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1-50 of 2,587
- Actress
- Make-Up Department
- Producer
Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her sister were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but then she discovered the stage, and gave up dancing for acting. To her, it presented much more of a challenge.
After graduation from Cushing Academy, she was refused admittance to Eva Le Gallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory. She enrolled in John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School and was the star pupil. She was in the off-Broadway play "The Earth Between" (1923), and her Broadway debut in 1929 was in "Broken Dishes". She also appeared in "Solid South". Late in 1930, she was hired by Universal, where she made her first film, called Bad Sister (1931). When she arrived in Hollywood, the studio representative who went to meet her train left without her because he could find no one who looked like a movie star. An official at Universal complained she had "as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville" and her performance in "Bad Sister" didn't impress.
In 1932, she signed a seven-year deal with Warner Brothers Pictures. Her first film with them was The Man Who Played God (1932). She became a star after this appearance, known as the actress that could play a variety of very strong and complex roles. More fairly successful movies followed, but it was the role of Mildred Rogers in RKO's Of Human Bondage (1934) that would give Bette major acclaim from the film critics. She had a significant number of write-in votes for the Best Actress Oscar, but didn't win. Warner Bros. felt their seven-year deal with Bette was more than justified. They had a genuine star on their hands. With this success under her belt, she began pushing for stronger and more meaningful roles. In 1935, she received her first Oscar for her role in Dangerous (1935) as Joyce Heath.
In 1936, she was suspended without pay for turning down a role that she deemed unworthy of her talent. She went to England, where she had planned to make movies, but was stopped by Warner Bros. because she was still under contract to them. They did not want her to work anywhere. Although she sued to get out of her contract, she lost. Still, they began to take her more seriously after that.
Returning after losing her lawsuit, her roles improved dramatically. In 1938, Bette received a second Academy Award win for her work in Jezebel (1938) opposite the soon-to-be-legendary Henry Fonda. The only role she didn't get that she wanted was Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Warners wouldn't loan her to David O. Selznick unless he hired Errol Flynn to play Rhett Butler,
which both Selznick and Davis thought was a terrible choice. It was rumored she had numerous affairs, among them George Brent and William Wyler, and she was married four times, three of which ended in divorce. She admitted her career always came first.
She made many successful films in the 1940s, but each picture was weaker than the last and by the time her Warner Brothers contract had ended in 1949, she had been reduced to appearing in such films as the unintentionally hilarious Beyond the Forest (1949). She made a huge comeback in 1950 when she replaced an ill Claudette Colbert in, and
received an Oscar nomination for, All About Eve (1950). She worked in films through the 1950s, but her career eventually came to a standstill, and in 1961 she placed a now famous Job Wanted ad in the trade papers.
She received an Oscar nomination for her role as a demented former child star in
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). This brought about a new round of super-stardom for generations of fans who were not familiar with her work. Two years later, she starred in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Bette was married four times.
In 1977 she received the AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award and in 1979 she won a Best Actress Emmy for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1979). In 1977-78 she moved from Connecticut to Los Angeles and filmed a pilot for the series Hotel (1983), which she called Brothel. She refused to do the TV series and suffered a stroke during this time.
Her last marriage, to actor Gary Merrill, lasted ten years, longer than any of the previous three. In 1985, her daughter Barbara Davis ("B.D.") Hyman published a scandalous book about Bette called "My Mother's Keeper." Bette worked in the later 1980s in films and TV, even though a stroke had impaired her appearance and mobility. She wrote a book, "This 'N That", during her recovery from the stroke. Her last book was "Bette Davis, The Lonely Life", issued in paperback in 1990. It included an update from 1962 to 1989. She wrote the last chapter in San Sebastian, Spain.
Sadly, Bette Davis died on October 6, 1989, of metastasized breast cancer, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Many of her fans refused to believe she was gone.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he was a keen athlete (football and track), musician (singing and accordion playing), and sometime actor.
In 1929, he won a place at Princeton University, where he studied architecture with some success and became further involved with the performing arts as a musician and actor with the University Players. After graduation, engagements with the University Players took him around the northeastern United States, including a run on Broadway in 1932. But work dried up as the Great Depression deepened, and it was not until 1934, when he followed his friend Henry Fonda to Hollywood, that things began to pick up.
After his first screen appearance in Art Trouble (1934), Stewart worked for a time for MGM as a contract player and slowly began making a name for himself in increasingly high-profile roles throughout the rest of the 1930s. His famous collaborations with Frank Capra, in You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and, after World War II, It's a Wonderful Life (1946) helped to launch his career as a star and to establish his screen persona as the likable everyman.
Having learned to fly in 1935, he was drafted into the United States Army in 1940 as a private (after twice failing the medical for being underweight). During the course of World War II, he rose to the rank of colonel, first as an instructor at home in the United States, and later on combat missions in Europe. He remained involved with the United States Air Force Reserve after the war and officially retired in 1968. In 1959, he was promoted to brigadier general, becoming the highest-ranking actor in U.S. military history.
Stewart's acting career took off properly after the war. During the course of his long professional life, he had roles in some of Hollywood's best-remembered films, starring in a string of Westerns, bringing his everyman qualities to movies like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)), biopics (The Stratton Story (1949), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), and The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), for instance, thrillers (most notably his frequent collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock), and even some screwball comedies.
On June 25, 1997, a thrombosis formed in his right leg, leading to a pulmonary embolism, and a week later on July 2, 1997, surrounded by his children, James Stewart died at age 89 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. His last words to his family were, "I'm going to be with Gloria now".- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Don Ameche was a versatile and popular American film actor in the 1930s and '40s,
usually as the dapper, mustached leading man. He was also popular as a
radio master of ceremonies during this time. As his film popularity
waned in the 1950s, he continued working in theater and some TV. His
film career surged in a comeback in the 1980s with fine work as an
aging millionaire in Trading Places (1983) and a rejuvenated oldster in
Cocoon (1985).
Ameche was born Dominic Felix Amici in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Barbara Edda (Hertel) and Felice Amici, a bartender.- Editor
- Director
- Writer
An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding a job at Gaumont British Studios in 1927. He worked as tea boy, clapper boy, messenger, then cutting room assistant. By 1935, he had become chief editor of Gaumont British News until in 1939 when he began to edit feature films, notably for Anthony Asquith, Paul Czinner and Michael Powell. Amongst films he worked on were Pygmalion (1938), Major Barbara (1941) and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942).
By the end of the 1930s, Lean's reputation as an editor was very well established. In 1942, Noël Coward gave Lean the chance to co-direct with him the war film In Which We Serve (1942). Shortly after, with the encouragement of Coward, Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and producer 'Anthony Havelock-Allan' launched a production company called Cineguild. For that firm Lean first directed adaptations of three plays by Coward: the chronicle This Happy Breed (1944), the humorous ghost story
Blithe Spirit (1945) and, most notably, the sentimental drama Brief Encounter (1945). Originally a box-office failure in England, "Brief Encounter" was presented at the very first Cannes film festival (1946), where it won almost unanimous praises as well as a Grand Prize.
From Coward, Lean switched to Charles Dickens, directing two well-regarded adaptations: Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). The latter, starring Alec Guinness in his first major movie role, was criticized by some, however, for potential anti-Semitic inflections. The last two films made under the Cineguild banner were The Passionate Friends (1949), a romance from a novel by H.G. Wells, and the true crime story Madeleine (1950). Neither had a significant impact on critics or audiences.
The Cineguild partnership came to an end after a dispute between Lean and Neame. Lean's first post-Cineguild production was the aviation
drama The Sound Barrier (1952), a great box-office success in England and his most spectacular movie so far. He followed with two sophisticated comedies based on theatrical plays: Hobson's Choice (1954) and the Anglo-American co-production Summertime (1955). Both were well received and "Hobson's Choice" won the Golden Bear at the 1954 Berlin film festival.
Lean's next movie was pivotal in his career, as it was the first of those grand-scale epics he would become renowned for. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) was produced by Sam Spiegel from a novel by 'Pierre Boulle', adapted by blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman. Shot in Ceylon under extremely difficult conditions, the film was an international success and triumphed at the Oscars, winning seven awards, most notably best film and director.
Lean and Spiegel followed with an even more ambitious film, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), based on "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", the autobiography of T.E. Lawrence. Starring relative newcomer Peter O'Toole, this film was the first collaboration between Lean and writer Robert Bolt, cinematographer Freddie Young and composer Maurice Jarre. The shooting itself took place in Spain, Morocco and Jordan over a period of 20 months. Initial reviews were mixed and the film was trimmed down shortly after its world première and cut even more during a 1971 re-release. Like its predecessor, it won seven Oscars, once again including best film and director.
The same team of Lean, Bolt, Young and Jarre next worked on an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel "Dr. Zhivago" for producer Carlo Ponti. Doctor Zhivago (1965) was shot in Spain and Finland, standing in for revolutionary Russia and, despite divided critics, was hugely successful, as was Jarre's musical score. The film won five Oscars out of ten nominations, but the statuettes for film and director went to The Sound of Music (1965).
Lean's next movie, the sentimental drama Ryan's Daughter (1970), did not reach the same heights. The original screenplay by Robert Bolt was produced by old associate Anthony Havelock-Allan, and Lean once again secured the collaboration of Freddie Young and Maurice Jarre. The shooting in Ireland lasted about a year, much longer than expected. The film won two Oscars; but, for the most part, critical reaction was tepid, sometimes downright derisive, and the general public didn't really respond to the movie.
This relative lack of success seems to have inhibited Lean's creativity for a while. But towards the end of the 1970s, he started to work again with Robert Bolt on an ambitious two-part movie about the Bounty mutiny. The project fell apart and was eventually recuperated by Dino De Laurentiis. Lean was then approached by producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin to adapt E.M. Forster's novel "A Passage to India", a book Lean had been interested in for more than 20 years. For the first time in his career; Lean wrote the adaptation alone, basing himself partly on Santha Rama Rau's stage version of the book. Lean also acted as his own editor. A Passage to India (1984) opened to mostly favourable reviews and performed quite well at the box-office. It was a strong Oscar contender, scoring 11 nominations. It settled for two wins, losing the trophy battle to Milos Forman's Amadeus (1984).
Lean spent the last few years of his life preparing an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's meditative adventure novel "Nostromo". He also participated briefly in Richard Harris' restoration of "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1988. In 1990, Lean received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement award. He died of cancer on April 16, 1991 at age 83, shortly before the shooting of "Nostromo" was about to begin.
Lean was known on sets for his extreme perfectionism and autocratic behavior, an attitude that sometimes alienated his cast or crew. Though his cinematic approach, classic and refined, clearly belongs to a bygone era, his films have aged rather well and his influence can still be found in movies like The English Patient (1996) and Titanic (1997). In 1999, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 favorite British films of the 20th century. Five by David Lean appeared in the top 30, three of them in the top five.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Buddy Ebsen began his career as a dancer in the late 1920s in a
Broadway chorus. He later formed a vaudeville act with his sister
Vilma Ebsen, which also appeared on
Broadway. In 1935 he and his sister went to Hollywood, where they were
signed for the first of MGM's
Eleanor Powell movies,
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935).
While Vilma retired from stage and screen shortly after this, Buddy
starred in two further MGM movies with Powell. Two of his dancing
partners were Frances Langford in
Born to Dance (1936) and
Judy Garland in
Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937).
They were a little bit taller than
Shirley Temple, with whom he danced in
Captain January (1936). MGM
studio chief Louis B. Mayer offered him
an exclusive contract in 1938, but Ebsen turned it down. In spite of
Mayer's warning that he would never get a job in Hollywood again, he
was offered the role of the scarecrow in
The Wizard of Oz (1939). Ebsen
agreed to change roles with Ray Bolger, who
was cast as the Tin Man. Ebsen subsequently became ill from the
aluminum make-up, however, and was replaced by
Jack Haley. He returned to the stage,
making only a few pictures before he got a role in the Disney
production of
Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955).
After this, he became a straight actor, and later won more fame in his
own hit series,
The Beverly Hillbillies (1962)
and Barnaby Jones (1973).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Sir John Mills, one of the most popular and beloved English actors, was
born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills on February 22, 1908, at the Watts Naval
Training College in North Elmham, Norfolk, England. The young Mills
grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where his father was a mathematics
teacher and his mother was a theater box-office manager. The
Oscar-winner appeared in more than 120 films and TV movies in a career
stretching over eight decades, from his debut in 1932 in Midshipmaid Gob (1932)
through Bright Young Things (2003) and The Snow Prince (2009).
After graduating from the Norwich Grammar School for Boys, Mills
rejected his father's academic career for the performing arts. After
brief employment as a clerk in a grain merchant's office, he moved to
London and enrolled at Zelia Raye's Dancing School. Convinced from the
age of six that performing was his destiny, Mills said, "I never
considered anything else."
After training as a dancer, he started his professional career in the
music hall, appearing as a chorus boy at the princely sum of four
pounds sterling a week in "The Five O'Clock Revue" at the London
Hippodrome, in 1929. The short, wiry song-and-dance man was scouted by
Noël Coward and began to appear regularly on the London stage in revues,
musicals and legitimate plays throughout the 1930s. He appeared in a
score of films before the war, "quota quickies" made under a system
regulating the import of American films designed to boost local
production. He was a juvenile lead in The Ghost Camera (1933), appeared in the musical
Car of Dreams (1935), and then played lead roles in Born for Glory (1935), Nine Days a Queen (1936) and The Green Cockatoo (1937).
His Hollywood debut was in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) with Robert Donat, but he refused the
American studios' entreaties to sign a contract and stayed in
England.
Mills relished acting in films, finding it a challenge rather than the
necessary economic evil that many English actors at the time, such as
Laurence Olivier, felt it was, and it was the cinema that would make him an
internationally renowned star. He anchored his film career in military
roles, such as those in his early pictures Born for Glory (1935) (a.k.a. "Forever
England") and Raoul Walsh's You're in the Army Now (1937). He appeared in the classic In Which We Serve (1942),
where he worked with his mentor Coward and with Coward's co-director
David Lean, who would go on to direct Mills in some of his most memorable
performances.
