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- Actor
- Soundtrack
River Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom in Madras, Oregon. His mother,
Arlyn (Dunetz), a Bronx-born secretary, and his father, John
Bottom, a carpenter, met in California in 1968. They worked as itinerant fruit pickers, and later joined the Children
of God religious group (John was originally Catholic, while Arlyn was
born Jewish). By the time River was two, they were living in South
America, where John was the sect's Archbishop of Venezuela. They later left the group and, in 1977, moved back to the United States, changing their last name to "Phoenix". They lived with River's maternal grandparents in Florida, and later moved to Los Angeles. His
parents encouraged all of their children to get into movies and, by age
ten, River was acting professionally on TV. His film debut was in
Explorers (1985), followed rapidly by
box-office successes with
Stand by Me (1986) and
The Mosquito Coast (1986), and
as young Indiana in
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
His role as Danny Pope in
Running on Empty (1988) earned
him an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. His best role
was probably Mike, the hustler in
My Own Private Idaho (1991).
A dedicated animal-rights activist and environmentalist, River was a
strict vegetarian and a member of PeTA (People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals). River was a talented musician as well as an
actor, and he played guitar, sang, and wrote songs for his band,
Aleka's Attic, which also included his sister
Rain Phoenix, while living in Gainsville,
Florida. Although the band never released its own album, their song
"Across the Way" can be found on PeTA's "Tame Yourself" album, used to
fight animal abuse. River was in the middle of filming
Dark Blood (2012), playing the
character Boy when he died. The film couldn't be finished due to too
many unfilmed crucial scenes. His mother was later sued.
River died of acute multiple drug intoxication involving lethal levels
of cocaine and morphine at age 23 outside the Viper Room,
Johnny Depp's Los Angeles club.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was orphaned at 15 after his father's death in 1930 and became the ward of Dr. Maurice Bernstein of Chicago. In 1931, he graduated from the Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois. He turned down college offers for a sketching tour of Ireland. He tried unsuccessfully to enter the London and Broadway stages, traveling some more in Morocco and Spain, where he fought in the bullring.
Recommendations by Thornton Wilder and Alexander Woollcott got him into Katharine Cornell's road company, with which he made his New York debut as Tybalt in 1934. The same year, he married, directed his first short, and appeared on radio for the first time. He began working with John Houseman and formed the Mercury Theatre with him in 1937. In 1938, they produced "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", famous for its broadcast version of "The War of the Worlds" (intended as a Halloween prank). His first film to be seen by the public was Citizen Kane (1941), a commercial failure losing RKO $150,000, but regarded by many as the best film ever made. Many of his subsequent films were commercial failures and he exiled himself to Europe in 1948.
In 1956, he directed Touch of Evil (1958); it failed in the United States but won a prize at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1975, in spite of all his box-office failures, he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1984, the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. His reputation as a filmmaker steadily climbed thereafter.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Stanley Kamel was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey on January 1, 1943 and was raised in South River, New Jersey. He attended high school at Rutgers Prepatory School (graduated 1961) in Somerset, New Jersey and received his college degree from the Boston University School of Fine Arts in 1965. Kamel got his start in acting with bit parts off-Broadway before his big break into television (as a regular cast member) portraying Eric Peters #2 on Days of Our Lives (1965) from 1972 to 1976.
He played a lot of different characters over the years, and his face was well known to most. He had a recurring role as the unscrupulous
psychiatrist, Dr. Graham Lester on Murder One (1995). He also had recurring roles on the hits Melrose Place (1992) and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990). Late in his career, Kamel was probably best known for playing Dr. Charles Kroger on Monk (2002) starring Tony Shalhoub.
On April 8, 2008, Kamel was found dead in his Hollywood Hills (Los Angeles) home by his long time agents, Donna Massetti and Marilyn Szatmary, having died of a heart attack. Kamel was only 65 years old.- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
John Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on January 24, 1949,
to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant
owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his
mother was also of Albanian descent. He grew up in Wheaton, where the
family moved when he was six. Though a young hellion in grade school,
John became the perfect all-American boy during his high school years
where he was co-captain of the Wheaton Central High School football
team and was elected homecoming king his senior year. He also developed
an interest in acting and appeared in the high school variety show.
Encouraged by his drama teacher, John decided to put aside his plans to
become a football coach to pursue a career in acting.
After graduation in 1967, John performed in summer stock in rural
Indiana in a variety of roles from "Cardinal Wolsey" in "Anne of a
Thousand Days" to a comic detective in "Ten Little Indians". In the
fall of his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater,
John changed his image into a bad-boy appearance by growing his hair
long and began to have problems with discipline and structure of
attending classes.
Dropping out of Wisconsin, John spent the next two years at the College
of DuPage, a junior college a few miles from his parents' Wheaton home,
where his father began persuading him to become a partner in his
restaurant, but John still preferred acting. While attending DuPage,
John helped found the "West Compass Players", an improv comedy troupe
patterned after Chicago's famous "Second City" ensemble.
In 1971, John made the leap to "Second City" itself where he performed
in various on-stage comic performances with others, who included
Harold Ramis and
Joe Flaherty. John loved his life
at "Second City" where he performed six nights a week, perfecting the
physical "gonzo" style of comedy he later made famous.
A year later, John and his live-in girlfriend from his high school
years, Judith Belushi-Pisano,
moved to New York because John had joined the cast of National
Lampoon's Lemmings, an off-Broadway rock musical revue that was
originally booked for a six-week run but played to full crowds for
nearly 10 months.
In 1973, John was hired as a writer for the syndicated National
Lampoon's Radio Hour which became the National Lampoon Show in 1975.
John's big break came that same year when he joined the ground-breaking
TV variety series
Saturday Night Live (1975)
which made him a star. The unpredictable, aggressively physical style
of humor that he began on "Second City" flowered on SNL.
In 1978, while still working on
Saturday Night Live (1975),
John appeared in the movie
Goin' South (1978) which starred and
was directed by Jack Nicholson.
It was here that director
John Landis noticed John and decided
to cast him in his movie National Lampoon's
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). John's minor
role as the notorious, beer-swilling "Bluto" made it a box-office smash
and the year's top grossing comedy. Despite appearing in only a dozen
scenes, John's performance stole the movie, which portrays college
fraternity shenanigans at a small college set in the year 1962.
In 1979, John along with fellow SNL regular
Dan Aykroyd quit the series to pursue movie
projects. John and Dan Aykroyd appeared in
minor roles in Steven Spielberg's
financially unsuccessful 1941 (1979) and,
the following year, in John Landis'
The Blues Brothers (1980).
Around this time, John's drug use began escalating. Cocaine, which was
ubiquitous in show-business circles in the 1970's, became his drug of
choice. After he first experimented with cocaine in the mid 1970s, John
almost immediately became addicted to it. His frequent cocaine sniffing
binges became a source of friction between him and Judy, whom he
married in 1976.
John's love for blues and soul music inspired the "Blues Brothers". He
and Aykroyd first appeared as Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, a pair of
white soul men dressed in black suits, skinny ties, fedora hats and
Rayban sunglasses, as a warm-up act before the telecasts of
Saturday Night Live (1975).
Building on the success of their acts and the release of their album "A
Briefcase Full of Blues", John and
Dan Aykroyd starred in the movie, which gave
John a chance to act with his favorite musical heroes including
Ray Charles,
James Brown and
Aretha Franklin.
Although John's reputation for being an off-screen party animal is
legendary, his generous side is less well known. Using some of his
money, he bought his father a ranch outside San Diego for him to live.
John helped set up some of his Chicago friends with their own
businesses and even financially helped his younger brother,
Jim Belushi, who followed his older
brother's path to both "Second City" and
Saturday Night Live (1975).
In 1981, John appeared in the movie
Continental Divide (1981),
playing a hard-nosed Chicago newspaperman who finds romance in Colorado
with eagle expert Blair Brown. That
same year, John and Dan Aykroyd appeared
again in the movie Neighbors (1981),
which gave them a chance to reverse roles, with John playing a
straight-arrow family man whose life is turned upside down when a wild
family man (Aykroyd) moves in next door.
In January 1982, John began work on the screenplay for another movie to
be titled "Noble Rot". Also, John had checked into a bungalow at the
Chateau Marmont, a popular celebrity hotel in Los Angeles. John's drug
use had been steadily increasing for over a year now, which alarmed his
wife and friends, but he continued to promise Judy that he would quit
someday. On March 5, 1982, John Belushi was found dead in his hotel
room at the age of 33. The local coroner gave the cause of death as a
lethal injection of cocaine and heroin. Several years later, John's
drug dealing/drug user companion during his final weeks, Cathy Evelyn Smith,
was tried and sentenced to three years in prison for supplying John
with the drugs. Close friend
James Taylor sang "That Lonesome
Road" at a memorial service at Martha's Vineyard cemetery where John
was buried.- John Daniel Tooz Matuszak was an American professional football defensive lineman in the National Football League and
also an actor. Matuszak was born in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Tampa and played for their football team. Matuszak also played for various NFL teams; his longest stint of six years having been spent with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, and later joining the Houston Oilers. While playing for the Oilers, he joined the Houston Texans of the World Football League (WFL), playing a total of seven plays before a restraining order was served to him during a game, barring him from playing for two teams at the same time.
His first major role as an actor was in the 1979 movie "North Dallas Forty" as a football player. He also appeared in the movies "Caveman", "The Ice Pirates", and "One Crazy Summer" but is known for his role in "The Goonies". He also had guest appearances on popular TV shows "Perfect Strangers", "M*A*S*H", "The Dukes of Hazzard", "Hunter", "Silver Spoons", "The A-Team", "1st & Ten", "Miami Vice" and "Cheers". He died on June 17, 1989 aged 38 due to a heart failure. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Glynis Johns was the daughter of actor Mervyn Johns. Best known for her light comedy roles and often playful flirtation, Glynis was born in South Africa while her parents were on tour there (her mother was a concert pianist) but was always proud of her Welsh roots and took delight in playing the female lead (opposite Richard Burton) in the classic Under Milk Wood (1971). She was probably best known for her role as the suffragette mother in Mary Poppins (1964) although she is probably best loved for her fishy roles in Miranda (1948) and Mad About Men (1954). She had earlier showed she could take on the serious roles as well as in Frieda (1947). Most recently seen (at the time of writing) in Superstar (1999). Johns died in 2024, aged 100, having never received the damehood she had richly deserved for decades. Predeceased by her only son, she was survived by a grandson,Thomas Forwood, and three great-grandchildren.- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was truly one mother of a mom...on stage, on film and on TV. A favorite firecracker on 80s and 90s television, tiny character player Estelle Getty became best known for her carping, meddlesome moms -- complete with bemused, cynical looks, irreverent digs and dead-pan Henny Youngman-like one-liners. Blunt and down-to-earth off-stage as she was on-, she scored big points with both the young and the old...and all those who fell in between. The middle-class masses and society's underdogs deemed Estelle one of their own. The star who had a hard time playing the star card also taught an earnest lesson to the millions of actor wannabes that it was never too late to get into the big leagues, pursue your dream and come out a winner. After nearly five decades of stage work, she achieved "overnight" stardom at age 62. Ill health forced her retirement in 2000 after only a decade and a half of celebrity. Yet even something as sinister as Lewy body dementia, a degenerative brain disease, couldn't take away her indomitable spirit and feistiness. The affliction, which slowly clouds then erases the memory banks, should have claimed her a couple of years after its detection, but she proved the doctors wrong and lived nearly eight years from its onset, dying peacefully in her Hollywood home on July 22, 2008.
