as an actress and writer for television in the 1980s situation comedy "Mama's Family" in the role of Aunt Effie Harper.Dorothy Helene Vanberryl
DHV- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born as Vivian Roberta Jones in Cherryvale, Kansas, she had a brother and four sisters. Her family moved to Independence, Kansas, and later studied drama under Anna Ingleman and William Inge. Their next move, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, brought her to that city's Little Theatre, which provided her the money she needed to study under Eva Le Gallienne in New York. After arriving in 1932 she had trouble finding stage work until she began a two-year stint in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's "Music in the Air".
She next understudied Ethel Merman in the hit "Anything Goes." Her first starring role was as Kay Thompson's last minute replacement in "Hooray for What!", starring Ed Wynn. In 1945, while starring in a touring company of "Voice of the Turtle" she had a nervous breakdown. After undergoing psychotherapy and limited movie work, she returned to the play at the La Jolla (California) Playhouse, where she was seen by Desi Arnaz who decided she was perfect for the role of Ethel Mertz (Ball and Arnaz's first choice, Bea Benaderet, was unavailable) in the I Love Lucy (1951) television series.
At first she didn't want the part (too frumpy), and hated being cast as the wife of William Frawley (she was 42, he was 64, and the two never got along). Frawley, an alcoholic and on the professional skids had actively campaigned for the role of Fred Mertz after learning that Gale Gordon was also unavailable. Desi Arnaz hired him, but only under strict conditions regarding alcohol consumption and professionalism. The runaway success of the series forced the two to work together but Frawley never forgave Vance for a comment she made about the disparity in their ages, which he overheard. After I Love Lucy (1951) ended she divorced her third husband, married again to John Dodds, and they moved to Stamford, Connecticut, the first time she had lived east of the Mississippi (aside from work) in many years.
In 1962, she began work on The Lucy Show (1962), but the pressures of long-distance commuting didn't suit her, so after three years she limited her herself to guest appearances. In 1974, she and her husband moved to Belvedere, California (just north of San Francisco Bay) so she could be near her sister. She battled ill-health throughout much of the 1970s and died in 1979, aged 70, of breast and bone cancer.Vivian Roberta Jones
VRJ- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Originally from Oakland, California, Vanelle is an award winning actor, director, writer and producer. She has starred in several independent films such as Sacred Hearts, Exhibit A-7, Remnants and Athena. Vanelle founded her production company, Magic Tribe Pictures, in 2007. She has written and produced promotional and original content as a Producer for Inspiration TV, The Maiden Network and is Founder/Director of the 4KBK Film and Media Festival, a non-profit that nurtures the media talents of children from around the world.Vanelle Lyn LeBlanc
VLL- Shantel Yvonne VanSanten is an American model and actress, born July 25, 1985. As a model, she has been featured in the magazines Teen Vogue and Seventeen. VanSanten was born in Luverne, Minnesota. She is of Dutch and one quarter Norwegian descent. VanSanten was raised in Spring, Texas where she attended Incarnate Word Academy (an all-girls college prep school) in Houston and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. VanSanten also started her career as a model at the age of fifteen for the Page Parkes Management.Shantel Yvonne VanSanten
SYV - Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Nia Vardalos was born on 24 September 1962 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is an actress and writer, known for My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) and I Hate Valentine's Day (2009). She was previously married to Ian Gomez.Antonia Eugenia Vardalos
AEV- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Janet Varney is a comedian, actor, writer and producer. In the animation world, she is lucky enough to be the voice of "Korra" on Nickelodeon's hit series, The Legend of Korra (2012), and she can currently be seen as "Becca" on the live action FX series, You're the Worst (2014). She also spent seven wonderful years hosting TBS's Dinner & a Movie (1996), recurred on HBO's Entourage (2004), was a series regular on the beloved E! and Yahoo series, Burning Love (2012) - seasons 1 and 3, and has made guest appearances on hit shows, including How I Met Your Mother (2005), Key and Peele (2012), Psych (2006), Bones (2005), on the panel of Chelsea Lately (2007) and @midnight (2013), as a regular producer and co-host on Huffpost Live (2012), and has appeared in films, such as Still Waiting... (2009), Drillbit Taylor (2008), and Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer (2011). Janet is the host of the popular Nerdist podcast, "The JV Club", and the co-founder, creative director, and producer of one of the largest and most acclaimed comedy festivals in North America, "SF Sketchfest: the San Francisco Comedy Festival", now in its 15th year.Janet Maureen Varney
JMV- This lovely, long-haired, fresh-faced and most promising product of the late 1950s was born Diane Marie Antonia Varsi in San Mateo, California, on February 23, 1938, the elder of two daughters of Russell Varsi, a florist, and wife Beatrice DeMerchant. A troubling childhood led to her dropping out of high school, toiling instead in a number of nowhere jobs -- waitress, dress shop model, fruit picker, candle dipper, etc.
An intended spiritual sojourn in the mid-1950s from San Francisco to Mexico ended when she got as far as Los Angeles. A sensitive soul, Diane settled there and became interested in the fine arts, including folk singing, dancing, acting, writing poetry and music. She enrolled in actor Jeff Corey's acting classes and debuted in a community theater production of "Gigi." After a brief marriage that was annulled, Diane met and married producer James Dickson, who became her manager. A son Shawn Michael was born.
Through her contact with actor Corey, Diane was given the chance to audition for director Mark Robson for a part in the film version of the best-selling novel Peyton Place (1957). Despite the studio's objections, she was chosen by Robson over hundreds of others, despite her lack of experience, and made an auspicious debut in the coveted role of Allison MacKenzie. A critical hit as well as a box-office smash, Diane was nominated for an Academy Award ("Supporting Actress") along with fellow Peyton performers Lana Turner, Arthur Kennedy, Hope Lange and Russ Tamblyn, not to mention director Robson. Included in its nine nominations total was a "Best Picture" nod. She also shared a Golden Globe for "Most Promising Newcomer" with actresses Sandra Dee and Carolyn Jones. Despite the movie's shut-out at the Academy Awards ceremony, Diane was deemed a new and exciting star while columnist Louella Parsons went on to call her "Hollywood's Female Brando." A rebel and non-conformist by nature who had a difficult time with celebrity, she was compared to the late James Dean in her tendency to withdraw and avoid publicity.