Throughout his film career Mills played a wide variety of military
characters, portraying the quintessential English hero. He later
tackled more complex characterizations, such as the emotionally
troubled commander in Tunes of Glory (1960). He also played Field Marshal Haig in the
satire Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) that mocked the entire genre. However, it was in his
World War II films, which included We Dive at Dawn (1943), Waterloo Road (1945) and Johnny in the Clouds (1945), that
Mills established himself as an innovative English film star.
With his ordinary appearance and everyman manner, Mills seemed "the
boy-next-door," but the Mills hero was decent, loyal and brave, as well
as tough and reliable under stress. In his military roles, he managed
throughout his career to include enough subtle variations on the Mills
heroic type to avoid appearing typed. He could play such straight
heroes as Scott of the Antarctic (1948) as well as deconstruct the type in Ice Cold in Alex (1958) and "Tunes
of Glory." The latter film features one of his finest film roles, that
of the brittle Col. Basil Barrow, the new commander of a Scots
battalion. Mills superbly played an emotionally troubled martinet in a
role originally slated for Alec Guinness, his Great Expectations (1946) co-star, who decided to
take the flashier role of the colonel's tormentor. It was one of Mills'
favorite characters.
No male star of English cinema enjoyed such a long and rewarding career
as a star while appearing predominantly in English films. As an actor,
Mills chose his roles on the basis of the quality of the script rather
than its propriety as a "star" turn. Because of this, he played roles
that were more akin to character parts, such as shoemaker Willy Mossop
in Hobson's Choice (1954). As he aged, his proclivity for well-written roles enabled
him to make a seamless transition from a lead to character lead to
character actor from the 1950s to the 1960s.
Almost 40 years after his film debut, Mills won the Best Supporting
Actor Academy Award for playing the mute village idiot in Lean's
Ryan's Daughter (1970), an uncharacteristic part. In addition to "In Which We Serve"
and "Ryan's Daughter," Lean had also directed Mills in memorable
performances in This Happy Breed (1944) and "Hobson's Choice". He gave one of his
finest turns as Pip in Lean's masterpiece "Great Expectations", in
which Mills' performance was central to the success of the picture.
Other significant films in which Mills appeared include The Rocking Horse Winner (1949),
King Vidor's War and Peace (1956), The Chalk Garden (1964), King Rat (1965), The Wrong Box (1966), Lady Caroline Lamb (1972), Young Winston (1972) and
Stanley Kramer's Oklahoma Crude (1973). He also appeared with his daughter Hayley Mills in
Tiger Bay (1959) and The Family Way (1966) and had a cameo in her Disney hit The Parent Trap (1961). Mills
appeared in a Disney hit of his own, Swiss Family Robinson (1960), as the paterfamilias. He
had one of the better cameo parts in producer Mike Todd's epic Around the World in 80 Days (1956),
playing a carriage driver, and appeared in a non-speaking part as Old
Norway in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996).
In 1967 he appeared in the short-lived American TV series Dundee and the Culhane (1967) on
CBS. In the hour-long series Mills played an English lawyer named
Dundee who roamed the Wild West with a young American lawyer named
Culhane, who was also a fast draw with a six-gun. The network was
disappointed with the quality of the show's writing and cancelled it
after 13 episodes. One of the series' directors was Ida Lupino, who played
Mills' sister in "The Ghost Camera" over 30 years before (Lupino also
directed Hayley in The Trouble with Angels (1966)). Mills' most famous television role was
probably the title character in ITV's Quatermass (1979).
He appeared on Broadway during the 1961-62 season as the lead character
in Terence Rattigan's "Ross," a fictionalization of the life of T.E. Lawrence, for
which he was nominated for a Best Actor Tony Award. His only other
Broadway appearance was in the 1987 revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion,"
in which he played Alfred Doolittle. The play was nominated for a Tony
for Best Revival, and Amanda Plummer, playing his character's daughter, Eliza,
also received a Tony nomination.
After divorcing Aileen Raymond, whom he had married at the age of 19, Mills
married playwright Mary Hayley Bell on January 16, 1941. Since he was serving in
the army, they could not have a church service, and they renewed their
vows at St. Mary's Church, next to their home, Hills House, in Denham,
England, in 2001.
Mills has worked as both producer and director: in 1966, he directed
daughter Hayley in Gypsy Girl (1966) (a.k.a. "Gypsy Girl), from a script written
by his wife. He produced "The Rocking Horse Winner" and The History of Mr. Polly (1949), the
latter film featuring his older daughter Juliet Mills as a child. Whistle Down the Wind (1961) in
which Hayley's character mistakes a runaway convict played by Alan Bates
for Jesus Christ, was based on a novel written by Mary.
Living in Hollywood during the 1960s where his daughter Hayley enjoyed
her own Oscar-winning career as a child star, Mills and his wife became
very popular with members of the movie colony. After Hayley grew out of
her child actress roles, Mills returned to England, where he continued
his film work. He became a council member of the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Art and a life patron of the Variety Club.
Mills was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 1960 and was
knighted in 1976. Although he suffered from deafness and failing
eyesight and went almost completely blind in 1990, he continued to act,
playing both blind and sighted characters with his customary joie de
vivre and panache. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts
honored him with a Special Tribute Award in 1987 and a Fellowship, its
highest award, in 2002. He was honored with a British Film Institute
Fellowship in 1995 and was named a Disney Legend by The Walt Disney Co.
After a brief illness, Sir John Mills died at the age of 97 on April
23, 2005, in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. He was survived by his
widow (who survived him by eight months), his son Jonathan, his
daughters Juliet and Hayley, and his grandson Crispian Mills, the lead singer
of the hit pop music group Kula Shaker. He was the author of an
autobiography, "Up in the Clouds, Gentleman Please," published in
1981.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Eddie Albert was a circus trapeze flier before becoming a stage and radio actor. He made his film debut in 1938 and has worked steadily since, often cast as the friendly, good-natured buddy of the hero but occasionally being cast as
a villain; one of his most memorable roles was as the cowardly, glory-seeking army officer in Robert Aldrich's World War 2 film,
Attack (1956).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Carole Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on
October 6, 1908. Her parents divorced in 1916 and her mother took the
family on a trip out West. While there they decided to settle down in
the Los Angeles area. After being spotted playing baseball in the
street with the neighborhood boys by a film director, Carole was signed
to a one-picture contract in 1921 when she was 12. The film in question
was A Perfect Crime (1921). Although she tried for other acting jobs, she would not be
seen onscreen again for four years. She returned to a normal life,
going to school and participating in athletics, excelling in track and
field. By age 15 she had had enough of school, though, and quit. She
joined a theater troupe and played in several stage shows, which were
for the most part nothing to write home about. In 1925 she passed a
screen test and was signed to a contract with Fox Films. Her first role
as a Fox player was Hearts and Spurs (1925), in which she had the lead. Right after
that film she appeared in a western called Durand of the Bad Lands (1925). She rounded out
1925 in the comedy Marriage in Transit (1925) (she also appeared in a number of two-reel
shorts). In 1926 Carole was seriously injured in an automobile accident
that resulted in the left side of her face being scarred. Once she had
recovered, Fox canceled her contract. She did find work in a number of
shorts during 1928 (13 of them, many for slapstick comedy director
Mack Sennett), but did go back for a one-time shot with Fox called Me, Gangster (1928).
By now the film industry was moving from the silent era to "talkies".
While some stars' careers ended because of heavy accents, poor diction
or a voice unsuitable to sound, Carole's light, breezy, sexy voice
enabled her to transition smoothly during this period. Her first sound
film was High Voltage (1929) at Pathe (her new studio) in 1929. In 1931 she was
teamed with William Powell in Man of the World (1931). She and Powell hit it off and soon
married, but the marriage didn't work out and they divorced in 1933.
No Man of Her Own (1932) put Carole opposite Clark Gable for the first and only time (they
married seven years later in 1939). By now she was with Paramount
Pictures and was one of its top stars. However, it was Twentieth Century (1934) that
showed her true comedic talents and proved to the world what a fine
actress she really was. In 1936 Carole received her only Oscar
nomination for Best Actress for My Man Godfrey (1936). She was superb as ditzy
heiress Irene Bullock. Unfortunately, the coveted award went to Luise Rainer
in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), which also won for Best Picture. Carole was now putting out
about one film a year of her own choosing, because she wanted whatever
role she picked to be a good one. She was adept at picking just the
right part, which wasn't surprising as she was smart enough to see
through the good-ol'-boy syndrome of the studio moguls. She commanded
and received what was one of the top salaries in the business - at one
time it was reported she was making $35,000 a week. She made but one
film in 1941, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941). Her last film was in 1942, when she played Maria
Tura opposite Jack Benny in To Be or Not to Be (1942). Tragically, she didn't live to see
its release. The film was completed in 1941 just at the time the US
entered World War II, and was subsequently held back for release until
1942. Meanwhile, Carole went home to Indiana for a war bond rally. On
January 16, 1942, Carole, her mother, and 20 other people were flying
back to California when the plane went down outside of Las Vegas,
Nevada. All aboard perished. The highly acclaimed actress was dead at
the age of 33 and few have been able to match her talents
since.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Fred MacMurray was likely the most underrated actor of his generation. True, his earliest work is mostly dismissed as pedestrian, but no other actor working in the 1940s and 50s was able to score so supremely whenever cast against type.
Frederick Martin MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois, to Maleta Martin and Frederick MacMurray. His father had Scottish ancestry and his mother's family was German. His father's sister was vaudeville performer and actress Fay Holderness. When MacMurray was five years old, the family moved to Beaver Dam in Wisconsin, his parents' birth state. He graduated from Beaver Dam High School (later the site of Beaver Dam Middle School), where he was a three-sport star in football, baseball, and basketball. Fred retained a special place in his heart for his small-town Wisconsin upbringing, referring at any opportunity in magazine articles or interviews to the lifelong friends and cherished memories of Beaver Dam, even including mementos of his childhood in several of his films. In "Pardon my Past", Fred and fellow GI William Demarest are moving to Beaver Dam, WI to start a mink farm.
MacMurray earned a full scholarship to attend Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin and had ambitions to become a musician. In college, MacMurray participated in numerous local bands, playing the saxophone. In 1930, he played saxophone in the Gus Arnheim and his Coconut Grove Orchestra when Bing Crosby was the lead vocalist and Russ Columbo was in the violin section. MacMurray recorded a vocal with Arnheim's orchestra "All I Want Is Just One Girl" -- Victor 22384, 3/20/30. He appeared on Broadway in the 1930 hit production of "Three's a Crowd" starring Sydney Greenstreet, Clifton Webb and Libby Holman. He next worked alongside Bob Hope in the 1933 production of "Roberta" before he signed on with Paramount Pictures in 1934 for the then-standard 7-year contract (the hit show made Bob Hope a star and he was also signed by Paramount). MacMurray married Lillian Lamont (D: June 22, 1953) on June 20, 1936, and they adopted two children.
Although his early film work is largely overlooked by film historians and critics today, he rose steadily within the ranks of Paramount's contract stars, working with some of Hollywood's greatest talents, including wunderkind writer-director Preston Sturges (whom he intensely disliked) and actors Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. Although the majority of his films of the 30's can largely be dismissed as standard fare there are exceptions: he played opposite Claudette Colbert in seven films, beginning with The Gilded Lily (1935). He also co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in the classic, Alice Adams (1935), and with Carole Lombard in Hands Across the Table (1935), The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) -- an ambitious early outdoor 3-strip Technicolor hit, co-starring with Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney directed by Henry Hathaway -- The Princess Comes Across (1936), and True Confession (1937). MacMurray spent the decade learning his craft and developing a reputation as a solid actor. In an interesting sidebar, artist C.C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for a superhero character who would become Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel in 1939.
The 1940s gave him his chance to shine. He proved himself in melodramas such as Above Suspicion (1943) and musicals (Where Do We Go from Here? (1945)), somewhat ironically becoming one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors by 1943, when his salary reached $420,000. He scored a huge hit with the thoroughly entertaining The Egg and I (1947), again teamed with Ms. Colbert and today largely remembered for launching the long-running Ma and Pa Kettle franchise. In 1941, MacMurray purchased a large parcel of land in Sonoma County, California and began a winery/cattle ranch. He raised his family on the ranch and it became the home to his second wife, June Haver after their marriage in 1954. The winery remains in operation today in the capable hands of their daughter, Kate MacMurray. Despite being habitually typecast as a "nice guy", MacMurray often said that his best roles were when he was cast against type by Billy Wilder. In 1944, he played the role of "Walter Neff", an insurance salesman (numerous other actors had turned the role down) who plots with a greedy wife Barbara Stanwyck to murder her husband in Double Indemnity (1944) -- inarguably the greatest role of his entire career. Indeed, anyone today having any doubts as to his potential depth as an actor should watch this film. He did another stellar turn in the "not so nice" category, playing the cynical, spineless "Lieutenant Thomas Keefer" in the 1954 production of The Caine Mutiny (1954), directed by Edward Dmytryk. He gave another superb dramatic performance cast against type as a hard-boiled crooked cop in Pushover (1954).
Despite these and other successes, his career waned considerably by the late 1950s and he finished out the decade working in a handful of non-descript westerns. MacMurray's career got its second wind beginning in 1959 when he was cast as the dog-hating father figure (well, he was a retired mailman) in the first Walt Disney live-action comedy, The Shaggy Dog (1959). The film was an enormous hit and Uncle Walt green lighted several projects around his middle-aged star. Billy Wilder came calling again and he did a masterful turn in the role of Jeff Sheldrake, a two-timing corporate executive in Wilder's Oscar-winning comedy-drama The Apartment (1960), with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon -- arguably his second greatest role and the last one to really challenge him as an actor. Although this role would ultimately be remembered as his last great performance, he continued with the lightweight Disney comedies while pulling double duty, thanks to an exceptionally generous contract, on TV.