Getty was born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, the daughter of Sarah (Lacher) and Charles Scher, Polish Jewish immigrants who worked in the glass business. Starry-eyed as a very young child when her father first took her to see a vaudeville show at the New York Academy of Music, Estelle already had a mindset about her future. She almost immediately started taking singing, dancing and acting lessons and, following her graduation from Seward Park High School, she began building up experience in the Yiddish theater. She even attempted the stand-up comedy stage on the Catskills "borscht belt" circuit in upstate New York, but it was a time of rampant sexism and women comics were a rarity and seldom successful. She wasn't. Her young life took an abrupt, post-World War II turn when she married New York businessman Arthur Gettleman at age 24 in December of 1947 (she went on to use a derivative of her married last name for the stage). Not your typical domesticated wife by any stretch of the imagination, Estelle nevertheless raised two children, sons Barry and Carl, and worked as a secretary for various companies.
Determined as ever to be an actress, she found moderate compensation performing in community theatre plays. Adept at playing abrasive, insinuating types, she had an innate gift for comedy and stole many scenes in such light-hearted plays as "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Blithe Spirit," "6 Rms Riv Vu," "Light Up the Sky" and "Lovers and Other Strangers". On the flip side, Estelle demonstrated surprising dramatic stamina in such classics as "All My Sons," "The Glass Menaqerie" and "Death of a Salesman." Following decades of obscurity, it was her connection to the actor/playwright Harvey Fierstein that turned the tide and started the ball rolling. Forging a deep friendship in the late 70s after appearing in small New York theaters together, and after considerable prodding by Estelle, Harvey wrote a part for his diminutive friend in the ground-breaking, autobiographical "Torch Song Trilogy". Playing Harvey's recalcitrant mother, the show eventually made it to Broadway and Estelle's big debut was a resounding success. Winning the Helen Hayes Award for her performance, she played the feisty foil to Fierstein's raspy-voiced drag queen for five years.
While on tour with the play in Los Angeles, Estelle secured an audition for and won the role of viper-tongued Sicilian mama Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls (1985). She nearly lost out on the part when it was thought that she appeared too young to play Bea Arthur's mother. In truth, Estelle was 14 months younger than Bea. Given another go-around, and this time donning a grey wig, age makeup and frumpy apparel, Estelle fully convinced the powers-that-be that she WAS Sophia and the rest is history. The role was a breath of fresh air during an era of strong political correctness. A seven-time consecutive Emmy Award nominee for "Best Supporting Actress Award," she took home the trophy in 1988. In both 1991 and 1992 Estelle won the American Comedy Award for "Best Supporting Actress" in a series. The Sophia character was so popular she even went on to play the impish octogenarian in several other shows, including two "Golden Girls" spin-offs -- the short-lived The Golden Palace (1992) and "Empty Nest". Estelle went on to mother other stars on the big screen as well, including Cher in Mask (1985) and Sylvester Stallone in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), in the latter of which she received second billing. The one maternal film role she wanted more than anything did not come her way. When Torch Song Trilogy (1988) was made into a film, actor Fierstein needed star power surrounding him. Anne Bancroft replaced Estelle in the part and she was heartbroken. The movie itself lost much of its impact in its transition from the stage. At the peak of her TV fame, Estelle wrote a 1988 autobiography entitled "If I Knew Then, What I Know Now... So What?" with Steve Delsohn.
The diminutive dynamo (4'10") with a big heart was an outspoken activist for gay rights and she regularly involved herself in AIDS causes, part of it propelled by a nephew who was diagnosed and later succumbed to the disease. She also became a spokesperson for Alternative Living for the Aging, a nonprofit organization that locates cooperative housing for senior citizens. In 2000, Getty stopped making public appearances after her health and mind began its slow decline. One of her last sightings was in the L.A. audience of "The Vagina Monologues," which starred "Golden Girls" co-star Rue McClanahan. Misdiagnosed as having both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, it was later learned she was suffering from advanced dementia. Estelle died of complications from her disease just three days before her 85th birthday. Long-time husband Arthur, who was only 5'3" tall himself, never adjusted to Estelle's meteoric rise and the media attention that had accompanied it. He quietly maintained her parents' glass business far from the Hollywood glitz...in Florida. He died in 2004. Lifetime television hosted a "Golden Girls" reunion, but by this time Estelle was too ill to appear. Shortly after her death on July 22, 2008, and in tribute to Ms. Getty, Lifetime, which shows reruns of "The Golden Girls" almost on a daily basis, announced that it would air ten episodes of the series featuring the "best of Sophia". A simple, unadorned service was conducted, as she would have wanted, and she was interred at Hollywood Forever Memorial Park in Los Angeles.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Carolyn Jones was born April 28, 1930, in Amarillo, Texas. Her mother
was Jeannette and her sister was Bette (Moriarty). She was an
imaginative child, much like her mother. In 1934, her father abandoned
the family and her mother moved them in with her parents, also in
Amarillo. As a child Carolyn suffered from severe asthma. Although she
loved movies, she was often too sick to attend, so she listened to her
favorites, Danny Kaye and
Spike Jones and read as many movie
fan magazines as she could. She dreamed of attending the famed Pasadena
Playhouse and received many awards at school for speech, poetry, and
dramatics. In 1947, she was accepted as a student at the Pasadena
Playhouse, and her grandfather agreed to pay for her classes. She
worked in summer stock to supplement her income, graduating in 1950.
She gave herself a complete head-to-toe makeover, including painful
cosmetic nose surgery to make herself ready for movie roles. Working as
an understudy at the Players Ring Theater, she stepped in when the star
left to get married. She was seen by a talent scout from Paramount and
given a screen test, which went well. She made her first appearance in
The Turning Point (1952). She
did some other work during her 6-month contract, but when it ended,
Paramount, suffering from television's impact, let it lapse. She
quipped, "They let me and 16 secretaries go!"
She started working in television but kept busy on stage as well. There
she met Aaron Spelling, and they became a
couple. She made a breakthrough in the 3-D movie
House of Wax (1953) and garnered
excellent reviews. Aaron was still struggling, so he felt he wasn't
able to propose to Carolyn; she finally proposed to him. They were
married in April 1953. Neither was earning much, but they really
enjoyed each other and their life. Many saw them as an ideal couple.
Carolyn decided against children, since she felt she could not juggle
the demands of both a career and a family.
Columbia Pictures saw her and wanted to test her for the part of
prostitute Alma Burke in
From Here to Eternity (1953),
but she got extremely sick with pneumonia and the part went to
Donna Reed, who won an Academy Award. She did, however, achieve
success in the science-fiction classic
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956),
a subtle allegory of the times (McCarthyism). And the famous filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock cast her in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) opposite James Stewart and Doris Day. Meanwhile, Aaron had little success
as an actor and Carolyn pushed him to become a writer, even threatening
to leave him. She constantly promoted his scripts whenever she could
and he was ultimately hired by
Dick Powell. Carolyn meanwhile was
successful once more in
The Bachelor Party (1957)
(famous line, "Just say you love me--you don't have to mean it!"). For
this role, she surprised cast members by dyeing her hair black and
cutting it short. This stunning look served her well for a number of
roles. For her eight minutes on screen, she received glowing reviews
and was nominated for an Academy Award but lost. However, she did win the Golden Globe Award and the Laurel Award for Marjorie Morningstar (1958). She followed this with
an impressive appearance in
King Creole (1958), generally
regarded as Elvis Presley's best film. She
then gave arguably her best performance ever in
Career (1959), but the film was not
commercially successful. She played a serious role in this, leaving the
kooky role she might have played to
Shirley MacLaine.
As Aaron's career soared, the marriage started to fail. They separated
in October 1963 and were amicably divorced in August 1965, with Carolyn
asking for no alimony. They remained friends. She worked at various
roles including two episodes of Burke's Law (1963) for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. Soon, she got the part for which she will best be remembered,
that of Morticia Addams in
The Addams Family (1964).
She spent two years in this role. Her costume was designed to copy the
cartoon drawings and no doubt inspired such imitators as
Cassandra Peterson (Elvira, Mistress
of the Dark). The show went head-to-head with
The Munsters (1964) and
Bewitched (1964). The quite blatant
sexual chemistry between Morticia and her husband Gomez
(John Astin was shocking for the time,
perhaps only matched by the sexuality displayed in "Bachelor Party" and
"King Creole."
The show was a big hit and she received all the fame she had craved.
However, the network decided to cancel the show, despite its success,
after only two years. Typecast as Morticia but without the income that
a few more years would have provided, she found life difficult and
roles few. While acting on the road, she married her voice coach,
Herbert Greene, a well-known and
respected Broadway conductor and musical director, and they moved
together to Palm Springs, California. After seven years, she left him
and returned to Hollywood, determined to try to restart her career. She
was surprisingly successful and performed in several shows, including Wonder Woman (1975), where she played Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) and Wonder Girl's (Debra Winger) mother Hippolyta. She also appeared in the landmark miniseries Roots (1977). She did four episodes of Fantasy Island (1977) and one episode of The Love Boat (1977), two shows on which Aaron was the producer. She played Myrna Clegg on the
soap Capitol (1982) from 1982 to
1983, despite having been diagnosed with colon cancer in 1981. She had
aggressive treatment for the cancer, but it returned during her time on
the show and she was told it was terminal.
She played some scenes despite being confined to a wheelchair and
working in great pain. Although they knew she was dying, she married
her boyfriend of five years,
Peter Bailey-Britton, in September
1982. She died on August 3, 1983. Carolyn told her sister that she
wanted her epitaph to be "She gave joy to the world." She certainly had
many friends who loved her greatly, and many fans who enjoyed her
wonderful performances.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Santa Cruz, California, Beverly Garland studied dramatics under Anita Arliss, the sister of renowned stage and screen star George Arliss. She acted in a little theater in Glendale then in Phoenix after her family relocated to Arizona. Garland also worked in radio and appeared scantily-clad in a few risqué shorts before making her feature film debut in a supporting part in D.O.A. (1949). Her husbands include actor Richard Garland, and land developer Fillmore Crank, who built 2 hotels which bear her name. Ms. Garland's longest runs were on Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983) and My Three Sons (1960). Later on she guest-starred on a number of TV shows, including The Guardian (2001), on CBS, and Weakest Link (2001), on NBC, and maintained her continuing roles on 7th Heaven (1996), on the WB (now the CW), and Port Charles (1997), on ABC, which began in the 1990s.
In 1983, Ms. Garland received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2001, in recognition of her 50 years in show business, the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters inducted her into its Hall of Fame. Ms. Garland has two very significant historical television "firsts": she was television's first policewoman as the star of Decoy (1957), and, more importantly, the series gave her the honor of becoming the first actress to star in a television dramatic series. After her husband of 39 years died in 1999, Beverly continued to operate the 255-room Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in North Hollywood (with the assistance of three of her four children). Beverly Garland died at age 82 in her home in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California on 5 December, 2008.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn,
New York. He first took the stage as a toddler in his parents
vaudeville act at 17 months old. He made his first film appearance in
1926. The following year, he played the lead character in the first
Mickey McGuire short film. It was in this popular film series that he
took the stage name Mickey Rooney. Rooney reached new heights in 1937
with A Family Affair, the film that introduced the country to Andy
Hardy, the popular all-American teenager. This beloved character
appeared in nearly 20 films and helped make Rooney the top star at the
box office in 1939, 1940 and 1941. Rooney also proved himself an
excellent dramatic actor as a delinquent in Boys Town (1938) starring Spencer Tracy. In 1938, he was awarded a Juvenile Academy Award.