After Peyton Place, Diane appeared in three more high-profile Twentieth Century-Fox productions -- From Hell to Texas (1958), a western directed by Henry Hathaway and co-starring Don Murray; Ten North Frederick (1958), featuring her as Gary Cooper daughter; and the lead female role in Compulsion (1959) based on the Leopold-Loeb murder case. All of these placed Diane in the top ranks of young new actresses, but she found it harder and harder to cope with the pressures of the studio system. She eventually suffered a nervous collapse. Unable to readjust to the pressures, she started to habitually turn down roles in important movie scripts. Eventually Fox suspended her.
In March of 1959, Diane abandoned Hollywood, divorcing her husband in the process, and moved with her son to Vermont, away from the limelight. Returning to her Bohemian lifestyle of poetry and solitude, she was still recognized. Within a couple of years Diane moved back to California. Marrying producer named Michael Hausman, she had with him a second child, daughter Willo, who later had a minor acting career under the name Willo Hausman.
Still barred from working at any studio by Fox, her contract finally expired in late 1964, and she became available again. The work was hardly in the same caliber as her earlier feats. Former co-star Don Murray helped her get a role in his low-budget film entitled Sweet Love, Bitter (1967), and a role in a Swedish film entitled Roseanna (1967), but it all led to nowhere.
In 1968 Diane Varsi began an association with American International Pictures and filmed the cult flick Wild in the Streets (1968) with the equally rebellious Christopher Jones playing a drugged-out politico. She also co-starred in a third-rate Bonnie and Clyde tale called Killers Three (1968). In 1969, she was featured with Robert De Niro and Bruce Dern in Roger Corman's Bloody Mama (1970) with Diane playing a hooker and a deranged Shelley Winters reenacting murderous Ma Barker. She also played roles that spoke to her, such as the nurse in the anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun (1971) and her part in the TV-movie The People (1972), about peaceful aliens invading the earth. A sprinkling of other TV assignments also came her way.
The writing was on the wall, however, for Diane. The dust had settled on what was the remnants of a once glorious career. After turning in a small role as an overweight mental patient in the excellent film I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), Diane again dropped out of sight--this time for good. Little was heard although it was said she had returned to her poetry and took up photography. The newspapers reported her death on November 19, 1992, in Los Angeles at age 54, from respiratory problems due to complications from Lyme disease, which she had contracted back in 1977.Diane Marie Antonia Varsi
DMAV - Actress
- Soundtrack
Sofia Vassilieva was born on 22 October 1992 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She is an actress, known for The Little Things (2021), Looking for Alaska (2019) and My Sister's Keeper (2009).Sofia Vladimirovna Vassilieva
SVV- Actress
- Music Department
- Producer
Countess Danielle Vaughn was born August 8, 1978 in Idabel, Oklahoma, a small town of approximately 7500 people. She was born to Sandra & Leo Vaughn who taught in the local schools. Very early Countess established herself as a young singer with a dynamic voice. In 1988, she sang her way to stardom by becoming Star Search Junior Vocalist Champion. From there her TV career was born. She co-starred on NBC's "227". She had recurring roles on "Hangin' With Cooper," and "Roc." In 1995 she was a part of the original cast of "Moesha" playing the role of Kim Parker. In 1999 UPN's "The Parkers" debuted with Countess starring in this "Moesha" spinoff. Also in 1999 she was a part of the cast of the movie, "Trippin'". From the NAACP she has received The Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Award, and in 1998 she received that organization's "Image Award." Future plans are to do an album and act in more movies.Countess Danielle Vaughn
CDV- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Terri J. Vaughn was born on 16 October 1969 in San Francisco, California, USA. She is an actress and director, known for The Steve Harvey Show (1996), Friday (1995) and All of Us (2003). She has been married to Karon Riley since 19 January 2008. They have two children. She was previously married to Derrick A. Carolina.Terri Juanita Vaughn
TJV- Actress
- Writer
- Editorial Department
Milana Vayntrub is an Uzbekistan-born American actress, writer and stand-up comedian. She began her career making YouTube videos amounting over 11 million views, then turned her web content into an MTV pilot. In 2016 she was recognized by Adweek on the cover of their Creative 100 issue for her activism, documentary work, and her role as Lily Adams in AT&T commercials. She is most recognized as an actress for her role as Sloane on the NBC dramatic series This Is Us and as a writer for Adult Swim's Robot Chicken Robot Chicken (2001) .Milana Aleksandrovna Vayntrub
MAV- Makenzie Jade Vega Norfolk (née Vega; born February 10, 1994) is an American actress. She's known for her role as Grace Florrick on The Good Wife and as the 11-year-old counterpart of Nancy Callahan in Sin City. Makenzie was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mom, Gina Denise Rue is an American former model & her dad, Baruch Jairo Vega is a Colombian photographer. She's the little sister of actresses, Alexa PenaVega & Krizia Vega.Makenzie Jade Vega
MJV - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jaci Velasquez was born on 15 October 1979 in Houston, Texas, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Encounter (2010), I'm Not Ashamed (2016) and Rumors of Wars (2014). She has been married to Nic Gonzalez since 17 December 2006. They have two children. She was previously married to Darren Potuck.Jacquelyn Davette Velasquez