MacMurray was cast in 1961 as Professor Ned Brainerd in Disney's The Absent Minded Professor (1961) and in its superior sequel, Son of Flubber (1962). These hit Disney comedies raised his late-career profile considerably and producer Don Fedderson beckoned with My Three Sons (1960) debuting in 1960 on ABC. The gentle sitcom staple remained on the air for 12 seasons (380 episodes). Concerned about his work load and time away from his ranch and family, Fred played hardball with his series contract. In addition to his generous salary, the "Sons" contract was written so that all the scenes requiring his presence to be shot first, requiring him to work only 65 days per season on the show (the contract was reportedly used as an example by Dean Martin when negotiating the wildly generous terms contained in his later variety show contract). This requirement meant the series actors had to work with stand-ins and posed wardrobe continuity issues. The series moved without a hitch to CBS in the fall of 1965 in color after ABC, then still an also-ran network with its eyes peeled on the bottom line, refused to increase the budget required for color production (color became a U.S. industry standard in the 1968 season). This freed him to pursue his film work, family, ranch, and his principal hobby, golf.
Politically very conservative, MacMurray was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party; he joined his old friend Bob Hope and James Stewart in campaigning for Richard Nixon in 1968. He was also widely known one of the most -- to be polite -- frugal actors in the business. Stories floated around the industry in the 60s regarding famous hard-boiled egg brown bag lunches and stingy tips. After the cancellation of My Three Sons in 1972, MacMurray made only a few more film appearances before retiring to his ranch in 1978. As a result of a long battle with leukemia, MacMurray died of pneumonia at the age of eighty-three in Santa Monica on November 5, 1991. He was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Rex Harrison was born Reginald Carey Harrison in Huyton, Lancashire, England, to Edith Mary (Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker. He changed
his name to Rex as a young boy, knowing it was the Latin word for "King".
Starting out on his theater career at age 18, his first job at the
Liverpool Rep Theatre was nearly his last - dashing across the stage to
say his one line, made his entrance and promptly blew it. Fates were
kind, however, and soon he began landing roles in the West End. "French
Without Tears", a play by
Terence Rattigan, proved to be his
breakthrough role. Soon he was being called the "greatest actor of
light comedy in the world". Having divorced his first wife Collette
Thomas in 1942, he married German actress
Lilli Palmer. The two began appearing
together in many plays and British films. He attained international
fame when he portrayed the King in
Anna and the King of Siam (1946),
his first American film. After a sex scandal, in which actress
Carole Landis apparently committed suicide
because he ended their affair, the relationship with wife Lilli became
strained. Rex (by this time known as "Sexy Rexy" for his philandering
ways and magnetic charm) began a relationship with British actress
Kay Kendall and divorced Lilli to marry the
terminally ill Kay with hopes of a re-marriage to Palmer upon Kay's
death. The death of Kay affected Harrison greatly and Lilli never
returned to him. During this time Rex was offered the defining role of
his career: Professor Henry Higgins in the original production of "My
Fair Lady". He won the Tony for the play and an Oscar for the film
version. In 1962 Harrison married actress
Rachel Roberts. This union and
the one following it to Elizabeth Harris (Richard's ex) also ended in
divorce. In 1978 Rex met and married Mercia Tinker. He and Mercia
remained happily married until his death in 1990. She was also with him
in 1989 when he was granted his much-deserved and long awaited
knighthood at Buckingham Palace. Rex Harrison died of pancreatic cancer
three weeks after his last stage appearance, as Lord Porteous in
W. Somerset Maugham's "The Circle".- Actress
- Soundtrack
Eve Arden was born Eunice Mary Quedens in Mill Valley, California (near San Francisco), and was interested in show business from an early age. At 16, she made her stage debut after quitting school to join a stock company. After appearing in minor roles in two films under her real name, Eunice Quedens, she found that the stage offered her the same minor roles. By the mid 30s, one of these minor roles would attract notice as a comedy sketch in the stage play "Ziegfeld Follies".
By that time, she had changed her name to Eve Arden, which she adopted while looking over some cosmetics and spotting the names "Evening in Paris" and "Elizabeth Arden". In 1937, she garnered some attention with a small role in Oh, Doctor (1937), which led to her being cast in a minor role in the film Stage Door (1937). By the time the film was finished, her part had expanded into the wise-cracking, fast-talking friend to the lead. She would play virtually the character for most of her career.
While her sophisticated wise-cracking would never make her the lead, she would be a busy actress in dozens of movies over the next dozen years. In At the Circus (1939), she was the acrobatic Peerless Pauline opposite Groucho Marx and the Russian sharp shooter in the comedy The Doughgirls (1944). For her role as Ida in Mildred Pierce (1945), she received an Academy Award nomination. Famous for her quick ripostes, this led to work in Radio during the 1940s. In 1948, CBS Radio premiered "Our Miss Brooks", which would be the perfect show for her character. As her film career began to slow, CBS would take the popular radio show to television in 1952. The television series Our Miss Brooks (1952) would run through 1956 and led to the movie Our Miss Brooks (1956).
When the show ended, Arden tried another television series, The Eve Arden Show (1957), but it was soon canceled. In the 1960s, Arden raised a family and did a few guest roles, until her come-back television series The Mothers-In-Law (1967). This show, co-starring Kaye Ballard ran for two seasons. After that, she would make more unsold pilots, a couple of television movies and a few guest shots. She returned in occasional cameo appearances including as Principal McGee in Grease (1978), and Warden June in Pandemonium (1982).- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Paul Henreid was born Paul Georg Julius Freiherr von Hernreid Ritter von Wasel-Waldingau in Trieste, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the son of Marie Luise Heilig (Lendecke) and Baron Karl Alphons Hernreid. His father was an aristocratic banker, who was born to a Jewish family whose surname was changed from Hirsch to Hernreid.
Paul grew up in Vienna and studied at the prestigious Maria Theresa Academy (graduating in 1927) and the Institute of Graphic Arts. For four years, he worked as translator and book designer for a publishing outfit run by Otto Preminger, while training to be an actor at night. Preminger was also a protégé (and managing director) of Max Reinhardt. After attending one of Henreid's acting school performances, Preminger introduced him to the famous stage director and this led to a contract. In 1933, Paul made his debut at the Reinhardt Theatre in "Faust". He subsequently had several leading roles on the stage and appeared in a couple of Austrian films. Paul, like his character Victor Laszlo in Casablanca (1942), was avidly anti-fascist. He accordingly left continental Europe and went to London in 1935, first appearing on stage as Prince Albert in "Victoria the Great" two years later.
Henreid made his English-speaking motion picture debut in the popular drama Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), as the sympathetic German master Max Staefel, who proves to be Chipping's truest friend and ally. After that, however, he became incongruously typecast as Nazi henchmen in Mad Men of Europe (1940) and Night Train to Munich (1940). That year, he moved to the United States (becoming a citizen the following year) and quickly established himself on Broadway with "Flight to the West", as a Ribbentrop-type Nazi consul. His powerful performance led to radio work in the serial "Joyce Jordan-Girl Interne" and a film contract with RKO in 1941.
This marked a turning point in Paul Henreid's career. He finally escaped the stereotypical Teutonic image and began to play heroic or romantic leads, his first being Joan of Paris (1942), opposite Michèle Morgan, as French RAF pilot Paul Lavallier. Significantly, his next film, Now, Voyager (1942), defined his new screen persona: debonnaire, cultured and genteel, lighting two cigarettes simultaneously, then passing one to Bette Davis. According to Henreid, this legendary (and later often lampooned) scene was almost cut from the film because the director, Irving Rapper, had concerns about it. Next came "Casablanca", where Henreid played the idealistic, sensitive patriot Victor Laszlo; the poorly received Bronte sisters biopic Devotion (1946), as an Irish priest; and a stalwart performance as a Polish count and Ida Lupino's love interest, In Our Time (1944).
After several dull romantic leads, Henreid reinvented himself yet again. He played a memorably athletic and lively Dutch pirate, the 'Barracuda', in RKO's colourful swashbuckler The Spanish Main (1945). Another of his best later performances was as a sadistic South African commandant in the underrated film noir Rope of Sand (1949), which re-united him with his former "Casablanca" co-stars Peter Lorre and Claude Rains. After the Arabian Technicolor adventure, Thief of Damascus (1952), Henreid's star began to fade. His last noteworthy appearance during the fifties was as an itinerant magician in the oriental extravaganza Siren of Bagdad (1953) . The most memorable of several in-jokes, had Henreid lighting two hookahs (water pipes) for one of his harem girls, spoofing his famous scene from "Now, Voyager".
Outspoken in his opposition to McCarthyism and adhering to his rights under the First Amendment, he was subsequently blacklisted as a "communist sympathizer" by the House Committee on Un- American Activities. In spite of the damage this did to his career, he re-emerged as a director of second features and television episodes for Screen Gems, Desilu and other companies. In 1957, Alfred Hitchcock (in defiance of the blacklist) hired him to direct several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). Towards the end of his career, Paul Henreid directed his former "Now, Voyager" co-star Bette Davis in the camp melodrama Dead Ringer (1963) and toured with Agnes Moorehead on stage in a short-lived revival of "Don Juan in Hell"(1972- 73). Henreid died of pneumonia in a Santa Monica hospital in April 1992, after having suffered a stroke. He has the distinction of having not just one but two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for his films, and one for his television work.- Highly recognizable Irish-American character actor whose small stature
and wizened features made him resemble a leprechaun (a role which he
played on more than one occasion). Probably best known as Willie
Stark's bodyguard in All the King's Men (1949). - Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Mel Blanc, known as "The Man of Thousand Voices" is regarded as the most prolific actor to ever work in Hollywood with over a thousand screen credits. He developed and performed nearly 400 distinct character voices with precision and a uniquely expressive vocal range. The legendary specialist from radio programs, television series, cartoon shorts and movie was rarely seen by his audience but his voice characterizations were famous around the world.
Blanc under exclusive contract until 1960 to Warner Brothers voiced virtually every major character in the Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoon pantheon. Characters including Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Wile E. Coyote,The Roadrunner, Yosemite Sam, Sam the Sheepdog, Taz the Tazmanian Devil, Speedy Gonzales, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé la Pew, Charlie the Dog, Blacque Jacque Shellacque, Pussyfoot, Private Snafu among others were voiced by Blanc.
After 1960, Blanc continued to work for Warner Brothers but began to work for other companies once his exclusive contract ended. He worked for Hanna-Barbera voicing characters including Barney Rubble, Dino the Dinosaur, Cosmo Spacely, Secret Squirrel, Captain Caveman, Speed Buggy, Wally Gator among others. He provided vocal effects for Tom & Jerry in the mid 1960's working with fellow Warner Bros. alum, Chuck Jones at what would become MGM Animation. In the mid 1960's, Blanc originated and voiced Toucan Sam for the Kellogg's Fruit Loops commercials. He would later go to originate and voice Twiki for Buck Rogers and Heathcliff in the late 1970's and early 1980's.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Sir Michael Redgrave was of the generation of English actors that gave
the world the legendary John Gielgud,
Ralph Richardson and
Laurence Olivier, Britain three fabled
"Theatrical Knights" back in the days when a knighthood for thespian
was far more rare than it is today. A superb actor, Redgrave himself
was a charter member of the post-Great War English acting pantheon and
was the sire of an acting dynasty. He and his wife,
Rachel Kempson, were the parents of
Vanessa Redgrave,
Corin Redgrave and
Lynn Redgrave and the grandparents of
Natasha Richardson,
Joely Richardson and
Jemma Redgrave.- Celia Johnson was an English actress, once nominated for an Academy Award. Johnson was born in the town of Richmond, Surrey in 1908. Richmond was incorporated into Greater London in 1965, as part of an administrative reform. Celia's parents were John Robert Johnson and Ethel Griffiths. Neither of them was involved in show business.
In 1916, 8-year-old Johnson made her theatrical debut, at a performance of the play "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid". It was a charity performance, to help raise funds for then-ongoing World War I. Nobody intended for her to become a professional actress, but she liked the stage experience.
Johnson attended St Paul's Girls' School in West London, from 1919 to 1926. She graduated at the age of 18. During her school years, Johnson often had acting parts in school plays, and played music in the school's orchestra. Her music teacher at the school was Gustav Holst (1874-1934), a relatively well-known classical composer.
In the late 1920s, Johnson studied acting at both the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and the Comédie-Française in Paris. One of her teachers was French actor Pierre Fresnay (1897-1975). One of her classmates in London was Margaretta Scott (1912-2005)
In 1928, Johnson made her professional debut, cast in a performance of the play "Major Barbara" (1905) by George Bernard Shaw. In 1929, she first performed in London, and in 1931 she first performed in New York City. She made a name for herself as a theatrical actress throughout the 1930s, and married journalist Peter Fleming (1907-1971).
Johnson's career and personal life were derailed by World War II. A hit role as the second Mrs. Winter in a 1940 theatrical adaptation of "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, was cut short. The theatre where Johnson was performing was damaged through London's bombing by the Luftwaffe. Johnson's widowed sister and sister-in-law moved in with her, bringing their kids with. Having to care for 7 kids (both her own children and her nephews), left Johnson with no time to spare for theatrical tours.
Seeking a way to supplement her income during the War, Johnson started appearing in theatrical films. She started with small parts, but got her first major hit with the family drama "The Happy Breed" (1944), which followed the ups-and-downs in the life of a (fictional) family over a period of several decades. For this role, Johnson received a National Board of Review Award for Best Actress.