Teaming up with Judy Garland, Rooney also
appeared in a string of musicals, including Babes in Arms (1939) the
first teenager to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role, Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), and Girl Crazy (1943). He
and Garland immediately became best of friends. "We weren't just a
team, we were magic," Rooney once said. During that time he also
appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in the now classic National Velvet (1944). Rooney joined the service that same year, where he helped to entertain the troops and worked on the American Armed Forces Network.
He returned to Hollywood after 21 months in Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946), did a remake of a Robert Taylor film, The Crowd Roars (1932) called Killer McCoy (1947) and portrayed composer Lorenz Hart in Words and Music (1948). He also appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961),
starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Rooney played Hepburn's Japanese neighbor, Mr. Yunioshi. A sign of the times, Rooney played the part for comic relief which he later regretted feeling the role was offensive. He once again showed his incredible range in the dramatic
role of a boxing trainer with Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962). In the late 1960s and 1970s Rooney
showed audiences and critics alike why he was one of Hollywood's most
enduring stars. He gave an impressive performance in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film The Black Stallion (1979), which brought him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
He also turned to the stage in 1979 in Sugar Babies with Ann Miller, and was nominated for a Tony Award. During that time he also portrayed
the Wizard in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with Eartha Kitt at New York's
Madison Square Garden, which also had a successful run nationally.
Rooney appeared in four television series': The Mickey Rooney Show (1954) (1954-1955), a comedy sit-com in 1964 with Sammee Tong called Mickey, One of the Boys in 1982 with Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane, and The New Adventures of the Black Stallion (1990) from 1990-1993. In 1981, Rooney won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of a mentally challenged man in Bill (1981). The critical acclaim continued to flow for the veteran performer, with Rooney receiving an honorary Academy Award "in recognition of his 60 years of versatility in a variety of memorable film performances". More recently he has appeared in such films as Night at the Museum (2006) with Ben Stiller and The Muppets (2011) with Amy Adams and Jason Segel.
Rooney's personal life, including his frequent trips to the altar, has
proved to be just as epic as his on-screen performances. His first wife
was one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, actress Ava Gardner. Mickey permanently separated from his eighth wife Jan in June of 2012. In 2011 Rooney filed elder abuse and fraud charges against stepson
Christopher Aber and Aber's wife. At Rooney's request, the Superior
Court issued a restraining order against the Aber's demanding they stay
100 yards from Rooney, as well as Mickey's other son Mark Rooney and Mark's wife Charlene. Just prior, Rooney mustered the strength to break his silence and appeared before the Senate in Washington D.C. telling of his own heartbreaking story of abuse in an effort to live a
peaceful, full life and help others who may be similarly suffering in
silence.
Rooney requested through the Superior Court to permanently reside with
his son Mark Rooney, who is a musician and Marks wife Charlene, an artist, in the Hollywood Hills. He legally separated from his eighth
wife in June of 2012. Ironically, after eight failed marriages he never
looked or felt better and finally found happiness and peace in the
single life. Mickey, Mark and Charlene focused on health, happiness and
creative endeavors and it showed. Mickey Rooney had once again landed
on his feet reminding us that he was a survivor. Rooney died on April
6th 2014. He was taking his afternoon nap and never woke. One week
before his death Mark and Charlene surprised him by reunited him with a
long lost love, the racetrack. He was ecstatic to be back after decades
and ran into his old friends Mel Brooks and Dick Van Patten.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & Nichols School, Columbia University and Rollins College. He made his screen debut in The Actress (1953), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Friendly Persuasion (1956). Four years later, he appeared in what would be his most noted role, Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), memorializing him into film history forever.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
For such a diminutive (4' 11") frame, character actor Leslie (Allen) Jordan had a tall talent for scene-stealing. Hailing from the South, as his dead-giveaway drawl quickly exposed, he was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 29, 1955, and raised in a highly conservative, deeply religious atmosphere in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His father, a Lieutenant Colonel with the Army, was killed in a plane crash when he was only 11.
Uncertain about his direction in life, an inescapable propensity for comedy and high camp, not to mention an impish mug and pocket-sized structure, led him straight to Los Angeles in an attempt to break into commercials and on-camera work. Following training with acting coach Carolyne Barry, who ran the Professional Artist's Group during the 80s, Leslie soon found himself highly marketable in commercial spots (Doritos, Fosters Beer, etc.). TV would invariably be the next step, finding him progressively better parts on such programs as "The Fall Guy," "The Wizard," "Night Court," "Newhart" and "Midnight Caller." He then earned a regular role on the short-lived comedy-fantasy series The People Next Door (1989) starring Alan Parker. Inspired by "The Far Side" comic strip, the show starred Jeffrey Jones as a cartoonist who could materialize his wild imagination.
Leslie began in films in the late 1980s with a bit part in the Richard Pryor comedy Moving (1988) and followed it with the role of Iggy, a hunch-backed Igor counterpart, in the whacked horror spoof Frankenstein General Hospital (1988) starring comic actor Mark Blankfield as the mad doctor. In primarily low-budget film projects at the onset, Leslie was part of such off-the-wall material as Ski Patrol (1990), Missing Pieces (1991), Hero (1992), Jason Goes to Hell (1993), Barcelona (1994), Eat Your Heart Out (1997) and Black Velvet Pantsuit (1995), to name a few.
Into the 1990s, Leslie involved himself more and more into writing. Avid L.A. theatergoers would recognize him for such prone-to-misfit characters as Brother Boy, an institutionalized drag queen, in "Sordid Lives," and Peanut, a habitual barfly, in "Southern Baptist Sissies." His own one-man testimonials, such as the off-Broadway "Hysterical Blindness" and "Like a Dog on Linoleum," display his adeptness at baring his soul and exposing his childhood agonies on stage amid laughter and tears. These highly introspective shows, however, came at a price. A self-proclaimed substance abuser and sexaholic, Jordan finally faced his inner demons and reached full recovery in 1996.
TV was an exceptionally inviting medium over the years with a number of offbeat roles coming his way. Noted for his catchy guest work on such shows as Murphy Brown (1988), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993), Caroline in the City (1995), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), and Weird Science (1994), among many others, he was also a supporting regular on various series including the comedy Top of the Heap (1991) starring Joseph Bologna and pre-Friends (1994), Matt LeBlanc; the legal series Reasonable Doubts (1991) in a season (1992-1993) as an assistant public defender; the crime drama Bodies of Evidence (1992) starring Jennifer Hortin and George Clooney; and the John Ritter/Markie Post romantic comedy Hearts Afire (1992).
Into the millennium, he got to experienced the joy of seeing one of his own writing projects come to full fruition with the semi-autobiographical film Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel (2000). He was also given the chance to recreate his "Big Brother" role in Sordid Lives (2000) to the big screen. The work continued to flow in such film supports as I'll Wave Back (2000), The Gristle (2001), Moving Alan (2003), the short film Farm Sluts (2003), Madhouse (2004), another short film Sissy Frenchfry (2005), Undead or Alive: A Zombedy (2007), Eating Out: All You Can Eat (2009), Mangus! (2011), the critically-acclaimed [link=tt1454029, his stage role as "Peanut" in the gay-themed Southern Baptist Sissies (2013) written and directed by Del Shores, another co-star role as an HOA "dictator" in Whoa! (2013), Lucky Dog (2015), Fear, Inc. (2016), the "Sordid Lives" sequel A Very Sordid Wedding (2017) and the romantic film Until We Meet Again (2022).
TV was even better to him with both delightful and sadly touching work on such series as Ally McBeal (1997), Boston Public (2000), Judging Amy (1999), Monk (2002), Reba (2001), Boston Legal (2004), Ugly Betty (2006), Desperate Housewives (2004), Raising Hope (2010), and American Horror Story (2011). The topper, however, was Leslie's dryly cynical, part-time role as mincing elitist Beverley Leslie, the tiny thorn in Megan Mullally's backside on the resoundingly popular sitcom Will & Grace (1998). Leslie went on to earn an Emmy trading wicked barbs with Mullally's Karen character, playing the hilarity up for all its worth. He also appeared in the cult TV movie The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018).- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Mae West was born August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York, to "Battling Jack" West and Matilda Doelger. She began her career as a child star in vaudeville, and later went on to write her own plays, including "SEX", for which she was arrested. Though her first movie role, at age 40, was a small part in Night After Night (1932), her scene has become famous. A coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it". Her next film, in which she starred, came the following year. She Done Him Wrong (1933) was based on her earlier and very popular play, "Diamond Lil". She went on to write and star in seven more films, including My Little Chickadee (1940) with W.C. Fields. Her last movie was Sextette (1977), which also came from a play. She died on November 22, 1980.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
This African American actor attended Penn Hills High School in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started his junior year at 6' 5" and
finished it at 6' 9"! He played basketball throughout his high-school
years and won a scholarship. He averaged 18 points a game and 10
rebounds! He played basketball during college, but not when it would
interfere with his major at George Washington University in Washington,
DC, which was Theatrical Arts. During his college years, he met
Jay Fenichel with whom he would later make
musical productions. Upon graduation, Fenichel moved to Los Angeles and
Hall moved to Venezuela to play basketball.
After a year, Hall lost interest and relocated to Los Angeles,
California. Along with Fenichel, the duo put together two night-club
acts/musicals. One was a semi-autobiographical two-man musical, "In
Five," and the other was a two-man show called "The Worst of Friends,"
both of which played in night clubs throughout the LA area. They also
had a promotional business where they did promotional acts in
department stores for new products.
While working on the set of the series
227 (1985), he met his co-star,
Alaina Reed-Hall, who played Rose Lee
Holloway. They married--both on the set, and in real life. Predator 2 (1990) was
released December 1990, and in April 1991, he died of AIDS, which he
contracted through a blood transfusion a few months before.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
This tall, sandy-haired, mustachioed actor from Texas, born Justus McQueen, adopted the name of the character he portrayed in his first film,
Battle Cry (1955). Jones, with his craggy, gaunt looks, first appeared in minor
character roles in plenty of WWII films including The Young Lions (1958), The Naked and the Dead (1958),
Hell Is for Heroes (1962) and Battle of the Coral Sea (1959). However, 1962 saw him team up with maverick
director Sam Peckinpah for the first of Jones' five appearances in his films.
Ride the High Country (1962) saw Jones play one of the lowlife Hammond brothers. Next he
appeared alongside Charlton Heston in Major Dundee (1965), then Peckinpah cast him, along
with his real-life friend Strother Martin, as one of the scummy, murderous
bounty hunters in The Wild Bunch (1969). Such was the chemistry between Jones and
Martin that Peckinpah teamed them again the following year in The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970),
and Jones' final appearance in a Peckinpah film was in another western,
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). Two years later Jones directed the cult post-apocalyptic film
A Boy and His Dog (1975) starring a young Don Johnson. He has continued to work in
Hollywood, and as the lines on his craggy face have deepened, he turns
up more frequently as crusty old westerners, especially in multiple TV
guest spots. He turned in an interesting performance as a seemingly
good ol' boy Nevada cowboy who was actually a powerful
behind-the-scenes player in state politics who leaned on Robert De Niro's Las
Vegas mob gambler in Martin Scorsese's violent and powerful
Casino (1995).- Actor
- Soundtrack
A former song-and-dance man and veteran of vaudeville, burlesque and
Broadway, Jack Albertson is best known to audiences as "The Man" in the
TV series Chico and the Man (1974), for which he won an Emmy. In 1968 Albertson, the
brother of actress Mabel Albertson, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in
The Subject Was Roses (1968), a part which also won him the Tony award during its Broadway
run.- Actress
- Soundtrack
This enigmatic Stockholm-born beauty had everything going for her,
including a rapidly rising film and TV career. Yet on April 30, 1970,
at only 35, Inger Stevens would become another tragic Hollywood
statistic -- added proof that fame and fortune do not always lead to
happiness. Over time, a curious fascination, and perhaps even a morbid
interest, has developed over Ms. Stevens and her life. What exactly
went wrong? A remote, paradoxical young lady with obvious personal
problems, she disguised it all with a seemingly positive attitude, an
incredibly healthy figure and a megawatt smile that wouldn't quit.