JDV- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lupe Velez was born on July 18, 1908, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, as Maria Guadalupe Villalobos Velez. She was sent to Texas at the age of 13 to live in a convent. She later admitted that she wasn't much of a student because she was so rambunctious. She had planned to become a champion roller skater, but that would change. Life was hard for her family, and Lupe returned to Mexico to help them out financially. She worked as a salesgirl for a department store for the princely sum of $4 a week. Every week she would turn most of her salary over to her mother, but she kept a little for herself so she could take dancing lessons. With her mature shape and grand personality, she thought she could make a try at show business, which she figured was a lot more glamorous than dancing or working as a salesclerk. In 1924 Lupe started her show business career on the Mexican stage and wowed audiences with her natural beauty and talent. By 1927 she had emigrated to Hollywood, where she was discovered by Hal Roach, who cast her in a comedy with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Douglas Fairbanks then cast her in his feature film The Gaucho (1927) with himself and wife Mary Pickford. Lupe played dramatic roles for five years before she switched to comedy. In 1933 she played the lead role of Pepper in Hot Pepper (1933). This film showcased her comedic talents and helped her to show the world her vital personality. She was delightful. In 1934 Lupe appeared in three fine comedies: Strictly Dynamite (1934), Palooka (1934) and Laughing Boy (1934). By now her popularity was such that a series of "Mexican Spitfire" films were written around her. She portrayed Carmelita Lindsay in Mexican Spitfire (1939), Mexican Spitfire Out West (1940), The Mexican Spitfire's Baby (1941) and Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event (1943), among others. Audiences loved her in these madcap adventures, but it seemed at times that she was better known for her stormy love affairs. She married one of her lovers, Johnny Weissmuller, but the marriage only lasted five years and was filled with battles. Lupe certainly did live up to her nickname. She had a failed romance with Gary Cooper, who never wanted to wed her. By 1943 her career was waning. She went to Mexico in the hopes of jump-starting her career. She gained her best reviews yet in the Mexican version of Naná (1944). Bolstered by the success of that movie, Lupe returned to the US, where she starred in her final film as Pepita Zorita, Ladies' Day (1943). There were to be no others. On December 13, 1944, tired of yet another failed romance, with a part-time actor named Harald Maresch, and pregnant with his child, Lupe committed suicide with an overdose of Seconal. She was only 36 years old.Maria Guadalupe Villalobos Velez
MGVV- Actress
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Cassie is a singer, actress, model, songwriter, and dancer. Albums: Me&U, Long Way 2 Go Official Girl ft. Lil'Wayne Is it you
Cassandra is a 5 time National Grand Champion Twirler, because of twirling is how her modeling career started. Cassandra models for Abercrombie, Target, Jcpennys, Walmart, Dalias, Seventeen Magazine, Victorias Secret. She is part of OP Team, has a record deal with Bad Boys Entertainment And producer Ryan Leslie. Cassandra has a Baccalaureate of Arts in Sociology with a minor in Psychology from UIW.
Cassandra loves to sing, dance, shop and spend quality time with Family. She has a daughter named Cali who is 11yrs old. Her modeling manager is Trevor Donovan. Movie: Step Up 2, Perfect MatchCasandra Elizabeth Ventura
CEV- Actress
- Soundtrack
The exceedingly lovely and highly musical Benay Venuta was born on January 27, 1911, as Benvenuta Rose Crooke in San Francisco, California. Attending finishing school in Geneva, she subsequently dropped out and headed off to London.
Her career in show business began as a teenage dancer in 1925. Returning to the States a few years later, she made her stage debut in "The Big Parade" in 1928, with nightclubs and vaudeville also a vital part of her early experience. Following a role in the musical revue "Tip Toes" (1929), the flashy blonde performer appeared ready for bigger things. Her Broadway career began quite auspiciously when, a complete unknown at the time, she replaced the irrepressible Ethel Merman in Cole Porter's huge hit "Anything Goes" in 1935. They were big and boisterous shoes to fill but Benay filled them well and was a great success. She and Merman became lifelong friends as well.
With the die cast, Benay followed it with equally flashy roles in lesser Broadway musicals such as "Orchids Preferred" (1937), Kiss the Boys Goodbye" (1938), "By Jupiter" (1942), "Hazel Flagg" (1953), and "Copper and Brass" (1957). She maintained a steady income in between by touring and playing summer stock in a mixture of singing and straight-acting roles. Credits included "Dear Me, the Sky Is Falling," "Little Me," "A Little Night Music," "Bus Stop," "Gypsy," "Come Blow Your Horn," "Auntie Mame," "Light Up the Sky," "Carousel," "Pal Joey," "Come Back, Little Sheba" and "The Prisoner of Second Avenue."
In 1966, Benay performed in the revival of "Annie Get Your Gun" with good friend Merman at Lincoln Center playing the role of Dolly Tate. She had earlier played the same role in the MGM film version of Annie Get Your Gun (1950) with Betty Hutton in the Annie Oakley role. As for films, the slender-framed blonde made her debut in The Trail of '98 (1928) while still a teen, but appeared very erratically thereafter -- mostly in supports. Her better known movies include the "B" film noir programmers Repeat Performance (1947) and I, Jane Doe (1948), and the Fox musical Call Me Mister (1951) in which she joined stars Betty Grable, Danny Thomas and Dan Dailey in the song "Love Is Back in Business."