In 1945, Johnson was starring in another hit film, the romantic drama "Brief Encounter". It featured her in the role of Laura Jesson, a housewife trapped in a dull and monotonous marriage. Laura falls in love with a new man in her life, Dr. Alec Harvey, and he falls in love with her. With circumstances keep this relationship platonic, until Harvey leaves the country to work abroad. Laura contemplates suicide, but is forced to return to her monotonous life. The role gained Johnson a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
For most of the late 1940s, Johnson was in semi-retirement. She had given birth to two daughters and felt that she needed to devote more time to her family. From the 1950s to her death, Johnson was primarily appearing in theatrical plays and television roles. Her film roles were few, but critically well-received.
In 1982, the 76-year-old Johnson was busy with another theatrical tour. During a day-off from the tour, Johnson returned to her home in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire. She invited friends over to play bridge, but suffered a stroke during the game. She died a few hours later, while still in her home. She left an estate worth £150,557. She was survived by three children.
Johnson's fame as a theatrical actress faded away following her death, as there were few filmed versions of her performances. However, her film roles became available on the home video market, and they have helped introduce Johnson to new generations of fans. - Actor
- Director
- Producer
Lew Ayres was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in San Diego,
California. A college dropout, he was found by a talent scout in the
Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles and entered Hollywood as a bit
player. He was leading man to Greta Garbo in
The Kiss (1929), but it was the role of
Paul Baumer in
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
that was his big break. He was profoundly affected by the anti-war
message of that film, and when, in 1942, the popular star of
Young Dr. Kildare (1938) and
subsequent Dr. Kildare films was drafted, he was a conscientious
objector. America was outraged, and theaters vowed never to show his
films again, but quietly he achieved the Medical Corps status he had
requested, serving as a medic under fire in the South Pacific and as a
chaplain's aid in New Guinea and the Phillipines. His return to film
after the war was undistinguished until
Johnny Belinda (1948) - his role
as the sympathetic physician treating the deaf-mute
Jane Wyman won him an Academy Award
nomination as Best Actor. Subsequent movie roles were scarce; an
opportunity to play Dr. Kildare in television was aborted when the
network refused to honor his request for no cigarette sponsorship. He
continued to act, but in the 1970s put his long experience into a
project to bring to the west the philosophy of the East - the resulting
film,
Altars of the World (1976),
while not a box-office success, won critical acclaim and a Golden Globe
Award. Lew Ayres died in Los Angeles, California on December 30, 1996,
just two days after his 88th birthday.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Of Swedish descent, burly, light-haired character actor Karl Swenson
was born in Brooklyn and started his four-decade career on radio.
Throughout the late 30s and 40s, his voice could be heard all over the
airwaves, appearing in scores of daytime serials ("Lorenzo Jones") and
mystery dramas ("Inner Sanctum Mysteries"). He gave visual life to one
of his serial characters, Walter Manning, in "Portia Faces Life" when
it went to TV in 1953. It was during his lengthy work in this medium
that he met his wife, stage and radio actress Joan Tompkins. They appeared
together throughout their careers on TV and in a few films. In the
1950s, he kept afloat on TV in rugged guest spots (Dr. Kildare (1961), Gunsmoke (1955),
Maverick (1957), Mission: Impossible (1966) and Hawaii Five-O (1968)). He didn't appear in films until age 50+
with minor roles in Kings Go Forth (1958), North to Alaska (1960), The Birds (1963) and The Sons of Katie Elder (1965). His voice
was also well utilized in such animated features as The Sword in the Stone (1963) as the
voice of Merlin. Karl met actor Michael Landon on the set of Bonanza (1959),
appearing in four separate episodes over time. Landon remembered him
when he began to film Little House on the Prairie (1974). Cast in the recurring role of lumber
mill owner Lars Hanson, he remained with the show until his death in
1978 of a heart attack. His character on the show also
died.- Actor
- Writer
Best remembered as 'M' in the James Bond films, Bernard Lee was a
popular character player in British films throughout the 1950s and
1960s. Born into a theatrical family, he made his stage debut at age
six and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He first
appeared on the West End stage in London in 1928, and continued to work
in the theatre during the 1930s, taking only occasional film roles.
It was only after World War II that he concentrated his efforts on the
cinema, and was much in demand in British films of the 1950s as
friendly authority figures, including army sergeants, police detectives
or navy officers. Detectives became a particular specialty, and he
played this role in more than a dozen films, including
The Blue Lamp (1950),
Beat the Devil (1953) and
The Detective (1954). In the early
1960s, he also made regular appearances as police detectives in the
The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1959)
second feature series, usually as "Inspector Meredith". He also made
memorable appearances in
The Third Man (1949),
Operation Disaster (1950),
Glory at Sea (1952),
Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956),
Dunkirk (1958) and
Whistle Down the Wind (1961).
He was effectively cast against type in only two films, as the union
agitator in
The Angry Silence (1960), and
as a disgruntled civil servant who becomes a spy for the Russians in
Ring of Treason (1964).
In 1962, he made his first appearance as the head of the British secret
service in the first James Bond film,
Dr. No (1962). He went on to be featured
in the next ten films in the series, appearing with
Sean Connery,
George Lazenby and, later,
Roger Moore as Bond, and will
probably be considered the definitive "M" by more than one generation
of Bond fans.- Peg Entwistle was born on February 5, 1908 in Port Talbot, Wales at the home of her maternal grandparents, John and Caroline Stevenson because Caroline was to act as midwife. Peg's mother was Emily Stevenson Entwistle and her father was actor/ stage manager Robert Symes Entwistle (1872-1922). They married on November 3, 1904. When mother and child were able to travel, the family returned to their modest home in the London neighborhood of West Kensington where Peg spent the first few years of her life.
Both Robert and his brother Charles Harold Entwistle were actors. This no doubt influenced Peg Entwistle's acting aspirations from a very early age. So much of Robert and Peg's history is tied to Charles because it was Charles who was their lifeline, the one who saved the day, time after time. By 1908 when Peg was born, both brothers were working steadily as actors. Charles Entwistle not only had more experience, he had better contacts. His New York employer was famous stage producer Charles Frohman who, with his two brothers Daniel and Gustave Frohman, owned or had access to over 800 theaters in Europe and the United States. Charles Entwistle trained as an actor in Paris and Heidelberg, but it was his great organizational skills that showed he was best suited to working as a manager and business agent in England. He was accustomed to dealing with actor contracts, touring arrangements, and temperamental theater owners. In 1906, producer Charles Frohman paid Charles Entwistle's way to America and introduced him to the Broadway stage. It was around this time that Frohman gave him the job of managing the great Shakespearean actor Walter Hampden. They became fast friends which lasted until Charles Entwistle's death in 1944. At least once a year, Charles Frohman sailed from New York to Europe, to check on his theaters and to shop for new plays. As a valued employee, Charles Entwistle often accompanied him and was trusted to manage Frohman's affairs in his absence.
Peg's father Robert evidently got enough work as an actor to comfortably take care of his family because while their home was not lavish, it was in a London neighborhood where the homes were slightly upscale. No doubt it probably came as quite a surprise to their family, friends and neighbors when Robert Entwistle decided to divorce his wife Emily in 1910. After a bitter custody dispute, Robert was granted full custody of his two year old daughter. However he lied when he told Peg that her mother had died. Peg believed it, because she never saw her mother again. But, she wasn't dead.
Years later when Robert Entwistle died in 1922, Peg was 14 years old. There was a mysterious statement in Robert Entwistle's Last Will and Testament dated December 15, 1922 in which Robert Entwistle stated: " Millicent Lilian Entwistle is the daughter of my first wife whom I divorced and the custody of my said daughter was awarded to me. I do not desire said daughter to be at any time in the custody or control of her said mother."
If Emily Stevenson were dead, such a statement would not have been necessary at all. Her Uncle Charles verified that her mother did not die in 1910 as she was told, that her parents had divorced in 1910 because Emily Stevenson had been having an affair with an actor named Julius Shaw who later died in 1918 during WWI. This explanation, in part, explains Robert's mysterious statement.
The date of the letter and Will are suspicious because they were dated December 15, 1922, almost 12 years after her mother supposedly died. The date is also suspect because Robert Entwistle was hit by the limo on the evening of November 2, 1922, and was in a coma until he died on December 19, 1922. He was likely heavily medicated due to his injuries which according to the interview Charles Entwistle gave to the New York Times, his ribs and his spine were lodged in his brain. Robert Entwistle could not have been of sound mind to authorize the Will or the letter.
The year 1910 was momentous for King Edward VII too. When he died, everything stopped for about a year. For the coronation of his successor, King George V, celebrations were planned on a grand scale. Charles Entwistle's employer, producer Charles Frohman was chosen for the planning committee to choose and schedule the festivities at His Majesty's Theater in London. To perform Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the committee chose Robert and Charles Entwistle. Peg, at not quite three years old, had a ringside seat to watch her father and uncle perform for King Edward V and Queen Mary.
When the festivities were over, Charles Entwistle went back to work in New York and Robert stayed in England to raise Peg with help from his family. In 1911, Charles Entwistle, age 45, met successful stage actress Jane Ross, age 26. Their courtship consisted of commuting back and forth between stage work in New York and relaxing at her ranch in Santa Monica, California. They married on June 5, 1912 at her family's home in Ohio. When they returned from their honeymoon, they were hired by the Shubert brothers to tour the United States with one play after another with short and long engagements. In April 1913, Charles and his bride sailed back to England on the SS Olympic so Jane could meet Robert, Peg and the rest of the Entwistle family. His employer, Charles Frohman also happened to be traveling on the SS Olympic. After dinner, Charles Entwistle inquired if Frohman had an open position for his brother Robert. Charles Frohman promised to hire him initially as a stage manager and to bring Robert and his daughter to New York.
Charles Frohman interviewed Robert Entwistle in England and hired him as stage manager in Frohman's New York theaters. Charles, Jane, Robert and Peg sailed from England on the SS Chicago and arrived in New York on July 29, 1913, marking Peg's official move to the US. Various accounts give the year 1916 as the year Robert and Peg 'first' sailed from England to New York on the SS Philadelphia. They did sail on the SS Philadelphia in 1916, but that was not Robert's or Peg's first trip. The reason their names were on the ship's 1916 manifest was because Robert, Peg, new wife Lauretta, Charles and Jane were sailing home to England from New York to attend a family reunion. Further proof was that Robert had been working on plays in the United States several times since 1912 with Charles Frohman's touring companies. It is Jane's diary that documents everyone's movements from 1911 onward when she first met Charles Entwistle, proving that Robert Entwistle and his daughter had sailed to the United States long before the 1916 date.
When Charles Entwistle introduced his new wife to his brother, Robert was bowled over and not so jokingly inquired if she had any sisters. She did.
From July 1913 on, life got busy and stayed busy. Rehearsals began for Robert's Broadway debut in The Younger Generation at Charles Frohman's Lyceum Theater which was scheduled for September 1913. That same month, Robert Entwistle was introduced to Jane's sister Lauretta Ross who would become his second wife. While Robert enjoyed acting and being a stage manager, more than anything he wanted to own his own business and raise a family. He opened a specialty shop on Madison Avenue where he made elaborate gift boxes for wealthy clients.
On July 29, 1914, Robert and Lauretta were married in Clarklake, Michigan. Peg was six years old and stayed with her new Ross relatives while her father and her new mother went on their honeymoon to Niagara Falls. In September 1914, the New York Times reviewed the Broadway production of The Beautiful Adventure with Robert Entwistle's name simply as a mention on the cast list. Meanwhile, Charles and Jane began the transition from stage plays in New York to making motion pictures in California. Charles already made his directorial debut and he felt that films were the next step. Peg spent a lot of time at both her father's home and her uncle's two homes. She was introduced to Jane's Santa Monica ranch, and enjoyed spending time in the stables.
On May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat and over 1198 people were killed. Among the passengers who were killed was Charles Frohman, the Entwistle's New York employer. His body (#24) was recovered the next day. There were several memorial tributes held in the US and in England. Robert, Lauretta and Peg Entwistle attended his funeral with Charles Entwistle's friend Walter Hampden and his wife Mabel Moore. Charles and Jane attended one of the memorials held in California.
Robert and Lauretta had two sons: Milton Ross Entwistle was born in 1917. He died in 2018 at the age of 100. Robert Bleaks Entwistle was born in 1919. He died in 2004 at age 85. Tragedy struck this family again and again: On April 2, 1921, Lauretta died suddenly from meningitis leaving Robert with 14 year old Peg, 4 year old Milton and 2 year old Robert. Charles and Jane came to the rescue to help out as did the Ross family in Ohio and Michigan. Then, a little over a year later, at 10:30pm on November 2, 1922 (Election Day), Peg's father, Robert was struck by a limousine driver on Park Avenue at 72nd Street after leaving his Madison Avenue specialty shop. The limo driver was observed looking at the injured man lying on the ground, then he ran back to the limo and quickly drove away. A man and woman at the scene transported Robert Entwistle to the Accident Ward at Presbyterian Hospital where it was determined that he was in a coma due to his injuries. When he was stabilized, Robert Entwistle was moved to Bellevue Hospital and then moved one last time to Prospect Heights Hospital, a private hospital in Brooklyn. None of the pedestrian observers wrote down the correct license number of the limo. Robert Entwistle lay in coma for 47 days and died on December 18th, 1922 at Prospect Heights Hospital. His brother Charles Harold Entwistle said, when he was interviewed by the New York Times at his Hotel Flanders suite, that Robert's spine was broken in two places and had penetrated the brain which was the actual cause of death. The newspaper reported that Robert was about 50 years old, and left three children: Millicent, age 15, Milton, age 5, and Robert, age 4. His body was taken to Cincinnati and buried next to his second wife Lauretta Ross Entwistle in Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio.