Although very little information has been filtered out about Ms.
Stevens and her secretive life over the years, William T. Patterson's
eagerly-anticipated biography, "The Farmer's Daughter Remembered: The
Biography of Actress Inger Stevens" (2000), finally put an end to much
of the mystery. But not quite all. The book claims that a large amount
of previously-published information about Ms. Stevens is either untrue
or distorted.
A strong talent and consummate dramatic player of the late 50s and 60s,
she was born Inger Stensland, the eldest of three children, of Swedish
parentage. A painfully shy and sensitive child, she was initially drawn
to acting as a girl after witnessing her father perform in amateur
theater productions. Her rather bleak childhood could be directed at a
mother who abandoned her family for another man when Inger was only 6.
Her father moved to the States, remarried, and eventually summoned for
Inger and a younger brother in 1944 to join him and his new bride.
Family relations did not improve. As a teenager, she ran away from home
and ended up in a burlesque chorus line only to be brought home by her
father. After graduation and following some menial jobs here and there,
she moved to New York and worked briefly as a model while studying at
the Actors Studio. She broke into the business through TV commercials
and summer stock, rising in the ingénue ranks as a guest in a number of
weekly series.
Often viewed as the beautiful loner or lady of mystery, an innate
sadness seemed to permeate many of her roles. Inger made her film debut
at age 22 opposite Bing Crosby in
Man on Fire (1957). Serious problems
set in when Inger began falling in love with her co-stars. Broken
affairs with Crosby, James Mason,
her co-star in Cry Terror! (1958),
Anthony Quinn, her director in
Cecil B. DeMille's
The Buccaneer (1958), and
Harry Belafonte, her co-star in
The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959),
left her frequently depressed and ultimately despondent. An
almost-fatal New Year's day suicide attempt in 1959 led to an intense
period of self-examination and a new resolve. A brief Broadway lead in
"Roman Candle," an Emmy-nominated role opposite
Peter Falk in
Price of Tomatoes (1962),
and popular appearances on such TV shows as
Bonanza (1959),
The Twilight Zone (1959)
and Route 66 (1960) paved the way to
a popular series as "Katy Holstrum," the Swedish governess, in
The Farmer's Daughter (1963).
This brisk, change-of-pace comedy role earned her a Golden Globe award
and Emmy nomination, and lasted three seasons.
Now officially a household name, Inger built up her momentum once again
in films. A string of parts came her way within a three-year period
including the sex comedy
A Guide for the Married Man (1967)
as roving eye husband Walter Matthau's
unsuspecting wife; Clint Eastwood's first
leading film role in
Hang 'Em High (1968); the crime
drama, Madigan (1968) with
Henry Fonda and
Richard Widmark; the westerns
Firecreek (1968) with Fonda again plus
James Stewart, and
5 Card Stud (1968) opposite
Dean Martin and
Robert Mitchum; the political thriller
House of Cards (1968) starring
George Peppard and
Orson Welles; and
A Dream of Kings (1969) which
reunited her with old flame
Anthony Quinn. Although many of
her co-starring roles seemed to be little more than love interest
filler, Inger made a noticeable impression in the last movie mentioned,
by far the most intense and complex of her film career. Adding to that
mixture were a number of well-made TV mini-movies. On the minus side,
she also resurrected the bad habit of pursuing affairs with her
co-stars, which would include
Dean Martin and, most notably,
Burt Reynolds, her last.
In April of 1970, Inger signed on as a series lead in a crime whodunit
The Most Deadly Game (1970)
to be telecast that September. It never came to be. Less than a week
later, she was found unconscious on the floor of her kitchen by her
housekeeper and died en route to the hospital of acute barbiturate
intoxication -- a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol.
Yvette Mimieux replaced her in the
short-lived series that fall. For all intents and purposes, Ms. Stevens' death was a suicide but Patterson's bio indicates other possibilities. Following her death, it came out in the tabloids that she had been secretly married to a Negro, Ike Jones, since 1961. The couple was estranged at the time of her death.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Helen Walker was a beautiful and bright actress whose career never
reached its full potential, in spite of her evident talent. She was a
successful actress on Broadway, and in 1942 her performance in the play
"Jason" was so impressive that she was signed up to act in films. She
immediately earned good notice and received star billing in her film
debut, Lucky Jordan (1942), starring Alan Ladd. During the mid-1940s she had
continued success with strong performances in offbeat but entertaining
and successful films like The Man in Half Moon Street (1944), the satirical Brewster's Millions (1945), and the
murder spoof Murder, He Says (1945), which starred Fred MacMurray. Achieving both artistic
and box office success, she was clearly on the brink of major stardom.
She won the starring role in the prestigious film Heaven Only Knows (1947). But all that
changed on New Year's Eve of 1946 when she picked up three hitchhiking
World War II veterans while driving to Los Angeles from Palm Springs,
where she had been vacationing. She had a terrible accident, hitting a
divider and wrecking the car, which flipped several times. One of the
soldiers died and the other two were severely injured. Walker herself
was seriously injured, including a broken pelvis. But her career
suffered even greater and longer-lasting damage. The survivors of the
accident accused her of driving drunk and speeding, and she was brought
to trial. She suffered bad press and faced a public that was grateful
to World War II veterans for having won the war, and was replaced in
Heaven Only Knows (1947). Although she was acquitted of criminal charges, many fans
turned against her and major studios were hesitant to hire her. She
tried to adapt by portraying ruthless and manipulative women in dark
murder mysteries, in which she again showed great talent. She performed
with great aplomb in Nightmare Alley (1947), the gritty urban police drama Call Northside 777 (1948),
and Impact (1949), an unconventional murder drama that featured a fatal
automobile accident her character helped cause. But she could not
overcome the stigma of the veteran's death. By the 1950s, she was
reduced to low-budget films that received little notice. After winning
a minor role in the Cornel Wilde police drama The Big Combo (1955), her film career ended
and she only appeared in a few television shows. In 1960, she made her
last television appearance, and that same year her house burned down.
Some remaining friends from show business helped her, with some fellow
actresses staging a benefit for her, which touched her deeply. She
faded from the public view and during the 1960s she experienced health
problems. In 1968, she died of cancer. She was 47 years
old.- Karyn Kupcinet was born on 6 March 1941 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Gertrude Berg Show (1961) and Hawaiian Eye (1959). She died on 28 November 1963 in West Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Anna Nicole Smith was born on 28 November 1967 in Houston, Texas, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), Be Cool (2005) and Illegal Aliens (2007). She was married to J. Howard Marshall II and Billy Smith. She died on 8 February 2007 in Hollywood, Florida, USA.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Penny Marshall was born Carole Penny Marshall on October 15, 1943 in Manhattan. The Libra was 5' 6 1/2", with brown hair and green eyes. She was the daughter of Marjorie (Ward), a tap dance teacher, and Anthony "Tony" Marshall, an industrial film director. She was the younger sister of filmmakers Garry Marshall and Ronny Hallin. Her father was of Italian descent, originally surnamed "Masciarelli," and her mother was of German, Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry.
Penny was known in her family as "the bad one"... because not only did she walk on the ledge of her family's apartment building, but she snuck into the movies as a child and even dated a guy named "Lefty." She attended a private girls' high school in New York and then went to the University of New Mexico for two and a half years. There, Penny got pregnant with daughter, Tracy Reiner, and soon after married the father, Michael Henry, in 1961. The couple divorced two years later in 1963. She worked as a secretary for awhile. Her film debut came from her brother Garry Marshall, who put her in the movie How Sweet It Is! (1968) with the talented Debbie Reynolds and James Garner. She also did a dandruff commercial with Farrah Fawcett - the casting people, of course, giving Farrah the part of the "beautiful girl" and Penny the part of the "plain girl." This only added to Penny's insecurity with her looks.
She then married Rob Reiner on April 10, 1971, shortly after getting her big television break as Oscar Madison's secretary, Myrna Turner, on The Odd Couple (1970). She also played Mary Richards' neighbor, Paula Kovacks, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) for a couple of episodes. However, her Laverne & Shirley (1976) fame came when her brother needed two women to play "fast girls" who were friends of Arthur Fonzarelli and would date Fonzie and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days (1974). Penny had been working on miscellaneous writing projects ("My Country Tis Of Thee", a bicentennial spoof for Francis Ford Coppola and "Paper Hands" about the Salem Witch Trials) with writing partner Cindy Williams. Cindy happened to be a friend and ex-girlfriend of Henry Winkler's, so Garry asked the two to play the parts of these girls. The audience saw their wonderful chemistry, and loved them so much, a spin-off was created for them.
Penny was well-known as Laverne DeFazio. She and Rob had divorced in 1980. The show ended three years later, half a year after Cindy Williams left the show due to pregnancy (her first baby, Emily, from now ex-husband Bill Hudson)... they wanted Williams to work the week she was supposed to deliver.
Soon after, Penny began directing such films as Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), Big (1988) and A League of Their Own (1992). Her hobbies included needlepoint, jigsaw puzzles and antique shopping. She was best friends with actress Carrie Fisher and was godmother to Carrie's daughter, Billie.
Penny died at 75 in Los Angeles, California.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Emanuel Goldenberg arrived in the United States from Romania at age ten, and his
family moved into New York's Lower East Side. He took up acting while
attending City College, abandoning plans to become a rabbi or lawyer.
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts awarded him a scholarship, and he
began work in stock, with his new name, Edward G. Robinson (the "G" stood for his birth surname), in 1913. Broadway was two years
later; he worked steadily there for 15 years. His work included "The
Kibitzer", a comedy he co-wrote with Jo Swerling. His film debut was a
small supporting part in the silent The Bright Shawl (1923), but it was with the coming
of sound that he hit his stride. His stellar performance as snarling,
murderous thug Rico Bandello in Little Caesar (1931)--all the more impressive since
in real life Robinson was a sophisticated, cultured man with a passion
for fine art--set the standard for movie gangsters, both for himself in
many later films and for the industry. He portrayed the title character
in several biographical works, such as Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) and A Dispatch from Reuters (1940).
Psychological dramas included Flesh and Fantasy (1943), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944)and Scarlet Street (1945).