Dropping out of show business, she came back from time to time in the 1970s. Thrice married and divorced, Benay's last husband was character actor Fred Clark, but the couple split up in 1962. Benay had two children, Pat and Debbie, via her second marriage to film producer Armand Deutsch (I)'. Her highly artistic tendencies also included sculpting and commercial design. Suffering from lung cancer, Benay died at her home in Manhattan, New York City on September 1, 1995, at age 84.Benvenuta Rose Crooke
BRC- Actress
- Soundtrack
Vera-Ellen began dancing at the age of 10, and a few years later became one of the youngest Rockettes. She appeared in several Broadway musicals until she was spotted by film producer Samuel Goldwyn in 1945. She was only 24 years old when Goldwyn cast her opposite Danny Kaye in Wonder Man (1945). She danced with Fred Astaire in Three Little Words (1950) and with Gene Kelly in On the Town (1949). Blonde, slim of build, and a dancing sensation, she appeared in a string of light-hearted but successful films. Vera-Ellen retired from acting in the late 1950s.Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe
V-EWR- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Art Department
Gwen Verdon was born to the theater. Her mother, Gertrude, was a vaudevillian and dancer. Her father, Joseph, was an MGM studio electrician. She had to wear corrective boots as a child to straighten out her legs, which were misshapen by childhood illness. Nonetheless, she first appeared as a tapper on stage at age 6. She got her break in Bob Fosse's "Damn Yankees" in 1955. She married Fosse in 1960 and separated from him, although never divorcing him, in the mid-'70s. More stage and screen work quickly followed with highlights in "New Girl In Town", "Redhead", "Sweet Charity", and "Chicago". She and her daughter, Nicole Fosse, created the current stage musical "Fosse". Upon her death, Broadway dimmed all of its marquee lights in tribute.Gwyneth Evelyn Verdon
GEV- Actress
- Soundtrack
Most baby-boomers remember actress Elena Verdugo from her pleasant, plain but rather dowdy Emmy-nominated role as "Consuelo Lopez", the altruistic assistant and sometime aide-de-camp to Robert Young's general practitioner for several seasons on the popular Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) dramatic series. However, decades before donning her drab white nurse's hat, she was an alluring 40s Universal player who displayed her best assets in their "B" adventure yarns and horror opuses. One who was probably wise to keep a set of hoop earrings nearby at all times, Elena reliably hauled out a reliable number of gypsies, harem dancers, peasant girls, Indian maidens and senoritas over the years before TV instigated the second stretch of her career.
Elena was born April 20, 1925, in Paso Robles, California, and began putting on dance shoes as a kindergartener. At age 6, she made her movie debut in the western Cavalier of the West (1931) starring Harry Carey, but didn't come back to films until her teen years. She nominally provided exotic footwork for such movies as Down Argentine Way (1940) with Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda, the Tyrone Power starrer Blood and Sand (1941), and the war picture To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), among others. She received her first big break featured as the object of desire of George Sanders's impressionist painter Paul Gauguin in The Moon and Sixpence (1942).
Universal used her consistently in the mid- to late-40s, starting her off as the touching and vulnerable gypsy girl "Ilonka" in the multiple monster bash House of Frankenstein (1944) which featured the holy horror trinity of Dracula, the Werewolf and Frankenstein's Monster. A natural blonde who got plenty of wear out of the dark wigs handed to her for these kinds of roles, her best scenes in the movie were with the doomed lycanthropic "Larry Talbot", played by Lon Chaney Jr.. She went on to appear with Chaney again in The Frozen Ghost (1945). While filming the Abbott and Costello comedy Little Giant (1946), she met and married movie writer Charles R. Marion, who also wrote for the comedy duo's radio show. The couple had one son, Richard Marion, who later became an actor/director in his own right. A real trooper despite her stereotype, Elena forged on in nothing-special "easterns" (i.e., Song of Scheherazade (1947); Thief of Damascus (1952)) and westerns (i.e., El Dorado Pass (1948); The Big Sombrero (1949)) playing whatever ethnic the script called for.
Television became a reality in the early 1950s. She found herself in a major sitcom hit playing a Brooklyn-born secretary for four seasons on Meet Millie (1952), initially replacing Audrey Totter in the lead role on radio. Elena retired for a time after this but eventually returned to perform on the occasional musical stage and on the small screen. After her big success as the nurse/receptionist on the "Welby" series, she slowed down considerably, but she and Young did reunite on The Return of Marcus Welby, M.D. (1984), sans the other series' star, James Brolin, a decade later.
Verdugo, who later married psychiatrist Charles Rosey Rosewall after her divorce from writer Marion, has since appeared occasionally at nostalgia-based film/TV conventions. In 1999, she suffered the loss of her only child, actor/director Richard Marion, to a heart attack. He was only 50. She survived her second husband, who died in 2012, by five years, dying at age 92 on May 30, 2017, in Los Angeles.Elena Angela Verdugo
EAV- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara was born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her mother, Margarita Vergara Dávila de Vergara, is a housewife. Her father, Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo, provides cattle to the meat industry. She has five siblings. She was educated at a private bilingual Spanish/English school. She then went on to study pre-dentistry. However, Sofía was discovered by a photographer, whilst at the beach, and this led to various jobs in modeling and television. At age 23, she was a runway model. From 1995 to 1998, she co-hosted a travel show, Fuera de serie (1995), which gave her exposure in the United States. Her first film role was the criminal comedy Big Trouble (2002). Her breakthrough role was as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the American television series Modern Family (2009). In 2010-2013, she received four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for this role. Sofía resides in Los Angeles, California with her son, Manolo.Sofia Margarita Vergara Vergara
SMVV- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Berlin-born actress Kaaren Verne (sometimes billed as Karen) was born Ingeborg Catherine Marie Rose Klinkerfuss in 1918. Originally a stage actress and member of the Berlin State Theatre, she and her first husband, Arthur Young, fled their homeland in 1938. She began her career in England as a model and eventually signed with 20th Century-Fox for films. No movies came out of this agreement, however, but her screen test interested Fox, making her debut with the drama Missing Ten Days (1940) starring Rex Harrison.
Jumping on the popular foreign bandwagon during WWII along with other European hopefuls, this highly attractive blonde turned in strong lead and second lead roles throughout the early 1940s. An MGM contract led to a couple of films (Sky Murder (1940) and The Wild Man of Borneo (1941)). A freelance contract with Warner Bros. stabilized things a bit. The Teutonic actress initially intended to "Americanize" her stage name to the more acceptable Catherine Young, but her vehement anti-Nazi sentiment made for more publicity and stronger audience identification, so the name of Kaaren Verne quickly returned. She appeared frequently as mysterious ladies in both propaganda films such as Underground (1941) and whodunit mysteries, keeping Walter Pidgeon's Nick Carter and Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes on their toes. For the most part she remained in the "B" movie realm.