Charles and Jane Entwistle adopted Peg, Milton and Robert. In 1924, they enrolled Peg in Henry Jewett's Repertory School in Boston to study acting. She was one of the Henry Jewett Players and studied with famed director & actress, Blanche Yurka. In 1925, Charles Entwistle's friend and employer, actor Walter Hampden, gave Peg her first Broadway role in his production of Hamlet, starring Ethel Barrymore. It was an uncredited walk-on part where she carried the King's train and brought in the poison cup, but it was enough for Peg to attract the attention of scouts from the prestigious New York Theatre Guild. She was the youngest actress ever to be recruited. At age 17, Peg played the role of Hedvig in the 1925 production of Henrik Ibsen's "The Wild Duck." It was after seeing this play that Bette Davis said to her mother that she wanted to be exactly like Peg Entwistle. She claimed Peg was her inspiration to study acting.
Peg went on to play good supporting roles with Dorothy Gish, Laurette Taylor, Henry Travers, William Gillette, Robert Cummings, Romney Brent, and other famous directors, producers, actors and actresses. George M. Cohan personally directed her in one of his original Broadway comedies. Peg traveled around the country as a representative of the Guild during a special tour celebrating the Theatre Guild's ten-year birthday. The tour was orchestrated by the great Bernard Shaw. Peg received rave reviews in each play, including plays the critics did not like. Her longest running play was the 1927 hit play Tommy starring Sidney Toler. It ran for 232 performances and is the play for which Peg is most remembered.
On April 18, 1927, Peg married actor Robert Keith in the chapel of the New York City Clerk's office. Keith, who was also a writer, notably "The Tightwad," wasn't exactly truthful with her. Nearly a year after they married, Peg learned that Robert had been married twice before and had a son by his second wife that he was now expected to take care of while his mother, stage actress Helen Shipman, toured with plays. In 1928, feeling there was no other choice, Peg became the stepmother of Robert's son, a child actor named Brian, who grew up to become Brian Keith, star of the 1960's TV series Family Affair (aired 1966-1971). Peg divorced Robert Keith in May of 1929 on the grounds of infidelity, cruelty and concealing that he had a child. Robert Keith married again in 1930 to Dorothy Tierney and remained married till he died in 1966 at age 68. His son Brian Keith committed suicide (by gunshot) at age 75 on June 24, 1997. He left a suicide note saying he was in despair about his health problems (lung cancer) and depressed because he missed his daughter Daisy Keith Sampson, an actress who starred with Brian Keith on Heartland, who had committed suicide two months prior on April 16, 1997.
In 1932, after the popular James Barrie revival of "Alice Sit-By-The-Fire" was pulled because of problems with the star actress, Laurette Taylor, Peg Entwistle was brought out to Los Angeles by producers Edward DeBlasio and
Homer Curran especially to co-star opposite Billie Burke and Humphrey Bogart in a tryout production of Romney Brent's "The Mad Hopes." The show was a huge smash and Peg was again given accolades. Three days after the production had ended, Peg was in her room at her uncle and aunt's California house at 2428 Beachwood Drive, packing to go back to New York, when RKO Pictures called. They asked if she would come in to do a screen test. She did and was soon signed to a small role in David O. Selznick's Thirteen Women (1932), with Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy. The film was a flop despite the talents of movie stars like Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy. Peg's contract was not renewed.
It was the worst year of The Great Depression. Money was tight for everyone. Peg was broke and had no way to get back to New York. There were no stage roles to be had in Los Angeles. In her mind, with no prospects, everything seemed hopeless. On Friday evening, September 16th, 1932, Peg left a note for her Uncle Charles and Aunt Jane Entwistle saying that she was going to visit friends and to buy some books. On Sunday, September 18th, 1932, a hiker found Peg's coat, one of her shoes and her purse containing her suicide note. The hiker saw her body lying about one hundred feet below the 50-foot tall letter "H" of the Hollywoodland sign. She gathered up Peg's things, went to the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Station and left them on their step. Then the hiker called Central Station to report where she left the items and to give them the location of the body.
When police found her body, they believed that Peg had climbed up a workman's ladder that had been leaning up against the back of the letter "H" and she jumped head-first to her death. The note found in Peg's purse read: "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." (the initials of her name). An autopsy was performed showing the cause of death was internal bleeding caused by "multiple fractures of the pelvis." No alcohol was present. Because of no identification found in her purse, it took two days for her uncle to recognize the details from a newspaper report and to come forward to identify her body.
Peg's only film credit was Thirteen Women (1932) starring Myrna Loy and Irene Dunne. It was produced by David O Selznick and was released about one month after her death on October 14, 1932.
The nickname, "The Hollywoodland Sign Girl" was given by an editor at the now defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner newspaper.
Peg is buried in the family plot with her father and her stepmother Lauretta in Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio. (not to be confused with Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA).
Charles Harold Entwistle (b. September 5, 1866 - d. April 1, 1944) died at the age of 77. Jane Ross Entwistle (b. December 22, 1885 - d. January 14, 1957) died at the age of 71. Both are buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA.
Milton Ross Entwistle was cremated when he died at age 100 on February 1, 2018.
Robert Bleaks Entwistle died on October 31, 2004 at age 85 and is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood, CA
What a talented family, some of whom met with their own tragic ends. Although she only made one film, it is Peg's stage accomplishments for which she should be most remembered. But unfortunately, she will always be remembered as the only person to ever jump to her death from the Hollywoodland sign. - Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Buster Crabbe graduated from the University of Southern California. In
1931, while working on
That's My Boy (1932) for Columbia
Pictures, he was tested by MGM for Tarzan and rejected. Paramount
Pictures put him in
King of the Jungle (1933) as
Kaspa, the Lion Man (after a book of that title but clearly a copy of
the Tarzan stories). Publicity for this film emphasized his having won
the 1932 Olympic 400-meter freestyle swimming championship and
suggested a rivalry with
Johnny Weissmuller. Producer
Sol Lesser wanted Crabbe for an independent
Tarzan the Fearless (1933),
though he first had to get
James Pierce to waive rights to the
part already promised to him by his father-in-law,
Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film was
released as both a feature and a serial; most houses showed only the
first serial episode, which critics panned as a badly organized
feature. Just prior to the film's release, Crabbe married his college
sweetheart and gave himself one year to either make it as an actor or
start law school at USC. Paramount put him in a number of Zane Grey
westerns, then Universal Pictures gave him the lead in very
successful sci-fi serials (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers) from 1936 to 1940. In
1940, he began a string of Billy the Kid westerns for low-budget (very
low-budget) studio PRC. After World War II, he devoted much of his
time to his swimming pool corporation and operation of a boys' camp in
New York. In 1950, he made the serials
Pirates of the High Seas (1950)
and King of the Congo (1952).
In addition, he was very active on television in the 1950s. In 1953, he
hosted a local show in New York City that featured his serials. He
played the title role in the adventure series
Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955).
During television's "Golden Age", he had several "meaty" lead roles on
such weekly anthology series as "Kraft Theater" ("Million Dollar
Rookie") and "Philco Television Playhouse" ("Cowboy for Chris") He
later returned to western features to play Wyatt Earp in
Badman's Country (1958) and gave
a stellar performance. Buster Crabbe died at age 75 of a heart attack
on April 23, 1983.- American character actor of stage, films, and television. A native of
Idaho, Rainey was the son of a colorful character who was, among many
other things, a champion of local dance contests. As a boy, Rainey was
painfully shy, but found an outlet in school plays. He pursued stage
work in regional companies, then went to New York to study with the
legendary Michael Chekhov. He worked numerous "civilian" jobs while attempting
to make a career as an actor, including work as a logger, a lineman,
and a licensed carpenter. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard during
World War II, then went to California where he helped start the Ojai
Valley Players and then acted in his first film in 1949. He became a
familiar face in films and television shows of all sorts during the
next five decades while maintaining a deep attachment to the theatre.
In his ninetieth year, he played Giles Corey in "The Crucible" at
Theatricum Botanicum, the Topanga, California theatre founded by his
friend, the late Will Geer. - Actor
- Producer
- Director
Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor.
Berle's career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre (1948-55), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during the first Golden Age of Television. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV.
Berle won the Emmy for Most Outstanding Kinescoped Personality in 1950. In 1979, Berle was awarded a special Emmy Award, titled "Mr. Television." He was twice nominated for Emmys for his acting, in 1962 and 1995.
Berle was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1984. On December 5, 2007, Berle was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Vaudeville comedienne Billie Bird Sellen was discovered at an orphanage
at the age of eight years and hired to tour theater circuits with a
vaudeville troupe. During the Vietnam War she accompanied 12 USO tours
entertaining the troops in the war zone in the 1960s and 1970s. She had
worked as recently as 1995 when she appeared in Jury Duty (1995), starring
Pauly Shore. Other notable performances were in Dennis the Menace (1993) and Home Alone (1990).
One of her best-known film appearances was in the 1968 movie The Odd Couple (1968).
Her last appearance was a cameo in 1997 in the short-lived television
comedy George & Leo (1997) with Judd Hirsch and Bob Newhart. She had also been a regular
from 1988-1992 in the sitcom Dear John (1988), and in a series of performances
as a cheerful and sassy senior citizen in such productions as Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
and Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in the Astoria section of Queens, New York City, Ethel Merman surely is the pre-eminent star of 'Broadway' musical comedy. Though
untrained in singing, she could belt out a song like quite no one else, and was sought after by major songwriters such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Having debuted in 1930 in "Girl Crazy, " she is yet remembered for her marvelous starring appearances in so many great musicals that were later adapted to the silver screen. Among the film versions, Merman herself starred in Anything Goes (1936) and Call Me Madam (1953). That wonderfully boisterous blonde, Betty Hutton, had the Merman lead in both Red, Hot and Blue (1949) and Annie Get Your Gun (1950). Besides Betty Hutton, other Merman screen stand-in roles include Lucille Ball, (in Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)), Ann Sothern, (in Panama Hattie (1942)), Vivian Blaine (in Something for the Boys (1944)) and Rosalind Russell (in Gypsy (1962)).
(Russell could never render Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne's "Everything's Coming Up Roses" the way the immortal Merman did, over
and over again.)
Ethel Merman's lifetime facts: her dare of birth, was on Thursday, January 16th, 1908 & her life expired on Wednesday, February 15th, 1984. Thursday, January 16th, 1908 & Wednesday, February 15th, 1984, differ 27,789 days, equaling 3,969 weeks & 6 days.- William Hartnell was born on 8 January 1908, just south of St. Pancras
railway station in London. In press materials in the 1940s he claimed that his
father was a farmer and later a stockbroker; it turns out that he had
actually been born out of wedlock, as his biography "Who's There?"
states.
At age 16 he was adopted by Hugh Blaker, a well-known art
connoisseur, who helped him to get a job with Sir Frank Benson's
Shakespearean Company. He started as a general dogsbody--call-boy,
assistant stage manager, property master and assistant lighting
director--but was occasionally allowed to play small walk-on parts. Two
years later he left Benson's group and went off on tour, working for a
number of different theatre companies about Britain. He became known as an
actor of farce and understudied renowned performers such as
Lawrence Grossmith,
Ernest Truex,
Bud Flanagan and
Charles Heslop. He played repertory in
Richmond, Harrogate, Leeds and Sheffield and had a successful run as
the lead in a touring production of "Charley's Aunt." He also toured
Canada in 1928-29, acquiring much valuable experience.
On his return to
England, Hartnell married actress
Heather McIntyre. He starred in
such films as
I'm an Explosive (1933),
The Way Ahead (1944),
Strawberry Roan (1944),
The Agitator (1945),
Query (1945) and
Appointment with Crime (1946).
His memorable performance on the television series
The Army Game (1957) and the
movie
This Sporting Life (1963) led
to him being cast as the Doctor on
Doctor Who (1963), for which he is
best remembered. His son-in-law is agent Terry Carney. His
granddaughter is Jessica Carney (real
name Judith Carney), who authored a biography of her grandfather,
"Who's There?", in 1996. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Craggy-faced, dependable star character actor Van Heflin never quite
made the Hollywood "A" list, but made up for what he lacked in
appearance with hard work, charisma and solid acting performances. He
was born Emmett Evan Heflin in Oklahoma in December 1908, the son of
Fanny Bleecker (Shippey) and Emmett Evan Heflin, a dental surgeon. When
his parents separated his brother and sister stayed with his mother,
while he was farmed out to his grandmother in California. He was never
quite settled and his restless spirit led him to ship out on a tramp
steamer after graduating from school. After a year at sea he studied
for a law degree at the University of Oklahoma, but after two years he
decided he had enough and went back to sailing the Pacific. When he
returned he decided to try his hand at acting and enrolled at the
prestigious Yale School of Drama. His first foray into theatre was the
comedy "Mister Moneypenny" (1928) (credited as "Evan Heflin"). It was
indifferently received and Van went back to sea, this time for three
years. In 1934 he returned to the stage in the plays "The Bride of
Torozko" and "The Night Remembers", both outright disasters.
His big break came in 1936, when he landed a good leading role as a
radical leftist at odds with the established elite in the
S.N. Behrman comedy of manners, "End of
Summer" at the Guild Theatre. Critic
Brooks Atkinson, praising the play and
the actors, commended the "sparkling dialogue" and "fluent and sunny
performance" (New York Times, February 18 1936).
Katharine Hepburn, who saw him on
stage, then persuaded Van to take a swing at film acting and finagled a
role for him alongside her in the
Pandro S. Berman production
A Woman Rebels (1936). Van spent a
year at RKO in forgettable films, with roles ranging from a reverend in
The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1937)
to a top-billed part as a burnt-out quarterback in
Saturday's Heroes (1937). By
1939 Van was back on stage, rather more successfully, in "The
Philadelphia Story" at the Shubert Theatre. The hit play, which also
starred Vera Allen,
Shirley Booth and
Joseph Cotten, ran for 417
performances, closing in March 1940. That same year he appeared for
Warner Brothers in the entertaining but historically inaccurate western
Santa Fe Trail (1940),
Bosley Crowther describing his
performance, above other cast members, as containing "the sharpest
punch" (New York Times, December 21 1940).