Another notable gangster role was in Key Largo (1948). He was "absolved" of
allegations of Communist affiliation after testifying as a friendly
witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee during the
McCarthy hysteria of the early 1950s. In 1956 he had to sell off his
extensive art collection in a divorce settlement and also had to deal
with a psychologically troubled son. In 1956 he returned to Broadway in
"Middle of the Night". In 1973 he was awarded a special, posthumous
Oscar for lifetime achievement.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Actor. Jack Cassidy, by his own design, defied mere definition from the day he was born in Richmond Hills, New York in 1927 until his tragic death in 1976. An actor, singer, writer, designer - the consummate showman and irrefutable creative entity - his life never followed a simple path nor did it ever lead quite where expected. Yet, in the end, his impact on the entertainment community has been unmistakable - and unforgettable. The youngest of five children born to immigrant parents, Jack Cassidy's story is one of success and inspiration. By the time he was sixteen, he'd worked fifteen jobs ranging from busboy to dishwasher to ice truck driver. His uncle, a renowned circus contortionist, showed him the show business ropes and at the tender age of sixteen, Jack stepped into the chorus of "Something for the Boys". After that point, Jack's acting talent and rich baritone voice took him from show to show. He graced the stage in several productions before landing his first lead role in "Wish You Were Here" in 1953. The reviews were outstanding and his career started to flourish including the role of Johnny O'Sullivan in "Sandhog." The role of an Irish immigrant would hit close to home and would be one of his favorites. His life had also been enriched with his marriage to dancer-choreographer Evelyn Ward in 1948 and the birth of their son David in 1950. Evelyn and Jack had met while working on a show together and their wedding was attended by a who's-who of The Great White Way. Jack started to pepper his career with appearances not only on stage but on various television shows, sharing his talent with a broader audience. He made several appearances on "Toast of the Town" and "Lux Video Theatre" and also surfaced on episodes of "The United Steel Hour," "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" and "Gunsmoke." He would even have his own television show in Great Britain. His television presence would only grow over the next 20 years reflecting not only his career but his notoriety and prominence in the industry. In 1955, Jack was cast in a State Department European tour of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma!" with a young actress named Shirley Jones. Legally separated from Evelyn, Jack pursued Shirley and after their first date in Paris, he declared his intent to marry her - which he did between performances of "The Beggar's Opera" in 1956. Their marriage would be blessed with the births of three sons: Shaun, Patrick and Ryan. All four of his sons would carry on Jack's legacy in their own way - each with critically acclaimed careers in theater, film and television. Jack and Shirley would collaborate in other ways, appearing together on Broadway in "Maggie Flynn" in 1968 (Jack would receive a Tony nomination for his portrayal of "Phineas"), recording a number of albums including "Love From Hollywood" and "Brigadoon" and touring with the nightclub act "The Marriage Band" which was created by Jack and inspired by their relationship. As the country transformed through the 1960s, Jack Cassidy's career blossomed in all respects. In the theater, he took home the Tony for Best Featured Actor in 1963 for "She Loves Me" and followed that with Tony nominations for his work in "Fade Out, Fade In," "It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" and "Maggie Flynn" and is one of the most nominated actors in Tony history. The West Coast beckoned to him and Jack started to truly establish himself in television. Whether it was a brilliant dramatic performance on "Alfred Hitchcock Presents,", "77 Sunset Strip," "Coronet Blue," "Lock Up," "Maverick" or "Wagon Train," a dazzling musical performance on "The Bell Telephone Hour" or "The Garry Moore Show" or a delightful comedic performance on "Bewitched" or "That Girl" - Jack was finally allowed to showcase his versatility and range to audiences unable to see him set foot on a stage. He even started his movie career in films such as "Look in Any Window", "The Chapman Report", "FBI Code 98" and the animated "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" in 1962. Often considered "larger than life" himself - even by co-stars Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin - Jack brought life to the character of Oscar North in the 1968 series "He & She" to the delight of both audiences and critics. His delivery of the classic "trapped in an elevator" routine has never been matched and his superior flair and uproarious comic timing would garner an Emmy nomination in 1969. His television presence would swell in the 1970s as he became a staple of both dramatic programs and game shows. Indeed it was nearly impossible to turn on the television and not see Jack's brilliant smile or hear his infectious laughter. He frequented "Columbo" and remains one of the more popular guest stars in the show's history. Other memorable performances include appearances in "Barnaby Jones," "Matt Helm," "McCloud," "Hawaii Five-O," "Alias Smith and Jones" and "Bonanza" as well as comedic interludes in "Love, American Style", "The Carol Burnett Show", "Laugh-In" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." His career expanded into the television movie genre with "Your Money or Your Wife," "George M!," "June Moon," and "The Phantom of Hollywood." Yet it was his depiction of attorney Otis Baker in "The Andersonville Trial" that again brought him an Emmy nomination and critical acclaim.
Jack Cassidy's film career in the 1970s was filled with wonderful, quirky roles in films such as "Bunny O'Hare" with Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine, the Clint Eastwood action-thriller "The Eiger Sanction", "The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County" with Mickey Rooney and his brilliant portrayal of the legendary John Barrymore in "W.C. Fields and Me". However, he craved the solid, dramatic roles where he could truly prove his abilities on a larger scale. Tragically, he had just started receiving these offers right before his death in 1976. Like the character he'd created on "He & She," Jack Cassidy was undeniably larger than life. His notorious sense of humor made him the life of the party from private gatherings to public charity galas. It is no surprise that his friends and fans read like a roster of Hollywood's top talent. Among them, Dick Van Dyke, Jack Lemmon and Dick Van Patten have counted themselves as admirers of his talent. Jack was the superlative example of the classic leading man with his charisma, dashing grin and sparkling eyes who conducted his life with nothing less than panache and style. His golden baritone voice will forever set him apart. His talent will never be matched. His wit and humor warm the memories of the friends and family he left behind. He was a creative powerhouse who was denied the time necessary to fully express the full spectrum of his talents - some of which are only now revealed through the talent and success of his sons in many facets of the industry. Despite the brilliance of his career, he had only started to tap into the expanse of his potential. It was a life cut short and a life that deserves to be celebrated- Actor
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Salvatore (Sal) Mineo Jr. was born to Josephine and Sal Sr. (a casket
maker), who emigrated to the U.S. from Sicily. His siblings were
Michael, Victor and Sarina. Sal was thrown out of parochial school and,
by age eight, was a member of a street gang in a tough Bronx
neighborhood. His mother enrolled him in dancing school and, after
being arrested for robbery at age ten, he was given a choice of
juvenile confinement or professional acting school.
He soon appeared in the theatrical production "The Rose Tattoo" with
Maureen Stapleton and
Eli Wallach and as the young prince in "The
King and I" with Gertrude Lawrence and
Yul Brynner. At age 16 he played a much
younger boy in
Six Bridges to Cross (1955)
with Tony Curtis and later that same
year played Plato in James Dean's
Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in this
film and again for his role as Dov Landau in
Exodus (1960).
Expanding his repertoire, Mineo returned to the theatre to direct and
star in the play "Fortune and Men's Eyes" with successful runs in both
New York and Los Angeles. In the late 1960s and 1970s he continued to
work steadily in supporting roles on TV and in film, including Dr. Milo
in
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
and Harry O (1973). In 1975 he
returned to the stage in the San Francisco hit production of "P.S. Your
Cat Is Dead". Preparing to open the play in Los Angeles in 1976 with
Keir Dullea, he returned home from rehearsal
the evening of February 12th when he was attacked and stabbed to death
by a stranger. A drifter named Lionel Ray Williams was arrested for the
crime and, after trial in 1979, convicted and sentenced to life in
prison for the murder, but was paroled in 1990. Although taken away far too soon, the memory of
Sal Mineo continues to live on through the large body of TV and film
work that he left behind.- A native Chicagoan of Polish descent, veteran character actress Arlene Golonka seemed destined for acting from the start, having been named after silver screen actress Arline Judge, and her childhood was dominated by singing and acting classes. She headed to New York at the age of 19 and began a career on Broadway and in films made in New York City, generally playing bubble-headed or eccentric blondes, often prostitutes.
She relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1960s. There, while continuing to play small roles on the big screen, she established one of the strongest resumes in television of any character actress, appearing in dozens of programs over the following three decades, often repeatedly on the same program and sometimes playing different characters. Her TV appearances included such legendary programs as The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), All in the Family (1971), and M*A*S*H (1972). She may have been best-known for her recurring role as "Millie" on Mayberry R.F.D. (1968). - Actor
- Director
- Producer
William Conrad became a television star relatively late in his career.
In fact, the former Army Air Corps World War II fighter pilot began his
screen career playing heavies. He was Max, one of
The Killers (1946) hired to finish
off Burt Lancaster in his dingy lodgings.
He was the corrupt state inspector Turck working for the syndicate in
The Racket (1951). He was a mobster in
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948),
the murderous gunslinger Tallman in
Johnny Concho (1956) and sleazy
nightclub owner Louie Castro who claimed to be 60% legitimate in
Cry Danger (1951).
When not essaying outright villainy, Bill played characters like the
tough fight promoter Quinn in
Body and Soul (1947) or the
doom-laden province commissioner in
The Naked Jungle (1954). The
portly, balding, crumple-faced, self-confessed gourmand had an
ever-present weight problem (at one time 260 lbs.) which proved to be a
natural obstacle to progressing to more substantial leading film roles.
That, however, didn't hinder a very successful career in radio. In
fact, Bill himself estimated that he had played in excess of 7,000
radio parts. Even if that was an exaggeration, his gravelly, resonant
voice was certainly heard on countless broadcasts from "Buck Rogers" to
"The Bullwinkle Show", from portraying Marshall Matt Dillon in
"Gunsmoke" on the radio (before James Arness got the
part on screen) to narrating the adventures of Richard Kimball in the
television program
The Fugitive (1963). In "The Wax Works", an
episode of the anthology series
Suspense (1949) in 1956, he voiced
each and every part.
Since his corpulence effectively precluded playing strapping characters
like Matt Dillon, Bill began to concentrate on directing and producing
by the early 1960's. This, ironically, included episodes of Gunsmoke (1955).
In 1963, he contributed to saving
77 Sunset Strip (1958) for
yet another season. Later in the decade, he produced and directed
several films for Warner Brothers, including the thriller
Brainstorm (1965) with
Jeffrey Hunter and
Anne Francis. He returned
to acting in 1971 to become the unlikely star of the
Quinn Martin production
Cannon (1971), for which he is chiefly
remembered. Bill imbued the tough-talking, no-nonsense character of
Frank Cannon with enough humanity and wit to make the series compelling
but, despite the show's popularity, he made his views clear in a 1976
Times interview that he found himself poorly served by the scripts he
had been given. A planned sequel,
The Return of Frank Cannon (1980)
failed to get beyond the movie-length pilot, but the actor's popularity
resulted in another starring role in
Jake and the Fatman (1987)
as District Attorney McCabe, co-starring with
Joe Penny) and a brief run as eccentric
detective Nero Wolfe (1981). A
self-effacing man with a good sense of humor and never afraid to speak
his mind, Bill Conrad died of heart failure in February 1994. He was
elected to the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and (posthumously)
to the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jan Clayton was born on 26 August 1917 in Tularosa, New Mexico, USA. She was an actress, known for Lassie (1954), This Man's Navy (1945) and Flight Angels (1940). She was married to George Greeley, Robert Warren Lerner and Russell Hayden. She died on 28 August 1983 in West Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). His first appearance on stage was in 1926. Laughton formed own film company, Mayflower Pictures Corp., with
Erich Pommer, in 1937. He became an American citizen 1950. A consummate artist, Laughton achieved great success on stage and film, with many staged readings (particularly of George Bernard Shaw) to his credit. Laughton died in Hollywood, California, aged 63.- Actor
- Producer
Roddy Piper was born Roderick George Toombs on April 17, 1954 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a pro wrestler from 1973-1987 in the NWA, Pacific
Northwest, California. He was a longtime mainstay in the WWF, and was one of the biggest "bad guys" in the WWF during the early '80s, before becoming a fan favorite in the late '80s. He became infamous for his mouth as much as his skills in the ring. He hosted Pipers Pit, which saluted the bad guys of professional
wrestling, the most famous of which involved him smashing Jimmy
Superfly Snuka over the head with a coconut. He was wrestling's most
popular villain because of his feud with Hulk Hogan that culminated at
Wrestlemania I. He went into
semi-retirement after Wrestlemania III, when he beat and shaved the late
Adrian Adonis.