Kaaren had a couple of fine chances for stardom. She shared a touching scene with Robert Cummings in the classic soaper Kings Row (1942) and appeared opposite Humphrey Bogart as a romantic interest in All Through the Night (1942), a combination gangster/spy film. One of Bogie's lesser known movies, the best thing it did for Kaaren was introduce her to one of her co-stars Peter Lorre. Divorcing first husband Arthur Young, by whom she had a son, Alastair, she quickly married Lorre in 1945 and put her career on hold for a time. The turbulent union was rather brief, however, lasting only five years before separating in 1950 and finally divorcing two years later. During the course of that marriage, she attempted suicide more than once. Upon their divorce, she made herself available again for films but the wind had already been kicked out of her career sails. Kaaren found some sporadic TV work but they were minor and few and far between. Her looks grew hard and coarse over time and she moved wisely into small, drab character parts, usually as a world-weary matron. One of her last movie roles was the minor part of the hausfrau and mother to Gila Golan in the all-star epic picture Ship of Fools (1965).
Kaaren, who had married a third time, died quite suddenly in her Hollywood home during Christmas week in 1967, looking much older than her 49 years. Her death is somewhat of a mystery. Some sources say she committed suicide; others claim she died of a heart ailment. She was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Minnesota and was survived by her third husband, theatre and film critic/historian James Powers, and an adopted daughter.Ingeborg Greta Katerina Marie-Ross Klinckerfuss
IGKM-RK- Irene Vernon was born on 16 January 1922 in Mishawaka, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for Bewitched (1964), Fireside Theatre (1949) and The Sound of Fury (1950). She was married to Emmanuel Rosenberg. She died on 21 April 1998 in South Bend, Indiana, USA.Irene Vergauwan
IV - Born on August 26, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri, Yvette Vickers majored in picture and theatre arts at UCLA for three years. On a trip to New York in the mid-1950s, she was cast as the White Rain Girl in commercials. She returned to the West Coast, working in various television series until she debuted in her first movie, Short Cut to Hell (1957), James Cagney's first directing effort. She played Allison Hayes' slatternly rival in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) and Bruno VeSota's slatternly wife in Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959). After doing a half dozen more movies through the end of the 1950s, the blonde, blue-eyed actress appeared once in 1963 in Hud (1963), in What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), and in the television movie The Dead Don't Die (1975).Yvette Iola Vedder
YIV - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Christina Vidal was born on 18 November 1981 in Whitestone, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for See No Evil (2006), The Guilty (2021) and Life with Mikey (1993). She has been married to Marcus Mitchell since 25 September 2016. They have two children.Christina Abbi Vidal
CAV- Actress
- Casting Department
- Casting Director
Tracy Vilar was born on 12 April 1968 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and casting director, known for Double Jeopardy (1999), K-PAX (2001) and Missing (2023). She has been married to Eric Daniel since 2 September 2000. They have two children.Tracy Leigh Vilar
TLV- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Joy Villa was born on 25 April 1986 in Orange County, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Confidant (2010), Brigantia and My First Toy Company (2007). She was previously married to Thorsten von Overgaard.Joy Angela Villa
JAV- Libby Villari was born a Tarheel and a hick in Winston-Salem, N.C. and credits the beauty and magic of rural North Carolina for her love of, and reverence for Nature. Her roots still inform who she is today. At age 11 she moved to Sunland-Tujunga on the outskirts of Los Angeles. She embraced Southern California as her new home, graduated from Verdugo Hills High School, married, gave birth to her son, and embraced all things alternative and natural, including political activism. She became part of the "back to the land" movement of the 60's when she and her first husband moved to Fort Worth, Texas, settling down in the boonies outside the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolis. The idea was to own & tend land and nurture a communal way of life. Some of that worked out, and there are some great stories from that time in her life. Before returning to school at age 27, a show biz career had never entered her mind. A college scholarship in Speech lead to her B.A. in Theater from North Texas University, & upon graduation at age 30 she started her acting career. Acclaimed stage performances landed her an agent, she spent time honing her craft with the legendary Hip Pocket Theater and traveled with them to the Edinburgh, Scotland Theater Festival, she did several theater tours across the South, and in the early 90's her screen career began to take off. She's managed to cobble together a stellar career while living on a secluded North Texas Lake, far away from the limelight, with her husband of 30 years, Matt Barnes. She's worked with many acclaimed directors including Richard Linklater, Peter Berg, Robert Altman, Alan Parker, Clint Eastwood, Lasse Halstrom, Robert Rodriguez, Kimberly Pierce and James Marsh. People in the business describe Libby as earthy, authentic, sassy, irreverent, funny, and passionate about the civil liberties of ALL people and protecting the environment. She splits her time between her Texas lake home, Los Angeles, and The Smokie Mountains in North Carolina where some of her family still resides. She's recently returned to the stage to play Ann Richards in Holland Taylor's acclaimed ANN and audiences are raving about her portrayal. Libby IS Ann Richards & was born to play her.Margaret Elizabeth Webb
MEW - Actress
- Soundtrack
June Vincent was born on 17 July 1920 in Harrods, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Black Angel (1946), Shed No Tears (1948) and Can't Help Singing (1944). She was married to William Mueller Sterling. She died on 20 November 2008 in Aurora, Colorado, USA.Dorothy June Smith
DJS- Born in New Jersey, Vinton and her sister, Violet (1914-2003), relocated with their father to California following their parents' divorce. Their father found work alongside his brother-in-law as a motion picture cameraman, but his long hours meant that his daughters were alternately raised by their grandmother as well as an aunt and uncle. Growing up with the movie industry all around her, as a young woman, Vinton decided to pursue a show business career.