On the strength of these performances, Van was signed to a contract at
MGM, where he remained for eight years (1941-49). His tenure was
interrupted only by two years of wartime service as a combat
photographer with the U.S. 9th Air Force, First Motion Picture Unit,
which produced training and morale-boosting short films. Back at MGM,
his third assignment at the studio,
Johnny Eager (1941), had proved an
excellent showcase for his acting skills. He played Jeff Hartnett,
right-hand man of the titular crime figure
(Robert Taylor), a complex,
sardonic character, at once loyal soldier yet abjectly self-loathing.
For his role as the heavy-drinking, Shakespeare-quoting mobster with a
conscience, Van got the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor in 1942.
He was immediately cast in the leading role as a forensically-minded
detective in
Kid Glove Killer (1942), a film
which marked the debut of Fred Zinnemann
as a feature director. This was in turn followed by another B-movie
whodunit,
Grand Central Murder (1942).
The prestigious--but not always accurate--historical drama
Tennessee Johnson (1942) saw
Van playing Andrew Johnson, the 17th US president. While the film was a
critical success, it did less well at the box office. The New York
Times commented on the "sincerity and strength" of his performance,
adding "Mr. Heflin, in a full-bodied, carefully delineated portrait of
a passionate man, gives decisive proof that his talents have thus far
been haphazardly used" (January 13, 1943). In between wartime service
and two musicals,
Presenting Lily Mars (1943)
and the Jerome Kern biopic
Till the Clouds Roll By (1946),
Van appeared in the excellent film noir
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
with Barbara Stanwyck (as the
inevitable femme fatale) and
Kirk Douglas (as an alcoholic
district attorney). As the sympathetic gambler Sam who returns to his
home town, ostensibly to expose the dirty secrets of the main
protagonists, Van had more on-screen time than his illustrious co-stars
and some good lines to boot. Van put his tough-guy screen persona to
good use in enacting Raymond Chandler's
wisecracking gumshoe Philip Marlowe on NBC radio from June 1947, with
19 real-life Los Angeles detectives among the live audience.
During the next few years the versatile Heflin dealt capably with a
wide variety of assignments. He appeared as a jilted lover in the
expensively-produced costume drama
Green Dolphin Street (1947);
he was Athos, one of
The Three Musketeers (1948)
and an ex-GI on the trail of a psychopathic prison camp informer in
Fred Zinnemann's
Act of Violence (1948); poignant
as the unloved Monsieur Bovary in
Madame Bovary (1949); an ex-cop in
love with a high-flying socialite in the melodrama
East Side, West Side (1949);
and a cop whose affair with a married woman leads to a plot to kill her
husband in The Prowler (1951).
The 1950s saw Van's progression from leading man to star character
actor. Having left MGM in 1949, he was signed in this capacity to
several short-term contracts by Universal (1951-54), 20th Century Fox
(1954), Columbia (1957-59) and Paramount (1959-60). Apart from the
big-business drama Patterns (1956), he
is best remembered in this decade for his portrayal of western
characters with integrity and singularity of purpose: as the struggling
homesteader at the mercy of a ruthless cattle baron who befriends
Shane (1953); the desperate, single-minded
rancher trying to get a captured outlaw on the
3:10 to Yuma (1957); and the tough,
uncompromisingly stern father forced to kill his errant son in
Gunman's Walk (1958).
With the possible exception of his sympathetic German captain of a
World War II surface raider in the offbeat international co-production
Under Ten Flags (1960)
(aka "Under Ten Flags"), Heflin had few roles of note in the 1960s. He
appeared in the calamitous flop
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
and the equally disastrous
Stagecoach (1966) remake. One of his
last performances was as the deranged bomber in
Airport (1970). His final curtain call on
stage was as Robert Sloane in "A Case of Libel" (1963-64) on Broadway.
Unlike many of his peers, Van shunned the limelight and was never a
part of the Hollywood glamour set. A well-liked, introspective and
talented performer, he died of a heart attack in July 1971, aged just
62.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Her father was Irish Philadelphian newspaperman, Benny McNulty. He was
related to Jim Farley Roosevelt's campaign managers and later Postmaster
General. As a child, she sang songs at a silent movie theater. After
the sixth grade she joined a touring vaudeville act called "The Kiddie
Kabaret." Billed as Penny McNulty, she sang and danced with Milton Berle and
Gene Raymond. Her first speaking part was in a Jack Benny Broadway show "Great
Temptations".
Moving to Hollywood, she took a new name after marrying dentist
Lawrence Singleton. Her first name derived from having saved large
amounts of penny coins. She played a tough nightclub dancer in After the Thin Man (1936)
and acted/sang/danced in Swing Your Lady (1938), one of the movies Humphrey Bogart
regarded as his worst. Though naturally a brunette, she bleached her
hair blonde ever since she got the role of Blondie in that long-lived
series.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Jack Gilford was born in Brooklyn, New York, as Yankel Gellman. He
began his career in the Amateur Nights of the 1930s moving on to
nightclubs as an innovative comedian doing satire and pantomime. He was
a regular at the Greenwich Village nightspot, Cafe Society and hosted
shows featuring Zero Mostel,
Billie Holiday and jazz greats like
Hazel Scott. It is said that he
invented the expression, "The butler did it!", as part of one of his
movie satire routines. He also did a facial pantomime of "Pea Soup
Coming to a Boil". During the 1950s, he was a victim of the The House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) blacklisting which stalled his
TV career until the early 1960s. But after that, he became a regular
popular comic character actor on dozens of TV series and movies. He was
most recognized for being the rubber-faced guy on the "Cracker Jacks"
commercials for a dozen years, from 1960-1972.
He was nominated for Tony awards on Broadway for best supporting actor
in the musical, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", and
"Cabaret". The song "Meeskite" was written for him by
John Kander &
Fred Ebb.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the
film, Save the Tiger (1973),
starring opposite Jack Lemmon, who won the
Best Actor Oscar for his performance.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Linda Watkins was born on 23 May 1908 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for The Parent Trap (1961), From Hell It Came (1957) and Route 66 (1960). She was married to Gabriel Lorie Hess. She died on 31 October 1976 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Lionel Stander, the movie character actor with the great gravelly
voice, was born on January 11th, 1908 in The Bronx borough of New York
City. Stander's acting career was derailed when he was blacklisted
during the 1950s after being exposed as a Communist Party member during
the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. In his own HUAC
testimony in May 1953, Stander denounced HUAC's use of informers,
particularly those with mental problems.
Stander specialized in playing lovable hoodlums and henchmen and
assorted acerbic, hard-boiled types. His physique was burly and
brutish, and his head featured a square-jaw beneath a coarse-featured
pan that was lightened by his charm. But it was his gruff, foghorn
voice that made his fortune.
Stander attended the University of North Carolina, but after making his
stage debut at the age of 19, he decided to give up college for acting.
Along with a successful stage career, his unusual voice made him ideal
for radio. His movie screen debut was in the comedy short
Salt Water Daffy (1933) with
Jack Haley and
Shemp Howard. He went on to star in a
number of two-reel comedy shorts produced at Vitaphone's Brooklyn
studio before moving to Hollywood in 1935, where he appeared as a
character actor in many A-list features such as
Nothing Sacred (1937).
John Howard Lawson, the screenwriter
who was one of the Hollywood Ten and who served as the Communist
Party's cultural commissar in Hollywood, held up Stander as the model
of a committed communist actor who enhanced the class struggle through
his performances. In the movie
No Time to Marry (1938), which
had been written by Party member
Paul Jarrico, Stander had whistled a few
bars of the "Internationale" while waiting for an elevator.
Stander thought that the scene would be cut from the movie, but it
remained in the picture because "they were so apolitical in Hollywood
at the time that nobody recognized the tune".
Stander had a long history of supporting left-wing causes. He was an
active member of the Popular Front from 1936-39, a broad grouping of
left-wing organizations dedicated to fighting reactionaries at home and
fascism abroad. Stander wrote of the time, "We fought on every front
because we realized that the forces of reaction and Faciscm fight
democracy on every front. We, too, have been forced, therefore, to
organize in order to combat them on every front: politically through
such organizations as the Motion Picture Democratic Committee;
economically through our guilds and unions; socially, and culturally
through such organizations as the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League."
The Front disintegrated when the U.S.S.R. signed a non-aggression pact
with Nazi Germany, which engendered World War II by giving the Nazis
the get-go to invade Poland (with the Soviet Union invading from the
East). The Communist Party-USA dropped out of the Front and from
anti-Nazi activities, and during the early days of the War, before
Germany invaded the U.S.S.R. in June 1941, it tried to hamper US
support for the UK under the aegis of supporting "peace," including
calling strikes in defense plants. Many communists, such as Elia Kazan,
dropped out of the Party after this development, but many others
stayed. These were the Stalinists that the American non-communist left
grew to despise, and eventually joined with the right to destroy,
though much of their antipathy after 1947-48 was generated by a desire
to save themselves from the tightening noose of reaction.
Melvyn Douglas, a prominent liberal whose
wife Helen Gahagan Douglas would later be
a U.S. Representative from California (and would lose her bid for the
Senate to a young Congressman named
Richard Nixon, who red-baited her as "The
Pink Lady"), had resisted Stander's attempts to recruit him to the
Party. "One night, Lionel Stander kept me up until dawn trying to sell
me the Russian brand of Marxism and to recruit me for the Communist
Party. I resisted. I had always been condemnatory of totalitarianism
and I made continual, critical references to the U.S.S.R. in my
speeches. Members of the Anti-Nazi League would urge me to delete these
references and several conflicts ensued."
Douglas, his wife, and other liberals were not adverse to cooperating
with Party members and fellow travelers under the aegis of the MPDC,
working to oppose fascism and organize relief for the Spanish Republic.
They believed that they could minimize Communist Party influence, and
were heartened by the fact that the Communists had joined the liberal,
patriotic, anti-fascist bandwagon. Their tolerance of Communists lasted
until the Soviet-Nazi Pact of August 1939. That, and the invasion of
Poland by the Nazis and the USSR shattered the Popular Front.
Stander had been subpoenaed by the very first House Un-American
Activities Committee inquisition in Hollywood, in 1940, when it was
headed by Texas Congressman Martin Dies. The Dies Committee had
succeeded in abolishing the Federal Theatre Project of the Works
Progress Administration as a left-wing menace in 1939 (the FTP had put
on a revival of Lawson's play about the exploitation of miners,
"Prcessional," that year in New York). The attack on the FTP had been
opposed by many liberals in Hollywood. Stung by the criticisms of
Hollywood, the Dies Committee decided to turn its attention on
Hollywood itself.
Sending investigators to Hollywood, Dies' HUAC compiled a long-list of
subversives, including Melvyn Douglas. John L. Leech, a police agent
who had infiltrated the Communist Party before being expelled in 1937,
presented a list of real and suspected communists to a Los Angeles
County grand jury, which also subpoenaed Stander. The testimony was
leaked, and the newspapers reported that Stander, along with such
prominent Hollywood liberals as James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Frederic
March and Francot Tone, had been identified as communists.
Committee chairman Dies offered all of the people named as communists
the opportunity to clear themselves if they would cooperate with him in
executive session. Only one of the named people did not appear, and
Stander was the only one to appear who was not cleared. Subsequently,
he was fired by his studio, Republic Pictures.
Stander was then subpoenaed to testify before the California Assembly's
Committee on Un-American Activities, along with John Howard Lawson, the
union leader John Sorrell and others. During the strike led by
Sorrell's militant Conference of Student Unions against the studios in
1945, Stander was the head of a group of progressives in the Screen
Actors Guild who supported the CSU and lobbied the guild to honor its
picket lines. They were outvoted by the more conservative faction
headed by Robert Montgomery, George Murphy and Ronald Reagan. The SAG
membership voted 3,029 to 88 to cross the CSU picket-line.
Stander continued to work after being fired by Republic. He appeared in
Hangmen Also Die! (1943), a
film about the Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, who was assassinated by
anti-fascists. After the bitter CSU strike, which was smeared as being
communist-inspired by the studios, HUAC once again turned its gaze
towards Hollywood, starting two cycles of inquisitions in 1947 and
1951. The screenwriter Martin Berkeley, who set a record by naming 155
names before the the second round of Committee hearings, testified that
Stander had introduced him to the militant labor union leader Harry
Bridges, long suspected of being a communist, whom Stander called
"comrade".
After being blacklisted, Stander worked as a broker on Wall Street and
appeared on the stage as a journeyman actor. He returned to the movies
in Tony Richardson's
The Loved One (1965), and he began
his career anew as a character actor, appearing in many films,
including Roman Polanski's
Cul-de-sac (1966) and
Martin Scorsese's
New York, New York (1977).
Other movies he appeared in included
Promise Her Anything (1966),
The Black Bird (1975),
The Cassandra Crossing (1976),
1941 (1979),
Cookie (1989) and
The Last Good Time (1994), his
final theatrical film.
Stander is best remembered for playing Max on TV's
Hart to Hart (1979) (1979-84)
with Robert Wagner and
Stefanie Powers, a role he reprised in a
series of "Hart to Hart" TV movies. Stander also appeared on Wagner's
earlier TV series
It Takes a Thief (1968) and
on the HBO series Dream On (1990).
Lionel Stander died of lung cancer on November 30, 1994 in Los Angeles,
California. He was 86 years old.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Anna Magnani was born in Rome, Italy (not in Egypt, as some biographies claim), on March 7, 1908. She was the child of Marina Magnani and an unknown father often said to be from Alexandria, Egypt, but whom Anna herself claimed was from the Calabria region of Italy although she never knew his name. Raised in poverty by her maternal grandmother in Rome after her mother left her, Anna worked her way through Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art by singing in cabarets and night-clubs, then began touring the countryside with small repertory companies.