He continued to wrestle into the '90s, but spent much of his time doing color commentary for WWF TV. In January 1992, he won the WWF Intercontinental Title from "The Mountie", the only title he would ever hold in his storied WWF career. After losing the title three months later, he left the WWF, and only made the occasional appearance in the ring over the next few years. In 1995, he had a stint as the WWF's interim president. He later resurfaced in WCW during the late '90s to continue his feud with "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, until the company's demise in 2001.
Roddy Piper appeared in many action films. He died of a heart attack on July 31, 2015, in Hollywood, California.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Tall, sultry, green-eyed blonde Peggie Castle was actually spotted by a
talent scout while she was lunching in a Beverly Hills restaurant. In
her films she was usually somebody's "woman" rather than a girlfriend,
and her career was confined to mostly "B"-grade action pictures, dramas
or westerns: Harem Girl (1952),
Wagons West (1952),
The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951),
Jesse James' Women (1954),
among others. She did, however, have good roles in such films as
Payment on Demand (1951) with
Bette Davis,
99 River Street (1953) with
John Payne,
I, the Jury (1953),
The White Orchid (1954),
Miracle in the Rain (1956)
with Jane Wyman and in
Seven Hills of Rome (1957) with
Mario Lanza. After three seasons
playing sexy femme lead Lily Merrill, the dance-hall hostess and
romantic interest for steely-eyed Marshal Dan Troop in the TV western
series Lawman (1958), she left show
business in 1962. She later developed an alcohol problem and died of
cirrhosis of the liver in 1973 at age 45.- Quinn was born in Dublin, Ireland, and moved to the United States with
his mother and two sisters in 1988. His first role was as a pool shark
in the Richard Marx video
Satisfied. He later landed a major role in the
John Travolta film
Shout (1991), where he shared a screen kiss
with Gwyneth Paltrow. He went on to have
roles in a number of other movies and television series. His most
notable roles were as Becky's husband, Mark, on
Roseanne (1988) and half-demon Doyle
on the WB's Angel (1999). He died of a
heroin overdose in 2002. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Susan Hayward was born Edythe Marrener in Brooklyn, New York, on June
30, 1917. Her father was a transportation worker, and Susan lived a
fairly comfortable life as a child, but the precocious little redhead
had no idea of the life that awaited her. She attended public school in
Brooklyn, where she graduated from a commercial high school that was
intended to give students a marketable skill. She had planned on
becoming a secretary, but her plans changed. She started doing some
modeling work for photographers in the NYC area. By 1937, her beauty in
full bloom, she went to Hollywood when the nationwide search was on for
someone to play the role of Scarlett O'Hara in
Margaret Mitchell's
Gone with the Wind (1939).
Although she--along with several hundred other aspiring Scarletts--lost
out to Vivien Leigh, Susan was to carve her
own signature in Hollywood circles. In 1937 she got a bit part in
Hollywood Hotel (1937). The bit
parts continued all through 1938, with Susan playing, among other
things, a coed, a telephone operator and an aspiring actress. She
wasn't happy with these bit parts, but she also realized she had to
"pay her dues". In 1939 she finally landed a part with substance,
playing Isobel Rivers in the hit action film
Beau Geste (1939). In 1941 she played
Millie Perkins in the offbeat thriller
Among the Living (1941). This
quirky little film showed Hollywood Susan's considerable dramatic
qualities for the first time. She then played a Southern belle in
Cecil B. DeMille's
Reap the Wild Wind (1942), one
of the director's bigger successes, and once again showed her mettle as
an actress. Following that movie she starred with
Paulette Goddard and
Fred MacMurray in
The Forest Rangers (1942),
playing tough gal Tana Mason. Although such films as
Jack London (1943),
And Now Tomorrow (1944) and
Deadline at Dawn (1946)
continued to showcase her talent, she still hadn't gotten the meaty
role she craved. In 1947, however, she did, and received the first of
five Academy Award nominations, this one for her portrayal of Angelica
Evans in
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman (1947).
She played the part to the hilt and many thought she would take home
the Oscar, but she lost out to
Loretta Young for
The Farmer's Daughter (1947).
In 1949 Susan was nominated again for
My Foolish Heart (1949) and
again was up against stiff competition, but once more her hopes were
dashed when Olivia de Havilland won
for The Heiress (1949). Now, however,
with two Oscar nominations under her belt, Susan was a force to be
reckoned with. Good scripts finally started to come her way and she
chose carefully because she wanted to appear in good quality
productions. Her caution paid off, as she garnered yet a third
nomination in 1953 for
With a Song in My Heart (1952).
Later that year she starred as Rachel Donaldson Robards Jackson in
The President's Lady (1953).
She was superb as Andrew Jackson's embittered wife, who dies before he
was able to take office as President of the United States. After her
fourth Academy Award nomination for
I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), Susan
began to wonder if she would ever take home the coveted gold statue.
She didn't have much longer to wait, though. In 1958 she gave the
performance of her lifetime as real-life California killer Barbara
Graham in I Want to Live! (1958),
who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the gas chamber.
Susan was absolutely riveting in her portrayal of the doomed woman.
Many film buffs consider it to be one of the finest performances of all
time, and this time she was not only nominated for Best Actress, but
won. After that role she appeared in about one movie a year. In 1972
she made her last theatrical film,
The Revengers (1972). She had been
diagnosed with cancer, and the disease finally claimed her life on
March 14, 1975, in Hollywood. She was 57.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charismatic character star Edward James Begley was born in Hartford, Connecticut of Irish parents and educated at St.Patrick's school. His interest in acting first surfaced at the age of nine, when he performed amateur theatricals at the Hartford Globe Theatre. Determined to make his own way, he left home aged eleven and drifted from job to job, had a four-year stint in the U.S. Navy, then worked in a bowling alley replacing pins, joined carnivals and circuses. In 1931, he appeared in vaudeville and was also hired as a radio announcer, his voice broadcast to nationwide audiences. It took him several years to establish himself on the legitimate stage, but in 1943, he had a role in the short-running play 'Land of Fame'.
His first success was the 1947 Arthur Miller play 'All My Sons' and this was followed by the 1925 Scopes Trial fictionalization 'Inherit the Wind' (1955-57), which ran for 806 performances at the National Theatre. Ed, co-starring with Paul Muni,
played the part of Matthew Harrison Brady (played in the 1960 motion picture by Fredric March) and won the 1956
Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Upon Paul Muni's departure from the cast, Ed used the opportunity to play the part of
Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy's role in the film) with equal vigor. In 1960, he starred as Senator Orrin Knox in the political drama 'Advise and Consent'. Ed's movie career began with Boomerang! (1947), a murder mystery set in his native Connecticut, directed by Elia Kazan. Heavy-set with bushy eyebrows, the archetypal image of Ed Begley on screen is as a gruff, blustery, often heavily sweating (and sometimes corrupt) politician or industrialist. He proved his mettle in a number of classic films, including
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) and On Dangerous Ground (1951). Whether as the sympathetic executive in Patterns (1956), a bigoted ex-cop turned
bank robber in Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), or the crazed billionaire bent on world domination of Billion Dollar Brain (1967), he tackled every part that came his way with conviction. The culmination of his work was a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role of Boss Finley in
Tennessee Williams's Sweet Bird of Youth (1962).
In addition to countless radio broadcasts, Ed was also busy in television in the 1950s and '60s. Among frequent guest-starring
appearances, his dynamic characterizations in two episodes of The Invaders (1967) ('The Betrayed' and 'Labyrinth') in particular stand out. Ed Begley died of a heart attack in April 1970 in Hollywood at the age of 69.- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Sean McClory was born in Dublin, Ireland, but spent his early life in
Galway. He was the son of Hugh Patrick, an architect and civil
engineer, and Mary Margaret Ball, who had been a model. Sean decided to
become an actor and joined Dublin's renowned Abbey Theater (also known
as the National Theater of Ireland, opened in 1904). He rose through
the ranks playing in productions of the works of such authors as
William Butler Yeats and
George Bernard Shaw, and soon began
to play leads mostly in comedies (popular through most of the 1940s and
into the 1950s). When comedies began to fade from the theater after
World War II, McClory with turned an eye toward film. In early 1947 he
decided to make the jump to America and break into Hollywood. His first
roles were that of a staple in American films: the Irish cop, which he
played in two of the "Dick Tracy" series in 1947. In 1949 he signed a
short contract with 20th Century-Fox. By 1950 he was showing up in more
notable films - though uncredited, particularly in
The Glass Menagerie (1950).
Within a year McClory's talents were being showcased in various small
feature roles. John Ford finally began
casting - a painstaking process for the finicky director -- for his
long conceived The Quiet Man (1952)
and chose McClory for a small but showy part, in which he was seen
throughout the film feature with
Charles B. Fitzsimons, the younger
brother of the film's star, Maureen O'Hara,
playing an Irish villager. Although some of the cast were familiar
members of the "John Ford Stock Company", many roles were filled by
actual Irish villagers (the film was shot on location) and included a
generous helping of Abbey Theater alumni: the Shields brothers
(Barry Fitzgerald and
Arthur Shields) and
Jack MacGowran, in addition to O'Hara
McClory. Ford wanted him for roles in several of his subsequent films,
however McClory's busy film and TV schedule only allowed him to accept
roles in two other Ford films, The Long Gray Line and Cheyenne Autumn.
In 1953 McClory played one of his standout roles as menacing, shady
archaeologist Jefferson in
Plunder of the Sun (1953), a
good adventure thriller helped along by location shooting in Mexico.
McClory, with a white-tinted crewcut and dark glasses (very effective),
had the opportunity to reveal the depth of his talent and really stole
the picture from star Glenn Ford, who
couldn't get away from his usual mumbling delivery.
McClory had a cultured, neutral Irish brogue that fit well in small- or
big-screen performances, unlike such Irish actors as Barry Fitzgerald
who, though very effective and beloved, had a thick brogue that kept
him forever cast as an Irishman. As a result, McClory was much more at
home in American TV and had many memorable roles from 1953 onward,
appearing in a gamut of episodic TV in addition to his feature film
work. However, it was his frequent appearances on the small screen that
enabled McClory to stand out in viewers' memories, especially in a
range of western and adventure series (in which he played a good
sprinkling of Irish characters) well into the 1970s. Though not as busy
in the 1980s as he was in the '70s, one role in which he truly stood
out was in an adaptation by
John Huston of Irish writer
James Joyce's famous 1907 short
story "The Dead" made in 1987
(The Dead (1987)), his final film
appearance. McClory's role as Mr. Grace was not a character in the
original story but was created by Huston and his son
Tony Huston to provide McClory with
a reading of the medieval Irish poem "Young Donal", which was very
effective to the mood of this look at Irish family remembrance.- Denver-born supporting actress Irene Tedrow is another in a long line
of "I know the face...but not the name" character actors whose
six-decade career was known more for its durability than for the
greatness of roles she played. Born in 1907, she was a lady primarily
of the stage, beginning her acting career as a teen. She trained in
drama at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, PA, graduating with a Bachelor of
Arts degree in 1929. A slim, handsome woman in her early days, her
features grew more severe with age, which ultimately typed her as
puritanical meddlers and no-nonsense matrons practically from her
entrance into film in 1937. She seldom, if ever, found a meaty part,
appearing way, way down the list of credits, if at all. A founding
member of the Old Globe Theatre, she was featured in such classical
productions as "Richard III," "Hamlet" and "Henry IV, Part I." She
became a primary player on radio during the war years, notably for the
maternal role of Mrs. Janet Archer in the popular serial
Meet Corliss Archer (1950),
which she transferred to TV for one season. Her radio role lasted for
nine years (43-52). Irene appeared in hundreds of episodic guest
appearances for nearly 35 years in everything
Dragnet (1951),
The Andy Griffith Show (1960),
and
The Twilight Zone (1959) to
the more recent
The Facts of Life (1979),
St. Elsewhere (1982) and
L.A. Law (1986). Never a regular
series player, she is probably best remembered as the kindly Mrs.