Making her screen debut around 1932, Vinton would become a familiar - though mostly uncredited - face in Busby Berkeley films of the 1930s. She appeared in titles like "Footlight Parade" (1933), "Fashions of 1934" (1934) "Dames" (1934), "Gold Diggers of 1935" (1935), and "Gold Diggers of 1937" (1936). Additionally, Vinton worked as a leg double for more famous actresses, so you may very well have glimpsed parts of her in other movies, as well. Although she was often referred to in the press as a "movie star type", she was destined to remain an extra for the majority of her career. After working in over 40 films, Victoria Vinton appears to have retired from the screen in 1944.
Following a brief marriage that ended in annulment, Vinton wed cinematographer Charles "Scotty" Welbourne (1907-1979). The pair had one son together before divorcing in 1953. Vinton married for the third time in 1955, a union that lasted nearly 25 years until her husband passed away.
Sadly, in June of 1980, Victoria Vinton took her own life. Though her actual date of death could not be clearly established, her body was found exactly one year to the day after her beloved husband, Jack (1901-1979), died. In addition to her son and her sister, her father, Victor (1888-1983), was among her survivors.Victoria Velnette Vinton
VVV - Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
The American vocalist and actress Virginia Verrill is remembered chiefly for her singing "That Old Feeling" in the musical Vogues of 1938 (1937). From a musical family, Virginia entered the stage in her mother's vaudeville act as a toddler. By the age of three, she performed with the orchestra of Paul Whiteman, warbling "I Never Knew I Could Love Anybody". As a seasoned fifteen-year old big band vocalist, she won an audition (over 300 fellow applicants) for an off-screen rendition of the title song in Barbara Stanwyck's Ten Cents a Dance (1931). From then on, her strong contralto voice and precise phrasing guaranteed her steady employment as a dubbing voice for Hollywood stars like Jean Harlow (who could neither sing nor dance) or Andrea Leeds. The up-and-coming Leeds ended up replacing Virginia as the nominal lead in The Goldwyn Follies (1938), even though she had already completed recording the entire soundtrack (including "Love Walked In", which later became one of her biggest hit recordings). In the final analysis, Virginia's perceived facial resemblance to established MGM star Myrna Loy prevented her from attaining any form of stardom in her own right.
Hollywood's 'unsung heroine' continued to have more success performing in such radio sitcoms as "Uncle Walter's Doghouse" and in swank Broadway night clubs. She also recorded for some time with the orchestra of Isham Jones in the mid-1930's. In 1942, she left the entertainment industry altogether, married a doctor and concentrated on raising a family.Catherine Virginia Verrill
CVV- Music Department
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Vitamin C (Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick) is an American pop music singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actress.
She began her career as an Ivory soap baby and child actress, appearing in John Waters' film Hairspray (1988), and continued to appear in minor roles in films before starting the alternative rock band Eve's Plum in 1991.
In 1999, Fitzpatrick embarked on a solo career under the name Vitamin C, releasing her eponymous debut album Vitamin C (1999), which was certified as Gold and later Platinum by the RIAA. Singles from the record include "Graduation (Friends Forever)" and her most successful hit, the Top 20 Gold certified "Smile." Her second album, More (2001) spawned several singles, including "As Long as You're Loving Me" and "The Itch."
She would return to acting in 2000, appearing in the horror film Dracula 2000 (2000), as well as having cameo appearances in Scary Movie 2 (2001) and Get Over It (2001), and appeared as a panelist on the spoof talent series The WB's Superstar USA in 2004. She was a video game character in the game EA Sports Triple Play by EA Sports. Vitamin C has her own Tommy Hilfiger lipstick color developed after her signature yellow and orange hair.
On March 21, 2012, Fitzpatrick was appointed as Vice President of Music at Nickelodeon.Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick
CAF- Viva was born Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann in Syracuse, New York, to Mary Alice (McNicholas) and Wilfred Ernest Hoffmann, a well-to-do lawyer. She is the first child of a devout Catholic family, and is of German, Irish, English, and one eighth Italian, ancestry. Her parents had eight more children. She told her mentor, Andy Warhol, that her father was a religious fanatic and her mother worshiped the Irish-Catholic Witch-Finder General Joseph McCarthy, insisting that the children watch the televised Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954.
Janet Hoffman was educated in parochial schools and attended a Catholic college, Marymount, in Tarrytown, New York. She spent her junior year in college abroad, studying art at the Sorbonne in Paris, boarding at a convent. Hers was a life that made her ache for rebellion, and rebel the young Ms. Hoffman eventually did. She became the first non-anonymous performer to perform an act of sexual intercourse on screen, in Warhol's Blue Movie (1969), at the end of the turbulent decade that was the 1960s.
Reportedly, she had had a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized by her parents when she stayed in Paris to try to become a painter, supporting herself by modeling. She moved to New York City in the early 1960s, intent on becoming a fashion illustrator. Living with a photographer, she remained involved with the arts, and one night at a gallery opening circa 1963, she introduced herself to Warhol. They did not click then, nor did they the second time their forking paths brought Warhol into contact with his future movie queen.
It was a different story in 1965, when they met again and engaged in conversation at a party thrown by fashion designer Betsey Johnson. Not lacking in courage, Hoffman soon went over to Warhol's loft-living/work space, "The Factory", to solicit Warhol for money to pay her rent at the Chelsea Hotel, where she lived with her sister in a room that cost $16.00 a week. Of the encounter, Warhol wrote in his memoir "Popism". "She'd done it with all the nonchalance of somebody asking for their paycheck - except that I didn't even know her! What she essentially said was 'I need twenty dollars and you can afford it.'" It was an attitude that would lead to the break-up of their professional and social relationship four years later.
Warhol's movies were always transgressive, and he had decided to move into pornographic production, "nudies" as he called him. (Hard-core porn would come later in the decade). He became entranced with Viva, as he believed he could use the striking, well-educated women in his films (which were pointedly homo-erotic and featured male "flesh" in abundance).