Although she had a small role in a silent film in the late 1920s, she was not known as a film actress until Doctor, Beware (1941), directed by Vittorio De Sica. Her break-through film was Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945) (A.K.A. Open City), generally regarded as the first commercially successful Italian neorealist film of the postwar years and the one that won her an international reputation. From then on, she didn't stop working in films and television, winning an Academy Award for her performance in the screen version of Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo (1955), a part that was written for her by her close friend Williams. She worked with all of Italy's leading directors of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
She was renowned for her earthy, passionate, woman-of-the-soil roles. She and Rossellini were lovers for some years after Open City, until he began his infamous affair with Ingrid Bergman. She had one child, Luca, with Italian actor Massimo Serato. The boy was later stricken with polio and Magnani dedicated her life to caring for him. Her only marriage, to Italian director Goffredo Alessandrini in the mid-1930s, lasted only a short while and ended in an annulment. Her last film was Federico Fellini's Roma (1972). She died in her native Rome from pancreatic cancer the following year at age sixty-five.- A prolific character actor of imposing presence, Robert F. Simon
drifted into acting via the Cleveland Playhouse, hoping that this would
cure his natural propensity for shyness. After training at the Actor's
Studio in New York he had a ten year run on Broadway (1942-52) in
which he cut his teeth--both as actor and as stage manager--on anything
from drama to musical comedy. In a roundabout way, he was even able to
fulfill his original career goal of becoming a traveling salesman: as
understudy to the great Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman in
Arthur Miller's "Death of a
Salesman".
Robert started in films in 1950, but over the years came often to be typecast
in stereotypical roles of benevolent authoritarianism or grouchy
executive stress. At times he drew unkind reviews from the critics. He
was considerably better served by the small screen, where, for some 35
years, he became a familiar face as generals, police captains, doctors,
journalists and attorneys. We may remember him most fondly as
George Armstrong Custer's disapproving superior, General Alfred Terry,
in Custer (1967); as the sympathetic,
long-suffering father of Darrin Stephens in
Bewitched (1964); or as Maynard M.
Mitchell, one of the wackiest of generals ever to have served in the
Korean War (or any other war), in
M*A*S*H (1972). - Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Born in Chicago, Morey Amsterdam started in Vaudeville at the age of
14, as a straight man for his piano-playing brother. His father, a
concert violinist who worked with the Chicago Opera and the San
Francisco Symphony, wanted Morey to pursue a career in classical music
however Morey had other plans. By the time he was 16, he was working at a
Chicago speakeasy owned by Al Brown - better known as
Al Capone. When he was caught in the middle of
a shootout in the club one night, Amsterdam decided to seek safer
bookings. He moved to California, where he became a writer and gag man
for such stars as Fanny Brice,
Jimmy Durante and
Will Rogers. Morey would become
known as the "Human Joke Machine" because he could tell a joke about
any subject on request. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was on the radio,
where his humor brought him fame and notoriety. He was also a
songwriter, and some of his best known songs were "Why Oh Why Did I
Ever Leave Wyoming?" and "Rum and Coca-Cola". By 1947, he had three
different daily radio shows and comedian
Fred Allen said, "The only thing I
can turn on without getting Amsterdam is the faucet". His first TV show
began as a radio program and carried over onto TV, "Stop Me If You've
Heard This One" (1948). That same year, he hosted his own variety show,
The Morey Amsterdam Show (1948),
which ran until 1950. Amsterdam was the host of the talk show
Broadway Open House (1950),
the precursor to NBC's "The Tonight Show" in its various forms. His
real fame, though, would come after he had spent almost four decades in
the business, playing the part of wisecracking comedy writer "Buddy
Sorrell" in the classic
The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961)
along with Rose Marie and Van Dyke as
writers for the fictional TV variety show "The Alan Brady Show". For
Morey, who was reportedly able to recall up to 100,000 jokes, it was
the role of a lifetime. After the show ended in 1966, he continued to
play nightclub dates and make TV guest-star appearances on shows from
The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965)
to
Caroline in the City (1995).
His film career consisted mainly of small roles in such films as
Beach Party (1963) and
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976),
although he did produce and star in
Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title (1966)
and received good notices for his standout performance as a weaselly,
double-crossing gangster who gets his just desserts in the
Charles Bronson gangster film
Machine-Gun Kelly (1958).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Imogene Coca is best remembered for playing opposite
Sid Caesar in the live 90-minute
Your Show of Shows (1950),
which ran every Saturday night in regular season on NBC from February
1950 to June 1954. Their repertoire of comedy acts included the very
memorable, hilarious, timeless and irreconcilable married couple
Charlie and Doris Hickenlooper. Coca, however, did not begin her career
in comedy. Her father, who was the conductor at a small Philadelphia
opera house, and her mother, who performed in vaudeville, certainly
instilled in her a desire to perform, but nurtured that desire with
piano lessons, vocal training and dance. "I began as one of those
horrible little children who sing with no voice," Coca said of her
early training. By the time she was 13, she found herself tap dancing,
somersaulting (along with various other acrobatics), dancing ballet and
otherwise committed full-time as a serious vaudeville trouper. She left
Philadelphia at 15 for New York, where she plied her trade as a dancer.
She debuted in the chorus of "When You Smile." For the next 30 years
music and dance were her staple. She could be found in the troupes of
musical revues and doing her own acts in Manhattan clubs, such as the
Rainbow Room, the Silver Slipper and Cafe Society Uptown. Her first
husband, Robert Burton (who died in 1955), arranged music for many of
her performances. Comedy and pantomime filtered into her routines quite
by accident. In the production of "New Faces of 1934"
Leonard Sillman, the choreographer for
the show, loaned her his coat to keep her warm in what was a very cold
theater. To augment what warmth she was getting from the oversized
coat, Coca, along with three male dancers in the chorus began jumping
up and down and improvising dance steps. Stillman noticed them and
immediately recognized the comedic affect. He encouraged them to repeat
the routine in the show, coat and all, which they did. Although coolly
received by the audience at first, eventually the bit had the audience
in stitches. Even the critics laughed, crediting Coca with great
comedic talent. To hone her skills in what would become her forte in
show business, Coca did the next four summers in the Poconos working
with Danny Kaye,
Carol Channing and the like.
It wasn't until near the end of WWII that she found much work in her
new field and it wasn't until January 1949 that she was paired with
Caesar in NBC's
The Admiral Broadway Revue (1949),
a show that aired only until that summer. In the fall of 1950 "Your
Show of Shows" was launched on NBC. Coca won an Emmy the following year
for her contributions to the program. She and Ceasar left the show in
1954 to pursue individual routes. They did not, however, match the
success they enjoyed in "Your Show of Shows." Coca attempted a solo
with
The Imogene Coca Show (1954),
but it lasted only one season. In 1958 Caesar and she paired again on
Sid Caesar Invites You (1958);
still, it was not the same. Only in 1967 did some of that same magic
again occur when the original cast from "Your Show of Shows" reunited
on CBS in
_The Sid Caesar,
Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special (1967) (TV)_;
it won an Emmy for outstanding variety special.
Coca starred in two single-season sitcoms in the 1960s: NBC's 1963-64
Grindl (1963) and CBS' 1966-67
It's About Time (1966). In
the 1970s she could be found visiting on
Dick Cavett's talk show and making guest
appearances on
The Carol Burnett Show (1967).
Thereafter, she appeared only sporadically on TV and in the movies--her
most notable appearance was as Aunt Edna in
Vacation (1983) with
Chevy Chase. Coca and Caesar re-visited some
of their old sketches and put together the 1991 show "Together Again",
which they toured throughout the country on stage. In her later years
Coca and her second husband, actor
King Donovan (who died in 1987), lived in
Connecticut and Manhattan, staying close to her roots in vaudeville,
theatre and "Your Show of Shows."- Actor
- Soundtrack
Though stage, screen and TV veteran Arthur O'Connell was born in New York City (on March 29, 1908), he looked as countrified as the American Gothic painting or Mom's home-made apple pie. Looking much more comfy in overalls than he ever could in a tuxedo, he would find an equally comfortable niche in westerns or small town drama while playing an assortment of shady, weak-willed, folksy characters. His trademark mustache, weary-worry countenance and weathered looks often had him portraying characters older than he was.
The son of Michael and Julie (Byrne) O'Connell, Arthur attended St. John's High School and College in Brooklyn. He made made his legitimate stage debut in a production of "The Patsy" in 1929, and played in vaudeville as part of an act called "Any Family." He later toured with a number of vaudevillians, including Bert Lahr. In London he played the role of Pepper White in a 1938 production of "Golden Boy." He played the role again over a decade later in New York.
In 1940, O'Connell began to find atmospheric bits in a slew of films as pilots, pages, clerks, interns, photographers, ambulance assistants, etc. During this time, he came into contact with Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre. As such, he was given the small role of a reporter in the final scenes of Citizen Kane (1941). While serving in the U.S. Army (1941-1945) during World War II, he performed and directed several plays and revues. One of his performances was presented before President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Queen Wilhelmina. Making little leeway in films once his military duty was over, O'Connell returned to the New York and, during the 1948-1949 season, toured with the Margaret Webster Shakepeare Company portraying Polonius in "Hamlet" and Banquo in "Macbeth." Following standard roles in such plays as "How Long Till Summer," "Child of the Morning" and Anna Christie," the actor finally hit pay dirt as meek bachelor/storekeeper Howard Bevans in William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Picnic" which opened on Broadway in 1953.
As for film work, O'Connell returned to it in 1948 after a six-year absence, but could still find very little beyond uncredited bits. It wasn't until he was given the opportunity to transfer his popular Broadway stage role in "Picnic" to film that he found his big cinematic break. Directed by Joshua Logan, Picnic (1955) went on to win two Oscars and O'Connell himself was the only actor in the film nominated (for supporting actor). Thereafter, he was able to focus playing flawed gents on film and TV. Showier character movie roles in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), The Proud Ones (1956), The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956), Bus Stop (1956), April Love (1957), Man of the West (1958) and Gidget (1959) followed, which led to a standout part as the alcoholic, rumple-suited mentor of defense attorney James Stewart in the award-winning courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959), for which he received a second "supporting actor" Oscar-nomination.
Whether warm, helpful and wise or sly, impish and crafty, O'Connell remained a steady camera presence for the rest of his career. Later films included Hound-Dog Man (1959), Cimarron (1960), Pocketful of Miracles (1961), Kissin' Cousins (1964), 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964), Your Cheatin' Heart (1964), The Great Race (1965), Fantastic Voyage (1966), There Was a Crooked Man... (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Huckleberry Finn (1974) and The Hiding Place (1975). On TV he played urban and rustic rascals, both comedic and dramatic, on a number of regular series in the 1960s and 1970s -- "Zane Grey Theatre," "Alcoa Theatre," "The F.B.I.," "Petticoat Junction," "Wagon Train," "The Big Valley," "The Wild Wild West," "Ironside," "Room 222," "The Name of the Game," "McCloud," "The Jimmy Stewart Show," "The New Perry Mason Show" and "Emergency!" He co-starred with younger Monte Markham, playing his "son" in the short-lived, time-suspended sitcom The Second Hundred Years (1967).
Married once (no children) to Anne Hall Dunlop (1962-1971), Arthur was forced to curtail his work load in the mid 70's to commercials as the insidious progression of Alzheimer's began to creep in. He eventually had to enter the Motion Picture and Television Country Home in Woodland Hills, California. He died there on May 18, 1981, aged 73.- Arthur Space was born on 12 October 1908 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for The Big Noise (1944), The Bat People (1974) and Terror at Red Wolf Inn (1972). He was married to Mary (Mollie) Campbell. He died on 13 January 1983 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Small in stature at only 2' 11", but big in demand onscreen, the diminutive Angelo Rossitto was one of Hollywood's busiest "small" actors and appeared in over 70 feature films between 1927 until 1987.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska in February 1908, Rossitto first appeared in silent films alongside stars such as Lon Chaney and John Barrymore. In subsequent years Rossitto also regularly popped up alongside Bela Lugosi in villainous roles, and was a stunt double for Shirley Temple.
Angelo portrayed dwarfs, midgets, gnomes and pygmies as well as aliens and monsters in film productions ranging from woeful to wonderful. Probably best remembered as one of the circus members in the highly controversial Tod Browning film Freaks (1932), as shoeshine man / street informer, "Little Moe", the friend of Robert Blake in the police drama TV series Baretta (1975), and then at age 77 and nearly blind, Rossitto co-starred as the megalomaniacal scientist "Master Blaster" in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).
He died in September 1991 from complications during surgery.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Her Orthodox Jewish family were totally averse to her having an
entertainment career. Her parents and grandparents forced her to leave
the Theatre Guild school (New York) while still a teenager and had
their wills drawn up accordingly so as to discourage this career
choice.
Studied drama at Columbia University, and belonged to the American
Theatre Wing.
When Mae was 17 and living in the South Bronx, she won a local contest
to find the girl who most resembled Helen Kane, a popular singer known
as the "Boop-Oop-A-Doop Queen". She was promptly signed by an agent and
began performing in the Vaudeville circuit. Billing herself as "Mae
Questel - Personality Singer of Personality Songs," she performed
dead-on vocal imitations of
Maurice Chevalier,
Eddie Cantor,
Fanny Brice,
Marlene Dietrich,
Mae West and of course
Helen Kane, among many others. Her
mimic talent also provided duck, dog, chicken, owl, monkey, lion and
baby sounds for radio shows.
Betty Boop creator Max Fleischer heard Mae doing her "boop-oop-a-doop"
routine and hired her to do the character's voice in 1931. She served
as the voice on more than 150 Betty Boop animated shorts until the
character was retired in 1939. Her recording of "On The Good Ship
Lollipop" sold more than 2 million during the Depression.