Elkins who appeared occasionally on the
Dennis the Menace (1959)
sitcom. Over the years, Irene never abandoned the stage, gracing a
number of shows in her senior years including "Our Town" on Broadway,
plus "Foxfire," "The Hot L. Baltimore" and "Pygmalion." Continuing to
work as an octogenarian, she died of a stroke at age 87 in the Los
Angeles area. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Dan Duryea was educated at Cornell University and worked in the
advertising business before pursuing his career as an actor. Duryea
made his Broadway debut in the play "Dead End." The critical acclaim he
won for his performance as Leo Hubbard in the Broadway production of
"The Little Foxes" led to his appearance in the film version, in the
same role.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Zany, extrovert, sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette, sometimes
red-haired character comedienne Joan Shawlee began her performing
career as a fourteen-year old Powers model. At sixteen, she sang in New
York night spots and was proclaimed one of "the six most beautiful
girls in Manhattan". Hollywood noticed in due course and 20th Century
Fox signed her under contract. However, Joan was soon revealed to be
under-age. Having failed to get into films, Joan returned to New York
to live with her mother. In 1945, as luck would have it, she was
spotted singing at the famous Copacabana by comedian
Lou Costello. On the condition that
her mother could join her in Hollywood, Joan signed a new contract with
Universal. She appeared in thirteen films as 'Joan Fulton', culminating
in a leading role in
Buck Privates Come Home (1947).
Having married the businessman Walter Shawlee, Joan changed her
surname. She also henceforth specialised in playing wisecracking,
streetwise 'dames', often guest starring with her erstwhile mentors in
The Abbott and Costello Show (1952),
or as a favorite stock character in the comedies of
Billy Wilder. Her roles were generally
small, but tended to be memorable: as
'Sweet Sue', tough leader of an all-girl band infiltrated by Jack Lemmon
and Tony Curtis in drag in
Some Like It Hot (1959); as
Sylvia in The Apartment (1960), as
the hooker Amazon Annie in
Irma la Douce (1963)), and as
wicked Momma Monahan in Roger Corman's cult
biker flic
The Wild Angels (1966). Joan also
starred in her own (short-lived) half-hour British comedy series,
Aggie (1956),
as a somewhat accident-prone fashion model on international
assignments. Her co-star was (future "Danger Man")
Patrick McGoohan. She was a frequent
guest on 60's and 70's TV shows, with small recurring roles as
ex-showgirl Pickles in
The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961)
and as Margo, one of
The Feather and Father Gang (1976).
Joan died of cancer in March 1987 in Hollywood, aged 61.- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Hervé Villechaize was born in Montauban, France on April 23, 1943. He stopped
growing very early and his father (who was a surgeon) tried to find a
cure by visiting several doctors and hospitals. But there was none, so
Hervé had to live with his small height and also with undersized lungs.
He studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris and made an exhibition of his own
paintings, which were well received. At 21, he left France for the USA
where he continued to paint and to make photographs. He also started to
participate in some movies and was quickly offered several roles for
plays and then for cinema. His first big success was
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
where he was a killer associated to the villain Scaramanga (played by
Christopher Lee). He inspired
the TV-series
Fantasy Island (1977) where he
took the role of "Tattoo", the faithful servant of "Mr. Roarke"
(Ricardo Montalban). This series was a
great success and, thanks to it, Villechaize became famous and rich,
mostly because of his enigmatic and charming smile.
In 1983, he argued with the producers of the show in order to earn as
much money as Montalban but, instead, he was fired; he also lost his
model-actress wife. The series continued without him but stopped one
year later, when the media response meter decreased because of the lack
of Tattoo's character!
Villechaize became alcoholic and depressed, so he missed several roles
that he was offered. His health problems also increased (mostly
suffering from ulcers and a spastic colon), and he nearly died of
pneumonia in 1992. On the afternoon of Saturday September 4th, 1993,
after having watched a movie, he wrote a note and made a tape recording
before shooting himself in his backyard. His common-law wife, Kathy
Self, discovered his body and called the ambulance which took him to
the Medical Center of North Hollywood where he died at 3:40 pm.
Villechaize was cremated and his ashes were scattered off Point Fermin,
in Los Angeles.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Although his parents were deaf, Leonidas Chaney became an actor
and also owner of a theatre company (together with his brother John).
He made his debut at the movies in 1912, and his filmography is vast.
Lon Chaney was especially famous for his horror parts in movies like
e.g. Quasimodo in
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).
Due to his special make-up effects he carried the characterization to
be "the man with the thousand faces." He only filmed one movie with
sound: The remake of one of his earlier films
The Unholy Three (1930). His
son, Lon Chaney Jr., became a famous
actor of the horror genre.- Actress
- Soundtrack
One of television's premier African-American series stars, elegant actress, singer and recording artist Diahann Carroll was born Carol Diann (or Diahann) Johnson on July 17, 1935, in the Bronx, New York. The first child of John Johnson, a subway conductor, and Mabel Faulk Johnson, a nurse; music was an important part of her life as a child, singing at age six with her Harlem church choir. While taking voice and piano lessons, she contemplated an operatic career after becoming the 10-year-old recipient of a Metropolitan Opera scholarship for studies at New York's High School of Music and Art. As a teenager she sought modeling work but it was her voice, in addition to her beauty, that provided the magic and the allure.
When she was 16, she teamed up with a girlfriend from school and auditioned for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show using the more exotic sounding name of Diahann Carroll. She alone was invited to appear and won the contest. She subsequently performed on the daily radio show for three weeks. In her late teens, she began focusing on a nightclub career and it was here that she began formulating a chic, glamorous image. Another TV talent show appearance earned her a week's engagement at the Latin Quarter.
Broadway roles for black singers were rare but at age nineteen, Diahann was cast in the Harold Arlen/Truman Capote musical "House of Flowers". Starring the indomitable Pearl Bailey, Diahann held her own quite nicely in the ingénue role. While the show itself was poorly received, the score was heralded and Diahann managed to introduce two song standards, "A Sleepin' Bee" and "I Never Has Seen Snow", both later recorded by Barbra Streisand.
In 1954 she and Ms. Bailey supported a riveting Dorothy Dandridge as femme fatale Carmen Jones (1954) in an all-black, updated movie version of the Georges Bizet opera "Carmen." Diahann later supported Ms. Dandridge again in Otto Preminger's cinematic retelling of Porgy and Bess (1959). During this time she also grew into a singing personality on TV while visiting such late-nite hosts as Jack Paar and Steve Allen and performing.
Unable to break through into the top ranks in film (she appeared in a secondary role once again in Paris Blues (1961), a Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward vehicle), Diahann returned to Broadway. She was rewarded with a Tony Award for her exceptional performance as a fashion model in the 1962 musical "No Strings," a bold, interracial love story that co-starred Richard Kiley. Richard Rodgers, whose first musical this was after the death of partner Oscar Hammerstein, wrote the part specifically for Diahann, which included her lovely rendition of the song standard "The Sweetest Sounds." By this time she had already begun to record albums ("Diahann Carroll Sings Harold Arlen" (1957), "Diahann Carroll and Andre Previn" (1960), "The Fabulous Diahann Carroll" (1962). Nightclub entertaining filled up a bulk of her time during the early-to-mid 1960s, along with TV guest appearances on Carol Burnett, Judy Garland, Andy Williams, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye's musical variety shows.
Little did Diahann know that in the late 1960s she would break a major ethnic barrier on the small screen. Though it was nearly impossible to suppress the natural glamour and sophistication of Diahann, she touchingly portrayed an ordinary nurse and widow struggling to raise a small son in the series Julia (1968). Despite other Black American actresses starring in a TV series (i.e., Hattie McDaniel in "Beulah"), Diahann became the first full-fledged African-American female "star" -- top billed, in which the show centered around her lead character. The show gradually rose in ratings and Diahann won a Golden Globe award for "Best Newcomer" and an Emmy nomination. The show lasted only two seasons, at her request.
A renewed interest in film led Diahann to the dressed-down title role of Claudine (1974), as a Harlem woman raising six children on her own. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1975, but her acting career would become more and more erratic after this period. She did return, however, to the stage with productions of "Same Time, Next Year" and "Agnes of God". While much ado was made about her return to series work as a fashionplate nemesis to Joan Collins' ultra-vixen character on the glitzy primetime soap Dynasty (1981), it became much about nothing as the juicy pairing failed to ignite. Diahann's character was also a part of the short-lived "Dynasty" spin-off The Colbys (1985).
Throughout the late 1980s and early 90s she toured with her fourth husband, singer Vic Damone, with occasional acting appearances to fill in the gaps. Some of her finest work came with TV-movies, notably her century-old Sadie Delany in Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999) and as troubled singer Natalie Cole's mother in Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story (2000). She also portrayed silent screen diva Norma Desmond in the musical version of "Sunset Blvd." and toured America performing classic Broadway standards in the concert show "Almost Like Being in Love: The Lerner and Loewe Songbook." She then had recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy (2005) and White Collar (2009).
Diahann Carroll died on October 4, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was the archetypal brassy, bosomy, Brooklynesque blonde with a
highly distinctive scratchy voice. Barbara Nichols started life as
Barbara Marie Nickerauer in Queens, New York on December 10, 1928, and
grew up on Long Island. Graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School, she changed her reddish-brown hair to platinum
blonde and worked as a post-war model and burlesque dancer. As a
beauty contestant, she won the "Miss Long Island" title as well as the
dubious crowns of "Miss Dill Pickle", "Miss Mink of 1953" and "Miss
Welder of 1953", and also became a GI pin-up favorite. She began to
draw early attention on stage (particularly in the musical "Pal Joey")
and in television drama.
Barbara found herself stealing focus in
small, wisecracking roles, managing at times to draw both humor and
pathos out of her characters -- sometimes
simultaneously. She seemed consigned to play
strippers, gold-diggers, barflies, gun molls and other floozy types, but Barbara made the best of her
stereotype, taking full advantage of the not-so-bad films that came her
way. While most of them, of course, emphasized her physical endowments,
she could also be very, very funny when given a decent script. By far the best of her
work came out in one year:
Pal Joey (1957),
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
and The Pajama Game (1957). By
the decade's end, though, her film career had allowed down, and she
turned more and more to television, appearing on
The Beverly Hillbillies (1962),
Adam-12 (1968),
The Twilight Zone (1959)
(the classic "Twenty-Two" episode),
The Untouchables (1959) and
Batman (1966), to name a few.