Andy Warhol thought Viva's tedious voice could work to his advantage in dealing with the censors. Warhol was concerned about the "without redeeming social value" phrase in the legal definition of obscenity under the Warren Court in the 1960s. Many decisions finding a film "pornographic," and thus not legally protected by the First Amendment, hinged on whether there was or was not redeeming social value. One of Russ Meyer's nudies had been condemned as obscene and withdrawn from exhibition by the courts as its attempt at inserting redeeming social value had been too transparent and obvious and was felt, by the judges, to be a cynical ploy to make an otherwise objectionable film legally acceptable.
Confronted with Hoffman, Warhol the avant-garde filmmaker had a brainstorm that would make her famous for slightly more than 15 minutes: the Machiavellian Warhol became convinced that he might be able to outfox the censors if he used a woman who "could look beautiful, take off her clothes, step into a bathtub, and talk as intellectually as Viva did".
"Redeeming social value" was the legal fiction that Warhol enlisted Viva to provide in order to make genuinely pornographic movies without getting busted for obscenity. Viva's reflection was beautiful in Warhol's bloodshot eyes and - ever the Catholic rebel - she was willing to go fully nude on screen and even do the nasty.
Warhol's directorial method was to encourage improvisation among his actors while his cinematographic technique entailed aiming a camera at them and shooting continuously for the entire length of a 1,200-ft. reel of 16-mm film, approximately 33 minutes of running time. (Joe Dallesandro once saw Warhol direct a film by reading a newspaper with his back to the unmanned camera that was shooting the actors!) He believed that Viva, with her continuous stream of intellectual babble, would provide him with the legal fig leaf of "socially redeeming value" that would enable him to become a profitable pornographer.
Viva made her debut in The Nude Restaurant (1967), though another movie she had made for Warhol, Bike Boy (1967), was screened first. Playing a waitress in a restaurant patronized by only men (including a bemused Taylor Mead and real-life Army deserter Julian Burroughs), Viva wore only a G-string throughout the entire movie, as did all the male patrons. (A first version of the film, featuring an all-male cast completely in the buff, has been lost.)
But it was Blue Movie (1969) that made Viva infamous for 15 minutes - at least. It was shot in October 1968 at David Bourdon's apartment in Greenwich Village. Although Viva and Louis Waldon actually do have sexual intercourse in the film, they spend more time involved in social intercourse to give Warhol that fig leaf of "socially redeeming value." For 33 minutes, the length of one uninterrupted 1,200 foot 16-mm reel of film stock, Viva and Waldon made love. For the rest of the 132-minute movie (three more reels worth of film shown at the pubic premiere), they spend time talking about the war in Vietnam, cooking food and taking a shower. (The blue tint that gave the alternate title of the film its punning quality was not planned but actually was the result of an error. Warhol had correctly used tungsten film for shooting indoors, but he did not compensate with a blue filter for the sunlight streaming into Bordon's apartment, resulting in the blue tint on the exposed negative.)
Viva was cast in a speaking part in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy (1969), as "Gretel McAlbertson", the woman throwing the party with her "brother" who invites "Joe Buck" to her soirée. The party scenes -- which featured other Warhol regulars -- were filmed in late June 1968, two weeks after Valerie Solanas's unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Warhol.
In November 1968, Viva wanted to go to Europe, and Warhol provided her with a round-trip plane ticket to Paris. In January of the following year, she sent Warhol a nasty letter from Paris that threatened that she would turn on him unless he sent her money. Her disappointed mentor decided to ignore her. She followed up with new threats in February 1969, in a telegram. Again she was ignored, as Warhol had more pressing concerns on his mind. He had to have an operation related to complications from his June 1968 shooting, and when he was in the hospital, Viva sent another telegram to "The Factory", announcing her marriage.
Viva had met and married Michel Auder, a French filmmaker whom she brought back with her to the States. While in New York, she telephoned Warhol to tell him she had signed a contract with the prestigious publishing house G.P. Putnam to write an autobiographical novel. She informed Warhol that she was taping their conversation for use in her book, which she intended to call "Superstar", an expose of the New York demimonde.
Thus, Viva and Warhol parted ways, and she signed up to star in Agnès Varda's Lions Love (... and Lies) (1969), which was shot in Los Angeles. She went off to California with her new hubby in tow. She eventually made 13 movies in addition to the Varda picture, including such films as the Kris Kristofferson vehicle Cisco Pike (1971), the non-Woody Allen-directed Woody Allen movie Play It Again, Sam (1972), Dino De Laurentiis's megalithic Flash Gordon (1980), and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984), but they were just bit parts. She never made another film with Warhol after the break-up, and never achieved anything close to the notoriety she did as one of his superstars.
In addition to her 1970 memoir "Superstar", she wrote a book about giving birth,"The Baby", which was published in 1975 by Alfred A. Knopf.Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann
JSMH - Actress
- Soundtrack
Donna Vivino is a veteran of screen and stage since age 7. A New Jersey native, she was the Original Young Cosette in Les Miserables on Broadway. She is best known for playing Elphaba in Broadway's Wicked and as Serena Maxwell on the web-series "Submissions Only". Her son is Hendrix Lizzack.Donna Marie Vivino
DMV- Katie Volding was born on 13 February 1989 in Santa Monica, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Smart House (1999), Teen Angel (1997) and ABC TGIF (1989).Katherine Louise Volding
KLV - Actress
- Soundtrack
An apple dumpling of a darling, character actress Nedra Volz had one of those slightly vacant, twinkly-eyed faces absolutely designed for light sitcoms and commercial work. Although she didn't come into her own until past retirement age, she enjoyed a solid two-decade ride delightfully amusing audiences all over.
The diminutive Iowa native was born in a trunk to vaudeville parents in 1908 and was immediately thrust onto the stage as "Baby Nedra" in tent shows and similar venues. A band singer and radio performer in her early adult years, maternal instincts took over after marrying her husband in 1944 and she raised two children. But the spark never completely died. In the 1950s she was performing again in community theater shows.
