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1-7 of 7
- The attractive daughter of Austrian-Jewish émigrés who fled their homeland to Paris in 1937 before coming to the United States, "B" actress Vanessa Brown grew up exceptionally fluent in German, French, Italian and English. She developed an early interest in acting.
Auditioning for Lillian Hellman at age 13 sporting a perfect Teutonic accent, she then earned the chance to understudy Ann Blyth on Broadway in the classic stage drama "Watch on the Rhine" in 1941. Vanessa was eventually given a featured role and followed that with a tour of the play using the stage name of Tessa Brind.
A gifted student who also wrote and directed plays at her New York high school, she was a pure natural when she appeared on the radio quiz show "Quiz Kid." Hollywood and David O. Selznick took notice of her charms and transferred her to Hollywood High. She quickly made her film debut in Youth Runs Wild (1944) and continued in secondary teen roles with The Girl of the Limberlost (1945), I've Always Loved You (1946), Margie (1946), and The Late George Apley (1947), the last being her best and showiest of her career.
Following high school graduation, the now-billed "Vanessa Brown" progressed to young adult roles. She received lots of attention when she won the role of Jane opposite Lex Barker's loin-clothed swinger in Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950), but abruptly left the series after only one attempt.
In the 1950s, Vanessa moved to TV where she became a perky panelist in such quiz shows as "Leave It to the Girls" (1949) and "Pantomime Quiz," in addition to regular dramatic programming. After a small part in the classic film The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Vanessa found renewed attention on Broadway co-starring as the girl who lives upstairs in the phenomenal hit "The Seven Year Itch" opposite Tom Ewell. Of course, she wasn't given the chance to repeat her sexy role in Hollywood. The meteoric Marilyn Monroe was an absolute sensation in Vanessa's part opposite Ewell in the 1955 movie version.
On TV, Vanessa replaced Joan Caulfield on the sitcom My Favorite Husband (1953) with Barry Nelson, enjoying a couple of seasons of steady paychecks. Politics overrode all other interests in 1956 when she actively served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Acting took a further back seat in the early 60s when she married her second husband, TV director Mark Sandrich Jr., and gave birth to two children. From then on she was glimpsed here and there in small, matronly roles in such films as Rosie! (1967) and Bless the Beasts & Children (1971). In addition she had some running parts on a couple of daytime and nighttime TV programs.
Vanessa's last years were marred by a second divorce (from Sandrich) and ill health. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988, she had successful surgery, but the cancer returned and the 71-year-old actress died on May 21, 1999 at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California. - British character actor Norman Rossington was born in Merseyside, Liverpool, so it shouldn't be considered THAT ironic that he would end up appearing in The Beatles' debut film smash, A Hard Day's Night (1964), as "Norm", the Fab Four's chagrined road manager.
The son of a publican, he never finished high school, leaving at age 14 and living a rather wanderlust adolescent life as messenger, office boy, carpenter apprentice, etc. Later, he went to night school and studied industrial design in order to become a draftsman. Interest in acting happened by accident and, eventually, Rossington joined a local theatre group.
He trained seriously at the Bristol Old Vic and began appearing in both straight plays ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") and musicals ("Salad Days") by the mid-50s. Within a few years, he had extended his visibility to films and TV, setting up his rather bumbling persona as "Private Cupcake" on the TV comedy series, The Army Game (1957). Along with roles in a few of the zany "Carry On..." slapstick films. Rossington established himself firmly as a comedy performer with I Only Arsked! (1958), Crooks Anonymous (1962) and Nurse on Wheels (1963), representing a few of his farcical credits. Yet his finest creation was arguably in the "kitchen sink" drama, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), as Albert Finney's sensible, down-to-earth, blue-collar pal.
Though he never attained outright stardom, Rossington became a reliable, familiar face with minor roles in such epic British and U.S. films as Saint Joan (1957), The Longest Day (1962), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (1965), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) and Young Winston (1972), not to mention the equally epic TV miniseries, I, Claudius (1976) and Masada (1981).
Rossington's greatest impression would lie in musical theatre, especially in his later career. Such spirited roles in "Peter Pan" (as "Starkey"), "My Fair Lady" (as "Alfred Doolittle"), "Annie Get Your Gun" (as "Charlie Davenport"), "Pickwick: The Musical" (as "Tony Weller"), "Guys and Dolls" (as "Nathan Detroit") and, lastly, as Beauty's father in "Beauty and the Beast", made him an endearing favorite in the West End. He died of cancer at the age of 70 in 1999. - Yvonne Lawley was born on 4 December 1913 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Tommyknockers (1993), Death in Brunswick (1990) and The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985). She died on 21 May 1999 in Auckland, New Zealand.
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Robert C. Doyle was born on 24 April 1921 in District of Columbia, USA. He was a producer, known for Hart's War (2002), National Geographic Specials (1965) and The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau (1966). He died on 21 May 1999 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Jos Cleber was born on 2 June 1916 in Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands. He was a composer and actor, known for Jenny (1959), Jenny (1958) and Grand gala du disque 1962 (1962). He died on 21 May 1999 in Hilversum, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.- Fulvio Tomizza was born on 26 January 1935 in Umag, Istria, Croatia. He was an actor, known for Moments of Decision (1955). He died on 21 May 1999 in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy.
- Kazimiera Kymantaite was born on 29 June 1909 in Kurshany, Shavli uyezd, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kursenai, Siauliai County, Lithuania]. She was an actress, known for Svetimi (1962), Markizas ir piemenaite (1978) and Maryte (1947). She died on 21 May 1999 in Vilnius, Lithuania.