Barbara landed only one regular series role in her career, the very
short-lived situation comedy
Love That Jill (1958) starring
husband-and-wife team Anne Jeffreys and
Robert Sterling. Barbara played
a model named "Ginger". She also co-starred on Broadway with
George Gobel and
Sam Levene in the musical "Let It
Ride" in 1961 and played roles in a few low-budget movies from time to time,
including the campy prison drama
House of Women (1962) and the
science fiction film
The Human Duplicators (1965)
starring George Nader and
Richard Kiel, who played "Jaws" in the
James Bond film series.
A serious Long Island car accident in July 1957 led to the loss of her
spleen, and another serious car accident in Southern California in the
1960s led to a torn liver. Complications would set in over a decade
later and she was forced to slow down her career. Barbara eventually
developed a life-threatening liver disease and her health deteriorated.
In summer 1976, she was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles, California, where she went into a coma. She awoke for a few
days just before Labor Day, but sank back shortly after. She died at
age 47 of liver failure on October 5 and was survived by her parents,
George and Julia Nickerauer. She was interred at Pinelawn Memorial Park
in Farmingdale, New York.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Susanne apparently had a tumultuous private life. She married actor
Hermann Nehlsen in 1956. Apparently that did not go well, as she tried
to commit suicide twice in 1957 and was soon divorced. In 1958, she married actor Helmuth Lohner and was divorced five months later. She married Helmut a second time, which produced a child, daughter Konstanze Lohner. But a second divorce soon followed. In 1966, she married actor
Kevin Hagen. Soon after, she left for Munich, Germany to visit her
friend, Renate Ewert, whom she found dead. Reports were anywhere from six days to three weeks. In late 1968, she entered a private clinic in
Hollywood, never to emerge, as she died on January 7, 1969. There were
reports of a medical malpractice.- Actor
- Director
- Special Effects
Handsome, athletic leading man Jon Hall was the son of actor Felix Locher
and a Tahitian princess. Hall was married three times, two of which
were to entertainers: singer Frances Langford and actress Raquel Torres. His third
wife was a psychiatrist. They married in 1969 and lived in Los Angeles
with her two sons and a daughter.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
James Grover Franciscus graduated magna cum laude from Yale University
in 1957 with a B.A. in English and theater. His father, John Allen
Franciscus, was a pilot killed in action during WWII. His mother was
named Loraine (nee Grover) and he had one sibling, a brother named
John. Mr. Franciscus is best known for his work in television,
including Naked City (1958),
The Investigators (1961),
Mr. Novak (1963) and
Longstreet (1971). He also made
numerous guest appearances in other popular television programs,
starred in numerous television movies, and appeared in numerous feature
films. In the mid 1980s, he became dissatisfied with the roles offered
to him and turned his attention to screen writing. As co-founder of
Omnibus Productions, he produced many classic films, such as
Heidi (1968),
Jane Eyre (1970),
David Copperfield (1970),
Kidnapped (1971), and
The Red Pony (1973). An
avid tennis player, he founded the James Franciscus Celebrity Tennis
Tournament in the mid 1970s to raise money for multiple sclerosis
research and victims (his mother suffered from this disease). He also
enjoyed sky diving and scuba diving. He married
Kathleen 'Kitty' Wellman,
daughter of director
William A. Wellman, on March 28,
1960, and fathered four daughters (Jamie, Kellie, Corie and Jolie). A
devoted family man, his contracts often stipulated that he not be
required to work past 6:00 pm. After his divorce from Wellman, he
married second wife Carla in 1980 and continued to live on his two acre
North Hollywood estate until his death.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Beefy, roughhewn actor Robert Pastorelli was a former boxer and an
admitted drug addict before he cleaned up his act and pursued theater
work in New York in such 1970s productions as "Rebel Without a Cause,"
"The Rainmaker," and "Death of a Salesman," he headed west and turned
to film and TV in 1982, soon finding a fairly comfortable niche playing
ballsy, streetwise characters often with a Runyonesque feel and truck
driver mentality. Supporting Bette Midler and Shelley Long in Outrageous Fortune (1987) and Eddie Murphy
in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), his first meaty film role came with Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990). But
it was TV that would be his claim to fame as Candice Bergen's gruff but
mushy-hearted house painter in Murphy Brown (1988), staying with the show for seven
seasons. With that came more visible roles in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Michael (1996), and
Modern Vampires (1998). He played the role of salty Luther Billis in the mini-movie
remake of South Pacific (2001) with Glenn Close, then appeared as Mitch with Ms. Close
on stage in "A Streetcar Named Desire" a year later. Sadly, drugs once
again took hold of Pastorelli in full force in later years. In 2004,
the 49-year-old died of a heroin overdose and was found at home with a
syringe in his arm in the bathroom by his assistant.- Actress
- Music Department
American leading woman of films and television in the 1950s, whose
career was hampered by injuries. Raised in San Francisco, Paula Raymond studied music, dance, and opera as a child. She made her film debut as a child
by chance in Keep Smiling (1938) during a visit to Los Angeles. She remained to attend Hollywood High School and to appear in local theater productions. She
returned to San Francisco for studies at San Francisco Junior College
and, while there, entered into a brief marriage. Divorced, she came
back to Hollywood and modeled. Although contracted to Paramount in
1947, she was released without working there and signed instead with
Columbia. She made numerous television appearances and low-budget
features before MGM signed her and began placing her in more important
projects, starting with Adam's Rib (1949). Despite good notices and some successful films, she was eventually released from her contract. She made several unimportant pictures as a freelancer, then left the industry in 1955. She worked a number of non-film related jobs under a variation of her married name, then returned to acting in 1958. She had a long string of success in
television, including State Trooper (1956), Mike Hammer (1958), Yancy Derringer (1958), Peter Gunn (1958), and others. This string of successes was shattered in a 1962 car crash. She was very nearly killed and had severe facial damage, requiring massive plastic surgery. Her beauty miraculously recovered, she managed to return to acting within a year and appeared occasionally into the 1970s. A series of subsequent falls injured her repeatedly, and she moved into business
interests, though remaining an actor at heart.- A reliable featured player and occasional co-star, actress Jeff Donnell
was born Jean Marie Donnell in a boys' reformatory in South Windham,
Maine in 1921, the younger of schoolteacher Mildred and penologist
Howard's two daughters. She took piano and dance lessons during her
childhood in Maryland; she loved the popular "Mutt and Jeff" cartoon
strip so much that she gave herself the nickname "Jeff."
She studied at the Yale School of Drama and performed briefly in
summer stock before marrying her first husband at 19: Bill Anderson,
a drama teacher from her Boston alma mater, Leland Powers Drama
School. Together they started the Farragut Playhouse in Rye, New
Hampshire. Almost immediately a Columbia Studios talent scout
noticed her in a play there and quickly signed her.
Whisked to Los Angeles, Jeff made her first appearance in the war-era
movie My Sister Eileen (1942)
while husband Bill was hired on as a dialogue director. Hardly the
chic, glamour-girl type, Jeff possessed a perky, unpretentious,
tomboyish quality that worked comfortably in unchallenging "B" escapism
--usually the breezy girlfriend or spirited bobbysoxer. Typical of her
movie load at the time were the fun but innocuous
Doughboys in Ireland (1943),
What's Buzzin', Cousin? (1943),
Nine Girls (1944),
A Thousand and One Nights (1945),
Carolina Blues (1944), and
Eadie Was a Lady (1945). She
also enlivened a number of musical westerns that prominently featured
Ken Curtis (Festus of "Gunsmoke").
On a rare occasion, Jeff found herself in "A" pictures, most notably
the Bogart film noir classic
In a Lonely Place (1950), but
more often than not she played the obliging or supportive friend of the
leading lady. Unable to break away from her established "B" ranking,
she later tried a move to RKO Studios (1949) but fared no better or
worse. She did make a successful move to TV in the early 50s and was
seen in a number of comedy and dramatic parts.
Long separated from and finally divorcing her first husband in 1953
(they had one son, Michael, and an adopted daughter, Sarah Jane), she
married rising film actor Aldo Ray in 1954, but the marriage
crumbled within two years, beset by drinking problems; she also suffered
a miscarriage. She went on to marry and divorce twice more. As the 1950s
rolled on, she earned steady work on TV, bringing to life comedian
George Gobel's
often-mentioned wife Alice on the sitcom
The George Gobel Show (1954)
for four seasons. She also had the opportunity to play Gidget's mom in
a couple of the popular lightweight movies of the early 1960s --
Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961)
and
Gidget Goes to Rome (1963).
Most daytime fans will remember Jeff's long-running stint on the soap
drama
General Hospital (1963) as
Stella Fields, the Quartermain housekeeper, which started in 1979 and
lasted until her death in 1988. Dogged by ill health in later years
(including a serious bout with Addison's disease), Jeff died peacefully
of a heart attack in her sleep at age 66. - Actor
- Soundtrack
One of those familiar character actors who seems to have been born old, Will Wright specialized in playing crusty old codgers, rich skinflints,crooked small-town politicians and the like. A former newspaper reporter in San Francisco, he switched careers and entered vaudeville, then took to the stage. He ventured from acting to producing, and staged shows on Broadway as well as other cities, eventually making his way to Hollywood. He appeared in over 100 films and did much TV work, including a recurring role on
The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Although his hunched-over figure, craggy face and somewhat sour disposition made it seem like he started out his 20+-year career as an old man, he was actually only 68 when he died of cancer in Hollywood in 1962.- Actor
- Soundtrack
One of the most familiar faces and voices in Hollywood films of the
1950s. Percy Helton acted almost from
infancy, appearing in his father's vaudeville act. The famed Broadway
producer David Belasco cast Helton
in a succession of child roles over several years, giving the boy an
invaluable grounding in the technique and spirit of the theatre.
George M. Cohan took Helton under his
wing and used him in a number of plays.
Helton served in the United States Army in Europe during World War I in the
American Expeditionary Forces, with the 305th Field Artillery,
and at war's end returned to acting on the stage,
carving out a substantial career as a juvenile in plays such
as "One Sunday Afternoon" and "Young America". In one of these plays he
was required to shout and scream for much of the performance, and by
the end of the run his voice had become permanently hoarse. He moved by
necessity into character roles, working primarily on the stage until
the late 1940s. Despite some early work as a juvenile in silent films,
it was not until his brief but memorable appearance as a drunken Santa
Claus in
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
that he began to shift primarily into film work. His diminutive
physique and unmistakable voice made him a fixture in a wide range of
films and TV programs throughout the next two decades.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Russell Albion Meyer was born in San Leandro, California, to Lydia Lucinda (Hauck), a nurse, and William Arthur Meyer, a police officer, who divorced during his childhood. His parents were both of German descent. Meyer began winning prizes at
15 with his amateur films. He spent World War II in Europe as a combat
cameraman. After the war, he became a professional photographer,
shooting some of the earliest Playboy centerfolds. He made his film
directorial debut with
Mr. Tease and His Playthings (1959),
the first nudie (softcore sex) film to make a profit over a million
dollars, which led to a string of self-financed films that gradually
became more bizarre, violent, and cartoonish. In the mid-1960s, he
established his style with his Gothic period, a quartet of
black-and-white films: Russ Meyer's Lorna (1964),
Mudhoney (1965),
Motorpsycho! (1965), and
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
that many consider to be his best work. After the blockbusting
Vixen! (1968), he was hired by
20th-Century Fox to make studio pictures. The first of these,
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970),
was an enormous hit, but after the lukewarm reception of the
uncharacteristically serious
The Seven Minutes (1971),
Meyer returned to the sex-and-violence films that made his name,
culminating in the delirious
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979).
He spent the 1980s working on various autobiographies, both in film
(Breast of Russ Meyer) and print ("A Clean Breast").