Best known as the voice of "Betty Boop", she was also the voice of not
so less famous "Olive Oyl" in the Popeye's cartoons, but also the
toddler Swee'pea, and others. She did Popeye's voice once, in the
cartoon Shape Ahoy (1945), because
Jack Mercer was serving in the military
during World War II. Her versatility is probably better appreciated in
the cartoon
Never Kick a Woman (1936) in
which she provides the quivery, nervous-Nellie voice of Olive Oyl,
based on comedic actress Zasu Pitts, and the
deep, assured, alluring voice of the blonde saleswoman, based on
Mae West.
In 1968, the City of Indianapolis honored her with a "Mae Questel Day".
In 1979, she won the Troupers Award for outstanding contribution to
entertainment.- Actor
- Writer
While in Vietnam entertaining troops with Bob Hope and others touring with the USO, Thomas Tully contracted a filarial worm, similar to the worm which can lead to elephantiasis. After returning to the U.S. his condition was diagnosed after a blood clot in a major leg vein cut off circulation so severely his left leg was amputated very close to the hip. This was circa 1971. The amputation was performed in Laguna Beach, California, close to his home in San Juan Capistrano. Complications to this surgery caused pleuritis, deafness and serious debilitation. His death was due, in great part, to these serious medical conditions. He should be remembered as a true patriot who sacrificed his life to entertain our troops during the Vietnam War.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cute-as-a-button, diminutive (5'2"), green-eyed brunette Sally O'Neil (sometimes billed as Sally O'Neill was a silent and early sound leading lady who maintained her leading status throughout her movie career. Born on October 23, 1908, in Bayonne, New Jersey, her father, Thomas Francis Patrick Noonan, was a judge and her mother, Hannah Kelly, a one-time singer with the Metropolitan Opera. One of 11 children, Sally's younger sister, who billed herself as Molly O'Day, became a well-known movie actress around the same time.
Sally was educated in a convent and started in vaudeville where she was billed as "Chotsie Noonan" (her real name was
Virginia Louise Concepta Noonan). She started in silents at age 17
and found an early penchant for playing unassuming Pickford-like innocents in short films.
Sally moved quickly into starring roles with the lightweight feature film Don't (1925) opposite John Patrick that was billed as "a rip-roaring picture of rebellious youth!" in which she plays a Clara Bow-type party girl. She quickly found stardom with her second film, the dramedy Sally, Irene and Mary (1925) co-starring as flighty, naïve chorus girl Mary opposite the more worldly Constance Bennett and virtuous Joan Crawford. As a result of this success, she was named (as was sister Molly) a Wampas Baby Star in 1926.
The actress became a mildly popular MGM commodity (in both lead and second lead categories) in a number of films, including Mike (1926) opposite William Haines; the comedy The Auction Block (1926) starring Charles Ray and Eleanor Boardman in which she played a third wheel flirt; the action romancer Battling Butler (1926) opposite Buster Keaton; the sports comedy Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927) again opposite Haines; the title romantics in both Frisco Sally Levy (1927) and Becky (1927); and the dramedy The Callahans and the Murphys (1927) as the Callahan daughter of feisty Marie Dressler.
Elsewhere for other studios, Sally co-starred with her sister Molly in the silent romantic drama The Lovelorn (1927) as well as the dramatic features Mad Hour (1928) and Bachelor's Paradise (1928) and the romantic musical comedy Broadway Fever (1929).
Possessing a strong New Jersey accent and developing a severe case of stage fright did not help things come the advent of talking pictures. While Sally certainly maintained in pictures for nearly another decade, her star diminished and she never made it into the top tier. Such representative early sound films include another feature opposite sister Molly (Sisters (1930)) and the flashy title roles in Kathleen Mavourneen (1930) and The Brat (1931). She played a Broadway gold-digger in Ladies Must Love (1933); a vixen in the drama By Appointment Only (1933); a woman caught between two men in the adventure Sixteen Fathoms Deep (1934); and a female reporter in Too Tough to Kill (1935). Her last picture was a starring role as an Irish lass in the obscure British production Kathleen (1937).
Following this, Sally faded view, but turned to Broadway with "When We Are Married" (1939) and "The Old Foolishness" (1940). She also toured with the USO until the 1950s. Divorced from James Kenaston in 1952, Sally married businessman Stewart S. Battles a year later. They divorced in 1957, but would remarry. She died of pneumonia at the age of 59 on June 18, 1968.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
American character actor widely seen in film and television during the 1950s and '60s. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 5, 1908, to railroad agent Miller Foulk and his wife, the former Alice Casselberry, Robert Foulk attended the University of Pennsylvania as an architecture student. While in school, he became interested in theatre and by the age of 23 had made his Broadway debut as Jake Canon in "As Husbands Go." He reprised the role two years later, and supplemented his acting work by helping cast road companies of Broadway hits and by working with the press agents of various shows. He became friendly with legendary Broadway director-producer-actor George Abbott while playing Watson Brown in "John Brown," a Broadway flop about the abolitionist leader (played by Abbott). Foulk began a long period of employment under Abbott in a string of Broadway hits: "Boy Meets Girl," "Brother Rat," and "Room Service," in which Foulk understudied Eddie Albert. An encounter with Bette Davis led to Foulk's hiring by Warner Bros., not as an actor, but as a dialog director. He moved to Hollywood in 1939 and worked in that capacity on a number of films including The Sea Hawk (1940) and The Maltese Falcon (1941). In 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and was assigned to make training films with the First Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California. Discharged in 1946, he worked for Cecil B. DeMille as dialog director on Unconquered (1947) and then made his (non-military) film debut in Road House (1948). He quickly became a familiar face in movies, playing police officers, Western sheriffs, thugs, and many other types, often of a none-too-bright intelligence. He had recurring roles on numerous TV series including Lassie (1954), Bonanza (1959), The Rifleman (1958), Father Knows Best (1954), and as Curly Bill Brocius on Tombstone Territory (1957). Foulk continued his avocation of architecture, designing houses, including one for playwright Sam Spewack. He worked in local theatre in and around Los Angeles, though he never returned to Broadway. He was married briefly in 1933 to actress Alice Frost. He married actress Barbara Slater in 1947. They had one daughter, June Landis Foulk, born 20 July 1948. Robert Foulk died 25 February 1989.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dennis Morgan was born Stanley Morner in the small town of Prentice,
Wisconsin. His first jobs in Hollywood were mostly bit parts, but he
scored big after playing opposite
Ginger Rogers in
Kitty Foyle (1940).
He starred in films like My Wild Irish Rose (1947), God Is My Co-Pilot (1945)
and
The Very Thought of You (1944).
He teamed up with buddy Jack Carson
to do
Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946),
Two Guys from Texas (1948)
and
It's a Great Feeling (1949).
His engaging performance as seaman "Jefferson Jones", with
Barbara Stanwyck and a wonderful
supporting cast, has made
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
a holiday favorite. Morgan retired in the late 1950s, but did cameos
now and then. He and his wife were married for 61 years, and he passed
away in 1994. He had three children, Stanley Jr.,
Kristin Morgan and James.- Writer
- Additional Crew
Born into a wealthy and influential English family, Ian Fleming spent
his early years attending top British schools such as Eton and
Sandhurst military academy. He took to writing while schooling in
Kitzbuhel, Austria, and upon failing the entrance requirements for
Foreign Service joined the news agency Reuters as a journalist --
winning the respect of his peers for his coverage of a "show trial" in
Russia of several Royal Engineers on espionage charges. Fleming briefly
worked in the financial sector for the family bank, but just prior to
the Second World War, was recruited into British Naval Intelligence
where he excelled, shortly achieving the rank of Commander. When the
war ended, Fleming retired to Jamaica where he built a house called
"Goldeneye," took up writing full-time and created the character that
would make him famous -- British Secret Service agent James Bond, in a
novel called "Casino Royale." Fleming spent the rest of his life
writing and traveling the world, but as his Bond character reached new
heights of popularity on movie screens, Fleming was in ailing health.
He died of a heart attack (his second) in England in August 1964 at the
age of 56.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Bushy-browed, triple-chinned and plummy-voiced English actor and
raconteur of wide girth and larger-than-life personality. The son of a
career army officer, Morley was expected to join the diplomatic corps.
As a 'compromise', he tried his hand as a beer salesman. However,
bitten by the acting bug since first performing in a kindergarten play,
he prevailed over the wishes of his parents and enrolled at RADA. He
made his theatrical debut at London's Strand Theatre, in a 1929
production of "Treasure Island", playing the part of a pirate for $5 a
week. During the next few years, Morley honed his craft by touring
regional theatres, writing or co-writing the occasional play, and, when
money was hard to come by, selling vacuum cleaners. For a while, he
managed his own repertory company in tandem with fellow actor
Peter Bull in the Cornish seaside
resort of Perranporth. Morley eventually returned to the London stage
in a much acclaimed performance as "Oscar Wilde", a role he took to
Broadway in October 1938.
On the strength of this, he was invited to Hollywood and garnered an
Oscar nomination for his first screen role as the effete, simple-minded
monarch Louis XVI, in MGM's lavish production of
Marie Antoinette (1938). Back in
Britain, he then played the armaments millionaire Andrew Undershaft in
George Bernard Shaw's
Major Barbara (1941), a performance
praised by Bosley Crowther as
"deliciously satanic, profoundly suave and tender" (NY Times, May 15
1941). Happily managing to avoid military participation in the Second
World War, Morley spent the remainder of the decade acting in such
prestigious theatrical showpieces as "The Man Who Came to Dinner", and
as star and co-author of "Edward, My Son". His defining performance in
the play led the critic Brooks Atkinson
to comment on his "studied authority ... which might sound like an
affectation in an actor of inferior style"(NY Times, June 4 1992).
Morley acted on screen in a variety of very British, sometimes
eccentric, sometimes giddy, often pompous, but rarely dislikeable
characters. At his best, he was the expatriate Elmer Almayer, at once
pitiable and overbearing, in
Outcast of the Islands (1951);
the Sydney Greenstreet parody
Peterson in John Huston's
Beat the Devil (1953); as another
languid monarch, George III in the colourful period drama
Beau Brummell (1954); as
Oscar Wilde (1960), recreating his
original stage triumph; and as a food critic in the hugely enjoyable
Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978).
He also performed occasionally in TV movies and miniseries. His wit was
much appreciated on chat shows, both in Britain and the U.S., where was
a frequent and popular guest. He was also the voice of British Airways
in commercials of the 70's and early 80's, promising "we'll take good
care of you" -- something he did with his acting for over half a
century. Robert Morley was awarded a CBE in 1957. He died as the result
of a stroke in Reading, Berkshire, at the age of 84.- 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.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barbara Luddy was an American actress and vaudeville singer from Great Falls, Montana. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Luddy regularly worked as a voice actress for the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Her best known role was voicing the co-protagonist Lady in the animated romance film "Lady and the Tramp" (1955). Her other prominent voice roles included the heroic fairy Merryweather in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) and the maternal kangaroo Kanga in the featurettes "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" (1966), "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" (1968), and "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too" (1974). Archive footage of Luddy's voice was also used for Kanga in the feature film "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977).
In 1908, Luddy was born in Great Falls, Montana. The city was named for its proximity to the Great Falls of the Missouri River, a series of 5 waterfalls located in north-central Montana. The city was established in 1883 by the businessman and politician Paris Gibson (1830-1920), who planned to use the waterfalls as a source for hydroelectricity. Great Falls became the first city in Montana with its own hydroelectric dam. Luddy's parents were Will and Molly Luddy.
Luddy was educated in a convent for Ursulines, a Catholic religious order dedicated to the education of girls. Luddy started performing as a singer in the vaudeville circuit during her childhood. By the late 1920s, Luddy served as an actress in a touring company with fellow vaudevillian Leo Carrillo (1880-1961). In 1929, their company toured Australia. The press in Sydney praised Luddy for "her pert audacity and vivaciousness".
During the 1930s, Luddy started regularly performing as a voice actress in radio shows. From 1936 to 1943, Luddy was part of the main cast in the anthology series "The First Nighter Program" (1930-1953). Most of the series' episodes featured romantic-comedy plots. In 1937, Luddy signed a long-term contract for her exclusive services in this series.
During World War II, Luddy was part of the main cast in the radio soap opera "Lonely Women" (1942-1943). It was one of the many soap operas created by scriptwriter Irna Phillips (1901-1973), who typically focused on depicting the complexities of modern life. Luddy voiced Judith Clark, a lovesick secretary. The cast of characters in this series was originally all-female, but male characters were among the late additions to the series.
By the 1950s, Luddy started regularly working for Disney Animation as a voice actress. By the 1960s, she started having minor roles in television. She appeared in then-popular series, such as the sitcom "Hazel" (1961-1966), and the soap opera "Days of Our Lives" (1965-).
In April 1979, Luddy died due to lung cancer. She was 70-years-old at the time of her death, dying a month before her 71st birthday. She is still fondly remembered by animation fans for her voice roles, long after her heyday. Her character of Lady became a regular supporting character in the Disney comic strip "Scamp" (1955-1988), where the eponymous protagonist was Lady's son.- 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.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jill Esmond was born on January 26, 1908 in London, England, UK. She
was 23-years-old when she first came to prominence when she first
appeared in The Skin Game (1931) in
1931. Once Jill got in the groove, she kept up a steady pace. Three
more films followed in 1931 and five more came her way the following
year. One of the films of note was
State's Attorney (1932), where
Jill played "Lillian Ulrich". She had married
Laurence Olivier in 1930 and that might
have explained her absence from the silver screen between 1934 and
1941, due to her marital obligations. After her divorce from Olivier in
1940, Jill returned to filming with
Random Harvest (1942) in 1942.
Five films followed that year, but it wasn't quite the same as the
schedule she kept in the early 30s. Jill's final film came in 1955 in
A Man Called Peter (1955). She
was 82-years-old when she died on July 28, 1990 in London.- Louis L'Amour was born on 22 March 1908 in Jamestown, North Dakota, USA. He was a writer, known for Hondo (1953), East of Sumatra (1953) and Apache Territory (1958). He was married to Kathy Adams. He died on 10 June 1988 in Los Angeles, California, USA.