As others of her ilk have done, she took a "what the heck" attitude and went for the professional gigs again in the early 1970s, making her film debut at age 65 with Your Three Minutes Are Up (1973) starring Beau Bridges and Ron Leibman. Light comedy would become her forte and she geared herself up, bouncing back and forth between the large and small screen. Irresistible as a feisty oldster, dotty neighbor or pot shot-taking granny who wasn't above giving a karate chop to a bad guy out of nowhere, producer Norman Lear gave her TV career a booster shot with a couple of his late 1970s series.
She peaked with the popular Gary Coleman sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978). Stepping in as the resident Drummond family housekeeper following the departure of hired help Charlotte Rae, who spun off into her own series, Nedra stayed on the show two seasons and then was herself replaced by Mary Jo Catlett. During the run of the sitcom she was actually doing triple duty as a recurring postmistress on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) from 1981-1983 and as Mother B on Filthy Rich (1982). She subsequently served alongside Lee Majors' stunt-man detective character on The Fall Guy (1981) for a season starting in 1985.
A popular guest presence on such established sitcoms as "Alice," "Maude," "One Day at a Time," "Night Court," "Coach," "The Commish," "Who's the Boss?" and "Step By Step," she could be seen as an elderly wisenhammer at the movies as well in the bawdy, raucous comedies Moving Violations (1985), Lust in the Dust (1984), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), and Mortuary Academy (1988), among others. She ended her career most fittingly at age 88 in the The Great White Hype (1996) briefly providing on of her token prune-faced old lady bits. The endearing Nedra passed away of complications from Alzheimer's disease in 2003 at the ripe old age of 94.Nedra Gordonier
NG- Actress
- Composer
- Director
Hailed as a "Renaissance woman of Austin Texas" by the New York Times, Patricia Vonne has proven herself a truly ascendant and transcendent musical artist. "Cold Dark Hollow" written, directed and edited by Patricia Vonne is the winner at Cannes International Independent Film Festival 2020 for Best Actress (her sister Angela Lanza), winner at the Madrid International Film Festival for Best Cinematography ( also nominated for best original screenplay & best actress). Winner at Florence Film Awards & New York Film Awards, Roma Cine Doc Film Festival and Barcelona Planet Film Festival. It was Official Selection at the Nice International Film Festival 2020, Madrid Art Film Festival, El Paso Film Festival, Hell's Kitchen Film Festival. Vonne began making films through the art of stop- motion animation. Her short film "Huerta de San Vicente", an homage to Spanish poet Federico García Lorca won Best Animation at Madrid International Film Festival, the "El Rey Award" in Barcelona, "Excellent Animation Award" in San Francisco International New Concept Film Festival and official selection at Nice International Film Festival, San Francisco Latino Film Festival, New York Anime Film Festival, Women's Independent Film Festival, & San Antonio Film Festival. The song was the grand prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Vonne's debut animation film "El Marinero y La Sirena" ( The Sailor and the Mermaid) won the "Audience Award" at Cine Las Americas International Film Festival & Excellent Animation Award at the San Francisco New Concept Film Festival. Her Animation "Paris Trance" won "Excellent Animation Award" at the San Francisco International New Concept Film Festival & was the Official Selection at Paris Independent Film Fest, Paris Short Film Fest, Madrid International Film Festival. The song won 1st place in the John Lennon Songwriting contest in the Jazz category. "Cold Dark Hollow" which is the winner at Cannes International Independent Film Festival 2020 for Best Actress (her sister Angela Lanza), winner at the Madrid International Film Festival for Best Cinematography ( also nominated for best original screenplay & best actress). Winner at Florence Film Awards & New York Film Awards, Roma Cine Doc Film Festival and Barcelona Planet Film Festival. It was Official Selection at the Nice International Film Festival 2020, Madrid Art Film Festival, El Paso Film Festival, Hell's Kitchen Film Festival. Vonne began making films through the art of stop- motion animation. Her short film "Huerta de San Vicente", an homage to Spanish poet Federico García Lorca won Best Animation at Madrid International Film Festival, the "El Rey Award" in Barcelona, "Excellent Animation Award" in San Francisco International New Concept Film Festival and official selection at Nice International Film Festival, San Francisco Latino Film Festival, New York Anime Film Festival, Women's Independent Film Festival, & San Antonio Film Festival. The song was the grand prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Vonne's debut animation film "El Marinero y La Sirena" ( The Sailor and the Mermaid) won the "Audience Award" at Cine Las Americas International Film Festival & Excellent Animation Award at the San Francisco New Concept Film Festival. Her Animation "Paris Trance" won "Excellent Animation Award" at the San Francisco International New Concept Film Festival & was the Official Selection at Paris Independent Film Fest, Paris Short Film Fest, Madrid International Film Festival. The song won 1st place in the John Lennon Songwriting contest in the Jazz category.Patricia Rodriguez
PR- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Lark Voorhies was born on 25 March 1974 in Nashville, Tennessee. She first began acting at the age of two but postponed her acting career until the age of 11, when she appeared on Small Wonder (1985). Lark later starred as Lisa Turtle in Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987), the predecessor to NBC's popular teen series Saved by the Bell (1989). She later had roles in Days of Our Lives (1965) and In the House (1995), and starred as Jasmine Malone in The Bold and the Beautiful (1987).
Lark also appeared in several music videos, such as Kenny Lattimore's "Never Too Busy," Dru Hill's "These are The Times," and Boyz II Men's "On Bended Knee." She also appeared in commercials for Head and Shoulders shampoo (1998) and Oxy 10. Lark married her husband Miguel Coleman on 9 March 1996 (now divorced) and continues to act and manage her production company.Lark Holloway
LH- Anne Vyalitsyna was born on 19 March 1986 in Gorkiy, Gorkovskaya oblast, RSFSR, USSR [now Nizhniy Novgorod, Nizhegorodskaya oblast, Russia]. She is an actress, known for Lullaby (2014), Maroon 5: Misery (2010) and Alanis Morissette: Out Is Through - Version 2 (2004).Anne Sergeyevna Vyalitsyna
ASV