Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-5 of 5
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Gloria Grahame Hallward, an acting pupil of her mother (stage actress and teacher Jean Grahame), acted professionally while still in high school. In 1944 Louis B. Mayer saw her on Broadway and gave her an MGM contract under the name Gloria Grahame. Her debut in the title role of Blonde Fever (1944) was auspicious, but her first public recognition came on loan-out in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Although her talent and sex appeal were of star quality, she did not fit the star pattern at MGM, who sold her contract to RKO in 1947. Here the same problem resurfaced; her best film in these years was made on loan-out, In a Lonely Place (1950). Soon after, she left RKO. The 1950s, her best period, brought her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and typecast her as shady, inimitably sultry ladies in seven well-known film-noir classics.
Rumors of being difficult to work with on the set of Oklahoma! (1955) helped sideline her film career from 1956 onward. She also suffered from marital and child-custody troubles. Eight years after divorce from Nicholas Ray, who was 12 years her senior (and reportedly had discovered her in bed with his 13 year old son), and after a subsequent marriage to Cy Howard ended in divorce, in 1960 she married her former stepson Anthony Ray (who was almost 14 years younger than she was.) This led former husbands Nicholas Ray and Cy Howard to sue Grahame; each man seeking custody of his respective child, putting gossip columnists and scandal sheets into overdrive. Grahame herself underwent electroconvulsive therapy after the ensuing stress caused a nervous breakdown. Surprisingly, however, Grahame and Anthony "Tony" Ray proved a happy couple. The union would be Grahame's longest marriage, lasting almost 14 years (10 years longer than her previous union with Ray's father); the couple had two children, Anthony Jr. and James.
In 1960, Grahame resumed stage acting, combined with TV work and, from 1970, some mostly inferior films. She was described as a serious, skillful actress; spontaneous, honest, and strong-willed; imaginative and curious; incredibly sexy but insecure about her looks (prompting plastic surgery on her famous lips); loving appreciative male company; "a bit loony". In 1975, she was treated for breast cancer. Five years later, she was diagnosed with cancer again, although it is unclear if this was a new cancer or a metastasis of her breast cancer. Grahame eventually moved to England in 1978. Her busiest period of British and American stage work ended abruptly in 1981 when she collapsed from cancer symptoms during a rehearsal. She wished to remain in Liverpool with her partner, Peter Turner (almost 30 years her junior), but after Turner notified her children of her health condition and impending death, two of her children flew to England to retrieve her, insisting she return to the United States. She died a few hours later that same day of stomach cancer and peritonitis at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan on October 5, 1981 at age 57.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The country music performer Jud Strunk was born Justin Roderick Strunk, Jr. on June 11, 1936, in Jamestown, New York. He was a singer-songwriter akin to Jimmy Buffett (except Strunk sang about his adopted state of Maine rather than Key West and the tropics) who played the tenor banjo and piano. He also was an actor specializing in comedy.
In 1960, while still in his early twenties, he moved to Farmington, Maine, eventually making his home on a farm in Eustis, Maine. Strunk toured in a one-man show for the U.S. Armed Forces, after which he regularly traveled from Maine to to New York City to perform. He had a role in the Broadway musical "Beautiful Dreamer,' which led to television acting jobs in California during the early 1970's: two appearances on "Betwitched" and a regular gig on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In."
He recorded four record albums of country music: "Downeast Viewpoint" (Columbia - 1970), "Jones' General Store" (MGM - 1971), "Daisy a Day" (MGM - 1973), and "A Semi-Reformed Tequila Crazed Gypsy Looks Back" (MCA - 1977). The albums are filled with his own songs, which evinced a political and ecological awareness. Ironically, he scored a Top 15 hit on the Pop chart with his single "Daisy a Day," a song without political import but that proved to be a good, old-fashioned tear-jerker about devoted love.
In 1974, he cracked the Top 60 on the Pop charts with his spoken-word single "My Country," and his 1975 novelty song "The Biggest Parakeets in Town" made it into the Pop Top 50. Married and divorced twice, he had three children: Rory, Jeffrey and Joel. He died from that particular bete noire of musicians, a light-plane crash, on October 15, 1981, when he was just 45 years old. His sons are trying to get a movie based on his father's life into production.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Sven Gyldmark was born on 21 April 1904 in Søllerød, Denmark. He was a composer and actor, known for Sin Alley (1957), Reptilicus (1961) and Ved Kongelunden... (1953). He was married to Aase Tove Jacobsen. He died on 5 October 1981 in Denmark.- Ian Cooper was born on 20 November 1913 in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Morning Departure (1948), The Atomic Man (1955) and Coronation Street (1960). He died on 5 October 1981 in Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK.
- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Giuseppe Loy Donà was born on 26 March 1928 in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. Giuseppe was a writer and producer, known for Gente felice (1957), Parola di ladro (1957) and Vergine moderna (1954). Giuseppe was married to Rosetta Loy. Giuseppe died on 5 October 1981 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.